Why RED??

RED is the colour of the day…no its nothing that is pleasurable or even remotely enjoyable rather its terrifyingly repulsive. Yes I am talking about the Naxalites, the Maoists Communist Centre (MCC) and their likes. They are getting increasingly unmanageable and untameable.

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India is increasingly becoming volatile, in just the Pakistan way and am really really sad to say that. The recent capture of Lalgarh and then the following Paramilitary action to take the town back is reminiscent of the Swat incident in Pakistan. The immense bloodshed that the naxals are committing is ghastly yes, but also something that is diminishing the faith of people in the government and that is what’s the most dangerous thing. Its not that the people are losing faith in one particular party thats in power, the thing that is disturbing is that the masses are losing faith in the system of government that we have, in the police. They have already started feeling that no government can keep them safe from these bloodthirsty vampires, moreover the continuous attacks on the Police is worsening the situation.

The naxals are calling for 2-day long strikes in the whole of Jharkhand from tomorrow and the government is already gone into the damage control mode…disheartening, very disheartening. If the government itself is scared, where will the common people go? If the protectors are the ones whos are terrified, where will we go?? The worst thing is that the political parties are going all guns against the president’s rule in the state, stating that all these attacks are a result of the mis-rule of Syed Sibte Razi, the governor of Jharkhand. yes, I agree that the crime rates have flown up very high durin his tenure as the chief of the statem but I have a suspicion that the politicans are one of the people who are behind all this. With more and more evdiences of the politcians’ link with the Naxals coming into light, its getting even darker.

Why can’t we live as free people anymore i just can’t understand…no I just can’t. I hate it!

Solutions : Who am I to suggest any but still I do have some things to share…

Well for starters…the age old mantra of sincerity. If the people start doing what they are required to do with all their heart, the people’s displeasure with the rulers will lessen and so will the chances of theirs joining the terror outfits like the MCC and all. I know that this isn’t  a case of ignorance but sheer displeasure and then some brain washing that leads people in to such an abyss a many engineers and well trained professionals are the ones who form the main force of the MCC. If everything is done sincerely, well no displeasure will be there for such brain-washers to feast on…and hence the situation can be much easier .Just read this for the amount of brainwash that’s there.

I no it seems very Utopian for this to happen in an immensely corrupt country that we are…but still I guess this is the only way…no military action or appeasement of the naxals or talks are going to help if the root cause isn’t  removed..nope none.  I hope the next generation of the administrators, officers and even the workers is less corrupt than the present one so that we can achieve some peace..which is absoolutely required if we are to have some development here..or else..even I dont want to think of the future.

Several things….

Yet again loads of time has passed since my last post and i really don’t have any other excuse but sheer laziness for it…and you know what I am not even a little ashamed, why? Well I suppose even I don’t know about that much. Well lets leave it at that…better late than never isn’t it? Several things is the name of my post because I need to share several thing s with you all….and here I go…

Thing 1:

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I would like to begin this post with something which I like very much : Books!! Well this summer I have let myself down..how? Well till now, I have read only 3 books (The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle, The Digital Fortress and The Other Hand) in comparison to the massice 31 that I read during my last summer vacation! Even though I bought two others from the New Delhoi airport, I have made no progress towards reaching anywhere near that huge number of 31, as  I havent even read a single one of them! Anyways, on the brighter side, due to coming of my iPod,  I discovered the pleasure of Audiobooks. I listened to the audio version of Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and you know what I simply loved the whole experience…the feeling that the audiobooks impart..as if some one is reading you a story is what is the most appealing thing about them! I am now going to listen to the the remaining parts of the Twilight series too and am quite sure I will like them too!

Thing 2:

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Now comes a totally unrelated topic. LeT(Lashkar-e-Taiba) is making its base down here in the jungles of Jharkhand and Bihar…what the hell. Yeah as if the threats posed by the naxals (the MCC, the PWG etc.)  wasn’t enough, now even these bast***s from across the border are trying to establish their say out here. I mean what do these sadistic vampires get out of killing innnocent people for no reason whatsoever. Why have they misplaced their minds so easily in the hands of some mullahs , who have only one thing in theor mind…how to hurt India, and how to hurt the non-Muslims. I mean, if there is God he is only one, Ram or Allah or Jesus what does it matter? I just can’t understand this… Coming back to the Jharkhand LeT, this news simply has sent shivers down in the hearts of the already under-fire police department and the state’s governor Syed Sibte Razi (as the state is currently under the President’s rule, Razi is the all in all of the state). Now it needs to be seen, what do these people do inorder to tackle this sudden and immense problem.

Thing 3:

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Any of you who has seen me will be knowing that the most striking feature of me is my girth!! Yeah, bluntlyI am quite fat. Now these summer vacations always bring with them loads of delicious food (with the tongue watering Magoes and Lichis all around) and also accompany very lethargic routine meaning no exercises and hence meaning those very very irritating extra kilos that I very painstakingly manage to lose durin the time college is open!! 😦 I have started doing some Yoga but I dont think that’ll work and cutting down on the food isn’t my forte thats for sure, so what to do?? Yes I am going to run…from tomorrow sure shot (but Tomorrow Never Dies…or does it??)

Thing 4:

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Now that I enter the 4th and final year of my B.E. its finally the time of reckoning. As I have a call for further studies so its essential that I start preparing for the GRE (naah no Ties and Lies for me!) from immediate effect. Yeah I’ve bought all the necessary books and all…what is required now is some peace of mind to start over. I think I will begin it in earnest from tomorrow too. Moreover the coming semester will also bring with it the placements…well its not going to be easy, the next sem even though it has a lot to offer too!

Last Thing but certainly not the Least Thing:


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Now speaking so much and yet not mentioning the T-20 World Cup will be something I won’t be excused for. Yeah every one around is leaving no expletives while ostracizing Dhoni, the Indian Captain, yes, I agree he made some mistakes and that his batting form isn’t that purple anymore, but comeon people what else were you expecting? He isn’t some God, after all he is a human too and as the saying gose To err is human, so lets take this loss in the spirit of the game and lets hope Team India wins the next time. Now all my hopes lie with South Africa, Go Proteas Go (and No Pakistan No!!!)

Long Time…

Its been a long time since I last did anthing here…many many reasons are there…better not to go them…just am happy to be able to do some writing finally…feels great!

Presently am in the gate to the gods, Haridwar. Its an ok sort of place but the thing that made me dislike it is the food…:-(. I mean who the hell wants to have nothing but aloo parathas  for breakfast…comeon. THe only option that we have is either we can have curd with it or chhole. Its been like hell…but still I liked the stay as the weather was a bit less harsh than that in Ranchi. The only good part was according to me, the Ganga. I loved the clean waters (for a change) and the religious fervous alothough irritating for me, was a treat to watch to…I mean where else can you find thousands of people struggling just to get a glimpse of the worshipping of a river?? Well its here only!

Hardwar on the brighter side has numerous temples all unique in their own respect. The Bharat Mata temple is a nice concept. It is a 7 storied building with each floor dedicated to some imporant aspect of our nation. The ground floor houses a grand and beautiful idol of Bharat Maata which I am sure is one of a kind, while the other 6 floors house idols of various saints, freedom fighters, gods and goddesses. The top floor has a big temple dedicated to Shiva. All in all its a must watch if you visit this place.

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Other temples that I went to are the Vaishno Devi temple, the Paawan Dhaam(here all the idols and images are made up of glass…unique isn’t it??)etc. All you got to pay to visit all thes temple is for the conveyance…if you are going by a rickshaw they will charge you around 150 bucks per person..but all in all its all worth it…al you have to do is enjoy every moment…even if you dont like the things at first…soon you will start to enjoy. The roads, the people, the ride, the temples, the idols, the religious fervour, (in my case the torrential rains), the various semi-automatic scenes from various parts of the huge Hindu mythology, the small amounts of money that you have to cough up for watching those scenes, the thrill (mock) of entering the caves(man made) in the temples….all in all it gives you a sense of a unique religious adventure. If a person like me enjoyd it….i guess any normal person would!

 

 

 

 

On IPL and some more…

IPL
IPL

Well the Indian Premier League is all set to become International Premier League and will be held most probably in South Africa this year. Amidst all the protests from players and fans alike, the BCCI is very indifferently moving towards accomplishing this dubious act! I mean its like cheating all the fans out here who were waiting with all their hearts and all the gears to go for an all-out support for their respective favourites! Chennai Super Kings will have their home city as Durban and Kolkata Knight Riders perhaps in Johannesburg…what the heck!

I know, we are going to have the general elections coming at the same time as the IPL, but still…its so unfair! I know, the franchisees have agreed too, and the reason is obviously the money factor. Security isn’t much of a problem as most of the states agreed that they were capable of holding the matches wthout many problems, but the ever money mongering BCCI isn;t gonna listen even a single thing…and the worst thing is that the political parties have already started politicalizing this. The opposition has already started blaming the government and criticising it for it’s inability to provide proper security, saying “its as if we are talking about Pakistan”…comeon guys at least leave sports apart from politics!

For the time, as fans all we can do is wait and watch as the story develops further….

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The some more that I wanted to share about is a recent article that I came across in the papers. The one about a fund being started to locate the remnants of the Mughal dynasty and help them survive. This again is so very uncalled for. I mean, why do you need to start a fund for someone just because their ancestors once ruled the nation, and now they are selling tea for their living?

Their are so many other people in the country who need such funds more that them. I mean, what is the point of starting some fund for a group of people just because they turned to paupers from princes? This surely shouldn’t be a criterion for helping people…why single out them to be alleviated when their are so many other people dying hungry and without proper clothing…i just can’t understand…can somebody please make me understand?

In the Terrace in the Night

ImageJust now, feeling so very hot (due to the weather) and so very uneasy I went up to terrace of my hostel to find some relief in the cool night air. Relief, yes I did get some, but along with the coolness of the breeze and the darkness of the sky came suddenly rushing a tumult of gushing difficult questions. Many what-ifs, many whys, many why nots, many whats and many what nots, and when I enquired myself about the answers, well I knew none.

The questions kept on coming and I couldn’t answer a single one satisfactorily if at all! Bored of it, my mind wandered into strange realms of thoughts. like what is a thought? Why do we think? What would be a world without any thoughts? or a life without any feelings and emotions? Thankfully I knew the answer to this one : It won’t be a world worth living in, it won’t be a life worth fighting for or even worth caring about!

It has always been the case with me, whenever I am happy my mind suddenly starts remembering the sad moments and whenever I am sad, it wrenches out all the happy moments of my life infront of my eyes. Its as if life doesn’t want me to be too happy or too sad, jus balanced, just in between!Thats what it has been always like. Thats what it always will be like!

Then suddenly I thought about today and remembered that it was International Women’s Day. Well I for one am strictly against it. I mean if men and women are equals (you bet they are) then why the hell is this kind of day still there? It is these kinds of thnigs that create inequality amongst us. Its the medieval mindset of people that needs to change and merely delaring a day as women’s day isn’t gonna change anything – thats for sure!

So much said and so much thought, the flashback of my life then started in front of my eyes , which troubled me (as I associate this flashback with the end, the full stop), but reliving those moments of joy and laughter, of sorrow and tears, of friendship and love really cheered me up instead of saddening me, as I realised :

Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost! and when the movie upto this point was so damn good, the second half has to be good too!


Top Inviter!

I just opened my Facebook home page today (as I do every other day) and just when I was goin to close the window seeing nothing new, my eyes found something new.

There in the right half of my home page was a tab : TOP INVITER!

It said that “Thanks to you, many of your friends are now on Facebook. Use our simple tools to find and invite more of your friends”. Now that I think of it, I surely have invited a score of my friends on to Facebook, which I consider loads superior to Orkut!

I feel nice! He He!

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I Wonder!

Courage is something that cannot be inculcated, but something that comes from within; something that is inherently in one’s character. Standing up for your own rights is courage yes, but standing up for others’ is heroism, a thing that a very select few can ever manage to have, and something that distinguishes great men from ordinary mortals.

I am not saying this because I have suddenly become a fan of some super-hero or something, I am saying this because I suddenly felt this when I was sitting alone in my room staring at the bright light of my monitor, thinking blatantly anything and everything.

Without courage the world wouldn’t have been the same place at all, and without heroism the world wouldn’t have been here at all! People like Bhagat Singh, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Martin Luther King, Harvey Milk and so many more weren’t just courageous, but they felt for others and it was this feeling of theirs that made them Heroes, the real heroes, stronger than any super-hero of a comic strip. This feeling, this urge to alleviate people of their sufferings, this strange inability to see the people accept their sufferings without protest is what makes your life worth living.

As is said “woh khoon nahi woh paaani hai jisme ubaal ka naam nahi” i.e. the blood that doesn’t boil isn’t blood but water. The blood that doesn’t boil when the fellow people squirm with pain and agony isn’t something that a person would be proud of, rather it’s something to be very ashamed of. How can anyone just see the sufferings, and then turn his backs on it as if nothing ever happened.

And yet in this world of ours, this is what we have always seen, and perhaps this is what we will always see. Every time when this has happened, someone or the other has come up, to lift the masses, to show the path to hope. But in the modern world, where the most dominant emotions are perhaps indifference and lust, will the savior arise ever again??

I wonder…

Time to wake up…

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Yahoo! A.R. Rahman bagged two Oscars, and Slumdog won 8. That’s one hell of an achievement for the Indian Music and Film Industry. Finally, we made a mark in the world,  in the genre of music and entertainment.

While lavishing all the praise on this success, suddenly  my brother’s words crept up in my mind : What if Slumdog Millionaire were a Bollywood production? And the thing that came up to my mind the next instant was the article by the Management Guru Arindam Chaudhary : Don’t See “Slumdog Millionaire”. It sucks. With people like him around one thing is sure, that the bollywood Slumdog wouldn’t even have made the Filmfares let aside Oscars.

The way many people see this movie as something that describes India in a very poor light is something I  find  very inexplicable.  I mean what the hell do you people want ? India isn’t a country of Gods anymore, that’s a fact. Be it the problem of extreme poverty, or the stigma of child prostitution or be it the beggary problem, its all very real and what wrong did Danny Boyle do if he showed the world the darker side of our country?

Yeah we have the Taj Mahal , one of the seven wonders of the world, the symbol of eternal love. But we also have the so called moral police (the likes of Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and Ram Sene to name a few) who thrash and insult all the starry eyed couples on Valentines Day, and run campaigns like Tie or Die : Its a reality! Yes we were the earliest nation to give voting rights to women, and yet we only are the people who burn brides for dowry, who kill them after branding them witches, who thrash them publicly just because they were having a drink in the local pub. Its a reality my friends!

Yeah we have a culture thats as old as civilization itself, the sacred culture of the Aryans. And yet most of the politicians out here, the so called leaders of the world’s largest democracy exhibit their talent of amassing illegal fortunes through all kinds of scams, be it the Hawala Scam or the famous Fodder Scam! Where did the culture go? Where did it go? Isn’t this a reality?

The problem of beggary isn’t hidden from any of us. The cruelty with which innocent children have their limbs and fingers hacked, or their eyes taken out of their sockets to make them ‘eligible’ to beg is a reality that no Indian can escape from. Same is the case with child prostitution. However hard you may try to deny it, it happens and is as real as you or me.

It isn’t at all that I don’t love my country. I assure you that I am a haughty patriot and I love my country as hard as any of you do, but still I am not someone who will turn his eyes away from the weaknesses and concentrate only on the purple patches that we have out here. I am not one who will praise only the goodness, and turn a blind eye to all the defects that is present out here in India.

Its time that we appreciate that yes these evils have burned themselves in the clothing of our country. Its time to change the nations attire and not the time to spit venom on movies like this which depict whats true and whats bad.Its time we grew up. Its time we wake up.

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Best Anime Characters – III

11. Popeye

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Popeye the Sailor Man, the spinach man! This is one character that I have watched right from the time Cartoon Network came to my home, and you know what Spinach became my favourite veggy only after I watched Popeye for the 1st time! Although the show in itself is very very predictable, the way Brutus always gets hacked for his life by Popeye is funny to watch, and the way Popeye always hoots his pipe in the end…fantastic!

12. Genie

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Genie the evergreen comic relief of the Aladdin series i.e The Arabian Nights is by far my most favourite comic character. The way he always keeps shape shifting into objects to famous personalities is simply hilarious!

The way he always puts himself on the line to save his friends from trouble is something that I admire in genie and try very hard to adopt in my life!

13. Iago

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Another character from Arabian Nights which has been in my imaginations throughout my ” cartoon career”. The way this selfish parrot talks, the air of confidence (false) he exudes gets you going and the way he always ends up badly and in desperate need of his friends really makes the viewer to like him (although in a different kind of way!!)

14. Donald Duck

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One of the two characters of the Mickey Mouse universe that I like. Donald with his short temper and his extreme bad luck is funny in the most sadist of ways  and yeah I like it!

The way he cackles all around is something that gets the viewers going, at least it got me going every time! Donald became quite a famous character, perhaps even more famous than Mickey Mouse, as the Fighting Duck mascot of The University of Oregon clearly indicates!

15.  Goofy

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The other figure of the Mickey Mouse universe that I like is G.G.Goof or simply Goofy. The anthropomorphic dog, with all his idiosyncrasies and the characteristic woohoohoo becomes the viewers favourite and stays with you forever.

He is lazy, moron, shabbily dressed, shy and what not but all these qualities or defects instead of repelling you rather endears him to you, and makes you a fan…instantaneously!

Best Anime Characters- Part II

6. Batman

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Batman, the saviour of Gotham City, the night sentinel, the Dark Knight. How can I forget to have this on on my list.

I have seen many superhero cartoons, but till date Batman is my favourite super-hero as he is one super-hero without any superhuman powers. He has the intellect of a nerd, the valour of a soldier and the will to prevent crime of an honest police officer. Gotham was in terrible shape when Bruce Wayne took up the responsibility of doing away with all the crime that had infected the city.

Batman is a symbol of fear. Criminals and wrong-doers are terrorised to know that he is out there keeping a watch on the city. In this process Batman has to sacrifice many a things, be it his love or the dream of having a family, but he goes on relentlessly, never tiring of protecting the innocents. He is the true hero.

7.  Scrooge Mcduck

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Scrooge Mcduck who aptly gets his name from the famous Christmas Carrol character Ebenezar Scrooge is one of the  world’s most miserly character ever created.

Though he is one hell of a billionaire, he things more than a hundred times before spending money and refrains from doing so if the expenditure isn’t going to yield him any kind of profit. His immense wealth means that he is always one of the prime targets of all the criminals around, be it the Beatle Boys or the witch Magica. He has a special affinity for his lucky $1 coin and gets so very sick and out of luck whenever it is stolen or lost.

He was initially a very rude and uncaring granduncle for his grandnephews Louie, Dewey and Huey and grandneice Webby, but slowly and steadily he starts loving them and considers them as his family, which makes him happy for the first time in his life. His favourite past time is to have a swim in huge coffer of his wealth now and then.

8. Shin Chan

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Well this is one of the recent ones.

Shin Chan has been created as the world’s most naughty kid by the Yoshito Usui. He is the pain of the lifes of his parents, especially his mother who has to tolerate his idisyncracies throghout the day. Shin Chan has become one of the most popular characters of the modern day Cartoon world, due to his sheer naughtiness and rebellious nature.

Even though this boy’s activities sometimes borders vulgarity due to which he has been banned in several countires including India, yet Shin Chan has definitely won many fans wherever he has gone, thats for sure.

9. Jerry Mouse

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Arguably the most famous cartoon character along with his enemy and friend Tom Cat, Jerry Mouse has been in the business of making children and adults laugh now for over 69 years.

Jerry has been shown as an extremely energetic cheese hogging and cat slogging mouse, whose favourite past time when not eating cheese is to tease Tom Cat and play Cat and Mouse with him. Jerry is independent and opportunistic and also possesses surprising strength for his size, lifting items such as anvils with relative ease and withstanding considerable impacts with them. Like Tom, Jerry often displays sadist charcteristics, taking pleasure in beating Tom or having him beaten somehow.

Jerry Mouse is one of the most refreshing of charcters even to this day.

10. Scooby Doo

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Being a Cartoon Network fan means being a Scooby-Do fan.

Scooby is a Great Dane and is an integral member of the Mystery Inc. His personality has two major traits : exteme apetite and extreme cowardice although he never stays away from helping out his friends, especially Shaggy, his best friend. He has a great penchant of catching goons dressed as ghosts even though he is afraid to death by all the ghosts around.

Scooby Doo was a classic creation of Hanna Barbara, which hasn’t stopped entertaining us yet. Scooby Dooby Dooo!

More to come in the 3rd and Final Part of Best Anime Characters…