Random Ramblings

(Disclaimer - Please do not think that I don't know spellings ... my numerologist told to use the above spelling for eediyot and add a k before it, this will help generate more TRP and comments for the blog) Time 7 : 30 - 8 PM, 8 - 8 : 30 PM .... 10 : 30 - 11 PM Venue - Zee TV, Star Plus, Sony entertainment etc. etc. Figure this - A family drawing room belonging to an extremely rich business house occupied with a mixture of emotional and scheming characters - 1 saas, 2 bahus, 1 son (+1 who makes an entry unaware of what is happening), 2 random distant relatives, 3 random cousins, all mouthing dialogues that have earlier been said by actors ranging from Nirupa Roy to Rajesh Khanna, followed by a long silence, 13 camera angles for same scene (top view, side view, cross sectional view, lateral view, 45 degree elevation view) , flashbacks and memories that last few episodes, good people becoming evil, evil people actually being un-evil, rebirths, amnesia, a background score that often ...

"Freedom of expression is the freedom to say what you want, as long as you say what they want to hear" - Freedom of expression – One of the hallmarks of great societies of the world; one of the basic rights guaranteed by our constitution. But is it all in theory? Take the case of Tasleema Nasreen or M.F. Hussain or students of MS University, Baroda or many others who dare to express things against the norm, but have to face wrath of some self-appointed moral police every now and then? … Or consider countless others who do not even dare to express, because of the fear of consequences from likes of Shiv Sena or Bajrang Dal or infinite others self appointed guardians of our culture. Yes. As a nation we have had fairly decent record on this front, if not anything great … but that is not enough. It must be made much better if we need to progress as a society. But where are we heading for ?

Dictionary meaning Hospitality - 1. the friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers. 2. the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way. Indians are believed to be one of the most hospitable people. It may be true to quite an extent, but there are some elements which seem strange. Say the obsession with eating, or to put it in some other way, guest eating well being a surrogate of a good, hospitable treatment. This may be more visible in interior or 'traditional' parts of country where ofter the person who is 'guest' is supposed to be 'following' or 'eating' thing served by the host. Plus there are some unwritten rules like you need to be always smiling, you need to get along well with everyone irrespective of age, believe with XYZ rules and all and blah blah. To hell with what you believe in, to hell with what you like or dislike, to hell with what you are as a person! It all rem...

Feels good to have the following published on IBNLive website ... wo bhi photu ke saath :-) http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/iday2007/blog_story.php?id=46747 Below is the direct copy paste from the above link (sans photu) _________________________________________________ In history, very few nations can boast of having a journey as monumental as India’s. We were once considered to be sone ki chidiya few centuries ago, we lived as a British colony for few centuries, and then we became known by the western world as ‘the land of snake charmers’ and are now considered being a potential superpower. Yet, India continues to be a land of contrasts. Our GDP is growing at a rate of 9%, yet there are places which remain decades or even centuries backwards. Businessmen are entering into exclusive club of world’s richest men, yet a fourth of the population lies below the poverty line. We have 5 star hotels coming up, yet there are hordes of people who cannot afford even a square meal per day. We are ...

(Disclaimer: I am NOT justifying any action or behavior. I am just speculating why people usually act so) _________________________________________________________ “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented” – The Truman Show (a 1998 movie starring Jim Carrey) The above line explains a great deal about why we hold on to some beliefs as gospel truths, and form our judgment about things and act in a specific pattern. This movie (which I feel is still quite under-rated!) had Jim Carrey, a person whose entire life had been a live, non-stop, unedited television show. He lived in a world which was completely artificial; everything, everyone knew that everything were fake. But the person was real. His emotions were real. He was conditioned to a certain realities of world, and believed in it. The makers of the show did not want to show him what the ‘actual’ world was. He was made not to want to explore the outside world, made to fear things that could have led him ...

These days almost every TV channel has its own talent hunt show, inspired by Indian Idol, showcasing judgement and other talent of of who is who of the music industry. Some of them even managed to have warring personalities like Annu Malik and Alisha Chinoy to share the same dais. The talent is often amazing, yet at times it seems so melodramatic, so contrived. Each disappointment comes with a Pandora box of emotions, and then some inspiring and some harsh words by the judges. Who knows how much truth is there in it. For example a recent 'speech' by Himesh, “Mujhe tere ghar roti chahiye!” Maybe it was a promotion of his acting talent before Aap ka suroor releases. And then there are participants making a case for themselves, so that people vote in their favor. Yet, few survive this ruthless competition. And then comes a flurry of emotions, probably with an attempt to influence the decision. But it seems, this has become more of a norm then exception. More often than no...

Recently I read a quote in TOI: " What is difference between Indian democracy and American? Ans. In American demoracy it is OK to kiss in public, in Indian it is OK to pee in public but not to kiss in public " Moral police, what do you say? Probably you would love people to be forever in the dark and not make any choice out of their will, but rather they would love to see them towing to their line of thought, or rather lack of it, pollute the culture of free will and people taking responsibility for their actions (if it exists !), and ransack the place where they read this thing, if at all they do.

Why do people believe in God? Is being religious tantamount to believing in God? Does God exist? These are few questions which have kept many philosophers and thinkers busy since ages, and often at loggerheads with each other and with the society. I am no philosopher, nor a great thinker. But yes, these questions do arise in my mind, and too often especially when I see the countless customs and traditions, which often overlap with some superstitions, when I am told to perform rituals or puja, when I am criticized for being an atheist as I am unwilling to indulge in sycophancies to please gods for favors and often here and there. I am not an atheist. But I am not a great believer either. Actually I am a terribly confused person. I am not sure why do people believe blindly in an all powerful supreme being without questioning, and accepting (or pretending to!) everything that comes their way – good or bad as the will of god. Maybe it is just because it is convenient to do so. It o...

When I came to this place almost seven months back, I knew it is going to be tough, but I never thought that it would be such a big battle for survival. But now when I look at my result and celebrate about having ‘survived’ the system (as on today, as I know not what lies few months down the line !), though not in a great health, I often think of those who haven’t. Here, the system is quite strict and also at one level though it is flexible, when it comes to discipline and academic standards it is as hard as a rock. In the relative grading system F is the lowest and D is the next. If in a year you accumulate 2 Fs, or 5 Ds or 1 F and 3 Ds; you have to repeat a year. And few Profs love to give a few Ds and Fs. There have been quite a few deserving candidates who are in the “red zone”, but there are many who don’t deserve to be there. This may be my personal opinion but this is reiterated by probably the entire batch. Passing marks is 35, yet many end up getting 33 or 34 and miss the...

It was few minutes to the year 2007. I was all alone at my seat waiting for the train packed with all kinds of people to move. Meanwhile I was all set to welcome the New Year with a copy of business world and a packet of Lays. Then from somewhere came this small kid of hardly 5 -6 years asking for something to eat. Usually indifferent to them, I gave him few pieces of the chips which otherwise would have had been converted to fats shortly. The train moved, and I continued to read about the who‘s who of the corporate world. But the picture of the kid begging couldn’t leave me. It kept crossing my mind again and again. How different is their world from that of ours. In fact we cannot probably stretch our imagination to exactly know what their world is like. What may seem too trivial to us might be something of tremendous joy to these people. For us a piece of bread may be just another thing, but for them it might be life for one more day. We may, at times take survival for granted, but...

/*Maybe some fans of Indian culture wouldn’t like it*/ Since childhood we have been fed upon a steady diet of greatness of Indian culture, values, beliefs, sanskars etc. Some of them are good, but is it all that great, or even somewhere as close as what is taught to us? For example we worship Goddess Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth and are taught to believe that we must respect wealth. We even celebrate Laxmi Puja which is the biggest festival among Hindus. Yet, people continue to avoid taxes and show utter disregard for the rules and obviously with a belief that “sab chalta hai” People over here are so obsessed with marriage that if at a certain age and that point of time you don’t want to fall for it, you are frowned upon and looked down upon. And most of the time it is the elders in the family who take such decision, and the approval of the one actually getting married is merely a token or somewhat sort of a puppet. And if at a certain age you are not married or not planning to get ma...

The paparazzi seems to goes frenzy over any thing pertaining to the rich and the famous, and more so if they happen to be a cinema star. Just the other day I was browsing through a website which described Brad Pitt and Anjelina Jolie’s Indian trip. They even had the detailed description of their local train journey in Mumbai and Pune trip. Now I know that they had an auto-rickshaw ride in Pune They visited the Gateway of India Anjelina had a local train ride (in second class compartment) from Charni Road to Churchgate. And she was wearing a T- shirt and a cargo pant. And she even brought train tickets (now beat that!). She bought some peanuts and mentos at Marine lines station. This is one of the sample news items, but such type of news galore like an actor planning to quit smoking since years, or someone having an hour of daily workout, or the diet of an actress and blah blah. Just take the example of the times of India and with all the kind of chatpata, masa...

“I told you na …” “maine kaha tha ki aisa hi hoga” “I always knew this is going to happen” “I knew that India will lose today” “I knew that the professor will take the test” “I knew that X will be the murderer in the movie” And the blabbering goes on. I have often wondered how people know that something is going to happen with so much certainty. And there are just too many such geniuses in the world. Necessary condition being that the thing has already occurred. They always knew that idea ‘X’ is going to work if idea ‘Y’ didn’t, necessary condition being that there is no chance to execute the idea ‘X’ in that context any more. Maybe, some hindsight bias, as some jargonically sound person will say. You meet such kinds of people everywhere. They are all around us. Maybe I, you or anyone has such traits. Just have a conversation while having a journey and you may find different varieties of them in different shapes and sizes. Dare to say that there are very few geniuses!

"The first step of reaching the top is getting through the crowd at the bottom" How often we think to cross one level of competition, and be assured that rest of the going would be smooth, just to realize that competion has just increased ! As a child we often didn't know what we are headed for. Later on we make a decision, usually the one that would lead to something more comfortable later in life, or colloquially "do this, then there is fultoo aish". As a child I used to think that if I get good grades in school, life would be comfortable. Maybe comfortable meant "bed of roses" to me. In engineering, all the old school style of competition seemed somewhat trivial ! Bt still there is a big fight to get those coveted jobs, but again, on reaching "there", we often end up realizing that just to be ahead of the crowd, you have to compete a lot. During those job/graduation days it is a dream to get into any of the coveted b schools leading to a w...