Life is beautiful, but truth is bitter.

Greek Tragedy

2008-12-07T03:20:00.000-08:00

More "left-liberal" crap. I just read this bit of news about rioting in Greece, in protest at the shooting dead of a 16 year old who was part of a group of Molotov cocktail brandishing vandals who were throwing stones at a police car. These kind of things are commonplace in Asia and Africa, but I never thought they'd happen in Europe and that too taking the side of a criminal who was killed by the law.

The Greek Government has gone out and apologized for the shooting of that teenager and even initiated action against the cops involved. What about the people whose cars and shops have been destroyed by the rioters? This is exactly the reason I don't trust "left-liberals" and centrist fence-sitters like me may be forced to take a more conservative position, not unlike that of people from the Southern states that make up the United States of America.

The Ayes have it , but...

2008-12-01T11:33:00.000-08:00

(This post continues from the previous one.

DISCLAIMER: This post may contain sexually explicit phrases and may not be suitable for
children below 14 years. Reader discretion is advised.)

Some of my friends/colleagues think I'm a Catholic conservative (which is by the way a cardinal "sin" in modern Europe) and homophobic. I'll refute the first allegation later and start with the second since we are already on the subject of homosexuality.

I'm a straight dude. As a kid in school, I heard and read stories, including the so-called fairy tales, only involving one man and one woman. Later, in high school I learned about how peno-vaginal sexual intercourse leads to creating babies. Since then, I've been with women and plan on settling down and having a kid of my own, who I'd wish to go through a similar cycle.

Some liberal elementary school teachers in the U.S. state of Massachusetts have begun narrating to 5 year olds, stories involving, say, 2 princes or 2 princesses, who eventually get to be with each other. The Supreme Court of Massachusetts has allowed them to go ahead since same sex couples have the status of marriage (and not merely civil unions) in Massachusetts and Connecticut. This frenzy for granting people sexual freedom means little kids are exposed to the ideas of gay or lesbian sex, before they are even in a position to understand sex.

A society where new individuals are as likely to be straight as they are to be homosexual could have tremendous implications on society at the level of city-states or even nations. Fewer straight couples would eventually mean decreasing and aging populations (which is already a problem in several countries), which could lead to that society being militarily defeated by superior numbers. Russia may be one of the first countries to suffer this fate because of their huge borders and because they are losing people through emigration to European Union countries. This, and not fire and brimstone as the Bible says, may have been the reason for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

This does not mean that homosexuality must be banned. That would be fascist. However, for the reasons detailed above, they must always be within some limit fraction of the population and it is for this reason that I believe they must not be encouraged to "sexually proselytize" (if there exists such a term) by giving them completely equal status as straight couples. Conversely, legalizing gay and lesbian sex in China, India and the Islamic countries and allowing same sex civil unions there would ease these countries' problems of overpopulation. In India alone, assuming 2% of a normal population are homosexuals, there would be 20 million gays and lesbians (almost twice the population of Portugal) who are forced to be in straight relationships, an unnatural and uncomfortable state for them, contributing to increasing the population.

The bottom line is there should be no "pride" in being homosexual.

The Ayes have it

2008-11-10T16:38:00.000-08:00

I was quite happy with the news from the United States on the 4th. In Barack Obama, the world finally has a leader who has acknowledged the problem of climate change and promised action on it. However, I am still wary about the (pseudo-)liberal political forces and I hope Obama's victory doesn't encourage the ones in Europe and India.

I was also happy that voters in California, Florida, and Arizona voted to ban same-sex marriage. Of course, homosexuals should have the right to be together and practice their lifestyle, but a marriage must be between one man and one woman. (I will detail my reasons in another post, so watch this space.) Expectedly, California's gay community have begun protesting (Whoa! isn't this supposed to be a democracy?) directing their anger at the Christian religion, as usual, but alarmingly, raising slogans like 'shame on you' directed at the 53% majority of Californians who expressed their democratic right to vote in favour of banning gay marriage.

Nowhere, except in Africa (and in India after the 2004 general election,) do people protest against the outcome of democratic processes. But I wonder if the "liberals" have the sense to realize that the people whose causes they champion (often against the majority communities/groups) are not really liberal or even democratic?

Obama it is

2008-08-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

Since Barack Obama has written on his website that he's gonna make moves to reduce greenhouse emissions by 80 % by the year 2050, as well as actions on some more of Al Gore's warnings, I wish he gets elected this November.

I'm retaining the earlier post in support of John McCain, as the balancing critical voice in democracies.

Liberals are the New Fascists

2008-08-29T16:13:00.000-07:00

Remember my post about the Pseudo-Liberal Complex with respect to private members of society? I'm now going to talk about a similar phenomenon, but which has far more wide-reaching and dangerous consequences, at the level of government.

A new wave of fascism has begun, with most of us having been taken in and not realizing it. (Fascism may not appear to be the best word to describe it, but for practical purposes, it will do.) The governments of a lot of powerful countries and their judicial systems are already full of them. These entities are characterized by a frenzy for “political convenience(correctness)” and superficial appearances that there is no problem whatsoever. All of them want to come across as welcoming anyone who is “different”, and going to the extent of, in plain language, hating yourself so that the other person or group feels welcomed or good about it.

In the developed world, this has come to imply that ethnic/religious/visible minorities have a right to be conservative/fundamentalist, but anyone who is traditionalist about Christian or white culture is branded a racist, fascist, and so on. Whatever happened to when in Rome, do as the Romans do?

Maintaining a certain lifestyle is a personal choice and private individuals should have the right to follow whatever culture they like as long as it does not cross the borders of civic sense, but no-one and the bad points about no religion or culture should be immune from scrutiny. I came across a guy on a social networking site who claims to be a PhD student in political science from a reputed university in Europe, an atheist, and politically left-wing. The guy goes on and on about how bad Christianity is and how good it would be if Christians were exterminated from Europe, blah blah. But when someone mentioned the film 'Fitna', which was intended to serve as a list of the bad points of Islam, the same guy called Geert Wilders, the film-maker, far-right and a racist. If this guy had said that about any other community, he would be in jail, so how can he get away with this?

You would probably come across how 'equality' means its acceptable to bash the majority and/or pamper minorities. Its just a consequence that most of the examples I'm going to present happened in the United Kingdom.

Some weeks back, a Sikh girl in the UK was allowed by a court to wear a religious ornament, even though the rules of the school prohibited religious accessories, including crucifixes. The court said that the school did not “do enough to promote equality”. I can't think of a bigger joke than that. Unfortunately, it is on the law-abiding majority.

Just read that a Pakistani-born citizen of the UK who stabbed his neighbour to death got away with manslaughter and only eight years in jail. It helped that the victim was white and a member of the right-wing British National Party, so the guy could play the racism card. If it were the other way round, not only would the white guy have been convicted of murder but also of a hate crime. Racism cuts both ways, unfortunately it does not suit some politicians to recognize this.

There was a big uproar over the alleged racist/fascist actions of Max Mosley, the President of the FIA and Amy Winehouse, which had happened IN THE PRIVACY OF THEIR HOMES. The videos in question were never intended for public consumption and pulling them up for that is a gross violation of privacy. This just goes to show that the media too has been penetrated by these pseudo-liberals.

The list of examples of how some groups get preferential treatment could get very long, but when applied to states and where terrorism is involved, it gets worse. We saw that when Serbs were being aggressive during the Balkan conflicts, they were demonized by the Western leaders and media. But if Kosovo Albanians do the same, the same people say that they are acting within their rights.

A lot of governments, even of countries that have been the victims of terrorism, want to come across as not harassing any community, even at the cost of not protecting their society from terrorism. It doesn't matter that the very communities they are pampering respond by rioting and burning cars in France, Denmark, the UK, and the Netherlands at the slightest opportunity. Israel does whatever it needs to do to defend itself (though, in my opinion, they ought to be a tad more flexible), and yet a lot of European left-liberals I know, hate them for doing just that.

The consequences of actions like these on the part of the pseudo-liberals will lead to less tolerant and less open-minded communities becoming more influential. Perhaps the PLs are too naïve to see that, because I don't see their ideologies evolving like that of the Republican party (which was in fact started in the North of the USA, to oppose slavery).

To me, governments like this are no different from explicitly fascist ones. And the solution is not the right-wing parties of today, no sir. And as for terrorism, the solution is not what Israel or India are doing right now, it is flexibility, logic, rationality, and mutual respect shown by both sides. The bottom line is that, in the public domain, there can't be separate sets of rules.

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Almost forgot.. some exaples of PL political parties: all parties whose names have the words liberal, socialist, social democratic, etc, Indian National Congress and the Left front in India.

John Sidney McCain for President

2008-06-08T04:25:00.001-07:00

It must have come as a surprise to people who know me personally and are connected to me on the social networking sites Facebook and Orkut, that I've switched sides from Senator Barack Obama and am now supporting Senator John McCain. I think this warrants an explanation, because until now I was supporting Obama himself, and not Mrs Clinton.

Everyone knows how bad a state the economy the world over is. Obama's plans seem to be too ambitious and involve spending far too much money from taxes, to solve the economic problems, in the short term. In fact I think his promises are quite ambitious, and probably will not be able to keep quite a few of them.

Some weeks back there had been a stir over a republican referring to Obama by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama. The politically correct, (pseudo-)liberal brigade immediately pounced on that, criticizing the guy for mentioning Obama's Arabic middle name, calling him racist, blah blah. Don't these guys realize that if elected, he will have to take the oath of office saying 'I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear..'. Come on.. these people have created this kind of false god of the liberal, and call the people who call a spade a spade, conservative, racist, etc.

Originating from India and having spent some time in Europe, I have seen how the so-called liberal political parties are turning into death-knells for their respective societies. These parties are more concerned with being not seen as discriminating against minorities, than working for the welfare of society and protecting them from the evil of terrorism. All these parties allow ethnic and religious minorities to be conservative and fundamentalist, but call the majority racist and ethnocentric if they do the exact same thing.

Sure, the current republican regime invaded Iraq over a lie and McCain does not rule out invading Iran, but hadn't Bill Clinton's regime invaded Yugoslavia while ignoring worse situations in Rwanda? The media conveniently ignores this fact because Yugoslavia was a predominantly Orthodox Christian country and no mileage would be gained from saying how bad all those wars against them were. To me, the republicans are the lesser of two evils, in this regard.

I am pro-choice, for stem cell research, and for gay marriage, however for all the above reasons, I think the world would be better off with Senator McCain as POTUS.

Of course, there are some factors that might change my mind to supporting Obama again. If Obama comes up with really tough decisions to stop the degradation of environmental conditions and implements them in spirit, I'd say hats off to the guy.

STILL MORE RACISM IN INDIA

2008-05-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

Do we still need further proof that INDIA IS THE MOST RACIST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD?

I am not a fan of the sport of cricket, but have to see headlines related to it every time I open any Indian news website. The most recent bit of news is extremely disgusting and sickening.

Apparently, one of the cricket clubs in India, King's eleven Punjab, contracted a British cheer-leading team to cheer their team during games. Now, two black (of African origin) girls in this team were called n***ers and told by the club officials that "people here don't want to see dark people."

Seriously, what the f*ck?? Indians are the same people who scream at the top of their lungs whenever one of them is treated badly in Western countries, but behave this barbarically at home? Actually, I shouldn't be surprised, because Indian society has its own system of racial segregation - the system of castes. It just goes to expose their hypocrisy.

If this were to have happened in Europe or the United States, the team in question would be disqualified and barred for a few seasons, and probably have to pay hundreds of thousands of euros/USDs in fines. This is a real test for the cricket federations, the International Cricket Council and the Indian Cricket Board, on whether they are serious about fighting racism, or use the word only for publicity.

King's eleven Punjab is co-owned by Preeti Zinta, a popular actress in India. If I were in India, I'd stop watching her movies, unless she apologized.

The Mighty Federer

2008-04-21T11:04:00.000-07:00

I finally saw Roger Federer in person yesterday, at the finals of the Estoril open. I had been waiting to watch him since I'd heard that he would be playing in Estoril this year.

The atmosphere at the sporting complex at Oeiras (not Estoril) was great. The sky was clear for most of the time and there was no interruption because of rain, like the women's final a few hours earlier. The overwhelming majority of the crowd were cheering Federer. Only a handful were supporting Nikolay Davydenko, and if I were in his place, I'd have felt quite intimidated. But unlike in sports like football and cricket, the cheering was within the limits of decency and sporting spirit.

FedEx certainly deserves all the praise he gets. His technique is awesome and his style is almost artistic. He had a tough opponent in Davydenko, who seemed to be able to respond to Federer's tactics. But we were all deprived of a potentially nail-biting game after he had to retire because of injury after losing the first set but breaking Federer's service in the first game of the second.

But Federer should have got good practice and after a good run at the Monte Carlo open, this could well be the year he won his first French Open title.

Allez, Roger!

The Curse of Social Networking

2008-04-11T16:30:00.001-07:00

If you are browsing the web and read this, chances are you also have an account with one or more of Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Orkut, Yahoo 360, etc. These services are the rage of late among people connected by the world wide web. The idea is simple. If you are my friend, you can see who else is my friend, and who are the friends of my other friends, and so on. All of them also add various other stuff such as publicly viewable message boards, ways to share pictures, indicators of status (location, whether single or seeing someone, etc), reviews of movies, and the like.

While I will have to give these services their due credit in helping me find a handful of people I had not seen in years and to remind me of a few birthdays, I think their disadvantages outweigh their benefits:

Somehow the very idea of putting up a list of people you are friends with is something unnatural to me. I always have kept and try to keep my contact circles disjoint (mutually exclusive, but I like the mathematical term). I am not comfortable with the fact that I may have created platforms where different people who know different secrets about me are listed together.
Your very presence on these networks can lead to pressure to be listed as someone else's contact, so as not to give the impression that you do not get along. As a result, you may have to be connected with people you couldn't care less about, but had to add out of courtesy.
Did I mention that all the services I'm talking about offer the ability to form associations or groups? There are all kinds of groups ranging from alumni associations of schools and universities to, sadly, racially supremacist groups. So far the ones I've come across have been to do with the racist system of castes in the Hindu religion. I have a policy of not publicly acknowledging my association with anyone who's in those.
But the potentially most dangerous aspect of social networking services is the loss of privacy because of the publicly viewable messaging features. The vast majority of Indians I know have begun using these instead of e-mail, for communication. I admit, I am not equally open with all people I know and get annoyed whenever anyone mentions something which I would not talk about in the presence of other known folks.

Elaborating a little on the last point, you have no idea how people foolishly give away information on these sites. It takes a little browsing back and forth (stalking?) between message boards to find out a lot of details. Some of the information I have gathered from periodic profile visits has been to do with travel plans including flight details, job frustrations, rendezvous both group and 'dates', and a lot, lot more. (I use this means of data gathering only if the people do not respond to a direct query). However, I have policies that my friends are aware of, on what can and cannot be discussed publicly.

All this having been said, the only reason I am still on these services is so that occasionally a long lost friend can re-establish contact and so that I can draw some entertainment from the information people are imprudent enough to put out.

If only Money was edible..

2008-03-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

Its hard to admit, but unconstrained capitalism has been a major factor that has contributed to environmental degradation. Even though its not too late to do something about it by way of corrective action, the world over, there are climate skeptics and people such as industrialists who could lose out, who oppose and use their political clout to prevent any corrective measures.

Sadly, it is only the European Union who are taking a stand on this issue. The biggest polluters - the USA, China, and India have said without mincing any words that they are more interested in making money. What their industrialists and political leadership (the mighty warlord George Walter Bush, included - his father was the one who refused to adhere to the decisions of the Rio de Janeiro summit) do not realize is that money is not edible and after the rising sea levels have submerged all agricultural land and sources of drinking water, their money is only as good as toilet paper.

Religious discrimination in India: Now Institutionalized

2008-03-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

Until now, the impression I'd had was that India had laws that guaranteed equal rights to people of all faiths and ethnicities and that discrimination was limited to individuals in society. I'd faced discrimination because of my (Roman Catholic) surname only once, in New Delhi from a doctor at a government run health center. But in general at the official level, there used to be not much discrimination.

But today I've come across this news that the Supreme Court has upheld a ban on the sale of meat during a particular festival of the Jain religion in the city of Ahmedabad, which is majority Jain who are vegetarians. They said "there was no need to be over-sensitive about a short restriction especially when it was being done out of respect for the sentiments of a particular section of society, in a multi-cultural country." They also cited a 16th century Mughal emperor who had banned meat consumption for 6 months.

Respecting the different culture and religion of another group is fine, but is imposing their restrictions on everyone else? Aren't there people whose livelihood is being affected here? An autocratic 16th century emperor as an example?

Applying the same standards, if India is truly a multicultural country, the sale of all food and alcoholic beverages may also sought to be banned during the daytime during the period of Ramadan, out of respect to India's Muslim community. The Hindu spring festival of Holi usually falls during Lent, the 40 day period of fasting and abstinence for Christians. Since I was keeping the fast in 2005, I had to stay in my students' hostel room the whole day, as the revelries went on outside. No-one sought to have the Holi festivities banned.

It must be remembered that India's Muslim and Christian communities are centuries old and are not a recent phenomenon that has resulted from immigration or conversion, and so deserve to have their traditions respected as well.

In any case, in my opinion its not fair to impose the restrictions you have on account of your religious affiliation, on anyone else. This leaves me wondering about how free, democratic , and secular that country is (was?).

****
P.S. I have to mention this as an example of GOAN multiculturalism: Goenkars, especially Hindu Goenkars, are very considerate to others' feelings. The day Mother Theresa passed away in 1997 happened to fall during the Hindu Ganesh Chaturthi festive season. The day the funeral was aired on state television, there was not one firecracker lit on the streets of Panaji.

In Support of Marine David Mortari

2008-03-07T13:36:00.000-08:00

The title of this post may be a bit misleading because I do not approve of American military presence in Iraq in the first place, and of this man's alleged action. Nevertheless I feel that this guy needs to be protected from the bloodthirsty mob who seek to have two wrongs make a right.

I found this video on youtube after reading about it on some news website. You watch and judge for yourself. The guy who throws the dog is called David Mortari. I agree that if the video is infact unedited, it is a really cruel and despicable act and Mr Mortari ought to be brought to book by the marine command, according to their laws and codes of conduct.

Whats worse than this is the reaction of a lot of people baying for this guy's blood. I'm not going to present a link here, but this guy's address and telephone number are being circulated on the internet and there are reports of death threats being made. These people are obviously interested in vengeance and not justice and are in my opinion sicker than the action of Mr Mortari.

I stress that I am against cruelty towards animals, but I would also like to point out that dogs are not an endangered species and all these people would do a great service if they redirected their efforts, albeit without viciousness, towards saving species that are endangered. And if a cruel act bothered them so much, why did none of them display the same reaction when more than 100,000 HUMAN BEINGS have been killed in Iraq? They even had a chance to democratically elect a new president in 2004.

Racism in India - II

2008-02-12T14:24:00.000-08:00

Indian society is the most racist in the world. This time I'm not talking about the caste system but about the colour of people's skin.

Just read this bit of news from CNN-IBN about an African being unable to rent a home in New Delhi, because Delhiites believe that all Africans are into drug peddling. But most of them have no problem in letting out their properties to Caucasians, even though they may be into drug peddling too. Keep in mind folks, that if this were to happen with an Indian in a western country, the entire Indian media would be screaming racism.

I also remembered that people from the North Eastern states of India, who have East Asian features, are often subjected to racial slurs or branded as Nepalis, pretty much all over India.

Besides Northern Indians have earned themselves a not very good reputation even within India, and yet they call Maharashtrians and Kannadigas xenophobic merely for asserting their claim over Mumbai and Bangalore, respectively.

For reasons like these, I wouldn't recommend a holiday in India to anybody.

Suharto is dead! High-five!

2008-02-01T16:38:00.000-08:00

The son-of-a-b****, Suharto, former President of Indonesia is dead.

This murderer and genocidist was in power only by licking the a**es of all US presidents from Nixon to Bill Clinton.

May the b*****d burn in hell.

Racism in the "New" India

2008-01-04T16:50:00.000-08:00

[My only intention in actually posting this is to make clear my stance of zero tolerance towards racism, and how all that glitters is not gold. ]

Somewhere among the 1.2 billion people in India is a really hot girl, with whom practically every then single guy I know would've loved to have gone out with, yours truly included. This woman was aware of the effect her presence and style of walking (almost as if she was walking on a fashion ramp) had on guys and certainly knew how to use it to maximum effect ("I won't be in college the coming week, can you please share your lecture notes?", "I was looking for you because I need a favour, can you please drop off this cheque at the office of ______ telecom?",... I'm sure you get the drift *).

I recently came across the profile of this girl on one of the many social networking sites, and noticed that she is a member of an online racially supremacist group which takes pride in the Indian 'caste' they belong to. The caste system is a hereditary social hierarchical system in India. Discrimination/segregation on the basis of it is illegal by law, but largely condoned and widespread in Indian society. [As I have said before, I regret to mention that Christians in Goa remember their castes, even though they had converted to Christianity, a religion where all human beings are equal, five centuries ago.]

Its really unfortunate and ironic that people who otherwise lead modern lifestyles and take benefit of the economic progress India has made, still believe in and follow the millenia-old systems of racial segregation.

As for me, I'd rather be single than with a racist girl or a member of the pseudo-liberal complex.

Jinxed?

2007-09-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a day I won't be remembering fondly.

It started with me receiving an email statement for a credit card that was supposed to have expired last month. Whats worse is that they've encrypted the file with a password that I'm supposed to derive from my credit card number, which I didn't bother to carry with me when I moved to Lisbon for studies since it was about to expire, and I had no outstanding dues. It might take some time for my folks to locate my card, so in the interim I'd appreciate if someone could help me crack the pdf file. Worse, my dad was not pleased about this.. as it is he thinks I'm the most irresponsible person in his life.

Then at my institute, my department has been having some problems in contacting their counterparts at one of our collaborating universities, where I'm supposed to take a course, but need to apply for a visa to get there.

I thought I'd get some rest at home, but then the wireless router through which my flat-mates and me access the internet decided to stop working. Since I'm the only electronics engineer in our apartment, it was me who had to spend some time in getting it to work again.. it was almost midnight by the time I succeeded.

I was tempted to conclude that all these things were the result of some kind of voodoo hex, but I guess they are mere ant-bites as compared to some problems some people have to struggle with.

We are the champions, my friend!

2007-05-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

Manchester United just won the English Premier League 2006-07.

The wait is over.

Glory glory Man United!

Beware, the Pseudo-Liberal Complex are all around..

2007-04-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

This post is about people with a mentality based on double standards, whom I shall refer to as the Pseudo-Liberal Complex (PLC), even though this term would probably have been documented by some or the other anthropologist/social scientist by now. While this term is a generic one, the discussion in this post is centered on the PLC in India, who form a significant portion of India’s bursting-through-the-seams population, only for the reason that I haven’t personally encountered any non-Indian members of the PLC, yet.

Pseudo-Liberal because these people are characterized by a rigid sense of conformity and a lack of willingness to see logic and reason, wrapped with a shallow layer of what appears to be liberalness, but is more often a lack of discipline. These people want to appear to be liberal and “modernized”, but still advocate a “holier than thou” lifestyle ( I’d prefer saying that they are just sanctimonious b*stards/b*tches, if Dan Brown doesn’t mind me borrowing his terminology from one of his books).

Typical behaviour exhibited by the Indian members of the PLC generally involves not doing what one is expected to do by way of laws, duties, and ethics, but covering up for it through the garb of acceptable (but not necessarily logical) socio-religious behaviour. One of the most common examples is that of guys behaving rowdily by boozing, talking/behaving lustfully with respect to women, breaking traffic rules, etc but towing the line of society with respect to rituals social and religious. Another is that of girls behaving in flirtish / over-friendly ways with guys, but being willing to be handled like property by their parents/families in matters such as marriage. (This could get long, so I will give a complete list in another post.)

The danger associated with this trend is that adherence to conformity is being used as a cover-up for indiscipline. I regret to say that one of my own friends is a blatant breaker of laws and the least disciplined person in my friends circle, but is more acceptable to society because he conforms.

The PLC would definitely have problems with guys like me, who love and stick to freedom and responsibility. In fact, they’d view me either as a conservative only because I am disciplined in my duty, towards the laws laid down by Governments, and do not compromise in matters of ethics, or as a pervert because of my views which are based on my interpretation of things.

In all this, I do not bear any ill will towards my PLC friends, however I would rather not have made friends with them in the first place.

Religion for culture, not spirituality

2007-01-28T12:12:00.000-08:00

I wish to clarify my position on a matter that inevitably keeps coming up every now and then, and is the cause of considerable confusion.

The matter in question is my religious affiliation and how strongly I practice it. Ask anyone, including some of my close friends, and chances are they’ll say that I am a Christian, Roman Catholic to be precise. There is a sizeable chunk that thinks of me as an atheist, often equating the lack of belief in God with wrong doing, evil and indiscipline. The fact is, I think of myself as being somewhere close to the mid-point of these views. I would say I am a non-believing, non-practicing Christian.

Non-believing because as a man of science I simply cannot accept some of the teachings of Christianity, and I have a few notions of ethics based on my experiences and observation, some of which are in direct contradiction with Christian tradition. For example, I have nothing against condoms, divorce and abortions when necessary, stem cell research, and euthanasia, all of which are being vehemently opposed by Christian leaders. Now don’t get me wrong here, but I think of Jesus Christ as a friend, an influential friend but someone who’d pull you up if you did something wrong (It shouldn’t take rocket science or some half baked religious texts to tell you that you are a bad guy if your actions or inaction contributes to someone suffering). And I have a perfectly logical and scientific explanation for everything mundane that people attribute to the ‘divine’, if J.C. indeed is only in my mind, else to cover for him.

Again, non-practicing, because I do not follow all the rituals of Christianity, at least not in the typical sense. But my actions would probably be more acceptable to J.C. and his dad, than those of most of those who follow all the prescribed rituals.

The above views have made me a lot of enemies among Christians, as well as Hindus who consider my views anti-conformist. (Et tu, A.B.? Then fall Manu.)

Being a member of a religion is not just about subscribing to its beliefs, it is also about a way of life, and often manifests in the mentalities of its followers. With all due credit, Christianity does not condone any kind of violence and killing. With the exception of the U.S.A, all predominantly Christian countries do not have the death penalty. No other religion (except possibly Buddhism and Zoroastrianism) would allow a guy like Dan Brown to, according to them, blaspheme their religion and live.

Before you form any opinion on the subject while reading this post, I must say that in all this I put ethnicity, language and culture first and consider myself a Goenkar first and foremost (like how Albanians care about their language and culture first, irrespective of whether they are Muslims, Roman Catholics, or Eastern Orthodox Christians).

Right Turn

2007-01-21T10:50:00.000-08:00

Today, I decided which way I'm gonna vote for in this year's elections for the state legislature of Goa. And my decision is an about turn from my previously held centre-leftist leanings.

The main reason I'll be voting for the far right this time is my realization that the centre-left Indian National Congress is proving to be the downfall of India.

The INC thrives on dividing people on the basis of ethnicity, religion and caste, pitting one community against another, and hoping to get support from all the communities by creating a false impression that they alone can unite India's various ethnicities and faiths.

If there is one event that prompted me to go against the INC is the fact that they incited the Muslims of Bangalore to protest the execution of Saddam Hussein. As usual, the mozzies began rioting and vandalizing the city as if Bangaloreans were responsible for what had happened to Saddam Hussein.

Whats worse is that they even get subsidized travel to Mecca for their Haj ritual, and yet, instead of being loyal, patriotic Indians put religion above nationality. The INC wants to go as far as reserving seats in educational institutions for them.

Even though I myself belong to a religious minority, I feel the years of INC rule have led to a regime in which minorities are getting unduly pampered. And I totally loathe people who put religion and misplaced religious pride above country, language, and culture.

Racism? Not quite..

2007-01-21T10:49:00.000-08:00

I personally think we South Asians are taking the matter of racism too far. I want to mention two events that had taken place last week that prove my point.

Pakistanis are, in general, a violent and terrorist-sympathizing nation. The supporters of their cricket team are the rowdiest the sport has ever seen. If they begin pelting debris at the South African team, that too in South Africa, is their behavior not animal-like? Why was Herschelle Gibbs punished for stating the obvious truth?

Second, about the Shilpa Shetty on Big Brother issue.. Again, some of the comments made about her were simply mean ones and could have been said about anybody (without any racist intent). It also serves to mention that Bobby Darling, a small time transvestite and gay bollywood actor, faced discrimination based on sexuality on India's version of the show.

In my opinion, a nation like India, which has prejudices, based on a really illogical system of castes should just not point fingers at others when their own house is not in order.

New Year, New Fears

2007-01-04T11:41:00.000-08:00

[ NOTE: All previous posts expressing sentiments contrary to this one now stand invalid. ]

I am back to the blogosphere, after three really hectic months spent in setting in motion actions aimed at furthering my career, education, and life.

During this time, I, or rather, my parents have shifted their home in Goem from Panaji to a semi-urban area, North of the river Mandovi. On my last visit (during Christmas), I realized that my homeland is well and truly facing peril.

The turn of the year brought with it the news of the execution of Saddam Hussein of Iraq. While the whole act reminded me of the execution of William Wallace by the invading forces of King Edward LongShanks, without getting too much into this I just want to say that I would rather that it would have been the individuals I'm gonna talk about in this post.

Goa is at present facing a threat to its very existence. The neighbouring state of Karnataka is illegally building a dam across the river Mhadei (as our Mandovi is known as in Karnataka), in violation of orders from the federal government and the supreme court of India. If it goes ahead, the destruction of the Mandovi would spell ecological and economic disaster for Goa as we depend on this river for agriculture, drinking water, fishing, .. life.

We goenkars as a race are increasingly being marginalized in our own land. Bhinknakars (a term used to refer to non-Konkani speaking Indians) are everywhere, some of them, e.g. Vijay Mallya, in cahoots with our politicians, have even bought vast swathes of our land and are actively involved in propagating an incorrect image of our land and culture. Uncontrolled tourism is bringing about tremendous hardships to the local ethnic-goenkar population. It’s not just the uneducated labourers who are brought in from other states, but the bigger danger is from the rich bhinknakars who come to Goa to make money, often by cheating and brow-beating us.

I regret to mention that you can hear hindi and kannada, and not Konkani, being spoken even in the building where my parents reside.

The Government of Goa stinks. Period.

Instead of protecting us and our state from hostile elements like these, far from it, these sons-of-b*tches are actually selling of our state and our culture to these very inimical entities.

Monster-rat (thats close to his actual name) is a money-lender cum extortionist cum gangster cum minister recently proposed the by now infamous "Regional Plan 2011" which effectively is a blue print to sell of Goa to the builder-hotelier-tourism-polluting industries lobby, purely with the intention of filling his pocket and that of his big boss in the congress party.

Who can forget the government apathy and corrupt interests, accompanied by police brutality, that sold Goa to the Konkan Railway Corporation, the Meta-Strips company, and other companies who have absolutely no regard for the local population.

#######################

So, mogall goenkar bhavva-bhoinniannon, we must rise above our internal differences like religion, and ensure the defeat of Pratapsingh Rane and his government at this year's elections. It is the need of the hour to promote our Konkani language and enforce discrimination against those who live in Goa, who do not speak it.

Foot-note: You may argue that I am following double standards by emigrating to Karnataka to work, and complaining about bhinknakars settling in Goa. Well, Kannadigas are a few millions in number, and their state is as large as an average COUNTRY in Europe. We are less than a million in number, and our state is just about the size of Kosovo. I AM in favour of an exchange of immigrant populations, though.

Will the South Rise?

2006-10-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

Continuing from the previous post...

I don’t know if this means anything, but after cable TV was restored, the first thing I saw was a scene from a movie showing the formation of the South Carolina militia.

Mere coincidence or chilling premonition?

India's South Carolina?

2006-10-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

Today, a statewide bandh or shutdown of all economic activity was enforced in Karnataka (with the support of, and possibly at the behest of the Government of Karnataka), to protest against the Union Government’s support for Maharashtra’s case in the ongoing border dispute with Maharashtra, over the district of Belgaum.

Bandhs are illegal in India, after the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2003 banned them. It had fined two far right political parties – the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena, Rs 70 million, for organizing a bandh in Mumbai in 2003.

There was no water supply to Bangalore city, and cable operators aired only Kannada language channels. All business establishments, including my office, remained closed as a precautionary measure (especially after the riots that had followed the natural death of the Kannada movie star, Dr. Rajkumar). The cops had even made sure that the vendors at markets did not turn up.

It just beats me how these things would send a message to Maharashtra or the Union Government. It was the common Kannadiga who suffered the most. Companies like the one I work at are going to work this Saturday, so it will be business as usual. But what about the vegetable vendor, for whom it was a day without earning his livelihood?

So, wasn’t this simply bullying on the part of the Government of Karnataka? If anything, it just strengthens Maharashtra’s claim, that Belgaum should not be part of a state that terrorizes its citizens.

Rang De Basanti again..

2006-09-25T10:59:00.003-07:00

This post follows from my earlier one, about the Amir Khan starrer, Rang De Basanti.

Well, it seems this junk movie's been nominated as India's entry to the Oscars (see this). I can only gather that the number of irrational and hypocritical people is much, much more than I previously thought.

I can just picture AB sneering on hearing this bit of news. He'll probably set his ring-tone to the irritating blare of the title track of RDB, just to piss me off.

Kill the death penalty, not people

2006-09-25T10:54:00.000-07:00

While it has been argued by some that capital punishment should serve as a deterrent to crime, the very idea is flawed and it is my opinion that punishment by death should be abolished, world-wide.

First and foremost, the concept of capital punishment is an extension of ancient systems of justice, based on vengeance rather than justice. "An eye for an eye", or "a tooth for a tooth". Some societies even had legal systems wherein a killer's brother would be killed, had anyone complained about the murder of his or her brother. To this day, in countries which allow public viewing of executions (in some cases only relatives of the victims of the crime are allowed to watch), a public spectacle gets made about revenge being achieved, rather than justice being done. Such an attitude is clearly not acceptable in modern society, where the emphasis should be on avoiding crimes being committed.

Secondly, two wrongs certainly do not make a right. If the crime that is said to warrant the death penalty was that bad, then the act of killing the criminal also amounts to crime on the part of the state in particular, the larger society in general.

Further, being put to death may not necessarily be the best possible way of punishing someone. It may in fact be a means of escaping from a world of incarceration and solitude. The criminal would not even have got the opportunity to repent and regret his or her crime. Besides, in times of violent conflicts and terrorism, the execution of convicted criminals, especially those involved in a political cause, could make martyrs of the executed criminals or create further disgruntlement and conflict.

Another point is that the death penalty has hardly served its intended purpose as a deterrent against crime. Some criminals such as terrorists do not mind dying in the process of committing the crime or being executed. Violent crime is a problem that continues to blight a lot of countries, which have capital punishment.

Hence, given the state of affairs, it would be better not to have capital punishment at all. Instead, everybody, all over the world, must work towards creating a society in which the respect for life, is deep rooted in everyone's psyche.

Paranoia and lies again

2006-08-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

Tony Blah-blah and his Government have been at it again.

First, they delayed the UN resolution to stop the one-sided war in Lebanon (what chance do machine guns and hand held rockets have against tanks and aircraft?) giving Israel a chance to destroy the Hezbollah (but ending up killing mainly civilians who probably did not have a clue as to what was going on).

Then, to divert the attention away from protests at home, and to stir up mass hysteria, they go on a witch hunt claiming that a terrorist strike was imminent. Yeah, like explosives can be hidden in food, medicines, and lipstick tubes.

As an Indian, I am ashamed to say that these tactics find favour among a lot of my countrymen. Aa far as I know, the Indian security establishment has been copying every step being taken in the United Kingdom.

All this has left me wondering, when all these Governments will start leaving people too sick/injured to go to a hospital alone, to die; out of fear of terrorist attacks on hospitals. Or worse still, abolish democracy out of fear of attacks on polling stations.

Hindi - HuMRi RaSTra BhaSa

2006-08-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

I came face-to-face with my ex (if you can call her that - if she qualifies for that title by virtue of her "going out" with me for a few weeks), today. In fact, we crossed twice and not for a moment was there any discomfort.

This lady hails from a Northern region of India, where a very peculiar version of Hindi is spoken. It is characterized by several corruptions of the Delhi/UP version of Hindi, in, most notably, "ka" instead of "kya", the sound "s" instead of "sh", and so on. This version of Hindi is often depicted in movies and in parodies about some well known politicians from the region. I'd say, Ajay Devgan, Juhi Chawla, and of course, Rekha, have very convincingly spoken this dialect in various movies.

Just came to know from wikipedia that this dialect is even spoken in Suriname, which has a substantial ethnic North Indian population.

One of these days I'm going to walk over to my ex and ask her, "tumri saadi kisi neta/IASwale ke saath fixed hui, ka?"

********
I did not intend to sound racist/ethnocentric, I am none of these things. Its just that whenever I see my ex-, I picture Juhi Chawla's character in the film 'Amdhani-Athhani Kharcha Rupaiya'.

My Take on Affirmative Action in India

2006-07-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

The Government of India plans to reserve 50% of the seats in educational instituitions it runs, for the traditionally opressed classes.

The people in question are discriminated against purely on the basis of their birth, based on a system of castes which cannot be justified in any rational way. In fact, I feel ashamed on my Indian nationality whenever I come across anybody referring to their own or anybody else's caste. (I'm like, why the f@#$ am I a part of this pathetic society?)

Much has been made about this matter in India's media, mostly criticizing this notion and the Government for proposing it. I have listened to and read arguments for both sides, and have been mentally debating on what posture I should take.

But the reality is that the caste system is alive and kicking in India even in the 21st century. People openly follow caste considerations for purposes like social interactions, marriage, and so on. Even people who, like my forefathers half a millenium ago, had converted to Christianity or Islam, still remember their castes.

If Indian society wants to follow the caste system, it should also accept its pitfalls. Hence, given the present state of affairs, I support the initiative by Dr Manmohan Singh's Government.

The war on terror and the war on civil liberties

2006-07-18T12:35:00.000-07:00

If you are in India, you probably wouldn't be able to access this blog directly now, as the Indian Government has got most blog-sites blocked to prevent access to seditious online material.

I'm not too sure anymore, but I recall having read in school that India is a democratic country, with freedom of speech and expression as a fundamental right of its citizens.

What's even more alarming is that the educated elite who screamed their heads off at the government's plan for some affirmative action towards India's oppressed classes (discriminated against on the basis of an unbelievably pathetic and stupid system of castes) are now calling for India to follow Israel's approach towards terror.

The problem with Israel's approach is that its a never-ending war. And ultimately everyone who wages war is a loser.

Anyway, now PKblogs.com has clubbed India along with Iran, Pakistan, and China. I hope its not soon that we are clubbed along with North Korea.

A Happy and GAY India

2006-07-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

The sex ratio (number of females per thousand males) is at an alarmingly low 850+ in India. In some states like Punjab and Haryana in the North, it is lower than 800.

Traditionally, Indian society prefers male children, and in a lot of communities, female children are simply killed in cases of female infanticide. Female foeticide is also extremly rampant almost all over the country, regrettably, helped in part by developments in ultra-sound imaging technology.

At the rate at which the number of females is declining, soon a time will come when around half of Indian men would be forced to turn gay. And this time is not that far off.. I see it happening in my lifetime.

The silver lining is that such a situation would lead to a sudden massive drop in the population, leading to some stabilization in population.

A Weird Story..

2006-06-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

This is just a typed reproduction of a story someone told me. The location, time, etc seems immaterial. Also, the absence of things we would normally use like telephones, hanging out, etc .. has been assumed. Read on and then read what you have to do later..

###############

Annie, Paul and Peter have been friends for a long time and know each other pretty well.

One day, out of the blue, Paul declares his love to Annie. But she rejects his proposal, saying that she is in love with Peter.

In the true spirit of being a wuss, Paul accepts her decision and leaves, after reminding her that he would always be there for her as a friend.

It so happens that Annie's father is unable to repay the loans he had taken from a wicked money-lender. The crook makes him a proposition that he would write off all the debts, in return for Annie's hand in marriage.

When Annie learns of this, she runs away from home and sets off for Peter's place, in the dead of the night, empty handed. She comes to a river (which is quite wide, deep, and full of crocodiles and piranhas). There's a lone boatman who ferries people across for a fee. Since she cannot pay for the boat ride, the boatman offers to take her across in exchange for EVERY piece of her clothing.

She spots a hermit nearby and narrates the entire story thus far to him and asks for his advice. The hermit simply tells her to do what she thinks is fit.

She goes back to the boatman and hands him her clothes and he promptly (ok, probably slowly) takes her across the river (i hope there were no mosquitoes in the place this story's set). She reaches Peter's home which fortunately is just on the other bank, and tells Peter everything that's happened and confesses her love to him.

Peter doesnt respond to her confession, but they have a great three days and nights together (whatever that implies). Then he tells her that he cannot marry her as he was leaving for work abroad and that his career always came first.

Heart-broken, Annie goes to Paul and once again narrates the entire sequence of events. At the end she asks him if he would accept her now. To which, Paul says "it was true that I really loved you, but I will not accept someone who was rejected by someone else".

End of story.

##############

Now, you have to rate the main characters - Annie, Paul, Peter, the boatman and the hermit on ethics on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the most ethical and 5 being the most unethical.

My ratings are as follows:

Paul - 1 : He didn't do anything which was unethical. He only has a sense of self respect. You can at the most charge him with not being a true friend to Annie.

Boatman - 2 : Again, he isn't supposed to ferry everyone for free. He'd have his constraints. You could say he's a cad or unchivalrous, but I wouldn't say he was unethical.

Hermit - 3 : He did not do the very job people entrusted to him - giving advice.

Annie - 4 : Because she was being opportunistic and was expecting to take Paul for granted. (A lot of girls do take advantage of their proclaimed admirers.)

Peter - 5 : Need I justify? Enjoyed for 3 days and left (in search of greener pastures?) ...

I am taking the liberty of mentioning some of the trends in the ratings given by my friends/colleagues. Peter was given a 5 by the overwhelming majority, while Paul was given a 1 by most. But, quite a few were of the view that he did not turn out to be a true friend. Most were almost indifferent towards the hermit and the boatman.

But, opinion's divided when it comes to Annie. We, the guys, did not think she deserved a 5, simply because she was the one taken advantage of (by Peter, and by, as some think, the boatman). But women tend to rate her as the most unethical. In fact, a lady friend mentioned some points one of which is ridiculous [if you are reading this, dear, sorry! but its not about you, its only about this particular point..], that it was not right on her part to: strip before the boatman (ok.. but what other option did she have?), spend the 3 days with Peter (hey, it wasn't her fault that he turned out to be a creep), and run away from her parents (as against marrying the evil money-lender? how can you even attempt to justify this, except possibly centuries ago??)

You don't have to post your ratings as a comment here, but are welcome to discuss this offline.

Lost treasures of the late 20th century

2006-05-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

Millenia may change, generations may pass, but the fact remains that...
A thing of beauty is joy forever.

Having said that, I wish to present a list of culinary delights that sadly remain lost to this day. All of these used to be available during my childhood (I am twenty four at present).

* Joy ice-cream: This used to be a very popular brand all over India, but disappeared roughly around the same time brands like Walls and Amul came into the picture. One of my best friends who's from Jabalpur, M.P. does not even recall this brand.

* 100% ice-cream: I used to long to go to Delhi (which was the only place it was available) when I used to see its advertisements on T.V. around two decades ago. It was gone long before I finally entered Delhi in the summer of 2003.

* Fudge chocolate: This was a chocolate bar, similar to 5-Star or Bar-one but more uniform in composition, not to mention much tastier. You'd get a pocket size comic book free with two of these! Haven't found it in stores since the early 1990s. The closest comparison to how it tastes is to imagine a softer version of the "Melody" chocolate flavoured toffees.

* Last, but the most significant - the chocolate slab in the sky-blue wrapper, the name of which eludes my memory. It used to be sold with the USP "it just melts in your mouth", which was not an exaggeration at all!

Please post a reply if you come across any of these delicacies!

A Matter of Shame

2006-04-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

It is a matter of great national shame that to this day the victims of the Bhopal gas disaster and those displaced by the Narmada dam have still not received justice.

Last Saturday, I witnessed a peaceful protest for these causes on M.G. Road, Bangalore. Had any photographer decided to take a picture as I was crossing the road, it would have been a fine sight. A software engineer wearing a cap clearly showing his background of India's no.1 institute turning away from the protest.

Emraan!!

2006-03-25T11:49:00.000-08:00

Emraan Hashmi has become a regular fixture in Indian cinema and the erotic and ‘steamy’ videos of the songs from his movies appear something like every half an hour on television. The guy absolutely exudes lust!

However, the very people who enjoy watching his movies (and who probably at some time or the other feel or have felt the feelings he portrays), for public consumption, denounce/criticize/mock at him. It was his birthday last Friday (March 24^th). However, no radio or television channel even acknowledged it, leave alone play the songs from his movies.

I have watched two of his movies – “Murder” and “Aashiq Banaya Aapne”, which incidentally were nothing great. Speaking for myself, Emraan’s roles are no big deal. I am not a fan of his or of his (in the words of a friend) “skill-sets”, nor do I pretend that such thoughts have never entered my mind (I’m human, not a machine).

Hats off to the dude for having the courage to depict what people keep thinking about, secretly.

Double Standards

2006-03-14T11:04:00.000-08:00

[This post is NOT INTENDED to justify/attempt to glorify the actions of Mr Slobodan Milosevic and his supporters. Nor am I trying to make the point that two wrongs make a right.

This article is only meant to announce some facts that the media of the so-called Western democracies are not acknowledging.

Another reason is that if the West could actually ENCOURAGE, AID and ABET TERROR in Yugoslavia, then there is no reason why they would not do it in India (at Musharraf's behest?). Wake up, friends, Indians, countrymen. ]

Not only have the EU and the USA failed to protect the life of Slobodan Milosevic, but have yet again brow beaten the Government of Serbia and Montenegro into not according the former president a state funeral. All this in the name of human rights - the 2,00,000+ people killed during the Bosnian and Kosovo wars or so they proclaim. Milosevic was facing trial for genocide and crimes against humanity during these wars, at the International Tribunal at The Hague.

Now for some facts:

* The figure of 2,00,000 dead in Bosnia and Herzegovina is an exaggerated figure quoted by the Bosnian Government and the Western media. Research done by the International Criminal Tribunal in 2004 determined a more precise number of 102,000 deaths out of which more than half were combatants.

Since the NATO were involved in the war on the side of the Croats and Muslims, by the same rules, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Helmut Kohl... should also have been indicted by the tribunal.

* Alija Izetbegovic, the war time Bosnian president, escaped trial for war crimes when he died in 2002, but was accorded a state funeral all the same. This man was a collaborator of Osama Bin Laden and had been arrested after WW-II for collaborating with the Nazis in their atrocities against the Serbs.

So, what next? Osama Bin Laden getting the Nobel Peace prize?

* The Balkan wars were certainly not started by the Serbs. A few Bosniaks like Izetbegovic have wanted an Islamic state since WW-II. Albania had been having territorial ambitions over Kosovo throughout the 20th century, and it was Kosovo's Albanians who began the ethnic strife.

A quick and violent end to socialism suited the West fine. (Remember how US arms manufacturers murdered JFK, and then got Lyndon Johnson to wage war in Vietnam, so that they could profit?)

So, why single out Serbia for the blame?

* The Al Qaeda and their supporters were involved in the Balkan wars, even against those Muslims/Albanians who were in favour of an unified socialist state.

If the USA has the right to fight terrorism through extreme force, then why not everybody else?

In a nutshell, why blame only Serbia and Milosevic?

Shubashayagalu Anil!!

2006-03-11T09:24:00.000-08:00

Anil Kumble has done all of Karnataka proud by taking 500 (& counting!) wickets in test cricket. Anil is actually an electrical ENGINEER. Age doesn't seem to slow this guy at all!

We certainly hope he adds to his tally later this year in the West Indies, Bangladesh and South Africa.

Kudos to Anil and may he exceed Shane Warne's and Mutthiah Muralitharan's tallies as soon as possible. He certainly deserves to have a circle in Bangalore named after him!

You know you are in Bangalore ...

2006-03-08T11:15:00.000-08:00

.... when once in a blue moon, when you are alone in a bus with an angel, the traffic flows as smoothly as in a formula-1 race, and jams as if the road leads to heaven, right after she gets off.

Twelve Points ... Douze Points ...

2006-03-08T11:05:00.000-08:00

Most of the participating countries have finalized their representatives for this year's Eurovision Song Contest (ESC 2006) to be held in Athens this May.

The ESC is an annual, (almost) intra-European singing competition in which the winner is decided through telephone voting. The people of a particular country cannot vote for their own country. For example, suppose in the United Kingdom, the largest number of callers vote for say, France, then France get 12 points. The next highest country get 10, and so on. The country that ends up with the highest total over all countries wins. The winning country gets to host the event the following year.

Since this competition was started with the objective to develop solidairity between Western European countries during the cold war, voting is, more often than not, guided by political, ethnic, and religious affinities. Greece and Cyprus always give each other 12 points. Whereas the UK and Germany aren't known for supporting each other. So also Serbia & Montenegro, and the American puppet state of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The songs that have been presented at the ESC over the years vary from being extremely good to really pathetic. Except ABBA (1974) and Celine Dion (1988), no other winners have made a mark outside Europe.

The countries which are the traditional powerhouses at the ESC are the Republic of Ireland, the UK, France and Sweden. In recent years, Eastern countries like Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Greece and Turkey have won.

Check out this year's entries at : http://www.keithm.utvinternet.ie/Athens2006media.htm

I must warn that except the Irish, Swiss, Polish and Maltese entries, I found all the rest to be annoying.

When I go on the Euro-trip I am planning, I will definitely attend an ESC final.

Football fever!

2006-02-28T10:52:00.000-08:00

I simply love the game of football! I am a passionate supporter of the English Premiership team, Manchester United.

However, I must confess that I'm not very good when it comes to playing. Poor is closer to the truth.

Here are some links which I'd like to share, to build up interest in the game in general, especially given the fact that the world cup will be held this year in Germany. I'll be cheering for the Netherlands, led by the Dutch goal scoring machine, Ruud Van Nistelrooy.

Official Sites:

Manchester United, the red devils - the greatest team on this planet.
Come on you reds, come on you reds,
The team every defender dreads,
We' re the devils in red, you know
Its Man United, here we go!

Jeetega bhai jeetega - Man United jeetega!

That's all I can say about them!

The English Premier League

The Spanish Primera Liga Unfortunately, King Beckham plays here now.

The Italian Serie A

The German Bundesliga

The UEFA

Other Links:

Football @ Skysports

Football @ BBC - This site gives live text commentary of important matches.

Science prevails!

2006-02-26T11:05:00.000-08:00

Recently, at the company where I work, through the efforts of myself and some colleagues, we managed to end the inclusion of the "art" of living as part of the employee training. Our rationale is that a religious/spiritual campaign has no place in a secular and scientific setup. I mean, such a thing, infringes upon the rights of among others, atheists and agnostics.

May the rest of the country follow suit, sooner rather than later.

I don't care if the firangis like the pathetic fools I've been seeing all over Bangalore these days do it provided they do so in their own countries, and don't create more trouble involving religion in India.

Search Engines Part-II

2006-02-19T09:43:00.000-08:00

I had written quite some time back about search engines, in particular Google, and how they can be an intrusion on privacy. Most of the information I had mentioned still turns up if you consult Google.

Having said all that, I must mention some of the good aspects of search engines.

After reading my earlier post, a friend of mine googled the name of some guy who was hitting on her and came to know that he was married (with a kid enrolled in a school whose website listed the names of students and their parents) and had been lying about his qualifications. The fellow claimed he had done the five year M.S. from IIT-Kanpur, but IITK’s alumni website proved otherwise.

In the last few days, I managed to find clips/streams of quite a few songs I like and their lyrics after consulting Google. If you are one of the conventional, religious types then you’d easily get links to download hymns and religious music of pretty much all religions. I know because I downloaded “Abide with me” only because it is a soldier’s song and I hear it on Beating the Retreat on January 29^th, every year.

Wikipedia.org, the online encyclopedia, is an awesome website! You can get information on anything there. I frequently lookup historical events and tricks with digital cameras, there. It helped me verify Paulo Coelho's claims in his book 'The Zahir', about the Aral sea drying up.

Keep googling people, and if you come to know something interesting, post it as a comment.

[MOVIE REVIEW] Rang De Basanti

2006-02-12T10:38:00.000-08:00

############## POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD !! ###############

Its hard to classify this movie as being one of the usual genres of movies churned out by Bollywood.

The movie begins with Sue McKinley (Alice Patten), reading her grandfather Col. McKinley's accounts about the hangings of the revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. She travels to India to film a documentary and tell the story about the revolution that ultimately failed. Reaching New Delhi, she befriends some students of the Institute of International Studies lead by DilJeet (Aamir Khan), and enlists them as the cast for her documentary.

Everything is fine, albeit with a few fights now and then, until Sonia's (Soha Ali Khan) boy-friend Lt. Ajay Rathore (Madhavan) is killed when his MiG-21 fighter jet crashes while on a routine sortie. Suspecting corruption in defence deals the group lead a peaceful demonstration at India gate, which is broken up using force by the police. Likening their treatment to the freedom struggle, the group plan and execute the daylight killing of the defence minister.

No particular character can be called the protagonist of this movie. Khan's portrayal of the college student interested only in bikes, partying and friends, is very convincing and makes one wonder whether he is really forty plus.

The movie is strewn with jokes throughout the first half, including one with an obscenity in Hindi mouthed by Patten. One of the most humorous scenes is when DJ boasts in Hindi/Punjabi about making Sue his wife and then realizes that she speaks Hindi.

However, the film tends to drag in the first half and the jokes don't do much to help. The second half get over-dramatic especially towards the end.

The trigger happy behaviour of the Indian security forces, and the portrayal of the change in a right wing organization's strategy before and after coming to power, have been correctly depicted.

The music is catchy and "listenable" by Bollywood standards. The song "Tu bin bataye ..." stands out.

Watching this movie, I got the impression that they were trying to glorify violence and anarchy by citing Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad et al. Alarmingly a lot of people have begun subscribing to the view that Gandhiji and his principles were wrong and that armed struggle should have led to our independence.

Has the world already forgotten Gandhiji, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Dom Ximenes Belo, Jose Ramos Horta, Ibrahim Rugova, ... ??

Don't we know all too well that a freedom fighter to some is a terrorist to others?

VERDICT:
Given that Indian audiences are easily swayed by sensationalisation, in the interests of law and order and public tranquility, the makers of this film would do well to voluntarily withdraw it.

Nobody Else

2006-02-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

Nobody Else
Written by me on
8th February 2006

Since you first spoke to me,
I wanted to be yours.
Nobody made me feel
so happy to be alive before.

Every second, every night and day
I think of you.
Whatever I do, wherever I go,
my thoughts lead me back to you.

You are what
my universe revolves around,
But for you am I
merely another face in the crowd?

You just cannot imagine
Right now how I feel.
Its not what you said or did not say
Its the silence that kills.

Nobody else can love you more
Of that I am sure.

The first time I bunked class

2006-01-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

It was the year 1986, can't remember the exact month and day, but it was around the time Pope John Paul II had visited India.

The KG school I attended was a little distance from across the road, from my then apartment block (which still is the first building if you enter Panaji from the South).

Mom walked me to school as usual that day. After a while, at the time the Pope's motorcade was to pass by that road, my teachers herded all of us across the road and made us wave flags as the Pope passed by.

Since we were on my side of the road, on the ground where I'd spend my evenings, my four years old, barely trained neural network associated that it was time to go back home, so I walked straight back home, only to have may dad reach me back to school. I can only guess now that my teachers must've got into big time trouble for not having a head count done.

Yes, I did bunk class for the first time in upper kindergarten!

After that I bunked a few classes in class 10 (only those there was no point in attending).

In college, I patiently sat through well above 75% (actually 95% is more like it) of the lectures. To be honest, I hated it whenever there was any strike and I'd miss lectures taken by a few of the faculty.

In IITD, were I to have bunked, as they'd say in Hindi, "main apni aukat se aage nikal jata".

I must say thank you, Your Holiness, John Paul II !

A walk in the rain

2006-01-16T10:48:00.000-08:00

The overcast late evening sky,

The gentle downpour steadily growing heavier,

People scurrying for cover on the crowded street,

You and I …

Walking together, shoulder to shoulder,

Feeling your long hair on my umbrella carrying hand,

Your smile like sunshine,

If this isn’t heaven, then what is?

One of the things that really annoy me...

2006-01-15T10:23:00.000-08:00

It doesn't take a lot to annoy me, but I get really annoyed with a phrase that is in common use nowadays, everywhere I've been. The phrase is 'anyways', as against anyway. Beats me how it came into use. Whenever someone uses it while talking to me, I have to restrain myself from making my annoyance known. Thats a phrase to avoid if you want to make a good impression on me...

The Two Forums

2006-01-13T12:41:00.000-08:00

There was, or rather is, a city called Rome, which was one of the first centers of civilization (until a certain teutonic barbarian pulled off, as I believe, the biggest deception in history, in the 3^rd century. Strange as it may sound, at least a billion people are still fooled about it. But lets leave that for a future post … ).

At the heart of Rome was the Forum – a place where temples, government buildings, the senate, … basically all the important buildings were located. The popular comic series, the adventures of Asterix the Gaul, contains references to the Forum, though its not actually portrayed.

In contemporary times, there is a city in India called Bengaluru or Bangalore, if you like, which is known the world over as the IT capital. Around half the population, including myself, are immigrants from other lands.

Recently when I’d been home in Panaji, all that my cousins were asking me was about the pubs, discotheques and malls of B’lore. The idea they all have of B’lore is that its full of these places, and that it is a ‘bold’ place where, well, anything and everything goes. One really cannot blame them for having these notions. Hailing from Goa, I understand perfectly well, what its like to have your homeland ruined and its image tarnished by tourists.

It is a fact that B’lore has a large population of ‘young’ people working in the software industry, many of whom come to B’lore and start earning, just after (engineering) college. The vast majority of us lives away from our families, and also experience freedom (out of distance?) for the first time.

It is important to note that most of the engineers who graduate from Indian schools are, well, not the most disciplined in the world. I don’t even want to talk about it. Imagine, what would happen when such people get their hands on cash and the lifestyle they can now support. Trust me, the result is chaos. I personally know people who cannot live without going to malls, the movies, amusement parks and the like on a regular (even daily) basis.

This kind of lifestyle is exemplified by one place in B’lore, quite un-aptly named ‘The Forum’. Typical weekend talk: “Lets all meet at forum at 19:00, ok?” “Cool.”

Oh sorry, its more like through SMS, “lets al mt @ 4rum @ 7, ok?” -> Send to many.

My wanderings around the world...

2005-12-10T11:16:00.000-08:00

This Monday I'll have lived in India's IT capital for half
a year.

I am actually a native of Goa, an extremely weird and unpleasant
state. You probably wont see this in the ads calling tourists,
but you have to live there for a while to realise it.

I spent more than 2 decades in Goa. When I was a kid, my dad
used to call me "shark". But the shark was cramped up inside
a pond. :(

Recently I realised how much I missed out on by doing my BE
in Goa. But I must say that moving out back then would have
required tremendous courage and fortitude, which very few
people such as this amazing and enigmatic lady, who's been
a friend for a little less than the last four months, have.

With a combination of effort and luck, the GATE of IIT-Delhi
opened for me in 2003 and I spent a wonderful two years in Delhi.
Though much is made about "Dilli ki sardi", I think its the
summer thats the only downer about Delhi.

AT IITD, the company I got into through campus placements gave
me a choice of working in Gurgaon or Bangalore. Along with one
of my best friends, I opted for the latter.

Inspite of the hellish traffic, Bangalore is all right but
its not Delhi.

I hope coming to "namma Banglur" proves to be serendipitious
rather than regrettable.

O captain, my captain

2005-11-27T10:33:00.000-08:00

(Addressed to Sourav Ganguly, captain of the Indian cricket team.)

O captain, my captain,

I sincerely wish the South Africans prevail in Mumbai, so that the BCCI
and all other ingrates will learn a good lesson, how wrong they were to
humiliate you.

The Reason for Life

2005-11-18T09:25:00.000-08:00

The Reason For Life
26th October 2005

What more can I ask of thee, my friend,
only my panacea can cure me,
and she, only the Gods can to me grant.

Should I say how good she feels
I did not think that love could ever be for real.

When I'm with her winter feels like spring
Other than her love, I have no want for anything.

As long as she and I are together
Nothing else matters.

A dream come true, is she,
Braver than Athena, more beautiful than Aphrodite.

She lights up my world with her smile
She's what makes life worthwhile.

For a moment to, in my arms, hold her,
I would give up forever.

If we are together the universe will be just fine
When will the Gods make her mine...

The Prayer

2005-11-12T22:23:00.000-08:00

This was a poem i wrote a couple of months back, and the first one I've written in Bangalore. I admit its partly out of a sense of disgruntlement.

Again, my personal views, no offence intended to any person or group.

Plenty more from where that came from! My next poem which I'll be posting shortly will be
on an infinitely more positive and pleasant aspect.

The Prayer
10th September 2005

Not doing anything in memory of him,
Not chanting archaic incantations all the time,
Not self deprivation in the vain hope of anything in future,
Not punishing oneself because of those we dont know for sure,
Not living in the threat of eternal suffering,
Not having to chastise oneself for one's yearnings,
Not being told what is to be done,
Not being fooled by those who claim to offer the son,
Living in truth, knowledge, peace and without fear,
Let this be my prayer.

Beware of search engines!

2005-11-07T22:16:00.000-08:00

This post is about one of my experiences with the net.

*** WARNING: This is a SPOILER, if you plan to read Chetan Bhagat's
'One Night @ the Call Center'. ****
The protagonist aided by his friend and colleague search the name of,
.. well.., the anti-hero on Google and find a photograph which they
are able to use to expose his lie.

*** You can read on now... ****
While this was just a story, I agree that Google and other search engines
can turn up information, not always flattering.

A few weeks back, I wanted to know more about the author of a research
paper I had gone through, and casually typed the name in google,
expecting to find a link to a webpage on some university's site.
What it turned up was some database kind of thing, listing the
address, date of birth and academic records of this individual.

Curiosity killed the cat, yet I googled for the names of a
lot of my friends and acquaintances and came to know that one
of my classmates from college had registered on some matrimonial site.

As I mentioned these findings to a friend, he typed in my name.
While most of the links are relevant, it also turned up one comment
I had made about some news item, which I now think as too irrational
and immature. In my defence, I had made that comment, like,
half a decade ago.

In all this, I don't have the guts to search the name of the woman
I love on any of these tools.

Greetings!

2005-10-11T21:53:00.000-07:00

Hi and welcome to my blog!

About me...
I am Manu, presently working as a software engineer in Bangalore, India. Did
my masters from IIT-Delhi last June. Did my BE in Electronics and
Telecommunication from PCCE, Goa. Believe me, I'm not a nerd!
At least i'm trying hard to stop being one...

I'm an amateur photographer and am writing a story these days.
Plan to present some of my works soon.

I plan to post my thoughts about a wide range of subjects on this blog.
I am open to suggestions on the layout and content. I also welcome
constructive debates on the content, if you don't agree with it.

Take care!