There still is blood on the streets

If I hear/read/watch/write one more word about Terrorism, I'll surely need to be sent either to a Depression Healing Clinic or some Terrorism Rehab Center! I'll talk about Terroism later... not any more. I've even stopped reading papers and watching NEWS because the entire episode makes you melancholic. Obviously, it was really egregious what those bastards did, but then just being sad and remorseful of what happened isn't going to be enough. We gotta keep this anger alive. We can't let the fires of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for us go off so soon. Their sacrifices won't go in vain. Ok, so I'm doing exactly what I said I'd refrain from!

OK, in a way there's not much I feel like mentioning expect for terrorism. But I'll try.

Ever since I started blogging, I wanted my friends to blog as well. At least then would there be no 'Blog it you blogger' statements from them! Now, I'm really glad that Aanchal is blogging. Even if it means fighting!! Atleast there'll be one person less to maro that statement!! And yeah, there'll be more of Dhoni-Irfan wars in the comment sections of our blogs!!

Ok... where is this heading... what am I writing? Chuck, I'll write about terrorism.

Did you hear what that asshole of a State Home Minister(I don't even feeling like taking his name and spoiling my mood) said in a recent interview?? It was something like: Bade bade shehron main aise chote mote haadse hote rehte hain. In my life, I've never wished for any person to be dead,not even the cockroach who irritates me!! But, I seriously feel like saying that for R.R Patil. Mr. Patil... probably it was a 'chotta haadsa' to you as you weren't in there, you weren't in there as an NSG commando, woken up from your sleep to go and gun down terrorists with AK series of guns in the dark. Total darkness, mind you. You had a Z level security for yourself... you had 10 people to take bullets for you, but the people trapped/fighting at Taj and Oberoi didn't have that. Sometimes, I wonder, why these politicians need security. They're never attacked. It's we, the common people who're attcked, we're are dying. After, Rajiv Gandhi, I don't think any politician had been shot at.

In one of the reply to comments to my earlier post, I mentioned that I wouldn't have felt the way I am right now, had they attacked a hotel full of politicians and done a A Wednesday on them. If there are people like the Patils.... R.R and Shivraj... I'm sure I'll have people to second me on this. There's one more question that I want to ask Raj Thackeray.... TUMCHI Mumbai was hostage to terrorists for 3 days, where were you. The people who saved the city were all 'outsiders'. You didn't mind them? Why? They were 'uttar bhartiyas' and 'dakshin bhartiyas'... Don't you mind them taking all positions in NSG and not leaving anytihng for your 'marathi manoos'? I just loved what Ajay replied when I asked in anger, where the fuck Raj Thackeray was hiding! It's just too obscene for my blog!! Typical Ajay!!

Mumbai is angry. If you are not, watch the clipping of Maj. Unnikrishnan's mom talking to his dead body. TV has never made my eyes moist before. I could actually hear the song Lukka Chuppi being played in my head with Lata Mangeshkar and A.R.Rahman's spine chilling vocals... Prasoon Joshi's heart wrenching lyrics... damn... God, why didn't you just damn it??!! Please lets keep the fire ablaze and do something because these so-called leaders are as good as a Tamil newspaper to me. Or better, what RGV's visit to Taj was. Completely useless.

Democracy,my civics textbook defined it as, a government OF the people, FOR the people and BY the people. I see none of the three things. This govt. if definitely not FOR us. It's for themselves and the thing they love the most... their chair and the money and power that comes along with it. It's not BY us. I don't see how I can enter politics without having a 'godfather' in politics. India has a huge population. A billion! In school, we only learnt how it is a bane. But, it can be used as a boon. It is upto us how to do that. We're always short of personnel, they say. Are you freaking kidding me? One billion!! And you say you don't have people! Either you must be blind or I must be dyslexic. I remember when India needed people during Kargil, people joined the army by the dozens. Trust me, if I were physically strong (and tall!!), I'd have joined the army, or at least tried to. I know, India now needs people, and she'll have them. There is a peace rally on 3 Dec at the Gateway at 6.... please show solidarity to the cause.

1500 years ago, it was an Indian who taught the world to count. Aryabhatta. The father of medicine was Indian. Sushruta. It was an Indian who invented wireless communication. Jagdish Bose. 90% of world's computers run on chips made by an Indian. Vinod Dham. A man who fought a war without fighting was an Indian too. Mahatma Gandhi. Just imagine what a billion of us can do. Together. When we stand for what we believe in, we can change the world. Shakespeare said, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Isn't Mumbai scorned enough? Let us help Mumbai get back on its feet and not on crutches called MUMBAI SPIRIT. Let US stand up. Change we need and change we can, because change WE are.

And There Was Blood On The Streets....

*Disclaimer: Long post. Reader discretion advised.*

And there was blood on the streets.... yet again. Yet again, Mumbai bleeds. Yet again, politicians pass the blame, yet again innocent people lose their lives. Yet again. Yet again, there is gonna be an avalanche of blog posts being posted, numerous articles, TV shows, debates etc on terrorism, but then after a week, this night will remain in history books and statistics as yet another terror attack. We, the common people can make a difference.... by voicing our exasperation and choosing the next government that will do what US did post 9/11. I don't want Indian govt. to ruin another country, but nab and curb terrorists and terrorism. Or at least, just prosecute them quickly.

First when the news of some firing was reported, I assumed it was a gang war, as not much was known about it then. After 10 minutes, while I was talking on the phone, I heard a huge sound but dismissed it as someone shutting the door rather loudly. After some time, there was a news flash that a taxi exploded near the airport. It was a low intensity blast. Nobody had shut the door, it was a low intensity explosion that took place in Vile Parle East, which I heard clearly in West. I can only imagine what a high intensity blast would be like. Could see smoke of the blast from my terrace. The entire feeling of having heard a blast was ghoulish.

But then the what the city faced was above what I went through. Indiscriminate firings, bomb blasts, hostage situations.... urghhh. The terrorists targeted posh hotels in South Mumbai at peak business time, of course to maximise the intensity of their attack. Two terrorists opened blind fire at CST on anyone they set their sight upon. Very much like the Virginia Tech incident last year in USA. Before people could get a grip of what was happening, it was all over. Either they were dead, or some miracle happened and they remained alive. Similar kind attacks took place at Taj Hotel and Oberoi Hotel.

While I was watching the News, Arnab Goswami,Times Now, mentioned that one woman from Taj messaged them at Taj, there were no lights and the terrorists were indiscriminately shooting. We, sitting in our living rooms cannot even imagine that scene, of staring death right in its fate, actually not even being able to stare. Worse even for the people from the forces who're going in to fight terrorists.... fighting for people whom they don't know....and at the behest of people who don't care for anything besides their 'kursi'. RIP all the people who left for their heavenly abode.

Mumbai Mirror, the next day carried a picture of a terrorist who wreaked havoc at CST. He didn't look more than 20, wearing jeans and t-shirt, and looking from a very well-to-do family. Must be educated as well. Looking at this I was just marvelling at the convincing powers of these terrorists who can convince these young educated guys to renounce everything to kill themselves and others.

I know, I may sound uninformed, but I really don't get what jehad is for. I mean what are jehadis fighting for? Money, land, love, religion? Religion, I presume. I have no clue about what exactly is in Quran, but I'm sure that it doesn't preach killing others even to protect Itself. My friend said, they do this for "Aman", peace... peace?! You've gotta be kidding me! You don't cause cancer only because you want to cure it. But then in a way, they may be doing it for peace. If everyone's dead.... there'll be peace... isn't it? At least then, after that there won't be anyone who'd have to die again, only because of someone's fanaticism. Once again people will start hating Muslims. And Muslims will hate non-Muslims for generalizing them. And the hate game will continue and the main reason behind it will be forgotten. Why can't we just see terrorism as a human v/s human game? Why categorise people as Muslims, Hindus, Pakistanis, Americans, Afghanis, Iraqis, Indians, or Brits? They're all human beings at the end of the day who are suffering. I think this should be the bottomline regardless of the name on their passports. This point was very poignantly shown in A Wednesday, when Anupam Kher never asked Naseerudin Shah's name.

Morning papers mentioned Advani blaming the Government for being soft on terrorists.Raj Thackeray, again blamed 'outsiders' for everything. Can't these people for once stop snowballing every event into a political opportunity for one-up manship. Learn something from John McCain who accepted defeat so graciously and pledged to lend support to Obama resurrect US from the crisis it is in. I don't see this happening in India anytime soon. I hope and vehemently wish I'm proved wrong. I think, I'm beginning to be proven wrong, just saw on TV, Narendra Modi offering all kind of help without indulging in cheap politics. I really feel that BJP should've had him as their PM candidate.

Barkha Dutt very rightly said that the modus operandi of this attack belonged to the old school fidayeen attacks, seen rampantly in Jammu and Kashmir, where fidayeens use grenades and hold people hostages. Counter attacks go on for hours, eventually culminating in days and the building down in ashes. I don't want the entry point of Mumbai down in ashes. I just refuse to even think of this possibility. Hope we don't have to come to a time where the entrance to Mumbai is a dry, barren land marred by blood stains and remnants of weapons. Mumbai is the city that never sleeps..... yesterday, for the first time, She was scared to sleep.

Go Goa!!

Bored yet again, so I'm back to blogging and whiling away my time royally! It's been exactly a week since my birthday so now the birthday hangover's over and I'm back to planning for other people's birthdays!!





Karzzzzzz.... as expected is a no brainer with the lead actors having a combined IQ less than George Bush probably! I guess the n number of z's were just to emphasize on the mental and physical state(that of sleeping and snoring) the audience would be in if they watch the movie and like I always say... IF is a very big word! Thank God it didn't release on my birthday.... I would have to hide in shame had that happened. And latest what I hear is that Himmesh wants to now try working with established heroines...!! Ouch!! May the force be with us to stop us from committing suicide looking at the beeline of movies having Himmesh and Harman!





One of the reasons I think Sarah Palin is in the VP race is because she is a stunner and McCain thinks that only that can at least provide him some hope if winning against Obama! I mean ...what was McCain thinking?? A former beauty queen for US Vice-President?!?! And that too a blonde chick...aunty rather?!?? Haha!! An blonde American beauty queen as the VP...! God save America and the world! She spent like 74 lakhs on her clothes for campaigning... Can someone tell her running a country is a much more serious business than walking the ramp?!?





Chandrayan I was successfully launched. A clap-clap moment for India as she is he 6th country in the world to do so. The budget for Chandrayan I was about 400 crores... the cheapest and 1/10 of the telecast rights of IPL! Only if BCCI give up a share of the money for R and D, we can be the first country in some other mission. I know, it's kinda great to launch a lunar mission and all... but I don't get the point! I mean there are so many of them launched already. And what do you want to do by knowing if there was/is water on Moon? Send Jack and Jill to fetch a pail of water?? What's the point in wasting money...rather feed hungry kids... India also ranks 66th in a list of 88 countries on the hunger index.... Food and not water in another part of universe is a basic need... at least that's what was taught in school.





The only good news I can see coming is my IV in late November. Most probably to Goa.... I really hope it's Goa and not Hyderabad....!! I've already made plans for Goa. Going to Goa for IV and that too to Kingfisher Beer factory.... the only plus point of doing Biotech! Haha!! I wonder if we'd get free samples! *wink wink*. Aanch... don't fume... I won't drink! But, on other thoughts, this is the only time I'd get to go to Goa with my friends.... and like Ayesha Takia said in Socha na Tha, when she and her friends had gone to Goa to holiday: " Yeh do din jo mile hain.. pura enjoy karna hain...pata nahi kal kis bhondu se shaadi ho jaaye aur life ko enjoy karne na mile!!" I know, my shaadi is far away... but still enjoy karna hain yaar life ko!!! And yeah, if you haven't seen Socha na Tha.... please jump in the nearest pothole.... it's a very sweet movie... trust me, you'll fall in love with the movie!!





Ah! I want to see Socha Na Tha again... maybe I'll download it.... yeah... don't scream...will download it after CAT!!

Someone please do something about the news channels

One thing that I absolutely hate is people's lack of general knowledge and something that I abhor, detest, despise, and all the synonyms of hate thrown up by dictionary.com, is people's apathy to whatever is going on in the nation. I know, I have a lot of Ï-want-to-make-India-a-better-country nucleotides in my DNA, and my aforementioned feelings are just an extension of the same.

I somehow managed to catch the Splitsvilla finale..... I didn't watch the entire show, yet I was interested in knowing who won in the end. I liked Varun till the moment he opened his mouth to say that Lal Bahadur Shastri was India's first president.... Can someone please send him to primary school? MTV people, please do the honours.

One of the factors attributing to people's lack of GK today can be ignominy on the part of Mumbai univ while setting up the syllabus. But then it is also the student's fault. I mean how difficult is it to just open TOI and go through what's happening in the country? The headlines at least? Or just listen your Dad talk, for a change... you'll have all the information about the world you need.

One more incident that happened in real life, not to me, but to one of the people I know was, someone asked who's Tony Blair(this was about 2 years back). And the person who was supposed to answer said: I know him... he's the US Prime Minister!! This showed two things 1) this person had no clue what so ever who Mr. TB is and 2) She has no clue who George Bush is. So when in doubt, it is better to keep your mouth shut.... !! One more incident that I can recollect is when I asked one of my friend who Vilasrao Deshmukh is. And she replied: isn't he Ritiesh Deshmukh's dad?? I said, yes he is... but that's like knowing Imran Khan as the guy whom Nupur likes! Chuck it if you fail to register the analogy. You're just suffering from the Sonal Chuahan syndrome (Watch Jannat and you'll know how dyslexic she is)

I've titled this post against the news channels because I've had it from them. I never really felt like dragging them to court when they kept on showing stupid superstitious shows, predicting Doom's Day, showing when which God will reincarnate, showing how Earth is in constant peril of being attacked by aliens who look out of a Steven Spielberg movie and all other antics they're upto 24x7. I also never went ahead on my mission to rechristen these channels as COMEDY CIRCUS channels. I never took any drastic step to vent my anger. But now, I feel, it's time I do that. At least try filing a PIL or something. I mean Bihar was submerged in floods with 3 million people stranded. No food.No water. There never was any electricity in this part of the world. Food riots breaking out..... and none of the news channels are showing it. I mean what?!? What are you supposed to show? Comedy clips or natural catastrophes? How many of us know why there have been communal riots in Orissa? Why is Kashmir burning? Farmers are still committing suicide... where have the 5000 crore rupees gone?? I didn't have a clue until I googled these things out. TV, today, has reached the Mariana Trench.... time it at least comes back to surface.

News channels aside, it's the people around me who've also been irritating me. Nobody cares about the the people who are affected. Call me an atheist or whatever but I just can't fathom how someone can spend crores, donate a couple of other crore rupees, set up huge Ganpati pandals, immerse the idols in water only to increase pollution levels and kill some fish and aquatic flora and fauna only because someone else is doing it? Why can't you rather go to Bihar and distribute food packets to children who go to sleep drinking the flood water or something even worse? Why does every body's logic go to the dogs when it comes to religion? I'm sure Ganpatiji would be more happy if you help out someone and not just simply worship a stone/POP cut out in His form. This entire Ganeshotsav was started by Lokmanya Tilak, whose sole motive behind it was to get people together and fight for freedom..... so why the extravagance today??

I know, I know, if MNS/Bajrang Dal people are reading this post, they want to come and break the windows of my house and stuff.... but I don't care. I have a fundamental right to the freedom of Speech, and I have just used it. I even don't care if this post doesn't go down well with many of you. You have your point of view..... I have mine....

And yeah Mr. Thackeray, before ordering your men to vandalise shops that haven't put up their store names in Marathi, kindly, break the windows of your house first. Your son doesn't want to learn Marathi.... so how the hell are you to impose the language on a million other people?? I really respeted you when you came out with your new party... A young, dynamic leader to lead the way, I thought.... and it...well, just remained a thought. Practice before you preach. You make your dumb cousin look better than you because of all your antics.

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I'm still outta my creative grey cells and I've lost all the non creative ones to my FALL! I'm finally done with thinking about and unearthing topics revolving Mithibai to write for Campus Junkie. No more Mithibai pondering now!!

People please do yourselves a favour. Please check out Dostana trailer. John is looking ah so hot!!! You just can't miss this trailer!! You tube it asap!!Do yourself one more favour. Check out the Mit Jaaye song from the movie Kidnap.... Imran Khan. Period. But still, he's looking so hot in the meanie avatar! Anyways kisine toh kaha hain 'Girls love Bad Boys'. There's so much happening on the Bollywood front! Ok. I'll stop commenting on who's hot and who's not. I mean everyone's hot and I'm too lazy to write about all of them. The only un-hot thing happening there is Drona! Looking at Abhishek, I seriously doubt my choice some years back when I liked him! And to add to the disaster called Drona, here's something I heard about the movie which has me intrigued. Abhishek is playing a superhero in the movie and....hold your breath.... Priyanka Chopra is playing his bodyguard!! Bodyguard of a superhero!!! WOW! Now we need another superhero to save us..... minus a bodyguard!!

The most irritating thing that has happened is the bloods in Bihar. There are 2500 villages submerged in water. 30 lakh people without a roof and no news channel is broadcasting it. Because they're busy showing stupid comedy shows that don't make you laugh. High time people get the nature of their job right.

There was so much I wanted to write but now I've forgotten it all. So I'll end this post here!!

Hypocrisies, Ironies and Paradoxes!!!

Although I'm preparing for CAT which is only going to further confirm my "Loser" status, I'm trying not to leave any stone unturned for it(I mean I WILL START TRYING NOW!) This includes mugging up a lot of words and knowing the subtle difference between two close sounding ones. I'm still,after analysing the definitions thrown up by www.dictionary.com for almost 30 minutes, confused between irony and paradox! I know this is High School Grammar, but you can't expect one to retain all this, years(5, to be precise) after finishing school!

Coming back to the title I've put up for this write, "Hypocrisies, Ironies and Paradoxes!" aren't we all fed up with them already, with just about 19 years invested in life? To me hypocrisies irritate the most, maybe because of the fact that I, for one don't lie and can't stand liars. But yet this world is full of hypocrites and howmuchever I hate them, they won't just go... maybe they're inspired from cockroaches!

Irony, dictionary.com, defines as "the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning". After reading this bit, you may ask me, what's so abtruse in this? Well, trust me, there will be times in life when you'll get bamboozled! The most common irony one encounters would be "The paper was a f***ing piece of s**t" and a month later we find that person's pic in the paper with a tag line "Topped the university"!! You just bloody well had to tell the truth, if the paper was good... why the dissimulation?

Paradox is "a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth. " by definition. After much rumination, I think I've somewhat understood it.... Sample this, the paradox in life is that only person who can stop you from crying, is the only person who makes you cry in the first place". This was an SMS I recieved. Thanks to SMSes, dukhi,bechare aashiqs have got a new job....creating them!

But someone pray tell me what to feel/say/think when one opens the paper the first thing in the morning to find a full page report (with pictures of malnourished kids)on the Govt's initiative to form a Nutrition Committee to combat the hunger wave caused due to the rising inflation on one page and a report on the contiguous page with pictures of a quintal of fruits, mountain sized ladoos, and many more food items in front of an overstuffed with food, Karunanidhi. (Pardon me for not reading the article and providing you with the reason for the feast, as the picture was nauseating enough). What do we call this..... Oxymoron??

Time we wake up to the harsh reality surrounding our protected cocoon.... Time we start asking pertinent questions to the people responsible... Time to bring a change, and not merely be a part of one....Time we get some REAL answers....

Six Degrees of Separtion

I was wikipedia-ing a few days back to look for Six Degrees, a book on Global Warming by Mark Lyans when I came across this theory which is called as the "Six Degrees of Separation" theory. It refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person he or she knows and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is an average of six "steps" away from each person on Earth. Simply put, it means that you know any person on this planet with a distance of 6 other people between the two of you!

This theory was widely popular in the early 1990's. One of the earliest social networking sites was called "Six Degrees" to highlight the closeness between us Earthlings! There have been a lot of plays, TV shows, films with the same name showing how close we are despite the distance between us!

Just to check how true this theory holds in my case I tried to calculate how do I know Irfan (Pathan ofcourse, you sillies!). Lets see... hmm... I know Shraddha, my school friend, she knows her Dad(obviously!), her Dad knows SRK(the former is the ACP of Mumbai), SRK knows Priet Zinta and Priety definitely knows Irfan!!That's precisely 6 people! Bingo!! And yeah by bingo, Binga(Brett Lee) comes to mind and I know him the same way! I know Shaun Marsh too! Wow!! I'm loving this theory! This is wonderful! Maybe I should get behind Shraddha to introduce me to the string of people who'd finally get me to Irfan! Wow, I love Wikipedia!!