This 5th feb was the 20th death anniversary of my Dadaji.

He was brilliant and good and compassionate and humble. He was the best person I know. He was the best person most people will ever know.

He taught me music. He made little notes and stuck them on the keys of my casio.

He taught me how to identify plants with their leaves.

He told me which bird was which.

We took walks. Long walks. And he would tell me about everything we crossed - plants and birds and bugs and stars.

He knew so much. About everything.

We have trunks full of books. That's where I get my love for books from. He read. So much. I try to read like him.

When it's cold and there's a bonfire... I stand in front of the fire like him... My family knows what that means :)

He has been gone 20 years. And I miss him so much.

AFI Top 100

Its the start of a new year which makes me want to make lists...Here's another list of fantastic movies... The AFI top 100 (2007). We have the Rank, the movie, the director and if I have seen it or not.

1. Citizen Kane Orson Welles
2. The Godfather Francis Ford Coppola
3. Casablanca Michael Curtiz 
4. Raging Bull Martin Scorsese
5. Singin' in the Rain Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen 
6. Gone with the Wind Victor Fleming 
7. Lawrence of Arabia David Lean
8. Schindler's List Steven Spielberg 
9. Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock
10. The Wizard of Oz Victor Fleming 
11. City Lights Charlie Chaplin 
12. The Searchers John Ford
13. Star Wars George Lucas
14. Psycho Alfred Hitchcock
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey
16. Sunset Boulevard Billy Wilder
17. The Graduate Mike Nichols 
18. The General Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman
19. On the Waterfront Elia Kazan
20. It's a Wonderful Life Frank Capra
21. Chinatown Roman Polanski
22. Some Like It Hot Billy Wilder
23. The Grapes of Wrath 
24. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Steven Spielberg 
25. To Kill a Mockingbird Robert Mulligan 
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Frank Capra
27. High Noon Fred Zinnemann
28. All About Eve Joseph L. Mankiewicz
29. Double Indemnity Billy Wilder
30. Apocalypse Now Francis Ford Coppola
31. The Maltese Falcon John Huston
32. The Godfather Part II Francis Ford Coppola
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Miloš Forman
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs David Hand 
35. Annie Hall Woody Allen 
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai David Lean
37. The Best Years of Our Lives William Wyler
38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre John Huston
39. Dr. Strangelove Stanley Kubrick
40. The Sound of Music Robert Wise
41. King Kong Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack 
42. Bonnie and Clyde Arthur Penn
43. Midnight Cowboy John Schlesinger
44. The Philadelphia Story
45. Shane George Stevens
46. It Happened One Night Frank Capra 
47. A Streetcar Named Desire Elia Kazan
48. Rear Window Alfred Hitchcock
49. Intolerance D. W. Griffith
50. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Peter Jackson 
51. West Side Story Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
52. Taxi Driver Martin Scorsese
53. The Deer Hunter Michael Cimino
54. MASH Robert Altman
55. North by Northwest Alfred Hitchcock
56. Jaws Steven Spielberg
57. Rocky John G. Avildsen 
58. The Gold Rush Charlie Chaplin
59. Nashville Robert Altman 1975
60. Duck Soup Leo McCarey
61. Sullivan's Travels Preston Sturges
62. American Graffiti George Lucas
63. Cabaret Bob Fosse
64. Network Sidney
65. The African Queen John Huston
66. Raiders of the Lost Ark Steven Spielberg
67. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Mike Nichols
68. Unforgiven Clint Eastwood
69. Tootsie Sydney Pollack
70. A Clockwork Orange Stanley Kubrick
71. Saving Private Ryan Steven Spielberg
72. The Shawshank Redemption Frank Darabont 
73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid George Roy 
74. The Silence of the Lambs Jonathan Demme
75. In the Heat of the Night Norman Jewison
76. Forrest Gump Robert Zemeckis 
77. All the President's Men Alan J. Pakula 
78. Modern Times Charlie Chaplin 
79. The Wild Bunch Sam Peckinpah
80. The Apartment Billy Wilder
81. Spartacus
82. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans F. W. Murnau
83. Titanic James Cameron 
84. Easy Rider Dennis Hopper
85. A Night at the Opera Sam Wood
86. Platoon Oliver Stone
87. 12 Angry Men Sidney Lumet
88. Bringing Up Baby Howard Hawks
89. The Sixth Sense M. Night Shyamalan
90. Swing Time George Stevens
91. Sophie's Choice Alan J. Pakula
92. Goodfellas Martin Scorsese 
93. The French Connection William Friedkin
94. Pulp Fiction Quentin Tarantino
95. The Last Picture Show Peter Bogdanovich
96. Do the Right Thing Spike Lee
97. Blade Runner Ridley Scott
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy Michael Curtiz
99. Toy Story John Lasseter
100. Ben-Hur William Wyler

Hmmm.... I am not very happy with the number of unseen movies. I think I will start AFI Fridays... Watch a movie from this list every week... Seems like a fun idea. Let's see how it turns out :)

Write more...shall I?

I have been told I should write more.

I agree in principle.

But when it comes to actually putting thoughts down on paper or rather here for the world to see, there occurs a dilemma.

Do I want you to know what I am thinking, what's happening in my life or how am I reacting to it?

Probably not.

Take the latest bizzare turn of events (the exact nature of which I can not disclose) for example, would read like a badly adapted soap opera with all the necessary razzmatazz.

Then I wonder why I would not write about it. Do I care about what the characters of the aforementioned drama series would think? I don't think so, does not particularly sound like me. Yes yes I know - how very sensitive!

Its probably more to do with the fact that if I write it down it will become a documented fact of my life...and uggghhh this idiocy shall not become a part of my biography, unless of course it shows character and patience and depicts all those lovely virtues of mine ;)

And the Oscar went to...

For a movie buff, I have come to realise, I am quite behind in my in my reading list (err...watch list). So here's one of the simplest benchmarks of cinema...the Oscars... and there's so much left to see...and so much more to see again :)

2009 - “The Hurt Locker” -  loved it

2008 - “Slumdog Millionaire” - eh

2007 - “No Country for Old Men” - has been on my watch list for too long now...

2006 - “The Departed” -  fantastic

2005 - “Crash” - seen, nice...

2004 - “Million Dollar Baby” - he he...inside joke...haven't seen it coz of it....but have to watch

2003 - “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” - ofcourse i've seen it

2002 - “Chicago” - in bits and pieces

2001 - “A Beautiful Mind” - long back..

2000 - “Gladiator” -- surprise surprise...i've not seen this.

1999 - “American Beauty” - seen it. only ok.

1998 - “Shakespeare in Love” - seen

1997 - “Titanic” - loved it then, dunno about now.. The 3d version is coming so will watch it again.

1996 - “The English Patient” - havent seen it yet

1995 - “Braveheart” - seen it... Love it.... Love Mel Gibson (why did he have to go and make a fool of himself?!?! Humph!!!!)

1994 - “Forrest Gump” - lovvvvvvvvvvvve it... I think another movie of this year needs a mention - shawshank redemption - amongst the best movies ever made

1993 - “Schindler’s List” - one of my all time fav movies. Reading the book now.

1992 - “Unforgiven” - which one is this again?

1991 - “The Silence of the Lambs” - oooh...not going to watch this one

1990 - “Dances with Wolves” - havent seen it

1989 - “Driving Miss Daisy” - saw it lonnnng time back...dont remember much... So its on the re-watch list

1988 - “Rain Man”

1987 - “The Last Emperor”

1986 - “Platoon”

1985 - “Out of Africa”

1984 - “Amadeus”

1983 - “Terms of Endearment” - i think i saw it on tv once lonng long ago...

1982 - “Gandhi” - Yes, i think once every year on 2nd oct for 20 years... And I think it's the first movie I saw (ever)

1981 - “Chariots of Fire”

1980 - “Ordinary People”

1979 - “Kramer vs. Kramer” - yup...long back... And have seen the horrid Indian version as well

1978 - “The Deer Hunter”

1977 - “Annie Hall” -

1976 - “Rocky” - Of course... am a die hard Rocky fan

1975 - “One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest” - no...but have to

1974 - “The Godfather Part II” -

1973 - “The Sting” - nope, but have to

1972 - “The Godfather” Saw the movie. Read the book. The book it better.

1971 - “The French Connection”

1970 - “Patton” -

1969 - “Midnight Cowboy”

1968 - “Oliver!”

1967 - “In the Heat of the Night”

1966 - “A Man for All Seasons”

1965 - “The Sound of Music”- Lots and lots of times, and i can watch it as many times again

1964 - “My Fair Lady”- Saw it last November. nice

1963 - “Tom Jones” -

1962 - “Lawrence of Arabia” -

1961 - “West Side Story” -

1960 - “The Apartment” - have seen the indian version ;) have to see this also

1959 - “Ben-Hur”

1958 - “Gigi”

1957 - “The Bridge on the River Kwai”

1956 - “Around the World in 80 Days”-

1955 - “Marty”

1954 - “On the Waterfront”

1953 - “From Here to Eternity”

1952 - “The Greatest Show on Earth”

1951 - “An American in Paris”

1950 - “All about Eve”

1949 - “All the Kings Men”

1948 - “Hamlet”

1947 - “Gentleman's Agreement”

1946 - “The Best Years of Our Lives”

1945 - “The Lost Weekend”

1944 - “Going My Way”

1943 - “Casablanca”- Here's looking at you kid

1942 - “Mrs. Miniver”

1941 - “How Green Was My Valley”

1940 - “Rebecca”

1939 - “Gone with the Wind”-yup... Reading the book as well

1938 - “You Can't Take It with You” \

1937 - “The Life of Emile Zola”-

1936 - “The Great Ziegfeld”

1935 - “Mutiny on the Bounty”

1934 - “It Happened One Night” - yup ... Lovely. the indian version isn't half bad either

1932/1933 - “Cavalcade”

1931/1932 - “Grand Hotel”

1930/1931 - “Cimarron”

1929/1930 - “All Quiet on the Western Front”

1928/1929 - “The Broadway Melody”

1927/1928 - “Wings”

That's a lot of un-seen movies! I guess I need to take a month off and change this to a respectable ratio... And now that we have gone through the Oscar list, the next post will carry the AFI top 100 - I hope that's a better number (fingers crossed).

The unremembered spanned an eon,

life drowned while faces blurred,

I was a God & I was alone,

I was mine the day I died

Music played,

words were a haze

the rhythm stayed

when I drowned the water moved with me

Did I cry?

Did I laugh?

Did I shout how I loved you?

Or did I let you down too?

Time sank with my heartbeat

the chill burnt through my veins

peace was so close

and then I was washed ashore

You've been tagged

Much before the networking sites took the world by storm and the digicams captured every moment ugly or beautiful, and we had our lives uploaded for the world to see... we tagged memories...in our treasure chests for only us to see, to cherish & to relive.

A slice of apple pie is a secluded beach, a movie on hbo a pre-dawn walk on dewy grass, a song from a movie is a full bollywood number during rol-call...it could be anything... a plate of double-anda bhurji shared... a song request obliged at the wicked hour... a table tennis match till 4 am...

if you are up here... i hope you know you are special. If not... I hope I can one day say to you - you've been tagged!

I want to write

I quit my job a few months back. The pointlessness of it all had become unbearable. After a long time - actually for the first time in my life I have nothing to do, nowhere to get to, no timelines, no deadlines…nothing. I like nothing.

Today I have spent most of my day sleeping … have seen 2 movies and then I wanted to write… you know one of those days when you have to HAVE TO write and are stumped coz there’s nothing to say – but as I have already said that I like nothing I am going to write away. Lets hope it makes sense!

I was wondering how I got here (in a good way)... you know stuff you think about when you have nothing else to think about... abt destiny... whether life chooses a path or the destination. How the little choices we make make who we are... how when a butterfly flaps its wings somewhere and theres a storm someplace else(or a tornado...u know what i mean)...jab saabu ko gussa aata hai kahin jwalamukhi phatta hai (no...thats different).

I was born with a particular amount of, for the lack of a better word, intelligence – I am brighter than your average chap on the road – so I was meant to be first in class… I quite liked it too and it was rarely difficult. So after my X boards it was an obvious choice that I would take science… with Math & Bio… primarily coz I wanted to have the option of being a Doctor or an Engineer open for another 2 years (I am neither now).

While I waited for my engineering results (I did get into RECs… though not IIT – wonder what that would have been like) I enrolled in Miranda House… Economics (Economics sounded nice…had heard much about the subject) …quite liked Micro-eco… so gave up the engineering thing and stayed on in Delhi. Some one asked me what I wanted to be and I said “a Banker” (huh! Why? Cant remember!)

So a few years on I was a banker… having done an MBA… earning more than a few lakhs… living on my own in the maximum city… and then I quit.

It wasn’t what I wanted, wasn’t the life I wanted to lead, wasn’t anything at all. The most amusing was how people looked at me as if I was crazy for quitting without having another job in hand… to top it all I told them it’s because I was bored. It was fun messing with them but that lost its charm way too quickly – people & their reactions are predictable... very very predicatble.

I am back now… to the city of djinns (Delhi…for the ones who don’t read Dalrymple).

Kaun jaaye Zauq par Dilli ki galiyan chod kar J

He just wanted us to know his name

When I switched on the tv a few days back, the news channels were teeming with the footage of Varun Gandhi's Pilibhit speech. A number of things came to my mind when I saw that:

1. Ok... this is Varun GANDHI. 

2. What a wannabe speech and how much time had he spent learning it so there's no mistake. 

3. How happy he must feel with all the adulation (at that moment) that had so far been reserved for his cousins.

I don't think he meant what he said. For a number of reasons... the most important being his half-sikh descent. I do think he was stupid enough to be used as a pawn... now he is the poster-boy of hate... a mini-Modi. A silly preppie who went to a village and got carried away by the applause and the cheering which he had earlier only seen on TV when Rahul and Priyanka addressed rallies. He just wanted to be as famous as Didi and Bhaiyya. 

Splash!!!!!!!!!

Relax. Take a deep breath. Now dive.

My dad was trying to teach me how to dive. I was standing at the edge of the deep corner. Looking at the water. It was a mid-size pool...big enough to have a proper deep and shallow end. Dad had successfully taught me and my brother how to float and then swim. We had started doing breadths and now lengths. Now it was time to start diving.

The only glitch was - I had seen JAWS... 2 days back. 

Now, even in a pool as the water gets deeper it goes a deeper shade of blue. And as I stood at the edge of the pool ready to dive... I could almost see something move in the water. Even as a 8 yr old I knew a shark could not be in a pool - but you never know - freaky stuff like this happens all the time in the movies and you really don't want to take a chance especially when you literally have all your life ahead of you. So, the simplest thing would have been to tell my dad that I was scared and get out it.

Glitch no 2, phobia of admitting having a phobia.

So, I stood at the edge - took a deep deeeeep breath - thanked God for the lovely life I had lived till then... and dived. 

That was the fastest lap I ever did.

Seems like a good movie

I used to be a good listener... it was fascinating – the perspective – the world-view and the narrative.

On my way back from North campus (DU… for the uninitiated) – I traveled with a friend... and I happened to mention that I hadn’t seen Forrest Gump – so for the next hour and a half he narrated the story… frame by frame… while we considered our travel options – to hitch or not to hitch! We decided ‘not to’ … and took a bus on a circuitous route…we walked…changed buses…walked some more…while Tom Hanks fell in love…went to war…lost her…played ping-pong…found her… lost her…ran… ran some more… got a boat…made some money…invested in ‘an apple co.’ … found her… found his boy.. lost her & lived on…

It seemed like a good movie – and I thought I should try it… we even began to ‘analyse’ it – but had to drop it coz hostel lunch time ended at 3…and we were already at 2.55!

I reached by 3.05…and after almost breaking down the door of the kitchen got served food which I left untouched…one thought that did not leave me was that i wanted to watch this movie…since I hadn’t eaten – I went to Kutty’s (the TAFS canteen that has kept generations in my hostel alive… strange coz these were the same ppl who were incharge of the kitchen – but this isn’t time for conspiracy theories) Anyway, so I went to Kutty’s and placed the standard order of double anda bhurji with extra hari mirchi – was lectured by Dutt saab abt how so much chilli is not good for health… -- finally I sat down to eat and told another friend about how I was thinking about watching Forrest Gump – he corrected me “how you want to see FG again”… I corrected him “I want to see FG”… he looked at me with suspicion befitting a vamp in a K series soap… with an arched-eyebrow and said “you haven’t seen FG…even once”… “It’s the best!!! You know what happens….”

And he went on to tell me how Tom Hanks is… bt the house they threw stones at …she gets into drugs…he gets in the army… the capitol hill… the song by the byrds… his single-mindedness… the meetings with the president after the war and tt… how he runs… how he fishes…and believes in the capt… how he waits for the bus sitting on a bench…narrating his life simply (the only way he knows) to this lady…how he runs to find her… how he worries if the boy is like him… how he sits there when the bus goes by… how fantastic the movie is…

It seems like a good movie I think… it seems like a lot of things :)

Nostalgia...Scene I

One of the blogs i follow has a post called time machine... one of the posts i had written years ago was abt nostalgia... and now with christmas & new year here... i am getting nostalgic again... and am missing everyone... including the people who i meet everyday... so this is an attempt to remember a few very very heart-warming moments... with people who once were or continue to be an integral part of who I am.

Scene I (am wathcing too many movies I guess)

Set in a cold december night in Delhi... AFWWA hostel... Divya's room... 

Dibiya is out partying... and we (read - me, taru, rakhi, dhara, neha) are all in her room  -- (there were party hoppers too)... wondering what to do... so we think of having our own party... music list prolly was Chunari-Chunari on repeat... with some help from FM... on the menu - maggi!!! and we danced like there was no tomorrow... how that hostel bed survived the foot stomping will always be a mystery... why on that day the warden did not even bother to come for a round dispite the blaring music we'll never know. Sometime around dawn we all collapsed and slept off in that little room... 

cut to.... 12 hours ago... the same set of people + divya + ira + preety + gauri... make a plan to watch kabhi khushiiii kabhi gammmmmmmmmmmmmm.......... at chanakya... we have to catch the morning show... no body would ditch etc etc...

cut to... early morning... knowing us... ira comes to wake us up...with senti tht none of us is ready for after the "saturday-night-fever"... so we drag ourselves out of the room and into a foggy delhi morning;this is the time when we saw movies in the front row coz they costed less than air... which meant standing in lines for hours on end... for a ticket window that opened only an hour before the movie

sooooooo we reach and the show is sold out... so we get in the line for the next show (which means we are in the line for 4 hours)... while ira goes to her would be mother-in-law to get us food... i dont think any of us had the heart to tell the 'good ppl who stuck to the plan' that we should cancel the movie...or prolly it didnt strike anyone that we could catch the show another day...annnnnyway... we got the tickets and we saw K3G.. preety cried her eyes out...and we all lived happily ever after...

one of the days that i'll always remember... probably not vividly... but the fuzzy feeling... i liked those girls... i like those girls... i miss them. and i will remember them... all of them. 

Forwards galore...

In the past 2 days I received too many smses (is that a word?) about how the marathi manoos or Raj Thackray should go and try and defend the hostages as the NSG commandos are from the north or south
1) People have to stop confusing MNS with Marathis or Maharashtrians..
2) about the sms... quoting a friend - the 3 top cops who lost their lives and other 11 cops did not differentiate that the people at CST were waiting for trains to goto Nasik or Kanpur or Patna or banglore... they went there to defend indians and lets not bring this pettiness at a time of such tragedy

about the raj thackray remark... India has serious problems... and people like raj thackray and narendra modi are not here to solve them...they are only here to tell us who to blame for it... thackray will say each and every problem of yours is because of the north indians... modi will tell us its the muslims... this is just divisive politics and nothing else (I really dont understand how people keep being led by this...how they believe it!!!)... we have serious problems... and we need serious people to tackle them... sadly we dont have too many of them around... so I cant help but wonder - what are we going to do about it - sit at home and crib 'is desh ka kuch nahin ho sakta'? or will we be the change we want to see?

Cheering the commandos...

its 1911 hrs on 28th nov... the media and the people are going crazy cheering the commandos... and i cant help but remember this was the same media that cried abt the multi thousand crore "burden" that the sixth pay commission was going to be to the tax payer... there were polls being done about if the Armed forces were justified in asking for equivalent pay packages... nobodys on the street said how they already get enough... and the media ran its sms program...quoting a friend of mine - every profession gets bastardized and this is the bastardization of the media. they have turned now...everyone is for the sixth pay commission...every one remembers the soldier now and praises him... and i wonder how long will this last... till the time the next news story hits... or the budget deficit ticks to a higher number... i wonder how long will it take for the media to start harping about human rights... starts questioning the ways of the army... and how much it should be paid...i give the media and the public 3 months to turn against the same commando... the same army man.
and that soldier will still stand at the border...protecting us through this cheering... through the sms saying he doesnt deserve to be paid more as it might hurt my next mall trip...through the hue& cry about human rights.... through the IAS officers robbing him of his rights... because that soldier is the only one who knows what it means to be an Indian

The spirit of Bombay

I came to Bombay 4 1/2 years ago... and in this period i have seen the crisis situations like the flood, the bombings, the MNS menace - and the day-to-day struggle of a mumbaikar coz of the lack of infrastructure - sorry state of roads, no prep for the monsoons, packed local trains, traffic jams etc etc etc... and everytime all this is swept under the carpet of the "spirit of mumbai"...

in the beginning i was really amazed - i was in awe of this city and its people who bounced back the very next day after the flood in 2005...everyone applauded the spirit of mumbai - accolades to the mumbaikar... 'thats wot makes bombay' ... and that was that - nothing was done. bombay was stuck again in the next monsoon and the next and the next. The spirit of bombay keeping it afloat.

trains were bombed... the average mumbaikar descended on the roads with food and water to help the ones affected... "praise the spirit of bombay" ... and nothing was done... life went on.
MNS went on a rampage -- killed a student -- destroyed govt and pvt property -- party 'karyakartas' held the city hostage as the MNS chief went to court. "spirit of bombay blah blah blah" - life goes on

Now yesterday terrorists open fired at CST, Leopold cafe, trident, taj, cama hospital, bombed vile parle & santacruz... killing more than 125 innocent people (number increasing by the minute) injuring many more... hostages yet held at nariman house taj and trident. Mumbai has lost 3 of its top cops... encounter carries on...Army takes over the city after 15 years... now what will happen??? Will the mumbaikar again be assuaged by the praise of his/her spirit... or will bombay finally put its foot down and say enoungh is enough... Will bombay spearhead a people's movement -- will there be change or will we go back to business as usual??? Time will tell.

Subah dekhenge

The encounter and the rescue mission is yet on. My mom called in the evening and asked if I was going to office tomorrow and I said "subah dekhenge". My mom said - "Yeh toh Jammu wali baat hai".

From 1990 - 1992 my father was posted in Jammu... if you havent stayed in J&K you have no idea of what I am talking about. There you lived on a 'daily basis' ...that time it seemed natural...that was the way of life. You made plans having checked the hygiene factors (bombing/shoot outs)... I remember all of us going to the railway station to drop my aunt... when we reached home there was the news of a bomb blast on the same platform - we missed it by 15 min. We went to raghunath bazar and by the time the first car reached home there was a blast and we waited... hands folded in prayer... for the rest of our family.

Today... after 16 years I am again in a place jahan subah dekhenge...

Standard Deviation of......................

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.


The people who wrote the constitution... the preamble of which is cited here... probably did not consider the following obvious issues while they were busy getting us our freedom and charting what was to be meteoric rise of a nation-state.

1) EQUALITY of status and of opportunity

- not if you are a north indian in Maharashtra... and trying to write an exam for a railway job...
- not if you are "an upper caste hindu" anywhere in India... it wouldnt matter if you are the best at what you do... I think we should also get a quota for merit now... (deviating a little...i dont think there was any worse time to be an upper caste hindu...) Call me insensitive... but i refuse to be treated by a doctor who could not manage to get a 50% on his bio exam... what you are saying is...his prescription may be 50% correct...though i would recommend this doctor to a certain Mr Arjun Singh...

2) JUSTICE, social, economic and political

well... no point in even atempting bullet points on this not because this is well taken care of... but because i dont quite understand in todays scenario what is justice! let alone social economic and political...

what i do understand is that if you make enough noise and burn enough buses you get quotas & reservations ... atleast it gets you on TV... actually anything gets you on TV these days...

also... if any random politician says i think so and so community should get so & so percentage of seats...its a win-win...coz no other party will actually come out and say this is not right... due to the fear of the latter losing those votes to the former...

another... it pays to be in politics... if you were in Congress in '84... you went scotfree reason being ' jab bada ped girta hai to dharti hilti hai'... if you were in BJP wen the babri masjid 'fell'... you are prolly in line to be PM...

as i said... i dont understand this concept to write about it... so we will go to the next...

3) LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;

- the Mumbai argument again
- Midnight mass...which cant happen at midnight
- Orissa & Karnataka massacres...
- if Jaya Bachchan wants to speak in Hindi.... let her... why does the PVR booking window have to be broken for it.
- Amarnath yatra threats..

- you cant screen Jodha Akbar.... in Rajput areas... or Aamir Khan movies in Gujrat... or Bachchan movies in Bomday (HA!!) ( If they speak in hindi)...

- "Water" cant be made in banaras... though its set in it...and based on it... but well... it shows the not-so-pretty side of hinduism......... now dont go about thinking i am anti-hinduism... i am a hindu... but lets call a spade a spade...


4) FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation

- now im not limiting this to the MNS and SHiv sena...but did the congress actually think linguistic states was good for unity of the country????

- homosexuality is immoral??!!! Hello!!! We are the second largest population in the country... we can do with some less breeding here!!! OK... jokes apart... its a personal choice and a nation can not ostracize a community ... we are anyway a homophobic population... we are pushing these people further into anonymity.... a closeted life... and increased susceptibility to STDs... where is the dignity of the individual and this community????

- the number of ppl whose faces were blackened by the MNSs and students unions... they are yet indians... and last we checked there was a justice system... or that too is only limited to getting anticipatory bails????

ANNNND....can someone pl explain why SIMI is a banned orgn but Bajrang dal / VHP are not... dont get me wrong...im all for banning orgn if they intend to kill ppl...but are we banning only islamic orgns??? coz maybe im toooo liberal..but it doesnt sound right in a "secular" country... are we yet that or have we amended the preamble to read... "We will be what suits us the most and gets us the most votes"

The Dark Knight...

WOW!!! many times over!!!

Batman Begins had given hope that the character which was made a joke of by the many many many earlier batman movies could be salvaged... and then came the dark knight... i really wanted to write this when I saw the movie but I had no words... Nolan is a Genius!!! How can one possibly make what he did...

I have found myself repeating every possible line of the movie in every possible situation... completely unintentionally...

And after many many weeks of having seen the movie also... i find that i yet can not write about it... this time coz there is so much to say that it would border on incoherence.

Blogging again :D

After bt 2 yrs im going to be blogging again... all posts before this one are part of another blog i used to write... i've picked up some and put them here... i hope i am more regular... thrz so much chaos... which translates to thrz so much to write... so im writing again...

soon... we shall revisit the mandal commission...

India is a country of High intellectual capital. I like this statement. For it shows so much promise and soon it will be history. For their will be greater reservations. Merit will take a back seat. In this regressionist country we will all be left to watch the decline of a nation for a 'populist' measure of a corrupt polity.How dificult is it to understand that people should get a position / a seat for what they are worth and not who they were born as. Not because 200 years ago their forefathers were trampled upon. we are a great country...unique and ingenious... ready to sacrifice our future for obnoxious memories of the past. What happened was unfortunate. Whats hapening now is a catastrophe. This is insane.This reservation bill will be the last nail in the coffin of a promising nation... for this wouldnt even leave the brain to drain...

special days...

so here's a resolve: I shall make tomorrow beautiful...memorable. Not have my mood swings, be nice to people, not snap and not shout, keep it all under control, for once - smile for no reason, laugh till i cry... lemme make it special... for no reason except that I'm living it... coz I'm spl... coz this day is mine... I'm mine... so as everyone says - it all feels so good - my heart beats harder in anticipation for a day so special... for everyday so special...

... and then... such is life!!