India,the land of prejudices

I was just reading about the recent case of a British national Kaya being humiliated in the court to a point where she broke down.The defence lawyer asked her obnoxiously irrelevant questions,people in the courtroom were all laughing,the defence council was laughing;but this is no laughing matter neither is this an independent incident.The lawyer,Prajapati represents the sorry state of the rest of the nation.Even today a girl who dresses in a certain way,ties her hair in a certain way,drinks or smokes is considered to have 'invited' molestation(whatever that means!).It is absolutely ok for a guy to smoke or drink but not a girl?How can a girl dressing in a certain way 'provoke' a guy to molest her?We aren't animals,or are we?Kaya,the girl who was molested and then humiliated in the court of law ,said that she would file a defamation case.The issue doesn't end there,we cannot go about filing defamation suits;what we can do is sensitise the society and general public on how to treat women.

Respect for someone does not,and I presume should not,change with her choice of clothing or lifestyle.The problem is more about education and awareness than anything else.Till the time we set these things right we'd continue giving such shady pretexts as foreigners are casual about love,a girl who dresses western outfits could be molested on similar grounds. All this sounds so lame!It's high time we started debating about such things on open forums.

CAT 2009 voucher sale: Violence on the bank floor

by Allwin Agnel on 09 September 2009

97 comments

CAT Vouchers are available today at Axis bank branches and along with it came violence, parents, lovers and god’s blessings – ok, and some vouchers were finally acquired by students as well.

The following pictures were taken at Hyderabad by kk_karthik , known as highflyer on PG, while he stood in line with hundreds of others to take a shot at being one of the first to buy the CAT vouchers. Better resolution pictures are below:

http://twitpic.com/h23ot
http://twitpic.com/h247y
http://twitpic.com/h239j
http://twitpic.com/h23gf (Check out the line at 8.30AM)
http://twitpic.com/h23di

Rohit aka estranged_gnrs, being the enthu guy he is, travelled from Chembur to Vashi (in Mumbai) and was one of the early ones to go and try to buy the forms. Early morning he tweeted the following – “There r ppl with god’s blessings, parents bunkin office, lovers givin moral support,standing in queue to buy the CAT voucher”.

Apurv headed to Shivaji park at Dadar to buy forms and sent us this pic

http://twitpic.com/h22px

Send us pics of violence, love, peace and hope. Tell us the best branches, the worst ones and the most awesome things you noticed while being in line!

CAT is here people, rock on!

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Source: http://www.pagalguy.com/2009/09/violence-at-the-bank-floor/

BJP: Skewed Ideologies!

"Never Judge a Book by it's Cover Picture and Name"

[I don't know who said it(if no one has,I'll add my name,IPR guys any?!)]

I wonder how many members of the current BJP Parliamentary Board have read Mr.Jaswant Singh's book 'Jinnah- India, Partition, Independence',I will not say that reading it would have altered their stance on this issue, given the fact that BJP,per se is made up of a confused bunch of individuals.Confused about the 'ideologies',confused about the so-called 'core beliefs' of the party,in general confused about anything that is scientific and non conservative.The truth is the BJP has been on the constant hunt for a nationalist ancestor for, they have none.Their attempt to project Savarkar as a national hero during the National democratic Alliance regime, during which it started a yatra from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands where Savarkar was imprisoned and unveiled a potrait in the Parliament, can be quoted as an example.Now it is the first Home Minister of India, Sardar Patel, inspite of the later asking for a ban on RSS after the assasination of Mahatma Gandhi.Though the Kapur commission later aquitted the senior RSS leaders.It held RSS responsible for breeding people like Godse and creating a communal situation in India.It was then that RSS was asked to draft a constitution.It is this futile search for an ancestor that is frustrating the leadership and driving them to take some mindless decisions which would prove to be highly detrimental in the future.

The party 'ideology' that Arun Jaitley was talking about in the press conference during the Chintan Bhaithak in Shimla is skewed conspicuously towards a heavily communal and rigid Hindutva pole.It was pro Sardar Patel not because the RSS looked upto him,but because noone from the party high command could support the founder of Pakistan, RSS would not let that be so.RSS started abiding by what its name is, but then slowly moved towards right wing extremism trying to gain currency in the conservatist's approach to religion in politics.

The other day I was reading an article by Vidya Subrahmaniam comparing Shashi Tharoor's 'India : From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond' and the Jaswant Singh's latest.'India : From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond' :the book, which Mr. Tharoor updated in 2007, is sprinkled with critical references to the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty. Yet the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress offered Mr. Tharoor a Lok Sabha ticket in the 2009 general election. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government went a further step and invited him to join the External Affairs Ministry as a Minister of State. Consider what Mr. Tharoor had to say about one of the Congress’ greatest icons — Indira Gandhi. “Had Indira’s Parsi husband been a toddywalla (liquor trader) rather than so conveniently a Gandhi, I sometime wonder, might India’s political history have been different?”.

Further, “Mrs. Gandhi was skilled at the acquisition and maintenance of power, but hopeless at the wielding of it for larger purposes. She had no real vision or program beyond the expedient campaign slogans; “remove poverty” was a mantra without a method ?. Declaring a state of Emergency, Indira arrested opponents, censored the press, and postponed elections. As a compliant Supreme Court overturned her conviction, she proclaimed a ‘20-point programme’ for the uplift of the common man (No one found it humorous enough to remark, as Clemenceau had done of Wilson’s Fourteen Points, that “even the good Lord only had ten.”) Its provisions ? remained largely unimplemented. Meanwhile her thuggish younger son, Sanjay (1946-1980) emphasizing two of the 20 points, ordered brutally insensitive campaigns of slum demolitions and forced sterilizations.” Mr. Tharoor had a reference to Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra too.

The BJP had the Tharoor example before it. It could have taken Mr. Jaswant Singh’s book in its stride, and appeared large-hearted, as the Congress did with Mr. Tharoor. Instead, it chose to show its illiberal side.

Kaminey-Dissection

Cast:

Shahid Kapoor as Charlie/Guddu
Priyaka Chopra as Sweety
Amol Gupte as Sunil Shekhar Bhope (Bhope Bhau)

Director:Vishal Bhardwaj

'Kaminey' quite a wierd name for a movie you might say, you scroll down and see 'Vishal Bhardwaj' and silently agree that he might have had something different in store again.Such is the trust he has earned among movie-lovers and hasn't he lived up to it again!This time around he brings to us the early ninetees Tarantino style of movie making,with a perfect mix of dark humour,violence with a pinch of romance to give us this beautiful drama in shades of red and gray.Kaminey as the name suggests is about how selfish people get when it comes to their dreams,love,career and all.

The movie opens to Shahid giving us, in lisp, his take on life."pai'f'e kamane ke bas do raaste hote hai:ek 'F'ortcut aur ek chota 'F'ortcut".This is the street smart Charlie,who makes money hedging bets at racecourse.He dreams of being rich and marring a beautiful rich girl.So,he takes the shortcut('F'ortcut as Charlie would say) and bets one lakh rupees on a horse,but eventually it turns out that the race was fixed and he loses all his money.Sore at this he and his coke-addicted friend Mikhail trace the jockey and finally trace down the henchman,Francis, primarily responsible for this.But as fate would have it there is a drug-deal going on in the adjoint apartment of the hotel and while running away from the hotel Charlie hijacks the jeep of the corrupt Anti Narcotics officers Lele and Lobo,who wanted to sell the prize off to the stylish smuggler Tashi.The jeep had coke worth 10Cr(in a guitar case!).

The other track of the story is of Charlie's twin brother Guddu,who ironically also has a speech impediment too.Guddu works for an NGO that educates people against AIDS and he stammers while talking.His girlfriend is Sweety,played by Priyanka Chopra who delivers some top of the line acting.She is the sister of a wannabe gangster-politician Bhope Bhau(Amol Gupte).Bhope is a politician who wants to draw some political milege on the Maharastra-is-meant-for-only-marathis concept and obviuosly is furiated when he realises that his own sister is marrying a 'North-Indian'.

The story is about how the twins who chose separate paths cross each others ways and eventually realise their dreams.

Kaminey is beautifully crafted with an unpredictable screenplay that will keep you glued to the seats.The climax is the winner where you can hear loud cheers from the audience,for every new twist that comes around.Everything about Kaminey is right,be it the casting,acting,writing even technical aspects like sound and editing were fabulously done.

The songs were already a hit and they never for once disturb the story telling.Fatak,the first song of the movie metaphorically explains about AIDS and its prevention techniques,which will remain one of my personal favorites.Even the title track Kaminey.It talks about how kamini(if I can use that word) are the aspirations inside a man and how they take control of your life if not checked.

All in all Vishal Bhardwaj delivers a fantastic package and lived up to the high standards he has set for himself.

Verdict: 4.5/5

P.S.This might the the first time when I did not have a 'Rip Masand' section,that is because for the first time ever I agree to whatever he said.

Can you quarantine an entire nation?

"Now what is it that you are blaming the Indian government for this time? The swine flu did not originate in India, so we are not to blame for this. Furthermore, it is a pandemic; there are more than 168 countries which have been affected by this. Why blame the government for this?"
When people across nations were reeling under this influenza, we were sitting in our living rooms enjoying the bulletin on our television sets. We did nothing till the 17th of May when the first patient was screened at the Hyderabad International airport. Even then, but for a few eye-washing steps we did nothing. Now when it has reached epic proportions and hundreds of cases have been registered, we 'react' and how? We 'react' by shutting downs institutes and complete cities. What we still did not acknowledge is that we cannot go quarantining entire cities. Shutdowns will not stop the virus, what it will do is create panic. Ironically the government itself issues as Don't-Panic notice. Blames people and media for creating this panic and rush. Will we ever grow up? Will this delinquent behaviour ever end?

"Okay, there were cases like these before as well, sample bird flu. These are all viral. How can you prepare for something you do not know?"
No we cannot prepare for the unknown. But we can learn from our past experiences. What this exposed is that we do not have a good crisis management machinery in place. Our stance needs to change from a react-ive one to a proactive one. We still lack a clear direction. The notices that were issued were too less and far-spaced. We are still importing testing kits in a few hundreds everyday. There is only one institute that can perform these tests, i.e., the NIV, Pune and it is so overburdened by the number of requests (around 650 a day!) that it is turning down further requests for tests. We need to have a strong conformity of infrastructure in place. It is if-I-contracted-this-where-will-I-go syndrome that is haunting people more than the fear of the virus. Where do we go, if we are apprehensive? To the government hospitals (if we ignore that fact how ill-equipped they are!) and here the medical attendants turn you off saying that there are already enough cases. Now where does one go? To a private hospital? And what are the odds that the government has not yet issued a list of private hospitals that are authorised to test.
When a situation such as this strikes, one of the first things that strikes some people is ‘business’. Sick! How else would you define people trying to hoard and even black-market the N-95 masks or even TamiFlu in certain cases. Inspite of the heavy culture talk (that has now become a trademark of India) we do often, we lag way behind in terms of some primary things like ‘social responsibility’. We still throw our garbage on the road, have a heavy not-my-problem attitude, don’t bother to carry handkerchiefs around, lack the basic etiquette that is taught to the kindergarten kids and feel that things like swine flu are pretty exotic and out of this land to infect us!
What we are also overlooking is the fact that WHO has issued a notice saying that even if the flu plateaus now, it will resurface again in winter, it has put the number of people estimated to contract this at around 2.2bn,almost 30% of the world population! The national labs say that cheaper testing kits are coming not before a month. We still don't have a vaccine; even Tamiflu at best is questionable. Are we prepared for all this? Or are we doing what we are best at: play the waiting game; wait till it strikes that big!
What we cannot ignore is the financial hit that we will take. Mexico lost close to $55mn a day during shutdown. The headlines on BBC World yesterday morning were, “The commercial capital of India shuts down”. You cannot shut down financial hubs like Mumbai where thousands of people are dependent on daily wages. And as a senior journalist put it, If you are an 'aam-aadmi's' government you definitely cannot ignore the 'aam-dani of that aam-aadmi!

Disppointing Typo!

"Deligate" never knew such a word ever existed!!
All this at THE WORLD BADMINTION 'CHAMPION SHIP'(a new kinda ship may be)!
Just on the way to the campus! For all the people who did not know,this street is called the Finance Street and houses IIIT Hyd,Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy,Hill Ridge Springs,Infosys,ISB,Microsoft,Wipro and other firms.
when you are hosting such a world class event typos such as these om the hoardings around is highly dispappointing.

Current Mood : Disappointed :(
Current Music : Ajj Din Chadheya!

Magadheera

The Disclaimer:

Ohk this would not be called a review because to me it is more of a BTMWA(Boy! the movie was auh-sum!)Many might find my opinion a bit biased!And this also happens to be the first telugu movie I felt like writing about,also because the number of telugu movies that feature in my annual movie calender would be less than five!



The opening scene was so superbly crafted that it swept me off!The movie streched a bit in the beginning but picked up as it went along till the interval so much so that those ten minutes seemed like ages to me.Kajal looked fantabulously gorgeous.

Revenge and reincarnation are the leitmotifs of this movie.It is about this intrepid security chief Kalabhairava who loves a Princess, Mitra Vinda,the Princess loves him aswell but there is a villian RanaDev Billa who is defeated by Bhairava in a contest and is banned from the kingdom.He proves to be a renegade and joins hands with an invader Sher Khan and conspires against the kingdom.What follows is an intense battle between KalaBhairava and the opposition army.Kalabhairava is shown scything through their forces and the invader is so overwhelmed by this act of his that he offers Bhairava his friendship.But fate had a different story for the lovers.The recidivistic Billa in a fit of rage tries to kill Mitra and injures her fatally.The Princess lies at the corner of the hill,breathing her last.She asks Bhairava to confess to his love for her atleast at this last moment.KalaBhairava is also fatally wounded,he tears apart his armour and falls on his knees to tell Mitra Vinda how much he loves her,but she's already dead by then.The scene in which his hand falls on the ground close to her and precisely then Mitra slips into the deep canyon is fantastically done.



Highlights:

* 'Magadheera' was released in 48 theatres and six multiplexes in Hyderabad on 31st July, with a staggering 241 shows everyday. Yes, 241 !! The number was mind-boggling, even if you factor that this is Telugu cinema's costliest film and stars Chiranjeevi's son, Ram Charan.
* The battle between KalaBhairava and the opposition's army.
* The Sound and SFX were clean
* Kajal looked stunning like a princess.
* The new villian did a good job.
* Casting:for once a telugu flick did not rely on the regular actors,the story demanded new faces;any regular characters would never have given you the feel it does now.

Letdowns:

* The movie resorted to some usual cliches but that is acceptable given the fact that it is a regional movie and is meant also for the masses,front-row-ers,people in small towns and cities.The producer has to get this money back.And,looks like it did the same ; it reportedly grossed close to 20Cr INR in the first week.Ghajini and now Magadheera, looks like whatever Allu Aravind is touching is turning into gold.
* Charan has to polish his acting even more.He looks pretty cold at times.More so for the family he hails from.
* I personally feel Charan's hair could have been styled better.Something to suit his jawline and complexion.
* The song which was supoosed to be the biggest crowd puller proved to score tad lesser than others.It was poorly mixed.But,it was compensated for by the dance.

Verdict:

4.5/5

A must watch,in a good theatre.Can be watched with the family,kids will like it even more.U/A might have been for the fight sequences which were violent in parts



* Current Mood: blank
* Current Music: Pehli baar