Loss of memory or inhumane apathy?

With the elections and IPL having surrounded us completely for the past couple of months we seem to have forgotten the larger issue at hand. Whatever happened to the 26/11 episode?! Ajmal has been on trial for over a month now and nothing has resulted out of that. The evidences and testimonials keep pouring in but somehow the judges haven’t taken a decision. Ajmal keeps getting the benefit of the top class security and newspapers and what not. His lawyer keeps defending him and with the silliest of points, has the advantage of delaying the whole decision making process. With entire Mumbai standing up collectively as witness to the gory incident, nothing seems to be sufficient for the judges to simply sentence the man for an eternity of hell!

Why is this so? I was outraged when the decision to put him on trial was announced. Clearly, that didn’t help much. But now with the trial going on, I just pray that it ends soon. We can’t go on like this.

It is unfair to the brave policemen and commandos who died saving us.
It is unfair to the foreigners who stepped into this land for a vacation.
It is unfair to the commuters on CST who didn’t know what awaited them.
It is unfair to the relatives of those unfortunate ones who didn’t see the light of the day.
Why the hell do we have to be so fair to this one man, then?!

From November 26, 2008 to the current date, we complete 6 months after the tragic incident. Bloody half a year! People seem to suffer from a severe lack of memory. What happened to the peace march initiatives? What happened to the ‘Bash the Government’ campaign?

Or is it the sad fact that we just don’t care?!

Get a Life!!!

One more time, just once more, if any reporter asks Karisma Kapoor or Sharmila Tagore about how they feel about Saif or Kareena becoming a part of their family, I swear I am going to tear off that page! They are driving me through the wall. They are driving me nuts. They are slowly killing me.

Dude, just get married!! And give us all a break about the daily or rather minutely happenings in your life. We are simply not interested! We don’t want to know about how Saif flew across the seven oceans to celebrate your birthday or what name you gave your pet or what you did for Kareena when she broke her nail! We don’t want to listen to Karan Johar giving accounts of your heavenly relationship or a full length page in HT Cafe dedicated to your love. You are madly in love-good for you! But kindly spare us!

P.S: Not that I care but change your ‘Saifeena’ tag-it’s oh-so-girly.

Defending the Champions...

World cup T20 is just a few days away and I am so excited. This time’s performance is going to be spectacular (I hope) for our team is packed with some werewolves. We have some awesome players in our team and that just makes it better. With R P Singh, M S Dhoni, the Pathan duo and Pragyan Ojha, it’s going to be a blast.

I really really really hope that we win the title again as the T20 Champions. Having said that, I just wish that more than winning the title, they give a consistent and fantastic performance in all the matches. I hope they don’t become smug in their attitude. As I said earlier, it’s not the performance on that one particular day but it is the consistency of excellence that matters.

The Season of Joy

The beautiful season is on its way. I simply love the rainy season. The beautiful weather, the raindrops, the birds chirping, the blooming plants, the happy faces-oh! Yes, of course, winter too is adorable but this is simply the best time of the year. During school times, rains meant unexpected holidays, splashing water and playing in the rains while returning home. It also meant shopping with mom for new umbrellas and dad shouting at us to carry our books and cell phones in plastic bags. During college, too, it meant the same.

I still remember the wonderful times when I used to come to class a little early just so that I could get a seat next to the window. And then it would rain and the wind would bring a little bit of rain to my terrain. Studying becomes a fun thing in the rain. At home, when it rains heavily, I sit on my rocking chair in the balcony. Supplement that with some pleasant music and a good book. Picture perfect. Mom makes pakodas and says that it is the best dish for the season (she makes that all year round with different excuses!)

Floods are a normal phenomenon for us in any area. Howmuchever they trouble us and bring the city to a standstill, I have somehow become fond of them. No rainy season is complete without its dose of floods. Offices are shut, schools and colleges closed, everybody at home having a good time and the best part of all this is that it is not planned! Bang in the middle of the week, this unexpected surprise comes with unexpected joy.

When it rains and I am gleefully walking in the rain, all I can think of is this one song which I first heard in Spiderman-“Raindrops keep falling on my head”. I don’t know who wrote it, who sang it and what is the rest of the song. All I know is that, these are the 4 months I wait desperately for, every year.

We the People

This Sunday, dated 10th May’s episode of ‘We the People’ was good. Thought provoking. The discussion was about how India awaits an Obama. Obama is a strong and level headed fellow who knows exactly what to do and how to get it done. And somewhere, all of that is lacking in our Indian leaders.

Kiran Bedi was one of the jury. She brought out a good point. She said that India doesn’t want Obama. India doesn’t want the man. But what India wants, what India needs is an individual who represents his set of values, his leadership skills, his personality. How true! It’s not the man, but it is what makes the man.

One of the most striking topics of discussion was Mayawati. Clearly, there was an ‘anti-Mayawati for Prime Minister’ air in the room. Nobody could even sit to imagine Mayawati as the Prime Minister of India, as somebody who will represent the country on a global level.

What disturbed me was that, hold your breath, Mayawati was compared to Obama. The sentence went-IS MAYAWATI THE NEXT OBAMA?

I know it left you disturbed as well. But apparently they have some logic behind it. Obama is the man who represents the black Americans and he has done and will do a lot to bring them into better light. In the same way, Mayawati is the one who represents a different class. A different caste. By becoming the Prime Minister, she will uplift the Dalit section of the society and bring about a ‘change’ that we all are looking for. Whatever! I am just surprised (read: shocked!) that Mayawati has been compared to Obama on national television!

My sympathies are with...

None of the other IPL teams have had their owners promoting it to this extent. Shahrukh Khan has done his considerable bit and I guess even more than that for his team’s publicity. Walked the ramp at the Lakme Fashion Week, got special uniforms designed along with a custom designed and a trendy (so he says!) hand sling, endorsed Sprite with two or three ads with his team, been there for every match cheering for the losing team, chalked out a strategy for his team that was unique and different from any other team’s strategy. Unfortunately, all of it backfired. And how!

Poor guy. I really feel bad for him because he was really excited about the whole thing. If he wouldn’t have been, then he wouldn’t have shelled out the moolah on his team’s promotion. Although I am sure that IF his strategies would have worked out, he would have been praised endlessly for taking all the bold steps. The audience and the critics sure have their own way of bringing somebody to ground as well as sending them on cloud number 9.

But Shahrukh, as always, the good humoured guy, is confident of increasing his dancing appointments at weddings to cover up for everything. And it is heard that he is accepting birthday party invitations also!

The IPL Fever caught me too!

Cricket has developed a new meaning post-IPL. It’s been just two years that the craze of T20 form of cricket started but wow! It has grown tremendously. But then again, in India, just cricket in any form is welcome.

Like a good Mumbaikar, I was all for Mumbai Indians right from the start but as I am seeing match after match, I have changed loyalty (the cheerleaders are so b-a-d!!). Now I am all for Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. What wonderful teams. What great teamwork and aggressive performance. Simply brilliant! What is worth appreciating in both these teams is that they are ace in batting as well as bowling and not just in any one field. And yes of course, speaking of that, they are good in fielding also, unlike, well...I don’t want to say anything about the team that everybody thrashes gleefully.

Even if team Rajasthan or team Chennai don’t win the finals, they are already winners for me. Because in the end, it’s all about performance on a consistent level and not just on that one final deciding day, ain’t it?

For the Unknown...

If I know what love is, it is because of you, my love.
So naive. So immature. So unsophisticated. Yet so charming.
In friendship, you want the other person’s good. In love, you want the other person.
Patience is a virtue you have exploited. The simple lack of you is more than others’ presence.
Falling in love is so very hard on the knees.
I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times, in life after life, in age after age forever. Some call it madness, I call it love.
Within you, I have lost myself. Without you, I find myself searching to be lost again.

As Plato said, at the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.

Roadies comes to an end. What will I write about now?!

Roadies has come to an end. My god! Now what will I do on Sundays? Maybe, that’s too much of an exaggeration, but still, I always used to look forward to watching it. It’s full of action, loads of bitching, fun tasks and lots of unintentional comedy.

Nauman Sait won! Yayy! I am so happy because I particularly like this fellow. I am not in love with him, of course, but I feel he was the only dignified Roadie on the show. He always kept to himself, did not indulge in politics, maintained his sanity on the show and performed his tasks well. So I am really very happy that he won. Because he deserved to.

Another thing that I am happy about is that his final competitor was Kiri and not Palak. That dame is a pain in the..err..neck. I am still surprised as to how she survived till so long. Anyway, we are glad of the fact that she was not in the top two. Even if she was, there was no possibility that she could have done the final task. And even if she would have, she would have blasted our eardrums with her yelling. Another thing worth mentioning is the face-off between Raghu and Palak. Wow is the word for that! Finally, somebody gave her what she deserved! And then, the dramatic fainting act that she put up after running away from the scene, deserves a round of applause. She is capable of joining the league that the current bad actors have started. Clap clap clap!! Anyway, this post is not to express my joy about Palak getting thrashed and getting out, it’s about Nauman-The Man (cheesy, I know, couldn’t come up with a better one)

On a slightly different note, I didn’t like Roadies-Hell Down Under much. In isolation, it was just fine. But in comparison to Roadies 5.0, it was pathetic. The tasks were okay and some were really stupid. They weren’t even tasks! I particularly didn’t like the Rajasthani dance task (it was so silly and nothing competitive about it) or the coffin task where Devarshi got blasted from Raghu (the task was highly dramatised) Roadies 5.0 had better tasks in totality.

The contestants were BAD in this season. Devarshi was not at all funny and in fact, was extremely irritating. Palak-well, I have said enough about her. Paulomi, I guess wanted to go for airhostess training but by mistake, gave the Roadies audition. It’s okay. We know, only she is capable of making such a mistake, but why did Raghu and Rajiv make a mistake of selecting her?! Bobby is pretty but she couldn’t do a single task properly. Sandeep and Pradeep were ace in plotting but tasks-yawnnn...Samrat was the only one I had some faith in for performing tasks but man, what a disappointment he was! But his performance post-vote out was brilliant. (However, Ranvijay’s reactions were even more brilliant!) Roop, Varisha and Natasha were boring. Since they were good-looking, I didn’t mind them much. Tamanna was decent and she was fairly good in her tasks also. Kiri was okay but then his task in the end was very good. The best was Sufi. However, I liked him after his comeback, because after that he was a changed man. Before his first vote-out I don’t even remember noticing him!

So, all in all, I feel this season was a little thanda. Yet again, howmuchever I criticise the show, I watched it religiously every week without missing it and discussed it enormously with one of my friend (who also, didn’t like this season but watched it regularly like me)

Double standards, you see!

Supplementary reading for sure...

HT Cafe, the supplement that comes along with Hindustan Times, has articles written by a host of celebrities every day. Imran Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Madhur Bhandarkar, Ranvijay, Anushka Shankar write in the daily because they know that people won’t read it otherwise:):):)

The paper says that Imran caters to the young readers and that he is the Youth Icon. Ya sure! Who is interested in what he writes and what he feels about various things in life?! I am not, for sure! To top it all, he has an open discussion with Priyanka about hordes of topics-handbags being a major item of discussion.

I feel it’s a waste of time to read this and a greater waste of paper to print it. Why can’t they take their arguments and ‘funny’ discussions to their private blogs which is limited to only those people who are interested in following it? I am just a little strong in my opinion on this particular topic but it’s just that after reading awesome articles by Vir Sanghvi, Swaminathan Aiyar, Barkha Dutt, Karan Thapar-articles by our ‘youth icons’ make up for a foolish read.

Jaggu and Tarana rock

I am a major fan of Good Morning Mumbai hosted by Jaggu and Tarana on 94.3FM. This particular excerpt, from one of the aired programmes was hilarious.

Tarana: Everybody is throwing shoes at important people.
Jaggu: You are worried someone will throw a shoe at you?
Tarana: No, no. I am not important enough. The point is I’d like to get into the act and throw some shoes myself.
Jaggu: At whom?
Tarana: So many people. Like my car cleaner for losing my keys. My dhobi for messing up my clothes and the traffic cop at Worli for fining me.
Jaggu: It doesn’t work if you throw it at non-famous people. The point doesn’t get made publicly. And what will happen is that they will be upset with you.
Tarana: Arre, then who?
Jaggu: Important people, who make news. Like politicians, actors and celebrities.
Tarana: Okay, then I will aim for the politicians who buy votes, the actors who refuse to retire and the celebrities who no one knows why they are famous.
Jaggu: That will be a lot of people!
Tarana: The more the merrier.
Jaggu: I want no part of this.
Tarana: Of course you are involved. I’ll be throwing your shoes.
Jaggu: Why the hell would you do that?!
Tarana: Let’s face it, you shoes are ugly, might as well throw them away and do a good deed side by side. We can’t waste my expensive ones on this exercise.