Few lighter moments

Was chancing across a few interesting pictures and thought I will fix it for a lighter moment.

LOL - Funny


Hahaha... can't see you grow soon !
Oh the darn Texans !




Manager's speech before getting drunk!

Hahaha...
Phew ! Lucky guy.

Ever since I was born, this has been in my mind.

Oh yea.

Lesson to all girls. Animals are no joke LOL.

LOL - Way funny.
Dedicated to Vidya !

Oh yea! Know what you are talking?

One more !

There he goes again.. LMAO.



And remembering PS :-]
My-my... Poor guy LOL.

Whacha thinking!

Cute guy !


Welcome to India !!!!


Welcome to an Arab Country/Muslim Country!


Long live budda!!!
The guy is unbelievable LOL..

Horny Elephant(Bachelor) - Who does not like women?

Oh! Are you an Idiot or an Ignorant or a Hypocrite?

Every time I read news about our politicians and ministerial representatives being moral police and holding strong to the cliché “Treat-women-with-respect” adage, it pisses me off beyond control even more. This time around, they have banned two ads - Lux Cozy Underwear and Amul Macho Underwear. Why? They call this inappropriate and both have been prohibited for transmission or retransmission on all broadcasting platforms with immediate effect. Now, who are we kidding? The expressive lady in the ad did what is the obvious and that the underwear was durable enough to stand the tests!! Here we are talking about a straight forward ad which has nothing to do with anyone. Rather it is quite funny the way it is depicted but hello, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry is jobless and they got to clamor at something every once in a while to show their presence.

Why is any form of expression pertaining to sex considered appalling by the viewers in the country? Why is it that parents just don’t want to talk about sex to their children?

The government first banned a channel – AXN (when they showed The World's Sexiest Advertisements), then FTV and now these petty ad works. Wait a minute if you are so protective about the so called “women”, then why is it that the most gory, hurting and shameful incidents happen to your women folk in the country? Why is it that a teenaged girl from a reputed public school becomes pregnant of six months as a result of her sexual relationship with a friend of class XI? Why is it that a 10 year old was eve teased by 20+ year old youngsters and inspite of being run over by the car, why is it that no action was taken against these perpetrators until the media intervened? And umpteen number of disturbing news. Bottom line – Educate people and do what it takes to spread the word – Sex Education. Unless that happens the urge to hump anything and everything that moves is going to continue. The general inquisitive looks will turn to lengthy stares at the obvious in all girls will continue. Wait a minute there is a flip side to it, more information describing the anatomy might mislead the kids. Heck! Who are we kidding? No one is a saint and if the kids know the information and the repercussion of doing a particular act least they can do is to be informed and know how to protect them. It is all about PROTECTION and being SAFE to know when you are being sexually attacked. End of story. I think these sums up our idiocy to the core when it comes to educating the citizens.

It is for this reason that we are still thousands of miles away from the actual civilization (barring the Middle East communities). When the CBSE wanted to introduce sex education in their curricula, there were out bursts from the teaching fraternity that it was a bit uneasy subject. Hello! What is so funny and being ashamed about? It is nothing but telling the kids that they are growing old and there is going to be some kind of metamorphosis, and few things that everyone should know so that they atleast know what “Molestation” is or atleast when someone tries to do something like that. And that is why teachers should be well qualified too. Education should matter from now on for every position. Unless we are educated, we just cannot talk issues openly. Every body knows this as well! When there was a “Vibrating Condom” released to the market, there was an immediate outcry. Why? It is a sex toy and so the hippocratic ministers in-charge, felt they would be used for a wrong cause. Hello! What the hell is wrong with that pea sized brain of these people? Every developed country has a sex toy store and I feel it is most right to have them as well. Besides what is the big deal! Hippocratic society we live in is the reason for such a wasted life. We continue to rot.

What we do wonderfully by shunning away from these topics is:

1. Create unawareness among the children growing up and not letting them know what organs are “responsible” for “what” and how to be aware of sex.
2. Continue to cocoon the kids in a “mystic and hippocratic” society that “know less about sex information” is best for me.
3. Not being open to future and the forth coming generation pass on the wand of ignorance and hypocrisy to theirs doing nothing good to anyone.
4. Putting the growing kids in a spot by not preparing them to sense a sexual assault. They are as able as a newly born gazelle when the sexual predators target them.

We are living in a society where we still cry foul if we talk about condoms, sex toys and finally sex. End result is out there in black and blue as an outcome of our ignoramus life we have led so far – India ranks 2^nd in world population and 3^rd in HIV cases. The guys and gals just are equally clueless when it comes to sex for their first time after marriage. Strangely so, sex is LEGALLY allowed only after marriages. And when someone film star talks about women/men losing virginity before marriages, then it hits the headlines for a tangential reason. A PIL – Public Litigation is issued when the lady spoke bold! Yea back to them point even before they know each other the newly wed soon become parents for 2 and they still DON’T know how to please their partner and this is the end of their sex lives and their adventure (forceful) starts in public transportations where they get to express their enormous sexual feeling on other passengers! Sad story this is ONLY because of keeping every one in the dark when it comes to sharing the obvious. This only leads to ignorance and ignorance is never bliss, I tell you.

I have many of my educated friends – liberal ones who strongly feel this move was worthless and baseless. There are a few who still feel living in the cocooned up life by not talking about sex to their family is the best way to it. I feel in the end the onus is left to us on how you want to have a “real” educated life and the boon and bane nomenclature is best described by us. In the end, are we Idiots not to talk about sex and yet be top ranked with HIV cases and preemptive abortions and child abuse? I don’t know if we speak openly about issues such as these would classify as a truly educated and responsible citizen. I don’t know.

In the end, who am I, Dudleybouy – Am I an idiot, an ignorant or a hypocrite?

P.S:

Some information which might look like I have contrived is echoed by a news article “Here”. Which only means the feeling is right :-]

My virgin effort on mixing my favorite series and Coldplay - Ashes 2005.

Oh here is my favorite song, my favorite team - Aussies PLUS one of the fantastic series ever to be played - Ashes 2005. And here is the run up for the series from my favorite site - Wiki. I liked Coldplay's Fix You - from X&Y, which would be the background music.

History behind the game - Ashes is a cricket match which is more of a pride at stake which the Aussies and the poms put on the game when they play. England v Australia is the oldest continuous international cricket fixture, dating back to the first meeting at Melbourne in March 1877. Fantastic ain't it?

A few pictures from the infamous series ever played, which critics hailed as one of the all time best. England regained the Ashes by beating Aussies 2-1 with a match draw.

(a) The Ashes - As big as palm !


(b) England celebrate the series - Fantastic to see the coverage live. What a match !

(c) Flintoff's hundred moment.


(d) When England had 4 runs to regain the Ashes.

(e) Clouds impregnated with lots of rain at TrentBridge.


And finally, the video I mixed. I am still in awe whenever I see it.

Pass me the new culture, Dudleybouy!

Being in Madras, a remotely cosmo city when I left India and to see what it is now after a while is heartening. Things seem to have reversed as is the case in all major metros in the country. For instance, I was in a restaurant, a calm one at that outside the city about say 50 KM's mark for my dinner and I for once felt I was truly in a cosmopolitan city. The table behind me was reserved by folks from Middle east, a big family that, the table to my left was by a few over-the-hill aged Americans and a table in front of me was occupied by a "single" American and in a far off place an North Indian family. Now, maybe the place I went is a very posh kinda expensive one but heck this was not it was a few years ago. Interesting, if this was one thing, the walk in the mainstay city was another story. Every time you would easily see a young blonde walking past with her mobile phone in her hands, or couple of laid back folks from Europe doing the road stunts trying to run from one side of the road to another, or go to a ice cream joint, viola, foreigners again trying to soak in the ambiance whilst rummaging the joint to eventually settle down near a corner over looking the road spot. And then slowly take out their laptops and start playing with that with a frequent giggle. Oh! then you always got the Generation Y kids as well making their mark.

And I slowly take in all these changes and smile deep down at the transformation not just by the inflow of international citizens but also how much things seem to have changed within the country as well. Cool sneakers, cool gadgets, cool fashion statements and the exposure these young men and women get will definitely make them a good competition at the highest level .. Man, I love this all changes which has been eluding the city.

Interesting to say that this would not have been possible if not for the market doing well in the IT front which is aiding ALL other fields of interests indirectly in a big way. A statistics taken across the world would show that Indians are the optimistic ones when it comes to being consumers of any goods/products or with their life. Why? Because of the surplus money they have right now. People feel taxed at work, take a 3-4 days off to fly to Thailand for a body massage and a good vacation, flying to Singapore/Malaysia for a vacation WITH the family when the kids have a summer break, if no time to go to any other country they spend good sizable bucks on being "metro sexual" and that is the new age gender classification and men are not scared to accept that classification, or honey moon to exotic places and finally when they have a feeling of been there done it all, they go to Africa to see the other part of life where people struggle to make two ends meet (Not to say everyone in India are better off, but the statistics is based of the folks in the echelon unit of the society). Brands are no longer a strange word in this new culture. Louis Vuitton to Prada to Puma to Ego to Hugo Boss to Tagheur to eat outs to hang out options to what not. The country is now in a metamorphosis trying to grapple and hug all the brands & all the newer things which is a common in a "Developed" country and passing on a new flavor of life to the new age Generation X and Y Indians. Oh! plus the plush jobs and greater brands settling in India makes it that much more an interesting place to work.

Now to do a counter comparison, not many family in the US actually fly out to any other country for a vacation, perhaps the country has so much to offer to them. That is a different story but this comparison in itself is sufficient to just see how the culture has changed thus far. An air ticket is about 30 grands to Singapore and a family of 4 would be spending about a 0.1 million rupees for the air ticket alone which works to about 2000-3000 $. And that is a lot of money and not all get to do that abroad (may be within the country too, but things are changing and numbers are increasing). The term "Chauffeur" is a derogatory term in the Europe these days and we borrowed that and we use it to good effect that all corporates get pampered with a "Chauffeur" driven car. Where is this luxury any where else in the world? I would say NO WHERE else but India. That is what makes it an interesting proposition. Got bucks, learn to live like a real king sized life and get be grounded by this new economy driven by the youngsters and an intricate society values (shock and awe). Live in partners are not a strange awe word no more. Playing with multiple boyfriends or girlfriends now is an art which all the kids have mastered, work hard and spoil yourself and finally shout loud - One life mate. Live it king size. This is the new age Indian attitude - the new age culture.

If people are willing to work and not make money by seeking alms and change in attitude of the people over respecting people for who and what they are and finally respecting the dignity of labor then I think this is the best place to be eventually. But mind you that is bloody, mighty big IF.

Pass this new culture to me dudleybouy !!

Bon Aprees Midi.

Book Review - Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie

This is one a very quick read through books and the history of the book since it was published is that it was on the New York's Best sellers list for about 4 years and now it is up for grabs and I think it is all worth the money. I liked the way the author has written this book and how well, as a reader, you tend to agree passively to what the old professor says about life, about death and everything else we did in our life. Fantastic was one word but I had a big lump to swallow coz I did not know how to react to death and that too people who are close to a person. The author does that part of intertwining the reader to that of a character in the book. I felt so good and so lost when I read the book that I had been like the guy, Mitch who comes to his old prof. I had been hunting for the lost gold like a mad man, working late and hard and took life very seriously until this year which is when I packed my bags to come out of US. But that apart, I never had a good teacher like this person Morrie which made me feel even worse.

When I was in my high school, I had a math teacher in high school who gave to eating and chit chatting when for real he had to teach us, I had an English teacher who used to called "Fish" - a "Piss" and thought "Atom Bombs" which people burst during the festive season will produce "Fission reaction" and that we should not burst anymore, I had a physics teacher who never used to teach, he used to live by taking crap and monkey pranks and eventually devoted most of his time on taking private tutorials to make most money and finally a biology teacher who hated men and loved women and he made that point so explicit in the class to an extend that he would tell the us that the class was to be held in another place and would take the girls to another class and the love bites start there. So all this sort of made me reminisce and rue the fact that I did not have a thoughtful teacher like Morrie through out my school days to colleges days.

The book is a good eye opener and should be about 7 $ in the US and the same paper back would cost us about 200 bucks in India. A neat casual read with occasional points to ponder will flush your system when you are done.

I will give it a 4 star on 5. Here is a review for this book - Review link.

Oh the SSSS stamp !

Ever wondered you see a strip scene on Television is not as exciting as it is when seen in real life say a public place? That is how the situation is these days when a South Asian flies to any developed country particularly to the UK. When I transited through London from the USA this year on April 06th 2007, the lady with sweet smiles at the customer counter issued me a ticket and had a quick look at me to check if I was a browny, asian accent, long hairs, goatie and quickly checked on her database for "Terrorist- look-alikes" and viola we got a match ! She then stamps SSSS - Selected for Secondary Security Screening. How much I love this stamp?

This invariably happens to all the flights bound UK coz they fear psychologically the South Asians and every Asian traveling in the British Airways would have a story to say ! Now what does SSSS stand for and why am I losing my sleep over it? This means you are a suspect, a potential terrorist, a person with suicidal tendencies (like I have been trying one since age 7!), who could take the whole plane down in a blaze of glory. A few passengers are randomly hand picked for this effort and I was the chosen one this time.

What follows is a completely dehumanising experience. One officer takes away your passport, another your hand baggage, the third looks at your personal belongings and the fourth takes you with him. A special machine that you pass through blows air from head to toe, in search of banned material. Your belt, shoes, wallet, chains, laptop are removed and tested for unwanted material. Even a beep would subject you to further humiliation. Then a chemical is anointed and blotched on litmus paper and the guy slowly opens the hand bag. The fear that the bag would blow up anytime. Then the guy holds the litmus paper in the corner for a while and the color remains unchanged would only give him positive vibes to proceed further more on each and every other stuff. Then finally the most awaited - public strip search. This happens in front of every other passenger while others pass by giving suspicious/sympathetic glances. Your bags are zipped out and returned with everything hanging out. My only companions fellow Asian travelers.

By the time the ordeal is over, I feel my bile rising. I'm returning home after a long and successful trip, but the smile is gone. My feet carried my body and pride to an isolated place. I felt violated, mutilated and molested. As I wear my belt, tuck my shirt in and wear the shoes, I feel like a streetwalker, being bedded against my will. These are the new-age security measures but I look at them with increasing suspicion. Why only the Asians, all the time? I understand where the fear is . Thanks to the same complexioned terrorists who are doing no good to the people here. Welcome to the New Age Air Travel Procedures !

Come to talk about security paranoia, there were very many other close to harassment issues and I am not really against them primarily because that is the only way they can check 'who is who' but make the check a common thing for all the people that travel. Don't hold Asians alone and suggest married Indian Women to either remove their (Thalli) Magal Sutra else a personal check and that is no way to treat a legal travel passenger. Perhaps that is one reason why I don't feel much interested these days thinking about traveling to developed country. Not that I was striped every time but my pride is much above than everything. We would be tolerant to this strip search until there is some peace around and people don't walk around with guns or bombs. That is the present state of the world these days. Imagine doing this to a BLACK AMERICAN? He/She would bring the whole world down.

Since Asians - Mostly seem to be docile and law abiding we take it by the chin but the damage is already been done by the same colored terrorists. We have to go through this procedure and should you ever be "Hand picked" for a glorious procedure like this, remember the saying - "When rape is inevitable, lay back and enjoy".

Thoughts - Lotsa them this time

This time around it seemed like I don on a thinking cap bolstered by "wonderful" events around us kept me grappling with myself plus the joy of working Monday to Friday (!) kept me busy. So the thought below is what I had been questioning myself with, justifying and opposing myself, whenever I got a chance to think. Eventually I decided to write it down and there by throw the monkey off my back. Now that you would start thinking.

Thought 1 - The Indian Muslim doctor gets a meaty sentence in Australia. Prolly a good 15 years behind the bars and the guy is 27 years old and the lady to whom he is married to has just delivered a baby and they are in Bangalore, India ruing the misfortune. Now any sympathies for this family? I think what Australian folks have done is the right way to handle crime and extremism. I have nothing against anyone but they factual presentation would make sense what has happened thus far is the right step forward. Before that just to brief a few regularities which are followed in other countries so that it makes sense what people "innocently" do to expose their "ignorance". Penny wise pound foolish is the most appropriate adage for the context now.

Now, every other country other than India, has this extreme sense of their Identify protection. Even as a foreigner to any developed country, a little interaction is all it takes to understand what that means to you and your subsequent stay. Unlike here, any screw up with your score would be very very detrimental in the stay. In that lieu, the guy in context hands the SIM card and other related documentation to another "Indian" when he was leaving the UK. Atleast, if the guy had something called a brain, he would have called the wireless company to inform something like this and thereby the subsequent billing address changes and you can get off the hook. And wireless companies do approve of such move when you have leave the country, you can transfer the number and the instrument. Sometimes stingy and conservative Indians, would like to bring home or where ever they go the 'imported' handset and there by do an under table transaction and just get the SIM card transfers done to ANY other Indian and I have seen many a time something like this being done. Because of these cheap gains, a real culprit can go scout free ! So the hero of the story says he gave SIM card to his "Cousin - Terrorist" and not knowing what they were upto and let it go thinking all is well.

Now, the guy in question, is held back as an aftermath to what happened when his "relative" had bombed an airport in Glasgow. The Aussies have had their own unique way of interrogation and had concluded that, "Any allegiance with an extremist group either with an intent or unknowingly is culpable". Now this is a good eye opener to all immigrants/native people that make a mistake and the government is going to rap the finger. Fantastic decision but at the same time I feel awfully awkward about the family back home. No one ever wants to live 15 years in solitude and separation and life to them is not going to be the same after this. Trust me. I feel bad for them. Hey, that is what happens when we end up mixing with a wrong company. So don't blame anyone [OR] ask the premier to represent your case. Hats off to the Australian organization/working committee for taking time to frame charges.

I have this Plethora of thoughts as always on the efficacy of the Indian administration without sounding to deride their policies. What would we do when we had to encounter a decision making situation like this? What can we really do? July 07 2006, is a year old and we are still playing around with a huge list of documentation against the "supposed" terrorist list. This just sums up our ability as a country. By writing this powerful line, I don't mean to sound like a unpatriotic person. I love the country as much as any other fellow Indian. But I am clueless when the administration ends up being bemused as much as I am, as a citizen. It appalls me then and I lose hope on these people helping us out under any circumstance. Look how much time Australia took to protect its citizen with a futuristic thought playing their mind - What if this happens here in the future? And we would work on a situation when it presents itself to us.

To quote-unquote a business magazine once said, "India's development is despite the government whereas development in China is because of the government". What a powerful, meaningful line this is. Is'nt it? But sadly this is the truth with the government bending the back when it wants and flexing it when it feels. Shri. Narayanan Moorthy, Infosys founder said, "It is the red tapeism in the bureaucratic rule is the major impediment to the success". And now because of all these the damage is done - Indians are also going to be singled for each and every search when they try to board a plane that flies abroad. I wish the terrorists were of a different color to mine in that way I would not be forced to go through the brunt like this. Thanks to these moronic families and people. Just to make it official, "I HATE YOU GUYS !".

Run up of the events pertaining to the Glasgow attacks is "Here".

Thought 2: How many obese people do we find around us? They would confess for themselves that they look a bit different to the rest of the clan around. They want and feel the need to lose weight and every nook and corner now has a fair enough facilities with a Gym center. But the want speedy recovery so they choose several crude forms of removing body fat. Liposuction, the most common and the deadliest form of removing body fat. Your body after the operation undergoes so much changes and so much pain. Jeesh... If this was one sorry tale, there is something called Stomach Stapling, which is more about stapling and reducing the size of the stomach so that you don't feel hungry quite very often. And the last of all surgeries for this mess is through a Laparoscopic surgery.

My thought to all this, if you are so keen to shed weight there are ulterior better ways to do so. Why resort to such painful ways? The chances of survival because of the pain is unbelievable. Sadly, half the crowd that undergoes such surgeries don't know if for any reason they would be in a trauma later.

Off late, the floating money around many a people is making people to endorse such operations which is a killer to a large extend. I detest and loathe such surgeries.

Follow the formula, Body work out = Weight loss.

Thought 3 : Ever spared a thought for a country as small like Japan? Oh you ask what about them? Well, then they are one country where Earth quake is a more or less a regular affair and their system which predicts it and eventually the Tsunamis and how they handle it. The natural killers. Oh the uneventful Nuclear Bombing and little over 60 years of that act and now the small country has gone leaps and bounds and one of the fore running champions of the world be it anything. But for English though :-)

Such a small country and so much of development. Sheer hardwork and passion to excel their personal lives.

Compare India with Japan. More or less same time we had for the development and what we have excelled so far is in the population and having extreme percent of Emotional thoughts.

I sincerely hope we make good use of the present trend and make a mark for ourself and not make a big fool out of ourself after the IT burst.

Heck! who cares what I think and say. But these are truth to a relative extend if you think about it with a sane mind and not with an emotional heart. Development is never attained by being emotional just being rational at this point of time is the only way forward to go anywhere. I, am really inquisitive now about where the development for Tsunami Warning System stands at. They said when they started that it would be in an execution mode by 2010 or so. I will do some research on that later :-)

Until then, these were my rustic thoughts for the past six days.

Adios and wish you all a successful and eventful week with lots of peace to your mind. Stay beautiful and smile as much.

Worship at will?

The news at a glance column in the "Economist" reveals quite a few interesting thought processes followed within a bunch of religious tolerant countries. ANY measure of freedom may be open to criticism, and combining three separate measures—religious, political and civil—may seem more arbitrary yet. But the efforts of the Religious Centre for Freedom, using rankings from other sources, provide some intriguing comparisons. It is no shock that the likes of North Korea and Iran are intolerant of all sorts of freedoms, while America is just as easy-going over religion as it is concerning political freedoms. But look at India, Indonesia and some European countries: tolerance of civil and political rights is not matched by quite the same freedom to worship.

Comparing Bangalore and Madras

No I am not going to call these marvelous cities as Bengaluru and Chennai :-( I don't like that very much. I thought the name was more suave to start with and they changed the name because of the linguistic feeling. Anyway, the thought was to just check why there is a disparity between the two cities when they are so awefully close to Madras. So I did a basic research on the temperature and a few little factual presentation from World Bank Site as well.

On the temperature front, here's is why Bangalore has the nose ahead of Madras. When it comes to the Average High(s), Madras is about 7-8 deg hotter than Bangalore PLUS there is a humidity factor which has a telling blow. On the average low(s), Bangalore is about roughly 10 deg cooler than Madras. Ain't that a big deal straightaway.

This is the tabular difference between the two metros (Oh Yea, Bangalore and Hyderabad are India's new Metros) - Per the stats from World Bank. But someone was saying that by year 2010, Madras would overtake Bangalore in the export revenues. But heck! Bangalore city has a better work culture and better crowd any day compared to Madras. My head is slightly tilted towards Bangalore as I wait to see if the change in infrastructure and everything surrounding it changes in Madras, then perhaps I will change my mind then.

Very touching article/slide show

This Article is about the Impact of July 11, 2006 blasts on an innocent family in Bombay in which the Father worked hard for his family, Mother was a happy wife and a good mother to her children and the two sons were the chirpy and dreamy about their future. This has changed ever since the attack a year back.

Sometimes we wonder who is responsible for spineless and culpable acts of terror and we are still soul searching - everyone. This is one reason why I think the premiers to each of the countries fighting terror to act responsibly. It is not about pointing fingers at some religion. But if the perpetrators are part of a religion then there is no harm we point fingers to stop the issue from proliferating. I was so hurt by the public statement made by prime minister Dr. Manmohan singh about feeling "hurt" and "could not sleep" seeing a "terrorist's" mother speak. Now, I want him to read the article and NOT miss any of the lines and tell me if he can sleep well today. I was so moved and touched by the family in question and how much of pain, how much of agony. I am spellbound and wanted to link this article in the site not to show what I think differently about the whole process but to be of some help to the family. The family has hope that some doctor, any where in the world would be able to provide a solution to their son who has been lifeless for 10 months :-(

Please spread the word and I am doing my part and I do it with a feeling of let down as well by the government. Here we are in the first year of the attack and there has been no news about the perpetrators. If this was one end of the blunt knife, the other end was equally appalling. The government has not reached out to the families of the victims of the blast and those who were killed in this dreadful blasts, what laid in front of the families of the kith and kin was unbelievable. The jobs to an extend of cleaner, porter and what not were offered to the families as a "replacement" job. I know the victim may not have held high posts but to have the women and children related to the victim do the work of a porter or a cleaner in a railway platform is demeaning. A cleaner job was offered to a victim's daughter who was holding a MCom degree !

Who is to be blamed? I don't know. This CAN ONLY happen in India and that is one reason why I don't like the audacity of the people here. The take it easy attitude on each and everything around hurts. It is this callous behavior when you want the government to show they care that they turn their backs. What would have happened if it was USA? What would have happened if it was UK? Things might be different. We are yet to find solutions and remedies for actions that has happened a year back and we thump our heart to claim we are the largest democracy and people are happy.

Am sad and I am not a happy camper.

P.S - I was wrong to say there were no signs of the perpetrators. It seems that Anti Terrorists Squad had submitted 10,667 page charge sheet four months after the blasts. The link is "here".

2007 Urban agglomerated populace at a glance

I was looking at a rather interesting site "City Mayors" which had very many interesting facts on display.This bubble map below shows the global distribution of top 400 cities with atleast 1,000,000 inhabitants in 2007. (Courtesy Wikipedia - Metropolis)

Wow! Look at India and interestingly the East Asia for growth. For me the most interesting fact on this display is that of China. But for the already expanded cities, Beijing and Shanghai, there are not many cities which is growing at a break neck pace, in terms of population density. This surely means there are a few stiffer regulations in place in the communist country and they don't like being called "Most populous country" I reckon. Another parallel comparison would be look at the Asia-Pacific belt, look at the growth in Australia and New Zealand for a change ! And to while away your time places like Mongolia, Central Africa depicts a grim and a solemn picture and sadly so the life style and opportunities does not seem to change for any futuristic growth. Real sad facet in the world map at this point of time.

For your benefit, here's the Link to get the list of fast growing cities with respect to Urban Agglomeration.

Follow up blog notes

The news link "here" is the same absolute thought I had when I had posted a blog note on Thursday, July 05, 2007,and on July 09, it seems to have been a thought reflection from someone else.

The news link "here" is another representation on how callous the government of India is when it comes to celebrating the moment. This time it is about being a worry that Taj has become one of the wonders of the world !

Match day versus French Class and the big news !

Oh the weekend French classes that I have enrolled for seem to be very interesting both for the language and the class which is so cool with heavy enrollment from the opposite sex, which makes me not to miss any class ** Chuckle **

This is my first of the many foreign languages that I intend to read and feel comfortable about and it is very interesting language.

But today is a match day for me and I would not be able to attend the class - Boo hooo [:-(] since when I started to feel so passionate about any class. Is it because of the girls in the class? May be but heck nothing is going to stop me from the game today. It is the most waited game for me after I moved back to India and I was straight away into the Cricket Team as the most loved position - Wicket Keeper/Middle order right hand bad. The best part is that the climate too has been mild here in this part of the woods clocking about a 30-31 deg C. Hey this is REASONABLE in this place called furnace. Usually it is HOT.

If that was some news, did you know finally Taj Mahal is in the world's wonders. Finally. In a colourful ceremony in the Portuguese capital Lisbon to coincide with the date 07.07.07, the new wonders of the world were announced and it is quite interesting the details.

For the benefit to you, these are the wonders of the world from now on:

The Colosseum, Rome

The Pyramid of Chichen Itza, Mexico

Machu Picchu, Peru

Taj Mahal, India

Statue of the Christ Redeemer, Brazil

Petra, Jordan

The Great Wall of China

Among the places left out were Acropolis in Athens,The Statues of Easter Island in Italy, Cambodia Angkor, Hagia Sophia in Turkey, Eiffel Tower in Paris, Statue of Liberty in New York, Russia Kremlin and St Basil's Cathedral and Australia's Sydney Opera House. But Pyramids in Egypt never tried to even nominate itself. Because they felt it is unique in it's own way and that it never has to be classified as anything. Interesting.

More news about this can be found in this news site - here.

I would want to see every place that is mentioned above to know what our civilizations in the past did for us. I don't care whether it is in the wonder list or not. It is so nice to see them I think. Hey, the mood is for the Match and in that high, expected note, I sign off.

P.S: Update at 9:30 PM - We won the game today though it was a HOT HUMID conditions to play, I was involved in getting a Run Out and was the highest scorer in my team with 48 runs and we won the quite comfortably. BTW we were chasing 120 runs [:D] in 20 overs. Now, don't forget to congratulate.

P.S Edit to include a song for Taj Mahal.

Weekend- Movie Preview

I, watched this rather very interesting movie - Apocalypto directed by Mel Gibson in 2006 which won quite a bunch of awards for exceptional work. This movie was a very interesting one indeed. Per an review for this movie - The plot of the movie was the desire to portray and explore a culture as it existed before the arrival of the Europeans led Gibson and Safinia to choose the Mayans for their high sophistication and eventual decline.

Fantastic indeed and it was truly a bloody movie and with powerful visual effects and obviously an interesting and the usual Gibson movie. Quite a serious foreign language movie I have seen so far. The character of Jaguar Paw was the best. Oh well he was the main character to say the least :)

If you really have to see how much the Mayan civilization was self sustained be it medicine, science and yet religious and blind beliefs. Gibson has taken the movie quite nicely and interestingly goes to even show the religious beliefs and human sacrifice to wade away ill and prosperity to the colony. Fantastic to see them on the big screen. But I did not know anywhere in my research post the movie, that Mayan Civilization actually did human sacrifices, it was the Aztec culture during the Incas [OR] was it that the people in Mayan Culture slaved to be the religious sacrifice in Aztec? I would really like to know the relation. Anyway, back to the movie, I liked the scene - "The Eclipse" where the heat priest over looks his men pull out the heart from the slaves and cuts the head and the head rolls down an atleast 200-300 step architecture, mind blowing. Critics too had a few interesting comments on the Solar Eclipse showed in the movie and it can't happen that fast but hey it just a 2 hour film !

If you like foreign movies, this is a must watch and quite interesting indeed. Here are some pictures from the movie:

Until later, Take it easy.

Friday Entertainer, The fun day

My most days at work is feeling like a zombie and hearing people talk to me but reacting as though I am unable to conjure anything beyond my regular ways of being stoic and cometh the Friday things get reversed. Ever wonder why? I don't know.

My usual work day and how I am during those trying moments is summed up by this poster below [:D]

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. When the moment comes, Friday, I feel so good about the day no matter how I am being treated. I walk like Peter Gibbons in Office Space [:D], nothing hurts me any more and I can't wait for the clock to strike 4:30 and this day of this week was fun mainly because the network connection in the Floor where we work, ok pretend we work, conks out. Everything comes to a stand still. And we see hypocrites standing up from their "cubes of lives" and give out a frustrated feeling. How much we would like to do that? I love that part so much just blame it on the network that the proposal was not saved when you had almost finished it. DARN! And make a big deal but deep down the heart, the feeling of liberation, nothing beats that and today I was not alone in the party.

The entire office was like FCUK I lost my work and our boss was no stranger and he had his script too. And BTW my boss is just a carbon copy of the character Bill Lumbergh enacted by Gary Cole in Office Space. You know what I mean. My Boss had such a melancholic face and pretending he was giving it everything until the dreaded thing that cleaned up his week's work. Can you beat this statement the guy made? LOL. We knew the guy was also frustrated working LOL.

But in real terms, why is it that Friday excites people that work more than any other day? Hey I am not here for a reason, but I am loving it [:D]

Interesting law abiding people

I am going to talk about two instances of activities that seemed to have happened in as many days.

To start with, this seems like a news to me about a Rajkot woman walking semi-nude to get her divorce. Reason, she had been abused mentally and physically by her husband AND they wanted lotsa quids as "Dowry" ! So she decided to walk the talk and talk the walk by stripping to her under clothes through the city. BULL !!

Now now, since when the Indian penal court was in favor of the men when it came to Dowry cases. Don't take me wrong for sounding like a chauvinist but the fact is it is so lopsided. Considering how women were treated before time, it was most appropriate that the government came in favor by passing a Anti-Dowry Bill. If a lady walks and makes a statement, the son and the in-laws are behind the bars straight away. This was the reason why it sounds lopsided coz all it takes is just ONE complaint and without any offense to anyone, the person (even before knowing if he committed the crime) is behind the bars.

The lady in context could have just done that without embarrassing herself. She even protested to walk NUDE to the commissioner's office, if justice was not provided.

I could not but empathize her. Just for the fact that someone misguided her. She is young, brave and she could have just walked the cross roads to the police office and lodge a complaint. Dowry cases are acted on much faster than any other case. Instead of this, what she suggested to was nothing short of cheap thrill. Who cares if she walks nude or semi nude, the law will take the course and if ever she did something like what she had proposed, what was her next plan of action? The whole village would have seen her nude. How about calling that a food and a show LOL. Sometimes, emotional decisions would only end up being a butt of ridicule.

Looks like the in-laws and the husband are now in the jail. May justice be given to whichever group that was saying truth.

If this was a bigot or a rush of the moment decision, there was something more in store. The premier of India has made an appeal to UK and Australia about not stereotyping the Asian community - thanks to the Muslim Bombers. It was not just that, there was also a statement which was preposterous. He felt offended seeing a mother cry over his son's alleged link to the blasts. The other populist statement that was aired was - "He said that this could create a sense of alienation within the Muslim community, adding that he believed that the focus on a specific community and on these families was very, very unfortunate"

Now, how many innocent Indians have been killed before and how many mothers have cried and lamented the loss of their kins, did the premier feel offended then that made him think and feel out of words? What irks me most is this double standards & whammy which is completely clouded by political instincts and beliefs. India has definitely not been a stranger to terrorism (Thanks to the "Good" neighbors) and India is not going to lose first blood for time immemorial for a cheeky issue. But what is important is when the premier makes a visit and it looks like he is taking side for the minor religion, Muslim, which the politicians believe has a say in their ruling future. Governance is a different story and there is no need to take anyone's side. Everyone knows and will not dare say it thinking it might bring some wrong doing but hey we are not stigmatizing a particular community for the heck of it. There are evidence for their action which is appreciated by their own clergy. (The Britain attacks in July was appreciated by their own Muslim clergy, who has lived in UK for 27 years in a live television show last year).

This was like a shot below the belt. I think as a premier, I, the representative and a common citizen would expect kill blow shots like the perpetrators would be pounded and those alive to see them getting pounded will not want to do such ignoramus act which would be culpable to an extend that death is not going to be easy. Instead of that take the premier takes an easy route and in a fear India be categorized as a Country which has links to Al-Qaeda, taking sides is not a solution and WE will no more be happy watching the stage puppet shows like this.

Anyway, these were two different personalities each overshadowed by emotions - One thought running Nude was the way to get justice while the premier thought taking sides of the group was going to bring some mental solace to the community. Eventually, everything else is not bigger than the country and the way it has to be governed.

But sadly it is the vote banks that sit in the minds of the governing body more than anything else. Come down to Madras and see the reservations and you will be flabbergasted to even construe the actual need for such big reservation percentages and in spite of that the community, people have not taken to any wrong doings and I do recall how many children killed themselves knowing that they did not get the right percentage to follow their dream career and how many mother wept then. Where were these politicians then? It is a sad day today that the premier has made audacious claims knowing they are the accomplice !

This is my independent thought which may or may not go well with the reader from any place. If you feel that my thought in this note has caused any qualm, I apologize for the same.

Security issues - No problem says India Inc.

I was reading a rather innocuous looking news which chilled my spine eventually and as a follow up to my previous post this is one the main reasons why no attacks should be taken against people in India.

The crux of the matter is that no single airlines in India has a reliable security network. Despite airlines being top terror targets and despite repeated warnings from Indian security agencies & things that have been happening around us, airlines continue to cut costs on security bills with impunity.

The Link to this post says more than this and it is not a great feeling at all. It is feeling to make real quick bucks that makes the "golden goose" (India), the most vulnerable one !

Currency popularity

I was again looking at the economics of each country in the world and I stumbled upon an interesting site - XE.COM and particularly the popularity each country had as for as their currencies were concerned and the amount of transaction, world wide, the currency from a particular country was used. And Indian currency - Indian Rupee was valued at world wide position of 15 - A chutzpah !

But on second thoughts, just goes to show the weight of the three big powers - USD, Euro and Pound sterling, seems to be so much in control of the transactions. I, still feel, India can still throw the weight around and get past a few other minnows there ahead of her. However, having said that I am not very sure what has been the scale using which the percentages are arrived at. But so far it has been because of sheer hardworking community who had propelled the unit forward thus far. What is interesting is to see the Zimbabwe Dollar ranked at 74th position when the inflation rate in their country is about 4000% ! And I am very serious about that. It is true that they have that bad an internal situation now. And it is expected to hit the upwards of 6000% by the year end. Wonder how the people survive there.

Zimbabwe
Currency: Zimbabwean dollar (ZWD)
Inflation rate: 3,714 percent and rising
Exchange rate: Officially, 250 ZWD per US$1; unofficially, as high as 750 ZWD to the U.S. dollar.

If this is not it, I know ZWD is one of the worst currencies around - so a double header to be ranked as high as 74 for the transactions based on their currency and secondly to be the worst currency ! Look at their dollar bill for instance,



Anyway, I will cover this in a different note. Still a long way and long way of prosperity sans natural calamities, terrorists attacks, inflation and other insane scams internal to India yada yada does not happen in a big scale.

Another attack - Spineless!

We all now should be soaking quite well in the shocker of a news on the bombings in Glasgow airport. I am rather, shaken up big time on why people really want to be so dogged and punitive by being part of a meaningless mass destruction of this stature. It is really sad and appalling in the sense that we have gotten to a stage where we don't mind that much seeing the fellow human being dead and a bloody death, mind you. Really sad.

If you are angry at something, go bang yourself against the concrete wall. That would stun you and would bring the anger down instead of taking it against the innocent i-work-for-my-living mass. And strangely, the people who are culpable to this action so far is from the Middle East and by large belong to the community that caused the 09/11 heart ache. It is like a never ending weed, this group, is'nt it. The more you pull the more numbers keep coming out. I mean, there are more better reasons to pledge your life instead of this which is like hitting people below the belts.

In the end, who is to be blamed? I don't know what anger they have against other people/country/community. I only wish and pray for the families of the dead and injured and finally hope there be no more of bloody mess of this stature.

And what is even more chilling, is to think should something like this happen in India. I am very worried what we will do and things as small(in terms of the impact and not death), Bombay train blasts and community attacks, in itself took us a long time to grapple and come in terms with it. With larger population density and increasing number of people below the poverty line, would only mean more casualty, more things to blame & more places to point fingers at ! I only wish these mindless perpetrators don't look at the World Map to find out where the Indian Sub Continent is for the time being ! I hope.

Anyway, pray for peace to all - alive and dead !

Disclaimer: This blog note, and any comments hereto, is privileged, confidential and proprietary information of mine. And is intended for those who can make a discussion point out of it without getting personal. If you are not the intended audience, please immediately leave the blog note without vilifying and abusing anyone. Thanks for your belief in mine.