Manipur and Films....

Manipur with a population of just about 20 lakhs, is known much for the rich culture. People today know about the Raas Leela, Manipuri Dance, Pung Cholom etc, and are much recognised in the cultural circle.

A Little known fact is that, this tiny state produces about 12 films a year, and that it has given Film makers like Aribam Shyam Sharma, ( I won't talk much about the award here..crap..read at K's about the award ), whose films had won International acclaim, and awards.

............Meanwhile, Cine Artists and Technicians Association, Manipur, expressed happiness over the conferment of Padmashri to Aribam Shyam Sharma, noted filmmaker.
His film 'Imagi Ningthem' had won the grand prize at the International film festival at Nante in 1982 and it was the first Indian film to win this award. His film 'Ishanou' represented India in the 1990 Cannes film festival. [more]

Reminder that.....
'The AFSPA 1958,' a film based on the movement in Manipur demanding repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in July, 2004, will be screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival, officials here said. [same source as above]

Hindu, does give a lot of coverage to the NE. Thanks...

HIV patients die many time before Death

Read this shocking story....

Horror stories of discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients in Manipur came out in the open at the state’s first “public hearing” for victims of the scourge.

An HIV-positive young man complained that his family members never encouraged him to undergo treatment and prolong his life. Raju said not a single member of his family had ever accompanied him to hospital. “They are actually afraid of letting anybody know that a member of the family is HIV-positive.”

“The government has been implementing various programmes for those living with HIV/AIDS, but they continue to be socially ostracised. Worse still, their own families let them down.”[ more at the source]

Who is to blame?

She smoked heroin for two months, and she is just 11.


Heroine, though not the most preferred choice of drugs is a very potent addictive. And, the purest form of Heroine commonly known as no. 4 short for No. 4 grade heroine is produced in the Golden Triangle of Thailand, Combodia and Laos. Unfortunately, the north-east has become a major transit route of the same.

The widespread of HIV/AIDS infection in the NE can be attributed to the proximity of the golden triangle to the North east. Worse than Aids is the clichéd that the other problems of the NE are.

The north east being a major drug and small arms trafficking route, it is obvious that many people are invloved in the same. And it is common knowledge that people in high places are involved in the same, without whose contacts the smuggling wouldn't be possible at all and of course, there have been news of smuggling in Official vehicles. And of relatives of high officials getting caught.

Perhaps there is a huge nexus underneath. Perhaps all the problems that we face is just an excuse, a cover, a smoke screen. Money, after all smells good even in the stink.

Bush Tries to Silence Global Warm(n)ing

The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.[more]

I have blogged many times about pollution and politics. Here is one and another.

Indian Threaten to Globble(sic) up Arcelor.

Arcelor plays anti-globalisation card reports telegraph, here

Arcelor, the steel giant based in Luxembourg and France, is to invoke the spectre of an aggressive globalised business threatening European working practices as it seeks political support to fight off a hostile €18.6bn (£12.8bn) offer tabled on Friday by Mittal Steel, the world's biggest producer.[more]

There is nothing Indian about Mittal steel except the fact that the major shareholder was born in India and the company was helped built by a lot of ex-employees of Indian Steel PSUs. But it feels good that a company like Arcelor gets a hostile bid from Mittal's and the company is in fact afraid. Arcelor is now looking for protection from the govt. Much like how the japanese threatened the europeans. It is a matter of pride. It is great to know that Indians can build Global companies; If only they were given the right environment to build the same out of Kolkata or Mumbai... huh!

Film on AFSPA

I keep writing about the Armed forces special powers act in Manipur and other parts of the north east. And I have been asked a few times that I should post about events and suchlikes. Well, A documentary film on AFSPA will also be shown among the internationally-acclaimed documentaries to be shown at the 9th Mumbai International film festival, starting from February 3. Catch it. [more 1, more 2]

Oh My Crowd!!

It is indeed crowded at the bottom of the pyramid. I have always wondered how the mind of Mr Biyani works. Biz Big Bazaar is a complete chaos, and I never considered it to be organised retailing. There is nothing organised about Big Bazaar, look at the Aisle, look at the sales persons, and just take a look at the substandard items, it screams out ---UNORGANISED. Big bazaar is a bazaar, a mandi, only under a decent roof. Or so I thought. I didn't realise that he was not selling to us at all. There is a huge crowd out there that Mr Biyani is catering to. And I remember an interview that Biyani once gave a Business magazine. That his market is right there at Dharavi.

I believed him today. You also would if you saw the crowd outside the RMall at Mulund that houses a Big bazaar which is currently having a SALE. Like my mom observed when she visited me recently. "It is a Mela, only it runs everyday". Imagine a mela within a mela. A supermarket that gives discount in virtually everything, having a Sale. You actually have to take a coupon to enter the store. The Pictures below are of the Queue, which have been there whole day. Queue of people waiting for the coupons so that they may enter and buy something, anything.

But of course, there were all kinds of people. Not just from the bottom of the pyramid, there were quite a number of affluent looking people as well. Afterall who don't love a bargain. Only better for Biyani..


BTW, what is the definition of a Queue. I know what a queue is but I am not sure of the exact definition, is a queue still a queue is it runs in two lines.. I am not talking about 2 parallel queues but the same one snaked parrallel from the middle. LOL.

The Queue starts at the main entrance of R-Mall, wait, it is where people from the queue enters the mall, but it starts from there, go all the way to other end, snake back and then come back to enter. Also there is a queue that is ready to join the queue. It is the Pre-Queue at the other side of the mall.
Look further ahead, beyond the car, it is the queue..
The queue is still not even snaked..
This is the other middle-end of the queue at the end of Rmall where the queue turns back for the journey towards the Mecca....

Walmart, will have company. And a market of course. A ready market.

Update: check out this post on the Mumbai Mirror 29th jan, Bloggers Park. If only they had a more functional Website, and a back link provided. [Link]

My other post featured earlier on 24th Jan: Bollywood Pakistan and Daya Nayak, [link]

Quiz: What is common between kate beckinsale, maria sharapova and seahawks

China, India and RAP!

Contd from the Google Post...

But do we also know that India also indulges in such acts though in small portions. Yes, our very country India. Some people might find it corny, because I keep repeating the same, but Giving the Police and the army absolute power over the citizens of certains regions of the country is no less an evil act than the erstwhile Gestapo, the KGB and.... the Chinese. But I will repeat until everybody hears. If Violation of Human rights sounds corny to you, so be it. Maybe there are lots of people like you out there, otherwise it wouldn't have happened in the first place.

Google "Armed forces Special Powers act" and read. Even Journalists think twice before writing a news in some parts of India. Why, because the army can pick you up, arrest you and be shot without an arrest warrant. Why? Because some people who looks similar to you are militants. BTW, Is that racism? I never thought about that, but think of it. Their enemity is because of the fact that I look same as the next guy but different from them.

The Armymen can arrest you without a warrant and even a constable can shoot you just because some people who looks similar to you and who speak similar language to you are Terrorists, even if they are citizens of the same country.

News about torture and inhuman acts seldom come out on the press, and even if they do in the local papers, major papers and news agency fails to pick them up for reason unknown. And how would people believe a two bit local paper? have a peek at this old documents from the US department of State.

Regarding why news don't get carried in international news agencies, read this line from the same report above

However, researchers for international human rights organizations like Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) were not permitted to visit Jammu and Kashmir or the northeast.

These are just Human rights Organizations, Did you know that India Don't allow foreign nationals in most of the North eastern states. Which is, but censoring foreign news agency from gathering news. This is done through an act called the Restricted Area Permit Act, RAP. Of course, a foreign national can enter, but after getting a special visa for just 3 days, and by the time the visa is processed, 3 days are over. Nice, isn't it? And people keep asking me, Manipur is so beautiful, why is tourism industry not developed? RAP! Restricted Area Permit act! You won't even find many sites referring to the same. And there are lots more that are not found in google.

I was lucky I found the above document, for even if I know many events have occured, it is futile if I can't link. Even the internet can't do much.

Anyway read on...

There were many allegations that military and paramilitary forces in the northeast engage in arbitrary detention, abduction, torture, and extrajudicial execution of militants, as well as rape (see Sections 1.c. and 1.g.). The Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958 and the Disturbed Areas Act remained in effect in several states, i.e., in Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and parts of Tripura. Human rights activists remain concerned about the reports of deaths that are described as having occurred during "encounters" between insurgent groups and security forces. Several activists allege that the "encounters" are staged and that those insurgents reported dead were killed after being detained by security forces. In March an Amnesty International report concluded that the pattern of killings in the Northeast point to an official policy sanctioning extrajudicial killing. It noted that "a pattern of apparently unlawful killings of suspected members of armed opposition groups (in Manipur) has resulted from the systemic use of lethal force as an alternative to arrest by the security forces." The report, Official Sanction for Killings in Manipur, cited the following examples of killings carried out with impunity by police and security forces in Manipur: the killing of Mayanglambam Ibotombi and Thondam Muhindro, two forest officers, on 26 December 1996; the killing of Ms. Kshtrumayum Ongbi Prabhahmi Devi and injury to her daughter on 3 May 1996; the killing of Ms. Oinam Ongbi Amina Devi and injury to her baby on 5 April 1996;
the killing of Netaji on 28 February 1996; and the killing of nine civilians at the regional medical college hospital in the state capital, Imphal, on 7 January 1995. However, precise information on human rights violations in this relatively remote region is rare. [more]

Now these are news from reliable source, though they are old. It is not better now, if not worse.

In the north eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur members of the security forces commit extra-judicial killings and make use of torture and illegal detention to suppress political, and often violent, dissent by members of independence organisations. Civilians are often caught in the crossfire and other human rights defenders are subjected to violence and threats due to their perceived political activities. [source]

This of course you know,

On July 11, Manorama Devi, an alleged member of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the northeastern state of Manipur, died while in the custody of the Assam Rifles, a paramilitary unit in the state. Officials initially denied that Devi was killed, tortured, or raped, but the postmortem found that she died of multiple gunshot wounds, was bleeding from the vagina, and had a perforated liver and gall bladder, among other injuries, and forensic tests detected semen stains on her clothes. [source]

I am not asking you to do everything. I just want to inform you. To let you know, and maybe you will tell your friends. I just want you to know your country.
And tell Menaka that people are being treated worse than animals, but of course we must first protect the Animals.

Remember that word from Hotel Rwanda, " How many Acts of Genocide must happen to call it Genocide?".

How many acts of Human Rights Violation?
But I live in constant hope... We live in constant Hope!

Phew, writing a post till late in the night and it all was started because of google? Anyway what could google have done. China Afterall is the No. 2 internet market. Google alone couldn't have done anything. If anything could be done, then it must be done by Google and Yahoo amd MSN together. If all of the internet majors refuse to enter the market then perhaps google wouldn't have been compelled to enter there with a compromise. Google is still my favorite.

China, Censorship, AFSPA, Manipur

Google Blogoscoped

Read this.

Have I sold my soul for a can of pepsi? or was it Turkish Delight?

The internet is on fire. Has google Sold its soul for the Chinese Internet market.
This blog has some amazing post, like the comparison of Google image search results for tiananmen square in Google.com and Google.cn . Bad China has even made Google bow, whose excuse is that some information is better than nothing.

Well, censorship is not about some Information but selective Information or is it Misinformation? , but then IT is China.



Google, China, Censorship,

Hamas Victory and two hands to clap.

The Hamas victory has stunned the Israelis, NYT reports.

Ehud Olmert, the acting prime minister, made it clear after an emergency cabinet meeting that talks with Hamas, a Palestinian party sworn to Israel's destruction, were out of the question, while experts said Israel was now freer to establish its future on its own.[more]

I shouldn't give my opinions here, but I can't help commenting it takes two hand to clap. Now, Likud should come into power in Israel to complete the clap, which I guess will be the case now[more]. God help the world.

Death will never solve a problem, and like I keep saying no cause is worth a Human Life. But then, have I ever put myself into the Pelestinian's or the Israeli's shoes?
Or didn't I say that the Gods have stopped manufacturing land? It all comes down to land. Give it a thought.

You may say I am a dreamer,
But I am not the only one.

-Imagine

Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Terrorism, Live

Tagged Again

If you had come for the Tag by Alka, I had already done the Meme, please click here for the same. But here is another tag,

Dwaipayan and Rita had tagged me some time back. This is a rather funny tag, though it wasn't the reason for the dealy. Well, the rules of the tag are:

(1) write a 100-to-200-word entry using the following words:
I, me, blow job, grapes, random, power, loneliness, water, robot and blue;
(2) use these words once and only once;
and of course
(3) the entry should make sense.

Now how am I going to form a sentence with robots and blow job? It would let a lot of Cats out of the Bag eh!

.....
But let me try connecting the words blow job and Robot:

The exercise might just break the boredom and the general loneliness that I have been feeling since the morning. And with the daily power cuts of 2 hour in Mumbai, the tap water will only come after 2 hours, and having decided to take the day off from work to get a prolonged weekend because of the slight stomachace caused by all the graped yesterday, it struck me that this tag could be answered now. So the laptop was fired up, its blue screen flickering and the tag written with my fingers firing away random strokes at the keyboard like a robot, thinking about the fact that blogging could be like an intellectual and emotional Blow job at times.

Shit, what a lousy tag. BOOO!
I am tagging Ricky, TCP and Khizzy.

Attempted murder of a 6 year old!!

Dhruta is just six years old.
Let us imagine that you are beating her up.
Slap her, thrash her and taking out all your anger on her.
Even as I type this, I get goosebumps, and if I saw someone beating up a kid; By God, God help him.

When I read in the news a few days back that A STEP MOM had beaten up her step-daughter, and that the 6 year old baby was inflicted with Injuries, I didn’t know how to react. I only silently cursed her, the only thing that I could do. Maybe, my curse came deep from my heart, and maybe God heard it, the paper to today writes, Dhruta’s Step-mom Booked for Attempted murder. And a prayer slipped my mouth. There is still justice, though I would like to give a good thrashing to that Spineless father. He must also be booked, for alleged cooperation in an attempted murder, mother*****, and his b**ls be roasted.

I hate child beaters, maybe more so because I also had corporal punishments as a child. I do believe in a little caning for a male child to toughen him up, yeah just to toughen him up so that he may be able to face the real world, (Now please I am not being sexist here, if you people want to toughen up girls also please do, but I won’t, call me whatever), but some people seem to find pleasure in beating Kids; and Wives. I call them cowards, I have called even close relatives cowards. And yes, when I say cowards these people are real cowards. Cowards die many a death before they Die, and for each death they had, they come back home and demonstrate that he can also beat. Tomatoes, I say.

When I hate wife-beaters, I hate child beaters even more. Now kids can be tough at times, and very adamant but let them be kids for god’s sake. But this step-mom beating up step-kids, and normal house wives beating up child-maids. I really don’t know how to react. Call it stereotype, but I have seen step-moms who have ill treated their step-kids. Of course there are step-moms who are really good, and not at all like the stereotyped Keikeyis. But psychologically, Step mothers find it difficult to share their husband with some one else, least of all the kid of the ex-wife. It is even more difficult when the second wife has her own child. She wants the father to be all for her child, and this things do happen.

But, when she is beating up her step-child black and blue, and in the case of Dhruta, they say, 14 different injuries were identified. I just wish that she rot in hell. { This must be the filthiest post I have ever written but, it was a filthy act as warranted such a filthy post}. My grandfather was a very nice man and he used to call child beaters lowlifes, and I took to him. Man! you should have heard him calling names to my uncle when he beat me up as a child. I was afraid, he would kill my uncle. May his soul rest in peace.

News about Dhruta [1],[2],[ 3],[4].

Redevelopment of Dharavi

Rs 6000 crore redevelopment program of Dharavi, the world’s largest Slum rehabilitation scheme. Which is good news for the Real estate starved Mumbai, and the developers who have been eyeing this opportunity for years on.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, with real estate prices in Mumbai having shot way past even the speculative prices. The SRA( Slum Rehabilition Authority) chose the timing very well; because the real estate market in market is such that it is very hard to predict whether it will shoot up further, stagnate or if it is bubble ready to burst. It is true that Gods have stopped manufacturing land a long time ago and demands for land do rise exponentially, but then it has happened that with every boom there are speculators who also pump up the Demand.

So it would only be wise for the SRA to move in for the kill when the market is ripe. The speculators or the real estate boom is good in a way, it has forced the Authorities to move in such a speed as was unheard of before. TOI reports that, the SRA will invite a Global EOI( Expression of Interest) in a little over a month and WORK WILL COMMENCE 90 DAYS AFTER THE EOI is announced. That was one smart move I say, driven by the Market; after speculation is one aspect of the MARKET.

Under the project, 300,000 slum-dwellers will be rehabilitated in 600 eight storey buildings which will house 225 Sq feet tenements.
I hope they have a clause that the original slum-dwellers cannot sell or rent the houses allotted to them otherwise, there is a new Dharavi elsewhere.
Only concern with the clause being: How will people from 10-15 member families cram into 225 sq feet high rise tenements. They won’t be able to lay out Charpoys( Indian rope bed) on the verandahs like they are used to in the slums. I am just being realistic here. The human side must also be given due consideration.

Another nice thing I like, 70 of the 535 Acres of land will be reserved of gardens and parks. We will see some more green amidst the Concretes of Mumbai.

I just hope the project takes off as reported in the paper today.

Hanuman and Animation Boom!

The most hyped movie of recent times.
Hoardings and posters of Hanuman the movie would stare at me from every available space which is not already occupied by James or Apaharan.
I almost though Animation have arrived after a long time.

And so I wanted to experience the next boom, and I went and bought me a Hanuman VCD, along with For a few dollars more and Hotel Rwanda.
So wrongly, Hanuman have been associated with Animation Boom.
I was expecting a better version of the Tom and Jerries or Mickey mouse since they said it was 2D. Now I don’t have much ideas about graphics and though I can make out 3D like Shark tales and Shrek from Mickey and Donalds, I don’t know the difference between 2D and Mickey and Donalds, and so as I write this, I am making an assumption that hanuman is of the same genre as Tom and Jerries and Mickey Donalds. I maybe wrong but as I insert the VCD, I was expecting some graphics that would at east be as good as the cartoons I mentioned if not better.

What I got was a better version of Ek Titaliya and all the Ek Anek of the doordarshan era. What a disappointment it was? Even the movement of characters and specially movement of the mouth looked like it was a bad copy of He-man. And the arrow-fights, copy pasted from Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana. The gap between the hype and the delivery was very disappointing; it looked like they hadn’t put in enough effort.

More than lack of creativity, it looked like sloppy work of some graphic designers and software designers working against a dateline.

The only saving grace was because the narration was not very bad, and he knew the target audience well. The story was being told to a 8 year old kid. And, religious fools that we Indians are, I even shed a tear when Sita had to give the Agni Pariksha or when hanuman tore open his chest. Though the graphics left much to improve on, the narration was quite sentimental and it tugged at a mythological chord. Maybe because, there already were many domain experts from the Mythology vertical, the story was told quite well.

But, again, the Artwork or graphics looked like the colored version of Ek Titali, Anek Titaliya.. Especially the Demons and the monkeys… They didn’t even drew the pictures. We could have done a much better job..


# Yesterday’s post touched upon how corruption and wealth beyond earning’s means, and since then, today’s paper have also come. And, surprisingly, there is another post on the same lines. It reads, Another cop with a salary of 9000 rupees(about 200$) per month is constructing three residential towers in Mumbai, supposedly one of the costliest cities in the world. It was a very good civic move from Mumbai Mirrror. Hope they keep up the good work, and target everyone who is gnawing away at the fabric of our society….

Bollywood, Pakistan and Daya Nayak

Pakistan lifts ban on Bollywood Films, reports TOI. Today, the Sunday.
It is a move that will be welcome by millions of Pakistanis, though it will be dent to the DVD industry there. I am glad that all the bollywood movie aficionados of Pakistan will be able enjoy a Hindi movie in the theatre. The bridge between the countries will hopefully be strengthened a little more.

And there was also a mention of joint ventures between Pakistani and Indian Film makers, maybe Khizzy will get to make a bollywood movie..

I am only worried that Bolywood producers will start getting fresh phone calls. With popularity that Hindi movie enjoys in Pakistan, the overseas rights will be something the Mafioso will not overlook. As I write this, who knows… somebody is answering a call to..”haalo, Hum Dubai se bol rahe hein!”

Talking about the underworld, the paper in the last few days have been splashed with Encounter specialist Daya Nayak’s unaccounted wealth. It wasn’t news to me though, as must be to everyone else. About the wealth. Bureaucrats and Policemen in India are wealthy, politicians are super wealthy. I am not generalizing though; maybe I should say most of the breed.

It is not really news that a policemen with 12000 salary has wealth in excess of a crore or for that matter an excise officer. Or even one from a pollution control board or the municipal corporation. It is taken for granted that they have money. Maybe the reason is the paltry salary that our govt. pays to its servants.

But, Daya Nayak is a different story. Maybe the wealth is disproportionate, but he did receive a lot of reward money for all the criminals he gunned down. A feature was once done by the Times itself about him, during the Ab Tak Chappan Movie days. About how he built a school in his village from the award money and all. The same paper that is demonizing him had once made him a Hero of sorts, an idol. But that is not the point.

My point is that he had made a lot of reward money, and it was in 10s of lakhs 5-6 years back, and even by investing wisely that money, he could easily have multiplied to a few crores by now. And by investing in a dance bar type hotel in Dubai, the one that he is reported to have a partnership in, his wealth must have multiplied. The basis on which he is being demonized now is something so commonplace, I believe, that it wouldn’t hold much water in the Indian courts.

Update: Featured on Bloggers park, Mumbai mirror 24th Jan [link]. First go to 24th jan page and type blogger's park in the search box.

Superiority Complex.

A friend once told me," There is no such as a superiority complex, only inferiority complex".

I guess he was quoting someone, I don't remember, or maybe he made it up.
But it did rang quite true then. It still does.

Superiority complex is often false, and is the direct manisfestation of a deeply hidden complex of inferiority, of a certain fear that He/She will not continue to be superior as he/she percieves now.

And of course, that one is superior or inferior is just a matter of point of view. On a measure, that one percieves.

Dear IRDA, please let the Industry grow.

A little Pro regulation is necessary though it is not the necessary condition to be an NHB, I am also a little pro-regulation, meaning that, even though I am against regulations in certain sectors, I feel that some regulations are needed in certain sectors. Insurance sector is one. Sometimes I even feel that IRDA is not tough enough where they should be and I would have very much preferred the NIAC model regulations of the USA, where Model regulations are set up or designed by the National Association of Insurance commissioners for the state regulatory body to have their regulations based on the Model Regulations.

Let’s not delve into why I feel they should be strict enough, just for now. This post is regarding something quite opposite. Where, on one side I say that the IRDA is not good enough; they have tried to make up for it on another side. That is what I am writing about. Insurance regulatory bodies are set-up to protect the interests of policy holders. That is it. Where they have failed to make stricter regulations to protect Policy holders, like how they let anyone and everyone wrong-sell Unit linked products, they have been very good in the classic regulations and then some more .

Well, they have been really good in protecting, yes, you have guessed it right. They are busy protecting the national Insurers, and the millions of voting employees. This is the side of regulations that I am against. Yes, I am talking about the FDI cap of 26% that a foreign Insurer is allowed to hold in an Insurance company in India. And as if it was not good enough, they have thrown a spanner into Bharti-AXA’s venture ( today’s Times of India-20th Jan, e-paper page-19) because the IRDA cannot not allow the holding structure even though they have maintained the CAP. Bharti will have 40% in the JV, AXA will have 22.2% and a SPV( Special Purpose vehicle) will have 37.8% where AXA will have 10% in the SPV and Bharti will have 90%. the total stake of AXA translates to only 26%, but IRDA still wants some more

Dear IRDA, please let the Industry grow.

Tagged

Soumyadip and Aqua had tagged me.

Here are the rules of the game that I have taken from the original post:
The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover. Need to mention the sex of the target. Tag 8 victims to join this game & leave a comment on their comments saying they’ve been tagged. If tagged the 2nd time, there’s no need to post again.

Target:

Female~ Please..

# Different Points of my Perfect Lover ~ lets assume that this lover Is the perfect life partner.

Well, She should be

Wise.
Very Good at Heart with no Hate whatsoever.
Attractive.
Good Listener.
Disagree with me from time to time.
A good mother.
And............Voluptuous


Consider yourself tagged if you want to..
.....am in a hurry....

Equality!!!

Are teachers who sleep with boys getting off?
Move over, Mrs. Robinson. The new public enemy is the bespectacled babe who teaches our kids math in the classroom and sex in the parking lot. Dozens of female teachers have been caught with male students in recent years, and the airwaves are full of outrage that we're letting them off the hook. On cable news, phrases like "double standard" and "slap on the wrist" are poured like pious gravy over photos of the pedagogue-pedophile-pet of the month. "Why is it when a man rapes a little girl, he goes to jail," CNN's Nancy Grace complains, "but when a woman rapes a boy, she had a breakdown?" [More]

Now, what shall we do with the female offenders? A little off topic ( or maybe not) but we demand that a rapist be punished becaused He ravaged the Victim. If the victim enjoyed the act like the SMS joke where a rape victim calls up the emergency and says, " Hello Police! Somebody has broken into my house and he is trying to raaaappppppe meeeeahhhheeeeeee, caannnn youuuahhh sendddd someonnneee tommmmooorrooooooowaaaahh"- Now this is very unlikely but with the likes of the female accused [here], I am not sure.

So like in this case and the various other cases mentioned in the links of full article above, were the teen boys really ravaged? As a parent, one wouldn't want it to happen to their son, and when I have a son, so wouldn't I. But a teenage 14 year old boy, full of young and fresh testosterones, I don't know if the victims really felt ravaged.

At 13/14, Boys start fantasing about their school teachers. Now where was she when I was in school?

Update:

This topic might sound a little sarcastic, and the joke in bad taste, but my message was about the grey areas of rape. Do read my reply to neha's comment in the comment section. OK, I am posting it here.

I was not trying to trivialize "Violation" only trying to touch the grey areas of violation with a little Sarcastic humour. Which is why I kept the word "ravaged" in bold. Somehow, so unlike my nature, I even advocate death sentence for rape when "ravage happens" but there are many cases of misusing 'rape', and yes there are rape of males and boys and YES I also Abhore such a thing. But accusing rape against a women for having sex with a 14 year old boy was sort of nudging towards the grey area. OK, the Joke was in bad taste, but unlike in the case of rape = forcible penetration of an orifice be it of a man or a woman,You can't force a man or a boy to get aroused..... or is it only my view? Violation of a boy by a girl would be very very difficult without arousal, and the very fact that one is aroused means that he was not forced (One can't be forcibly aroused, believe me) and unless there is force I refuse to call it as violation. A man would understand this.. Explaining more would need more gross terms dear friend.. But I will only accept sodomy as a violence against a male boy or a man.

A Floppy Story- An Obituary!

Once upon a time there lived a big floppy and there lived a small floppy.

It was a time long gone.
Yes, 7-8 years seem a long time.
When was the last time I saw the big floppy and the floppy drive with a handle like a door knob to hold back or lock it! Must be 8 years, 10? Seems like a lifetime since the early days of desktop.

We maybe running a little late compared to the Americas, but we caught up eventually.
Back to floppies. Then, suddenly the big Floppy vanished. To be honest, I never used one, at least directly. I grew up with the smaller ones, and I used to carry them. Oh! Yes, carry I did. At least a dozen. If I had to split a huge file, we had file splitter and of course archiving with winzip~( remember! enter disk 1, enter disk 3, enter disk 1 again, file in disk 1 corrupt....krrreeeee), we had to carry back ups. One out of three floppy will not work, that is if you are lucky.

First it was the black floppy, then came the colored ones. There was Imation and there was sony. They were the more reliable ones. After sometime came transparent ones with the black disk tape inside visible. I had those too. With file size increasing by the day, and a CD writer out of the student budget, Floppies used to frustrate me aplenty. I used to eye those Iomega, optical storage devices. Thank god I never bought one of those overpriced optical devices.

It was the days when carrying floppies were a matter of pride, “I carry more Floppies than you do”. People used to carry the 10 floppy packs in their hands in a very matter-of-factly way.
Even Autorickshaws take out the plastic cover and stick those black discs, that is, those auto wallas who still hadn’t got himself a CD.
But as the crow flies, people were getting frustrated by the day with the unreliability of the floppies and the non availability of a better and affordable substitute. Then CD writers price dropped. And so did CD’s. It was more economical to write a 12 rupee CD than take your chance with a 20 rupee floppy( there even was a floppy with guarantee). But still, writing a CD just to transfer a file was not too appealing either and a rewritable CD was costlier, another fact was CD’s were very bulky( which I believe is one of the major reasons for the success of IPods0..
Then came the thumb drive. God save the Taiwanese. We could afford thumb drives.
And how convenient, they are. People who used to pride themselves carrying a dozen floppies, now hide thumb drives in their pockets since it is prohibitted to carry thumb drives inside the premise of most companies these days. And even though It was costly, the benefits outweighs it. And, it was so small, it appealed to everyone. That you could carry a whole late 90’s hard drive in a drive smaller than your thumb. It appealed to me. And even though a thumb drives have been banned in the premises of many MNCs, it is still easy to sneak one in.
To make it more enticing, you can load the whole OpenOffice.org 2 can be loaded onto a thumb drive. Yes, install and load onto a thumb drive. That means you don’t have transfer the OpenOffice into the computer to use the application. Just plug in the thumb drive with the OpenOffice and start using it.

It so appealed to users that we have laid to rest, the story of the floppy.
Rest in peace.

PS: Silverine would have done a much better job on this.. Silverine, if you may redo the Obituary........

Human trafficking alarms North Eastern states

The beautiful Land of Manipur has seen much bloodshed.
I open any Manipur based news-site and it reeks of the death.
One militant killed, 1 army killed, one civilian dead, govt. official kidnapped.
But the worst years have been the 90's when a civil war of sorts broke out between two tribes of the northeast, The Nagas and The Kukis. The Clash was not much different from that of the wars in the Africas- Somalias and the likes.

It was in my teens and everyday there was news about bloods and massacres. It was chilling, and the Kukis and Naga Friends I had were afraid alike. They didn't know why they hate each other, they hate each other nonetheless. Because they have killed Nagas and they have killed Kukis. And so they became enemies.

One incident I remember was a naga school mate of mine. He was one year senios but he was of a very diminitive feature looked like a kid. Well we were all kids, but he didn't return to school after a vacation. He came back eventually, because his village was not touched it sems. But he had stay at his village because ther were not enough fighting men and he had to take turns guarding the Village. Then, I thought, could I guard my locality if a war broke out. I was a kid, and the idea seem romantic, but that my friend had been in a civil war chilled my blood nonetheless.

The war is long over but the scars remain. Some Kuki's are still afraid to take the land route via nagaland when they go home to Manipur from Guwahati, and they take the flight from Guwahati however poor. Such are scars that will heal in time.

But there remain some deep gashes which will not heal for a long time.
The prolonged fight left many a homeless like all wars do to mankind.
The homeless have rebuild their homes, back home or elsewhere, but how about the orphans.
I remember when the Bangalore Manipuri Students Union rescued a number of Kuki children from the clutch of some people who in the name of running orphanages were trying to smuggle tem or something to that effect. I googled it but I couldn't find a link, but I was in bangalore then and I still remember it. The Kids were returned to some established orphanages.

And when I came across an article today that some NGO's are conducting awareness programs on the issues of Human Trafficking and sexual exploitations in the North eastern states, I felt good. Some people do care.

Read more of Human trafficking, sexual exploitation alarms North Eastern states

DIMAPUR: Trafficking in women and children has become a burning issue in Nagaland, apart from the increasing population of HIV/AIDS-affected people. According to local NGOs, training on law enforcement on trafficking and sexual exploitation is essential to sensitise people about the crime. During the past few years various NGOs have been conducting awareness programmes on the issue in the North Eastern states.[more]

Meet Domestic Demand before you look abroad

...........says the HRD, here.

IIM Bangalore Has been told by the HRD ministry that they cannot start the centre in Singapore which has been set up, because we have a growing domestic demand.

Agreed that there is a growing demand for MBA's but I have the view that a School is only as good as the students are. Even amongst the 1000+ odd students that the IIMs admit each year, there are a few who aren't as bright as we think the IIMers should be. Even IIM grads would except this. And I have had colleagues from IIMs who are as bad as I am( or may be only as good as I am) and I am not even talking about the students who got admitted through reservations. The IIMs don't pick up an average student and turn him/her into an overnight CEO material.

I am not implying that India don't even produce a 1000 bright people, but that rather than looking at meeting demands for MBAs, the HRD might look at meeting demands for primary education. The HRD started a beautiful program called the Jawahar Navodya Vidyalaya Scheme to provide primary education to Rural students for free and the first few years were excellent but the scheme still haven't got its due with change of a government during the initial years. I thought it would get a facelift with the congress and left in power( I, for once thought Left would favor such a mass appeal scheme) and it was brainchild of the Gandhi's. The scheme should be expanded to every citizen and must provide for primary education to each and every child. Only than can we have more IIMs that can cater to a million hungry minds. Sonia, are you listening? It was your husband's brainchild.

For now, and I am sorry to say, but even a thousand is handful.
Let the IIMs go abroad and strengthen its brand equity rather than let it dilute.
Instead of craeting more campuses, Create an environment that will produce better students who will then create a real demand for not only MBAs but Scientists, Sportsmen, Artists and Maestros and why not? We still don't have a Harvard, lets not jump to a Harvard Business School.

And of course deregulating the education Business.

Ca'fe or Aphrodisiac!

Forget those aromatic candles, champagne, romantic candle light dinners, strawberry and ice (9 and 1/2 weeks), all the chinese love potions, japanese pillow book or the ayurvedic rubs. and forget kamasutra. If you want to satisfy your woman and give her the elusive O, try cappuchino as a research says here(link might not work. Its the problem with mumbai mirror.You might have to scrounge the archives.Look for women viagra in yesterday'sie 10th jan in the world section)

Oh! yesterday I forgot to mention Kanwaljeet when I wrote about 15 park Avenue. His software-engineer-been-to-onsite-twice accent was unmistakable.

15 Park Avenue, a story without an end!

Why does every story have to have an end?
Is it conventions?
Or that it has to have an end anyway?

15 Park Avenue didn’t have an end.
Or if it did, rather an abrupt end.
Not a good way to end a perfectly crafted movie.
So I thought, but then I thought again.
How else would it have ended?
And concluded that whatever people might have to say, it couldn’t have ended any other way and yet left the impact it did.

Right from the start, the movie flowed with a pace which seemed slow, yet you wanted to repeat it. I didn’t want to let go of any scenes. And, as such the ending was apt.

Konkona Sen! Way to go girl!
What is with the girl?
In a recent post, I said we have run out of actors.
Well, we don’t need actors when we will have Konkona around.
Unlike the usual Khans or Kapoors, all along the movie, I never saw Konkona. I only saw Mitali. That was what she played and played she did.
She can act with her body, her mouth, her eyes, with everything. A wholesome actor? She looked vulnerable, sweet, cute and everything else and you suddenly want to jump inside the screen to hug her in one moment( pre-Schizophrenic stage), in the next you want to care for her and wish nobody had to go through what she was going through. And her antics were so natural and so funny at times. The way she talks about Saddam Hussein. And the script was as if it was tailor made for her.
Or was it she tailor-crafted herself for the script.
It was so natural, and I asked myself why can’t other movies be like that?
But of course, somebody has to act.

Mr Bose as Jojo.
Another fine actor.
Acted real well, specially the scene when he saw Konkana in the hospital after the rape. We could see in the eyes, the sudden revulsion he had for a rape victim yet with a tinge of pity.( No moral judgement here but it was fine acting). Still Rahul bose looked more like Rahul Bose than Jojo. He too has this signature acting.

Shabna Azmi.
She has always been a great actor.
An old time favorite, right from the time of Ankur (well I saw it after I grew up) and of course Arth. She also delivered, but it was expected and then some more. Specially see her dynamics with everyone, I say everyone. She pales other actor, but for Konkona. Great going Shabnajee. Cheers.

Ah! Shefali,
Ravishing is the word that comes to my mind when I think of her in today’s role. This Bhabi looking, sapne ne milti hein Kudi, has a huge image makeover it seems. She was just too ravishing. I won’t say Hot, but well She was Hot. Left a lasting impact, leaving you wishing for more.

Waheeda Rehman was one sweet old lady.
And experience does counts.
She held her stead, much more than her share.
Look out for the great daughter-mother chemistry with Shabna Azmi.
And her cute grand-motherish English.

I would watch it again.

And you thought Mission Schools were run only by the Christians...

......Anybody Heard of BIMS, Bhaktivedanta Institutes of Mission School.
Now, one would say, "But I have heard RamKrisna Mission School".
I also thought BIMS was the only Non Christian Mission School, until I started typing this post and my thought started to flow with the keystrokes, and I suddenly remembered the Ram Krisna Mission School. I don't know if it is run like a Christian Missionary. I like to think, it is more of a School than a Missionary.

Now BhaktiVedanta Institutes of Mission School is another story.
It is run by the famous International Society for Krsna CONsciousness.
The ISKCON Made famous by the Fords and Beatles and Hippies.
And of the recent sex scandal. And I don't know why sex need be scandalised as long as it is consentual. ( Link outside the topic of iskcon : I don't understand why the RSS Pracharak Joshi, his hypocrisy not withstanding of taking the vow in the first place, was video taped in the nude and the tape released. I thought it was suppose to be cyber crime to tape others while having sex, and then distribute it. Damn, this was worse than the DPS scandal.)

Now I am very much against celibacy, voluntary or otherwise.
Sex is as natural as breeding oops.. Breathing and it shouldn't be suppressed in the name of God.
I am of the belief that God took the forms of Human to enjoy sex.
And of all the religious groups, ISKCON which is spreading Krsna Consciousness, has a Vow of celibacy as a pre-requisite if one were to join Iskcon(*conditions apply, see below).
We all know of the Gopal and the Gopis.
And the Iskcon temples are adorned with Pictures Shri Krsna surrounded by Shri Krsnas, the most famous of which being the one where Krsna Hid the clothes of bathing gopis and he is watching the naked Gopis. Of course, Shri Krsna is my God, My Hero, the supreme personality of godhead. He is the one I have always looked upto.

Now Supreme personality of the Godhead. I guess you haven't understood it. Neither had I, not even now. It was the Definition of Lord Krsna, and as slightly obedient student I memorized it with hundreds of Slokas all of which I have forgotten. It was a long time ago.

BIMS was run strictly like a mission school. And even though there were 2 or 3 christian in my class, everybody were made to remember slokas and attend prayers etc etc. Nobody complained though. And it was wonderful to attend prayers. And somehow whenever I pray, the picture of a cherubic Shri Krsna and Radha comes to my mind. I have a complaint though. We had to wear Tilak, two parallel lines, drawn with chandan, starting at the forehead to merge at the bridge of the nose and another tip like a arrow head starts from there till the nose tip. Now, this is a very beautiful facial painting or decoration, much like the bindi and look very pretty if a girl were to wear it. Since all Krsna devotees wear it, it was ok for them but for the students, and male students to wear it, we were targets of ridicule from fellow guys who were attending other schools. You see it was very girlish to wear it since the tilak or chandan is part of a manipuri Women's make-up.[check here]. And since it was quite difficult to draw and needed my mom's help to draw it everyday, we couldn't go without it at least till we reach the school either.

Even our attempt to flirt with girls from the neighboring Little flower school with a little eve-teasing usually backfires and turns out to be severe adam teasing instead. They would collective shout Roll Number 1 and give out a collective cry of Hare Krisna, Roll Number 2.... Hare Krisna, Roll Number Three.... Kansha. And we could only Boooo.
You see we also had to Answer our daily roll call with HARE KRISNA. Absense was "absent sir", but people assumed that we replied absent as Kansha.

A little about my personal life in the BIMS of Iskcon.
Now it is my alma mater, and I don't have anything bad to say.
Thought I left the school after a few months of class 6, Iskcon taught me many thing.
Sex was definitely one. Yes by the tender of age of 10 I knew that I wasn't discovered by my parents on the steps of the Govindajee Temple.

And I tried hard to take away my father's hands when he covered my eyes during sex scenes in English Movies. Oh, as a 10 Year old, I never missed James Bond Movies and would pester my father to take me. Poor papa.

And so I was in BIMS, which was known as Iskcon.
Though I have only fond memories of the Iskcon like the time when I cut Ravi's thigh with pencil sharpening blade or when my thigh was cut when I rushed for the window seat in the bus and there was a sharp aluminium edge potruding out the door. I still have the scar.
I also remember having my first Crush on our Yoga Teacher.. Forgot her name ummmm.. forgot... Well I told my benchmate that she looked like Tina Munim and that Bugger actually told her in front of the whole class, " Excuse me Miss, Anthony here thinks you look like Tina Munim". I Blushed red like a Tomato. And Indeed she was beautiful as I discovered later also when I saw a picture of hers demonstrating Yoga in a calender. She was Married. Sob Sob. Since then, I have never been to known to hide my feelings LOL.

On a darker side, there was a She-male amongst the devotees. It was the first time I learnt there were some people with sexual preferences other than the ones we knew. Unfortunately this guy-gal never tried anythijg funny with us, but (s)he used to take us to his living quarters everyday at break and tell us dirty stories. Of his having sex with his ex husband. He used to say he had a husband, and we were kids anyway and we wanted to hear the stories, we we went everyday. Sometimes, when I read all the stories of CSA and paedophiles, I shudder. I was just 10 godamnit, and We were lucky we always used to go in a group and it helped that even though I was cute, I was one of the notorious students and our gang was the roughnecks.
(S)he was s atrnge character though. She stayed at the male living quarters but talked like a girl and insisted that he was a she. We used to call her Nupi Saabi( Nupi= Girl. Saabi = to act like something)" the one who acted like a girl."

When I visited Iskcon after almost 14 years (S)he didn't remember me. He was still there, acting the same way, living a life of celibacy. What I remembered about this visit was another thing that touched my heart. I don't look nothing like I used to 13 years back now, and nobody would recognise me after so long. So when the Nupi-saabi didn't remember me, I understood and realised how I must have grown. But there was this old Gatekeeper, who used Keep us from going out of the school campus during school hours. However hard we tried he never would open the gate, and our plea would fall unto deaf ears. You see he was deaf and dumb.
When he saw me that day, he just came towards me and recognised me. He tried with such enthusiasm showing with his hands how I have grown and told me by sign language how he remembered me, and with a garvled voice showed his happiness in seeing me. I gave him some money as a token of love, which he refused initially but I forced. We used to only call him uncle.
I miss you Uncle. And thank you for keeping out of trouble by keeping us inside the confines of the secured campus..I was just 10.

* One may not take the vow of celibacy and Iskcon has separate living quarters for Married Devotees.

Indian Actors

......wait, bollywood actors.
Current Bollywood actors.
Some actors in the past indeed acted.

Then, they all stopped acting.
So many Movies a year( google the number please), very few to watch.
More than direction, I guess it has more to do with acting and the lack of it.
There are great Indian Directors but then India has produced many intellectuals.
Yes, Movie direction is a matter of intellect.
Much more intellect than art and acting happen to be an art.

We have been a little poor on the Art faculty.
Million dollar paintings began to sell only recently.
Music.... ok we do have some great musicians though none on the lines of Tchaikovsky or Mozart. Ah.. but that's a different story. Lets leave out music for a while.
We invented zero, but kamasutra was the most popular art form that came out of the civilzation.


Cinemas..
Why are our Cinemas so pathetic.
Ok I am not a great Movie critic..
In fact, I get so carried away by story that I have noticed very few bad film and I watch a lot of movies. So I have stopped recomending films long since, after I recomended raincoat to a lot of friends because I liked the love story bewteen Ajay and Ash.

Are they great actors? I may have enjoyed the movie, but I do know good acting from bad.
These people just can't act.
They don't even deserve to be called actors.

Imagine for once, we want to make an epic movie out of the Mahabharat or the Ramayana?
On the lines of Troy. Now, who the hell will play Lord Arjun and Who will play Lord Rama.
Shah Rukh Khan as Rama?
Sisisisisisisite.....

I was reading a an article on Bollywood Movies and the future of it and how we can get global viewers. Some suggested that mythological story might have a global appeal. Like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon did to chinese Movies.
Agreed.
Indian Epic stories will do wonders. We have no dearth for heroes and Stories.
We even have great Indian Directors.
Shekhar Kapoor can do the Job.
We might even get an oscar.
But who will play? Who will act?
We can't borrow hollywood actors to play Indians( Aryan/Dravidian).
And I realise, bolywood will take a very very long time to grow into the global markets.
For the time being we might have to do with the billion odd population.
And the NRIs.
If Anil Ambani is betting that Indian movies will go global, he might be in for a big shock.
We will produce great directors, but they will only go on to create movies for holywood.
Because we don't have actors.

Shah Rukh Khan might have been endearing to the Indian Populace with his performace in DDLJ but he will never find International non-NRI takers. He can act as Shah Rukh Khan very well. In fact nobody can act King Khan as well him but let him act Asoka and he almost Murdered him.

On the other hand, look at what it takes to play to the international audience.
Picking a Popular actor, See how Russel Crowe slipped into the skin of a Gladiator so comfortably in a movie and as an austistic John Nash.

My favorite actor will remain Tom Hanks as Viktor Navorski and Chuck Noland and Andrew Beckett and of course Forrest Gump.

No wonder great Indian directors like late Satyajit Ray stick to non-mainstream cinema. the mainstream actors were too much to direct.

For now with, with all the Khans ageing and no promising actors in sight I hope the 80's don't come back again. And Anil Ambani read too much into numbers.
Whare are the Actors??

Please don't blame the directors. They can only tell the actors what they expect and how they would like them to act a particular scene. It is upto the actor to deliver. Isn't that why they get paid, and paid they get. A Director's job is imagine and play out the scene in his mine which he tells the actor to act out. If the actor can't act, we can't blame RGV. RGV would do great job, if only he had the actors. James!!! ewwwwww...

Poor Fisher Men used as Human shield in Manipur

I wanted to keep this blog away from politics and any disheartening posts but sometimes I have to break the rules. I have also only tried to posts good things whenever I post about Manipur, even though we have many problems both internal as well as external.

It is common knowledge to whoever know a little about Manipur that Human Rights Violations are quite commonplace in Manipur. Because of the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA), it is also commonplace that innocent people are picked up at random, the general public stopped for frisking like they do in the international airport, custodial death1, death2, and a general fear for the Army( who actually are being payrolled by us, taxpayers, to protect us). I am only complaining againts the Army because they happen to be on the right side of law. On our side of the law.

And we don't want to get caught between the barrels of two guns. Dark Humour of Catch-22 at play.

All said, I always thought it was normal. That it was normal to hear gun shots, and bomb blast. That it was normal to be stopped on the roads at random by Army men or Police Commandoes and get roughed up. That it was normal to have seen cross fire in front of my eyes twice by the time I was 17. I also thought Combing operations were normal, that the army could barge into our house any time of the day or night without a search warrant. And that the shutter at the market will be down by 6:30 pm and we sleep by 7:30.

But I learnt, when I went outside the state that it was not at all Normal. Nothing that was happening was normal. That in other parts of India, you don't get to see army men every 5 Kilometers, and that the Police actually need an arrest warrant to arrest someone. Gosh! and I have seen people shouting at Police men. God help him.
Few months back, a person was shot dead by the police in manipur when he shouted back at the police who abused him for overtaking the police vehicle.[more, more2]

But still, since they are there fighting Manipuri militants, I always thought it was out fate. And also that It was normal. And so I never posts such articles on my blog. But today was different.
I didn't even post the fact that there have been mini Jallian-Wala-Baghs in Manipur[read]. After all India was under the British rule, and it was quite natural that some genes stayed back.

But I couldn't stop myself when I read that Innocent, poor and helpless Fishermen were being used as Human Shield by the army in their operation againts the Millitants. When did Saddam Hussain ever ruled India? The Indian Army is suppose to protect the People, and I would have understood if Unlawfull forces used innocent victims as Human shields against the army But the very Army using Innocent citizens as Human Shield was Outrageous.
Who do we turn to?
It will breed doubts in the minds of thousands of Manipuris' whether we really are considered even Indians?

More on Human shield:

The Imphal Free Press IMPHAL, Jan 2: Residents and meira paibi womenfolk of the Ningthoukhong area staged a sit-in demonstration today at Ningthoukhong bazar to protest against the using of villagers, including a local councillor, as human shields by the security forces during the recent operations in the Ningthoukhong Kha Moirangkhong Leikai on December 27 morning.

Charging that security forces commandeered several local boats during the operations, and that the local menfolk were forcibly used as oarsmen, the protestors say their agitation will continue until the government gives a firm assurance against this kind of thing happening again in the future. [More]

More News:

The Sangai Express
Imphal, January 02: Ningthoukhong Gopinath Leikai Meira Paibi Apunba Lup organised a Wakat Meepham at Ningthoukhong Bazar today highlighting the plight of the fishermen who dare not go fishing at Loktak lake after the December 27 operation launched by 9 Assam Rifles during which civilians were allegedly used as human shields.

Around 200 Meira paibis
took part in the Wakat Meepham demanding that the Government take up necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of the fishermen.[More]

Notice that Meira Paibis are spearheading the whole thing.


But of course these are not news enough for the main stream media. Please Link to this post if you feel that this news needs attention. It might save a Life.

Blonde or not!

I don't know how the dumb blond jokes started.
I don't know if blondes are really not intelligent.

This I have noticed, the probability that a beautiful women ( With due respect to all those pretty and also intelligent women I had known ) will end up in the engineering faculty or pure science is as far fetched as Sunny Deol learning to dance like Mithunda. I don't imply that beauties are dumb or anything, and in fact I have known some very "intelligent and sexy" women but there are always more number of generally pretty girls in the Department of arts than in the department of Chemical engineering.

.....Which implies that there are less number of bombshells in the IT industry than there are in ITES industry. And like all IT companies, our company have also managed to seduce some of out clients to let us handle their call centre and BPO operations as well. And so we heard...
That we also have a BPO. But with their odd timings and restrictions in the tea breaks et al, I have never seen them. Much like ghost only heard. I don't even know which building, I have only heard. They handle some classified process some say, so the general security measure to not let them mix up with general programmers who might be tempted to Hack into classified Banking information( Ok this I made up).

So, I have only heard of the BPO operation that we have, and being a loyal blogger, who likes to blog in his free time instead of spending time in the cafeteria, I have never been to the cafeteria/canteen other than for Lunch. And with blogging to do, I usually have my lunch pretty quick. I spend half an hour reading Magazine and stuff in the library too. So I have never been to the cafeteria for tea or coffee. Vending machine does just fine though I hate the Elaichi Tea, I take the dip tea. But a few days back, I suddenly wanted to have good coffee in an odd hour. So I took a colleague and went to the cafeteria's sub cafe coffee day( coffee day express) and what I see.
Man! What I saw I couldn't believe my eyes.
Such beauty in our company??
Found out that they were from the BPO.
Been frequenting the cafeteria in odd hours everyday.
But like a ghosts, She's gone.
Someday again...
And Thank god for BPO...

Tags and Facts

TCP tagged me.
I saw it in the morning but I had to post the last article and didn't want to think about the tag.
And I had work. Tons of it.
Since I had to write 8-9 fact about myself. I thought I would need time to think.
Thought I will write them after work in the evening.

But the thought kept nagging behind my neck. Facts about me?
So I opened a Notepad. Kept it open.
Anyway, I was typing. To be more precise, documenting an RDD.
So I just wrote down the facts as and when I remembered one.
And what I see, I have already written 9 facts.
If I don't post it now, it might run into hundreds..the facts.

Oh! about the templates.
It's been ready for a long time.
I just copy pasted.

Here are the 9 Facts About Anthony:

Fact #1: I procrastinate but do nonetheless. Its never too late for me.

Fact #2: I chat up with everyone and anyone, and I always make a friend. Problem is I forget their names and so when I meet them again and they say,"Hi Anthony, How are you?" I just Mumble "fine thnx, how you doing" :-) and try to see if he has an ID card in a visible spot.

Fact #3: I know how to use tools and I like to dismember stuffs with that. I can also fix stuff pretty decently. I have assembled two "10 foot" disc antennaes a few months before cable line reached out house. I have assembled PC's. Give me a screw driver and I will unscrew everything lol. I want to own my own House(not an apartment) with a full fledged Workshop with Lathes and Carpentry stuff. Back home we have the whole set though nobody actually uses them.

Fact #4: I was beaten up once by a Mob in a motor accident. Was saved by some carpenters who came out of the furniture store in my rescue who saw that it was the fault of the Rickshaw driver. Not before I had a good number of bruishes though. I thought I'd die when the volley of kicks and punches fall on me. The Poor lady on the rickshaw that I hit was hospitalised. Lucky again she turned out to be an acquantance of Mom, but I was grounded for a month. Been careful eversince, except on the Highway.

Fact #5: I am a spendthrift and am shopaholic (where is the shopaholics anonymous' helpline) but I always pay my credit card bills on time. I hate the 2.99% interest. Like TCP I too am gadget crazy as hell, and bought a 1 lakh+ Laptop. Every month when my salary gets chopped off by the EMI amount, I stare at my 900 grams silver 12" Portege, and I feel" was it EMI well spent?". Saw a commercial for Ford IKON, and I realise I am paying more EMI(albeit for lesser months) for my Portege than the Ikon.

Fact #6: I can cook quite OK, and I like having guests for a meal. I have single handedly cooked 5-6 dishes. When in Pune, the Bai I hired wanted a 100% raise after the second month because of the amount of dishes a single bachelor piled up was no les than a small restaurant. PS: Oh! by the way, the surest way to a Lady's ****** is by the stomach LOL. Replace the asterisks by whatever you want.

Fact #7: I have been involved in Fisticuffs once too often.

Fact #8: Have I mentioned that I am a happy-go-lucky-almost-fool and that I have a stupid grin all the time soliciting smiles from strangers. I chose to be happy most of the time( in fact, all the time) and hey its really possible. I have learnt that being happy is a conscious choice.

Fact #9: I am crazy about Aishwarya Rai whatever be other people's opinions. She is flawless. I wonder why people judge her by her acting, and to be frank I have never noticed her Acting ;-). I am always too busy looking at her. :-D

One more..
Fact #10: I am not as good as others think I am... GEE ;-) { I wish I was Kidding, lol}


Good news, Sidin is back..with a great Post.

Manipur in news

.........................Not for the wrong reason today.
Manipur always feature in the news for all the wrong reasons.
"Killed" being the keyword.
Google would feature Manipur if "Killed" is keyed in for a search, I presume :-(
Yesterday only there was news of a Top Cop being "Killed" in an Ambush.
Don't want to link it.

But does any reader know that The national Games was hosted by Manipur a couple of years back :-D

And that Manipur with a meagre population of 20 Lakhs scored the Maximum number of Medals ( though there was some controvery). But The Manipur Team Score the most( or More) medals most years in the National Games and if you take into account the number of Manipuri Atheletes in other states.... Am I proud :-D

2 million Manipuris take on a Billion+ Non Manipuris... Geee.
LOL, thought I would start the day with a little self praise when I read in Mid-day that

'If Manipur can, so can Goa!'

Like I said, It felt good to read about Manipur in a good light other than about General Depressions and Army Oppressions and other sad stuff.

Rest of the article reads,

Panaji: It is clear that in Suresh Kalmadi's vision, small states will be given a chance to host the National games.Yesterday, the Indian Olympic Association president assured that Goa would be allocated 50 per cent of the budget required to host the 2011 National Games. This was in response to a felicitation organised by the Sports Authority of Goa here on his election as Chairman of the Commonwealth Games to be held in 2010. [more]

TCP Buddy, will reply to your Tag end of this evening after work.
Got to start working...Have credit card bills to pay. Good day every one.
Everyone who came for the tag, come back in the evening.
It will be interesting.

My new Year resolutions

A small resolution....
I will try to write more than 365 posts this year :-D
And Start a few more blogs :-D
Move to WP on my own domain.

First 2006 post

Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months and Years.
We even have a Fortnight and Seasons thrown in.
Measures of time, measuring the immeasurable.
And we live by the units of time that we have devised for as long as we remember.
And so another year has gone by.
And I suddenly feel older, though I know I would feel much older, come February 9th.

I have lived more than a Qtr century now, and looking back I have spent good years.
Very good years and I only can hope that the years to come are as good if not better.
So far so good.
No regrets. Though sometimes I think, “Maybe I could have…….should have…..”
But I have had a good 1st Qtr.

Like my old Schoolmate Capt. NPK Singh used to say every time we embarked on a mission considered Punishable, ” You wouldn’t have stories to tell you grandkids”.
And I followed sometime and led sometime, all those childhood adventures and had my share of spankings and corporal punishments. Or when I rebelled against preparing for the Republic day parade because exam was near and I didn’t want to spend days practicing for the parade which was compulsory. Of course, exam was just an excuse for my lethargy. I never studied for exams those days.

And My goodness, I still remember That day. Me and another friend R. I guess there was a couple of others too. Fiercely proud teens who stood still when that sicko-perverted-stalinist delivered his blow on our calf with a longish two inches wide bamboo cane. R’s calf split and mine as sore for many days. Of course, the Physical instructions Teacher got transferred from our School after we gheraoed him. And lodged a complaint against him. What childhood, what school!

And those days when we used to sneak out of the residential campus by climbing the wall to go for movies or have kababs at the Muslim Lane called the Masjid Road.
I forgot which movie it was, but there were more than the normal number of boys missing that fateful day, and when we just jumped into the campus one by one, than those searchlights ( it was flash lights) zoomed onto us and we joined some other boys standing on benches in the coed dinning hall and the girls were staring at us. Of course, the coed Dinning hall had only girls and class 6 students since it was so for dinner. Lunch of course was mixed and we looked forward to our lunches everyday. The teachers attempt at humiliating us by making us stand on-the-bench during the girls’ dinner were of course in vain, for the girls started asking about the movies next day in class tee hee. And of course, we had about an Hour of unabandoned bird watching from high up.

And there are things that I don’t want my father to stumble upon. It’s been a very long walk since those days. Of growing immaturely during the very early twenties and then growing backwards afterwards when I realized that I had some more time to have fun, and live like 18 forever. By the way I am still 18.

Do I have regrets, not at all. For a few lakhs more in CTC a year, I can’t buy all those years and the fun that I had. Of course god have been kind and in 26 odd years I have had it all. Of course I want more from my life but no I don’t want my past to be anything else but what I have spent. I never had a boring childhood and teenage like most of my more studious friends had. My growing years weren’t spent with my nose between the books for I preferred B to K in the Books (lol) and Now I can concentrate on my work much better ;-) with few mysteries to unravel from life. Now, I can even study and catch up with my passion of classical music. And of course Blogging..

Happy new year.