Insight from a strange incident

Of late, I have been visiting my home-town once every fortnight. As it has been two weeks since my last visit to home, I got my things packed and started off on Saturday morning. I took an auto-rickshaw from my place to the bus stand where I planned to take an interstate bus to reach home. As we were waiting at a traffic light, I observed an old man, dressed in dirty, shabby clothes, holding couple of packs of cotton buds (swabs), going from car to car trying to sell the buds to the people in the car. The buds were of cheap make – probably made at home and didn’t look good. As I observed him go from car to car without succeeding in selling any buds, I felt sad at his plight.

I personally don’t like beggars coming at me asking for alms. I believe that a person should work to earn money and however bad things are, should never ask for free money. Now, this old man at the traffic light is trying just that. Instead of begging for money, he is trying to make money by selling the cotton buds. However, his mistake is in believing that people sitting in air-conditioned cars would buy his cheap buds. He is selling his wares to the wrong demography. I wonder if he even realizes that. Or possibly, he did try to sell the swabs to the lesser privileged and was not successful so he is targeting people of privilege now. It was, however, clear that no one is interested in his merchandise.

When the old man approached the auto-rickshaw in which I was sitting, I, like others, tried to ignore him. When he saw that his latest target too is moving his face away, he couldn’t resist but hit his stomach conveying hunger and then spreading his hands asking for alms. Seeing this, I felt really sad. I asked him the price of the buds and he said it is five rupees. I took a five rupees coin and gave it to him saying that I don’t want the buds but he can keep the money anyway. He thanked me and then moved on to the vehicle behind me.

This incident made me reconsider my general hostility towards beggars. Some probably do try to make money through whatever petty jobs they can lay their hands on but end up failing. So, accepting their failure, they turn to begging for alms. Though it still is wrong, the incident made me at least not to condemn everyone begging on the streets and show some pity by giving alms.

The history of BGM

Have any of us ever thought about the early days of cinema? The days when there were no sound or dialogues, but only a picture. The days when they used placards to make people understand the context. I am dating back to such days to make you understand one of the integral portions of modern Cinema.

Ok, can you think of why there is background score in movies? You would probably say that the movie is adeptly supported with the help of BGM, rendering the viewers to feel that the movie characters' emotions and situations are better explained. We can't imagine how a movie would be without BGM scores. There were some experimental movies without BGM; but when I happened to see one of them, I felt the movie would have been much better with a proper BGM. Such is the extent we are convinced that a motion picture and BGM are always inseparable.

But the real reason why BGM is included in a movie is quite interesting. In India, this happened in pre-indepence era, to be precise sometime during the late 1930's. The projectors of that time were not technically great. They produce lot of noise while operating and they couldn't be operated from a long distance. So the projector has to be at a short distance from the screen and it was producing lot of noise. So to overcome this noise, they decided to bring in music bands who were playing for stage plays, made them sit near the screen at a lower level than the ground level and they played the music all along the movie to cover up the noise produced by the projectors. This was how the BGM had come into existence.

There are many other interesting things to share about the olden days' cinema. During the initial days of Indian cinema, some patriotic movie makers interluded freedom and independence related messages, dialogues, songs in their movies. So the British came up with the idea of Censoring it before releasing it for public view. Those days, the police commissioner was the authority who decided on what was to be there in a movie. This was how even the censor board came into picture. Due to these difficult times, the movie producers didn't want to land up in trouble, making real-time movies or current trend topic and they resorted to Indian mythology. There were many successful stage plays which were mythology based during that time. The producers just hired the entire troup, made them travel to Bombay or Calcutta and recorded the movie in a single place. There was nothing much of a difference between a stage play and a movie. The actors entered into the frame from sideways as they did in the stage, spoke loudly in the same manner as they used to in a stage play, stood only in one particular angle, i.e., facing the camera straight and there were no other angles. The camera was not moving. It was kept stationary at front angle alone.

The concept of re-recording was not there during those times. So, while shooting, the dialogues had to be recorded live on the sets, even the music band also arranged themselves nearby the mike so that they can score the BGM. The difficulty here was that the camera has to be positioned in such a way that only the actors were visible in the frame but not the music band that was playing the BGM. So the movie makers had very limited options with the possibilties of camera. Also, until re-recording was available, the actors had to possess singing skills as well as there were so many songs involved in Indian movies right since the beginning.

I got to know about all these information from a Tamil book named "Yem Thamizhar seidha padam" by "Theodre Baskaran" who has done many researches and published articles on Cinema and forestry. Thanks to him, it was a very good read and I like all the articles in it.

Are we all bloody perverts?

This is another blogpost that I wrote couple of years back. It is one of the reflections on life that I would like to share in this blog.

Some days back, we had a special team gathering at the office. It is an annual meeting wherein apart from long and boring speeches of the senior management (big shots!), a cultural event is also conducted where the employees get a chance to showcase their talents in hordes of creative and competitive events. These events include singing a song, solo dancing and group dancing. These  events are what is termed on-stage events and there were some off-stage events too, like solving crosswords and sudoku in the shortest time period, etc. I participated in some of these off-stage events but didn’t try my hand at the on-stage ones. This is partly because I don’t think I have any talent for either singing or dancing and partly because I had some pending office work.

As usual the on-stage events attracted a huge audience. I was there too with a couple of my friends. Now, my group happened to be an all-male group. There, we were, at one corner of the big open-space where the event was being hosted. Generally, participation in on-stage events by girls would be higher than the men, at least that is what I have observed at my office. Anytime, the ratio will be at least 5:1 with girls in the lead. I am not sure if that is the case elsewhere but over here, that’s how it is!

Now, when girls hit the floor, they see to it that they have lots of fun without caring much about the people around them. Men being men, take this opportunity to do a detailed analysis of the girl. When a girl gets up for a performance, her beauty is first analyzed and commented upon. Ratings on a scale of 10 is given and passed around. Others revise the rating and a consensus is reached. As her performance gets underway, her anatomy is crudely sized up and rated.

That made me sick in my stomach. Standing there, with the blaring sound of the music and an excited dance performance of a girl at the stage, I asked myself: are we all bloody perverts? Some of the comments passed around and laughed at by the men standing near me were so bad that I cannot write them over here. When I made my disgust clear, I was shooed off and called a sissy. Then they got into reasoning mode and said it’s the girls who wear revealing clothes (!) that make men notice things that we would otherwise won't be bothered about. And that girls enjoy being commented upon!

The above exchange brings to mind another incident. A friend of mine who works in Pune had come to meet us. It was around the time when a BPO employee in that city was raped by a cab driver. During our chat, this incident came up. Though the friend started off pitying the poor girl, soon, he started telling us about the ‘gossips,’ he had heard from his friends. He said the girl was a ‘modern-type’ who used to wear revealing clothes and hence what happened was coming for her! I was enraged. What the hell is this 'modern-type'? And who decides what is modern and what is conservative? Even if the girl was wearing skimpy clothes, how does that justify this heinous crime? And how can a victim be held responsible for the crime?

I am ashamed to have stood among my colleagues that day and let them use such foul language to describe a woman. I am ashamed to be a part of the gender that knows no limits and perceive women as weak who can be violated to satiate their desires. And, then place the blame on them for attracting the attention in the first place!

It’s sad that I am part of this gender. But I know I would have been sadder if I had been part of the other one.

What worth is a girl's choice?

This is a blogpost that I wrote couple of years back. It is one of the reflections on life that I would like to share in this blog.

I have a friend at my work place. Well, she is more than just a friend. She is more like a sister to me. This is one person who stood with me through the thick and the thin. I like her immensely and would often spend most of my free time at work, chatting with her. She is getting married next year and when I met her the other day, I was asking about her fiancé. She was telling me about the guy, the place where he works and other stuff like that. When I asked her whether they were going out together, she replied in the negative. Just to be funny, I remarked that they were the worst couple I have ever come across. She took it lightly but then said that she too likes the way things currently are. When I asked her the reason, she said that she is not very interested in these things (like going out to parks, coffee shops, movies, etc.). When I still pressed (only as a friend and not trying to dig into her personal life), she confessed that she is not very interested in the guy.

I was shocked to say the least. I immediately asked her why then she accepted the proposal and had an engagement. She simply smiled and said that this is India (!) and here, girls don’t have a choice. This statement looked totally ridiculous. She continued saying that she had previously rejected various proposals and her parents didn’t like it. At 25 (her age), her parents thought she is far too old already and had to get married as soon as possible. So, this time they themselves selected a guy and simply told her that they think the guy to be perfect for her. For namesake or whatever, they had that boy-meets-girl-and-gets-to-know-each-other meeting; after which, the parents simply fixed the dates for engagement and the marriage.

Now, I don’t know how to react. It felt strange. I have heard and read about ill-treatment of unmarried girls by their parents in conservative families. I don’t know if it is one of them. I don’t even know whether what her parents did amounts to ill-treatment. I just felt that what her parents did was wrong. I became silent as an avalanche of thoughts erupted in my mind. After sometime I realized that this girl has done a bigger mistake by keeping quite and accepting her parents’ choice. I told her this and asked her why she didn’t protest. She replied saying that the constant bickering of her parents drove her mad. She said, she was pushed to the limits and now just wants to do what her parents want and get away from them. I again felt silent hearing this. I didn’t know how to respond. One thing is clear: this girl is being forced to marry someone whom she does not like because she is too old!

If I had heard such a story involving a girl somewhere in a remote village in Rajasthan (for example), I would have just felt bad about it and would have blamed it on the conservative attitude of Indian societies. But this girl is not some uneducated village girl. She has a professional degree – a working woman employed at one of the top IT companies. How can both these women be comparable? Heck, she also happens to be my friend – friend of a self-proclaimed feminist! This is indeed shocking. I somehow wasn’t able to accept it. I asked her to talk to her parents again and make them understand. But she somehow was smiling and said it is easy for you to talk because you are a boy. Now, what do I say to that? With a smile, I remarked, ‘Thank God, I am a boy!’ She replied, ‘Yes, you should thank God for that!’

Returning back to my cubicle (work-place), I wondered what is wrong here? Clearly, I felt the parents are wrong to do what they are doing. But isn’t this girl also have done a mistake by not standing up to them? I was thinking that the solution to backwardness in women is education but this educated woman is not ready to fight against the conservativeness of her parents. Why is it so? Yes, I get it now. She cannot move out of her house even though she could easily support herself because once she takes such a step, she would become an outcast in our great Indian society! She fears for that. I doubt whether she has even given a thought about taking such a step. This has happened because in spite of being educated, she has also been bred within a conservative culture that shaped her. So, the solution to backwardness is not just education to women but also a change in the society as a whole where are girls have equal freedom as boys.

When I met my friend next, I asked, ‘When will the Indian society (culture or tradition) that is heavily biased against women change?’ She replied, ‘Not in a hundred years.’ I hope she is wrong here at least.

We need an Egalitarian society

Now that the state assembly elections are over in TN & Kerala, peacefully almost everywhere, we should be congratulating the EC for the way it conducted the elections this time, the tremendous advancements it made over the past few years, the way it strictly enforced rules, the way it made small steps to curb the "cash for vote" activities and would you be not giving the EC a pat in the back when the ruling CM made a hue cry that it was like an undeclared emergency. It's all good. When a few journalists asked questions to Praveen Kumar, the cheif election commissioner of TN, as to what actions would be taken against those charged of violating rules, he promptly and diplomatically said that the election commission's duty is only to report the cases before the judiciary and now the judicial system has to take against those who are being charged. Now whether our judicial system will give a timely verdict or not, only time will have the answer. On the same day when elections happened, the supreme court pronounced judgement on a case where it quashed a MLA's position who had won during the last state elections of TN. What's the point in giving a verdict like this? People will loose faith in this judicial system if we continue to hear verdicts like this. What an example to utter this quote "Justice delayed is justice denied." Imagine how the candidate who had came second would be feeling like.

While on one side, we feel happy about the way the elections were conducted, on the other side there were a few incidents which would seem ridiculous from a developing nation's perspective. I am talking about the celebrities' behaviour. In Kerala, actress Kavya Madhavan came to the electoral booth and tried to enter into it without following a queue. People objected to it, but she tried to justify her stand which I couldn't understand. What made her to think that she can jump the queue? Isn't it an insult to the people who were standing in the queue? Acting is just another profession and that doesn't entitle you to jump queues in a public system. Somebody should remind her about this. Couldn't stand with the people under the sun, she did not cast her vote and left the booth. I heard that the same thing happened for actress Trisha as well in Chennai, but when people objected to her skipping the queue, she did stand in the queue and cast her vote it seems.

The problem lies partly with the people as well for the celebrities to behave like this. I always believed in this ever since I remember that we should not run after the celebrities like mad dogs. But to my dismay, many times I saw people going crazy over celebrities when they come out public, even a non-prime-time daily serial actress enjoys this status, which is the level of celebrity worshiping that our people do. People, for your own pride's sake, please stop doing this. Let them be who they are. Don't build them temples and keep them in sanctum sanctorum.

Now the other embarassing thing was the media frenzy when Rajnikanth came to exercise his democratic right. While he was voting, he was surrounded by a number of camera persons and journalists and he voted amidst a total cacophony. He did not even bother to tell the camera persons to step aside while he was voting. They were covering it from every angle possible. The blame lies on both parties. This frenzy was diplomatically avoided by Kamal Haasan and the ex-deputy CM Stalin as well. Kamal Haasan shouted at the reporters to move farther and Stalin asked his wife Durga to stand away from him so that he could cast his vote in a confidential manner. I wish Rajni too did the same.

Now coming back to celebrities jumping queues, I related this incident with another thing that happens in Tirumala Tirupathi. Until two years ago, I was happily going to Tirumala once in every 2 years, feeling so religious about getting to watch Lord Venkatesha's idol and getting his blessings. Many times we as a family went to special darshans by paying extra money at the counter, and sometimes I heard my friends saying that with the influence of people working in Devastanam boards, they had the Darshan by skipping the entire queue. After a while, when I realized the meaning of an Egalitarian society, I hated this practice and stopped going to Tirumala. I said "No" for the Tirumala visit more than a few times in the past year when my friends or my relatives called me to join with them. It's just based on this thought. A God by virtue should be accessible to all people under equal norms and just because some people have more money doesn't mean that they can access God by shortcuts. This is what happening in Tirupathi and many other Hindu temples that I visited, and I don't wish to go to those places anytime in the future as well with this kind of partialities being practiced at the so called holy places. As a fact of the matter, it is these temples that creates partiality among people. Many section of people are not even entitled to enter into temples even today just because they were born in some caste type.

When is this all gonna end?

I know, He is going to die

It's been my long running thoughts...

It was my 3rd semester exams time. Standing frustrated in Avadi railway station after writing the toughest exam during my college - OOPS paper. I hardly got two digits in my OOPS class test. So, expecting some miracle to happen in my semester exam. Kicking myself hard, wondering what to respond to my dad when he inquire about OOPS exam.

Boiling thoughts, aching legs, sore eyes, distant train horn blowing sound, deafening silence and looking for train arrival.

A Tiruthani train came to halt in the opposite platform. Few commuters started to unboard the train and walk towards the footpath. I could feel the vibration of the distant train. An express train in the unused EMU track was nearing the platform.

I could see a man walking in the middle of the track. He was about 100 meter from the platform. He was having a big consignement on his shoulder. I was expecting the person to move out the track on hearing the train horn, but still he continued with his lackluster walk. There was a complete buzz among the commuters on seeing the person. The train driver started to blow the horn hard. Still, the guy kept on walking in the middle of the track. By default, I started to yell loud. I knew that pitch was not enough to alarm a distant person. All the commuters started to shout loud.

High Volume train horn, huge commuters resonance; he still continued walking in middle of the track. He seems to be deaf. I tightened my screws, forgot to breathe and stopped screaming.

"I know, He is going to die"

The speeding train, just a hitting distance; What can I do?

My frozen thoughts made my body unmoved. why didn't I had a super power?

Then whole scene played in 4X slow. I kept my eyes wide opened hoping that person withdraws himself from the track at the last minute. The person was quite a distant from the platform. Huge roar from the commuters.

The train hit him from the back. I could hear a deafening cracking sound of his vertebrate. He was pulled under the train.

My eyes was forced to shut.

Tears started to trickle down. There was a total stillness. I could see all the commuters frozen cold. I turned towards the platform temple. Tears splashing the platforms.

Heavy puff of dust started to swirl in that place. The oscillating platform temple bells, few womens in tears praying & many shell shocked commuters.

I couldn't believe what I visualized.

My next thought was to know what happened to the person. The scene started to play in normal speed. My incisive eyes couldn't find the body of the person.

The driver started to apply break slowly. The train was approcahing the station for a halt. I could hear a rattling noise in the wheels of the train. Three piece of the body was thrown out of the train bogie.

It was a systematic surgery by the train wheels, dissecting an innocent person.

Few commuters, train driver and guard walked towards the human remains to see the state of the remains.

"I knew, he is dead."

Few passengers started to scream loud on witnessing the body.

Train towards Chennai central came to halt in my platform. I slowly board the train. I moved toward the adjacent door to see the remains of the person. My train started to move and was nearing the remains.

I could see the cut apart head, bleeding chin, red cram neck lying on the ground.

His wide opened eyes, seems to be starring at me.

what is he saying to me?

Is he asking "Why didn't you saved me?"

Slowly moving train, gazing with his eyes hard, shedding a drop of tears; I conveyed "Sorry.."

I slowly moved inside to take a seat. MY dead cells resisted to rejuvenate.

Few mins of closing eyes, blocked thoughts, helped me to breathe easily and create new cells.

What is the first thing I have to do?

"Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune."

Still, I have few Questions?

"Does a human remain have thoughts, feelings, belief, life..?"

"How could I give a life for a human remain..?"

An Exotic week in 19B

It was a fresh morning; standing in Madhyakailash stop for the 19B ac bus. The bus came with full crowd, I took the front door to enter. There was only little place inside, where I have to stand in attention with immovable hand and leg. The driver closed the door, So I was totally squeezed in between the door and people inside. With full crowd the bus crossed Tidel, Nift and came near SRP tool stop. Saw an awesome girl in distant approaching the bus and showing signal to the driver to stop the bus. It was a monday morning, she really had a lazy walk. The driver stopped the bus. 'Huh.. who the hell in the world will not stop a vehicle on seeing such an awesome girl?' I said to myself. 'If I was a pilot, I would have stopped the flight in mid air to pick her up.' my thoughts running high. She stood in front of the closed door; the driver pressed the automatic door button to open the door. The cool air inside the bus blew over her face. She flicked her eyes twice, her hair started to tangle in air. I look upon her face, I slowly closed my eyes. My eyes make pictures, when they are shut.
After a quick completion of film development inside my eyes, I opened it slowly. She stood before me in the bus. The driver again with his automatic button closed the door. Now, it was her time to get squeezed between the door and huh.. its 'ME'. There was very little place inside. I gave her some space, by standing with one leg . She wore a red chudidhar with embossed design in black. I could'nt resist myself looking at her face again. She was fair, good skin texture, plain with zero marks and deep eyebrow which was really impressive. I looked upon her eyes; monday blues was all written in her eyes. It was lazy, but started to glitters as seconds pass by. I really want to quote something about her eyes on my own, but I am not that much talenetd to make things on the spot. I could only remember a famous quote by William Cullen Bryant: 'Thine eyes are springs in whose serene And silent waters heaven is seen. Their lashes are the herbs that look On their young figures in the brook.' I looked upon her lips; she had a lip gloss on it. It looked moist and red. If I had been Richard Gere, I would have made her to bend like Shilpa. I looked upon her nose; it was perfect with essence of classy touch. I looked upon her hair, it was short, dark and little bit frizzy at the end.
Some people got down in next two stops. Now I could breathe easy, importantly stand in 2 legs with ease. I just moved towards the front seat and the girl remained standing near the driver. Luckily a girl in that front seat got down in the subsequent stop and I got a seat. Still that girl was standing near the driver. 'What would be her name?? whatever it is, I would keep one' I said to myself. Finally I thought of calling her as Juno. The conductor asked Juno to move back and stand near the first seat as she had a quite long distance to travel on. She came and stood near me. I had my 'Two states' book opened and reading that. I became so interested in Chetan Bhagat writings after reading his 'Five Point Someone' book. The design in cover of the 'Two states' book matched Juno dress.
There was little bit of un-intentional touch happening between Juno and me in the travel. A heat wave travelled on from my touching part - hand to my heart and to my brain. I could feel much warmer than before. If it was an open space, the heat wave would certainly been due to the ozone layer depletion. But in closed air conditioned place, its was certainly due to the depletion of space between Juno and me. It was really tough for me to concentrate on the book. Still, I tried reading through. Kirsh the character in two states book had fallen in love with ananya during his college days and after two years he was working things on convincing both their parents. At this point, krish was saying to himself 'How stupid I am? fallin' in love with her over again and again'. After reading through this line, I just looked upon my Juno. I said to myself. 'How stupid I am, its been only 20 minutes; fallin' in love with her over again and again'. Every seconds I am fallin' in love with her. I fall head over heals in love with her.
The seat in which I was sitting was mounted little bit higher. Had a horizontal eye contact with her. Her frizzy hair laid over my book. I just moved the hair little bit while turning the pages. It was really soft and had a bit of hair current in it. Thoughts and un-intenional touches repeated till her stop came. 'The Greatest difficulty in life is: one who seduce you a lot, really close to you and you have to keep quite' Juno got herself ready to get down in the stop. she moved to the door, waiting to open.
I did'nt have any work other than staring her walk thru. The bus came to a halt in the stop and she got down slowly. She turned back and saw me through the glass window, purely its a chance. Her eye brow was like a bow. I could see lot of intense in her eyes when the eye brow is drawn. She flicked her eyes little bit and that rapid motion released thousands of arrow which pierced through the glass door and then thru my heart. I closed my eyes in pain, huh not exactly.. it was a mixed feeling. My sense did'nt work. It was like lying motionless in an arrow bed. The bus started to move and she started walking towards the office entrance. I kept starring at her till the last frame of her image. 'No eyes that have seen beauty ever lose their sight.' I said to myself and smiled a bit.
I reached office really late at 10. Its been one week passed by joining this new company. No system, no work; all I have to do is passing time sitting in stone bench. There are more average looking girls in our office, So entertainment is always on. After a tired work around in stone bench, I started at 7 from office. This time I got only a normal 19B bus to board. huh, I did'nt have a seat to sit; little bit of crowd inside. Its really frustrating to travel as a standees in bus while we are really tired. The bus passed half the distance to my destination. Suddenly I noticed Juno sitting in the front row of the bus, near to the entrance. My eyes lit up. All my pain disappeared quickly. Her eyes was glittering like a diamond. Her lips was like a dew on a leaf, it shinned in the dim light. She was hearing songs in her IPOD. She looks gorgeous even in the dim lighting provided in the bus. The driver applied a sudden break, I stumbled a little bit but I was so curious that Juno is safe. She looked at me on the go. Her looks suggests that she remembered me. She gave me a smile, such an energising look.. huh.. 'The moment she smiled it was a complete daylight'.
She got down in the SRP bus stop and I kept starring at her till her image fades away in the distant dark.

Am I really connected?

Regular usage of status messages in Facebook and Twitter certainly has a disadvantage. It forced me to think and put forth my thoughts with a limit in no. of words. Over a period of time, I feel, if I continue to post status messages alone, there'll always be shrinkage of thoughts. At the same time, with blogs, only your thoughts and your vocabulary skills are the limits of writing. Apart from this, I experience certain other syndromes as well.

However close a friend is, I don't feel like calling them and talk to them in person or over the phone, after I got addicted to these social networking sites. For birthdays, marriages, wedding anniversaries and such special occasions, I just drop a wish in their walls and nothing else. Even if they are online, I don't feel like pinging and chat with them for a few minutes. What sort of a syndrome is this? Am I missing the real concept of connecting with people? Many times, the feeling that I am connected with so many friends is just not real. It gets into this level than the actual concept of being connected; like I am fighting with my own ego looking at their profiles, looking at their pictures...a looser telling himself..."Hey look, he has gone to that new place, so cool his life is, when are you gonna go there", "Look he has got an awesome car/bike, are you gonna buy something better than his, so that you can be a show stopper for a day", "Wow man, look at his babe, she is damn good looking"...well, yeah, if you think that I am a big time pervert, yes I am, but these days most of us are definitely using the facebook, pardon me, not 'the facebook', just facebook, as a tool to brag about ourselves. And definitely I am also part of that crowd. It got into a level where, while watching a movie or reading a book, I am talking to myself, "what better ways, I can put a view of myself about this book/movie in facebook so that I get more likes and comments in my status" rather than actually enjoying the movie or book. I am trying to refrain myself from giving reviews about a movie or a book. While writing this, I cannot avoid this thought that all I say is pessimism at hyper levels. Yeah, certainly positive sides are there, won't you be relieved if a friend whose thoughts are similar to yours' prevents you from going to a crap movie just by his status message, but the thought I want to estabilish is, it should not get into the level of one person boasting about himself. It should only be a suggestion, a mere suggestion, that's what I am trying to say.

Ok, forget all these, they are some random thoughts, I don't really know how many of us get these feelings. May be my ego is the only looser when it comes to social networking and it sits all alone there. I think, I have deviated a little too much than what I was trying to say. The reason I took to blogging itself was because of a strange suggestion from my friend. I was writing only short verses in Tamil, to begin with. One of my friends read that and suggested me that the thoughts I expressed in the verses are good enough that I should be writing them as short stories at least. So to get into a practice of long write-up, I tried blogging. Now that Megamind and I have an agreement that we should write at least a post a day and that too it should not be less than 300 words, I found myself in a difficult position as to what I have to write in my very second post itself, all because of this shrinkage in thoughts.

Anna Hazare - the Pied Piper of the young India

Just like they responded to belly-gyrating, 'item songs' of Bollywood like 'Sheila ki jawani' and 'Munni badnam hui', the youth of India reacted to Anna Hazare's declaration of 'fast unto death'. It can be summed up as hyperactive, immature and over-the-top. The media, gleefully joined in and made hay. Mr Hazare claimed that he is fed-up of the delay in enacting a strict anti-corruption law by the parliament and threatened that he will fast till such time the law is drafted. He later increased his demands to include that the law be drafted by a committee that has a 50% representation from activist and that the committee should not have any politician who hasn't been accused of corruption. The youth of India, who had gone on a slumber for some years, came out on the streets and angrily demanded that the government pay heed to the so-called 'modern Gandhi'. It entirely missed their narrow minds that by calling Hazare a Gandhi, they are both demeaning the father of the nation and showing their lack of knowledge of either person's ideals and lives.

Anna Kisan Bapat Baburao Hazare, a former Indian army driver, is a social activist from the western state of Maharashtra. He is the only member of his contingent who survived the war with Pakistan and is claimed to have taken his survival as 'rebirth' which he wants to dedicate to the service of the people. An activist with remarkable work in his home state, he is often credited with turning his village, Ralegan Siddhi into an environmental prototype through motivating the villagers to build dams and percolation tanks, conserve water and to plant trees. Hazare later on took to social activism and campaigned against alcohol, tobacco and illiteracy, in addition to regressive social norms like dowry and caste system. Known for his activism supporting decentralization and putting power in the hands of the people instead of politicians, Hazare, in his fast for an anti-corruption law, surprisingly argued for a centralized institution headed by a Lokpal, an independent investigator with powers to inquire about complaints of corruption against politicians and book criminal cases. This contradiction, however, is one among many criticisms that can be leveled at this man who is touted by some as the new Mahatma (great soul).

Egged-on by the hysterical media, the Indian youth took to streets supporting Hazare through rallies and by claiming to fast along with him. Recent revelations of large-scale corruption and scams also contributed to this general feeling of contempt for politicians and the Parliament. Though I disagreed with Hazare's method of demanding the presence of unelected social activist who cannot be held accountable through any democratic system for lapses in law-drafting, in the committee composing the legislation against corruption, I did, however agreed that the method is best applicable only in this situation as the legislation will ultimately be used against erring legislators! So, to avoid a case of the conflict of interest, only in this situation can the presence of social activist in the law drafting committee is needed. So, to show my support, I heeded a call by a colleague at office who had planned a rally after office hours. Once in the rally, I realized how utterly clueless these people are! While around 70 people turned up for the rally, only about 3 placard had been organized. While the participants wanted to make noise to draw the attention of the passer-by to give the message, the impromptu leaders of the rally shouted them down, saying the movement is a 'silent cry'! When the time came to take out a procession, there was much disagreement on which direction to take, which streets to cover and who would lead, prompting a friend to joke that if managing such a small crowd of highly educated and well employed youth is so difficult, then maybe our politicians who manage the entire country of mostly illiterate population do need a little graft to stay in the job!

The government soon agreed to all of Hazare's demands and included social activists in the committee drafting the anti-corruption legislation, going so far as to make an activist the co-chairman of the committee which it was revealed was yet another of Hazare's growing list of demands. Hazare reportedly drank a lemonade to break his fast and soon showed signs of his lack of skills to manage PR. The feverish media pushed microphones at his chin and asked his views on a hundred things under the sun and Hazare was all the happy to respond. When his views were sought on a statement by a minister who said that an anti-corruption law may not necessarily solve the problem of corruption, Hazare demanded the minister resign from the committee immediately. Such a statement by Hazare was shocking to his supporters like me. I expected him to be a little more tolerant of criticism and disagreements. But alas, Hazare did not stop there and went on later to suggest that all states in the country follow the lead of states like Gujrat and Bihar in terms of 'development'. Both these states are ruled by members from political parties that form the key opposition block in the parliament. So, a political angle to Hazare's statement cannot be ruled out. This fact is most disappointing as one of the key reasons for my support to Hazare was his independence towards any political or ideological affiliation. To add to this, Gujrat is a state ruled by a politician who has widely been reported as the architect of a pogram directed at a minority community. Hazare's support of this state, overlooking its awful human rights record is very disappointing.

A colleague when proudly said that Hazare's method be repeated often to force parliament to heed popular demands made me realize the extent to which this erroneous method has caught on the imagination of the youth. What these people do not realize is that in a democracy, it is the job of the parliament to form legislation, debate it and make it into law. Citizens, if they find a law to be harmful, can challenge its validity through a public interest litigation in a court of law. If the legislators themselves are bad, then it is the mistake of the electorate who have sent such unqualified people to represent them in the parliament. I just hope that better sense prevails soon and that the youth recall what they learned in school civics.

What's your Rashee?

Mohan anna was like a big B for me when I joined him in 2003 as a roomie who was/is naïve in everything. So there I was, new to Bangalore, new to people, new to the lingo and literally I waited for his word to do anything or waited for him to guide me through. Would you believe if I say that I was so confused why they placed a finger bowl after taking your food in a decent restaurant? I seriously thought it's for you to make your own lemon juice with salt. But I didn't do anything stupidly as I waited for him to unveil what that was for? I told nobody about this, but this scene came in one of the flop Tamil movies.

Came 2011 New year eve, I told my roomie Biswajit while waiting for the Chennai express that I was not used to traveling by train and somehow I sleep well in jerky bus ride than on a train journey. He said, sooner or later I would resort to train journeys always. As we got on to our berths, I felt like puking and asked him, "Is this how all the trains smell like?" He said, "yeah, may be I am used to this, may be because we are seated 2 cabins away from the toilets, try to get sleep man, you will forget all this." But I was not getting asleep and the nauseating sensation did not wane away.

I was eager to watch the cricket World cup finals with my schoolmates at Chennai. I couldn't get a ticket in Chennai express because it was a long weekend as Ugadi also fell on the following Monday. But luckily I got a ticket in Ksrtc bus. The 10.35PM scheduled bus came at 11.15PM and I rushed onto my aisle seat. The seats were getting occupied slowly and my window seat co-passenger too came, waiting for me to get up from my seat. My general presumption was that anybody going to Chennai from Bangalore during a weekend would know Tamil and with that in my mind, I asked him in Tamil, showing the window seat, "Is this your seat?" That 'clean shaved on a Friday' gentleman, in formal wear and shoes, and with an 'I am the best in this world' attitude, nodded and said "YUP". I did not want to strike a conversation with him as I felt drowsy. After 10 minutes of journey, I felt that unfamiliar nauseating sensation.

I looked around everywhere to see what's causing that stinky smell?

I did not have shoes and took Mohan anna to the shop for getting me a pair. He selected a better model and I took 3 pairs of new socks as well. Mohan anna had a word of advice for me.

She said to me twice, "You are being paranoid", "You are a paranoid, big time". I did not realize then. Now I felt, yeah, the smell may be because of my new sandals. But Woodlands and Jockey have never disappointed me, oh yeah Jockey has socks as well, try it, their quality is good. I tried removing my socks and then smelled my sandals making sure nobody noticed me. It definitely was not from my sandals. Until the bus stopped, near a Motel, I couldn't find the culprit.

"Always go for good branded shoes and at least 6 pairs of socks. DON'T EVER WEAR SOCKS FOR MORE THAN A DAY and wearing so might damage your sole and you would stink very badly." I followed this advice from that day and have never worn a stinking pair of socks.

I would have advised this bloody 'clean shaved on a Friday' gentleman about his socks and shoes, I would have advised this unknown guy sleeping next to my berth on the train about the need to wear clean socks, but common sense prevailed and I just covered my nose with my hankies. Now I shout loudly, "People don't trouble your fellow travelers"

Now Megamind may ask me, bloody why did you waste a post on this stinking chapter and what is it to do with the title, it's because when he came up with this blog idea, we agreed, we may write about anything, absolutely anything, serious, light-hearted, a taboo subject, even about intellectual masturbation (now, what's that? he is having the answer for that). So this is what the result is?

And about the title, I think I'll have a bad company while travelling, it's my rashee.

I'll try to come up with a better topic later :)

Life's lessons on homophobia

I don't remember at what age I first realized that girls are actually different from boys. It must have been sometime before I started kindergarten or during those early days of schooling. At that age, the only way to know, of course, is by looking down and seeing for yourself. But I do recall the day the class bully told me that hanging out with girls is not cool. He said girls are usually dirty, they cry a lot and only idiots talk to them. I followed his advice for a long time but in my defense, I did not have much choice. The alternative is to be seen talking to a girl, be teased by the boys and the worst part of it is being bullied by the big guy.

It was much later that I realized how good it actually is to hang-out with girls. In around a decade's time, being seen with a girl had gone from being labeled a loser to being called a champ! Suddenly, having friends who are girls is cool and if a girl comes up to talk to you, you don't get teased, rather you are called a stud. Girls had gone from weaklings who cannot compete on the playground to beauties who must be loved and cherished. And when college happened to us, the competition was more on who scores with which girl than on who scores how much in which paper! We all had that special someone for whom we nursed our feelings and were ready to die for an evening with her. In this madness was a friend who strangely didn't think running behind girls is good and that the whole exercise is just silly. In retrospect, he had a point, my grades would vouch for that, but his reasons were, at that time, shocking!

I wasn't particularly friendly with the strange guy and his choice of not being like us in chasing girls, wasn't very helpful either. But one evening we got talking and that is when he let his secret out. I didn't know why he chose me to tell that. He reasoned that he thought of me as the liberal one in the group. He said he doesn't like girls and that he actually likes boys. My first reaction is that of shock and honestly, I didn't know how to react. I did know about homosexuality but to find one from our group to be gay was unbelievable.

As a child, I had been sexually abused by an 'uncle' who took unfair advantage of me. I had gone through the cycle of feeling dirty, blaming self for what was happening to me and essentially living the horror of sexual abuse. And when the strange guy told me of his homosexuality, I was enraged as I thought he is going to an 'uncle' to some unsuspecting and trusting child. It was much later I realized my mistake of having equated sexual abuse with sexual orientation where relationship is between consenting adults. But on that evening, I shouted at my friend, called him names and said he will rot in hell for eternity.

When I met that friend again after some days, he said he regretted having told me of his sexual orientation. He said it was not his choice but that was how he is wired. He told me that the God, who I had said will make him rot in hell, is the one who created him and made him that way. He said he has the same feeling as I have when I look at a girl but for him it has to be a boy. It sounded strange to say the least. I didn't agree to his reasoning on that day but I, nevertheless apologized for my earlier rage-filled rant. That evening, his words came back to haunt me. I realized that when I was growing up, nobody came up and told me to like girls or to get aroused at watching straight-sex pornography. It was within me to be straight, to like girls - that was how I was wired! That friend had told me that as he grew up, he just liked boys and that it was not because he was somehow made homosexual by someone or that he had a psychological baggage of having been abused in childhood. It was, as he put it earlier, how he was wired. The simplicity of this fact surprised me and made me realize that our desires to be liked and loved is similar, albeit directed at different ends of the spectrum!

The most important part of the realization was understanding that I or anybody else do not have the right to ask anyone to love someone. Why should the society dictate who should be loved and how? And why should an emotion as pure as love have any rules? But a minority within us, the lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT) do face these restrictions everyday - for something as simple as expressing love. This fact made me convert from homophobic to a supporter of equal rights for LGBT.

I found love in a girl. My friend did in a boy. The bottom line is we can love and be loved - that is all there is to life and nothing more. Let us not complicate the rules of love with misguided beliefs and closed minds. Let us widen our horizon and start loving.