Atrocities on females

I don’t know how many of you know what Mahatma Gandhi has told about Independence. His words were something like – India will get its true independence only when a woman(or girl) can walk alone freely at midnight on the roads.. Does anyone agree with this? I, myself, strongly agree with it. Independence is not just for individuals but it’s the same for the whole nation(humankind).

Now, let’s talk a little about LOVE. I know that it’s tough to talk just a little about it, but let’s try to do so. LOVE is between two hearts and it can’t just be confined to one heart. It’s not meaningful to say either that one should do anything to gain success in life or that one should do anything nasty to cover up his/her failure in love. I am bringing up these issues to show the increasing crime rate in my home state(or the whole world) just showing failure in love as the main motive.

About a week or ten days back, an incident happened in the town of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, India. Two final year engineering students(Swapnika and Praneetha) are attacked by some people who threw acid on them. Both the girls are seriously injured. Swapnika’s condition is still said to be critical. Police somehow caught the three assailants out of whom one Mr Srinivas was harassing Swapnika on the lines love for quite sometime. It’s another irrelevant story that these three guys were shot dead in an “encounter” by the police.

In another horrific incident, again in Andhra Pradesh, one guy attacked a married lady after she rejected a request of intimate relation by him. He cut her hands and neck.

And just yesterday, a budding actress was said to be murdered by her husband(her parents disagree that their daughter was married). The guy, after killing her, died by consuming poison. The motive was found in a letter that the girl started ignoring him after she started getting more chances in the film industry.

And one good friend of mine was a bit dull while we were chatting some days back. When I asked her for the reason, she said that she was in love this colleague of her for the past one year and when the matter was put in front of their parents, his parents didn’t agree for the marriage. And now, the guy was telling her that their relation can’t continue as his parents didn’t like her.

Com’on guys, why do we play with lives? I know it’s not just the guys who play the tricks always. I heard about some girls too. But, the majority of these issues are blamed(!) on guys. Let’s be an example to the other guys out there.

I don’t exactly know what I want to say with this post. But I hope you got the whole idea behind it.

A real longggggg weekend

Hi folks, my sincere apologies for being away for the past 10 days or so. We got a real looonggggg weekend of 6 days here - a couple of days for the weekend and 4 days for the Eid-Al-Adha(also called Bakrid back home in India). I thought of making this weekend an Internet-free one and never checked even my office mail, except when I went to office for a couple of hours during these 6 days.

Well, a lot of things happened during this weekend, including a Bachelor party and some unwanted shopping and lot of sleeping. I played cricket a couple of times and my weakness for fuller straight balls showed up yet again. I was bowled both the times and the last occasion, I sprained my shoulder while fielding. Now, it almost healed.

Coming to the bachelor party, guys from the Telugu community here wanted to host a bachelor party for quite some time. Don’t assume that all those guys were bachelors. Out of the total 16 people who attended the party, only 3 of us were bachelors and a couple of forced bachelors were also present. The party was held at my flat as it was the only bachelor flat around which can hold so many people. We hired a cook for the cooking and I had to clean the flat all by myself because most of my friends had office the day before the party. Believe me, I never thought that my flat had so many items(I saw some crockery which I never saw before)!!!! Anyways, I was too tired after all the cleaning as it’s been a long while since we cleaned the whole flat. I cleaned a whole 4 kilos of prawns while helping the cook(I never even touched a raw prawn before).

The day of the party has finally arrived. The age groups of the guests varied from 25 to 62. The eldest guy had a son who’s older than me. The menu was long but all the items were prepared at home itself. The menu included chicken 65, mutton sukka, pepper prawns, chicken curry, fried fish, onion pakodas, fried rice and carrot curry. The beverage list included Chivas Regal, Fosters and Grants. A total of three and half bottles of whisky made its way down the throats of attendees along with a couple of crates of beer. Another interesting aspect in the party was the rummy game which I played with a huge group after a real long time. I lost money in almost all the games except the last game in which I made some profit too(the stakes were higher in this one). The party finally finished at 4 45 AM the next day(it was the time when I bid adieu to the last of the guests).

So far, everything looked fine. But, our troubles started the next day when we had to do the cleaning of utensils, glasses and the whole flat all over again. The cook, who promised to visit us the next day, was nowhere to be seen and again all my friends had to go to office. It took us(me) almost two days to clean the whole mess one-by-one(we made plans to finish everything off in phases). Now, we are almost back to normal(hey, where’s my tiny aquarium which used to be right next to my laptop?).

Next big thing during these holidays was my unwanted shopping. My stupid shopping list included a 256 GB external hard disk, a 10.1 mega pixel CASIO digital camera, an electronic shaver(all are on discounted prices) etc. The main reason why this shopping is called unwanted is because I don’t really need any of these items and the second reason is this shopping was done when I was really running low on cash.

And yesterday, it was the Indian night at the Nation’s Art Festival here in Bahrain. I was very much depressed with that program because out of some 15 events during the night, only 5 or 6 really depicted the true Indian culture. Only Andhra Pradesh and Assam did their part well in depicting their culture. All other events are Bollywood based dances. But believe me, it was too hard to hold a handycam steady for long with the cold wind blowing hard at you.

Well folks, this is what happened during my absence from the Bloggerville. Will be around from now on.

Mumbai seize

Everyone of you might have known about the siege of Taj and Oberoi hotels in Mumbai. You might have read about this issue in many of the blogs out here. It’s sad to hear that more than 200 innocent people and policemen died in this ghastly incident. The way in which the commandos and the army tried to take over the seized hotels and the Nariman Point, without much harm to the hostages, was really worth a salute. And it’s because of the unspoken heroics of the Taj Hotel staff that most of the guests are able to escape the hotel much before the bloodshed began. I read somewhere about the way a hotel employee came in the line of fire so that the hotel guests can escape unharmed.

I don’t want to write anything about the terrorists or their strategy or the failure of the government. All I want is to appeal to the terrorists is – “Brothers, we are also normal people like your family members and friends. We too deserve the right to live just like your people. What harm did we or our government do to you or to your people? Who told you that your people can live happily ever after, if you take the lives of innocent people?”.

Whoever might be responsible for this, every second person is blaming the government and Intelligence for this fateful incident. Particularly, it’s sad to see that every opposition leader is blaming the government for this incident.
Friends, it’s not time to blame others. It’s time for us to stay united and stand by the authorities to sort out the issue. Let’s not make the issue a political one. I appreciate the way in which NDTV brought us the live updates of the issue, particularly, for not airing any political remarks. In one of the snippet of their news, when Murassoli Maran, a prominent Congress Leader, while giving out some statement to the public about the issue, started to bring some political flavour to the issue, the channel simply cut off the transmission of that interview.

We are Indians and we are proud of it. Let us stand united and do all that we can do to bring peace to our country. For the first time in my life, I was angry with myself for not taking up the dream career of my childhood – to join the Indian army.

Btw, does anyone know anything about the great leader of Mumbai - Mr Raj Thackeray. I am sure that he still believes that he would have handled the hostage situation better than anyone else with his elite MNNS commandos.

Random ramblings

There's nothing important to write in this post and also, I'm very busy in office these days, thanks to the rapidly shrinking free space on my server. So, this post will contain some random ramblings rather than some specific point.

1. Stopped eating ice creams. Frankly speaking(or writing), I can write a biggg post on this issue as ice creams are something dearer to me and they mean much more to me than an edible item.

2. Saw Dostana last week. I loved that movie(even though, I started feeling some weird sensation when my friends touch me). It was one of the best comedy movies of recent times. The chemistry between AB n JA was awesome. Btw, Priyanka Chopra was at her sexiest best.

3. Went to an ice cream shop next to my house, about a week back. Thought of eating one but later withdrew the idea because of sudden rush of calorie-consciousness. Looked around and found some hot samosas. Took half a dozen of them to my flat and as soon as I took a bite, I felt that there's something wrong. Instead of the normal curry inside the samosa, they kept cheese. This is what the people call "cheese samosa". And for this stupid thing, I gave up my fav ice cream...... :(

4. Daily, a couple of friends visit my flat(as they are paying guests at some family's house) and leave as soon as we finish dinner. The day before, they left normally and I got up at 5 AM feeling thirsty. To my horror, I saw that I didn't close the door the previous night after my frnds left. But thank God, nothing happened. My wallet, laptop, handycam, watches..... everything were in tact.

5. Is anyone following Indian Idol 4? Sonali Bendre's looking gorgeous in it.

6. There was this arabic guy in my gym, whom we consider as a decent arab. But last week, when one "big fat Indian gal"(I picked this from Kungfu Panda where our hero was called Big, Fat Panda) talked to him in the health club, he started showing his attitude. Too bad!!!!!

Well, I end my list here(so that no one blames me for the head-ache they got after reading this). Have a nice day.

Why I USED to love James Bond

Being a guy who loves fantasies, action and adventure, I love the world of movies a lot. My favorite filmi characters range from a wide variety of roles donned by some real good actors/actresses. I sing along with them, play along with them, cry along with them and laugh along with them.

Being an adventure lover, I always had this soft corner for super-heroes and action heroes. My all time fav super-heroes are Spiderman and Superman(it’s another bitter truth that I love to see them in cartoons that movies). My list of fav action heroes are James Bond and Ethan Hunt(Mission Impossible series).

Coming to James Bond, I always had this fascination about that character and many times, I dreamt of being a real life Bond(blushing). I loved his style, his girls, his ways of flirting with girls(obviously he can flirt only with girls, I don’t like my fav to be a gay), his nerves of steel, his coolness, his dress sense, his gadgets – in fact, I adore the character of James Bond. As far as I can remember, the first Bond movie I’ve seen in theater was Tomorrow Never Dies. I’ve seen almost all the others (older ones) on TV/DVD later. Post “Tomorrow Never Dies”, all the new Bond movies are strictly first-day-first-show-in-theater.

But off late, the character of Bond, in his movies, is losing its originality. We noticed this change from his penultimate movie, Casino Royale, which is more like a love story than a spy thriller. In that film, Bond cries, pledges and do all that we don’t want him to do. And this change is apparent in the latest movie, Quantum of Solace. too. Believe me; I was terribly disappointed with this movie. Somehow, I felt that the previous movie was better than this one. Here are a few reasons why I don’t like this movie (as a Bond movie):

1. I don’t like the idea of Bond carrying out his revenge instead of his duty.
2. This movie doesn’t have any of his cheesy one liners like the famous introduction dialog “Bond, James Bond” and his “vodka martini, shaken but not stirred”.
3. No Aston Martin fitted with loads of weapons n state-of-the-art gadgets.
4. The climax doesn’t fit at all.
5. Many stunt sequences look as if they are lifted from earlier Bond movies.
6. Bond looked tired(even though his character required that look in this movie).
7. The latest Bond actor, Daniel Craig, is a strictly OK guy who can don the roles of the super-spy convincingly but definitely not with ease. He doesn’t have that manly look of Pierce Brosnan or Sean Connery.

These are only some of the flaws found by me(others may like them, but I don’t). Bond is made human in this movie and its predecessor. But do we really want to see a Bond who cries? After all, we want to be a Bond but we definitely don’t want Bond to be one among us!!!

Alvida season

Hello folks, it seems to be retirement time for everyone. Be it in the Bloggerville or the real world. First of all, it was my dear blogger brother, Samby, who chose to be silent without any prior notice. And then it was one of my favorite blogger, Sneha, who decided to call it a day here. Believe me, I'll miss her posts terribly. But, I strongly believe that they chose to say alvida after giving it a lot of thought. All the best Sneha n Samby. And Keshi frightened me with those bubye hints, but thank God, nothing happened like that.

Well, coming to the other retirements in the real world, the news of Jumbo's retirement came as a blow to us(we were in office at that time). We never expected that out-of-the-blue from him. He was a great player, who helped India win many matches single-handedly. OK, I won't write much about him as you might have read about him recently in many blogs.

Coming to the central theme of this post, it's about the man who changed the whole Indian scenario of Modern Cricket. Ya, you guessed it right. It's Savrav Ganguly, the most successful Indian Test captain of all time. It was him, who made cricket look like war(I hope all you heard those cries of victory at the famous NatWest trophy finale), it was him who brought the team under one shade after the infamous match fixing allegations, it was him who showed the world how a captain must think(I strongly believe that he brought Yuvraj, Bhajji, Dhoni n co into limelight).

Ok, now you think that am a die-hard fan of Dada(as fondly called fans). No, you are mistaken. There were days when we used to fight in college about who's great: Sachin or Saurav. I always took Sachin's side. In fact, at some point of my life, I used to hate Dada. But slowly, I started enjoying his batting. I understood his emotions, liked this tactics, savored those moments when he used to take room on the leg side n slashed the ball to the off side - I enjoyed everything. I remember those days when I used wait for spinners to take the ball and Dada take on the spinners.

Now you may ask, why am I bothered about his retirement if I'm not a great fan of his? The truth is, I come from times when children used to grow watching Sachin, Saurav, Dravid and Jumbo win matches for India. The Indian Cricket team doesn't make any sense to me if none of them are present in the team. Now, already, two of the above four people announced their retirement. And Dravid is running through a very bad phase and we may hear his retirement news soon. And Sachin, the run machine fights on.

ALL THE BEST, DADA. YOU MADE WATCHING CRICKET A PLEASURE.

You can check this link for the career highs n lows of Dada and this link for the overall statistics of Ganguly's career.

Btw, did I mention that I cried when I read about Pete Sampras' retirement?

Ramblings

My blogger account had been screwing me from yesterday. I was not able to access my blog but I was able to read and comment on all other blogs. It was saying something like "403 forbidden - your query resembles a virus threat.... blah blah". At last, it allowed me in now and I don't want to leave this opportunity to blabber something here. Put on your seat belts n get ready for a bumpy ride.

1. Last Thursday, I went for a indoor football tournament with a severe headache - just because my roomie's playing in it. It was so boring that I stated playing games on my mobile and everyone was looking at me in a weird way.

2. After a long long time, we went for a real longggg shopping to the newly opened City Centre. It was on last Friday. We were walking that day for a little more than 7 hours without having a seat!!!! I bought a couple of three fourths n a track pant in Lee Cooper(they were offering a flat 50% discount).


3. The climate began to change in this desert country. It's getting cold these days. The same Friday night, I had a couple of pegs of Glenlevit(it was an awesome single malt whiskey); went out for a little walk around midnight; had an ice cream; sat at the entrance of my apartment thinking about my past, present n future; helped a kid retrieve her balloon(that family's just returning back from shopping, I guess) and the way she said "Thank You, uncle" was sooo chweet. Overall, that night was pretty eventful.

4. Saw "Heroes" and loved the movie. It's a commercial patriotic movie with a novel theme but the movie seemed to drag a little bit. Had they shortened the movie by about 30 minutes, it would have been accepted by all classes of audience. For the first time, I loved Sohail Khan's performance. But the real bad thing is, I had to watch this movie outside India.


5. Ferrari's Felipe Massa lost the Formula1 championship by a whisker. The prerequisites for him to win the coveted crown are he should come first and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton should not come in a place better than 6th. Massa did his best and he came first and for a few seconds, everyone thought that he won the championship and there were celebrations in the Ferrari dugout. After almost 38 seconds(after Massa crossed the finish line), Hamilton dramatically overtook Toyota's Timo Glock for the fifth place and won the crown by a mere one point. Bad luck, Ferrari. Let's give it our best shot in the next season.


So friends, these are my random ramblings from the past few days. Will b back with something meaningful in the next couple of days(Blogger.com allows me to login).