Round robin system between Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi

The funnest aspect of Tamil nadu elections has been use of Vadivelu jokes on Vadivelu. My FB feed page is filled with vadivelu dialogues  " entha oru vishayathayum plan panama pana ipude dan.plan pani pannuno ...okay...:)", "enna vachi comedy pannitangale" . People seem to be more curious about his fate than anyone else.

Even otherwise, elections are fun - they provide with ample news and the results business is so similar to a sports match result. Fun, fun all the way. I propose having an election every 2.5 yrs just for this.

Except there is no point to them because the results just alternate.

If either of them are really shrewd, JJ and KK could sign an agreement to alternatively loot TN every five years. Unfortunately,they are too greedy to cut an agreement like that. Also, Thatha is old and he has two large families to support. Naturally he feels he deserves more.

But Tamil people seem to be fair judge and provide equal opportunity to both. Though going by the online responses people are really hoping for a corruption-free government -what? - but like how?  Not sure what they mean by that anyway.

My dad though said Jayalalitha's 2001 regime wasnt as corrupt except she took some strong anti-popular decisions. Hopefully that is true.

This is perhaps what they call a double edged sword? While South Indian actors and their fanatic fans is a known phenomena across the Indian media, this article on Vikatan this week gives a little more of ground reality. Rajini fans have appealed to Rajini to join politics once and for all and if he is going to support any political party he should do so only under the agreement that each of the Rajini district fan association gets a seat. In short, Rajin's fans expect Political favor in return for their fandom!

1. Is Rajini literally running away from meeting his fans? Because obv. he doesnt want to join politics in fear of losing his wealth and here his fans are hoping to see four kasus(nallu paisa!)  in the name of Rajini.

2. As some one commented on the article, is being Rajini fan a qualification for becoming an MLA/MP - but does politics require one anyway?

3. It is extremely clear that these fans are looking at politics only as a personal growth opportunity financially which is.... puh..  dont know why it even shocks me.

   I have been reading about this phenomenon for sometime ... Vijay another actor who is known for his mass following has had successive flops(he ha.. success and flop!). He has been making some noises about joining politics and is constantly in the news for meeting different party leaders from Rahul Gandhi to Jayalalitha!

So, the same fans who put them on a pedestal are the ones who are pushing them to the pit of politics for their personal benefit?:)

Article 377 and landmark judgement

Indian society is hardly fair and free, but for the most part, the laws and constitution are. That is one bit of nice thing about India. This portion of article 377 that criminalises homosexuality stands against that bit of sanity. Treat people equally atleast in Paper, give them rights atleast in Paper. I hope atleast the gets corrected. Atleast one step.

Also, ever since the issue of gay rights and case against article 377 started in India, I have been curious about the reaction of the hindu extreme group. Islam and Christainity have specific instances in their respective books that condemn homosexuality. Hinduism has 1000 books probably, but I dont think any of them condemns homosexuality, if anything it is the reverse is what I hear.

So, if Hindu groups are condemning it, arent they just aping the religious conservatives of the rest of the world, even though it is the belief of completely different religion(their supposed enemies)? or did they suddenly wake up to the notion of diverse religions and tolerance to their beliefs? Just shows how brainless the fundamentalists are, I suppose.

Ps: honestly, before reading some of the blogs written by gay indians, I wouldnt have understood their plight or gave it a thought. my previous post on this

sorry, can't throw my Manlo-blahniks

After three shoe throwing incidents by Journalists* across the world, I suspect this might become a mandatory course offered in Journalism. A Practical course. A semester of practice would ensure the shoe gets thrown only at the Politician and not the fellow Journalists.

But what would an aspiring Journalist who also loves her Manlo-blahniks and Jimmy choos do is the question now!


*(first - by an iraqi journalist on George, , the pioneer who not only satisfied his anger but billion of others and today, by journalist Jurnail singh to Chidambram for the clean chit given to a congress man who was a key suspect in 1984 Sikh riots)

Mumbai terror - part 2

I wanted to avoid another post lest I sound like a broken record or pretentious but I react to what I read and Mumbai terror attack still occupies a major portion of that.

1. Every body is calling it India's 9/11. From what I know, we have had one of these bomb blasts quite often starting from 1993 Bombay blasts. We might even have covered all the 365 days if somebody listed them all. What makes this our 9/11 and others not? If you are talking in terms of importance of the place, hello, we have had one in our Parliament 7 years ago, in terms of lives lost or property lost, Bombay blasts would score big time no?
I think people who have this utter fascination with US are the one's who would be calling it India's 9/11. I am not complaining atleast we are reacting strongly for once.

2. US says Pakistan should help India, Pakistan says terrorism is bad and will provide all support to India and then says that there is no proof that all these people are from Pakistan. India keeps saying there will be Military consequences and does nothing. This routine has been going on for 7 days now. I must say I have it all memorized that tomorrow if one of the spokepersons gets sick, I can cover for him.
With Global recession, nobody has any money for war anyway except for the terrorists.

3. I read in Dawn, a Pakistani Newspaper, in their letters to editor section, India must have done this all to herself to avoid the focus shifting to Kashmir. That is too much of intelligence to attribute to my country's RAW. We are RAW not ISI.

4. CNN, I swear I switched it off last Monday as soon as I heard Obama say that every nation has to do what it has to protect its soverignity in response to some reporter's question about doesn't India have the same right to attack Pakistan as US does to combat terrorism, you know ending on a good note.

But before that I heard some intelligent guys* at CNN say that they should solve the current terror problem in US by solving the KAshmir problem. You know like India is a moron and let us help him with the problem. Irritating, especially considering US's track record in solving problems in the recent past, in Iraq and Afghanistan is abysmal. If at all, US and Britain are the top countries that should be prevented from poking their nose into another country's business.
They have already created enough mess, time to pass the chance to other countries.

5. I left a comment at NDTV that they shouldn't cop out by saying there was no guidance from government, people are probably more interested in lives saved than live coverage itself. http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/mumbaiterrorstrike/Story.aspx?ID=COLEN20080075194&type=opinion

That comment wasn't published but comments thanking NDTV for the live coverage were. I left another comment saying people, NDTV is not doing us any favor by doing a live coverage, after all they are doing it for the ad money for which we pay indirectly. Also, nobody is asking them to stop the live coverage just do it wth responsibility. That was also not published.

*Morons, what are the other synonyms of this word? Idiot & stupid have been declared uncool from second standard. Please take your time and provide answer within 7 days, all your comments will be published, unlike you know other places.

Mumbai attack

There have been bomb blasts in India before. Every single time I have been agitated. I would go restless, plotting mentally an end to these attacks. But this one shook me to the core, not because the elite or few Caucasian people got caught but because this was literally a war against my country.

It was just 10-25 terrorists but without a concern for their life and with sole aim of murdering as many as they can, a situation were there was nothing for them to lose while every single casualty was a loss to us . Every morning, those 3 days, I woke up thinking it would have been all over, it was deeply disturbing.

To top it, I got my news update from CNN. Given the choice between swallowing a Blood pressure tablet & switching off CNN, I had to choose the option of turning off CNN. I haven't even enrolled in flex spending, so there is no question of BP tablet. Every single word out of their mouth was condescending towards India. So, further discussion on CNN anchors will be banned.

With them as the base, every single person they invited on CNN seemed intelligent. Deepak Chopra except for some stupid rhetoric about Pakistan seemed to atleast spoke from the point of view of Indians. Thanks to 9/11, US at least seems to understand what terrorism means, they cannot appear not to. Pakistan, however is their pet child, no, Pakistan is the only entity they are worried about. They were discussing how to prevent the war between India and Pakistan. I could never quite get it, but its ok for U.S to wage a war against Afghanistan and Iraq, which by the way, is not even on the path after 9/11 attacks while India which has lost 7500 lives to terrorists from Pakistan should keep quiet? I haven't figured out under what moronic/perverted logic does that make sense.

People have been sighting Pakistan's Prime Minister statement to claim that Pakistan is not involved which again raises questions in my mind.
1)If Pakistan was indeed the reason, would their PM really come out and say they were involved? So, what kind of moronic evidence is that then.
2) How many people realize that Pakistani army is an independent entity of its own? Pakistan PM, today's or any yester year one's have never had any control on them?

On the other hand, Pakistan PM and others from Pakistan have literally been begging India not to wage a war against them. It almost reminds me of kids who would scream, "Na pannala, na pannala". This with us, their arch rivals! So, seriously sad state of affairs at Pakistan. Also, take a look at the wiki entry for bomb blasts in Pakistan and you will realize they are as troubled as us.

Meanwhile, the backboneless Manmohan Singh, who should have struck to Economics and Sonia Gandhi, who in my opinion should never have to do anything with government have sent proof to US that Pakistanis were behind the attack. Morons, as if US is going to look at the proof and say ok, go ahead launch the attack.

Hello, US has been giving money literally to Pakistan for the past 7 years in the hope they would eliminate Taliban, Al Qaeda which if you notice hasn't done anything either. If the George Bush had concentrated finishing up in Afghanistan instead of waging a war without a reason against Iraq(not Irock, it is Iraq, get that right first), we honestly wouldn't have to face this day.

I don;t know what is really solution in this regard. Pakistan seems quite powerless to handle the terrorist in their own country. India is not going to get access to the terrorist, all it can do is war against the military.

US should and can, but US would puppetize the government in Pakistan, further killing the democracy, honestly quite dangerous to India. Plus a strong presence of US military in our neighbor land can't be good to us.

***
CNN interviewed Jonathan, a candian Citizen who was staying in Taj during the time of terror attack. One can clearly see he was shaken, I mean I would be too if I had encountered death at such close quarters.
Two things that caught my attention was,
1. He said let us all take the next plane and go to Mumbai to show the terrorists they can't do anything to us. This from Canadian citizen, may be it was just rhetoric, still it means a lot, isn't it, coming from a mouth of a person whose face still echoes the throes of death he had just been in.
2. He and every other caucasian who were interviewed all had good things to say about the Indian Military. Finally, some good acknowledgement esp from a westerner.
******

Indian NSG have done a good job. But there is no harm in pointing out that there is hardly any security in India compared to rest of world. The security guard thatha at the mumbai airport waved me in looking at my face instead of my boarding pass! As I was standing in line at Chennai airport to get my luggages scanned, there was a simple iron chain barricade between us and the people who had already undergone the scan. Airport staff comes in with a row of trolleys opens the chain. When he puts the chain back, he simply asks the guy who by now is standing in the middle, secuirty check achu? The guy nods and is simply let into the other security cleared line! A terrorist could easily look for loopholes like that.

It simply hurts that a billion of us are not adequately protected. While Jayalalithas, Karunanidhis, sonia gandhi's mother in Italy all get amply protected. We just don't seem to have serious attitude towards security!

Fine, even with all this security as Rajiv Gandhi's security Guard said, " For us everyday is a victory for the terrorist a split second is a victory" but atleast put up a fight.

I just want to point out, LTTE had a free pass in Tamil Nadu before Jayalalitha's regime. She simply abolished their presence. The woman had a iron hand in dealing with LTTE. On the other hand, every time Karunanidhi comes in, few LTTEs escape from Jail. Attitude at the top matters!

My own journey towards understanding... chuck it this is a post without a title

It was one of those camps that the school made us attend as part of managing the teenage years. Part of the two day drama was a sex education session from some org.
We were told that we could drop in any questions anonymously. When the Q&A session started, What caught me by surprise, was 9/10 questions that were discussed in the session were on homosexuality.

I was quite surprised with the volume of questions as it meant that people around me, all in their teens had these questions. I am sure the more evil of the kids would have tracked them. I even remember once in a combined class set up, teacher was scolding two guys and screaming at them, "why don't you sit on his lap? ". The two guys were siting that close. A just turns to me and casually says," Homos, man!". You should have taken a look at those two guys before commenting, that tall skinny guy and the well-built stout guy somehow confirmed to the image that I cultivated out of reading sidney sheldons.

Honestly, in the circles I moved, not including my parents, homosexuality was understood. It was always presented to me as an accepted concept. I never questioned it either. For the most parts it was just part of our jokes. You know the usual, tease each other as gays and tell them it is ok, we will accept you as you are. I had enough knowledge, all thanks to sidney sheldon. Just like we were gossiping about hetrosexual couples, we were also secretly suspecting who was gay.

But couple of years ago, a friend and I were discussing, rather gossiping about this senior colleague(gay)'s possible partner. H was asking if I was ok with it, I said I am ok with it, just that I couldn't relate to it. Just like that I blurted it out.

That got me thinking, you know all along I was just saying I am ok with it. People were saying its not quirky, so I was saying its not quirky thats pretty much it. It was hard to correlate. Honestly speaking, I started thinking, this is what the current research says but it is 'current' research. Research findings can change. This was an extremely accepted common practice in ancient greece. And then later it became unacceptable in the same country. So, these opinions can change you know.

What if its a temporary fad & so on? what if I am just mouthing simply what I am being told, that it is ok for people to be gay because that what was told to me all ways.

Around the same time, I accidentally came across a blog. There were few blog posts, all about crushes on men. So, that got me all excited. Couple of posts later, I find that the blogger is a guy, which was fine(seinfieldesque, very important to add that "I am fine with it" else people would term you homo-phobic). That was the first time I ever came across such a Personal account of a homosexual. Then I realise he is Indian.(!). In my mind I reacted pretty much, just like how jezz did it in Bend it like Beckham, "But he is Indian".

That blog and broom's blog made me understand the whole concept wee bit more. See, I came across the word crush for the first time in 9th standard. (Yeah, that late, but it was a small city, so its ok). But even though I came across the word much later, I was very much familiar with the concept.

Nobody taught me to have crushes. Yet I had already had them. Nobody told me that it has to be on Men/ boys, Yet that was the sex I choose. I remember cousin V and I sharing with each other, how we now actually like to stare at good looking guys/ even men. Cousin V shared this with her Mom and ofcourse, aunt scolded her. (Look at the way, the country treats hetrosexualism, its high hopes for the country to open upto homosexualism).

You know what I mean, it was just natural like that. So, when I read on these blogs, these people's initial attraction itself has been on people of their own sex, at ages when nobody taught you the concept, that kind of got me to understand it lot better. Just your body's alarm went on, on spotting a good looking guy, so does theirs.

Let us just say this, the other day, D and I were standing on near my doorsteps and carrying on the conversation and suddenly this man passes by. And i was just thinking he doesn't look that bad, kind of cute. Right then D, who was in completely different conversation, says that guy looked good. And I am like yeah. Just like that, an instinct feeling for both of us.

Without us realizing, both of us reacted that way. And if for them, it happens on spotting people of their own sex, how could they change that.

Can we really tell them what they feel instinctively wrong? What are they supposed to do? How are they supposed to control their instinctive reaction that way? I don't see it harming me in any particular way. oh yeah, I do feel a loss when some good looking celebrity turns out to be gay. But apart from that minor loss, what exactly can be my problem? How do they harm me in anyway. They are consenting adults and they are in love.

Infact by making it illegal, aren't we just pushing them into hiding themselves under hetrosexual marriages, which might end up affecting their partners?

The reason why I have this rant is, the indian government recently rejected in making a plea filed by an NGO to make it legal. They not only rejected, they completed denied the very existence of homosexuality and addressed it as something that needs to be corrected.

All these while, gay rights activists had been talking about somebody tying the bell and just asking the government to correct the obsolete law which bans homosexualism. Now that the case had gone to court, I guess the political angle has started kicking in.

Newyork dreams

I see her walking on the newyork pavement, wearing a designer coat, picking up the starbucks coffee on the way, reaching her window office in the skyscraper building. She does some important stuff during the day. She ends the day by coming back to her posh pad with tall glass windows with a view of the well lit city.

A life I dream of.

Next day, she wakes up, goes to office to find out she no longer has the job in a companyof 158 years. The company of 158 years doesn't exist anymore.

I am not sure what to dream of anymore.

Tata's Nano - Rs one Lakh

http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/jan/10slide1.htm

Imagine the nightmare on Indian roads. What India needs is strong modern public transportation or a Star wars like air transportation between different floors of different buildings across the city.

No Stereo - I mean in the whole of India, my dad would be the only person who will find this option acceptable. What is an Indian family supposed to do inside this car, bicker? - but don't they do that at home anyways?

Otherwise, yes, it does sound like a boon to several middle class people.

Sourav's mouth

Blame it on the leftover crush I had on this man. Just when I was glad that world is warming up to Sourav again after Greg chappel debacle, here screams the headline.
"Batting lower down denied me several hundreds: Ganguly"

Sachin's " I will play for where ever team wants to me play", sounds a lot sweeter.

PS: Ever heard of team work, Mr. Ganguly or atleast PR?