Aarghhhh...

The other day while I was walking down a road I was stopped and asked by some guy for directions to a certain place. It was about 4-5 kms from that place. So I suggested him to go to take a bus but he insisted on knowing the directions. Confused..also slightly irritated..I told him it was far.. He became sad and told me that he had been pick pocketed and he had no money and asked for help. Now I usually dont believe such stories. But the look on his face was convincing. I took pity and gave him 10 rupees. That was all the change I had. He didnt seem very satisfied in the beginning but later thanked me and left. Deep inside my heart there was this happy feeling of satisfaction. With this feeling I was walking and I had covered merely a hundred meters when some man spoke to me:

"Excuse me, I lost my wallet in the bus. Can you please help me...."

I could feel my satisfaction slowly ebbing away at that moment...

Its official ! Je parle francaise

I got my results for Delf A1 examination and apparently I passed! So officially I cleared the basic level exam. There are 6 exams in all. A1, A2 upto C1, C2. After the hard time I had wid A1, I am not sure whether I am going any further :P
Waiting for the certificate to arrive!

Cheers!

Literally speaking!

Few days back my little brother asked me the meaning of some common word. I can't recall the word right now but I was clueless as to what should I be telling him. I struggled and finally managed to explain the context that word is used in. He was satisfied.

I wasn't!

It drew my attention to a plethora of words I didnt know the literal meanings of and thats how it started! Since then I have fallen into the habit of finding out dictionary meanings of words and I am falling deeper and deeper into this whirlpool of my passion for dictionary meanings.

Of all the words you know how many do you think you learnt off a dictionary or a thesaurus? I am guessing very few. We learn words as we read - books, newspapers, magazine articles, editorials, advertisements, even the internet, or as we listen to them - news, movies, music, conversations. But with all these new words, we also learn the associated way of usage - the context where these were used! So we end up increasing our vocab but knowing only d contextual meanings. The literal meanings take a back seat and when asked what does a particular word mean, we fidget around trying to find out what exactly it meant!

Jana Gana Mana Rann!

If you are wondering that I messed up with the title of this post, then you have definitely missed the controversy surrounding RGV's latest multi-starrer Rann.

The title track of the movie, also the promo for the movie,- "Jana Gana Mana Rann, Is Rann mein Zakhmi hua hai Bharat ka Bhagya Vidhata" has been banned by the Censor Board in accordance with the Prevention of insult to National Honour Act 1971 because "the tune of the national anthem has been played around with and distorted".

Ramu has decided to challenge the Censor Board's decision in the apex court because there isnt any rule against using of the Anthem and because the song doesn't portray the Anthem in a bad light. This is what the lyricist Sarim Momin had to say:

"if we had used lines like "Jaag jao... Bharat ko bachaao' or 'Humari jaan Hindustan', the maximum reaction would have been a yawn or a raise of an eyebrow. Or both, if somebody really liked it and were generous.

It would NOT have made people sit up and think about the current state.

Diverting from the song for a moment, the Election Commission started many campaigns this year to urge Indians to come out and vote yet the turnout was only around 50 per cent.

It's not like we don't care. It's just that we don't care enough to make an effort to even elect the best men to decide the future and fate of our country.

We are comfortably numb and almost sleepy to what is happening to us."

Will the song cause spread of unpatriotic, anti-national feelings? Will this result in the youth believing in and reciting this instead of Jana Gana Mana Adhinayak?

Or is the integrity of the Anthem too solid to be breached by trifles?

What's your say? Comments are, as always, welcome.

P.S: Watch the video here.

India Untouched: Stories of People Apart

I dunno how many of you have seen the award winning docu India Untouched: Stories of People Apart by Stalin K. but I strongly suggest you to do so..that is if you believe that modern India has come far in eradicating untouchability.

The film introduces leading Banaras scholars who interpret Hindu scriptures to mean that Dalits "have no right'' to education, and Rajput farmers who proudly proclaim that the police must seek their permission before pursuing cases of atrocities against Dalits.

Unfortunately, thats not the end of the story. Stalin and team travelled across the country and has captured few hard hitting facts from across 8 states. I mention a few of these which I call most shameful for lack of a better word.

1)In Madurai, TN: The dalits have to descend from their bicycles and remove their shoes in the upper caste parts of the village

2)Mehboobnagar, AP: The masons that build the house are not allwed to step inside them once the buildings are painted

2) Jamui, Bihar: The mid wives of the village are paid only Rs 100 for a child birth and a week's oil massage. And they can't eat food within the house they work in

3) Patiala, Punjab: Street cleaners from the corporation say that the corporation doesnt have any non Dalit member

4) Jhajha, Bihar: The Dalits clean the railway tracks off of mutilated dead bodies of humans and animals and all the shit. Will an upper caste member ever do this, asks one of them

A Brahmin when confronted of the ill that will befall the human society if we touch the Dalits says the Godhara massacre was a result of this!!!

The situation is same in other religions as well.

This is the real scene guyz! People dont even know why they follow untouchability...its always been like this, they say...Paradigm!

A common Dalit song translates roughly into:

We clear up the garbage while you roam about ungroomed
For the crime of cleaning you call me scavenger
When you step into rain water, does that change your caste?
We are stabbed at street corners, our lives end in hard labour

We want the rights written by Baba (Ambedkar)
You treat us as your slaves for your will and pleasure
We will not tolerate this nonsense now
We want the rights that Baba gave us!

Just give this a thought..

P.S.: The video is available on IITB Lan for those who can access it.
P.P.S.: The documentary was released sumtime in early 2007. So I guess it isnt exactly ancient

sophomore-NO MORE!

So this is it!
M not a sophomore anymore..(SOPHO-NO-MORE as one of my friends puts it)
Oh yes I will pass..THANK you very much for your concern !! *frowns*

The one thing I love about being done with the final exams is that you dun have
to read all those same old boring courses anymore (...and other boring courses will take over :P)

Also there's nothing better than to be able to go back home to my family and old friends...
This time however I am not..(bloody internships!)..miss u mom, dad, di..love u

Anywayz...looking forward to a great summer...

Have fun..

Cheers! :)

The Boy Who Lived or You Know Who

This was something I wrote around an year back..

Rowling did her best to portray Tom Riddle as the Ravana of her Ramayana and quite succeeded in it. But I beg to differ. Even Ravana was a pundit. Good or evil is only a matter of perception. We believe something
is good if its convenient.

Lets not hate Tom from the outset just because Rowling showed him that way. Come to think of it, Tom had a very disturbing childhood, much more than Harry had. His Muggle father abandoned him and his mother. His grandfather Marvollo cursed his mother for the ill-fate. Young Tom must have been deeply affected by all this. His loathing for the Muggles was natural given the state of affairs.

Tom's stay at the orphanage wasn't good too. He knew he was different and that's why he felt alone. This made him restless and reinforced his hatred for Muggles. What he did during those days is known to all.
Now 'the boy who lived' never had a hapy childhood too. But he never had a chance to rise against the wrongs unlike Tom. Harry stayed as a mere puppet of the Dursleys. I m sure if Harry had the freedom, he
would have turned into some Frankenstien himself, given his lack of self-control that was made evident in book 5 when he shouted at Ron, Hermione and even Dumbledore.

Hogwarts was a welcome change for both our protagonists. Tom was a better student but Harry was counselled at every step by Dumbledore. On countless occasions Harry was saved by his dead mother or his friends. On the contrary Tom was on his own. For a lonely adolescent, power tales of the Dark Arts were fascinating and awe-inspiring. Hence such a recourse wasn't unexpected.

Tom's hatred for Muggles, his hunger to be the all-powerful immortal God made him a murderer. Maybe the path he chose was extreme. But think about it, he was a man who was never loved by anyone, one who never realised the power of love.

P.S: I do not think Harry Potter books should be thrown away. In fact, I am a great fan of the series. Neither do I wish to justify Voldemort's character. It's just something that had crossed my mind.

Comments are welcome.

Welcome aboard !

Hi..m back wid a splat(yea splat & not bang..since its holi..anyways poor joke)
The other day I was flying from Mumbai to Kolkata when I observed something rather amusing..
Well it amused me atleast..
I was half asleep..When I was awoken by a sudden change in speed of the aircraft. Then almost immediately came the announcement:
"We are about to land at the Netaji Subhas Chandra International Airport in Kolkata."
And in a few minutes the plane touched ground and it happened..
As soon as the wheels hit the ground came another announcement

"The flight has safely landed. Welcome to Kolkata. We request all passengers to remain seated and keep their seat belts fastened till the plane reaches to a complete halt. It is to remind all passengers that the use of cell phones and other electronic equipments is still not allowed and please keep them off. The temperature on the outside is...."

But people had already gotten up from their seats (obviously unfastened their seatbelts), claimed their luggages from the overhead carriers, informed their loved ones over their oh-that-is-supposed-to-be-switched-off-till-the-flight-stops cell-phones about their safe landing and formed a queue at the exits to descend from the aircraft.
If only the doors were open I am sure no one would still be on board to hear the last lines:

"....Hope you enjoyed your flight. Thank you for flying with us"