IDENTITY NON-CRISIS

A friend of mine sent me a forward which goes like this-

' in U.P. or .bihar, kids surnames are decided as follows

agar 1 ka hua to EKNATH

do se hua to DUBEY

3 SE HUA TO TRIVEDI

4 se hua to CHATURVEDI

5 se hua to PANDEY

agar sab ka hua to MISHRA

and agar baap pata na ho to GUPTA..'

my reaction? 'oh ha ha..ERASE..because as it is my cell phone from maurya period is always choking from FULL MEMORY.

i walk back to class and meet her on the way up. she stops for me and i give her a smile and start walking with her when she asks me

"Message mila?"

"oh ya ..your new docomo right? (do doo do ..do dodododo..sorry couldn't resist..
)

"ya i hope you didn't feel offended.."

i gave her a quizzical look and wondered stupidly how does she know I'm from the CHATURVEDI clan..and said " about the CHATURVEDIS being mentioned? no no of course not..!"

"no i mean the joke as a whole.. i mean you know its about people from UP and BIHAR.. "

I paused.. smiled at her..a little too sweetly , fighting back the urge to slap her and said" but why should i feel bad about all that? I've been born and brought up in this city.. I belong to this state as much as you do.."

"ha ha wo to hai ..but..you see..you're still..from north in terms of culture..and er..language."

"No ..my hindi is as bad as yours..its not very fluent and i understand every word of marathi u speak because i have studied it my entire school life..and why would i feel offensive? would you if i sent you a joke making a mockery of maharashtrians? Obviously not! because YOU and I are well educated and citizens of a broad-minded Indian society..don't we make fun of sardars all the time! and we have one of them as our P.M...CHAL its already 1 'o clock."

and i took 2 stairs at a time and rose above. LITERALLY.

and BTW HAPPY NEW YEAR! STAY SAFE , STAY HEALTHY. :)

Of slums, dogs and millionaires..

So I saw slumdog millionaire this morning finally with a friend. And how did I like it? Well it was good.  In the sense that it showed India. Not the whole of it. But yes definitely a part of it. And they showed reality which we should face and stop escaping from. All the debates, the star quotes, sms polls and the other hype that was created about this particular movie did spoil the fun. I mean I seriously would’ve preferred watching it minus the hype. When you hype a certain think the expectations increase. But still I thought the movie was pretty good.

   This movie as I already mentioned has invited debates from all over the country. The debate is about many issues. Firstly does this movie mock India and its people?

I think no. it does not. We ourselves have made many movies about the Indian scenario loaded with bribery, politics, goondalism, hypocrisy, love, lust, double-standards and underworld. It has showed almost all the above stuff which has been showed in the other movies made in India (I would refrain from using the word bollywood). So why the sudden uproar? Why the hue and cry? Because we Indians can stand being underdeveloped but we won’t like it if some outsider points at our misery! No sir!! How could he do it? None of his business!! So whose business is it?? Ours? So why are we not doing anything about it?? The slums they’re a reality. So what is the solution? Demolish them and who cares anyway were these slumdogs bitches and pups go? As it is we’ve got bigger issues to tackle like ‘valentine’s day’ and the’ pub culture’ and the western influence ruining ‘our culture’. This makes me raise a question what exactly is our culture?? Why any tom, dick and harry can dictate our lives? Who are these self-appointed guardians of our culture anyway? These are cheap publicity hoggers.  

I seriously feel the time and energy spent in these unnecessary issues could be better utilized to safeguard our future. If you really care about women and young girls do something to stop the flesh trade. Stop the dowry system so that no parent will frown at the birth of a girl child and regret not killing it in the womb. See to it that child marriage is not being practiced and women are no longer treated inferior. Irritated about the child beggars that bug you? Ever tried to find out whether they are really orphaned? Why doesn’t the government do anything about it? Well my question is why cant YOU?  Like to roam around the happening places in the city on your to wheelers and waste fuel? Do it. I do too. But ever considered spending some time with any ngo and utilizing your time for a better cause? Wake up!

All this can definitely end. I sincerely believe in our generation. I think we’re much smarter much more capable than our elders and we are lucky to be a part of a developing nation because it makes us adaptable. Remember survival of the fittest theory? But this does not mean, of course, that we should be as they say’ like that only’. This laziness and shamelessness has to be dealt with

And about the second debate whether we need a foreign hand to be capable enough to win the Oscars? NO! NAH! NAHI! Why the whole fascination with the Oscars dude? It’s a pretty obvious thing. We make movies which suits OUR audiences. Hate the singing and dancing around trees? Well I think we should be proud of it!! No were else will you see such a thing! And I believe that there are some classics (aradhna, anand, saransh, rdb, etc. to name a few) that Indian cinema has given us. Which definitely do not need an Oscar. Oscars are no parameter to judge Indian cinema. And A.R. REHMAN has given us many better songs and better music for sure in swades, lagan, roza, rang de basanti etc. His vande mataram gives me goose bumps. So Oscar or no Oscar rehman you’re the best! And we definitely are proud of you. Having said that let me also confess that A.R. is truly deserving of the nomination.

      So that’s that... Now I’ve to study for EVS VIVA. Frustrating concept. But I’ll write about it later… J go see the movie. Hindi or English does not matter... And please do something for our motherland. 

R.I.P

So finally after 48 hours of intense battle with the terrorists the taj, trident and nariman house are safe. All thanks to the nsg black commandos. What I wonder is whether Mr. raj Thackeray checked the identity of those martyrs or those who laid there lives to save Mumbai. Where was i-am-the-only-one-who-cares-about-mumbai guy when the city was under siege? Did he even go out to donate blood?
And now what? What is the government doing? What it is going to do is give some compensation to those affected and be done with it! What the government should start is terror taxes or terror cess for the future you see. Because all this is going to continue. People are going to die and all the government can do is pay compensation and make statements, blame each other and be in the lime light. Till the next time.
It’s been a few hours and hemant karkare is now reduced to ashes. What I expect and await is mr.amar Singh’s statement. I am waiting for him to come and comment and doubt his credentials. Please spare us all you politicians. all we want is the end of terrorism.
We are no longer safe in our homes and what can get worse than this? Now its all on us. We have to stand up and understand our responsibilities towards our nation. What can we do? We can vote. We can choose the correct government and the correct leaders. Let us do justice to this right bestowed on us.
And for now all we can do is pray. May all those who died in this unforgivable act rest in peace.

what the hell!!!

enough!!
enough of this crap!! why do we have to suffer so much!! so now people armed with ak 47 and a full supplie of grenades can just enter our homes, hotels, trains, planes and other places and just blow us off while w what we are left to do is just watch crappy news channels who proclaim "these pictures are EXCLUSIVELY on ..." exclusive???? excuse us please!!! and i totally agree with arnab goswami that we do not want those bloody politicians to come and make statements and listen to our pm while he says "we condemn this act and let us unite together to fight terrorism!"..oh for god sake's please!! wake up!! how many more bomb blasts do we really want!! america gets one 9/11 and the whole of iraq and afghanistan goes up in flames!!
enough is enough!! its been 48 hours and the siege still continues.. now its high time some stringent measures are taken and the country is assured that it can go to sleep peacefully and not wake up to the morning newspaper yelling " another bomb blast..."
my prayers go out to all those affected...