Of funerals and birthdays:)

It is generally said that the popularity of an individual can be felt during his/her funeral. That means the more the number of people crowding the place and the number of cars lined up in the entrance of the mourning house, the respectable and loved the person was in his living years.
But again, this might be elsewhere but in India..err..enough scope for one to give second thoughts about..
In our country any funeral or marriage in the neighbourhood, its celebration time for the even the most distant of relatives and people known.
Reason? Free food, dude what else:) The ambience depends though. If it is marriage sumptous meal and plenty of incidents to laugh at..
If its funeral, again plenty of food but a gloomy countanance to carry along with you.

So that was that.

Coming to the objective of the post. I celebrated my birthday yesterday. And what a nice day it was. Reason?

Recieved inundated calls and messages from far flung friends..some very known, some distant friends, some friends of friends, while some you would never have expected to receive any message or call from. The phone started ringing exactly 11.45 pm, 26th of February and the last message recieved was 12.30 am, 28th of February.

Felt glad to be remembered.

Now coming back to the topic. How are we supposed to judge about how people feel about you while alive. Solution - Just check the number of greetings and messages you recieve from people.

Man I am exceedingly satisfied.

The day made me realize that I am being remembered by people on the day which matters to me a lot..and I have in turn realized how much they mean to me...

Through the blog just wanted to thank all those people who did remember this man's birthday, who might not have bothered to remember theirs....so much has been conveyed in one day.
Am glad that I have so many people to relate to:)

Im sure u guys would be wishing me a belated one. Thanks for the same.

By the way, anyone in Bangalore should go to a place called " Roomali with a view" situated at 100 feet road, Indiranagar.

I swear that's a place to go for a delightful evening:) Go for it fellas.

Please give out the right information, Sir!!!!

Information is the need of the hour. To be more specific, “the correct one”!
A fight for the chicken and the egg is getting murkier as each one (keeping the concern of their individual industry), tries to pitch fork their opinion.
That, one should protect their respective industry is perfectly fine. But at the cost of what or who, is the bone of contention. One sector says that it is not the case of H5N1 but a classic case of a lesser devastating disease and that there are no threats in terms of the same spiraling into a pandemic or anything of that stature. The other says that Bird Flu has entered the country and that the people were kept under wraps for a very long time.
We have a classic paradox running across the country. Concerned officials eating chicken at “press conferences” but abhorring the same at their official canteens; politicos ridiculing each other at the drop of a hat, trying the game of one-upmanship, without much knowledge whatsoever; human health doctors being interviewed and sound bytes taken from businessmen on the cause of the flu and its containment instead of inquiring from professional veterinarians who have knowledge on the subject. This is so very paradoxical.

Information as a medium is being relayed as per the whims and fancies of individuals, instead of institutions that have the capacity of providing the right whats and whys.
So who loses in this cockfight? The common people, who else?

The common man is confused at the reports that come from the forked tongues. In the middle of one upmanship, the common farmer is culling thousands and thousands of birds, which would be of utter loss, if tomorrow the case is not of bird flu and some small disease. Where does he go for compensation? The sound bites given by the higher ups regarding compensations in TV channels and newspapers look and sound convincing!

But its to everyone’s guess how much will this be implemented, right?

P.S. Bloody why are we Indians so secretive about everything????

Bird Flu was so bound to happen...

We are a country blessed with enzymes to digest from bone to stone.
This was one of the reactions I remember, as we debated over coffee cups, as the avian influenza hit the world a couple of years back. India as a casualty was brushed off by many in the group. Afterall, we are a strong nation with the strongest of immune systems.
Our discussions more or less summed the feelings of the entire bunch of over-confident officials who sat at the helm of affairs, with less of ground work and more of sound bytes.

Period.

Yesterday, I saw a press conference on the idiot box. Officials in the best of their "suit & boot" were performing something that amused me. It was fun to watch the hungry cameramen taking shots from all angles of these officials "Munching" roasted chicken.
Reason. India has apparently been hit by bird flu.
In order to convince the people that its okay to eat chicken, this adventure of calling for a press briefing session and munching chicken legs was done by these top officials.

This is so very amusing.

1. Just because they are munching chicken sitting in the cozy confines of an AC room with the best of legs to bite on, does not mean that every part of the country is safe.
2. What happened to their over confident statement that India would not be a breeding ground of the flu.
3. And 1 vet for 1.5 birds in one of the regions of Maharashtra (apparently the first state to succumb to the flu
4. Looking at the minister of the state's comments conflicting with the central minister and the centeral minister's statements conflicting with the Chief minister of Maharashtra's statement was indeed amusing.
5. And what about the vaccines. Where are they.
6. The way these birds are being culled is surely a breeding ground for another new disease to spread its wings..
7. Are those safety equipments (to me it looked like blue polythene covers from some retail shop, carefully stiched to look like professional equipments) adequate enough for the people culling these birds
8. And is the equipment given to "all".

Well the list goes on and on.

But more important is to confirm whether the flu has hot Indian shores or not.
And how do I find it? Well, tonite I will watch another press conference by these "officials". If I see anyone missing, will check the obit pages tomm and confirm if the flu has hit us or not.
Till then..well no clue of the flue I guess:)

A sea of humanity has descended in Bangalore...the repurcussions of it!

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's, Art of Living Foundation celebrates its 25th year of birth, starting today.
The 3 day extraveganza is anticipated to be an ultra grand one. This goes without saying. After all, the foundation has rooted itself in 125+ countries across the globe.
Newspapers and channels have been potraying the "sea of humans meditating on a single spot at a given time". 25 lakh people (2.5 million) are expected to participate in this religious picinic.
Amazing is the only thing one could gasp.

Okay, so people of all class and creed have flocked down to Bangalore. 10 heads of states from various nations are attending this spiritual confluence . Great!
Religion was never so much of a fad! That's only if the Art of Living calles itself a religion, I say.

It would just be another cliche to write about what is going to happen there. The repurcussions in Bangalore is what I am much worried about. How would this poor city, already overdosed with "outsiders" coming from different parts of the country for professional endeavours cope up with another 25 lakhs coming from different parts of the world?

3 days is no small time!!!!

Positives will come out of this gathering, no doubt. But the trouble is its repurcussions to Bangalore city.

Just a wild soothsay. This is what this religious Mega Mela would bring.

1. Horrendous traffic. Vehicles overloaded towards Jakkur junction
2. Hotels overflodded,with spiritual folks paying premium prices to get a room for themselves
3. Tired people who have muscled with the others to find a seat on the first row
4. Books, Tapes and CDs of the foundation selling like hot cakes with the publishers and record studios (appartantly the AOL foundation) screaming their way to the bank
5. Dust, dust and more of it
6. Food vendors outside the venue almost doubling their overtime and tripling their sales
7. Humungous compilation of Litters (water bottles, paper plates et al) all over the venue and 5 kilometeres beyond it

And a lot lot more of which Bangalore is not in a state to oblige.


No doubt this would be a conglomeration of spirits, yet care should be taken that because of this event this beautiful city should not be hooting in pain and screaming for air.

"Cleanliness is next to Godliness"....sorry to end it with a Sri Satya Sai Baba quote:)

Watching The Idiot Box....

As the journalist hems and haws in front of a bereaved family asking absurd questions like - How are you feeling? What were the last words uttered by your son/daughter when he/she left the house in the morning? Did you ever anticipate such an event?....you feel neausea and irritation getting into you too...

More so when you see one of the "professional" of your fraternity acting like a pest, trying to dig in his terse claws of questions into the emotional flesh of individuals who have just lost a beloved soul from the family.

Son murdered...daughter raped...train accidents...natural calamities....feelings of nostalgia lingering in the minds of the family members as they huddle with each other, trying to find some solace in one another...thud a "professional" journalist, wanting for a "scoop" puts forth a 10 inches mike and adds 10 questions at a shot!

This is so very inhumane. Have our fellow journalists lost their consciousness for the want of professional TRP's? Do we have no emotions to respect the sentiments of that families and individuals?

As the barrage of amoebic channels spurt like mushrooms in the length and breadth of the idiot box, I can see my professional friends, in the want of TRP's and advertisements for their respective channels, going to any extent in the name of professionalism.
The term unfortunate needs to be redifined, it seems!

Can something be done to stop this inhumane symbolism in the name of professionalism?
Or will my journo friends get more parasitic in the want to more scoops?

Inside us we should define our boundaries. Somewhere, I read this quote which I would like to share with my journo friends -
"Deep within us lies the meaning of everything that's outside".

Let us give this a serious thought!!!

(The picture in the page depicting a news channel is just indicative. It is not to be understood that this channel is being accused of trying to act as "pest" or its journos as "parasites".
Infact, this is one channel which I am really appreciative of. Remember their exclusive coverage on the farmer story and how the family was helped through the news:)

How nice of my friend to send me....

This beautiful forward..hope u guys like it too:)

looking into this picture..........

Necessity does some exemplary wonders. Like the one in picture. For us this is just a water bottle, which we either "crush after use" or just throw it wherever we want..no second thoughts given..
But for this person, the same water bottle means so much.. this ingenuity of thought has saved him from the harsh gravel of rustic roads.....
A salute for this innovativeness...Necessity sometimes can be the grandmother of inventions..
Lessons galore:)

Inside Google India............

“I googled for it but could not find the same, said my friend famished by the pressing load of searching something over the net.
“Did you look into some other search engines?” I enquired
“Hell no! what’s the point in searching when the content seems to be non existent in google”,
my friend shot back!

That’s the power of this search engine. Period. 5 years. We had these search engines with
all the non descript but funny titles like altavista.com, hotbot.com, dog pile.com, bucklemyshoe.com and the likes. But the market seemed to be mainly dominated by MSN search. Maybe because our own Sabeer Bhatia was a craze then for having sold hotmail.com to the richest man on earth Bill Gates!

Where is MSN search today? Straddling between the default browser pages of personal computers and the colossal stature of a search engine that has changed the way the world perceives information.
Information has become so bloody cheap. You want something (or rather anything) you
get it in google. Except, our sweet kitta angdi that stands majestically at the corner of
South End Circle, where delicious tea sells like hot cakesJ (an odd comparison) and where software engineers from Caritor (you will get the search in google btwJ) splurge after a
tiring day’s work.

Coming back to the issue of google. In India, as in the States this is a web browser’s
best friend. Taking this into consideration, a popular magazine, (Business Today to be
precise) in one of its recent issue carried out a cover story. It was an interesting read.

Seems this company is only growing. Prices of shares rising, the company diversifying
into several newer entities, the search engine itself anticipating great prospects and the employees…Well they seem to be the happiest lot. Good for them.

There is a religion in India called...

Cricket...

And this binds the country from strength to strength...How passionate are we with this colonial sport that our spirits soar to heights of zingoism at the mention of this "C" word.
As in life and coins of course:), so in sports, there are always two sides who heat the debate..
And the fire burns off with no conclusion at all..
What happened today is a classic example of cricket acting as an ice breaker for any situation.

There we were standing in the nearby canteen, stuffing fried rice and discussing what happened yesterday at the indo-pak cricket pitch.. Comments were flying like UFO engines, never validated yet always debated..
Inzamam Ul Haq acts like a sloth always..
On what basis was the DW method taken
Is it fair when Inzy spent 5 minutes on the pitch and distrupted
7 wickets had already fallen and we were sure to win.... etc..add 10 more etc to it:)

We, a motley group were joined by 2 more voices, then another 2 and another 2..we started discussing with strangers and started venting emotions on them..they too reciprocated..and shared our thoughts..
The same went on for the next 10 minutes until we finshed our tyrst with fried rice and moved on to wash our hands..
They too finished off their tidings and left the table..

All fine..We see each other again near the juice counter...strangers once again? The same people we spoke so lavishly on the food table...now look at us as if we have met for the first time!!!

Great binder this game of Cricket is..funny thought most of the times..and ridiculous to think about how we are bound by these 22 players...

As destiny would have had it, Karnataka will in the next 2 hours have a...

Chief minister who is a
Farmer
Movie Producer
First Time Politician
and who
Holds asset worth 2.2 crore only!

The chief minister of Karnataka is being chosen today..I write this at 11.20 am Indian Time..There is some Rahu Kalam or Sani Kalam (unaspicious timings) till 12. 30 p.m.

Hopefully he will do something for the infra of Bangalore city..
Wishful thinking:)

A friend of mine told me that the Chief Minister of Karnataka looks like a "Bean Bag"

I would add..not any more! Things are changing..from a bloated basketball the baton of power is being passed on to a "farmer" who produces movies! You've read it right!
It happens only in India.
And you can well imagine what the immidiate priorities of the new chap would be... (just a guess though:)
Producing more and more movies, of course!

India today, especially the youth is hit by this bug called talent contests...Indial Idol, Best singer, sa re ga, ma, pa, et al.. No hassles with that..but just a small concern that our country might just be entering the next decade with a humungous volumes of singers and dancers...
Am I straying from the topic? Well, a yes and a No!

No because, we are talking about a farmer Chief minister (soon to be former too:) who produces movies! So these talents could well have a feather of a chance in trying their hands in Sandalwood industry. That's the South Indian (or rather Kannada) version of Hollywood!

Now coming to the yes part which is graver.

Should such talent shows be encouraged to such an extent that the whole country cherishes to be a singer or a dancer? If you do not believe, you should be watching the mushrooming of these kind of shows in almost all the channels that are aired in India. National or local.

40 plus thousands and only one winner? Well can anyone let me know the entering ratio of IIT or IIM grad colleges?

This is utterly ridiculous. And where do these guys go after a year contract.
We have seen VIVA (Part I) VIVA (Part 2) and the likes...faded in oblivion..seen in a few patriotic songs..standing last in a crowd of 35-40 talented singers!!!!

Where are our Bournvita Quiz contests?
Why can't we have any talent show which would be more productive in terms of giving the grey cells something to chew on?
Why can't we have a contest from colleges for selecting the best of writers, artists, scientists, mathamaticians and the likes?

Would these kind of events fetch no TRP's? I beg to differ. Giving the style and substance in presentation things would definitely work out!

Let me not vent too much..I just am getting a vent of preachiness creeping in...
So, let me end this here by ending with the same line I started with....

A friend of mine told me that the Chief Minister of Karnataka looks like a "bean bag"

Well my friend- he's already "ex", the farmer movie producer....:)