Bethlehem! The place where Christ was born! I am a Hindu but have wondered, for reasons unknown, whether I will be able to one day visit Bethlehem and Jeruslem. That’s why when I saw the title “Bethlehem under fire” I decided to watch the program on the National Geographic.

It was about a church in Bethlehem - I neither remember its name nor did I catch the year it happened - which was under siege by a group of Palestinians. And the Israeli forces had the church surrounded. You cannot have a more perfect example of the conflict that the three faiths – Judaism, Christanity and Islam – are having over this land!

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the walls erected around Bethlehem to prevent suicide terrorists from entering. I felt sad for people who lost their business because of the dwindling tourist traffic. And I shook my head when I heard that people need permit to travel from Bethlehem to Jeruslem. :-(

The church siege ended peacefully though there were a few casualties. The Palestinians walked out of the church and were deported to Gaza. One of the Christian priests who was inside the church said that at one point the Pope called him to assure that he was praying for them and when the Palestinians heard that they were relieved. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this irony.

I tuned in to one of the news channels after this program ended – and saw the Breaking News “Israel has attacked Hamas in Gaza. Hamas vows revenge by suicide bombers”!
The Pope might have asked people to build bridges and not walls – but sadly humanity seems to be intent on burning all the bridges as it hurtles at breakneck speed towards the end. :-(

At this speed I wonder if there will be any wise men left to see the bright star, even if it shines in the skies :-(

हसना जरुरी है (Forwarded)

संता: रात फ़िल्ममें एक चुडैल कभी मेरे आगे, कभी मेरे पीछे घूम रही थी
जीतो: कौनसी फ़िल्म थी?
संता: अपनी शादीकी मुव्ही थी
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लेडी डॉक्टर: तुम रोज सुबह क्लिनिकके बाहर खड़े होकर औरतोंको क्यो घूरते हो?
संता: जी, आपहीने बाहर लिखा है, औरतोंको देखनेका समय ९-११
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मिलिटरी कप्तान: नौजवान आगे बढो
संता आगे नही बढ़ता
मिलिटरी कप्तान: तुम आगे क्यो नही बढे?
संता: आपने कहा नौ जवान आगे बढो, मै दसवे नंबरपे था.

And now time for some male bashing (Forwarded)

Q. What is the difference between men and puppies?
A. Puppies grow up.

Q. Why do men always have a stupid look on their faces?
A. Because they are…

Q. What do men have in common with ceramic tiles?
A. Fix them properly once and you can walk all over them forever.

Q. What did God say after He created man?
A. I can do better than this! And then He created woman.

Q. What is the difference between an intelligent man and a UFO?
A. I don’t know. I have never seen either.

Q. What are two reasons why men don’t mind their own business?
A. (i) No mind (ii) No business.

Q. What is the difference between men and pigs?
A. Pigs don’t turn into men when they drink!

Q. What do you do with a man who thinks he’s God’s gift?
A. Exchange him!

Q. Why do men like smart women?
A. Opposites attract!

40 Tips for a Better Life-2009 (Forwarded)

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep.
4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'My purpose is to __________ today.'
5. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2008.
7. Make time to practice meditation, and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.
8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.
9. Dream more while you are awake.
10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.
12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and flowing energy into your life.
14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, OR issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
17.. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the NEGATIVE BLUES away.
18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'
26. Forgive everyone for everything.
27. What other people think of you is none of your business.
28. REMEMBER GOD heals everything.
29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
30. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
31. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
33. The best is yet to come.
34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
35. Do the right thing!
36. Call your family often. (Or email them to death!)
37. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished _________.
38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
39. Enjoy the ride. Remember this is not Disney World and you certainly don't want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.
40. Please Forward this to everyone you care about. I just did.

May your troubles be less, May your blessings be more, May nothing but happiness come through your door!

I read about a Chinese movie called “Postman in the mountain”. Hope I will be able to watch it one day :-)

These ads don't add up (Part 2)

I have always laughed at the old man in the MDH ads. I mean, he seems like the odd man out in the ad world full of reed-thin beauties, muscled hunks, Bollywood badshahs and Men in the blue. But this time the ad is so over the top – what with its ‘Royal’ look – that I wondered whether to laugh or tear my hair out in frustration.

Guys, is it so difficult to find a suitable plot to promote your spices? Why not cast dear old grandpa as the alltime favorite Chacha Chowdhury (he certainly looks the part!) who has a few tricks up his sleeve when it comes to cooking and doesn’t mind sharing them with hapless cooks who don’t know how to turn out a tasty meal?
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Now about the HDFC Life Insurance ad! I marvel at the audacity (or tactlessness) of the guest who asks the kid what will he do if his dad is lost. I can sympathize with the kid’s mom who, in keeping with the Atithi Devo Bhav (Guest is God) Indian culture, can’t do much except for shooting a mildly baleful glance at the guest. My own reaction, in a similar situation, I think, would have been a more acidic one :-)

I am not able to exactly put my finger to it but this ad seemed like an odd way of promoting life insurance.

2008 has been a trying year for many. As Harry Potter says to Fred and George at the end of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” – we all could do with a few laughs. I am going to do my bit to provide some light moments to those who might chance upon this blog, and so, for the remaining days of this year I am going to post some jokes here. Of course, being one of those who believe that what you do on the first day sets the tone for the coming year, I will put up some funny entries on 1st of January as well.

So stop by and laugh with me as 2008 fades into 2009. :-)

Tourist: Whose skeleton is that?
Santa: Tipu's skeleton.
Tourist: Whose is that smaller skeleton next to it?
Santa: That was Tipu's skeleton when he was child.
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Q: Why did Santa take his pregnant wife Jeeto to Pizza Hut?
A: Because they advertised: 'Free Delivery'
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Santa joined NASA.
After one month the Americans had to change the name from NASA to SATYANASA!

These ads don't add up (Part 1)

And now about a few recent TV ads that have left me non-plussed:

For the first time in my life, I saw a Wipro ad – selling some kind of energy efficient lights. Wonder if promoting this non-IT business is part of its hedging strategy now aka Satyam ;-)

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Can someone please explain to me what Tata Capital is trying to convey through its advertisement? Puzzled, but too lazy to flip through the channels to catch it? Let me tell you the plot.

We see a pair of little girls pottering about in the house when they chance upon a coin. They dash to the neighborhood vendor selling flavored ice (barf ka gola) but the vendor takes one look at the coin and gives it back – it’s apparently an old coin. Disappointed, the girls walk back when an older boy smiles and asks them to show him the coin. He asks them to wait for a while and visits an antique shop. The next frame shows us the kid handing out flavored ice to the girls and urging them to enjoy it.

The superb execution of this ad makes me watch it every time it’s aired. But I have some questions: was the antique coin worth only two scoops of flavored ice? If not, what happened to the rest of the money? Did the boy get a raw deal from the antique shop or did he pocket all the rest of it as his “management fees”? :-) In either case, this ad might make the targeted audience think twice before entrusting their hard-earned money with Tata Capital.

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The lesser said about the Kotex Slimz ad the better. They seem to have got all the wrong things together – right from the shoddy concept till the shoddy execution!

Hmmm......I finally finished reading "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" :-) Must say though that I am not happy that Hermione let Rita Skeeter go scot-free. Hope this doesn't hurt Harry in the long run. :-(

I have read "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" back in 2003 so I know which character dies :-( But I am determined to read this series through till the end this time!

अर्ज किया है (Forwarded)

तू सवाल नही एक पहेली है
मेरी मंझिल तू नही तेरी सहेली ही

चाँदपे काली घटा छाती तो होगी
सितारोंको मुस्कुराहट आती तो होगी
तुम लाख छुपाओ दुनियासे मगर
अकेलेमें तुम्हे अपनी शकलपे हँसी आती तो होगी

घुन्गटमें तुझे देखा तो दीवाना हुआ
संगीतका तराना हुआ, शमाका परवाना हुआ
मस्तीका मस्ताना हुआ, जैसेही घुन्गट उठाया
इस दुनियासे रवाना हुआ

जबजब हमे प्यास लगती है
उनके आनेकी आस लगती है
उनकी दीवानगीमें हम हो गए इतने दीवाने
की हर लड़कीकी माँ अपनी सास लगती है

दिलके दर्दको जुबापे लाते नही
हम अपनी आखोसे आसू बहाते नही
जख्म चाहे कितनाभी गहरा क्यो ना हो
हम Dettol के सिवा कुछ लगाते नही

My own Amar Jawan Jyoti

It's been a month since the carnage perpetrated in Mumbai by the cowards who say that they are waging a holy war. I am glad their bodies are rotting away in the morgue and nothing would please me more than seeing them being dumped in a ditch in the no-man's-land without any last rites.

I salute those who laid down their lives so the rest of us can go about ours:

Shaheed Nana Saheb Bhonsle (Asst. Police Sub Inspector)
Shaheed Arun R Chitle (Police Constable)
Shaheed M. Choudhary (Police Head Constable, R.P.F.)
Shaheed Bapusaheb Darugade (Police Sub Inspector, L.A.1, Naigaon)
Shaheed Mukesh Jadhav (Home Guard Constable)
Shaheed Ashoke Kamte (Additional Commisior of Police)
Shaheed Hemant Karkare (ATS chief)
Shaheed Vijay Khandekar (Police Constable)
Shaheed Prakash More (Police Sub Inspector, L.T.Marg Police Station)
Shaheed B G Ombade (Asst. Police Sub Inspector, D.B.Marg Police Station)
Shaheed Jayvant Patil (Police Constable)
Shaheed Yogesh Patil (Police Constable)
Shaheed Ambadas Pawar (Police Constable)
Shaheed Baburao Sahibrao (Deputy Inspector)
Shaheed Vijay Salasker (Anti extortion cell chief)
Shaheed Rahul Shinde (Police Constable, S.R.P.F. Group X, Solapur)
Shaheed Shashank Shinde (Police Inspector, C.S.T. Railway Mumbai)
Shaheed Gajendra Singh (NSG Commando)
Shaheed Sandeep Unnikrishnan (NSG Major)

And now in keeping with the spirit of the season, here are some lines from my favorite song from the movie "Sapnay":

रोशन हुई रात वो आसमासे उतरके जमींपे आया
रोशन हुई रात मरियमका बेटा मुहोबतके संदेस लाया
दुनियामे वो महेरबा साथ लाया सच्चाईके उजाले
दुनियामे बनके मसीहा वो आया के हमको दुखोसे बचाने

These days I wonder if we have let Him down. Was His sacrifice in vain? :-(

The Castle

As I have said before on this blog, when it comes to English movies I prefer to watch thrillers and horror flicks (of course never alone!). But once in a while a movie comes along like a breath of fresh air – the movie from Down Under, 'The Castle”, was one of them. And what’s more, this time I watched it since the beginning. :-)

I must confess that from the title it sounded like one of those “Hapless travellers trapped in a haunted mansion” movies. But within first few minutes I knew that this was a comedy. It would have been a bit hard to understand the Aussie accents and so for a change I was glad that there were sub-titles.

“The Castle” revolves around the saying that a man’s house is his castle. So enter the Kerrigans, a Melbourne family which has the airport almost in their back yard. Their happy and contented world is in danger of being shattered when the Government decides that it wants their and their neighbors’ land to expand the airport. The Kerrigans refuse to be cowed down and decide to fight back for their home.

This being the first Aussie movie I watched, there was no reason why I would find a familiar face. So, Eric Bana as the Kerrigans’ son-in-law Con was a surprise though he has a minuscule role. The acting prowess of the cast - except for the actor who played the man of the family, Darryl Kerrigan – isn’t something to write home about. But since I don’t know much about the Aussie flim industry I am not sure if they were the leading actors and actresses.

The dialogues were crisp. Watch out especially for Kerrigans’ Middle Eastern neighbor Farouk. I doubled up laughing when he innocently says that he doesn’t mind these planes just flying above his house because the ones in Beirut drop bombs!

Imdb.com says that another Aussie movie “The Dish” was a bigger hit. I remember reading that it was shot at a place called Parkes because it has a telescope that transmitted images of Neil Armstorng’s landing on moon. As an aside, the same article also mentioned that Parkes is suffering financially because of its investment in some form of synthetic CDO called Torquay (named after an Aussie town).

Oh well, if I watch “The Dish” anytime, I promise that you will definitely read about it here, mate :-)

I was amused to read Abubakar N Kasim’s latest article “How about some respect for a moderate Muslim?” in his column “Faith Economics” on NYT. (http://www.livemint.com/2008/12/23234123/How-about-some-respect-for-a-m.html?h=B)

I am getting sick and tired of the line “All terrorists are Muslim but not all Muslims are terrorists”. Try telling this to the families of the victims, guys. This might sound callous but when I see a Muslim wearing a scull cap on the street it’s hard to think of him as a moderate one. I know there is nothing wrong in having religion as part of your daily life but it doesn’t exactly inspire the rest of us with the confidence that it won’t make you attack every non-muslim in sight as a “Kafir”.

Look at it from our point of view – if tomorrow a lot of Hindus started turning up on streets wearing sandalwood paste and saffron robes would you consider us moderate? How would you be able to distinguish between a good Hindu and a bad one? It’s sad that some Muslims who have nothing to do with this violence are suffering because of the extreme ones but the truth is that the price for not checking that you are not hostile will be rather heavy for the rest of us. I am being callous again but here it is – it’s better that you suffer the humiliation of extra frisking and questions than many innocent lives blown to bits because some fanatic managed to pass without being thoroughly checked.

I agre that the US war on Iraq was wrong but no one in their right mind (even Bush’s staunchest critics) held Christians responsible for that simply because George W. Bush did not attack Iraq with the intention of turning every Muslim in sight into a Christian there! It wasn’t a Jihad. Can you tell me why Islam – which is considered a “peace-promoting” religion BTW – is at war with every other major religion in the world – be it Hinduism, Judaism or Christianity?

Oh and BTW, You don’t have just “some” lunatics in your midst but a “whole lot” of them. And so, though I find it hard to agree whole-heartedly with your colleague who says that the world will be peaceful if all of the Muslim countries were nuked, frankly, Mr. Kasim, I don’t blame him for thinking like that.

If the shoe were on the other foot, I am sure you would have thought so too.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I know it’s silly but I couldn’t make myself read “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” beyond the chapter on Quidditch World Cup match. That’s because from my previous reading of the book I knew that there’s going to be a dark mark in the sky which Harry will be accused of conjuring up. But after vacillating for 5-6 days I took it up again.

I again stopped just before I came to the chapter where the Triwizard Cup champions are chosen. I knew that Harry is going to be accused of putting his name in and hence hated all over Hogwarts. :-(

And now I am again hesitating just before the 3rd task is about to begin because I know how the tournament ends :-(

Well, it doesn’t look like at this rate I will finish the whole series before 31st. But I am thoroughly enjoying it. :-)

P.S. When Harry gets stuck on the stair along with the egg from the 2nd task and marauders’ map, I wondered why he doesn’t remember to use the Summoning Charm to call these objects back to him. ;-)

Quotable Quotes

2 quotes that I came across recently:

- The only thing you take with you when you're gone is what you leave behind.

- Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good.
Luckily, this is not difficult.

Few weeks back I had been to Matheran on a day-long trip when I saw a white bird with a long tail hopping in the trees. But it vanished in the dense foliage before I could take a good look at it. I decided to scout the net for it and chanced upon a veritable treasure trove of photographs of Indian birds. Here’s one page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birds_of_India

There’s another site which is more comprehensive - http://birding.in/birds_of_india.htm.I could spot so many birds in my backyard and for the first time know their names – Green Bee-Eater, Red-Vented Bulbul, White-throated Kingfisher and Golden Oriole. :-)

Even the newest feathered friend merrily chirping about on my neighborhood trees was present on the wiki page – White-throated Fantail. :-)

Silent Warnings

A couple of days back I watched a movie on one of the English movie channels. It was one of the run-of-the-mill “teenagers on a holiday in trouble” movies. Like most of the movies I watch these days, I came on board a couple of minutes after the flight took off. Not that you miss much in such movies even if you check in an hour late.

But I was curious nevertheless, so I browsed imdb.com for the movie review. At first I couldn’t find it. I wondered if I was the only person on earth to have seen it. Kind of creepy, isn’t it? Then I figured out that maybe I had got the title wrong. So I searched for actor Billy Zane who was about the only person, apart from Stephen Baldwin, that I could recognize in the movie. And I got it! The movie title was “Silent Warnings” and I had been searching earlier for just “Warnings”.

The storyline isn’t something to write home about. 4-5 teenagers join their friend on his visit to the country farm and home that he has inherited after his cousin’s accidental death. The group notices that the entire house is covered in iron and the fields have mysterious circles in them. More crop circles appear and people start disappearing but even the Sheriff is clueless. In a nutshell, this is a watered down version (country cousin!) of Shyamlan’s “Signs”. :-)

According to imdb.com, this movie was shot in and around Sofia, Bulgaria in 12 days at the puny budget of one million USD. Baldwin (Cousin Joe) has a “blink and you miss him” kind of role and I wondered if there was any sane reason for Billy Zane (Sheriff Willingham) accepting this movie.

In short, if you are looking for some no-brainer (aren’t they all?) where aliens make a guest appearance at the end, then “Silent Warnings” is the movie for you :-)

Satyam’s news about Maytas reminded me about the friendly neighborhood grocery which started selling readymade clothes in a nearby shop. What does “diversification” mean again?

Maybe Satyam should start selling Dosa and Idli mixes – which, I am sure, will sell like hot cakes ;-) Wipro with its soaps-to-software story will have some company :-)

Weapons of mass destruction were the reason George Bush cited for starting Iraq war. Guess he didn’t know about the other deadly weapons that the Iraqis possessed – like shoes for example.

It’s no wonder that he could expertly dodge the pair hurled at him - he has had loads of experience in doing the same – both at home and abroad ;-)

Appointment in Samarra

There’s this story by Somerset Maugham. A servant complains to his master one day that he met Death in the market and it threatened him. He says that he is so scared he doesn’t want to stay there anymore and that he is leaving for Samarra. The master gives his permission but then goes himself to the market to look out for Death. When he sees it he confronts it about why it threatened his servant.

Death says “I didn’t threaten your servant. I was just amused to see him in the market today because I have an appointment with him in Samarra tonight.”

I thought of this story when I read about people who died in the terrorist attacks when they were celebrating something or meeting friends. And also when I read about those who lived to tell the tale – though they managed to escape by the skin of their teeth.

None of us has access to Death’s Appointment book. The only thing that we can do is live life to the fullest till we have our own Appointment in Samarra.

An update on my reading of the Harry Potter adventures. I have finished reading “The prisoner of Azkaban” and now moved on to “The goblet of fire”. I hope I will be able to finish the whole set before 1st January rolls by. :-)

I have heard of people reaching out for comfort food in times of stress and anxiety. Try as I might, I cannot think of what my “comfort food” is – maybe Lay’s Sour Cream and Onion chips and Amul Milk Chocolate. But nothing beyond that comes to mind.

I, however, reached out for “comfort TV”, “comfort sounds” and “comfort books” during the last 4 days of November when the media kept on telecasting images from Taj, Oberoi and Nariman House. As I flipped through the channels, I passed through successive phases of “This can’t be happening in Mumbai”, “Hell, this is for real” and “I hope Pakistan gets swallowed by a massive earthquake”. And then I started looking out for “comfort TV” - to take my mind off the anger for the terrorists and anxiety for the hostages. I checked out National Geographic, Discovery, Animal Planet and History Channel. I tuned in to Discovery Travel and Living channel for cooking shows and I scouted Cartoon Network as well as Pogo for Tom & Jerry and Oswald. I wanted a reassurance that life as I knew it before 26th November wasn’t lost forever – in its totality.

As the days gave way to nights, sleep wouldn’t be easy. Laugh as I might to any blatant reference to “Bharatmata” or “Mera Bharat Mahan”, this is my most favorite country in the world. I cannot imagine a future torn up by terrorism for it. I don’t care whether we become a superpower or not – for what goes up eventually comes down. But I want the maximum of what the King of Bhutan calls as the “Gross National Happiness” for my country. You might not be able to measure happiness but it can be clearly seen in people’s smiling faces even if they are packed like sardines in the local trains. You can hear it in the booming firecrackers burst when our cricket team scores a victory. You can feel it in the chests full of pride on successful launch of Chandrayaan. Will this all be replaced by a populace living in abject fear of death just because a couple of fanatics are hell-bent on waging war with every other major religion in the world?

This was when I got my walkman out and popped in cassette after casette of my “comfort music” – old Hindi movie songs. I listened to Kishor Kumar sing “Aa chal ke tuze mai leke chalu ek aise gagan ke tale, Jaha gam bhi na ho aasoo bhi na ho, Bas pyaar hi pyaar pale” wondering if there is any such utopia on earth. I listened to Mukesh lamenting “Us des me, tere pardes me, sone chandi ke badle me bikate hai dil”. Kishor Kumar, Mukesh, Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar – I took refuge in an era most which was gone long before I came to this earth. I listened for familiar sounds like the pressure cooker whistles, doors opening and closing in the nearby apartments, people talking in front of the elevators, children shouting about – sounds of a common everyday life……threatening to be lost forever……

And I took refuge in books – devouring story after story of Sherlock Holmes and reading adventures of Harry, Ron and Hermione. The words “Bedtime Reading” never made more sense.

The last terrorists were flushed out eventually. Taj, Oberoi and Nariman house were cleared. Details emerged of those who died in the line of the duty and of those who gave their lives so others could go about theirs. Life changed for many of the survivors who had a near-death experience. As far as I am concerned, life has changed from what I knew it as before 26th November. As I took an evening walk around the neighboorhood, my heart leapt at the sight of people walking on the street, I smiled at the sound of children playing merrily about and I took a deep breath when I smelled the “Pakodas” being fried at the roadside stall. I noticed things which I had always taken for granted.

I am not being frivolous here. At the risk of sounding clichéd, I would say that many times when I laugh and smile these days, I am painfully aware about the families of those who perished in the attacks. “Muskurau kabhi to lagataa hai, jaise hotho pe karz rakkha hai” – these lines from a song in Masoom sum it up perfectly. Maybe I will forget about this in a month or so, but maybe these lines will always remain at the back of my mind……

Maybe that’s why I am glad that life has changed for me – there’s a lot more heart in it now!

Transporter 3

I usually avoid watching sequels of any movies. I have been severly disappointed (and my patience sorely tested!) by sequels of movies such as Men in Black, Jurassic Park and The Mummy. The only exception was Ocean’s Eleven – just loved both its sequels. :-)

But the other day it occurred to me that the last movie I watched - “Journey to the center of the earth” - was many moons ago. I browsed through the newspapers and chose “Transporter 3”. I figured even if I didn’t get the story there would at least be some edge-of-the-seat action sequences. Oh, BTW I don’t even remember whether I watched Transporter 1 or 2 – let alone recall their storylines.

I missed first few moments of the movie but the story that I pieced together lateron is like this. Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is “forced” to accept an assignment of delivering “a package” from Marseilles to Odessa on the Black Sea. As a rule, Frank usually works alone on a mission but this time, though he is allowed to use his beloved Audi, he has to put up with a female co-passenger Valentina (Natalya Rudakova). Somewhere connected to this trip is a shipful of toxic waste that a company wants to dump in Ukraine.

First for the pluses! They begin and end with the fantastic action sequences. Be it the car chases or Frank’s fighting a bunch of thugs trying to intercept his delivery – I was never disappointed.

What disappointed me most was that the movie at times reminded me too painfully of a Hindi movie। During his fight with about 8-10 people in his friend’s garage Frank keeps shedding his clothes faster than that of a model with a “wardrobe malfunction”. The name “Salman Khan” popped into my mind. :-) Statham has a good body but couldn’t they think of any other ways of showing it off without making it look as if he is doing a striptease as he goes about bashing up the baddies?

Then his co-passenger (freckles, freckles everywhere!) tries every trick in the book to seduce him। I gasped when she dangles the car key in front of him teasing him that she won’t return it unless he kisses her first. This was so similar (barring the kissing part, of course) to scenes in lot of Hindi movies that I was worried that they might break into a song any minute now. What, oh what was the need of throwing in this romantic twist in what should have been an out-and-out action movie? :-(

Granted, the lady is from Ukraine but the accent was so jarring and heavy that at times I stopped trying to figure out what she is saying. And the bad guy with his malnourished looks seemed as if he could do with a plate of sausages and other assorted gourmet dishes that Valentina rattles off in surprisingly precise English :-) But the Audi looks so sleek that I was worried about its safety more than that of Frank’s or Valentina’s.

I hope and pray that if they ever decide to come out with Transporter 4, they will stick to the good ol’ action movie formula!

Jai Shri Krishna

There’s one daily soap that has me glued to the seat every night - “Jai Shri Krishna” on Colors channel. This is the story every Hindu child in India grows up listening to. So there isn’t much of a surprise as far as the storyline goes.

Barring a few leading characters, the rest of the cast either delivers dialogues with a wooden expression or overacts on a Richter scale :-) Krishna, Balram and Radha (I wonder what is she doing so early in Krishna’s life!) have dialogues that are too philosophical for their ages. Sage Narada with his constant praising of Lord Vishnu particularly gets on my nerves. And the character of Krishna’s maternal uncle Kansa is getting more comical day by day – maybe because the majority of the soap’s audience is kids.

But it’s the little cherubic Krishna who has me wrapped around his tiny finger. I just love the way he is harassing Kansa – a mischievous smile lighting up his baby face every time he scores a point. Normally, I balk at any lines with even a hint of philosophy in them. But I am all ears when he tells Balaram that what goes around comes around, that Sage Durwasaa needs to be taught a lesson because sometimes the wise also forget the path of righteousness and that he cannot hasten the death of a friend’s long-suffering mother because she has to live out her Karma.

And when the same friend turns to Krishna for some money to get medicines for his ailing mother and this re-incarnation of God, who controls the whole world, Himself spreads out his hands in front of his father to ask for money, I got a lump in my throat. I normally turn up my nose at any instant help from God depicted in so many daily soaps but Krishna’s tiny outstreched hands melted my heart like the butter He is so fond of :-)

Oh, well, I have always been partial to Him anyways!

Can someone please tell these so-called “celebrities” that they are not above law? First, it was Amitabh Bachhan who tried to board a flight with his revolver. Thank God he was grounded (pun intended!) by Jet Security!

It’s nobody’s business whether he sleeps with a loaded gun under his pillow, under the toilet seat or inside the medicine cabinet - at his home. But it’s everyone’s business if he tries to carry firearms on a commercial aircraft. Frankly, it smacked of arrogance and little regard for the law of the land! I wonder if he even stopped to think whether he would feel it safe to board a flight if another co-passenger came aboard with a loaded revolver. Then why should others feel safe when he carries one aboard? And frankly, I doubt if the terrorists are going to shout “lights, camera, action” so that the “angry young man” can start defending himself :-) Some unsolicited advice for Big B - next time you want to pull a stunt like this, think of a Charter plane!

And more recently, it is Zaheer Khan who tried to get a friend past the security. Guys please, the security is just doing its job and it’s for the benefit of us all. This is neither the time nor the place to show off how “big” you are.

Mumbai Cares

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/mumbaicares.cms

As I looked at the heart-wrenching photo of little Moshe crying out for his mother, lines from a song once heard came flooding back:

Ghar se Masjid hai bahot dur chalo yu kar le
Kisi rote hue bacche ko hasayaa jaaye

Ironic, isn’t it?

I love Rehman's "Maa Tuze Salaam" but I didn't wait to listen to it in its entirety at 8pm yesterday evening. I kept flipping through the channels because I wanted to be part of the solidarity that all the FM radio channels in Mumbai were displaying by playing the song at the same time.

I hope and pray that this heralds the beginning of the end of terrorism!

It’s said that politics is the last refuge of the scoundrels! Unless you have been hiding out in caves for the last 5-6 days, you would have come across the following gems proving it.

Small incidents like this do happen in big cities
- RR Patil, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister

Some women wearing lipstick and powder have taken to streets in Mumbai and are abusing politicians, this spreading dissatisfaction against democracy. This is what terrorists are doing in Jammu and Kashmir
- Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, BJP Vice President

There was no bad intention in it. Many people come to such places.
- Vilasrao Deshmukh, Maharashtra Chief Minister

Had it not been (NSG Commando Major) Sandeep’s house, not even a dog would have gone there.
- VS Achuthananthan, Kerala Chief Minister


It’s amazing, isn’t it that they are united across the party lines as far as shooting from the hip goes? A clearer case of an epidemic of the Foot-in-The-Mouth disease would be hard to find!

Section 49-O of our Constitution and protest vote

Please check this out:

http://voteindia.in/news.php

I couldn't make it to Gateway of India or the Taj Hotel yesterday evening but as I was walking home I saw a couple of people lighting candles outside a college. As I signed up and lit the candle for those who lost their lives in the terrorist attack, a line from a trinket that once hung from my car's dashboard came to my mind:

When prayers go up, blessings come down.

All of us have sent prayers. I hope the blessings won't take long to come down.

Please sign the petition to the PM

http://www.petitiononline.com/26novAct/petition.html

Harry, Ron, Hermione, George, Fred, Ginny, Neville, Seamus, Dean and Draco! Some of you will think I have lost it completely but those of you who have read Harry Potter will recognize these students from Hogwarts. :-) I am back to my favorite world of unicorns, wands, potions and Quidditch!

I might have mentioned it on this blog that I am a die-hard Potter fan. In 2000, 2 of my friends gifted me with the first 2 books in the series on my birthday. I vaguely wondered if they are being sarcastic about my mental age - afterall, the books were about the world of witches and wizards. But by the time I reached Diagon Alley I was hooked. I read the 3rd and 4th book in the series, watched the movies and sadly lost track of Harry, Ron and Hermione thereafter.

But this time I am determined to complete the series. I have already finished reading Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets. Now I am onto The Prisoner of Azkaban. :-)

The Alchemist – by Paulo Coelho

I have always known that though I enjoy reading books, some of them are simply not my cup of tea. I read and sort of liked Paulo Coelho’s “Brida” but I am not sure what it gave me in the end. I mean, some books give you a glimpse into a field other than your own like e.g. medicine or forensic, some bring about fascinating insights into human nature which you could find useful in your day-to-day life while some take you to a totally fictional world e.g. the Harry Potter series. This wasn’t the case with Brida – although I did find something on the net on the Tradition of Sun and Moon, I couldn’t make myself seriously believe it.

So with this background it would come as a surprise that I chose to go for “The Alchemist” by the same author. But I have always wanted to read this one. It’s about a shepherd boy who has a recurring dream about a treasure near the Pyramids. It’s the story about his confusion over whether to follow the dream or not and his journey when he finally makes up his mind about it. I liked the book – especially the twist in the end.

Of course, there were some weird lines like “Lead, copper and iron have their own destinies to fulfill”. I wonder what the commodity traders will have to say about this ;-) But then there were gems like:

All the time he had to carry his jacket. But when he thought to complain about the burden of its weight, he remembered that, because he had the jacket, he had withstood the cold of the dawn.

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve – the fear of failure.

People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.

And of course the thought that binds the whole book together:

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

Remember that line from the movie “Om Shanti Om”? :-) Alas, I have wanted many things many times in my life and the universe hasn’t been of much help. :-(

I don't understand why everyone is reacting so angrily over the way the Pakistani media is covering the Mumbai attacks. You cannot expect them to accept that they did it.

I would have given them some credit,however, if they had suggested that India masterminded these attacks. But by suggesting that India, US and Israel plotted these attacks together, they have made themselves the laughing stock of the whole world! This is persecution mania at its worst!

Clearly they haven't heard that it is better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it :-)

Spare a thought for the wounded soldier

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/dec/02mumterror-spare-a-thought-for-the-wounded-soldier.htm

Just 4 lines. I don't even know their true biblical significance. But they are comforting me when the world seems to have gone topsy-turvy last 2-3 days.

Joseph shall return to Canaan, grieve not.
Hovels shall turn to rose gardens, grieve not.
If a flood should arrive, to drown all that’s alive,
Noah is your guide in the typhoon’s eye, grieve not.

10 items or less

Nope, I am not describing the last checkout counter at the neighborhood supermarket. This, believe it or not, is actually a name of a movie. I came across it during my recent channel surfing. When I first saw Morgan Freeman, I almost pressed the button to change the channel because I thought it was “Bruce Almighty” and I was terrified I might catch sight of Jim Carrey twisting his face in yet another impossible way :-) It took a second to realize, however, that this was a different movie.

Honestly, I don’t have a clue as to what this movie is about. I plan to look it up on imdb.com. But when I chanced on the channel there was an interesting dialogue going on when Morgan Freeman asks the young lady with him as to what she would choose if she could only keep 10 things or less from her life. She rattles off her list and then he does the same. This set me thinking about my list and here it is:

- Family
- Friends
- Health
- My passion for reading
- My love of mountains and forests
- My hair (I know it’s a pain despite all the conditioner I heap upon it on a weekly basis but I wouldn’t trade my curls for anything under the sun!)
- My dimples (Hey, not many people have such cute ones!)
- Love for and ability to walk miles without getting tired
- Compassion
- Sense of humor (Friends claim I have it and who am I to disagree with them?:-))

So, what’s on your list of 10 items or less?

Another forwarded SMS that makes a lot of sense:

"Don't worry about those who came through boats, our forces can defeat them.

Worry about those who come through votes. Those are real enemies."

I know all of us are angry. I know all of us want to do something about this. I know all of us are feeling helpless.

But if we want to show the politicians, who don't step out without the protective ring of their escorts, that we mean business then make sure you vote only for those who you think will make a difference.

Visit http://jaagore.com/ and make sure you are registered.

Another forwarded SMS:

Maths and spouses both are complicated.
But Maths at least has some logic!

Critical – by Robin Cook

Menisci, femur, tibia, anterior cruciate ligament, fulminant postoperative course, staphylococcus aureus, bronchioles! What would you do if you opened a novel and found words like these staring at you in the face? You would do a double take and have second thoughts about continuing with it, isn’t it? That’s what I thought of doing too – except that I was too lazy to make another trip to the library so I dug in my heels and refused to quit until I turned the last page of Robin Cook’s “Critical”.

I had already met Dr. Jack Stapleton and Dr. Laurie Montgomery - forensic pathologists at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner – in another Cook book (!). The difference this time is that they are now married. Jack has suffered “anterior cruciate ligament” – whatever that means – during one of his basketball matches and decides to go for an elective surgery for the same at one of the newest specialty hospitals by Angels Healthcare.

But Laurie is disturbed because she has been autopsying quite a few apparently-healthy people who died of severe staphylococcus infection after some routine uncomplicated surgery. The twist in the tale is that a number of these cases have been from the 3 Angels Healthcare hospitals!

Enter Dr. Angela Dawson, the CEO of Angels Healthcare LCCC, who is worried because her startup venture is just 2 weeks from IPO but the drug resistant infections are keeping the ORs closed resulting in negative cash flow which needs to be reported to the SEC. And her accountant, Paul Yang, looks all set to do it despite its potential serious implications for the IPO.

I am glad I wasn’t put off by the heavy-duty words in the Prologue. For those of you who might want to have a peek at the world of pathologists from a safe distance, this book is a must on the reading list!

BTW, Mr. Cook - GAAP doesn’t mean “Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures” – it means “Generally Accepted Accounting Principles” :-)

Can someone please tell Bush, Obama and company that the biggest help they can give India is to stop helping the beggers next door? And while you are at it, please ask Zanab Zardari to stop saying they don't have a hand in the Mumbai attacks and start explaining how they manage to find money to fund all sorts of terrorist-e-Islams and yet claim to be on the verge of defaulting on their national debt!

There have been lot of angry comments on lot of blogs about declaring a war on Pakistan. I don't think wars ever solved any problems. I think India should sever all diplomatic, economic and cultural ties with Pakistan. I am not sure of the details. But we should close down their embassy and consulate here in India and send their staff home as soon as possible. Close our embassy and consulate in Pakistan and bring our people home. Send back all Pakistani nationals currently in India and ask Indians there to come back or stay there at their own risk. Stop all imports from (if there are any!) and all exports to Pakistan immediately. Terminate all air service to and from Pakistan. Close the land route too. Start securing all porous borders on war footing.

And if anyone protests about this, put them on the Wagah border and kick them into Pakistan!

A friend had forwarded an SMS last week. I had meant to post it here earlier but somehow kept on forgetting to do so. Today of all days, it's sounding especially relevant.

Life means "missing the expected" and "facing the unexpected"!

When is it that the Media is going to get it through that thick head of theirs that one aspect of their job is not to spread panic and another is to report only confirmed news? Anyone who switched on their TV yesterday would have been numbed by their sick race of giving the most “Exclusive” news.

One channel, I think it was Zee Business, was reporting blasts and firing at places like JJ School of Arts and Napean Sea Road. I gasped when I watched another reporter, I think from India TV, walk all over the crime scene at CST. He was picking up bullets and thrusting them in the face of the camera. I don’t have any homicidal tendencies but when he pointed twice at an unexploded grenade I wished it would explode in his face as a lesson to other overzealous reporters. And he had the nerve to say that they can’t show any more blood on TV even as the camera was rolling on pools of clotted blood on the ground!

Times Now was flashing the news that the Taj Hotel was “gutted” yesterday as a result of fire. Did anyone stop to check what the word “gutted” means? It means “burnt to ground”. The Taj is still standing the last time I checked - thank God for that! But what would this ‘breaking news” do to someone who just switched on the TV?

Sure, these news channels have a job to do. But there are some ethics in every profession and day by day the Media are crossing the line.

I wish, for the first time in my life, that I had powers like Superman. Then I would have bundled all these weird Mujahideens infesting various parts of the world in a giant net and thrown them on a planet where they would rot for centuries praying for death!

I am not trying to put a funny spin on the ghastly attacks on Mumbai. This is what I genuinely feel. I am more angry than sad.

You would think that anyone with even an ounce of brain would realize that God – whether you call him Christ, Allah or Bhagwan – cannot condone killing anyone. But these assorted terrorists-e-Islam have proved again and again that they don’t have even that much of brain. One meaning of the word “Holy” is “righteous” so their “Jihad” or “Holy war” has to be something that’s fought face-to-face with an equally armed opponent who is not caught unawares. If barging in on unsuspecting people who haven’t done them any wrong and spraying them with bullets is their definition of “Jihad” I think even Allah will find it hard to support them.

I have some news for these terrorists – they are not the martyrs here. The martyrs are the innocents who died in these attacks and the cops who died saving them. Nope, there are no virgins waiting at the doors of the heaven for these cowards. There are only bullets for them on earth and raging fires of hell thereafter. And I hope to God they roast for eternity. Inshallah!

When I read about how the Indian naval warship INS Tabar sank a pirate mother ship after a fierce gunbattle in the Gulf of Aden, I wondered which Bollywood moviemaker will be the first to think of a movie based on this :-)

I hope no one thinks of casting Himesh Reshammiya in the role of the Captain. My sympathies would then be entirely with the pirates. :-) Himesh has to only open his mouth to sing and the pirates would torch their mother ship themselves ;-)

Evan Almighty

I seem to be watching a lot of movies these days – a good half an hour or more later after they begin. I guess that should disqualify me from posting reviews on any of them. ;-) But hey, this is a blog – not a column in any of the newspapers. So, I will go ahead and post this one anyways.

Many of you must have seen “Bruce Almighty”. If so, I am in a minority – I purposefully keep away from any movie that stars Jim Carrey because of the firm belief that when it’s time for Carrey’s shot the directors must be running for cover. If not, I wonder why they allow him to twist and turn his face in so many permutations and combinations. It, no doubt, does credit to God for sending us down with so many facial muscles, and also to Carrey - for demonstrating it all to us. But what has it got to do with acting? The only exception I made to the rule was “The Truman Show”.

Anyways, so here I am talking about the sequel to the movie – Evan Almighty. It’s about Congressman Evan Baxter who is being harassed by Congressman Long to co-sponsor a bill to allow development in US national parks. But God (Morgan Freeman again!) has other plans for Evan – such as building an ark. Evan is one Doubting Thomas alright but he sees clearly that he is waging a losing battle with the Almighty when right in the middle of a session about that bill, Evan’s clothes change to something straight out of Noah’s wardrobe.  His hair and beard have already assumed matching proportions. He starts construction even as he becomes a laughing stock of Washington (with a capital D!)

His domestic life falls apart when his wife and 3 kids walk out on him. But they walk right back in after a “divine intervention” in a fast food joint! Thanks to the helping hand that Evan gets from his family as well as the animal pairs that have arrived on the scene, the ark is completed on time. The only problem is that the whole of DC is experiencing a drought when God has predicted a flood! You gotta see the movie to find out what happens. :-)

I had heard that when Bruce Almighty got released there was some outrage over a “Colored” God. I didn’t see anyting wrong with it though. Maybe as a Hindu I am used to Gods depicted in many different forms – with 4 or 8 hands, with 3 or 4 heads and even with an elephant head. So what if He has a skin that’s a shade darker than some of his children on Earth? I have always believed that it’s better to think of God in a form that’s approachable – not daunting. So even if He comes to me wearing a T-shirt that says “Al Mighty” as I sit munching on my fast food – I would say “Hello There” :-)

Now about the movie - I loved it! It matched perfectly with my belief that God works in ways that only He can understand. We might not immediately see a particular event as beneficial to us but in the long run, it always works best for us – like investment in equities :-) And when we pray for something, He doesn’t hand it over to us on a platter, He opens a door somewhere and expects us to find it and walk right in. Don’t believe me? I quote what God says in this movie:

"Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?”

And if you think “Ark” simply means a boat, you are mistaken. It’s an acronym. Don’t believe me? Go watch the movie to figure out its full form :-)

P.S. The following links give interesting trivia and quotes from the movie. Do check them out.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0413099/trivia
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0413099/quotes

Is it just me or do any of you also think that day by day the Aussie Captain “Picky Ranting” is looking more and more like a rabid dog that tries to take a bite out of anything human within its reach? First it was Sunil Gavaskar, then Tony Greg and finally Anil Kumble. I would prefer a rabid dog over “Ranting” any day – at least it can be legally put out of its misery.

I have sometimes written on this blog about my inexplicable attraction about all things Russian :-) So I was curious when a supplement titled “Russia and India Report” tumbled out of the Economic Times yesterday morning. Of course, much of it was boring stuff about the business relations between the two countries and investment opportunitiesin Russia.

But I noticed a picture of a woman along with that of Vishvanathan Anand on the back page with the heading “The Global Chess Stalwarts”. Intrigued, I started reading the article about the youngest female grand master and winner of the 2008 women’s chess championship – Alexandra Kosteniuk (pet name Sasha).

It was amazing how she built up her career despite not being born with the proverbial “silver spoon”. But what will remain forever etched in my mind is the end of the article. I quote here:

“When asked about her favorite chess piece, Sasha always says the pawn. Although small and insignificant at the beginning of the game, it can rise to be the queen towards the end. It sometimes happens in life, too.” :-)

Smart Investing

A friend forwarded this story :-) I don't know if it's true though.

A city boy, Kenny, moved to the country and bought a donkey from an old farmer for $100.00. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.

The next day the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry son, but I have some bad news, the donkey died last night."

Kenny replied: "Well then, just give me my money back."

The farmer said: "Can't do that. I went and spent it already."

Kenny said: "OK then, just unload the donkey."

The farmer asked: "What you gonna to do with him?"

Kenny: "I'm going to raffle him off." (Note: To raffle is to sell a thing by lottery - draw lot -! to a group of people each paying the same amount for a ticket)

Farmer: "You can't raffle off a dead donkey!"

Kenny: "Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead."

A month later the farmer met up with Kenny and asked, "What happened with that dead donkey?"

Kenny: "I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars apiece and made a profit of $998.00."

Farmer: "Didn't anyone complain?"

Kenny: "Just the guy who won. So I gave him back his two dollars."

Kenny grew up and eventually became the CEO of the American Energy Company : Enron

-----

Now I wonder how he said he has made a profit of $998. What happened to the $100 that he had paid to purchase the donkey? :-)

The Shipping News

Ordinarily I wouldn’t have watched this movie. It didn’t have any nail-biting chases, edge-of-the-seat mystery or out-of-this-world fictional plot which normally attracts me to a movie. Plus I don’t particularly like Kevin Spacey since he tried to kill my favorite superhero in the last installment of Superman. :-)

But it was late in the night and I was too tired to read a book. Nor did I feel sleepy enough to go to bed. So I grabbed the remote and was wading through late-night saas-bahu serials, myriad news channels all airing different versions of the same Breaking News and tele-shopping channels dishing out miraculous cure for obesity and hairloss – when I chanced upon a movie channel that was airing this one. I actually got on board in the middle of it and stayed right till the end.

It was partly the story and partly the scenery that kept me glued to my seat. As far as the story goes, Spacey plays a husband whose upto-no-good wife flees with her boyfriend after selling their only daughter to an illegal adoption agency. The cops manage to rescue the child but the mother and her boyfriend die when their car crashes in a river. Traumatized, Spacey returns to his family's ancestral home in a small fishing town.

As he tries to piece together his life he takes up a job at a local newspaper. Contrary to the editor’s suggestion that he write about oil tankers, he starts a column on shipping news. It is appreciated by readers and so naturally the owner of the newspaper appreciates it as well. As if to complement this success in his professional life he meets Julianne Moore – a widow with a child – who he gets along pretty well with. Still, during his stay he comes to know of many things about his ancestors which he otherwise wouldn’t have known – and not all of them are pleasant.

The movie marvellously brings out the beauty of the small seaside town and different aspects of life there – Spacey’s rebuilding of the rundown ancestral house, a simple meal of sandwiches in a small eatery, his near drowning because of his lack of knowledge of piloting boats in the seas, working in a small office without a computer, using a typewriter to write his column and finally finding love in the unlikeliest of places. Love, after all, has always managed to do that through centuries. :-) The rustic region captivated me so much that I later looked it up on imdb.com – it’s Newfoundland.

Kevin Spacey essays Quoyle’s entire journey excellently – his shell-shocked state at his wife’s behavior, his defeated look when he sees his broken-down ancestral house, his determination to work through life in this unfamiliar place, his uncertainty in getting adjusted in a small newspaper office, his enjoying the companionship of Julianne Moore and finally standing up to the editor for his column. Moore, as the simple calm widow, complements him nicely. Since I didn’t watch this movie from the beginning I am not sure if Judi Dench plays his mother. But her harsh demeanor gives a hint of a softer inner core wonderfully.

In this day and age, when everyone who has received a setback or gone through a tragedy in life just wants to curl up in a corner and die, this story of accepting what life dishes out to you and still marching on with a chin up fills one with hope – lots of hope! :-)

A child who was born with 8 limbs

I vaguely remembered reading about this somewhere as the program started on the Discovery Channel. Lakshmi was born with 8 limbs to a poor couple in some small village in Bihar. Right from her birth she became an object of intense interest because people started beliving that she was the reincarnation of Goddess Lakshmi. She would have remained so for the rest of her life but she was lucky enough to have been blessed with parents who understood that she needs to get treated for this physical anomaly if she wants to lead a normal life.

Even though the doctors at Sparsh – a hospital in Bengalooru – approached the parents for her treatment, the decision was a tough one because of the apparent risks in such a complicated surgical procedure. The parents, however, made up their minds and flew to Bengalooru. After a plethora of tests the massive operation was undertaken and successfully completed. Lakshmi now leads a normal life with her parents in Rajasthan.

Though it was disturbing to see the camera capture very private moments such as Lakshmi’s parents’ anguish at having to leave their village to travel to Bengalooru, her mother’s crying as Lakshmi was being wheeled to the operation theatre and her restless state during the entire duration of the operation, I can understand that it was necessary to unfold the whole story. Being a cynic that I am, I wondered if the doctor’s caring attitude towards the family was because of the rolling camera. Having said that, it was heartening to see how he tried his best to allay their fear and anxiety.

It was sad to see that the press, however, lived up to their reputation and hounded the family like a pack of vultures – every step of the way. :-(

If you ever get a chance to watch this program, don’t miss it!

Some interesting sites

Want to do something different on your next vacation but don’t have a clue as to where to start? Check http://www.isango.com/ and see if they can help you plan for your dream vacation.

What’s the connection between pets and therapy? Can dogs help kids read better? Find out all about it at http://www.animalangels.org.in/

What’s a wordle? Go check http://www.wordle.net/

Many of us must have forwarded SMSs on the occasion of the Children’s Day yesterday. Can I suggest another way of celebrating it today? Sponsor a child’s education and tell at least one of your dear friends about it. Following two sites come to my mind. If you know of anymore that are doing similar work, do drop a comment.

http://giveindia.org/c-51-children.aspx

http://www.nanhikali.org/

Moonstruck

I made it a point to look at the moon before going to bed yesterday night. There’s something now on the surface of the planet that belongs to my country. :-) Chandrayaan has successfully put its Moon Impact Probe on the moon. This was my way of paying respects to the Tricolor that’s put on all four sides of it!

A million thanks to ISRO for making this possible :-) Tusi great ho!

I don’t understand what this whole brouhaha about Dr. Manmohan Singh not getting a call from Obama soon enough was. And then there was considerable heartburn over Janab Zardari having already enjoyed a tete-a-tete with the new President-elect. What’s new about it, I say. No matter who the occupant is in the White House, the US was, is and always will be one of the ‘Friends of Pakistan’. And I thought everyone knew about this!

I didn’t lose much sleep over Obama’s not calling our PM. I found Obama’s comment on successful launching of our Chandrayaan highly entertaining and disturbing at the same time. And this despite India being some years away from launching a manned spacecraft while Armstrong took ‘a small step for a man’ years ago. Clearly, the POTUS is going to have to reach out to grab his bottle of antacids every time India achives a milestone.

I also suffered some anxious moments when he uttered the “K” word though. No, no, I am not talking about “Kremlin” here. It’s about the paradise on earth and the “United States of Obama” wanting to use its influence in reaching a solution. I won’t go to the extreme and predict that the trigger-happy nation will march out there as it did in Afghanistan and Iraq but who said they can create only a military mess? I won’t make the mistake of underestimating them when it comes to making a diplomatic mess! In a nutshell, with their clear bias towards our neighbors - who are looking for a bowl to go to IMF to beg with – they are the last nation on God’s earth that should get involved with the issue of Kashmir – even if they believe, as Sarah Palin does, that God has chosen them for such missions.

As I write this, Dr. Singh did finally get a call and I vaguely remember there being some news about the possible visit of the soon-to-be Mr. President to India. So guys, paste on the best diplomatic smiles you got and keep them in place till Air Force One takes off. But please keep your eyes and ears open – because it’s an Olympian leap of faith to think that such a strong “Friend of Pakistan” can be our best buddy.

The involvement of the religious leaders and armymen in the Malegaon blasts is not just disturbing – it’s sickening! Weren’t these sadhus and sadhwis supposed to renounce the world? Why are they then meddling in the affairs that are no business of theirs? How can someone from Army be involved in this and what’s worse, go undetected for so long?

I can understand that the staunchest seculars amongst us can occasionally fall prey to the thoughts of “an eye for an eye”. At the risk of shocking friends who might be reading this post I confess that after one of the blasts I had remarked to a friend that we should give Pakistan a taste of its own medicine. But then the moment passed and sanity returned. After all, there are those like us on the other side of the border who want nothing else but normal lives. The road for revenge will lead to total destruction and nothing else.

What’s more, here we are talking about harming our very own citizens – most of them having nothing to do whatsoever with earlier blasts. There simply cannot be any justification for such acts and there is no doubt that the guilty should be severely punished – no matter what their station in life and in society. If we stoop to the level of the terrorists, what’s the difference between us and them?

And at the same time there should be an active dialogue between people of both communities to foster an environment of trust. I am not talking about the leaders here. Time and again, they have proved themselves incapable of doing anything that doesn’t further their agenda. I am talking about ordinary people – people like you and me. We have to start doing something about this because we are in the direct line of fire of these bombs – not the traffic-stopping politicians who travel in bulletproof cars escorted by the police.

It’s time we did something about this, people. We owe it to our future generations.

The Hairy Biker’s Cookbook

A weird name for a culinary program, don’t you think? I was pretty sure it’s about bikes when I first noticed it in the schedule of programs on the Discovery Travel and Living Channel. But one day I chanced upon this program accidentally and did a double take when I saw two huge biker types pottering about with pots and pans and actually cooking something edible.

But their appearance was deceptive as I found out when I watched another episode of this program recently. It was shot in Romania – that’s right, the land of the Prince of Darkness. Don’t ask me to name the dishes that they cooked because the names were absolute tongue-twisters and I had never seen some of the ingredients that went in the preparation either. One of the guys cooked a pancake filled with a savory mixture and the other one filled another pancake with a dripping-with-calories chocolate filling. So a word of caution – if watching cheese, chocolate, whipped cream and butter makes you feel as if you have piled on tons, don’t watch this program. :-) It’s not meant for those with an anemic metabolic rate!

After the pancakes, they prepared the national dish of Romania – with cooked cabbage, layers of wafer-thin beef and some stew. It took a long time - hats off to them for their perseverance! All in all, a pleasant enjoyable program - except that in this episode they cooked against the backdrop of an ancient fortress and I half expected the Count come gliding in to take a bite out of the neck of the nearest Hairy Biker :-)

A son is leaving the family nest – packing his suitcases as a caring father hovers in the background. The son suddenly comes across a piece of string and smiles as memories from the childhood come flooding back. A child is seen, in tow with his father, just at entrance of a village fair. The child is not at ease and shares with his father his anxiety of getting lost in the crowd. The father fishes out a piece of string from his pocket, ties one end to the boy’s wrist and the other to his own. He smilingly assures the kid that he won’t get lost now.

Next we see the now old father picking up a ringing phone with the same piece of string attached to it. It’s the son calling and if you want to find out what he tells his father, go watch this latest ad from Airtel. Surely tugs at your heartstrings – this piece of string does :-)

Do you want to be Mitch McDeere?

I don’t want to be in the shoes of Mitch McDeere – ever! I don’t want the low rate mortgage. I don’t want business trips to the Cayman Islands and I don’t want the BMW in color of my choice. Imagine being a lawyer fresh out of law school with multiple job offers – some of them from established Wall Street firms. And then the little known law firm from Memphis comes along to make a tempting offer that no one in their right mind would want to refuse. For someone who doesn’t have a secure childhood to boast of, it’s almost like Manna from heaven! A proof that you have arrived in life!

So Mitch takes the offer and moves to Memphis along with his pretty wife Abby. But something is rotten in the state of Memphis. The firm office on Front Street is like an iceberg – it conceals more than what it reveals. It surely is on the right street as the law firm is a “front” for something else.

Mitch is clueless till the Fibbies walk in – though not through the front door. The real game starts then – a game of wits and courage, of fear and resolve, of doubt and certainty. Finally, the hunted turns into a hunter and leads the Mafia, the FBI - and the readers - through the motels across America’s quiet little towns and beachfronts.

You can hardly wait to turn the next page of – John Grisham’s “The Firm” :-)

Check this site out: http://www.thebetterindia.com/

Who is going to be the next POTUS?

It’s the question of the week – who is going to be the next POTUS? POTUS, for the uninitiated, is the code name used for the US president by the secret service agents in countless spy thrillers. It stands for the President Of The United States!

I wish I could be like that feisty old lady on the street of Jeruslem who, when asked the same question, told the CNN correspondant - “I don’t care”! :-) But we have all seen a demonstration of how “when Uncle Sam sneezes the rest of the world catches cold”. As long as that holds true, I am afraid the rest of us have to care.

I agree that Obama has drawn attention to a number of important issues which have been absent from McCain’s campaign. But politicians are known for paying a lip service to a lot of issues. They conveniently forget the promises they made during the campaigns once they make it to the office. Moreover, whoever gets elected as the next US president has the Herculean task of cleaning up the “Augean Stables” left by George Bush as a legacy! How much time can be devoted to these other “important” issues?

Then there is the “experience” factor. A lot of hue and cry was made that Hillary was projecting her husband’s White House experience as her own. But at least she would have had some knowledge of how things work. McCain has a number of years as a Senator under his belt. Obama, on the other hand, doesn’t have too much to boast about on this front.

Of course there is no denying that McCain has the same trigger-happy look as George Bush. And after 8 years’ of Bush, electing McCain does seem like “starting where you left off”. Not a happy thought!

There is another worrisome angle to this whole saga. Maybe Biden is capable of handling the affairs of his country if Obama gets elected to the White House and is assasinated but the assasination of the US president is an event that the US and the rest of the world can ill-afford at this point. McCain is 70+ and if his health fails him while in the White House I shudder to think of Sarah Palin taking over from him.

So it’s a tough choice for the American voters. For the rest of us it’s wait and watch!

Freedom’s just another word

The Economic Times is the unlikeliest place to search for some poetry. Yet, that’s precisely what I found two days back. Tucked away in an article were some lines from a song by one Janis Joplin:

One day, up near Salinas, Lord, I let him slip away…
..He’s looking for that home and I hope he finds it…
..But I’ll trade all my tomorrows for a single yesterday…
..To be holding Bobby’s body close to mine…
..Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose…

Applies to so many of us, doesn’t it? The last line hit me like a bolt from the blue. Probably the world and all of us with it are hurtling towards such a freedom. How many of us want it though? :-(

Wanna know how to make every drop of petrol last longer? Visit the site of the Petroleum Conservation Research Association - http://www.pcra.org/English/transport/drivingHabits.htm and get your hands on a few tips.

The Brethren

It’s raining CIA for me. And yes, I am talking about the one at Langley. First it was John Grisham’s “The Brethren”. And now it is Vince Flynn’s “Protect and Defend”. Come to think of it, years ago when I religiously watched Agent Scully and Mulder as they went in search of the truth that was “out there”, I was under the impression that FBI is THE agency till I realized that they didn’t have any jurisdiction outside the boundaries of the US. :-)

So, now about “The Brethren”. It’s about 3 convicted judges who have been cooling their heels in a minimum security prison. With so much time on their hands and the future a bit uncertain they stumble upon the idea of running a scam – that of conning rich closet gays out of their millions through a series of letters. Just when the money starts rolling in and the judges are warming up to their game - Murphy’s Law applies. Their net snares someone too big for their own good and then the real fun begins. At the backdrop is the US presidential election and the looming shadow of the CIA chief Maynard.

A peek into the electoral process for the world’s so-called most powerful man, a 101 on running a scam and a game where every move has a lot staked on it – “The Brethren” never disappoints!

Protect and Defend

Weird title for a book, isn’t it? At least I thought as much when I picked up this Vince Flynn novel to scan its back cover for the story in a nutshell. The keywords were all there – Iran, Nuclear Facility, Israel, Mossad and the CIA. Enough of a reason to bring it home!

The plot is sinister and rather terrifying in today’s world where people are getting crazier by day and odds against something impossible happening are falling by the minute. This time the poor Russians have been given a break and so the Iranians are the bad guys. :-) Iran’s developing nuclear facility is blown to bits and the needle of suspicion points to Israel, and the US. Iran vows vengeance and this is the opportunity that the cold-blooded Lebanese terrorist Imad Mukhtar was praying for. However, there is one man standing between him and the destruction of the US – CIA operative Mitch Rapp.

If you want a glimpse into the complex world of international politics, this book is for you. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Only thing is that I wondered how the 5 daughters of the Iranian minister Ashani at the beginning of the book got reduced to 4 by the end of the book ;-) Any explanation, Mr. Flynn?

Recently I came across the following story about Mahatma Gandhi:

A couple once came to Gandhiji with their little son and requested him to talk to the child. The child was quite fond of sweets and the parents thought that only Gandhiji could convince him that consuming them in excess wasn’t good for his health.

Gandhiji asked the couple to come back after a week. When they returned he talked to the child about the harmful effects of eating too much sweet. Surprised, the couple asked him why he didn’t do the same when they first came to him.

“That’s because I didn’t want to talk to him about abstaining from eating too much sweet without first getting rid of the habit myself. It took me a week to get over my fondness for sweets” Gandhiji told them.

In today’s age when the politicians don’t think before, during or after talking, this story sounds too good to be true!

Shaken - not stirred

It’s time to get shaken - not stirred. Nope, I am not referring to the after-effects of the financial tsunami that is rocking the world presently. I am referring to “Quantum of Solace”. If you just said “huh?” you have either been hiding in a cave or belong to that club where people don’t give a damn about the latest shenanigans of Her Majesty’s agent 007. I am a member of that club too :-)

I have watched earlier James Bond flicks starring Sean Connery and Roger Moore. So I am somewhat familiar with the general caste of characters like Q (loved his gadget-laden cars as much as 007 did), M (I rejoiced when this 007 boss turned feminine with Dame Judy Dench playing the role), his friend Felix and poor miss Moneypenny. I also remember a few baddies like the fat obnoxious GoldFinger (loved his plane!) and another tall character with teeth made of steel…..he was called “Jaws” I think. The title songs of “You only Live Twice” and “The Living Daylights” are my favorites. :-)

Though the chases – on road, air or water – were always fun to watch I was never impressed by 007 – mainly I think because of his habit of chasing women. I vaguely recollect a movie in which the legendary spy is about to tie a knot when the prospective bride is bumped off by the villains. This however was an exception that proved the rule!

I have always thought that Sean Connery never looked sauve enough to play Bond – he has a somewhat rough look about him. I think Roger Moore fit the bill better. I must confess that when Pierce Brosnan played Bond I watched the movies just for him. :-) Timothy Dalton had a confused look about him as if he is on the set of a wrong movie. And I think Daniel Craig looks too old to play the energetic secret agent. I wonder why Clive Owen wasn’t selected as the next Bond instead.

I have seen a few of the Bond novels tucked away in one corner of my library. Though I am told they won’t be much fun to read I might check out one or two instead of watching the movie when it hits the screens on 7th November.

Though I wonder if they would have done better to remake the movie “The Living Daylights” to keep in tune with the present times – afterall, the mayhem on Wall Street has scared precisely that out of everyone :-)

I am not surprised that a Sadhwi is implicated in the Malegaon blasts. I don’t have much of a faith in these holy men and women anyway. I have always believed that God can be reached directly. None of us has to go through these middlemen for that. Politics and religion is a highly imflammable combination – one that has brought the world to the brink of the disaster and will push it in the abyss if not checked in time :-(

I am not a fan of Devdas but I liked the following SMS that a friend forwarded. BTW, I tried to post in Hindi but it didn't work out :-( Anyways.....here's the SMS:

Apna to bas itna sa jahaan
Kabhi teri yaadon ka mausam
Kabhi tere zakhmon ke nishaan

Over the moon

I remember that as a kid, I read about Armstrong’s “One small step for man…” little speech on the surface of the moon with awe and a tinge of envy. If truth be told, years later I maliciously enjoyed watching a program alleging that the whole episode was an elaborately planned charade by NASA and the US government working hand in glove with each other.

Whatever the truth, I eagerly waited for the day when India would send its own space shuttle to the moon. Now “Chandrayaan” has taken a baby step towards the moon. As an Indian I am immensely proud. Three cheers for the ISRO guys :-) You are the best!

For a country where the children grow up calling the moon “Chandamama”, where ladies without a brother look out for it on the occassion of the “Bhaiyadooj”, where the day of the Eid is fixed when it is sighted, where married ladies look at it on “Karwa Chauth” and where many love songs have been penned on it, the planet has always been closer to the heart than any other celestial bodies.

The epic Ramayana describes how King Rama, as a child, insisted that he won’t go to bed till he was given the moon. His father’s advisor Sumant gave him a tiny mirror such that the moon’s reflection could be seen in it and King Rama went happily to bed.

Now ISRO has brought the moon closer for over a billion Indians. We never ask for the moon but this time we got it. And we are over the moon – literally and figuratively! :-)

I am overjoyed that India thrashed the Aussies in the Mohali test by a record margin. But I think it’s a bit premature to term this the end of the Aussie domination. A consistent performance - which is the hallmark of the Aussies - isn’t the Indian team’s claim to fame. Besides, with the cloud of controversy hanging about the retirement plans of its senior players, the Indian team will need some time to set its chemistry in place. It will be better if the players concentrate on achiving a decisive lead in this series instead of paying much attention to the media headlines.

That said, keeping in “spirit” of things that in life every little victory should be celebrated, where’s the champagne? :-)

A friend forwarded a message which describes life in a nutshell:

Life is beautiful*
*Conditions apply

I think another line can be safely tacked on at the end “Offer valid till stocks last” :-)

Interesting site

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/

Now that the so-called "Jet"tisoned Crew is safely "on-board" again, it’s amusing to watch the tug-of-war for credit between Praful Patel and Raj Thakaray. It’s true what they say about success having many fathers and failure being a bastard :-)

The Hauntings

One of my favorite shows on the Discovery Channels is “The Hauntings”. Despite my family and friends assuring me countelss times that it doesn’t in any way involve real life events (the show claims that the events are real and interviews the people who have experienced them) I continue to watch, fascinated, as families after unsuspecting families across the US walk in to purchase these “haunted” homes. Some of them spot “an evil presence” right away but majority of them don’t sense anything wrong as they sign the contract and come to live there.

Then the real action begins. Some family members see strangers walking through their living rooms or peeping in through the windows. Children start talking to invisible beings. The furniture moves for no apparent reason – and without any mortal hands touching it. There is a perceptible drop in the temperature – despite global warming. The atmosphere in the house becomes heavy with evil. In a nutshell, things start going bump in the night!

It’s usually the women and children who first notice these goings-on while the reactions of the men range from plain incredulousness to dismissal to anger. Afterall, in the majority of the cases they are footing the bill. So the family tries its best to get on with life by ignoring the SuperNatural – till the crisis comes to a boil.

That means one of the family members gets possessed or comes to a bodily harm or starts becoming irrationally and dangerously aggressive. Then it’s mostly the woman of the house who decides that “she won’t go down without a fight”. So she googles for help and Hey Presto! The friendly neighboorgood ghost-busters are at the doorstep in a jiffy. They walk in with their audio-visual equipment and set up a base in the house. The children are packed away to a friend’s or neighbors’ and the husband-wife duo sits anxiously huddled on a sofa.

The ghost-busters walk about the house noting down “cold spots” and asking if anyone there wants to talk to them. No one generally accepts the invitation so they go back to their headquarters and process the data. The family is then invited to have a dekko at the results where more often than not someone is whispering “help me” – sometimes in Latin or Greek for an exotic twist. The ghost-busters also provide a value-added service by fishing out records of (a) people dying in a car crash near the property, or (b) previous family dying a violent death (c) the property being constructed on an ancient burial ground (d) the property being a part of the battelfield. The family is relieved at this proof that there really is a supernatural presence and that they didn’t go bananas collectively.

Sometimes there is a psychic in the neighborhood who volunteers to chase the spirits away. She tours the place closing eyes and wincing occassionally as the horrible events of the past unfold before her mind’s eye. She flushes out the spirits from their hiding place and asks them to go to the light. Sometimes a priest walks in to perform cleansing with Holy water. Sometimes the family takes it upon themselves to perform the cleansing.

In majority of the cases the spirits decide to leave them alone. But in some instances they are back to their mischief with renewed vigor – angry that the mortals tried to drive them away. Then the occupants pack their belongings and run for their life – hopefully not to another “haunted” house. :-)

These spirits mostly are of human beings who died prematurely or violently but sometimes to spicen things up a bit a demon or two make an appearance with a Latin sounding name and scares hell (!) out of the occupants and their helpers alike. I remember one case in which the devil himself was haunting the place. With so many sinners pouring into hell every day I am sure he felt rather claustrophobic there :-)

Mind you, though I am writing all this in a jocular way I do believe in spirits – good as well as evil. I don’t demand proof of their existence – actually I hope I don’t see any proof in my lifetime! But the way these stories always turn out have a distinct pattern and so I am becoming convinced that at least some of them are contrived.

But with Halloween around the corner, I will give these ghosts and ghouls a break. After all, there are only so many ways that they can spook the living daylights out of us :-)

Petrol khatm hi nahi honda

The cute little sardar who drove his toy Maruti car all over the house made the Maruti ad my all time favorite. That ad was being aired even this year till Maruti came up with a new one. It looks like the little one is a teenager now and wanting to take his girlfriend out asks his granny for some money. Surprised, his granny wonders why he needs it again especially since she had given him some already. Thereupon, the sardar invents the excuse that he needs it for petrol.

You have to watch the ad to see how the feisty little granny handles the situation with a delightful take on “Petrol khatm hi nahi honda” :-)

I am reading Josh Grisham’s “The Brethren”. This novel was published in 2000 and the plot involves US presidential election. It’s amusing to see that the issues like tax laws and abortion continue to dominate the scene even after 8 years!

I must confess that I sometimes find it hard to grasp what this hoopla about abortion really is. Let me make my stand clear first. Of course my opinions are limited only to India where the issues related to abortion are different than in the West and unfortunately, have never been one of the issues that dominate the elections.

I am for strict implementation of laws against abortions conducted at shady clinics, abortions of female foetus and late abortions that might result in the death of or damage to the health of the mother.

Looking at the incidents of newborn babies being dumped in garbage cans where they are an easy prey for rodents, I am convinced that in India unwanted pregrancies should be allowed to be terminated lawfully and safely. It’s better not to bring the child into this world if he/she is going to end up in a garbage can or orphanage eventually. :-(

Finally, if it can be detected that a child has some kind of disease that will prevent his/her leading a normal fruitful life then the pregnancy should be terminated safely, if possible. I can understand that parents are emotionally attached to the yet unborn child. They are willing to shoulder the lifelong responsibility and many times are quite capable of doing so. But life doesn’t come with guarantee cards attached. God forbid, if something happens to the parents there isn’s any social security in this country which will take care of such a child.

I suspect though that the whole debate in the US isn’t about these practicalities but more from the religious angle of being responsible for terminating a life. It’s more like God wanted this child to be born like this and who are we to interfere with His plans. Even the tenets of Hinduism would say that since we can’t give life we don’t have a right to take life away. Then there is the argument about the soul taking birth to live out his/her Karma. Again, who are we to interfere with this plan?

So, like many other questions in life, this one doesn’t have any clear answers.But then life’s questions were never of objective type anyways!

A holy man and his disciple were about to cross a riverbed when they noticed a young woman at the opposite bank hesitatingly trying to cross it. The holy man crossed the riverbed without a moment’s hesitation, lifted the woman and carried her safely across to the other bank.

The disciple was puzzled at the action of the holy man - who had taken a vow of chastity. After waiting for 3-4 days he couldn’t contain his curiosity anymore and asked the holy man about it.

The holy man replied “I left that woman at the bank long time back. You seem to be still carrying her in your mind”!

Just when I thought I was getting a grip on the acronyms like CRR, ECB, Repo and LIBOR I came across this priceless gem in today’s Economic Times (page 16):

According to the SEBI circular, the exposure margin for gross open positions in single stock futures and gross open short positions in stock options will now be the higher of 10% or 1.5 times the standard deviation – an indicator of volatility in a stock – in the notional value of the positions.

Notice that the explanation is provided only for the term - standard deviation – which is commonly known anyways. :-)

Trust the banks to come up with ads calculated to tug at your heartstrings. The latest in the series of such cute-as-a-button ads is from Union Bank.

A little girl with an angelic face comes crying into the room of her elder brother. The reason – she has just lost a tooth. Her brother drops the work he is doing to tell her that she is lucky to have lost a tooth. When she stops crying – eyes wide with wonder – he explains that if planted it will give her a tooth of gold.

Then we see the child stopping in a school yard as she spots a tooth lying about on the ground next to two kids locked in a fight. She picks it up and deposits it in a box. Next she invades a set of dentures soaking in a bowl of water. Even the skeleton in the classroom doesn’t escape her attention.

Her brother sees her planting the whole set in the ground and asks her why she is doing it. Watch the ad to listen to what she says to him!

A cute ad that gels well with its tagline - “Your dreams are not yours alone” :-)

Little Sonu lost his fight with life after spending 4 days at the bottom of the borewell. And now the blame game has begun. There cannot be a difference of opinion that the people who dug the borewell and left it open are the primary culprits. But what maddens me most in such instances is that the parents of such children don’t get reprimanded solely because they are the victims in these situations. Wasn’t it sheer callousness not to keep an eye on a 2-year old? I refuse to accept the much-touted excuse that they were poor and probably had to give more attention to earning their bread-and-butter than to their child. Because my hard cold answer to this excuse is that if earning their bread-and-butter is more important then they should not have thought about having a child. It’s simple really – you don’t have a right to be a parent if you cannot look after your child and ensure his/her safety. Sadly, no one thinks along these lines.

It’s clear that no lessons were learnt from the “Prince” episode so I guess it’s hopeless to expect that any concrete measures will be taken to avoid the repeatition of this sad incident. As I have said before on this blog, not much premium is placed on human lives. Afterall, we seem to be having about a billion of them :-(

Jaago re

Wanna vote but don't know how to go about registering yourself? Here's the site to help you with it - http://jaagore.com/. Go register and make sure you can vote. After all, it's your birthright :-)

Yeh Hum Naheen

I was overjoyed when I read about this site in the newspaper. Finally, someone is taking steps to slap across the ugly face of terrorism. :-) Kudos to you guys!

Puzzled? Go check http://www.yehhumnaheen.org/

I hope and pray that Muslims all over the world join hands with these people who have stood up against a handful few who believe in holding the world ransom to their pathetic and cowardly acts.

Against the growing incidences of terrorism against Christians in India, I believe we Hindus should also come forward to raise our voice.

Join hands guys, that's the only way to pull back our world from the brink of destruction!

In a desperate move to set the cash registers ringing Bollywood now seems to be turning to the remakes of yesteryear’s hits. We had Sholay and Umrao Jaan and now we will have Karz.

I gasped for air when I heard that Himesh Reshammiya is playing the protagonist – played by Rishi Kapoor originally. I remember watching the original on TV and it had amused me no end to watch today’s Mrs. Tina Ambani gyrating to the tunes of “Om Shanti Om” – in her much slimmer avatar of course! But the title tune was decidedly haunting and remains my favorite to this day.

And as if the horror of Himesh Reshammiya visiting planet earth twice isn’t bone-chilling enough, it has been this time decided to remain faithful (!) to the American movie that the original Karz was based on - The Reincarnation of Peter Proud. So now HimeshBhai’s leading lady in the second life (played originally by Tina Munim) is the daughter of his heartthrob in his first life – Kamini (played originally by Simi Garewal). I wonder how the Indian audience is going to take it.

I just hope that this Karz doesn’t land producer Bhushan Kumar in Karz up to his neck :-) As far as I am concerned, the day this movie gets released I will get a DVD of the Rishi Kapoor starrer and watch it with popcorn :-)

I was still reeling from the shocking news of the remake of Karz (now starring Himesh Reshammiya) when I received another bombshell – Abhimaan (originally with Amitabh and Jaya Bachhan) is going to be remade with Abhishek and Aishwariya.

Now I agree that Amitabh wasn’t quite convincing as the arrogant dashing singer but somehow he managed it. Jaya Bachhan on the other hand was as sweet as they make them as the village girl who firmly believes that when one sings for one’s own happiness the result is always melodious.

I stretched my imagination to its limits but I couldn’t visualize either Abhishek - with his wooden expression - belting out “meet na mila re man ka” or Aishwariya as a coy village girl playing with her pitcher singing “Nadiya kinare”.

Someone, please make it unlawful to remake old classics! :-)

There was a comment on my post on Zardari's speech. It referred to a blog. While I rejected to publish the comment since it was just a copy-paste of an article on that blog, here's the blog - http://kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com/

Call me an eternal pessimist but I am not thrilled by Janab Zardari’s “India has never been a threat to Pakistan” rhetoric.

In the best of the scenarios, he is stating the truth. India as a country has never made any hostile gestures towards the nation that broke away from it in 1947 inflicting untold misery on those who had to flee to the other side of the border – in many cases, overnight. Pakistan, on the other hand, has always paid more attention to how it can destabilize its neighbor - with highly inflammable (pun intended!) terrorists and cross-border infilterations – rather than focusing on strengthening its own institutions. So yes, it has always been Pakistan which has been in a perpetual Jihad mode, whatever that word means.

But in the worst of the scenarios, this is just a lip service calculated to induce India in letting down her guard – by thinning out Indian troops in the Kashmir valley for example. We should not fall prey to this tactic. Talk peace till the hell freezes over if need be but under no circumstances should we relax the security measures. The rosy ideas of factories and mills across Pakistan catering to India’s needs should be implemented with utmost caution and with appropriate fallback plans in place. We are all witnessing how the whole world has caught cold with one sneeze from Uncle Sam. It will be disastrous to engage in extensive economic ties with the nation that has only back-stabbed us in the past. No one knows if Pakistan will ever have a strong democracy but we all know that if it gets a chance to cripple India economically, it won’t miss it for the world.

So let’s accept Janab Zardari’s bouquet of roses with smiles but let’s not forget that there are more thorns than petals in there. We once trusted China till the war came to our doorsteps. Let’s not repeat the history with Pakistan.