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.