Heard the latest? Salman Khan is to make a special appearance in "Hello" which is based on Chetan Bhagat's "One night at the call center". Hope he is not playing God! :-)

Joke of the Century

"They want to destabilise the country. They want to destabilise democracy. They want to destroy the country economically," Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told reporters.

The last time I checked Pakistan was neither stable nor democratic and the lesser said about their economy the better :-)

Just finished reading Agatha Christie's "Nemesis" :-) Can't help post the haunting lines that her detective Miss Marple thinks of on receiving Mr. Rafiel's letter after his death:

Ships that pass in the night and speak each other in passing
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness

I was angry and sad at the same time when I read that there was a proposal for setting up an IIT exclusively for women at Amaravati. I don’t see any purpose in setting up such an institution except for a desire to pamper the minorities.

Has anyone given a thought to what happens when women get a degree from this IIT? Are we going to set up all-women companies for them? Even if these women turn entrepreneurs they can’t say that they will deal with only women. If these women will have to deal with men when they ultimately step out to make use of their education then why not equip them with the necessary skills by setting up more co-ed institutions?

If on the other hand, these women will sit at home with their degrees, what’s the point of setting up an IIT for educating them?

And it’s ironical that this proposal had blessings from India’s first woman president Pratibha Patil. I was glad to read that for whatever reasons the Planning Commission nipped it in the bud.

Women maybe from Venus and men from Mars but they have to co-exist on this “3rd rock from the Sun”. The sooner we realize this, the better!

Every year as the day of the Ganesha Immersion (Visarjan) draws near I am reminded of a song that is never played in any of the pandals or processions. That’s because it’s a sad song – a sort of a tearful grievance to the Almighty, almost an accusation that He who sees all somehow missed out on the sorrow of one of his devotees. This song is from the movie “Dard Ka Rishta” which starred Sunil Datt and Khushbu who then was a child star. The pain and anguish of a father who is on the verge of losing his child to cancer is plain in the words:

Mere man mandir me tum bhagwan rahe
Mere dukh se tum kaise anjaan rahe
Mere ghar me kitne din mehmaan rahe
Mere dukh se tum kaise anjaan rahe

(My mind is your temple, how it is then that you are ignorant of my grief?
You stayed in my home for many days, how it is then that you are ignorant of my grief?)

A scene plays out often in my mind these days. It’s from the movie Ashoka. I have mentioned in this blog before that I am not a member of SRK’s fan club. One look at his Samrat Ashoka getup and I wisely stayed away from the movie theatres screening it. But sometime later I chanced on the movie’s end on one TV channel. And it’s that scene that has been playing itself out in front of my mind’s eyes.

Ashoka is sitting with the dead body of the young prince clutched in his arms – unable to accept the reality that greed can be ruthless enough to extinguish a life so young and so innocent, the enormity of the war and his hand in bringing about so much death and destruction finally dawning upon him. Then you see a small group of Budhhist monks (Bhikkus) slowly making their way across the battlefield - their very appearance preaching peace and forgiveness. It’s the moment of truth for Ashoka and the moment that changes his life, forever.

Today as I see violence and destruction claiming the lives of the innocent I wonder when the moment of truth will arrive for those who don’t hold human life in very high esteem. I hope and pray that it’s soon.

I have managed to devour 2 more books - Clive Cussler's "The Navigator" and Agatha Christie's "Appointment with Death" :-) Needless to say, loved both.

P.S. I am not sure but it looked as if "The Navigator" had a typo in one of the pages at the end. One character is initially referred to as "Fred Turner" and later as "Bender". Now I am reading Agatha Christie's "Nemesis". :-)