trip to ananya - part2

Every visit to Ananya brings out one new aspect about its philosophy. This time it was the turn to learn about the kids at Ananya.

For all the visitors, there was a small presentation by Dr. Shashi Rao. The presentation had pictures of the kids in first part. Everyone had to write about what they feel after seeing the pictures. All the kids where smiling and looked happy. After each picture we were asked to write 5 points we notice about the child after seeing the picture. It’s not an easy work. Still we did it.

In the second half of the presentation, Dr Shashi told us about all those children one by one; their background, their family, their nature and Sometimes their dreams too. Not many of our observation were true.

It’s not easy to judge someone from seeing just one picture. So our failure was not very surprising. Moreover the idea was not to rate our understanding about the kids. What we saw in those pictures were the kids in their happiest of moments, Kids in their life in Ananya. They have a past that is mostly painful. They have seen their fathers die, they have seen their mother beaten up by their father; some of them have worked to earn their bread, some have been beggar. Too many different storied behind each one of them.

But when given an opportunity, they all enjoy the moments. They want to learn, they want to live a respectful life. They all have dreams that they really want to fulfill. At Ananya, they try their best to make them a reality. Some of them get up as early as 5:30 so that they could reach the Hockey practice in Shantinagar in time. They travel by bus all the way to the practice. They come back and start their studies. How many of us can do that?

So the idea here is that give them opportunity and you will get many more happy faces and your own satisfied heart.

will wirte more on the same topic some other time.

trip to ananya - part1

One more visit to ANANYA. But every time this place shows you some new aspect of life. Yesterday we went there just to spend some time with the kids whom we teach computer in our Dream Computer Program.

Dream Computer Program

Dream Computer Program is one of the most important activity of Dream-a-Dream.

For those who do not know, what this programs is, here is a small introduction-

Dream Computer Program was started with just one aim in mind, to show the world of computer to kids from underprivileged background. To show them and make them aware about wonderful gift of technology called computer. This program never aimed at making software engineers; and still it maintains the same philosophy. But over the years with our experiences we could give some direction to this program.

Now this program runs over the academic year with an intention of serving at least a bunch of kids with so much of interest in computers that they can get a vocation of it. The process is simple. There are levels (equivalent to class in normal schools). Kids go from one level to another on the basis of their interests. We don’t do any filtering as such. Who ever I interested, we intend to cater to his/her need to whatever extent we can.

The classes are conducted on Saturdays at KAPS IT solutions in Ejjipura. The program has patrons in the likes of KAPS IT, Mr Rajkumar, Mr. Girish from HP, Shashank from Dream-a-Dream, and many volunteers from every walk of life. Right now we are in process of starting our pilot batch for level three (level 201 in our terminology) from august second week.

Ananya

Ananya, run by Dr. Shashi Rao, is an informal school catering to the needs of children from disadvantaged background. These are the kids who either never went to a formal school or dropped out due to various reasons. Some of them have worked to earn their daily bread.

These kids then became part of Ananya family. At Ananya, they learn to ask and learn to act.

Ananya is not a formal school. There are no classes, no compulsions. There are just subjects, subjects like maths, science, English and Hindi. They attend the class for the same. Classrooms could be any place, garden, dining hall or the small hut in the open air.

You can learn any time of the day though there are some fix timings for these classes. There are not many textbooks. You learn what you see and learn what you feel. The teachers cater to all the questions from the curious kids. A kid will learn through experience and only those things, which he finds interest in. lots of activities keep happening and the kids get chance to explore all of them. Which ever they like, they can continue.

Every year, there are groups formed which are based on the learning aptitude of the kids. There are NO EXAMS. Kids don’t pass or fail. According to their interests, at later stages they are provided appropriate vocational training.

The kids stay at Ananya throughout the week. Over the weekend they have the freedom to go home or stay back at Ananya. Most of the activities take place on the campus only; for some other they might need to go to other places.

Right now there are 62 kids on the campus. The kids are enrolled start of academic year and activities and progress of each kid is minutely monitored throughout the year. Anyone can come and join the place.

To be continued…

15 seconds of fame

There is something so fascinating and absolutely goofed up with media (specially TV news channels) that every now and then I end up writing about them. This one is again on the same line.

On Thursday night we saw almost all the Indian news channel showing us live how one black car had breached the security measures at 7 Race Course Road (Residence of PM). There was a cabinet meeting taking place that time at PM s house. TV news cameras showed us live how the car passed the various check posts without much of intervention.

There were two girls and one guy in the car. It was driven by one of the girls while the guy was sitting in the front seat. The youth looked like coming from well to do families and looked educated.

There were live discussions with (so called) security experts who termed this even as a very big laps on SPG’s (Special Protection Group) part. Next some of the newspaper carried the same headlines. I am not sure but the issue was raised in parliament also.

After this big a headline, Delhi Police jumped into the action. They detained all the three passengers of the car and started questioning their motives. Before that only media had shown us live talk with one of the girls. She seemed to answer this about their motives to visit PM –“our PM is a fascinating personality. We wanted to feel the thrill of meeting him.” Oh yes, Mr PM was waiting for those guys only.

Thrill of meeting PM? Or just some moments of glory? Which actually turned into a longer stint on national TV and then 18 hours of questioning in police station. The youth was not under influence of alcohol (as proved by the medical examination done on them that night).

Later on Saturday evening, same news channel were showing a news clip with lots of animation about PM House’s security arrangements. And they were trying to explain how the car had actually not touched PM’s secure house only. In fact, they showed, it was stopped before the outer check post of PM’ house. Some of them were trying to justify SPG’s action and promptness while others were still projecting asa security breach. The same old security experts still in the discussions. Just one day for views to change?

Such a sad turn of events. Overall if you see this even is nothing but one adventure plan by three youths which ended up catching media attention, and media making news from nothing at all.

Time and again this happens. 24X7 news is not such an easy business.

sarkar

I watched Sarkar this weekend.
This movie, like its source Godfather, is a classic. Once after seeing Godfather one of my friend said "Yaar, is movie ko dekh kar to Maafia Don banane ka man karta hai. Kya jindagi hoti hai unki (yaar, after watching this movie, I feel like becoming a Maafia Don. Such a interesting life they live." I felt the same way after seeing Sarkar. Dont worry, I am not becoming a Don. But still...

What is so good about Sarkar?
Let me try the simples way and list out all the points in its plus side.
1. Amitabh Bachchan: He is simply superb in the character of Sarkar. No one could have done this role better.
2. Abhishek Bachchan: He is not a star, but he indeed is a quality actor. He has made us feel his presence in the movie.
3. KayKay: Though Kaykay Menon does not have a big role in the movie, but he has done justice to his performance.
4. Ram Gopal Verma: He is the GOD. All these actors could not have pulled it off without his magic. He can make anyone act.
5 Silence: Marlon Brando acquired special tone for his role. No doubt even amitabh could have done that. But RGV chose better way. He chose the silence to speak voulmes of feelings. Everyone speaks through language of silence. Eyes tell more about emotions than the mouth. This kind of performances are not usual in Bollywood, where every scene is explained to maximum possible extent.
6. Background Score: Another RGV trademark. Movie does not have songs. THis also adds to the pluses.

Overall, one wonderful experience.

@NIkhil: have you watched it or not?

pandora

Have you ever tried internet radio? It’s the place where you can tune to music of you choice. Most of the channels there are predefined and you don’t have much to say in choice of music. Though, today with the n numbers of channel available, you can choose station which matches your taste the most.

Pandora is the next big thing in online radio scene. It’s a radio of your own. You can choose what kind of music it plays. You can select the song or artist name. and then it plays all the songs or artists which have same kind of music. With every song you can make this choice more and more accurate.

This is how it works-

• Go to Pandora website: http://www.pandora.com/
• You might need to open an account there to enjoy it full. Right now only US citizens are allowed to open an account. But in this connected world you know it’s not that difficult to break this rule.
• You will reach a window as shown.
• Select the artist name or song name. [I chose Scorpion for the illustration purpose.]
• Then Pandora will search its database for artist name Scorpion or a famous song named Scorpion. It will show you the initial result.
• If the result shown was your expected result, it will start finding the characteristics of the artist and song and display the same for you.
• Pandora will play one demo song then and then if you like it, it will start playing more songs of the same kind.
• Anytime you can stop the song or rate it. By rating you improve the selection process.
• Enjoy the continuous music.

The technology is currently used by Pandora to play music for internet users based on their preferences. Users are invited to create "radio stations" by entering artists or song titles. Pandora then uses an algorithm to select and play music similar to the users' selections. Since the algorithm selects songs on the basis of musical features, rather than artist popularity or record sales, many users have lauded Pandora for its ability to "recommend" unfamiliar songs that fit a user's preferences. Obscure artists may submit their music to the Music Genome Project in a bid to become better known. [wiki]

Music Genome Project
The Music Genome Project, created in January 2000, is an effort founded by Tim Westergren and spearheaded by a group of musicians and technicians to "capture the essence of music at the fundamental level" by using over 400 attributes to describe songs.

This is what the mind behind this project says about them [link] –

"On January 6, 2000 a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.

Over the past 6 years, we've carefully listened to the songs of over 10,000 different artists - ranging from popular to obscure - and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.

It has been quite an adventure, you could say a little crazy - but now that we've created this extraordinary collection of music analysis, we think we can help be your guide as you explore your favorite parts of the music universe.

We hope you enjoy the journey."

And the winner is…

After more than 50 hours of hardships, Mr Prince reached his mother's arm safely. Whole country felt relieved and was happy. After all it was a event to be proud of. We are forgetting about God’s existence and every now and then God comes and shows his miracles in one form or the other. This was one of his magic tricks.

For me, what happened around this event, are the events to think about.

• Various news channels were showing live telecast of the rescue operation. Was it really an issue of national interest? Actually today it does not matter. They need news and it was much more than that. Public likes to see miracles.
• In various parts of country, special prayers were called for his well-being. Again, the same old thing. Sachin gets pain in arm and country prays to God. We still are very religious people. We know God only can help us. He will come to save us everytime. But how many of us rushed to the nearest well to check if that was not uncovered?
• Various ministers and officials rushed to the scene and monitored the rescue effort. Why were they needed there? Oh yes, how could they stay away from a place where lots of media was present. Who wil bear the cost of his travel and other unavoidable expenses.
• Special rescue team was flown from Mumbai to save him. It was a trained team from the fire brigade. Why the team had to brought from Mumbai? Don’t we have any such team in Delhi or other place? If not, then what kind of rescue teams these places have?
  

What happened after the rescue is also something to take a note of:

• Mr CM announced a help fund of Rs 2Lac for Prince’s family. This is the height. What was the reason for such a decision. So many people die the same way, but nobody bothers about them. Just because media from the whole country was present there, mr CM played the caring CM game.
• Media as usual went and asked the mother, how was she feeling? It was expected from them. They can ask a person in deathbed about his view on currecnt political situation. Come-on yaar. Grow up. What answer were you expecting?
• Prince’s mother thanked the whole country for the prayers and media for the news. This is the real effect of media. She understood the turn of events very well and played the best possible move.

I am happy that Prince came out safely. One mother is happy today, thank god and those rescue people for that. They are the real winner and So is the survivor himself.

Hyssteria

Monty Python Circus
They say life is a big circus. Everyone is a joker; everyone is a ringmaster. Life also plays both the roles. Those who can find the fun in everyday life, enjoy the show, rest crib all the time about the hardship in life.

Monty Python circus contains some of most simple and amusing moments of life. They can bring smile on your face any point of time. Real life from close shot is their shortest possible definition.

EVAM has a real mastery on comedy now. They can bring smile on your face in most serious of the situation. Though I had already watched some of the python sketches in one previous play, I still could enjoy each and every piece.

Hamlet
Hamlet is no doubt the greatest play ever written in the history [I dont say this, i have read it somewhere]. I have seen one adaptation of Hamlet which was a serious one. Today I saw second version of the same play.

Second part of the play Hyssteria consisted of spoof on Hamlet. It could not have been better. Rib tickling comedy filled with terrific performance. The crowd enjoyed it to the ultimate extent. Best comedy I have ever seen. The energy with which the actors performed is unimaginable

EVAM is truly a brilliant group. Hats of to you guys.

EVAM really rocks!!!

For ART's sake!

Art is all about friendship - its strengths and frailties. And, Evam managed to transport the audience to the time they spent with friends.

EVER CAUGHT between two warring friends? Then, you'll understand the predicament of simple-minded Yvan better.

The proverbial good man who spends his time in a dusty stationery store owned by his fiancée Catherine's uncle, he is the one you'll identify with most in Yesmina Reza's `Art', staged recently in the city by Chennai-based Evam.

About Art
Yvan does not argue with anyone - he agrees with all. But, an ego-tussle between his two buddies — dermatologist-turned-art aficionado Serge and the smug out-of-the-box thinker Marc — turns his idyllic life a little complicated.

The root of the problem? Serge buying a `white painting with diagonal white lines' for 200,000 francs.

Marc is stunned that his friend could actually pay so much money for `nothing' (after all, what is white on white?) and tries to get Yvan to toe his line of thinking.

Yvan being Yvan, tries his best to make peace, but ends up being called an amoeba and told in no uncertain terms that "Whatever you do, don't be pleasant."
Painting trouble
The plot is pretty simple. And, if you wondered how much trouble a painting could possibly cause, you'll be in for a surprise.

Each of the trio drags every little problem, real and imaginary, out of the closet in his attempt to prove he is right. The usually unflappable Serge tells Marc that he hates the way his (Marc's) wife Paula reacts to someone smoking.

Marc, who is disappointed and worried that a painting has taken his place in Serge's life, directs his anger at Serge and gets labelled an enemy of modern art. His carefully chosen barbs, timely sniggers and `tolerant' tone achieve their effect - that of irritating Serge.

As for Yvan, caught amidst a stepmother he hates, a mother who feels neglected, and Catherine, who wants her stepmother's name on the wedding invite, friends are his only solace. And, when an evening with friends goes from bad to worse, he is devastated. His whining tone and passiveness is refreshing in the battle of words between Serge and Marc.

Most of the laughs were reserved for his innocent one-liners or paras, like the one he attributes to his shrink.

When he studiously read from his paper: `If I am who I am because I am who I am, and You are who You are because You are who You are, then I Am who I Am and you Are who you Are. But, on the other hand, IF I am who I am, because You are who you are, and You are who You are, because I am who I am, then you Are Not who you are, and I Am Not who I am', the Rangashankara, venue for the play, erupted into laughter.

The 90-minute play ends when Serge, realising that the painting led to fissures in his friendship with Marc, allows him, in one sweeping moment, to render the painting no longer white.

And, the trio stays happy ever after.

Good response
Karthik Kumar was brilliant as the smug Marc and Jimmy as the offended Serge. But, the audience sympathy was reserved for Yvan, played with perfection by Sunil Vishnu.

The play was well rehearsed and the diction just perfect.

During the interludes and scene changes, Iswar of Evam entertained all by mimicking the playing of different instruments and acting as a modern-day sutradhar.

The people seemed impressed most by the gripping story and the pace at which it moved. Also, the flowing diction and the stage setting.

EVAM is staging another play called Hyssteria on sunday at the same venue. Be there.

[taken from article published on the same play in Hinde. LINK ]

being pritesh

This is a scene from Anger Management. I could not find the movie script on the net so trying to reproduce the same here. It may be not be exactly same as that in the movie, but the core sense is the same.

Dr. Buddy Rydell: So Mr Dave tell me about yourself.
Dave Buznik: Hi everyone, this is Dave Buznik. I am a software professional. I work in ABC infotech. I am a senior manager there...
Dr. Buddy: [interrupts him] Hey Dave, I asked you tell us abut yourself, not about your work.
Dave: [apologizes to the group] Oh, I like to play cricket and to listen to music...
Dr. Buddy: [again interrupts] Dave, sorry for interrupting again, but i dint ask your hobbies.
Dave: [trying to control his anger, he smiles] Ohk, I am an outwardly person, sometimes emotional [blah blah]..
Dr. Buddy: [with a sly smile] Dave here you go again, i dint ask about your nature. I just asked you to tell us about yourself.
Dave: [By now he is gripped in anger] Hey hey hey Buddy, what the f#$@ you want me to tell you here...

Why Dr. buddy chose this question to check Buddy's anger management. Is it really this tough to answer "tell me about yourself"?

It indeed is a very trivial situation, but it brings up a real important question.

Who are we?
Are we what we do as a profession?
Are we what we like to do?
Are we what our nature is like?

If someone asks you this question, will you be able to answer it without any difficulty?

In my humble opinion, it will be combination of all the above. We are what we want us to be. Everything is real, everything can be imaginary.
In the end, my answer to the question could have been "I am Pritesh"

Is this ego or just the simple frustration?
Again, it can be interpreted in any sense. But its the bitter truth. We are what we are. I can not change for anyone; no one can do that actually. They say in love people change, but isn't it for their selfish ends.

Is Being Pritesh is a brand?
I hope it is not. For me it certainly is not a brand. I still remember how I used to hate when my mom would give me examples of other kids of my age (who had done something good in life). Wasn't she trying to make a brand? Yes, she was. Just to inspire me. At that age, I would just curse those people and again indulge in my own life.
Today I just hope I am not a brand image for anyone. I dont want to get abused. I really do not want to carry the burden of someone else's expectations. The worst heart break occurs when your ideal breaks his image and does something wrong.

But for now, I am just Pritesh, and its really cool being pritesh.

ban on blogs

I don’t know if you will be able to read this. If you are actually doing it, you are really lucky. You still live in a world where there exists a term called Freedom of Expression.

This may look like a suicide note, but it certainly is not. This is like those events, which we do not want to keep in our history, but still we have to keep them.

Government of India (by means of DOT) has ordered the ISPs in India to block many of the blogging sites. Officials from DOT have confirmed the news that DOT has issued a list of blogs and sites (22 of them infact) which had to be blocked. But what has actually happened is that all the blogs on some of the sites have been blocked. Sites like Blogspot, Geocities and many more are blocked, in turn resulting in no access to thousands of blogs on these sites.

Why the ban
Government says that blogs are used by terrorist and other anti social elements to network and plan unlawful activities. They also claim that many of the blogs have provocative material and they are portraying distorted views.

What next
It is such a sad decision. All the reasons given by government can be applied to mobile phone and print media also. Will the government ban those also? You never know.

Secondly blogs and internet is one medium which not everyone access to. Does the government think that by banning blogs it will be successful in its motives? Within moments of spread of news of blocking of blogs, there were many articles published on net which teach you how to still access this blogs. There are many proxies available today through which you can access any blog. Many of the MNCs have their servers and gateways outside India, thus the blocking wont happen in their offices.

The fact of the matter is that, people who are blogging are more mature and resourceful than what government thinks them to be. So its better that government actually try to solve the problems instead of zeroing on non-existing issues.

Some more reading on the same topic:
Indian Express
Digital Inspiration - This has lots of info on how to access the blogs now.
Hindu
Business Standard
Youth Curry

stressed haan??

Have a look at the following images. What do you see there?

They are used to test the level of stress a person can handle.
The slower the pictures move, the better your ability of handling stress.

Alleged criminals that were tested see them spinning around madly;
However, senior citizens and kids see them standing still.

None of these images are animated - they are perfectly still.

[source: A forward I got today morning.]

Impossible is nothing

Actually the title for this post should have been “impossible is nothing”, but I kept it the other way. It’s just to save this beautiful catch line of Nike football ads in my memories.

This Friday Golmaal was released.
As last week we dint watch any movie in theater, this week it was almost compulsory for us to do so. As no other good movie was released this week, we thought Golmaal would be a great option.

So here we were, on a Friday night, trying our luck to get tickets in PVR. Getting the movie tickets for Friday shows is next to impossible in PVR. Still we went there. No surprise in offering there. All the shows were sold-outs. So one day over in the weekend without movie. so sad for us!!

We took a brave (coz we never our so sure about our plan the next day) decision and decided to buy tickets for show on Saturday night. And to our luck, they were available. I took out the card and paid for them. Three of us were so happy that finally we would watch movie this weekend. That too Golmaal.

Come Saturday evening, as usual we had dinner at home and left for Forum. We reached Forum and rushed towards PVR, not enjoying the usual fun of forum. We don’t like to miss the advertisements and trailers.

And then it happened. When we were entering the theater, the guard at the gate got confused and started checking the ticket again and again. After some confusion he let us enter. But his action sparked something in my mind. I decided to have a look at the ticket.
And what I see – the ticket was for the show timed 10.00. phew, It was absolutely clear by now. We had got the tickets for morning show instead of evening. Shucks.. what to do now? We went and talked with the person in charge at PVR. As all the shows were full, he apologized that he could not do anything.
It was our own fault that we dint check the tickets properly so we could not blame anyone else. After all this, we left for home with our heads down. 450 Rs wasted by a silly mistake, moreover we still had not seen the movie. Would we be able to break this virginity barrier this weekend or not?

Come Sunday, it was a lazy day. With all the usual house chores. Again we decided to watch the movie. Same movie but different theater this time. We took the news paper and found all the possible option. Only two choices left for us INOX and REX. We chose INOX and called them. And to our luck, the lady on the phone said, she could book the tickets for us. And within next few moments we were again happy that finally we would watch the movie.

Again after all the indispensable wait, we reached INOX. First to the ticket counter. And here came the second blow. The guy at the counter told us that they never had any tele-booking. We were shocked, still maintaining our cool, we showed him the number were we had called in noon. He said it was not their number. At one side my friend was trying to find out where we had booked the ticket, on other side I was trying to see if there were any tickets available in INOX.

No good luck again, all the shows were sold-out. And then we found out that actually we had booked the tickets in Innovative. All the events of the previous day started coming in front ofour eyes. It was happening again.

What a silly mistake. Again we were heart-broke. But by this time we were like the frustrated lover, whom all his girls have ditched. So we finally vowed to watch the movie, only in theater and that too ASAP.

Next destination was REX. It had a show at 9:30 pm and that was our last hope for the weekend. But at first, no good news there also. Show was tagged house-full. In our desperation to watch the movie, we were ready to buy the tickets in black also. So we approached the guy. He showed us the attitude like he was the ultimate god. I got so pissed off that I moved away from him.

My friends were still thinking what to do. Suddenly I saw the thin ray of hope. It was actually a thin ray of light coming from the ticket window. The guy sitting inside was talking to someone standing outside the window. And then suddenly two tickets came from inside and reached the outsiders hands. I became so hopeful that I reached the window and asked loudly “Golmaal??” “How many?” asked the other voice from behind the window. “4” I said. He said 130 each for a 120 Rs ticket. I was out of my mind coz of happiness. I said give me them immediately. We paid him and entered the theatre.

Wow..What a satisfaction!!!

Finally we saw the movie. How the movie was an altogether a different question. But the satisfaction of actually watching it after so many blunders was really something out of this world.

Moral of the story:

1. Check your ticket thoroughly at the ticket window and then only leave the window.
2. Check the number properly before dialing and ask for the place’s name first.
3. Nothing is impossible. You an do lots of mistakes, still win the game.

chinkara and amir

Gujarat state forest department has ordered state CID to reopen the Chinkara shooting case against Amir Khan.

What is this Chinkara?
Wikipedia gives the following description

The Chinkara is a species of gazelle found in South Asia. Found in grasslands and desert areas in India, parts of Iran and Pakistan.

It is also known as the Indian Gazelle Gazella gazella bennetti

Certain researchers consider the decline in the Chinkara population as the reason behind the Cheetah getting extinct in India. It is classified as extremely vulnerable and endowed in the highly endangered species list. Its population is on the decline due to it being hunted for game.

What is this Chinkara shooting case?

By now we all know about the famous Shooting case against Salman. This one is almost on the same line. Only difference is that Amir shoot Chinkara with his camera and not the gun. While shooting for his Oscar nominated movie Lagaan, Amir had asked for the permission from the Forest dept to shoot Chinkara. The forest dept did not give the permission under certain forest conservation laws. But Amir went ahead with the shooting and the Chinkara was shown in the movie also. That’s it about the case.

What now?

Its been 8 years since the shooting was done. The case was first booked at the time of release of the movie. It was reopened last week. Its really unlikely that Forest Dept will have any problem in arranging for some eyewitnesses (after all the controversies related to Amir and NBA case)

The hard reality

Is it a big coincident that the case is reopened after eight years, in the time when Amir was going against the state government of Gujarat?

Gujarat state CID will probe in this case now. This is such a big wastage of resource, considering that Gujarat is one state, which has seen so much of violence in last few years. Instead of finding justice in those cases, CID is given these less important works. It’s really a kill of democracy and its tools.

More about the same news: Hindu

the other side

Everything you see is just an illusion.
Nothing is absolute.
Everything is just an image of what you want to see. Everything is real as well as everything is trivial.

Something that pleases you can be eye sour for you some other time. Two lovers, who swear to live and die for each other, want to kill each other after they breakup.

A system, when looked from outside looks so different. They say grass is always greener. Only when you enter the system, you realize that what you see is far from what it is exactly. Everywhere it’s the same old bullshit. From the outside, you can never understand how it works. Only when you come in you realize it can never work only.

But still it works. How? It works coz we have assumed that it is working; whatever happens is what it was meant for. WE are used to it. We make ourselves totally accustomed to it.

What should we do in this situation?
You want something to work, but you also know that from inside it’s disintegrating. But from the outside you cannot do anything. Only hopes you have is that you enter the body and kill the tumors. A doctor cannot refuse to treat a cancer patient just because he is sure to die.

Best way is to enter the system, find where it does not work and then try your best. If you succeed, you have changed it. If not, then also you have done your bit.

Ironies

H. W. Fowler, in Modern English Usage, had this to say of irony:
Irony is a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, consisting of one party that hearing shall hear and shall not understand, and another party that, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware, both of that “more” and of the outsider’s incomprehension.

Too complicated to be a definition. But it says it all.

In the song titled "Ironic" singer Alanis Morissette talks about irony of life.

A traffic jam when you're already late
A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It's meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife
And isn't it ironic... don't you think?

Adam and Eve's story is a big irony, so is the question of chicken and egg. Everytime it boils down to the perspective. Nothing is absolute. Seeing is believing. You can assume whatever you like.
Whatever you do, how much ever effort you put in, you can not please everyone. You can not be the good boy in everyones' eyes.
Its like the the ultimate truth of coding that "No code can be bug-free". One loophole can cover all the good things, while one hack can cover some big ossues. Everything is ironical.
Irony gives the different aspect to every action of yours. Do what you want and let other understand it in their way.

Should we always bother about the irony of life or just concentrate on the karma. This question is the biggest of the ironies. Geeta says "Karmanye vadhikarste, ma phaleshu kadachana" Clearly, do your karma and leave rest all to the God.

It is our irony that we are trusting someone whom we have never seen.
It is his irony that he has to take care of the whole world.

What about those who do not believe in God. Its their ultimate irony in life.

Auto driver who’s superhero

Supports Ailing Destitutes In His Home For Hope
By Pooja Virendra Kumar/TNN

Bangalore: When he sees ailing destitutes on the streets, he just doesn’t walk past them. He brings them home, cares for them and tries to give them a new life.

T Raja is an autorickshaw driver and earns a paltry Rs 200 a day. He has a wife and three children to support. Yet, he clothes, feeds, and educates 152 people on that income!

Auto Raja (as he is fondly known as) supports destitute people at his ‘Home for hope’ at Doddaguppi village. A happy-golucky person, what inspired him to be a good Samaritan? One cold night, he saw a naked 70-year-man at Tannery Road, PNT colony, shivering and dying from a disease. He wanted to help but did not have the resources to do so.

Beset by guilt, Auto Raja returned to that place a week later. But the old man was not there. Upon inquiry, he learnt from the police that the old man died that very night. From then on, Auto Raja vowed never to abandon a destitute person.

Shortly after, he found a 65-year-old woman with wounds on her back, bleeding, rotting and infested with worms, left on the street to die. He took her home with him.

“All I could afford was a makeshift home for her in an old rusty jeep lying abandoned near my house,’’ said Auto Raja. He cleaned her wounds, fed her and gave her medication.

There has been no looking back since. He rented a place for Rs 1,000 and put all the destitutes there. Shakti, a nine-month-old baby with cancer, was abandoned near a corporation toilet in Majestic. She was brought to Auto Raja’s Home for hope. Now, she has been operated upon and is a happy child.

Auto Raja found Lakshmi, a 16-year-old rape victim, four-months pregnant at the basement of a building in Viveknagar. Today, she and her newborn are doing well at the Home. From morning coffee to dinner, from clothes to medicine, even marriages among inmates is taken care of by Auto Raja, who along with his family, takes care of these destitutes.

“While some of the children are sent to school, others are engaged in maintaining the vegetable garden for the Home. However, most of the inmates are dying and need utmost attention and health care,’’ said Auto Raja.

So, how does he support all of them? “From donations. Be it rice, oil, old clothes or money. “The government has appreciated my work but has not offered support of any kind,’’ he added.

[news clip and photo taken from The Times of India, Bangalore edn dated 11 July, 2006.]

here and there

Time for some small news clips from here and there.

GSLV lauch also unsuccessful
After Agni III, yesterday GSLV saw a unsycessful launch. For the first time in Indian Space Mission history we saw ISRO ordering the self destruction of the satellite. So many hearts shattered, so many hopes down. But is it really a failure of our scientific community? No, absolutellly no. We have a really good track record and a high success rate. One or two failure here and there should not be any reason to blame the system. we can learn more from this failure than any successful launch. Media should be ashamed of itself, when it was discussing about failure of the launch and role of ISRO and other agencies.

AIIMS circus
First Union Health Minister sacks the head of AIIMS. The decision body of AIIMS does not oppose the decision. The doctors go on strike and some of the members of decision body support them. Mr head approaches the coart and gets the order revoked. Now its time for him to take some action. He sacks the registrar of AIIMS (who had issued the order of salary cut of doctors on strike, the order came from Mr. Minister). Minister comes into action again and overrides the order of Mr. head, Registrat is back. NExt step from both the sides is awaited. This is the circus called politics. Welcome to India Su.

Shivsena tandav in Maharashtra
You have seen it happening again and again. They are just a gang of hulligans. They went on rampage because someone defaced statue of Matoshri. Such a real big reason to take law in your hand. Next time you go to mumbai, dont dare to talk about anyone from the sacred family (read the thakreys), else you might see half the mumbai burning.

the third sex

I approach the group of hijras. The first thing that strikes me is their hostility. Is the humiliation and ridicule faced by them the reason for this aggression? “Why have you come here? Tamasha dekhne?” they ask me. What is this tamasha that will change a mother’s fate forever, I wonder.

Nevertheless, I ask them why they are interested in Malini’s baby. Maya, a 55-year-old hijra, replies, “So that we can rear him the way we want to. We will bring him here as your society will not accept him as a hijra. Even if he’s not brought here today, one day he himself will come to us. Your society doesn’t recognise us and will not recognise him as well.”

But what about the child’s education? “Education? When we can’t afford to feed ourselves, where’s the question of education? Who will teach us? We know how to write our name, and that’s more than enough for us.”

It’s lunch-time and the eunuchs shut their doors on us. “You go now. We will not say anything more,” Maya says.

As I turn to leave, a pair of sad eyes, peeping through a half-broken window, catch my attention. It turns out to be a 20-year-old eunuch, with a robust voice. He starts talking to me... “I came here when I was five years old. My original home is somewhere in Tollygunj. My parents are really poor and they couldn’t keep me with them, So didi (Maya) took custody of me.

Had I stayed back with my parents, I would have been someone like you. People would have respected me, would have spoken to me like a normal human being. I’m requesting you not to send that child here. Use mat bhejo,” he pleads. With tears rolling down his cheeks, he continues, “What will the baby get here? We don’t even get proper meals everyday. People hate us. We don’t know how to read and write. How will we feed another mouth? Maya didi wants to bring the baby here and is planning to take money from the parents as well,” he whispers.

Shaken by this revelation, I decide to approach Maya again. Very reluctantly, he opens the door. Are you really going to take money from Sreya’s parents, is my direct question. Without the slightest hesitation, Maya says, “Yes, I am. We are poor and can’t afford to bring up the baby the way you people do.”

- Malini Das gave birth to a hermaphrodite. She wants to bring up her child normally, but the eunuch community is bent upon bringing a new entrant into its fold.

[article taken from The Times of India, Sunday Review dated 9th July, 2006. Photo also taken from the same source]

death at point blank range

This was the closest he has seen death from.

He shivered, he cried. He could not think why the god spared him.
Only thing he knew was that he has to do something significant to make this new birth worthy.

Was it all by chance?
Or was it all written for his character?

Did God intentionally do that? Show him the death so that he could understand value of life.
Will he learn it this time, or the gift of the God will go in a waste?

How insignificant his life has been till now. Will he be aboe to make a difference now?

When the Pythons followed The Actor.. PART 2

There is something remarkable life. It can teach you anything, without much of effort. Pain and suffering is the integral part of life’s teaching process, so are joy and happiness.

They say this world is a stage and we are actors. We all have been assigned a role; we have a character to play.

More often than others an actor suffers from stage fears. He thinks that he has forgotten his lines, he has forgotten his part. Its just happens that he finds everything new and amusing.

Does this happen in real life also?
Of course, it does, and it happens more frequently than on a stage. Knowingly or unknowingly we try to digress from our duties.

Are not these duties the lines we are supposed to play in the play of life?
Sometimes we even deny recognizing the scene we are part of. We do not want to be present there, though our destiny has written the part in our life.
Are we not disobeying the director’s orders?

We wait for someone to remind us of the lines we have forgotten, to remind us of the part which we forgot. The director (God or something like it) will surely send some help.

But does he come on every call?
No, he won’t turn up until it’s the extreme. He will be a silent spectator until you are about to ruin his whole creation. Till that very moment, everything is in your end, you can make it better, and you can make it worse.

So why not play our parts beautifully and give God a break.

In the end the fact is that “the show must go on, and it should go on well”

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Some thoughts that came to my mid after watching the play. Some more I will cover in the concluding part of this series.

When the Pythons followed The Actor…

Version One Dot Oh!" presents its latest play "When the Pythons followed The Actor…"a hilarious show in English adapted from Christopher Durang's "The Actor's Nightmare" and sketches from the Monty Python's flying circus. The show with all its humor is sure to tickle your senses, so don't forget to get your laughing gear along!

Date: 6th and 7th July, 2006 Time: 7:30pm (late comers will not be allowed)
Venue: RangaShankara, JP Nagar II Phase
Duration of play: 70 mins
Tickets @ Rs 49, For Tickets: call Vijay 98458 83912 or email versiononedotoh@gmail.com

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The play consists of two parts. First half adapted from Christopher Durang's "The Actor's Nightmare". It is the story of every actor. It’s the story of every human being. Stage fear and fear of forgetting lines is the worst nightmare an actor can get. He feels like he has not rehearsed anything or has not known the play itself. It’s like memory loss.

Second part is taken from sketches from the Monty Python's flying circus. Sketches from Monty Python mostly showcases humorous accounts of normal life. These are the incidents, which can happen with anyone of us. Sometimes they are philosophical; sometimes they are real trivial. Is not it like how life is?

70 minutes of action packed comedy. It’s very difficult to make someone laugh, and this play is indeed successful in doing so.

All the actors have done full justice to their character. It’s about their life, and it really looks that they have indulged in the characters well.

Technically this play is amazing, especially after not so great show in Harvey. Sound and lights are almost perfect. No hiccups whatsoever.

Seeing that this group is not a full time theatre group, this show is a remarkable achievement.

Three cheers for everyone attached with the VODO.

Why the World Needs Superman?

Lois Lane started a book called "Why the World Needs Superman?". But she could not finish it in the movie Superman Returns. So I though why not help her in the same. Let me list here what I learnt from the movie Superman Return.

Super Power means improved eyesight
After watching Superman, Spiderman and (yes even) Koi Mil Gaya, I can surely tell that when you get super powers, your eyesight becomes superb. No more spectacles required. As in case of Superman you might get X-ray vision also. Always be prepared

One should always be prepared
It’s so easy for superman that he wears his underpants over his costume, so that he can wear normal dress over it. Whenever need comes, just remove the outer formal layer of clothes and instantly there you are superman (with red underpants over blue dress).

Girls are big no no
Superman comes to save his girl Lois Lane. He fights with Lex Luther and screws up all his plans to rule the world. Moreover, Lex Luther loses all his crystals in the end when his girl becomes emotional and wants them not to be used anymore.

In America you really don’t have time to breath
Everyone is in mad rush. They read news paper in lift (remember the scene where everyone is reading news about superman return in the life). Most of the lifts are over-crowded. And see their business, they must be in hurry when in toilet so could not read news paper there. Really fast paced life.

You can never hide who is the father of your child
After seeing Jason, Lex asks Lois as to who is the father of her child. She tells that its her husband brian but we all know its Superman. Even superman knows it. She could not hide it.

Always keep your camera phone ready
You should always have a camera phone. And always keep it ready for taking pictures. The small kid could take so many great photos of superman (I don’t know which camera was it, amazing resolution though) Kya pata kab bhagwan mil jaaye?

Super powers are hereditary.
You can run a family business of saving the world once your children are grown up.

Never be the girl friend of a superhero
Lois faces so many difficulties coz she is superman’s girl. She has to work extra hours to cover the story on superman. Even Mary Jane had to face so many troubles coz of Spiderman.

So many learnings from a two hour movie.
Really we need superman to return and to re-return.

who me?

Time to be personal.

Time to know each other, time to tell something about me.

Goli passed me this tag so continuing with it...

I am thinking about...
to be or not to be (i hope you get it)

I said...
I am not here to lose anything.

I want to...
give more to life than life itself. I want to live my life in my own terms.

I wish...
I had more expressing eyes and I was less emotional.

I hear ...
anything and everything (but not Himesh)

I wonder...
why do we not enjoy the things we have and always worry about something which we don’t have.

I regret...
nothing. Win and loss is part of life. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Nothing to regret about.

I am...
a big joker. A joker who watches the whole world, who makes them laugh but he himself never gets indulged in the mundane world.

I dance...
to the tune of life.

I sing...
seomtimes when I am listening to my favorite song, I whistle a lot.

I cry...
sometimes… whenever I feel low, I become silent.

I am not always...
joking… as I say “only my name is PJ, I am not PJ always”

I make with my hands...
my favorite breakfast whenever I feel like.

I write...
blogs these days. I used to write snail mails but now almost stopped them.

I confuse...
sometimes between life and reality

I need...
My friends, my family, happiness and lots of money

and finally...
to pass on the tag to
Rout: coz I know he will have really nice answers for these questions.
Y: coz she is really mysterious sometimes.

[Did you notice new look and feel to my blog? I was trying to find a nice template for a long time. This one satisfies my quench for now at least.]

united we stand

"United we stand, divided we fall", we all learnt this in our early age. Our teachers would make us write this line 50 times in the homework book so that we dont forget the line. So sad on the teachers part who took this line as just another line from a long story.

nevertheless we learnt the real meaning of it. Actually we human dont need to learn these kinds of things. Emotions makes them an inherent part of our character. Humans never need to be told to unite, when need comes it automatically comes.

Brazil loses in the quarter final match of Fifa 2006, and the whole country cries. Why were they crying. Coz they felt their team had lost the match and they were not the world champions anymores. Their pride was lost. All came together to cheer the team, all came together to cry with them. This is unity.

Mumbai saw the worst of rains last year. Normal life was shattered to an unimaginable extent. There was no food, no drinking water, no place for shelter for a big population. What happened in that situation, is something Mumbai will be proud for centuries. Without any call for help, mumbaiakars came out to help people in need. They fought with gushing waters on roads, they fought with their fear. There were so many incidents where rescuers got hurt died in attmept to same one more life. No cast or religion was asked while doing all these. All hands just strentched to help others. Mind you its the same mumbai which had seen the worst of communal fights. This is unity.

What happened in anti reservation protests in another such incident of unity. The whole country was singing on the same tune without much of an effort. All strings attached automatically.

Its emotions which makes a human unite.

we unite in fear,
we unite in courage,
we unite in happiness,
we unite in sorrw,
we unite to laugh,
we unite to cry,
we unite to celebrate victory,
we unite to face the failure,
we unite in need,
we unite indeed
we will always unite. we will never be devided.

Golmaal – who cares?

You must have seen the trailers for the new movie Golmaal where so many young (looking) guys and gals are doing crazy dance and singing a song. Not a single word said about the guys or gals but one thing is certain – they look to enjoy the life. They look to have an attitude saying “who cares?”

This is today’s generation. Happy-go-lucky and go-getters. Why to worry about the never ending problems, which most of the times do not exist only? Why to worry about future if we can not leave our present happy because of it. Live the life in today and live it fully. Make it larger than life itself.

Is this arrogance? Are we wasting the treasure of life given to us? Absolutely not. We live life our own terms and let others live theirs. Dint Mahavir say “live and let live”?

We are not living for ourselves. We don’t poke into others life does not mean that we do not care about other's good or problems. Life will be a total failure if we keep thinking about the mundane issues. Why not do some work in interest of everyone, instead? We do spend lot money on flashy mobiles and jazzy dresses but don’t we do it after earning it through our hardwork. Most of the youngs today are much more social and civic responsible than our ender generation. This is the side-effect of progress. Give them a chance, and they will change the whole world.

By the way, if you like music which is not Hemash Reshmiya type, then listen to music of Golmaal. It’s too good. Some real funky songs with good enough lyrics.

Give more to life than life itself.

worldcup football - some thoughts

What was David Beckham thinking when he came off the field in the quarter final match against Portugal. We saw him crying just after coming out. At that time, match was at equa posiotion only. But still he was crying. Was he feeling that he failed in his job? I think that he was thinking the same. it dint matter if they werer not losing at that time, but he did not leave the field in a comfortable position for his team. Surely he could not have done anything better (than coming off the field). But by doing it, he did show us that its only the pride for which 22 players are sweating out there.

What was going through Christiano Ronaldo's mind when he had to take the final and match deciding shot at goal in the panelty shoot out of Englan-Portugal match? His failure could have cost them dearly, and everyone in his country and many more around the world would have hated him for the miss. And one good shot would have made him become immortal. But between these two extremes, he was standing their thinking where to shoot. Did a fear of failure came into his mind? Or did he get his energy from his love for the game and respect for the country.

We have seen three panelty shoot outs in last few matches. They are the most tensed moments for the goalkeepers. Lehman made into the history by saving the shots by Argentina players, while his counterpart could not do the same. How do they cope the pressue of high expectations and fear of failure. Do they dream about the glory after the win or the teras after the failure. Or do they just play the game without being bothered about any result. "karm kar aur phal ke baare me mat soch" looks very difficult to apply here.

Ronaldinho was trying to enter the opposition area in the last few minutes of the game. His one goal could have saved his country their Champion status. HE rushed with the ball towards the France goalpost. He was tackeled on the way, and refree ruled a free kick in France's favour. At first it looked a harsh decision. Ronaldinho was smiling while talking to the refree, though we could see the pain in his eyes. He must have cried onme the game was over. But in the end, the game of football won. Joga Bonito, indeed happened. This is the beauty of the game.