Hug Me...Sanjay.....

And so it has happened. A government has proved that people very low down in the hierarchy are no better than bugs. Bugs who can be squished anytime, for as little reason as possible.

"A constable who hugged Dutt, convicted under the Arms Act in 1993 Mumbai blasts case, has been suspended while the eight others whose friendly gestures towards 'Munnabhai' of silver screen were seen in a live coverage by television channels all over, will be facing a departmental probe, jail superintendent Rajendra Dhamne said on Sunday (August 26). "

Imagine being a constable serving at a jail in Pune. Being overworked and underpaid for several years. Being constantly used as a personal servant by your superiors. Living a life of nothing, but sheer misery.

And then comes a moment you've always hoped for. Munnabhai himself lands up to serve time in the prison you work on. You are suddenly a happy man. For someone who has only dreamed about movie stars, seeing one in reality is a big thing in itself. Being close to one, is just an outrageous dream come true. You are happy. All your relatives know that the iconic film personality, the original "khalnayak" of bollywood is spending time in your proximity. Your wife boasts about it to the neighbors. You go to work every morning with a smile on your face, looking forward to a day where you'll get a close glance at Sanjay Dutt.

Life doesn't get any better. Sanjay is released on bail. And you, in a moment of sheer joy, hoping to share a moment with the man himself, steal a handshake or a hug. Being the nice man that he is, Sanjay acknowledges.

You are on seventh heaven. You have shaken hands with one of Indian Cinema's biggest star, made Munnabhai himself give you his Jadu Ki Jhappi. You world has come to a stop.

But wait, save the hyperbole. You are going to need it soon. The very next day, you are fired for the very moment of joy you had dreamed of. Now your world has come to a stop.

"However, questions are now being raised over the constable's suspension as Baba Siddique, the state minister for food and civil supplies who has been constantly spotted accompanying Dutt and seen hugging and shaking hands with the actor. Many are wondering if the same treatment will be meted out to the Minister. "

First, let me put out a question. Is hugging, or shaking hands with a criminal illegal? This question is easy to answer. Under the Indian Penal Code, it is not. The next question should be, should Police and law enforcement agencies shake hands with criminals?

Well, this almost sounds rhetorical to me. It is a well known fact that in India, Police very regularly shake hands with criminals. They do more than shaking hands with criminals. There have been instances when the Police have been blamed of accepting bribes and letting criminals go. Cops and robbers do make strange roommates, but then, who'll watch them.

Now enter the minister, who has landed the iron fist on the hand shaking cops. But isn't there a very old saying - People who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others. Criminals and ministers are regular bedfellows, and some ministers actually play both roles with aplomb. States of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are known for appointing certain ministers only if they have a few murder charges on their heads. So what's new about shaking hands with a criminal anyways?

Apparently, the particular politico in question was upset.

"Sources claim a very peeved Patil ordered an immediate inquiry after he saw visuals of of policemen rushing to greet Dutt at the Yerwada jail which he thought "sent a wrong message" about his force. "

Sending a wrong message? Please Mr. Minister, shaking hands with Sanjay Dutt hardly does that. And what is the right message that you are sending. That if you are a minister, you can shake hands with whoever you want. But if you are a constable, you cannot. That you are peeved when a poor constable gets a moment of limelight, but you do nothing when another minister in the same cabinet as you goes around doing the same?

You can squash the bug Mr. Minister, but you cannot stop the stench of the bug rotting under your foot.

Kudos to Times Now, for picking up the ante. I will hope that your positive journalism spreads across the world of mass media, and saves the job of a few poor constables.

All quotes are taken from this article on the Times Now Website

A blogger's conundrum.....

In the world full of stuff to write upon, what does a blogger write? This is the conundrum that faces me tonight, and I intend on sharing it.

First, let me put down a list of most obvious topics that most "celebrity" bloggers would write about(maybe some have already written about these):

1. 123 - The nuclear deal between India & US. And how the left is reacting to what seems to be right.
2. Sanjay Dutt getting bail from the Supreme Court.
3. The shocking murder of a Mumbai teenager, who was kidnapped, apparently by some "Angel" he met on Orkut.
4. India's great performance in the test series, and even better performance in the first one dayer against England.

Obvious topics done, here are the topics I would usually talk about:
1. Some analysis of a broken heart.
2. Some review of an ad, a movie or another blog.
3. Some random rant about any of the news item above.


Now these are not what I am going to write about. Because I do not know what to write about today. There is so much to write about, but for some reason, I do not feel like writing about any of these. Why? Because there are some days when silence remains the better choice. There are times when words are all powerful, but then there are times when one needs to be silent. Why?

You must be thinking, he's lost it this time! Well I have news for you, I never found it to lose it. Go figure.

60 years...

Its been 60 years today....of being a free country. On the 50th anniversary of Indian Independence, I heard a statement from an old man. He said, "Your generation does not understand the meaning of freedom, because you were born in a free country." Just having entered into my teenage then, I simply ignored the statement, thinking of it to be another rant from an old man. Today, ten years from that day, the importance of this statement is crystal clear to me.

Consider the simplest of analogies. We all take breathing air in and out of our bodies for granted. But what would happen if we spent a few days with the air supply strictly rationed. If every breath of air that we take with so much of ease right now was not so easy to take. That is when we would realize its value, its true value.

Freedom is pretty much the same. We do not know what slavery and oppression is like. We have never seen it in our life, only heard about it, or read about it. We do not know, and maybe we will never know what it is like being ruled by another country, having no say in the working of our own country. Without a right to protest, without a right to even raise our voice, maybe even without a right to write blogs freely.

What if we there were censors restricting our right to speak, write and see?

Of course, it will be a nightmare. And this nightmare will make us realize the value of freedom, the true meaning of being an independent nation that we are now. Maybe then, we will start to take our freedom seriously. And do more than just change our "Orkut" profile pictures to the national flag, to wear saffron, white and green, or to send e-mails and SMSs shouting out "Happy Independence Day".

Maybe we will take a good look at our country, and realize that there are people who are still slaves. Slaves to poverty, slaves to bureaucracy, slaves to illiteracy, slaves to oppression from people with "power".

Remember, our freedom fighters were not selfish. They knew that the freedom they are fighting to achieve will be for the future generations. Remember Bhagat Singh, who gave his life to free the country, but never saw what being free was like. There were thousands like him, unnamed, but who gave their lives for the freedom that we enjoy from the comfort of our air conditioned homes.

Let us free those still under oppression, who are slaves to the system that we live in. Let us do our little bit in making lives of others better.Let us free others from whatever holds them to slavery. Only then will we have lived a free life, only then we will know what freedom means.

Only then, we will be free.

Vande Mataram - I salute you, o motherland.
My ancestors freed you from British Rule,
and though you are free today, many of your sons and daughters are still slaves.
Slaves to ignorance, slaves to poverty,
slaves to the system, slaves to those in power...
Give me the strength to free those under oppression,
and do my bit to see them set free.
Only then, o mother, will you be truly free.
Vande Mataram.....

Embedded below is the best ever tribute paid to the countless soldiers who have lost their lives to protect our freedom, in the timeless voice of Lata Mangeshkar. Listen to it. I am sure if I wasn't able to stir your thoughts, then this will. Jai Hind.

Justice...or is it?

The last of the sentences in the '91 Mumbai Bomb blast case are out, and with this the curtains are drawn on an investigation that has lasted for over 10 years.

Today's sentencing was the one probably most awaited. A sentence on which 100 crore Rs. were hanging in mid-air. And it did come, and it wasn't very good. Sanjay Dutt was pronounced to serve a term of 6 years in jail( read the story here). Most of the country, and the film industry is in deep shock. But the question in everyone's mind is, is this fair? Did Sanjay deserve this sentence, or is it too harsh?

Arms Act(1959) says, and I quote "Whoever has in his possession any arms or ammunition with intent to use the same for any unlawful purpose or to enable any other person to use the same for any unlawful purpose shall, whether such unlawful purpose has been carried into effect or not, be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both." A glance at this law will tell you that the maximum term for an Arms Act violation is 7 years imprisonment. For a complete reading of the Arms Act, go here.

So from the law, the court has done its job correctly by awarding 6 yrs prison. But the question is, should good conduct have been considered for a lenient sentence? 6 years is a long time, and for a good actor like Sanju baba, his acting career might well be over till the time he is out of prison! At this point, just consider the offense. Possession of an AK-56 rifle, and then asking two people to destroy the rifle. AK-56, named as 56 after its year of production, has a magazine capacity of 30 bullets-each of which is a powerful 7.62mm calibre bullet that can be fired with a muzzle velocity of 735 m/s at a rate of ~600 rounds per minute (Data from wiki). In layman terms, a very powerful weapon, a killing machine that can unleash a wave of destruction. Why does a film star, knowing well that the weapon he has in his house is such a powerful tool of murder, agree to keep it? All we know is, he did. And that mistake is what lead to his conviction today.

What if it was someone else who had kept this weapon? Not Sanjay Dutt, but a common man, should he be sentenced the same? I bet that if it were a common man, the news wouldn't even have made it to the last page of the newspaper, forget the TV channels.

The law will take its course, Mr. Dutt will file an appeal in the Supreme Court, and he might get a reprieve from this sentence. But is this harsh? Has the judge tried to set an example?

If he did, he most certainly succeeded at it! May God give Sanjay the courage to stand through these tough times, and prove to the world that tough times never last, tough people do! Always.

I Tube, You Tube

The big buzz in the online world is that the daddy of video sharing, You Tube, is being sued by the mommy of network television, Viacom. Mummy dearest, it seems, is not happy about daddy allowing everyone to have a bite out of mummy's delicious cooking. Ouch.

So mummy drags daddy to court. And all that dirty linen falls out of the closet and into full public view, where mummy and daddy will now wash the dirt and blood out of it.

In the meanwhile, daddy's found himself another muse, in the name of Fox. Now the muse in interested in daddy putting out samples of its cooking, so that people get to taste it. If they like it, they can pay for it and buy it. If they don't, well, who cares. That's just a sample that's gone out.

In case I have you wondering by now, the above more or less summarizes the legal wrangle between Viacom and google(who incidentally happens to own youTube now), and also the discussions going on between FoxTV executives, and Google. Without the legal jargon, of course.

There are a few interesting questions that have come out of this debate. One being the whole concept of legality of content. Of course, a TV show, its copyright and everything are owned by the producers(or whoever in the production company). Once the show is aired, typically it gets assigned to a bin from where it can be picked in case a rerun is needed. YouTube, doesn't allow copying of content by its users..so you just cannot go to YouTube and copy a video. But you can surely watch it, and upload one. Uploading is where it gets tricky. A user can upload almost anything to YouTube, of course adhering to the upload policies.(I believe they have some new rules about copy righted content now) So whom does the onus of responsibility lies with? The guy who is generously allowing you to post videos for all to see, or the guy who is actually copying copyrighted content without permission and uploading it?

Let the lawyers decide this one..

I will move on to a more interesting issue...why have this issue in the first place? I live in India, but I enjoy watching several programmes that are aired on US based networks. It is on a really lucky day that Star, or Zee decides to air these programmes in India(as is with the popular series Friends). But I can go to youTube, watch a scene or two and get my laughs. Or I go to youtube, and see music videos that I have never seen. Well, if you live in India and are a fan of english music, you will agree that there is a limited number of channels that actually air good english music videos. YouTube intoduced me to George strait, whose music I really loved. Now I have 3 CDs that I purchased(well, thats as many as I could find).

Point is, YouTube ultimately promotes content. Like Fox has realized, it can be used for promotional purposes. We anyways live in a world where music has lost its spirit, people do it just for the money. Which is clearly proven by all the DRM issues that are being raised, and the noise a few years back over Napster. It definitely is all about the money, but what about people who would enjoy listening to content more than actually owning it? Why do they need to pay 69 cents everytime they listen to a song?

Call me a socialist, or a communist for that matter..but I believe that channels like YouTube where great music, great videos are shared should not be clamped down, but should be promoted. Who wants to see a half hour episode on youTube, but give me my funnies...give me the videos that have disappeared from the channels....give me the music that no one plays anymore...

and stop being the capitalist jerks that you are...there are people in the world who might not be rich enough to pay you, that does not mean you can take the music out of their lives!

P.S: As for me, I am beginning to enjoy my stay in Baltimore...another travelogue will be up shortly. And Happy Fools Day to all of you. If you are still on this planet, you are a fool. So while you are here, enjoy your day :)

4 degree celsius...

and still without a sweater, a jacket...or any kind of warm clothes. Yep..thats me. Its fun to feel the chilly wind hitting you flat on as you walk on the road....

Staying without any kind of warm clothing in Delhi's chilly winter can be best described in one word..insane. And I have heard it so many times over the last two weeks that i got myself a really thin jacket from CP yesterday. Not because I feel cold, just to keep people satisfied...and to be left in peace....and as one of my friend's dad put it, to "respect the season".

CP was a lot of fun yesterday. I had gone there with a friend, and managed to do a little bit of shopping. It was decently crowded, and not over crowded as it usually is. Maybe because it was a Sunday. Central park was crowded, as usual. Maybe its a ritual to visit central park, and crowd that place everytime you visit CP. Luckily, I skipped the ritual.

And I managed to watch the sun set from CP yesterday...of all the sunset points in the world...I get to see it at CP. But it was a decent view, watching the sun set between two high rises..mountains of today I suppose. Whatever....

And to top it off..I did not click it...maybe it was the wonderful baskin robbins double scoop in my hand that was the centre of my attraction.

Though I will post a sunset picture...this is the last sunset of 2006, as clicked from my patio.

Sunsets always have a certain charm. They represent the end of a day...and like this one...the end of a whole year...

But in all the gloom and the impending darkness...a sunset is so beautiful that for a minute it takes your mind off the night to follow...and the night can be spent thinking of the sunset that preceded it...and the sunrise that will follow it.

But till the night is over...and another dawn beckons...its the darkness...the chill...the 4 degree celsius....and memories of the sun that set...hoping that it would rise again.

Will it?

Happy New Year 007

Chinese mythology assigns an animal to each year as it begins, like the last year was the year of the dog(was it?).

This time it's gonna be different. Coz this is 007.

The year of Bond, James Bond....

bring on another martini, will ya' *hic*

Welcome 2007....and my state of mind is the same as my martini...shaken..but not stirred!!

Happy New Year to all!!!

and on an unrelated note, my blog gets the following New Year's gift from google/blogger.

Congratulations! Your move to the new Blogger is complete.

Happy blogging,
The Blogger Team

And for those scanning this post for New Years' Resolutions, here they are:

1. Write more regularly(wait a minute, wasn't this last year's resolution!!!)
2. Go for more outdoor treks, post more pictures.
3. Be a good boy(he he, what's wrong in wishing eh?)
4. [INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT DETECTED. REPLACED WITH *]
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$#!t...this new blogger's smart...or I've had a martini too many...

*Hic*cy New Year to you...