General Compartment.

I just returned from Mumbai and the local trains there were an experience of sorts…This I observed is the typical scene in a general compartment in a local train in mumbai.

A middle aged clerk in a small time office, with frown lines on his forehead which read that he’s probably the sole bread winner of his family, wearing his thick glasses sits and eats his apple.

A college going girl wearing a chic tunic with peep-toe shoes and music plugged in her ears is reading a book

The group of giggly salwar clad girls huddle and look to be discussing the news with a lot of enthusiasm, probably of the latest couple in their college or someone who was not-so-cool!

Two or three men who are in their mid forties with receding hairlines, sitting and discussing how the politics in the country has taken a toll for the worse, and how it was better in the good ol’ days!

Women who are selflessly going to a faraway place for work, and spacing out are probably thinking “Did I switch off the gas stove” “Has my daughter reached school safely ” “I wonder what my husband is doing right now”

A young techie, who’s carrying his heavy laptop is sitting blankly, with puffy under-eyes and looks like his soul has been sucked out by a dementor.

Maharashtrian aunties who are wearing the paithani saris are discussing the “bhaav” of vegetables and how they are unable to keep up with the soaring rates and other household affairs.

The working class people who are making a loud chatter in some vague language that only they understand and cleaning and chewing unprocessed tobacco with their litter of kids dangerously running around everywhere.

An old couple who are traveling to a function or someones house, proudly discussing their son who stays abroad and sends them tidy amounts of money every month.

Rich hypocrites who don’t want to be spotted in the general compartments who hide their faces, but don’t want to blow 80 bucks on first class and look at everyone else with disgust.

And a few here and there’s like me, who are just observing and absorbing all the proceedings without much thinking!

You can find a pot-pourri of people. It goes to show how all kind of people are equal and travel in the same manner irrespective of their background! It boils down to this. It was really an experience for me cos I’d never seen such different kind of people, altogether in one place.

Rakhi Sawant and Roger Federer!!!

NOOO!!! They’re related in absolutely no way, so don’t worry! To me, they’re just stuff on TV! I’m just addicted to the television (and other such wonderful distractions!) during the exam time! I end up watching all kinds of rubbish.

Well one of the things I stumbled upon was “Rakhi Sawant ka Swayamvar” and all I can say is I’m APPALED! At how ANYONE in the entire world can commercialise, publicise and bring a sacred thing like marriage down to such a CHEAP level. No, really anyone who has seen the show and anybody who thinks it’s the least bit entertaining has to be crazy in the head.

And what’s with the contestants on the show? Who would want to marry Rakhi Sawant. She’s overly dramatic- “Aaj doodh ka doodh or paani ka paani ho gaya” and all that. And not like she’s pretty, she’s exceptionally fake. In every sense of the term and she behaves all coy and all that which she is so NOT. And it’s very evident that she’s a bad mouthed ugly looking cheap female. And the men go all ga-ga about her “main tumhare liye chand taare todke laaonga” and all that… How could marriage be based on who maro-s the most filmy dialogue! These men are so corny, it’s disgusting. It makes me want to throw up.

I don’t want her to be the epitome of the “modern Indian woman!” That’s how she’s portrayed and she behaves like she’s Aishwarya Rai and with all the “I am what I am” attitude She appears nothing short of senile!

And why I had the audacity to mention Roger Federer in the same sentence with Rakhi Sawant?! Cos unfortunately they both appear on the same television set in my house! (Bad joke! )

I watched the Wimbledon final last Sunday (despite having an exam the very next day) and oh-my-God what a match. I’ve been watching Tennis for a while now and this arguably was the best match I’ve ever seen. Andy Roddick was such an awesome opponent. I’ve always been a Federer supporter. His level of tennis is a whole class apart, but that day Roddick put up such an amazing show. It was really really gripping. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed the last set of any match going up to 15 points. That was SO awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed the nail-biting game. And sometimes Sport has to be unfair and declare only one winner. Federer deserved it. But Roddick also deserved it.

But Andy Roddick- A true hero. This post dedicated to him!

A random post on absolutely nothing!

I’m posting after a month, it’s been a LONG month because I had exams, which kept me continually stressed out. And I think the more stressed out one is, creativity gets blocked and hence the inactivity on the blog. I don’t know if anyone missed me at all, but I certainly did miss writing.

I realise writing is such an important part of my life, I think it’s part of my life. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it, but my blog is something that is completely mine, I’m not answerable to anyone here. This is my own little world where I get to be who I am without any obligations, without any commitments, nothing. I can express myself as well as I want to and alwa know that there is someone out there who understands. My blog is one thing that completes me, helps me grow as a person. It has honestly changed a lot about me and my perspective to life!

I guess everyone blogs for different reasons. And I blog to express. I want people to know my opinions. I’m very opinionated! (not good! As I have more opinions than information quite a lot of times!) And be it about movies or books or anything. The knowledge I have I want to spread and I want to gain some in the process too…

Well, for the last one month I just sat at home, and tried to study! In the process binged a lot. I think my nerves are directly attached to my appetite glands. As a result I’ve put on an unhealthy amount of weight that I’m embarrassed to carry around. I’m seriously planning to do something about it. Usually I’m not one person with a strong will-power when it comes to such things, so the best option for me could be a yearly gym membership, thankfully at least I’m economical and might end up working out religiously for the amount of money I’ve spent!

Besides that I’m having backaches (and other issues related with old age!) at age 20, so I’d better get moving! I lead such a passive lifestyle (At least during exam times) that is SO unhealthy. It makes you feel awful about yourself. What’s worse? You look much worse than you feel. I feel like I’m lugging around a person behind me when I walk past the mirror! And my dad’s just taken to advising me about weight loss every time I cross paths with him!

My exams are almost over and I’m going on a break for a fortnight to Mumbai (which was incidentally on my short term bucket list for a long time! )but it’s increasingly seeming like a bad idea now because of all the rains! But once I’, back I’m totally kicked about getting into shape! It’s my heyday and I gotta make best use of it!

Well I sure wanna know wassup with all you guys! I’m surely going to visit you right away and catch up!

Working woes

Why I haven’t been blogging for a long time now, is A) because my mum’s been ill and I’ve had to take care of all the cooking and cleaning and B) I’m forgetting english. I swear, the next post on why I’ve FOGOTTEN english!

Well, My mum was in the hospital last week due to lumbar spondylysis which means she had lower back ache. And I didn’t come home. Was shuttling between hospital college and cleaning at home.

She got discharged and got home. Of course she doesn’t need 24 hour attention but she needs 24 hour bed rest. Which means I have to do all the work. Damn it’s a hell lot of work.

It’s just a hell lot more than what meets the eye. All of us who don’t do the housework just take it for granted that there’s nothing much to do throughout the day, but every nook and corner of the house needs attention.

Early mornings are the worst, when you’re a late riser like me… I’m already late to college and I’ve to follow around the house helps and supervise them. It’s all the more tough for a person who lives in a duplex house like me… You’ve to run up and down the stairs atleast 50 times. Boy it’s tiring…

There are clothes to be folded, vessels to be kept back in their place, food to be made and served (three times a day) and water and other stuff to be carried every now and then… etc etc!

I can’t believe how mothers do it every single day, especially working women like my mother! Kudos!
Less than a week through and I’m already very exhausted. I have no clue how I’ll do this for the rest of my life once I leave home and get married and all… Leaves me worried

Happy Diwali!

Hey… Have a very happy and safe Diwali!

I love this time of the year, the lights are so bright and it’s so festive and cheerful everywhere you go! Wow! It makes you feel so happy and so at home! That’s the best part about Diwali, everybody celebrates it in some way or the other!

Well there are a lot of reasons why Diwali is celebrated. Legend has it that Rama returned back to Ayodhya on this day after rescuing Sita and fighting the evil Ravana and defeating him. Hence crackers are burst to celebrate this happy ocassion.

But in south India it’s celebrated in a different way and for a different reason.
We have Naraka Chaturdasi on the first day. A day devoted to wroshipping Mahakali and Balipadyami which is marked as the day when Lord Bali gave his head as offering to Vamana (an avatara of Vishnu.)

My grandmother told me this story yesterday… She’s a very intelligent old lady and she gave me a nice explananation as to why we light diyas.
The season changes now, from autumn to winter and there is a change in weather which brings along wiith it a lot of diseases. So by lighting up the place, we’re also keeping the atmosphere warm which kills the disease carrying germs.

But with all the pretty lights comes the sound of crackers. I think it’s a waste of money and totally bad for the environment. Air pollution, sound pollution and a whole load of dirt on the road. I mean all that effort of bursting crackers and taking in so much pollution just for bad, unplesant noises, not worth it. I believe it’s literally burning money down.

Anyway I love all the sweets and bright lights!

Happy Diwali again! Keep it safe and think about global warming too!

Black Saturday

Switch on the news and all you see or hear are about the terror attacks that took place in Delhi and the gory sites of the blast.

This is the third blast happening in the span of about a month. The first being in Bangalore, the second in Ahmedabad and now New Delhi. There doesn’t seem to be an end to this I guess. The Indian Mujahideen take responsibility for this act. A terror email has been traced down from Chembur, Mumbai. There have been dubious calls made… The police might even catch the criminals. But the point is they don’t care. Their main purpose in life is to spread terror and kill, they don’t mind dying for that. The more terrorists you kill, many more spring up again.

I really don’t understand why they want to kill innocent people or what they get out of it. But no religion in the world preaches murder and bloodshed. The government can’t really do anything, but they try to assure the people that things are under their control. This is vote-bank-politics again, cos if things were really under their control these incidents wouldn’t have repeated themselves.

All in all, I was very disturbed by the incident and would like to pray for the families who lost their loved ones to the blast. may their souls rest in peace and hope the ones injured get well soon. That’s all I can say. I’m sad but this isn’t permanent but it’s hard for me to sit here and even fathom the amount of destruction that has taken place. So many lives ruined. I feel helpless. Isn’t it so terrible…

A blog about blogs

I’ve been blogging since January 2007 and I’m immensely passionate. I’ve written close to 70 posts and this web page has become a part of my life. A lot of people have read/ appreciated/ disliked/ given opinions on my blog. I treat this blog as a platform where I tend to share with people, my experiences and of course my perspective of things.

And most of you being bloggers will also feel the same way about your blog. It becomes the baby that you created and nurtured. Basically blogging for me is an amazing medium. So when I see people misusing it, it irritates me.

The new “trend” around B-town is to start writing a blog.It’s like the blogsphere has pied piper-ed everyone into it! They say it’s to “interact with fans” But with it being in the news all the time, It’s led to more than one controversies. Stars use it to get back at other people, to publicise themselves and what not.

I feel it’s diluting the effect and purity of the medium. Every Tom Dick and Harry writes a blog. It’s like the in thing… Everybody ranging from Amitabh Bachchan to Aamir Khan… To Arjun Rampal to Karan Johar and Salman Khan, they’re only doing it for the sake of doing it.

For a normal blogger, they blog only cos they want to… Cos they’re deeply passionate about it. Not as a compulsion or to be cool or something. And unless you really like doing it, it doesn’t come across to the readers.

I think this entire celebrity blogging thing is a pile of rubbish, just to gain publicity. If you don’t believe it read these! But at the end of the day they are making it to the news and their purpose is being served!

Salman Khan
Aamir Khan
Amitabh Bachchan
Karan Johar

The Olympic dream!

The 2008 Olympics have proved amazing for us. 3 medals in the same year! It was like a bonanza. We’ve never won this many medals in one year.

But put things into perspective Michael Phelps is one man. We are a country of 1 billion. And He has won more gold medals in 1 Olympics than India has ever won. Isn’t it shameful for us? Why this kind of a dismal performance? India has always been a non-sporting nation. Why but?

1)      India has only quantity, no quality. The people who are actually interested in sport and talented also don’t get the funds and the training to be world class performers.

2)      The money that is allotted for sports development is eaten by corrupt officials.

3)      Cricket is the main focus of the nation. That’s not a bad thing. But we could also invest in other sports.

4)      The attitude. In this country everybody sits and complains… Indians are a weak race. We can’t storm the Olympics. But how many Indians would allow their children to be sportspersons. In India and south India especially if you’re not professionally qualified you’re not a success. That’s a dreadful attitude to have.

If you’re a great athlete in school, it’s a good thing but hardly a few Indian children are allowed to pursue their talents.

If you’ve read the book “the three mistakes of my life” by Chetan Bhagat, he has pointed out the differences between the Australian coaching, attitude and lifestyle and the Indian. We can’t blame the sportsmen for not doing well. It’s just that our country lacks the motivation and the facilities

I think we can take it one step at a time and do a lot better in the 2012 olympics, now that we’re on a roll! What say?!

Also congrats to Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar and Vijender Kumar! You’ve made the country really proud! J

(P.S: Any opinions about the new layout?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The political drama!

Ladies and gentleman, it’s election time in Karnataka again and one can see all the politicians working harder than ever before!

Well, all the common man can do is to sit and observe all the drama unveiling in front of him. Finally he is the judge, or is he?

There is a strong scent of alcohol, stealth, jealousy and fake promises in the air!

The party manifestos have huge things like infrastructure development, provision for water, electricity, ways to combat inflation… blah blah blah put up on them! They sound pretty convincing, but everybody knows that the truth is they’re all here to make money!

I turned 18 last year, I was all excited to exercise my rights as a citizen and vote! I was all charged up and I did everything to get my name enrolled into the voters list, from downloading forms on the Internet to going to some 3-4 BBMP offices! Everywhere the treatment they gave me was no different than how the Jews were treated in Germany during the Second World War!
After standing for hours on end in endless queues, I gave up, it made me think… how will it make a difference if I vote, whoever comes up will only make money for himself! Nobody is even slightly interested in doing anything for the country.
These politicians have some audacity though… Nobody ever comes to enquire about the citizens’ grievances until elections are around the corner. They come and give flowery speeches with “heavy” promises! And again it’s the same old story… they go absconding till it’s time for the next election!
Even when they go “asking”(read as: begging) for votes, they go to the slums and give the poor people a bottle of “saarai” each and give them colour TVs and stuff. Do the working laborers need color televisions? They need education for their children, they need some sort of arrangement for food and other basic necessities. The poor people have to enjoy with a colour TV when their children are starving to death! What a situation…
If they come to the slightly more educated people to ask for votes, they know they’ll get interrogated about past performances and the non fulfillment of those promises, one would expect them to have enough shame and not show up!
But they still do and they are all ready with the answers to the FAQ’s!
The congress government in the centre has failed pretty miserably if you ask me! The inflation is so bad, the prices are at an all time high, people can’t afford things, people are paying more taxes, reaping less and the going is getting only tougher! And in the state too they haven’t done much, except for S.M. Krishna, who they say “prospered” as the chief minister, but yeah he was probably the one responsible for the strengthening of “brand Bangalore”
The coalition government between the JD-S and the Congress was clearly a disaster!
They were too busy fighting amongst themselves to even bother to do anything for the people!
Now I’m convinced that both these parties are pretty useless.
That leaves BJP out, they’re not too great either, incompetent leaders, bad management and again a whole new set of fake promises!
I don’t know what the result will be like, all I’m hoping for is the betterment of the state

Jaywalking… Whose fault is it?

I had a really scary experience today, I was riding back home. This incident took place in front of forum. This lady (who looked educated, mind you!) was trying to cross the road. The road was pretty empty so it was a natural tendency for the motorists to touch high speeds.
This lady all of a sudden tried to cross the road, and halfway across the road, a car going at a rather high speed was going against her. She was in a fix, so she held out her hand in order to stop the car. The man in the car, put the brakes immediately and that lady was somehow saved, but the car behind him couldn’t put the brakes quite as fast and he rammed into the first car. I, on my bike was behind the second car was able to put my brakes on time, so I didn’t ram into the car in front of me, but my bike skid, and I fell down. A bus was behind me and if his brakes weren’t good enough, he would have run me over splitting my head into two! Thankfully I escaped without a single scratch on my body or bike, but I was left rather shaken.
Such a huge mishap, thanks to that one lady…
But if you sit and wonder. You don’t really know if it’s pedestrian’s fault (though if a motorist hits a pedestrian, somehow it’s always the motorist who is blamed) Is it his fault that he doesn’t cross at a zebra crossing, or is it the motorists who ride/drive at high speeds, or the government for not putting up enough zebra crossings?
Who is to be blamed? The people, the government or the entire system? Is there a solution to this, if so…what?
Times of India has taken up an initiative called unlock Bangalore, let’s see what they can do to the city and let’s try to do our best to improve the condition of our city