Saturday, February 28, 2009

Child abuse: Battling the stigma



I bow to ANURAG KASHYAP for his stand against child abuse. Watch the other face of this director as a person of great moral courage. I applaud him for his guts, especially as a man to step up and talk about a very difficult issue. Just watch it and Stand against Child abuse. No comments required...

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Must See Links

Just reading few views & counter-views about freedom of expression and moral policing. These articles are must for each individual who thinks and cares about present situation and upcoming future of the society. May be, I am too novice to raise my voice but there is magic in fighting battles beyond endurance and limits.

1- Bloggers can be nailed for views: Verdict by Supreme Court. And, Bloggers unite against SC verdict. Remember if you try to muzzle something, it proliferates. Warning to SC .......

2- Pramod Muthalik has created controversy in Indian Intellectuals view:  Sagarika Ghose (IBNLive Blog): Two Indias are pulling in different directions and Counter view of Sagarika Ghose article : Moral Policing, Socialistalgia and Millikan’s Special Drops, Fussing About Speed Math and Thanks to Gowtham .


3- Mint article on controversial 'Pink Chaddi' Campaign: Gender grouse beyond the bar. The pink-bloomer war against the moral police managed a victory of sorts, but failed to raise the issue that gender injustice in India goes beyond pub-going and Valentine’s Day.

Read also, The critical scrutiny on Mint editorial by an esteemed blogger of India:

Streisand Effect must be in the mind of the blog community by this time now. he Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to censor  or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of causing the information to be publicized widely and to a greater extent than would have occurred if no censorship had been attempted. Judging the views is an Individual choice and right. Special link for the people with open mind for fellowship.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Changing Times

I do not talk about society with great concern in general. I came across few links that shocked and shivered me. Times are certainly changing but with faster rate...

For Ultra Modernists: I have long ago read this article about "overindulged and spoilt” British teenagers who will try and learn values and ethics from the families of six Pune doctors. Not given much thought about British brats. Read from this link for knowing in detail about this image below. This baby face boy has created tsunami in British society by becoming father to a child.Forget about safe sex, the girl(15 years) has given birth to healthy baby. In short, Ramchandra kah gaye siya se, aisa kalyug aayega; 15 saal ki amma hogi, ladka 13 mein baap ban jayega!!. (quote created by a fundoo guy)
I always feel that Sex education has become “how-to-do-it guide”. Texts have indeterminate range of meaning if not studied from a proper prospective. There is nothing wrong with the intention of educators but the implementation will provide same results here. We need to challenge the common perception of sex as a recreational activity and present it rather as an expression of the total self-giving of a husband and wife to each other in marriage.

Today, Technology is racing ahead of biology. In Indian context, there is so much money now with IT and BPO boom , shift in social culture has happened. For the current generation, the age of 'full adulthood' - in their minds - may be as early as 11 or 12. Most of the youngsters of any generation do not realize that being modern does not mean giving life into smoking. There is nothing cool about alcohols, drugs and divorce. Old enough to drive,vote,love and smoke does not make you mature from mind.

For Ultra Conservatives: I believe that all fundamentalists/ultra conservative share an aversion for modernity and a hatred of gender equality. I was left speechless on reading these two articles. A layer of blankness had surrounded my mind.

1- If you live in Bangalore [or not] make sure to read this harrowing account of moral policing by local hoodlums.

2- If you are a woman [or not] make sure to check out this must-read post on the red-colored blues. Thanks to Animesh Sir for given two links.

Ultra modernist or ultra orthodox elements must be put on fringes of society for balancing act. I do not believe in democracy but have firm faith in justice and humanity. I stand for my views as a believer that single individual can make a difference. No preachings, its your choice to accept the facts or not...

Friday, February 20, 2009

Green Life


Pokiri, Stalin, Athadu and Bommarillu are 4 Telugu movies seen by me till this date with subtitles. The cultural adaptation to hyderabad was accomplished long ago. But I have to still learn the hyderabadi dialect of Hindi. I learned a valuable lesson in my CST session few days ago.Most of us considered ourself as Indian just because we are born here. Living inside the boundary of India does not make you Indian, but the cultural and social inheritance in your character and behaviour completes you as Indian. I was overwhelmed by such broad view of being Indian.

On lighter notes, my dear friend abhishek arora has gone through 11 test in 35 days in TCS and I have given none till this date. People here are giving me time to understand the work culture and KT sessions are much interactive than imagined. But I like my job because of these three small reasons:

1- No Tie (Hang Neck) culture here. It feels less constraint and more free to breathe without tie.Tie should not be compulsion but a dress put on special occasion.
2- Cab service is provided to its employee, not bus service like its competitors. Even in the time of cost cutting, the company is taking care of employees.
3- Even there was delay in my joining, any huge case of firing by CSC hasn't come into my acknowledge. It makes a safe environment around and better results can be expected.

99% janta will laugh on the points given here but its very personal opinion. One does the job for living only but can always remain honest to himself with less comforts also. Grass is always green everywhere but we make mistakes by comparing colors of grasses.

Go Green: Somewhere I read every email costs $0.001 or so. Eliminating 'Reply to All' definitely will save a couple of thousands a day across the globe. Do not forward mail in heaps and help in making earth a green place. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle for Green IT & earth. Watch 'An Inconvenient Truth' for global warming and climate change issue. It is an eye opener for all of us about global warming.This documentary is available on DVD stores as well as torrents (illegal to download). Otherwise,it is broad casted on HBO on regular interval. Just spare some time on the name of environment. The world must wake up to this reality.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

What am I doing with my life?

I am not at the crossroads of the destiny square but this post seems to be pending from sometime. I am highly addicted by internet surfing phenomenon. But I am fan of the voice/opinion provided bt it to million of people. I stumbled across these lines about Internet and likes it very much. 'This World Wide Web is a wonderful invention. It lands you in unforeseen places (virtually though), introduces to unknown people (thanks to blogs) and often proves to be a fruitful way of fighting boredom at office/home when you have nothing worthwhile to do.' One such chance stumbling landed me with an unusual piece of art; a bizarre piece of artistic oddity – Om dar ba dar. The movie came in highlight after Anurag Kashyap comment that a song from this movie was an inspiration of 'emotional atyachaar' beside Underground movie opening scene. But I liked another song Tadpole Terrorist of the same movie. For readers information, the spinner Kachra of Lagaan is the main protaganist of this movie. It makes me nostalgic of old DD days of low budgeted experimental TV serials and Parallel Cinema.

Now,the this spiral vortex image is depiction of my life. I have my own share of problems. Life moves pretty fast. You could miss it, if you don't stop and look around once in a while. I just thought of halting here and look back down the road.

I am very passionate and assertive guy in full mood. Those who know me knew that i have two face of personality like Harvey Dent. One soft spoken, open hearted, happy go lucky philosophy and caring nature; The other side is jhakee, highly charged with rage, foul mouthed and self destructive. The mood swings between two personalities without me being conscious of it. I try very hard to remain far from sarcasm and controversy. But being reactive more than proactive always put me in shit of troubles.

Recently, I chat with a very very nice guy after 10 months and one of mine casual comment just puts me in apologetic and defensive approach. The whole mood of talk went wrong. I screwed my own image by this way. The chant went down after 2 minutes.

I have very bad record of in wrong position or issuing wrong statement at wrong place and wrong time. It is due to my open mouthiness. I try to stay clam and not to comment on private life 99% of time. Free flow of emotion in that 1% just screw it all. 1% has got more weighted and life turning events in my whole life. God help me in controlling my emotion. But how can he/she/it help in this regard, I am an agonist.

Endline: Just lay off my self centered discussion.Watch 'A' rated trailer of next Anurag Kashyap movie 'Gulal' releasing on 13th march 2009.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Free Tibet : 10th March 2009

Dalai Lama and Fidel Castro are two great personalities living in our times which have experienced cold war and communism rise and fall. They have became a part of the world History.Today on 11/02/2009,I want to focus on Tibet only. 10th March 2009 will become a date to be remembered in the history of world. 50 years of illegitimate upholding of Tibet by China will be completed with uncertain future prolonging in this region.

This day is celebrated as Tibetan National Uprising Day. What will happen to the peaceful freedom movement of Tibet after Dalai Lama? He is fighting with inner good to the bunch of stubborn narrow minded Chinese politicians. Despite some encouraging developments, China’s human rights practices remained cause for concern. However, the single biggest threat to the survival of the Tibetan people is China's policy of population transfer aimed at reducing Tibetans to an insignificant minority in their own country by sending in millions of landless and jobless Chinese.

I believe that this freedom movement will turn violent after death of Dalai Lama. The hardest path is to keep going with non-violence, enduring the daily deprivation, the inner pain, but continuing to speak out is suffering. No one will be commendable enough in future to guide a young generation for peaceful movement towards freedom. This young generation of youth has grown into India hearing stories about Tibet,their own country. They are born in exile, the majority of whom have never seen Tibet, but are incredibly passionate to do anything for freedom of their motherland. 'My Kind of Exile' is an essay by Tenzin Tsundue (Winner of Outlook / Picador Non Fiction Competition) ,It is worthy to read by each Indian, Chinese and rest of world about the feelings of Tibetan people.

We Indians are host to Tibetans from last 50 years but our approach towards justice is flawed. We are taking any straight action due to fear of military power of Dragon. Military government in Burma is violating each human rights and has led its countrymen suffer by starvation, body trade and corruption. Prison camps and house arrest is common there for political activists. Developed and developing countries are exploiting undeveloped states for their natural resources without being responsible to there citizens .This dog eat dog chain should be over as soon as possible.

The first principle of free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum. Chinese people has given their individual and diverse opinion for the economic growth. A time will come in the future ,when they will judge their action of closed and uni dimensional thinking. Freedom rings where opinion clashes. It is the depth of society where people of different thoughts co exist and struggle peacefully to make the place better.

Opinions of the people are too rigid about the borders. After studying so much history and culture, the jingoism feeling is still obsessing human civilization around the world. Kashmir, Tibet, Kososvo, Ireland, Philistine and Chechnya are open war fields in the world. Liberty for native people of those places is far more important than any political hanging phase. What we can do is to have atleast correct opinion about transitory situation. The awareness about the plight of refugees and human right violation should be our primary aim. It is a small but important and necessary step in the right direction. Spirituality, Humanism and Socialism is going to be the future of human civilization. But till then, hope is only saviour of us..

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Life at Hyderabad

It is hard time for everyone due to economic recession. I am lucky to have job at this moment with CSC.Work environment here is absolutely good. PM and senior colleagues are really friendly.I hope that this will continue in the future. No coding stuff is assigned to me. It is worth to be at unpopular position and tune out of popular beliefs in the society. I am also living with it and quite happy with the life.I love CSC each day. I think the days of joy are few and dejection is everlasting.I am enjoying the moments till this honeymoon period of happy days is over.

Now a secret mantra of job satisfaction criteria:

- If you love your work most on Mondays, you are having a Dream Job.You are passionate about the job and with this kind of commitment,growth is waiting for you in the future.

-If you hate to go the office on Monday(not due to party hangover but because of work nature), you are doing a Real Job. This is the job most of us perform and live a life of quiet desperation. This job is done for paying the mortgages. Future is undetermined here,hence no comment from my side.

Dev D Phenomenon: Dev D is a treat to watch.I have watched in Rs 50 valued ticket in balcony: Talkietown this weekend.Cheap hai na !!! The cinema hall was excellent in the ratio of input money with output infrastructure and services. From the makers of Black Friday, a contemporary tale of Devdas is reality and bold cinematic experimentation. Emotional Atyachaar is rocking the shows around India.

Alienation, while speaking a universal language, needs a local interpretation. Dev D is here to raise the voice of ours:Generation X. It has been long fed by moral grounds and cultural inheritance stuff. The self destructing and rebel character of Dev of contemporary times has just given the local interpretation to the universal phenomenon. Hypocrisy, Identity crisis, emotional experiences are part of all this dark journey of Dev's life. It represents a generation searching for an alien identity in the society. Inability of Dev to attach itself to anything is well documented by anurag in this movie. Soundtrack, camera work and dialogues are superb. Characters are not justified on the basis of ethics is greatest achievement of the film.

Dev D is a dark and underground India that is not depicted by our media,literature and movies. Our bollywood had fallen in the abyss completely till the end of 80s. Rise of new wave thinkers has been a revolt against the non sense stuff given by bollywood in the name of cinema. The death of parallel cinema got unnoticed in mainstream. Anurag Kashyap is the leading torchbearer of new wave. The path of light and fresh air from bottomless pit lifts through dark phantoms of ocean. Kashyap is taking understanding of mainstream viewers of cinema in the direction of art rather than entertainment.

New Hypothesis: When a chain smoker is in the mood of stress, solitude, daze, numbness,joy, excitement or boredom, he wants a cigarette to refresh his mood and think a new idea. First two puffs from the cigarette gives him marginal utility of the investment in the cigarette purchase. All the puffs after it is remaining return of investment. Hence you will observe few smokers throw away cigarettes after few puffs when urge of smoking is over. I want authorized people's (smokers) view over these lines.

Resolution Time: Doing is quantum leap from imagining.-Barbara Sher.
I have taken several resolution this year. I will not eat non veg, pizza, burger and eggs. I will not drink soft drinks, beers, wine. Hence cigarettes and alcohol consumption is avoidable from now on. It is hard to resist temptation but i am discovering frontiers of my willpower. I am rebel in tradition and conservative in habits. Commitment against lust of taste is really going to be tough. One more secret resolution will be revealed after 1 month. Till then wait and watch...

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Underdog Nillionaire

Underdog Nillionaire: What a amazing inventory name by me !!!
I will be the hero of this novel & movie if ever created (finance koi aur kar de) only by me. Heroine will be sensuous and no vulgar scene (by Indian standard) will be introduced in it. Leave alone the future dreams, I am portraying as Underdog Nillionaire in the real life. No money of my own in the pocket and working as a technical support team in IT company justify nillionaire and underdog term to full extent.

My motto: If impossible is nothing, then i am doing impossible. (good for T-Shirts quotes)

When people are dieing for creative work like software development in IT industry,I am happy with my job in network security. May be great ambition is lacking in me, but I know my inherent potential and limit in each field of work and life. I think my work in CSC is quite safe and stable with slow growth. KT(Knowledge Transfer) sessions are going on from previous 5 days. 1 week in job (not real work yet) has been completed in the company.Details will be following in next post. I cannot complete my creative writing without mentioning cinema. From the heading,you can easily guess the name of movie.

Slumdog Phenomenon : Many people are loving it. Few people are hating the projection of image of India in foreign nations. I will also give my highly regarded opinion about this movie.---If 'City of Joy' movie is real Calcutta then slumdog millionaire is real India...

Slumdog Millionaire is not an Indian film as the Indian media seemed to project, rather it’s a British film with an Indian context. And so instead of proclaiming this as our conquest on the global stage, we should lament why anyone from our own industry could n’t achieve this feat. Danny Boyle has treated real problems of India with masala story in a vibrant way; He has made what he really wanted but the truth /reality is not depicted. Movie is tour-de-force but runs too fast without having any depth. It reminds me of Salim Javed movies of 1970's with lot of twist and colorful songs. Only melodrama part is missing,the rest of all is here. How many will watch it again for the story? I will watch it only for music,cinematography and acting of young jamal.

Remember Gandhi by British director Richard Attenborough with Ben Kingsley; It was movie of an Indian but what was achieved from it in bollywood except Oscar to dress designer Bhanu Athaiya. Same is with Rahman's association with Danny Boyle. Geniuses of AR Rahman is recognized now abroad because he is original(by international standard also).I liked Slumdog millionaire, but it is nowhere in the class of Salaam Bombay! or Dharavi, which dealt with a similar theme (problems if not theme).For the real face of slums of Mumbai, please go through this well researched article by Neeta.
For concerned people about society and cinema : Smile Pinki is the Oscar nominee in best documentary on short subject category.Put your genuine effort in bringing such stories in mainstream media.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009