Bipolar

I called up a friend at my university. I spoke to him after a very long time. He had a lot of things to talk about as usual. Power cuts, hampered work at his factory, English movies (he has a tough time understanding American and British accents), etc. I asked him about a professor who once worked at my college and who now works at the university. He almost immediately sounded agitated. He told me that this professor got married last November and is now allegedly dating one of his students at the university! His wife doesn’t live with him as she is at his native village. This professor had a similar record at my college although he wasn’t exactly dating any of my batch mates; he was flirting with at least 3 of them. This guy is an out and out hypocrite and a pervert who clearly has no idea regarding the utilization of his sexual energy. He had once admonished a whole bunch of girls including myself for wearing western clothes (read: a pair of denims and a T-shirt) and would constantly rant about the need to preserve Indian culture and Indian values. Bullshit! He was thrown out from our college for demanding bribes from his students for increasing their marks. Indian culture and Indian values, my foot! He was dating one professor at my college too. She was fortunate to have decided against marrying this bastard. Her parents, it seems, were opposed to the idea of accepting a non-Konkani man for their son-in-law. She is so very well settled today and ended up marrying a person much better than this asshole. I hate this man and I so wish I could skin him alive. But unfortunately, that’s unconstitutional.

Fair trial no matter what!

I've been reading people writing things like the arrested terrorist Qasab does not deserve trial and that he must be executed immediately. I partially agree with them. With due respect to our constitution, he does deserve to be executed but not without a legal trial. So must Pragya Singh and Colonel Purohit be executed. They are all equals. Hang them in public. Or even better. Burn them at stakes. Unfortunately, that's not in accordance with our Constitution. These idiots may make a mockery of it. But we must respect it.

Ban on Google Earth? Are we missing the point?

People have been talking about the use of Google Earth in the planning and execution of the terror attacks of the 26th of November 2008. A ban on Google Earth will prove completely pointless. Consider this: Google Earth was launched on 28th of June 2005, much after other terrorist attacks like the one at the Olympic village in Munich in 1972 were Israeli athletes were taken hostage by Palestine fidayeen, the hijack of the IC 814 in Kathmandu in December 1999, the hijack of the Indian Airlines flight 182 Kanishka by Khalistani terrorists in June 1985. Did the terrorists have access to Google Earth back then? The recent attacks in Mumbai took place because our security agencies failed to act on intelligence reports. Terrorists exploit loopholes in security and the callous attitude of administrative personnel at all levels. Troublemakers and terrorists will cause mayhem unless and until we become vigilant.

My Fair Lady

A fine morning on national highway .
I was in a ST bus on my way to college.
The bus halted at the toll counter on the way to Rasayani.
A man’s voice called out, “Natalia Hule.”
Nothing more.
Wondering who it was, I looked out of the bus window.
It was a stranger, who was smiling lecherously in my direction accompanied by his cronies.
It was the first time I saw him.
I was irked and worried.
I am no movie or TV star for strangers to call out my name on the roads.
Nor am I Osama Bin Laden for someone to have difficulties finding out details about myself.
I asked a friend at college if he had any idea about someone asking for me.
I gave him the description of that stranger.
He responded saying that it could be anyone. (I knew that)
He said that people in that area (Rasayani and neighbouring places) were crazy about fair girls.
The moment they spot one, they go to insane lengths to find out her antecedents. Never mind if the girl is ugly, it’s the pale skin that counts.
It’s a disease there.
I was shocked.
I understood why Fair & Lovely sells in this country.
We are congenital racists.

PlanetRead::Spread the Word

PlanetRead::Spread the Word: "[...] More: PlanetRead::Spread the Word"

We all live in a big poultry house.

Men are or have cocks.
Girls are chicks.
Hence, the world is a poultry house.
You were wrong Shakespeare!
This isn’t a stage.

The Awakening.

The massacre of the 26th of November in Bombay has scarred all of us in some manner or the other. It scares me till this day to think that I escaped that bloodbath. I left VT station at 8:30 pm. The atrocities at VT started at 9:30 pm. The killers were planning to open fire at 7 pm. It could have happened any time that evening. My friend was at the station at 9 pm. My classmates from my French class were bang opposite Leopold Café when the bomb went off there. They could not return to Thane that night. They spent the night at a friend’s place at Peddar Road. I slept that night thinking that the mayhem would end by the following morning. I was foolishly mistaken. What happened next was witnessed by the world. The Taj Mahal Hotel, the Oberoi Trident, Nariman House and VT station had turned into scenes of carnage. I was simply numbed by the thought that it was a marine invasion. What were our Navy and Coast Guard guys doing? My brother’s classmate lost his father in the Taj. His father was the Head Chef at the Taj, the captain as they call them. An acquaintance lost seven of her colleagues in the Taj. She did not sleep for 3 nights after hearing the news and had to finally be put to sleep like an infant. My friend escaped a blast at the Trident. She was right inside the building. My French teacher lost two of her neighbors in the Taj. The Director of my former workplace lives in the building right next to the Nariman House. He witnessed the tragedy up-close. Radio France International called me up for my testimonial. So were my French teachers and many French expatriates. But I finally lost it when I saw the funerals of Hemant Karkare and Major Sandip Unnikrishanan. I cried till the point that I looked diseased. That happened to a whole lot of other people too. The city is angry and united. This time our anger won’t die down. We won’t let it. We are going to use it a positive force against the enemies outside and the enemies within. We will come up will solutions and get them implemented too.