I am sick to my stomach

…after reading this report on Texas conservatives changing the high school curriculum. Did I ever mention that I hate Texas and don’t want to live there? Unfortunately though, I am moving there in six months. I am thankful that I don’t have any kids or I would have homeschooled them. Seriously. Otherwise I would have sent them to India to study or something.

I don’t get it. How and why the politician gets the authority on high school curriculum? (We have similar problems in India though not this severe). According to the report:

There were no historians, sociologists or economists consulted at the meetings..

Hmmm..interesting. So if you are in power, you can rewrite the facts to suite your convenience? To hell with people who spent their life studying these subjects. What do they know?

In recent years, board members have been locked in an ideological battle between a bloc of conservatives who question Darwin’s theory of evolution and believe the Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles, and a handful of Democrats and moderate Republicans who have fought to preserve the teaching of Darwinism and the separation of church and state.

Question Darwin’s theory of evolution? Someone has to fight to preserve the teaching of Darwinism? Was time travel invented and was I transported to the era of bigotry when they denounced Galileo and Copernican theory as heresy? On that topic, I am not sure why didn’t the board change the curriculum to include the bible’s view about astronomy that Earth is flat and it is the center of universe? Too far fetched? Scared that even 10 year olds will laugh at them if they say something like that? As far as I am concerned, questioning the Darwin’s theory is exactly the same.

But then they have privilege to believe in what they want, don’t they? They won’t believe in carbon dating as it proves Darwinism, however they will believe in X-rays. Convenient, eh? If you don’t believe in radiations and the fact that we can count how old a bone is based on ratio of product and source then you don’t get to believe in it’s other applications as well. But then they are in the power (for some unknown reason). That’s why they can do this too:

They also included a plank to ensure that students learn about “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”

Does anyone sense anything here (well you would need to know about these people and organization to understand. feel free to click on wiki link)? No? Let’s see:

In the field of sociology, another conservative member, Barbara Cargill, won passage of an amendment requiring the teaching of “the importance of personal responsibility for life choices” in a section on teenage suicide, dating violence, sexuality, drug use and eating disorders.

Did you notice how they put sexuality right in middle of the other genuine  problems as teenage suicide, drug use, dating violence and eating disorders? And notice how they worded it as “life choices” and how it is a “personal responsibility”? Oh, you catch my drift. And yes, they will teach that in high schools in Texas because the experts in sociology says so. Oh no wait, they never studied sociology or human behavior or sexuality. But they studied bible and that makes them expert in science, sociology, human behavior and history. Right? My question is: why not get rid of all the other textbooks and just have one book in school curriculum: bible. It anyways make anyone and everyone an expert in all existing subject then what’s the point of studying anything else? Abolish schools and universities altogether. What’s the point in loading the mind of these youngsters with anything else?

And no, they didn’t forget racism? No. How can they?

Efforts by Hispanic board members to include more Latino figures as role models for the state’s large Hispanic population were consistently defeated, prompting one member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out of a meeting late Thursday night, saying, “They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist.”

“They are going overboard, they are not experts, they are not historians,” she said. “They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world.”

…

Dr. McLeroy, a dentist by training, pushed through a change to the teaching of the civil rights movement to ensure that students study the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the nonviolent approach of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also made sure that textbooks would mention the votes in Congress on civil rights legislation, which Republicans supported.

Do you know why they are doing that? Well here is what they say:

“We are adding balance,” said Dr. Don McLeroy, the leader of the conservative faction on the board, after the vote. “History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left. ” (Emphasis Mine)

Did you know “believing” in Darwinism is a political choice and not a scientific conviction?

Yes. I am moving to Texas in six months after spending six years in wonderful San Francisco bay area. And no, I am not looking forward to it.

A strange thought…

…occurred to me today: What if someone made a movie based on my life?

I don’t know why it suddenly struck me- may be because my life is so melodramatic at times, or may be I just want the current period of my life (writing the thesis and making sense of last 5 years of my life) to be a musical montage like one of those training musical montages in the movies after which the lead is ready to take on the bad guys, or may be I am simply turning into a narcissist.

Whatever the reason, after the moment that thought occurred to me, I spent the rest of my day (well it’s still going on) with a background narration in my head complete with background musical scores. Did you ever have one of those days? It had been a very weird day. The simplest of daily task felt weird and funny. And worst of it: I can’t stop it. It’s like one of those bad tunes stuck in your head that you hum all day long incessantly. You hate the tune and yet it keeps going over and over and over in your head. Does someone has a cure for this? I am having a weird day, seriously.

Habits

Came across this nazam by Gulzar and I had to share it. A loose translation is provided below:

Img from:http://www.lostartofblogging.com

साँस लेना भी कैसी आदत है
जीये जाना भी क्या रवायत है
कोई आहट नहीं बदन में कहीं
कोई साया नहीं है आँखों में
पाँव बेहिस हैं, चलते जाते हैं
इक सफ़र है जो बहता रहता है
कितने बरसों से, कितनी सदियों से
जिये जाते हैं, जिये जाते हैं
आदतें भी अजीब होती हैं…

What a habit it is to breathe
What a tradition it is to live
There is no response in the body
There is no shades in the eyes
Feet are in a stupor, they keep walking
It’s a journey that keeps flowing
For how many years, for how many centuries
We keep living, we keep living
Habits are very strange thing..

Scenic Dish

Oh well, what do you know, Spring is here. Temperature has been constantly rising and skies have taken a shade of blue instead of their usual gray. Sun is out and about and so are the walkers, hikers and runners.

So last weekend I decided to take a hike and while doing so, take some pictures. So I went to Stanford Dish and took some pictures.

Well, I am not really sure what Stanford dish is used for except that it’s there for some research. All I know that it has two big dish antennas…

..and beautiful scenery especially if you are there on a beautiful day like these:

Did I tell you that it’s part of Stanford Campus and probably the highest point near the Stanford Campus which means you can see the entire Stanford campus and surrounding area from certain points in the area as:

So the tall building in the center is the Hoover Tower (after Herbert Hoover, the 31st US president and Stanford alumnus). The mountains in the background are in East Bay (Diablo Range?). The water body in middle is the San Francisco Bay. You can also see Dumbarton Bridge from certain points as here (look closely. You can also spot the Stanford Stadium towards the right (red benches)):

The main use of dish area, as far as I am concerned, is for recreational purposes. It has pretty steep slopes. A lot of people from Stanford visit Dish daily to walk or to run (I really admire the runners who can run around Dish while talking to their friends. I wish I had as much stamina).

Oh well, that’s about it unless you want to see the pictures of random squirrels and birds. Thought so. Well, till next time..

Protectors

Update: I had to edit the ending of the post after reading (actually finding it again, I read the news 5 days ago but couldn’t locate it for the link) the recent ruling of high court.)

The other day while walking towards my terminal in an airport, I noticed a family ahead of me. Mom-dad and their daughter. The airport was a bit crowded and a lot of military officer in their uniforms were there (with their luggage, so they were either boarding the planes or landing). Anyway, so this family comes to a moving halt and the girl a bit shyly, a bit tentatively approached an army office approaching from the other side. She said a quick ‘Thank You’ to him before dashing off behind her mother.

Sweet, right?

Now compare it to image of an Indian army soldier in our public. A very good example is this footage shown on NDTV a while ago where a young lady retaliated bravely against the molestation attempt by an army soldier.

I am not sure if my experience is shared by everyone but I think the army soldiers are the creepiest fellow passengers I ever had misfortune to travel with. They constantly stare at female passengers in a very sinister way. It doesn’t matter, if you stare back or you ignore them. They will continue to make you uncomfortable. That’s the worst I have experienced but then I wasn’t not in a disturbed area with heavy military presence.

Due to these encounter with them, I was never surprised by the stories of soldiers molesting/raping women in disturbed areas neither was I surprised when that footage came out. I understood that girl’s reaction perfectly.

Every time I spot an Indian soldier in any public place, my first reaction would be to get away from them as much as possible, minimize my interaction with them and while doing all that I feel a bit revolted, a bit nauseated as I consider them the worst of all the predators roaming on our streets. Whatever I feel, one thing is certain that I don’t feel any gratitude towards them.

Watching that little girl saying thanks made me wonder is there something wrong with me? or, is something wrong with our culture that we don’t feel gratitude for our soldiers? or, is there something wrong with our army and their culture? I wonder with all the discipline we impose in army, why can’t we impose a zero tolerance policy against all army soldier who attempt anything like that? But then may be like police, army don’t consider such issues important. How does it matter how they treat women, after all, women are, or rather, should be used to treatments like these. Right?

The bigoted attitude of army towards women is obvious by the fact they treat the women officer. Did you know that until 5 days ago, women officers were forced to retire after 14 years in service, irrespective of their record. Male officers were allowed a full tenure after just five years in service. Women officers were not eligible for any pension or financial benefits as men. Talk about discrimination. And you know the worst? The affidavit that Army filed in High court for this case actually said:

The background of our troops who hail from rural areas with fixed concepts of women had to be considered at the time of induction of women as officers into the Army. Grant of Permanent Commission would result in placing women officers as Commanding Officers of units, which was considered inappropriate.

Now let me get this straight. The rural population that  migrate to cities, and work as servants, gardeners etc, don’t have a problem taking orders from women but army soldiers do? Why is this different? And even if it is so, the solution army has to offer is not to put women in commanding position. How does keeping women away from commanding positions going to help in changing that?

If we have to follow that logic, no engineering college should have opened their gates for female students as engineering has been male dominant field, and before 1970s, men (even urban men) weren’t used to having women in their engineering classes. And again any construction site or foundry or manufacturing industry, is male dominant and surprise, surprise, most of the workers hail from rural areas. How could they have learnt to take orders from, oh my God, a woman? And yet they did.

So how come our dearest Army is still living in the 1950s? When will they change and get in the 21st century? And when and if, they decide to join us I hope they introduce a zero tolerance policy against any act of eve teasing/molestation/rape by soldiers and instead of covering for them, they make an example of anyone who dares to violate this policy. And then, we might be able to feel the well deserved gratitude towards them for putting their life in line for us.

P.S.: I wrote the original post  for International Women’s day and in response to PsychBabbler’s Tag. but as this post didn’t fall in any of the categories mentioned on Indusladies (the tag) and I wasn’t sure if it’s really a woman’s right issue, so I didn’t post it then. I still needed to get this one out of my system before I loose my steam so here it is.

Scientifically, statistically and mathematically correct

A delight for all the scientist, mathematician, statistician. Watch:

Heh!

Farmville Crazy?

So the newest trend on Facebook by non-Farmville-crazy friends of mine is to join the hate groups like:

I don’t care about your farmville status. SO STOP POSTIING THEM, or

Another Farmville invite and I will kill your animals and burn your crops, or

I hate Farmville, or

To Hell with Farmville, etc.

If you are Farmville crazy and have friends that are less understanding to your idiosyncrasies like you are of theirs (as their non-stop quizzes or their daily updates of their “friend's of day” or “Fortune Cookie” or their non-sensical statuses), then you might want to read this post. BTW, isn’t that the point of these stupid social network statuses? And, if you are so bothered by these statuses there is a simple way to stop all the updates from people hooked in to Farmville. At least that’s what I do with people who take too many quizzes. I think it’s more polite than joining these groups. But then each to his/her own. Politeness isn’t a universal phenomenon.

So the point of the post is to teach you a way to be able to publish the Farmville updates only to your Farmville-crazed friends (and yes it is very important for us to publish those updates as they help us in the game). The trick is simple. Make a new friend list and select that list every time you publish your Farmville notifications. Got it? NO? Okay, let me break it into smaller steps:

1. Create a new list, say Farmville. At the moment (Oh yes, I am sick of Facebook changing its appearance all the time) you can do this by clicking on the “Account” (it’s on top right corner) and select “Edit Friend”. It initially takes you to the “Find Friends” page. However, if you browse the left side menu, it shows the List. Click on the “Friends”. You will reach the page as seen below:

Now you can create a new list either by clicking the “Create New List” and then selecting the friends that play Farmville. Or you can select the list to assign to your friend to from the list menu given in front of your friend’s name.

2. Once you have created the list, it’s pretty simple. So anytime Farmville prompts you to publish something, you will get a window like:

Click on the lock next to “Publish” button. Select “Customize” from the list and next window “Custom Privacy” will pop-up:

On the menu of “Make this visible to”, select “Specific People”. Now you can type the name of your list in the text box provided below and click “Save Setting”.

You will taken back to the main window and if you hover over the lock now, you will be able to see the name of your list:

Mind you, you have to undergo this procedure every time you need to publish anything for the Farmville. So if your friends are bothering you, use this small trick.

 

Coming back to real world! I am sorry I didn’t keep up my promise about Friday favs. For some reason, I have a writer’s block against them, so I am ditching it for now. I don’t want to stop writing completely due to that.

On yet another note, it was Holi today and I made this special farm montage especially for you guys! (well it looks way cooler in the farm. The white flowers in the side are Lilies, The red color is due to Tulips and yellow is Golden Tulips. Alas! I have to harvest my hard work) Hope those of you who are India, got to celebrate Holi in a nice and safe way, and it lacked the groping and other harassment usually associated with the festival.

The question they ask!

So the past one week was one of the most productive week I have had in a while. I think, I was even working in my dreams. Anyway, it also meant that I wasn’t blogging (as you might have noticed) or twittering, or mailing or facebooking (ok I did work on my farm but nothing else). So here I am again, after missing two Friday favs in row {*head hanging in shame*}, trying to convince you guys to be a bit more understanding. (I will post three Friday Fav this Friday, I promise, that too, in separate posts. I already have the songs picked up, I just didn’t get time to post.)

Today, I had to take a break from my productive streak to finish a few chores that I have been postponing, like, filling out Visa forms, vehicle registration and stuffs. I know, I know, it’s far more important than the work, but once the productivity bug bites me, it’s pretty hard for me to think about, let alone do, anything else. So today I finally filled out the Visa questionnaire sent by the company. And as usual, dearest immigration department had to ask those delightful questions. And I, again, can’t resist my urge to post my actual replies, had I been given a box to write them out instead of the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. Actually let me write down my response as it went in my head as I went through the questions.


Have you ever, in or outside the U.S. knowingly committed any crime of moral turpitude or a drug-related offense for which you have not been arrested?

Huh, No.


Have you ever, in or outside the U.S. been arrested, cited, charged, indicted, fined, or imprisoned for breaking or violating any law or ordinance, excluding traffic violations?

Nope.


Have you ever, in or outside the U.S. been the beneficiary of a pardon, amnesty, rehabilitation decree, other act of clemency or similar action?

Again no. Though I do beg people’s pardon occasionally as I was told it was polite to do so. I hope they do
pardon me on those occasions so by that logic I have been beneficiary of a pardon or two.


Have you ever, in or outside the U.S. exercised diplomatic immunity to avoid prosecution for a criminal offense in the U.S.?

Diplomacy had never been my cup of tea so I guess I can safely say that I am immune to diplomatic immunity.


Have you ever within the past 10 years been a prostitute or procured anyone for prostitution, or intend to engage in such activities in the future?

Come again?


Have you ever engaged in any unlawful commercialized vice, including, but not limited to, illegal gambling?

I have been to Las Vegas twice so far and haven’t spent a single dime on gambling so a big no for gambling: legal or illegal. However I have no idea about any other commercialized vice: Is celebrating Valentine’s day a commercialized vice?


Have you ever illicitly trafficked in any controlled substance, or knowingly assisted, abetted or colluded in the illicit trafficking of any controlled substance?

Do pickles count? Not that I trafficked any pickles at any time. Just curious.


Do you intend to engage in the U.S. in espionage?

What kind of spy will answer this question in affirmative? Again, I am just curious. What’s the point of this question?


Did you, during the period March 23, 1933 to May 8, 1945, in association with either the Nazi Government of Germany or any organization or government associated or allied with the Nazi Government of Germany, ever order, incite, assist or otherwise participate in the persecution of any person because of race, religion, national origin or political opinion?

I wasn’t even born, dude. Forget that, not even my parents were alive back then.


Have you ever been deported from the U.S., or removed from the U.S. at government expense, excluded within the past year, or are you now in exclusion or deportation proceedings?

Right and I am trying to fool you by applying for this visa. So basically you think that I think you are dumb, right?


Have you ever been a J nonimmigrant exchange visitor?

Hahaha..you think Indian government cares if I return there or not? Hahahahahehehehohohoho… {*Pointing and laughing*}


Are you now withholding custody of a U.S. Citizen child outside the U.S. from a person granted custody of the child?

No child boss. And if I had one, I would have given back if there is someone claiming his or her custody. My policy: children and pets are great, if they are someone else’s. You get to play with them and return back. No responsibility, all fun.


Do you plan to practice polygamy in the U.S.?

Hmm..how do I answer this? I am having problem with Mono, good sir, Poly will be too much to handle.

Will you have access to controlled technology? (Nuclear materials, chemicals, microorganisms, toxins, materials processing, electronics, computers, telecommunications and information security, sensors, lasers, navigation, avionics, marine, propulsion systems, space vehicles or related materials or equipment.)

Wow! Space vehicles. Can I have one? Please, please pleeease. Pretty Please? Cherry on the top please?

Oh well, it’s so much fun filling up the visa forms. I just hate the other paper work involved with it. Scan this, scan that, get pay slips, bank statements, rental agreements and God only knows what else.
I am going back to my productive streak from tomorrow (I hope I didn’t loose it). Yeah, yeah I remember my promise. 3 posts coming up for you on Friday. Till then..

Here is to Love

Over past 10 days, I checked my mails twice, my Facebook account once, logged in and posted on my blog once (last Friday) and didn’t watch TV at all. Now can you imagine how much fun I was having for last few days that I didn’t need any of my usual (aforementioned) means of entertainment? So do you really want me to apologize for having such a good time and thus, neglecting the blog? I thought so.

At the moment, I am endeavoring to return to the real world. All I can post today is this beautiful rose. Enjoy, I will be back soon enough…

February Friday Favorite: Yeh zulfon ki bikhri ghata

Okay I am too tired today to write a real post. I could only put up the song I had planned for today. It's a beautiful song by my favorite singer Asha Bhosle. Music by Rajesh Roshan and lyrics by Anjaan. Hope you like this beautiful song.

Enjoy...

In response to…

“it is simple, there are lot of hot and serious issues to discussed and debated like genocide in Kashmir by the great army of your great nation. These are futile issues, any body is gay or lesbian, doesn't matter. People r not used to it that is y it looks funny to them but in coming decade people won't feel like that. You should write how communistic tendencies have become elitetistic in this pseudo-secular n antidemocratic country?
You should write about the Imperialistic and colonial tendencies of your great nation instead ............ !! Please channelize your creative tendencies to revolutionize your nation not to harp on a non-issue.”

As you might have guessed it, this is a comment that I received on my last post. This isn’t the first time I have heard someone trivializing the Gay issue because according to them, there are far more pressing issues in the world to talk about.

Well, if being Gay is such a non-issue then why almost all the religious sects, including Christianity, Islam and Hinduism (for once they agree on something) prohibit the homosexuality and do everything possible (= spend a lot of money and resources) to make life difficult for Homosexuals and whenever possible, attempt to criminalize homosexuality with the penalty of death? Why are homosexuals tortured - mentally, socially and physically, beaten- at times beaten to death, murdered and hanged all the time? In South Africa, lesbians are being raped in order to turn them heterosexual (read this brilliant post by Sparky on how less the life of a homosexual is valued in today’s world). How can all this be a non-issue? It’s a worldwide genocide condoned by all religious sect and quite often by the Government.  Just because you or anyone you know haven’t suffered yet due to this, it doesn’t mean that it becomes a non-issue. And if you can laugh at this genocide and try to trivialize it, with what right do you expect anyone to be sympathetic to your cause? How can you be indifferent towards one genocide while fighting against the other?

On a side note, I have often posted about how woman in our society are at the lowest levels. Well, congratulations ladies, we have found a group even lower than us on the social ladder: The LGBTs. Why else would a reputed news channel as BBC, dare to run a survey on its website asking if homosexuals should face execution? The key word being “if”, as if it is an option worth considering: should we legally kill another human for the “non-issue” crime of homosexuality? (Yeah, it’s such a non-issue! How does it matter if we kill homosexuals or not?)  It was later retracted by BBC but yet they did put it there in the first place, as if it was a legitimate question to ask. At least no news channel, even an Indian news channel, will put up a poll asking if we should execute women, will it now? (Worst: Such questions are actually debated in the parliaments of many countries and are passed as laws. Non-issue? Really?)

CREDITS: Most of the issues raised here as well as the references came from Sparky’s site. Please do visit his wonderful site for more info.


P.S.: 1. As for my opinion on Kashmir issue, I wrote about it here (well I paraphrased most of it from Vir Sanghvi’s article on the same subject but then I do agree with him on the issue..).


2. I don’t understand this line in the comment above:
“ You should write how communistic tendencies have become elitetistic in this pseudo-secular n antidemocratic country?”
Anyone care to explain it? I am scratching my head here.

I don’t understand

I don’t understand why being gay is so funny for Indian audience. Honestly, Indians laugh/snigger whenever someone mentions or accuses of someone else (especially a guy) being gay (in a movie or in reality). What is so funny about someone being gay? Please do share the joke..

I don’t understand why writing about gay and gay rights such a taboo? I have been advised by my friends that I should not write about the subject so often. If you ask them why, they simply shrug and say that people might get wrong ideas but they never explains what wrong ideas. (Any of you have any of these aforementioned “wrong ideas”, please let me know. I won’t publish your comment but at least I would know. I am really curious).

Anyone?

(Img src: http://5.media.tumblr.com/XO6T2i0sqgqo01kiVg0Y9jkHo1_400.gif)

Tree hates Bigots

The Wesboro Baptist Church (headed by Fred Phelps) was in Stanford campus on Friday morning to demonstrate. It’s one of the worst legal hate group in US. Their main targets: any faith that’s not Christianity or any Christian group that supports Gays. They have been known to make racist slurs against African Americans.

They also maintain a God Hates India website(I don’t want to link to any of those stupid sites. Please search the words “God Hates India”  in Google and you will, hopefully, find the site) They have a link there called “Poster Children for sin”. You know who they are? First in their list is Mahatma Gandhi. That’s right. Then comes Nobel laureate Amrtya Sen, writer Vikram Seth and others.

Then comes another link on the same site: “False Religious System”. And here I have to actually quote them:

80% of India’s population claim to practice Hinduism. ‘Nuff said. A country full of idolatry inevitably results in a nation full of fags and fag-enablers, because that’s what happens when you depart from the Living God!

…

If you would STOP worshipping false gods, being a fag would not be a complex matter.  Stop going a whoring after other gods and start serving the Living God in truth!

Enraged enough? At least you got the context of what I am talking about. So these guys were here in STANFORD CAMPUS to demonstrate and picket. Ever since their announcement to be in Campus, there have been a lot of activity with in Stanford to organize a counter demonstration (I wanted to be there, but unfortunately, I forgot to put it on my calendar and I missed. Two reasons I wanted to be there: to take pictures and to see the real live people who propagates such things. I have always seen them on TV only). They picked up Hillel Center at Stanford (from Hillel the Elder): It’s the Jew center in Campus (and yes, we have a Hindu society as well that organizes satsang sessions every Sunday).

I am not a religious person (I am an agnostic atheist as Jeff explains here) but I do respect a right of a person to its faith/religion/belief/views. And don’t give me the crap about the freedom of Wesboro Church’s faith. Their religious freedom stops where other’s faith begins as Sparky explains here.

Anyway, I was ecstatic when I saw this on Unofficial Stanford Blog:

For those who doesn’t know about Stanford: The tree you see running around is Stanford Mascot and is called Stanford Tree (Don’t ask!). Stanford Band was there along with hundreds of students. I am so proud of being a Cardinal (nickname for Stanford) right now. I just wish I was there to witness this first hand! GO STANFORD!!

P.S.: I wonder how can someone devote their life to hate. Are culture, tradition, religion or any other principle so important that one forgets the life itself? I thought all these things were designed to help us to get through life and not the other way round.

Statistics

While upgrading my laptop, I forgot to backup my web bookmarks. Result: I haven’t been able to check my quota of comic strips. So I didn’t discover this gem till today. As usual, it’s from my favorite cartoonist Jorge Cham and his infamous Ph.D. Comics.

           CLICK TO ENLARGE (Img Source: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1271)

You know, just because they are numbers, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are right. Interpretation of those numbers is equally important. As Jorge Cham puts it: Anyone with basic statistics course would have told them so but then if they only stopped and thought about it, they wouldn’t be journalist, would they?

P.S.: I especially like the last point: What if all polls included the opinion “Don’t Care”?

February Friday Favorite: Kali Palak Teri

Yeah Yeah I know. It’s not February yet!However, it will be February in 3 days so I decided to start this special edition of this series. Yep, you got it, I am trying to capitalize on the popularity of Valentine’s day. So next month is going to be Romantic songs only month starting with today’s song:

Please don’t mind the stupid video. I think, apart from Tanjua being in the towel (well, she is sexy but Dharmendra’s stupid mannerism completely spoils the video), the video has no value what so ever.

The best thing about the song is the beautiful lyrics given by Majrooh Sultanpuri. The soft and harsh effects of music given by the R.D. Burman to emphasize the lyrics comes only slightly lower than that. For example, the second stanza:

na to main dor se baandhun, na jaal bichhaun, na tir chalaun
naazuk kamar se lagaon, chhuri na kataari saajana. o sajana
main to tera dil lungi tujhise chhupa ke, nazar ko bacha ke
yun hi zara muska ke kahungi anaadi saajana
roz raat ko tere ghar hogi, teri chori, ho chori

It’s my favorite stanza in the song, especially the last line: roz raat ko tere ghar hogi, teri chori. Simply beautiful.

And then, of course, there are Kishore and Lata, the singers. The naughtiness in Kishore’s voice can’t be contained. The only thing that I could find against the song was it’s picturization. But then it also grows on you. I actually like the pink towel Tanuja has.

Anyway, Happy February, everyone. Have fun in the shortest month of the year..

Holy Cow

So last night, I was explaining to my flat-mate, the concept of Paneer. In the end, she asked if we use Goat milk to make Paneer as Cow is supposed to be sacred and all.

I explained to her the concept of Cow being sacred: Cow gives us milk and hence is equivalent to our mother. You can’t kill your mother and hence the whole sacred concept (at least that’s how I understand it!). Having said that, I had to add that I don’t understand why Buffaloes, Goats or Camels are not sacred as they also give us milk. What did Cow do to deserve such a privilege?

But then, I didn’t make the rules. I don’t follow them either but hey, that’s another story.

P.S.: On a side note, I grew up on Buffalo’s milk. My brother used to quote that as the reason for the way I turned out to be: Dark and fat. Brothers and their sense of humor! Hmph.

Just FYI, my brother is just a shade lighter than I and hence for all worldly purpose, he is also considered dark. And with age, he has gained a very rotund tummy (he used to be athletic during his younger years). Even though I am a complete angel compared to him, even I can’t resist  teasing him for the football he carries around now. :P

Indian Women

The other day my flat-mate, who was reading a book by an Indian author for her book-club, wanted to know few facts given in the book. During the discussion, she brought up the notion of Indian women having it easy as opposed to Indian men, something she gathered from the book, (I haven’t read the book, so can’t comment exactly) and I was shocked! How and why any Indian can say that? And that’s when I realize that the author must be a man. As it turns out she was reading White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.

As an answer to her query, I quoted a simple statistics that I had read a few days ago: Out of all the suicides reported in India, about 20% are committed by house wives. They form the second largest group (largest group being self employed: read farmers) of 'professionals'** in the suicides reported to the police. Note the use of the phrase ‘reported suicides’ here. As suicide is a crime in India, quite a lot of suicides go unreported, especially in states like Bihar and UP. And I have a hunch that suicides by house wives would be covered up more than any other ‘professional’ group.

(Img from: http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2007/Suicides07.pdf)

According this study, conducted in Vellore, India, “the rates of suicides are several fold higher than those reported anywhere in the world, especially in young women”. Instead of relying on police reports, this study was based on autopsy reports obtained from local hospital as well as the reports of community health worker. According to the study: “The average suicide rate for young women (age 10-19) was 148 per 100 000, and for young men (age 10-19) 58 per 100 000”. The number of suicides by girls was thrice of boys! Just FYI, globally the trends are opposite: men are more susceptible to commit suicide than women. Indian women have it easy, eh?

To start with, we already have a very skewed gender ratio in our populace due to female foeticide and infanticide: for every 1,000 boys under the age of four, there are a mere 934 girls. The one’s that are allowed to live, are constantly told about how much burden their life is to their parents. Imagine telling that to a child and that too your own child! Do these people have a heart? And then there is that bias towards the son, shown so openly, so shamelessly. No wonder, by the time these girls reach teenage, they have no self-respect, no self-worth. I am not sure if their deaths are even mourned by their family? May be it’s just a good riddance for them.

At times, I feel so disgusted by the society we live in. I have been told since my childhood that we should be proud of our culture but times like these I am completely at loss of what am I supposed to be proud of? The way we treat our children? Or the way we treat and respect women? The way fear of society becomes more important than love of a child as much as we let our own flesh and blood get tortured and beaten? Or the way we blame the rape victims? What exactly am I supposed to be proud of? And why does our personal freedom to dress, to speak, or rather just to be poses a threat to this great Indian culture? What is so great about our culture?

Oh, I know: Family system, right? 20% of suicide are committed by house wives. 71.5% of total suicide victims were married. Our teens have the highest suicide rate in the world. These statistics indicate that our so called family system isn’t as good as portrayed. And these statistics don’t even include the domestic violence cases or the extra marital affairs.

Anything else?

BTW, did you know that in 2007, 336 suicides took place per day or 14 Suicides took place every hour. That 80 Suicides per day took place due to family problems. That 9 Suicides per day due to Love Affairs. That 5 Suicides per day due to Failure in Examination. Just quoting statistics.

Update: ** (Modified from comments below): National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) described Housewife as a profession which I think is quite appropriate. However, I think being a housewife in India should be the worst profession ever. The parents are expected to pay the dowry to her in-laws for her to become a housewife and then she is expected to serve her husband and in-laws for life. Even in slave trade, the slaves were bought and money was paid to previous "owners" and not the other way around. Even the animals are sold and bought in the same way. Then why the value of woman is so low that her parents have to pay money to get rid of her? What kind of profession is this?  And obviously, in some cases these housewives are treated worse than animals while their parents turn a blind eye and a deaf ear towards their own flesh and blood. Talk about compassion and love!


Aren't Indians supposed to be paragon of compassion and love, at least that's what Manoj Kumar had led us to believe in his numerous patriotic and oh-our-so-great-culture movies (Remember: Hai Preet Jahan Ki Reet Sada)? Or the compassion and love that he talks about is strictly for male only? Why can't parents show some of it to their own daughters? Even animals love their child, irrespective of the child's gender. How can humans be so cruel and heartless?

A belated Friday Favorite

I know I am late in posting this but trust me I have valid reasons for doing so. See yesterday was sorting-out day, which means I spent the entire day doing everything that needs to be done: Submit checks, clean the room, post the mails, buy a new mobile as my old one’s screen stopped working, and install Windows 7 on my laptop. The last job on the list is the reason I couldn’t post this on time. As I have complained earlier, I hate Windows Vista. So I decided to take the leap and buy Windows 7 Professional using student discount. I have already gotten a blue screen but it might be due to number of softwares I have been trying to upload on my machine at that time. So I haven’t given up all hope yet! Anyway, coming to today’s song:

Most probably you must have already heard this song. If not, then you must have heard other songs from this movie, the most famous being "Ab tumhare hawale watan sathiyon" and "Hoke majboor usne mujhe". Almost all the songs of this movie are beautiful but this song influenced me the most. To start with, I heard this song first time in my teen years. You know the age when you romanticize the love the most. And then this song, unlike most of the sad songs, doesn't blame anyone or try to gain sympathy from the audience. It simply tells a tale of a relationship, a real relationship and the regrets for breaking that relationship. The pain, the regret is beautifully rendered by Rafi. The words were given by Kaifi Azmi and the music by Madan Mohan. The movie was Haqeeqat (1964). Hope you like it.

The Decade Tag

Shilpa tagged me.  This is my first tag for 2010 so it’s but natural, they are tags about the last decade. The first tag is:

TAG I

10 THINGS I’VE LEARNT/GAINED IN 10 YEARS

-  Hmmm..the first one on this list should be age.  I know, I know, it’s an obvious one but in my case, it transitioned from a careless early 20s to a bit more ‘responsible’ early 30s. With age comes few gray hairs (3, to be precise) and some physical aches and pains that will now remain with me for life. So yeah, those are big things that I gained in past 10 years.

- Career wise, I gained my masters degree and some work experience (2-1/2 years, to be exact).  Gained admission in an ivy league for my PhD and gained some of that ivy league arrogance everyone keeps talking about (as you can tell!).

- Socially, I have become independent. In 2000, I was a master’s student and was still living in my hometown. I had never lived any place outside my home-town till then. And then, I spent living outside my hometown most of the last decade. Initial time wasn’t too good as with the independence comes a lot of work and responsibilities but once you get used to it, you don’t want to loose that independence, ever.

- In my personal life … oh well, that’s personal. All I can say is that I learnt a lot in past 10 years. I think this is the area where I gained and, lost and learned the most. The most important lesson was: Life goes on.

- Culturally, I am a complete different person now. For example, at the starting of this decade, I didn’t know that the word called “Gay”  existed, let alone know it’s meaning. At the beginning of the decade, I used to refer all South Indians as Madrasi (Sorry folks!). After living in Chennai for 2.5 years, I know better. I gained quite a lot of knowledge about South India and it’s traditions along with few good South Indian friends.

I had never met and befriended a “Gora” or a “Kalu” or any other color (I know it’s politically incorrect and very racist. I apologize. I just want to emphasize my ignorance before). Now, I have few very good friends who fall under those categories and I get offended if someone refers them as Gora or Kalu or Chinki. The knowledge, the exposure and the experience gained in this sector is tremendous.

- Religion wise, I started as a pretty religious, God-believing person at the beginning of the decade. This decade has seen me turned into someone whose belief lies somewhere between agnosticism and atheism. The change was gradual and had a lot of influencing factors even though my close friends believe on the contrary. According to them, I changed after reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. While it was yet another influencing factor, however it’s overall effect on my decision was considerably small. That book simply helped me to articulate my thoughts clearly and stand up for my beliefs. You have no idea how hard it is to be an agnostic/atheist in our society! You are tested at every step.  (Just so that we are clear, this change in beliefs happened long before I landed in US, which incidentally was another major event of the last decade.)

- Materialistically, I gained quite a bit in this area as well although I have remained a student for most part of the decade. I have my dearest Canon D-40 (my D-SLR); Shivani-II, my second laptop; Pratham, my first desktop and my car, a $1300 93-Toyota Corolla.

- Athletically, I have become more active. In past few years, I have played badminton, tennis, joined Karate and broken some wooden boards and gained 5 belts. I think despite my aches and pains and my age, I have become fitter than I was 10 years ago.

In short, my life has changed completely in past 10 years. I think this has been the most eventful decade of my life so far. I am glad that I did this tag. Thanks Shilpa! Now, the second tag:

 

TAG II

10 THINGS I NEVER HAD OR USED 10 YEARS BACK, WHICH I CANNOT DO WITHOUT OR USE A LOT TODAY

- First and foremost on this list will be my Shivani-II and Pratham (my laptop and my desktop, respectively). Well, technically, we had a desktop at home but it’s main usage at that time was playing “Prince” and spending nights trying to connect with internet.

- Internet will be my second choice. I know it’s related with computers however, once you are in the internet space, you forget the existence of computer. It’s completely different world and the amount of time I spend there, well, it needs a special mention. again we did have internet back then but the extensiveness of the web wasn’t as huge as it’s now.

- I think cell phones (or mobile) come third. Although I spent major part of my last decade making fun of people who are at all possible moments are aware of their cell phones, for past two years or so, I’ve become quite dependent on mine as well.

- Since we are talking about phones, Vonage has become an integral part of my life for past few years. The number of phone calls I make outside US, wouldn’t have been possible without it!

- My D-SLR comes next. Well, I don’t use it as often as I would like but still it has become an essential part of my being.

- As much as I hate driving, I still can’t live without my car. Though, it has more to do with living in US than my fondness for my car.

- Last but not the least, exercising. I didn’t use to exercise 10 years back and now it has become part of my weekly routine. 

 

That’s all folks! Again a free to all tag. Do take it, it’s fun to relive 10 years of your life again.. *sniff*

Tradition

Ever since I watched the movie ‘Fiddler on the Roof’, every time I hear this word, namely tradition, which is quite often when one is Indian, my mind starts playing the first line of the song in a loop:

Tradition, Tradition!    Tradition!

I love this musical, well, just like most of the musicals I watch. If you get a chance to watch, don’t miss it. If you are an Indian, you will be able to relate to this musical.

P.S.: I got reminded of this word, again, namely tradition, by Apu’s latest post: “The Effect of not wearing Mangalsutra” and the subsequent post linked in this post: “Demonstrating Marriage”. Honestly, the entire time that I took to read the two post, the first line of the song kept looping in my mind:  Tradition, Tradition!    Tradition!

2 states: So True!

I have been searching for ‘2 States: The story of my marriage’ by Chetan Bhagat for past two months. A friend of mine recommended it, telling me the base line of the story: A north Indian boy and a South Indian girl fell in love and want to get married AND they want their parents to be okay about it! Out of many personal reasons I was interested in reading the book, one was: I have lived in both the areas mentioned in the book and am very familiar with both the cultures and associated stereotypes, even though I don’t belong to either of the culture.

The storyline was a simple one so I didn’t expect much from it: Girl meets boy, fall in love and want to get married. Their families don’t accept due to the cultural differences between them. And as you know, good children don’t abandon their parents but work with them and show them the light of reason. Something I like to call “DDLJ-effect”. True,  “Ek Duje ke Liye” had a similar story line but the tragic ending of the movie made it hard to convince anyone that it was the right approach (On the side note: what’s up with Kamal hasan and tragedies). DDLJ, on the other hand, with it’s “Ja, Simran ja, jeele apni zindagi ”, had a better impact. Hence, the name “DDLJ-effect”. But I digress.

Anyway, like any Bollywood movie, the book had a happy ending as well. Honestly, if you think about the storyline of the book, it was pretty much predictable. However, the treatment of the subject by Chetan Bhagat was simply superb. The stereotyping, the descriptions of different places and the subtle differences between the cultures were very acutely and very hilariously pin-pointed by him and that’s what made the book a great read. For example, the treatment of buffet by the two families:

Few things bring out the differences between Punjabis and Tamilians than buffet meals. Tamilians see it like any other meal. They will load up white rice first, followed by daal and curds and anything that has little dots of mustard, coconut or curry leaves.

For Punjabis, food triggers an emotional response, like say music. And the array of dishes available in a buffet is akin to Philharmonic orchestra. The idea is you load as many calories as possible onto one plate, as most party caterers charged based on the number of plates used. Also, like my mother explained since childhood, never take a dish that is easily prepared at home or whose ingredients are cheap. So, no yellow daal, boring gobi aloo or green salad. The focus is on chicken, dishes with dry fruits in them and exotic desserts.

As I said, I have been to both the cities mentioned in the book: Delhi and Chennai. I have visited Delhi more often than I would like to admit and I lived in Chennai for 2-1/2 years. I especially loved the way Chetan Bhagat describes the experience of a North Indian landing in Chennai for the first time as well as the second time. I recognized all the neighborhoods mentioned in the book. I remember, just like Krish, how difficult it was for me to pronounce the names like Nungambakkam and Kodambakkam and how easy I find them now. The sense of awe you experience when you enter the Ratna Store, which Chetan Bhagat aptly describes as:

We had come to Ratna stores in T. Nagar to buy steel plates for my chummery. I needed four, this place had four million of them. Seriously, every wall, roof, corner, shelf and rack over two floors was covered with shiny steel utensils.

Honestly, you can’t describe Ratna store in a better way.

And honestly, what’s up with every Chennaite reminding you that Marina beach is the second largest beach in the world. Seriously, my friends from Chennai will state that fact the moment you mention ‘Marina Beach’. Ananya mentioned it more than twice in the book. And then she tells Krish to meet her at Marina Beach without mentioning where in Marina Beach! That was my first reaction when I read those lines: how will he ever find her on the Marina Beach? It’s like trying to search for a needle in the haystack. Seriously. I kid you not. I guess, I have invariantly become a Chennaite myself.

The second stereotyping: the Punjabi was also so apt, for instance:

I had brought a gift pack of biscuits, as my Punjabi sensibilities had taught me to never go to someone’s house without at least as many as calories as you would consume there.

And the reaction of Krish’s mom and her family to Ananya reminded me of an incident from my university days. One of my Punjabi school/college friend had gone through exactly the same thing when she decided to marry a South Indian: a mallu in this case. I remember visiting her home during one of those stressful days of her life. Her mom gave a scathing looked at me when she realized how dark I am and asked me, very rudely, if I was a South Indian. When I replied in negative, giving her exact details of my parents villages, she further enquired that how, then, am I so dark? North Indians are fair, you know. She also hinted on some kind of black magic used by South Indians during her talks so much like the book. I could completely relate to each and everything in the book.

I also understand Krish’s exasperation on being only non-Tamil speaker among all the Tamils:

Tamilians love to irritate non-Tamil speakers by speaking only in Tamil in front of them. This is the only silent rebellion in their otherwise repressed, docile personality.

However, I think this stereotype extend to more than Tamils. I have been fortunate enough to befriend people from every corner of India and know that this is true beyond the stereotype of Tamils. At those times, I seriously wish I knew a third language in which I could converse with my friends, just so that I can inflict the same sense of abandonment and desolation to my third-language speaking friends. Why, in heavens name, don’t they realize that I am getting completely bored among their friends? And then they are surprised when I refuse their invitation next time. They couldn’t imagine any reason why I wouldn’t want to be in their company, they are, after all, so much fun to be with!

And then, there were other thoughts, which I think, can be applied to rest of India as well, just not South or North Indian as:

- Psycho relatives are constant across cultures.

- Indian men slam their wives for their sisters with zero hesitation.

- We never talk, at home, my mom and dad, they hardly talk. We’ll talk about the news, the food, the weather. But we never talk about our feelings.

- The only time grown-ups get excited about young people is when young people are getting married and the old people control the proceedings.

- It is amazing how people can feel insulted even after being welcomed by elephants.

- This is one of the huge downsides of getting married. A guy has to get involved in discussion about saris and gold.

- No matter how mad they are, army people still believe in courtesies. I am sure Indian and Pakistani officers wish each other before they blow each other’s brain off.

I especially love the last line. As a kid, I used to think about this, you know, the reason why Army people are required to be so courteous? It’s not like that it counts during the war. This is the first time someone actually articulated my thoughts exactly.

In all, I loved the book. I don’t remember laughing this much while reading a book, ever. Chetan Bhagat does have a great sense of humor and he definitely has a way with the words. I am looking forward to read rest of his work now..

P.S.: On after thought, I want to add that I don’t condone any of the racist comments in the book. I merely think that the behavior portrayed in the book are very near to the truth. Having said that, I also want to request that please don’t stereotype people around you based on the book. Individuals can differ immensely from the stereotype described in the book.

Remember we all are first and foremost humans so let’s please try not to be hurtful to each other…

I miss fog

I grew up in the foothills of Himalayas. One of the feature of winter in that part of India was fog. Every winter, there used to be at least a week when an envelope of dense fog wrapped our town. Being a winter child (mid-December on that one), I have always loved winters including fog, lantern-like sun and the chilled wind along with Gajar ka Halwa, garma-garm Mungfali, Aaloo ke Paranthe, Matar ke Parathe, Matar in every sabji, Gobhi ke Parathe and spinach in almost everything. Yes kids, believe it or not, once upon a time, we used to eat season-specific vegetables and fruits.

Ever since, I left my hometown 8 years ago, there have been very rare occasions of encountering fog, even though I now live in San Francisco Bay Area. The problem is that most of the fog remains in the city (San Francisco) and never crosses over to the Farm (Stanford). So today morning when I stepped outside to go to work (yes, on a Saturday), I was pleasantly surprised to see the fog though not too dense. Luckily, I had my digi-cam with me, so I went for a photo shoot around the campus, instead of working, I should add.

Anyhoo, here are the two  shots from today morning’s venture. It now feels like Makar Sankranti and Lohri! So Happy Sankranti, Happy Lohri and Happy Pongal to everyone. Or, to be more politically correct and concise: Happy Harvest Season, Everyone!

  

P.S.: The strangest thing about today was that the number of runners and walkers out today was way more than a normal Saturday morning. The number of tourist, however, were far less. I expected the opposite when I went around as this is a long weekend. Monday is Martin Luther King day.

Friday Favorite - II

Do you remember the movie Bombay to Goa? One of early Amitabh Bachchan's movie? Do you remember any songs from the movie? Okay, except the famous song "Dekha Na Hai Re"? Well my favorite song from the movie is a duet by Kishore and Lata and that's the Friday favorite song of this week. The song is "Tum Meri Zindagi Mein Kuch":

The music for the movie was given by, one and only, R.D. Burman and the lyricist was Rajinder Krishan and the song is beautiful on both account. It surprises me why this song is unknown to so many people (at least to people I know). In my opinion, it's one of the best duets by Kishore and Lata. I simply love the Mukhada of the song:

Tum Meri Zindagi Mein, Kuch Is Tarah Se Aaye
Bhula Sa Khawab Jaise, Sach Ho Ke Muskuraye


Beautiful, isn't it? I also like the emphasis (that's the best word I could think, that fits; again I don't have any 'music education' so I can only write in a layman language here) given in the second lines in each Antara. It  adds spice to the song in a beautiful way. The monotonousness of the song is broken by that emphasis put on the two words (yep, just two words: listen again) of the second line on each Antara. It makes the song different, unique and beautiful. Well, at least according to me!

Again, hope you like the song as much as I do. I would love to hear your opinion of the song...

Family Standards

Recently, I was talking to my mom (yes I do that at times) about one of my cousin who got married few days back. I commented on how much weight she has lost when my mom told me her secret: she found some churan, that she takes whenever she thinks she is gaining weight. That so called churan, gives her loose motions and she looses weight. I was speechless.

In my extended family, I am supposed to be fat, according to almost all of my relatives and quite a few friends. Medically speaking, I have a BMI of 21.6, which falls right in the middle of “normal weights”. But I have always been told by my extended family that I need to loose weight . For some reason, all my cousins, especially girls, falls under the category of skinny. This aforementioned cousin has always been a bit towards plump side, again according to my relatives (she is still skinnier than me!). So I was surprised to see her skinny in her wedding pictures and hence commented on it. I was shocked to learn the reason. The saddest part: I can’t do anything about it. Sure, I will try to talk to my aunt, her mom, about the potential health risks. I will even try to talk some sense in her but I don’t think I will succeed. After all, I am the fat one who thinks she is normal weighted.

For every thing I will say, there will be only one counter-argument from all of them: She is thin, so she looks pretty. And then I would be advised to join some weight losing classes or take some of those dubious dieting pills to reduce weight: I might look pretty if I loose weight. I, any way, have a dark complexion, so only way for me to look good would be by losing some weight.

I am honestly quite worried about my cousin but I am helpless against these ridiculous beauty standards. I have no way to refute them. I hate feeling so helpless. I wish I could do something about it, except writing a post about it.

Credit:                                                                                                                                                           Img from: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/thisweekineducation/2007/06/national_yawn_standards_again.html

Point Reyes

 

I went there last Sunday and wanted to go back there today for some more pictures but unfortunately I had to work. I will go back there and I will go back there soon. Till then enjoy this…

Friday Favorite

or, Favorite Friday? Most of the people I know, have Friday as their favorite day of the week! But that's not the point of the post. I am starting a new series today. Yes, I know that I have miserably failed in following up any of the series so far, whether it was Project Snapshot or Tuesday Tags. I have excuses reasons for discontinuing both of them but I am not getting into them now. All I will say: Most of the things I try, I usually don't succeed in my first few attempts. I deleted my first 2-3 blogging attempts and here I am blogging continuously for past 2.5 years now! So let me give another try to this series thingy.

So the idea behind this series is simple enough. I will pick an old bollywood song every week and give some details about the song and embed the song here or provide the link for you to listen. Let me put a disclaimer first: I am no expert in music and raagas and all that stuff. To be fair, our school did have music teachers and they did try to teach us some classical music too (I know my SaReGaMa, thanks to them) but as the grades for music didn't count in the final grades, most of us didn't take it seriously. I always got a C in my music classes (lowest passing grade), though my fear of public-singing can be a contributing factor in that. But then, I don't remember any of the raagas from those classes, so may be I am simply tune-deaf.

However, in my teenager years, I used to be a music maniac: the bollywood kind of music. (On a side note: I wonder why don't they use bollywood songs to teach us music, it will be so much more interesting and easier). My specialty was old bollywood songs. However, over the years, I have lost touch. So I am starting this series to get in touch with this old passion of mine. So here we go:

Today's song is "Chuppa lo yun dil mein pyar mera" (Click on the link for listening to the song.) from movie Mamta (1966). The music for the movie and this song was given by Roshan. It's a beautiful duet sung by Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar. The beauty of this song lies in the absence of noise of musical instrument. A constant beat of ghungroo accompanied by few instruments (flute? violin? ) while the voice of the singers carry the song. I especially love the lyrics:

Chuppa lo yun dil mein pyar mera, ki jaise mandir mein lo diye ki,
Tum apne charano mein rakh lo mujhko, tumhare charano ka phool hoon,
main sar jhukaye khadi hoon pritam ki jaise mandir mein lo diye ki

Oh yes I love the second line of the song as well. Even though the lyrics of the second line are humbling, the pitch of song rises (rendered beautifully by Lata) giving it quiet a contrast and then it drops down with "main sar jhukaye khadi hoon pritam", giving the beautiful effect of total submission (note the emphasis on the word "khadi"). It's just perfect.

And I can't even start the beauty of the words "jaise mandir mein lo diye ki". Trust Majrooh Sultanpuri to come with such beautiful words.The rest of song is also very well written and obviously very well rendered by Hemant and Lata. This song has been one of my favorite songs from the moment I heard it. Hope you like it too.

Okay, enough procrastination. I need to work now...

John Doe

A friend today asked me about Indian equivalent of names “John and Jane Doe” and I was completely stumped. Would it be Anaam and Anamika? What about their surnames then? That can become very controversial very soon. Any ideas?

On the side note: with the name Anaam, an image of Amitabh Bachchan in his hey days of angry young man pops up while Anamika, obviously, reminds me of the songs “Bahon Mein Chale aao” and “Kahe ko rootha deewana mera” and a very naughty Jaya Bhaduri. May be it's just because they are married, I get reminded of those two.

Few Random Definitions

Twitter: Never-ending, time-consuming, nonsensical, extremely-popular, one-liner competition.

Facebook: A tool to convert normal humans into obnoxious peeping-toms, with no personal boundary or sense of privacy.

Orkut: A place on the internet for making holiday announcements, wedding announcements, baby announcements or any type of announcement, completed by  photographs and comments. It is also a good platform for wishing birthdays, anniversaries, Diwali, Holi, Dussehra, Pongal, New Year or any other festival (except, may be, Rakhshabandhan) to all your acquaintances. 

Personal Blog: A personal diary which is anything but private.

Blogosphere: A community of procrastinators.


E-mail: Emergency-mailing system. 

------------------------------------------

P.S.: 1. I think I have heard the above definition of Facebook somewhere but don’t remember where. A friend might have mentioned it. Oh well, the wordings are still mine…


2. For the credits for above icons, please refer to credit section in the left side bar (Go way down).

Animal Cruelty?

Okay, this is a screen capture of my Farmville animal’s section. I feel very guilty when I put yet another adopted animal among them. It’s so overcrowded that I think soon PETA will sue me for animal cruelty (Especially if you look at the sheep). I don’t want to sell these animals as the last time I sold my cows and chickens, the very next day Farmville introduced cow sheds and chicken coops for them. But I feel very sorry for my poor animals! Life must be so miserable for them in this overcrowded ranch. I pet them often though! Hope it helps them..

Internet causes divorce

No Kidding! According to this report, and I quote,

One law firm, which specializes in divorce, claimed almost one in five petitions they processed cited Facebook.

20% of divorce petitions sites Facebook! And there I thought it’s harmless fun. Although I shouldn’t blame Facebook entirely. According to the report:

Amy Taylor 28, split from David Pollard after discovering he was sleeping with an escort in the game Second Life, a virtual world where people reinvent themselves.

Now I am not sure what are the ethical values about virtually sleeping with someone (at least that’s how I understand these lines). But is it really considered evidence in the court of law? I mean, I get it that it means that that person have an intent to cheat his wife but he didn’t really cheated on his wife, did he? I understand the rage of the wife but again the question is: will or rather, should this hold up as an evidence in the court of law? I mean, people kill hordes of other people virtually every day through these games, are we going to try them next for the intent to kill? If not, then how can they use the same argument for a divorce case? Unless, of course, there was more to the case  than “sleeping virtually”.
Anyway, I am curious that if social networks can wreck such an havoc, what about blogging? I couldn’t find anything on net but I bet it should have more impact on relationship breaks than anything else. After all, no matter how hard you try, blogs become very personal.

Back

Yes, yes I am still here even though it doesn’t seem so . Since I missed the NaBloPoMo, I decide to give myself a two weeks break. True, I should have mentioned it here and am truly sorry about that. I hope you trust me when I say, I deserved this break. I wrote 180 post last year. Even though it is not as many as year before that (246 post), I still wrote one post per 2 days on average, which isn’t bad, isn’t it? I will try to do better this year though I am not making any promises.

Anyway, I am back to work today and at the moment trying to make sense of the work I used to do. As you can tell, I am not having much success and hence I am procrastinating by writing this post.

Anyhoo, the point of this post: I am going to be extremely busy for next six months as I am trying to finish my thesis, hence I expect to post a lot unless I get too consumed by my work. Let’s all hope that that doesn’t happen. Hope I will continue to have a life for next six months. I am planning to take a day off every week and either go for a photography trip or to a movie so that I don’t get too consumed by my work. In any case, these are my last six months in the bay area so I should make most of it and take as many pictures as possible. Let’s see how that works out!

Oh yeah, Happy New Year ya'll! Hope it’s better than the last one and you keep all your resolutions…