The high end socialites of Mumbai's night life, the Page 3 regulars, have a new pastime when they decide to take some invaluable time off partying- taking a dig at the government machinery on prime time TV news channels and chatter away to glory. They should seriously consider struting their new jewellery and designer clothes at a place more appropriate for such amusement.
The self proclaimed champions of citizens across the city have taken upon themselves the sceptre of responsiblity to 'bring to book' the functionaries of the government being the aware and concerned citizen that they are. This has reached such threatening levels that it has become a potential danger to switch on the TV prime time.
26/11 is indeed a dark day in Indian history. It was a collective failure and a shame on the entire country. The gory episode of carnage which could have been avoided, resulted in damage that has caused irrepairable loss to those who happened to be in the line of fire that fateful night.
JFK once famously said "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". The need of the hour is not blaming the entire government for the misfortune that our country had to endure but to ask what we can do as the real aware and concerned citizens of India and bellowing "I no longer feel safe in this country, change the government" is certainly not one of them.
It is time now for a new hope and responsiblity to dawn upon each one of us citizens than despair and accusal finding permanace. The functionaries of the state require an unflinching support of the real citizens not the ones who had decided not to have their next kitty party at the Taj for fear of another attack.It would be foolish enough to be led by the belief that the officials themselves are not as affected by the horrific turn of events a year ago. Being in the face of public fury they have to endure even more.
Our objective should be to grease the wheels that set our country into motion not to stall it on its way ahead. We have to be the participant citizenry not one who croones, cringes and complains at the slighest hint of inconvenience caused due to the supposed blatant 'ineptitude' of our government. The ones who complain of government inaction invariable are the first who start whining when governmental action seems meddlesome.
Let us acept that our government is no better than our own commitments to the ideals set by our founding fathers, the ones even we wish to live by. We, while amassing wealth bending every law in the rule book and in times of grave catastrophy keeping alive the 'spirit' of our country while cursing the polity for its lack of responsibility are not setting the correct example nor helping our cause.
Are we really safe??
But first we need ask whether we are doing anything substantial in this endeavour which is OUR prerogative before we start asking questions. A little more active, alert and aware citizens can go a long way to ensure that another Mumbai 26/11 does not occur and the fashion bees remain where they are best suited.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Kar ban
In the interest of preserving some sanity among cinema viewers and giving the triflest of respect to logic, movies of Kurbaan's kind should not be allowed to be made and if the makers still persist, should be banned at the first opportunity.
The movie is nothing different from what was on offer in 'New York' and the Saif-Kareena pair seems rotten to say the least. The movie starts off the same stale way that has happened in millions of movies if not more. The hero and heroine wait for a taxi at the same time. One gets it conning the other and behold , of all the miracles they meet at the same spot, a college where Madam Kareena is a professor and SAK is vying for a professor's job and the badgering continues. SAK tries wooing lady love in a cut short way while explaining there's no point in taking the longer route and not surprisingly she falls for him and they happily move to Amrica. Lovely wife suddenly realises that her dear hubby infact is a terrorist in the guise of a professor who 'used' her to reach the country he holds responsible for his grief and plans to blow up. A 'secret' that is hidden only from her, not the audience. This is when trouble begins..Not in their paradise but the movie hall...Enter Kirron Kher, Dia Mirza and Om Puri and a host of others who failed to find work elsewhere and the rest neither be told nor cared to be heard.
Vivek Oberoi as the pro-American, anti-fundamentalist TV reporter is wasted playing second fiddle to SAK. And it was refreshing to see Khulbhushan even though sadly it was just for a passing second. What has the world come?? Shakaal being treated like some filthy junior artist.
The clincher is a scene where VO scours through a lady's purse despite knowing that there's a bomb in it and gleefully hands it to the police with a glint in his eyes seeking a pat, a la Tushar Dalvi, "Sir he ghya bomb, mala jau dya sir please..."
The movie is best prescribed to one who thinks he's seen it all in life. Try sitting through Om Puri saying "aaj chai pine ka mann nai hai, coffee pilao" and bearing Kirron Kher in her atrocious hindi made to sound like an Afghan's which might drive Osama Bin Laden to suicide if he happens to hear her out "Bhai sahab aapko diabetes hoti, chai naai peeti,shakkar naai khati...". Fancy her calling her husband Bhaisahab.
In order to make it a little intersting they should have at least included an item numberby Rakhi Sawant or Sherlyn Chopra.
P.S For those who don't know who Tushar Dalvi is, he is Nostradamus reincarnate :)
The movie is nothing different from what was on offer in 'New York' and the Saif-Kareena pair seems rotten to say the least. The movie starts off the same stale way that has happened in millions of movies if not more. The hero and heroine wait for a taxi at the same time. One gets it conning the other and behold , of all the miracles they meet at the same spot, a college where Madam Kareena is a professor and SAK is vying for a professor's job and the badgering continues. SAK tries wooing lady love in a cut short way while explaining there's no point in taking the longer route and not surprisingly she falls for him and they happily move to Amrica. Lovely wife suddenly realises that her dear hubby infact is a terrorist in the guise of a professor who 'used' her to reach the country he holds responsible for his grief and plans to blow up. A 'secret' that is hidden only from her, not the audience. This is when trouble begins..Not in their paradise but the movie hall...Enter Kirron Kher, Dia Mirza and Om Puri and a host of others who failed to find work elsewhere and the rest neither be told nor cared to be heard.
Vivek Oberoi as the pro-American, anti-fundamentalist TV reporter is wasted playing second fiddle to SAK. And it was refreshing to see Khulbhushan even though sadly it was just for a passing second. What has the world come?? Shakaal being treated like some filthy junior artist.
The clincher is a scene where VO scours through a lady's purse despite knowing that there's a bomb in it and gleefully hands it to the police with a glint in his eyes seeking a pat, a la Tushar Dalvi, "Sir he ghya bomb, mala jau dya sir please..."
The movie is best prescribed to one who thinks he's seen it all in life. Try sitting through Om Puri saying "aaj chai pine ka mann nai hai, coffee pilao" and bearing Kirron Kher in her atrocious hindi made to sound like an Afghan's which might drive Osama Bin Laden to suicide if he happens to hear her out "Bhai sahab aapko diabetes hoti, chai naai peeti,shakkar naai khati...". Fancy her calling her husband Bhaisahab.
In order to make it a little intersting they should have at least included an item numberby Rakhi Sawant or Sherlyn Chopra.
P.S For those who don't know who Tushar Dalvi is, he is Nostradamus reincarnate :)
Friday, November 13, 2009
So long Safin...
World tennis is poorer today with the mercurial Russian Marat Safin deciding to call it quits from professional tennis. That the number of his titles do not do justice to his exceptional talent would be an understatement. The youngest world no. 1 till date was labelled "tennis of the future" by none other than the then greatest himself- Pete Sampras.
"But why so soon??" is the agonising question that legions of his fans can't stop asking, which also is very true considering others atletes like Sachin Tendulkar who were born a around decade before him continue to hang around even after suffering from something as ridiculous as 'tennis' elbow, lets overlook Martina Navritilova for a moment. Maybe its that great sporstmen do follow the old cliche that you ought to retire when people ask you 'why' not 'when'.
When he won his second slam he said he was relieved because he didnt want to be labelled a one-slam-wonder. Its a pity that no one said he would win only a dozen slams. With a ferocious back-hand, a potent second serve and a physique built like a bull it would not have been a wonder had he won even 20. Twelve intermitent years in tennis plagued with injuries and each year a painful wait to witness mad Marat turn saint Safin, as Nirmal Shekhar put it, and stand true to the potential that he displayed in his rise to fame . But alas, he left the grand stage just the way he entered smashing racquests and arguing footfault calls.
The graceful 'Safinnetes' who formed the cynosure of all eyes whenever he played, his idiosyncracies of arguing with the refs , gestures like kissing net cord lady or pulling down his shorts to 'let off some steam' as he put it would be sorely missed. He showed his game was much more than tennis.
That he was shown the door by the reigning US open champion who himself is 20 year-old, a year in his life which made the world stand up and take notice of his precocious talent is but a setting an ardent fan would have hoped for.
Lets hope he proves true to his talent and not end as someone 'who could have been...'Lets all hope the 'other door' does open up in his life which wouldn't surprisingly be mounteering in some distant altitudes away from hustle of world tennis where he wouldn't be bombarded with the same question time and again "when will you start winning and justify the portend predictions??"or being reminded of his epic match in the US open where he decimated a red-hot Sampras or of the lob he managed to conjure against Fed which helped him save a match point and subsequently the match and the championship.
So long Safin and thanks for all the tennis.
"But why so soon??" is the agonising question that legions of his fans can't stop asking, which also is very true considering others atletes like Sachin Tendulkar who were born a around decade before him continue to hang around even after suffering from something as ridiculous as 'tennis' elbow, lets overlook Martina Navritilova for a moment. Maybe its that great sporstmen do follow the old cliche that you ought to retire when people ask you 'why' not 'when'.
When he won his second slam he said he was relieved because he didnt want to be labelled a one-slam-wonder. Its a pity that no one said he would win only a dozen slams. With a ferocious back-hand, a potent second serve and a physique built like a bull it would not have been a wonder had he won even 20. Twelve intermitent years in tennis plagued with injuries and each year a painful wait to witness mad Marat turn saint Safin, as Nirmal Shekhar put it, and stand true to the potential that he displayed in his rise to fame . But alas, he left the grand stage just the way he entered smashing racquests and arguing footfault calls.
The graceful 'Safinnetes' who formed the cynosure of all eyes whenever he played, his idiosyncracies of arguing with the refs , gestures like kissing net cord lady or pulling down his shorts to 'let off some steam' as he put it would be sorely missed. He showed his game was much more than tennis.
That he was shown the door by the reigning US open champion who himself is 20 year-old, a year in his life which made the world stand up and take notice of his precocious talent is but a setting an ardent fan would have hoped for.
Lets hope he proves true to his talent and not end as someone 'who could have been...'Lets all hope the 'other door' does open up in his life which wouldn't surprisingly be mounteering in some distant altitudes away from hustle of world tennis where he wouldn't be bombarded with the same question time and again "when will you start winning and justify the portend predictions??"or being reminded of his epic match in the US open where he decimated a red-hot Sampras or of the lob he managed to conjure against Fed which helped him save a match point and subsequently the match and the championship.
So long Safin and thanks for all the tennis.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Dhishkyaun!!..
.
The Americans have come to realise (the hard way though) that the danger to their supremacy does not just lie lurking behind the bush yelling "khabeez ka bachcha" but also the one draped in the olive green uniform dutifully crying "aye aye sir!!!"..
The story of Major Hasan who went on a shooting spree killing 13 at the Texas military base, Fort Hood is intriguing to say the least. What is yet to be ascertained is the turn of events the night before with Maj. Hasan. Speculations are rife that he happened to catch a glimpse of Neil Nitin Mukesh and his 'bare' act in 'Jail'. So far so good. But when he heard that Neil had no qualms in 'baring' it all on-screen while on the contrary is looking forward to more of such 'meaty' roles, Major Nidal Hasan was beyond elementary counselling and went into such a severe traumatic stress that it undid all the good he'd done in this world.
There are certain positives though that could be drawn out of the dreadful incident in Texas, one of them being, American now has an immaculate indigenous training grounds for those boarding a military plane to Iraq. What better way to test a soldier's competence than to hand him a gun and test his skills at it..
That it took a wounded woman to shoot him down and end the carnage bears testimony to the fact that women make as good if not better troopers. The incident sheds light on the conditions prevalent in the war-torn country that oozes the the blood of women, children and aged alike.
To think of the troops themselves being in extreme conditions away from home with only gun-wielding folks around is sure to send a shiver in anybody's spine and drive anyone out of his mind and retort to such means as Maj. Nidal Hasan did as a means of protest.
It is remarkable that the 'hatela' man was a psychiatrist trained to help returning officers help cope with post traumatic stress. Just how could the US army have enlisted the services of a 'mad' man as a psychiatrist beats common reason. Or is it that he's seen so much poured out to him that he himself started getting nightmares. May be he did dread the prospect of going through all that he had heard of, first-hand. Conditions there could even compel a person to stick out a knife to a countryman without considering that he is actually there to help him out...
'mentally'
The Islamists across the world now are wary of are furious back lash while the conservatives are dreadful of another country being annihilated 'to reinstate democracy'.Might is always right..!
The valuable lesson learnt if its not yet understood is, anyone can go 'crazy' when one is asked to defend land which he does not consider 'motherland'. Forget about going there, even the thought of being there to help fellow soldiers could drive even a psychiatrist so insane that he failed to distinguish between one of their own and their much tauted adversaries.
The Americans have come to realise (the hard way though) that the danger to their supremacy does not just lie lurking behind the bush yelling "khabeez ka bachcha" but also the one draped in the olive green uniform dutifully crying "aye aye sir!!!"..
The story of Major Hasan who went on a shooting spree killing 13 at the Texas military base, Fort Hood is intriguing to say the least. What is yet to be ascertained is the turn of events the night before with Maj. Hasan. Speculations are rife that he happened to catch a glimpse of Neil Nitin Mukesh and his 'bare' act in 'Jail'. So far so good. But when he heard that Neil had no qualms in 'baring' it all on-screen while on the contrary is looking forward to more of such 'meaty' roles, Major Nidal Hasan was beyond elementary counselling and went into such a severe traumatic stress that it undid all the good he'd done in this world.
There are certain positives though that could be drawn out of the dreadful incident in Texas, one of them being, American now has an immaculate indigenous training grounds for those boarding a military plane to Iraq. What better way to test a soldier's competence than to hand him a gun and test his skills at it..
That it took a wounded woman to shoot him down and end the carnage bears testimony to the fact that women make as good if not better troopers. The incident sheds light on the conditions prevalent in the war-torn country that oozes the the blood of women, children and aged alike.
To think of the troops themselves being in extreme conditions away from home with only gun-wielding folks around is sure to send a shiver in anybody's spine and drive anyone out of his mind and retort to such means as Maj. Nidal Hasan did as a means of protest.
It is remarkable that the 'hatela' man was a psychiatrist trained to help returning officers help cope with post traumatic stress. Just how could the US army have enlisted the services of a 'mad' man as a psychiatrist beats common reason. Or is it that he's seen so much poured out to him that he himself started getting nightmares. May be he did dread the prospect of going through all that he had heard of, first-hand. Conditions there could even compel a person to stick out a knife to a countryman without considering that he is actually there to help him out...
'mentally'
The Islamists across the world now are wary of are furious back lash while the conservatives are dreadful of another country being annihilated 'to reinstate democracy'.Might is always right..!
The valuable lesson learnt if its not yet understood is, anyone can go 'crazy' when one is asked to defend land which he does not consider 'motherland'. Forget about going there, even the thought of being there to help fellow soldiers could drive even a psychiatrist so insane that he failed to distinguish between one of their own and their much tauted adversaries.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Not without my Baba..
The state of Mahashtra has found the surest way around the political skirmish that has come to dictate the order of the day at the Mantralaya. With the formation of the ministry not being as smooth nor as sweet as victory itself, our beloved CM has placed himself in Satya Sai baba's feet to seek to have a peaceful and trouble-free tenure as the big boss of Maharashtra..
Our able CM knows that with tugs at each leg of the 'chair' Baba's blessing is just what he needs to keep the other firebrand perpetrators at bay from the coveted prize.
The Madam in Delhi's blessing was enough assert his candidature to the top spot in the state but to ensure that it endures the test of time and the ire and displeasure of the allies in arms of the 'strongly' bonded coalition, our wise CM knows 'ab inhe diva ki nai dua ki zarurat padegi' and who beter to offer it than the celestial middleman himself who pulls of tricks that petty streets magicians find it hard to make ends meet with.
India TV for once did a commendable act to show the world a bit bit coverage in its trademark style of ultra slow motion and enlarged pictures of his hands and the dramatic anchor shouting himself hoarse with "Ye dekhiye unko dahina haat, ab ye dekhiye unka baya haat" for 3 pleasingly long hours on how babaji managed to conjure a shiv ling out of nowhere to the amazement of millions who stood in awe of this angelic powers..
His political rivals though cautious, hit the nail bang on the head.."Ye unka vyaktigat mamla hai,unhe aisa nai karna chaiye tha" went Sanjay Raut when our champion CM hosted the divine Baba to 'purify' his official residence,Varsha..
Baba's holy discourse in Mumbai wasn't without its share of celebrated 'bhakt' list. A chief Justice of the Bombay High court among a few other judges, the very famous Sonu Nigam who could not believe his luck when Baba himself handed out a much coveted ring to him.
The man with a mane that could give any hairdresser his worst nightmare, Satya Sai baba managed to spin a web which is not just restricted to 'the spiritual' land but the highly 'rationalised' west has fallen prey to it as well, though not a remarkable presence but worth notice. With TV cameras following evry inch of your movement, it becomes increasingly difficult to carry on with petty con to 'lead' people to believe in your 'celestial' powers but when a person who represents 10 crore of the people of our land and which boasts of the economic capital of the country of which secularism is an integral aspect, permits himself to such mockery in the public eye what can one expect but ridicule in the face of the world.They say count your blessings not your troubles, and thankfully our Prime Minister does not retort to 'baba'dom to allay his worse fears of an even bigger coalition.
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