Transition of Thoughts

Weaving thoughts into words

Month: November 2009

“Jan Gan Mann Rann” – A new awakening or money making at its best?

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On November 25, 2009

In My thots and scribbles, Uncategorized

Jana Gann Mana Rann hai
is Rann mein
Zakhmi hua hai Bhaarat ka Bhaagya Vidhaata

Punjab Sindh Gujrat Maratha
Ek doosre se ladd ke mar rahein hain
Is desh ne humko ek kiya
Hum desh ke tukdey kar rahein hain
Dravid Utkal Banga

Khoon bahaa ker, ek rang ka kar diya humne tiranga
Sarhadon pe jung aur
Galiyon mein fasaad danga
Vindh Himachal Yamuna Ganga
Mein tezaab ubal raha hai

Mar gaya sab ka zameer
Jaane kab zinda ho aagey
Phir bhi Tava shubh naame jaage
Tava shubh aashish maange

Aag mein jal kar cheekh raha hai
Phir bhi koi nahi sach ko bachaata
Gaahe tava jaya gaatha

Desh ka aisa haal hai lekin
Aapas mein ladd rahein Neta
Jana Gann Mangal daayak jaya hai
Bhaarat ko bacha le Vidhaata!!!

Jaya hai Ya yeh Marann hai
Jana Gann Mana Rann hai

First things first : I would like to point out that this song as you would have realised after reading the lyrics has been banned by the Supreme Court. The censors are surely expected to remove it from the movie as well when it would be ready for release in Jan 2010.

Now coming to the basic point of the song. There has been widespread criticism about this song from various quarters with various allegations as to how Ram Gopal Varma (RGV) dared to use the national anthem, how he manipulated it for his own profit and many also went to the extent of calling him and everyone associated with the movie (cmon guys you are talking about the “Legend” – Amitabh Bachchan) as unpatriotic.

To some extent yes, probably using the national anthem is wrong and even I don’t doubt a fact that one of the reasons RGV would have had to put this song was to make a profit. But cmon guys, we are mature people here. Everyone is in business to make money (that’s what I personally am taught at a B-School and that’s what is the reality outside). All the CSR activities and other so called activities for “human goodness” actually come later whether we agree or not. The prime motive of be it ITC, HUL, Pepsi, Infosys, Cummins, Star Plus anyone for that matter is to be profitable and get more and more customers. Helping the society in terms of e-choupal, helping improve sanitation, teaching small students and other such activities though being very good come secondary for any of the above companies.

So coming back to the point why was the song put into the movie. The movie basically deals with the media world in India today and how it affects the common man on the road as well as politicians. Today’s media be it NDTV 24×7, Headlines Today, Aaj Tak, Star News, Zee News anyone and everyone’s first aim is to increase their TRPs and therefore the intent is to create content which the public loves whether be it the continuous coverage of the 26×11 Mumbai attacks or the design of the sari worn by Shilpa Shetty in her wedding couple of days back.

This song depicts reality. It ventures into unchartered territory in using the national anthem but its like an awakening for our country. As I have written in one of my earlier pieces, even though our GDP grew to about 8-9% as of 2008 and we are regarded as one of the fastest growing economies of the world, we have problems everywhere. Whether it is the problems in Kashmir, the Godhra riots in Gujarat, the Cauvery water issue between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the Mangalore pub attacks, the Naxal issue in more than 226 districts of the country, the Tata Singur issue or basically the fact that even after more than 60 yrs of our independence we still lack basic infrastructure our nation has been grappled with issues galore. Our freedom fighters fought for our independence so that we can stay united and take on the world. But today we stand even after so many years we still stand divided by caste, creed, sex, religion, gender etc. Our politicians like the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, Shivraj Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh and many others have poured litres and litres of oil in the burning fire. For their political gains and means they have ripped apart our nation from its heart. Its sad but true. Gandhiji taught us the importance of truth years ago. Today he has just become a small frame put in every office and nothing more than that. Whatever works in the work field is regarded as the truth and nothing else.

This song is like an awakening to our conscience and the youngsters of our nation to work together for a better future rather than fret about how RGV has manipulated this song for his so called means.

Whether or not this movie works or not, but RGV has shown the guts to make a song which no one has even dared to before in the history of Indian cinema, a song which pricks at every Indian’s conscience to do something for the country. He has given us the inspiration to do something for the country. Can we?

IIT Guwahati trip – Heaven on Earth – But can peace be restored here?

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On November 23, 2009

In Life and Times at VIT, Uncategorized

The North-East of India which includes Sikkim, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Imphal, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tripura and if you want to also consider West Bengal (though it doesn’t exactly come in the North East) is one of the most unexplored parts of the country in terms of tourism, lifestyle as well as the general day-to-day affairs of the people. For years our biased media situated in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai or for that matter any 0ther city of India has always projected a one sided image of this part of the country. Be it the ULFA in Assam, the different groups in Mizoram, the police atrocities in Manipur and Mizoram, the groups based in Tripura, attacks and incursions by HUJI and other militant organizations based in Bangladesh across the porous international border or even the Chinese claims to Arunachal Pradesh, the image of the North – East across the nation as well as across the world has never been positive.

In the context of this in April 08 when we (Sruthi, Achintya and me) thought of applying to IIT Guwahati for the B-Plan contest due to be held as part of the Tech fest “Techniche 08, the first thing that crossed our minds was whether it was safe to go there. Over the next few months though we worked hard to develop a pretty decent B-Plan. The submission date was extended by a couple of days (which is usual for all college fests in the country). But we joked that we will surely get selected because who will apply to Guwahati considering the safety as well as that it is too far. But as luck would have had it we got selected.

Now began the most amazing part of the journey. Two important questions needed to be answered. First as to whether we should go or not (obviously we wanted to because we were selected now though at first we had just thought of trying and not thinking of how we would go if selected) and Second as to how we would go. After endless discussions we ended up in Kolkata by train (32 hours – now that was seriously tooo much…though it gave me a great chance to see the East of the country which I hadn’t before). The best part was that the train was supposed to reach Howrah at approx 11 in the morning and finally ended up coming around 4pm. Our flight to Guwahati (yes everyone advised us to take a flight till there because of attacks by ULFA on the rail route as well as the fact that its single gauge and takes loads of time) was at 6pm. Somehow we all managed to catch the flight (that was an experience in itself with the driver coming close to nearly two accidents and mouthing expletives to hundreds all across the route).

In the flight (Jet Airways), I was seriously surprised to see a honeymoon couple (its just that I didn’t know people still come to visit the place despite attacks). As we were landing at the Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, I was surprised by the lack of yellow lights as well as great patches of darkeness on the roads. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that I haven’t been to a quieter airport (till date) in my life before. The lack of any crowds, closed PCO as well as the fans and most of the shops surprised me. Before coming here I was already aware of the fact that prepaid phones from outside don’t work here. Hearing that the ISD facility at the airport was closed, I got all the more worried thinking that mom and dad will be worried. After coming out, we unanimously decided to go to Siroy Lily – the hotel Sruthis dad had booked rather than going to IIT which we thought would be unsafe considering that it was night and we didn’t know the place.

As we whizzed past the different streets of Guwahati what struck me most was the fact that the roads seemed pretty deserted even though it was eight, there were patches of darkeness (though at Paltan Bazaar where we stayed there was traffic and too much light) as well as some kind of uneasiness in me which made me feel that I was not exactly in India. Interestingly as a matter of fact, we came to know that Paltan Bazaar is a red – light area :P. It just seemed like this place is totally cut off from mainland India. Even though Siroy Lily is supposed to be one of the best hotels around there, I just felt a sense of uneasiness (though not so much to bother me) considering the fact about whatever I had ever heard about the North-East till then. In the hotel, Sruthi also realised that her Reliance Netconnect wasn’t working.

Sruthi’s dad who had accompanied us has his company’s office in Guwahati too. He had asked someone from there to take us to the IIT campus in Amingaon which is outside the city. As we moved through the city, I found it to be pretty dirty. But the landscape changed as soon as we left the city. Wherever one’s eyes went, only greenery was visible all around. Tremendous, Beautiful, Mind – Boggling, Out of this world, Spectacular, Splendid are just few of the adjectives one can use to describe the beauty.

The IIT campus is like an entire city in itself situated pretty far from the city. The presentation was a good one wherein we got a chance to interact with participants from various colleges as well as a B-School Team from IIFT Kolkata. Our topic – Lingerie Manufacturing was a crowd puller in itself literally too as at one moment one of the organizers asked us whether we had any inspiration from the IIM A team of 4 people who started such a business couple of years ago. Hopefully they didn’t suspect us of copying. Among the 10 teams we got shortlisted in the top 5 and were honoured to have a panel interview with the judges from IIM S and IIT Kanpur. Even though we ended up third (sadly there was no prize for coming third). On our way back to the hotel I got a chance to hear a couple of Assamese songs on the FM and they were really beautiful tunes. We got a call that evening to come an hour early for the early morning flight the next day signifying the fact that the security situation was serious. While going to the airport the next day seeing all the tree covered mountains and bushes passing by I was just sad for the fact that I couldn’t get the chance to visit different places like the famous Kamakhiya Temples, the Kaziranga sanctuary which is about 200 km away or other places away from the city which can truly be called “Heaven on Earth”.

Back in Kolkata again one of Sruthi’s dads office colleagues took us around to a nice place for lunch. While going to the Howrah station for the journey back to Katpadi, I saw the Eden Gardens, the Victoria Memorial as well as the All India Radio Building all from outside though because it was raining too heavily. The experience of sitting on the ferry across the Hooghly was a nice one.

The North East is one of the most beautiful places in this nation. The greenery which I saw (I think it was not even o.1% of what is there) was mind-boggling. One can just see everything green till the eyes can go without a single patch of barren land. The experience over the mighty Bramhaputra was stupendous. Sadly due to the bad intentions of a few individuals like Mr Baruah of ULFA and others this part of the country has been ravaged completely. On October 25 2008, approximately two months after I had been to Guwahati, three bomb blasts ripped through it and other places across Assam killing more than 60-70 people and wounding hundreds. Even the media has always given a one sided view of this region of the country preferring to enhance their TRPs by always talking about violence unleashed by the insurgency. Successive governments have neglected this part of our country in terms of budgets, funds etc. Even though the IIT and IIM have come up, the people need more in terms of resources, industries (which are almost none), infrastructure (airports are not present even in Shillong which has an IIM and even the rail network is bad) and also economic assistance (a package by the Asian Development Bank for Arunachal was almost blocked by China because of their claims to this state).

With its unexplored natural beauty, mind – boggling greenery and hidden mysteries, this is truly the “Heaven on Earth”. I wish to come back one day with my family to this part of our country with the hope of seeing peace and tranquility restored in this beautiful part of our nation.

I appeal to the Indian Government to avoid giving step-motherly treatment to this part of the nation failing which the consequences don’t seem too good for the country.

The countdown to the Earth’s destruction has begun!!!

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On November 16, 2009

In My thots and scribbles, Uncategorized

shark-global-warming

Cyclones, Floods, Droughts, Famines, Increasing temperatures are some of the buzzwords in today’s world. No!! Its not that they are very fashionable to use or talk about frequently. Its just that our Mother Earth is facing all these unfortunate events and much more with amazing regularity over the past 20-30 years. The future looks even bleak with predictions ranging from the world ending in 2012 to many cities like Kolkata, Singapore, London, Venice and others facing the sea shore in danger of being submerged. These untoward weather events are only expected to increase as the years pass by.

All this in the end has been caused due to one particular phenomenon which people from teachers in classrooms to Al Gore in “The Inconvenient Truth” talk about – Global Warming. I wouldn’t bore you guys with a technical description of what it exactly is because I don’t want you guys to go like “Oh God!!! Not again…The same old crap”. But the point which I would like to make is that only one entity on this earth is responsible for all this (not considering stupid factors like natural change n stuff which people blabber about) – Humans. We humans have played around with this planet as if it were a football and one can kick it anywhere he / she wants.

God has given us water, air, land everything. But we being humans, we have dirtied everything from air and water to even our land as and how we wanted without caring a damn for our future generation. Leave the future generation; we haven’t cared about the fact that at the way we are going, we would not leave any resources for even our children.

Our cities be it Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Guwahati, Bhubaneshwar, Bengaluru, Jammu etc may be different in their cultures, people, languages, religions, dress code and many other things. But few things like overcrowded roads, congested airports, smoky skies, falling trees, dirty water, noisy environments and what not are surely common. The best example of how strongly the Indian government enforces its law regarding throwing garbage on roads freely (if there was one :P) – The NRIs while in their respective countries be it Oman, Dubai, USA, UK, Australia wherever don’t dare to dirty the roads and the environment for being caught. But as soon as they arrive in India, they somehow turn into someone else as if showing the colours of a person with a split personality. Garbage is thrown at such ease as if the roads are the person’s father’s property.

Spitting paan and urinating on walls in public where its written that doing this would invite a fine, cutting trees to put statues of one of the worst leaders in modern history (Mayawati madam – God!!! Our country will completely go to the dogs if she were to become the president as she had wanted to) made by spending the taxpayer’s hard earned money, big corporates like Pepsi, Nicholas Piramal and others bribing many to allow them to discharge their wastes in the water bodies, use of plastic bags in the Trade Fair going on presently in Pragati Maidan openly defying the government orders are some of the most amazing instances of disregarding the law in our great nation.

I am sure you all must be thinking how negative I am. But wait guys, we really have done quite a lot in this direction. As a responsible country, India has been taking measures to reduce its carbon footprint. Programmes such as the National Action Plan on Climate Change and the National Solar Mission reflect India’s commitment in the direction. These programmes aim at protecting the air, water and land ecosystem by a number of various measures. As of today the Indian government has decided to provide increased subsidies for manufacture of solar power so that cost of producing it can come down drastically and companies like Tata BP Solar India Ltd. and Moser Baer India Ltd. can easily produce solar panels. Wind energy is contributing to a small but increasing number of energy resources. Nuclear energy is being given great importance as can be seen from the great effects of the Indo – US nuclear deal. Delhi Metro and other developing metros as well as use of CNG in vehicles has helped a lot in reducing pollution. But a lot in terms of spreading the awareness of protection of Earth,  clearing bureaucratic hurdles and strongly enforcing rules and regulations needs to done.

Though the developing countries such as India and China are few of the biggest polluters in the world, India’s per capita average is 1/20 which doesn’t mean that it should not work to protect the environment but its not right to hold them responsible for Global Warming completely. Numerous treaties, protocols, summits and what not like the Montreal Protocol, Kyoto Protocol, Copenhagen Summit etc have been signed and held. At the end of all this we are still worse off then before. The biggest problem lies in the fact that USA which is the biggest polluter in the world in terms of per capita has never agreed to these treaties as it says that adhering to them would stop their industries, remove their gas guzzling vehicles of the roads and completely stop their lives.

What a sad state we have reached. Our earth is getting destroyed and sadly the people are just interested in making money and running their industries and cars.

I would like to end by this pic which is self explanatory as our actions are leading us to this unless some thing great happens:-

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The “Marathisation” of Mumbai!!!

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On November 15, 2009

In My thots and scribbles, Uncategorized

india_mumbai-011

Mumbai has always been known as one of the few Indian cities which easily accommodates people from different places and regions. Its like the melting pot or if one were to say the potpourri of different cultures, languages, people etc.  Hundreds from all over India be it Bihar, UP, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Assam everywhere arrive here each day with dreams in their eyes to build a great future for themselves. It is the home of the largest movie industry in the world (Bollywood), home to icons such as Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan, the territory of the one of the best examples of supply chain management in India (The Dabbawallas), the Financial Hub of the nation and so much more. The 26/11 attack in Mumbai was an attack on the heart of the nation.

Politics like any other city of India has played an important role in its development and if you may call it destruction too at many times. Bal Thackeray formed the Shiv Sena in 1966 based on the militant ideology that Maharashtra belonged to the Marathis and they should be given preference over the migrants from other states. Over the years, this ideology of “Marathi manoos” became little bit less extremist as the party expanded to a pan – India base and aligned with the Hindutva agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In all this, the Shivsainiks (Shiv Sena party workers) became infamous for different agendas be it opposing Valentines Day celebrations, opposing the movie “Water”, ransacking offices such as Zee News, digging the Feroze Shah Kotla pitch in Delhi, violence against Muslims and what not.

MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) was formed in 2006 by Raj Thackeray, nephew of Bal Thackeray because Raj felt that Shiv Sena had fallen from its former glory since it was run a few petty clerks. Even though MNS and Shiv Sena are different parties, both stand on the same “Marathi manoos” ideology. In March 2006, he unveiled his agenda for the development of Maharashtra as well as the “Sons of the Soil” theory.

Sadly, the party has been known for all the wrong reasons till date. In 2008, the MNS workers attacked shopkeepers and workers from North India as well as Bihar. They beat up North Indian candidates appearing for the all India Railway Recruitment Board exam in Maharashtra. Jet Airways was threatened by Raj Thackeray to take back the probationary employees who had been shed in a cost cutting move. Abu Azmi, the richest MLA in Maharashtra was thrashed recently inside the assembly for taking his oath in Hindi (even though the constitution says that a minister can take his oath in Hindi which is the official language of India unlike what was said by an MNS worker, English or a regional language).

Gandhiji – I know most of you will be like why am I talking about that man here and what is his relevance in today’s world. Well, he worked for the Indian independence so that all of us be it Kashmiris, Gujaratis, Tamilians, Assamese everyone lives with a sense of unity. Politics has played a key role in any piece of development in our country. Interestingly, India has the highest number of political parties in the world. Over the 60 years since our independence, our nation began to divide on the basis of caste, creed, religion, location, colour be it reservation for religious minorities or scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST), ill treatment of SC/ST, sons of the soil theory in MP, Maharashtra, Andhra, problems between North and South Indians and what not.

We always say that we face danger from Pakistan and terror groups located there. But I think, our biggest problem is within. Though it may sound cliche, but I would still say this –  “We all say that we are Tamilian, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayali, Bihari and what not but very few of us really say that we are from India”. Till the time we have this point of view we would continue to be weak in front of any nation in the world.

Our politicians are supposed to work for the development of human kind. Be it Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi everywhere there is the need to improve infrastructure, sanitation, education and basically the overall quality of life of the people. Its always said that our country is rich but the people are poor. Despite so many pressing issues to solve, the politicians of today are sadly engaged in promoting the “sons of the soil theory” which basically destroys the concept of a united India.

I would like to end with a small line from Chetan Bhagat’s recent novel – “2 states – the story of my marriage”

“My sons are neither from the state of Delhi nor from Tamil Nadu. They are from the state of India.”

VIT does it once again – becomes the 1st Private University in India to get ABET accreditation

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On November 13, 2009

In Life and Times at VIT, Uncategorized

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Movie Review – Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani

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On November 8, 2009

In Movie Reviews, Uncategorized

ajab-prem-ki-ghazab-kahani-movie

Raj Kumar Santoshi has come up with a romantic comedy for just the 2nd time in his career. When Andaz Apna Apna came way back in 1994, it was a big box office failure despite the presence of big stars like Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Karishma Kapoor and Raveena Tandon. But over the years with its reruns on television, it has acquired a cult-like status among the people. In the midst of all this, he has come up with at times hard-hitting, at times woman oriented and many times very violent movies like Ghayal, Ghatak, Damini, China Gate, Lajja, Khakee to name a few.

So one is pretty surprised to see Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (which is projected as a rom-com) from his stable. This is the first Hindi movie I went to watch in the theater since coming here to Pune 5 months ago. I was just hoping that the 90 bucks spent would be worthed. From the first scene onwards, wherein Ranbir Kapoor catches a criminal because there’s no brake in his cycle, Santoshi promises complete entertainment not exactly mindless or slapstick like “All the Best” but with good dialogues and comic situations.

The dialogue writing is really brilliant. The witty one – liners from Ranbir from time – to – time make one laugh like never before. I am sure many of you would disagree with me but the point is that this movie hasn’t been projected to be some amazing blockbuster wherein you gotta put your brain and stuff like that. Its one of the most endearing family entertainers in recent times due to its simplicity that is no item songs, no skin show by Katrina, no vulgar or crude comedy nothing. What else does a movie – goer want.

Katrina as always looks gorgeous to say the least. I surely agree to the fact that she isn’t a great actress but she surely has improved quite a lot over the years and I am sure she’s capable of going a long way. She and Ranbir really do share a great on – screen chemistry and the freshness of this pairing is what makes you really love them.

Pritam is again back as the music director with songs from various singers including Alisha Chinoy, Atif Aslam, Hard Kaur, KK and many more. Even though he copies most of his music (which is obviously wrong), I am sure whenever we read that he is the music director, we surely await the movie. All the songs are good in their own way and aptly placed. But the best according to me has to be the two by Atif Aslam (Even though I dont have really good things to say about Pakistan, they surely have singing gems like him). The way he has sung Tu Jaane Na and Tere Hone Laga Hoon, you can’t help but remember your loved one (even if you don’t have, you would surely looong to have one :)). Especially the picturization of Tu Jaane Na is splendid.

It may not have a great story but it leaves you with a smile when you come out of the theater. So guys if you like a simple, sweet, cute, clean and wholesome family entertainer (which I am sure you will agree is difficult to find in Bollywood these days), then this is the movie for you. GO AND ENJOY IT!!!!

Chetan Bhagat – The biggest selling English – language novelist in India’s history

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On November 7, 2009

In My thots and scribbles, Uncategorized

Chetan Bhagat is like one of us. He completed his engineering from IIT Delhi and MBA from IIM – A and then worked in Deutsche Bank for eleven years before delving into writing (Now there are so many of us who maybe having the same educational qualifications as well as dreams of working in the top banks and other companies of the world). But somewhere down the line he realised that this was not giving him the creative satisfaction he so badly wanted and becoming more of a dull and dreary job.

His first book “Five Point Someone – What not to do at IIT” was rejected by nine publishers. As he once said at an orientation program for MBA students at Symbiosis, Pune, this incident made him so disappointed that he was ready to quit once and for all. But he refused to buckle down. This simple story of three friends – Hari, Ryan and Alok and their years in IIT Delhi and how they cope with the pressures of studies, family pressure and love and friendship made the nation read like never before (Probably at par with the Harry Potter series). It catapulted him to instant stardom. This book was followed by One Night @ the Call Center, Three Mistakes of my Life and 2 States – The Story of my marriage.

The best thing about his books is the fact that all his characters are ones which today’s generation can associate with – whether its Hari in Five point someone, Vroom in One night at the Call center or Krish and Ananya in 2 States – The story of my marriage. Critics have always lambasted him for “n” number of reasons like having no literary value in his works, his characters being one dimensional and similar in all his books as well as ridiculous things like encouraging sex before marriage. CRITICS BE DAMNED!!!!. Personally I think all these critics like crap stuff which the general public normally hates. They pass such comments because none of them have it in them to even write few lines of a novel.

Bhagat has never advocated the fact that he meant to be a literary genius. His main aim was, has and I am sure will always be to entertain all audiences alike. I feel that his greatest success lies in the simplicity of all his characters though I think “Three Mistakes of My Life” was much more serious than any of his works which is why he recently said that after this book he was feeling very heavy and wanted to get back to something “light-hearted” as that has always been his forte. As far as promoting sex in his books is concerned, one thing I would like to point out to the critics is that today’s generations isn’t that dumb. They are exposed to Television, print media (Newspapers, magazines etc) as well as Internet which are much bigger promoters of sex and nudity than a plain simple novel. Don’t the novels of Sidney Sheldon, Nicholas Sparks and who all have a bit of sex in them? This is what we call hypocrisy wherein such self – proclaimed moralists of our country would be watching porn, nudity and sex but would surely comment on others because they can’t bear to see their success.

Bhagat has become much more than a writer today. He’s evolved into a youth icon having been conferred the Society Young Achiever’s Award – 2004 as well as the Publisher’s Recognition Award 2005 and also been called to present speeches at the HT Leadership Summit as well as Symbiosis, Pune. His articles on politics, economics, social and a host of other issues in Dainik Bhaskar, Times of India and Hindustan Times which have created a flutter even in the Parliament also have a dedicated base of followers.

I would like to end by quoting few lines from his speech at the HT Leadership Summit in 2008

“I am no leader. At best, I am a dreamer with  perseverance to make dreams come true. As I have made my own dreams come true already, I am tempted to think we can make my country’s dreams come true. And that is why I am here.”

So guys what are you waiting for?? Chetan Bhagat has shown us that all of us are capable of achieving what he has achieved. All we need is the perseverance to make our dreams come true!!!

Pakistan’s march towards disaster!!!

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On November 3, 2009

In My thots and scribbles, Uncategorized

peshawarbombEPA_450x300

Pakistan – a nation born from India (yeah but till date they have textbooks which say the opposite – India being the son and Pakistan the father…That is as ridiculous as something can get!!). The Indo – Pak rivalry goes back more than 60 years which includes the three wars over Kashmir, numerous terrorist attacks across Kashmir as well as other parts of India by the hundreds of terrorist groups operating there and also continuous incursions by terrorists over the years across the Line of Control.

In all these years, Pakistan didn’t realize what it was making of itself as a nation. Out of more than 60 years of its independence, it has been ruled by the army for a considerable period of time. The struggle for East Pakistan (renamed as Bangladesh) in 1971 was very bitter. They haven’t ever  had a coherent foreign policy with regards to India. While in the front the political leadership had meetings in Tashkent, Agra and all these places saying “Talks are the way forward” and what not, from behind the Army helped push militants across the LOC as well as encourage and fund ISI to plan terrorist attacks across India.

Pakistan had set up the Taliban to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. But little did they realize that this move would come back to haunt them forever. 9/11 – the event that changed the world dramatically made them join the “War on Terror” set in motion by George Bush. Now this is an irony –  the country known to be the hotbed of terrorism with hundreds of terrorist sanctuaries and training schools spread across its vast expanse had joined the “War” to fight these terrorists itself. Its like giving birth to your kids and then killing them on their own.

This move met with resistance as expected all across the Muslim world as well as Pakistan. The terrorists responded with attacks all across Pakistan – Karachi, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Lahore no city was left safe. The attack on the Sri Lankan Cricket Team, Benazir Bhutto, the market in Peshawar, the Islamabad University and hundreds more showed that the terrorists could attack any place at any time as and when they wanted.

FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) which includes South and North Waziristan, Bajaur, Orakzai and other regions is the most impoverished and least literate part of the nation. It is the part of the nation which is practically controlled by the Taliban. They have established the worst rules possible which includes bombing girls schools, a girl not being allowed outside without a male member of the family,  being shot at for adultery etc. It is regarded as the hub of militants where they moved in from Afghanistan after the US air strikes. Even though Pakistan openly says it doesn’t support them, US air strikes are a common sight in Pakistan now-a-days. I personally think it hasn’t served any purpose as has been proved from the amazing increase in terror strikes after the killing of Baitullah Mehsud.

What hurt me personally was the fact was the way the government let them take Swat (its regarded as the Switzerland of Asia). Rather than fighting them or doing something more useful, the government signed an agreement which helped them increase their arms and establish their so called sharia law wherein the woman of the house always had to satisfy the man of the house failing which she could be thrown out , they had no rights and also could be used and thrown as and when wanted.  This agreement helped the Taliban reach till about 160km from Islamabad.

In the midst of all this we forget one thing. The difference with which both India and Pakistan have grown over the last 60 years of independence. India has always had a foreign policy of cooperation and coordination. Its exports, GDP, literacy rate have all grown by leaps and bounds. It is the world’s largest democracy and has great importance and say in world issues.

Pakistan on the other hand has just had a policy of KASHMIR, KASHMIR AND KASHMIR. The only thing it has tried to do since independence is to try and get Kashmir by any way possible be it wars, pushing terrorists across the LOC, encouraging terrorist attacks across India anything. In the midst of this, its inflation has jumped to more than 20%. The stock market has crashed “n” number of times. The people are scared to invest their money in new businesses for the failure of their life. The political, economic and social situation has crumbled completely as the terrorists are literally controlling the country.

Over the last 2 years more than 3200 people have died with 350 in the last two weeks. I feel bad for the normal Pakistani on the road because the situation in Pakistan doesn’t look like it will ever improve as can be seen from the statements and actions of the political leadership even in recent times whether its blaming India for supporting Taliban or for creating trouble in Balochistan. As the operation  “Rah-e-Nijat” (Oh God!!! Who the hell on this earth named it Path To Salvation because I am sure these guys aren’t ever going to get that) continues in Waziristan, attacks continue to kill hundreds. Pakistan has truly but surely reached the brink of a civil war.

Pakistan’s MARCHING towards total disaster and that isn’t good news for India!!!

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