Today a Bandit, tomorrow a MP

As far as my limited knowledge of constitution and it's rules and regulations goes, I don't think anybody with "proven criminal" background can contest elections, be it state or centre.

Then what are we seeing here?

First it was the famous Poolan Devi, now this one called Seema Parihar! Isn't this unconstitutional?

I don't deny the famous but often mis-used "innocent until proven guilty" phrase. But these are people who made movies out of their life stories where they openly proclaim that they have been dacoits/looters/bandits and here they are becoming MPs to rule us, to become the face of the nation, to become one of the makers of Modern-India :(

I am not being heartless. These people have gone through a lot in their lives. They have been misused, exploited which may have influenced them to take the law in their hands. I am not denying that part. As part of a responsible society, it's our duty to rehabilitate them and give them a good life. But a Lok Sabha seat? Isn't that too much to ask for?

Let us give them site/house, monthly pension and maybe a job also, if they are qualified enough to do it. But give them the reigns of power to rule our country?

So, today I become a bandit.. commit n number of crimes. Looting, killing .. you name it. Tomorrow I come up with a sad story of my life.. and make a movie out of it (with the looted money of course!) and day after tomorrow I get a Lok Sabha seat?

To answer the above question myself.. YES!

When I fell on the road

It was already 8:30am. I was 1 and half hours late. I generally leave home at 7 in the morning to office. Today I had overslept and here I was, running on the road to catch the last bus. If I miss this one, I will either have to take an auto upto BTM to catch our office bus, or take a city bus all the way till e-city. I hate both the options. The BTS buses specially going towards Hosur are filled with JP* men. Auto guys act too smart and demand extra because they know I am in a hurry, and want to make most out of this situation. I never give even 1 rupee extra to the auto guys, knowing very well that most of them would have already rigged the meter and so always end up fighting with them. I don't mind fighting as long as I have the time to do it ;-).

Anyway, all that apart and coming back to my running... I was some 50 mts behind the bus. This stop is the starting point for the bus, so it was parked on the side of the road. Suddenly I heard the driver start the engine so I ran.. and then... lo and behold! I fell on the footpath (maybe I tripped on a stone.. but it's quite obvious that I didn't notice it!).

Here I am lying on the footpath, my left knee badly hurt... and a passerby instead of helping me up says "yen madam noodkondu nadibaarda" (translation: what madam... can't you see and walk?").

The left knee was not very hurting... but his words hurt me. Have we become so materialised and impassionate that we can't even empathise with other people?

Anyway, I was late.. so I just got up and ran again to get into the bus. Not a very nice way to start the day.

* JP = Jhollu Party. This can be very well understood by Kannada speaking folks. For the benefit of others, a loose translation will be "A person who stares at you with saliva dripping from his mouth!"

P.S: I was NOT wearing heels.

Lizzy...Doggy...Raamy

The big fat Indian wedding:

With the famous Liz and Arun’s marriage, India itseems now has become a favorite destination for weddings. Welcome all you colorless (read white) people. Welcome to the world of something more than elephants and snake charmers. Welcome to the land of Palaces.

Though I want to appreciate the tourism industry’s effort in promoting India as a wedding destination, I can’t help but laugh at them! Ok first step is achieved. We have had enough publicity with this one marriage and hello! He was a billionaire (or whatever super duper rich is called) and he could afford such a grand affair. But can everybody afford this kind of grandeur? What if a normal white (with little more money than us of course) wants to marry in India? The situation will be something like this:

• Welcome at the airport: Stinking bathrooms. Customs officials trying ooze every possible dime out of you in the process of “checking”. Every other person starting from the airport luggage help to the domestic help in the bathroom expecting some “tip” from you.
• Taxi: If you are not forewarned about these rouges and you end up taking a non-pre paid taxi. God bless you!
• Hotel: Odd stares from anybody and everybody. Hotel staff, other visitors or simply just someone passing by. After all you are “white thing” ;-). Even the supposedly 5 star hotels have horrible tubs. You see maintenance of these hotels depends on people like you. You should visit more often and give generous tips and we will do everything we can to tidy up the place (not to mention people!).
• Local travel: It does not matter if you have a travel agent or not. Everybody will churn out as much money from you as possible. Let God be with you when you specially travel in the famous Autos. Take care of your backs… you might not see them again!
• Tourist places: Less said the better. Just carry lots of money that’s all!
• Portraying our culture and tradition: Confusion is the word. Let’s accept it. We ourselves hardly know anything about our tradition, why teach somebody else who can hardly relate to it. From my own personal experience I can say, 10 people say 10 different things about something that has to be done traditionally!

I am NOT trying to be un-patriotic here. Neither am I trying to defame our beautiful country, but there is something called as “accepting-the-facts”. Why simply paint an overdone beautiful picture of “Incredible-India” when all we are cable of giving is cheating and run for their money? Nothing much can be done about the attitude of the locals but atleast the tourism dept can put some processes in place which will reduce this day-light cheating to some extent. That’s all I am asking. Enough of making incredible-videos please do some ground work also. For heaven’s sake clean up Agra the land of THE TAJ-MAHAL!

The now famous Dog-Menace in Bangalore:

Some dogs are no longer man’s best friends. They are now man-eaters or more specifically children eaters! It’s disheartening to see daily reports of young children being torn to pieces alive by these ferocious dogs. So, the municipal corporation has finally woken up and has started taking “measures” to curb this menace. Solution: KILL THEM ALL!I agree the dog houses are full and have no space to accommodate more dogs. But kill them all? Why, just because we are the “superior” species? Is killing solution at all? Common sense tells no! Today you kill 100 and tomorrow 200 of them will be born again. Instead put some long term solutions in place.

• Undeniably the first step: Clean up the city! Have regular garbage collection in place and proper garbage dumping mechanisms in place
• Close all those illegal meat shops. And “educate” the legal ones about proper waste disposal.
• Have “regular” sterilization camps for the dogs in the city.
• Catch the stray ones “regularly” and send them to dog shelters and put them up for adoption after proper treatments.

But does anybody want to even look in this direction? Kill a few 1000 of them now and silence the residents for the time being and their job is done. Maybe after a year or so when such killings happen again, they will do the same thing again! After all, this entire world is only ours right? We have every right to kill every other living species if we can’t find a way to live with them! (The last sentence is true even with humans, just murder or rape them if you can’t live with them. Simple!)

Silence Please:

What is all this undue-attention and some 100s of reviews for this movie called “Nishabd”? I am tired of reading endless debates on whether such a relationship is ethical or un-ethical? Why should AB (of all people) do such kind of roles when the whole nation will blindly follow him (even if he falls into a well) ;-)? For heaven’s sake leave the old man alone. He is bored of doing some stereo type roles (that’s bound to happen if you are doing the same thing for 50 odd years!). So he is happy being sexy-Sam (KANK) or Vijay (Nishabd). Atleast now there is no Rekha type’s character with whom he can be linked to and his (perfect) wife will walk out on him ;-) (He is too old for any woman that’s another matter).
First, let’s accept it. What Ramu has shown in Nishabd is nothing new. Nothing new at all. All these still happen in the name of “arranged” marriages in villages where a 40 year old man marries a 12 year old girl. I am not joking; our househelp in Mysore got her daughter married like this only, though we tried our best to stop it! And that girl is the 3rd wife to that obsessed old man! So are we talking something called “bold” in this movie? Sorry Ramu, we have done this all before you and are bored of it too!

P.S: Will be back with some more “exciting” stories of my married-life. Yes! Finally I am seeing some changes. Lots of it infact! Will be back tomorrow (hopefully). Till then ciao!

P.P.S: I am in love with this song “Anisuthide Yaake Indu” from the movie “Mungaaru Male”. I listen to this song every single day atleast 25 times!