Darjeeling is in turmoil.So are the neighboring cities such as Siliguri.
The Gorkhas(Nepali speaking Indian population) in the uppermost tip of West Bengal, have been demanding for a separate state since 1907.Post independence when they were clubbed with West Bengal, there hopes were thwarted.
The center has been turning a deaf ear to their demand, since long. Never did the center try to see the ground reality.The fact is that the West Bengal government has done absolutely nothing for this region,ever. In every 5-year plan of the state govt, the region is simply ignored. Many feel that root causes are racism and linguism (Gorkhas speak Nepali and not Bengali).
The sacrifice of the Gorkha Regiment during war time cannot be forgotten. Its high time the center pays attention to the region and puts an end to the Gorkhas' continuing misery. The region badly needs growth and development opportunities for people's upliftment.
Trilateral talks involving WB govt. are not going to help. The center needs to listen to them.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Monday, June 2, 2008
SRK
I think SRK is grossly overpaid.
The man stammers while speaking.
A Good Dancer? I don't think any one who can move his feet would agree.
Looks? Ha!
In "Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain", he looks like an old woman with thick layers of makeup. (Of course coupled with a heavy dose of botox).
What made this man click initially?
This man's unique romantic style touched the chords of many a Indians..But then aren't Indians generally speaking emotional fools...
Emoting a few contortions should not make some one eligible for getting payed more than a crore per episode. Aren't the producers promoting incompetency by such a fat salary package? Look around dear producers : You can find smarter and more deserving presenters around you! Infact an average urban Indian could host the serial in a more entertaining way..and he would work for you for a quarter of SRK's package!
The man stammers while speaking.
A Good Dancer? I don't think any one who can move his feet would agree.
Looks? Ha!
In "Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain", he looks like an old woman with thick layers of makeup. (Of course coupled with a heavy dose of botox).
What made this man click initially?
This man's unique romantic style touched the chords of many a Indians..But then aren't Indians generally speaking emotional fools...
Emoting a few contortions should not make some one eligible for getting payed more than a crore per episode. Aren't the producers promoting incompetency by such a fat salary package? Look around dear producers : You can find smarter and more deserving presenters around you! Infact an average urban Indian could host the serial in a more entertaining way..and he would work for you for a quarter of SRK's package!
The IPL Fever
The Indian Premier League (Cricket) ended on 1st May 08 and on hindsight, it was a huge success.Lets look at what different people gained(or lost) from the same :
1) Mohali Team : The lucky bastards, Mohali players, got multiple hugs from my favorite actress and their team owner, Preity Zinta.
2) Crowd : Cheerleaders in Indian sports was a new phenomena. The gorgeous cheerleaders kept the male fraternity in the crowd happy. At the same time , they caused fights in many a families, where the husbands were glued to the TV set all because of the cheerleaders!
3) Dravid & Ganguly : Got the last stage for playing professional cricket .Its high time they bow out before they get kicked out.
4) Vijay Mallya : Though he invested in as multiple teams( to balance out the risk in his portfolio), none of them managed to get into the finals. Lesson learnt : Sometimes just reputation is not enough. Dont write off the startups without evaluating them (The underdog, Team Jaipur, had no initial takers, and went on to win the tournament !)
5) Cricketers in general: Earned huge bucks in millions.Seeing this example, parents will now support their children who want to actively pursue sports.
6) Me : I learnt the lesson from the IPL winners, the Jaipur Team : Even if you are an underdog when you start off, keep working sincerely and you can beat your talented competitors .Also , keep your cool under pressure and do the Basics Right!
1) Mohali Team : The lucky bastards, Mohali players, got multiple hugs from my favorite actress and their team owner, Preity Zinta.
2) Crowd : Cheerleaders in Indian sports was a new phenomena. The gorgeous cheerleaders kept the male fraternity in the crowd happy. At the same time , they caused fights in many a families, where the husbands were glued to the TV set all because of the cheerleaders!
3) Dravid & Ganguly : Got the last stage for playing professional cricket .Its high time they bow out before they get kicked out.
4) Vijay Mallya : Though he invested in as multiple teams( to balance out the risk in his portfolio), none of them managed to get into the finals. Lesson learnt : Sometimes just reputation is not enough. Dont write off the startups without evaluating them (The underdog, Team Jaipur, had no initial takers, and went on to win the tournament !)
5) Cricketers in general: Earned huge bucks in millions.Seeing this example, parents will now support their children who want to actively pursue sports.
6) Me : I learnt the lesson from the IPL winners, the Jaipur Team : Even if you are an underdog when you start off, keep working sincerely and you can beat your talented competitors .Also , keep your cool under pressure and do the Basics Right!
The New Bangalore Airport
Bangalore has got a new Airport, The Bengaluru International Airport.
It was a sad goodbye for many Bangaloreans to the old HAL Airport which had been operational since 1964. People like me, who have been staying a stone's throw from the HAL Port for many years now, were all the more saddened on the morning 24th May 08. No more deafening plane sounds and no more busy traffic on the Airport Road. And we missed it badly.
But things happen for good.
The old Airport was being over used at a super saturation level of 7.5 million passengers a year, though its capacity was just 3.6 m. Flight delays were quite prevalent due to such a traffic rush. And the risk was high too considering every 5-10 min, a flight was landing or taking off on the same runway.
The new Airport offers the following advantages :
1) Can handle 12 m passengers keeping in mind Bangalore's burgeoning "flying population" .
2) Is thoroughly connected via luxury buses(Volvos) and rail.
3) With the shift, the traffic on the HAL Airport Road will ease out a lot and reduce the area's ever rampant traffic problem.
4) And lastly, the very obvious benefit will be the decrease in flight delays .
The only disadvantage is for the bachelors staying in the HAL area, as most air hostesses would move out of this place.
;-)
Lastly HAL should take care not to rent out this huge unused space of the old airport for commercial purposes. This would prove disastrous for the already existing traffic problem on the HAL Airport Road.
It was a sad goodbye for many Bangaloreans to the old HAL Airport which had been operational since 1964. People like me, who have been staying a stone's throw from the HAL Port for many years now, were all the more saddened on the morning 24th May 08. No more deafening plane sounds and no more busy traffic on the Airport Road. And we missed it badly.
But things happen for good.
The old Airport was being over used at a super saturation level of 7.5 million passengers a year, though its capacity was just 3.6 m. Flight delays were quite prevalent due to such a traffic rush. And the risk was high too considering every 5-10 min, a flight was landing or taking off on the same runway.
The new Airport offers the following advantages :
1) Can handle 12 m passengers keeping in mind Bangalore's burgeoning "flying population" .
2) Is thoroughly connected via luxury buses(Volvos) and rail.
3) With the shift, the traffic on the HAL Airport Road will ease out a lot and reduce the area's ever rampant traffic problem.
4) And lastly, the very obvious benefit will be the decrease in flight delays .
The only disadvantage is for the bachelors staying in the HAL area, as most air hostesses would move out of this place.
;-)
Lastly HAL should take care not to rent out this huge unused space of the old airport for commercial purposes. This would prove disastrous for the already existing traffic problem on the HAL Airport Road.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Salsa Fever..
Episode :1
It was a cosy winter weekend night .We were a bunch of friends watching "Shall We Dance" at the PVR.Richard Gere's age defying dance moves were impressive, but what impressed us more were the oodles of awe and admiration that they drew from the females across the movie hall .While on the way back, I and my roomate, Ravi had resolved : "Enough of the freestyle bhangra jerks!Its high time we learn some sophisticated stuff" We spent the next morning scanning through the newspaper for some good Salsa classes in the city..Some were cheap while others damn expensive..But hey, on second thoughts ,the expensive ones assure good crowd ,isn't it?..Soon we were headed towards a dance studio at the Leela.."1000 Rs per class sir", said the instructor.."We are game!", replied I."No gay partners, Sir", replied she half mockingly.
Truly embarassed and shocked by her impudent remarks, We stomped out of the place..
Episode 2 :
This time we decided to try at some rather low profile Dance class.We found one, called "Rockys".. It was in a rickety building with a small reception ,with only 2 chairs on which you would not like to sit. The lady at the reception, led us to a running classroom. It was a rather small room of the size of say, a typical Indian kitchen. The bearded instructor, sporting a bulky fat ass and a paunch, appeared more like a ‘desi tapori’. The class comprised of three females .By the time we were wondering whether this is really a dance class or some "marriage dance troupe", the instructor burst to the tunes of "Kab Tak Jawani Chupaaogi Rani" into a full throttle high energy hip gyration ,the vulgarity of which could have ashamed our ‘Mamta Kulkarni’, or perhaps even ‘Rakhi Sawant.’ He then shouted at his students "Come On, All of U, and DANCE". The females joined him, while staring at us with a stupid grin.
Next he thundered at us "Come On, YOU TOO!!"
"Ya ..umm…Give us a minute sir.. ", so saying, we fled down the stair cases of the dance studio, never turning our head back till we were finally on the main road.
'Rockys' was a bad enough experience for us not to try Salsa elsewhere and brought our salsa fever down for the next few weeks.
Episode 3:
Thanks to a mail from the Swingers Salsa Classes,where we had enquired once, our Salsa fever revived.We straightaway enrolled for the Class at Indranagar . With a week left for the Salsa classes to begin, I resolved to leave a memorable "first impression" on all the females there ,with my "salsa knowledge". The entire next week,I spent researching about salsa on Google and joined all the possible communities related to dance on Orkut.
Finally, the day came when we had to attend the first class. I and Ravi (my friend) left the office early in the whole excitement, to be there before time. A fresh batch had started that day . The Girls and Boys were separated from each other and in the next few minutes the two groups were facing each other. The protocol was that when the instructor blows the whistle the boys and the girls had to decide their dance partners. I was eyeing some beautiful faces and had made a”priority queue” in my mind. As soon as the whistle was blown all the boys showed amazing agility and before I could even accumulate the courage to approach any of the girls, in frenzy, all the couples were formed, leaving me and Ravi as the only same sex couples. Salsa dancing with a guy for the next one hour was the most horrible experience of my life(Experienced ppl with straight orientation can understand my plight :-( ....)
Weeks passed,and we spent the next few classes dancing with the instructor (who was a female fortunately). One day, one of the girls' partner did not come. So, I asked her to dance with me. We had to follow a dance step in which I was to hold her on her waist and lift her up. The girl turned out to be very shy and she refused to perform the dance step. So, the instructor asked me and Ravi to make ‘the’ pair again and follow the dance steps.
This turned out to be the last straw on the camel's back. We decided to quit..For now, "Daler Mehndi's Freestyle Pangra Rocks!!"
It was a cosy winter weekend night .We were a bunch of friends watching "Shall We Dance" at the PVR.Richard Gere's age defying dance moves were impressive, but what impressed us more were the oodles of awe and admiration that they drew from the females across the movie hall .While on the way back, I and my roomate, Ravi had resolved : "Enough of the freestyle bhangra jerks!Its high time we learn some sophisticated stuff" We spent the next morning scanning through the newspaper for some good Salsa classes in the city..Some were cheap while others damn expensive..But hey, on second thoughts ,the expensive ones assure good crowd ,isn't it?..Soon we were headed towards a dance studio at the Leela.."1000 Rs per class sir", said the instructor.."We are game!", replied I."No gay partners, Sir", replied she half mockingly.
Truly embarassed and shocked by her impudent remarks, We stomped out of the place..
Episode 2 :
This time we decided to try at some rather low profile Dance class.We found one, called "Rockys".. It was in a rickety building with a small reception ,with only 2 chairs on which you would not like to sit. The lady at the reception, led us to a running classroom. It was a rather small room of the size of say, a typical Indian kitchen. The bearded instructor, sporting a bulky fat ass and a paunch, appeared more like a ‘desi tapori’. The class comprised of three females .By the time we were wondering whether this is really a dance class or some "marriage dance troupe", the instructor burst to the tunes of "Kab Tak Jawani Chupaaogi Rani" into a full throttle high energy hip gyration ,the vulgarity of which could have ashamed our ‘Mamta Kulkarni’, or perhaps even ‘Rakhi Sawant.’ He then shouted at his students "Come On, All of U, and DANCE". The females joined him, while staring at us with a stupid grin.
Next he thundered at us "Come On, YOU TOO!!"
"Ya ..umm…Give us a minute sir.. ", so saying, we fled down the stair cases of the dance studio, never turning our head back till we were finally on the main road.
'Rockys' was a bad enough experience for us not to try Salsa elsewhere and brought our salsa fever down for the next few weeks.
Episode 3:
Thanks to a mail from the Swingers Salsa Classes,where we had enquired once, our Salsa fever revived.We straightaway enrolled for the Class at Indranagar . With a week left for the Salsa classes to begin, I resolved to leave a memorable "first impression" on all the females there ,with my "salsa knowledge". The entire next week,I spent researching about salsa on Google and joined all the possible communities related to dance on Orkut.
Finally, the day came when we had to attend the first class. I and Ravi (my friend) left the office early in the whole excitement, to be there before time. A fresh batch had started that day . The Girls and Boys were separated from each other and in the next few minutes the two groups were facing each other. The protocol was that when the instructor blows the whistle the boys and the girls had to decide their dance partners. I was eyeing some beautiful faces and had made a”priority queue” in my mind. As soon as the whistle was blown all the boys showed amazing agility and before I could even accumulate the courage to approach any of the girls, in frenzy, all the couples were formed, leaving me and Ravi as the only same sex couples. Salsa dancing with a guy for the next one hour was the most horrible experience of my life(Experienced ppl with straight orientation can understand my plight :-( ....)
Weeks passed,and we spent the next few classes dancing with the instructor (who was a female fortunately). One day, one of the girls' partner did not come. So, I asked her to dance with me. We had to follow a dance step in which I was to hold her on her waist and lift her up. The girl turned out to be very shy and she refused to perform the dance step. So, the instructor asked me and Ravi to make ‘the’ pair again and follow the dance steps.
This turned out to be the last straw on the camel's back. We decided to quit..For now, "Daler Mehndi's Freestyle Pangra Rocks!!"
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Heart vs Conscience..
i wanna break free..
Indulge in a binge or a spree,
But somethings been holding me back,
all these years when i look back.
The conscience implores
It wanna achieve more.
No time for rest ,
just keep walking abreast..
But the heart warns
You have already lost ur childhood ,Darn!
why do u wanna lose ur youth?
Freak,Frolic and Footloose..
A day will come when I'll pay my heart hee'(d)
For now , my conscience is my Simon Legree..
Indulge in a binge or a spree,
But somethings been holding me back,
all these years when i look back.
The conscience implores
It wanna achieve more.
No time for rest ,
just keep walking abreast..
But the heart warns
You have already lost ur childhood ,Darn!
why do u wanna lose ur youth?
Freak,Frolic and Footloose..
A day will come when I'll pay my heart hee'(d)
For now , my conscience is my Simon Legree..
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