Friday, August 06, 2010
My First Ever Dance Video...:)
This is my first ever dance performance on stage. It was a one and half min. dance. I was the only guy out of sync but still it was a first for me so sharing with you all. If you don't recognize me, I am in the back row right corner wearing a blue kurta and jeans. Hope you enjoy it and have fun...
Saturday, May 08, 2010
Caste Census: A Ticket to Dark Ages
Now that our country looks set to get a caste based census, all the hopes of revoking the caste based reservations, atleast for next 10-15 years have died, as I feel the sole purpose of it is to press for more reservations.
These reservations might have died a slow death by next generation but now it seems casteism is going to hit our country very badly which I fear may even lead to disintegration.
As of now, the present generation hardly cares about castes. That's how we have been brought up. My parents never told me about the castes or which caste we belonged to until I had to fill it in some applications while applying for some engineering colleges. Nor was I told to condescend on someone who belongs to other caste. Even in schools, we were taught that discrimination based on castes is something evil and it hampers development of society. Even as I grew up and went to college, I did not find anyone talking about castes nor did I find any groupism based on castes. There was no one who felt that he had divine rights because he was born in a higher caste nor was anyone humiliated because he was born in a lower caste. Actually no one cared about who belongs to which caste. The very notion of caste has died among many of us in the present generation. I may have met very few people in my life but I can say that 99% of my friends and batchmates from school or college hardly care about castes and they don't make friends after ascertaining the caste of someone.
But now with caste census and subsequent reservations, there will be a tendency to cling to one's caste so as to enjoy the benefits a caste might get. People will start identifying themselves more with their castes than with their country. This may soon take an ugly shape as we have already witness some of it in Meena-Gujjar violence in Rajasthan. Trouble mongers will have one more excuse to create trouble in name of castes, this time on a wider scale, in addition to the troubles our country is facing in form of separatist agitations, maoist violence and occasional outbreak of communal violence.
If our politicians are really concerned for the poor and downtrodden, they can implement reservations based on financial conditions or on regional basis as some regions are quite underdeveloped and people don't even have basic amenities. But reservations based on caste are divisive and it amounts to racism too. It is unconstitutional too as our constitution professes social equality.
These reservations might have died a slow death by next generation but now it seems casteism is going to hit our country very badly which I fear may even lead to disintegration.
As of now, the present generation hardly cares about castes. That's how we have been brought up. My parents never told me about the castes or which caste we belonged to until I had to fill it in some applications while applying for some engineering colleges. Nor was I told to condescend on someone who belongs to other caste. Even in schools, we were taught that discrimination based on castes is something evil and it hampers development of society. Even as I grew up and went to college, I did not find anyone talking about castes nor did I find any groupism based on castes. There was no one who felt that he had divine rights because he was born in a higher caste nor was anyone humiliated because he was born in a lower caste. Actually no one cared about who belongs to which caste. The very notion of caste has died among many of us in the present generation. I may have met very few people in my life but I can say that 99% of my friends and batchmates from school or college hardly care about castes and they don't make friends after ascertaining the caste of someone.
But now with caste census and subsequent reservations, there will be a tendency to cling to one's caste so as to enjoy the benefits a caste might get. People will start identifying themselves more with their castes than with their country. This may soon take an ugly shape as we have already witness some of it in Meena-Gujjar violence in Rajasthan. Trouble mongers will have one more excuse to create trouble in name of castes, this time on a wider scale, in addition to the troubles our country is facing in form of separatist agitations, maoist violence and occasional outbreak of communal violence.
If our politicians are really concerned for the poor and downtrodden, they can implement reservations based on financial conditions or on regional basis as some regions are quite underdeveloped and people don't even have basic amenities. But reservations based on caste are divisive and it amounts to racism too. It is unconstitutional too as our constitution professes social equality.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
3 IdiOts
A Wonderful movie, wasn't it? Before you make your conclusions that I am writing a review of '3 idiots' after 3 long months after it was off the screens, I would like to make it clear its not a review but its about the 3 idiots I encountered while watching that movie.
Its quite tough to get tickets for a new or a hit movie in a film crazy city like Chennai. But somehow I got to see it in the hall just before it was to be replaced by My Name is Khan.
The First Idiot
As soon as the movie started someone behind me started conversing in English and he soon was translating each and ever dialogue from Hindi to English much to our irritation.A North Indian guy had brought his South Indian girlfriend to the movie but his efforts in charming her were turning out to be an unpleasant experience for the fellow audiences. I turned around and politely signaled with my hands to lower his volume. He stopped for a while but again he started. Then a tamil guy(I can tell by has accent) who was sitting in the same row as that guy yelled at him, "Please buy a DVD and watch it with subtitles but please be quite now". That finally silenced that guy and he never spoke again.
The Second and Third Idiot
Nearly half an hour had passed when a guy came in looking for his seat. He came up to me and asked, "Is this your seat?". I replied in affirmative. He went outside the hall and brought in the third idiot, the ticket checker.
The third idiot came up to me and said, "Sir, ticket". Aamir Khan had written the words "Farhanitrate" and Prerajulisation" and I was quite engrossed in the movie. This interruption obviously irritated me but I rummaged my pocket and showed him my ticket. He verified my ticket and now asked the second idiot to show his. When he checked his ticket, it turned out that it was a matinee show ticket and this was the evening show. The third idiot apologised to me and asked the second idiot to move out. The second idiot groaned and uttered curses at someone who might have given him that ticket but moved out.
Though these three idiots made my initial movie watching experience an unpleasant one but the three idiots on screen ensured that I left the hall smiling. :)
Its quite tough to get tickets for a new or a hit movie in a film crazy city like Chennai. But somehow I got to see it in the hall just before it was to be replaced by My Name is Khan.
The First Idiot
As soon as the movie started someone behind me started conversing in English and he soon was translating each and ever dialogue from Hindi to English much to our irritation.A North Indian guy had brought his South Indian girlfriend to the movie but his efforts in charming her were turning out to be an unpleasant experience for the fellow audiences. I turned around and politely signaled with my hands to lower his volume. He stopped for a while but again he started. Then a tamil guy(I can tell by has accent) who was sitting in the same row as that guy yelled at him, "Please buy a DVD and watch it with subtitles but please be quite now". That finally silenced that guy and he never spoke again.
The Second and Third Idiot
Nearly half an hour had passed when a guy came in looking for his seat. He came up to me and asked, "Is this your seat?". I replied in affirmative. He went outside the hall and brought in the third idiot, the ticket checker.
The third idiot came up to me and said, "Sir, ticket". Aamir Khan had written the words "Farhanitrate" and Prerajulisation" and I was quite engrossed in the movie. This interruption obviously irritated me but I rummaged my pocket and showed him my ticket. He verified my ticket and now asked the second idiot to show his. When he checked his ticket, it turned out that it was a matinee show ticket and this was the evening show. The third idiot apologised to me and asked the second idiot to move out. The second idiot groaned and uttered curses at someone who might have given him that ticket but moved out.
Though these three idiots made my initial movie watching experience an unpleasant one but the three idiots on screen ensured that I left the hall smiling. :)
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Return of the Blogger
Hi everyone, with my first post of 2010, I announce my return to blogging.
I am sorry I could not amuse you all with my stories, controversies and wisecracks for nearly five months now. I had to lock up the writer in me so that I could get used to dancing on bed of hot coals. Thats how I would like to describe my past few months. Though personally I was in a cocoon fighting my own demons but was observing many interesting things happening in the world.
Last ten months have been quite eventful for our country though mostly in a negative manner thanks to separatist agitations, maoist violence and many scandals. I would like to reserve my comments on all these issues till I do some ground work myself as I feel forming opinions on the basis of news channel and news papers is no longer wise.
Only bright thing I can recall is Sachin Tendulkar's dazzling performances on field. His consistency in scoring runs and raising the benchmark for batsmen by reaching new milestones when critics had written him off has brought back people to watch cricket. His double century revived the interest of many people in ODIs again and I think most of you would agree if I say IPL3 was a hit because of Sachin alone. I even watched Test matches(because I had that kind of time to waste) only to see him score centuries after centuries. For a cricket lover like me Sachin's batting is a great stress buster and a source of happiness. Thank you Sachin.
I will soon be back with my next post, probably with some literary review or something funny or outrageous that I may recall.
I am sorry I could not amuse you all with my stories, controversies and wisecracks for nearly five months now. I had to lock up the writer in me so that I could get used to dancing on bed of hot coals. Thats how I would like to describe my past few months. Though personally I was in a cocoon fighting my own demons but was observing many interesting things happening in the world.
Last ten months have been quite eventful for our country though mostly in a negative manner thanks to separatist agitations, maoist violence and many scandals. I would like to reserve my comments on all these issues till I do some ground work myself as I feel forming opinions on the basis of news channel and news papers is no longer wise.
Only bright thing I can recall is Sachin Tendulkar's dazzling performances on field. His consistency in scoring runs and raising the benchmark for batsmen by reaching new milestones when critics had written him off has brought back people to watch cricket. His double century revived the interest of many people in ODIs again and I think most of you would agree if I say IPL3 was a hit because of Sachin alone. I even watched Test matches(because I had that kind of time to waste) only to see him score centuries after centuries. For a cricket lover like me Sachin's batting is a great stress buster and a source of happiness. Thank you Sachin.
I will soon be back with my next post, probably with some literary review or something funny or outrageous that I may recall.
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