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Friday, November 28, 2008

Our Country needs us..wakeup and take guard

Shocked...was i? nope
Am i frightened?? hell no...
My mind is now saturated with a feeling of pitiness or should i say a sorry state of mind. I am aghast to know that how easy it is to attack my country, i am upset on the current cult of youth calling themselves mujahuddin's or warriors of the mighty allah..
i say.....no religion or god would agree this heinous deeds.
i dont wanna join the bandwagon...by calling them religious fundamentalists..these are core terrorsists and terrorism is never a religious or social act...they use religion to brain wash those corrupted youth.

So,Where are we heading towards??
Given the history of our country and the current high profile vulnerbailities the first thing we must avoid is pointing fingers at our government. No government in the world welcomes terrorist to dance on their chests, neither do they wish to point fingers on other countries its we who faltered to foresee these mis-deeds.
Our intelligence and 'porous' coastal lines need to be strengthened..more budgetary allowances on national security and many more steps to which we have been turning our faces.

As a country we must begin a process of social awakening sending sms and lighting candles all are good for the media space but do they really matter??? A handful of youngsters may be of my age in their mid twenties marauding streets in my country - this is not i want my country to be known for in other corners of earth. We have seen this in movies, heard of it happening in Africa but never in my home soil..naah could not imagine a brutal attack at country's financial capital.

You know what given a chance i would love to kill them, kill these terrorists.. yes shoot them at point blank face to face...like many of us here would have already imagined. But will it resolve..the ongoing crisis?? Hell No!!!
One 'Coward' of Terrorism spills bloods of hundreds of innocent people and
he gets what he expects 'DEATH'. Institution backing him would have provided a better environment for his family and may be promised 10 virgins in gods abode.
The social awakening part comes here , i mean a revolution of a sort,
My muslim brothers and sisters there is never a feeling of minority amongst us if you do not have one. Everyone loves their religion but killing peace and tranquility of our nation must not be the way to achieve glory for your religion.
There is an element of backing from some angles..from some where...some hideous resources are backing them. Much like the 93 Bombay Blasts..some high profile backing up...Its a prevalent sense of revenge that might be running the whole episode of attacks in various parts of our country...but aren't WE(me and you, ram and rahim) done yet? why do we need to pour more vitriol in fire and let others benefit from it? Because in the end we are the losers..i lose a brother so do you..Its a Lose-Lose scenario but our grudges are not willing..
These elements in our country need to be outcast first.


My intuition is on the various probes by CBI,ATS and police force on the bomb blast probes. Dont you think this looks like and eyewash to protect the meaner souls by sending out a few grenades and AK-47. Every 3 weeks one part or the other of MY country is blasted. Government should still keep the probe going on, and please hasten it. Its pitiful to see accused of 93 blasts getting punished in 2008 and some set free for no proper evidences.

Youth of my nation need to arise in this regard, its time to screw them back.

I plead you not to read this just as any other blog and erase it from your memory.
I suggest we make this an open forum to discuss matters...bring out more ideas...excercise your grey areas.


Me and my friend Ben discussed this matter in a high octane discussion with no ego, no blind patriotism, no general talk but a serious discussion on something good for our country.

Some points i adapt from our discussions are :

Beefen up our security in our country, we have no dearth of human resources. More trained force and avoid dependency on an ultra thin polic force with no siege training. A vast and spread up national guard system for better co-ordination of police force. Moreover a secure nation itself is the best asset for us to attract investors across the globe.

Engage Uniform Civil Code - no religion, no caste, no tribe, no region supercedes the citizen.Every true indian must be ready to accept this as it paves way for a uniform india in coming generations. Atleast no speak of minority or relegated thoughts.

Ban the use of term 'minority' in media for muslims. In a country with 13.6 crore muslims no body should dare to call them a 'minority'. They are a part of this country as well as everyone. Something like the ban of 'nigger' or 'blacks' in public.

Issuing state identification cards for every citizen. Make it mandatory and maintain a track record of each and every government and non-government transactions.
For eg: To buy a sim card you provide a state id, but do we do the same to book a ticket in train or hotel or plane. I know my friends who for fun book train tickets as 'Gonzalves' sounds funny but serious implication comes when a terrorist has the same capability. For this to happen voters id needs to be issued to every single citizen, quite a magnanimous step but inturn provides a more coherent system.

And...
Yes we need more ideas and thoughts from intelligent people like you...
Our country needs you..
I hope we can usher a much awaited change...

Sunday, November 23, 2008

One night @ the Lincoln Tunnel

Chetan Bhagat will forgive me, as i am daring to steal this cheeky 'unpatented' name for this blog(in the lines of one night @ the call center). It was one helluva night.. with sinu blabbering, sandeep shivering and dhanya as always praying and me? i have no idea i was being stupid or idiotic but i was damn lucky to say the least. November 13th is devutty's birthday and we were all there in NJ to celebrate at a party organised by her dad & mom ( my classmates anuroop and lakshmi). So i get to know that Sinu is in NewYork some 30-40 minutes drive from anuroop's house. Me and Sandeep go to pick her up at the Newark Pennstation. It was raining heavily all the way and it was difficult to drive not to mention the heavy traffic in NewJersey. So we somehow reach there pick sinu up and drive back to anuroop-lakshmi's house. After an illustrous play time with devutty and a sumptous dinner (b'day cake,onion bajji, payasam, cutlet, mango juice, hot idly with no salt, and chutney) its time to drop off sinu at the hotel she is staying. So anuroop knows the routes of NY in and out and as an honourable guest he comes forward to drop her. But we were 5 if we include him so i convinced him to be at home with lakshmi and me,sandeep(as driver), dhanya and sinu will go in sandeep's car though with anuroop's GPS(global postioning system). So we start at around 12:30 am ( the ideal midnight hours for any adventure) with sandeep on wheel, me as navigator, sinu and dhanya as kids in wonderland(as they were looking out of the glass window with much amusement).

Intro on persons in the car : Sinu, she sounds tomboyish and can beat the crap outta you on any discussion. Has amazing skill on speaking on anything with 0 knowledge. Afterall she sells icecubes to eskimo's ( i mean she is an MBA). Dhanya aka gunds, was the holy power in our car as she will pray for anything. Once gireesh told me about her prayer skill-set i never believed that..man i believe it 200% now. Yep, she is that kind a very ignorant,naive person with 100% brain cells unused. Sandeep aka Sandy is a bit short of confidence in driving as he generally is a bit 'tension party'. In college days he used to sweat like a wet turkey on a grill if he fails to keep a record or assignment on time. And finally me, as this being my blog lets keep me as the hero [:)].


Now we are in route I-95 and traversing as per our GPS-bhai tells us to go. Sandy's eyeballs are rolling around every where was a funny scene. And in between dhanya ask's some question on traffic and route in NJ and compared to her adopted home town Columbus.Offlate she has acquired a US driving license, so to show off basically she was trying to guide an already tensed Sandy. Sinu was 'pushing' about her life at WallStreet last 2 weeks, all traders/equities/hedgefunds/creditcrunch etc etc ( Pushing is a our college term for boasting). And i was on phone talking to another friend minu and making her jealous about the superb birthday party and food. Now we are about to enter the Lincoln Bridge which leads us from NJ to NY and from there it should be simple to sinu's destination hotel.

Lincoln bridge itself is an architectural marvel, its basically a pipe kinda tunnel underneath the hudson river. Instead of a high flyover or bridge americanos preferred the direct way..yes a 'pipe'. Suddenly it happened, our gps stopped working and we had no idea where to go once the tunnel ends. We reach the end of tunnel and still no movement in GPS. But being confident souls we set straight forward..immediately GPS says "Turn Left" but 2 trucks were blocking our way in traffic. So we had to go straight and find another exit. But we learn that GPS is taking us on a long road trip. It gets turned off in between and comes up again, the huge buildings were obtructing the signal strength. The traffic was a bit less so we had time to turn at somepoint. Gradually we came to know, GPS is taking us back to the old route..i mean a huge U turn. We were infact heading towards NJ. So there we were infront of yet another tunnel and GPS-bhai said Go straight some 1 mile and take a U turn. Sandy asked " U turn again??" I gave hime the logical (stupid) explaination on the road systems in US and my prior navigation experience. The moment we crossed the tunnel GPS said 'Take a U turn'. Sounds so simple right?? Infact the barricades were open at that point and there was not a single soul around. Without any hesitation we all chorussed into Sandy's ears "thirikkeda vandii" Sandy obliged he took a u turn schumacher would have been proud about, it was a neat U and we were on other side. With a smile Sinu said "Ini prashnam onnum illa nere vitto".
The moment she finished her sentence ('dhaande kidakkunu' i said in my mind) here come a few cops inside the check post on the tunnel. A few means 3-4, coz of my tension i did not count them. They were on our car like you see in hollywood movies. One on the passenger side, one on driver, one checking the boot, two on other window, another one standing infront of the car. Sandy slided down his window glass with shivering hands. The cop was furious and his eyes face was red.
He said "Did you take a U turn now? I mean how can you take a U turn on a 60 miles/hour freeway and that too on a rainy night"
"are you insane, eh?"

Sandy said " Sir, we were on our way to battery park..err..to drop my friend..and we lost our way..and..."
Cop says "Do you have a license?" and as he speaks he checks with his fellow cops if everything is fine and gives a quite obnoxious looks at people in the car.
Meanwhile i was still of the notion that we have not done any thing wrong so i was looking what the fellowcops were upto? And Sandy takes his license and gives to the cop..he checks it and he goes again ranting
"You have a NewJersey License and i dont understand how you could foolishly take a U turn on a freeway?? Are you Stupid??"
Sinu interrupts infact her voice was loud a mild yelling "As we told you we lost our way and we have been trying to find our way back to battery park near wallstreet".
Here we go cop again says " But that doesn't explain it, there is no way you can do this. Its dangerous. Do you want to be a part of an accident or some. you cannot take a U turn on interstate.."
Enough is enough i felt i thought its high time i say something or we'll end up in jail or a ticket with some 200$ fine. I said "Sir we are sorry, but the gps told us to take a U turn" and pointed my finger at the GPS.
This made the cop furious as hell, until now he thought this was an honest mistake now he learns that we are fools as well. He looks at me and says
" you dont have a brain?? you believe on a damn computer??" Then i said "Sir, look it says U turn here"
And he replies "You belive in a computer? What if it said take a right into the river?? Will you dare to do it??"
Uh Oh!! then it rang a bell..luckily by gods grace he did not book us or punish us..he let us go and asks us to be careful in future. Had he gone for 5 more..? Man i cant think.

So this time we are on another tunnel called the Holland Tunnel. We cross this one and yes 'GPS Bhai' does not work. We parked the car in a cut-road alley looked spooky at night. Walked down to a cop car standing there and asked him the route. He said "Battery park is 5 minutes walk from here, you can park your car here and go". In a world of all high technologies with GPS and HiTech Cars, we had to depend on a our able "Ask Anybody System" (much more efficient than GPS in NY). We walked and dropped off sinu atlast. It was an unforgettable trip in all senses, meeting sinu after a long time, conversaitons with a cop and last for the worst 'U' turn of our lives. Bolo NYPD ki jaiii...

Monday, November 17, 2008

Obamarama a new "Barack America"


"If there is anyone out there...
who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible;
who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time;
who still questions the power of our democracy,
tonight is your answer."

These are the words by Mr.Obama when he was elected as the president of USA.
I remember it was one of those late night browsing hours i came across an article about a senator from chicago winning grammy award. Next day evening in Barnes & Nobles saw this book by him. Already sold millions of editions. Barack Obama did not ring a bell in my mind to be candid about it.I knew former US President Bill Clinton had won a grammy earlier. But never in my wildest imagination or logical permutations i would have believed obama to be an american president soon. One day via TV i came to know about Barack Hussein Obama vying to stand for democratic nomination. Since then there has not been a day obama has not been on media. Either for the long feud with Hillary Rodham Clinton for Democratic nomination or for the presidential election campaign against John McCain.

But all the way Obama had a charisma around him that made me read more and more about him ''on what he is? what he does? is he for real or how genuine is he?'' so many questions about an american president nominee was the first time in my mind. Maybe its more due to my awareness on world politics these days also the first US election am witnessing live. Obama is a seperate class altogether and some kinda persona alive in him makes millions of people believe him. A person with middle class background and only a good education to boast about has achieved what was impossible some years back. Though we dont say out aloud (like Lord VoldeMont in Harry Potter) 'black' was always a factor against obama. Full remarks to the republican counterparts even they ceased to mention the ill-word. But neither did he use it for his vote banks. May be this is what the other african-american community in the world need to learn from obama. You need to be 'unblack' yourself your mind and thoughts first.Andrew Symonds i hope u earn this trait soon. Another trait that i find refreshing is his approach to his personal life and the transparency in it. Doesn't mean he invites to the dinner table right away or takes you for a drink but many recognize him as a good father, a loveable grandson, a chap who likes to play basketball every week with his friends (His friends call him 'O'bomber for the shooting abilities check out the youtube video on his basketball skills). Also not to forget, he is unbelievably articulte not an ideal thespian for a politician but he talks in an attractive manner you would love to listen him whole day.

Obama is no fluke or mug that just happened after bush's tyranny for 8 years. He was calculative, pin point decisive and he had strong policies to back his abilities. Though a first time senator but he made his debut counted by the reforms he brought about and the positive outlook on politics. A politician breed of different kind world has seen so far , he paves for a new generation of politicians with an 'audacity of hope' in them. Although his inexperience will be clearly exploited in coming days but given his amicable resume he is the one not to get bogged down.

At this moment, How i wish politicians of my country campaigning for a 'change' rather than their 'caste'? But every country has its own way of functioning, but so did america. Until now the biggest day of democracy was when an old man with a stick walked 400kms also known as the salt satyagraha. LandSlide Victory of Obama stands somewhere close to it 'for me atleast'. In a democratic country this leaves you with nothing else but hope for a better dawn to descend upon us. Barack Obama you make 'common man' like us to think that extra boundaries we need to extend ourselves.
Nothing is Impossible...Yes We Can! Yes We Can!!!!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Seat Number ' 7B '

"Continental Flight number CA7640, NewJersey to Columbus passengers are requested to board their flight from gate C54".Ohh atlast the time for the flight to arrive on a snowy day, have been stuck in the airport for last few hours. My laptop out of charge so could not play FIFA anymore, so sat there and dozed off in the airport lounge. Walked to the gate C54 as they had announced. There was already a big crowd and a long queue. Monitored the queue thoroughly as i was looking for a hot chick preferably brunette amongst them. If in india i would have checked the reservation chart stuck outside the train compartment to see if any girls with the age 19 to 26 near my seat. May be i have a record of not travelling a single time with a pretty woman.I always end up with old woman, snoring bullies, crying babies, prankster kids etc etc.

Ahha!! there she is, a tall brunette with a tattoo on her arms. She is deeply involved in her ipod music and forget me she is not bothered abt all those stares at her.I must admit she is a 'hot chick' looked like catherina zweta jones ( a little exaggeration is of no harm). As i stood there with mouth wide open the queue grew longer and longer, suddenly regaining senses i went there and stood far behind her in the queue. As i approached the gate the stewardess said 'Seat number 7A sire'. May be its the climate or just was my lucky day even she looked adorable and cute. Giving a wink i replied 'Gracias' as she looked puerto-rican to me. She gave me this 100 million$ smile 'Have a safe trip Senor' came the reply. As i entered the flight and as if i cant find '7A' which is right in front of my eyes i was infact searching for the brunette. Ohh not again..i just missed her she was in '8A'. And the fat old man sitting next to her had the sparkle of 'Colin Farell as The Alexander King' in his eyes. I felt a bit dejected but its been a habit now so i parked my luggage and retired to my seat half-heartedly. Passengers kept coming in, i wonder where they are going to?? The flight was not so big..atleast not a Boeing 787 for a small 2 hour journey.

'7B' is still empty, i dont know which moth**f***er is gonna take this seat. Why do i care? Its time for a small nap try to forget the 'hot brunette'. May be atleast in sleep i will get a good seat or why a seat? May be she will not get a seat and she travels on my lap. God!! thats too much to ask. With a smirk on my face i adjusted my body to get a good sleep. There was a pillow on my seat, when did this all come in short flights for a damn cheap rate i wondered. Again 'what the hell, why do i care its cheap and its free just go on with your sleep'. I took my mp3 player out of the bag plugged it in my ear and clicked 'Shuffle All'.Lathaji started singing 'Mera jeewan Kora Kaagaz'..please no not this one. Clicked 'Next', 'Zindagi jab bhi teri..' another sad song. Man!! my mp3 player started playing for my mood or what?. Screw it even am not gonna give up, Selected Music->AR Rehman->'Play all'. what next?? you wont believe it was 'Ae ajnabi thu bhi kahin'.Are yaar..!!please dont make me feel even worse. Swithched off my mp3 player and tried getting some good sleep. Could hear passengers getting in (where the hell are they all going? looks like an UN conference happening inside the plane).I could hear the brunette giggling on my back, the old pig might be raking a few scores there. I wished his wife called him now and reminded him his age.

So trying to erase the brunette out of my memory and to get a good sleep. My eyes close put tightly, some thing different happened. A sweet aroma encapsulated me, my olfactory sense were in mayhem. I could not resist the smell and my anxiousness to find the source system.It felt like the smell of a fresh 'sharbath' on a hot summer with lemonade essence on top. Reluctantly i opened my eyes i could see her coming.
She was dressed to kill nimble hearts like mine. And as always she carried her 'close up' smile in a superior way.I wished there was a tsunami behind her and she will fall right on me. I would say "Bhagwaan jab bhi detha hei, Chappar Phaad ke Detha hei". Anyway she was dressed in jeans and a blue top. The stitching of her clothes fit her as a 'T' and she had a big bag on her shoulders. Big enought to pack the old man from back seat.She also had a ticket in her hand and she was looking for a seat. In my mind a 'mantra' echoed 7B,7B,7B,7B..an infinite for{} loop of '7B'.
She stopped at the 5th row and talked to the stranger over there..Yes yet another old man who looked like 'Sean Connery' was sitting there. God have all these old men formed a 'League of Extra Ordinary Gentlemen' against me the 'paavam'. I could not bare this, i closed my eyes said to my self "aaj mere paas ghaadi hein, paisa hein, property hein, bank balance hein..magar thoda sa bhi luck nahin hein'.Out of nowhere i hear this sweet voice of 'Excuse Me'. I opened my eyes to see 'Asin' standing next my seat.For the ignorant souls out there, Asin is a tamil actress with quite a good movies and roles in her resume. But main point she is a malayalee like me.
i could not believe it was she standing there, but hiding my anxiety i replied back in the best baritone my soundbox could provide.'Yes, can i help you?'. She said "my seat is '7B'....."aww atlast its monsoon in my orchard as well. I felt a long beep in my head whatever she said afterwards didnt matter to me. Even if she said 'I am wired with a time bomb across my belt'. Regaining my senses i tried to focus on what she is speaking..(ohh her lips are awesome by the way). "....so i think its your luggage can you please help me adjusting my bag near there.Pleaseee..". "Ohh sure why not?" I replied. Opened the overhead deck and shuffled all other luggages here and there to make space for a Honda CRV to park. Yeah her bag was that big..I wonder how they allowed it to carry inside the flight. Maybe she gave that killer smile to the flight attendant.


After the herculean task of arranging the luggage we both sat next to each other. I was pinching myself to believe its all true.Her phone rang then for the first time, but she is not picking it up. Jaane Kyun?? Anyway i was preparing here for a long conversation with none other than 'Asin' herself. Clearing my throat and a wicked American Desi accent i queried "You travelling to Columbus?". She turned at me sending her hair astray in all angles possible..throwing me off the hook."No, infact to Chicago. My flight to chicago got cancelled this flight will take me to cleveland. From there i have a connection flight to Chicago." was her prompt reply."Ohh Chicago nice..windy city it is..must be real cold these days. Its Barack Obama's state Illnois you know." i started giving her my wikipedia answers to her. Some people never change, u have a beautiful lass sitting next to you and you tell her the traffic and climate of chicago??. From first look i knew it was asin ( as u all know) but did not want to bring her heroine image here and my inferiority complex to multiply. I started again with a cheesy campus pick up line "You know what, you look very familiar? Are you from Palakkad?" again for the ignorant soles palakkad is my 'home town' a prosperous land in kerala. With a smile she replied " Ohh Ok, not from palakkad. But am too from Kerala. Cochin to be infact." Hmmmm she is intelligent more than i guessed. She hides the fact that she is into movies and maybe i have seen her there."..you know even you look pretty familiar. You look like my cousin brother." 'Cousin Brother??' i said in my mind..no not brother please. Of those forgetful incidents in college days the worst one is when a girl i have crush on says 'You are like my brother' nothing can be worse than this for a man to digest. With a smile i said "Ohh ok thats nice!" Her phone was still ringing but she has no idea to pick that up in near future..'Girls!! you know they make you go around their ankles a million times to atleast get a whiff' i murmurred in my mind.

From no where a cute girl appeared right next to us. In the most cute voice i ever heard in my life she said "Asin Chechi, oru autograph tharuo??".Asin replied "Yeah sure baby!! Entha molude peru?". "Anjaly" the girl replied. Asin duly autographed and gave a kiss on each of anjaly's rose cheeks. I wish i could cry there, i should have asked for the autograph in first place after carrying her 1 quintal bag.And for sizz the kiss was mine written all over. Anjaly's mom and dad came just then. Oh my god is she gonna kiss them too?? Man i felt like jumping out of the plane.I heard anjaly's mom saying "We all are a big fan of yours, your acting in Ghajini was superb." Now this dialogue took me to heights of redundancy, the same ghisa-peeta dialogue.Of all the other flops every one recognizes the one single role to get a quick autograph.I kept on staring at the family who all were discussing movies, kerala, ghajini and god-knows-what with asin, looting my special time with her.Anjaly's mom now upped the tempo a bit high, looking at me "Is he your boyfriend?" she asked asin. With a volatile giggle asin looked at me and said "No chechi, he is a friend". My Armageddon moment, atlast 'friend' from 'cousin brother' status. I was happy, it was as if i won an oscar.

After they went i polished my acting skills, with an ignorant face i asked her
"You into movies? thats why you are so familiar.." Asin said "Yeah, I have acted very less into malayalam movies. More into tamil and telugu. Thats why you must not have seen my movies" I knew everything about her movies to her first movies to her car she owns and what not? But acting as an ignorant/innocent mallu, i said "Yeah may be!! And i prefer watching more hollywood movies. You know like Robert De Niro's, AlPacino's, Spielbergs, Martin Scorcese etc". ( yes no doubt i was bragging).
Still her phone was ringing and she does not want to pick it up. Its better if she does not pick it up, i didnt want another hindrance between us. I must tell you she was quite down to earth and seemed nice, as she was deeply involved in our conversation. I felt a radiance of magnetic flux pulling towards her, i did not want the flight journey to end.Just then i overheard pilot announcing flight is about to land. I wanted to get her email id, phone number or something to remember this 'date with asin' and obviously boast to my friends. But i decided to go for the jackpot. I asked "Can i get your Autograph please?". She giggled and replied "Ohh sure why not Shabbu". I knew kiss on my 'cheeks' was around the corner. But then as i searched for pen lying near me, a noise deafened me. It was a deep shrilling noise something unpleasant to say the least. It was my mobile alarm had been ringing for quite sometime now. Asin was lying next to me smiling on my laptop wallpaper. Aww my gawd!!sleeping in the comfy bed at home with a pillow by my side this was one helluva DREAM. I guess too many 'heinekens' the night before had its own side effects Ehh??.