Hail Barbarism!!!!!!

I find it funny when someone like tirumavalavan, nedumaran, "doctor" ramadoss and karunanidhi suddenly start espousing the cause of abolition of death sentence on grounds of civility. It would have been particularly amusing to imagine Mr. Tirumalvalavan and Mr. Ramadoss, men who are civilised enough to cut trees to block traffic when someone of their ilk is arrested, to shout vehemently at top of their voices that we are not medieval civilisation to promote state martyrdom. That Hindu devoted two full op-ed pages to decry abolition of death sentence made me wonder what all the fuss is about. What is the point in abolishing death sentence when it is already administered only in rarest of rare cases.

If plotting and executing the murder of a senior political leader who was the country's PM till two years ago, does not  qualify for capital punishment, then I wonder whether we as a nation have lost the spine and is willing to accept any scathe inflicted on us without murmur in the name of civility. Damn that Civility!!! We dither for years whether or not to execute people who literally waged war on the country and when the system finally gets around to execute the punishment, we see such a hue and cry that we are a civilised country and we ought not to act barbaric by killing a fellow man. Spare a thought for the hundreds of policemen and civilians who lost their lives and limbs when the dastardly cowards struck terror.

When we hesitate to kill even such barbaric cowards, what is the signal we are sending out to the world. We are such gracious hosts. Guys and gals from around the world, our country welcomes you with all your arms and ammunition; have fun with our lives and kill however and whoever; we won't touch even a hair of you; we would arrest you, feed you well till end of your life with the taxes of very people who you have killed. God damn these hypocrites. If sparing these b****rds qualifies me for civilisation, I am honoured to be called 'Barbarian'.

And what is more I have become a Man, my Son.!!!

Is this the moment India is looking for to take that giant leap.? Is this the much needed wake-up call that Indians needed to shrug off their indifference to omniscient corruption.? Will India become an utopia where milk and honey flow like a river?




Atleast I waited for this moment for nearly a decade.. Everytime the moment would seem to arrive only to vanish like a mirage once I get close.. I am tired of this hide and seek... No its not that Hazare moment as most of you might be thinking... Its more personal.. Finally I have exercised my franchise today nearly a decade after turning 18. Now I feel like I have become a Complete Raymonds man.



Your name would be in the voters list but you would not have Identity card to vouch that you are that "Sampath Kumar" as in the rolls. Then you get voter identity card but you find your name missing from the list rendering you ineligible to vote. The answer I got on presenting the id card is this

"I accept that you are an eligible voter. However, since your name is not in the list which we have, you cannot vote here". Perhaps the voter identity card is meant to vote in the Moon, I suppose or rather you have to move to a different country to vote. The denial is all the more painful because your younger brother who got his voter id card much later has already exercised your franchise making you an object of mockery and sarcasm.



Then in the next elections, you find your name in the electoral rolls of your neighbourhood and you have not lost your voter id card in the interim. Now when it seems as if nothing is going to stop you from exercising your fundamental democratic power, destiny cruelly intervenes, albeit sugar coatedly, asking you to join Reserve Bank of India at an obscure place called Patna somewhere in eastern India. What is more, it is a transferable job where you wuld get transferred every 3 - 5 years. Will I have to end my existence in this world without even once exercising the all important function of every Indian. I shudder to live that way.. No God it can't be.. I cannot lead a meaningless life in this world, or so I thought. I had lost all hope and became resigned to a futile life of an undemocratic Indian. Undemocratic India - an oxymoron, isn't it?



And suddenly it happened today, just like that. There were earlier times where we used to have furious debates as to which party and whom to vote? This time, I didn't even know which constituency I am supposed to be in, leave alone the parties and contesting candidates. But now I have exercised my power of selection or rather rejection and have got that indelible mark in my left index finger which I can proudly put as DP in Facebook. :). I have achieved my purpose in life..



And the immortal words of Kipling echoed in my ears:

"And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!".. I have become a Man.

Seeing is believing

Recently stumbled across this spectacular series of photographs... Just wanna share with you all..  Yosemite National Park, California , USA This park was gazetted as a national park in 1890. It is world famous for its rugged terrain, waterfall and century-old pine trees. It covers 1200 sq km and the "fire" waterfall of El Capitan is one of the most spectacular of all scenery. The spectacular view of the waterfall is created by the reflectionof sunlight hitting the falling water at a specific angle. This rare sight can only be seen at  a 2-week period towards the end of Feburary. To photograph this rare event, photographers would often have to wait and endure years of patience in order to capture them. The reason is because its appearance depend on a few natural phenomenons occuring at the same time and luck. 1st, Is the formation of the waterfall - The water is formed by the melting of snow and ice at the top of the mountain. It melts between the month of December and January and by the end of February there might not have much snow left to melt. 2nd, is the specific angle of the sunray hitting the falling water - The sun's position must be exactly at a particular spot in the sky. This occur only in the month of February and at the short hours of dusk. If it is a day full of clouds or something blocking the sun, you can only take pictures of your own sorry faces on the waterfall. It coincides with the fact that the weather in the National Park at that time of the year is often volatile and unpredictable. It compounds to the difficulty of getting these pictures. Someone did !!! And we all get to see it !!!

Allah and Trishul

    

Don't these images look similar? Both purport to represent two diametrically opposite communities that seems to be at war always....

Yes the first represents Allah in Arabic while the second is the symbol of Lord Shiva in Hinduism...
Amazing, isn't it? More the things change, more they remain the same...

God is great and is now wincing at our fight in His name...

America's most corrupt capitalists

http://www.alternet.org/story/146819/?page=entire

Found the story in the above link really worth sharing with all of you.. To really understand the fact that "Politicians are the same; whichever part of the world they live in" and more importantly that Man, or atleast the majority of them, is/are inherently evil and lazy..

Perhaps you may be differ.. But at least that is how I conclude...

Abysmal(!!!!) Vehicle Penetration

There was a recent newspaper report lamenting about abysmally low per capita vehicle penetration at 12 per 1000 people as compared to 765 for US, 426 for UK, 124 for Russia and even Brazil at 81. Car-makers are grinning the huge opportunity of untapped vehicle market.

With our cities already choking with traffic even with this abysmally low vehicle penetration I shudder to think how clogged our roads would be even with Brazil like penetration of 81 per 1000, a nearly seven fold increase from the current levels. Can you imagine? It is not as if there is huge potential available for road expansion as any such expansion will necessarily displace the livelihood of the millions. Cities practically have no space for pedestrians as roads are filled to the brim with vehicles virtually till the doorstep of houses and shops at the edge.

Is it really practicable and prudent to encourage automobile expansion while the automatic choice should be expansion of public transport or mass transport. It is for the government to take lead and innovate initiatives in this segment to discourage private transport and encourage its public counterpart with a scheme of incentives and dis-incentives. For example, levying a road clog cess on larger private vehicles like car, van, etc annually and utilise the revenue to improve the quality of roads and streamline bus fleet. Further, the government should create a complementary infrastructure of road and rail traffic system in all the major cities on a war-footing.

I for one staunchly desisted from using private transport for the past six years despite struggling in crowded buses and interminable waits at bus stops. But I could take it no longer as public transport showed no signs of improvement. Hence I bit the forbidden fruit of my private Bike some 5 months back. If a die-hard public transport fan like me choose to breach the Laxman rekha, you can forgive the common man for choosing to put a premium on his comfort and time at the cost of larger good.

O all ye netas and IASes straddling the power corridors!! When will you wake up and look at things from a futuristic scenario?? Just think about how your off springs will suffer from the overflowing traffic 10,15 years hence... Can't you take it up at least for their sake?

Why is TV hypnotizing??

In recent times, there has been an increase in the circulation of mails weeping about how much of our personal space is encroached by Television. In fact, there is one heart-rending essay purported to have been written by a child wishing to be a Television so that they can get undivided attention of his/her family members. One can easily relate oneself to frantic and often violent fights that happen in households over possession of TV remote as if it is ancient Somras guaranteed to bestow immortality on its purveyors or a $100 million lottery ticket whose number has just appeared in television as the lucky draw ticket.

One tends to think why is TV such omnipotent? How can it hypnotise millions of otherwise sane individuals to witness mediocre soaps and sporting contests, almost endlessly?

Television transports the spectator to an almost unreal world, so out of tune with his mundane routine, in to a world where he/she has no control over the happenings. It gives him/her an avenue for escapism, to flee from everyday problems and issues at least for a short period of time and indulge himself. It caters to his/her sub-conscious desires and aspirations – to fly and perform stunts like a super-man, to be outstanding sportsmen, to be like omni-lovable Casanovas and Cleopatras on screen, to be someone or something which they had always secretly wished but could not muster enough courage or will to do so for whatever reasons.

On another front, Television does not make value judgements on the people around, does not expect them to change for its sake mandatorily though people may change their routine out of their own sweet-will, and tells its own stories when you want to and not when they wish to. So much better than people, huh..

Every tail has its own head. Every winter has its own spring. Duality is the essence of life and in fact the universe.