Saturday, December 20, 2008

The Dream Job...

After skipping from one job to another, and after fretting over months about what I like to do... Suddenly while watching a TV show, I wondered... why not???

Highway On My Plate... an amazing show on NDTV Goodtimes...

The two hosts, Rocky and Mayur... travel the nook and corner of India... every show.. a new town, new people, new experiences.. and yeah... more and more new varieties of food... and CHEAP FOOD!!

I like travel.. and I love food...I love experimenting with new types of cuisines...
I can eat anywhere, anytime, anyhow....
and what would be more amazing than getting paid for traveling and eating??!! ;)

You can find some more info about the hosts at this website:
http://goodtimes.ndtv.com/lifestyle/GoodTimesAnchorPopUp.aspx?ShowID=7

I hope some NDTV person goes through my blog and consider me as a potential host, if either Rocky or Mayur decide to move on...

Friday, December 19, 2008

(bu SH)OE Attack

One of the most hilarious thing happened earlier this week, when the outgoing president of the mighty United States of America, George Bush was attacked by an Iraqi journalist at a press conference in Baghdad...
This was his last visit to Iraq...

"This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog," he shouted.

One of the shoes narrowly missed the president's head and slammed into the wall behind him.
Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, tried to block the second with his arm.
Apparently, throwing shoes at somebody is considered as the supreme insult in the Middle East.




After watching the news, I was laughing my heart out..
I remembered a similar incident when I was a school kid in 6th standard. That year, my sister was in 10th, in the same school. On 26th January, which was our Annual day, after the function was over, the chief guest had just finished giving a speech. He said something that was not taken well by the students. I don't quite remember what it was, but mostly he had given the news that there was going to be no holiday on 27th January (27th was given a Holiday as everyone used to attend school for the function on 26th..).
And suddenly it happened... Out of the blues, one chappal came flying from the crowd...
Our chief guest, just like our beloved Bush, had tremendous reflexes.. He ducked and the misile missed him... but it found a different target... our Maths teacher, Mr. Bunder Laj (Name changed to protect his identity :D), smack on his cheeks...

And what happened the next was even hilarious..
The Principal canceled the class picnic of the 10th grade, as it was one of them who had hurled the missile.. Instead, the picnic was held in the school itself, the girls all sat and cooked in our hall, and then everyone cleaned the entire school, swept and mopped the floors of each and every classroom...

I still enjoy teasing my sister with the same... :D

Anyways, coming back to The Bush incident..
A couple of days back I read in the Mumbai mirror that a man in Florida was charged under a new law for throwing a hamburger at her girlfriend, and was sent to prison for one month... It was the first case of the new "Food Attack" Law been enacted..
I guess the first law Mr. Obama might see through is the "Shoe Attack" law... :D

But whatever happens, happens for the good..
Finally Mr. Bush found the "Weapons of Mass Destruction" that he had been searching for !! ;)

Time to go..

The hair on my head have grown... it looks like a mushroom on my head...

Haven't shaved for 2 weeks... another couple of weeks and I will be a mulla-look-alike ...

I havent taken a bath since 2 days... Since my mom is not at home, there is no one to force me to take a bath... I hate taking a bath... maybe I was a cat in my past life...

And yeah, my body is stinking... badly... so no one dare come near me...

The Neanderthal in me has awoken... he does that all the time...
Its like my body is asking for some *primitive* pleasure, and no, its not sex !! ;)

Its time for me to back my sack soon... The winter trekking season for me has jut begun !!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Indian "Gandhigiri"...

India's response to terrorism has been a showcase of "Gandhigiri" in the truest sense...

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.... said the Great Mahatma...

In the recent Munnabhai movie, Sanjay dutt was taught - If someone slaps you, offer your other cheek...

Thats exactly what India's government is doing.. If they bomb our one city, we sit quit and offer them another..

But that is just the case of External affairs..

Our Internal affairs is a typical case of "Telgigiri"....

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Pakistan - Really a victim of terrorism??

Pakistan President Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, after the terror attacks defended Pakistan's postion and stated that "Pakistan is itself a victim of terrorism", and that they were committed to fight against it...

I am still wondering...

Is Pakistan really a *Victim* ??

I think Pakistan can be said to be a comprehensive institute for the terrorists... they first learn the THEORY part in Muzzafarabad (Even a waif on the streets of any Indian city know where the terrorist camps are...), and areas of POK...

Then they undergo practical training in those camps...

Then they practice the *Art* that they have learnt, on the Pakistani people... (Its something like those clinical trials conducted for effectiveness before a drug is launched)

And finally, these terrorists perform what they have learnt in where else, but India ...

Monday, December 8, 2008

If Ambanis would had been owning Taj...

Mr. Tata showed his kindness and compassion towards his fellow citizens by announcing financial help to not only those who had been affected by the attack on Taj, but also to the others affected by the CST, Oberoi, Nariman house, Colaba, Metro, Mazgaon and Vile Parle attacks...

Picture this... If a certain Mr. Ambani would had been owning Taj, what would have happened??

A widow staying in Colaba who had lost her husband in the Taj receives a courier.
It is an outstanding bill for a couple of drinks he had ordered with his business colleague on the night of 26th November 2008 at the Taj....
It also says, "We are sorry for the loss of your husband, hence we are waving off the VAT"...


P.S. Its just a joke, and a thought that came to my mind... to be taken lightly ;)

A Smiley in the sky :)

I exited the Malad station that evening, frowning... cursing the overweight Gujju ladies blocking my way...
It was a long and tiring day, full of frustration... Had to run in the college from one department to another, to get my paper work done, and in the end it was a complete waste of time and energy, and as Municipal offices work, I had been called again the next day...

All I could think of is hot mom-made ginger tea that would revitalize my senses... Damn these women... Wish I could just shove them off my path and move ahead!!

And out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at the sky... The sun was setting in the distant horizon... beautiful shades of orange intermingled with the pretty azure sky.. And something just caught my eye... There was a typical formation of the celestial bodies up in the sky... The Venus shone brightly, as it always does at dusk... but there was another bright star besides it, and coupled with the crescent moon over the 2 stars, it formed a perfect frowning sad smiley [:(] turned upside down... Duh!! The Gods are teasing me... I blurted and moved on... Oh God!! These ladies... *Shove* followed by *Curses in Gujju language*.... Blahhhh !!!

There is really some magic in mom-made ginger tea... and coupled with TLC (Tender Loving Care), it was the perfect therapy for a certain sulking Mr. Parag Mahale... all freshened up, I decided to go to my fav space, the terrace... N had sms ed me about a peculiar pattern of the stars and moon.. and I thought, yeah I had seen the frowning face already...

And there it was... right in front of my eye, the perfect Celestial Smiley... :)
I stared at it, Smiling.. It felt like I was smiling with God... Good ol' Lord.. some tricks he plays with us Humans eh??


I ran back home, to get my tripod and cam... and captured a series of pictures...
Meanwhile, I got an sms from K asking me to take the pics of the same... and I had already taken 20 shots by then..

It was difficult times for Mumbai, India and the world... terror stricken city was in shock and despair.. While Hindi news channels were calling this to be a "Shani ka prakop" (The Wrath of Saturn) and were calling out priests to pacify the enraged planet, seems like Venus, Jupiter and the Moon had some other plans... they brought a smile back to the faces of the lowly Human species... God surely is crazy !! :)

Monday, October 13, 2008

Its not just about lemon and water...


I wonder who had discovered... or rather made this drink for the first time...
Nimbu Paani... better known to the westerners as the Lemonade.. I feel its the perfect drink.. Nothing can better a glass full of cold lemonade.. No other drink, not even plain water can be that refreshing on a hot sunny day...

My fascination for lemonade started in childhood primary school days... At those times, the famous brand "Rasna" was in vogue... easy to prepare, all u needed to do was to prepare the concentration once, and then just add cold water and voila !!

Once in 2nd or 3rd grade, I happened to taste a glass of Nimbu Paani my Mom had made for herself... and then I made my mom prepare 3 more glasses of Nimbu paani for me, cause I had never had such a wonderful drink ever in my life... No Rasna flavour was as good as this one for sure..

Then One day I realized that this drink is more than just adding Lemon, water, sugar and salt... Just like any other delicacy, it needs to be prepared with care... each and every ingredient should be in the right concentration... I tried many places near my school, near my society, on the railway station, at my place... from my mom, my sister, my aaji... even at my friends' place... But I never found the right taste I was looking for... No doubt it tasted wonderful and refreshing, but I never had that satisfaction... Until one day, my experiments with the ingredients worked out perfectly :)

One summer vacation in school was spend in such experiments... my afternoons were spent in the kitchen... I used to sit on the chair with the entire kitchen spread all around me, which used to drive my Mom insane... I used to tell her I am working on some top secret experiment... she started believing I am like one of those mad scientists, who were trying to found the secret formula for everlasting youth... Alas, she Didnt know how much more important for me was to find out the perfect recipe for the Nimbu Paani...

And one such morning, I was finally successful... I wasn't in a bath tub or else I would have really ran out of it, completely nude... but would had been shouting "Aai aikla ka"... instead of "Eureka"... My mom tasted it.. she said... "Kharach changla banavla aahe re...", which I later came to know that she said it just for the sake of saying it... but she didnt realize what effect those words had on me... I bought about ten lemons from the roadside baniya, and made up almost 2 litres of the "Perfect" Nimbu Paani, and called up all my friends from the building to have a drink... (That was my very first "Drinks" party with my friends, back in 3rd grade :D)
I used to drink Nimbu Paani like anything, day in and day out... and i never used to drink it from the glass... rather I used to slowly take in small sips with a teaspoon like a baby who is getting spoon fed... I just loved to savour the taste of each and every drop of that refreshing drink... The Nimbu Paani drinking session actually used to last for almost half an hour, watching FunTime - Giant Robot and He Man on Doordarshan :)

Gone are the good old days... But Nimbu Paani still remains the best drink for me... All it requires is the perfect concentration of Cold water, the perfect amount of lemon juice, Sugar and salt, and a little bit of Jaljeera.. and yes plenty of love filled in it by the one who is making it... and voila !! The recipe for Perfect Nimbu Paani is ready :)

Friday, August 22, 2008

The Mumbai Local

The Mumbai local train... the lifeline of this metropolitan city...
It has been 2 yrs since it was attacked by a bunch of terrorists, and I still remember, I myself along with many other Mumbaikars had traveled through the local train the very next day to show my solidarity, and my love, the bond that I felt with the local train...
Come what may, the trains were there, in every aspect of my life... those late night movie shows at the Regal... that overnight trek... that first proposal and the blooming romance... those exam times and the last minute slogging... those million naps after a tiring day at the hospital.... Its just like a part of my family...

She's like the secret lover... the feelings are mutual, but the words are hard to express...

The other day I read these lines written by a woman commuter about the ladies special she used to travel in daily...

5:46 Andheri Local
==============

In the Women's compartment
of a Bombay local
We seek
No personal epiphanies.

Like metal licked by relentless acetylene
We are welded -
Dreams, disasters
germs, destinies
Flesh and Organza
Odours and Ovaries
A thousand limbed
Million tongued, multi spoused
Kali on wheels.

When I descend
I could choose
To dice carrots
or a lover

I postpone the latter.

-- Anonymous

100 m in 5 secs??? Dream on...

Like a bolt of lightening, Usain Bolt ran his way into the record books with a double World record breaking 100 and 200 meters win at Beijing... I saw the 100 m sprint, and such was the dominance of the sprinter, that he was celebrating even before he crossed the finish line, and still managed to break the WR and his competitors comprehensively... He is the first person after Carl Lewis did a 100-200 m double way back in 1984...


A 9.69 second run... wow that sounds pretty impressive. I saw an article in TOI the other day, "100 m in 5 secs? - Not impossible", it said... well I think otherwise... yeah many people hold me as being a pessimist... but let me put some facts first...

From the past records that I have gone through, Donald Lippincott held the WR in 1912, and he clocked 10.60 seconds...
It has been almost a century... 96 years to be precise, and the timing for the 100 m sprint has not even been reduced by 1 second!!! Now thats interesting...
Well, we all know about the Theory of evolution... Humna beings are really quick to adapt themselves to the surroundings... but this adaptation has led to us being a slave of machines off late... Technology is being used more and more often to make life as easier as possible for us...
I simply believe that our evolution has stopped and its the evolution of the machines, that has begun... Even for a simple walk for a couple of blocks, the western countries have come up with a machine... Now theres no walking to the grocer and actually buying stuff, it all can be done sitting on a couch at home through internet...

Its not surprising then that the 100 m timing hasnt been reduced even by a single second.. The results that are showing up are due to extensive training (and performance enhancing drugs taken by some) undertaken by the athletes and nothing else... Without evolution, the 5 second barrier seems like a distant impossible dream... Maybe a nuclear war or global warming may change everything...

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Spain at it again...

The following picture appeared as an advertisement for a courier company, which is an official sponsor for the Spanish Olympic Basketball team, in the Spanish sports daily Marca...


The entire Basketball team is seen to part the skins around their eyes, making a Split-eyed gesture, which is so insensitive for the Olympic games... Some people may even considered this as a racist remark. Two snaps had appeared, one each of the Women's and Men's Basketball teams occupying one page each of the daily.

This snap had appeared on the eve of their match against none other than China. This ad further rubbed wound in their salts as Spain beat China 85-75 in a come from behind victory that went to the extra time.

Spain had earlier been involved in similar other controversies, in which Thierry Henry was greeted with Monkey chants in a friendly match at Madrid. Lewis Hamilton was also recently been targeted with racist remarks during the testing at Barcelona.

Its not that I am supportive of China in this cause, considering the human rights violation in Tibet which they were responsible for. But still, since people consider this as Spain's golden year in which they won the Euro, the French and Wimbledon grand slams, The Tour de France, and now the olympic gold in cycling, they should had been more sensitive and tolerant regarding this.

The Guardian reports : "No one involved in the advert appears to have considered it inappropriate nor contemplated the manner in which it could be interpreted in China and elsewhere. No offence was intended by the advert, but whether the Chinese see it that way is a different matter"

Its high time the sportmen and women respect the Olympic tradition and stay away from such controversies.

Fear?? Or Anxiety??

I had taken this snap during the South Indian festival "Velu Murugan". This festival is characterized by devotees, who had asked "Mannat", pierce their bodies 108 times with hooks.

I look at this picture of a young boy, who was one of the devotees... and time and again, I keep on wondering, whether it is fear showing on his face, which he is trying to hide, or is it plain anxiety.... or is he just flowing with the mood of other people who were kind of acting hyper as if they were "possessed" by the diety ?!

(You can view the entire album at : http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39680&l=46f23&id=670750758)

...

These are testing times for me and my friend N... Together we have been through a lot in the past couple of years... We have seen each other through heart breaks, family problems and now facing career issues and a severe identity crisis !! But this too shall pass...

We have done so many crzy things together during the past 1 year or so...
Including the 70 km walk for 21 hours from Vile Parle to Titwala... and the gruelling Cycling expedition from Mumbai to Lonavala without much of a training... There were many times in our trips when we had almost given up, just to push each other just a little more, against all physical boundaries that we had known till now, to achieve our goals in the end...
Looking back now at these trips, we sometimes wonder, "Did we really do it?????".... or "How the heck were we able to do it???? "

Well... I believe, 10-15 yrs down the line when we meet again, we will look back at these testing times that we slogged out together and say... "We did it... Didn't we??"

Love u my buddy... Just hang on ....

Friday, August 8, 2008

Kya aapko K.I.L.B. hai ???

Nowadays, a new ad is making the buzz....

Irfan Khan dressed as a doctor,helps an elderly person who is stumbling, to his chair in his clinic..

"K.I.L.B. chhune se nahi failta... maine chhuya, faila kya?? " he asks the viewers...

At the first sight, it comes down as just another AIDS awareness campaign, like the famous "Balbir pasha" ad that was aired a few years ago... (My friends and I had turned it into B-pasha... or Bipasha... :D )

But I think it is more than that...
Irfan Khan, currently a brand ambassador for the Vodafone, I think is advertising here for the Iphone to be launched on the Vodafone and Airtel networks later this month...

But I really love this funda of advertising...

We had been seeing ads like Digen Verma's frooti ad, "where's the pulp" ad, etc...
Initially, a curiosity is been generated in the market, and later the brand is launched...
Surely, a buzz is going on about what is "K.I.L.B." ??!!

The first ones to ask me were of course, aji and aai....
They thought it was some sort of a disease or something, like AIDS, especially since he is dressed in an apron and OT gowns...
I know my medical knowlege is quite rusty, and i had not licked each and every page of Harrison... But K.I.L.B. ??? I had not even accidently heard this term in my medical school or the hospital... So I knew, this was meant to make a big ch***ya of all the people... LOL...

Here are the ads if You havent seen them...







Hmmm...
I think what K.I.L.B. stands for is... "Keemti Iphone Leneka Bukhaar"
and with Vodafone coming out with special offers for the same :D

well, thats what I think, What is your take??

P.S. Just got to know what KILB stands for... ;)

Thursday, August 7, 2008

The Lucky Bamboo..


It will soon be one year since I have a Chinese bamboo plant at my home. My sister had sent me a 3- stalked chinese bamboo plant last year on Raksha Bandhan... It was a small sampling, and now is almost a foot high...

Chinese bamboo plants have a role to play in the Eastern practice of "Feng Shui".. or the bringing of natural elements of water, fire, earth, wood and metal into balance within the environment... Chinese bamboo (or Lucky Bamboo) is believed to be an ideal example of the thriving wood and water element, with the addition of a red ribbon tied around its stalks, is believed to represent "Fire", or the postive flow of energy or "Chi" in the room...
The number of stalks also has some meaning,
3 stalks - Happiness
5 stalks - Wealth
6 stalks - Health

4 stalks are avoided cause the word "four" in Chinese sounds too similar to the chinese word for "Death" !! :O

I have a 3-stalked plant... and lately I had been observing that its leaves are turning yellow, one by one as each day passes by...
This plant was supposed to bring "Happiness" in my house... and now it was dying...
err.... any sane person can interpret what that meant in Feng shui... :(
It had been a long time since my family had experienced Happy times together.. and this thing totally started depressing me further....

My aji is an expert in plants... she had a big garden in our old house at shivaji park... and also at goregaon... she had told me to plant the sappling in soil instead of marbles... also to keep it in sunlight...
well, that was the most stupidest thing I did... that is keeping the plant in sunlight...

Later, I searched the internet and found out that the chinses bamboo is an indoor plant and it needs plenty of indirect sunlight, and that it dies in direct sunlight... damn !!

Here are some of the things you can do to take care of your Lucky Bambo....
  • Typically, they are grown in a few inches of clear water, perhaps supported by small pebbles, stones, or marbles. It is important that the water be kept clean and fresh and not allowed to stagnate.
  • The Choline/Flurides in tap water is harmful to the plant. Allow the tap water to stand in an open container for 24 hours, allowing the chlorine and flouride to dissipate, before using it with your plants. Or you can use filtered or distilled water.
  • The plant needs plenty of Indirect sunlight. Keep it away from direct sunlight.They will perform well under artificial lighting. Too much direct sun can cause burning of the leaves. Too little light will lead to weak growth, stretching and poor coloration. Normal household temperatures are ideal.
Hmm... I followed the instructions for a few days... and I saw that new shoots are coming out...
That surely did bring back a smile on my face.. :)
So you know guys, this Feng shui thing really works... Go get your Chinese bamboo plant :D


P.S. The Chinese Bamboo is not a Bamboo at all ;) It belongs to the Dracaena family (Dracaena sanderiana)

Hypocrites!!

I was watching Man vs. Wild last night on Discovery. On the show, Mr.Bear Grylls was showing how to survive in the no man's land of patagonia in the andes... He had just caught a bunny and then he showed how to remove his skin and remove the organs and roast the dead animal....

As Grylls started skinning and dissecting the animal, Mom and grandmom started making weird constipated faces.

"How gross... how can You even watch such stuff... ewwwww"... blah blah....

"when ur relishing on the meat on sundays, U never think that the animal you have eaten has been slaughtered alive and skinned in the same way, dont you...??", I shot back...

My folks back home are big hypocrites... especially my grandmom...
She expresses love for all the animals in the world... she has rescued many of them, feeds them refularly etc etc... She cant watch other animals like deers etc being hunted on discovery channel, but she relishes on goat meat... she says she doesnt like chicken and craves for goat meat, which is thankfully not cooked at our place anymore cause of dad's high cholesterol problem....

Once I had consumed Beef during my internship (though it was accidental, i liked it and I had it again later...) and I came home and declared I had cow meat today....
And then came the accusations of being "Dharma Bhrastha" and all that...
I have also had Pork (and its the best form of meat I have eaten)... and consumed s few live insects on a trek...

All I want to say is that either you eat all forms of meat, or simply become vegetarian... Or at least dont behave like many hypocrite hindus who allow eating goat, chicken and fish meat, but not beef... God never says that U can eat a goat but U cannot eat a cow (for hindus) or pigs (for muslims)...

I also dont understand the celebration of "Gataari" the day before the onset of the Hindu month of Shravan, in which many Hindu people refrain from eating non-veg... So on Gataari, they have the license to eat as many animals as u want and get drunk to the point of crashing down into a road-side gutter (Thats where the term gataari arises from)... I mean, what crap...
Thank God we dont follow shravan... but monday being a Shravani somwar, I was forbidden from eating eggs in the morning... and the next day, we had cooked prawns curry at home !!!

Arrrrrrrrrrgh !! These customs I'll always fail to understand... :-|

Abortion aborted... the debate begins !!

Recently, a sensitive case had come up for hearing in the Mumbai High court. A middle aged woman, who was in her 26th week of gestation, had moved the high court for Termination of the pregnancy, as the foetus was detected to have a complete congenital heart block along with complete transposition of great arteries. She had moved the court, as legally, Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) can be carried out only upto 20 weeks of gestation….

Now lets look at the salient features of this act… (MTP act, 1971)

MTP can be carried out when
• The continuation of pregnancy would involve serious risk of life or grave injury to the physical and mental health of the pregnant woman.
• There is a substantial risk of the child being born with serious physical and mental abnormalities so as to be handicapped in life.
• When the pregnancy is caused by rape, both in cases of major and minor girl and in mentally imbalanced women.
• Pregnancy caused as a result of failure of a contraceptive.

When termination has to be done upto 12 weeks, one qualified medical practitioner can do it, whereas if it is between 12-20 weeks, opinion of 2 practitioners is required

For the entire act, you can refer to : http://mohfw.nic.in/MTP%20Act%201971.htm

Fair enough… here the main concern was that there was a substantial risk of the child being born with serious physical and mental abnormalities so as to be handicapped in life… and so the judgment basically depended on the JJ Hospital committee’s report. And here, the government employees did a major goof up of typing “… there is a very LEAST chance of….” Instead of the earlier report which said “… there is a very FAIR chance of….”

That one word just turned up the case upside down…. And the court turned down the appeal stating that there was nothing to suggest that it was an extraordinary case that they would be allowed to go against the law for just this time…

Personally, I feel this is an extremely sensitive issue, just like euthanasia, which is deemed illegal in India. What has got this issue into the limelight is that the couple approached the high court, as I believe, hundreds of such and similar other cases are tackled illegally all over the nation. The mother could have paid up the doc below the table and had got it aborted and no one would have got a hint of it, unless of course if the mother had developed any complications during the process, which is the main reason why the doctors would had been shying away from it…

A complete congenital heart block is a serious disorder. As everyone must have read in the newspapers, it MAY require a pacemaker insertion immediately after birth… Even if the prognosis is good, usually they may require it after about 7-9 years of age. Transposition of great arteries is a condition in which there is shunting of blood, in which impure deoxygenated blood gets circulated in the body, as the aorta here arises from the right ventricle instead of the left. This may get nullified by a ventricular septal defect, but still, such defect requires surgery, and they do cause a lot of financial strain. The life of the child before and after the surgery is also not too good. A simply crying spell can be the cause of their death. The child also has to live a compromised life later on…
Still, I cannot comment on how GRAVE the physical deformity would had been…
Some NGOs came forward and asked the couple to give the child to them so that they would take care of the child, but is this done??
Would the parental instincts let them simply give away the baby to an NGO cause he suffers from a cardiac deformity?
Aborting a fetus [note: I am calling it a Fetus and not a baby or a child] when detected is what I feel, is the best way to go. The MTP act was made in 1971, when facilities like amniocentesis, chorion villi sampling etc where very rudimentary. A lot has changed in these 37 years in the medical arena, and detection and management techniques of such cases have also improved manifold.

But also, the drawback of this case was that, if the woman had been allowed to undergo abortion, it would have opened a whole new pandora’s box….
More and more women would had come forward citing similar reasons for abortion after the 20th week…
Human rights activists are also up in arms against it, as they say that the unborn child also has the equal right to live… but, when asked to the child who suffers from such a severe disorder, I strongly feel that the child would had preferred to not have born in the first place…

This case has everything – medical, legal, social, ethical, emotional issues bound into one… I feel that the limit of 20 weeks should be increased to 24 weeks as the mother also has the right to decide if she wants to keep that child. This provision should clearly provide and specify which cases are included in the 20-24 week period that can be allowed to be aborted, as for every law there are people who misuse them.
Right now, the woman has got no option but to carry on with her pregnancy as it has already crossed 26th week , and by the time a supreme court appeal comes to hearing, she would have already delivered!! I pray that the child is not treated like an unwanted child like the mother, as that would be a serious injustice to the child.

All in all, it’s a LOSE-LOSE situation for the child, whether born, or unborn… His/Her fate now lies in the hands of medical professionals and her parents….

Monday, August 4, 2008

.....

Oooooo... this space seems familiar...

*Brushes away the cobwebs*

As i enter this space again, I face a mirror and I see myself staring back... Poor guy.. what has happened of u huh???
Yes.. That person seems familiar... but changed a lot...
Why were u away ??? He asks me... I have no answer.... cuz I was plain bored, I think....

Boredom... He is my best friend nowadays... I get bored doing anything... I was even bored to eat one day that I fasted for the first time in my life... and then I suffered the most severe of heart burns that I had ever experienced... Oh yes.. now im even bored of getting the heart burns.... Im bored of even taking a bath the day I am supposed to go out...

hmmm... boredom... Let me see why I am so fucking bored...

I have quit my job... I have no career... I couldnt get through to any program abroad this year, so will be applying again for next year...
Im also applying for a new job now... New job just so that I shouldnt get a gap in my CV... doesnt matter if u like doing the shitty work or not... I mean, people spend their entire lifetime doing jobs they dont like, I just want to do it for 1 year... ONE YEAR :O that seems pretty long... but what the heck, If Im paid 20K +, Im even ready to clean toilets for that...

So basically Im doing nothing sitting at home... Oh yes... Im doing a wonderful job of irritating my parents by sitting at home... also Im adjusting my biological clock to US standard time, by sleeping at 3 AM and getting up at 11 AM...
Also I have started reading a LOT !!! Ive read a lot of books, biographies, adventure stories, etc...
And I watch movies.. I have a huge collection... everything from french, italian, russian and bosnian movies... subtitles of course...
and yes oh yes.. Im a super net addict... I cant stay without my internet for a single day, except when im out for a trek of course!! Dunno what I do on the net, nothing constructive, just going through the recent research articles, playing scrabble, chatting a bit, and arguing in formula1 forums .... now i am bored of that too...

So basically, Im an overeducated, unemployed, good-for-nothing son for my parents...
I sleep in my sleeping bag nowadays instead of my bed... so that when my parents have enough of me and they throw me out of the house, at least I would had been accustomed to sleeping in my sleeping bag....
I have started putting on weight... and I am still trying to figure out which course of study should I pursue further...
There is course A, B and C... I considered a course D for a while too but rejected it...
Course A is a backup for course B, incase I dont get it... but its A (and not B) cause Now I feel that I should do A and not B cause ill get bored by doing B in the future... Confused?? Well, welcome to my world of confusion superimposed by boredom !!
And of course, there is course C.. haha.. how can I forget that... I have started preparing for C... I havent heard of anyone from my backgroud doing C.. so I would be one of the very handful like me, If I get through for C.... but Mera naseeb hi G***u hai to main bhi kya karu yaar !!!

So what was i doing the couple of months gone by???????
Simple... Trekking, trekking, trekking.... and yes... some more trekking....
coupled with cycling and photography, though the cycling has taken a bit of a backseat now due to rains...
4 treks on 4weekends in June, taking my total tally to 94 treks... and have targetted 100 by the end of this season...
The 100th trek I want to be a solo trek... and the most difficult trek of my trekking history... Like, one slip and I die... Oooooooooooooo... that thought itself sends a chill down my spine...
Cant wait for number 99 to get over.... Zankhan would had been so proud of me... hehehe...
And I am traveling a lot with my friends too... I was never so closed to my friends that I am now... Suddenly I have realized I have so many of them... Wow...
Life should had been better.. But alas its far far away from being better... but I know, my day of reckoning will arrive sooner than later...

Sunday, May 18, 2008

"To Love", or "To be in Love" ??!!


I was reading the book “Shantaram” a few days ago….


Didier and Lin were sitting in Café Leopold...

Didier : So do you Love her??

Lin: No

Didier : Are you in Love with her??

Lin : Yes

It was well past midnight… I wanted to finish up that chapter and hit the bed…

But this conversation caught me eyes… I kept the book aside, lit up a Malboro and sat on the window sill, trying to fathom what those words meant…

What did he mean by those words?? At the first glance, they appeared the same to me… but the contradictory answers given by Lin made me ponder…

The stick was half gone… the ashes were falling on the sill, seeped in the moon light, like the flakes of snow… flashbacks had been quite distressing… they had played havoc in my life… and I needed the answers… answers to why did it happen the way it happened… and I was to find those long awaited answers by a fictional book written by an outlaw from an island thousands of miles away…

“I love you”… and “I’m in love”… those words now meant worlds apart to me…

When we say, “I love you”… it shows that your desire to love someone is backed up with the conscious willingness of your heart, Its something like an “Active phenomenon”…You are in control of this emotion called “Love”…. That you still have the power to say "I don’t love you"… That your love for someone is something YOU have chosen and have full control over it (i.e. the choice)…

But when we are “In love” with someone… it is an entirely different scenario…

It means, we are possessed by love… you cannot call your shots… you have no control whatsoever on the emotion of “Love”, however you may try… You have NO CHOICE BUT TO LOVE… The tentacles of Love have engulfed you , not letting you get away, however hard and desperate you maybe…

Being “In Love” is painful… and it hurts the most when it is one-sided…

I had never loved; rather I was in love… I wish I never was… I wish I never would in the future… I would rather not throw myself at the mercy of a stupid human emotion… I love myself way to much now, to hurt myself any longer…

The room is now filled with smoke… I grope in the dark to find my bed… the darkness from my mind is now shed though, at least a bit….