How I wish I was Gabbar...

Firstly, before I begin with this grrwala post, let me share a good news with you. After three months of facing the wrath of unemployment and recessional atyachaar...I finally got a job. Can't really write much about it as it's been just two days since I joined the new firm. Will update that once I become used to the organization.

Now back to the topic. One may wonder why on the earth, of all the people do I wish to become Bollywood's greatest and most celebrated Villain? It's b'coz just like the tobacco stained teethwala villain who cut or in doctor's terms amputated Thakur's hands, I too am itching to cut off the hands of perverts/cowards who seek immense pleasures in touching or manhandling a woman in crowded, public places. Buses, Trains, Shopping Malls, Lifts, even workplaces...it's there everywhere. What's worse, by the time the victim reacts, the guilty disappears. And the victim is left wondering, who the hell did that to her?

Almost every woman must have gone through this disgusting experience. Moral Police may happily accuse the woman for dressing up in the most inappropriate manner and seducing men. But honestly, I do not agree with them. A woman has the right to dress up as she wants. Why should she wrap herself from head to toe just to avoid the perverts and their disgusting intentions? Moreover, I and my friends wear decent clothes...yet we have faced such situations. So dress code is not the real solution for this issue.

The real solution is to punish the culprits in the most meanest manner. Here, a rapist is sentenced to just 7-10 years of imprisonment. Worse, by the time the guilty is imprisoned; the victim is not just physically battered...she is also mentally, emotionally and economically battered and shattered. With a weird law such as this, a woman is left to feel unsafe. People say capital punishment is ghastly and inhuman. But for ghastly acts such as these, capital punishment seems appropriate. I know I sound harsh, but I am sure that capital punishment would surely infuse some amount of fear in the minds of other cowards. If this sounds as a bad deal, then there should be more fast track courts set up to sort out such issues and the guilty should be sentenced to atleast life imprisonment.

In the end all I can say to all my beheno (sisters) is that please if you are lucky enough to see the face of the man who has harassed you, dont think twice...just give him one tight slap across his face. If possible learn some self-defense mechanisms. Kick-boxing would be good. Dont shy away from rasing your voice if you encounter any trouble. But if you have not seen the pevert's face...all you can do is pray to god for your safety. And if you are faced with a really bad situation, don't hesitate to call up 103.

For further details, see this link: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA4LzAyLzIxI0FyMDAyMDE=&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom

Note: I am not a feminist, but I believe in Gender Equality. Next in line: How women should not use Sexual Harassment as means to settle scores with men.

Govinda and our neglected constituency...

Year 2004: The North Constituency of Mumbai (I stay in one of it's regions) was handed over to Govinda.

No, no not the almighty. How I wish he had handled our constitutency, we would have been one of those divine places of India. I would have shamelessly cashed on it's popularity.

But I am talking about the famous Bollywood actor Govinda. You know the one who wears red shirts, yellow pants, has sparkling white teeth, dances as if some cockroach has entered his pants and most importantly who acts in movies that ends with the suffix no.1...like Hero no.1, Jodi no.1, Coolie no.1 and so on. Still did not get the clue?? oki well he looks like this:

Yes this man took over our constituency. He defeated one of the most respectable man in politics, Shri. Ram Naik by a margin of some 5,0000 odd votes.

Sangi (she's my siamese twin strictly by behaviour only) and I were damn happy. Yes we were one of those Govinda loyalists who would never miss any of his brainless flick. To feel like 'One among his loyalists', we used to go to singleplex theaters and buy a stall kaa ticket and sit in any of the front two rows. We would whistle just like the other tapori men when Govinda would come face to face with Kader Khan or when songs such as the following would play:

So much so that Sangi and I tried those steps too. But that was when we were school kids. We have grown out of that phase.

Back to year 2004: We were doing our graduation, but then we still rooted for him. Afterall, he was aam janta kaa favorite. He was what Rajnikant was for South. Congress was smart enough to take him in their party, afterall Congress kaa haath jo tha Aam aadmi ke saath. He smartly banked on his popularity among Singleplex movier goers (there were many at that time despite the proliferation of Multiplexes in the city) and his Virar kaa Chokra image (He travelled in the dirty, crowded 2nd class compartments of a Virar Bound train to show how concerned he is about his people) and won the votes.

We had expected a lot from him. Anyways his filmi career was going nowhere. So we thought like Sunil Dutt he too would give his time to our constituency. But sadly, we were wrong. Five years have passed, we have been let down terribly. We thought he would be there helping us during the 26\7 floods, but no he was safely residing in his Juhu house not even showing remote concern for us. One of his region Jogeshwari was ripped apart on 11th July 2006 serial train blast...but again he was nowehere to be seen. The hero of the masses is now no more a hero in our eyes. Recently, I read that he has used 91% of the funds allocated to him. But sadly, I can see no improvement as such in and among my regions. Now I wonder where the money has gone?

Year 2009: Govinda has still not got the ticket. He says he is not interested. I am a abhineta not a neta he says. Whatever, I have decided now to cast vote to only those people who will respect the time and patience I have put to vote them and utilize the funds allocated for us in some good way. Till then, I leave you with yet another awesome song of Govinda, mind you...I still love that song:

Bapu is BACK...

Bapuji's belongings are back here in India! After a week long speculations and controversies surrounding the auction of Gandhiji's belongings that included his wire-rimmed glasses, worn leather sandals, a pocket watch and a metal bowl and plate at New York; Vijay Mallya managed to get them back for a whooping $1.8 million.

My reaction: good, good...we have something precious to boast about. Atleast we will have some new additions in our museums. But my question is: was spending so much on Bapuji's belongings justified? I mean how many among us remember him and his principles? We scoff at his principles. 'They are just not applicable in today's times' we say. Then what's the use of keeping his personal items on display, when we can't even follow his simple principles such as Satyagraha and Ahimsa. Do we really care for what he did? Some of us blame him for having a hand in India-Pakistan's partition. Some say that he was wrong in supporting Jawaharlal Nehru instead of Sardar Vallabhai Patel by giving Jawaharlal Nehru the Prime Ministerial post, when actually Sardar Vallabhai Patel was deemed to be the ideal candidate for the post. Till date, people blame Gandhiji for his supposedly wrong political moves. Some of my friends even blame the poor leader coz it's a DRY DAY on both 2nd October (his birthday) and on 30th January (his death anniversary).

Some may argue saying that Gandhiji is still respected. They may point out to me that Lagey Raho Munnabhai had become a HUGE HIT because it had Gandhigiri in it. They may say that Gandhigiri was responsible for reviving those old Gandhian principles that had become extinct, and that people follow it now. But I believe that Gandhigiri was purely a fad that faded away with time. I don't know why but I am not too sure about how these items would be maintained? (bearing in mind the fact that Indian museums are never that well-maintained), What benefit would I or the future generation seek from these priceless articles? (I mean we will just see those belongings, listen to the curator's lecture and go away), What lessons would we gain from his glasses and watches???

As I write this blog, I am reminded of what my friend said after the 26/11 attacks. I asked him why do we never retaliate against Pakistan who continously attack our country, he calmly replied- "we will never retaliate, coz our father of the nation has given us the principle of Ahimsa. Our politicians are just following it". Hmm...point taken. Bechara Gandhiji, forget following his principles...now they are even wrongly perceived.

Just an experimental post

I was trying this new site called Vimeo and found it relatively easier and faster to upload videos as compared to Youtube.

For experimentation sake, I uploaded one of the animation clips created by four of my classmates for a class project. The subject was organizational behaviour and as a part of their presentation, they made this animation clip to show how the infrastructure of their organization would be.

So here's the animation clip...ENJOY!!


Animation clip by my friends from Gayathri Vishwanathan on Vimeo.