Suddenly remembered something weird
2 Comments Published by Apocalyptus on Wednesday, January 25, 2006 at 11:54 AM.
Yesterday all of a sudden I went a few years back down the memory lane. I had no reason to do so but then I had nothing more interesting or constructive to do as such in the evening either.
'R' was busy with work (and so she will be for the next three months as her working hours have changed from 7:00-15:00 to 15:00-23:00 hrs in the evening) so I didn't have anything to do or any company after leaving office. Hence I came home and put on some music and preferred to give in to the nostalgia while sipping on some vodka and smoking.
I remembered one of the weirdest things I had ever heard from anybody quite some time back (almost 7 years back).I was in the 12th standard then. There was this guy called 'X' and he was one of those very close friends of mine. We were in the same school, same class, same section. Once he was looking very gloomy. I noticed but thought may be it was one of those occasional mood swings everyone has from time to time and ignored. But he remained so for quite a few days. He was looking depressed, troubled,hurt. After more than a week passed, I couldn't help but ask him what it was. He hesitated for a moment and then said he too felt too suffocated from inside but it was something he wasn't sure whether he should share with somebody or not. I said if he didn't wan't to share it's fine but if he did then I was all game for giving him an ear and may be finding some way out of his distress. After that what he told me was probably the most shocking thing I had ever heard.
It was the time when The TV channel "TB6-Mockba" was being aired in India by the cable operators and within the first 2-3 months it was very popular as it had certain programmes for certain audiences at certain times. Early in the morning on sundays (as early as 2:00 a.m) they used to put episodes of "Playboy" on air and we suppressed, oppressed and therefore depressed Indian teenagers used to wait for that for the whole week. "X" was no exception either. For one month, i.e, four consecutive weeks he had watched four episodes of "Playboy" and with that his appetite for sex-education had only increased. Can't really blame him because it was quite natural for a 17-year-old guy.
He wanted more of it. But, on the fifth week, when he quietly got out of his bed and without making any sound, advanced towards the TV-Room, fully convinced that everybody else in his house was fast asleep, he saw the TV-light fluctuating in the TV-Room and he knew there was someone already there. He just peeped through the semi-opened door and saw his father staring at the TV-screen with an open mouth and eyes that weren't even blinking. He thought may be his dad wasn't feeling sleepy and that's why he had come to the TV-Room. But then he looked at the TV-Screen and saw what he was watching. He was shocked !!! He came back to his bedroom and couldn't sleep all night. The same thing happened in the next week and the subsequent weeks also. "X"-'s dad was about 55 years of age at that time, father of two children and
on the verge of becoming a grandpa (X's elder sister, 8 years older than X, was married for a couple of years and pregnant then).
X told me "I know it's not a good thing to watch porn but at some point of time every guy of my age group feels the urge and becomes unable to supress the desires within. There is nothing wrong if I watch those once in a while just to satisfy my curiosity.I'm not doing anything taboo or harming anybody. But if aged people like aour dads too start doing these deprieving us, what to do? Besides, I always thought of my dad as my hero because I could find no blemish in anything he did but after this I feel ashamed to be his son."
I didn't know what to say. I was dumbfounded. I even tried imagining what I would have done if I were in his position but couldn't come up with any suggestion. I just shrugged off,patted him on the back and left. We're still in touch but we never talked on this issue again.
But I heard that even now, his dad who is 62 now, has got so addicted to porn-watching that he watches porn (on CDs) at night everyday openly without even bothering what his wife or children might think or feel. And poor 'X' has to stay inside his own room and has to 'satisfy' himself with his own old stock of still nude photographs of actresses and models stored in his PC. Even now he can't watch movies in his PC as whenever the light flickers a little bit his dad starts doubting and asks him what he is watching. Bechara !!! I only wish he gets a chance to go away somewhere from that place. As long as he is in that house, he will always remain 'suppressed, oppressed and therefore depressed'. High time he moved out.
'R' was busy with work (and so she will be for the next three months as her working hours have changed from 7:00-15:00 to 15:00-23:00 hrs in the evening) so I didn't have anything to do or any company after leaving office. Hence I came home and put on some music and preferred to give in to the nostalgia while sipping on some vodka and smoking.
I remembered one of the weirdest things I had ever heard from anybody quite some time back (almost 7 years back).I was in the 12th standard then. There was this guy called 'X' and he was one of those very close friends of mine. We were in the same school, same class, same section. Once he was looking very gloomy. I noticed but thought may be it was one of those occasional mood swings everyone has from time to time and ignored. But he remained so for quite a few days. He was looking depressed, troubled,hurt. After more than a week passed, I couldn't help but ask him what it was. He hesitated for a moment and then said he too felt too suffocated from inside but it was something he wasn't sure whether he should share with somebody or not. I said if he didn't wan't to share it's fine but if he did then I was all game for giving him an ear and may be finding some way out of his distress. After that what he told me was probably the most shocking thing I had ever heard.
It was the time when The TV channel "TB6-Mockba" was being aired in India by the cable operators and within the first 2-3 months it was very popular as it had certain programmes for certain audiences at certain times. Early in the morning on sundays (as early as 2:00 a.m) they used to put episodes of "Playboy" on air and we suppressed, oppressed and therefore depressed Indian teenagers used to wait for that for the whole week. "X" was no exception either. For one month, i.e, four consecutive weeks he had watched four episodes of "Playboy" and with that his appetite for sex-education had only increased. Can't really blame him because it was quite natural for a 17-year-old guy.
He wanted more of it. But, on the fifth week, when he quietly got out of his bed and without making any sound, advanced towards the TV-Room, fully convinced that everybody else in his house was fast asleep, he saw the TV-light fluctuating in the TV-Room and he knew there was someone already there. He just peeped through the semi-opened door and saw his father staring at the TV-screen with an open mouth and eyes that weren't even blinking. He thought may be his dad wasn't feeling sleepy and that's why he had come to the TV-Room. But then he looked at the TV-Screen and saw what he was watching. He was shocked !!! He came back to his bedroom and couldn't sleep all night. The same thing happened in the next week and the subsequent weeks also. "X"-'s dad was about 55 years of age at that time, father of two children and
on the verge of becoming a grandpa (X's elder sister, 8 years older than X, was married for a couple of years and pregnant then).
X told me "I know it's not a good thing to watch porn but at some point of time every guy of my age group feels the urge and becomes unable to supress the desires within. There is nothing wrong if I watch those once in a while just to satisfy my curiosity.I'm not doing anything taboo or harming anybody. But if aged people like aour dads too start doing these deprieving us, what to do? Besides, I always thought of my dad as my hero because I could find no blemish in anything he did but after this I feel ashamed to be his son."
I didn't know what to say. I was dumbfounded. I even tried imagining what I would have done if I were in his position but couldn't come up with any suggestion. I just shrugged off,patted him on the back and left. We're still in touch but we never talked on this issue again.
But I heard that even now, his dad who is 62 now, has got so addicted to porn-watching that he watches porn (on CDs) at night everyday openly without even bothering what his wife or children might think or feel. And poor 'X' has to stay inside his own room and has to 'satisfy' himself with his own old stock of still nude photographs of actresses and models stored in his PC. Even now he can't watch movies in his PC as whenever the light flickers a little bit his dad starts doubting and asks him what he is watching. Bechara !!! I only wish he gets a chance to go away somewhere from that place. As long as he is in that house, he will always remain 'suppressed, oppressed and therefore depressed'. High time he moved out.
Labels: Fun, Miscellaneous, serious
ONE OF THE BETTER ARTICLES I HAVE EVER COME ACROSS....
0 Comments Published by Apocalyptus on Tuesday, January 24, 2006 at 5:13 PM.
Despite being out-and-out a Bengali, I never was, am or will be a fan of Sourav Ganguly. But The recent injustice done to him by Mr Kiran More & Co can't be accepted under any circumstances.
This is an article I came across some time back and I find it one of the very best I've ever come across.
"Die Sourav Die"
By Arnab - January 4 2006
Let's look at it logically. Who is Sourav Ganguly to me? A rich man's son who had many privileges growing up I didn't have--by common consent arrogant, abrasive and petulant. Not my favorite kind of person.
I have never been parochial, have no problems in making fun of other other Bengali heroes (Mithunda), do not hero-worship Netaji and do not feel that the Hilsa is the last thing in cuisine. And yet the mere mention of Dada makes me acutely conscious of my linguistic identity which is ironical in that Sourav Ganguly's greatest legacy is his lack of parochialism and his hard-nosed objectivity when dealing with Indian cricket players.
Here's a simple test. Go through a few articles about Sourav. The word "Bengal" or "Kolkata" is going to be present in the article with a high probability. Now go through a few articles about Sachin. Check out "Maharashtra" or "Mumbai". Just to confirm that go to articles about Rahul Dravid and check out "Karnataka" or "Bangalore".
In Stonybrook where I was a PhD student for 5 years, the guy who used to rain abuse at Ganguly happened to be someone who stayed in Kolkata when he was a child and hated it. Just a coincidence. Whenever Ganguly got out, eyes would turn towards me.... some people would tell me "Ki Arnab-da... when is Dada going to make runs?" as if somehow being Bong made me answerable for Sourav's performance. No Bangalorean or Marathi was ever made accountable for Sachin's or Rahul Dravid's failures with the bat--and there have been several over the past 5 years.
So let me pre-empt Mr. Anonymous commenter. Yes sir, I support Ganguly because he is Bengali. Because you have left me no other choice. If I was Bangalorean and took out a procession burning effigies of Ganguly and shouting slogans for Rahul Dravid, I would not be considered parochial. But with me being a Bengali Kolkatan, I have already been labelled. So now let me live upto it. Unapologetically.
Now the parochial, third-eye blind Greatbong speaks.
I strongly feel for Sourav. The powers in admininstration (Dalmiya) have sold him out to Pawar and Bindra as a peace offering--Dravid as captain in exchange for a truce. Vision for 2007 World Cup yeah right. Which just goes to show the Dalmiya never supported Ganguly because he was a fellow Bong (incidentally Dalmia isn't a Bong but he is a Kolkatan) but because it was politically expedient to do so.
Greg Chappell, with the aid of his friends in the Press (more about that later) have savaged Ganguly's legacy--Greg "underarm" Chappell rightfully understands that in order to get rid of Ganguly the person, he first needs to kill Ganguly the legend. Canards were spread that Ganguly faked injury, spread discontent in the team--accusations intended to undermine Ganguly's reputation of never playing politics in the team based on personal equations (a charge Ganguly's predecessors in the captains seat cannot deflect off easily). The investigation of the board cleared Ganguly of the charges of faking an injury--yet the coach, who had been proved to be a liar, was not taken to task. Instead it was Ganguly who was out of the team despite having successfully defended himself against all accusations.
But what was the unkindest cut of all was that Rahul Dravid actively worked , in collusion with Greg Chappell, to prevent Sourav from coming back into the team. Since he is now the blue-eyed boy of the press, this behavior was considered to be "okay". If it was Sourav doing it to Dravid, then the press would have been beating their chest--pointing out how dastardly Bengali Ganguly was, lusting for captaincy and backstabbing a "friend". However since it's Rahul Dravid, Cricinfo (which has emerged as a beacon light for aggressive, anti-Ganguly biased reporting in recent times--putting it one notch above the anti-Ganguly hate sight for undiluted vitriol) finds it "natural" that Dravid is aggrieved that he has not been given the captaincy for so long--somehow the underlying assumption being that captaincy is a cookie you get for being a good boy.
I seem to recollect in the late 90s groaning the moment one of Sourav or Sachin got out because that meant Dravid would come into bat and the scoring rate would go down. Yet, noone ever felt then that Dravid should not be part of long term World Cup plans. It was once Dravid became wicketkeeper (and thus assured of his place in the team) that he began to flourish with deft placements, soft hands and clinical hits--a move that was the brainchild of the same man whom he argued to kick out a few days ago.
Note to self: When Dravid and More work together to ease out someone it is progressive thinking, the moment Dalmiya is involved it is dirty politics. Doublespeak anyone?
Now we come to the central argument against Ganguly. Who does Ganguly replace in the current team? How about a 31-year old trundler who bowls laughable military medium and cannot read Muralidharan's doosra and calls himself an all rounder mainly because he doesn't know which he does worse ? How about an 18-year old whose only bullet in the resume is that he can field well? Are these people part of Vision 2007 because they are more capable than Sourav Ganguly or because they are yes-men of the More-Chappell-Dravid combine?
Another point of view: Okay Ganguly has proven his form and his fitness. But these young players haven't yet had the opportunity to prove their mettle--how can they be dropped? Beautifull... now please explain how come Balaji who gave 48 runs in 10 overs in Sri Lanka never made it to the side subsequently? Where was the sense of fairness then? If one match did it for Balaji, then how come Venugopal Rao, who had a dreadful run in Sri Lanka, is still in the 14 as a prospect? What happened to Nehra? How come Zaheer is not good to be in the India team but gets Man of the Series in the Afro-Asia Cup? How come Sreesanth bowled well in one Challenger trophy match and made it to the Indian team ? How does the great Chappell-Dravid combine understand talent in such blindingly brief displays ?
How come Superduck (apologies to Samit Basu) Agarkar, whose "economy" rate is over 5, is considered to be a World Cup prospect--maybe it is because he and More come from the same part of the country? Perhaps? Will Cricinfo suggest that? No it won't in spite of the fact that they did not hesitate to repeat Ganguly and Dalmiya's connection ad nausuem.
Ganguly has been dropped because he will not play ball with Chappell, since he has his own ways of going about things. This makes it purely a power struggle between coach and captain and the captain has been defeated and replaced by a coach's stooge. Simple. It happens in the corporate world--it happens elsewhere. But puleeze let's not apply "Fair and Handsome" onto this mess and pretend that it has anything to do with "vision".
If the team is happy without Sourav as press reports indicate, why were some of the same players so eager to speak out in his favour till the Board had to forcibly stop them from speaking to the Press? Harbhajan came out strongly in favor of Ganguly, Yuvraj gave a more political correct statement of support. Sehwag also wanted to come out. Now Sourav must have done something right to warrant players coming out in support of him--even at the cost of upsetting their equations with a coach who has shown that he does not welcome democratic dissent.
And Cricinfo. Man I used to really like these guys--unlike the guys at TOI they understand their cricket. They still do I think but in the Ganguly issue, have totally lost their objectivity.
Ever since I read that Ganguly does not give them quotable quotes and instead pampers to a select coterie of journalists--I knew that the staffers were waiting with their knives out ready to plunge it in when he slipped up. And slip up he did and out came the daggers. A picture of Cricinfo staffers with Rahul Dravid and Mohammed Kaif, who had dropped in for a casual visit, kind of hinted which way the PR river was flowing.
Anand Vasu opines:
"For all he has contributed to this team, Ganguly deserved a better farewell - if indeed that's what this is - than being abruptly dropped. He deserved to walk away into the sunset, head held high, not be nudged out, first by coach, then the media, the public, and finally the selectors. But then again, with his batting, his behavior and his almost stubborn refusal to let go, he barely gave anyone a chance to do any better by him."
What behavior Mr. Vasu? The bad behavior of snubbing Cricinfo reporters? Or the behavior alluded to by the "proven-to-be-lies" accusations by the coach? Batting -- do you mean his century on a green pitch (prepared by Ganguly fans to aid his demise) against a bunch of bowlers, most of whom have played for India? As to Ganguly's poor run with the bat, even Sachin has had a dreadful time of late, before the first two matches--so let's not split hairs--what counts is IMMEDIATE form.
Or is it the fact that he refuses to throw in the towel that irritates you? The fact that he is fighting hard at the nets, the fact that he is not backing out, the fact that he has regained his form?
A word of advice from a parochial Bong for Mr Vasu and his other friends at ihateganguly.com or whatever that site is called. Please go to Alipore Zoo and see a Royal Bengal tiger. Old, haggard, underfed... kept in an enclosed space that's dirty and damp. People throw rubbish, taunt and laugh and the regal beast sits there--unmoved, immune to the humiliation. But just come into his cage and see what he can do--a few people who jumped into the tiger's cage to garland the benign beast found out to their dismay when they were reduced to ribbons.
Similarly, the fire still burns inside Royal Bengal Ganguly -- and as the fools jeer and mock him, he continues tirelessly determined to come back. In glory.
You are right Mr. Vasu. Sourav shall not go away.
And neither shall we, his "parochial" supporters.
And, after reading this blog, I have become a fan of Arnab, the GreatBong. He is truly a genius.
This is an article I came across some time back and I find it one of the very best I've ever come across.
"Die Sourav Die"
By Arnab - January 4 2006
Let's look at it logically. Who is Sourav Ganguly to me? A rich man's son who had many privileges growing up I didn't have--by common consent arrogant, abrasive and petulant. Not my favorite kind of person.
I have never been parochial, have no problems in making fun of other other Bengali heroes (Mithunda), do not hero-worship Netaji and do not feel that the Hilsa is the last thing in cuisine. And yet the mere mention of Dada makes me acutely conscious of my linguistic identity which is ironical in that Sourav Ganguly's greatest legacy is his lack of parochialism and his hard-nosed objectivity when dealing with Indian cricket players.
Here's a simple test. Go through a few articles about Sourav. The word "Bengal" or "Kolkata" is going to be present in the article with a high probability. Now go through a few articles about Sachin. Check out "Maharashtra" or "Mumbai". Just to confirm that go to articles about Rahul Dravid and check out "Karnataka" or "Bangalore".
In Stonybrook where I was a PhD student for 5 years, the guy who used to rain abuse at Ganguly happened to be someone who stayed in Kolkata when he was a child and hated it. Just a coincidence. Whenever Ganguly got out, eyes would turn towards me.... some people would tell me "Ki Arnab-da... when is Dada going to make runs?" as if somehow being Bong made me answerable for Sourav's performance. No Bangalorean or Marathi was ever made accountable for Sachin's or Rahul Dravid's failures with the bat--and there have been several over the past 5 years.
So let me pre-empt Mr. Anonymous commenter. Yes sir, I support Ganguly because he is Bengali. Because you have left me no other choice. If I was Bangalorean and took out a procession burning effigies of Ganguly and shouting slogans for Rahul Dravid, I would not be considered parochial. But with me being a Bengali Kolkatan, I have already been labelled. So now let me live upto it. Unapologetically.
Now the parochial, third-eye blind Greatbong speaks.
I strongly feel for Sourav. The powers in admininstration (Dalmiya) have sold him out to Pawar and Bindra as a peace offering--Dravid as captain in exchange for a truce. Vision for 2007 World Cup yeah right. Which just goes to show the Dalmiya never supported Ganguly because he was a fellow Bong (incidentally Dalmia isn't a Bong but he is a Kolkatan) but because it was politically expedient to do so.
Greg Chappell, with the aid of his friends in the Press (more about that later) have savaged Ganguly's legacy--Greg "underarm" Chappell rightfully understands that in order to get rid of Ganguly the person, he first needs to kill Ganguly the legend. Canards were spread that Ganguly faked injury, spread discontent in the team--accusations intended to undermine Ganguly's reputation of never playing politics in the team based on personal equations (a charge Ganguly's predecessors in the captains seat cannot deflect off easily). The investigation of the board cleared Ganguly of the charges of faking an injury--yet the coach, who had been proved to be a liar, was not taken to task. Instead it was Ganguly who was out of the team despite having successfully defended himself against all accusations.
But what was the unkindest cut of all was that Rahul Dravid actively worked , in collusion with Greg Chappell, to prevent Sourav from coming back into the team. Since he is now the blue-eyed boy of the press, this behavior was considered to be "okay". If it was Sourav doing it to Dravid, then the press would have been beating their chest--pointing out how dastardly Bengali Ganguly was, lusting for captaincy and backstabbing a "friend". However since it's Rahul Dravid, Cricinfo (which has emerged as a beacon light for aggressive, anti-Ganguly biased reporting in recent times--putting it one notch above the anti-Ganguly hate sight for undiluted vitriol) finds it "natural" that Dravid is aggrieved that he has not been given the captaincy for so long--somehow the underlying assumption being that captaincy is a cookie you get for being a good boy.
I seem to recollect in the late 90s groaning the moment one of Sourav or Sachin got out because that meant Dravid would come into bat and the scoring rate would go down. Yet, noone ever felt then that Dravid should not be part of long term World Cup plans. It was once Dravid became wicketkeeper (and thus assured of his place in the team) that he began to flourish with deft placements, soft hands and clinical hits--a move that was the brainchild of the same man whom he argued to kick out a few days ago.
Note to self: When Dravid and More work together to ease out someone it is progressive thinking, the moment Dalmiya is involved it is dirty politics. Doublespeak anyone?
Now we come to the central argument against Ganguly. Who does Ganguly replace in the current team? How about a 31-year old trundler who bowls laughable military medium and cannot read Muralidharan's doosra and calls himself an all rounder mainly because he doesn't know which he does worse ? How about an 18-year old whose only bullet in the resume is that he can field well? Are these people part of Vision 2007 because they are more capable than Sourav Ganguly or because they are yes-men of the More-Chappell-Dravid combine?
Another point of view: Okay Ganguly has proven his form and his fitness. But these young players haven't yet had the opportunity to prove their mettle--how can they be dropped? Beautifull... now please explain how come Balaji who gave 48 runs in 10 overs in Sri Lanka never made it to the side subsequently? Where was the sense of fairness then? If one match did it for Balaji, then how come Venugopal Rao, who had a dreadful run in Sri Lanka, is still in the 14 as a prospect? What happened to Nehra? How come Zaheer is not good to be in the India team but gets Man of the Series in the Afro-Asia Cup? How come Sreesanth bowled well in one Challenger trophy match and made it to the Indian team ? How does the great Chappell-Dravid combine understand talent in such blindingly brief displays ?
How come Superduck (apologies to Samit Basu) Agarkar, whose "economy" rate is over 5, is considered to be a World Cup prospect--maybe it is because he and More come from the same part of the country? Perhaps? Will Cricinfo suggest that? No it won't in spite of the fact that they did not hesitate to repeat Ganguly and Dalmiya's connection ad nausuem.
Ganguly has been dropped because he will not play ball with Chappell, since he has his own ways of going about things. This makes it purely a power struggle between coach and captain and the captain has been defeated and replaced by a coach's stooge. Simple. It happens in the corporate world--it happens elsewhere. But puleeze let's not apply "Fair and Handsome" onto this mess and pretend that it has anything to do with "vision".
If the team is happy without Sourav as press reports indicate, why were some of the same players so eager to speak out in his favour till the Board had to forcibly stop them from speaking to the Press? Harbhajan came out strongly in favor of Ganguly, Yuvraj gave a more political correct statement of support. Sehwag also wanted to come out. Now Sourav must have done something right to warrant players coming out in support of him--even at the cost of upsetting their equations with a coach who has shown that he does not welcome democratic dissent.
And Cricinfo. Man I used to really like these guys--unlike the guys at TOI they understand their cricket. They still do I think but in the Ganguly issue, have totally lost their objectivity.
Ever since I read that Ganguly does not give them quotable quotes and instead pampers to a select coterie of journalists--I knew that the staffers were waiting with their knives out ready to plunge it in when he slipped up. And slip up he did and out came the daggers. A picture of Cricinfo staffers with Rahul Dravid and Mohammed Kaif, who had dropped in for a casual visit, kind of hinted which way the PR river was flowing.
Anand Vasu opines:
"For all he has contributed to this team, Ganguly deserved a better farewell - if indeed that's what this is - than being abruptly dropped. He deserved to walk away into the sunset, head held high, not be nudged out, first by coach, then the media, the public, and finally the selectors. But then again, with his batting, his behavior and his almost stubborn refusal to let go, he barely gave anyone a chance to do any better by him."
What behavior Mr. Vasu? The bad behavior of snubbing Cricinfo reporters? Or the behavior alluded to by the "proven-to-be-lies" accusations by the coach? Batting -- do you mean his century on a green pitch (prepared by Ganguly fans to aid his demise) against a bunch of bowlers, most of whom have played for India? As to Ganguly's poor run with the bat, even Sachin has had a dreadful time of late, before the first two matches--so let's not split hairs--what counts is IMMEDIATE form.
Or is it the fact that he refuses to throw in the towel that irritates you? The fact that he is fighting hard at the nets, the fact that he is not backing out, the fact that he has regained his form?
A word of advice from a parochial Bong for Mr Vasu and his other friends at ihateganguly.com or whatever that site is called. Please go to Alipore Zoo and see a Royal Bengal tiger. Old, haggard, underfed... kept in an enclosed space that's dirty and damp. People throw rubbish, taunt and laugh and the regal beast sits there--unmoved, immune to the humiliation. But just come into his cage and see what he can do--a few people who jumped into the tiger's cage to garland the benign beast found out to their dismay when they were reduced to ribbons.
Similarly, the fire still burns inside Royal Bengal Ganguly -- and as the fools jeer and mock him, he continues tirelessly determined to come back. In glory.
You are right Mr. Vasu. Sourav shall not go away.
And neither shall we, his "parochial" supporters.
And, after reading this blog, I have become a fan of Arnab, the GreatBong. He is truly a genius.
Labels: Fun, Miscellaneous, serious
*** Bangalore .... no more :(
1 Comments Published by Apocalyptus on Monday, January 23, 2006 at 6:35 PM.
Alright folks !!! It's official now. Our good ol' Bangalore would be re-christened as "BENGALURU" some time later this year (most probably on 1st November). The Pundits (ones who conceived this wonderful idea) feel the name change will give a feel of the Local language, that is, Kannada.
"Bombay became Mumbai, Calcutta became Kolkata, Madras became Chennai. Now, if people in other states can do this, why can't we?" said one of them. I read this in the newspaper a few days back and couldn’t help thinking about the decision and imagining the estimated time and effort it is going to take to get this done.
After reading this, the first thing that I visualized was the the condition of the road which has been dug recently at Koramangala, one of the ciy's most happening places. I was really astonished to see one sign board which says "Work in progress.Please cooperate. - BMTC" . And I swear, all I have been seeing there for almost more than a couple of months now is digging , digging and more digging.
Bangalore , despite it's numerous plusses, is the city with the worst traffic management system and infrastructure in India (even worse than Kolkata). A lot has been talked and spoken about the city's pathetic infrastructure and poor traffic management system but nothing useful or fruitful has been done so far.
Here it takes 5-6 years to construct one 200 metre long fly-over (The one from BTM Layout to J.P.Nagar), and that too only to make people's lives more miserable than before due to poor planning.
Full of one-ways and no-entries, the city is becoming a nightmare for all vehicle-owners. To reach a certain destination from a certain place one has to be educated enough to know about all the possible routes connecting those two places because the route which was open till yesterday may suddenly become a no-entry today and again be open tomorrow. And because of these no-entries and one-ways, more often than not, one has to travel a lot of extra distance unnecessarily (like me...I have to cover 9 Kms everyday to reach office from home whereas the actual distance is 5.5 Kms).
People who don't own any vehicle are very badly affected as well. Huge BMTC buses , the main cause behind the traffic jam on most of these narrow Bangalore roads, take exactly 90 minutes to cover a distance of 8 kilometres, stopping after every 10 metres, irrespective of whether there is a bus-stop or not. These buses look really big, twice as big compared to those in any other Indian city. And, the roads are as narrow as they can be. Once one bus stops in front of you, you get stuck there until it starts moving again.
The other means of transport are the Auto-rickshaws which are driven by khaaki-clad dacoits. Yes, I used the word 'dacoit'. They never hesitate to take full advantage of people in distress. Under normal circumstances, they start charging 1.5 times of the meter reading 8 o'clock onwards at night and it becomes 2 times after 10. The actual rule, I got to know after asking a traffic policeman, is that they can charge 1.5 times the meter reading from 10:30 at night to 5:30 in the morning.
And, if it's drizzling (yes, drizzling, not even raining)they would charge exorbitant fares to go anywhere. If there is traffic jam, they would charge double meter. Therefore, to travel 10 kilometres one has to pay up to Rs 100. Certainly not possible for middle-class office-goers everyday.
On top of that, there is the problem of parking vehicles. Hundreds of pages can be written on this topic only. So, I'm not going into that now. Will come back with a post exclusively on the parking problem some time.
Cops - both at the Police Stations and on the roads, ask for bribe shamelessly. If you've broken any rule, you can still get away with a fine of 1000 bucks if you talk to himj in Kannada and give him 200 bucks "to buy sweets for his children". But if you can't speak Kannada and although have done nothing wrong, are being held for violating traffic rules, there is no escaping....Once I even had to hear "We know you haven't broken any rules.But it's night and no one has seen why we asked you to stop in the middle of the road. Pay 300 bucks and leave, or we'll take you to the Police Station, lock you up and charge you for rash and drunken driving." You have to pay whatever they ask for. Otherwise, they will just drag you and your vehicle to the Poilce Station nearby where an equally greedy, uncultured and uncouth Officer-in-charge would be waiting to welcome you. If you have come to this city from any place outside Karnataka, Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh, whenever you are talking to a cop, the first phrase that he will be using to address you is "VAAT IZH VRAANG VITH YYYOU NAAAAAAARTH INDIANS"? (Read: What is wrong with you north Indians?). Once my cell phone was stolen and I just went to lodge a complaint and the officer on duty told me " YYYOU NAAARTH INDIANS YAARE CARELESS BUNCH WOB PEOPALLE. YEEWER SINCE YYYOU PEOPALLE HIYAVE STARTED COMING TO OUUUAR CITY,THE CRIME RATE HAS YYINCREEEESSSEED HERE." (Read: You north-Indians are a careless bunch of people. Ever since you people have started coming to our city, the crime rate has increased here.)According to them, their children also are learning bad bad things like consuming alcohol, smoking, watching porn, eve-teasing et cetera from their "naarth indian" counterparts.
One more incident, to glorify the Bangalore cops further --- My friend Rajesh writes : """One funny incident which I would like to tell you about is that yesterday while coming back home from “wonder la” I lost my way and entered on 100 m stretch of road where only four wheelers were going in. Two policemen jumped in front of my bike from no where and asked this is a no entry zone for two wheelers and auto and before I even said one word they continued telling me that there is one sign board some 50 m back so I need to pay fine.
Well I smiled took my wallet and gave him 100 bucks and asked him just one question “Sir if you know that bikers might enter in this road by mistake as it's dark and there's no light near the signboard, why don’t you stand in the beginning of road and stop bikes from entering road? I guess even you need to do new year shopping“. He was speechless and the expression of anger in his face was “priceless”."""
How idle can people get that they are desperate to get the name of their city changed, without even bothering about the zillions of more important existing problems, nothwithstanding the enormous amount of money , effort and time that will go wasted in the process of changing the name to “Bengaluru” from "Bangalore". There is so much work to be done in the city to get the image of the city right that the Government should be on its toes 24X7 but all they are interested in doing is to change the damn name of the city. Isn't it ridiculous? Forget common public.....the people who actually made Bangalore what it is todaty, that is, Azim Premji, N.R.Narayana Murthy, Kiran Majumdar Shaw - all these stalwarts have been cribbing and complaining about these infrastructural problems for years and there is no one to pay any heed to what they are saying. Every time they call on a meeting, the Government promises a lot of things and starts a lot of planning but these never get implemented.
I know, I don't have the power to change things but just can't keep quiet and see these bafoonery going on. Why the heck don't they concentrate on solving more imminent problems than getting the city's name changed or stopping Hindi/English movie-releases in the city?
"Bombay became Mumbai, Calcutta became Kolkata, Madras became Chennai. Now, if people in other states can do this, why can't we?" said one of them. I read this in the newspaper a few days back and couldn’t help thinking about the decision and imagining the estimated time and effort it is going to take to get this done.
After reading this, the first thing that I visualized was the the condition of the road which has been dug recently at Koramangala, one of the ciy's most happening places. I was really astonished to see one sign board which says "Work in progress.Please cooperate. - BMTC" . And I swear, all I have been seeing there for almost more than a couple of months now is digging , digging and more digging.
Bangalore , despite it's numerous plusses, is the city with the worst traffic management system and infrastructure in India (even worse than Kolkata). A lot has been talked and spoken about the city's pathetic infrastructure and poor traffic management system but nothing useful or fruitful has been done so far.
Here it takes 5-6 years to construct one 200 metre long fly-over (The one from BTM Layout to J.P.Nagar), and that too only to make people's lives more miserable than before due to poor planning.
Full of one-ways and no-entries, the city is becoming a nightmare for all vehicle-owners. To reach a certain destination from a certain place one has to be educated enough to know about all the possible routes connecting those two places because the route which was open till yesterday may suddenly become a no-entry today and again be open tomorrow. And because of these no-entries and one-ways, more often than not, one has to travel a lot of extra distance unnecessarily (like me...I have to cover 9 Kms everyday to reach office from home whereas the actual distance is 5.5 Kms).
People who don't own any vehicle are very badly affected as well. Huge BMTC buses , the main cause behind the traffic jam on most of these narrow Bangalore roads, take exactly 90 minutes to cover a distance of 8 kilometres, stopping after every 10 metres, irrespective of whether there is a bus-stop or not. These buses look really big, twice as big compared to those in any other Indian city. And, the roads are as narrow as they can be. Once one bus stops in front of you, you get stuck there until it starts moving again.
The other means of transport are the Auto-rickshaws which are driven by khaaki-clad dacoits. Yes, I used the word 'dacoit'. They never hesitate to take full advantage of people in distress. Under normal circumstances, they start charging 1.5 times of the meter reading 8 o'clock onwards at night and it becomes 2 times after 10. The actual rule, I got to know after asking a traffic policeman, is that they can charge 1.5 times the meter reading from 10:30 at night to 5:30 in the morning.
And, if it's drizzling (yes, drizzling, not even raining)they would charge exorbitant fares to go anywhere. If there is traffic jam, they would charge double meter. Therefore, to travel 10 kilometres one has to pay up to Rs 100. Certainly not possible for middle-class office-goers everyday.
On top of that, there is the problem of parking vehicles. Hundreds of pages can be written on this topic only. So, I'm not going into that now. Will come back with a post exclusively on the parking problem some time.
Cops - both at the Police Stations and on the roads, ask for bribe shamelessly. If you've broken any rule, you can still get away with a fine of 1000 bucks if you talk to himj in Kannada and give him 200 bucks "to buy sweets for his children". But if you can't speak Kannada and although have done nothing wrong, are being held for violating traffic rules, there is no escaping....Once I even had to hear "We know you haven't broken any rules.But it's night and no one has seen why we asked you to stop in the middle of the road. Pay 300 bucks and leave, or we'll take you to the Police Station, lock you up and charge you for rash and drunken driving." You have to pay whatever they ask for. Otherwise, they will just drag you and your vehicle to the Poilce Station nearby where an equally greedy, uncultured and uncouth Officer-in-charge would be waiting to welcome you. If you have come to this city from any place outside Karnataka, Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh, whenever you are talking to a cop, the first phrase that he will be using to address you is "VAAT IZH VRAANG VITH YYYOU NAAAAAAARTH INDIANS"? (Read: What is wrong with you north Indians?). Once my cell phone was stolen and I just went to lodge a complaint and the officer on duty told me " YYYOU NAAARTH INDIANS YAARE CARELESS BUNCH WOB PEOPALLE. YEEWER SINCE YYYOU PEOPALLE HIYAVE STARTED COMING TO OUUUAR CITY,THE CRIME RATE HAS YYINCREEEESSSEED HERE." (Read: You north-Indians are a careless bunch of people. Ever since you people have started coming to our city, the crime rate has increased here.)According to them, their children also are learning bad bad things like consuming alcohol, smoking, watching porn, eve-teasing et cetera from their "naarth indian" counterparts.
One more incident, to glorify the Bangalore cops further --- My friend Rajesh writes : """One funny incident which I would like to tell you about is that yesterday while coming back home from “wonder la” I lost my way and entered on 100 m stretch of road where only four wheelers were going in. Two policemen jumped in front of my bike from no where and asked this is a no entry zone for two wheelers and auto and before I even said one word they continued telling me that there is one sign board some 50 m back so I need to pay fine.
Well I smiled took my wallet and gave him 100 bucks and asked him just one question “Sir if you know that bikers might enter in this road by mistake as it's dark and there's no light near the signboard, why don’t you stand in the beginning of road and stop bikes from entering road? I guess even you need to do new year shopping“. He was speechless and the expression of anger in his face was “priceless”."""
How idle can people get that they are desperate to get the name of their city changed, without even bothering about the zillions of more important existing problems, nothwithstanding the enormous amount of money , effort and time that will go wasted in the process of changing the name to “Bengaluru” from "Bangalore". There is so much work to be done in the city to get the image of the city right that the Government should be on its toes 24X7 but all they are interested in doing is to change the damn name of the city. Isn't it ridiculous? Forget common public.....the people who actually made Bangalore what it is todaty, that is, Azim Premji, N.R.Narayana Murthy, Kiran Majumdar Shaw - all these stalwarts have been cribbing and complaining about these infrastructural problems for years and there is no one to pay any heed to what they are saying. Every time they call on a meeting, the Government promises a lot of things and starts a lot of planning but these never get implemented.
I know, I don't have the power to change things but just can't keep quiet and see these bafoonery going on. Why the heck don't they concentrate on solving more imminent problems than getting the city's name changed or stopping Hindi/English movie-releases in the city?
Labels: Fun, Miscellaneous, serious
See this man in the picture.... he is a cannibal.....Yes, you read it right. He is a cannibal. C-A-N-N-I-B-A-L.
Nope....things can't get ghastlier than this.
One guy in his forties slaughters and eats aonther, and that too with the victim's consent.
Heights of perversion !!!
And now, the man-eater wants the world to look at his cannibalistic act as an act of euthanasia. He says the victim was tired of living and he wanted to be slaughtered and to be....well, er....eaten.
For those who haven't heard the story here are some links :
http://news.google.co.in/news?hl=en&ned=in&q= german cannibal
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=52&story_id=26880&name=German+cannibal+says+eating+human+flesh+'legal'
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002744251_wdig17.html
And, here is that self-confessed cannibal planning to sue Ramstein, the world-famous German Rock band (same group who sang Du Hast, Engel, Ich wil etc chartbusters) as he thinks the lyrics of one of their new songs depicts his story and it might turn the public sentiment against him, which in turn, might affect the decision of the jury whan he would be put on a re-trial this time (huh......as if now the public sentiment is in his favour).
It wasn't a murder (as there was no tangible motive), neither was it something done by a mentally ill person (as he is completely fine and sane), nor was it an act of kindness as he claims it to be (as he had video-recorded the whole gruesome act to watch and derive sadistic pleasure from it in future). Yet, he was sentenced for eight-and-a-half years only. Then everyone thought he shouldn't be treated so leniently and his file was re-opened.
This is one of those incidents which sometimes (very seldom, though) make me feel ashamed of being a human being.
I had muttered "He Bhagwan,kaise kaise log rehte hain duniya mein" ("Oh God!!! What kind of humans these are !!!") and my girlfriend had promptly replied "Log nahi, woh rakshash hai!" ("He is not a human, he is a monster!!!")
Why don't these guys eat all those bloody motherf***ing terrorrists (Laden , Dawood, Omar, Masood, Mazhar etc etc) out there?
Labels: Fun, Miscellaneous, serious
