Chinese Bandi - Anytime, anywhere :) !

Well,not anytime given that they "operate" in the night ;-) ! But anywhere... yeah!! Simple menu, high quality! No need to break your head to choose what to eat! Food for thought is not required here ;-) (ok, I know it is a PJ, but couldn't resist!) Each place has its unique taste, and needless to say all are equally good.

The amazing thing is the successful business model it creates! The revnue it generates is also quite impressive for the owners! One of them I know built a house in his village!

Ask me if you need some quick guidances, because most of the places I eat are in gullies and it is kind of difficult to explain them here!!

By the way, here's the perennial question that keeps bothering me: Wonder when the Chinese will get the idea of opening Indian bandi's? :D !!

Point never touched ...

At first I found the drama gripping. Then towards the climax, found it a little perplexing, and while coming out of the theater I started thinking. A Wednesday is getting good reviews not because of its drama, but because of its central theme. And more importantly, nobody ever touched this theme before. The anger of the "stupid" common man.

While it is a fact that we are reminded many a times about the suffering of the victims of terror attacks, never has the anger and fear of the common man been captured so well in mass media. Alll we hear is "the city limps back to normalcy". "The city ka citizens become resillient the very next day". And I realised this was far from true the very next day after the Hyderabad bomb blasts. Riding my bike the very next morning was a totally different experience which I cannot express and cannot forget too.

Some people might argue that the movie might be a little far fetched in showing a common man doing so many things, however the moot point to be noted is that the actual emotion of him has been the central point in the film.

Anyway, we can write on and on. Such meaningful movies will keep the debate going on. And it is necessary too, for it reminds us of our duty to remain vigilant.

ohh, and by the way, this may seem insignificant now, but I watched A Wednesday on a wednesday :D :D. So much for now ... need to sleep, it's already thursday :D

"Blessings of his leader" ???

"It was available with us in Delhi also. But what was not available was the timing, the place and the method to be used for the purpose" - Shivraj Patil, Home Minister of India.

Maybe the terrorists have to apologize to him for not publishing their time table. Next time, they will surely take care of it I guess.

Now, let us dissect his comments more. He tells us in the interview, that he "had information about the possibility of a terror attack in the capital even before Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi conveyed it (to the PM)."

Ok. Modi met the PM 10 days back. So worst case, let's assume Patil had the information 1 day before that. So, for a full 11 days, the IB just had information that Delhi will be the target. Isn't that something that needs to be worked on? Did Patil call for meetings and discuss the possibility of how the attacks might be triggered instead of waiting for the " timing, the place and the method"? Did Patil discuss threadbare with the IB whether all the information has been shared with the state police and whether proper follow up action is taking place?

Bomb blasts have become a regular occurrence. Serial blasts that too. So, instead of just rubbishing the opposition demands for POTA etc, why doesn't he come up with possible solutions? Does it take 4.5 years to think about how to counter? It is an acceptable fact that these attacks cannot be totally prevented, but the frequency with which they have been occurring will put any nation to shame.

Ok, let's get back to his statements. "My party's ethos is to do justice and to see it is done in a manner that contains and controls criminal and terror activities, and at the same time does not give any opportunity to human rights violation,? What is he trying to tell us? That he runs an organization that cannot come up with credible evidence of involvement of people? What human rights violations are we talking about here? In your interest of seeing to it that you don't lose votes, you will not bother to arrest suspects also. And then they go about planning these attacks, killing people. And yet somehow we talk about human rights violation. haa!

Finally, "I have the full blessings of my leader". The question asked was "Do you have the confidence of your leader?". A simple answer would be, "Yes, I believe so". or "Yes, I have the full confidence of my leader". But no. He chooses to ridiculously twist the statement and tell us, "he has the blessings of his leader". Now, it is left to anybody's guess if he was referring to the Prime Minister or the president of his party when he said "leader" !

And lest he didn't realise - Ultimately, what is important is that he should have the "blessings" of the people, not of the leader.

Mr. PM, Do you have the guts...

...to sack your Home Minister?
If you are still further looking for proof to sack him from the job, then I pity your position sir. I am so pissed off at him that I don't even want to write about him. Apparently, he was "sorry for whatever happened" last night in Delhi. You know what sir - we are sorry that we have such an incompetent Home Minister who only comes up with new words each time there is a blast, but never comes up with a new solution.
So Mr. Prime Minister, as a concerned citizen, I challenge you sir. Do you have the guts to sack your Home Minister?

Proving them wrong..

People just fancy writing sports persons off. I guess that's the easier thing to do. The difficult thing obviously is done by the sports persons - proving them wrong!

What the Williams sisters did this year was exactly this! The women's tennis circuit is so open-ended that we tend to forget who won what grand slam at the end of the year! But it's easy this year because the sisters have won 2 grand slams! Serena now has 9 grand slams to her name and wants to get into double digits. There really seem to be no rivals to the sisters - Venus beat Serena in Wimbledon, Serena beat Venus here ! Looks like the rivalry is confined to the family!

Roger Federer! Critics were quick to ask " Is he finished"? He is not comfortable on clay, and yet reaches the finals of French Open and critics ask "is he finished?". Year after year, he reaches the finals of at least 3 Grand Slams and yet critics ask "is he finished?". And I guess they got their answer today. No.

13 Grand Slams and still going strong.... Roger that! :D

A complicated relationship

During the course of my +2 education, one of my teachers once told our class, "A teacher is a bridge between the textbook and the taught". It has been about 10 years since he told us that, but that sentence still reverberates in my mind.

In the same year that my teacher told us that particular quote, we were also taught by a teacher who took some sort of pleasure in beating the students! We were also taught by a teacher who had a penchant to pick up not so good students and make a mockery of them in the class. We were also taught by a teacher who, at the slightest pretext, threatened the students with dire consequences in the final exams. All through my educational career since, I have come across such teachers in the majority. Teachers who enjoyed to wield their power, but did not want to own up the responsibility that comes with it.

If the foundations of a bridge are not strong enough, then the bridge is sure to collapse. So is the case with this bridge. And the onus for making this foundation strong is more on the teacher than on the student. Unlike other relationships, a student-teacher relationship is not build on trust. It is built on the comfort levels the teacher can provide to the student. It is built on mutual admiration. The student admires the teacher for understanding his/her limitations, and the teacher respects the shortcomings of the student, and then tries to bring the best out of him/her. It is built on hope. Hope that the student will come out a better person upon completion of the course.

But in today's world of competitive exams, the average and not so average students on looked down upon. Most of the times it so happens that the bright students of the class are given preferential treatment over the average and not so average students. It is one thing to be looked down upon by the society, but if the person entrusted with the responsibility of making you a better person, shirks that responsibility within a couple of weeks, imagine what kind of effect that is going to have on the psyche of the student.

Here are a few examples. A bright student seldom fears to ask a doubt in the class. One of the reasons is that he/she is sure that the teacher will not call the doubt a silly one. If a similar doubt is raised by an average student, most of the times, he/she is always told what a silly doubt that was. In lab sessions, a bright student is not asked too many questions, but an average students is pounded with questions, the answers for which sometimes the teacher themselves do not know clearly (this is true...I have seen them happen).

All students obviously do not have the same level of intellect. Nor do all of them have the same interest level. Isn't it the responsibility of the teacher to see to it that each student realises his/her true potential? The most common method to make them study is by instilling a sense of fear in them. I still fail to understand how beating a student will make him a better student!

There are students who refuse to be taught. There are some who think being rude is confidence. I am not talking about them here. There are a lot many students who, if provided with the right guidance, can shine in their careers. Improving the confidence levels of a student can do wonders to him/her. Unfortunately, most of the time, either the student is deemed good or deemed fit for nothing.

A teacher is the only person who is entrusted with the enormous responsibility of making a average student into a good one, a good one into a better one, and of making the better ones the very best. At each stage of their education, students, bright and dull, look up to them to learn, they look up to them for help and they look up to them to grow. Instead of realising the true greatness in their profession, most of the teachers (particularly at the +2 level) feel that instilling a sense of fear will earn them respect. Mr. Vajpayee was right when he said (though in a different context), a sense of respect has to be commanded, not demanded. And when respect is commanded, the student-teacher relation will blossom to its fullest.

The "New" un "clear" deal !

1st Fact: There is a document circulating in the US.
2nd Fact: That document was written by the White House to the US Congress.
3rd Fact: There are some portions of the document that don't match with what was agreed between India and US.
4th Fact: The state department has asked that the document be kept a secret.
5th Fact: Anil Kakodkar says he knew about this document and the fact that this has to be kept a secret.
6th Fact: Yet Kapil Sibal has the guts to tell us that the document is NOT a secret!
7th Fact: Kapil Sibal also said once “That the U.S. can live without this agreement, there is no doubt. That India should live without this agreement is certainly a matter of debate”. You can read the full article here, and my questions here.

Now, if the document has no binding on US, then why on earth would the US come up with it?? It might have as well saved some paper :D. If the document is binding on the US, then obviously it will have to override the bi-lateral agreement. So, we will be in a position where we might have to toe along the US line. Technically, we are not "bound" by the document, but then it doesn't require a genius to figure out the contrary!

So, whom is Bush cheating? His Congress? Our country? If Anil Kakodkar knew about this document, then the PM also must have know about it. Was this document discussed threadbare then? Of course, we will never be told all this in the interest of "national security". And then, very convieniently, the topic will get diverted to "energy security", with the new "youth icon" telling us that the deal will help Kalavati's son become a collector.

And before we forget, will Mr.Kakodkar please have the decency to tell us how many more such documents exist? And will the PM atleast now come and talk to the people of the country, while Madam mulls over when to conduct elections ( with the inflation "stabilizing" at 12%, apparently people are now happy )!

Final Fact: There is always something new in this deal, but the deal is never clear to us. Such is the state of this "Newclear" deal !

I, Me, Myself

It's me and no one else
I eat and it's in my pulse
Anyone with a weak heart,
From here you should part :D
I am good and cause no harm,
And it's all found in my charm :P
Welcome to I me myself
Loads to come from my shelf!!

10,000 ...

Before you people think that I am writing a review for some stupid english movie... i will spill the beans!

Today is the 10,000th day of my existence! :-) :-) :-)