The Discrimination

I visited Mysore yesterday with my partner from the US and two other colleagues. The weather was good with occasional drizzling and a cool breeze. We reached Mysore palace after visiting the Sri Ranganatha Temple at Srirangapatna and Tipu Sultan’s fort. The board at the entrance fee read ” For Adults Rs 25, for Foreigners Rs 200″ !!!!

When we crib and cry about our treatment in other countries I think we should step back and change our system. My colleague from the US said “Woah, everywhere tourists are charged more, thats natural. But this is the first time that I am seeing it written on a board”.

I guess if I go to the Newyork Museum and the board reads  US Nationals $5 others $10 ” I would feel discriminated. (Does any other country charge for other Nationals? Not sure.. Do comment).

May be its a goverment’s way of making quick money but then I would say its not the right way to treat foreigners in the land where we proclaim ” Athidhi Devo Bhava”.

 

Should Hindi Be Imposed?

The Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal announced new reforms to impose Hindi as a subject in all schools. NDTV, ‘We the people’ also had a debate on this announcement. Do I agree to this? Well learning a language should not be imposed. Back in my school years we had the option of choosing the Second language that I need to learn. English being compulsory and ‘first language’. I choose my mother tongue Malayalam, while my brother chose Hindi. It was based on your own choice.

I guess imposing a new reform and to ask people to learn Hindi is not the right way. After all where is the ‘Unity in diversity’ theme?

The politicos argue that they need to integrate India into one, and everyone knowing one language is one way to do it. Pranab Mukherjee says that not knowing Hindi affected his chance to become PM (this was shown on NDTV channel). Some in the audience (we the people) argued that Hindi is the National Language and is our culture. I do not have anything against Hindi, but then what about my mother tongue, can’t I argue that I need to protect our culture?

What about Tamil, Kannada, Telugu or any other regional language? Are you suggesting that the next generation should not learn it?

Firstly lets look at the argument of National Integration. Don’t you think English is helping???

Secondly lets looks at the culture thing. Hindi originated from Persian. Well if its been here for a long time then its definitely part of culture. So no arguments on that. Some of the dialects of Hindi came into existence in the 10th century.

Lets look at Tamil, Tamil literature exists from 300BC !! So undoubtedly its one of the oldest languages and so much our culture ! And we need to protect it as well.

I guess either Mr Sibal want to get some screen/blog space with all his new reforms(including stopping 10th board exam) or has nothing much to do in Human Resources. Hey thats HR !

The swipe Flu

I have been in this industry for 4 years now. I would be just another guy working in the Technolgy Services (out of  1 MM). But recently I realized I have the swipe Flu. Now what is Swipe flu?

To get more understanding of it, let’s look into a day of my life at work.

 I enter the building with the identity card worn around my neck, which dances around with each step I take. I swipe the card at the reader to open the door. I swipe the card at my department door. I swipe the card when I go out to the break out area(coffee machine area). I swipe the card at the door when I walk out of the building. I swipe the card when I go out to cafeteria.I realized that my hand automatically picks up the card and swipe it at the reader every time I see a door. I am doing this subconsciously. I do it when I am walking out of the door talking to my colleague, or when I am on the phone. I don’t even realize that I am doing it every time I open a door.

 Well I realized there is something wrong when I tried opening the lift door with my card. And when I tried opening the apartment door with my card.

 I almost lost it when I tired to open my car door with my i-card.

 I talked to a colleague of mine and he said these are symptoms of something called the swipe flu.

I wish if we would have just used a register at the reception. 

Do you have these symptoms?

Please Strip OFF You Political Wardrobe

 

The bombs went off, people died, many were wounded. Many lives were torn. People panicked. People still live in these cities with fear.

When I drive through Madiwala, and Residency road, I think about the people who were affected on Friday. When I take the newspaper I see dead bodies.

When our vehicles are checked at every mall and office, I know we are panicking.

And you want to blame someone else for all this? What conspiracy are you talking about?

These are terrorist’s madam.

WAKE UP !

Your logic of BJP ruled states under terror is absurd !

We are people here, we don’t care who rules in the centre or the state. We are human beings living down here.

 

Don’t try to run away from your responsibility by issuing silly STUPID comments. Can’t you guys just strip off your political wardrobe and turn into human beings?

Just SHUT UP if you can’t help.

 

 

 

 

 

Meetings on Roads?.

 

Common people (excluding policemen, politicians, their supporters) are the ones who are tortured, chased around and deprived of basic rights. One of the basic rights would be to take your tax paid-insurance updated car on the NH and drive to your destination.

But the people in brackets make sure that this wont be an easy ride.

 

I have seen many times that National Highways being blocked for meetings, processions by political party. The police does their part in favor of everyone else other than the common man, may be because they are helpless too. The traffic is diverted to some smaller roads which get blocked in a few minutes.  Now my question is why the hell am I diverted because some Idio-ticians has to meet on the road. I think those idio-ticians should be held for jaywalking. I would be fuming in the car(not mine !) even though the ac is running, helpless just because some idio-tician want to save the country(read save his A$$pirations and fill up his pocket).

 

 

Hike and Double Standards.

The petrol price in Karnataka is the highest in INDIA ! With the City of Bellary charging a whooping 58.78/litre, and Bangalore is not far behind with 58.47/litre. Major cities like Chennai (55.07), Mumbai(55.88), Kolkata(54.29) and Delhi(50.56) pay much much less.

With the oil price in the international market going up, there was no other choice for the government but to increase the prices. What I cant digest is the double standards that the parties are having over the issue.

BJP and(UPDATE) The LEFT (they are ruling the state) is observing hartal in kerala. (no surprise there) They demand the central government to withdraw the prices. Kerala! only in Kerala. Update (also in West Bengal) Why are they not observing hartal 700Kms away in the state of Karnataka where they(BJP) are ruling now????? the funny thing is if the BJP was ruling the country, then the congress would have declared the hartal. HARTAL is a must in kerala.

Why cant the Karnataka state goverment cut the 64% tax on the base price of the petrol? The other cities like Chennai and Mumbai has a tax of only upto 40%. thats 24% more Mr CM, !!!!!!

The opposition are just making a huge fuss out of it in Kerala. The BJP in kerala is planning for blocking law abiding, poor citizens tomorrow. WHAT? Already we are burdened with the extra 5Rs on petrol, now you want to block our way too?????????????????????????

The last time I checked we were still a free country.

**sigh**

**I am not anti-any party, I am against double standards**

Related Reading

Read Nita’s post on how the taxes are high in India than most of the other countries. Read this post in Mutiny which explains how petrol is cheaper than most of the other liquids we use in day to day life.

 

Prices on the rise

80 Shut Downs in 18 Months

<<Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? Mathew 7:3>>

 

Racism On and Off field.

 

On the field we saw racism with the ‘monkey calls’. ‘Off the field’ this is the first one.

The Cheerleaders won’t forget their trip to India, at least for sometime. First they were on the news because they were against the culture of the nation(that’s true, we never had cheerleader before to cheer our ‘Man on elephant race’ or ‘Spot the tiger and kill-hunting’ game). Then they were thrown around for dressing in skimpy clothes. We dressed them up. Now they are asked to sit out if their skin is black.

 

Two black cheerleaders were asked to sit out during a match recently.

 

The Cheerleaders are thinking about wearing headgear and dressing up without showing skin so that they wont be blamed for any of the three issues. Or better, to pack up and leave.

Strange Laws.

 

Does people go to any extent to get that 3 minutes of fame on TV?. Recently  a ‘not so popular’ Godman was arrested for fraud and rape in Kerala. This made another guy in the same profession working on God domain sad as he was not getting his share of airtime. So he went on to get a gun from the attic, called up the press and the cops, paid a woman to scream and staged a drama to get some attention. And he got it. Big time. The video of this guy trying to suicide was all over the news. I am not sure why he did that, most of channels airing the video did not even know this guy’s name and they referred to him as ‘Godman’.  But then it was entertaining.

 

My reason for writing this post is not to discuss on why he did it. He might be awfully insane. But on why he was left off, after wasting tax payers money (which pays off the police force)… police time on him. And on why he was left off on bail after endangering the lives of the people around him ? Strange.

 

This also reminds me of Harbhajan- Sreesanth issue, why was Harbhajan not charged for assault by the police? If I give Sreesanth a tight slap, will I be only banned from ‘watching’ a few IPL matches?

 

Strange..

 

Band BroadBand.

 

Back home in Kerala my Dad has applied for Broadband from BSNL, unfortunately its not yet activated and the request is still pending with the telephone exchange .They have given explanations like ‘there should be at least 30 applications’ ‘infrastructure is not ready’ etc etc.

The BSNL telephone exchanges are technologically advanced ones, the people sitting there are still in the past (especially the ones in villages) they fail to notice the changes happening around them.

The delay was making my Dad angry, if you would have read this post, you would know why he hates inefficient people.

 

 

Scene Village Telephone Exchange

Dad hands over 35 applications to an employee.

 

Employee #1 : What is this?

Dad : These are 35 applications for broadband

 

Employee #1 : WHAT?

Dad : Yes. With signatures. We need broadband in our area.

 

Employee #1 : See…..well…..I…… How do I know whether you signed all this yourself?

Knowing that he just want to delay things Dad replied

Sue ME.

 

Employee #2 : Hey what’s going on? (Seems like this guy is the Chief (Read Cheap) Engineer.

Dad : I have submitted 35 applications of people who require broadband connection. Its in the papers recently that you are required to provide broadband within 1-2 months of application.

 

Employee #2 trying to act smart asked.

Employee #2 : Okay.. So which type of modem do you want?

His intention was to ask technical questions which my Dad obviously wouldn’t know and will retreat from making problems and asking questions.

 

“Which all modems do you sell?” came the prompt reply.

“Well. Eh…we have errr..” Employee #2 was a little stunned by this sudden answer.

“Well let me know which all do you have and then I will let you know which I want. Thanks.” Said Dad and walked out.

 

We have not received broadband connection at home till now. Categorized as a village, it would take at least another 4 months for them to process and get the infrastructure ready.

The communication revolution? Yes the applications are still revolving around.

 

In case if you wondering if the 35 applications are authentic, yes they are.

Some News 26-Apr

I am off for a week to the land of letters, latex and lakes AKA Kottayam.

Before that let me leave you guys with some interesting news..

 

• A recent study has reveled that how much a mother eats at the time of conception may influence whether she gives birth to a boy or a girl. You can read the report here. If anyone can read and understand the study please drop in your comments. Is this study based on numbers and statistics? If 10% of all accidents are due to drunken driving, does that mean that there is 90% chance of an accident if you are NOT DRUNK? Also studies have proven that 62.765% of all statistics are wrong. lol
• I am going to stop watching IPL. Why? They got plans to ban cheerleaders. OH ! now you guys know why I was hooked to IPL on Friday ! (Trust me I don’t know who won that day). Some say its degrading cricket (the bookies, the money and the hype is not) I have a few suggestions.
  • Let them air the cheerleaders after IPL is over. May be a different show altogether.
  • Or I have another opinion. Let the cheerleaders be on Sony channel while Set MAX air IPL with ‘No distractions’. . So that people ‘who don’t like cricket’ or whose ‘patience run out watching cricket’ can watch Sony. (hey that sounds like someone I know. J )
  • Here is the international take on this issue. The Australian. (Read on how Kamasutra and Khajuraho temples are mentioned. I am still wondering where the moral police were when a couple at Bangalore was harassed and when couples were roughed up at Valentines day!

 

Update : Cheer leaders wont be banned.  J

 

About Ban.

Ban seems to be the favorite word among the politicians. They would just love to ban books, ban people, ban smoking on screen, ban cartoons, ban cheerleaders,ban cola, ban blogs, ban movies, ban songs and ban anything that comes in their way.

 

Now I guess its time to Ban Bans.