The "comedy" show ?

I am not a big fan of comedy channels using f-word in their very name (the likes of AIB), other than the fact that its a bit too much of desperation at being humorous, I think if you cant avoid the word even in your name, maybe you should try something else.
To my surprise, about a month ago I came across a video by aib which I hope would have made a lot of people think. It was about how we were not treating the ladies in our country well and aib team and some other stars spoke about how sorry they were about this condition of ladies and that they could do almost nothing about it.
Recently aib came up with a show called  "roast " where they tried their kind of comedy but now to a different level. The team and everyone present on the podium made a lavish usage of all the possible abusive words like MC,BC, BDK etc. We all know exactly what these abuses mean and which gender these are directed at. All such "humor" were cheered with thunderous applause by the "elite" class of audience who are first to come up as custodians of society and especially of females, who are the first to question govt and administration about the women related causes , who are first to write open letters and make movies,short-films etc .Of course everyone has right to and it is the right thing to question the authorities and so on, but does it not mean that we as question seekers also have the duty or responsibility to walk-the-talk?  How can one make a standing ovation to a guy calling other a Mo***r-*****r ?Does it not question our right to judge the loafer standing besides the pan-shop staring the ladies, passing vulgar remarks or using abusive language to a by-stander?
When someone claps at Arjun Kapoor saying "Bhabhi !you want some fanny?"does it not unveil theeir hypocrisy for every other time they make or like a "I am sorry ladies" video? All the abuses were cheered with thunderous applause by the likes of Deepika , remember Deepika and TOI ?
More shockingly, the video it is being enjoyed by males and females alike on social media.
After this, do we really have the right to point fingers at others without introspecting ?

The Rally Vs The Rally

The recent incident in Gujrat was a good one to compare and realize the political Genius of man that is Modi. An incident defining what is underlying difference between an activist(?) and a statesman, defining what difference a good power of mobilizing people can do.To draw parallel between what happened with Kejriwal in Gujrat(detaining) and Modi on 27/10 , Patna , Bihar gives a good insight. Both were events which respective leaders would have liked to have not happened.

AK was detained by Police. He later came out and claimed that his detention was illegal and he successfully convinced police about it. Please see this video (1:00 - ) . Now EC has stated that what Kejriwal did was infact breaking of model code of conduct ( here ). Ultimately, the question is , Is Kejriwal lying ? Nobody asked the police officer what was the conversation between him and Kejriwal but lets keep this point aside now.

AK after the incident , said all this in a press conference. His supporters in Dilli went over to BJP office and started peaceful(?) protest. This resulted is severe clashes in Dilli and 2 other places. Now the question is , should AK have not remained calm ? Should he not as a sensible leader ,have realized that such situations could get worse if publicized. Just imagine if in spite of this detention, the event similar in magnitude to what happened in Modi's rally in Bihar would have happened. Imagine if AK was holding that rally and during or post the rally such statements were made. If AAPians could indulge in such severe clash for a detention which is legal, one can only imagine what could have happened then. Just comparing it against what Modi did would give  us presence of mind of the Gujrati leader. How he talked none about the blasts during his rally , made sure the public of whatever 2-5-10 lakh , which AK can only dream of getting , dispersed and were safe and sound back to homes.

Not just the leader but to some extend it also shows the maturity of followers. Though no party supporters are total dhudh-ke-dhule , but still if BJP supporters or party men as media likes to portray them would have been hooliganists, scene in Bihar would have been much worse than what we saw in Dilli. Though the image of BJP supporters or members has definitely been portrayed as those wearing saffron and bashing everything around, but definitely it was not them who went to party office and  pelted stoned at confined people, it was not they who beat to blue-n-black a guy for the ink-incident, nor it was they who had beaten doctors to nearly-dead in UP, nor did they show black flags to Vishwas or AK(chanting NaMo at the caravan should be considered within the limits).Just compare a crowd of lakhs of people who came to Bihar rally against .... .

Now certainly India has to decide. India has to decide who they want at "that" position, the position to rule them all. When one is in Center , certainly there will be situations and God-forbid they could be much worse. What do we want our leader to do ? How do we want him/her to make sure people are calm during such situations ? Let alone the leader of ruling , as a lot of people want him(AK) to be in opposition and that is why are voting for him , do we really want someone who can 'mobilize' his supporters for any reason and surprisingly they "would" .

Not A Real Story

Prerequisite knowledge to read the story : speeding above 120kmph attracts fine in Sweden. Anything upto 150 would attract a fine of 3000 SEK (about 30000 INR). And it increases thereon.

The story: 
 One of my friend was driving to Stockholm when he was stopped by petrol police for driving at 130. When asked to pay the fine , the driver said , "dont you think its illogical to pay a fine of 3000sek for overspeeding ! that too by 10kmph. May be its some age old law, so many cars drive at this speed these days." The policeman started to think. After some delibrations , the policeman agreed that the fine is illogical. He let the driver go without paying the fine.

While the driver was returning, he again over sped by mistake and was caught by another petrol police. The conversation started again, with a different policeman though. 

Driver: Yes I was over speeding , but dont you think 3000 SEK for over speeding is a bit too much. You can actually buy an old car of you add some more.
Police: I don't know, my job is make sure everyone over speeding pays the correct fine.
Driver: But the other policeman just allowed me go because he agreed this fine is illogical. Police: May be, but just because he broke the law, doesnt mean that I should break it too . My work is not to make law but to implement the law and make the defaulters pay. If every traffic policeman starts making laws on traffic instead of implementing, there would be chaos all around. Why do you think we would need law makers at all ? 
Driver: But then what should I do. I dont think it makes sense to pay this fine ?
Police: Well , you can pay fine for now and then approach the lawmakers to get the law amended. I can on my part write to the lawmakers to make necessary amends as per suggestions of the traffic police . 

Next day, all of nation's FB, twitter and media was found bashing the policeman. Interestingly even the law-makers joined , the makers or the keepers of that law . Crazy ppl some are !!!!

प्रश्नों का बुलबुला

प्रिय अन्ना हजारे एवं सहकर्मीयों ,
पिछले लम्बे समय से हमारे काबिल नेताओं के विरुद्ध आपके द्वारा किये गए अनुष्ठान को मैंने कई अन्य लोगों की तरह देखा और कुछ सीमा तक उसमे भागीदार भी बना | किन्तु इन अब मेरे अन्तः मन में आपके लिए चंद प्रश्न बुलबुला रहे है | क्यूँ आप-हम इन बेचारे निर्गुणी नेताओं के पीछे पड़े है ? सिर्फ इस लिए की यह लोग भ्रष्टाचार करने में लिप्त है ? अरे भाई , दुनिया में इतने लोग है, हर इन्सान के पास करने को कुछ न कुछ काम तो होना चाहिए न ? कोई रिक्शा चलाता है , कोई नौकरी करता है , कोई व्यापार करता है वैसे ही हमारे नेता बेचारे " भ्रष्टाचार" करते है | अब यह भी न करे तो आप और हम ही लोग कहेंगे की हमारे नेता कामचोर है ,कुछ नहीं करते , बेचारों का तो दोनों की तरफ मरण ही हुआ ना ? अच्छा एक बात बए , आप हम लोग इतनी मेहनत करके, दिन- रात काम करके ५ पैसे कमाते है और उससे हम इन्हें "कर" दे सके ताकि इन बेचारों का पेट पल सके , इनके छोटे-मोटे स्विस बैंक के खाते भरे जा सके, इन बेचारों के बच्चे किसी गए-गुज़ारे १स्त वर्ल्ड में पढ़ सके जबकि हम आम आदमी के बड़े- बड़े PF खाते होते है, हर आम आदमी के बच्चे इतनी शान से बरगद के पेड़ के नीचे आलिशान सरकारी विधायाला में पढ़ते है , इसके सिवा और माँगा क्या इन महान सेवको ने हमसे जो हमने सर पर आसमान उठा लिया |
अच्छा चलिए माना की हमारे नेताओं ले लिए आप यह अनशन नहीं छोड़ सकते , तो ज़रा हमारे देश के (तथाकथित) बुद्धिजीवियों के लिए ही यह अनशन बंद कर दीजिये | वो लोग बेचारे वातानाकूलित कक्षों में बैठकर यह कहते है की "एक आदमी इस तरह सरकार को धमका नहीं सकत " सही कहते है वो भी , आप अकेले ही तो हो , बाकी वो १-२ लाख लोग to ऐसे ही चने खाने आते है आपके साथ, अपना सारा धंदा-पानी छोड़ कर | लेकिन इन बुद्धिजीवियों को क्या पता , यह एक बार बंद कमरे से बहार निकले तोह इन्हें पता चले | इनका यह भी कहना हिया है की अगर अन्ना को वाकई कुछ बदलाव लाना है तो वोह चुनाव में खड़े हो जाये और फिर कोई भी बिल पास करे , सच ही तो है कल को जब इन लोगों के घर बाहर कचरा जमा हो जायेगा तोह यह लोग नगर पालिका में शिकायत नहीं करेनेगे, ये सीधे नगर पालिका के चुनाव में खड़े हो होंगे क्यूंकि इन्हें कुछ बदलाव लाना होगा और वैसे भी सभी सीधे सादे , भले और निर्दोष लोग ही तो चुनाव जीतते है यह तोह हम सभी जानते है |


आपका हितेषी,
( पका ) आम आदमी

ohh...you dont like Rahman !

While going thru all the headlines on corruption/black money/fasts, i happened to tune in to a radio and listen "tere bina" from guru and this song brought back one of the age old questions to my mind. "Why did not A R Rahman ever care to learn Hindi ?".It is just because i have been curious to know what different magic his voice and especially his music could have created had this been true. I know am upsetting loads of Rahman fans here, but here is what i feel.Take this song,"tere bina(Guru)"(and several others sung by Rahman), in certain sections of the song sung by Rahman one finds the lyrics to be quite unclear, by the time you figure out what he sung, song is actually all over and you end up hoping Rahman could have got better with the pronunciation . And its not that singers from non-hindi regions have not done well, in fact most successful Hindi singers are from non-hindi speaking native region ranging from from manna dey, kishore kumar ganguli to SPB, kumar sanu, shreya ghosal and so on.Why cant words of Rahman have such clarity of words is a question to me.
As a music director, one should be very aware of what the individual words mean, so that you can do justice to at least the most precious words and this is something which easily can be seen lacking in Rahman's songs where filler words play important role. Take the song for instance "jai ho", i would say "aja aja jind shamiyane ke tale, aaja zari wale neele aasman ke tale" is a marvellous piece by the ace lyricist Gulzarji, but after Rahman worked with the song, all we hear is "jai ho" dominating the song which actually is just a filler ! I guess Gulzarji may not be the happiest soul with treatment. Some people might argue , if Sonu and Shreya can sing in tamil movies why not same with Rahman. my answer would be simple , there is a difference between a singer and a composer.As a singer you more need to pronunce and sound well but as music director you need to understand the lyrics. Rahman has been very creative with his compotions and be it the voice of water drops in "taal se taal miila" , tweeting of birds in "saathiya" or the sound of calling birds in "genda phool" he has very precisely and beautifully placed the relevent sound in his music. He has been different and he has been innovative. But i believe a very nice music can always provide a nice "feel" to song but its always the lyrics that form the "soul" , if you cant do justice to the lyrics, there always shall be something missing !!!!

A cricketing Idol , From a different Perspective

"Sehwag got to 6000 in 123 innings, Bradman did it in 68 innings,Tendulkar got there in 120 innings" is what a famous cricketing website had to say after Virendar Sehwag scored his 6000th run in the test cricket.This statement can lead to an interesting discussion about comparing the cricketers from different times. One often tends to compare sportsperson across time line, but often when this happens , one keeps the older ones as Demigod and goes overboard saying they are incomparable(in this case , Don Bradman) which most of the times may not be true (or at least, i believe so).Lets consider Don Bradman, he was surely of the best cricketers the game has ever seen but positioning him as an idol who is beyond all sorts of comparisons, is something one must refrain from doing. The game evolves with time,and so the players and hence such an assumption becomes meaningless .
Take for instance , the above case where 6000 runs of Sehwag, Sachin and Bradman are compared.To reach his 6000 runs, Sehwag played against 9 different International teams in 10 different countries, all of them offering different conditions in terms of pitch, climate, crowds etc whereas Bradman in whole of his international career had played (in only 2 countries ) against 4 teams , including the-then-Indian-team whose bowlers were elated at the mere thought having got to bowl against Bradman (very similar to the Namibian players who after a world cup match in 2003 rushed to shaoib akhtar to get his autograph ).What i would like to point out is that most teams in their home conditions are pretty tough to play against, something Bradman never got to do.
One may boast of better sports accessories(bats, helmets, guards and other stuffs) and technology in the present scenario, but let us put it this way; as the game has evolved, the bowlers have devised new techniques, fielding teams have come up with better strategies than before,better technology has led to lesser (or should i say rare) "doubtful benefits" which needless to say , used to go in favor of the batsman.
Australian dominance in world cricket is something that has always added to greatness to the Aussie batsmen(read on to find why this is being talked about here). An important factor , often overlooked towards same is role of Australian media who are a vital ingredient in making the Aussie recipe the best in world.They leave no stone unturned to portray the Aussie players as the best of the lot and they don't mind goin overboard with it.One (in)famous example is from the recent Indian tour to Australia where the Australian broadcasters would often replay a wrong decision going against Australia but never did replay one going in favor of them, something very difficult to find in other parts of world.Don being an Aussie has surely been of help to him in this respect.
I too believe that Bradman was a Great Great batsman but i often think that if we keep a frame of reference , which makes us believe no batsman can ever be as good as (or better than) him(Bradman) , its time to look back at our frame of reference and ask "is it correct?"

This is my first attempt towards writing a blog. Please drop in your valuable comments.