I AM HONOURED!!!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

PUB CULTURE: Is it necessary???

Today I would like to put something on all the moral policing that happened in Mangalore.

Recently I went to a friend's place & had a heated discussion with her regarding all the incidents that happened there. It is true all that happened may not be in the best interests of the country but to some extent it may have been required also. Now we see a great degree of diminishing moral character among Indians. And people accept it or not, to a great extent this whole pub culture is also responsible. I want to have some basic questions to all Indians:
Is it necessary for us to follow the pub culture???
Can't we be satisfied with our culture???
Why do we always run after what others do???

Isn't our culture great???
Don't we have enough ways to be happy in our culture???

With globalization, changing demography of the cities, pressure at the work place,etc. the pub culture has taken under its fold a large percent of urban population. People tend to spend whole night partying & dancing at pubs & discos, little do they care about their families at home leading to increase in family tensions. All these no doubt causing increase in the number of divorce, loneliness,etc.

Some people are of the opinion that physical assault to women wasn't good & its also not part of our culture. I also accept that its not part of our culture. Now, again I would like to ask whether all these incidents happened suddenly in a day, the answer would also definitely be NO. The Ram Sena & the Bajrang Dal have been asking and requesting people not to go to these places but all these were into deaf ears but now they did something in a stronger way everybody is saying about moral policing & that they are interfering into people's privacy & democracy. I don't think democracy says you get drunk in a pub. Our Indian culture respects women & regards them as a form of Goddess & mother and in no way defaming their position by beating them up or patronising pub culture is good.

We Indians have a very bad tendency of patronising anything that is being done in the west. We are not satisfied with ourselves.
So, my request to all is that stop being such & start admiring the greatness & beauty of INDIA & its culture. Doing that we will like every thing about India.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A letter to every Indian

A Letter to Every Indian - APJ

This a speech given by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India, in Hyderabad.I am putting it in this blog so that people may see it & think, & make required changes in their way of thinking...
"""Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements?We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?We are the first in milk production.We are number one in Remote sensing satellitesWe are the second largest producer of wheat.We are the second largest producer of rice.Look at Dr. Sudarshan , he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a g rana ry. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news.
In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime... Why are we so NEGATIVE? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign T.Vs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology.
Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India . For her, you and I will have to build this developed India . You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation.Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance.
Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours.
YOU say that our government is inefficient.YOU say that our laws are too old.YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke. The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination. YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.
YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?
Take a person on his way to Singapore . Give him a name - 'YOURS'. Give him a face - 'YOURS'. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM .. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity... In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai . YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah.
YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, 'see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else.'YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, 'Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost.' YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand .
Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo ? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston ??? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India ?
Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay , Mr. Tinaikar, had a point to make. 'Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place,' he said. 'And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels?In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan .Will the Indian citizen do that here?' He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility.We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms.We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity.This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public.
When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child! and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? 'It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry.' So who's going to change the system?What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr.Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away.Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England . When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.
Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too.... I am echoing J. F. Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians.....
'ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY'
Lets do what India needs from us.

Thank you,
Dr. Abdul Kalam"""
Your comments would be highly appreciated....

So to all my dear friends its an honest appeal to all of you that instead of saying INDIA as a country of losers lets try to make INDIA better.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

INDIA SHINING AT THE OSCARS.....



What a day for India, this 22nd day of February,2009(to us who are staying in India it was the morning of 23rd February),
would be written in Golden letters in the history of Indian cinema.
The Slumdog Millionaire, a movie depicting the lives of certain sections of people & the emotions attached to them won 8 Oscars out of a total of 10 nominations in 9 categories.
The movie is adapted from a novel which shows how a boy from slums of Mumbai
becomes a millionaire by answering all the questions(the answer to the questions happen to come to him in the form of certain incidents in life) in a quiz contest.

To Indians it was more of a special occasion because there were 3 individual Oscar winners from India for that movie.
Allah Rakha Rehman for Best Original song & Best Original Score.
Resul Pookutty for Best Sound Mixing.
A.R. Rehman is a genius & there are very few people who are born with such talents. He started his carreer at a very young age with Roja for which he won many awards. The songs of Roja still freshens & calms my mind. Every time I hear it, it seems to me a new song. The number of hit songs that Rehman gave is innumerable & each one of them is no less than the "Jai Ho" for which he won the Oscar.

I think this Oscar would remain more special because the story is based on a slum in the city of Mumbai, a city which very recently, a few months back was in the news for all the miseries & pain it had to suffer due to the terrorist attcks. So its a tribute to the people of Mumbai.

Now coming back to the Slumdog Millionaire, it was in the midst of controversy because some people were of the opinion that it showcased the slums of India. But to me what I feel that Slumdog Millionaire is a movie of human emotions, a universal love. It showed how a 'chai wallah' entered into 'Who wants to be a millionaire contest' for the only reason that the girl, whom he loves watches the show regularly & would love to see him on the show. To him winning the prize money is not at all important. The movie brings forward the human emotions in its most purest form.

So to all the critics of the movie I would like to say that instead wasting time on criticising it for unnecessary reasons, lets all enjoy this moment of glory that it has brought for us. Especially Indian film makers should start thinking as to why films produced by them on these similar Indian issues & emotions not able to bring same fame & recognition to them.

Regarding slums I would say that yes it has shown slums with all its dirth & filth as it exists. We should appreciate the fact that there is a movie that has put before us this & opened our eyes. Lets ask ourselves what have we done to make their life better?????? Have we done something to improve their living standard???? The answer would be a big "NO".

Rather we must grab this opportunity & do something in whatever way we can in uplifting their life so that their basic needs be fulfilled.

Last but definitely not the least, I would like to add that Slumdog phenomenon is not the only thing that has happened in the Oscars for India, India won another Oscar in the form of "SMILE PINKI" in the category of Best
Short Story Documentary based on the sufferings of a girl with cleft lips.

"""CHEERS TO THE SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE & SMILE PINKI"""
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