Commonwealth Games,2010-Choked In Sands Of Time

"Wake Up Sid!!!", Well, this movie is aptly dedicated to the current condition of India's organising committee of Commonwealth Games(CWG), 2010 to be held in New Delhi. Instead of Ranbir Kapoor, Suresh Kalmadi(chairman, organising committee) should have played the lead role in the movie, courtesy to his and his team's inherent quality of finishing every job at the pace of a snail. And now India is in deep trouble with its dignity at stake on world stage.

It was on 14th Nov.,2003 that India won the bid to host CWG in 2010. Its almost the end of 2009 and preparations are still in infant stages. We are about to host this mega event in October 2010(less than 365 days) and things are looking hopeless. Let's face it, India is not ready yet!!!
Things are becoming more murkier with war of words going on between Suresh Kalmadi and CWG CEO Mike Hooper. This filthy political touch is making things more messy.

The question is that, why even after getting ample amount of time, the organising committee is beating round the bush and far away from being prepared? Well, there are many reasons. The first and most important being the "Kam Chalau"(to somehow manage) tendency of ours. The committee members simply kept on increasing the dead lines till the CWG eventually knocked at the doors.

Also, in other countries, the govt. encourages schools, civilians, reporters and everyone else to participate in the preparations. This leads to development of sense that they are all integral part of the mega event and everyone becomes enthusiastic and work gets distributed. In our case, 60% Indians don't even have a clue that India is going to host CWG next year. It looks as if this is a personal event of the Indian Govt. Recently, when news reporters tried to give its viewers an inside view of the preparations, they were strictly prohibited from entering and denied any information. Why such negligence?

Another reason which looks fatal to the event is the basic problem faced by Delhi- Traffic. Things could have improved if heed was paid to this menace right from 2003, but now its too late. As an example when recently the Commonwealth Games Federation chief Michael Fennel came for inspecting the preparations, the roads were made clear for a smooth drive. But free passage for the Delegates meant a large part of Delhi came to a halt for 10 hours. Same problems will be faced during the event in 2010 also.

However the most shameful fact is that Glasgow(Scotland) is going to host CWG in 2014 and proudly touts that 75% of its preparation is over and they are far better prepared than India. It's shameful because we possess greater man-power, higher resources but still we are lagging behind. It's high time that India should unite and present a memorable, amazing gaming event on the world stage. Anymore delay will be really fatal for the pride and status of India. Wake Up!!!

Reality Show Or Inhumanity Show???

Breaking news!!! Charles Darwin's 'Evolution Theory' has been proved wrong, courtesy to the new cheap,cold-blooded reality show-'Pati Patni Aur Wo'. This show is bent upon proving, that we haven't properly evolved from apes and rather still have that animality in us ,by shamelessly harassing little innocent toddlers on the show.For those who are unaware, the theme of this show goes like- Few selected parents would lend their babies to five celebrity couples who would handle(actually manhandle) them for a given time span.

Yes! This show has been launched and managing soaring TRPs, this time courtesy to ill-minded, conscienceless viewers like us. Majority of us are eagerly watching every single episode of this show and shamelessly giggling at various situations shown there, hardly unperturbed by the atrocities the toddlers are facing. Would we have happily enjoyed the show munching popcorn, had a toddler from our kinship been there ? NO!!! Then why are we encouraging such shows?

After watching a streak of reality shows, it's now well-known that emotions have completely dried out in the participating celebrities and they can cross any damn limit to satisfy there lucre-lust. But this time, pathetically, even parents are ready to mortgage their child to grab handsome lucre. Perhaps there's a need to start an Oscar award for 'Best Inhumane Act', the contenders being many.

The earlier reality show, ' Rakhi Ka Swayamvar', made a mockery of the pious relationship of marriage and now another humanly emotion is on stake, that of ' Motherhood- between mother and child'.The channel has shown its insanity by launching such a sick show where a child is being used as a mere prop for fun. It's to be seen now, whether we, the viewers, would wholeheartedly accept it or reject it ,being unethical, with a protest.

Search the depths of your conscience and then react as the ethics of our humanity are at stake. And yes!! please have a pity on Charles Darwin also, otherwise his widely accepted theory would suddenly be trashed.

You are Darwin's only hope, help maintain it !!!

Save Water-Be An Earth Warrior!!!

Modern technology

Owes ecology
An apology.

This is what Alan Edisson once quoted and now is the high time for an apology. So, are you committed enough for a penance? Mother nature, who once brought you to this world is now helplessly looking forward to you to save her existence. If you desire to payback then here's a chance worth million...

GEENATHON-2, a noble initiative of NDTV and TOYOTA, is all set to do its part for the well-being of mother nature and brings forward 'SAVE WATER' as the theme for this year. In the previous year, Greenathon came with the initiative- 'Light a Billion Lives', jointly materialised by NDTV and TERI(The Energy and Resources Institute) and it turned out to be a grand success. Anyway, all this was to just provide the reader with some general awareness. Now the BIG QUESTION is- WHAT'S YOUR ROLL IN IT? HOW CAN YOU HELP? So, here's your answer...

GREENATHON- 2 will focus on our everyday activities that harm the environment like the use of plastic and wastage of water. For all this to materialise, your support and paticipation is requisite. In the near future, NDTV will be announcing the various programs and venues(various cities and villages) under the banner of GREENATHON-2 and you can actively participate in it. Also, if you have something special to share-any photo, views,video,suggestions etc., related to this initiative, then you can upload all this at ' green.ndtv.com '. This is a very interactive and knowledgeable site. Make sure to check it out.

If you are still shrugging- "Why would I care about all these foolish initiatives?", "Ahh, this is just for publicity, it will produce no results." Well, then I need to warn you my friend that it is predicted that- The wars of the twenty-first century will be fought not over territorial boundaries but over water. So,its very important for us to actively participate and help nourish this campaign.The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river.

So, pull up your socks and do your bit for this earnest effort. Start preparing slogans, skits, articles. Take photographs of places which you think need attention and post on the mentioned website to help it improve. Most importantly, inform others also about this Campaign. Thomas Fuller once said," We never know the worth of water till the well is dry." Its time to tell him that he his wrong and we have realised the importance of water much before and will restore it to its previous elegance. Let's together make it possible!!!

Take care of the earth and she will take care of you.

INTERNATIONAL PEACE DAY- SADLY JUST ON PAPER!!!

Hurray!!! 21st september is celebrated as INTERNATIONAL PEACE DAY by U.N(united nations). So,you may feel a bit confused that why have I used such a sarcastic title for this article. Isn't it? Read on...

It's a global call for ceasefire and non-violence. This year the U.N Secretary-General(Ban Ki-moon) is calling on governments and citizens to focus on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. On 13 June 2009, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a multi-platform campaign under the slogan WMD – We Must Disarm to mark the 100-day countdown leading up to the International Day of Peace on 21 September.

Well!! Well!! Till here the story looks very sweet and encouraging .So,here's the catch... Ironically, when we are celebrating peace day, today in a damning revelation of Pakistan's nuclear proliferation, its disgraced scientist A Q Khan, the father of the country's nuke weapons programme, has admitted to the Pakistani nexus in the controversial atomic programme of Iran and North Korea. The disgraced 74-year-old Khan, who is dubbed as maestro of the world’s largest nuclear black market, opened his mouth after 21 years and accused Pak-gov "The bastards first used us and are now playing dirty games with us."

According to the reports blueprints of Nuclear Weapons were given to China, Iran, North Korea,Libya etc. in exchange for tonnes of enriched Uranium for Pakistan to make nuclear weapon. All this acts as a slap on the efforts of U.N to maintain non-proliferation of nuclear weapons . We all know that a nuclear war will have a horrific end with no positive outcome. But, shamefully still many countries are bent upon developing their nuclear power to show their prowess at the world stage. Moreover, Pakistan is not only developing its own but also encouraging other countries. This is surely a threat to mankind.

Albert Einstein ones said,"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." Hence merely taking an oath on INTERNATIONAL PEACE DAY on one hand and holding a nuclear weapon in another will solve no problem and this noble effort of U.N will die on paper only with no practical implications. So, we must sincerely put efforts into completely remaining away from any sort of violence starting from our home to global level and herald this noble effort of U.N.
In a nut shell, for mankind to nourish, we must follow what Gandhi Ji ones said:

"An eye for an eye will make the whole world go

BLIND."

Austerity Drive-Another Political Gimmick

Well, it seems Sonia ji has discovered a new drama for raising vote-bank.Austerity is the new mantra to woo public.Even the news channels are minting lucre by broadcasting special reports on 'Sonia's modesty', 'Rahul's Economy class travelling' bla bla bla... All this started when it was observed that 75% of the money, alloted for MP's expenses, goes away in travelling only,which is about 300 crores. So, Sonia madam, in order to protect party's image, started echoing that every MP will be travelling economy-class instead of business, no foreign trip for a year etc. But actually, its a political gimmick and a damage control exercise, duping the ever so gullible public.Its a cheap measure adopted by some rich whose wallets cannot accomodate all that is accumulated by squeezing the poor.

If our politicians are genuinely austere then why are they not paying income taxes? why organising meetings at a 5-star? If the expenses of an MP is thoroughly scrutinised then it will be found that money is wasted like water on their free phone calls, free passes for their kins, free foreign trips,The costs don’t even include expenses incurred on security, often way beyond actual requirements. They don’t include hidden costs like free upgrades on Air India, limitless first class train travel, a huge retinue of support staff. What about all this? Is our FM ready to answer?

The present president lives in a 360 room super lavish palace with 500 retainers and gardeners, an indoor heated swimming pool, fantastic theme gardens for exclusive use by her and her family . A fleet of US made limousines stands 24/7 ,her personal AIR FORCE ONE-jet - IS THIS A ETHICAL LIFESTYLE FOR THE HEAD OF A COUNTRY WHERE PENURY IS STILL RIFE ??? Are our politicians not purturbed by the miserable state of so many indians?

Even the news channels are shameless enough to highlight their show-off in the name of austerity and raising their TRPs. In fact all this is causing more suffering for 'aam janta' as along with the MPs their support staff,their security, the press reporters etc. are making the economy class more crowdy. This austerity era is only possible if the politicians stop using the government's money(paid by the public as taxes) for their personal uses. Why don't they use their own salaries for personal purposes?

Adding to the drama, Shashi Tharoor was ordered by the congress party to check out of the 5-star hotel in order to support the austerity drive. but why??? He was paying the bill from his own pocket and has a right to do whatever he feels like as long as he is using his own money. All in all, please stop being obnoxious and put your attention to what an MP must work for. Votes will themselves flow into your account if work is properly done. It doesn't require any filthy gimmick of this sort.

Now That's Real Entrepreneurship!!

It is said," When in Rome, do as the Romans do." An NGO named 'Wherever The Need' rightly understood it and adjusted with today's generation to fulfill its mission. Now, what's its mission?


This NGO (UK, US and India based) aims to build eco-sanitation public toilets in India for those 660 million Indians who are still defecating in the open. Wow!!!! But if it had simply went around asking for donations, hardly anyone would have paid heed to this NGO. Because, today's generation has no time for this sh*tting bussiness and are busy doing something else...


Now, comes the enterpreneurship part!! The idea was simple, become a part of that 'something else' and get attention. What's that? Simple, its social networking!!! Everyone today is busy scrapping and chatting and Twitter is the current darling of social networking. So, they have launched a plan- T4S: Twitter for Sh*tters.


As per this plan, people all over the world are asked to tweet their followers about the mission,the benefits of making toilets and to donate for the noble cause. So, gradually T4S will become a hot discussion topic and donations will start flowing in. With every 400$ raised, an eco-sanitation toilet will be constructed. Among other benefits, it will also lead to general improvement in health,better agriculture output and a massive saving. According to the facts, this mission will save India's $3 billion per year. Moreover, this will motivate the youth to talk about sanitation and cause awareness.


Efforts have been made earlier also in the form of 'Sulabh Sauchalaya' (founded by Bindeshwar Pathak) and it has turned out to be a boon. T4S will make this effort much successful and strong.
Acoording to the 2001 Census, only 18% Indians use toilets. About 78.4% of the rural and 13.6% of the urban population still practises open defecation. If a foriegn NGO can think of reducing this percentage,then why we Indians are not participating? Let's not allow anyone to depict India with poor sanitation as shown in 'Slumdog Millionaire'. So, log on, start tweeting and make this effort possible!!

Modest Maya!!!

The passing of 377 act(homosexuality act) has surely helped many to express themselves freely.One of those lucky ones is the U.P chief minister Mayawati who is deeply in love with herself.She has decided to materialize her love in the form of her and her party's statue all over the Lucknow city. So that everyone can admire her all the time and make her feel like Ms. World or the great ruler Ashok.


Believe it or not,it is a 10000 crore project and that at a time when U.P is crippling with severe drought. Mayawati,engrossed in self-admiration has perhaps forgotten those dalits,who lifted her this high, and her responsibilities towards the state. In contrast, a mere 250 crore has been alloted for rehablitation of drought-prone areas.


Our 'Behan ji' has perhaps turned insane and forgot that India is a democracy and is behaving like a ruler who wants the next generations to remember her always through her statues. The supreme court has asked the U.P supremo to explain such obsolete spendthrift nature and passed a stay order on this project. Let's see if this can cease her tyranny.


But the most painful fact is that its we who choose such self-centered people to represent us, who hardly care for us. Wake up guys!!! and kick this lady off the chief minister's throne. Because while we are criticizing her tyranny on this blog, she is perhaps sitting in front of her dressing table with her make up kit and asking, "Oh mirror!! tell me,who's the most beautiful lady in this world?"


Of course! you 'behan ji' because you made U.P look terrible just to beautify yourself.

TRUTH:STRANGER THAN FICTION

The history of our race,and each individual's experience,are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and a lie told well is immortal. Remember Raja Harish Chandra?? He chose to be a truth-teller throughout his life and got in return an eternal dose of sufferings & sacrifices.

The time has again turned its face to the history and truth-telling has emerged as a reality T.V show-'SACH KA SAMNA'. Participants, speak the truth and get lucrative prize money in return.Simple? Well,the story isn't that straight-forward. People are persistently coming forward and placing their opinion on whether this show should be aired on T.V or not? So much so that this issue was raised in the parliament, asking the govenment to ban the show. With so much opposition, there are less chances for this show to survive. But,I am in a dilemma here and let me share it with you...


Agnes Repplier once said,"There are few nudities as objectionable as the naked truth." May be this is turning out to be evident with the fate of this show. If I suppose that I support this show,then I must point out that the people participating are willing to tell the truth about their own life. If they don't have any problems accepting it,why the hell are others poking their noses?Also,no one is forcing any viewer. If you don't feel like watching it, just change the channel,as the participant is busy coining lucre and hardly pays heed to your opinion. Nextly, the participants get a chance to face the truth and their family, in the flow of the game and the money factor acts as a sort of encouragement. Take it the other way round, perhaps many family matters may get sorted,who knows!! I think the idea of this show surely rocks!! But...


On the other hand, if you have a glance at its negativity,then it is found that this show raises some discomfort among viewers as it raises very personal and sensitive questions quite often. This makes it objectionable and difficult to view with family members as children aren't mature enough to intake adult content and Indian culture doesn't permit it. As it is said, "All the truth is good, but not all truth is good to say." Also, it is observed that till now all the participants have been celebrity guests, who have an inherent talent of earning negative publicity without any shame. They are apt at washing their dirty linen in public with grace. So,does the common man accepts this show and would come to participate is still a query. Moreover, the polygraph test is not fool proof.


But,what irritates me most is the fact that our politicians are objecting it. Those politicians who ardently follow Lenin's words-"A lie spoken quite often is accepted as truth." Perhaps,they should be tied down to that chair and made to go through the polygraph test and then the stories of endless scams and corruption will emerge. Perhaps, they are apprehensive about it and that's why protesting so hard.

After blogging so much on truth, I must admit one truth, that it's difficult for me to decide that whether this show should be banned or not!! What's your truth??? Please share...

" All truth passes through three stages.
First, it is ridiculed,
then it is violently opposed
and lastly accepted being self-evident"

-Aurthur Schopenhauer

BANDH-E-MAT(R)AM

There was a time when strikes,rallies and bandh where used as means to protest against the brutalities committed by the British on the Indians. Time has travelled a long way and India is a democracy now,allowing people to lead a comfortable life.So,hopefully a low rate of strikes to encounter???

Unfortunately,no!! Strikes still occur and could have been considered normal if were raised against some major injustice. But, today there's a booming fashion of calling strike for any damn small cause and bringing the city to a halt. Yes! today strike has become a daily-basis course. All this is hampering the functioning of various IT companies, daily-wage earners, hospitals etc. and eventually causing major loss to the city.

If strikes had a strong motive and a noble cause behind it,then a single day's loss would have been compensated and accepted. But,how to expect that when political parties are supporting it just for the sake of cooking-up their vote-bank and abusing their rival parties. And who becomes the escsape-goat? We the common man.

Ironically,our politicians have devised an indigenous solution to enhance the employment exchange scheme. It goes like-" collect all the poor,illiterates and unemployed ,bribe them with some money,foodings and we are all set for party time!!! Oh! sorry,I mean a serious strike (hopefully)." Who cares whether the participants are even aware of the cause behind it!

All this drama causes a lot of suffering to school-kids, IT sectors,patients going to hospital, daily travellers and many others. These 'bandhs' have turned out to be nothing more than another holiday for the city,hardly serving the real purpose. May God give these strike holders enough conscience to protest for appropriate causes only and not make a mockery of the strength of this non-violent method - 'Strike' or 'Bandh'.

NATIONAL SECURITY Vs VIP's DIGNITY:THE SORROWFUL STRUGGLE

It is well understood that nation's security is much vital than obliging a VIP's social status. But this notion faced a challenge when Kalam's security check at the airport was termed as 'Frisking'.

Our ex-president, Mr. Kalam was at the Indira Gandhi airport to board a flight of a US continental service.The security personnel performed their usual drill of checking every passenger thoroughly, which included Kalam also. This action raised a furore in the parliament with the aviation minister promising to take action against that airline service and the reason- Why Kalam had to go through such security checks. Now,I ask why not??? why so much hue and cry???

The Indian law states prohibition of security checks of ex-prime ministers, presidents, & other VVIPs. But the US policy goes for total security check irrespective of the VIP status. Now,that's why perhaps US didn't face a single terrorist attack since 9/11-keeping peoples' security above a single VIP's dignity.VIPs,being the role model of many, are suppose to set examples by happily accepting such security checks without any fuss, so that others follow. It would in fact,raise thier dignity,showing their concern for nation.

So VIPs,at least for the sake of your so-called 'Izzat', stop blaming security personnel and behave like a responsible citizen. It's not about a single Kalam,rather everyone,starting from a beggar to the president,must adhere to the security norms. Otherwise,next time a terror attack takes place, don't even dare to blame the security services. It was we and our vague 'Dignity saving laws' which caused that security breach.

Talking about the politicians,who are raising great protest and terming the security check as frisking, well they have an inborn talent to jibber-jabber on every irrelevant matter. They are good at providing 'masala tadka' news for T.V channels and themselves passing time shouting at each other in the parliament. Perhaps,they have assumed God to handle matters of poverty,food and literacy, while, they dance to the VIP frisking music.Am I right politicians??

To compile in a nut shell, do we want ourselves safe or satisfy the whims and fancies of these VIPs? This has to be realized by us. Hats off!!! to that security which checked Kalam. Next time if a VIP comes again, check him thoroughly and make him realize that,"Boss!!! your VIP status is a dwarf compared to my giant,great nation, so kindly take off your...(aahmm, you know what!!!)."

INDIA'S BLIND LAW

As always even today our judicial system proved their mettle in taking ridiculously vague decisions.Friends! I am talking about the case of KASAB, who is allegedly involved in the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai.
Today in the afternoon ,kasab reached the court and suddenly out of the blues confessed his crime.He admitted his involvement in the rampage at cst station.But the real surprise comes after this!!! The judge after hearing the confession declared that he is still not convinced about its authenticity,so the confession was not taken on records.

I mean,wake up guys!!! The convict is himself confessing,the photographs(of kasab holding gun at cst station) helplessly scream out the truth. But still our kind law is showing mercy,God only knows why!!Two of his partners are dead and he being the only left, who else is responsible??
Our so called 'just' judges have blindly announced sentence to thousands of innocent indian citizens without thinking twice.But when it comes to kasab(a pakistani citizen) they perhaps wait for a 'muhurat' to sentence him.

Kasab made a mockery of our judicial system by first not admitting the crime few months back and then a sudden u-turn today.He simply used the hollowness of our law to live a few more months.Sometimes he asked for interpreters,sometimes medical treatment and so on.This is a matter of pity and shame as a person responsible for rampaging innocent lives is still alive hail and hearty,courtsey to our tame and dead slow judicial system.

The tag 'andha kanoon' hardly signifies justice anymore and now truly means our obsolete blind law.