It is said that when the english left India, they left behind two of the best gift to their former colony. The great Indian railways and the Indian Civil services. It is still a surprise that free india has added only 10-15% more to the area covered by railways since the British raj... the founding fathers of the constitution were wise enough to create a seperate entity called UPSC to look after the second gift of indian civil services. ICS is now IAS,IPS,IRS,IAAS, IFS blah blah ...what not... The point is most of us dot know about most of the services except of course IAS, IPS and IFS(Foreign service)... long long ago i had nursed an ambition to get into the civil services if my first ambition of being a doc (dont ask me why i became a s/w guy..i have o answers)... SO i was very much interested in becoming an IAAS person. Partly bcos i liked accounts and auditing and partly because until 3 years ago i wud not have been fulfilling the physical requirements for IAS and IFS.. IPS is still outta quesion for me ... though i wud have loved to be an IPS officer and thereby going to the central police forces.....with all these in the back burner, i chose he best wayto get money and ever thought of what to do next.. have been sort of aimless... in the meantime, i met my old classmate nivas.. he had quit his job to prepare for the xams .. this guy had put in a lot of effort to qualify for the prestigious services....
Nivas is a live wire... when i first met him in 1994, i did have initial apprehensions about him... then, 14 yrs ago, i had been just back from Guwahati and kanchipuram is definitely not the sort of place that would make u feel at home .... as usual i was shifting a school after three years... and unlike many KV brethren, i never had comfort with the syllabus as i had studied in a multitude of em.... The matriculation board syllabus was a bit ming boggling after the stint in assam, to top it there was always some pressure to get into the top ten list n the class, and each class had its own star who was pretty much a veteran in school... Initially , i didnt know much about this guy as he kept a low profile... and may be because i was an introvert, i dint speak to him.. i usually clung around a bunch of guys who were new like me... but after a few days, i happened to sit with hm.. then we became regular first benchers..... this guy used to taunt and tease everyone under the sun... he didnt even spare his cousin vijay who was our classmate too.. vijay was very a calm boy back then.. dunno how he is these days..... ok back to our hero...
Our hero was born just aweek after me.. 20th Feb 1982... we shared a good rapport but used to fight a lot... fighting was restricted to war of words only... i am never capable of a hand to hand fight and nivas too was frail back then...
Nivas had avery good handwrting and was very good at oration... not that he is not now :-)
he always puts in a huge anount of effort in anything he does... he stood fist in about 100 guys in the matric examintaion where the odds o him finishing first were not very great... thats cos there were many mammas boys in the school...
My mother was impressed with his docile nature once when he came to visit me when i was ill.. but that was just acting u see...
After 10th we had been pals thru mails (not email it was the written snail mail)... but suddenly that link too broke.... then there was no contact for a gud 6-7 years then suddenly i bumped into Vijay through orkut... he first question i ask vijay is wheres nivas... (Vijay must have cursed me under his breath as i didnt enquire too much about him...) I got hold of hs cell number and called him from london... Usually i never spent more than 5-10 minutes in calls while iwas in lndon and mostly i called only my parents.. my roomie harsha used to say that i make effective use of telecom resources... even harsha was taken aback when he saw that i was oncall for an hour with this guy....
Nivas had cleared prelims of civil servces with ease and was coolng his heels at home after the mains exams when i met him last.. boy he had put in a lot of weight and had a small bade babulike ponch.... why not hes gonna be running our country as he has made it to the PI round with 1800 odd other people... the goi communiqué says hat there are over 70 vacancies to be filled in with over 110 in IAS alone... so our man here might land anywhere into the babudom......
My dad calld me and said find out abt ur friend.. i nver saw him so excited for someone els's results.....
From the horse's mouth, the plan is to serve the country as a bureaucrat( this happens to be a word in good terms but spoilt these days ) for 10-15 years.. then apply for a VRS and start serving he nation through politics... way to go man..
I might join his party or be his campaign manager :P .....
Anyways all the best to this guy who can arguably be the best civil servant not because he is my friend but because he is a good hardworking intelligent person....
WAY TO GO NIVAS!!!!!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Chakde India!!!
Ever since this movie came out in aug 2007 , India suddenly has stared doing well in sorts. In hockey they won the asia cup the win was no big deal but the manner was great.. they defeated one team 16- and some other team 21-1 the indians just kept pumping goals and none of them was an own goal he he.... cricket is sort of revived after a dull and deay 2-3 years capped by 1st round exit in world cup and some words by chappel acusing the indians justto save is arse, the coachelss team ( not ronen sen's head less chickens) did well in enger land, stun everyone by winning T20 world cup... but the performance in australia was the best.. after a dismal start at MCG, the first innings at SCG was promising.. but steve bcknor, and the obnoxiuos ferkin oz sumbitches played foul... no worries they were beaten black and blue and perth and couldt do india any harm at Adelaide... though they won T20 easily they were given a run for their money in all 4 league matches.. inspite of that matt hayden had the balls to say that india are afraid of losing.. mr matt ferkin hayden.. we are accustomed to losing.. but u sumbitches have just started losing and india beat u squarely in 2001, we came close to winning a series in 2k3 but thanks to parthiv patels missed cached steven shit waugh was able to retire gracefully, but ricky scum poniting.... we will not leave u... its a great achivemengt to go one up in he final... thanks a ton to my man sachin who has been at he receiving end .. you know sachin always rocks... befittingly harbhajan got the two pieces of shit matt and andy... well done bhajji.......
moving on to the feat of India colts... the inida u -19 won wc in 2000, smifinals in 2002,2004 and runners up in 2k6... they started 2k8 in style winning every match convincingly and having the opposition onthe mat ... but during their batting SA had them on the mat .. they stuck well and when rain stopped play they had 3 wickets in their kitty.............SA rocks in bowling and fielding but India matched them ball by ball in bowling and had stronger nerves to clinch the cup... well done lads... u get a handsome deal in IPL now......
Comin back to CB series well australia ke muh pe tho tho phir se.... even if india lose from here no worries India is the bst and as i previusly predicted oz will lose to every one and even scots and other minnows will royally ferk em... amen....
Sunday, February 10, 2008
hiatus over
so its been 2 months since i bloged last..... for 1.5 months i was away to home (chennai).. well it was a vacation cum official trip... had a full blat with firnds one day.. then went on a plgrimage spree with parents... work was okay... while i was away pne froze and India had some bad experience in aussie... but managed o beat them squarely in perth.. and just tdy they bat em black n blue at the MCG.. with that India have won in all major venues in the last 4-5 years... wonderful... but things out here seem tough.. after he recent statements by Raj thackeray i plan to learn to speak marathi... if the situation demands , i might convert to the marathi statehood ;) n call me a marathi manoos rather than a tam.....actually a great debate is ongong regarding the spread of paochialness of Indian n Indians today... i can be a proud person today as we tams started it all.. be it the founding od separatist DMK ( first regional party in India) in 1949.. be it the anti hindi agitations of 1965... we led the pack,,, but as Karuna says, we never said anyone shud leave our land he he.......life is pretty boring these days ..future looks uncertain....o not feelin like writin anymore...
Saturday, December 08, 2007
books and sports and what not
just finished reading John Grisham's Playing for Pizza, his second book on american football, after The Bleachers, and third non legal fiction. The other non legal book being Skiiping Christmas, whoch I thoroughy enjoyed a couple of years back and tried to emulate this yr by skipping diwali..
Thats a different story and deserves special attentiion, but , for now, back to Pizza.
Its about a pro footballer who has a disastrous run in the NFL of US and A and is ditched by all teams. Finally he lansin a team in Italy. The italians do have their own football americano league and thier players are amateurs with gud day jobs.... they play for the game and for pizzas :-) says the author...the book describes the culture change and the effects on the failed pro and his quest for glory....
The book is a very slow read and it is not as compelling a read as the da vinci or some other thrillers.. but if you enjoy reading, there is never a dull moment andyou wud not put this down.. a very gud weekend read.. I had a similar experience with the bleachers.. i took a month or so to complete some 20 odd pages and then completed the book in a day flat over a weekend...
I dunno a damned thing abt NFL for that matter except Cricket, lawn tennis and some nitty gritties of field hockey, ( OUR NATIONAL GAME ,..eh) i dunno a thing about any other game....
I enjoyed reading about golf wriiten by Sir Pelham Greenvile Woodhouse and enjoyed a muvee on golf called The ratest game ever played based on harry Vardon ( the bradman of golf) Vs Francis Ouimet in 1913.
Similary Herr. Grisham has put together a very intersting story, with 45% football 30% Parma( people know rome, vatican and venice but neglect the other small cities of italy) and 25% human relationships and etc etc .... I enjoyed reading abot wines especiall ater i became a wine drinker last yr....( never mind i just had only a glass or two .. and i am still a dumb ass on wine lingo)..
I dont generally read books just because i have bought them.. ( i mostly buy my books).. the last time i did have a compulsory read was a couple of yrs ago and the subject was the much hyped five point someone (CRAP) .. its the worst book ive read till date though many might debate on that just bcos the author is so and so and the books is humorous (crap what humour? ) any ways i am not interested in bashing that up....
there are a few books that i wud for sure like take into my grave .. books by RK Narayan( they describe my culture ), the two novels ny khaled hosseini, some books by grisham and most byDalrymple.. wow white mughals whata book it took me 2 yrs to complete it but i loved it and the last mughal of which i have completed 40% is enchanting too....there are many boks that i had biught along timeago and yet to read :-) hope i get to read most of em in the coming year....
india began the thrid test quite lackadaisically and are progressing slowly....
the day isjust dull and dreary..
just waiting for y vacation which starts dunno when :-)
Thats a different story and deserves special attentiion, but , for now, back to Pizza.
Its about a pro footballer who has a disastrous run in the NFL of US and A and is ditched by all teams. Finally he lansin a team in Italy. The italians do have their own football americano league and thier players are amateurs with gud day jobs.... they play for the game and for pizzas :-) says the author...the book describes the culture change and the effects on the failed pro and his quest for glory....
The book is a very slow read and it is not as compelling a read as the da vinci or some other thrillers.. but if you enjoy reading, there is never a dull moment andyou wud not put this down.. a very gud weekend read.. I had a similar experience with the bleachers.. i took a month or so to complete some 20 odd pages and then completed the book in a day flat over a weekend...
I dunno a damned thing abt NFL for that matter except Cricket, lawn tennis and some nitty gritties of field hockey, ( OUR NATIONAL GAME ,..eh) i dunno a thing about any other game....
I enjoyed reading about golf wriiten by Sir Pelham Greenvile Woodhouse and enjoyed a muvee on golf called The ratest game ever played based on harry Vardon ( the bradman of golf) Vs Francis Ouimet in 1913.
Similary Herr. Grisham has put together a very intersting story, with 45% football 30% Parma( people know rome, vatican and venice but neglect the other small cities of italy) and 25% human relationships and etc etc .... I enjoyed reading abot wines especiall ater i became a wine drinker last yr....( never mind i just had only a glass or two .. and i am still a dumb ass on wine lingo)..
I dont generally read books just because i have bought them.. ( i mostly buy my books).. the last time i did have a compulsory read was a couple of yrs ago and the subject was the much hyped five point someone (CRAP) .. its the worst book ive read till date though many might debate on that just bcos the author is so and so and the books is humorous (crap what humour? ) any ways i am not interested in bashing that up....
there are a few books that i wud for sure like take into my grave .. books by RK Narayan( they describe my culture ), the two novels ny khaled hosseini, some books by grisham and most byDalrymple.. wow white mughals whata book it took me 2 yrs to complete it but i loved it and the last mughal of which i have completed 40% is enchanting too....there are many boks that i had biught along timeago and yet to read :-) hope i get to read most of em in the coming year....
india began the thrid test quite lackadaisically and are progressing slowly....
the day isjust dull and dreary..
just waiting for y vacation which starts dunno when :-)
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
started again
Its been rougly 8 months since my last post....
in the mean time, Indiabecame T20 champs, thrashd pakis in one day series and are leading the test series 1-0 with one rubber to go...........
Bs Yediyurappa has a vajpayeeistic tenure of a week after Deve Gowda played the memorable drama of indian politics ........ Narendra modi is awaiting to go home.........
Manmohan singh lost face in Russsia and the commies are getting bashed for nandigram..
Nukedeal is still pending.. medicos protesting aginst 1 yr rural service, whch wold delay their rural assignents n UK US or Oz........( medicos areworried that they might start minting moneya touch too late).........
Personally, two more of my cousns got married, my bro had a baby boy and i got a newTV.......
above all i wil be moving to a new team soon.. thats the most expected thing in my official life.., which otherwise sucks..............
Few friends got engaged few got married and a cuple broke up with their beaus.. ( so nice they are free agian )..but nothing remotely like that happenes to me... ( neither hapy abt it nor sad)....
yeah the most improtant event was me being felicitated for completeing 3 years in company after i nearly completed four... thats how their calendar works...
after a long time i had a peaceful aavani avittam ( a relegious function)... dint celebrate diwali......
and looking forwardto sankaranti...........
wot else.. nutin else.. just wanted to scribble something before new year....
in the mean time, Indiabecame T20 champs, thrashd pakis in one day series and are leading the test series 1-0 with one rubber to go...........
Bs Yediyurappa has a vajpayeeistic tenure of a week after Deve Gowda played the memorable drama of indian politics ........ Narendra modi is awaiting to go home.........
Manmohan singh lost face in Russsia and the commies are getting bashed for nandigram..
Nukedeal is still pending.. medicos protesting aginst 1 yr rural service, whch wold delay their rural assignents n UK US or Oz........( medicos areworried that they might start minting moneya touch too late).........
Personally, two more of my cousns got married, my bro had a baby boy and i got a newTV.......
above all i wil be moving to a new team soon.. thats the most expected thing in my official life.., which otherwise sucks..............
Few friends got engaged few got married and a cuple broke up with their beaus.. ( so nice they are free agian )..but nothing remotely like that happenes to me... ( neither hapy abt it nor sad)....
yeah the most improtant event was me being felicitated for completeing 3 years in company after i nearly completed four... thats how their calendar works...
after a long time i had a peaceful aavani avittam ( a relegious function)... dint celebrate diwali......
and looking forwardto sankaranti...........
wot else.. nutin else.. just wanted to scribble something before new year....
Monday, April 30, 2007
hmmmm
know what its been 14 days since i came back to pune... still i havent found time to settle down in my new place.... I cleary remember how i left last time... had it been not for my parents i wud have had a tuf time as i was working 13 -14 hrs a day b4 i left.. things hav nt chngd much on return... thats cos te two week unscheduled break causd due to chicken pox... what to do.. I am not able to spend more than 20-30 mins online .. that too once in two days....anyways hope things will fall in place quite soon ......
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Back Home .. Yeow
Atlast I am bck blogging.... Its been almost a month since i left enger land ..... last 1 month has been quite a nightmare...... I was supposed to leave london on 17th March at 08:45 GMT.. luckily for me the flight was delayed by 12 hours due to adverse weather conditions in new york and it left at 20:45 GMT from Heathrow.... Landed in mumbai on the 18th at 09:40 IST (was supposed to be in chennai at 03:45 IST on th e 18th as per plans).......
After a lot of confusion, Air India managed to put us on a Jet airways flight to chennai which was supposed to leave at 14:20 IST(Ferk... hell a lot of time in mumbai )....
Reached Chennai by 16:50 IST.... Dad was there at the airport and reached home by 17:20 IST... Atlast managed to give teh gift to mum exactly on mothers day.... had a nice dinner at 19:00 (kya karen paapi pet ka sawaal hai ) and slept of by 20:30 ...... there begun my problem... i got up at 01:30 and was not able to sleep .... worst we dont have set top bix and i had only 30 channels to choose from... finally managed to get a decent muvee.. azhagiya theeye in Jaya TV... watched it till 05:00.....
The next week was busy meeting people, doing lot of paper work to clear cargo and some personal work...
The second week was blissful with loads of rest,... alas on 29th had high fever.. teh docs just kept giving dofferent medicines... l;ater on on sunday at the airport (yep had started to pune ) it was found that i got chicken pox....... from thursday to the next wednesday i had fever ranging 102-105 deg farenheit for almost 10 hrs a day...... finally got better on 7th apr...........have been completely resting till now..
will be back with a bang with a sort of daly journal on my activities in chennai soon if time permits..........
After a lot of confusion, Air India managed to put us on a Jet airways flight to chennai which was supposed to leave at 14:20 IST(Ferk... hell a lot of time in mumbai )....
Reached Chennai by 16:50 IST.... Dad was there at the airport and reached home by 17:20 IST... Atlast managed to give teh gift to mum exactly on mothers day.... had a nice dinner at 19:00 (kya karen paapi pet ka sawaal hai ) and slept of by 20:30 ...... there begun my problem... i got up at 01:30 and was not able to sleep .... worst we dont have set top bix and i had only 30 channels to choose from... finally managed to get a decent muvee.. azhagiya theeye in Jaya TV... watched it till 05:00.....
The next week was busy meeting people, doing lot of paper work to clear cargo and some personal work...
The second week was blissful with loads of rest,... alas on 29th had high fever.. teh docs just kept giving dofferent medicines... l;ater on on sunday at the airport (yep had started to pune ) it was found that i got chicken pox....... from thursday to the next wednesday i had fever ranging 102-105 deg farenheit for almost 10 hrs a day...... finally got better on 7th apr...........have been completely resting till now..
will be back with a bang with a sort of daly journal on my activities in chennai soon if time permits..........
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Oz ferked again
well i wanted to write this some 2 weeks before when Enger land blasted ferkin oz in the commonwealth bank series.. but somehow i missed it.. but gud that i waited....
Oz has been again ferked by the dark horse kiwis that too in a royal manner.. 2 scores of 300 and above ferkin oz cundt defend one of them ... two of teh defeats will be remebered forever.....
teh 10 wikcet defeat( what the ferk.. no body loses by 10 wkts these days.. not even kenya or bangladesh.. they fight .. but OZ crap...........) and the last defeatthey had 346 on teh borad.. kiwis were 41-4 on the 9th over.. now comon from here on u expect em to win.. not even India( who have the flamboyance to snatch defeat from jaws of victory) wud have lost it.. but ferkin oz loose... oz ke muh pe thoo thoo ( i spit on their face)................
Gud that they have received such a rolyal bashing b4 teh world cup.. lets pray that the socts and teh dutch ferk teh OZ royally in th world cup... AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oz has been again ferked by the dark horse kiwis that too in a royal manner.. 2 scores of 300 and above ferkin oz cundt defend one of them ... two of teh defeats will be remebered forever.....
teh 10 wikcet defeat( what the ferk.. no body loses by 10 wkts these days.. not even kenya or bangladesh.. they fight .. but OZ crap...........) and the last defeatthey had 346 on teh borad.. kiwis were 41-4 on the 9th over.. now comon from here on u expect em to win.. not even India( who have the flamboyance to snatch defeat from jaws of victory) wud have lost it.. but ferkin oz loose... oz ke muh pe thoo thoo ( i spit on their face)................
Gud that they have received such a rolyal bashing b4 teh world cup.. lets pray that the socts and teh dutch ferk teh OZ royally in th world cup... AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Hmmm
well its been a decent gap since my last post.. yeah from then on things went from bad to worse and i was feeling really really down.. birthday passed by without much excitement though one of my good friends made it a memorable day for me... followed by my wonderful roomies......
After that i did something, which i dont think i shud have done.. may be i was not worth that.. but whatever i made that move and feel a bit releived but tense :-) lets see i hope something gud comes out in the end and nothing untoward happens :-)
Then came dad's bday.. that was grt i guess. he was rather pleased woth my mega 12 page letter and teh card.. he was also happy abt the card n boquet that his boss had sent (Card courtesy teh one n only Rajagopalan ... yup had mailed teh card to dad's boss in advance,... teh sweet guy sent a nice bpquet along.. shud send him a big thank u card n some chockies )...
Best part is all my cusins had caled him.. thank u bros n sis...... u made his day... he was so ahhpy abt the calls.. but dear all i beat u all to it :-)...................
Finally yesterday sw this crappy ekalavya.. sucks simply... then got the news that my replacement is comin soon and i might get to leave soon :-).... one relief
Then checkd out HOT FUZZ a brit comedy muvee.. really cool...
At the end yeah teh confusion is still thr boredom hmm yeah thr.. added to it is the tension caused by myself.. but yeah feeling a bit better
After that i did something, which i dont think i shud have done.. may be i was not worth that.. but whatever i made that move and feel a bit releived but tense :-) lets see i hope something gud comes out in the end and nothing untoward happens :-)
Then came dad's bday.. that was grt i guess. he was rather pleased woth my mega 12 page letter and teh card.. he was also happy abt the card n boquet that his boss had sent (Card courtesy teh one n only Rajagopalan ... yup had mailed teh card to dad's boss in advance,... teh sweet guy sent a nice bpquet along.. shud send him a big thank u card n some chockies )...
Best part is all my cusins had caled him.. thank u bros n sis...... u made his day... he was so ahhpy abt the calls.. but dear all i beat u all to it :-)...................
Finally yesterday sw this crappy ekalavya.. sucks simply... then got the news that my replacement is comin soon and i might get to leave soon :-).... one relief
Then checkd out HOT FUZZ a brit comedy muvee.. really cool...
At the end yeah teh confusion is still thr boredom hmm yeah thr.. added to it is the tension caused by myself.. but yeah feeling a bit better
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
arbit
I was wondering what should I post. Last week I was busy @ work and was busy writing a mega 12 page letter to my father on his 6oth bday... well It was less painful to write after I had had enough practice recently thanks to the British Computer Society.
I feel very down these days dunno why sometimes eveything seems worthless.Dunno what do I need? a new job naah that will be teh same crap as this one..
I never had complaints on job or money .. i feel what i got on these two fronts is okay though many others wud have comments on it...
Then do i feel lonely.... well may be but i sometimes i like being alone really....................
I dunno may be the stress that I have undergone over the past few months is draining me out slowly.
I dont know a way to get out of it.. may be a vacation cud be useful but i dont think that wud help much.........
whatever let me keep feeling shitty and disinetersted until the boredom corrects itself...............
I feel very down these days dunno why sometimes eveything seems worthless.Dunno what do I need? a new job naah that will be teh same crap as this one..
I never had complaints on job or money .. i feel what i got on these two fronts is okay though many others wud have comments on it...
Then do i feel lonely.... well may be but i sometimes i like being alone really....................
I dunno may be the stress that I have undergone over the past few months is draining me out slowly.
I dont know a way to get out of it.. may be a vacation cud be useful but i dont think that wud help much.........
whatever let me keep feeling shitty and disinetersted until the boredom corrects itself...............
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Objects of Desire & Sin
This weekend i was a bot relaxed and happened to see a new muvee Blood Diamond..
Blood diamonds is about diamonds from conflict zones finding their way into the normal market and the fund inturn used to fuel civil wars n atrocities...............
Well how sad it is.........the muvee is picturised in 1999 Sierra Leone where there country is torn apart by a decade long civil war betn the the elected govt and the RUF founded by Foday Sankoh... The RUF was formed as result of brainwashing sessions held in Libiya by Col. Muammar Al Gadafi who tired to inculcat Pan Africanism very much like Gamel Abdel Nasser lead Pan Arabism.. but cant really equate the two.. Nasser was a pillar in NAM i guess...
So Gaddafi conducts a training session .. some crappy felons attend it, one of them Charles taylor bccomes a president of Liberia and he helps RUF with arms.. they start a civil war, control some diamond mines, use local popuation as forced labour to mine diamonds.
These diamonds are bought by smugglers n mercaneries..(much of whom included the ex South African apartheid army which fought in Angola civil war with rebels and after 1994 was disbanded after south africa closed apartheid. A chunk of that army became private armed forces, smuggling diamonds, supplying arms to all rebels n happily minting money.. the irony is sometimes these private army help the governments as well:-)
The mercanerires then smuggle the diamonds to liberia where they are certified as mined in liberia n exported from liberia.. thus it fothey find the way into the market...
Back in africa child soldeirs are used to kil people, they are drugged, indoctrinated and made to do all crappy stuff...........much like LTTE i guess.......
And ladies n gentlemen much like oil, the largest market for diamonds is none other than big bro america.......... ferkin hell.... the belgians french n UK sumbitches started ravaging africa for ivory n gold which still continues.... and De Beers is a clear player in all this. Its 2000 Millennium Star diamond of 200 carat (next biggest to Koh -i Noor) was a BLOOD DIAMOND mined in Zarie aka Congo aka Democratic republic of Congo-Khinshasa.. De Beer say that the muvee shud have a disclaimer that it was in teh past as it cud potentially damage their diamond market.
The muvee says how teh diamonds are locked up in vaults just to increase teh demand n price...
Man they are just worthless stones.. I remember clearly my maternal grand mum and paternal grandmum told me stories abt diamond.. Well India had all ferkin riches it had diamonds n oil n everything ..........a world within itself.....
They told me how certain diamonds had dosha or a defect and how they had a potential to destroy a family .. I thought it was bull crap.. but i see how these stones have damaged millions of lives across a continent... Well i beleive now that most of the things that elders have passed on is true..its just that we lost them and had an ambiguity before we were enslaved 200 yrs ago and lost faith in all our tradition............
So ladies n gentlemen as buddha said desire is teh cause of all miseries...
Dont shell too much money on diamonds and make sure that they are Kimberley process certified which came in to being after 2000... and know what even Indian army was part of a UN peace mission n sierra leone....it is all TRUE n not just a muvee...
The second hard hitting muvee after Syriana.....
The message is the wealth that nature gave to people is AFFECTING the normal life of those native people.. only a small number of them benefit from it whereas as the so called first n second world exploit them....
Blood diamonds is about diamonds from conflict zones finding their way into the normal market and the fund inturn used to fuel civil wars n atrocities...............
Well how sad it is.........the muvee is picturised in 1999 Sierra Leone where there country is torn apart by a decade long civil war betn the the elected govt and the RUF founded by Foday Sankoh... The RUF was formed as result of brainwashing sessions held in Libiya by Col. Muammar Al Gadafi who tired to inculcat Pan Africanism very much like Gamel Abdel Nasser lead Pan Arabism.. but cant really equate the two.. Nasser was a pillar in NAM i guess...
So Gaddafi conducts a training session .. some crappy felons attend it, one of them Charles taylor bccomes a president of Liberia and he helps RUF with arms.. they start a civil war, control some diamond mines, use local popuation as forced labour to mine diamonds.
These diamonds are bought by smugglers n mercaneries..(much of whom included the ex South African apartheid army which fought in Angola civil war with rebels and after 1994 was disbanded after south africa closed apartheid. A chunk of that army became private armed forces, smuggling diamonds, supplying arms to all rebels n happily minting money.. the irony is sometimes these private army help the governments as well:-)
The mercanerires then smuggle the diamonds to liberia where they are certified as mined in liberia n exported from liberia.. thus it fothey find the way into the market...
Back in africa child soldeirs are used to kil people, they are drugged, indoctrinated and made to do all crappy stuff...........much like LTTE i guess.......
And ladies n gentlemen much like oil, the largest market for diamonds is none other than big bro america.......... ferkin hell.... the belgians french n UK sumbitches started ravaging africa for ivory n gold which still continues.... and De Beers is a clear player in all this. Its 2000 Millennium Star diamond of 200 carat (next biggest to Koh -i Noor) was a BLOOD DIAMOND mined in Zarie aka Congo aka Democratic republic of Congo-Khinshasa.. De Beer say that the muvee shud have a disclaimer that it was in teh past as it cud potentially damage their diamond market.
The muvee says how teh diamonds are locked up in vaults just to increase teh demand n price...
Man they are just worthless stones.. I remember clearly my maternal grand mum and paternal grandmum told me stories abt diamond.. Well India had all ferkin riches it had diamonds n oil n everything ..........a world within itself.....
They told me how certain diamonds had dosha or a defect and how they had a potential to destroy a family .. I thought it was bull crap.. but i see how these stones have damaged millions of lives across a continent... Well i beleive now that most of the things that elders have passed on is true..its just that we lost them and had an ambiguity before we were enslaved 200 yrs ago and lost faith in all our tradition............
So ladies n gentlemen as buddha said desire is teh cause of all miseries...
Dont shell too much money on diamonds and make sure that they are Kimberley process certified which came in to being after 2000... and know what even Indian army was part of a UN peace mission n sierra leone....it is all TRUE n not just a muvee...
The second hard hitting muvee after Syriana.....
The message is the wealth that nature gave to people is AFFECTING the normal life of those native people.. only a small number of them benefit from it whereas as the so called first n second world exploit them....
Thursday, January 25, 2007
tagged by Heidi Kris (Sri)
1. Were you named after anyone?Mannargudi rajagopala Swami an incarnation of lord Vishnu 2. Do you wish on stars?Nopes
3. When did you last cry?2 months b4 when I had a tiff with mum.4. Do you like your handwriting?No
5. What is your favourite meat?Vegetarian
6. What is your most embarrassing CD on your shelf?Embarassing for me or others?7. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you?Yes I am the best
8.Are you a daredevil?No. 9. How do you release anger?use the hcoiceset of slang and abuse10. Where is your second home?I don’t have a proper first home11. Do you trust others easily?To an extent12. What was your favourite toy as a child?I dint like toys btw13. What class in school/college do you think is totally useless?Drawing
14. Do you use sarcasm a lot?When needed yes15. Have you ever been in a mosh pit?Nopes16.What do you look for in a guy?I am not a batty boy17. Would you bungee jump?Crap.18. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?Yes19.what's your favourite ice cream?Plain Vanilla20. What are your favourite colours?Blue Go India Go21. What are your least favourite things?Sycophancy22. How many people do you have a crush on right now?
1
23. Who do you miss most right now?Dad n Mum24. What are you listening to right now?
Nothin25. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?Blue26. What is the weather like right now?Cold27. Last person you talked to on the phone?
Mum28. The "first" thing you notice about the opposite sex?Sorry Cant say.29. Do you like the person who sent you this?Yes defly 30. How are you today?Not bad not gud31. Favourite non alcoholic drink?Caffe32. Favourite alcoholic drink?Just tasted wine so yeah it is wine33. Natural hair colour?Black.34. Eye colour?Brown35. Wear contacts?I did wear but they were uncomfy 36. Siblings? elder brother!37. Favourite month?Feb (my bday val day and dad’s bday follow & two of my very gud frnds are feb born)38.Favourite food?Amma panna thayir saadam.39. Favourite day of the year?Feb 13th 40. Have you ever been too shy to ask someone out?yes
41. Scary movies or happy endings?No to both 42. Summer or winter?No to both 43. Holi or Diwali?No to both 44. Do you like your name?Hmm not very much
45. What book/magazine are you reading?Sleeping with the devil by Bob Baer.46. What's on your mouse pad?A calendar.47. What did you watch on TV last night?No TV here48. Favourite Smell?
Hmm nothing spl. 49. Have you ever regretted breaking up with someone?Never got hooked to break up.. A loser in this ….50. Most tiresome thing you’ve ever experienced/done?Answering stupid questions
Tag
???
1. Were you named after anyone?Mannargudi rajagopala Swami an incarnation of lord Vishnu 2. Do you wish on stars?Nopes
3. When did you last cry?2 months b4 when I had a tiff with mum.4. Do you like your handwriting?No
5. What is your favourite meat?Vegetarian
6. What is your most embarrassing CD on your shelf?Embarassing for me or others?7. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you?Yes I am the best
8.Are you a daredevil?No. 9. How do you release anger?use the hcoiceset of slang and abuse10. Where is your second home?I don’t have a proper first home11. Do you trust others easily?To an extent12. What was your favourite toy as a child?I dint like toys btw13. What class in school/college do you think is totally useless?Drawing
14. Do you use sarcasm a lot?When needed yes15. Have you ever been in a mosh pit?Nopes16.What do you look for in a guy?I am not a batty boy17. Would you bungee jump?Crap.18. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?Yes19.what's your favourite ice cream?Plain Vanilla20. What are your favourite colours?Blue Go India Go21. What are your least favourite things?Sycophancy22. How many people do you have a crush on right now?
1
23. Who do you miss most right now?Dad n Mum24. What are you listening to right now?
Nothin25. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?Blue26. What is the weather like right now?Cold27. Last person you talked to on the phone?
Mum28. The "first" thing you notice about the opposite sex?Sorry Cant say.29. Do you like the person who sent you this?Yes defly 30. How are you today?Not bad not gud31. Favourite non alcoholic drink?Caffe32. Favourite alcoholic drink?Just tasted wine so yeah it is wine33. Natural hair colour?Black.34. Eye colour?Brown35. Wear contacts?I did wear but they were uncomfy 36. Siblings? elder brother!37. Favourite month?Feb (my bday val day and dad’s bday follow & two of my very gud frnds are feb born)38.Favourite food?Amma panna thayir saadam.39. Favourite day of the year?Feb 13th 40. Have you ever been too shy to ask someone out?yes
41. Scary movies or happy endings?No to both 42. Summer or winter?No to both 43. Holi or Diwali?No to both 44. Do you like your name?Hmm not very much
45. What book/magazine are you reading?Sleeping with the devil by Bob Baer.46. What's on your mouse pad?A calendar.47. What did you watch on TV last night?No TV here48. Favourite Smell?
Hmm nothing spl. 49. Have you ever regretted breaking up with someone?Never got hooked to break up.. A loser in this ….50. Most tiresome thing you’ve ever experienced/done?Answering stupid questions
Tag
???
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Guru-Disappoints
Well I got up pretty early today did some useful work. Then decided to check out the movie guru by Maniratnam. Little did I realise that this was the biggest mistake that I was ever gonna do . The muvee is inspired from the real life rags to riches story of Dhirubhai H Ambani , the boss of Reliance. The muvee was very un-maniratnam like
It tries to glorify the prince of polyester for all the controversies attached to him.
The muvee captures his Aden stay as an Istanbul stay and modifies things littlebit to prove that its indeed a fiction(Like iruvar n Nayagan. Iruvar being an inspiration of the life n career of ace politicians M G Ramachandran & Karunanidhi and Nayagan being the life history of Don Varadaraja Mudaliyar of Dharavi Mumbai)
As like Nayagan he tries to glorify the protagonist just to avoid trouble. But seriously this muvee lacked the solid Nayagan screenplay. It looked like disconnected bits of a documentary .. and the songs tho brilliant looked oddly out of place.. seriously the songs were just used as bits inn Yuva which helped the pace f the muvee…
God can anyone make a muvee without stripping malllika Sherawat. Mani you too…???
The muvee documents the Wadia-Ambani Feud, battle betn Ramnath Goenka and Ambani etc. The muvee has not captured Anil and Mukesh and also about the Pramod Mahajan nexus.
The jamnagar refinery is shown much ahead .
Aishwarya Rai does some justice to her role…
Finally the climax court scene gurubhai just blurts out some nonsense and he is let scot-free with just a meagre fine. Hmm and the end is that his conglomerate marches ahead.
But the sad story is nothing as such happened in real life and the conglomerate has infact split after a public spat.
The muvee seems to give the message that everything is valid in business and whatever scandal that was done in license permit era was valid.
I really feel that ethics still hold true and ethics should be maintained.
And as a muvee it was too long and disjointed.....
It tries to glorify the prince of polyester for all the controversies attached to him.
The muvee captures his Aden stay as an Istanbul stay and modifies things littlebit to prove that its indeed a fiction(Like iruvar n Nayagan. Iruvar being an inspiration of the life n career of ace politicians M G Ramachandran & Karunanidhi and Nayagan being the life history of Don Varadaraja Mudaliyar of Dharavi Mumbai)
As like Nayagan he tries to glorify the protagonist just to avoid trouble. But seriously this muvee lacked the solid Nayagan screenplay. It looked like disconnected bits of a documentary .. and the songs tho brilliant looked oddly out of place.. seriously the songs were just used as bits inn Yuva which helped the pace f the muvee…
God can anyone make a muvee without stripping malllika Sherawat. Mani you too…???
The muvee documents the Wadia-Ambani Feud, battle betn Ramnath Goenka and Ambani etc. The muvee has not captured Anil and Mukesh and also about the Pramod Mahajan nexus.
The jamnagar refinery is shown much ahead .
Aishwarya Rai does some justice to her role…
Finally the climax court scene gurubhai just blurts out some nonsense and he is let scot-free with just a meagre fine. Hmm and the end is that his conglomerate marches ahead.
But the sad story is nothing as such happened in real life and the conglomerate has infact split after a public spat.
The muvee seems to give the message that everything is valid in business and whatever scandal that was done in license permit era was valid.
I really feel that ethics still hold true and ethics should be maintained.
And as a muvee it was too long and disjointed.....
Sunday, January 07, 2007
ICE RINK
After a long time had been to the office on a sunday to finish off a lot of pending work.
Worked for 3-4 hours and then decided that there should be some fun so called up roomie and askd him whether he is interested in a ice skate session at the Canary Wharf Ice Rink...
He said yes and off we went.. Well I have never one any skating b4 so just wanted to try ...the rink was a medium sized one and when I wore the skating boots it was like tying 4 kg wt to the legs.. worst is i was not able to balance in that boot ............with grt difficulty reached the rink and tried to skate.......and had a great fall like humpty dumpty ....hell a lot painful.. then realised that i shud skate along the barricades holiding the handrails so that i can avoid damage to myself.. after hella lot of mini falls and slips completed one full circle and then decided to take rest ... it was a heavenly feeling when i took those heavy boots off..... then i realised tho i was not the one struggling the others were brave enuf to fall more than once and tried to skate in te centre.. my roomie was doing good as well.. but i didnt have the courage to get back as i had collided agains teh barricade many times and that hurt... also the one fall was still hurting moreover, my legs cudnt carry thse heavy boots....idhu thevaya?(kaiko panga lia baap) finally when i reached home i felt a bit releived... any how it was fun....
Worked for 3-4 hours and then decided that there should be some fun so called up roomie and askd him whether he is interested in a ice skate session at the Canary Wharf Ice Rink...
He said yes and off we went.. Well I have never one any skating b4 so just wanted to try ...the rink was a medium sized one and when I wore the skating boots it was like tying 4 kg wt to the legs.. worst is i was not able to balance in that boot ............with grt difficulty reached the rink and tried to skate.......and had a great fall like humpty dumpty ....hell a lot painful.. then realised that i shud skate along the barricades holiding the handrails so that i can avoid damage to myself.. after hella lot of mini falls and slips completed one full circle and then decided to take rest ... it was a heavenly feeling when i took those heavy boots off..... then i realised tho i was not the one struggling the others were brave enuf to fall more than once and tried to skate in te centre.. my roomie was doing good as well.. but i didnt have the courage to get back as i had collided agains teh barricade many times and that hurt... also the one fall was still hurting moreover, my legs cudnt carry thse heavy boots....idhu thevaya?(kaiko panga lia baap) finally when i reached home i felt a bit releived... any how it was fun....
Friday, January 05, 2007
JINXED!!!!
Well its a new year and this season in chennai is most known for carnatic music...
This month of margazhi though a not so auspicious month, but is a very special month in the hindu calendar....(rather sri vaishnava calendar) and at the end of margazhi is the bhogi vestival .. th eonly day chennai flights are delayed due to poor visibility(not fog gentleman n ladies its SMOG) i will write abt bhogi other time... bhogi is folowed by thai month and pongal festival...
I have seen some similarities betn margazhi and ramadan and thai and shawwal (margazhi being a month in the thamizh calendar and ramadan u know.. is a month the festival ramadan falls on the first day of nah- e shawwal)
leaving all that apart what i wanted to say here was..( huh kya yaar ghuma fira ke baat .. )
Jan in chennai is not only famous for the final leg of carnatic season or ponga; alone.. the gala event in Jan for ppl like me is the annual book fair of BPASI(Book Publishers and sellers Assocciation of south India ) This event used to take place at the Quaid E Milleth College grnds from 7th to 17th Jan every yr(Alas Quaid e is a gals college and gals wont be arnd during the fair ).. This yr due to to the need for BIGGER SPACE its movin to ponamalee high rd opposite to Pachaiyappas Mens collge (Yuck koi jagah nahi mili,... enna kodumai saravanan) and date is from 9th -21st Jan..
Hangon why am i sayin this...bcos i was a regular visitor to ths from 1998-2003 and dad used to sanction atleast 1000 bucks ( Beleive me it was a big amount for me .. that too when amma opposed on such a huge spend on a single day)..Dad ur a gem.....
When Mum said nee sambathichi selavazhichuko da ayiram ayirama.. varsavarsham yen appa kitta kekkara?(Bole toh khud ki kamayi se uda na hajaoron rupaye har saal bapu ki vaat kayko lagata hai?) i replied back.. amma velaiku ponda udana vara mudhal fair la min bill 10 aayiram ...( apun bola mayi kamai ke baad pehele wale fair me 10 hajar udayenga apan) amma said pakkalam enga orukkiyo( dekh le pata nahi kahan hoga)..
Well She was right after 2003 i missed all the book fairs 1 due to ma company 2 due to my mother and am gonna miss this one again thanks to ma company...
2004 i was just postedto pune so no hols for pongal or book fair.. and pune sucks when it comes to book fairs i have been to a few but hopeless...
2005 I ha dthis part time MBA thing going and thr was this exam for that so amma had come down to pune and she left only by march tho the xam was over by Jan 8th she wudnt let me got to Chennai for the book fair as she did not want to go thr early(cos that meant she had to come again to pune after 3 months as per appa's policy) i had to skip it
2006 I had exams again but amma also came in early as one of ma cusins was gettin married in feb andparents had to be in chennai so fair again missed..
Know what both these times my representative attended teh fair and gifted me books.. whos that rep? Dad of course ... who else wud waste money on me?
2007 - Grrr - i thought iw ud hit back to chennai by dec since my London term was supposed to get over november last ....i thought i wud not spend much time in chennai during dec and take a vacation in jan and enjo y fair powered by pounds.. alas my term gets extended and i am here...
amma had a comment to appa that andha payithiam phone pannum aana neenga poga koodadhu( woh yeda call karega pan aap fair nakko jaoo) yeah i did call and dad HAS a plan to go to the fair with a neighbour and his elder bro.. woow wewa periappa and the next door uncle will get nice books and sowill dad 3 musketeers as reps.....
hmm but kahin andar man mein yeh baat ai ki 2008 ko dekhenge..(2008 i will wait for ya lets see if i cud make it )
This month of margazhi though a not so auspicious month, but is a very special month in the hindu calendar....(rather sri vaishnava calendar) and at the end of margazhi is the bhogi vestival .. th eonly day chennai flights are delayed due to poor visibility(not fog gentleman n ladies its SMOG) i will write abt bhogi other time... bhogi is folowed by thai month and pongal festival...
I have seen some similarities betn margazhi and ramadan and thai and shawwal (margazhi being a month in the thamizh calendar and ramadan u know.. is a month the festival ramadan falls on the first day of nah- e shawwal)
leaving all that apart what i wanted to say here was..( huh kya yaar ghuma fira ke baat .. )
Jan in chennai is not only famous for the final leg of carnatic season or ponga; alone.. the gala event in Jan for ppl like me is the annual book fair of BPASI(Book Publishers and sellers Assocciation of south India ) This event used to take place at the Quaid E Milleth College grnds from 7th to 17th Jan every yr(Alas Quaid e is a gals college and gals wont be arnd during the fair ).. This yr due to to the need for BIGGER SPACE its movin to ponamalee high rd opposite to Pachaiyappas Mens collge (Yuck koi jagah nahi mili,... enna kodumai saravanan) and date is from 9th -21st Jan..
Hangon why am i sayin this...bcos i was a regular visitor to ths from 1998-2003 and dad used to sanction atleast 1000 bucks ( Beleive me it was a big amount for me .. that too when amma opposed on such a huge spend on a single day)..Dad ur a gem.....
When Mum said nee sambathichi selavazhichuko da ayiram ayirama.. varsavarsham yen appa kitta kekkara?(Bole toh khud ki kamayi se uda na hajaoron rupaye har saal bapu ki vaat kayko lagata hai?) i replied back.. amma velaiku ponda udana vara mudhal fair la min bill 10 aayiram ...( apun bola mayi kamai ke baad pehele wale fair me 10 hajar udayenga apan) amma said pakkalam enga orukkiyo( dekh le pata nahi kahan hoga)..
Well She was right after 2003 i missed all the book fairs 1 due to ma company 2 due to my mother and am gonna miss this one again thanks to ma company...
2004 i was just postedto pune so no hols for pongal or book fair.. and pune sucks when it comes to book fairs i have been to a few but hopeless...
2005 I ha dthis part time MBA thing going and thr was this exam for that so amma had come down to pune and she left only by march tho the xam was over by Jan 8th she wudnt let me got to Chennai for the book fair as she did not want to go thr early(cos that meant she had to come again to pune after 3 months as per appa's policy) i had to skip it
2006 I had exams again but amma also came in early as one of ma cusins was gettin married in feb andparents had to be in chennai so fair again missed..
Know what both these times my representative attended teh fair and gifted me books.. whos that rep? Dad of course ... who else wud waste money on me?
2007 - Grrr - i thought iw ud hit back to chennai by dec since my London term was supposed to get over november last ....i thought i wud not spend much time in chennai during dec and take a vacation in jan and enjo y fair powered by pounds.. alas my term gets extended and i am here...
amma had a comment to appa that andha payithiam phone pannum aana neenga poga koodadhu( woh yeda call karega pan aap fair nakko jaoo) yeah i did call and dad HAS a plan to go to the fair with a neighbour and his elder bro.. woow wewa periappa and the next door uncle will get nice books and sowill dad 3 musketeers as reps.....
hmm but kahin andar man mein yeh baat ai ki 2008 ko dekhenge..(2008 i will wait for ya lets see if i cud make it )
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Espionage
Well well 2007 will dawn in a few hours …. And in about 60 days from now dad retires……after more than 35 years of service in the ministry of home affairs GOI……………
Well what work did dad do.. He was a spy………..his forte was espionage… spying on politicians, commies, trade unionists, all public servants and what not.. also the separatists……….hmm one helluva job……I never got the air of what he was up to until I personally started my spying on him… and in the end I discovered the web of the complex structure and responsibilities of the SIB Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau of the ministry of home affairs Government of India….The premier police organisation of the country responsible for internal security …the SIB spies on any Goddamn thing.. needless to say that the foreign nationals were the most frequent targets…..well the better part of his job was in the last 5 years of his career where he moved on to a predominantly desk job in the Bureau Of Immigration, 90% of whose staff are drawn from the ranks of the SIB..
I shudn’t be saying that my dad worked for SIB or what he did but I chose to say after a Joint Director of IB called MK Dhar wrote a book on IB and its role in operation black thunder..(the one after Blue Star cmon don’t say u dunno Operation Blue Star I will write abt it later )
So dad was so passionate abt IB that he still feels that theres no alternative to HUMINT ( Human Intelligence )
The same sentiment is reflected in a book See No Evil by a CIA Case officer Bob Baer.
Dad still is angry about the fact that VP Malik had blamed the IB squarely for Kargil. As he says though it was IB s mistake there have been cases where Army ignored valuable advises by IB.
What good did IB do to me. Well well dad was mostly into counter terrorism and counter separatism braches also he extensively covered elections so my political knowledge grew..i was following elections from 1994
He never spoke all this at home but I used to catch bits and pieces of it when he spoke to colleagues
Later when some one called on the phine they used t say that his voice and my voice was similar and used to tell something’s to me
For a while he did boring desk jobs and spying on ppl doing bckgrnd checks.. like verifying judges and stuff..
Then I realised that no matter how trivial is the job u gotta have the same passion.. same as the one echoed by the character playin priety’s dad in lakshya.. ek ghass kaatnewala bhi bano toh acha gaas kaatnewaala bano
(Even if u bcom a grasscutter make sure that ure the best… )
The same sentiment is echoed by Bernard Focker in meet the Fockers (Dustin Hoffman) when he says to Jack Byrnes (De Niro) We just taught him to be passionate and love anything he does..
Dad showed the way to me a long time before….he cudnt stand people predominantly doing desk jobs manages high up the IB ladder.. same sentiment by Bob Baer too..
As I read the book I just compared an Indian and an American who had the same job profile..
And mentioned here is an Ode to not only my dad, but ,to all those IB people who work hard and take the same risk as the army guys… but noone notices em as noone is supposed to notice bcos their duty is to remain under cover......
Salutes to the unknown dads and bros in the IB and the RAW
Well what work did dad do.. He was a spy………..his forte was espionage… spying on politicians, commies, trade unionists, all public servants and what not.. also the separatists……….hmm one helluva job……I never got the air of what he was up to until I personally started my spying on him… and in the end I discovered the web of the complex structure and responsibilities of the SIB Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau of the ministry of home affairs Government of India….The premier police organisation of the country responsible for internal security …the SIB spies on any Goddamn thing.. needless to say that the foreign nationals were the most frequent targets…..well the better part of his job was in the last 5 years of his career where he moved on to a predominantly desk job in the Bureau Of Immigration, 90% of whose staff are drawn from the ranks of the SIB..
I shudn’t be saying that my dad worked for SIB or what he did but I chose to say after a Joint Director of IB called MK Dhar wrote a book on IB and its role in operation black thunder..(the one after Blue Star cmon don’t say u dunno Operation Blue Star I will write abt it later )
So dad was so passionate abt IB that he still feels that theres no alternative to HUMINT ( Human Intelligence )
The same sentiment is reflected in a book See No Evil by a CIA Case officer Bob Baer.
Dad still is angry about the fact that VP Malik had blamed the IB squarely for Kargil. As he says though it was IB s mistake there have been cases where Army ignored valuable advises by IB.
What good did IB do to me. Well well dad was mostly into counter terrorism and counter separatism braches also he extensively covered elections so my political knowledge grew..i was following elections from 1994
He never spoke all this at home but I used to catch bits and pieces of it when he spoke to colleagues
Later when some one called on the phine they used t say that his voice and my voice was similar and used to tell something’s to me
For a while he did boring desk jobs and spying on ppl doing bckgrnd checks.. like verifying judges and stuff..
Then I realised that no matter how trivial is the job u gotta have the same passion.. same as the one echoed by the character playin priety’s dad in lakshya.. ek ghass kaatnewala bhi bano toh acha gaas kaatnewaala bano
(Even if u bcom a grasscutter make sure that ure the best… )
The same sentiment is echoed by Bernard Focker in meet the Fockers (Dustin Hoffman) when he says to Jack Byrnes (De Niro) We just taught him to be passionate and love anything he does..
Dad showed the way to me a long time before….he cudnt stand people predominantly doing desk jobs manages high up the IB ladder.. same sentiment by Bob Baer too..
As I read the book I just compared an Indian and an American who had the same job profile..
And mentioned here is an Ode to not only my dad, but ,to all those IB people who work hard and take the same risk as the army guys… but noone notices em as noone is supposed to notice bcos their duty is to remain under cover......
Salutes to the unknown dads and bros in the IB and the RAW
Saturday, December 16, 2006
kabul fiza
I suddenly thought that i would see a muvee and went to see kabul xpres....
A very decent muvee... 2 hr movie with no songs is a rarity in bollywood where karan johar makes mega serials naming them beginning with K letter phrases.. if the title itself is half a km long , imagine the muvee length... But mind you i like em too...
Now back to kabul fiza.. two rookie journos from India lookin for a scoop in Kabul.. with a proud Afghan , an adventurous reuters lady and a Taliban ( originally a Paki Soldier ) who wants to escape to Pakistan...
Well a nice story showing some comical realities abt Afghanistan.....
A donkey as compared to a fidayeen is a cool one...
This is one goody Indian muvee that bashes pakistan lie hell without kashmir topic...
It shows ho Afghanistan is ravaged by the war using some beautiful dialogues as props...
And shows that how Pakistan is confused on its own men.. It betrayed its own men in kargil and also its own army who acted lie taleban......
The irony in afghanistan is beautifully presented when the afghani guy says taleban banned Bhuskashi bcos its a VIOLENT game..........
In the end the muvee shows abt islam and Inidan muslims when the pakistani comments'Suhel saab namaz nahi padhoge? oh hindustani musalman ho tum kya jaano mazhabkya hai?' ( mr Suhel dont u pray ? oh u r an Indian muslim how wud u know abt Islam?
Suhel replied' Haan aap hi ne mazhab ka tekha le rakha hai.. bazu meih AK -56 rakh ke dua
karte ho' ( Yeah true you have the rights to relegion.. as i see u pray with an AK-56 by ur side)
That was a fitting answer.......and in the end it shows how Indians make him escape from the Afghans who want to lyunch any Taleban(or pakistani army ).................
hamara Bharat mahan.. also Bharatvasi yede hote hain( India is great and Indians are stuoid including me )
We are an emotional lot.....
A nice prop in the muvee is a song from Dev Anand's Hum Dono 'Main Zindagi ka saath...' .. this song is enjoyed by both pakistani and teh inidan jurnos much to teh annoyance of the Afghan.........
one more link is Dev anand is from Lahore in pakistan...........
i really pity pakistani army :-)
over all a nice muvee and different view of Afghanistan after Kite Runner .................
hmm i wud luv to see more Indian muvees like this.......it can be definitely India's nomination to Oscars........if it doesnt win then the jury is stupid.............. hahaha....
A very decent muvee... 2 hr movie with no songs is a rarity in bollywood where karan johar makes mega serials naming them beginning with K letter phrases.. if the title itself is half a km long , imagine the muvee length... But mind you i like em too...
Now back to kabul fiza.. two rookie journos from India lookin for a scoop in Kabul.. with a proud Afghan , an adventurous reuters lady and a Taliban ( originally a Paki Soldier ) who wants to escape to Pakistan...
Well a nice story showing some comical realities abt Afghanistan.....
A donkey as compared to a fidayeen is a cool one...
This is one goody Indian muvee that bashes pakistan lie hell without kashmir topic...
It shows ho Afghanistan is ravaged by the war using some beautiful dialogues as props...
And shows that how Pakistan is confused on its own men.. It betrayed its own men in kargil and also its own army who acted lie taleban......
The irony in afghanistan is beautifully presented when the afghani guy says taleban banned Bhuskashi bcos its a VIOLENT game..........
In the end the muvee shows abt islam and Inidan muslims when the pakistani comments'Suhel saab namaz nahi padhoge? oh hindustani musalman ho tum kya jaano mazhabkya hai?' ( mr Suhel dont u pray ? oh u r an Indian muslim how wud u know abt Islam?
Suhel replied' Haan aap hi ne mazhab ka tekha le rakha hai.. bazu meih AK -56 rakh ke dua
karte ho' ( Yeah true you have the rights to relegion.. as i see u pray with an AK-56 by ur side)
That was a fitting answer.......and in the end it shows how Indians make him escape from the Afghans who want to lyunch any Taleban(or pakistani army ).................
hamara Bharat mahan.. also Bharatvasi yede hote hain( India is great and Indians are stuoid including me )
We are an emotional lot.....
A nice prop in the muvee is a song from Dev Anand's Hum Dono 'Main Zindagi ka saath...' .. this song is enjoyed by both pakistani and teh inidan jurnos much to teh annoyance of the Afghan.........
one more link is Dev anand is from Lahore in pakistan...........
i really pity pakistani army :-)
over all a nice muvee and different view of Afghanistan after Kite Runner .................
hmm i wud luv to see more Indian muvees like this.......it can be definitely India's nomination to Oscars........if it doesnt win then the jury is stupid.............. hahaha....
Saturday, December 02, 2006
ME Time
Someone was asking me the other day as to whether i have some time dedicated to do something i like...... I told him that every now and then i try to find ME time.. in the ME time i just dont care abut anyone else. i skip calls deliberately..... dont log on to the net and worst just donttalk with anyone......when i was living alone in pune having a ME time was not difficult.. it meant just disappearing all of a suuden w/0 telling anyone... but out here in lonodn with no possiblity of taking much leaves, having a ME time sounds difficult. But yeah i did have my share of ME times here.. the best thing to do here in a ME time is to sit in a bus and start exploring ......
what pleasure does a ME time give me.. i just relax and dont think about anything no work no money.. and NOT EVEN my list of fav GALS..... :-) its all about a kind of meditataion and observation.... just staring at an arbitrary person to see what he/she does in the time frame that i stare..............................
the ME time refreshes me and at the end i guess i am relaxed and ready to face this adrenaline pumping job....
Dad said that IT would be suitable for ME??? i realise after 4 yrs that after all being involved in Busineess supprt grops in a monstrous investment banking firm is not the lucrative job or SUITABLE job... where fire fighting is the buzzword on most days...................
I am looking forward to get into another role where i can think normally and not think always to handle a crisis............ i will find that kahin duur kayi mahine baad.....
what pleasure does a ME time give me.. i just relax and dont think about anything no work no money.. and NOT EVEN my list of fav GALS..... :-) its all about a kind of meditataion and observation.... just staring at an arbitrary person to see what he/she does in the time frame that i stare..............................
the ME time refreshes me and at the end i guess i am relaxed and ready to face this adrenaline pumping job....
Dad said that IT would be suitable for ME??? i realise after 4 yrs that after all being involved in Busineess supprt grops in a monstrous investment banking firm is not the lucrative job or SUITABLE job... where fire fighting is the buzzword on most days...................
I am looking forward to get into another role where i can think normally and not think always to handle a crisis............ i will find that kahin duur kayi mahine baad.....
Thursday, November 09, 2006
my name is borat
well i happened to see the movie Borat: Cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan..( For those who think that only Karan Johar names his films in phrases...)
its a satirical comedy about a fictional character Borat a televoision journalist from kuzeck in kazakhstan(wonder whether kazakhstan has kuzeck) .. Sacha Baron Cohen, a Cambridge grad is the creator of Borat....
the movi offends an entire natio n so much that Kazakh president nazarbayev has dashed to US to meet Bush and ban the film..
well whats the movie about? Its a mockumentary about learnings of Borat in US and A.
The Kazakhi information ministry commissions Borat to make a movie on US and A for the benefit of glorious nation of Kazakhstan(This man is so ridiculous.. yje movie is too obscene and pungent and spreads hatrrd)
Please see the movie if it not success I execute is Borat's request.
Borat is depicted as a male chauvnist, sexist, racist and what not and he says he is normal kazakh.
Kazkah wine is made of fermented hrse urine(Shucks .. dangerous imagination and creativity)
Since nobody cared about Kazakhstan, the selection of has been ggod now google and wikipedia are busy with hits on Kazkahstan, Almaty and Astana...
as per Borat he does not know Cohen and he supports the decision of his goverment to sue that Jew(incorrigible)
He also says that premier Nazarbayev has visted the US and A to promote his movie...
Dont know what went in his mind to mock at a whole nation .. He mocks as Uzbecks, Jews , Gypsies adn who not...
Imagine what wpuld have happened had he chosen India or for that matter any Arab country as his theme....
people may have hundred opinions but the bottomline is the movie is No1 in US & UK the chash resgisters are ringning and soon we may see Borat in Europe( he says he didnt get European visa due to his sex crime record and he has managed to prove that the horse was above the age of consent and hence can get a visa!!!!!).. also we might see other RATS from other lesser known countries and even bollywood might try Munnabhai in this role with lesser obscenity(rather more as Mallika wud be thr)....
boy Borat did intrigue me .. i spent two days on Kazakhstan reserach and in general reading about the former SSRs. Though all have gone off my mind....
dont know whether Borat will be banned or not but hes created a wave...
and Borat s tooped teh charts in america.. he wants to celebrate now ..
its a satirical comedy about a fictional character Borat a televoision journalist from kuzeck in kazakhstan(wonder whether kazakhstan has kuzeck) .. Sacha Baron Cohen, a Cambridge grad is the creator of Borat....
the movi offends an entire natio n so much that Kazakh president nazarbayev has dashed to US to meet Bush and ban the film..
well whats the movie about? Its a mockumentary about learnings of Borat in US and A.
The Kazakhi information ministry commissions Borat to make a movie on US and A for the benefit of glorious nation of Kazakhstan(This man is so ridiculous.. yje movie is too obscene and pungent and spreads hatrrd)
Please see the movie if it not success I execute is Borat's request.
Borat is depicted as a male chauvnist, sexist, racist and what not and he says he is normal kazakh.
Kazkah wine is made of fermented hrse urine(Shucks .. dangerous imagination and creativity)
Since nobody cared about Kazakhstan, the selection of has been ggod now google and wikipedia are busy with hits on Kazkahstan, Almaty and Astana...
as per Borat he does not know Cohen and he supports the decision of his goverment to sue that Jew(incorrigible)
He also says that premier Nazarbayev has visted the US and A to promote his movie...
Dont know what went in his mind to mock at a whole nation .. He mocks as Uzbecks, Jews , Gypsies adn who not...
Imagine what wpuld have happened had he chosen India or for that matter any Arab country as his theme....
people may have hundred opinions but the bottomline is the movie is No1 in US & UK the chash resgisters are ringning and soon we may see Borat in Europe( he says he didnt get European visa due to his sex crime record and he has managed to prove that the horse was above the age of consent and hence can get a visa!!!!!).. also we might see other RATS from other lesser known countries and even bollywood might try Munnabhai in this role with lesser obscenity(rather more as Mallika wud be thr)....
boy Borat did intrigue me .. i spent two days on Kazakhstan reserach and in general reading about the former SSRs. Though all have gone off my mind....
dont know whether Borat will be banned or not but hes created a wave...
and Borat s tooped teh charts in america.. he wants to celebrate now ..
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