Friday, January 30, 2015

Please "Saffronize" our education....

The kids at my home school, had an assignment. In the name of encouraging well rounded development the AP State Board has made up ridiculous questions.

In an exam paper the Q asked is "Go outside see how many birds you see, what types are they. What is your opinion of a bird's life... ?" In an exam, with 30 other questions to finish in two hours !!! Even as an assignment it is a bit of a stretch as in cities in India other than Crows pretty much nothing else is there..

Other Q is How do you make a Rawa Upma ? Icing on the cake.... the students were given a project to gather from newspapers of the past year articles on gender discrimination. Leave alone the fact that they have no permanent housing and newspapers are the least of their priorities. Of course, if you take an article on gender discrimination in Christianity/Islam it is the "wrong answer".

"Only Evils of Hinduism are correct, other religions wrong answer!"


Another project is interview people in your street find out what festivals they celebrate, why, what food/dress etc. Nothing wrong right ? Wrong, there is an extra column added asking "What festivals of other religions you celebrate ?" When I answered "None". The children were terrified at that answer, "But sir, my teacher said that Hindus should definitely answer this. She said that when in doubt write Christmas".
"For correct answer, Hindus must fill out colum for 'other religion festival' !!"


Oh, your sample must include a christian and Muslim, even if there are none living in your area - for the correct answer to get full marks.

This is non-sensical and cancerous secularism has to be thrown out of our textbooks. Even if the media yells "saffronization" so be it...

Monday, January 26, 2015

IT Majors to Sue Abhishek Manu Singhvi.....



Today in a completely unexpected sequence of events, India’s IT Majors (Infosys, TCS, Wipro etc.) filed a petition in the SC asking to bar the media from reporting any news about Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s tax case with the ITSC. They were contending that details of this case were leading to a huge attrition problem as young employees were quitting 'en masse'. Opting to study Law to become Juniors under lawyers for a Year, instead !!!

FakingNews also spoke to several youngsters in the IT Industry and got the following responses…

  • “Shit Man, do you know what a status symbol Laptop is in our Industry. We work our a$$ off to buy one…. And these guys have it so easy….”
  • “I heard that Abhishek Uncle gives 100+ laptops per year to every Junior of his. We are gadget freaks imagine getting a new laptop and upgrade yourself every week or even twice a week !”
  • “We are in the wrong industry man, we are in the business of computing. Who knew that junior lawyers will need more than 100 laptops per year….”
  • “Already, girls were becoming picky -- it was difficult to get one to say yes to marriage. Now how can we compete with these Lawyers…. ?”
Meanwhile, the FB page of TCS Employees who were laid off, changed its Status to “Thank God, we now can join Abhisheck Singhvi’s law offices….”


The IT Majors, in their press conference, thundered that with President Obama’s visit and easing of restrictions H1B etc., they were hoping to breathe easy but “Exit Interviews” of resigning employees told a completely different story. “We didn’t realize the serious impact of this news item then. Now with this being available on Twitter, FB, YouTube etc. wherein our employees spend most of their time at our offices anyway, the impact has been devastating….”

Asked, why are they approaching the court for an injunction they quipped…. “Actually Abhiskek Ji himself has set the standard here. He had approached the courts for an injunction earlier to stop broadcast of a video of his Judge selection Process with – ahem - a female applicant…”

By the time this news item got published Abhishek had also approached the court with his plea for an injunction to the media restraining them against any mention of this “injunction petition by the IT majors….”
RK Laxman, who in earlier days fought a lone battle against the establishment (which included some really formidable Nehru and Fake Gandhis) for the common man passed away today. 

My early exposure to caricature was through Thuglak's covers and his cartoons. I missed his early contributions as ToI was not nationally well known then and we were all happy with THE (anti)HINDU. When I started studying in Bangalore was when I really experienced his genius in the library which also had the newspapers. Particularly three of them are still vivid in my memory.

  1. A serpantine Q in the railway station to book for trains the common man says "Where do I plan to spend my Vacation ? In this Q of course...."
  2. A team of shocked MUMBAI CIVIC officials asking others "How come this street is in Good Shape ? No Development work has happened ?"
  3. A housewife looking at a small handkerchief sized cloud in the Horizon and saying to her hubby "There goes my electricity & Water...."
It is to the credit of Congress that his cartoons are still relevant today. The biggest tribute we all could pay to him would be to elect a government that makes his cartoons irrelevant.

RIP RKL. You have given me really funny and thought provoking Memories, which is the best gift a human can give to another. Wishing you the best in heaven.....

Sunday, January 25, 2015

I - movie review...


Watched I, it is a very good movie. Way better than Lingaa. Shankar picks good themes and weaves a good mix of technology and emotions around that, plus good songs great heroines and he usually has a winning formula. This movie is also based on an obscure science fact and he has built his story well. 

The move could have been much shorter, I would have shaved easily an hour off and made it much faster paced that would leave the audience breathless in the end. But that shouldn't take away much from this movie.

I really don't want to write too much into the story line, as I want folks experiencing its unfolding in the first half. An unfair deal to a hero and a very clever revenge form the thrust of it.
Amy Jackson, is good looking and definitely not a heart tugging beauty like trisha etc. She is adequate for the part of a model, as our ad world is obsessed with white skin anyways, in that you can agree that shankar has picked a perfect choice.

Santhanam is there from beginning to end, with very intelligent comedy, probably from shankar, as on his own he finds it very hard to do anything other than "Akkaavum, Kakkavum" kinda third rate humor.

Hats off to Vikram for the dedication and even the physical deformities he probably went through to play the roles to perfection.

Special effects should be used to bring out the ugly truth or wow the audience by being apt, I can't help but feel that the pre-determined need for special effects in Shankar's mind have led to unnecessary sequences and songs.

ARR's music is way below average and is a non-factor.

That minor flaw apart, it is a very good clean movie, enjoy with the family.

BABY Movie Review: ***********************


Watched Baby today with family. Loved every second of it. Neeraj Pandey's incredible talent shows through after "A Wednesday" & "Special 26". This is movie is in a completely new genre. The director captures the apsirations of the average Indian, who has been though a depressing time with impotent UPA government compromising whatever defensive as well as offensive capabilities. In that sense, this movie heralds the arrival of "Acche Din" amongst the Bollywood fraternity, which has dared to call a spade a spade without fear or favour for the first time in my memory. The tone that Neeraj set forth in "a Wednesday" (which was buried by seculars) is louder and more pronounced in this movie. 

The director makes no bones about acknowledging that "Islamic Terrorism" is a serious issue. He even ponders why Educated Muslims fall victim to propaganda and take up cudgels on behalf of Mad religious lunatics. The punch line in the movie actually is "More than the act of terrorism itself, why the average Indian Muslim indulges in it ?" - a Q posed by the main protagonist of the anti-terrorism effort to the politicos. It is actually a Q to all those that preach crackdown to the tolerant and tolerance to the intolerant in our intelligentsia and media.

That serious message aside, this movie is an "Edge of the seat" thriller from beginning to End. No melodrama, no unnecessary sci-fi, hi-tech etc. but plain hardwork of individuals in our intelligence establishment. How certain unconventional techniques and methods need to be adopted etc. are all shown brilliantly, without any iota of fluff. The brilliance of the movie is in the fact that not frame is a waste...

Akshay is there in each frame, ably supported by Danny, Anupam, Taapsee and Rana. How he is unconventional and his obsession to finding and eliminating threat. The candid conversations he has with his wife are an eye opener as well as Danny's lament about how the system treats such agents. Taapsee is truly beautiful, lithe and has pulled of the athletic stunt scenes with remarkable ease. Rana is just an eye candy (for gym aficionados). Anupam lights up the movie after his arrival. In the midst of thrilling strategy and action there is sarcasm and comedy in situations and dialog. If you thought that the first half itself is a roller coaster ride, pause catch your breath the second half is a space blast off.. Unexpected twists strategy and intelligent counter ops are all there.

 Neeraj Pandey is a gem whose brilliance and most importantly his ability to take an objective and clinical look at our society has to be encouraged. Ignore the secular reviewers, go see it with the family. Such efforts certainly deserve all the encouragement we can give...

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Dayanidhi Maran signed up as Brand Ambassador… by BSNL for $1Billion !!!



Dateline: Delhi, 23rd January 2015: 

In a stunning move, completely baffling Brand Gurus the state owned and heavily loss making BSNL, known for shafting its customers with poor service, signed up Dayanidhi Maran as their brand Ambassador for $1billion with a onetime payment with immediate effect and for life, by beating out several rivals including a combined bid of $500 million by all other private telecom operators….

When asked, the CMD of BSNL said, “We and Maran have long standing relationship, dating back several decades with a high point being in 2007 when Maran had 323 high-speed ISDN lines installed totally impressed with our service. In fact, BSNL had given an extraordinarily deep discount by agreeing to bill him for only one line’s usage”. He also added that “This super human being managed to make 41 lakh calls in a month in a single line that too in a single month !!!! Someone must have loved us so absolutely and so unconditionally to make this many calls. Considering the fact that he was making frequent trips to Delhi as minister it is even more remarkable…. Who better to personify the great value that we bring to customers than Mr. Dayanidhi Maran ? He quipped….”

When asked why the hurry he with a smug smile he said “With CBI tightening its noose around us and Maran -- both of us may not be around as free men to make this deal in the future !!”