X-page chargesheet

It started with Ajmal Kasab, now it's Shiney Ahuja. Today's headline on IBN:

109-page chargesheet filed against Shiney Ahuja

What is this obsession of with the number of pages in a chargesheet? Does it really matter?!

This is like our Profs asking us to write a 10-page report on a topic. Is the number of pages or what's in it that matter?!

A Revolution

What's the meaning of this word?

In a dictionary I can find.

What's the meaning of this film?

From the critics I can deduce.

What's the meaning of this poem?

In the poet's history I can learn.

What about life?

Where can I find the meaning of life?

In the scriptures some say.

No. It is not there I can attest.

In it, I saw an equally confused man

Posing question after question

Answer, he has none.

Does the creator have the answer?

None, I feel.

The thinker disagrees,

yet, creation was a mere flip of a dice

To me it seems.

Round and round it goes,

Various facets it reveals over time

Only to disappear and reappear later,

Again and again in random fashion.

Randomness and repetitiveness

We see in history.

Round and round we go.

From the most elementary part within us,

To the heavens at unfathomable distance.

'round the clock,

From east to west,

'round the Sun.

Left to right and back,

The One to None and back.

What's the meaning of life?

The answer, no doubt,

would be Revolutionary.

Who is Mark Twain?

Who is Mark Twain? from Flash Rosenberg on Vimeo.

Labelled diagrams

Opposition alleges rice scam and stages a walk out, reports PTI. CNN-IBN helps us understand the news further with this self explanatory picture:

What's the point of those red circles?! Reminds of my Biology teacher who used to be really strict about labelling each and every diagram on the answer paper. May be someone similar trained these smart guys at IBN.

By the way, walk outs have become too frequent that I'm starting to believe those are not protests rather just part of their healthy lifestyle.

On The Role of Opposition

In today's Face The Nation (or as I call endearingly, F*ck The Nation) there was an interesting quote by Muzaffar Beig, the dude you levelled charged against Omar Abdullah

We should leave this behind us for peace and prosperity of Jammu and Kashmir. As Opposition we will support the government on all issues

Really?!

Savita bhabhi and a bunch of loonies

Surprised by the kind of media attention Savita Bhabhi, "India's first porn comic", is getting both within India and outside. Porn is not a rarity anymore, it's everywhere! Apparently, the ban on it by the government seems to worked out well for the creators of the site.
To start with, the ban by the government was utter silly and a clear violation of a citizen's rights. This kind of moral policing is no different that what the Sri Ram Sena and Shiv Sena undertakes every now and then.
But, almost all the columns written against this ban have stressed on an another issue: liberation of Indian women, emancipation of women in India and so on.
Pritish Nandy writes "Savita Bhabhi is a symbol of freedom, of empowerment, of the sexuality our women can wield if they are allowed to escape the sham world we Indian men trap them in because of our own fears of sexual inadequacy masquerading as machismo"
I found couple of other news and articles which concur with this view. Well I have nothing to say than these views are just a pile of B.S. and shame on the goverment for banning it.
For heaven sake it's porn!

Update

Here's a compilation of some of expert B.S. again in TOI

An article in Global Post

Interview of the creator of Savtia Bhabhi on Global Post. He is just a dude like any one of us, at least that it looks like in the interview.

Thousand words

Frankly Speaking: Shashi Tharoor

Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief of Times Now interviews Dr Shashi Tharoor.

The interview is quite good and I must say that the interviewer was spot on with his questions. He didn't give much space for Tharoor to escape!

There is a second part too. Don't miss it.

Deepika's regret...

Whoever is entering these news for IBN is doing a great job! This sort of entertainment is not rare on IBNLive yet I feel this one is worth mentioning!

Here's is another gem

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the gleaming new $325 million bridge, called the Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL), which was conceived over four decades ago.

and then in the same news...

The 5.6-km bridge on the Arabian Sea cost Rs 1,634-crore ($16.34 billion) and...

Few days ago there was another gem from IBN itself!

What the fish?!

The King is dead, Long Live the King!

MJ is no more. One of the few singers I've been listening to since I was a kid.

Emotional Athyachaar

I don't have a headphone with me right now, so I can't verify my guess at the moment.
Going by the news report about the delayed monsoon and Pawar being out of station, I believe the interviewer is Rajdeep Sardesai. I can sense a deep emotional touch (sobbing) to the questions asked to Sharad Pawar: "Sir, people are worried", "Do you feel your Ministry must be missing you?".
Rajdeep Sir, Why do you doing this to us? sob...sob...Why?! :'(
Ok, now I'm being silly...

Update: I was wrong. It was some other reporter and it seems Rajdeep is training her.

Fair and Lovely!

Iran's Guardian Council says the number of votes exceeded the number of voters in 50 cities by 3 million votes but the overall votes are valid!

This comment is fucking awesome!

Sorry...I know "fuck" is profane but "fucking awesome" is good overall, ain't it?!

The Escape

Here's an account of the escape of the NYT journalist David Rohde and his Afghan translator Tahir Ludin from the hands of Taliban.

Their mental strength and their presence of mind needs to be applauded!

I see scope for a movie here...hmm!

What the fish?!!

Check out this redonkulous news report on IBN. Here are the highlights of it:

A Russian cargo aircraft AN-124, which was hired by the US military, triggered panic at the Mumbai airport on Friday night.

So a Russian cargo plane hired by US military...ok! The report continues...

The AN-124 aircraft is used by military to haul cargo and is owned by a Ukraine-based logistics and cargo company.

Ukraine company?! Russian..Ukraine?! This doesn't end here...

On landing, the Russian crew of the aircraft was immediately taken for questioning...

Russian crew?! So what about the "hired by US military" part?!

Does the reporter even have a clue what the heck happend?!

Contrasting fears

I've been following the news about the health reform debate now raging in US. It is interesting to see the stark difference in how the Americans and we view the role of government.

In all their debates you can sense a deep fear of government run programs. They talk about government take overs, big government-small government and so on. At the same time, in India, we fear a private sector take over, we'd love the government provide everything for us, even mere disinvestment to 51% causes lot of furore in our country!

Jus an observation.