2-minute silence for 200 souls, F16’s and our peace process!

Albert Einstein rightly said

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing

(http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/3417). That’s exactly how I feel today after reading all the news articles pertaining to the many issues faced by my country - INDIA. In the days immediately following the Mumbai train blasts, the only feelings that resided in my heart were that of anger and pain. Those feelings have since changed from anger to helplessness and from pain to discontent. I say helplessness because we’re still talking about a peaceful approach to such a situation, while Pakistan refuses to help us in anyway. Of course my assumption here being that the militant organization LeQ^* is aided by Pakistan in some way or the other. I say discontent because whatever nonsense comes our way from other countries we still buy into that and try to keep everyone happy except our own people.

The other day, I saw a news article on Rediff where US Congressman Jim Leach has requested India to "continue the ongoing peace talks with Pakistan in spite of the Mumbai bombings" (http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/21us.htm?q=tp&file=.htm). So I’m thinking, did Mr. Leach have the same reaction to the 9/11 attacks as well? Talk peacefully with terrorist countries who keep attacking you! Would that be acceptable to US? I doubt it! So you’re telling us that we should sit quite and talk out our issues peacefully when we’re attacked by terrorists, but you can definitely retaliate and justify it. And let’s not forget that while on one hand we’re being told to go with the peace approach, US has authorized the sale of F16 fighter jets to Pakistan (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A800-2005Mar25.html). This is just great isn’t it? Two nuclear powers are fighting a war for almost 50 years now, and US advices us the peace approach on one hand, makes profit from Pakistan by selling them F16s on the other, and opposes global terrorism world-wide. Does this make sense to anyone? It doesn’t make any sense to me!

So what did the 200 souls who lost their life in Mumbai get in return from all of us? 2 minutes of silence! We don’t even have the balls or the intelligence to produce sufficient evidence to Pakistan regarding two well-known militants so Pakistan can extradite them to us. I’m not kidding people! Pakistan has refused to extradite these two wanted in India for their involvement in many terrorist activities because we haven’t provided them with enough evidence (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1789908.cms). One of them, Dawood Ibrahim is also listed in the United Nations Security Councils (resolution 1267) list of individuals who are associated to Taliban and/or Al Qaeda organization. So has US commented on this by any chance? Umm…No sir! This is something between India and Pakistan, and US would not like to comment on this situation.

So now most of you like me are thinking who’s helping us resolve the terrorism problems in our country right? Well the answer is US and Pakistan. Wait…what? That’s right people, what u read is what I said. The US government totally supports us in our anti-terrorism efforts, and Pakistan is just waiting for us to give them some proof after which they will also help us whole-heartedly. Our naïve Indian Prime Minister recently concluded a very successful G-8 summit in St. Petersburg, where all the other countries sympathized with our situation, and are ready to support us in our war against terrorism (http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1746696,0008.htm). Well if that’s the case, for beginners please stop selling F16s to countries we are having terrorism issues with. And I’m not too sure about this, but couldn’t we gather enough evidence against criminals like Dawood and present it to US or UN (all the same), and ask their help in dealing with Pakistan? Wouldn’t that work? I guess if “world peace” and “prosperity” was the goal of every country, it would. Then again I'm too much of an optimist!


LeQ^* is the terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the Mumbai train bombings on 7/11.

Am I the only one tolerating bad movies?

So what's happening to our movie industry these days? Doesn't matter if its Hollywood or Bollywood^*, the kind of movies that have recently released are just horribly bad movies. The other day I was talking to one of my friend about some recent bollywood movies like Krissh and Fanaa, and she kind of liked these movies. Not to mention the fact that both these movies were extremely well received by audiences and made a lot of money at the box office. Am I the only one who thinks that these movies were a waste of our time, that we were robbed of our money, and that we deserve to watch better movies? Anybody?

I mean give me a break people! Krissh has idiotism and stupidity written all over its characters and its storyline. I know the producers spent a lot of money to hire some "really brilliant" special effects people, but couldn't they have spent half that money on some good story writers as well? So let's see...the dude can run faster than a horse, jump over mountains, and blah...blah..blah..agreed! But even after doing all this, he couldn't afford to get some decent clothes to wear for himself till one fine day when he decides to go international.

Krissh is a true rags to riches story by all accounts people. And let's not forget the stylish grandmother, who by the way can very well afford those fancy dresses for important tasks like gardening, cleaning, and cooking. What kind of a dumb superhero grandson wouldn't question his grandmother about such double standards? But hold on to those thoughts, because just when you think what's the worst that could happen now, our man is invited to Singapore (god only knows how he gets his passport/visa) and grandma aka Gucci and Varsache all in one brings out all the latest fashion wear out of the closet. Apparently those fashionable clothes belonged to our superhero's dad. Yeah rite! And then we only see our beloved Krissh in the best dresses all around Singapore. I'm talking really good dresses. I cannot even dare to get into the climax scene with the bullet coz that would move Neo (from Matrix) to tears.

While I'm talking about bad movies, let me take a shot at some of our recent Hollywood movies as well. I always considered Hollywood movies to do some justice to the hype they create in the trailers. But after watching Pirates-2 (whatever the hell its full name is), I'm forced to think if Hollywood producers, directors, and story writers are taking us the audience any seriously at all. I'm a big fan of Johnny Depp, but Captain Jack Sparrow is becoming a little annoying now. The movie was stretched a little too long, and just when you thought the movie was over, and you can go home and beat yourself for watching this movie, they stretch it a little more with potential for a trilogy. The next day when I saw the amount Pirates-2 earned at the box office, I was like what the hell's going on here? I'm sure many of you unlike me think that both these movies (Krissh and Pirate-2) were good, or were definitely not as bad as I've criticized them. Well in that case, pat yourself on your shoulder because it was people like you who made these movies such blockbusters.

Bollywood^* is the informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based Hindi language film industry in India (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollywood)

Why is Indian politics still living in pre-Independence?

Over the last few days, my friend and I have been exchanging views on the political scene in India since the blasts in Mumabi on July 11th. We are far away from home, and are frustrated that such incidents have been occurring in India for a long time, but no one seems to be taking a decisive action against the terrorist organizations that are responsible for this.

Just today I was reading about the Mumbai situation on the various web-sites, and I found a shameful article on CNN which gives a history of these kinds of attacks that have been taking place in India for the past few years. Here's the URL http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/07/11/mumbai.previous.blasts.ap/index.html

I say shameful because it was painful to go through this article, and realize that since March 1993, India has been attacked by terrorists and militant organizations that oppose India's role in Kashmir, and we haven’t done much. During these 9 attacks including the recent one in Mumbai, India has lost about 600 people. These 600 lives were of those men, women and children who believe in democracy and had no role to play in the dirty politics that goes on between India and Pakistan. They were just going about doing their day-to-day routine, and suddenly they're gone. And I'm not even talking about the countless other people who were injured during these attacks, and many of whom are permanently disabled now. What will it take for our leadership to awaken and take some action against such barbaric attacks? Just talking non-sense on television doesn't cut it to me, leave alone consoling those families who lost their loved ones. If the life of 600 innocent people doesn’t wake-up worlds largest decmocracy and make it angry what does?

Some news articles today on Times of India, a prominent newspaper, reported that finally some terror group has claimed responsibility for the blasts in Mumbai. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1758548.cms . Apparently, the terror group sent an e-mail to a TV channel giving details and correcting some information released by the TV channel about the terror attacks. Yea rite! So now what? Now we will begin another age-old utterly ridiculous process. And how does that happen is you question right? Well then let me answer it.

Our central government will most probably set-up some committee (with some fancy -strong sounding name) to overlook the Mumbai situation, where the committee chairman will "directly" present his report to either the Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh or the parliament, which ever suits the politicians. The committee might take a few months to come up with such a report. So what's in this report? Well, no one knows that, but my guess based on our people running the country would be some print outs from the various web-sites that have done their own investigative journalism. At the most someone with computer knowledge in the security department would have googled some information about the militant group, and added some printouts on that too (for which he/she might get a promotion). I know..I know..you're thinking what the hell kind of a government committee does this. Well wake-up dude, this is just a blog not an X-file or something where everything I'm writing is the truth. This is my frustrated view of our system.

Anyway, so where were we…rite, so what will India do after the report is out you might ask. Hmm...that's an excellent question? The answer is we will have "Diplomatic Talks" with Pakistan over the situation. And what else you might ask again...right? Well, nothing! That's right people...we won't do squat! Even after some barbaric group accepts the responsibility, we will go with the peace approach. Peace approach my foot! How many centuries and decades will it take for us to realize that we're not living in the pre-Independence India anymore? If we keep sitting with our hands tied forever using diplomatic talks as our approach, we might as well become like one of those unstable countries which is always in civil unrest. Get your asses out of those comfortable chairs in the parliament, and get to some serious work you morons. Give a damn order to eradicate the terror group which has taken the responsibility for the attack. Track down their financial flows, their links to other people, other governments, and other countries. Let the diplomatic approach go to hell for once. Show your own country people that you do take the loss of 200 lives very seriously. Give an equally striking and terrifying response to the terror groups and let them know that if they start a war, they better be prepared to face the consequences of it.

My first blog!

A few days back one of my friend started blogging, and now I'm inspired to follow him down the same path. I'm not as good a writer as my friend, but I might improve in the process.