IMPORTANCE AND UNIMPORTANCE OF VOTE

 

mmmm….not bad I am writing my second post in less than a week. I am not much of a social activist  I dont much bother and get touchy if an official is taking some bribe in front of me. Dont get me wrong I mean I cant get touchy for such things because in my country its all common. The number of times an old man visits Government office for his pension is more than his age or may be the number of days he is left with. That is the way here(there is a history how I picked up this line read below). I already told you I am not very touchy about such things then why the hell am I writing this?? Is’nt this your doubt? Wait I will answer to that later. 

 

When I was young I was taught in my text books that India is a secular country. After two days I read in the newspaper that there were something called Communal riots in Godhra and Hindus attacked Muslims and Muslims attacked Hindus. I dint understand back then much of it. But when I went out of my house everything was peaceful and my neighbour who is a muslim smiled at me and I answered back with a smile just wondering if I should do it or not. Even to day its like silent agreement that we smile at each other no mater what. I am sure she knows about all the attacks and even I know(I normally dont get confused things make me confused). Okie leme not get too much touchy I told ya right I am a plain girl I just watch things pass by. I dont take up much reponsibility to change my country like others talk about. But I dont say that India is hopeless too.Of coarse it is advancing try to google the swizz bank account money details even if it is a superficial detail  nearly half the amount in it belongs to Indian leaders(I’ll talk about them later.C’mon this is my first lengthy blog lemme show off a bit)). Well next point is I still remember my dad gifted me Gandhijis biography with all colourfull papers on my birthday. I asked him why was he giving me that and he told me that I need to develop good qualities and stay in India to stop corruption and all that kinda emotional lecture(which I dint take much to heart of coarse). Two weeks after that I went to a Governement office along with him and he handed over a gift wrapped in a newspaper to some person working in the office. He was seated under the photo of Gandhi, looked really decent(my memory doesn’t fail in such things)  but he took the gift from under the table. I wondered why and asked dad for some possible reason. He told me that it was a bribe for the permission to construct house. I muttered with all childish innocence “But dad Gandhiji said not to take…”. My dad laughed releasing the frown he had earlier while giving that gentleman at the office the gift inside newspaper and preached me the biggest secret for happy life, at least while in India”That’s the way things work out”(this is how i picked up this scentence,my dad put it in my mind first). He smiled and patted me. I smiled back as if I understood.Once again I repeat I m not upset that my dad bribed someone or with all those things, but why people confuse me. He could have told me on my birthday right read Gandhi’s book because its important for your school and quizzes(many questions related to Gandhi’s life are asked in quizzes.That’s one way how we honour that great man)..But do not follow them. Huh whatever.

Ok now its the time I ll tell ya why am I writing this post about corruption in my country even if that fact doesn’t bother me much. Well its because I am going to vote now despite all these when I had the voter ID card in my hands I was really happy. May be because I am an adult now or may be because my Government recognized me as a mature adult who has the discretion to choose the leader for the country. Huh…what a joke? Look I already told you I am not that emotional, with silly things like that. Well I give a lot of reasons right so even this has a reason. My dad has voter Id card in two places, my mom has it in three places. These places are pretty far away from each other for a human limit to reach in one day but, I swear I seriously swear that according to Government of India they cast vote every year in all these places on the same day. My mom voted only 7 times to date among many elections she has seen. All the other times someone else casted her vote. Well now coming to the villages and the dark slums and the legend of their votes. Every leader contesting come to their place every time and tell them how can they change their lives from rags to riches. They even tell them how much of a honest leader they are and how their party is going to take India to a golden future. At the end of this promises thingy they handover a cheap whiskey bottle in the darkness to all the voters, few give money and the others more expensive gifts based upon the money they can earn being in that position. Well during the elections people cast their votes to the leaders who made them more happy compared to the others. They know that their vote is not going to make any difference because all the leaders are just the same. Only mad people wait for the vows of leaders to come true. Seriously this aint a lie. At the end of the elections the leader who spent the most wins the elections and everyone forgets about the election’s including leaders,people and of coarse me too. Believe me I have been seeing all this from my childhood. People in slums become busy in their fight to live, middle class people fight to save more and more money to buy some cheap flat in a corner of the city, upper middle class people fight spending less money on their expense, rich people don’t need to fight at all, leaders fight to steal as much as possible, opposition fights with the ruling and I keep watching like usual. See everyone perfectly fits the role. The next elections come and the leader who corrupted the most under cover gets ticket to contest for a better position, people in the slums become happy because they get free whiskey and money, middle class people become suddenly responsible for one day and vote for someone who comes to their mind at the final second, upper middle class try to get a bit active to adjust their schedule for voting and vote only of they do not have anything else to do at that time,rich people well they don’t need to vote at all. Newspapers roar and social activists(as they call themselves) yells at ruling party and  opposition party, tries to  show the drawbacks of the present government and enlighten public so as to cover their mistakes done when they were previously in power and finally, people like me blog about it in the middle of the night with an exam to read for the next day. Huh this always goes on so lemme end here. That’s the way things work here.hehe

All of a sudden a change comes in the routine when lethargic people  like me think about casting their vote no matter what to the rightful owner of the position. When they think of analyzing someone better among the worst case scenarios. See I told you I am a plain girl I don’t try squeezing my brain much for social problem that cant be solved I only solve my problems. Voting is of coarse the problem of I,Me,Myself country is secondary. So I’ll think about this big problem in my small routine life and analyze it before solving it. Of coarse I can if I can atleast vote the better one. So at the end its decided that I will vote and utilize it before someone else forge it. I may not change my country with it even then its my vote and so I am going for it. After all its my country and I love it.(ahhh.. such a dramatic ending..)

 

Do comment about what you think of the above thingy I wrote and do read other thingies too on my blog and comment them too. They are not this bad though ;) .I have better thingies coming up special election edition.Heyy all the Indians out there please cast your vote. 

 

Read about elections in India in the following links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_India

http://www.indian-elections.com/about-election-commission.html

TWILIGHT Vs HARRY POTTER

TWILIGHT CAN NEVA BE HARRY POTTER……………

Harry Potter

Harry PotterTwilight Saga

 

Well I have just completed reading Twilight saga and I read few reviews on-line by other readers. Few said that Twilight is new Harry Potter. Well all I can say is excuse me!!!!.I am not a big fan of Harry Potter nor Twilight. But, I think the whole argument is unnecessary cuz there is no way that twilight can match harry potter. Of coarse not. 

Twilight SagaTwilight is a book of the love story between a teenage girl,Bella and a vampire,Edward. Well the basic plot is this and the other three books revolve around the same story line. People keep coming and going and the story goes on. Its like it doesn’t have a plot which can be as gripping as Harry Potter nor the high imaginations of Harry Potter. I know they do not go with the story if  Stephine Mayer would have included some vampire world or something. But the storyline is attractive so she could have added much more stuff in it. Instead of the same Bella,Bella and more n more of Bella. I got really bored in the second book it self. ****SPOILERS*** In the second book Bella falls in love with Jake. Then she realizes that he is a werewolf and then when Edward comes back after leaving her for her own good she chooses Ed over Jake. I dint like the drama. Author could have put more of adventure elements than this soap. The same soap continues. I wonder how come its the top bestseller. I mean it is good but it doesn’t deserve such a reward. Anyways I don’t think its much to bother as such books come often and soon forgotten. Plain English and not so gripping story and over rated reviews made me buy the book. So I think I have every right to comment this way for my pocket money i spent on the book.

Harry Potter on the other hand though not my type of genre took a grip of me when i was reading. It made me mad every few chapters about whats going on rather than just plainly moving like twilight. I had to sit down and complete the total book in one go so that I can keep myself  sane. It had more scope I do agree and there are no similarities in both the novels to compare them. I am writing this because I have read reviews of many people who think twilight is better than HP. Well all i can say is may be Twilight is the only novel they have read or may be they dint read many books up-to the date they wrote those reviews and I can totally guarantee thathey dint read Harry Potter. 

Please comment after you read its not injurious to your health.

LETTER FROM A SOLDIER…….

welll i always wondered how its like to be a soldier..i mean a sense of pride that you have something to protect and sense of passion for country…well i will cut it out here cuz in the place i live its not allowed for girls..i hate it..whatever..here is a letter i wrote just imagining how would it be being like a soldier and missing 

home..

letter from soldier


hiii dear,
How’s everything going there. How is our pet?? I miss roger badly and cricket.How’s everyone in the place doing. I am not drinking too much andI am eating properly. Its dusty and cold in here.My hand is shaking when I am writing this.hehehe. My pals saw your photograph and wanted to see you .So get ready for a big party. I know you must missing me and worried to death. Is Roger eating well? I wrote to my mom and dad but they are still angry with us and our sudden marriage. But what should I do I couldn’t help i hope they would soon understand that you are the best thing that ever happened to me. Don’t worry things here are pretty much peaceful like there.I hear to songs in the evening and wondering what are you hearing there.I keep looking at the moon every night but without you.It hurts me to talk to myself under the moon.I think you are doing the same.I get up in the morning and look around for you and see your photo.So you are safe in here, how am i there?am i doing well???or are you imagining me with that cold thingy which i always get. Pretty girls are here around in the city and they keep remindingof  your face.Its so stupid of me that at times, i go behind one of the girl just because she looks just like you from behind. Dont keep missing me too much.Dont cry at night catching this letter in the bed. Next time i see you u should be dancing in the rain not crying……
Miss you like hell…take care of me…eat well you should be atleast as fat as i am.

Yours ever
XXXXXX
reply to the above:
hiii dear,
Your doing really great here..Dont keep wondering what am i listening to everyday evening I am listening to your favourite numbers.Me and Roger are missing you like hell.Its eating well but missing morning walks.I am taking it everyday for a morning walk, but its walking sloppily without running behind the other dogs. 
      Please eat well. I know you dont like the food there, but please.I will do anything you ask me to cook after coming back, but do eat well.Its ok if you booze an extra glass but keep yourself warm you catch cold easily.By now I think you are sneezing.Without you, I feel that whole world is depopulated.Rita’s boyfriend proposed her and she is getting married soon and she is all excited.I am trying to be excited,but at the end of the day i realize i was just acting without you I am such waste.I miss your hugs dear under the moon.All I was do is staring at the moon and hugging pillow,crying and sleeing with roger beside.Today i have your letter with me.The whole house  seems so empty.Your letter pepped me up soooo much.Sorry I couldnt help my tears.I tried to convince your parents and they are not so angry as you think.Its just that they are busy with rita’s wedding plans.Now dont put that face of coarse she’s not getting married till you come.People are coming now and then to give me company and making me smile..But i want to laugh till my stomach hurts so please come back..
I know its lonely for you out there but dont worry peace talks are going on and I am sure everything will be alright.you will come back and play football with your friends and take roger for walk.I am waiting for you and  your party.
P.S: dare not fall in love with those girls because they are looking like me..:)
yours ever

If a hand is hitting me…then the hand that hit me is also hurt…

I feel a sort of Zen thing getting over me. I happened to read few books about this thing called forgiveness and came about with my own opinion about it. Mind you, opinion is more like an ass everyone has one, so respect it. If I hurt your feelings, I am really sorry. Go ahead enjoy it and comment it… It’s really free… ;)

                                 “If a hand is hitting me…then the hand that hit me is also hurt…”

I don’t remember where I heard this saying and I can’t really say that I like it. But I remember it from the day I heard it. To think about someone when you are in pain is the last thing I want to do. I am not a saint. I hate the words about forgiveness. I have a person in my life, who deserves hatred from me in all ways. Then I listen from everyone and books tell you that you have to forgive people or else they keep haunting you. Is it really true? Or is the whole procession of forgiveness a fraud to convince people? People do seem to believe it and they seem to follow it. Is it a kind of mass mania? But they are happy forgiving people. I don’t really understand as I already told you I am not a saint. This forgiveness and hatred has thrown me into a confusion of what is right and what is wrong and what I want to do. It’s not just one person but I read stories of millions of people who found a miracle in their life forgiving murderers, rapists etc. It just freaks me out.

Forgiveness is more like letting go of people and crimes they have done. For the sins done by people they do deserve hatred. Forgiveness is cowardice and just an easy way out to escape from the hatred and pain. A disillusion created by people and religion to believe that they are happy. This is what I thought and I hated people telling me to develop forgiveness. Come on! Hatred is a feeling developed as a pay back to the people for their sins. It is teeth grindingly frustrating to listen to people telling things like everyone gets what they deserve. This is what I thought about forgiveness.

I tried forgiving my enemy it deprived me of sleep, peace and happiness. I then reForgivealized hating was much easier, much much easier than forgiving. I always thought forgiving was cowardice but it took a lot of courage to be a coward that way. Forgiveness is not like giving way to the people to commit more sins. Its more like an insult given to them making them realize, no matter what they do it can affect us in the least. People in this world care a shit about what you feel. They behave just the way they are. You hate them or forgive them they continue to do the same. Forgiveness can never change someone but it can surely change you. It can surely change what that’s around you. You hate a person and sleep for hundred years just cursing them and breathing hatred towards them. Later when you get up you see that nothing really changed, it was just you who was trying to latch on to that person while he let go of you already and not even bothered of what you feel. By forgiveness you can see the world change.forgiveness-picture

Forgiveness gives way to people hurting you more and more, but its way better than hurting and burdening yourself by hatred. I never thought about forgiveness but I don’t mind giving it a try.

SWIZZZ ACCOUNTS

Is India a poor Country- Revelation on Swiss bank accounts:swiss-bank1

DISHONEST INDUSTRIALISTS, scandalous politicians and corrupt IAS, IRS, IPS officers have deposited in foreign banks in their illegal personal accounts a sum of about $ 1500 billion, which have been misappropriated by them. This amount is about 13 times larger than the country’s foreign debt. With this amount 45 crore poor people can get Rs 1,00,000 each. This huge amount has been appropriated from the people of India by exploiting and betraying them.
Once this huge amount of black money and property comes back to India, the entire foreign debt can be repaid in 24 hours. After paying the entire foreign debt, we will have surplus amount, almost 12 times larger than the foreign debt. If this surplus amount is invested in earning interest, the amount of interest will be more than the annual budget of the Central government. So even if all the taxes are abolished, then also the Central government will be able to maintain the country very comfortably.

Some 80,000 people travel to Switzerland every year, of whom 25,000 travel very frequently. “Obviously, these people won’t be tourists. They must be travelling there for some other reason,” believes an official involved in tracking illegal money. And, clearly, he isn’t referring to the commerce ministry bureaucrats who’ve been flitting in and out of Geneva ever since the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations went into a tailspin!

Just read the following details and note how these dishonest industrialists, scandalous politicians, corrupt officers, cricketers, film actors, illegal sex trade and protected wildlife operators, to name just a few, sucked this country’s wealth and prosperity. This may be the picture of deposits in Swiss banks only. What about other international banks?
Black money in Swiss banks — Swiss Banking Association report, 2006 details bank deposits in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of following countries:
Top five

India—- $1456 billionindian_poor
Russia—$ 470 billion
UK——-$390 billion
Ukraine- $100 billion
China—–$ 96 billion  

Now do the maths – India with $1456 billion or $1.4 trillion has more money in Swiss banks than rest of the world combined. Public loot since 1947: Can we bring back our money? It is one of the biggest loots witnessed by mankind — the loot of the Aam Aadmi (common man) since 1947, by his brethren occupying public office. It has been orchestrated by politicians, bureaucrats and some businessmen. The list is almost all-encompassing. No wonder, everyone in India loots with impunity and without any fear.

What is even more depressing in that this ill-gotten wealth of ours has been stashed away abroad into secret bank accounts located in some of the world’s best known tax havens. And to that extent the Indian economy has been stripped of its wealth. Ordinary Indians may not be exactly aware of how such secret accounts operate and what are the rules and regulations that go on to govern such tax havens. However, one may well be aware of ’Swiss bank accounts,’the shorthand for murky dealings, secrecy and of course pilferage from developing countries into rich developed ones.

In fact, some finance experts and economists believe tax havens to be a conspiracy of the western world against the poor countries. By allowing the proliferation of tax havens in the twentieth century, the western world explicitly encourages the movement of scarce capital from the developing countries to the rich.
In March 2005, the Tax Justice Network (TJN) published a research finding demonstrating that $11.5 trillion of personal wealth was held offshore by rich individuals across the globe. The findings estimated that a large proportion of this wealth was managed from some 70 tax havens.

Further, augmenting these studies of TJN, Raymond Baker — in his widely celebrated book titled ’Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free Market System’ — estimates that at least $5 trillion have been shifted out of poorer countries to the West since the mid-1970. It is further estimated by experts that one per cent of the world’s population holds more than 57 per cent of total global wealth, routing it invariably through these tax havens. How much of this is from India is anybody’s guess.

What is to be noted here is that most of the wealth of Indians parked in these tax havens is illegitimate money acquired through corrupt means. Naturally, the secrecy associated with the bank accounts in such places is central to the issue, not their low tax rates as the term ’tax havens’ suggests. Remember Bofors and how India could not trace the ultimate beneficiary of those transactions because of the secrecy associated with these bank accounts? IS THERE ANY ONE WHO WOULD SAVE INDIA ?God… No No No, even he can’t……….!!

Previous Post

Its not a very long time since i have written my previous post..I mean I know its very unlikely of me to write so early..

I want to write few anecdotes i have collected about faith,love etc. The first one goes as follows.

“There was once a boy and a girl who were madly in love with eachother. It was a fine time they decided to get engaged. According to their tradition they need to exchange gifts on that special day. It was then that they realize they do not have much they can give each other except their love and themselves. They are just workers who work everyday to meet their ends. Boy gets an idea to sell his only property a watch, given by his grandfather and buy a hair ornament for the girls long beautiful hair. The girl at the same time gets an idea to sell her only property her beautiful hair and buy a golden band for the watch of her beloved. Both of them meet next day and to their surprise find out that they bought gifts for each other which they dont need anymore”. 

“There was once a priest who worshipped and loved God more than anything. Once God appeared in his dreams and told him”Go to the North and get onto the highest mountain you see”. The priest does as said because he claims to be in love with God and he wanted to prove that to him. The priest starts climbing one of the highest mountains even at night despite the harsh weather. Suddenly his leg slips and he falls rolling down and hangs from a cliff. He fervently prays God and asks him to help him out.”God you have asked me to come here and please help me survive through this ordeal”. God answers his fervent prayers and replies “Trust me just leave your hands”.The priest sceptical about the success of the idea spends rest of the night hanging from the cliff thinking God dint help him when he needed him the most despite his unconditional love for him. Next day morning he is found dead, frozen due to harsh weather. To everyones surprise the ground lies just few feet below his hanging body. If he would have listened to God he would have been alive. Love is not just being unconditional, its about confidence in having blind faith on the other”

“what is the difference between a big house and a cathedral? Both have empty spaces in them and they cover the space from others so as to look as they are expected to look like by others. But still their is a difference despite the empty space cathedral has an idol to worship. Even in the darkness there is a candel burning. There is devotion despite emptiness, that devotion makes the cathedral look different from a building. May be that is the difference between a life with and without love.”

These are few of my collections of anecdotes I mostly heard it from others I do not own them.

HIIIIIIII everyone,  its kinda crazy time going on with me and this college thingy is driving me crazy so i couldnt write anything for a long time… I am making up for it now.

Well slumdog bagging up 8 oscars and all that bashing in the newspapers made me think one point, what if otherwise ie.. what if slumdog was a bollywood movie and what if it wasn’t directed by Danny Boyle and it was directed by an Indian. I seriously loved his direction, but just in case the whole movie would have been an Indian one, I mean the whole crew. Will it receive the same applause? would it have been recognized the same way?

I dont know how to answer them because there are many movies better than slumdog like taare zameen par, salaam Bombay etc. May be Krishna of Salaam Bombay din’t enter the millionaire show or has any childhood crush but his life is ought to be heard. It tells tales which none of us who live in a cocoon could imagine. Then why dint it bag the oscar? Taare zameen par touched the sensitive emotions of a kid who is forced to change himself and completely loose himself to achieve good rank in his class. Fortunately he finds a teacher who realizes he has dyslexia and immense imagination which can be expressed with his painting skills,restores him back. The tale has tugged the hearts of many parents. Inu of taarezameenpar may not have as many twists as Jamaal of slumdog. But the potrayal of his emotional turmoil is noteworthy. Then why dint they bag the prizes which slumdog has?

 

Ok I repeat again I do love slumdog, I can recite the whole dialogues and I dont remember how many times I have watched it and the time I spent in discussing about it. But why not the others too??  Is it because they were bollywood movies. If yes are the movies recognized from the background they came from than the actual content of the movies?? An indian movie is noteworthy only if it is not totally Indian and it is a hollywood movie.

I write this article not to criticize slumdog or for my personal appreciation to other movies and me being a fan of Aamir khan. But in the excitement of Indians winning oscars we are forgetting the ones which have lost for no reason. But its good that there is a positive change.

But I am as excited as I was when I heard Mr.Obama address millions of people as a president despite his background, when I watched ar rehmaan recieve Oscar. May be equality atmosphere has crept into Oscar committe too. It is this time of the year where all the Asians especially Indians can stand with pride just like blacks have when Barack Obama won. Then what about the movies that have lost TZP, Salaam Bombay? 

I am ending up this post here not boring you much at this time of excitement. But i also want to everyone to think about the laurels that the other flicks could have won but couldn’t for the very obvious reasons. I hope Oscar would go to the right and deserving movies in future too without much bothering about the background. please do comment your views. I mean no offence here because i want to show the change in the oscar winners from biased to unbiased stage as of now. May be this would lead to more friendly environment leading to a global movie industry. This celebration is more than celebrating an award winning movie its celebrating a movie which won hearts of millions despite the background it came from. This is a positive sign. 

I congratulate Slumdog team for their victory. See ya all very soon.

A tale not heard by many..

A tale not heard by many..

I am proud of you!!!!