Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I saw this movie on DVD today afternoon and it was simply superb. It must be one of the best movies i had ever seen. Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, the owner of the chocolate factory was fantastic. This guy is so versatile, one can’t just imagine that this is the same guy who plays Captain Jack sparrow in the Pirates of the Carribean, another of my favourite movie. I’am now eagerly awaiting the release of the second part of the Pirates of the Caribbean-Dead Man’s Chest. Here is the Official site of the Movie. Do check out the cool trailer.

India says We Don’t need You! Uncle Sam says Welcome On Board!

The US senate has approved the increase of the H1B Visa cap from 65,000 to 115,000 in its new immigration bill passed on Thursday, 25th May 2006.The Bill also has a exception clause that would increase the cap by 20% the next year if the previous year’s limit had been crossed. Now the bill has to pass through the House of Representatives, which is up for re-election this November and many of whose members therefore might take a populist line. If this clause remains in the final compromise bill, then it’s a flood out of the best brains from India from next year onwards since the current UPA government simply doesn’t want its best and brightest to be here anymore. They are more interested in Votebanks that will help them stick to their Chairs.

The Goose that laid Golden Eggs

The Goose that laid Golden Eggs is a modern day parody of a old and familiar story we read back in Nursery School. It was about a farmer who had a Goose that laid only one “Golden” Egg every day. The farmer one fine day overcome by greed and in his haste kills the bird and cuts it open so that he can have all the golden eggs in one go. But alas! he finds nothing and regrets what he did. The Moral of the story was ‘Greed is Bad and Haste makes Waste’.

This insight which is available to every nursery kid is woefully missing in the heads of our netas. They have effectively killed the Institutions of Higher learning by their shortsighted decision to parcel away more than half the seats on a Caste basis rather than on the ability of the candidate. In the 21st century when we were supposed to put an end to all kinds of discrimination in the name of religion, caste, creed, sex, region etc.. we see these neanderthals trying to divide society on a caste basis just to win the next election.

UPA decides to go ahead with the reservations

The UPA today decided to implement the proposed reservations for the OBC from June 2007 onwards, inspite of the protests that are going on. Not surprising, they are only kids after all without any real political backing. When Truckers, Factory Workers or Bank Employees go on a strike they are backed by the Left Lobby which controls the Media, Educational Institutions, Trade Unions etc.. and they are able to get what they want. What backing did these kids have? none, whatsoever. These kids don’t know shit of what they were up against. Too much of Rang de basanti and they think they will cause a revolution overnight. These are seasoned politicians who are not so easy to crack. Nobody will care for them even if they immolate themselves enmasse on the streets. The votes simply don’t add up.

Meanwhile some reports indicate that some medical students belonging to the ‘OBC communities’ too have slammed the Quota proposal as hogwash

The Pope interferes blatantly in India’s internal affairs

The Pope the religious head of the Roman Catholics and the Head of state of the Vatican city threw all diplomatic propriety to the winds and interfered in the internal affairs of india by commenting on the efforts in some indian states to check religious conversions through legislation.

“The disturbing signs of religious intolerance that have troubled some regions of the nation, including the reprehensible attempt to legislate clearly discriminatory restrictions on the fundamental right of religious freedom, must be firmly rejected as not only unconstitutional, but also as contrary to the highest ideals of India’s founding fathers, who believed in a nation of peaceful coexistence and mutual tolerance between different religions and ethnic groups. “No citizen of India, especially the weak and the underprivileged, should ever have to experience discrimination for any reason, especially based on ethnic or religious background or social position “. the Pope said in a meeting with New Delhi’s new ambassador to the Vatican, Amitava Tripathi.

As expected there was lukewarm condemnation from the spineless MEA.

“It is acknowledged universally that India is a secular and democratic country in which adherents of all religious faiths enjoy equal rights,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna said in response to a question. “The constitution of India states that all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion,” he added.

The BJP and RSS were much more forthright in their condemnation

The Pope’s remarks on religious freedom are not relevant to India. There is much more freedom here than in many countries,” BJP Spokesman Prakash Javadekar said.
“Freedom of religion does not mean conversions by coercion and allurements,” he added.Asserting that State Assemblies had the power to enact such legislations, he said, “Such laws are not against conversion by conviction but if people convert en masse, motives have to be there”.

But the most bizzare statement was from the Sangh Parivar’s joker of the pack, Ashok Singhal of the VHP. In his statement he invited the Pope to join forces against Islamic Jihad

VHP Supremo Ashok Singhal reminded the head of the Catholic church that both Hindus and Christians faced the “same historical threat of Jihad (Islamic Holy War).” “We appeal to the Pope that both Christians and Hindus are facing the same historical threat to Jihad i.e. terrorism, from the destruction of Kashi, Ayodhya and Somnath temples to the crusades under the Pope to defend Christianity in Europe and now the strikes on World Trade Centre and London to the daily attacks on Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir.“It is better that without fighting each other, let us fight against Jihad and the Pope should declare that the Church will not convert a single Hindu,” he said.

Hail the New Weimar Republic!!

Nepal is now the newest (banana) republic on the block. With the King relegated to not even a figurehead. The declaration of Nepal as a “Secular” state has taken care of that technicality.

The Nepali Parliament has made a resolution today which left the King a mere mortal who has to now pay taxes like the rest of us.

The resolution also stripped the King of the title of “Supreme Commander” of the Royal Nepali Army, which has now also been renamed as the Nepali Army and placed under the control of the Cabinet. The Cabinet will now make all appointments and decisions related to the control and deployment of the Armed Forces.

And just to make sure the Royal Guard also has been placed under the control of the cabinet and the King’s inner circle, the Raj Parishad has been scrapped.

Also, the next King will be decided by the Parliament and not by the King himself- an insurance policy against King Gyanendra’s notorious son Paras.

So, why the comparison with the Weimar republic? Because these supposedly well meaning SPA have just paved the path for the Maoists to take over subsequently. Just like the Weimar republic paved the way for Hitler.

How? They have in their anger and thirst for payback have pulled down every institution in haste and now Nepal stands vulnerable. Power is lying on the streets to be picked up by the strongest and best organised group and right now that is the maoists. Hope something is done before its too late.

The allegations fly thick and fast

Lok Paritran has split. But the allegations made by the new splinter group is quite disturbing and casts a big shadow on Lok Paritran being a “Party with a difference”. Reading those allegations it looks like it is already infested with the same disease that afflicts every political party in India. ‘During election campaign the volunteers and other resources including party funds were utilised only for Mylapore constituency where Santanagopalan Vasudevan contested and all others were ignored,’ said Ellanthirumaran, who has resigned from the State party presidentship of the LP Looks like the five founder members are the “Supreme” leaders of Lok Paritran. They are beyond questioning. How is this different from the personality cults practised by the likes of Congress, Shivsena, RJD, BSP, Samajwadi party, AIADMK, DMK, PMK, TDP etc.. He also charged Santana Gopal Vasudevan, (Chief Advisor and founder member of LP) Tanmay Raj Purohit, Chandrasekhar, and Ajit Shukla (All founder members of LP and ‘National’ office-bearers) as biased in favour of a particular community and dictatorial in their ways Meaning they favour the upper caste Brahmins, and there is a blog already that is slandering Tanmay Rajpurohit as a Hindu fascist. I didn’t bother to put a link here because it is nothing but bile and ranting with absolutely no proof whatsoever.But LP has to come out clean with what its ideology is and what it stands for if it is to avoid such allegations. Joining him, K Rajamany said that there was no proper accounts, no party constitution or procedures followed. ‘Decisions are taken according to their whims and fancies. Not even the office-bearers or candidates were informed on developments,’he said Exactly, Lok Paritran simply doesn’t have anything of the above. It was just formed with good intentions and is run on a ad-hoc basis. and underscored that it was the professed ideology of the party, ‘Corruption free and better governance’ which drew them to the party and alleged that ‘what was said and claimed in public platforms were never followed’ making it one more ordinary political party.’ Good intentions alone are not enough. It needs proper organisation and structure to realise it’s goals, if it has any in the first place.

Lok Paritran splits

Lok paritran, the Party founded by IITians has suffered a vertical split . In my opinion this was inevitable, without a proper structure and firm policies, programs and lacking a ideology their party is very much prone to infighting, intrigue and oneupmanship which could lead to its collapse.

The Party had made an impact in the recently concluded elections in Tamil Nadu, where it contested in 7 assembly constituencies and garnered a total of 34,000 votes. It was placed third in the Mylapore constituency ahead of even parties like BJP and the DMDK.

The Indian Secular Code

The UPA Government has stalled the release of the movie Da Vinci code to appease the “minority sentiments”.

This is not the first time that our political class has bent over backwards to appease special interest groups, who claim to “represent” their community. The list is quite long “The satanic verses” by salman rushdie, “Lajja” by Taslima nasreen, The Hollywood blockbuster “The Temple of the Doom” by Steven spielberg, The Marathi Play “Me Naturam godsey boltoy”, and the joke is that our wise censors had even recommended a name change for the James Bond movie “From Russsia with Love” to “From 007 with Love” so as not to “hurt” the “feelings” of our Soviet friends. I’am sure even the soviet politburo would have drank a toast to our childishness.

We need to decide whether we are to become a confident and “aspiring” superpower fully committed to the principles of Democracy and Free speech, not bits and pieces or a “Banana republic” which believes in the state’s “wisdom” to decide what its people can see, do or think.

Credit cards, Home loans, Personal loans and now a School too :)

Telemarketing, one of the most irritating aspect of modern day life in Bangalore. Everyday atleast 2-3 marketers sometimes more call up and offer a “Brand” new credit card with “great features” like “Free” Lifetime, 1001% cashback, “Free” Fuel, “Free” Insurance etc..

They somehow think that we are fools and that we don’t know that the catch is always in the fineprint, which is revealed only later at a convenient time of their choosing. Who on earth doesn’t have a bad experience like that?

Coming back to the topic. The latest calls were for a SBI card and a ICICI Bank “International Gold” card which u can supposedly use even in Papua new guinea and Bolivia. It supposedly has a 10% cashback. I’am not joking even my eyes popped out when i heard that until i remembered that phenomenon that was being conveniently hidden away for the moment called the “fineprint”, and the SBI card is supposed to be a WYSIWYG card, meaning it is supposedly not hiding any inconvenient details from you.

How do these people get hold of our numbers? simple. It is not ICICI, ABN-AMRO, Citibank, SBI etc.. who make the calls or collect your forms. It is the “Marketing Agencies” who have been hired to do the grunt work for them. These agencies get a list of numbers from all sources like the clients who hired them, from people who scan the forms which we fill carelessly in shopping malls and retail outlets, perhaps even other agencies whom they trade their “database” with. So once one agency gets hold of your number it is as good as everyone has got it.

Nowadays with the rise in interest rates the calls for Personal loans and Home loans have dried up. But i was shocked out of my wits yesterday when i got a call from a “Premier private” school asking me whether there were any school going kids in our home. well we used to except that we both grew up. They are a little late for me and my brother and a little too early for the next generation 🙂