We all have to cope up with that errant Senior,Teacher or even family member who decides on something on a whim and makes everybody suffer when he sticks to it,refusing to see reason,come what may.
What happens when such a person becomes a political leader?
A Mamta Banerjee is what happens.
Do u think Righteous Exhortion is an oxymoron? Try Sensible Mamta.
Looking at her fret and fume 1 would think Ratan Tata is a dictator taking away people's lands to build a private bath for himself. She behaves as if the farmers got no money in return,they are not to benefit by the investment in their place,the lands were not flooded for the larger part of last 2 years.. What not.. I want to know if she views the Gvt constructing or expanding highways encroaching on ppl's lands the same way. My parents lost land that way and we could surely use some protest,just for amusement.Or what about laying railway tracks? For heaven's sake,how such a large unit can possibly be built avoiding such issues.And its anybody's guess (except,of course,you know who's ),which is better - A huge investment that could change the face of Singur forever and develop it like no Gvt initiative can,unavoidably replacing a small amount of agricultural produce, Or so many acres of land that will forever look to the skies for produce,not to mention variables like availability of resources ( look at the extent of fertile lands in the country that are barren due to lack of it ) and yes,subsidies.I wonder who'll make any investment in the state after Tata moves out of singur.
And those who have any illusions of the safety of private property in our democracy,kindly pay attention. " What's 1500 crores to him? He has so many crores". Yes. So many crores which he didnt squander, but built upon,expanded and produced with.I don't even doubt if Ms.Banerjee can create a nut or bolt of her own.Hell.She can't even stage protests where nobody bothered to build something in the 1st place.But she CAN accuse somebody for wealth and productive capability.She CAN clothe extortion and blackmail in a seemingly righteous package.She CAN wreak havoc on India's image when the whole world is watching Nano's production.And she CAN add a 3rd oxymoron to this post.A politican with integrity.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Blinking Jo
So somebody asked me ( finally ) WHY "blinkinjo"?
Why not...considering tat's d only thing I do perfectly.
I try so hard to understand stuff tat goes around me..ppl,their actions and beliefs,general ideas,Rajnikanth movies.. and more than all that,me myself and the amazin fact tat I've managed to exist for 17 (ab?)normal years + 5 and a half leap years that I can hardly avoid blinkin.
But I surpass myself sometimes.
Like when relatives who dont share my interests ( Predictably,every1 outside my immediate family ) visit home. If I've advanced warning I simply run away from home or lock myself in.But of l8,Mom's involved in a socialise-jo campaign ( which she calls make-jo-decent ) so I often find myself face to face with 1 of my own flesh and blood.
"blink"
do I smile now?
"blink"
if I do, then how big a smile shd it be?
"blink" "blink"
or shd i jus nod my head?
..And (un?)fortunately,by the end of this last sentence,I would've already locked myself in my safety chamber, so I close it with, "now,now,I shd hav given a smile but tooooo l8...next time....."
Next such thing is when I see a very very very familiar face but... BANG..no name pops out from the memory registers.
The ultimate of this category happened in the trichy railway station when I met a friend from my IIT coaching class.Having avoided a visit to NIT-T for a long time (I've managed without it till this minute),I had earned a good deal of resentment frm friends there.
So there she comes,
"Hi Jotsna... Ofcourse u wont rememeber... My name is..."
Now,the name comprising of exactly 3 syllables,it would've escaped her mouth in no time and saved me a world of embarrassment..But no,Its a primordial compulsion that I should overtake her with a cheerful,loud,
"Hey,wats this? Ofcourse I know U R****i.
came the reply : " For ur info,its R####i "
"blink" "blink" "blink" "blink"
With a wealth of this kind of experience behind me,there was a brief period in my life when I was determined to avoid such tragedies.This period ended thus:
It happened in a busy road in chennai when I was returning from BCL.I was "walk"ing in my usual speed when I hear this chirpy "Hi" from behind.A guy comes running and stands with the brightest smile of the decade. I try, try and try to retrieve some info abt this face.. but again.."0 results found". Not trusting my "memory",I smile and say "hi".He goes "How r u? Howz life blah blah blah v shd stay in touch..blah blah", for which i execute a hastily programmed smile-nod-smile-nod loop until I hit "Hey,I gotto go.. Why dont u give me ur number?". I tell him I dont use my phone much,He can mail me if he wants and give him my mail ID...Thats when he says "Oh... So ur name is Jotsna??? I KNEW ur name will be as sweet".
"blink" "blink" "blink" "blink" get set gooooooooooooooooo. (A tornadal blur went unreported in Mount Road tat day)
I've a set of ppl I talk to. Other than with my very close friends,I do this hi-howz life-1 joke abt this or that-bye thingie. If there was a match going,or a kutcheri scheduled,or if dasavatharam happens ( which does but once :( ),it stretches the conversation a bit. Ofcourse.. if the conversant has a kadalai-pair it elasticizes the conversation and makes it stretch to infinity with pointless teases and taunts without once resorting to the "mmmm...apram...then...wat next" phase.But often,my affliction not being shared by each and every member of the great human race,conversation often shifts to territories where I........ yes....blink.
1 such thing happened abt 2 weeks bk when v all went 2 coll to collect our certificates.I met up with a friend who suddenly goes...
"...so....lets talk abt shaadi too"
I - "Shaadi?? no no.. why should I want to talk abt shaadi???"
Her - "No No... I want to talk abt shaadi"
I - "U???? But why?"
Her - " b'cos...are yar...my shaadi is on 29th november "
To those who might be still reading this blog... I Swear on everything that is sacred and holy and still not part of foul language.... I DIDN'T BLINK...
I was simply too shocked to respond.
My face was rarer than vacuum in space.The emptiness of the Pre-big bang universe reigned.
The poor girl waited and waited...
....and waited.
After a few very long minutes I finally came into being once more.. to realise that I've to set my face to some particular look and tune my vocal chords to give out pressure waves of a particular nature as might be passed off as satisfactory.
NOW I blinked.....What do I say?
My deep condolences?
I'm really sorry to hear that?
All the best?
I hope u come off that well?
Thankfully,she extended her hands and I shook it blurting out "..itni jaldi???.. "
SIGH
..Blinkin continues....
Why not...considering tat's d only thing I do perfectly.
I try so hard to understand stuff tat goes around me..ppl,their actions and beliefs,general ideas,Rajnikanth movies.. and more than all that,me myself and the amazin fact tat I've managed to exist for 17 (ab?)normal years + 5 and a half leap years that I can hardly avoid blinkin.
But I surpass myself sometimes.
Like when relatives who dont share my interests ( Predictably,every1 outside my immediate family ) visit home. If I've advanced warning I simply run away from home or lock myself in.But of l8,Mom's involved in a socialise-jo campaign ( which she calls make-jo-decent ) so I often find myself face to face with 1 of my own flesh and blood.
"blink"
do I smile now?
"blink"
if I do, then how big a smile shd it be?
"blink" "blink"
or shd i jus nod my head?
..And (un?)fortunately,by the end of this last sentence,I would've already locked myself in my safety chamber, so I close it with, "now,now,I shd hav given a smile but tooooo l8...next time....."
Next such thing is when I see a very very very familiar face but... BANG..no name pops out from the memory registers.
The ultimate of this category happened in the trichy railway station when I met a friend from my IIT coaching class.Having avoided a visit to NIT-T for a long time (I've managed without it till this minute),I had earned a good deal of resentment frm friends there.
So there she comes,
"Hi Jotsna... Ofcourse u wont rememeber... My name is..."
Now,the name comprising of exactly 3 syllables,it would've escaped her mouth in no time and saved me a world of embarrassment..But no,Its a primordial compulsion that I should overtake her with a cheerful,loud,
"Hey,wats this? Ofcourse I know U R****i.
came the reply : " For ur info,its R####i "
"blink" "blink" "blink" "blink"
With a wealth of this kind of experience behind me,there was a brief period in my life when I was determined to avoid such tragedies.This period ended thus:
It happened in a busy road in chennai when I was returning from BCL.I was "walk"ing in my usual speed when I hear this chirpy "Hi" from behind.A guy comes running and stands with the brightest smile of the decade. I try, try and try to retrieve some info abt this face.. but again.."0 results found". Not trusting my "memory",I smile and say "hi".He goes "How r u? Howz life blah blah blah v shd stay in touch..blah blah", for which i execute a hastily programmed smile-nod-smile-nod loop until I hit "Hey,I gotto go.. Why dont u give me ur number?". I tell him I dont use my phone much,He can mail me if he wants and give him my mail ID...Thats when he says "Oh... So ur name is Jotsna??? I KNEW ur name will be as sweet".
"blink" "blink" "blink" "blink" get set gooooooooooooooooo. (A tornadal blur went unreported in Mount Road tat day)
I've a set of ppl I talk to. Other than with my very close friends,I do this hi-howz life-1 joke abt this or that-bye thingie. If there was a match going,or a kutcheri scheduled,or if dasavatharam happens ( which does but once :( ),it stretches the conversation a bit. Ofcourse.. if the conversant has a kadalai-pair it elasticizes the conversation and makes it stretch to infinity with pointless teases and taunts without once resorting to the "mmmm...apram...then...wat next" phase.But often,my affliction not being shared by each and every member of the great human race,conversation often shifts to territories where I........ yes....blink.
1 such thing happened abt 2 weeks bk when v all went 2 coll to collect our certificates.I met up with a friend who suddenly goes...
"...so....lets talk abt shaadi too"
I - "Shaadi?? no no.. why should I want to talk abt shaadi???"
Her - "No No... I want to talk abt shaadi"
I - "U???? But why?"
Her - " b'cos...are yar...my shaadi is on 29th november "
To those who might be still reading this blog... I Swear on everything that is sacred and holy and still not part of foul language.... I DIDN'T BLINK...
I was simply too shocked to respond.
My face was rarer than vacuum in space.The emptiness of the Pre-big bang universe reigned.
The poor girl waited and waited...
....and waited.
After a few very long minutes I finally came into being once more.. to realise that I've to set my face to some particular look and tune my vocal chords to give out pressure waves of a particular nature as might be passed off as satisfactory.
NOW I blinked.....What do I say?
My deep condolences?
I'm really sorry to hear that?
All the best?
I hope u come off that well?
Thankfully,she extended her hands and I shook it blurting out "..itni jaldi???.. "
SIGH
..Blinkin continues....
Friday, August 1, 2008
24 hour obsessions
Blinking Jo was stuck up in a drab place for 4 years where the newspaper comes without crap ( Sorry THE HINDU guys,but Jo did miss it,u know) and where access to TV meant licking her lovable Herr warden's toes for a few nauseating moments of the backviews of about 200 girls (enchanting though it might be in 1 point of view, no thanks,Jo is arguably atleast, a girl and she's straight )
So once she came back home,she read every MetroPlus and NXG that came her way and made a love pact with the news channels.
For exactly 3 days.
Whew. There's a limit to how much 1 can take. There's a tolerance level for reading about incredible waist sizes and what is probably not carcinogenous. There's hardly any outrage worse than revelations of how everything that is destined for the stomach can do better sitting on 1's face and hair. And though Jo likes seeing ppl happy,she definitely can't read about how every actor in every set has splendid relationships with all the co-actors,director,producer,cameraman,cleaner,makeup men,speech writer and yes,that part of humanity that is going to pay money and bear torture for a few hours in dark halls trying not to sleep.WELL.Atleast,Jo's happy with her life even without the gossips, She wears clothes that are not designed by anybody who likes photo makeup, drinks lots of water and does not suffer from obesity. So tata to supplements. Except to the cartoon pages, ofcourse.
But the news channels!!!
Jo wonders ( while blinking,of course) who came up with the hypothesis that enough news happens in the world to fill a 24/7 broadcast slot. Poor reporters. What do they NOT resort to, to generate NEWS! No space is sacred anymore and no level of indecency, too indecent. It is completely OK to make mothers cry and children look malnourished (heard nobody watches mega serials anymore and the producers are thinking of switching over to newsreports and bollywood KariKram.. also,watch out for Krime time and Remixes bhi kabhi gane the).Whole trials are carried out on TV and between reports of who is the murderer we can also get Darshans of Shri Sai Baba.And we can also learn whether coffee is good for our health or is the evil cuppa,today - latest updates.And ofcourse,we also get to know which actress Dhoni is batting today - Complete entertainment,indeed!
So once she came back home,she read every MetroPlus and NXG that came her way and made a love pact with the news channels.
For exactly 3 days.
Whew. There's a limit to how much 1 can take. There's a tolerance level for reading about incredible waist sizes and what is probably not carcinogenous. There's hardly any outrage worse than revelations of how everything that is destined for the stomach can do better sitting on 1's face and hair. And though Jo likes seeing ppl happy,she definitely can't read about how every actor in every set has splendid relationships with all the co-actors,director,producer,cameraman,cleaner,makeup men,speech writer and yes,that part of humanity that is going to pay money and bear torture for a few hours in dark halls trying not to sleep.WELL.Atleast,Jo's happy with her life even without the gossips, She wears clothes that are not designed by anybody who likes photo makeup, drinks lots of water and does not suffer from obesity. So tata to supplements. Except to the cartoon pages, ofcourse.
But the news channels!!!
Jo wonders ( while blinking,of course) who came up with the hypothesis that enough news happens in the world to fill a 24/7 broadcast slot. Poor reporters. What do they NOT resort to, to generate NEWS! No space is sacred anymore and no level of indecency, too indecent. It is completely OK to make mothers cry and children look malnourished (heard nobody watches mega serials anymore and the producers are thinking of switching over to newsreports and bollywood KariKram.. also,watch out for Krime time and Remixes bhi kabhi gane the).Whole trials are carried out on TV and between reports of who is the murderer we can also get Darshans of Shri Sai Baba.And we can also learn whether coffee is good for our health or is the evil cuppa,today - latest updates.And ofcourse,we also get to know which actress Dhoni is batting today - Complete entertainment,indeed!
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