Sunday, January 27, 2013

A letter to Lance Armstrong

Dear Lance Armstrong,

I never thought I will write this but what the heck, when I am in a jolly mood to write to the NRA why not you. First things first, congratulations on making Oprah Winfrey richer and helping her ailing cable channel. Btw, what was your cut for admitting on her show? Also, are you on Botox or something, for your face lacked the expression when you admitted to a guilt.

For me, you seemed proud of what you have done. I was amongst the ones who stood by you and believed you to be innocent back in August 2012 when USADA bought allegations and you sheepishly agreed to the claims. Come to think of it, I was a fool. here is why, there were a lot of colorful trigger points along the path including you divorcing your first wife right after your cancer recovery and dating celebrities like Mariah Carey or the worst one when you were spotted with one of the Oslen twins. But like many fans of your wins and your charity I happily ignored these warnings and bought the LiveStrong bands almost every year (thankfully never wore them).

Now that you are a father, how do you tell your kids to be truthful and nor cheat in their lives?, or for that matter how did you manage for this long to look yourself in the mirror and fight all the claims about your cheating, may be you can write a book on how you managed to keep your conscience clean while cheating left and right. It could be a best seller like your book on cancer recovery.

Anyways, you famously claimed to Ms. Winfrey that you will work every day to win back your fans. I am still waiting to hear more, piece of advice drop the Botox and come out with your true self with some emotions. Also, please stop working with USADA to help them bust bigger drug rings in return for less stringent sanctions on you. If you really feel guilty, do the right thing but without expecting returns..

Not anymore a fan

-M

Friday, January 18, 2013

A letter to the NRA

Dear NRA,

Your recent ad criticizing the president “are presidents kids more important . . . . “, I think is fairly foolish. Yes the president and his family are more important to America as a whole. You know history better, if not just re-visit the way President Lincoln was assassinated and the formation of the secret service.

That said, I am not following your argument of armed guard at every school. I want to send my daughter to a school and not a jail. Besides, your short sightedness on this issue is pretty remarkable. Here is why, every day I pass by a school near my neighborhood and almost everyday I see a bunch of kids (20 to 30 of them) playing in the play scape/park and the play scape is visible from the road, what do you think prevents someone to open fire from a moving car and kill a bunch of kids and get away even before your armed guard posted at the front door can make his way back to the play scape area. Or for that matter what about all the daycares and private pre-schools that operate in the country, do we need armed guards for them too?.

Ok, even if I buy your argument for school security guard, what is your solution for the Virginia Tech problem, one in front of every single department and for Aurora problem, one in front of every theater and a public place where there is a possibility of more than 8-10 people gathering? Oh wait, that would mean increased government everywhere, which is antithesis for the republican party you all support.

But I agree with you on one thing, banning assault weapons is just an eye candy thing that the president has done. For I do agree the assault weapons constitute less than 10% of the total gun violence in the USA.

So, please drop these ridiculous ads and focus on promoting responsible gun ownership and having fun with guns. Please do not keep quoting the second amendment again and again, for as I have indicated in my previous post that argument is also borderline foolish. Have faith in America and people of America to keep democracy going for it has been strong for last 200 years.

Hope you enjoy the read 

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Delhi case–my thoughts

A heinous act was committed in New Delhi, capital of India on the night of December 16th. It managed to create an outrage in many parts of the country and now the wave seems to be shifting towards Pakistan crossing the LOC (The politicians must be saying, thanks Pakistan). Some questions have been bothering me for a while now.

  • I am wondering if the outrage is against the act itself or the heinous nature of the act had everything to do with the outrage. I would go with the nature of the act.
  • If the victim hadn’t been that severely wounded and succumbed to her injuries, would the police had acted as swiftly as they did and would the government had pretended to act as they did by setting up swift courts and all.
  • If by chance the victim were not a medical student working at a call center to fund her education but were in questionable employment, would we have had the same reaction? or would we have said, she got what she deserved? 
  • If there is a supreme court order that prevents any bus with tinted windows and curtains to be operated on Delhi roads. Why was this bus never stopped for almost 2-2.5hrs of its drive time. All it would have taken was 1 police constable to stop the illegal bus. It was not middle of the night, it was between 8:30/9:00PM to lets say 11:30PM.
  • In the light of the above comment, why did I not hear a bunch of suspensions in the Delhi Police pay roll?
  • The male victims account of the events is also questionable, after being beaten badly (it appears he appeared on a wheel chair for the interview) where did he find strength to pull the woman victim from being mowed down. The bus did not go for a second try in mowing them? I believe they were robbed of everything, so where did he time the 45mins of the police discussions.
  • The comments from the spiritual leaders like Asram Bapu and our so called political leaders including the son of our present president is sending chills down my spine. Not because of their comments but because nobody managed to throw a shoe at their face (Yeah, yeah it is a democracy and people have the right to speak).
  • In terms of the lawyers representing the case, I think they have picked the case just be in the lime light. I don’t even want to talk about the comment made by one the defense lawyers.
  • Regarding the so called minor accused in the case, assuming he did most of the carnage as has been reported why not just try him as an adult and hang the damn thing.
  • That day will be sad when the accused are awarded lighter sentences because of the so-called torture they endured during the police custody.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Kannada rhymes DVD by infobells

If you were born in Karnataka in the 80's or 90's and your parents were not too sold out on “convent” culture, you probably grew up hearing some of these Kannada rhymes 

  • ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಲೊಂದು ಚಿಕ್ಕ ಪಾಪ 
  • ನಾಯಿ ಮರಿ ನಾಯಿ ಮರಿ ತಿಂಡಿ ಬೇಕೇ
  • ರೊಟ್ಟಿ ಅಂಗಡಿ ಕಿಟ್ಟಪ್ಪ 
  • ಆನೆ ಬನ್ತ್ಹೊಂದ್ ಆನೆ

Now imagine these rhymes and much more like this being beautifully animated and made into a DVD. That's what infobells has done. I must say, they have done a wonderful job. The DVD flows as a musical narration of songs and is captured as an interaction between a small girl “Chinnu” and her pet dog “Pappu”.  

Thanks to my sister-in-law for introducing us to this. My 2 year old daughter just loves this DVD. Its one of her favorites and she calls it “Chinna – Aane”, referring to the pictures on the DVD.

The company Infobells seems to have a YouTube page and looking at the same, looks like they have translated the rhymes to multiple languages (Tamil and Telugu).

I do consider buying more DVDs from the company and will keep you posted on those when time permits.