Dear Delhi,

What’s happening to you or what has happened to you?, why are the women or children specially girls are not safe in the city?, One thing I always wondered is, if this is the same state of affairs across the country and Delhi being the capital of the country these incidents are coming to light more often?  

Why is it that the public have to enrage and then only the police get into action? and I do appreciate the police for their swift action in getting the arrests done. But the irony is that the Delhi police, on one hand refused to register a complaint of the missing child and once the child is found in semi conscious state, they manage to arrest the culprits in no time. That too the culprits had fled Delhi to a distant state. So, form what I can see the efficiency exists in the Delhi police, all they need is motivation either in form of a carrot or a stick.

One cannot blame the police alone for not preventing the incidents and making Delhi more safer, because the victims involved were a 5 year old and another one is a 10 year old. Both of whom were molested by their neighbors, people whom they and their parents trusted to an extent. Of course one can blame them for not registering a complaint of the missing kid when they were asked to and not showing sensitivity once the child was found.

One thing I would definitely blame is the fast track court, its been almost 4 months since the bus incident and one person has already apparently committed suicide. So, where is the judgment, I am waiting with baited breath. Or the fast track just means it would be a few years instead of the usual few decades. For me the bus incident is a open and shut case and a judgment can be passed in a day, let alone months. 

Of course the mouths of our leaders better be sealed, do they even know that the recent victims are not women or teens but children?. Our esteemed PM said he was deeply moved, then what? is there an action or law or some such sort or should I be satisfied by the fact that he was moved?  

The thing that is bothering me the most is that of the 3 incidents that came to light in the last few months, there are a few in their teens and some in their early 20s or so. It tells me that there is something wrong with the way we as a society are handling the younger generation. Where have we gone wrong? In the case of the 10 year old girl, what happened to the golden rule “do not do something to others that you do not want them to do”?  or what we call the sense of belongingness, the kid was your neighbors daughter for gods sake.

One thing that is common amongst the cases is, all the culprits were under the influence of alcohol, so if the government can do anything other than just saying “ we are moved” is to do something about alcohol availability and sales. Oh, sorry that will be impossible due to the lobbying groups.

On the last note, after the last two incidents, I am in agreement with Sri Sri Ravishankar when he says, for all these atrocities to stop we need to uplift people by educating them on the spiritual path.

Democracy or Lobbycracy

The recent defeat of the gun control bill to make background check mandatory in the US congress has made me wonder, do we really have a democracy or we are living in an illusion of democracy.

All through this year, all the news media that I follow have been reporting that more than 90% of Americans are in favor of gun control and are in favor of background check and the only organization that is firmly against is the NRA which has an active membership of close to 4million people.

So, if most of the American people wants one thing why is the elected representatives are against it?, aren’t they worried about their re-election (ideally that’s what should happen if democracy were to be working in its full sense). But what I am witnessing is that senators are worried about the lobbying group (read NRA) than the people who elected them. Another way of looking at it, the media reported it wrong and only the urban elite who form the 10% and not 90% want the background checks . 

To think further, the bill at question is background check. People are scared of being in a federal registry of owning guns. But aren’t you in some form of registry when you own a car, when you get a drivers license or for that matter when you get a speeding ticket, granted not everyone will have any of the above. Its mind boggling that anybody can walk into a gun show and buy a gun without probably even have to show any id before buying while you need all sorts of documentation before one can buy a car (insurance and all such).

To an extent, I feel people are getting paranoid for no reason and it is a shame that the senators are so scared of the NRA that they refuse to talk about Guns and Control in the same sentence. 

The curious case of Sanjay Dutt

The esteemed film actor who has had multiple life’s in movies and one of the few actors who can claim to have hits in Indian cinema in almost every decade since the 80s.

The recent supreme court verdict that said he has to spend about 3 and half years in jail has let some media and people uproar. There are people on both sides of the story with his cine friends and fans saying he should be pardoned while the other intellectual community saying, he deserves more tougher punishment and should suffer the same as others involved in the case.

When the verdict came out, I was on the side of the intellectuals and was thinking he deserved more but reading this lengthy article on Tehelka made me re-remember the 80s and the 90s one more time. It was the time when our cine stars like Anil Kapoor used to watch cricket match with Dawood Ibrahim, it was the time when the underworld used to finance most of the Hindi movies, it was the time when our A-class cine actresses used to perform shows for the underworld dons in Dubai and other places. It was time before the economy was opened up. It was a time when it was fashionable to pose with underworld dons and share drinks with them. In short, the nexus between Bollywood and underworld was real tight. Needless to say most of these came about right after the blasts of 1993 and before that it was all hunky-dory.

What I said above is the history, now to the facts. Sunil Dutt (Sanjay’s father) was hated for doing relief work for the Muslim community (we know who they were). If the Tehelka article is to be believed Sunil Dutt’s own party members distanced him.  The family was getting threatening calls. Now the choice came about, should the junior Dutt have trusted the Indian police to protect himself an the family against a mob attack or try and do something on his own. He went the other way on his own. His possession of assault rifles and grenades made me think he is off to a war or something but that is a useful way to protect against a mob attack (assuming he knew how to use it).

Another problem is the case has run for nearly 20 years and as the saying goes “justice delayed is justice denied”. It is kind of weird to impose a sentence on a crime like this (charge of possessing and destroying an assault rifle, never fired or killed anybody) that was committed 20 years ago, they could have let all the people off with fines and community services. Another problem with this long gap is it removes an entire generation that lived the times and understood what it was like and adds a generation that has no understanding of the whole issue in hand.

All the above said, I am not advocating that anybody should be above the law. My points of view are only for this case.

Catalog choice

Catalog choice - The best tool out there to stop the spam from coming to the mailbox (not the email but the land mail).

Our mailbox used to get so much junk and unwanted mails that once when we were out of town for a week, the mail lady stopped delivering the mails to our mail box and started with holding all our mails and parcels at the post office. I even lost the note that said our mails are being withheld and began to think that some how my mail is getting stolen. Then a short trip to the post office and the good lady delivered me a big basket full of mail and said “your mail box was overflowing and hence I stopped delivering”. After weeding through all the junk mail, I finally ended up with the 10% of the actual mail that I was interested in.    

At around this time a good friend of mine introduced me to Catalog choice, as the website says – it works on reducing junk mails to your mailbox. The registration process is pretty straight forward and in my experience it really works. For ex: I used to get a bundle of junk mails from company called Red-Plum (they bundle every possible thing from CVS to HEB to Walmart to Papa Johns and so on) and it is always addressed to resident and once I added this to catalog choice, I have stopped receiving mails from them. Now, I don’t have to check my mail every few days and can go up to a week easily without my mailbox overflowing.

Give it a try, it is good for you and the environment and best of all, it works.  

Mahashivaratri at the Austin Hindu Temple

Thanks to my daughter and my wife, for the first time in over a decade of my life in USA I managed to get to a temple on the day of Shivaratri and I am glad I did.

For the few hours I spent in the temple, I was impressed by the way the festival was celebrated at the Austin hindu temple, they had abisheka pooja every hour starting at 5:00PM going on till midnight or later (not sure) and were also providing milk to people to pour on the Shiva Linga. On the food front they were providing prasada pretty much through the night. Considering most of it is run by volunteers, it was a pretty well run show. Keep in mind, unlike other festivals where there is a concentrated time in which the temple usually gets a bulk of its visitors, this festival is a marathon process. 

Usually I will be the last person to pour milk on a shiva linga (essentially a black stone) but this time around I stood in line and participated in the process. It was a unique experience, for the time I was pouring milk, my mind was pretty still and thoughtless. One can call it a few moments of meditation. To an extent it made me understand the meaning behind some of the rituals and ceremonies.    

Another laudable effort by the temple committee is to draft a calendar that is applicable to Austin (USA) region. They still have these calendars, in case you want it.

Looking back nearly a decade ago when one of the founding members had called some of us for a meeting to talk about a hindu temple in Austin, I had snubbed him off but now I am glad they built this place of worship.  

Oh my god - movie worth a watch

Last year (2012) there was a movie called Oh my god released with Paresh Rawal and Akshay Kumar as the lead and I had completely discarded it for I was skeptical of Akshay Kumar after his disaster of a movie called Joker and weird movie that became a hit Housefull-2. But some how this year a friend of mine mentioned that it is worth a watch and was available on Youtube, so I took a chance.

The story is different than any movie I have seen before, and it is something that is relevant to the present times. It is the story of an atheist  Guajarati businessman who loses his business to an earthquake and his claim is denied by insurance company for they do not cover damages that is considered “act of god”. So, the businessman files a case against god himself, since he cannot summon god himself he calls the heads of various religious organizations (watch the movie for I do not want to spoil and dilute the reasoning behind this call) and what happens next is the story.

The movie is some what a summation of all my adult life thoughts on god and his presence. The movie does make a ton of fun on blind faith and belief that we carry on specially in India. The logical arguments in the movie has the potential to make one think hard. It has a good and happy ending too and a very nice message in the end, not sure how practical it is though.

I recommend the movie and it is worth a watch.  

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