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

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 

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.