The so called PUNKS..!!

I still remember, seeing Amitabh Bachchan / Rajnikanth in movies earlier, fighting these huge- sized, weirdos, with almost shaved head except the center part, where they have quite long hairs and with colours like red, blue, green,etc. all over them, calling themselves as villains. The image got embedded in my brain, that this is how villains looked. I used to wonder, are these people crazy to have a style like these, even though they were called villains. Well, one does do crazy stuffs for movies. I happen to see these styles more, when I started watching star movies, the mid-80s rock star, with complete weird styles, like shaving just half of their head, tattoos, small are fine, but having tattoos covering almost the entire body looks pathetic! I thought such practices of shaving just half of the head were done here, to humiliate a person (chehre pe kaala rang and gadhe ki sawari!).

Anyways, I hope one would have understood, my personal reaction towards such styles, I dont mean to offend them, after all they are also called ' "styles" ' (its not gramatical error, but just extra quotes, for extra effect!). Well I never thought, that I would be a spectator to such styles in reality (again, not sounding very offensive!), but common, imagine I walk out of the Hauptbahnhof (Central station) here, I see a person, with half shaved hair, with magenta colour on the remaining hair, the ear on the shaved side of head with rings (4 or 5), black jeans and black leather jacket, and the best part was when I realized it was a woman. And what was even astonishing, she was only one of the many such stylists (I wanna sound optimistic!) I saw. My face was, woah! am I in TV, any shooting going on here? Nope she was a reality, I knew I should have taken a pic. Anyways, the tough part was to differentiate between a guy and a girl, black being their dress code, only the tops they wore helped in distinguishing, as their styles were so similar, a casual glance wouldn't be sufficient. What amazes me everytime I look at them, is their creativity on experimenting on their body (tattoos, piercings!), with the worst combinations of colours (blue, lavender!), thats the reason I have separate kind of respect for someone like Lasith Malinga (lighter note!). Some observation helped in distinguishing between the male and female a bit easily, the guys wore jeans so low, that at some point you would wonder, how is that jeans still on him. Apparently the women, wear tight jeans. Well, even if you are comfortable with these tattoos and stylish hair colours, and just when you start thinking that there not much abnormal about that, the piercings will freak you out. I still remember, when I got on the bus, I saw this female right before me, with almost 5 rings around her mouth, I mean who pierces in mouth, and 5 rings, 1 or even 2 rings are quite common and how does she even eat! Gimme a break! Well I had to turn my face immediately, or I would have ended up either shouting or laughing. Well, on one side, I cant stop being amazed at them for experimenting with themselves at these extreme ways, in which one would imagine and thats a pretty difficult thing to do. I mean even if I would want to do such stuff (which will never be in this lifetime!), just for say, I dont think I will do it, just thinking of others reaction, but for them to reach to such an extent, they have my appreciation.

Gender Variations..!!

Yesterday, I was helping out one of my seniors move out, and we were having a normal conversation. In between conversations, she would stop and think and then again start talking, quite evident that something was bothering her, which she revealed that she was thinking if she had taken everything or missed out anything. This reminded me of the situation when we used to travel out of station, my mom would always start freaking out just an hour before we start for the station, thinking if she had switched off the gas, is the house locked properly, are the windows closed, the balcony door locked, etc. and by the time the train starts, both me and my father would make big attempts to tell her that everything is in place at house, but still those small doubts keep bothering her. So when I told her this scenario, she told me that this was because women are responsible people, i.e, they take responsibility easily. So we had quite a calm argument on who takes the responsibility better, the conclusion for which was brought about by she telling me to watch after my marriage. Nevertheless this scenario only makes me wonder, when does a woman have the ultimate sureness that the job is done and perfect. I feel this is the precise reason why they take such a long time shopping also. Men know what they want, and goto the place where they know they would get what they want, however, when it comes to woman, the moment they enter the shop, they start getting unsure, if they have reached the right place for the stuff and even if they have or have not, they would not leave the place until they have a look around for stuff which is present there, whether they want it or not. Without doubt, this is the only reason, which would drive any man crazy while shopping with a woman, who knows what she wants but is unsure whether to buy the stuff she doesn't need now (there is difference between what you want and what you need!), just because she is not in the right place. Whats even worse, men are posed with the question, do you think I should buy this. Consider the situation, that a woman wants to buy a saree, but the same shop, knowingly or unknowingly, has a jewelery section, now anyone would be attracted to have look, which is quite understandable, but the thing that really puts one off, is trying out on almost all the pieces, and finally deciding on the buying a particular piece of jewelery, which has to be one of the costliest (ok, money does not count in every time, but still!), and which is not the need of the hour, and by the time you reach the saree section (which is why you came for shopping!), it would have been two hours since you started. Well if thats not enough, consider this, reaching home and saving up the bill, just incase if they wanted to exchange, I mean common gimme a break. Exchanges are acceptable if the thing gets damaged, but exchanging almost every time you shop, what was the necessity to buy it on the first place. No wonder the word shopping lights up any girl's face, but its opposite incase of a guy, when he has to take her (well not incase of all, but most atleast!). However, all this doesn't change the fact, that they help the men choose, one of the best, though that takes some eternal time, but ultimately its a better one than what the man would have selected. The only conclusion I can make, is for any woman the thing called 100% surety on anything is out of question.

On a F.R.I.E.N.D.S spree..!!

One very common tradition for people, during their studies is, getting used to sitcoms, atleast from my perspective, and having a whole database of links, where you can watch DVD Rip of movies, sometimes even for those that have not been released, etc. I will be concentrating more on sitcoms in this post, especially only one, which is quite obvious from the title. Among the German classes and fluctuations in my emotions, they kept me occupied. A year back, or never would be precise, I knew that I will get hooked up with sitcoms to such an extent. It like a permanent closed gate, once opened, never closes (Ok! Its metaphor! :D).

So there was this sitcom called Friends, started in 1994, I guess thats just a few years after we got cable in India, when The Bold and The Beautiful, used to be the words in everyone's mouth, for quite obvious reasons. However, in the next few years I saw a major transition, and Friends was the buzz word everywhere. I did want to start watching it, but I couldn't bring myself to sit before the tv, exactly at 7:30pm or 8pm, waiting for the show, or whatever. The internet came and it was quite sometime until a few years back, where one could easily download any episode, anytime and watch it anywhere(Sounds great, perfect for me, but who will give such a large amount of free download capacity on net!). Well things happened, a few years later, when I was in Ulm, for my Masters and free 24 hrs, high speed internet, awaited on me. A thought came, that this was my best chance, not that I had only this in mind, but I realized I had to use this opportunity efficiently.

When I was among these thoughts, something even better happened. I went to William's room, and happened to see this pack, called Friends, 40 DVDs, 10 seasons, and I was like, Oh My God! (you can say its equivalent to Jannes in Friends! :D). And thats when it started. I started completing 2 DVDs a day and each DVD had 6 episodes. It was as if I was getting tired of borrowing DVDs from William or frustrated waiting for him to get a new DVD, when he wasnt there in his room, that another classmate of mine, provided all the 10 seasons on the hard drive. And I was like, what more could I ask for. I still remember, every episode, was just tears of laughter, great timing dialogs, and I just couldn't get over it. I was able to complete this sitcom in less than 2 months and some of them told, you took so long to complete it. I mean, what the hell, I have to go for lectures and they were like, yeah right! No wonder, it did the buzz word for so long. A brief intro on the characters for those who have not watched it yet:

Monica: The super competitive, organized-freak Friend, always looks to be best in whatever she participates.
Phoebe: The sweetest and sexiest of all the Friends, always in her own world.
Rachel: The spoiled beautiful girl of a rich doctor, who runs away on her wedding day, when she realises that someone else turns her on, than her fiance.
Chandler: The sarcastic Friend, uses humor as defense, thats what he says, and works as Process blah blah, even I dont know that.
Ross: The geek Doctor who is fanatic about his Paleontology profession, and gets divorced thrice before the age of 30 :D. Also Monica's brother.
Joey: The stupid Friend, who cant use his head for anything but is a master is wooing the women.

Some of my favourite dialogs from Friends:

Joey to Monica: Common Monica, you are going out with a guy, there must something wrong with him.
Chandler: I wish I were a lesbian, Oh did I say that loud!
Ross to Chandler: Whatever dude, you kissed a guy!
Rachel to her dad on phone: May be I dont need you money (the phone goes dead), oh wait, I said may be!
Phoebe to Ross: Oh oh, you aura is so dirty!
Monica on her prom video, where she is fat and weighs around 150 pounds: Camera adds 10 pounds on your image. Chandler: So how many cameras were on you?
Ross: I did give up a career in Basketball, to Paleontology!
Joey: You are hurting my Joey's Apple! (relating to Adam's apple)
Chandler: I can't remember, which of Joey's 7 sisters, I slept with!

I guess, everyone should watch this atleast once, not necessarily at the same pace as mine, but yeah its fun and best way to beat stress. Also tells us, that nothing remains unsolved, if we start talking.

A Controvery or A Comedy...!!!

Ok guys here goes my third blog...!!! And this is has been hitting ma mind for long now.. so I thought of dropping it down over here, so that hits your mind also.

It was started sometime back in December 2006, now thats a month which no one will forget easily, thanks to Tsunami. However there are other events too which make this month unforgettable like Christmas, New Year Eve, etc, and something else, yep there you hit a string now, "THE SETHUSAMUDRAM PROJECT". Its almost going to be a year since the start of this multi-crore investment project, which involves the dredging of the sea sand from the base to create a canal for the ships to travel, and yet I have been pondering over the real initiative for this project. Just got to know some great infos, striking me like a bolt.

Now this is a 2427.40 crore, wow..!!! now thats a whopping investment. And if you think that the project is really worth the money, well we need to think twice after the following facts. Now the main motive behind this project, as I understand, was to prevent the burden for the ships coming to Chennai port from the West, to travel around the Sri Lankan border, and come through the narrow channel which is being dug up and is named as the Sethusamudram Canal. Now thats a very effective strategy, or is it? When the ships are travelling from West from a long distance, say countries like Africa or America, for example, it gives a bit of saving in money, only, how? Well, now that the channel is being made the country needs to pay for using the channel which compensates almost for the expenditure for a ship going around the Sri Lanka. Neither is there saving in time as the ship needs to go only at speeds of 8 to 10 knots per hour in the channel when it can travel at speeds of 30 to 35 knots per hour. More than this everyone does know about the environmental impact, the negation of which still surprises everyone. This channel opens up the place for easy smuggling, making work difficult for the coast guard. And last and the most important, this channel breaks the Palk Strait, which is said to be the bridge built by the VANARASENA of Lord Ram in the Ramayana. So the big question here is, is this project worth the investment, after all it is our money which is being invested, just on "societical" note.

Now that the Palk Strait is gonna be blasted, the sleeping politicians have got a reason to start a fight over this, going for state visits, taking the oppositions to challenge, telling everyone that they are the true disciples of Ram, oh common!!! give me break. We have the other side of the debate where the other one does even bigger comedy by asking the proof of Lord Rama's presence. Wow..!!! now thats what we call the need of the hour, what a reason they found to blame each other, cant get better than this. And whats spicy even the gurus take part in this debate, making the fight even more interesting, the usually calm and poised gurus getting violent, thats scary. I aint saying that I dont believe in Ramayana or Mahabharata but is this a reason to gain publicity?

Anyways the main point, however, lies here is, even after a year of commencement of the Sathusamudram project, I still ponder over the worth of the project. Is it really bringing in the savings that we are expecting, or yet another black cloth is being tied around our eyes? Guess I'l have to wait and see.

Hockey - A Forgiven Glorifying Sport

Hockey - A sport which put India on this world map. Sometime back, the sportstars and sporting authority in India only dreamt of sending teams for Olympics, a time when the Indian Hockey team used to bring the only Olympic Gold Medal. Yes, a period when Indian sportstars weren't even ready to goto Olympics, the Indian Hockey (courtesy Dhyan Chand and team) team used to win the gold in the Hockey sport, bringing glory to the nation, putting forth country's name in the world map. Hockey's best player so far Dhyan Chand, even was conspired to have a magnet in his bat, that was the extent of his talent. It was the consecutive record of winning 8 Olympic gold that made Hockey the National Game. A game which is considered to have its talent root in India.

All this is history now, does it mean that it should be forgotten. Certain events against Hockey have been disturbing. It started from the Railways team not getting good accommodation facility, it was pathetic to see them living in the old compartments of the trains, the funding for the Hockey team is far less and the most serious the sport being removed from priority list last year. All these have been a consequence of the poor show of the Indian team in the past few years, but that shouldn't encourage disrespect to our National Game. Sahara has been the only sponsor to support the sport else Hockey's name would have been removed from the sporting list also. And now when the team has struck with vengeance and outperformed beating all the teams winning the Asia cup, which is not less than the World Cup as they have got some real good teams from Asia, all they get is Rs.1000 per goal? So with 65 goals scored they get a meager Rs.65000? All this for the great spirit they displayed in each match?

This is not only the state of Hockey but also other sports. In Football we won the Nehru Cup, which itself is an achievement for the Indian Team, and the sad part is most of us donot even know hat Nehru Cup is. I admit it myself. We all love Cricket but Nation does come first and they are also our heroes. Though they haven't played with the best teams in the world, but still they have outperformed to get the title and bring the country glory in their own perspective. All these news made the center page in the news papers but still no recognition. And seeing the importance and credibility given to Cricket, the other sportstars are bound to get demotivated. And it was only after the hunger strike, we see the individual companies recognizing their players. I mean is this required, such provocation to go on hunger strike? It is all upto the us and media to recognize our heroes as it is they who represent us in the world arena, bringing glory to our Nation, to the Indians, to us.

Cricket - A Uniting Force

April 2007 - A first round exit from the World Cup 2007 for India and Pakistan, a further step of humiliation for Pakistan for their loss at the hands of the minnows of their group, Ireland.

September 24th, 2007 - A day when the world stopped and only thing running everywhere was the Twenty20 World Cup final between the two most talented, spirited, underdogs and arch-rival teams, India and Pakistan. The en-route to this stage for both the teams has been very difficult, with the major changes affecting the teams and player as an individual. Right from tearing apart the teams, the coaches resignation and death in the other case, captain's stepping down, angered fans, put forth some big challenges for the BCCI and PCB. But on 24th all of this was forgotten and the crowd all over the world were engrossed with the perfect final for any tournament, probably an expected one when both the teams were qualified for the semi-final berth.

India with a huge set-back at the start of the tournament with the 3 major's pulling out and an entire new team, with the least of the exprience in this format, under a new captain, displayed nothing more than spirited and fearless play of cricket, which put them in the final. Every step conquered was a major leap for the team as there were very less expectations, which was also another reason for joy among the fans. They were the underdogs right from the start of tournament, but were a bunch of talented and fighting youngsters, which also took the world champions by surprise. And this was proved when India grabbed the World Cup right out of the Pakistan's reach. An entertaining final won by India, the consequence of better handling of pressure, which was a habit of this team throughout the tournament. And why not, the world cup grab right out of the arch-rival's reach saw the entire country unite under the once force - CRICKET. Everyone right from kid to age old women, under the midnight showers, right from Srinagar to Rameswaram, from Gujarat to West Bengal, everyone was dancing, shouting slogans in praise of their new idols, the new world Twenty20 champions, the young India XI, the future India XI, sans the big names, the big 3s.This was a team which fulfilled its dreams, showing immense belief in their play and writing a new script in the way cricket will be played, henceforth. However, all this should be done keeping in mind that these players need the same support when they fall short of expectations.

Guys this is my first blog, please drop in your comments. I wanted to start with something easy and nothing came to my mind other than this major event in India's Calendar. This blog henceforth is going to be my personal view on all the events right from political to sport to entertainment and it will be helpful to hear the comments.