aditya kumar's weblog

Happy Independence Day to everyone. To every Indian, and to every non-Indian who is a little bit Indian at heart.

Last week on friendship’s day, I had a terrible time managing the text messages I got on my cellphone. They were so many, I simply could not keep a track of them. What interesting would be, I said to myself, the number of messages I get on Independence day. Be still my wandering mind, now I say, the number of messages throughout the day has not exceeded one. Trust me.

But I insist, Happy Independence day.

Why did the police arrest my (north-indian) friend living in this city, at mid-night from his house for no proper reason? Why did the house owner tell the police that the people living in the house were not vacating it, when the rent-agreement stated a month long notice before asking to vacate the premises, and when no such notice had been given?

Why did the police officer ask him if in North India he wasn’t able to get a job? Why did he accuse (north indian people like) him of ‘spoiling the culture’ of Bangalore?

Punish him if he has been a nuisance but why be hostile to all north-indians working in the city?

If the Government has not made it illegal to work in another city within India, at will, then what is the problem?

So Bangalore, let me ask you, is your success, yours alone? Am I, a north-indian by birth, not a part of it? To make the case interesting, I must mention, my project team consists of a Punjabi, a Kannadiga, a Telugu, a Bengali, a couple of them from Orissa and one from Tamil Nadu. We are all programmers and we are good at what we do.

Or do you choose to accuse me and my friends (barring the kannadiga of course), of spoiling your culture.

And why does my house owner, though a very nice person, sarcastically puts forward his case of the high costs of day-today commodities in Bangalore and ends it with, ‘all because of you people’ ?

But why does he fail to say ‘all because of you people’ when I pay him a mind-boggling amount of money for a single room?

I have faced these ‘whys’ before, I think. After spending almost a decade in Bombay and Pune, when I once heard that Maharashtra is for Maharashtrians, why did it hurt me?

Do you know what happened on 9-11-2001?
Me:No

Two planes crashed on the Two towers, America

Me: I see

Do you know what a human bomb is?

(I am startled but I want to continue the conversation)

Me: No, what is it?

It’s when a man tries to touch the feet and then presses a button and blows himself up with a bomb. Thats a human bomb. They did that to Rajiv Gandhi…

Me: Who told you all this, beta?

My teacher.

…Conversation with my seven year old cousin, who happens to be studying in second standard (grade) in school. Is this what they ought to be learning in school, seven year old kids? Do they need to know how a human bomb works, what a human bomb is? Is it required, they know what happened on 9-11, in America? Forget 9-11, do they need to know America? Until they are not told about India, no, they do not need to know about America.

And which school is this? Frank Anthony, Bangalore. A wee bit too ‘frank’, dont you think?

I have been unable to access Blogger (blogspot) blogs all day today. At work and from home, the site has not been accessible.

At home, my ISP is Hathway Cable.

I did not think much of it until I read this report on rediff.com. It seems the DoT (Department of Telecom) has issued specific instructions to the ISPs to block blog sites, in particular, the most popular Blogspot (In fact, I am not aware of any other blog service being blocked).

Obviously, a response from the Indian Blogger community must be in the waiting. You could say this response here, could be one of the first of many to come. I do not think banning a website like that is right. This is not acceptable. In fact, it is surprising. Besides, the purpose (if any, and there is only one that I can think of) is not served.

Gagging people like that does not help, has never helped. The voices, next time around that you shall get to hear, will only be louder.

If bloggers evoke emotions, it is because they talk about unsaid things, unspeakable emotions. When the glossy media talks about celebs and their pitiful lives, bloggers choose to highlight those aspects of life that the media never dares to display, for it is obsessed with the ratings.

Though the reasons for this blockage are yet unknown, I believe this to be an aftermath of the Mumbai train bombings. The intention of the Government may be right but this is one of the most hopeless ways to cater to it. Practically speaking, this will achieve nothing.

And I have not even started talking about Democracy and rights that come with the deal.

Update: As expected, the responses from the bloggers community have started pouring in. Desipundit.com has one sticky post here. A google group here. List of the ISPs here. Meanwhile, an official explaination from the Government on this issue is still awaited.

More than a thousand farmers have commited suicide in Vidarbha, in the past 4 years or so.

Yet, no Sharad Pawar and no Vilasrao Deshmukh even bothered to visit the place. And mind you, its not a place far, far away. It’s their own state.

These politicians, they have no conscience. The plight of the farmers remains the same. The politicians can’t claim they have spent the money on the Urban development, for Mumbai stands the same, year after year, half sunk in the rains.

And yet, it took 3 years for our PM to visit Vidarbha. People are dying there.

Do you know, PM sa’ab, what the heat of the Vidarbha summer is like?

You talk about the booming economy and the growth rate, but it takes a farmer to tell you that 70% of India’s population can’t afford to buy two meals a day. A girl, in school, tells you that she doesn’t want to marry a farmer.

Please read this.

This post, written on the 6th of June, posted tonight.

Now, to talk about Delhi.

First of all, I think a lot of people don’t know that I am from this city :P Though I have not stayed here much, I have done a substantial part of my schooling from Delhi (5 years) and have visited this city every year for the last 24 years. (Apart from a period while I lived here for 6 years, that is). So I, kind of, know this place.

I have seldom mentioned about my Delhi connections on my website.

I went ‘exploring’ the city today, all by myself. I went to Connaught Circus/Place and I must mention, that it is the only other place in India that reminds me so much of the fountain area in Bombay. The pavement book-sellers, the cloth merchants, the water-vendors, the snack-sellers, the list does not seem to end. Of course, this time around, there were a few surprises. In my 30 minutes walk around the place, I came across two McDonalds restaurants (or were they three?) and one KFC. Three American junk-food restaurants, packed to the maximum, within a radius of one kilometer. See, this is the kind of foreign invasion we are dealing with here. That is, of course, if you think of it as a foreign invasion.

New Delhi has changed. More for the better than for the worse. The better: The roads are wider, the city is flaunting its gleaming new metro rail, the new fly-overs keep welcoming the traffic. The worse: Delhi has less power, lesser water, as always. And yes, the people are ruder. Sorry guys, I think you really need a crash course in politeness.

Now that I have mentioned the ‘gleaming’ new Metro rail, more on it has to be impending. The Metro, I feel, could be termed as the capital’s pride. I liked the fact that its actually not running empty. It was full capacity during my short afternoon journey from “Rajiv Chowk” to “Chandni Chowk”. More than the fact that it is a top quality product, I think to complete the work schedule on time, cutting the red-tapism is in itself, is a bigger, better achievement. This is how plans should work. If you think about it, its a simple thing. It is nothing but a plan that has worked right on schedule. If this is what it can do for one city, the possibilities could be endless.

Evening, I watched “Da Vinci Code” at PVR Rivoli. Every old cinema hall nowadays has a “PVR” prefixed to its name. Put in good interiors, add a little polish, a little ‘garnish’ and sell the tickets for Rs.200. Coming back to the movie, what a waste. No, not just the money. I am talking about Tom Hanks. You don’t need Hanks to play the role of Langdon. How to play Robert Langdon? Just keep popping your eyes in curiosity, appear to think all the time, keep mumbling to yourself, say “code” most of the time and keep listening to Sophie. Heck, even Tom Cruise could do it!

The magazine of todays Sunday Times of India carries an advertisement claiming Kerala to be a monsoon, honeymoon destination. It shows a young couple, in each others arms, under a tree, by a river as the rain is pouring in.

On the left side of the advertisement, a line says “Showers of passion”.

Now, I am nowhere near being in such a position, but I wonder if it were the case and if, impressed by this advertisement, I decide to goto Kerala, would they allow me to do that? Won’t the police come and hit me? Won’t the moral police condemn it? Hell, I could even be on National television. Afterall, in India, its almost criminal for a couple to even hold hands in public. So what if they are married.