Hey! I am back!

It’s been quite a long time since i posted (i go by the fact that I forgot my blog address when i had to type it on my desktop since i am so used to one click on my bookmarks in my laptop). From ill health to being busy with work, lots of reasons for my absence. The world moves on though.

Meanwhile, a lot of news items caught my attention and set me thinking. Surprising because i am not a news person at all! Newspapers are a waste of time and too big in size for comfortable reading and there are better things to watch on TV than news. This seems like masala for a separate post, catch you there!!!

First of all, what left a sour taste in my mouth is the whole political arm twisting about the release of My Name is Khan. (decided not to watch it at all). i mean it’s just a movie and has to do with the personal profit and loss of the people involved. Should the government have deployed over 40,000 policemen (some of whose leaves were canceled for the extended weekend!) to ensure a safe release of a movie just because Shah Rukh Khan, the businessman (not the actor) happened to mutter a sentence related to his business?? The level of manoeuvring involved threatening the Sena big bosses that their men under custody would be treated as criminals. The theatre owners were forced to showcase the film or they would lose tax benefits leaving them no way out. i have a problem with the degree of the government’s involvement in the whole issue. If a movie is a threat to the peace of a city, just stop the release. If our respected Chief Minister were to act so promptly in matters that require urgent attention, we would probably not be spending millions on Kasab’s security. I don’t remember any such action being taken to ensure successful screening of better made films on better on important subjects where the creative freedom of the makers was at stake.

i hadn’t got over this when the news of blasts in Pune filled the TV screens. What else can we expect when our dear rulers are busy protecting the personal interests of a few influential people? The lapse is unpardonable since this was yet another classic case of intelligence failure. There was intelligence as early as November 2009 that German Bakery was in the radar of attacks. Wasn’t it the duty of the government officials to prioritise saving the lives of innocent people by stationing their armed forces at a sensitive location like this than at the theatres of Mumbai?

Talking about the country as a whole, Maoists were also given easy access to killing innocent lives in Bihar despite the officials being informed 3 hours in advance about the attacks. In Amethi, the bastion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, a dalit woman was brutally beaten up by the upholders of law to make her confess murdering her husband. (I thought the world was celebrating the liberation of women, sic!) Such is the extent of human apathy in today’s times that a woman constable remained a mute witness to the heinous act. Though what takes the cake is the comment of Renuka Chaudhary on one of the channels. Madame says she’s not surprised that it happened in UP which is not safe for anyone anymore. The CM, Mayawati might be party to such vandalism by the police since she doesn’t pull them up for such barbaric behaviour. Do we commit the blunder of electing such people to power??

I am happier not watching the news on TV. It only debunks the myth of India shining well on its way to becoming a superpower. I don’t think my country can ever be a superpower in the real sense while women are being beaten up and the government is more interested in safeguarding its prestige over paltry matters. Economic figures might suggest otherwise.

On a different front, Arnab Ray of the greatbong fame has started pre-order booking of his book, May I hebb your attention please. The preliminary reviews suggest the book has “politically incorrect” take on a variety of topics that formed the culture of the 90’s. I can kinda guess the experience of reading the book written in Ray’s typical style. And I am not dying to read the book. I acknowledge that he is a great writer since writing a whole book is no mean feat. But reading stuff with terms similar “peripetatic peregrinations of millions of people” in the Calcutta Book Fair is not my idea of a fun read. I might be jumping to conclusions about the nature of the book being similar to his blog writing but what the heck! This is my blog and I can write what I honestly feel about things.

That was all that caught my roving eye in the last few days. Watch this space for more....