Tuesday, July 24, 2007

wtf comment of the day!

IndiaUncut reports a comment worthy of a vicious wtf!!

"Through this arduous struggle and till his last breath, Comrade Shibdas Ghosh resolutely fought against all shades of bourgeois, petty-bourgeois social democratic and modern revisionist ideology while he carried on at the same time a tireless inner-party struggle for elevation of the proletarian ethical, moral and cultural standard of the cadres and leaders as against the vile influence of vulgar bourgeois individualism." [Source]

I am not sure what all that verbose embellishment means but I do know crap when I see it and this is a prime example of a putrid pile of feces. Amidst all the blah blah, the sentence ends with something like Comrade X fought against individualism and that too bourgeois individualism (?). Being an ardent fan of individualism, I find this claim repulsive and fit for ridicule.

Follow the "source" link and you are presented with more commie crap - "The SUCI vows to uphold the banner of socialist revolution and proletarian internationalism with every drop of blood of its leaders and cadres.". Adorning such sentiments are the photos of its stalwarts - Lenin, Stalin and chairman Mao. After I saw these photos, I couldn't read anymore as my tolerance limit had been breached.

All the best to you brave ones out there.

Friday, July 06, 2007

The Philosophy Of Progress

"Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." - Robert A. Heinlein

"Progress is made by men who have a healthy disrespect for established structures and processes and are looking for a way out" - Emperor Frost

The wise Emperor hastens to add that only those men who understand, value and cherish the rules are the ones who know which ones to break - paradoxical as that might sound, it is but an indication of the zen of the emperor.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Killing The Messenger

I rue the state of Indian women.

All the punditry on India's exploding economic growth is superfluous and in my opinion, a great myth until the day society is truly free. All of India's social indicators languish at abysmal depths - education, health, emancipation of women to mention a few. Without education, the citizenry cannot shake off the feudal grip that politicians have over society (this is a huge problem in itself), women continue to be oppressed with the patriarchal slant of society reinforcing the over lordship of male apes (this constitutes another major impediment). It also has been the forte of Indian society to shoot the messenger who runs into town with the torch of liberation. The darkness just doesn't let go.

What else can you say about this -

A woman is continually harassed for dowry with increasing intensity by her husband and his parents. It peaks when she gives birth to a daughter. At this point, unable to bear the mental anguish (physical (?)) she leaves home and decides to rear her daughter as a single mother. She continues to protest her victimization and in one incident walks semi nude to the police commissioner's office via a busy road. I am assuming that none of her previous efforts have raised such a dust storm. And what exactly do the mindless jackasses who are part of this society do? take up her cause? think again. This is India and we are proud of our tradition of shooting the messenger - we character assassinate this woman and push the real issue of dowry and torture into the background (is it even an issue?) and debate the credibility and character of the victim. How many times hasn't the suspicion for rape fallen on the victim?

IBN has a [report], please make sure you read the comments. They illuminate the intellect of the cretins that infest Indian society. I shall reproduce a couple of them - I nominate these characters for the Indian edition of Hostel.

"Posted By Monit -

Despite being so many biased laws for females, she has resorted to such indecent ways."

"Posted By Ash

A girl with such daring could do anything, absolutely anything. So much so that she can threaten husband and in-laws."

Education will set free people's minds from the shackles of superstition and (I hope) break down traditional power structures that are designed to suppress different sections of society (women as a class, the poor and backward as a class etc).

That is my fervent prayer and I hope to see some of it in my lifetime.

Edit: Churmuri has another [report]

Edit 2: Both the pictures are disturbing - I am referring to the street trash that you can see in the photo on churmuri . They seem amused and are following her around to get maximum mileage out of it akin to the tamasha that attracts crowds on every street.

The Gulmohar

William Wordsworth had his daffodils to think of in his mind's eye -
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
I grew up in Jayanagar in a Bangalore where the emotional equivalent of Wordsworth's daffodil was the Gulmohar - every street and avenue was lined with these trees, including parts of the Lal Bagh garden that I used to frequent. So, it came as a very rude shock to me when I could not remember the Gulmohar in bloom even though I've spent many years climbing many a tree and playing a kind of kiddie game with their buds. I was sure they were yellow and in my "inward eye" "flashed" images of avenues of yellow Gulmohars. I was pleased as punch to have remembered those halcyon days of yore. All until I looked up Google for images of the Gulmohar and to my bitter disappointment I found them to be a deep red. I was so convinced that they were yellow (if you prefer Freudian symbology - my ego tried to protect my id by actually conjuring up images that would satisfy/placate the id's drive) that when they turned out to be not so, the distance between my home, my past, my memories and the present seems like an uncrossable and unfathomable chasm - a schism that makes me unsure of where I am going because I've forgotten where I came from.

The flowers are but the tip of the iceberg - there have been many such instances.

I am depressed.

And if you are too, then allow me to "flash upon that inward eye" images of the Gulmohar.


Gulmohar

gulmohar3

Gulmohar-Royal Poinciana(Delonix)

Gulmohar

P.S: The same goes for a hundred other flowers like jasmine, marigold etc etc. Images of Gandhi Bazaar and 4th block jayanagar flash!!

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

The King Of Good Times

[from churmuri.com]

On the historic occasion of the 150th anniversary that most Indians celebrate every night with tears in their eyes, and few historians remember—the setting up of United Breweries in 1857

***

After an international beer conference in London, all the world’s top brewery bosses decide to go out for a beer together.

The chairman of Budweiser says, “I’d like the most refreshing beer in the world, ‘The King of Beers’: give me a Budweiser.”

The bartender takes a bottle from the shelf and opens it for him.

The Chairman of Guinness says, “I’d like the only beer in the world worth really, truly waiting for: give me a Guinness.” The bartender serves him.

The Chairman of Carlsberg says, ” I would like the world’s best beer, drunk in more countries than any other: give me a Carlsberg.” He gets one.

Vijay Mallya sits down, looks around and says, “just give me a Coke.”

The bartender looks at him, shrugs, and serves him.

The other brewery bosses laugh loudly and say, “Hey Vijay, how come you aren’t drinking a Kingfisher?”

“Listen,” says Mallya, “If you guys aren’t drinking beer, neither will I.”

***
Like Upendra so eloquently said "Cool drink yaake?"