Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Books

I am not much of a reader; but I read whatever I can lay my hands on, or anything that comes recommended. From random articles on wiki to random blogs, there is much more than meets the eye in this world. While I've read Bhagavad Gita, Qu'ran and Bible, I don't really think there is much difference in what they are trying to preach. Language is different - essence is the same. And I do not really follow any of them blindly, one of the arguments given in one of the books is as follows:

According to injunctions, there are six kinds of aggressors:
1) a poison giver,
2) one who sets fire to the house,
3) one who attacks with deadly weapons,
4) one who plunders riches,
5) one who occupies another's land, and
6) one who kidnaps a wife.

Such aggressors are at once to be killed, and no sin is incurred by killing such aggressors.

Again, I am not supporting or opposing the argument above - merely stating what has been mentioned. Where I find irony is, though all major books follow the above, the laws of the land do not suggest that an individual should take justice in his own hands. And while the basic premise of all judicial systems is one such text or the other, capital punishment still doesn't find favor with most of these courts.

Guess it's time I pick up something to read into the judicial system.

Latest movies

I have been quite a movie buff - having watched loads and loads of movies over last few years, having imdb to serve as the movie bible, having watched more than half of imdb top 250, having a collection of thousands of movies that I like in my hard disks - it is safe to say that I am inclined towards movies in general.

There are quite a few movies that I had seen in last year or so, which have sort of blacked out from my mind. I can remember bits and pieces of the storylines of a few of them here and there, but can't come to recall the names of the movies or the plots, or the endings for that matter. Was watching an animation last night, "How to train a dragon" - a fun movie.

Only after the movie had finished did I realize that I had already seen it early this year! Guess it's an overload of watching so many movies that I can't even remember which ones I have watched and which ones I haven't.

Personal pointer - keep a tab on what you watch! A few sitcoms can make the week smooth which enough media for the week. And then, wait for white collar in jan.

Monday, November 22, 2010

In the news

I am intrigued by the happenings in our surroundings today.

You open the television, and move to a news channel - and all there is playing is either a scam, or a political turmoil. At best, a happy news about India doing well on a specific day in Cricket, or one of the cricketing starts reaching yet another landmark! Of the current ones I can see on TV, there is a tainted CVC issue, some case of Supreme Court asking PM about clarifications on what he did or did not do when one of his ministers was distributing favors in the market in form of some licenses, another case of CWG officials being arrested by CBI and interrogated for money laundering while the supreme boss holidays in Monaco, a case of a state CM refusing to resign after being accused of a land scam, another real estate scam based on defense property, and many more.

(While on CWG, every time I see a name related to CWG scams on TV, I anxiously look for names that I worked with when the games were happening. Not to my surprise, none of the names that feature in the TV are of those who actually were visible during the games, running around doing all the hard work. Sort of verifies my hypothesis that there were two kinds of people in CWG - ones who made the games happen, and ones who did all the "hard" work before the actual work started, and made merry, and made sure those who follow will have to burn in midnight oil in order to make games happen!)

Just last week, I was introduced to a few audio clips on youtube (I think I picked them up through FB, where some connection of mine had shared the link), where a media personality was negotiating portfolios on phone on behalf of a political party, while another political strategist was representing the coalition partner for a specific ministry.

A stupid optimist that I am, I am still hopeful that we will come out of these roadblocks - supplemented by tainted CVC, unresponsive CBI, hand-tied Supreme Court.

On that note, it reminds me of another incident a friend told me last week. I have this friend who also believes that if you have to have the right to crib, be there to make a change yourself first, to have that right to crib. (Like I mentioned in an earlier post here). So he thought he'll turn a few stones, and went on to connect with the youth wing of one of the leading national political parties. To his amazement, it took him weeks to get an appointment with the relevant first, and when he finally reached to meet, he was frowned upon on knowing that he was neither son of a business family, or a political family! He was told that it is better to stay in corporate world, trying to make a difference to the country's economy, rather than through politics, unless he had some big moolah to shell out, or a political family to step into shoes of!

Sad that this friend actually wanted to get in the system and try and make a difference to the society! Another 10-20 years and things will change dramatically from where they are today, but I guess the real beginning of that change is yet to start.