Formation

And there I was again. Trying to get back into the formation before the next attack came. Attacks were coming thick and fast but mostly head on. Every now and then we could hear the start of another attack as the grounds beneath us began to shake.

I was standing at the leftmost position on the fourth and last row. As another shell penetrated our formation, the 2 guys right in front of me on the third row, came hurling towards me and all of us bit the dust. Again we had to get up and get back into formation for the next attack. It seemed that our enemy was just playing with us. He could see us and knew exactly where we were.

There were other groups to the left and right of us. They seemed to be suffering the same fate as us. We had no backup. We knew that whenever anyone of us became incapable of fighting, he would be replaced by another (to suffer the same fate). There was no end to it. At end of every day we came one day closer to being dead. We thanked our Gods for getting us through the day and waited for the next day.

The war had a peculiar pattern to it. The real action did not start before 12 PM but once it did it would go on till the wee hours of the next morning. Then everybody went back to lick their wounds and prepare for the next day. I had given up counting the days from the beginning of the war. It seemed a long time ago since I was molded into a solider to face the enemy. I didn’t even knew what I was defending. It looked like I was brainwashed into joining the war and defending something that I did not know. But we didn’t complain, hell we had nobody to complain to. We were fighting a lost cause.

But we know the enemy. The enemy is you. The people. The  same people who come to bowling alleys in clubs, hotels and shopping malls to get some quality recreational time. And if you have not yet guessed who I am, I am a bowling pin. I generally stand leftmost in the fourth row waiting for the next attack as you take your run up and send that ghastly ball rolling towards us. The heavier the ball, the harder we fall. And since now you know who I am, you might want to read the story again to get the context.

Bandh: Wasted on Indians

Another Bandh. This time, it is not specific to any particular region, its nationwide. What funny is that opposition parties are patting themselves on their back because all the opposition parties are united in this cause. First such instance of Opposition unity after the “JP movement” in the mid-seventies, leader of one of the opposition parties proclaimed.

They are opposing the deregulated oil prices. Opposition says that its aam aadmi’s protest on the street. The bandhs that I have experienced in the past have invariably involved the same aam aadmi getting beaten up by opposition party members because he is not allowed to reach his destination. Thankfully, all essential services like water supply, electricity (as if it were in abundance and there are no power cuts) and hospital services will be exempt from the bandh. We will cut some slack to the guy who thought that up.

Now lets see what will NOT be exempted from the bandh. Any shop keeper who dares to open up his shop just to help a poor guy to buy vegetable oil, will get a mouthful and worse get his shop torn apart.  Members of the opposition youth parties will start their rounds from early in the morning in groups of hundreds just to make sure that the above hypothetical situation becomes a reality. They will block the streets to prevent the workers from reaching their work places. That’s where the violence part comes in.

There are also lots of poor people who are dependent on daily wages for their living. Its pretty hard for them to live through a day of non payment. The bandh is on a Monday. So they had no pay on Sunday, will get none on Monday and will receive their first pay on Tuesday evening. Not in morning, but in evening. So that’s almost three days without a pay. Hmm. I wonder whether our united opposition parties thought about that.

I am not opposing the cause for bandh, I just think that the way it is carried out is a bit wasted. I can’t see any good coming out of it. There has to be another way of opposing. I wonder what goes on in other countries in such situations. May be some of you outside India can enlighten us.

Journey Across India

2000 Miles, 30 Days, 3000 Photos in 3 Minutes. Nice video of Mike Matas’s journey across India.

And for all the Indorites out there, let’s see what can you spot about Indore in the video apart from Rajwada. Reply with your comments. Watch the original video on Vimeo.

Lost – It Ends Tonight

Just two and a half hours are left to wrap up six years of mystery. Click the image below to read a great article at Wired to see how the creators of Lost managed to pull it off -

Long Time No See

Its been seven months since I wrote my last post. Some of you who regularly check my blog (Although the number is very small ) have been asking me why I have stopped blogging. It not that I have stopped blogging, I just could not find the time (and sometimes the motivation) to post.

Few days back, I was browsing the internet and found the comic below at XKCD. I thought it summarized my feelings as a blogger perfectly. It also gave me the much needed motivation to start blogging again.

I do have some promising drafts waiting to be finished. So I hope to be back and blogging sooner than later. I also want to ask the bloggers out there whether they have gone through a similar phase. Any tips will be much appreciated.

Why do all Aliens look alike?

I have seen many science fiction movies. I love them. Specially if they have some extraterrestrial life forms. Most of such movies show the ‘First Contact’ made between humans and so called Aliens. Yesterday I watched District 9. I liked the movie. But I still did not get what I hoped.

I just have one complaint against all Alien movies. ‘Why do all Aliens look alike?’ I just can’t understand it. Take Mars Attacks, Independence Day, District 9. In all those movies, all Aliens look similar.

Most of the movies show that Aliens are much more powerful than humans both in terms of intelligence and physical power. Why can’t we depict  Aliens in such a way where every alien looks different, like humans do.

Even our (Corrupt) politicians, who have no humanity left in them, look different. So why can’t the Aliens?

Irony of a Blog Post

We all like to blog, don’t we. Especially the hard core bloggers amongst us. We blog about anything that we want to share with the world. Stories, pictures, videos, life experiences, both good and bad. Some of us also write about the social issues that exist in our country. Politics and prejudice are amongst our top favourites.

What I also find interesting is the curiosity an upcoming festival generates. Whenever a festival is a day or two away, the blog sphere is flooded with posts related to the festival. Large number of posts are the ones where the author shares his/her experiences about the festival. But by and large, most of the blog posts are trying to spread awareness about the festival. On such occasions every other blogger is trying to do his/her best to educated other people, spreading awareness as I said. For example, when Holi is around, we warn others not to use colours that have harmful chemicals mixed with them. Not to waste water. Celebrate a Dry Holi and so on.

I wanted to do the same. Diwali is a day away. I wanted to say that on this Diwali, ‘Do the New.’ Avoid crackers that pollute. Celebrate a Green Diwali, Turn down the noise, etc etc.

But then I thought, What’s the point. Most of you who would be reading this post would already be doing the same. Lets face it. If you are educated enough and savvy enough to read and browse blogs on the internet, I would hope that you would be sane enough not to do the things I just mentioned.

Digg it. I browse the internet. I read blogs. Like me other persons, even if they don’t write blogs themselves, but are savvy enough to read blogs, are sane enough to do the right things. They are already aware of the hazards of not doing the correct things on festivals.

So towards whom is a blog post intended. Who is the target audience for a blog post of such nature that spread awareness. Other bloggers? I would hope that bloggers reading such posts are already aware of what needs to be done.

Who else is left. People who browse the internet but have never come across the concept of blogging. There is a fair amount of such people. They could be the target audience. But what are the chances of such people getting redirected to your blog. Slim. Such persons will only get to your blog if they are searching for the right information. And if they are searching for the right information, they are already half aware.

That I thought is the Irony of blog posts of such nature. It does not reach its target audience. The people who reads such blog posts either know what needs to be done or at least have a general idea. Such blog posts can only make the half aware people fully aware. The real audience is the one that never uses internet i.e the one that will never reach your blog post.

Do you agree with me? Of course not. Christ, what was I thinking. Now I don’t agree with that point of view myself. I just highlighted the point because some blogger might feel the same way. To be frank, I had the same thought. I thought what’s the point in writing when you are not able to reach to the masses. But then I realized that if a blog post can educate a single person, that in itself makes the difference. Because that one person can in turn educate 4 other persons and that can start a chain reaction.

So don’t stop blogging even if you think that no one is going to read it. If you have something nice to share, please do. And if you read something interesting, share it with others.

And by the way, have a safe and green Diwali. And as Ranbir Kapoor says in his new Ad, Do something that you have nerver done before. This Diwali, turn down the Noise