Gentle Whispers

'If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with' Michael Jackson The King of Pop is no more. My day began with the news of his death via sms and I jumped out of bed to watch the news and see if it was really true. All that I felt for Michael when he was ridiculed the world over was pity. Pity that such a great star was reduced to this. To being called Wacko Jacko and a pedophile. So much so that he left the US to settle in Bahrain. How can you feel hatred towards someone who never wants to grow up. Who spoke of incessant rehearsals, whippings and name-calling as a child. Who cried from loneliness and vomited every time he saw his father. Who was made to perform from the age of five. One night while he was asleep, his father climbed into his room through the bedroom window. Wearing a fright mask, he entered the room screaming and shouting, wanting to teach his children not to lea...

One of my biggest fears about India is how intolerant as people we are becoming. We refuse to accept contrary viewpoints. their opinions and their right to choose, another person's right to do as they wish and their freedom to say what they want and dress as it pleases them. I came across this article from Lost on the street and I can't even begin explaining how ridiculous I find the whole article. And as a journalist having written that article, someone I'd expect to be mature and objective, it comes as even more of a shock. How much further is this from accusing Muslims of cheering for Pakistan during a match and bursting crackers when Pakistan wins? What if Pakistan played better and deserved to win? What if Pakistan had the better team? What if I like the Pakistani style of play much better than the Indian one? Take the 2007 T20 World Cup for instance, if Pakistan had won, I for one would have stood up and applauded because they played well and deserved to win. And i...

There are days when I hate my job. Today is not one of those days. Today I absolutely cannot stand my job. I'm very irritated, grumpy, frustrated, irascible and whiny. And I want to pick up my chair and smash it on my computer. Capish? I'm so irritated in fact, that the next person who speaks to me is probably going to get his head bitten off and I'm quite relishing the idea. The best part. It's 9:30 pm IST and I still have four hours to go. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Do you know what else I hate? The goddamn general elections. That's what. Thank god it's bloody over.

I hate it when I find hair in my food. The only thing even more disgusting than that is finding a cockroach in your food. And that's exactly what happened yesterday. I found a hair in my Malaysian Chilli Noodles. Anyway, to start at the beginning, I went out for lunch to the FiveSpice restaraunt in Colaba with a bunch of people, none of whom I know too well.. It's one of my favourite restaraunts in Mumbai. Not too expensive. Generous portions and delectable desserts. But I doubt I'll be going back to the branch in Colaba after the way they behaved when I pointed out the hair on the food. First off, he tells me, "There's nothing I can, you guys are almost done." Thereby insinuating that I'd done it just to get the damn thing for free. At which point I said, "I don't care whether I'm almost done. There's a hair in my food, for crying out loud." To which, and I don't know how the hell this guy got to be manager, responds with "W...

I've been burning with rage all day long. Why? I think this pretty much says it all. We've, all at least most of the people I know, experienced corporal punishment in school. Even if it was just a rap on the knuckles with a ruler or a slightly stinging slap. Meant to hurt your pride more. But this is a whole other matter. What kind of a teacher bangs a 11-year-old child's head on the table, makes her stand out in the sun all day long, with BRICKS on her shoulders, for crying out loud, until she vomits and is unconscious. What kind of heartless, unfeeling sadistic type of person do you have to be? Was not knowing her alphabets that much of a sin that she had to die for it? And why did no one else step in, not any other teacher, not the principal, not the peons or ayahs in the school. Why was it that it was only the girl's sister who noticed her unconscious. To top it all, the school's argument is that she was weak. By which basis, you would think that they've pu...

I'm in office right now. Waiting for the pages to come in so that I can upload them on to the website. And then I can leave. It's quiet today here, with the TVs switched off, half the people gone and the office strangely quiet for what is actually dead line time. My mind on the other hand is far away. In Kashmir and Ladakh. I remember Yusmarg valley and the drive to get there. How I wanted to get off the bus and walk there among the grassy meadows, dotted with sheep and little log cabins, ringed by dense pine forests with awe-inspiring snow capped mountains towering behind. I remember the way my heart sang when we walked into Yusmarg and witnessed the river gurgling by, singing a merry little song. Of panting up one crest in the meadow with wild ponies cantering around and running crazily down the other side only to be ankle deep in a pool of mud. Of sitting by the river in a little alcove formed by rocks, scribbling in my little notebook and then lying back and quietly humming...

Rang De Basanti. One of my favourite movies. I don't care what others have to say about it, whether the message was right or no. I love it for the music, for the characters, for Aamir Khan and Kunal Kapoor, for the friendships, for the love, for the rebellion. My favourite moments in the movie have always been the funny ones. The ones that had me laughing. But with each time, I watch the movie. Something changes. And now the moments I appreciate the most are the ones that are hard-hitting and poignant. The song Khoon Chala in particular, when Atul Kulkarni looks up at the politician who's his mentor and realises that his idol has feet of clay. That for me, is the moment in the entire movie. Especially poignant these days, don't you think?

Everybody seems to be spouting an opinion on the Mumbai attack these days, including me. And often what we've been hearing has much repeated. But these two articles that appeared in the New York Times. One by Thomas L Friedman and the other by Suketu Mehta , made a lot of sense to me as well as made for some interesting reading.

It;s been two days since the terror attacks and Mumbai still seems to be reeling from the effects of the terror attacks. The anger and the rage is overflowing. People are displaying unabashed hatred for our politicians. And promises are being made of how we aren't going to take this lying down and how we're going to fight back. But I'm a little bit cynical, I wonder how how long before we forget and move on to dealing with our daily lives, until the next time 180 people are killed and over 300 injured. But at the same time I'm proud. Proud of the stories I'm hearing of people, who've saved multiple lives. Who risked their own lives for others. The stories are pouring in now and they're heartwarming especially the one of VD Zende, the announcer at CST, who saved hundreds of lives with his quick thinking and presence of mind. I've been going around telling everyone his story and his bravery ranks right up there with those of the NSG commandos and police fo...

They've been calling it India's worst ever terror attack. And it is. Much much worse than anything I've ever sen. It's been 16-17 hours since the attack began. But there hasn't been much headway yet. Hostage situations at three places. Countless people dead. Property destroyed. People terrified. They're young, well dressed boys. Somebody you would expect would know better. These aren't amateur terrorists. They're sophisticated, well-trained attackers who know what they're doing. They've carried out their plans with military precision and left India and Mumbai reeling. They came in by speedboat and the Indian Navy has just stopped a Karachi bound boat which refused to stop despite repeated calls. They came in to bring us to our knees. Hemant Karkare and Vijay Salaskar . Two of Mumbai's seniormost and valuable police officials gone for ever. Havaldars and army men. Security forces have been pouring in. The NSG, the RAF and the Marine Commandos....

Bombay has been reeling under terror attacks in the last couple of hours. The Oberoi and Taj hotels, Cafe Leopold's in Colaba, Cama and GT hospitals, VT station, Vile Parle and Santacruz. Men have stormed in with AK 47's and hand grenades and have been gunning people down. And this has affected me like nothing has in a while. Cafe Leopold's, VT are all places you'll find me at most often. When I was in college, Colaba was my hangout of choice and Leopold's a favourite place to be at with some beer and their famous beef chilly. The minute I would walk in, I would run into at least 5 people I know. And any Xavierite or Wilsonian will agree with me. It's just simply heartbroken and I'm finding it hard to comprehend. The hardest part though was when the camera panned around Leopold's to show a pool of blood in a corner. Why do people have to do this? How cold-blooded and devoid of feeling can a human being be to stand in front of a roomful of people and shoo...

Day before yesterday, on the 8th of November 2008, Avanti Desai would have turned 21. Instead 15 days before her birthday, as she hurried home to celebrate her grandmother's birthday, Avanti met with a train accident at Jogeshwari station. Just like that. Gone from our lives forever. Leaving behind a huge void and the world a lot more gloomier. And when I got the call first thing in the morning, I couldn't believe it. I thought it was a cruel sadistic joke, but as the calls kept coming in, I realised it was true. Even at the cemetary,, it still hadn't sunk in that Avanti was no longer here. The worst moment though was watching her disappear into the crematorium, it was horrible and I couldn't believe we were leaving her there, and through the next couple of hours all I could think of was of her going up in smoke while we stood there in the bright sunshine. It seemed incomprehensible at first, to think of Avanti as dead, to talk about her in the past tense, to get...

Headlines Today has been telecasting nonstop for the past hour, the news of Dr Akhilesh Prasad Singh, the Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and PD, assaulting and abusing a staff member of Kingfisher Airlines. To read about it, go here. The minister was on Headlines Today, where he said that he arrived at the Patna Airport at 8:15 pm, for an 8:30 flight . On questioning by the anchor, he said that the security formalities were completed by his staff. How ridiculous is that? 15 mins before a flight takes off, the man dares to turn up and on being told he can't board the flight, assaults the manager. All because he has behind him the weight of the ministry. When the plane has already begun take off procedures, he demands to be allowed to board the flight. Ordinary mortals like us on the other hand, turn up an hour earlier for flights, even with conveniences like online check-ins. We board the flight 30 mins in advance, follow all the rules, go through ou...

All our newspapers are full of how the accused behind the recent blasts in the country are well educated young men. Working with software giants like Yahoo! Our policemen though, it seems are still to get the message. What else would explain the persistent checking at railway stations of shabbily dressed men carrying large bags and suitcases. While the relatively better dressed and much more educated looking aren't even subjected to a cursory glance. What about women, you ask? Nada. Zilch. Nothing. The police force seems to think of women as being incapable of anything even remotely related to violence.(I don't think they've seen the fights at peak hour). But that aside, I have never ever seen a woman checked and often when I'm carrying a huge bag, I dawdle past the police desk in the hope that I'll be checked and I've never been questioned or even gazed at suspiciously. In Palestine and Israel, Italy and Chechnya women are being used increasingly as terrorists ...

My day began with an sms from Times Now saying, India wins first ever individual gold. Abhinav Bindra creates history at the Olympics. Catch the breaking news on TIMES NOW. I don't think I've ever been so glad to recieve an sms from TIMES NOW. I raced out of bed and switched on the TV and kept flipping from channel to channel to catch glimpses of Abhinav Bindra. As the opening day of the Olympics came closer and closer, I got more and more excited. And I pretty much watched the Olympics opening ceremony with a heavy heart wishing I could be there. But all of that aside, I kept hoping secretly that the Indian contingent would win a handful of medals and come back. And not just a solitary bronze. I even meant to post about it but I was busy with work type things, y'know? I didn't voice my hopes though cause I pretty much knew that people would be violently disagreeing with me and pointing out what an optimistic person I am and how I need to wake up and see the reality. Bu...

As you may know, if you've been reading my blog , I started driving classes more than a month ago. I've been going for classes ever since then fairly regularly with a few missed classes here and there. Anyway, my driving test was on Wednesday. For which I was supposed to present myself at the driving school at nine thirty which I did. And we set off in a sumo for the RTO at Mumbai Central. It was a rainy day and the entire time we were there, it poured. After waiting for a couple of hours, 8 other people from my driving school and me were given our forms and taken to an office, where we were made to submit our forms. And the next thing I knew, they told me that the test was done with, passed had been written on the form without any actual test being conducted. And I would get my license in a couple of days, which I did today. And I for one, am extremely disappointed by the whole process, it strikes me as really sad that this is the system which we're living in. Imagine if I...

I don't know how many of you are aware of this but my dad just mentioned it and I had to do a post about it. The Shiv Sena is now claiming that the Taj Mahal has been built at the site of a Shiva temple Sounds familiar. Remember Babri Masjid? As of now, it all seems fairly innocent and non-controversial. I wonder how long that will last.

10/05/2008 18:46 pm It's Day 2 at Nameri Tiger Reserve and I have finally been bitten by a leech. Not once or twice, but four times and all on my right leg. It's not particularly painful though and unlike the rest I'm quite okay with being bitten and haven't made too much of a song and dance about it. On the contrary, I was quite excited about being bitten and part of the elite "Leech Club". This has been a day of learning and I am still trying to absorb some of it. And the more I learn about discrimination against the North-east, the more it infuriates me.We heard a lot of stories today and my mind is reeling. For instance, when the Chinese Prime Minister visited Mumbai, north-eastern students who were leaving college were picked up by the police and kept at Lamigton Road police station all because they were ' chinky ' and looked Tibetan, which was a gross injustice by any standards. Most of them were just leaving college when they were picked up and ...

I'm back!! If anybody noticed that I was gone that is! And while I'm not really interested in blogging, I'm forcing myself to, in the hope that I get back into the blogging groove. And I'm hoping that it goes well. Goa was brilliant. As usual. There were only two things that sucked, the brain-melting heat and the absolute lack of a nightlife. But they weren't unsurmountable obstacles. After all when your with friends, every thing's fun! And we just tried our best not to venture out to much in the heat. The food, the company, the surroundings, the water, the people. Every thing was absolutely perfect. I went para sailing and on the banana boat. And maybe it's just my over-adventurous Arien soul but I found the para sailing thing quite boring actually. It was nothing extraordinary to be there safely strapped in and just looking around. I much preferred the banana boat. Think I need to try bungee jumping or sky diving. Everything we did in Goa had a bittersweet...

Is it just me or does anybody else see something wrong with the Indian Idol promos that are being telecast on TV nonstop recently? The cities being covered are Mumbai, Delhi, Gwalior, Lucknow and Jaipur. What about the Northeast and the South? Or aren't the people there Indian enough to be part of Indian Idol. Any ideas?