Archive for June, 2007

NEWS-the way i perceive it.

{ June 24, 2007 @ 10:02 am } · { QTB }
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For a newsoholic(not sure theres sumthing like that) like me its imperative that i switch between Ndtv,Cnn-ibn,Times Now and occasionally BBC many times a day.A habit that infuriates my mother considering I mostly do this while we are watching some other program.Yet tv or google news-my preferred news source on the net not withstanding my favourite medium till today remains the old and good printed newspaper or to put it a hard copy at hand.

Theres some inexplicable joy I experience everytime I hold The Hindu along with a cup of bournvita(if at home) or a cup of coffee as soon as I get up,which might not necessarily be in the morning.The Hindu has been my most trusted source of news infact my only source of printed news in most cases.It’s crisp and uncluttered look makes reading an enjoyable exercise.I especially like the fact that The Hindu never mixes the order of topics,sports always happens to be the last pages for instance.It does not also give irritating’continued -page 12′ kind of liners which i  find in most other papers to be the most infuriating .

The other feature I like about The Hindu is its factual reporting with minimal speculation and that it does not have a page 3 at all.The fact that The Hindu does not publish gossip or society news is the reason why so many people whom I know including my own mother do not like it.Once my friend called the paper spartan and unexciting.A terse and apt description and its exactly this which endears the paper to me.I believe that the media should not trivialise news but merely report it objectively.The fourth estate according to me is there to tell the people what they ought to know and not necessarily what they would like to.

The one problem with the paper and the major one is its editorial.The leanings of the paper is pro congress and pro communist both the parties I detest.However,the other major daily in the south  The Indian Express thankfully has fiery editorials and it is to this paper that I turn to whenever some controversy breaks out.

Without The Hindu or Express sometime here in bangalore I feel almost left out.the joy of being the first to open your preferred newspaper is something very hard and punishing when missed.Its almost as if the cup of coffee had diminished in taste and feel…

Worshipping False Gods and the Case of Lost Identity.

{ June 22, 2007 @ 12:51 pm } · { hinduism }
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This past week I have been reading the book by Arun Shourie-Worshipping False Gods, an interesting read to say the least.The book is a scathing attack on Dr.B.R.Ambedkar.Shourie has, to put it short accused Ambedkar of being  an iniquituous British loyalist.The book is a drag in parts reiterating again and again the same point from different angles.I have never felt any warmth towards the likes of Ambedkar.But what set me thinking is that the problem with the so called modern day India is that we have slowly but spuriously allowed our thought process to be curbed.We have so many demi gods in false pedestals to worship that we have forgotten in the process what is politically right and wrong. Indeed we still seem to be colonised from a nostalgic British hangover and the politics of vote banks in our thought process.

What alarms me most is that most of us have been kept in the dark.We are never taught how one of the greatest genocides in history happened to a non transgressing nation India, at the hands of the muslim invaders.Historians fear this would assume communal  tones,while it should not.We are not told how the great temples of India were systematically destroyed,the so called left front way back sided with the British,the cunning means that the missionaries adopted in converting the Indian masses.Yet we teach generation after generation of young Indians how the so called upper castes ill treated the lower ones,that the Mughals were  secular caring rulers while in reality they were not,that the Hindu system was plagued with the ills of sati and child marriage.All these are a part of the same history of India.Not nice chapters to read but probably the most defining ones of today’s society.In short,the current history text books tell us what the british wanted us to know and today’s politicians want us to.any attempt to bring to light the whole history of the nation and it has been deemed saffronisation.Maybe generations to come will still be taught of the carnage at Godhra and the demolition of the Babri Masjid.Of the other side of the story we shall as always together as a nation keep silent.We shall learn only what is convenient to be learnt.Indeed a case of lost story and identity.

Coming Short Another Time

{ June 11, 2007 @ 1:50 pm } · { sports, tennis }
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when federer looked to beat nadal to create history this last sunday most of us wondered if he would get his comeupance.in the end the other man earned his.much has been said about why federer comes short against nadal.its arguably more mental than physical.not that nadal is the gladiator here but its that federer is no more than an artist.for his sanguine take on the loss federer would do better to realise that its precisely this which seperates them.nadal wants it more,it showed federer didnt and that showed too.

its inconceivable for me that one of the all time greats will come short against a guy of no extraordinary shot making skills again and again. maybe its just that federer is so conscios of that which stares at him conspicuously-he is the second best to nadal on clay.on sunday it looked like federer enjoyed his game less and wanted to prove that he was the best rather that he can win the french.

many people have said its possible to become nadal.but more often than not i have realised extra ordinary commitment and willingness to work hard is a great gift of genius in itself.federer may be the great artist but its nadal to whom my heart goes out at end, for its never easy to beat the likes of federer.to do it again and again is a fairy tale in itself.

its been a long time

{ June 3, 2007 @ 11:22 am } · { ramblings }
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it seems that the last post was ages back.there seemed so much to share and tell that as it often happens in such cases that i did not do anything about it at all.meanwhile,there has been a change of place from madras to bangalore for the industrial training thats mandatory to earn the undergrad degree.the past few days in bangalore have been a bit like following a swinging pendulum.very interesting sometimes yet suddenly boring.

the best thing about bangalore so far was the more merciful summer as compared to its madras couterpart but looks like that particular luck is currently running out.the past few days have been hot.what strikes me so much about the city is its changing and delightfully mixed demography and a young population willing to spend and freak out rather than be good and save.a trend that must be sweet music to the ears for the many western brands and outlets who have always complained that the asians have a tendency to save for the future rather than spend and enjoy.

its sometimes interesting to observe the young guys and girls barely out of college walking briskly towards their office in the Diamond District(i stay very near that place) with an id card casually swung around their necks.they teem like an army -everywhere on the roads,in the shops,cafeterias,road side pani puri shops or in short wherever you go around here.sometimes i wonder for howmany of those young people its been a dream come true and for how many others a willingly made compromise.

whatever be the answer comprising the many contrapulations that come with the software industry,these youg people seem so different as compared to a generation before them and more confident and better equipped that you finally realise what immense power we talk of when we say 75% of the population of this nation are young.understandably most of them are a far cry from the sophisticated techie but then you cant help take pride at this new and young india.