None Of The Above

So you hate Congress, you don't like Aam Aadmi Party and you are confused about BJP due to their past ? Well you can tell them with "None Of The Above". The Supreme Court of India passed a judgement that gives people the right to reject the candidates by voting for none of the above.
If every vote counts, so will NOTA. If I had the chance to vote, I would not waste it on any of the above party's....I would rather use it on None Of The Above (NOTA). 

Election Commission of India has roped in popular figures from different segments of society to make people aware of the power of voting...I would have loved to see them promoting NOTA as well. I believe NOTA should be promoted on par with a candidate so people don't forget about it and it would also keep the candidates on their feet. Due to the meager voting percentages in the past,  Election Commission and a lot of celebrities since so many years have been trying to make people aware of the importance of voting yet they stopped short of advising to chose the right candidate. Of course they cannot tell you which candidate to vote for but they could have put in a word saying choosing a right candidate is as important as voting itself, hoping the first time voters and many others to start analysing.  And this time around they could have easily said "if you don't find the right candidate you may as well choose NOTA".

It could actually be used as a campaign weapon by the political parties who are not contesting from a particular constituency, they can promote NOTA in those regions and make sure the other candidates are not winning thereby leading to a shortage of seats to form the Govt. In this way at least we hope the candidates would do some good and hence keep them in check.

I asked a friend of mine as to why he will not choose NOTA, his answer was quick and straight. He said "I would rather give someone a chance than to just waste it. Only if I give him/her the opportunity, will I know how he/she performs". Well, I think this is pretty much the thought of everyone who thinks about NOTA. Though I would question his first statement on putting a nation to a chance, I would agree to his second statement. Unless you give an opportunity you wouldn't know the capability. Agree and this made me thinking on how much do people actually analyze the politicians of this country ? Before giving an opportunity, do they review his/her past performance on local University/Municipality/District level or where ever he/she served earlier ? Do they even read the manifesto's, do they even ask the politician what his/her domestic and foreign policies are ? Do they even question them or talk to them ? As far as I know, many of the middle class people discuss about politicians either during drinking sessions or when having a dinner at a marriage or Birthday parties or during their work hours. All the analysis is based on the discussions and hardly anyone would have actually met the politician in person or talked to him over the phone. So what do they know about him/her and where do they information about them ? Print and Television Media (PTM). So much could actually be done through media that just today US admitted that it created Cuban twitter to stir unrest. Imagine what these parties would be capable of doing through media ?

So, I would say even if you are giving an opportunity give an educated opportunity based on the history and facts but not on hype.

Choose wisely by doing some actual analysis and if you are not sure, don't leave it to chance.

Before everything shuts down

Today I returned home from office at 6:45 PM. And by 6:50 opened up the laptop and logged into the office network and a popup

MyComputer : What the heck are you doing man?
User: I am working, don't disturb my train of thought.
MyComputer: What the heck man? It doesn't suit you. Haven't seen you work more than 6 hours a day.
User: Got some high priority stuff that needs to be completed before my vacation.
MyComputer: So what, you always push it back to your team lead and had them relax the deadlines.
User: Not this time bud. It's a challenge for me too you know ;)
MyComputer: It's a challenge for you but not for me. Don't put so much burden on me.
User: But..
MyComputer: Please close the browser and open up ITunes..there is a lovely song in the playlist.
User: Can't do it now
MyComputer : SFU...if you don't then I will do it.
User: You know there are two types of computers in the world. One that do as per the instructions entered by the user and one which do as they like. The former are well taken care of and long last. You decide which kind you are.
MyComputer : What the hell, you know there are 2 types of users in the world. One that use my species just for work and one kind who just use it for entertainment. You used to be the latter but you are fast becoming the former.
User: Alright man...if you persist, do as you want. I am just gonna use you for my work.

And there goes my Internet connection and browser. Everything shut down by itself, only Itunes which was already open was left open.

The Bane of Immigration

it is a well known fact that America has seen the influx of immigrants in the past decade unlike anyother and when we look back those immigrants have definitely changed the perception of America around the globe and among the Americans themselves. Uncle Sam doesn't seem to be the mighty Sam he used to be. Politicians and people have put the blame on the 9/11 and the Great recession for this change. Although these have changed the imagination of the people about America, I think it was only to some extent. The majority of the influence was because of the immigration. Immigration has not only caused America to lose on jobs, economy but also made it lose it's mystique. American culture which includes Hollywood, Pop culture, McDonalds among many other things has got over exposed to the world and the world no longer desires to experience this great culture and why? because that culture has been introduced in their own culture with a blend of their own.

With more and more immigration I sense many more problems arriving at the doorstep. We already are seeing problems in job scenario and much more frightening is the security scenario. With so many multicultural and multinational immigrants from around the globe we often underestimate the complexity of the problem. We already see that immigrants of a certain nation forming little pockets of their own people, be it the Europeans, the Japs, Chinese, Indians, Veits, Arabs...no matter who, they tend to live close to each other. We can't blame them as people tend move in a herd and evidently so in a non-native country. With these small pockets of nations there are bound to be security problems and many a times civil unrest may also arise.

With muslims being so obliviously avoided by the non muslims, muslims will definitely start feeling discriminated and with more and more immigration there definitely will arise some kind of protests eventually though there may not be a civil war.

We could take the example of many nations around the world that have faced such an immigration burden for centuries. Countries like India, Brazil, South Africa see immigration from their neighbouring poor countries and thereby face huge security problem.

Immigration not only brings best and bright people from around the world but also the best and bright cultures, religions. With the introduction of new religions there definitely will be clashes, no matter how much tolerance one has it will break one day. And also when people migrate to a new country their country of origin still tries to protect them or atleast try to influence the migrated country on matters relating to their migrated citizens or more often than not on the matters involving the people of their religion. For example, the influence of Vatican (for Catholics) or Saudi Arabia (Muslims) or Israel (Jews) or the America or England (for Chrisitans). This will uncessarily boil the relations between the two nations and hence provoke hostility.

So is Immigration a bane or a boon? If we think of the world some 50 years ago...although it was poor, it still was much safer and there were less hostility between the nations. Immigration definitely needs to stop for the good of the nations and the world. It would have been good if all the nations were of the same religion or if all the nations had similar culture or if all the nations were equally rich and developed or if all the nations were of the same color and race. When there is no commong ground, why will a Christian share his lunch with a Hindu, why will an Arab sing Jewish songs or why will an American share his secrets with a russian.

Just as how reproduction is the ultimate truth of mankind, moving in a herd is equally true.
Immigration may not cause any problems at all, but it definitely does onething, globalize and bring the world together which in one way is very good but looking at the perspective of uniqueness and mystiqueness it loses out. Also looking in terms of growth, rather than 100 people working together one group, there will be more growth if there are 10 groups with 10 people each.

Back again!

Realized that my english speaking skills are going bad to worse day by day. Probably because I am now staying and moving with all gultus and hardly anyone speaks at the office. Most of the communication is only through emails and messenger. Even though blog doesn't let me speak but it surely helps me to think of some good english words when in need.

Been watching Naruto Shippuden for more than a year now, such an inspiring and gripping story...never thought that an animated series would be so good. It's almost as enthralling as The Jungle Book. However said so, it's frustrating to wait an entire week for a new episode which lasts only for about 20 mins. Unable to bear the waiting time, I went ahead and read the whole manga comic book, thinking that it is complete. But to my surprise it is also not complete and have to again wait for an entire week to read the next chapter of the comic. Damn frustrated!!!

But seriously, Naruto Shippuden has given me something to look forward to on thursdays. Since past 4 months the work at office has been grinding and it's been more so on thursdays since they assign the tickets to us on that day, but at the end of the day while driving back home I realize that it is thursday and I get to watch the new episode of Naruto.

One of the finest careers...LARA

Brian Charles Lara is and forever will be one of the finest and greatest batsmen of all time. His innings of 153 can go down as the best innings ever in the history of cricket. Beating Australia those days would just be a dream for West Indians with their team crumbling match after match. If we look at the top 10 batsmen no one would come close in providing an innings like that. He made his debut when West Indies was loosing it's glory, he was there when they lost it and ended his career when it is gaining back. With such a lacklustre team he made sure no team would take WI as another minnows. Before leaving he has put his team in a position to atleast reach the Super Eights not possible by the subcontinent teams. Over the years his responsibility has been taken over by the likes of Gayle, Sarwan, Samuels. Their team now looks just like the Indian team which always had Sachin but now they are dependent on others like Sourav, Rahul, Yuvraj. You can be assured a flood of runs is on the way when he gets his backlift right. It is not his technique nor the great innings he played but the class, flair and style that has brought him so many admirers. Arguably the only player who had such a flair and success. Vivian Richards was more of powerful kind and not stylish. His scores of 277, 365, 153, 213, 400 would be forever remembered by everyone and more by the Australians and English

The most Dangerous person is Saddam or Bush?

Atlast he is dead. The man the world most dreaded..what? wait a min he is not the most dreaded person. He was dangerous only to the Iraqi people and not to the world. But the world keeps talking about him only because US is involved. Anyways since he is dead now, what next? What would be the strategy of the American president the question people all over the world have been asking. It has been 3 yrs since Saddam hussein has been captured and there has been no major difference in Iraq it still is the same when American forces entered their land first to dethrone Saddam and find evidence of WMDs. There have been no WMDs and there won't be any. Because US has made a mistake it has taken on the burden to rebuild the nation and on whose cost? People all over are paying for this. Why did not the Security Council lay any sanctions on US and UK after they have admitted that they had made a mistake. What the Fuck are the other 3 nations doing? And now was it right to give a death sentence to Saddam since knowing that he had no WMDs. He must have committed severe atrocities against his people but the punishment was for their (Iraq) court to decide and not the international one. Since he is dead now US would definitely try to leave Iraq within a year but wherewould their next venture be? Iran/Syria/Pakistan? Or would they shift their focus back onto afghanistan?

I think the most dangerous person is infact the American President George Bush. Countries in the middle east might have started fearing him as anybody could be the scapegoat. He is Dangerous to world over and not to his people just the opposite of Saddam. He never gave an apt answer for actions, just thrown it on terrorism and creating a safer world. I think he missed the basic point here, What is the difference between a terrorist and a common man. Doing what a terrorist does will not help create a safe world rather would spurt it. Look at India, it has never thought of attacking its neighbour no matter what (even when Parliament was attacked).

By saying it I am neither supporting Bush nor Saddam but worrying on the helplessness of UN. If it does not work then no country in this world would ever feel safe. I think it would go only one way, a world war 3 when all the nations after destroying each other to the point of extinction would unite, live again and start preparing for the world war 4.

random thoughts

aayine ko dekhoge tho tum nazar aaoge
aayine mein dekhoge tho hum nazar aayenge.


mastaani aankhon ki mastaani dekhleee
deewaane dil ki deewangee dekhlee
muskurahat ki khamoshee sunlee
lekin ab tak, pyaar ki dhadkan nahi sunee.