Facts n Fiction

I appreciate this piece of information that one of my friends, Chinmay. I had met him during my days at Intelenet and some of the close friends still refer to him as “Hello Mamma”. Chinmay forwarded a link to me that broadly covers global warming and here is what he writes: “Here's a link to my review of Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" which deals with the issue of Global Warming and its impact. http://videowatch.wordpress.com/2007/06/02/an-inconvenient-truth-2006 Though, this is more of a review of the "Documentary" rather than the "Global Warming". But I'd say that this documentary is so powerful that it should be made a mandatory viewing for everyone. This documentary literally proves the saying "Seeing is believing". Cheers, Chinmay H.” Thanks Chinmay and would look forward to many such snippets from you.

We all have felt the torturous heat prior to this monsoon. However, we merrily choose to neglect that this could be due to global warming. I have observed that people reason out the rise in temperatures over a period of time; yet there is very little awareness about global warming among people. I met my friends (ex-colleagues actually) as few weeks backs and like everyone we started discussing on the then hottest topic – heat. I heard statements (both in irritating and pitiable tone) that – “Garmi bahot baddh gayi hai boss” (the heat is increasing too much), “Kitni garmi ho rahi hai yaar aajkal, ho kya raha hai” (it’s too hot these days, what is happening), and so on. Based on the some articles and news information that I had read, I said this could well be attributed to global warming. To my surprise few of them in the group did not know what is global warming, except that this word appears somewhere sometimes and the connection between global warming and increase in temperature level

I am far away from Amarnath and the happenings there, as I am too occupied with things other than religious news. I was not particularly interested with why, where, and how many people were stranded on their way to a certain pilgrimage. However, the bit that caught my attention was the meltdown of certain ‘lingam’ at the holy cave shrine in Amarnath, Srinagar. Whether it was man-made or had occurred naturally or did it fulfill wishes or did any miracles was secondary to me. I could just see a reality that is happening in front of our eyes and yet we chose to be silent and ignorant – Global Warming. It may not be too long when the disasters due to global warming turn spells on us and we would be left doing nothing. The snow melting and the glaciers retreating at the poles we all think it’s too far from us yet and we have ample of time till the situation actually occurs in front of us. The disappearance of the ‘lingam’ from around 12ft in June to nothing in July should be enough to alar

Not that I was 100% sure but I had a feeling that Sanjay Dutt would be released soon. No, I am not proposing that he didn’t deserve such harsh punishment. In fact I was turning a little optimistic about the legal system in India and its judiciary. However, this optimism was very short lived. I was catching up with the news items about the melodrama and the hype that happened during Dutt’s trial and his subsequent arrest. Many views, for and against, clouded newspapers, news channels, and even conversation topics in buses, trains, offices, chai tapris, and so on. All through this while, I knew that he would be out in less than a year (I am not saying this because now that he is finally out, but that I am feeling more confident about expressing my feeling). So Sanjay Dutt is finally home through his journey from Arthur road to Yerwada, earning Rs. 204 on the way. The pretext on which he got bail is still very unclear to me (I am not a law person to understand it thoroughly). But clearly

Taj Mahal, Pratibha Patil, SRK, Sensex, Tatas, and so on, we have it all, that signifies in its own way a symbol of fame, equality, stability, and respect. And this is amongst the best ways to summarize India’s post independence period of 60 years. It was not quite long ago when India, world’s largest democracy, was known only for its snake charmers and cow dung. However, through all such negligence/ignorance and complexities, India has still managed to navigate and surface out as the fastest developing nation. Success or growth is usually a relative term and can be perceived in more than one way. Though there are many who crib about India’s pathetic status on many fronts, there are many positives that we can look at. Nehru’s leitmotif, “unity in diversity”, is still apt for our country, except few incidents that become easy victims of some motives of political agenda. India has maintained its syncretism and pluralistic attitude on cultural grounds and embraces all with equality. We ma

I came across an interesting blog on the website of India’s one of the most popular news channel. I have almost forgotten the basic post but what followed later interested me the most. Let’s trace back a little to last month when “Sivaji” was the buzzword in Indian film industry, more specifically in the south. The film starred the demi-god of the tamil film industry, Rajnikant who has enjoyed divine status 100% of the times. The entire film kingdom and atmosphere was filled with all kinds of craze, hype, speculations, obsessions, and so on. And this is when the blogger, Anuradha Sengupta decided to go and take a first hand experience of the Rajni mania. Now this Ms. Sengupta is not so much impressed with the boss (Sivaji – The Boss) and puts across here ‘personal’ (yes, I put that in quotes, as there were many among the commentators who did not know the definition of a blog) views about her experience. She humbly conveyed that she did not like Sivaji, while nowhere making a derogat

“Sivaji”, supposedly the costliest film ever made in India releases today. And it casts the south Indian celluloid’s biggest brand – Rajnikant. Yes, the iconic figure of the south Indian filmdom who unarguably has largest and loyal fan following. Almost every news channel has been broadcasting the ‘Rajni Phenomenon’ that has caught fire in the south. People wearing Rajni t-shirts, carrying Rajni handkerchiefs, participating in contests on who can imitate Rajni the best, and so on. I saw on one the news channel people standing in huge queues to get the show tickets and the bookings are full for whole the next month already. Tickets sold in black are seeing a price tag that runs into thousands. Fans have bunked colleges, offices, and even exams to catch the superstar’s show on the first day – simply amazing. The magic this man spreads with his flicks and stunts and dialogues is exceptional. And that is what probably makes a superstar who can stall a huge mass of people to an utter st