Reads on Reservation

If you are anti-quota then you ought to read these two incisive and insightful articles on web.

http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/2006/05/karan-vs-arjun.html

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1712585,00300002.htm

Men not Allowed

Recently I read the music review of a new Hindi movie called “Men not Allowed” in a Hindi newspaper. As far as I know the movie is about lesbians and its USP (people not aware of the term please contact their MBA friends) is lot of skin.

So the question is does a movie like this need songs at all? Frankly, I don’t think so. And on the top of it a newspaper actually reviews its music.

We live in interesting times!

Media on Road

Yesterday when I was passing via Apollo Hospital in the evening I saw the vans of all news channels parked there waiting for some new development. This is nothing unusual but what struck me most was their overwhelming majority on main road. They, parked there were creating problem for the passing vehicles.

I agree there is not enough space for parking all of them but does it not reflect poorly on the mindset of news channels for which the common man is last on the priorities a la our politicians and bureaucrats?

However this should not have come as a surprise to me keeping in view the ever-plunging quality of electronic news media.

Only God can help common man of India (here I am not talking about the Laxman one.)

Interesting Times?

Recently when I was talking to one of my favorite teachers at college he told me about the first paragraph of “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens. It starts with “It was the best of the times, it was the worst of the times, it was the age of wisdom, it was………..,” basically it is a self-contradictory paragraph with loads of excellence thrown in. He told me that the lines are timeless like the classic they are from.

However, when I read them myself only then I realized the beauty. And in the modern day world and India they are most true.

Yes, these are best of the times because we have a booming economy (or not due to the plunge in Sensex?) and our country emerging as a potential world power (really? With a minion like Pakistan sucking us like leech?). And these are worst of the times with medical students getting treatment like petty criminals and innocent Muslims generating insane xenophobia in the world’s (so called) most advanced nation.

I think Chinese were very prudent in wishing “May you live in interesting times!” when they really meant, “May you live in tough times!”

The full paragraph from Mr. Dickens is –

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”