Mumbai Under Seige

Taj Hotel Burning at Mumbai

Image courtsey CNN-IBN slideshow

26 November: Shock reverberates in my body when I see the morning newspaper headline, while traveling for work. Mumbai under siege. 80 dead, 300 injured. I visibly withered after reading the headline. I had missed last evening (25 November) bulletin.

Was it a coincidence that a day ago I had watched Denzel Washington-Bruce Willis-Annette Bening-starrer 1998 movie, The Seige? One of the targets of attack in the movie was elite broadway after having hit the commute system. Eventually military was called to manage country’s own citizens against all prudence. Now elite hotels like Taj and Trident Oberoi are under siege. Terrorists have attacked Nariman House, CST terminal and hospitals. Since three days! Death toll and number of injured have increased since the first newspaper headline. 125 lives lost and 327 injured as per latest bulletin. You can check list of released hostages, injured, and deceased here at Mumbai Help.

Fight to Save Yamuna

The advent of Commonwealth Games in India in 2010 instils fear in me. Yes, fear more than the pride. For more than a year now, I have been reading about Delhi Government’s mega plans for Commonwealth village. Of course, government’s decision for Commonwealth village is commercially driven. This article will tell you how much Commonwealth Games Village would be worth and what is it about.  The construction of Commonwealth Games village started in August this year amidst protests from various quarters.

Read the complete article here at my other blog, Its A Free World.

Avant Garde Bloggies Awards – Polls Are Live Now!

Polls for each blogging award category are live here at Avant Garde Bloggies Awards blog.

You may select the blog award category using the tag cloud on the right.

Poll closes on 6th December. Winner will be decided on 11th December, 2008.

Note about polling results

In some cases, as mentioned in my previous post, Avant Garde Bloggies Awards winner will solely be decided based on poll. In cases, where nominations were already less than or equal to 6, judges scores will be added to the polling results. In all other categories, polling results will be final as judges scores have already been added to select 6 best posts.

I wish all the final nominees all the best!

Go on, poll for the best post/blog/blogger.

Avant Garde Bloggies Awards – Announcements

Best 6 finalists for Avant Garde Bloggies Awards have been decided in each category. Thanks to wondrous efforts by the judges! :) As each category was judged by two different judges (sometimes one of them being me), panel of 8 judges proved less for 34 categories. I had to look for more judges as my existing panel of judges had enough Avant Garde work on their palette.

I wrote to professionals (writer bloggers and poetry professors), they showed interest but perhaps backed out when they realised it was voluntary work. I lost ample time in the process. I wrote to other blogger friends to judge, some of them responded too late and some of them gave up at eleventh hour due to personal and professional crisis. I understand their circumstances as it could have happened to me. In fact, it has happened to me.

Light a Candle For Peace

Lifeofhues had long ago tagged me to light a candle as a silent protest against terror. I do.

Blasts have rocked almost every corner of the country: Delhi, Meerut, Ahmedabad, Imphal, Malegaon, Guwahati, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bengaluru. Here is choronolgy of recent blasts in India.

Love Tag :)

Vimal tagged me for this love tag ages ago.

RULE #1: People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.
RULE #2: Tag 6 people to do this quiz and they cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
I will live, but I will close that valve in my heart that controls love in my system. I do not think I will be able to trust again.

2. If you can have a dream to come true, what would it be?
Both of us living our old age with serenity and jest for life: Walking in woods hand-in-hand, reading, sipping coffee and chatting in the garden.

3. What would be your biggest pleasure in life? (Replaced question)
To see my man to fight the world for me, for us

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Save half the amount for my better half’s entrepreneurial pursuits, ¼th to my family who are loathe to have money from me, rest 1/4th to be share between me and my social pursuits.