Fire-ed Up Politicians

We all know how our politicians are corrupt and how massacres are staged by them for their gain. Recently I came across one such story.

3 slum-dwelling areas in Delhi were hit by fire. Fire brigade did not arrive for atleast an hour!

It was fishy considering that the Fire Brigade had arrived last evening in the slum at the behest of some fire rumors. Our ever-efficient TV news channels too were quick to publicise the rumors as ‘breaking news’.

Dharavi slum fire picture courtsey this Mumbai blogger

When a single Fire Brigade van finally arrived after an hour, half the slums could have been salvaged. But angry slum-dwellers were busy beating the fire-fighting van driver and firefighters because they were late! Frightened, all the other fire brigade vans stood outside the slum.

The slum dwellers were understandably agigated and angry. However, some of them were NOT surprised. They knew it had to happen sometime before elections. It has happened before in 2004. Timing is just too predictable. They ahd been almost waiting for it.

These people predicted the sequence of the events from this point, which is exactly how the events unfolded.

Politicians from loacal area arrive > Fire Brigadev vans run behind him (by this time whole slum is burnt to ashes) > Then comes a bread van (to distribute bread obviously) > The milk van arrives > Next blanket van expected to arrive.

These slum dwellings are predominantly occupied by minorities, so no guesses on which ‘secular party’ that will be dedicatedly involved in the ‘relief work’.  By the time election will arrive here, which is on 7th May, they will have ‘earned’ their votes by hard work.

Bread, milk and blanket. What more could you need? It doesn’t matter if you have no place to go and hide in heat after having all your belongings and house burnt down? Relocate, rebuild on the promises of pukka home in future.  Till then elections will ahve happened, and your ‘secular’ representative elected. 😦

Dare to Stand, Dare to Die?

I have always spoken how only writing about issues may not be enough. We may need to be part of the system, such as be in politics. Having said that, I have always known that it is easier said than done. One reason I can’t join politics is that I need a regular income to pay off my bills and loans. I don’t have enough money and time it takes to campaign. I am not alone in it, it is same with almost all of us aware citizens.

There is another bigger reason for our aversion to take part in Indian politics, which we all know but are shy to admit it. Standing up in political arena against corrupt biggies is also about risking your life. Just as Bahadur Sonkar, Lok Sabha (LS) candidate from Indian Justice Party (IJP) candidate found out hard way.

Bahadur,  a Dalit leader who was contesting in LS elections from Jaunpur constituency in Uttar Pradesh, was found hanging from a tree near his home on 14 April, 2009. His chief opponent was BSP’s Dhanajyay Singh, who is a Don-turned-politician.

Of Good Days and Bad Days

Cartoon by Brainstuck.com

I have usually never paid attention to how my day has been: good or bad. Even when my sister asks me everyday, how was your day. I tell her it was as usual. But sometimes your days go horribly wrong and one thing or one person can make a huge difference.

Like the day I told you I lost my jute bag. After I lost the bag, some more subtle and unpleasant things happened same day. While returning to home, I realised with shock that I had also lost 250GB hard disc that I kept in my bag! With this discovery, I was more than ready to wallow in self-pity.

By sheer instinct, I decided to go back to the restaurant at metro station where I had eaten a vegetable cutlet waiting for my colleague, my co-commuter. I half-heartedly asked the guys at the counter about a jute bag that I might have left in their eating area. They queerly looked at each others’ faces, and called other guys. Finally one guy asks me, What did you have in your bag? Inwardly I angrily thought they don’t even have it, yet I have to list the contents of my bag. But to my surprise, they had it!

My colleague was wrong when she said I had brought the bag to auto. I got all my things back. The guy at counter informed me that my bag had also caused a ‘bomb’ scare. Getting your things back after losing them once is a very happy phenomenon. So that was a day that started badly and ended on a happy note. 😀

Cartoon from Toonpool.com

It happened again.

Win Prizes at The MovieManiax Awards

Yes, now YOU can win prizes at The MovieManiax Awards’08!

As the awards come to a close, we thank everyone who has helped us make this endeavor a success. To give back to our readers, we have come up with another contest. All you have to do is to guess who will be the winner in the following six categories. The Categories are:

1. Best Film

2. Best Director

3. Best Actor (Male)

4. Best Actor (Female)

5. Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male)

6. Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female)

You can  CLICK HERE to see the nominees.

The first two winners will get DVDs of a Hollywood Classic along with a classic from Hindi Cinema. The 3rd prize is a signed copy of the recently launched – “Happionaire’s Cash The Crash” by Yogesh Chabria.

The goodies don’t end here. We have 4th & 5th prizes as well yay!!!.

These winners will gets copies of Invest The Happionaire Way (ITHW). If requested the Hindi version of ITHW is also available.

A few rules:

1. Members of MM team can not participate.

2.Only one guess per category allowed.

3. In case, no one gets all guesses right, the prize belongs to the one who gets most of the guesses correct.

4. In case of a tie, a tie- breaker will be arranged as per the discretion of MM team 🙂

5. The contest is open till 7th April midnight. The results for The MovieManiax Awards ’08 initially were to be be declared on 7th April but it has been postponed to 9th April, giving you two more days to loot the prizes. 🙂

Go on guess the winner and take away your prize. Best of luck!

P.S. A very Special thanks to Yogesh Chabria for sponsoring the books. The DVDs will be sponsored by Vee.

Edit: Results for this contest have been announced here.

What?

Something’s happened to me.

My presence of mind has gone for a toss. I do not see the obvious.

I have always been wee-bit absent minded, I live in timelessness. By timelessness, I mean I never realise what today’s date is. If I happen to notice the date, I will remember – Oh, Today is K’s birthday! It also means that because I have no sense of time in my personal life (in professional, I can be as good as you can get), I am rarely the one to close a meeting or call (unless it’s a deadline to be back at home or an emergency of sorts). It also makes me passive in relationships, I usually react rather than act. I prefer if someone else decides to initiate/end a meeting or call or take the relationship forward or vice versa. There are several pitfalls of such behaviour though. But I digress. This time I have taken my absent-mindedness too far.

The two examples I am going to share involve my two blogger friends. I will call them R and G. So R had told me her real name several months ago. Yet when a discussion about real names came up recently, I asked her name again. She told me. I found her name very familiar. I dismissed it as general forgetfulness. Imagine next day when I receive a sms from R, I realise I had saved her number in my phone along with her real name. Her real name flashes on my screen every time we sms/call each other. Yet I was clueless!

Another friend, this time a personal friend and fellow blogger told me how a person G had tracked her down at a social networking site. I went on tell my friend about my interactions with G in the past. Late at night while I was about to sleep I realised that G had also tracked ME down in the same social networking site and sent me an invitation too. That email was lying unread in the mailbox. Why didn’t I relate and tell that to my friend while we were discussing!!

Several nights, when I go to sleep, I belatedly register the intended meaning of what my friend had tried to explain me on chat during the day. During the day, I had rushed to berate him while he had said nothing that was strong or bad. He, being a sweet gem, had let it pass. Believe me this has not been first occurrence, where I have jumped to take offence at something unintended and innocent. This is typical ‘tubelight’ behaviour that has never been associated with me. It doesn’t sit well with me.

To put an icing on my cake, I keep losing things. Other day I dropped the book I was reading while travelling. The book was Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. (Yeah, it has a movie made on it too.) Reema gave me a soft copy of it while I was lamenting my loss of losing an ‘unfinished book’ (As if losing the book after I had read would have OK). Thanks, girl! 🙂

Today too I left behind a jute bag carrying my lunch, milk, scarf and some papers (Thank God, there was no money) in the auto. Darn! I miss my glass of milk.

Btw, Happy April Fool’s Day! I wish I could say I was making a fool out of you. But every word here is true. 😦 Meanwhile, here is my last year’s April Fool’s Day post.

Birthday calendar courtsey Smiley me.