Is Capital Punishment Justified ?

Over the past month i've been coming across a lot of reports of executions in many countries where Capital punishment is valid. There have been protests by both the civil society and human rights groups over this supposedly inhuman form of punishment. While in some countries like Singapore there is an attitude of "no compromise", other nations such as India and even the United States have a more compromising attitude where the death penalty is awarded in only extreme cases.

The law in itself is not outlandish or extreme but the way in which it is expedited is what is sparking off the protests. Take the example of a serial killer in the United States who had already spent half his life in prison before being executed. In some cases it is really bizarre that the executed persons have been found to be "not guilty" years after they have been convicted.I guess till date no amount of crime scene investigations or forensic science can validate or claim to be 100% sure about the identity of a murderer or a criminal.

Well i do believe that its got both pros and cons but do we really need to have such a law in today's world ? Personally i am against it, but it sure makes for one of the burning issues in what we call the norms of the civilised world. One protester's banner said it all" Execute justice , not people".

Arabs & Africans love B'wood !!!

Critics may have snubbed B'wod movies for their over the top acting and exaggerated storylines.But they cannot deny the fact that it is the most successful medium of cinema in the world, as far as viewership and popularity ratings go.

Even the United Nations Development council has gone on to say that since Indian films have over-the-top acting and narration,they have easily overcome the barriers of language. What is even more surprising is their popularity in Africa and Arab nations, people in Senegal and Morocco can enjoy hindi movies without knowing the language and without the help of subtitles. Everything is so telgraphic and reaches out to the people easily.

People also seem to love bollywood since it creates an alternative reality. Most people in UK, US and Asia would agree that for them, the storyline and song and dance routine is more like a "three hour escape ". With an outreach such as this, b'wood can soon bid for having its own version of Oscar Awards.

Tintin Reloaded!

Going back to our school days most of us had an undying passion for Tintin and his adventures. To this day everyone seems to have read the books numerous times, and still none of us would flinch an eyeball , if we get another opportunity to have a go at them again.

The Adventures of Tintin scripted by Georges Remi under the pen name of Herge have acquired cult status in the world of comics. Herge started in 1931 and went on for around 20 adventures till his death in the early 1980's. The books are action-adventures loaded with humour, satire and eccentric personalities, perfect for kids but substantial enough for adults to enjoy. I would say that the books were well ahead of their time going by the plots and the illustrations.

Well now we all are addicted to the internet and so we can download Tintin ebooks and read them at our convenience. Follow the link below if you want quick access to Tintin, these books are not downloadable , but if you are looking for a quick read its worth it.

http://tintincomics.topcities.com/index.htm

Enjoy and watch this space, Asterix is comin next!

Dubya's Empty Pockets!

What does Bush keep in his pockets?

President Bush may be burdened with the world's problems, but his pockets are pretty light.It turns out the leader of the free world doesn't have to worry about carrying all the essentials of the common man.Bush revealed the contents of his pockets Tuesday to an Argentine newspaper reporter who was interviewing him in advance of a presidential trip to Latin America later this week.

When the reporter from La Nacion asked Bush to show him what he carries, the president stood up, fished in his pockets, then dramatically pulled his hands out holding nothing but a white handkerchief that he waved playfully in the air."Es todo," Bush told the Spanish-speaking reporter, meaning the handkerchief was all. "No dinero, no mas. No wallet."He doesn't need any cash, since his staff takes care of buying anything he might need. He carries no cell phone, either, since he is surrounded by aides who take care of dialing his calls.

And why would he need keys since every door is held open for him and his car comes with a driver trained by the Secret Service?The Argentine reporter, who interviewed Bush at the White House with other journalists from the Latin American media, asked the president if he even had a watch."Si, Timex," Bush said, thrusting out his wrist to show off a timepiece that had his middle initial, W, on the face. "But I'm not supposed to be endorsing products."

See no Evil, Hear no Evil , Speak no Evil !

Epitomised by Gandhiji through his 3 monkeys,who see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil ,this tenet stills holds good even after a good five decades post Independence. Topping the list are our beloved internal agencies,political honchos and bureaucrats , who have made it a point to follow Gandhiji's philiosophy at all costs.

The rate at which scams are being exposed today is phenomenal.(Ripley's might as well add it to their list).Well the most recent one is the Volcker Report , which suggests that the major beneficiaries in the payoffs related to the UN oil for food program include the Congress party and our Foreign Minister Mr. Natwar Singh. The list is unending, Mitrokhin archives which again had the Congress and Left parties under the scanner, the infamous Hawala scams, Bofors etc etc, the list is unending. As a matter of fact the above list only includes scams initiated in deals and arrangements with foreign entities, if we sit and count the internal scams, we have to start a new department.

But there is a certain change post 2000, most of these scams are being reported by foreign instituted panels, which as i see is pretty surprising. Is this a ploy by foreign countries to ruffle the political environment in India or its just that our agencies and a few responsible persons are following the aforementioned policy of see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.Kudos to our daredevil news channels like AAJTAK , who have taken it on themselves to expose these scams.
In lighter vein i suggest that we outsource our scam investigation and enquiry to a department abroad.

Must See Flicks for under 30's!

Not yet 30 , check out how many of the following movies you have seen;

1. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron Genre : Comedy Rating *****Best ever Comedy made in India.
2. Being John Malkovich Genre : Comedy/Drama Rating **** Cool & Happening
3. Pather Panchali Genre : Drama Rating***** Best treat for Satyajit Ray's fans.
4. Anjali Genre: Drama Rating***** Arguably Mani Ratnam's finest hour
5. Memoirs of a Geisha Genre : Drama Rating***** Based on Arthur Golden's bestselling novel
6. Life is Beautiful Genre: Musical Comedy Rating***** Oscar winning best Tragic Comedy ever made.
7. Pretty Woman Genre : Romantic Comedy Rating***** Best love story ever told on screen
8. The Godfather Genre : Action/Drama Rating***** Need i say more
9. American Pie Genre: Comedy Rating***** Has achieved cult status in the US.
10. The Matrix trilogy Genre: Action Rating*****Awesome Special effects.
11. The Shawshank Redemption Genre: Drama Rating*****Exceptional portrayal by the lead actors.
12. Maine Pyar Kiya Genre : Romance Rating***** Pathbreaking & Recordbreaking movie in India.
13. The Full Monty Genre : Comedy Rating***** One of the best ever satirical comedies.
14. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge Genre: Romance Rating***** Words are not enough...
15. Forrest Gump Genre : Drama Rating***** Tom Hank's incredible Oscar winning performance.
16. The Terminator Genre: Action Rating***** Science Fiction at its Best
17. Catch Me if You Can Genre: Comedy/Drama Rating***** Steven Speilberg's directorial Magic
18. Bend it Like Beckham Genre : Comedy/Drama Rating***** Gurinder Chaddha's best work to date.
19. Back to the Future Genre : Sci-fi/Comedy Rating***** Sci-fi & Comedy , Action, lots of fun.
20. 2001: A Space Odyssey Genre: Sci-fi Rating***** Stanley Kubrick's only Oscar for Special Effects.

All the above movies are rated at 5 stars translating to "Must see" .

See the entire list at http://people.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/1282921.cms

Well i have a few movies i got to catch up on from the list.

Blogs Vs Cyber Laws & Freedom of Speech

"Blogs are the best when it comes to expressing your opinions and thoughts freely". Alas i have had to eat humble pie on the above statement made in one of my earlier posts. Well all free thoughts are held within certain judicious parameters in every country ,which calls itself as a sovereign democratic entity.

Let me appraise you of the recent goingons in India pertaining to the above issue. A management sector employee of IBM India based in Delhi writes or posts his personal take on IIPM (i dont remember the abbreviation) the Management School led by prolific MBA guru Mr. Arindam Chaudhri. In his post he questions the validity of the supposedly tall claims made by IIPM in almost all media sectors , predominantly in the full page advertisements in leading National Daily newspapers. Things such as" Dare to dream beyond IIMS", " Best International Faculty hailing from Kelloggs, Wharton and Harvard Business Schools", Plum International Placements etc etc; A local magazine picks up this post and prints it in one of its issues. Now IIPM swings into action and sues both the magazine and also the blogger on charges of conniving to defame the reputed institute. But then matters got worse with IIPM students reportedly saying that they will burn their IBM laptops , 1500 or more which were supplied by IBM last year. Now the blogger was left with no other option and so in his own words " I decided to resign from my position, and avoid my company the embaressment, & in turn protect my freedom of speech".

This in itself is not an isolated incident , we have had previous instances in the USA over corporates taking up cudgels with bloggers. We all know about the fickle nature of cyber law in India as seen during the infamous MMS scandal, after which the CEO of Bazee.com was arrested coz he was responsible for the operations of the website . The reason for his arrest , the cops were simply following the laws. The clip had been posted for sale by one among the million users and there was no way the CEO had any knowledge of this act. But that's where the crux of the issue lies , weak or non-existent cyber laws. Be it India or anywhere else , there needs to be a certain level of transparency in the cyber laws pertaining to issues within the parameters of the World Wide Web.

Let's be aware about what we need to do and more so when it comes to posting on Blogs. Do we really have to make sure that all ends are covered before we can post our views ? The Blogosphere sure doesn't feel as free as it seems.

Comeback Queen Martha Stewart!

Well All's well that ends well, this is what Martha Stewart had to say on a new beginning with her latest television series dubbed as Martha's " Apprentice" . And believe me the promos sure show that its not a take off from the Donald Trump's Apprentice.

In a business career spanning more than two decades Martha Stewart became a lifestyle icon for millions of shoppers through her flagship company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.Then came the infamous insider trading allegations and finally convinction and sentencing for lying to the court , misleading the federal jurisdiction , pity that she wasn't sentenced for insider trading and her broker was. Five months in a federal prision, and five months in house arrest. But the public outcry against the sentence seemed to have made Martha much stronger.

Her apprentice is billed as not a "winner takes all" series but a show with equal opportunities for all participants. That does not surprise me as Martha had been hinting that she would do charity work to reduce her sentence of 10 months. The american public have welcomed Martha's second coming with much hype and hoopla surrounding her new show on NBC primetime. Looking at the past we could all see that it was more of a covert government operation against a self made billionaire, as insider trading charges were dropped and "cover up" charges were framed. Perhaps the only fault which Martha Stewart had was that she knew the people and had the connections and was wealthy. This fact being well known gave the journalists and political classes their chorus to railroad her into prison.

The"Unrelenting Shame" for Indian Cricket Fans!

Cricket has been running hand in hand with my emotions, as i believe it is with most young indians with a passion for Indian cricket. It is true that India is good at only one sport , and is the sole reason for celebration at times of distraught in other sporting adventures.

It is a shame to lose and there is even bigger shame when we justify losses as just being"another bad day on the field". 20 finals over a 5 year period,it is simply hard to digest and then comes a statement by our cricket captain "it becomes more and more difficult to win a final after we have lost in so many". We have heard enough crap saying that a cricketer's career span is too less and they have to earn what they can during their playing years.Lucrative endorsements, selfish play, rivalry , ego, are not the culprits.

The media is the biggest culprit for the disaster called the Indian Cricket Team. I have never seen any newspaper or media outlet miss out even on a player's hairstyle,his eating habits etc;. The players are also criticized in the same vein for their lacklustre performances. The media has made the cricketers demi-gods and the players thrive on this. We have stars on the team but none of them wants to shine on the cricket field.Couple with that our own version of the Lok Sabha, the BCCI, the richest cricket board in the world and possibly the only board where mismanagement is given due credence than proper management.

Unless we could have "Kapil's Devils" back on the team, it seems the World Cup or any major trophy is still miles away. Well atleast there is some light at the end of the tunnel as far as sports in India goes, sania mirza's performance in the tennis circuit is heartening. Can we ever banish cricket from our veins?

Notebook,LifeBook and now the "ToughBook"!

After the proliferation of the standard Notebook category of laptops , Fujitsu came out with its version, the Fujitsu LifeBook. Now we have Panasonic coming into the laptop market with the Panasonic ToughBook. The ToughBooks are targeted at the engineering , construction, defence and utility segments where the working conditions demand not only performance but high resistance to wear and tear.

Most of us would have seen these laptops in the recently released hollywood flick " Mr & Mrs Smith" starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as covert spies.The movie shows Brad Pitt picking up a ToughBook and analysing it for evidence after a crash and burn sequence. Viola' the ToughBook true to its name reveals all even after being burnt beyond recognition.

Billed as the toughest notebook computers in the market, Panasonic has priced the semi-rugged variety from $3500 onwards, while the rugged laptops have been priced at $5500 onwards.ToughBooks are made as per US military wartime specifications and have a market share of 74 per cent in the 'ruggedised PC category' as per research.

The notebooks have a proprietary magnesium alloy casing which is 20 times stronger than ABS plastic and five times stronger than titanium.The hard disk in the notebooks come in a metal casing with sponge and polymer compounds that insulate it from any shock.The notebooks do not have any vent and all its covers are sealed with synthetic resin to protect against water and dust.They also come with an outdoor readable LCD screen.

Pretty Tough Huh!

Are you game for one!

Laughter the Best Medicine!

Check out these riotous one liners and two and three ...... liners .

Take 1
Somebody has said there are only two kinds of people in the world.There are those who wake up in the morning and say, "Good morning, Lord,"And there are those who wake up in the morning and say, "Good Lord, it's morning."

Take 2
Never give me work in the morning. Always wait until 4:00 and then bring it to me. The challenge of a deadline is refreshing.

Take 3
Banta was visiting Santa, who had acquired two new dogs, and asked her what their names were. Santa responded by saying that one was named Rolex and one was named Timex.Banta: Whoever heard of someone naming dogs like that?"HELLOOOOOO," answered Santa. "They're watch dogs!"

Take 4
"Hello! Where are you coming from?" asked Bill."Oh, don't ask me! I'm coming from the cemetery. I just burried my mother-in-law" replied Jim."I'm so sorry!" said Bill, "But why is your face scratched all over?""It wasn't so easy!" said Sid, "She put on a hell of a fight!"

Take 5
The owner of a company tells his employees:You worked very hard this year. The company's profits increased dramatically. As a reward, I 'll give everyone a check for Rs 5000. If you work with the same zeal next year, I'll sign those checks.

Take 6
Q: What four letter word starts with F and ends with K and if a man can't get it he uses his hands?
A: Fork

Gotcha " U probabably thought something else"

Movie Review : The Rising

Cast: Aamir Khan, Toby Stephens, Rani Mukherjee,Amisha Patel.
Director : Ketan Mehta

The long wait is finally over, India's most talked about movie project since the heydays of Devdas, has just hit the silver screen. It had been clearly cited as a movie ,tailor made for the masses, and aptly seen by fans of Aamir Khan as a sequel to his bravado against the British in Lagaan. After watching the movie , i felt that it left a lot to be desired.

This is certainly no " Lagaan" as said by both Director and cast in unanimous voice during pre-release functions. The movie revolves around the life and times of Mangal Pandey , an ordinary sepoy of the British East India Company,and how he single handedly challenges the Company for defiling the religious sentiments of Indian Sepoys. The movie seeks to glorify Mangal Pandey's role as the spark which ignited the First War of Independence.Yes we would like to see more of Aamir Khan after his 4 year hiatus but that in no way explains him getting 80% of the screen space and the rest of the talented cast having to share the remaining 20%.

There was nothing magnificient or unique about the Battle scenes , which were supposed to induce the A-factor in the movie. We could have surely done without the digitally enhanced scene of the Rangoon regiment's battleships arriving at the harbour. With so much attention to detail , this is one of the major drawbacks in the movie. The music direction by A.R. Rahman is a let down, except for the "Mangal, Mangal" track the other songs are way off the mark.

A few bright areas are visible , Toby Stephens as "William Gordon"has surely put in a lot of effort in learning Hindi and his acting skills are matched only by Aamir Khan. The King Khan surely deserves accolades for another job well done, he has literally gone into the skin of the character. Such committment can only be expected from Aamir Khan.Rani Mukherjee as the nautch girl Heera excels in the frames shared with Aamir. She sure has come a long way since her debut and looks like portraying character roles with relative ease. Amisha Patel as the widow has done her bit, but going back to her statements to the media about her extensive research to portray the role of a would be sati , i guess thats a job well done ,although she had limited presence in the movie.

The hype and hoopla surrounding the movie was nothing but a marketing gimmick which is a new fad learnt by Bollywood Production Houses. Plainly speaking its like make more noise before rather than after the movie.Strangely though this year movies like "Waqt" ," Black" etc have done rather well at the Box Office without any sizeable marketing ploy. The verdict is out, the race to the Oscars is still open for any takers in Bollywood.

Rating: *** ( Good)

58 Years On ! India Shining or Not ?

Happy Independence Day one and all!

Of course India is shining. Just ask the guy who is raking in the moolah from his BPO company. Or ask those who are buying all the electronic gizmos from the mega stores in the mega cities. India,defined strictly as those people at the top of the heap who make a flashy living because the supply of people at the bottom of the heap is so abundant that they work for next to nothing. India is still bracketed as being among the nations where the average person lives on less than $1.50 a day.

It's useless arguing against the statement that india is shining but only for 2% of the population. Multinational corporations have an "India centric strategy" and not a day goes by when international publications like NY TIMES ,WALL STREET JOURNAL run an article on india. I have personally come to believe that this feel good factor about india shining never dies down in indians. Conversing with a friend who had recently returned from a trip back to his hometown in india,i asked him , how are things back home. Pronto came the reply "they have never been better". Everyone he knew had a TV set, washing machine, mobile phone, cd player ,car. India had prospered beyond his imagination.

India has always been shining for some elite group or the other. If you neglect the hopeless 970,000,000 and just concentrate on the 30 to 40 million who have it all — from PCs to cars to foreign vacations — India is shining like a crazy diamond.The loopholes and potholes are however exposed in a big way.BPO and callcenters notwithstanding, when you see 120,000 people show upto apply for 40 job openings, you know that sooner rather than later, it is going to sink. When you hear that 40% of India’s childrenunder the age of 5 are malnourished, you know that the future is bleak. When you know that the vast majority of Indians don’t have high school diplomas, you also know that in the coming age of a global knowledge economy, Indians will not be able to compete against literate nations.

What is wrong in believeing India is shining even if its for a select section of people, asks my friend? I tell him, that in 58 years we have been following our own footsteps and also our neighbours footsteps , believing what is all hunky-dory and neglecting hard issues which will have a telling effect on the future of India as a global economy. If we need examples we need to look no further than South Korea, forget about population, land area,resources and other issues, South Korea has emerged from scratch to be one of the economic superpowers in Asia.This has been done by focus on economic growth without neglecting the growth of people. Our strength is in our people , unless we focus on development of people ,economic growth will have no meaning in the long run.

Heights of Downsizing!

Going by the recent happenings in the business world it comes as no surprise to me that Addidas have finally let the rabbit out of the hat. Yes! Its official now Reebok is gonna be owned and managed by Addidas.

But hey this is gotta be cruel on Reebok coz' over the years it has been giving both Nike and Addidas a run for their money in the lucrative worldwide market for sneakers and sport's accessories.

But why such a sudden turnaround, it baffles me and the people at the receiving end of this acquisition are the hot shots in the Reebok corporate headquarters , predominantly based in China , Thailand, Malaysia & Indonesia.

The talk of the town is that top corporate positions , going by departments are gonna be trimmed down to accomodate the acquirer's ( Addidas) representatives.Downsizing is tough but in an acquisition it becomes nasty , heads roll and hell breaks loose. As indicated by the illustration maybe some top honchos have to compromise on certain quarters to stay afloat.

Believe it or Not! India More Closer to Mars than Earth

A string of incidents in the last few days have brought forth startling evidence which indicates that India is closer to mars than earth. It started with a couple of bomb blasts in Kashmir which left 56 dead , this was followed by the death of more than 40 people in a stampede at Mumbai during a tsunami scare following the floods.

The mayhem at Mumbai was just complete when a few lost their lives to bullets of Indian Police in Srinagar. Just a few minutes back as mars started to pull away, 30 children lost their lives as a bridge collapsed in Daman. As mars passed closest ever to earth in 60,000 years, India was definitely closer to it than earth.Indian astrologers immediately pounced on the opportunity and insisted that India is not just closer to Mars, but it is closer to the entire solar system.

“Look” said Swami Futureshock, “we have more deaths that are meaningless than any other part of earth”.After all these years it just took Mars a few days to prove that India was more closer to the Solar System than earth. For example, planetary systems have been managing Politics and Sex in India for more than thousand years. Kings and Politicians have planned their policy by consulting their horoscope. All marriages are made in heaven when in India! This is done by checking the compatibility of the bride and groom using the horoscope. This has lead to the lowest divorce rate and the highest AIDS infected population. It took mars to come really close to India for no one to notice that 3 out 4 abnormal deaths can be traced to misinterpreted religion and belief in planetary systems.

Save Your Wives from " Bush" !

It is said that George W. Bush Senior was a patriot, his successor William Jefferson Clinton was a man of peace , but we have surely mistaken George Bush Junior as a warmonger. He is a step ahead of Clinton.

World leaders are busy protecting their vital assets during their state trips to the United States.

Certainly war is not the only thing on Dubya's mind.

My Foray into the Blogosphere!

After a long hiatus i finally have the time to jumpstart my Blog! But one question will not be haunting me "Am i alone in the Blogosphere".

Weblog-tracking company Technorati, Inc.,reports almost 4.2 million Weblogs worldwide as of October 2004, up from about one million a year earlier.Although blogging has been around since the early 1990's, it has seen almost a new faceover post 2000, whereby Blogging has been turned into a powerful tool for establishing and maintaining online communities.

My understanding says that a blog helps in having a personal obsession and total confidence in one's own voice or opinions. A blogger needs only a Computer, Internet Access, and an opinion. With the comment's (post back) and message options in a blog ,the opinion's are more open ended.

It is fairly easy to go unnoticed in the blogosphere, due to the fact that we always take a risk of confining ourselves to information that only reinforces what we already believe. Blog's have to be popularised and the best way to do that is by posting regularly,its more like feeding the blogosphere.

I have personally done a lot of research before starting my blog and i believe that its an excellent way of building mainstream personal communication.

Check out the link below for a crash course on blogging

http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/talk/blogs2004/


Happy Blogging!

To all "would be" fellow Bloggers!