Post a brilliant overdose of yesterday’s leftovers and todays right-unders from my dabba kindly walloped together into 1 sq ft of vertical space without mixing and overflowing into each other,  I came across a tweet that mentioned that women (and in some cases men) are updating their FB status with color(s) of their bra, underwear, or err… nothing. Bluddy guaranteed to make the staidest or weirdest of us sit up and take note I guess. I promptly went out to all my followers list and popped an eyeball at the status mesg update feed there. Wonder o Wonders, nearly all, all of ‘em had updated their statuses with colors.

Drool !!

And then the twitter dams opened up to tweets, catcalls, witticisms and all brouhaha! Check these out

@rameshsrivats Censored scene in Deewar Parveen:Mere paas gaadi hai, bungalow hai, tere paas kya hai. Neetu: Mere paas bra hai

@thecomicproject : Asian Paints could tie up with a bra maker & promote breast cancer awareness .. girls with a mischievous look saying “mera wala red”/colours

@bombaylives: Pantone Colors is next

@manuscrypts: tweets abouts ze bra crossing limits!!

@fartingpen: One needs to overcome brariers in life

I don’t think I have ever, ever been so excited to hear about bra-episodes, even during those amazing, acne-filled, teen years of mine. This probably has been the best bra-gging that the women of the world and the bra have done for themselves. They have broken down bra-rriers that existed, in the mind probably, and the twitter world as one, starts speaking words about cup, words that never, ever slip via the lips.

Bra-Zeal is in #umbra should roll

“S K Sinha, joint secretary in the ministry for education, giving a demonstration of the device which is smaller than the normal laptop, said that it will need some more fine-tuning. He said the laptop is expected to reach the market in about six months.”

The laptop has 2 GB onboard memory with wireless Internet connectivity. To make it useful for the students, especially in the rural areas, the scientists have made it low power consuming gadget.

Darned Thrilling, Interesting and so on.

But hey, thats a ruddy Rs. 500.

So let me add “shocking” to the above adjectives.

I get a measly scientific calculator or a pen drive today for that price. So is a combo like that on offer? A scientific cal with higher processing capabilities? And say, maybe adding some text, sporting some images on standard VGA and so on?

I’ll be waiting to know more, see more, read more and hear more.

And if this 10$ episode happens, really and truly, I’ll sponsor 100 laptops for a municipal school

Hats off anyways to a team and people that dared dream and convert it into reality.

Read it Here.

You ROCK man Made my Day.

Sanjeev

What REALLY shocked me was the overwhelming response towards the option that said “Time has come for traditional media to understand they can’t do this”. Over 83% of people voted for this.

As writers, mustn’t we be aware of the distinction between Democracy and Slander/Libel?

Democracy is all about freedom of speech and expression. To express about events,  actions taken by people, decisions  and choice of actions … pretty endless list.

The expression “shoddy reporting” in itself is not really bad or out of tune. It’s done all the time.

Actor X has done some lousy acting, Director X has done some pathetic direction, Politician M has taken a lousy decision. All accepted, permitted, and even encouraged. But, calling politician X an embezzler and a cheat are not done. Not on hearsay, not without any platform or basis of concrete proven evidence.

Bloggers, please understand that you play a role in influencing minds, moods, messages and manifestations.

Blogging about current events is like niche reporting. What you write, has the power to sway people’s minds for or against people, organizations, events, and so on. And when you blog about popular people, events, etc, its your prerogative to either exalt them or rubbish them. That’s opinion.

When someone comes into a limelight, they deserve to be put under the scanner and ripped apart, in praise or criticism. And you doing that is fair contribution to these “limelight” people who by coming there, attain power to sway people, incidents and so on.

Please do criticize. And go whole hog. Its your role and even responsibility to do so. But when you do, remember that the definition of the entity that you’re criticizing, is under the scanner.

And if the junta that’s reading you is fairly smart, so is yours.

The Long and Short of things.

I hope bloggers wake up to understanding that democracy is NOT libelous slander.

I have read a lot of posts that the Traditional Media does this too, all the time. And that when they’re sued, they come up big time talking about freedom of expression and so on.

So we bloggers are supposed to be like them, now, is it ?

And reminded one of the 26/11 attacks. Shattered Glass everywhere, mayhem, debris, and shattered confidences.

All because an organization denied 20 employees their need for forming a union under the Shiv Sena banner. According to reports, cops simply stood by and watched this happen. And then arrested a token few after the damage had been done.

Terror attacks from within the country.

Who is to guard us from lunatics like this?

This is not the first time that the Shiv Sena has indulged in acts of vandalism, damaging property, benaving riotously, causing panic and above all, taking away a sense of security and well being that the nation has tried so hard to provide its citizens with. All through, they have gotten away with acts that would have led to worse retribution from the law in terms of punishments and so on, in case of the “common man”.

Are not the Thackerays, Uddhav and Balasaheb, to be held directly responsible for this? Should they not be held responsible for these acts?

I do believe that there are provisions in the law to ensure that political parties being represented here, have to pay up and make good damages incurred by such incidents. I would like the governments to come up with facts and figures informing us, how much damage is due to Sena antics in the past five years, and how much of it has been really recovered?

And if they HAVE NOT PAID, maybe the election commission should step in and BAN these buggers.

And in closing, when the common man gets down to the street, these buggers better watch out.

Take the latest case of Sanjay Dutt.

Been hounded by hazaar weird anti-social fundas in his life, including drugs, possession of weapons of mass destruction, calls to some really “wanted” people of the underworld in India being recorded and make public and so on. And today, is on the threshold of an altar that promoses to take him into a new life (of seva or corruption, time will alone tell).

Most people I spoke to about this tell me, “he’s reformed”, or “he’s munnabhai” yaar, and “remember his gandhigiri thig?”. Yeah right. “HIS” gandhigiri thing. Sure, his “Munnabhai” was a success, but since when has an actor ever been identified by the role he plays ? Should not some villains then be in Jail for all the rapes, murders, etc that they’ve done in movies?

I remember the time, when just on an “anti-incumbency” mood, people ousted the veteran Ram Naik (note the adjective … “veteran” … got nothing to do with my take on good or bad) for a very absurd concept of Govinda representing them in parliament ?

I bet that other than those who made money off his campaign funds, no one’s happy there. What has the guy ever, ever done for his constituency other than say that he doesn’t have time for politics cuz his shoots are more important?

Its not that this happens only in India. The world over, movie-dom does seem to contribute a fair amount of “over the hill” assets to politics. But the, unline India, there are processes in place to measure accountability. Here ? None. Result ? Some weirdos who have become popular by din’t of being seen enough on celluloid screens, decide that they’re “ready” to serve the junta, and decide to jump into politics.

No getting down on the roads and cleaning gutters, or spending time with lepers like Baba Amte did, or something like that. They want to “serve” from office through “deputies”

Darn !

I’ll never, ever watch a movie again, I guess. Cuz when I watch a movie, I automatically add to the eyeballs that some idiot actor is getting. Who knows, my eyeball might be the deciding one that elects him to “power”.

Sanjeev

Its about the role of bar girls as part of a HUGE intelligence gathering mechanims.

This has been shown in movies, added to crime novels and stories ad infimum, and actually used by various intelligence agencies to track and maintain whereabouts of underworld characters. The Bar Girls network, one of the key components of a glamorous underworld was a key point in various information gathering mechanisms and routines.

Up came the Great RR Patil, and blasted it down.

Down went revenues that accrued in the Mumbai night life. Down went revenues that night time rickshaw drivers were used to, ferrying people to and fro. Down went crime (apparently). Down went a whole sub market that relied on these bar girls performing night after night.

Up went surreptitious performances, and contract bar girls gatherings (you can”t keep a “good” thing down, can you?)

I remember the times when things like match fixing stories revolved around bar girls. I remember times when the likes of Telgi’s networks were exposed due to associations and liaisons with bar girls’ networks.

The bar girl attraction is a magnet that draws not only the staid and sober out for a temporary lecherous time, but also the underworld who flush with cash, frequent these havens for entertainment of a weirdly fascinating kind. This world, based on the mechanism of “biggest money gets it all” plays havoc with the staidest and most sober who meander into its environs.

This is a forum, and an avenue for those flush with cash that cannot really be declared to go out and amuse themselves. The economics of this industry, in terms of cash flowing around a single outlet, would at times put bourses and A level stocks to shame.

No wonder, then, that this was a world that attracted the underworld like nobody’s business. And no wonder too, that cops would turn a blind eye to “moralistic” views, for wasn’t this the forum that gave cops and moles their leads to track movements of”watched” people, stray disruptive processes, and business deals that couldn’t be mapped with a service or sales tax?

Have the birds then come home to roost for the great RR?

By banning the bar girls’ networks, RR effectively cut off a vital flow of information that could be used by law agencies to effectively and quietly quell a wide range of problems. If not quelling, they could be used as a leverage point to get information and leads to root causes.

Some “evils” are necessary… and some are even to be encouraged, with a larger picture in mind.

And the larger picture, Shri RR, is not morals management. It is human life and safety that you were appointed to take care of.

And you failed.

But then, thats ok, sir. “Bade shehron me aise chhot mote haadsein hote rehte hain…”

It’s happened, and it has made me PROUD !!!!

Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle in Beijing on August 11 with an incredible performance in the final.

Read all about it here …

http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/sports/headlines/shooting/n214528114.shtml

Cheers

Sanjeev Sarma

I have conducted millions of interviews with people, who come in as coders/programmers with a good amount of experience behind them, and a decent number end up asking me for “Google access” or “conn.php” file that will allow them to just replace variables. These blokes don’t know how to code, for nuts or whatever else that monkeys eat.

Their salary expectations, as “intelligent code copy-pasters” however, is undeniably there. And the sad blooming part is that there are enough of co’s and hence enough of deadlines to give these wheezing geezers a chance.

Darned if I don’t do anything about this within this year.

Sanjeev