The Bandh Senario

On 5th november was a bandh and then tomorrow is one more. BJP just decided that wasn't enuf so they have called a 48 hr bandh on tue and wed. And its not just this month. It's been going on since the Nandigram issue popped up. Thats about a year now. All this time we people have been worried n have sympathized with the victims. But now we're just tired and maybe thats y we need these bandhs. It's more leisure at the cost of a few lives and I don't care. Anymore.

A big FAT bengali wedding...of sorts

Not big enough, nice spacious place and a multitude of people. A good start then.

Early in the evening I was very deterrent about attending the ceremony. I mean, I wouldn’t know anyone there. Except for the bride and obviously she had better things to do that evening than waste her time chatting with some frail guy with a pointy chin, me.

Faces as vibrant as glittering sarees, shimmering with layers of make-up, made the bright lights needless. Men in expensive sherwanis moving about everywhere. I, with my collared and highly informal tee shirt and jeans, looked like a refugee from Cambodia. Instantly, my uncle and aunt had blended with the environment.

Gingerly, I got myself seated on a sofa in the corner of a big hall room. The fan beside me kept messing up my hairstyle. Soon, was joined by a fat bloke with a dicky hip. He was equally annoyed with the fan as his higgledy-piggledy hairstyle was being ruined too.

“Are you from the konya-pokkho”? Bride’s side? He inquired.

“ Yes” I replied.

“Who is she to you”?

“Didi”.

A couple of yards away I noticed a trying-to-be-cool dude was having a rather candid chat with four girls. He had big ears and almost no hair, a comb-over of sorts. He had a goatee. Obviously, he wouldn’t know what a goatee is – I mean, he simply had no beard elsewhere on his face, except his chin. Really, he would’ve looked cooler on a limping donkey with one eye and mange. I was probably showing signs of jealously, I realized.
Another group of middle-aged women were involved in something what sounded like a boisterous chatter. Very fashion obsessed and high on make-up. The obvious topic of discussion among them would be Bengali T.V serials, geomancy, hair and skin care, I guessed.

A tall, fair guy was headed towards me. Hair up to his shoulders, straight with pointed ends.Aah,John Abraham was here. Perhaps hair extensions and day-glow sunscreens was his thing.
“ You can have your dinner now if you want”, he said.

“Ya, good idea”. I answered.

A table of six. Four burly men, one of them sounded like Pavarotti gargling a hammer. Sitting in front of me was a lady in her early 40s. A bloated ugly hog, like Jade Goody. She was staring at the large piece of chicken on my plate and was giving me a derisive smile from time to time.
The food, however, was good. I could find no quintessential Bengali dishes in a Bengali wedding. But I wasn’t complaining. Most Bengali dishes (especially veg curries) are as tasty as lard. So, if you ever find yourself wanting to taste one, jam a corkscrew in to your knee and wait until the feeling passes.
Finally, some chicken briyani and afghan styled dishes. Hmmm, crikey…The lady in front was savoring every bit, eating like a cow. Slower than tectonic movements.

The men beside me were least interested in the food. They were discussing something about politics. Deliberating about the Left’s interests in the Indo-US nuclear deal. Marxism and Mamata Banerjee. And that’s what they do all they. I know. At home, in the bus, in office. No one’s ever gonna sleep with them ‘cuz they’ve such ugly beards and ridiculous principles. If your life's that empty, it's time to take up carpentry or embroidery. Because next thing you know, you'll be worried about global warming and your next-door neighbour, his Land Cruiser’s contribution to the phenomenon. One of them particularly looked disinterested on the political subjects.

“ The fierceness of politics will soon fade away in West Bengal. People are loosing interest”. He beamed.

Others were silent for a moment.

No,no,no - I thought. Politics in West Bengal will still be around long after you’ve succumbed to herpes or whatever it is that you’ve got. Almost said it.

The man with hairy arms was boasting about his newly bought Tata Sumo Victa, and that it could accommodate three persons up front unlike other cars, which had 2 seats. Two things crossed my mind. Firstly, the sumo was designed by a man who only had a ruler. And secondly, just because you have an extra seat up front doesn’t mean you’re going to have a threesome. Summing up, a pretty pointless and ugly car then. But, nevermind.
For me, the party was over. For many others it had just begun.

“Give me the house keys”, I asked my aunt.

“Keno”? Why?

“ Severe bowel pain, I have to go home”. I replied, making appropriate expressions.

Back in the cab I was as relieved as Mr.Haneef would’ve been after he was extradicated.

By 10:15, I was home.

The Less Explained...the better

Since the fall of the twin towers, each day seems to bring us closer to an Orwellian
nightmare. A war without end driven by spoon-fed ideologies, consuming the world.Despite a common Abrahamic origin that so many of us share, we somehow cannot seem to see our oneness.

In the face of what the media portrays, despite Bush's cheerful visits to mosques, the Muslim world sees their activities as modern day imperialism. Which perhaps it is...but lets not go there. They see it as the West against Islam, and the conflict continues to escalate.

Last year, the world had seen Israel attack Lebanon in response to the guerrilla activities of Hezbollah.This year we saw the 'Lebanon conflict' between the Fatah-al-Islam and the Lebanese Armed Forces. With worries over Iran's nuclear program, there is a lot of concern that the US would invade Iran next. But with their forces overextended already, the United States lacks the resources necessary to sustain a conflict with Iran.

Guess I didn't really think about Israel, its partner in the Middle East.

After 9/11, terrorists have attacked India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Spain,London, Bali, the lot. The Taliban are regrouping in Afghanistan and its government seems ever so shaky. According to the 2007 "Failed States Index", Iraq has recently emerged as the world's second most unstable country, following Sudan, tipping ever-heavily towards a civil war. North Korea is rattling its nuclear tipped sabres. Oil prices are at record highs and support for our foreign adventures back here at home is wavering.

It seems likely that as we continue to get bogged down in quagmires of our own making, other conflicts will emerge. And as truth becomes the first casualty of war,long bottled tensions will suddenly bubble up.

Perhaps the Global War on Terror is really World War Three, only most of us just haven’t realized it yet.

Photos of Israel's war on Lebanon (Warning: These images could be very disturbing)

The Forest

It’s funny how sometimes we happen to draw an analogy from the most ubiquitous and minutely useless things that happen around us. I, for example, was watching a housefly trapped in a spider web. Obviously, I did not deliver it because I couldn't be bothered. And when u watch 'Animal Planet' u find predators on the hunt, innocent animals being butchered-just like the fly. So, where is the relevance? What parity did I derive? Unlike the spider I don’t have eight eyes or eight hundred legs and I don’t suck juices out of a fly. But cogitate a bit and we find a crucial match...its the habitat


Wrapped in silence
The forest looks still
Do not be fooled
Life lurks within

Everything that lives in it
Is a predator or a prey
Be the sly agile hunter
And you live another day

Eat or be eaten
The laws are here to stay
Bloodshed isn’t uncommon
A small price to pay

Ravish the warm blood
Success has a sweet taste
No ethics or guilt here
It’s your survival at stake

So sharpen your senses
And live for the day
Have no regrets
Slay or be slayed.

And before u get more baffled
By what I wish to say
Look around,
It’s in the forest we all stay...

Stray Thoughts

What runs in my mind is nothing more than an illusion, of what i want the world to be. If it weren't for this quality which we all have, a quality of expecting expectations from things we do, this wouldn't have been such a big deal, but the problem is - we do. some of us want a dog, a new house, want to get married, want a relationship with that "someone", want money, want friends, want peace - the list keeps on going; and its not that we all have only ONE want, each of us 6.5 billion people have more than one.

To different people, the world appears in a different way. What is "defined" as sane in one culture is completely preposterous in another - i mean, i always thought girls/women with sleeveless clothes are more un-traditional and more open. Hmmm, now picture yourself in a world filled with yellow sand everywhere, with very little or no electricity, with white clad men wearing turbans walking around, in what the world calls Afghanistan, those girls/women are not that acceptable anymore now, are they?

Anyway, i'm beginning to drift. What is it we want from this world? To live comfortably? To earn money? To be happy? Its funny we have these wants, because though we know the harsh reality is that one day we wont be here anymore. And yet there are these things we seek, these things we start each day hoping we would get "somewhere". This is exactly the same that most religious books preach. It wont get inside our heads now will it?? It cant, for our heads are SO intricately wired that every attempt to thwart this want of "wants" will delete itself by default. Our brain almost treats it like a virus. So though we know that we are transient, though we know that what we want and aquire is lost anyway, we still pursue these, which isnt that funny now when u come to think of it in a different perspective.

A human mind is about selfishness, a friend once told me. All about it. Just that one quality about us makes us so pathetic, and yet so human. We are all here for the immediate thirst quenchers, the more immediate results are what we look for. The obvious choice between a coke and warm water to quench actual thirst would be the coke by most. And even IF we realize it at the time that the former would actually dehydrate us, we still overlook that very conveniently. The immediate satisfaction got by the coke is a lot better than warm water. SO what if we get obese, SO what if we dehydrate.... SO WHAT? Its better to live a life satisfied rather than not. Right??

What i have written above is not fact, but can be looked more upon as an opinion. To which some people will agree to as SO RIGHT, and some partially, and yet others completely against it. To satisfy everyone is mission impossible, and its not like in the movie where it becomes possible. I sure hope the reader is not bored by what i have posted here, since this is a product of my downright joblessness, and would diplomatically apologise to those who are.

;-)

Globally 'Intended' Warming

Now I’d like to talk about the Hollywood blockbuster ‘The Day After Tomorrow’- in essence the gulf stream stops, a lot of Americans freeze to death and its not really the end of the world. So once again it focuses our attention on global warming, supposedly our formidable future. As we know, global warming is the corollary of accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The main gases being water vapour, CO2, CH4 and ozone. Eventually the temperature of the earth rises and we experience greenhouse effect. So what do we do? Well there r a lot of 'simple' solutions….all we have to do is, stop using aerosols and refrigerators, switch off our ACs, replace our indoor lighting with ‘environment friendly’ lamps, shut down our factories, plant trees, sell our cars and buy horses, stop traveling in airliners and fly in kites…eh…Not so simple really.

However, even if we are able to limit greenhouse gases, how do we deal with the external factors that cause warming? Intensification in solar output, volcanic emissions, and variations in the earth’s orbital are a few of these external factors. These are interlinked and highly intricated processes and I’m not sure how much we could do to counteract them.Climate commitment studies indicate that even if greenhouse gases were stabilized at present day levels, a further warming of about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) would still occur. Scientists have compared the existing green house gas levels with those of the pre-industrial levels since the 18th century and have found a major rise. But then industrialization and progress have made our lives better- Yes, we could’ve made no alterations on Mother Earth but then we would still be eating deer and wearing fur. Therefore,as it turns out global warming, more or less, is the consequence of human advancement. And that is my point, so what’s the vociferation all about?

David Bellamy, who is a environmentalist and a naturalist, has recently said “global warming, at least the modern nightmare version, is a myth, I’m sure of it and so are a growing number of scientists, but what is really worrying is that the world’s politicians and policy makers aren’t”. So while the green-peace activists are taking elaborate resolutions to stop warming, another part of the Amazon basin is being stripped of its vegetation. And then, for crying out loud, they blame the car. And I ask, “why the car? It’s given us so much in terms of exclusivity, solace and a sense of well-being". Someway or the other, these ‘friends of the earth’ want us to get on a horse or a bicycle, rather than on a car. They are fairly convinced that by doing so the Tasmanian fruit bat will come back to life, that GM crops would be un-invented and the earth will once again cool down. Ludicrous. So what would you do? Take a bicycle to work or take the car instead?
Hey now, eminent scientists have been busy at work and they have found out that a cow produces 500 liters of methane a day. Methane, as we know, is more powerful than CO2 as a global warming agent….so a cow farting causes more global warming than a Range Rover or a Porsche cayenne. And this is a fact, not a conjecture. Therefore, don’t despair if someday you’ve to part with, say for example, milk.

Few months back I read in an article that the UK government was not allowed to build a ring road around Sudbury province of northwest London (even though this would divert traffic- free up traffic jams and save lives) because of the environmental impact. So it might hurt a butterfly, if u build a bypass. Moreover, we have seen and learnt of endless references to all the future cars that would b running on pumpkin seeds and linseed oil and organic products. All I can say is that it’s still a long way from now and when they do happen they’ll be very expensive to run, ridiculously slow and highly complicated….Infact, if you want to make a environmentally friendly car why not make one that uses CO2 from the atmosphere, as fuel, and liberates oxygen as the by-product. That would give the scientists something to speculate on. Sadly though, the futures of these beloved machines are in jeopardy. I just hope that the new world order is V12 and not bio-fuel and that cars remain the way they are, exciting us in the most primeval and pampering us in most subliminal ways…and as for global warming it’ll be a part of the natural process like the Big Bang or the Ice Age. Its inevitable and it will take its toll…