A mole, a mountain..

I'm not sure why this incident scared me. But it did.

I work part time at a cinema. This particular day on a lunch break, I sat chatting with a couple of friends in the staff room. There were five of us - 3 Britons, me - an Indian and a guy from Bangladesh (lets say Shubam). Now all of them are people I am equally fond of, simply I get along well with them.

At 1300, Shubam being a devout Muslim turns his chair east, ties a kerchief around his head and prays. At this, 2 of my Briton friends, look at each other and snigger. No one talks.

I'm not particularly religious. I understand British humour. But I'm afraid of actions like this. I'm afraid they will be mis-understood. And I'm afraid some people may not take it well.

MSN.. my one true love

I really wonder what life before MSN was. As far as I can remember chating online became really popular in the last 5-6 years or so. For chronically reticent people like me, MSN was a saviour. But then, now that I think of it, I did have a pretty good social life even before MSN came to me. Oddly enough 'online chatting' closed me up. Its probably one of the disadvantages of having a long distance relationship. You spend more time with your PC than with real people around you.

And yet, I am grateful for this wonderful invention :) I love using smiley's and silly icons. Abbreviated words annoy me completely (simply because it takes me ages to actually read and understand them). Yes, I hate people who use SMS language on me. What happened to good ol' English?! Good grammar is an art. Not that I claim to have perfected that art, but I'm hoping to get there.

Anyways, with all the silly tests floating around in cyberspace, I decided to take a test on MSN knowledge. I answered only 6/12 questions correctly. So, let me know enlighten you.

MSN stands for Microsoft Network and acts as an ISP only in one country - America. America Online is the only ISP in the US which has more users than MSN (wow!). 110 million users around the world use Hotmail - which was launched on America's Independence Day -the 4th of July. Hotmail was bought by Microsoft for $400 million in 1997. MSN messenger was first introduced in 1999.

So much for trivia.

I've read so many papers and articles about how online chatting is 'ruining' the world. Though I may tend to agree with a couple of those views, I also think MSN undoubtedly revolutionised communication and made the world smaller. Living miles away from my family and friends, it is the only gateway to my past, to people I know and love. And for that, I am grateful.

This is probably one of the random-est blogs I have ever written ;-)

Happy Fool's Day!

"Our wisdom comes from our experience, and our experience comes from our foolishness". -

Sacha Guitry

Happy Fool's Day!

The last cigar

Wow! Today is D-day for all social smokers. It is perhaps the last time friends/ collegues/ aquaintances/ business partners/ lovers etc can sit together and smoke indoors in a pub. Photo journalists will probably have a field day! I truly think it is a landmark event. The government actually putting its people above revenues and taxes that it could possibly earn through social smoking. Very brave I must admit.

Although, I'm sorry for all the business' that will go bust because of this. I'm sorry for people who enjoy their pint and cigarette. For me its difficult to be truly liberal and yet support the ban wholeheartedly. The biggest concern here is for those who suffer due to passive smoking. I wonder if the ban will reduce the number of smokers though. They're probably going to be pushed from the pub into the street. I wish there were a more creative solution to this problem though. But at the moment, this seems to be it. Maybe it is the best.

Eye candy!

This is a girl's opinion about the movie '300'.

It wasn't brilliant. The men were extra ordinary though. I'm not sure whether this is supposed to be a macho-bloodlust kind of film, or an eye candy movie for the ladies. (Other than Ocean's 11, I haven't seen so many good looking men act together)

Although the trailers looked simply outstanding, the movie was very monochromatic. Frank Miller is a great graphic artist and the dark nature of the battle was very well portrayed in the movie. However one wished that there was more colour added to the landscape. After a while, you want to get rid of that dull and dreary feeling. (One of the reasons why Gladiator and Troy were so much better)

Again, the movie was good, but not extra-ordinary. The plot was really simple. Nothing there to think about. Leonidas led 300 Spartans to war against Xerxes' army of thousands.

Now Xerxes in the movie was black. Are Persians supposed to be black? And excuse me, he looked gay. Was that true to the story? I don't know. Can anyone please answer that? What a transformation for Rodrigo Santoro however! He looks so good in reality.

I was disappointed with the script as well. A great script can carry a movie on its shoulders no matter how simple it is. Except for a few lines like 'Tonight we dine in hell' and a few other situational lines, the script was very run of the mill. Nothing that I would specifically remember.

However, it is the actors passion that makes this movie worth watching. Gerard Butler, David Wenham, Vincent Regan, Micheal Fassbender are brilliant. Their enthusiasm shines through.

I'd give it 3 and a half stars just for the boys!

Absolut Stupidity

If I had to spend 18 years in prison being wrongly accused of a crime I did not commit, there would be two things I would want to do after I'm acquitted. First, sue the court of justice, and if I do not get a resonable settlement, then hunt all members of the jury who declared me guilty and kill them. Least of all, I would expect the'court of Justice' to cut 'living expenses' from the settlement I recieve.

What I lose from being in prison is opportunity cost. Yes, I could have earned much lower than what I recieved in the settlement, but then, I could have also earned much higher an income, partnered Bill Gates in his humanitarian campaigns, married Prince William and inherited a fortune. Maybe this seems far and beyond (and silly), but if Bush can be president anything's possible.

Which is why my sympathies are with Michael and Vincent Hickey, who were wrongly convicted and spent 46 years in prison. Their settlements were subject to 25% deductions for their 'boarding and lodging' expenses in prison! Honestly, I cannot comprehend how the court could dish out such a ruling. What these two men lost in prison was not just money. They were isolated, had to spend time with convicted murderers/cheats/robbers/troublemakers etc, when they could have had a family, some quality social time and could have lived without the misconception of being a murderer. Honour, pride, self dignity; all lost. The court makes a careless mistake and the victim pays for it?

This is absolute stupidity in its purest form. I'm from India where prisoners have to wait months, years, decades to get a hearing in the court. We look towards the west in our pursuit for perfection. But if the west lets down its people in such a shameful manner, what face would they have in front of the world.

Incest, a way of life?

My first reaction to incest is of disgust. My second reaction, is of disgust too. And my third reaction, well, its disgust again.

A German brother and sister are taking their fight 'for a sexual relationship' to court. The BBC in their website is following these proceedings and has attempted to explain the taboo that incestual relationships have. Many countries have banned incest and 'culprits' have been prosecuted. In this case, the brother and sister did not meet each other through their childhood and early teens, only later to meet and fall in love knowing that they were brother and sister.

Now personally, I cannot, just cannot comprehend how that happens. I have a huge family and many among them are smart and savvy guys - whom I haven't met for ages. But, even after meeting them, I can never ever think of getting into a 'relationship' with them. It makes me cringe. But then, maybe its how my beliefs have shaped me.

I know people cannot be forced into not doing anything. And the more you try to impose restrictions on them, the more they want to do it. Especially when it comes to supposedly 'moral' issues like these. No one accepted being gay or lesbian earlier. But now its come to be a part of normal society. But where do you draw a line? Although I would find accepting incestual relationships very distressing, I cannot choose to clamp down on a fellow humans' personal liberties. Which is why I find, people being jailed or prosecuted for this 'crime' really silly.

We're all animals yeah? We're just behaving like we're genetically programmed. Right?