Hard Pore Corn

Zacarias Moussaoui, the only convicted person in the 9/11 attacks has been rejected death penalty by the jury. Now he will serve a life sentence without possibility of parole.

My only sentiment is thorough dejection and disgust. How can a jury respond to a guilty plea against the charges regarding one of the most heinous crimes in the history of mankind? What justice has this meted out to the families that lost their dear ones in the tragedy? I know that killing one man will not bring back those people. But should he continue to live so that his partners-in-crime can hijack a few planes and get him released? Does the jury deny the possibility of this in its humanitarian decision?

I don’t think any amount of rationalizing can explain this stupid and short-sighted judgement. 

I wanted to write a review on the funeral proceedings of Late Dr. Rajkumar. I guess it’s too late after all the news channels have covered it already. Also I think I should have written this post when the incident happened. Would have been on a more acerbic note. But anyways here goes nothing. Photo courtesy and hat-tip : ExpressIndia.com

Wednesday, 12th April 2006. I get an email from an ex-classmate from Alliance Francaise saying the Kannada actor Dr. Rajkumar had died. I promptly close the window and go back to debugging. And so do hundreds of my colleagues, even Kannadigas. Then comes a flurry of emails from every corner of the world. Through mailing lists, close friends, acquaintances, forwards from god forsaken chains of friends on orkut and last but not least from the transport guys in the company. Buses would leave early that day fearing mishaps. I made a few hurried calls to all my friends and was relieved that they were already travelling towards their respective abodes.

When I reached home myself, I realised that the caveats were not without reason. The normally crowded Airport Road bore an ominous look. People were hurriedly making their ways through alleys. Most shops were closed and the police were shutting down the few that were open. My roomie, the wuss that he is, was shitting bricks inside the house without even venturing out to buy something. Finally I ventured out late into the night and found some grub.

But the real shocker came the next morning. There was no cable. I cussed and cussed and cussed till some coffee happened. Came back home to see Rajkumar’s body surrounded by hundreds of fans (on TV of course). Looked as if they’d do the post-mortem themselves. What followed were riots, riots and more riots. The cavalcade had some lousy fellows who threw stones at glass-clad buildings. Some broke into shops. Some shoved people off their vehicles and set them afire. Some threw burning tyres onto the roads and mind you not without casualties. A TV cameraman even captured a small group of them breaking into a famous petrol pump at Sadashivnagar and stealing food stuff and money. Even Airport Road, which is miles away from where all this was transpiring, felt the heat. A lot of shops lost their expensive glass windows and screens. Buses travelling towards the IT parks were burnt and obstructed by burning tyres. The newly built Microsoft R&D centre at Malleswaram was stoned (not literally ) and all the windows shattered. Similar fate awaited a lot of other IT Companies on Sankey Road. Here are some pics.

 

Disgusting! Is this what you would call mourning.

Alas one of the few politicians I regarded as reformers has left for heavenly abode. Mahajan according to me had the panache, poise and perspicacity to bring India to the level of a developed nation in whatever capacity he could. Agreed that the divestment of many PSUs was something he set a-roll during his tenure as I&B minister, but it has in eventuality made those sectors more competitive and consumer friendly.

Here’s to the hope that the guy who fills in for him would take our rapidly developing nation to newer highs.

More about this in CNN-IBN’s coverage

The Artists’ Right Society has lost it I must say. In a fit of rage the ARS has pointed out to Google the fact that it was violating artists’ moral copyright to art by changing the logo to reflect the artist’s style. Google, as we know, keeps modifying their logo on certain occasions to pay tribute to people who’ve made a difference to society. They (ARS that is) had also done something similar when Google remembered Salvadore Dali through the medium of its logo. What then is the rationale of this action be ARS? That we should forget the people who gave us masterpieces? Then they must also sue the multitude of remix artists all over the world who mutilate classics and dish-out emetics!!

One turned 23 on the 14th of April. J’ai 23 ans, maintenant.

age += (year) 1; 

Just this Sunday I was with a couple of friends and we were pondering over the mercurial growth of the IT industry in India. I was the only "wicked" person with an opinion that India is no superpower as many people call it. To summarize my argument I would say that India hardly controls the consumer market. As in we do not directly affect what people consume/purchase. That’s where countries like China/Japan/Taiwan step in and make a difference. This article would tell you why I am true and why India Inc. needs to think out-of-the-box.

People are very practical when they are blaming someone else for something. But when it comes to one’s own outbursts, the practicality suddenly vanishes. Kapoof! You may say, ‘That’s why they are called outbursts, dumbass’. But then why do we allow our practical side to be taken over by the bitterness and acerbity that resides within. Does that mean with practicality comes a whole lot of irresponsible and outrageous behaviour without any hint of rationale behind it?

Till date I thought my name meant unparalleled in Sanskrit. But a search on Wikipedia.org gave this result with 100.00% relevance.
Take a bow, subjects, take a bow!

Yes. The iconic CBGB, which defined and introduced punk rock during the ’70s and ’80s, has completed its lease period. And now the New York city high and mighty want to bring down the axe upon it. Please don’t let this happen. Let us not let an era end like this. Click on the banner in the sidebar and sign-up the petition to save this heritage building.

According to Guardian, the number of girl foetuses that are killed every year has slowly but surely reached the 0.5 million mark in our country. It’s shocking to see that in this day and age so many parents choose to abort the child if it is found to be a girl in a pre-natal sex determination test (which by the way is illegal)
Most shocking is the following line:
In households where the mother had better education, it was significantly more likely that the birth of a girl would not be followed by the birth of another girl.

Check out the rest on Guardian Unlimited.

I have often wondered what the source of true joy could be. And upon pondering enough and finding no solution, I have left it at that. But this morning I was reminded of someone by someone else and the solution came rushing to me as the stench from a typical Bangalore gutter.
The joy of living truly dwells in being a slave driver. Believe it or not, you cannot derive such unadulterated pleasure from anything else. Not even from chocolate. Oh hell…..not even from sex!!!
Imagine the whole world doing your chores. Dropping you off at your rendezvous when they’re not even gonna wait back and say “Hi!” to the 3rd party. Buying you your most coveted delights, without a gesture in return. Laughing heartily at your worn-out, pale jokes as if their lives depended on it. Dispensing ideas to you like an automaton so you can boast to your friends (or other potential slaves) about how you thought of it while you were choking on food. Also the food in question was bought for you by the slaves, but they can’t talk about it, can they? And oh yes, listening to your “almost always wrong” advice on anything and everything. What fun, I say!!!
Losers do exist in this world, waiting for that mediocre person with an uncanny talent to trap them with their pitiful stories and even more pitiful looking faces. One look and the losers will go out of their way to cloak the puddle as the dominant smile on the now not-so-pitiful face splits like a banana under the weight of the cream.
So, what’re you reading this for? Go get your own.

There’s this extremely hilarious advertisement on the radio these days. It’s for Lux Body Wash. It starts off with an extremely horny character reaching a wrong number and the phone is answered by a bored housewife-like person having nothing better to do on a lazy sunday afternoon.

Horny Middle Aged Guy (HMAG): Hello, is this baby doll?

Despo Housewife (DH): Baby doll?…ummm, yes. This is baby doll.

HMAG: Baby doll….let’s talk about s*bleep*x.

DH: Oh yes. Would you like to take a shower with me?

HMAG: Oh sure, baby doll.

DH: Alright. We’re now in the shower. The water’s wetting my body.

HMAG: Ohhhh…….baby dooollll (ok it’s getting redundant now) I wish I was there with you!

DH: Ummm….I put some Lux body wash on my loofah. It feels so nice. (First signs of this actually being an advertisement surface)

HMAG: Ohhh….baby doll. (there he goes again)

DH: My body smells so nice. It feels so soft.

HMAG: Oh baby doll (someone get this guy a thesaurus or pick up lines for dummies)….baby doll you’ve got so much s*bleep*x appeal.

DH: You mean Lux appeal? I’m no Baby Doll. I’m Laxmi Godbole. And whenever I feel excited I don’t reach for the phone. I reach for the new Lux soft body wash.

After this a guy launches into some explanation of how Lux body wash can do wonders for your skin and rounds up with a quick "The Lux Appeal". I think I will give my dog a wash with this thing. Now only if someone would sell me a dog. Heel boy, heel !!

How great should a nation truly be if the world’s most powerful country is sanctioning $114 million for it’s security personnel to learn the foreign language. Read it all in this article in today’s Times of India. The funniest part is the opening lines itself.

The world is truly becoming a global village as Indian and all things Indian continue to rule.

What respect, what regard, what true spirit of patriotism? I’m baffled by this sense of pride that ToI has demonstrated by summarizing the entire phrase Global Village and limiting its usage to India and all things Indian. I salute you, O assassins of sanity.
I’m forced to wonder. If you put a bunch of monkeys high on hormones with typewriters in a room, do you get a newspaper everyday?

A new product called the Sling-box, developed by the start-up Sling Media, is making waves in the US. It is basically a gadget which when attached to your television source (cable, terresterial or satellite) will stream the content via the internet to a computer. Now this would sound like a stupid waste of money in Indian apartment households. But consider the USofA where most houses have two levels. In such cases it would be really amazing to have this nifty tool which will save you money on that extra television set. Cool, huh? Probably a reason why it has sky-rocketed to Amazon’s bestseller category in the Christmas sales.
More about this in The Hindu and on Sling Media’s website.

…and everything is very much the same. I still had to wake up early to get to office on time. The road was still full of potholes. People were still peeing next to a wall sign that reads “Please do no urine”. The woman in the next alley was still beating up her sod of a husband with some help from her neighbours. Men on the streets were still ogling at call center femme fatales who were waiting for their pick-up vehicle. Anarchy ruled supreme at the traffic junction as people continued to drive without any concern for others. The dogs were still screwing in the open…at 7AM!!!
As for new year’s celebrations, it was a mixed bag all the way. Went to the party at The Park, with Pehelwan, Keshav and a few other friends. Drank a bit too much tequila and lost total control. Didn’t know the Mexicans had come up with such a strong and potent emetic. No more…no more. I think I’ll just stick to good ol’ beer, henceforth. Do I hear myself making a resolution? Probably. I have a lot of memories from the year that was, though. Seems to me it was the best out of the 23 that I have witnessed. Here’s hoping this year outdoes it’s predecessor.