Jessica Lal

In the Jessica Lal case, raising a petition to the President for a retrial may not help as long as the eye-witnesses donot speak the truth.
The only way to get the eye-witnesses to speak the truth would be to mount pressure on them.
Newschannels and Newspapers can spearhead it by publishing names of the witnesses along with their photographs, occupation and address. They can also do the same for all those who were present at the scene of murder. Media should also highlight all the high-profile "connections" of the accused and shame the persons involved.
The public can then build pressure on the witnesses who turned hostile and appeal to their conscience.
Newschannels soliciting (yes, soliciting) SMSes only fill their coffers.

AOL Silver Jubilee - Bengaluru loses branding opportunity

• The 3 day celebrations of the international organisation Art of Living Foundation in Bangalore was an amazing branding event.
  
  It was Brand Art of Living shining bright and carrying along with it Brand Hinduism, Brand Carnatic music and er…Brand Bangalore.
  
  While the first two were well projected, Bangalore could not achieve what it should have achieved. Before I am misunderstood, let me put it on record that Bangalore and the government did an amazing job in accommodating lakhs of visitors, arranging for their long commute of Jakkur-, yeah overall hospitality was good.
  But was it good enough. Unfortunately No !! Bengaluru- the city of the future- lost several opportunities that it are unlikely to knock in a hurry. Two events ,which brought centrestage to Bangalore were happening – The AOL Fete and the Shravanabelagola Jain Mahamastabhisheka.
  
  The ideal scenario would have been if …
• the Bangalore International Airport had been ready
• The Road Infrastrucure in place
• A functional metro/monorail
• The Tourism Office going the Full Hog
  
  Now, my idea will make sense if I tell you that most of the 10 lakh + visitors to Bangalore were first-time visitors with enough disposable income to make the trip and more importantly, Senior Government officials of various nations (including Heads of States) who too, in all probability, visiting for the first time.
  
  Airport Bangalore could have attracted direct international traffic. Infrastructure, when flaunted, would attract investment from the high-profile leaders of global industry and government. ( How ? The same logic that says that having better pubs and nightlife attract expatriates and hence FDI. Pious expatriates might want to build businesses in the City of “Guruji”)
  
  
  Conceded that AerodROMEs are not built in a day but the city could have atleast
• Repaired its roads . (Remember the Oct 2005 rains wreaking Havoc)
• Cleaned up the garbage on roads that the visitors were likely to pass through
• and simply put on its best clothes.
  
  Karnataka could have generated enormous publicity/ awareness about Belur, Halebid and its sites of amazing tourist potential. (Thankfully, Brand Hampi got some prominence but that was thanks to HHSSRS)
  
  The AOL and Gomateshwara shows were ready made opportunities to showcase Bangalore to the world.
  Bangalore managed a Just Pass but it failed to reach where it could have.
  One cannot really blame Bengaluru for the short-sightedness of its politicians. Does the youngest Chief Minister of Karnataka signal hope or is he too on the wrong side of Chalees.

Joy Gurudev ! Ńośtradamvs Mìstákë ??

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s (HHSSRS for short) Big Bash concluded with over 1 million visitors to Jakkur near Bangalore. I was witness to the respect, reverence and adulation that lakhs of people expressed. In twenty five years HHSSRS has won over millions of people in nearly 200 countries. Makes me wonder…
The AOL Foundation (Art of Living, not America Online) expected 25 lakh visitors at Jakkur from all over the world for the silver jubilee extravaganza. Assuming 25 % of AOL members were expected to make it that puts the number of ‘devotees’ (shall we call them) at 1 crore. The Sudarshan Kriya being as effective as it is, one would expect heavy Word-of-mouth advertising. I presume every member will bring in one person every year into the fold (Now, one person a year is not an outrageous assumption). And that every new person brought into the Art of Living fold will continue to induct one new member a year.
Now, I suppose the World population in Year 2050 will be 900 crores (projecting from India now at 100+ crores expected to be 150 crores by 2050).
Given that 44 more years ahead of 2050 and using the higher secondary formula of n(n+1)/2 we find .. Hallelujah… the entire global population constitute the membership of the Art of Living Foundation.

Which begs me to ask the question… Was Nostradmus confused between celestial bodies when he predicted about the Messiah from the East “He will have a name related to the moon” ? (Chapter15 - C.2, Q. 28)

Interesting Links
http://www.otoons.com/osho_nostradamus.html
http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/nostradamus/cent2.html

PS for dummies: Ravi = Sun

Rang de Basanti

Rang de Basanti

Passable

Strictly for those who have watched RdB

For all that pre-release publicity extravaganza, Rang de Basanti turned out to be just passable.

For what did RdB convey. The youth must be willing to lay down their lives for the nation. Fair enough. But no more. Except that MiGs are bad aircrafts and India’s armed forces deserve a better deal.But how did they convey that. The storyline is weak, ie. for teh effect it intends to create.

RdB does not take a stand on corruption. Nor any of the things that contribute to India being a “hopeless” state. An one off-line suggesting filling up of IAS and IPS by determined youth is only just that- an one off line. For the entire hype, one expected the medium to be the message.

The DJ gang had never suffered in life because of “all that was wrong with India” and had even bribed the cops themselves. They weren’t any different to take up the moral high ground and shoot the Defence Minister.

RdB is anti-establishment, not just anti-politicians. RdB does not offer suggestions to the youth, nor does it particularly exhort. The Bhagat Singh-Azad excuse (though admittedly, inspirational) was handy to bring in the religion equation. A narrative (though technologically brilliant) left the audience with a lot of guessing to do.

There have been better movies exhorting the youth- The Tamil flick starring Sidharth- Boys , to put in their mite for the nation – Swades . There have been better movies tackling corruption – Muthalvan (Nayak in Hindi) and Ramana (reasonable inspite of Vijayakanth) and how-can-I-forget Anniyan (Yet to be remade in Hindi) probably my favourite movie of 2005

Nevertheless, RdB is a well-made movie with all actors and actresses (I am still old worldly) putting up a good show. While the Crew got the religion equation right they missed the regional equation. A southie could have been thrown in somewhere, atleast as one of the radio callers. But of course, UTV, the producers, needed Madhavan for the movie to sell in Chennai.

For that heavy Media-budget and the mutual IOUs with NDTV and other brands, the movie was a BIG letdown
Finally, the one line that redeems the movie…

Is par bhi na khaule jo vo khoon nahi vo paani hai

jo desh ke kaam na aa saki, bekaar vo jawani hai

PS. If the media and some ppl still go gaga over .... just goes to tell you how opinions can be influenced with a big Ad budget .

Ms C

Ms. C. I cannot live without her. She marks the start of my day. She is the biggest feature of my afternoon. Oh! I love her. Call it puppy love, if you will but it is no infatuation to have lasted all through pre-teen, teen and now tweens. She is hot (believe me) and my folks like her so. And she really turns me on.

She is not extremely fair. She’s brown. So what ? So am I. And now, suddenly, these people ask me to give her up. Who are they anyway? My family approves of her – hey infact introduced her to me ;) – what else matters. Now, it is not particularly unanimous. My father likes her light; my mother likes her darker. I have always found her sweet (as sweet as two spoons of sugar) andmy granddad, approvingly, calls her “strong”.

“But for you, she is upto no good”, they say. But why, for God’s sake. “Because you are dependent on her.” But, I love her. “Love her by all means” but “don’t be an addict.” “What if you had to travel. She cannot be everywhere. You would be a wreck if you couldn’t find her there.”

“So what should I do ?” asked I. “Deaddict” was the advise. So I did. Today I still love her but can live a life without her. I love Ms C. Coffee.