Ash Abhi

In the last few days I have had tons of Ash and Abhishek pictures flood my mail box. And I am talking of each mail being in the 2 to 4 MB. Add to that people re forwarding the same mail and it makes for a clogged inbox. My poor colleague even had his official email id barred since it exceeded the 50 MB mailbox limit in the two days that he was away.

Add to that 24 hour news channels broadcasting the wedding for well, 24 hours of the day and one wonders what this country is coming to. What is with this fascination? Could anyone enlighten me? I have seen it happen when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie came to India too. Hundreds of photographers hounding them to give the mob what it so desperately wants.

Culture in shambles?

Richard Gere kisses Shilpa Shetty. Mob goes on protest. Court registers a case and issues a warrant. Richard Gere is a wanted man in India.

The list goes on. But I think you get my drift. In the land of the Kama Sutra, a peck on the cheek has outraged the “moral brigade” so much so that our courts (that are already over burdened with pending cases) have time to issue warrants? Couples relaxing together on the Bombay beaches are hauled to police stations for indecency? Kissing in public, they say, is a Western phenomenon that is “polluting” our culture. Is it really? Is our culture so really weak and pathetic that a few public displays of affection are going to leave it in shambles?

Well, I guess so. Since this same moral brigade are the first ones to glorify western medicines, western sciences and send their kids to the west for a “good” education and “good” job. In the midst of this all, the AIDS awareness campaign that they were running seems to have been forgotten. On a parting note, I’ve attached the “offending photos”. Do you really really think that it deserves the amount of attention it has got?

Virginia Tech

The recent killings at Virgina Tech University shocked the world. Images of the victims and the killer have dominated the headlines and writers columns for the last few days for the want of a new “shocking” headline. One can only hope and pray that some other crazed maniac doesn’t see this and go “Hey, I can do better than this nobody”

While I sympathize with the family of the victims I was really intrigued by the question “which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool?” This seemingly innocent question posed by Stephen and Steven in FREAKONOMICS is the best answer to all those screaming for tighter gun control laws.

This “rogue economist” has analyzed the number of deaths occurring due to guns and those due to unfenced swimming pools and gives you a very startling answer. You guessed it. Gun deaths are much lesser than the number of drowning deaths in swimming pools.

So in this context, all these calls for tighter gun control laws are hogwash. I’m not campaigning for ‘guns are needed for personal protection’ I’m just trying to state that at times you need to look beyond the media hype.

If you are really interested in looking beyond what is being thrown at us, you should read this book. A great read for breaking the false notions that most of us carry

Apocalypto

I was totally freaked by this movie. Though it hardly a story line, the acting is simply superb. The emotions and graphics are superbly portrayed. Mel Gibson has a knack for these displays of emotion and raw graphics. If you liked Passion of Christ then you will probably enjoy this movie. If you felt Passion of Christ hurt your sensibilities, you should forget about watching this movie.