Valentine's Day Special!!!

       Thanks to Archies and many other companies, these days we may not know our Republic Day but we all know when Valentine's Day is. And you truly cannot blame the young generation for this. They are just learning with what they are exposed to. No greeting company or any shopping site makes such a propaganda for our national language Hindi Diwas or for any other day for that matter. So very frankly it is we who are creating the culture that is been created.

 Anyway this post was not to blast on the day. After all it is a special day. This day makes even a person like me to write about Love. The last year on this same day i wrote my post 'Love is all about you'. Maybe the more popular post 'That One Person' was not timed perfectly but that was just an example that guys do think about Love even without the Valentine day being near.

 I have always liked the day. It just forces you to express your love towards your loved ones. And for most of the common people who spend 364 days earning their daily bread and getting no time neither the motivation to show their emotions, this day gets the better of them. I still remember my first Valentine. She lived in the flat below ours. We called her 'Laksmi Aunty'. We shared Valentine cards and gifts for many years. Later We left the place and could not even keep in touch. I guess I will see her again either when I get married or if her daughter gets married earlier than me. For those who did not understand she was a lady with a daughter as old as me. She was my first Valentine.

 I cannot exactly remember how it started but I do have a faint idea. I and my elder brother used to play cricket at home when my mother was not around. Ya, that's right, guys do everything when parents are not at home. And the sound of the ball and we running used to disturb auntie alot specially cause she had a newborn kid as well. She kept complaining about us but we did not stop. So one day to please her I decided to send her a Sorry card. That never happened but when I was still 11, my mother gave me the idea to send her a card on Valentine's day and that is how it all started. Those years were fun. What was also worth noticing if you are a college going kid that every year on this day all the single guys and gals would try to look their best. Best clothes On. And all the committed people would bunk the college. So this day actually tells you if the girl you like is single or committed ;-). As for me, I always liked to create a mystery, so on this day I used to attend college only for half day. lol

 Later also Valentine day gave the unromantic guys like me an opportunity to express our love through gifts. Now I do not want to go into details that I do not feel Love is only about romance. And the reason why I don't want to start on it is cause I already have a full post on this topic on last year V day. I and my brother also started forcing my Dad every year to get Mom a gift on this day. Later it became his habit. So however busy he would be he would still get a small gift for my mom. At times a single rose but that would still make my Mom's day. And this is the reason why I like this day. It gives us an opportunity to express our love towards all our loved ones. Though a few people do not understand that V day is celebrated among all the loved ones and not just a single relationship.

 And for the politics behind it, it is more fun. The same guys who oppose this day forget that it is because of this special day alot of farmers in the village earn alot of money. The demand for roses in this week supersedes the demand in the entire year. The poor farmers grow roses and get a chance to make a good living. So all those corrupt politicians trying to save them should rather make a point to propagate this day even more.

 With this I would like to urge all to use this day as an opportunity to tell all the people who love you and take care about you that you love them too. Your parents, your siblings , your grandparents and even your teachers everybody who cares or loves you, go to them, wish them and tell them that you love them.

Happy Valentine's Day!!
Cheers!

Surviving without social networking sites

 Practically this is my first post of the new year. The one that shows 1st January as the date was actually written on 31st December. So like most of the people I do not want my first post to be the new year resolutions or what should I do now and what I did before. I missed writing in the last one month as I lacked time and the enthu. I do have 4 or 5 topics on my mind already that I want to write about but I thought I would start with something that is on my mind from a long long time.

 In US and now I know even in India social networking profile is a must. We have something called as SSN in the US. Without this number you have practically no identity in US, you will not be paid , no benefits nothing. It is mandatory for everyone to have one if you want to stay here for more than a month. Similarly having a facebook account is a must. Without it you have no identity.So for most of the people here I do not exist. And I know the situation is same in India too but then there are places which do not have electricity or water and still people survive so FB account is no big deal.

I have been asked this question like an infinite amount of times that why do I not have an account on FB or Orkut? Rather some people do not believe that I do not have one.Sorry if I have created a suspense, but no , this post is not about why I am not on any social networking sites. That will still remain a secret. But I do have one answer for all which was actually given by one of my good friend Amol Joshi. Once in office when someone asked me why I do not keep an account Amol replied for me to him that 'Kapil do not like to keep traces behind of what he has done.So you know he just came back from UK and he does not want anyone to know where he is now'. The way he said that and the spontaneity with which he did made us laugh for practically 10 minutes. So I still go by the same answer to everybody who asks me the question.

But to speak on the topic , to survive without one is not really very difficult. People or friends always kept in touch way before these sites were created. So if someone wants to stay in touch, they still can. Maybe the method involves efforts but then they will find you if you are worth the efforts for them. These sites have just made things easy and trust me more than half of the people in your lists are the one you never even care about. I think of myself as a social animal but I know that I cannot stand many people and I lack the power of patience and diplomacy which people have used to very good effect these days. So when I do not even see such people on my account it actually helps. I agree that as i have moved a few countries in last few years, keeping in touch has become difficult but friends who wish to stay in touch can always e-mail. They do not really need FB or Orkut to do so.

To have an account for TimePass is the biggest reason to actually have it. But again there are other ways you can pass your free time and are as effective in time wasting as these sites.Try looking for things on Amazon and I bet it would cover 60% of the time that you want to waste. :-) .Yes I do miss it when I actually miss a few of my school friends but that missing feeling was not mutual. Had they missed me too we would have kept in touch definitely. The biggest reason why I miss these sites are when I want to spread my blogs far and wide. I need more people to read my thoughts and these sites would have been the easiest way to do so.The alternatives are really very time consuming and takes alot of efforts. Now I know that more people actually read my blog than the number of followers and the lesser number of people who comment. So I wanted to take my blog to people who are more into commenting so that I do not lack the enthu to write as I Just did for last month. But I leave this on your hands.

Surviving without these sites is now becoming a fun challenge for me. Some of you can try it too or share your experiences about them.

Love, Sex aur Dhoka

 No second guesses, I am indeed talking about the movie. I agree I am a bit late, but better late than never. And for those who think that how depressing it would be to watch this movie on the 31st Night, Let me assure you that the time I watched the movie and wrote the blog it was 31st Morning here and I do not feel anything depressing about the movie as it shows the hard facts of our society, something which I too tend to bring to light.

We all know the movie is basically a combination of three sub stories. One on the honor killings that seem to be becoming more frequent than it should, Second on the MMS scandals which came as a wave in our country specially after the first DPS MMS scandal and third on the so called media and its sting operations.The movie was truly amazing and was as close to reality as it can get. Kudos to the director Dibakar Banerjee. The movie was not considered a hit in the Indian cinema world. I remember when the movie was released it made headlines cause of the bold title. Many of my friends including females went to watch the movie for the title but were not very much impressed with the movie. One of them said she could not tolerate the movie for more than 20 minutes. Not surprising, that is what our mentality is. We want to run away form the real world as far as we can and as fast as we can.

The director of the movie couldn't have done more justice to the movie by the way he combined the 3 stories of the movie. The title was definitely bolder than required; to attract the public; but I would say that was justified. He wanted to send a message across to the sleeping society and he knew to hit the maximum people he had to keep a title that would atleast get people inside the theaters. And not to forget that certain dialogues in the movie though spoken subtly were really hard hitting to the hypocrite world

 In my initial days of blogging I received feedback which said that people do not want to know the facts of life. They do not want to read me whine against the so called civilized society. They wanted something more fun and maybe fiction. But that was something against my motive and so I did not resort to it. But that feedback and the number of people I know about, who are reluctant to follow or read the blog, are because of the same reasons to why the movie did not make it big in the market. One person tried to put alot at stake and makes a movie which shows the hard facts of what is happening in our society. But we do not wish to be woken up. We prefer to play dead and would rather enjoy something that makes us entertain.

It is not a hidden fact that honor killings have become a crude symbol of the caste system in our society and that we do not want to change. We do not give a thought to the people in the MMS scandals. And how the media has been playing with us, has come out after the Niira Radia controversy. And did anyone care to notice that how after being in spotlight for months, the Arushi murder case is now closed by CBI with no suspects. I know a story which came in the first page of Mumbai Mirror. It was a 15 year old accusing 7 people of rape in the slums of Kurla. One of the accused was a 70 year old man. 5 days later the medical reports said that the girl was still a virgin. Any guesses where this story came in the paper? On the 5th page on one small corner. That is how the media plays and portrays the society.

 And guess what we are more than happy with it. We do not want to be shown the truth. We are scared of it. And so we do not prefer people who speak hard facts, who get this things into light and nor do we find such movies interesting. We are a bunch of selfish people who are content with the way we live, struggle and die. We care a damn about others or the society. But we forget that in the long run our kids are going to be a part of this society which would have turned into a menace because we did not care to stop nor did we bother to come to light. We preferred to turn our back to the facts of life.

Like many other so called controversial blogs of mine, I am sure even this one would not be well received or liked. But its time I stop caring about what people require to read. I would prefer doing my part for the society. Some day there would be more people who would not turn their back to these facts of our society and take time to ponder and if possible find solutions to it. That day will come!!!

PS: I would like to sincerely request all people who liked the blog or thought to not only comment here but also to spread it to others they can. This is cause I would like this message to reach far and wide. It's time WE FACE THE PROBLEMS!!!!!!