True heroes are forgotten and terrorists become martyrs

Some of the sentiments in my previous post are echoed in this great article on the first paramvir chakra winner Major Somnath Sharma.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/nov/03spec.htm?q=tp&file=.htm

Check it out !

Punishment for Afzal and Activism

As a child I was taught that every good deed will be applauded and mistakes would be punished. It seems not everybody agrees with me. For last couple of weeks I have been following some discussion regarding the capital punishment given to a 7/11 accused Afzal. One of my juniors in college is trying his best to build support for a presidential pardon. He has many arguments to support his position; however I still fail to see his point. To such people, it seems to be fashionable to paint themselves as a secular social activist and oppose any sane decision. As far the accused is concerned, the fact that three different courts have upheld the sentence proves beyond doubt his guilt. The argument that his wife and child would be left alone should not hold water, since law should not bend for any body based on their relations. I am quoting the funniest argument I heard.

pls take into cognizance the fact tht the intent of the terrorists who attacked our Parliament was not to murder our politicians, but to spread their demands thru an appropriate platform... had they wanted, they could have killed many... and who are u fighting for?? our hon'ble politicians? ? have u never wanted or said "in saalon ko to line main khada kar ke goli maar deni chahiye"??? y so much pain, agony, and hue and cry if somebody gave shape to every indian's idea and thought?? still, this is wrong and not pardonable.. . this is not the right way to take things forward, even if this is what i wanted to do when while protesting against reservations, my 'helpless and innocent' fellows and friends went on hunger strike and were lathi charged at the cue of these very politicians... what came out of it?? out of all the peaceful protests?? we lost tht battle, fell on our face... these politicians are dumb and deaf, and need an explosion to hear wht is being said...
in today's world, when u can sing "khoon chala" frm RDB, and clap when aamir khan murders our defence minister, then how can u not side with Afzal?? dwell more into his demands pls...

Not everybody takes things in the same context. The recent trend of extremisms in some of the movies (Which I also appreciated) seems to have brainwashed many people. They fail to distinguish between the internal corruption and international terrorism. I feel it is most irresponsible and idiotic to think that even if a terrorist goes against the system, he should be glorified as a hero.

Punishment is a necessity in any civilized environment. Are we such a weak state that we can not even punish our guilty. I have always followed the guiding principle of “Naimatma Balheenien Labhya” , or perfection can only be achieved by strong. I guess, India still has a long way to go …

Of Culture, Saraswati and Barkha Dutt

While I don’t usually agree with her, but I do admire Barkha Dutt a lot. She is one of those few journalists who in spite of having their own opinion, still try to present a balanced account of any situation. The other day while reading one of her articles, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she was a fellow modernite. The article was concerning the recent "Vandemataram controversy" and talked about the presence of religious symbols in the Indian school system.

I distinctly remember the mural of goddess Saraswati, she talked about that was embedded in the wall at the school reception area. In sixth class when I started school we used to pass it 3-4 times every day. It was like an unwritten rule, that anybody who passed it, used to touch the feet of the goddess. Even when the traffic was heavy, the unordered flows of students used to converge to single orderly line then again revert to the previous chaos.

At that young age we needed to jump to be able to touch the second feet of the goddess, but by the eighth class it had almost become a reflex action. There was a joke that any body that touches the parrot on top of the mural would come first in the class. While I never touched the parrot, but I think I can count the times I did not touch the feet on my fingertips, and I must have passed that corridor more than five thousand times.

In those times communalism, secularism were words I wasn't aware of. I think what the school taught us was the respect for the knowledge that we were getting, a respect which was observed by all, irrespective of the religion. About a year back I visited the school. The reflex action is still there, the respect is still there. Is this my religion or my culture?

Pizza with multinational friends

Pizza is probably the most widely accepted grad student party food all over the world. Last friday, Lee invited me and some of his friends over for a pizza party. I remember the first time I had pizza made by Lee was on the first day I came to US. It was Lee's turn to cook and in his enthusiasm to welcome his new roommate, he invited his friends Charlie and Jay and had decided to make pizza. He has always been very meticulous when it comes to cooking. He himself makes the dough and the sauce, shapes them into the pizza with chedar cheese on top of it., bakes it for the right time and hey presto, you have a pizza ready to eat.

Coming back to the present, this time we were all supposed to gather at Nina's house for the Lee Pizza. He had also invited Faizal , a fellow student from pakistan. There were four of us each from four different nations. Offcourse as for the pizza , it is getting better in taste with time. Soon, we gobbled up all the pizzas save for the fourth one which got burnt in the oven since we were preoccupied with the banter. Later in the evening we headed off to gameworks the gaming arcade. One of the games I really like is DDR. Save for Lee who has played it since infancy, I am pretty good at it. Offcourse the "table hockey puck" game is also a great time pass. My team won 2 of the 3 games we played. Finally we ended the evening with a couple of doughnuts from crispie creams at midnight. Although my evening went on since I was expected to call a friend...

Twenty five and going ...

Twenty five!! Seems like a big number. Almost every body expects you to be more responsible and mature as if you have moved into a new category. The realisation came to me, when some days back my kid brother asked me how old I was gonna be this time. The comment I got back was " Wow 25 is big".

Well, All I can say is, finished with a quarter of my time, and ready to make merry in the rest three quarters.

The Anti-Matter Blog

I remember talking to a friend who suggested I should write something about "Anti-matter". Till this day I have been thinking. The problem with anti-matter is that nobody knows if it exists. Infact, matter by defination is something that can be felt/seen/smelt etc.. effectively they have an existance. However anti-matter, just be virtue of its english meaning does not enjoy an existance.

It all stared when a guy named Paul Dirac was solving his recently invented equation in quantum mechanics. As is with most mathematical equations, he got a negitive solution for one of the calculations for the energy of an electron. Instead of following the convention of ignoring the negative solution, he decided to propose the concept of an anti-matter particle. Since then it is believed that every particle in this universe has an anti-matter particle. If their is a collision between the two, they annihilate each other to produce energy as per Uncle Albert's famous E=mc^2 equation.

Friday at the freshmen party ..

Last friday before the school starts. I was exicited about it since thats the day they have a freshmen party at the PV Beach. Last time me and my room-mate were probably the only indians to the gathering. But we each had loads of free pizza and a free T-Shirt each (Time vasool). Not to be left behind this time I took all my family(house-mates offcourse) . The weather was nice with a little drizzle. there we about 4-5 hundred people collected at a small place with a stage where they were trying to entertain people. There were small events going on like open the frozen T-Shirt, free airtickets , and offcourse the Hip Hop performance which had a spectacular synchronicity in their chaotic movements. Young freshpersons were doing rounds in the crowds making them dance to the tunes.
As usual we had fun, eat free pizza grabed free T-shirts each. One of my mates suffering from a bout of chivalry that day, gave away all his freebies to random girls dancing around him ...

Passport to fun

School's Starting this monday. Dorms are full and the semester is ready to roll. Every year at the beginning of the academic year we have this cool thing called "Passport to ASU" at the Memorial Union the hottest hangout at Campus. For three hours all the eating outlets at MU provide free food samplers to one and all. There are a lot of free games , prizes etc. Pool tables and Bowling alleys are open for every one to try their hand. Just as you open a new Dhabba on the highway, you have to provide free food for a day to all the truck drivers, similarly all the outlet are trying their best to entice the new students.
Not wanting to miss the fun, I skipped my lab to reach there with my only other vela friend. We had a great time. Tried out free pizzas, salsa and what not. Won a strange looking pen stand by throwing some pebbles in a hole at taco bells. Then we moved on to the pool tables and then over to the free bowling alley.
One of the coolest things we saw was a guy playing DDR. He was playing at such an advanced level that I could not even see the arrows on the screen, still he was scoring prefects. We were so impressed that we played it 4 times. With the fast paced music it is really fun.

Birthday Party

My friend had a birthday party this Wednesday. I have really started enjoying such events, whereas earlier back home I wasnt very much into it, especially my own. For me birthday was just an other day when you get older by an year. But here I can imagine how nice it must feel when some body bakes a cake, somebody gets a card, somebody get a T-shirt, some one starts planning for it a month in advance and somebody is there just to be with you (Yep that was me !). Guess thats what friends are for ...

Of Bikes, Busses and Pasta

Feeling bad for not taking my "recently arrived from india" roommate to walmart I started my day with an offer to go to walmart with him to get a bike for him. We started at 10 and caught the valley metro to towards Walmart in Mesa. On reaching there both of us both of us started searching for the bike rack. However the 53 dollar bike that we had come to buy was already sold out. Not to be outdone, he asked the store representative, if they had an other one in stock. Luckly they had it so he brought it. After some more random shopping we reached the bus stand and started waiting for the bus back.
The first bus came after waiting for half an hour, however both the bike racks were full. Not wanting to leave my friend alone in the sun I let the bus go and started waiting for the next. It was lunch time and there was a seemingly nice italian joint "Fazoli's" right across the road. Both of us decided to go and have a quick lunch. I had a spicy pasta marinara. I have eaten pasta only 3-4 times, and this one was the best amoung them. Sobti had a pizza.
As we were just about to finish we saw another bus coming with both the racks full. Left out of options we decided to take the next one. After the meal we waited another half hour for the bus at the stop. The Third bus came still with all the racks full, thats when we decided that I would take all the stuff with me to the house whereas sobti would ride the bike home.

Bike collector

Yes thats me. I am probably the only international student in ASU who owns three bikes. No , I did not start this hobby out of my own free will rather a series of unfortunate events led to it.
My first bike was a 53 dollar "mountain fury" from walmart. I rode it for a semester with a 10 dollar U-Lock. Alas one day the 10 dollar U-Lock got stuck while the bike was parked in front of my appartment house. I tried the whole week to open it and broke both my keys in the process. Unsucessful as I was, I started looking for a replacement.
Luckly we had a spare bike in our household. One of my room-mate's former room-mate had graduated to a four wheeled car so he didnt feel the need for a two wheeler. As a result I got my second bike a "Glacier point Magna" for free. This time I chose to invest 20 dollars in a big master U-Lock. I was happy with my bike's performance the second semestor. But fate had planned it otherwise. During summer when I had locked my second bike alongsode my first bike, I lost my keys to the U-Lock(yes all of them). Without the keys I came down back to catching a bus every day to school with two bike buried in my graveyard.
School is starting in a weeks time. To prevent us from the dependance on bus timings, today me and my friends Srini got ourselves a refurbished (like new) bikes for 40 dollars a piece. Mine is a purple colored 15 speed , both brakes working, water bottle included diamond back mountian bike. Its a cool bike, I got a 10 dollar U-Lock too. I hope I can ride this one more than a semester. I only have two more to go...

Sunday on top of A mountain

My sunday began with my "recently arrived from India roommate" pestering me with his lets go to walmart cries. After much effort I was finally able to convice him that no bus goes to walmart on a sunday, atleast to the one which we wanted to go. Instead I suggested a hike up the A-mountain which offers a breathtaking view of ASU. Four of us started around lunch time towards A-mountain with some holding the misconception that they would find a grand restaurant on top to eat lunch. I wonder who misled them.

The weather was nice and windy with no sun and we went along clicking useless photographs . Journey to the top was mostly uneventful, except for the fact I got a call from my "Sunday Friend". I haven't been seeing much of this friend lately, may be because of the busy schedule I keep. Being the considerate one, he contacts me once a week (mostly sundays) even if just to know if I am alive and kicking.

Eventually we reached top where I had a chance meeting with a friend I had made in london, we exchanged notes and caught up on some things and then bade goodbye. I climbed the topmost rock on the mountian where we could take a beautiful view of the Tempe Lake and ASU campus. We spent some time identifing different buildings on the Campus from the top. By this time all of us were very hungry so soon we ran all the way down A-mountain. We had our lunch at the subway and I parted ways to spent the rest of the evening in my Lab ....

Dinner with Lee and Nina

Eating together is a great way to meet friends. The other day Lee called up saying that he wasnt getting his daily doses of indian food since he had left our place. Hence wanted to come over and cook something. Now if some body calls me up and expresses a desire to cook for me, there is no saying no. This led to a dinner invitation for Lee and Nina.

As soon as Nayan came to know about it, he started running around cleaning up the place. I offcourse joined in since we only had half an hour's notice. While there was no need offcourse, but the problem was that, thats what Lee used to do when ever he invited any body home. He used to spend hours cleaning up the kitchen , the restrooms, vacumming the house etc etc. Now how could we be left behind, so we had to clean up the dishes and stuff to make it appear that every thing was hunky dory as always. Luckly we reached a presentable state in time.

As planned Lee and Nina arrived for the dinner. Nina had got some bread and some "macedonian subzi". Lee offcourse being a gourmet chef created a "cabbage subzi" in no time with nayan chipping in with "Dal" and " Caulifower subzi". Myself offcourse was just busy talking with every body. We enjoyed the food, talked about a lot of things, all in all it was an enjoyable evening...

Writing on food ... nah !!!

Nayan doesnt like my blog much, he thinks I should write about more interesting things like food. While this may be easy and interesting to some but certianly not to me. Some people live to eat, I am of the other kind.

For me meals are just a way to be alive, and missing one or two in between are of no consequence. I do like eating out a lot, but the culprit is my indolence not my epicurean tendencies. Inspite of this what amazes me, is that I do like cooking some times. I even like going the extra mile to cook some difficult dishes which used to be cooked at my home. But once done, I just lose my appetite for it. I just try to convince my self that it is the journey not the result that is important.

Being a vegetarian I can very easily blame my disregard for food to the meagre choices available in US to satisfy the people of our kind. Still that would just be kidding myself since I do know many people who inspite of this are enjoying their food and wine. Recently a friend said to me that people who like eating food are very good by nature, I wonder what they say about people who dont like eating food ......

Safe Haven goes out of business

For years Britain has been a safe haven for harbouring criminals , terrorists and other anti social elements who have are evading arrests and judicial proceedings in their respective countries of origin. Take the case of the Music director Nadeem who being a prime accused in the Gulshan Kumar murder case in India, is still roaming free in London , while to indian judicial system is unable to bring him to book. Further more it is a well documented fact the many radical elements in britian openly operate and collect funds for funding terrorist activities in the name of religion throughout the world.

With the recent blast in the london tube this has started changing. I was reading this article where the british govt has identified 500 radical elements and would soon start deporting them. People who were respectable and acceptable earlier have suddenly become extremists. Isn't it strange only when our own house burns we start calling a spade, a spade......

Are we ever going to get peace ?

I was just reading this article http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/jun/14pak3.htm , which reveiled that the Pakistani information minister was responsible for running terrorist camps.

I do not under stand how we are going to make peace with a country which in its leadership, has people whom have spent their whole life plotting against it. You have the leader who was responsible for Kargil on one side and still we expect peace ?

Talk of UN security council seat, they oppose it, talk of MFN status they are against it ... converting Siachen to peace mountain , fencing of the LOC , No first use, river water sharing, Askai chin, POK , fake currency, militancy ............. the list is endless. Are we ever going to get peace ?

Just Started ...

So finally i found time to channelize my energies and put some off my thoughts for the benifit of the world ..