Who will Police the police?

I know..I know..cliched and oft used sentence. But it does make sense. Who will do it? It is a question that needs to be answered, especially in today's world, where you can be attacked while having a coffee with a guy or for wearing jeans. Or even talking a walk with a guy is considered against 'Indian Culture'. Who taught them Indian culture anyway. Ask them who was Akbar's son and chances are 10 out of 10 will not know it. Or ask them what Gandhi did for a living, I'll bet they don't know. They have a distorted version of what is right and what is wrong and are hell bent on imposing their archaic views on the rest of the world, the brunt of which is being borne by women.The police in India, in my opinion have been spending too much time dragging women by hair in public on Valentine's day to pay attention to real issues.
Bangalore has recently witnessed a spate of murders of old people staying who were alone home. Most of these incidents occurred in broad daylight and in areas which are busy. So far there has been no breakthrough in any of these murders. It's like the police have wiped their hands off the issue. In another incident, when there was an accident and the people were getting beaten by drunk drivers, six policemen who were nearby refused to come to help, saying, it is not my problem. Not your problem?????? You are the police for goodness sake. It's your job to break up violence, not be a mute witness to it voluntarily. These are the same police who are more than happy to break up a party claiming such 'rave' parties are filled with drugs and liquor. But surprise! surprise..there were no drugs in the party, probably only liquor. I think it was just a normal party. The organisers should not have let it get as loud as it did because it was the complaints of the neighbours about the noise which bought the ' oh so responsible' police to their doorstep. Then they are at it again, moral policing, seems like that is the only thing they are good at.
You are robbed and you still dont want to go to the police station because you think it's of no help. This speaks volumes about the trust the public has in the police. These are the same people who will provide security for IPL. The same pot- bellied, old, most of the times unhelpful police. I love cricket and IPL but I think this IPL will just end up being a nightmare for the public.
Dont get me wrong, I think the police force is filled with amazing men and women who are brave, courageous and go out of their way to serve the country and the public and sometimes even give their lives while doing so . But for every one great police officer, there are 5 more who refuse to help a woman who is being felt up saying, there's nothing we can do, or saying probably she deserved it. Unfortunately, that is the kind of police one encounters on a daily basis. These are the very people who will run away at the first sign of trouble.
What does one do when the very people who are supposed to protect you turn against you. What does a woman do when a police officer is the one who raped her, where does she go from there? What does a man do when a police officer stands there watching him and his family getting beaten up by drunks and doesnt come to help? Cant there be a law to suspend such people from duty or subject them to a similar crime. They need to understand that when they chose to be in the police force, they have taken a oath to help and protect. I know most policemen are underpaid and overworked, so are millions of other people, for that matter most people in China. That is not an excuse, nor does being a police give them the right to be the moral police. They do not have the right to go ahead and preach something they do not practice. We have politicians for that. Atleast from them, we dont expect anything. Is there any way public and police cancome together to make a responsible, attentive and sensitive police force? What do you think?

Back!

oooook..been a long time...a whole 3 and almost half months. It sounds cliched, but I honestly did not have time to think and I have been a victim of writers block..It's a serious disease for writers or for people who have been looking at excel sheets and ppt's for a long time. I have been looking at a lot of the latter two in the recent past. So I have been afflicted with stage 3 of the disease..The good news is that it gets better from now, the bad being there will be a lot of poor jokes and innuendo's which will follow..So all the best. An update on what I was upto these last few days.

- Ranted against the HR. Annoying useless set of people . Stopped for the time being as it got monotonous (truth being I ran out of really nasty things to say)
- The Americans came. So had a busy week.
- Played the Wii - Like the PS3..anyday.
- Learnt how to bake a cake...honestly..can bake a mean chocolate cake. Am obsessed with it now. (ah! probably should'nt have given that bit of information out)
- Cut my hair...real short...cant decide whether I like how the look or not. Sometimes I do, sometimes I dont, but most days I do.. :) I am a Rock Star.
- Still hate congress and their shameless vote bank and caste politics. They are like rabid dogs sniffing a target.
- Markets are so boring that they can put a hard boiled insomniac to a sound sleep.
- Probably will not watch Slumdog Millionaire till they stop playing Jai Ho..
- Feel that Rajdeep Sardesai needs to be transferred to Al- Jazeera or PTV at the rate at which he is obsessively covering Pakistan politics and screaming down at all of us.
- Feel that Rehman has composed far greater music than the Jai Ho thingie..his jingle for Garden (the sarees) was better than Jai Ho.

The writers block refuses to budge...But it will..and it shall and it will..till then..Jai Ho...

Random ramblings

It's been a while since I last wrote a post.I have become busy (surprised!!?...so am I.). So I shall scribble random thoughts from my head. 

Went to daily bread in Indiranagar a couple of days back.Ate a couple of cakes, named opera something and another I cant remember (no loss there). I have always wondered why they name their cakes so that way? exotically inclined, i suppose.But why should a cake be named opera? It dint sing it be picked,it certainly dint sing to me when I ate it, it actually just sat there, frozen. My stomach though, did groan in protest.Anyway, we also bought 'french village bread' there. So we're going back to our roots. We are now eating village bread, next we'll be living there and selling bread and making money...nice career option :), since 7 slices set us back a good 30Rs.

       Also everyone (and it is literally everyone I know) who's been out hunting for a project for Meghna can stop now. She's found herself a project in NIMHANS. Whether she's a project or she's doing a project is yet left to be seen. Saw a bit of 'Saawariya'.Someone said it's India most expensive 'blue film' heheheheheheheh. :P, I thought it was funny. If you've watched the movie, you'll think the same too. 

       Inflation still worrying most of us. Cannot buy vegetables without comparing it to gold prices. It's difficult for vegetarians like me who have to cut down on some vegetables because they are so ridiculously expensive. Power cuts are back in fashion again. They are like unannounced, unwanted visitors, they come and go as they please.We apparently do not have to worry as the minister says. I'm not worried. I spend a whole day in a temperature controlled office. Controlled to sub zero. So a little power cut is welcome. Also an excellent excuse to not do things.

      Pranitha bought us new curtains for our home. So a lot of time is spent admiring it and thinking I have such a good taste. In my defense, we had sad excuse of leftover curtains by the last occupant of the house. We were too lazy to buy new ones. So it's a nice change of scenery. Obama bought change to us too...heheheheheheh...

      So that's about all I can say. I can say much more, but have to go now. Will be back though. Not to worry about such trivial things. :)

Economic concerns and Lean times

The economy is not so booming anymore.The bulls are not snorting their dominance. The bears are. They have dug their claws well into the stock market. India has lost a bit of that shine. Companies are downsizing. New jobs are getting harder to come by.How is this going to affect us. A trite look at things that are going to change.

 

1  Vegetables are to be bought by the number. One tomato, three potatoes, five chillies etc.Fruits are deemed to be non - exist ant to ordinary people.

2  Fruit juices are luxury items. Drunk in place of champagne at special occasions.

3  Restaurants are something you say in past tense. Like ' in the good old days, we ate out at restaurants'.

4  Clothes is something bought as and when an absolute necessity arises. Like even after darning (at home) the fifth time, the seat of your pants still show a tear.

5  Shopping again is referred in past tense. Refer point 3

6  Cars..what cars?? Oh! those things which children play hide and seek in and where we sleep   when housing loans cannot be repaid.

7  100 Rs can buy only 2 tomatoes. Inflation is a glutton. It's a sin, we need to tell our dear FM.

8  Telegrams are to become a rage and sending letters by post, the new 'thing to do'.Frankly it's the only thing to do :)

9  People can be fashionably thin and wear fashionable clothes (read tattered, mismatched and tiny)

10 Entertainment is playing on he streets and socialising by neighbours. ( Doesnt sound that bad eh?maybe economic bust is a good thing after all)

11  Dinner is always 'candlelight dinner'.

     Hmmm..ON the other hand, maybe the environment will be healthier as people will stop using their own transport, consumption will decrease (and hopefully, so will procreation  ;)), people will learn the art of socialising and children will learn how to play without the TV for distraction and people will learn to take things a little slower. Good old days eh..? or Back to the future :) . You decide.

Crackers and Crackpots

I do like Diwali, very much, whatever the title may read. I love the lights, the sparklers, the rockets, the fireworks, the bombs. I set off a lot of them this time. I love the lights, the diyas in almost every house, lighting it up and making it a home. It is a happy festival. Along with christmas. I feel happy during diwali, almost everyone is happy. This festival spreads joy and it's really infectious. It is celebrated across India with great fervour irrelevant of caste, creed or religion.

  But every this festival also gives birth to set of crackpots every yeaar. Every festival, some smartass will think he/she is a superhero/ine and try to set off crackers in a unique way, which will most definitely do damage to someone's property and rarely, a human being. Rarely because most Indians are prepared and take adequate precautions. Sometimes, an unfortunate bugger gets caught unknowingly by these crackpots bursting crackers.

  Like, for example, I saw this bunch of men..Men!! mind you...put a huge green bomb (well..if you're Indian, you'll know which one I'm referring to) under an empty coconut shell. When the thing bursts, it generally shatters the shell and sets off the coconut pieces in a random directions, the only was to escape it is to lie down and keep your face covered. Except when you don't know about it, then the incident may leave you with nightmares about coconut shell monsters. Another one is setting off a rocket horizontally. If an unfortunate family has left the door open, then they might think that an extremely fast snake is out to get them. Another one involves holding a cracker till it is very close to bursting and then throwing it in the air. This really catches many people off their guard. If you see anyone flinching when you raise your hand to your head, he/she has diwalitisis and been scarred by such an incident. Every diwali, there are a bunch of these with more stupid things they innovate. I did these too...except when I was young, we burst crackers in a huge ground and we all did it turn by turn and it was not really close to any homes or people on streets. Now, with lack of space and every street littered with small, medium, luxury, hatchback cars and SUV's. there is no open space left to burst the crackers and people make do with the space they have, leading to the crackpot persona emerging out of most benign personalities.

  But everything, the late night "10,000 wala" bursting when one has to sleep. The loud crackers at 1.30 in the morning, the loud yells in excitement a every burst, the diwalititis is all forgiven in the spirit of diwali the crackpots are ignored or at most a glare is given. Well, I love diwali , but I am glad it lasts for 3 days only. I need sleep and I have to get to work at 9:00 and I don't really feel very forgiving at 1.00 in the night. I feel more forgiving till about 10.30, it's all downhill from there. There is no good excuse for making such a din at that time of the night.Except at diwali. Then there's no need for an excuse. Then it's perfectly acceptable. Sigh! crackpots.

    Hope you all had a Happy Diwali and hope you have a great year ahead. :)

Quick Tales - Caferati Flash Fiction - at Livejournal

helloooow.....all...I am a bit thrilled today. So I thought I will share it with you all. I entered this LiveJournal Flash Fiction writing on a whim. I did work sincerely on it though. :)  I have been shortlisted in the final100 from a total of 1052 entries. Now you see why I am a bit thrilled.Then there's a panel vote and the popular readers vote. So can you'll please vote. Pretty please. Here's the entry...

http://quick-tales.livejournal.com/13495.html

So read it. Vote for me..ta dah!!!....I shall then regale you with more blog posts that are interesting, funny and highly informative for your entertainment purposes during dull, deary work days.What say? Will do?

Blink of the mind's eye.

On a lazy sunday afternoon,he was sitting by the lake and reading.There was dappled sunlight,butterflies, buttercups and a light breeze.The sky was clear but for a few cottony clouds which would make their appearance to break the monotony.It was perfect,he thought,there had not been such a day since a long time,if there was,maybe he had not noticed.He decided to go home and check this up on google just to make sure he had not missed any sunny lazy days.He'd feel awfully cheated otherwise. 
    He yawned and changed his position,so that he could get better light to read,by the corner of his eye he saw something...he looked in that direction,nothing was there..started reading again.Again he felt it,a vague disturbance,an irritation,like a fly in the air..or hey,even in the coffee.He decided not to look up and thought of using the ignorance is bliss theory.After a while that feeling of being watched disappeared but it reappeared almost instantly.This time he decided to put his book down and investigate.It looked like a day for an adventure anyway. 
    He took the direction of the trees,they were not dense initially but became thicker as he went along and the light became more thinner,delicate like gossamer.Strange,he thought,he had been here before,many times,at all hours,so he had pretty much covered the area.He had never experienced this.So he went ahead.The light stayed that way and did not change,he also noticed that there was no movement,of anything..except him,nothing was moving,not even the leaves.There were no animals,little wooded creatures that inhabited the woods and who he saw frequently were nowhere to be seen...He found the absolute lack of movement mysterious and was inspired to investigate further,thinking maybe he had fallen asleep and he was having a dream. 
      After walking a while,he came to an especially wooded area,he recognised the place.Here,the light was normal,if not stronger and brighter which was strange since there was little room for the light to filter in.behind him there was this strange light,like the time had stopped at dusk.He stood there and thought about what to do next.There did not seem to be anything except the light which was in a different mood today.He decided to go back.Then he felt it again,the eyes looking at him,he turned back abruptly and stumbled a little.He straightened himself and looked up,he was standing directly under the beam of bright sunlight.He looked around to the source of his uneasiness and what he saw almost made him faint.... 
    He closed his eyes and said a little prayer and opened them again.No,no such luck, it ,if you could call it that,was still there,looking at him,staring..since the eyes did not blink.It was there,standing,as sure as he was breathing,he was sure he could see it."It" was him,atleast a spectre of him.It was like looking in the mirror except the reflection was not him,but a ghostly image of him.He felt a chill run down his spine,he could not help it.A horrifying thought ran through his head,was he dead?was this a sign?he pinched himself,hard.. and there,he felt the pain,he could not be dead if he could feel such pain.He wanted to run,but his feet seemed to be stuck. 
    The spectre came towards him,or rather just appeared,before he could make his brain work,it had put out it's hand right through his chest,he could feel it,a slithery cold feeling like touching a snakes scales.And then it began,excruciating pain,like someone was slowly peeling his skin off without the anesthesia or like someone was whipping him on raw skin.He knew these feelings,knew the pain,he just dint know how.they were very familiar.He opened his eyes with great effort and looked down,his heart had been ripped clean from his body..a living beating heart.The spectre which did not have any expression on it's face now had an expression of extreme hatred and watched him die slowly.He wondered why he hated himself so much.Did he do this to himself or did they make him do it.He closed his eyes,not anymore,they cannot,not anymore.he'll be free. 
          He moved a little,his head smarted a little,he warily opened his eyes,could not see anything clearly.He closed them again and opened it again,with a lot less effort,somewhere he heard a door open,he looked in that direction,his head protested,but he lookedand kept looking because he was dumbstruck with terror and kept thinking after all this..still...the last thought before his body gave up was.."oh no..no...please..no"