we are now looking for scapegoats to pin the blame on, and then to be able to forget about the whole matter. politicians' resignations are being asked for left, right and centre. will that solve anything? are there any good ones to replace the ones who are resigning? if anything, atleast the ones who resign show they have some conscience of some kind.
this is the kind of attack that is virtually impossible to stop, no matter which part of the world you happen to be in. these are fatalistic men, prepared to risk all, worked up to a frenzy by their belief in the injustice on their people for centuries. how will you battle them by making 2-3 politicians resign?
in my opinion, the thing to do is to have a better, more organized, more responsive central intelligence agency in the country that is dedicated to fighting terrorism. we need to not only have advance intelligence, we need somebody who will take it seriously and take appropriate action. it now appears there was prior knowledge of the attack on the taj, the planned entry by sea-routes and even mumbai as a target by armed gunmen. but nobody took any appropriate action, and hence we were not prepared. granted, it is probably hard to sift through all the false warnings and threats to get to the few that actually mean something - all the more reason to have a central intelligence agency!
alas, it seems there's no alternative but to increase spending on defence. it's such a pity, because we really need the money to be spent on our nation's development. the terrorists are targeting the strongest nations with a clear agenda - bring down the superpowers, reduce all to the mess that their own nations are in. why don't u spend all that time and energy in making your nations better instead? a**holes!
just heard some good news on bbc - the Indian PM has actually set up a central intelligence agency that will deal exclusively with terrorism, and has augmented the forces involved in anti-terrorist operations. he also mentioned that this is the time for all political parties to rise above petty political differences and present a united front against this unprecedented threat. bravo, mr. manmohan, you do us proud!
Sunday 30 November, 2008
Thursday 27 November, 2008
Terror strikes Mumbai
the madness is unbelievable. so many killed, so many injured. and after 12 hours, the nightmare still continues, with hostage situations in both Taj and Oberoi hotels. kill the motherfuckers!!! kill them dead!!! i am raging and grieving for my people, i want to be back home as soon as possible. i'm worried where this will lead. how long will these terror strikes continue? will it become a full-fledged war situation? just when my country was doing so well! maybe that's the reason india's being singled out in this way. maybe that's what's motivating these bastards - jealousy of what they cannot achieve. and we're an easy target anyway, with our large, poor and susceptible population and geographical location. why does a human being fall prey to extremist mindwashing anyway? isn't there any innate sense or logic or humanity inside him? there has to be something inside him that wants to kill and murder and inflict pain and grief and terror. i blame the ones that hold the guns as much as the brains behind the ones that hold the guns. they deserve everything that's coming to them. i hope our army finds and shoots each and every one of those fucking god-playing hostage-taking bastards, and tortures the rest beyond human belief. retaliate!!! WE REFUSE TO LIVE IN FEAR!!!
Monday 24 November, 2008
dostana - not gay and not proud
if you thought that here's finally a movie that treats homosexuality in a sensitive and sensible way, think again. firstly, the guys must have said about a million times in the movie that they are not gay, they are only pretending so that they can get an apartment and a green card. now we all know u don't get green cards faster if u're a gay couple, but that's typical hindi movie fluff so who cares. in fact, after proposition h8, who knows if they get it at all now? but when ideas start getting stolen from english movies and serials, that's so much worse! making abhishek and john stand in a public loo in adjoining stalls and having a guy walk in on them would remind u of a F.R.I.E.N.D.S episode where chandler gets his clothes stolen by julia roberts for revenge (Season 2, Episode 13 - The One After the Superbowl: Part 2). the faces collage that priyanka thinks up as a new layout for her magazine is so stolen from 13 going on 30 that it's not even funny! they dint make much of it in this movie, but if u saw the original, u'd spot it right away! john even shot the people holding frames!!! and who knows how many more ideas were stolen, just from movies we haven't seen yet! and here we thought bollywood was finally coming to maturity. shame, karan and tarun, shame!!!!
i really thought we'd see a movie about two guys who fall in love, maybe something along the lines of brokeback mountain, a truly gay couple, finally a breakthrough in hindi movies! but no, this made in fact a mockery of the whole community. boman could not have acted more cliched if he tried, and john and abhishek keep saying they're not gay, and in fact fall in love with a woman. they do have the first guy-guy lip-lock (all camera angles, no actual touching), but again the motivation is clearly a woman.
and apart from all that, it's not even a good movie!!! it drags and drags, the jokes are old, kirron's part sucks and is even more of a cliche than boman's, and i seriously do not know what sushmita mukherji was doing in the movie. frankly, the movie was so bad that it even made bobby deol look good in comparison!!! very disappointing.
i really thought we'd see a movie about two guys who fall in love, maybe something along the lines of brokeback mountain, a truly gay couple, finally a breakthrough in hindi movies! but no, this made in fact a mockery of the whole community. boman could not have acted more cliched if he tried, and john and abhishek keep saying they're not gay, and in fact fall in love with a woman. they do have the first guy-guy lip-lock (all camera angles, no actual touching), but again the motivation is clearly a woman.
and apart from all that, it's not even a good movie!!! it drags and drags, the jokes are old, kirron's part sucks and is even more of a cliche than boman's, and i seriously do not know what sushmita mukherji was doing in the movie. frankly, the movie was so bad that it even made bobby deol look good in comparison!!! very disappointing.
bowling for columbine
isn't it ironic that on the day i saw this movie, i also read this article. a man got shot at in the chest while mowing his lawn, and was saved only because he had his phone in his pocket. and it wasn't any revenge story either! it was a random bullet somebody fired maybe a quarter of a mile away just for target practice or something!!! can you believe that??? seriously, people should rethink the second amendment.
bowling for columbine was the usual michael moore fare, pretty much along the same lines as fahrenheit 9/11. i'm glad there's somebody out there tracking and talking about these things. making us think and rethink our choices. i agree with him that firearms should not be so easily available. it's like what i said about drugs earlier - easy availability tends to push borderline cases over the edge. and this is even more serious than drugs; people don't just hurt themselves here, but others. innocent others. i'm all for restraining sale of firearms to those with proper licenses, identification and records.
in this movie, moore made another point - hysteria created by the press keeps everyone scared and panicky, and that causes people to react in extreme ways. and with firearms in so many households, who knows what that could turn into? i agree with him about the press-created hysteria. nowhere else do i see such sensationalization of news as i do on cnn. if the economy is doing badly, it's not just doing badly, it's taking the whole world down with it. if there has been a terrorist attack on the US, it's not just been a terrorist attack, it has been the worst terrorist attack in the history of terrorist attacks. maybe it's the american obsession with supersizing everything. who knows? a canadian girl in the movie puts it best - people don't think, don't negotiate, don't talk, they just react; we'll just kill you, and that's the end of that.
there are so many great things about american society. u're path forgers for the rest of the world in so many ways. is this the kind of murky underbelly u wanna have? guys, get a grip?
bowling for columbine was the usual michael moore fare, pretty much along the same lines as fahrenheit 9/11. i'm glad there's somebody out there tracking and talking about these things. making us think and rethink our choices. i agree with him that firearms should not be so easily available. it's like what i said about drugs earlier - easy availability tends to push borderline cases over the edge. and this is even more serious than drugs; people don't just hurt themselves here, but others. innocent others. i'm all for restraining sale of firearms to those with proper licenses, identification and records.
in this movie, moore made another point - hysteria created by the press keeps everyone scared and panicky, and that causes people to react in extreme ways. and with firearms in so many households, who knows what that could turn into? i agree with him about the press-created hysteria. nowhere else do i see such sensationalization of news as i do on cnn. if the economy is doing badly, it's not just doing badly, it's taking the whole world down with it. if there has been a terrorist attack on the US, it's not just been a terrorist attack, it has been the worst terrorist attack in the history of terrorist attacks. maybe it's the american obsession with supersizing everything. who knows? a canadian girl in the movie puts it best - people don't think, don't negotiate, don't talk, they just react; we'll just kill you, and that's the end of that.
there are so many great things about american society. u're path forgers for the rest of the world in so many ways. is this the kind of murky underbelly u wanna have? guys, get a grip?
Saturday 22 November, 2008
movies and other hallucigens
i'm on such a high! i saw three movies in the last two days! now i gotta tell u, in case u already don't know - i just love the movies. LOVE! i would watch anything once. but sometimes u see such fantastic stuff that's so right, carries the beat so well, that u get high on it. and when u see three in a row, u can't miss right? something's gonna work out!
yesterday was slumdog millionaire. if you have not watched it already, i strongly recommend that you do so now. before you read on any further. u have been warned - spoiler alert!!!!! that said, i could not believe this movie was not made by an indian, it was so indian. being from india, i pretty much have to wriggle and sigh my way through a lot of stereotypes about my country in hollywood movies, but this one rocked! i loved it! i didn't cringe once, except for the way they portrayed 'who wants to be a millionaire'. they touched on so many issues, so many many issues that we, real indians living in india now, are concerned with and dealing with right now - terrorism, the underworld, police brutality, religious riots, poverty, child abuse - and it was all so subtly done that u'd never guess it wasn't a straightforward movie about the life of the central character if u didn't know the context! for instance, did u realize that the anti-muslim riots in mumbai that killed jamal's mom were probably the awful riots post babri masjid demolition in '91? awesome how many levels this movie has. and it was soooo bollywood, in such a good way, in a way acceptable to young indians who love bollywood. i loved that! they even had a song and dance routine at the end, with good choreo, not snarky bullshit with people running around trees! people in an all-white audience in norway (and boy, u do not get more white than scandinavian white) clapped at the end of the movie! i felt like i was back home in india! brilliant effort guys. but i would like to say, u really dumped on 'who wants to be a millionaire' for no reason. they always have the politest hosts, no host has any stake in the winnings or losses of the contestants, you don't have to decide whether or not you're gonna carry on playing before even hearing the next question, and they definitely never, ever go into an ad break before the participant has answered a question (though they may before they tell u if he's right). it's a huge phenomenon in india, loved by all. seriously, if u ain't been there, u can't fathom it. i mean, they got amitabh bachchan to host it, for crying out loud! there's people building actual temples for that guy and worshipping him, he's that much of a god! (seriously, it was in the news, there's actually a temple in india dedicated to the big B). well, anyway, i'm not nuts, i know it's just a movie, and who wants to be a millionaire (or kbc - kaun banega crorepati - as we lovingly call it in india) is just a show, i can take a lil playing around with that concept. bottom line - this movie rocks!!! it's the kind of movie that makes u regret that there aren't more like it, that makes u feel depressed that such a fantastically indian movie wasn't made by an indian, that leaves u on a high that goes on for days! go watch it, guys.
the second movie we saw was zach and miri make a porno. well, obviously, nowhere in the same genre or anything hehe, to put it mildly. apart from scatological references - watching people getting covered in shit (actual shit) two nights in a row is a bit much for me, i think i'm done with that for the rest of my life, thanks guys. but apart from that, it was not as bad as expected, not as funny as expected, but pretty much a cute chick flick that u could sit thru once. quite formulaic though, which was unexpected, considering the title. my advice? go watch slumdog millionaire.
the third, phew, was annie hall. i love diane keaton, have done for years, and this is THE definitive diane keaton movie, right? made for her, around her, about her, who could ask for more diane keaton in a movie? a lil bit much on the talking tho, and a lil dated now with all the taking yourself so seriously and the philosophy and the marijuana and the psycho-analysis, but still quite delightful so far. that's all i'm gonna say about it cos i haven't finished it yet cos my hubby fell asleep half-way hehe. woody doesn't work late friday night after watching zach and miri make a porno till 11:30 p.m.! no offence, woody. see u tomorrow night!
hubby registers a protest against the falling asleep midway remark. well alright, so he did find out about the movie and locate it and download it so we could watch it. and he does make a lot of effort reading reviews on imdb to find more stuff to download. and the stuff he downloads is always interesting. but he still fell asleep midway right? i mean, i'm just stating a fact :D
finished annie hall, original impressions remain intact.
yesterday was slumdog millionaire. if you have not watched it already, i strongly recommend that you do so now. before you read on any further. u have been warned - spoiler alert!!!!! that said, i could not believe this movie was not made by an indian, it was so indian. being from india, i pretty much have to wriggle and sigh my way through a lot of stereotypes about my country in hollywood movies, but this one rocked! i loved it! i didn't cringe once, except for the way they portrayed 'who wants to be a millionaire'. they touched on so many issues, so many many issues that we, real indians living in india now, are concerned with and dealing with right now - terrorism, the underworld, police brutality, religious riots, poverty, child abuse - and it was all so subtly done that u'd never guess it wasn't a straightforward movie about the life of the central character if u didn't know the context! for instance, did u realize that the anti-muslim riots in mumbai that killed jamal's mom were probably the awful riots post babri masjid demolition in '91? awesome how many levels this movie has. and it was soooo bollywood, in such a good way, in a way acceptable to young indians who love bollywood. i loved that! they even had a song and dance routine at the end, with good choreo, not snarky bullshit with people running around trees! people in an all-white audience in norway (and boy, u do not get more white than scandinavian white) clapped at the end of the movie! i felt like i was back home in india! brilliant effort guys. but i would like to say, u really dumped on 'who wants to be a millionaire' for no reason. they always have the politest hosts, no host has any stake in the winnings or losses of the contestants, you don't have to decide whether or not you're gonna carry on playing before even hearing the next question, and they definitely never, ever go into an ad break before the participant has answered a question (though they may before they tell u if he's right). it's a huge phenomenon in india, loved by all. seriously, if u ain't been there, u can't fathom it. i mean, they got amitabh bachchan to host it, for crying out loud! there's people building actual temples for that guy and worshipping him, he's that much of a god! (seriously, it was in the news, there's actually a temple in india dedicated to the big B). well, anyway, i'm not nuts, i know it's just a movie, and who wants to be a millionaire (or kbc - kaun banega crorepati - as we lovingly call it in india) is just a show, i can take a lil playing around with that concept. bottom line - this movie rocks!!! it's the kind of movie that makes u regret that there aren't more like it, that makes u feel depressed that such a fantastically indian movie wasn't made by an indian, that leaves u on a high that goes on for days! go watch it, guys.
the second movie we saw was zach and miri make a porno. well, obviously, nowhere in the same genre or anything hehe, to put it mildly. apart from scatological references - watching people getting covered in shit (actual shit) two nights in a row is a bit much for me, i think i'm done with that for the rest of my life, thanks guys. but apart from that, it was not as bad as expected, not as funny as expected, but pretty much a cute chick flick that u could sit thru once. quite formulaic though, which was unexpected, considering the title. my advice? go watch slumdog millionaire.
the third, phew, was annie hall. i love diane keaton, have done for years, and this is THE definitive diane keaton movie, right? made for her, around her, about her, who could ask for more diane keaton in a movie? a lil bit much on the talking tho, and a lil dated now with all the taking yourself so seriously and the philosophy and the marijuana and the psycho-analysis, but still quite delightful so far. that's all i'm gonna say about it cos i haven't finished it yet cos my hubby fell asleep half-way hehe. woody doesn't work late friday night after watching zach and miri make a porno till 11:30 p.m.! no offence, woody. see u tomorrow night!
hubby registers a protest against the falling asleep midway remark. well alright, so he did find out about the movie and locate it and download it so we could watch it. and he does make a lot of effort reading reviews on imdb to find more stuff to download. and the stuff he downloads is always interesting. but he still fell asleep midway right? i mean, i'm just stating a fact :D
finished annie hall, original impressions remain intact.
Sunday 16 November, 2008
gay and proud!
my entire world is buzzing with proposition 8 right now - indignant people (gay and straight) speaking out against this huge step backward. in a world where more and more countries are considering legalizing homosexuality, here is arguably one of the most developed states in one of the most developed countries of the world agreeing to make it illegal. it's such a pity. coming from a developing nation like mine, i hear all the time about my retrogressive and orthodox society. so i look towards the west to lead the way forward, towards a more liberal and intelligent world, and i hope that some day my country will adopt those standards as well. and then when the west takes a step like this, it doesn't just let down the homosexual community of their country, it lets down the whole world. this is just as bad as re-electing bush, people!!! some day you're gonna regret it, but how're you gonna make up for the decades of frustration you put people through???
some people believe homosexuality is a sham, that you choose to be gay. it's not really true. scientists have discovered actual genes in your system that can determine your sexual orientation! homosexuality has been around since recorded history, and who knows what happened before that? given the amount of grief people go through just because of their homosexual orientation, don't you think they would give it up if they could??? we have to learn to accept that it's as natural as heterosexuality!
it's all about love, man! you can't help who you fall in love with. and you sure as hell shouldn't try and restrict it just cos it ain't like yours. if two people are in love, they've got just as much right to spend their lives together as anybody else, and ain't nobody gonna tell them different.
i'm pro-choice, and proud of it!
some people believe homosexuality is a sham, that you choose to be gay. it's not really true. scientists have discovered actual genes in your system that can determine your sexual orientation! homosexuality has been around since recorded history, and who knows what happened before that? given the amount of grief people go through just because of their homosexual orientation, don't you think they would give it up if they could??? we have to learn to accept that it's as natural as heterosexuality!
it's all about love, man! you can't help who you fall in love with. and you sure as hell shouldn't try and restrict it just cos it ain't like yours. if two people are in love, they've got just as much right to spend their lives together as anybody else, and ain't nobody gonna tell them different.
i'm pro-choice, and proud of it!
Wednesday 12 November, 2008
internet rocks my world
maxed out today - internet modem conked, surviving on stolen internet, in a huge fight with landlady (crazy lady who thinks there's arsenic in my computer that is poisoning her and the lights on my modem are flames on her wall that are making her ill) AND got stomach flu. and i decided this would be the perfect time to fight caffeine addiction as well!!!! it just doesn't get any better than this grrummph! and what is THE best therapy at times like these, ladies? back to back sex and the city, of course!!! just finished season 3! yay me! if there is one series that embodies woman power, i think it's this one. it's the perfect 'i don't need a guy, i've got my girls, i rock' place! no matter what problems i've got, watching these women makes me feel so cocky! in control! sexy! carry on carrie!!!
i never knew how dependent i'd become on the internet till it was taken away yesterday! suddenly i can't get thru the day, it's a million hours long, i'm restless and can't focus on anything! my mind is fixated on playing my favorite online game, or checking my calendar, or reading a thousand worthless posts on digg or my reader. maybe the universe is sending me a message to get out more often! and here i am blogging about it on stolen internet instead! :P hehe the universe better learn how to twitter instead!!! :)
i never knew how dependent i'd become on the internet till it was taken away yesterday! suddenly i can't get thru the day, it's a million hours long, i'm restless and can't focus on anything! my mind is fixated on playing my favorite online game, or checking my calendar, or reading a thousand worthless posts on digg or my reader. maybe the universe is sending me a message to get out more often! and here i am blogging about it on stolen internet instead! :P hehe the universe better learn how to twitter instead!!! :)
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