And finally, the Bandh day arrives.. and what we get? haha a Bandh obviously.. I don’t see any rickshaws or buses on the road, around 84 flights have been delayed / cancelled, around 74 buses have been damaged in Mumbai so far… the trains services are hit in many areas…

The political parties claim the Bandh to be a peaceful one but I don’t see it around? I don’t see any peace in damaging the buses or halting the trains.. These parties on Twitter boast about how peaceful the Bandh is but they themselves know that it’s not peaceful at all.. The funny part is, these parties are being proud of Bandh is trending on Twitter but they are not bothered to read the content of the tweets… The Bandh is trending on twitter because everyone is frustrated of it and tweeting about it…

So, now after all this, what’s the reality? Thinking of a common man?

Well, the price hike is a really bitter truth and the worst part is, the government is not able to do anything to tackle it. The vegetables prices have reached almost double the cost than earlier.. (in some cases, the rates have touched 5-6 times costlier too), fuel prices have touched the rooftop, the movie tickets which used to cost me Rs. 50 – 75 max are now, Rs. 225 – Rs. 500, Rs. 10 popcorn costs Rs. 70 now.. Everything has become way too costly.

Now, in this, some of the prices have actually gone up due to lack of resources or say high demand but in this process, many have taken undue advantage and hiked the prices.. (e.g. cinema halls, packaged food, drinks etc..)

So, instead of doing something to control these factors, the political parties preferred halting normal life of a common man. They claim that, they are doing it for the common man and this Bandh will open eyes of the ruling government. But these parties do not understand that, the common man does not want all these.

It hurts a common man, when their one day’s wage is wasted due to this so called unwanted Bandh, it hurts a common man when he cannot travel just because of the Bandh which he never wanted..

The common man is helpless, the ruling government is not acting tough, they are just making tough statements but everyone knows the reality.. the opposition parties are forcing everyone to do whatever they want.. a common man cannot speak up.. the media is working more for the TRP than than the common man, Media is more interested in knowing what is Dhoni wearing for his marriage than focusing on the issues of the common man.

It was time, when these Bandh used to work but now a common man has become much more smarter than earlier, by doing all these forced Bandhs, these parties are making things worst and lose the remaining voters they had till now..

We should start working towards the solution rather than running away from the problem.. 

Okay, let’s get to the basics now..

Earth Hour is basically to save as much as electricity in a hour.. or in other words, it’s an initiative to save the climate change.. Okay, I agree it’s a good cause but how well can we apply this to India?

Do we have regular power and water supply at the first place? (Which I feel is necessity for the living) Don’t you think we should fight for that first? We are paying taxes to Government on time, we are paying our bills on time then why we are not getting the basic services?

In other countries like Australia, US, UK etc.. they have all these basic facilities provided by the government and they can afford to take part in these kind of initiatives.. but we certainly cannot..

Even after paying approximately Rs. 10,000 electricity bill per month, I get random power cut atleast twice in a week.. Thankfully, in our area, Load shedding has stopped since past few months.. (It used to be daily 2-4 hours), the power companies increase their rates at almost every 6 months.. The government is not aggressive in making people aware about other sources of power.. (Solar, Wind etc..) The water supply is not 24 hours, due to negligence of government authority, millions of liters of water gets wasted.. and in the end.. we face water cuts..

This was just about Mumbai, I am sure other cities and states are also facing similar issues..

So why not work towards that rather than following the crowd? We should do something about our country and then worry about others..

We have actually habit of following others blindly, another such example would be Aman ki Asha campaign.. according to me, it was one of the worst campaign I have ever came across..

At one end, militants in Pakistan making Anti India statements, the Pakistan government officials not taking action against them.. and we are working out on so called “Aman ki Aasha"?

Okay, let’s leave Pakistan aside, we won’t ever understand these political things.. Let’s talk about issues in our country first…

We see, fights on the name of language and religions going around in many states.. the government is doing almost nothing to control that.. At one end, the Congress government calls itself as secular and in the other end, they approve quotas for minority..

We don’t want to look at our own issues and we want to build bridges of peace between 2 countries..

We should actually start fixing our own system first before trying to fix something else.. Developed countries have done all that, citizens get all the basic necessities there, so they can afford this kind of initiatives.. but we certainly cannot..

We just need to wake up and smell the coffee..

But why would India welcome him? Well, because in 90s, he had painted Hindu goddesses and mother India nude.. and he hurt sentiments of so many Hindus or I should say, Indians.. but that was just his freedom of expression and there was nothing wrong in it..

I am sorry, but I don’t buy the bullshit of freedom of expression. I am game for the freedom of speech or freedom of expression but not at the cost of hurting anyone’s sentiments.. what was the need to paint mother India or any goddess nude? What was he trying to achieve from it? I am really not sure about it..

And, if he actually feels it as a freedom of expression, then why can’t he try with prophet or any other Muslim gods?  Well, he won’t.. he wants to live in this world

I have noticed that Indian media is always most interested in bringing up anti-hindu issues.. they never show the stuff on Kashmiri Pandits or other issues where Hindus are being attacked (or got injustice..) We are shown only one side of the story..

I am actually very much afraid by this “political” side of these news channels.. (Specially the English ones), these guys have got lot of power in their hand.. and they are misusing it..

I have nothing against any religion but the news or anything should not be judgmental based on the religion.. it should be balanced..

And I am yet to see that day..

Update: Following videos which will throw some light on the issue… (Excuse the poor guy’s English)

Yes, I am a pro BJP guy, I would always like to see BJP getting elected but at the same time, I don’t believe in following anyone blindly.

To be frank, in this election, I had high hopes for BJP, the way they started their online campaign was showing some good signs.. the good signs of stressing more on the development factor.. but as the day passed, the whole scenario changed and it turned into cat fights..

There were few incidents which I feel were given more importance and blown out of proportion by media and rivals.. e.g. being classic case of Varun Gandhi.. everyone said, his speech was inflammatory (Video), even he was slapped detention order under NSA. At the same time, Sanjay Dutt too gave in inflammatory speech, but no one bothered to care about it.. (I feel this was something not at all fair)

Apart from these issues, the issues like Modi as CM was also blown out of proportion.. Godhra riots ghost was brought back..

BJP tried to fight back with the genuine issues like black money, Afzal Guru and Bofors but I guess, these issues made no impact on anyone. You can read about failure of central government on Hassan Ali case here (Government cent forged document to Swiss bank) and also over the issue of Quattrocchi. Afzal Guru is still enjoying his stay in the jail instead of the hell.

I am not trying to say that Congress is bad but they are certainly not the good ones.. I feel there is some kind of layer which is between a common man and what actually the truth is. BJP is always portrayed as anti-muslim party and Congress is a secular party. But I don’t understand how can a reservation system be secular? There have been many instances where congress tried to play vote bank policy keeping monitories in front. Is it secular? But when BJP tries to talk about development, Godhra and Babri issues are brought back and BJP called anti-muslim party talking about Hindutva all the time. (Where BJP has clarified meaning of Hindutva zillions of times). Congress even went on to doubt the existence of lord Ram but at that time too Congress was secular party.

I am not getting deep into this as I don’t want this post to become more like Congress Vs BJP. But my point here is, don’t just follow any political party blindly, if everyone says Congress as secular party, it certainly does not mean that they are secular. We should not ignore the points I have mentioned (and many more which have happened in the past).

Now, coming back to the point of “What actually went wrong with BJP?”

• They started well with promoting themselves online, infact they were pretty early at it and they were doing good. But somewhere in between they lost the track, the blog never got updated properly. Basically they should have used online medium to echo their views and clarify on things like Godhra, Kandahar etc.. but they never utilized the online medium. And on the other hand, the young crowd always remained unclear about BJP’s stand and they always considered Congress as a secular party. (As no one clarified the things) 
• On the rural front, Rahul Gandhi did a fantastic job by reaching out to the people.. in fact I feel, it helped Congress a lot to gain more votes. At the same BJP did nothing as sort and even if they did, they could not tell the people about it. So, it was Rahul Gandhi all over.. (I would call this very very smart politics – I see him as India’s next PM)
   
• BJP never promoted young leaders. I know, they must have tried it but to the common people, they never tried. Where as congress sent everyone signals about Young leaders.. Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora are the best example.
   
• Anti Muslim image – I feel it hit BJP the most. Even though Narendra Modi did fantastic job in the development of Gujarat. Just check his interviews, this guy has got the power, he never talks crap but since BJP could not clear it out properly (as mentioned in the point 1), the opposition parties kept hitting them on the same issues. Some funny people even blamed BJP for Mangalore pub incident. BJP ruled Karnataka government took care of the issue and made sure that they (Ram Sene) do not repeat these kind of incidents. Even the Varun Gandhi issue hit them really hard. (I would blame Media and other parties for this), BJP clarified their stand but it did not help. In fact over the Godhra issue too, they have welcomed Supreme Court’s decision of speeding up the investigations.

So, I feel above issues have hit BJP the most. They need to work out on the issues from now itself, change the image of the party. Get more young people.. be more active online.. and keep 100 miles away from getting into dirty politics.

Now, apart from all these things, let me share my views on few things like Godhra, RSS and about everything which is there in my mind.

Godhra – I know, whatever happened in Godhra wasn’t right but if government feels, Modi or BJP government is responsible for this, then they should work on pacing up the things and make sure that everyone gets justice. (I am not talking about the castes here) There are many people out there.. (at least what I see on Twitter and other social networking places) blame Gujarat government for this and call them Anti-Muslim party. I suggest them to put more time in pressurizing the government to act fast. (We have seen zillions of petitions happening around) So we can have clear justice. Do not blame anyone if we do not have the facts right.

RSS – Some silly people call RSS as Indian Mujahedeen or SIMI of Hindus. I mean, it’s like WTF situation for me. On what basis? Do you guys even know anything about RSS? What do they do? What are they into? They don’t support bullshit of religious war or beating up girls.  They are far away from these things. Wikipedia has excellent article on them. RSS.org is their official website. (Check their archives section for their views and resolutions)

The Rest: Since, Congress has come into the power, I expect them to squash terrorist organizations. Do away with the vote bank politics, get rid of quota system, do fair and transparent politics. Focus more and more on the development front, think how Indian can grow. I really like the fact that Congress has got the most seats, so they won’t have to depend on the left or other parties.

So, that’s about it.. I am quite disappointed that BJP could not win but I see the bright future ahead for the BJP, they can learn from their mistakes and come out as party which focuses on the development.

Yes, I know they do help people in cases like theft and all but what about minor issues? Instead of solving them, they try to cut short and find the temporary solution…

Examples would be.. e.g. when you are sitting with your girlfriend or anyone in a area which is not so busy.. and it’s night time..

The police guy walks in, check your license and asks you to leave from that area as it’s not “safe”…

I don’t understand, if it’s not safe then why they can’t increase the security… instead nabbing the miscreants, they prefer asking common men to leave the place, so that miscreants don’t trouble common people and a common man doesn’t go to police station to lodge FIR..

This is the solution that they have… (Yea, I had faced this problem couple of years back near Lokhandwala, I am sure many of you must have faced this too)

RTOs (Traffic Police) too are equally responsible in this.. most of them look get “extra” money most of the time..

A year back or so, my sister had parked the car in no parking, they took the car and when we went to collect the car, they started asking for Rs. 1,000 fine.. we actually fought with them as there was no such rule where they can fine us for Rs. 1,000 (rules related to PUC or Car Parking), we made them read their rulebook and had to make them realize that they can’t fool people.. in the end, they charged us what they were supposed to (legally) – around Rs. 400.

2nd incident was today.. infact, an hour back..

The RTO guy stops my car, tell me that I have to take off my car’s film (on the glasses), the reason? There are  many illegal activities going on in the cars with the dark glasses.. I was like WTF.. dude, does it mean, people with cars with transparent glasses won’t get into illegal activities?

They just don’t understand the basics.. they don’t understand that, they have to work harder on catching those 1% of people who are into illegal activities.. not trouble 99% of the people who are not doing anything wrong..

I guess, I will never understand their logic being rules and regulations..

I am sorry but I am really angry at this point so my words might not be right but that’s the fact and we can’t deny it..

Couple of recent incidents forced me to write something about the policemen.. I am not trying to say that, every policeman is bad, but till now, I have not come across any good genuine policemen (Except from the Cybercell Mumbai guys, who left me impressed… that’s a different story all together)

Okay, so.. let’s cut the crap..

I was surfing some news sites today and on TOI website, found this article: Now, MNS goes after ‘Pak’ signboards

The article talks about, a shop in Mulund named Karachi Sweets, which according to MNS, is anti-Indian and the shop owner should change the name within 10 days or face the consequences. (The shop’s brand is almost 30 year old)

No, I am not going to bash MNS here… the real action begins when the shop owner goes to the police for help…

The policemen agrees with MNS and asks the shop owner to change the name.. some of them even suggested names like “Mumbai Sweet House”.. the logic? Well, according to police, the name will help shop owner to attract more buyers.. haha

Here are the excerpts from the article:

The local police were informed but, instead of assuring protection, officials said it would be "better” if the shop changed its name and avoided any confrontation with MNS activists.

Residents of the area share the shop manager’s fears. "Change of name could be misleading. Many may think that the original shop has shut down and they may stop going there,” one of them said.

However, the police have a different view. "We suggested that the owner should rename his shop as Mumbai Sweet House,” a Mulund police station officer said. "That will attract more customers to the shop.” Another similarly helpful suggestion came from the policemen who met the owner; they asked him to apply to the BMC’s shops and establishments department for a change of name on a priority basis.

Another officer admitted the police station had received a letter from the MNS, informing them about an agitation against the signboard. "We wanted to prevent a problem and advised the shop owner to take a quick decision on renaming the shop,” he said.

I am not sure where a common man will go? Police is not ready to help him, he is forced to change the name.. I think it’s time that people will start keeping guns with them so they can fight back in these kind of issues.. (as police is not helping at all)

Here is another example:

This one is about the movie Deshdrohi, which was banned in Maharashtra but later got clearance from the court..

But, in Mumbai, no one is ready to screen it.. why? Well.. do I need to say again? haha..

Let’s talk about the role of police here.. (The article is here)

Deshdrohi was to be screened in halls like Alankar in Grant Road and Nandi in Bandra. But Nandi had to instead screen Sarkar Raj. Sheru who manages both halls said, "A senior cop from VP Road police station asked us to avoid screening it saying it may create problems. I told my manager to go to the police station with the court order but they repeated the statement. Finally on Thursday we decided not to screen it. Some Shiv Sainiks came to Nandi and tore up posters of the film, warning us against showing it.”

Even Amar cinema, Chembur has been forced to screen Ghajini instead of Deshdrohi. Shabbir Sheikh, manager of the hall said, "The cops came here and told us not to screen the film. When I told them the court had lifted the ban, they said even if I asked for protection they would not be able to provide it as they were short-staffed.”

In this case also police washed off their hands saying, we are not going to help you.. you bow down to demands of these political parties..

I had personally faced couple of experiences few years back.. 1st one was when I had met with an accident.. I had to pay Rs. 5000 as bribe to policeman even if it was not my fault.. and on the top of it, they filed counter case on me.. (The whole experience was really pathetic and painful part.. will post about it some other time)

Another personal experience was when my car tape got stolen.. to get FIR report, the policeman asked me to pay Rs. 1,000 bribe and when we denied to pay, they kept us waiting for hours almost daily and gave it after a week..

All these experiences are certainly not helping to create a good impression of Policemen..

Again, I am not saying all the policemen are bad but if you look at the current scenario.. I don’t see any positive signs..

Okay… so, what is this no vote thing… well, according to section 49-O  in our constitution, every voter has right to register a null vote or “no vote”. It means, you have registered in the election process but you haven’t voted for anything… logically it means, there is no party worth your vote…

Now, according to this chain mail, it is mentioned that is there are 100 no votes against 100 genuine votes, the party with that votes will be barred from the election… and there will be re-polling. Which is NOT TRUE. There is nothing like that, according to the law, when a note vote is registered, it will be REJECTED…

Yes, some of the sites are saying that it will be counted as negative vote but I am not sure about this.. I just went through “Handbook for Counting Agents” (PDF file) on Election Commission of India website and it clearly states that (18.8), “no votes” should be rejected… so I think it’s as good as not voting? But again, there is no proper information this.. .negative voting looks unreal to me as I could not find any information about it on the official site.

Also, No Vote thing might not be as easy we we are thinking, and it will also disclose your identity, as you will have to sign some document for no vote.. so the guys sitting over there will obviously know about your decision… A blogger has blogged about this experience about “no vote” thing here

Okay… Okay… so in short.. according to me “no vote” is not a good option as noting is clear about it and there is no point in wasting the vote without any clear info on the rules.

My personal view is.. basically it was told to me by my dad.. ALWAYS VOTE… all the political parties are bad… but some are worst and some are worse… so you vote for the worse party so that worst does not win….

In current scenario, out of 1000 people, if 999 go for “no vote” and 1 registers the vote for the worst party, then worst party will win.. so don’t make it happen.. and ALWAYS VOTE…

So, moral of the story is… don’t be stupid and you should definitely vote.. we know what all parties have done… and you can weigh them according to your judgment but DO VOTE… Vote smartly…

I have no idea what the hell is going on with the security, I haven’t been able to sleep much.. eyes are glued to the TV all the time.. hoping for some good news but I guess, it’s going to take it’s own time…

I am still waiting to see the choppers and army guys jumping in from the rooftop but I don’t see that happening either..

I want to write more on this but for some reason, I am not able to… I am not even able to work..

May be I am disturbed with these things.. I am feeling like cutting each of them into pieces but this is never going to happen.. the ones who will be caught will be sent to the jail and they will again enjoy the free food…

Our so called Maharashtra lover politicians have decided to sit in their holes.. as it’s not safe to go out in Mumbai… may be they will come out once everything is done…

Prime Minister and Chief Minister are asking everyone to stay clam and feeling sorry for the ones who died… but no one is talking about how strictly they will deal with this..

Some of the news channels are showing about Spirit of Mumbai.. screw it guys.. screw it… screw the spirit.. I am fedup with that…

Barkha Dutt is busy in showing how army is planning to trap these bastards.. this stupid female doesn’t know that by showing secret plans, she is not going become smartest journo in the world.. she is informing terrorists with the updates so that they can communicate using satellite phones..

I guess…. I have reached the end of my random thoughts…

Let’s hope we get hold of these bastards every soon…

Jai Maharashtra.. Jai Hind..

Note: You can read updates on the events here on Twitter Hashtags

I have this bad habit of watching TV while working late in the night.. till now, I have came across really funny movies like Don No. 1, Indra – The Tiger and many other dubbed movies but this one crossed all the limits…

Sau Crore.. it is a pure Hindi movie directed by none other than, Dev Anand… crazy movie… I never knew Dev Anand will go so low..

The movie is about murder of Tennis player called Raj… everyone thinks the he was killed by Somnath (Naseeruddin shah) politician cum friend of his wife Kamlesh… (Yea, Kamlesh is name of the girl in this one LOL), so this CBI guy Devanand fights for them, turns to an action hero cum politician..

Okay.. so you might as, what so bad about it? haha.. well.. here we go…

- It was the leading actor’s first and last movie.. he understood that he can never act.. the guy dances like a monkey.. he acts like a wooden piece.. no no.. even wooden piece would look better…

- The girl tries to look like a sex bomb but she fails miserably..

- The leading guy, cries like a baby… leading guy and girl, play with girl’s wig on their first night.. the guy fights with his wife on the first night but in super funny shinning red boxer shorts, jumping on the bed…

- Devanand fights using Nunchaku, but all the wide angle shots are done by his duplicate.. which is clearly visible.. haha

These are just few things.. but when you watch the movie, I am sure that you will have a very good laugh…

It has some funny dialogues like..

Devanand to Police (after returning from temple): Mere maathe pe maa ka tika laga hua hai.. mujhe Somnath se milne do, nahi to aapko shaap lagega  and the policemen allow him to meet Somnath… haha

Another one is from the lead actress where she has lost the memory, she suddenly remembers everything.. (after Devanand’s girlfriend sings a song to remind her old days LOL) and suddenly gets up and says “Main ab theek hu.. mijhe sab yaad aa gaya hai” LOL

There are many more… something like.. one of the villains (Kiran Kumar) remembering about red handkerchief given by baba, he wears it thinking it will give him strength to kill more people.. haha

Or may be… Devanand… singing a song with tape recorder in other hand to attract the people… (catch the video here)

Damn.. the list is endless…

But what makes me wonder is.. this movie has many top actors.. Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah, Vikram Gokhale… I don’t know why in the world they decided to act in this kind of movie…

Anyways, you can catch this movie on 9X…  or may be get it on VCD / DVD.. but I would strongly recommend watching it once.. it’s pure fun…

haha.. it seems my experience with funny movies is never going to end…

Couple of days back. MNS activists attacked railway examination centers / students claiming they were from Bihar and Maharashtra students should be given the first priority… and they claimed that, there were no ads given in the newspaper about the exams..

But reality is quite different.. the ads were already given by the railway authorities.. the ads were given in Marathi dailies Loksatta (Mumbai, Nagpur) , Navbharat Times, Hindustan Times, Indian Express etc.. but for some reason MNS guys thought there were no ads.. so they decided to attack the exam centers..

The point of this topic is not about what MNS did.. but I am trying to bring forward the aftermath of the attacks..

Nothing much happened actually… a student died, many got injured..

The very next day… police arrests Raj Thackeray, before that.. he dares the government.. these are some of his statements:

"Arrest me and be ready to bear the consequences….you will have to regret" 

"If Raj is arrested, entire Maharashtra will be set on fire"

And actually this kind of thing happens.. after the arrest police beefed up the security but that too did not help. The goons started attacking everyone around (video).. they burnt few trucks.. damaged few taxes.. they even managed to burn the bus stop..

In short.. as per Raj’s statement.. Maharashtra was set on fire..

Now, this was about Maharashtra.. Bihar was slow on that day but today I got news that a train coach was burnt in Patna.. (apart from the attacks on other properties)

So… now the point is.. MNS guys claim that they love Maharashtrians and they are fighting to protect every Maharashtrian.. Agreed… but what happened to them while attacking the locals? The trucks… the taxis.. rickshaws.. even the bus stop… so, were they used by only north Indians? None of the Maharashtrians were using it?

Or what was the logic behind torching a train coach in Patna… none of the north Indians were using it?

The common man is suffering in this politics..these politicians brainwash young guys and uneducated guys on the name of Maharashtra and Bihar…

Apart from all these issues.. the main question still remains answered.. what will railway authority do if Maharashtrian students do not apply for the exams? (The ads were already given in the local papers)

The government should simply ban the parties conducting violence and police should use third degree torture for these guys so that this kind of incidents does not repeat.

Wake up Maharashtra.. Wake up India