Fools Like Me

Short pumps and mules..

2011-10-17T22:31:00.000-04:00

From a friend's post, just seemed to strike a note someplace:

i spent the day thinking about you.. of the time we spent together.. the way your gaze burned into mine, playful fingers over the cup of chai, the longing for you to hold me, tell me it was all going to end up the way it was meant to..

Random musing..

2011-07-07T14:49:00.001-04:00

I have always wondered what makes people creative and original.. And how they express themselves so precisely confounds me even further.. Let me explain.. I'm a thinker, I want to believe I have an above average EQ and appreciate the arts (paintings, music, the human body bla bla).. Put all of that together and you would think I would at least be a little creative.. But hand me a piece of paper, and the words run dry.. Present a canvas, and the colors fade away.. Give me an instrument and.. you get the drift.. The thoughts never become things, and the dreams stay dreams.. Where does this skill of 'expression' come from?

It's been awhile, hasn't it?

2011-04-20T11:14:00.004-04:00

This afternoon while stepping out for a quick lunch, I thought of you.. I don't know why.. It's been awhile, hasn't it? Six months? Maybe more.. I don't know why I wondered what was going on with you.. A quick bite and ten minutes later, I was back at my desk to see you had left me a message online.. Could it just be a coincidence? Of course it was, but silly me always likes to see signs even when there aren't any.. A quick conversation later, the thought of you still lingered on.. No, of course we were never meant to be.. If anything, I had convinced myself into believing there was something between us.. Deep down inside, I knew I would not have had the slightest hesitation to move on if a better opportunity presented itself.. Then what was it? Why did I still feel.. connected to you?

All I want

2009-05-09T23:35:00.001-04:00

I want a non exciting life. The kind where I’m happy when I get up. The kind where I’ve time for a nice morning shower. The kind where I’ve time to make a healthy homemade breakfast. The kind where I’m excited to leave for work. The kind where I wish Good Morning to everyone I bump into while stumbling into office. The kind where I laugh care free over lunch and not bother about getting back to conference calls and emails. The kind where office ends at 5 pm. The kind where I come back to smiling faces at home. The kind where I plan a dinner menu. The kind where I go in for a long deserved bath. The kind where I end the day with a prayer… and a smile.

2008-10-31T20:39:00.001-04:00

The people I thought would be there forever have all changed.. The memories I thought I would cherish forever are turning stale.. The place I called home seems strange and unfriendly.. The glitz, the glamour, the lights cannot blind me anymore.. I’m forever changed..

Burn out…

2008-09-11T13:24:00.002-04:00

I’m tired. I’ve been living out of suitcases for more than 2 years now. What seemed to be fun and exciting isn’t so anymore and I can’t help wonder if my rapid aging has had something to do with it. Lately, a lot has been changing. The weekend parties seem just about ok. The movie count has been dwindling big time! I have close to 1700 minutes rolled over from previous months on my phone (I have the most basic plan possible). Early dinners and a stroll seem better than pre-gaming. Teensie weensies trying to test their capacities in clubs and throwing up isn’t even fun to watch anymore. The music has changed from pop to rock to lounge/house now. The comforter and pillow are my new best friends. The idea of ending up alone doesn’t seem foreign anymore; of course the idea of being with only one person is still the scarier option. The thought of “How will everything ever work out?!” is constantly on my mind. Whatever happened to all the fun and craziness?

Maybe if I sleep, it’ll all go away…

Why do I always get caught up in stupid situations?

2008-09-11T13:19:00.000-04:00

This morning, I decided to take an earlier bus to get to work early (one of those crazy early morning decisions!). With my hair still disheveled from last night’s incomplete slumber, I threw on an oversized brown sweater and jeans and ran to catch the bus. Normally when I have music blaring into my ears, I’m untroubled by conversations; however today, by some stupid twist of fate, I noticed that the driver was trying to talk to me. As always, I played the good listener, listened to his early morning blues (or at least pretended to), smiled and continued to sleep with my eyes open. 15 minutes and a random conversation later (which involved him telling me how it’s nice to have music on the bus amongst other dull commuters), I reached my stop. He mouthed the words “I like you” and handed me a brown note with his name and number hastily scribbled over it as I walked out. Caught off guard (plus it was 6:30 a.m!), I just stopped for a moment, stared at the note in my hand and walked out.

Later, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had spurred him on into doing that. Maybe I should just keep my mouth shut and frown next time?

Word Clouds

2008-08-09T12:40:00.005-04:00

So Wordle has this interesting tool that picks out the words you use most frequently and puts them in a word cloud form to show you what you're subconsciously thinking of (I think that's what it does :S) And the word that stands out for me is.. ALWAYS.. Hmmm..

Go figure!

PS: It also allows you to choose the colors and formatting style for the kind of cloud you want to generate.. Somehow the ones with the words in a crossword like manner just did not appeal to me.. I wonder if that has anything to do with my OCD for organizing??

COLDPLAY! :) :)

2008-08-04T12:12:00.015-04:00

Do check out the video at the end of this post. I know it's long but it's awesome. And if you're short on time, skip it to 4:10 and watch :)

My first major gig ever.. And it was soooooo awesome.. COLDPLAY!! And of course the Section 1 front row seats helped a little too :) (right next to the side stage where the band played later on!).. But besides all that, it was something I haven't done in a long long time.. Just let loose.. Scream.. Not give a damn about anything.. I didn't even realize till the concert that I had actually missed out on rock for so long (2+ years?)! It was a perfect perfect end to a rather imperfect work week (I zoned out for the first time ever during my major presentation :-/ )

However, I would have enjoyed the concert a lot more if I had a few of my “own” people there with me.. Just so that we could re-live it again and again and.. Oh well.. So in no particular order - my “Wish you were here” people - my parents (they would think it’s too loud but they’re extremely hug-able), Big B Shabby (whose wedding is going to be the main topic for a lot of the upcoming posts), Nithin (for being there for me for the whole of last year and not even knowing it), Uday (strange friends are the best kinds :P) and Sayli & Neha (missed you both like crazy, even though you guys are not interested in Coldplay).

Anyway.. I don’t think I’ve ever woke up on a Monday morning with such a huge smile and so thankful for everyone/everything I have.. And it just took a little over 2 hours to re-align my perspective.. :)

Coldplay - Verizon Center, Washington DC, Aug 03, 2008
Setlist

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Setlist:

Life In Technicolor
Violet Hill -- Nithin (cause I was on the phone with you!)
Clocks
In My Place
Viva La Vida
Yes
42
Fix You -- Shabby :) :) and Uday
Strawberry Swing
Chinese Sleep Chant (Side stage)
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (Side stage/techno version)
Square One
The Hardest Part (Partial) -- Shabby
Yellow
Lost!
The Scientist (Side Stage - Acoustic) -- Sayli and Neha
Death Will Never Conquer (Side stage - Acoustic - Will)
Let's Talk (Video)

Encore:

Politik
Lovers In Japan -- Nithin
Death And All His Friends
The Escapist

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Ethical and Social Dilemmas...

2008-07-31T11:32:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine just got laid off after being on his job for less than two weeks. We went to college together. Sure, he wasn't the brightest of the lot but he's street smart and I thought he'd do great after he finished Grad School. So I was a little shocked (and sad) that he was asked to quit so soon.

I felt like I should help him out in whatever way I could. And since I had a network of people who were in a similar field of work, I asked him to pass on his resume. When I reviewed his resume, I realized he had fabricated most of it - his work experience, his college activities... they were blatant lies! Suddenly, I did not feel so sorry about him losing his job.

Yes, I know what you are thinking. Everybody exaggerates on their resume. No biggie! Well, sadly I belong to that small teensie class of losers who never cheated on exams, believed that doing the homework was actually beneficial blah blah... you get my drift. I never liked people who always talked big but would have nothing to account for it (I'm not implying my friend is one of them).

Anyway point being, I did not want to help him out anymore. I felt it was like tarnishing my own reputation by propagating someone else's lie. What if he was lying about everything else on his resume too? Would I want to refer someone when I wasn't sure myself of his work abilities - just because he's a friend?

And then comes the social dilemma. He's been a great friend for 6 long years now and has really helped me out (or at least tried to) quite a few times. And for me to judge him based on this seems petty. But somehow I just cannot bring myself to doing it. Maybe if I souped up my otherwise plain resume, I'd feel less strongly about it? Or maybe I should just pass it on and hope that other people see through the fakeness.

A New Beginning??

2008-03-19T23:42:00.001-04:00

So how much has changed over the last year?? A new continent.. A new life.. The escape I always wanted.. The fresh start I always dreamed of.. Yet now all I want is the old familiar places.. The old faces.. The ones I found too boring now actually seem like the comfort zone I want to get to.. So what is this?? Some sort of weird "the grass is always greener on the other side" phase, where all I do is pine for what I don't have?? Where does it all end?? Does it end??

2008-03-18T00:58:00.002-04:00

Another day.. Another week.. The same life.. Another weekend.. The same thing.. People drinking.. People wasted.. Late night bootie calls.. Sunday lunch.. Sunday night.. Sleep tight.. Another day.. Another week.. The same life..

RFID Inside -- Nice one!

2007-03-16T09:01:00.001-04:00

The murky ethics of implanted chips

Wanted: Power-systems engineer with experience in high-power (5–100-kW) motor-controller design. Must be U.S. citizen and have valid ISO1443-compatible access-control RFID implant.

Sound farfetched? Today, yes. A decade from now, maybe not.

With the proliferation of radio-frequency identification technology and the recent, but increasing, use of implantable RFID chips in humans, we may already be on a path that would make such an ad commonplace in a 2017 issue of IEEE Spectrum.

The benefits would be undeniable—an implantable RFID chip, which is durable and about the size of a grain of rice, can hold or link to information about the identity, physiological characteristics, health, nationality, and security clearances of the person it’s embedded in. The proximity of your hand could start your car or unlock your front door or let an emergency room physician know you are a diabetic even if you are unconscious. Once implanted, the chip and the information it contains are always with you—you’d never lose your keys again.

But there is a darker side, namely the erosion of our privacy and our right to bodily integrity. After all, do you really want to be required to have a foreign object implanted in your arm just to get or keep a job? And once you have it, do you really want your employer to know whenever you leave the office? And do you want every RFID reader–equipped supermarket checkout counter to note your presence and your purchases?

Until a couple of years ago, chipping humans was largely the domain of cybernetics provocateurs like Kevin Warwick or hobbyists like Amal Graafstra. Then, in 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which regulates medical devices in the United States, approved an RFID tag for implantation in humans as a means of accessing a person’s health records.

This tag, called VeriChip, is a short-range transponder that relies on the signal from a reader unit for its power supply. When exposed to a varying magnetic field from the reader, the chip powers itself up and repeatedly transmits a 16-digit code that is unique to the tag. According to the company, 2000 people have already had tags implanted.

The VeriChip tag is part of a health information system called VeriMed. The code contained in the implanted chip points to a record in a database identifying the patient and containing that patient’s health records. By scanning a person’s chip, caregivers can retrieve an identification code that enables them to access the medical history of people who cannot otherwise communicate their identities—speeding up their treatment and possibly saving their lives.

VeriChip Corp., a subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions, headquartered in Delray, Fla., is also promoting its device as a security measure. It has six clients around the world, five of which use the implant as a secondary source of authentication, says Keith Bolton, vice president of government and international affairs for VeriChip. The highest-profile example of this application came in 2004 when the attorney general of Mexico and 18 of his staff had chips implanted to allow them to gain access to certain high-security areas.

The tag is also finding use as a kind of implanted credit card. In trendy nightclubs in the Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, and the United States, patrons can get “chipped”—at a cost of about US $165 in one establishment. In future visits, “by the time you walk through the door to the bar,” one proprietor told Britain’s Daily Telegraph, “your favorite drink is waiting for you, and the bar staff can greet you by name.”

And the list of proposed applications could grow quickly. VeriChip is advancing a scheme to “chip” soldiers, as a replacement for a soldier’s traditional dog tag, and a VeriChip officer has proposed chipping guest workers entering the United States.

Before too many of those suggestions become realities, we need to examine carefully the very real dangers that RFID implants could pose to our privacy and our freedom. If we don’t figure out the risks and come up with ways to mitigate them, someone answering that ad for a power engineer may live in a world with considerably less privacy and feel compelled to have an implant just to be able to get a job.

The VeriChip tag’s main use, as a means of identifying patients who might be unable to communicate with caregivers and of accessing their medical records, could clearly be lifesaving in emergency situations. As long as the patient has provided informed consent and the privacy of the patient’s medical records is adequately protected, there are few ethical concerns with the technology. But VeriChip Corp.’s well-meaning attempt to improve personal health care may serve as a beachhead for wider use, and that expansion could create urgent ethical issues, particularly if an element of coercion enters into the process.

Consider, for example, a proposal by Scott Silverman, CEO of VeriChip. In an interview on 16 May 2006 on Fox News Channel (a U.S. television network), he proposed implanting chips in immigrants and guest workers to assist the government in later identifying them. Shortly afterward, the Associated Press quoted President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia as telling a U.S. senator that he would agree to require Colombian citizens to be implanted with RFID chips before they could gain entry into the United States for seasonal work.

Guest workers might ostensibly consent to having chips implanted. But would chipping them be truly voluntary? Such “voluntary” actions may determine a person’s ability to earn a living, and the worker might not view the implantation as something he or she could refuse. What person facing poverty at home and given the prospect of a job in a different country would be in a position to argue?

At a practical level, when chips are implanted in guest laborers, who pays for the cost of purchasing, implanting, and monitoring the chips in hundreds or thousands of poor migrants? If someone has an adverse reaction to the chip so that it has to be removed or replaced, who bears that cost? And who pays if the chips become obsolete or compromised by rampant cloning—the illicit duplication of the supposedly unique device—and have to be replaced? Affluent patrons of a trendy club might gladly pay to be chipped, but the situation would certainly be different for those pursuing temporary minimum-wage jobs in a foreign country.

Silverman made his proposal, that immigrants and guest workers be implanted with RFID chips, amid a national debate in the United States about illegal immigration, focusing on impoverished Latin Americans in search of work. But might Silverman’s proposition apply as well to electrical engineers or doctors, or other high-status individuals coming into the country for work? Who decides?

Mandating guest workers to have RFID chips implanted in their bodies for identification purposes strikes us as coercive and opportunistic. That approach makes the RFID chip a branding device similar to what a cowboy uses when he sears the haunches of his cattle or the tattoos that the Nazis forced on their victims in concentration camps. It goes against the widely held belief in basic human rights and might even be interpreted as a violation of Article 3 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which affirms everybody’s right to “life, liberty, and security of person.”

Social researchers are just beginning to study people’s attitudes to implanted RFID. Christine Perakslis and Robert Wolk at Bridgewater State University, in Massachusetts, questioned 141 college students on their feelings about implanted RFID. Respondents were asked if they would be willing to have an implant to prevent ID theft, to combat terrorism, for other national security reasons, as a life-saving device, or to ensure the safety of themselves and their families. About a third of the respondents were willing to be implanted, while less than half of them were not. Wolk and Perakslis’s subjects were the least comfortable with chipping as a cure for ID theft. The reasons that garnered the most support for getting chipped were to save their lives or to ensure the safety of their family.

Another small survey in 2003 by Starr Roxanne Hiltz, professor of information systems at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, in Newark, and her colleagues found that 18 out of 23 people questioned objected to the idea of implantable chips as identification.

Some of the resistance has to do with feelings about modification to one’s body. “If they are putting something inside of you,” one respondent replied, “it’s like you’re changing yourself. It’s not right.” As the wide variety of acceptable and unacceptable piercings and tattoos found around the world attests, people of different backgrounds vary in their attitudes toward “changing yourself.”

Tattoos, an ID technology that is at least 4000 years old, share some key qualities with implanted RFID tags. Both could be used for the same purposes and are intended to be permanent—they can be removed, but only with some difficulty and not without assistance. The only differences are that, compared with a tattoo, an RFID chip is invisible, may be easier to read surreptitiously, and is a little more difficult to duplicate. Yet we suspect most people, regardless of their feelings toward being chipped, would balk at the idea of accepting a machine-readable tattoo as a means of identification, even if such an indelible marking had some personal or societal benefit.

If there were a societal benefit, could a government require individuals to modify their bodies? For public health purposes, the answer is yes. In the United States, for example, students must have certain immunizations before attending public school. But this example is the only instance we can think of. Could a health care–related implant such as the VeriChip tag become a public health imperative? Would that use lead down a slippery slope toward universal chipping? It seems unlikely.

VeriChip Corp. does not, in fact, advocate universal chipping for medical purposes. The company’s vice president of medical applications, Richard Seelig, estimates a U.S. market for VeriMed of 43 million to 45 million people—less than one-sixth of the population. This group is made up of people who are more likely than others to wind up in the emergency room. These include cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy; people with pacemakers or other medical implants; and those who might be suffering some sort of cognitive impairment or loss of consciousness due to epilepsy, diabetes, or Alzheimer’s disease.

We believe that even Seelig’s estimates of the potential size of the market for patient identification are grossly exaggerated. “For certain subpopulations—Alzheimer’s patients, the mentally ill, people with communication difficulties—having an implanted identifier makes great sense,” says John Halamka, a former emergency physician and now CIO at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston. “Others can just carry a card in their wallet, a medic-alert bracelet, or a USB drive with their personal health records. There is no clear medical or business justification for chipping large populations of healthy people.”

In fact, so far there is no clear evidence that the VeriChip will help patients facing medical emergencies. The first study designed to determine whether patients, physicians, and insurers benefit at all from VeriChip began only last fall, in New Jersey.

Other nonimplanted technologies based on RFIDs may soon provide some of the benefits to the patient VeriChip hopes for. For instance, nonprofit health care informatics organization MedicAlert is researching RFID-enabled bracelets that would link to a personal health care record. However, as with VeriChip, a key question is how to ensure the privacy of the information in the databases, while at the same time providing easy access to the database by caregivers in emergency situations.

A right to privacy is at the heart of some of the questions raised by implanted RFID tags. In agreeing to be chipped for medical purposes, the patient gives up a measure of privacy for his or her own potential benefit. But when chipping is used for other reasons, difficult confidentiality issues can arise. When a business gives an identity card to a newly hired worker, for example, the company retains ownership of the card. But will the employer also own the chip inside an employee’s body?

A test case may be on the horizon: the first U.S. company to implant employees with VeriChip, CityWatcher.com, in Cincinnati, recently closed its doors. Its CEO, Sean Darks, himself an implantee, did not return repeated phone calls inquiring whether employees kept their implants after the company folded. VeriChip itself makes no recommendation about whether former employees should be “dechipped,” says the company’s Bolton. But he says removal is a quick and easy procedure. “I’ve had many [chips] in and out of my body,” he says.

Perhaps just as important a question as who owns the chip is that of who owns the data on the chip. Can the tag be read and its data used without the consent of the person who has it implanted?

Fears that some individuals have expressed about being tracked through an implanted chip are probably unrealistic. The VeriChip and most other passive RFID devices, those that derive their power from the reader, provide only an identification number and can be probed only from very short distances. The VeriChip is readable only at 10 centimeters or less using its handheld scanner.

This distance can be increased, however, using more efficient antennas. Digital Angel Corp., in St. Paul, Minn., also owned by VeriChip’s parent company, Applied Digital Solutions, is developing a “walk-through” scanner with greater range. Nevertheless, the prospects of a “drive-by” theft of a person’s identity seem remote, and even more remote is the possibility that the government or some other organization might track an individual moving about in ordinary life.

Still, if the computer age has one lesson, it is that systems and data are invariably less secure than their proponents claim. Particularly troubling for a device that is being marketed for access control, the VeriChip lacks modern cryptographic and other protections and is prey to simple attacks. In a recently published article in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Beth Israel’s Halamka and colleagues showed how easily a simple-to-build device can scan the chip and replay the radio signal to fool a VeriChip reader.

This flaw may be insignificant when the chip is being used for identification purposes—for example, with an Alzheimer’s patient. But Halamka and his coauthors argue forcefully that the chip should not be used for authentication purposes to control access to sensitive areas or information.

Though for now they store nothing more than a number, inevitably, implanted RFID chips will store more data and databases will be created that link information on implanted chips to other facts about a person. It is easy to foresee situations in which even a simple identification number might lead to harm—consider the millions of dollars lost to identity theft in the United States because of the disclosure of Social Security numbers and similar data.

So what can we do about implanted RFID’s impending problems? Using legislation to restrict their use is an obvious measure; in fact, laws are already in the works. Faced with widespread public concerns about this technology, more than 10 U.S. states have enacted laws limiting implants. In May 2006, for example, Wisconsin passed a bill that would prohibit requiring anybody to have a microchip implanted.

But laws might be difficult to enforce if implanted chips, like drivers’ licenses, remain voluntary but become de facto requirements for many kinds of employment or services. And the Wisconsin law does nothing to allay worries about the loss of privacy. Governments may need to make the unauthorized reading of an implanted RFID tag illegal as well.

Some of the ethical concerns can be addressed with better technology. Ari Juels, head of RSA Laboratories, the R&D arm of RSA Security, in Bedford, Mass., believes that, with proper encryption methods, a person’s privacy can be preserved without decreasing the usefulness of the implant. Juels says that the ease with which a thief can steal a VeriChip radio signal makes the tag a poor security tool, but that it eliminates a thief’s incentive to kidnap or carve someone up. So together with Halamka and others, he developed a technique that still lets a thief copy the chip’s radio signal but at the same time keeps the actual ID number it represents safe. Lest you think criminals would not go to such extremes, in 2005 BBC News reported that thieves stole a car protected by a fingerprint-reading lock by chopping off the owner’s finger.

Halamka’s solution, by the way, would make it impossible to track an implanted individual by noting which RFID readers—at stores, doors, gas pumps—picked up his or her radio signature. Crucial to Juels’s technology is that the chip’s radio signature changes unpredictably each time it’s read, even though the bits it encodes remain the same.

But maybe the ultimate solution, to allow accurate identification of individuals without some of the ethical issues raised by implanted radio chips, might require a different technology completely—biometric scanners. Although such devices are more costly than RFID-chip readers, they will inevitably become more affordable with time. And the “tags” are always going to be more competitive: after all, we have all already been issued our fingerprints.

Source: IEEE Spectrum - Kenneth R. Foster and Jan Jaeger
IEEE.org

2007-01-26T10:41:00.001-05:00

HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY!!! :)

Shilpa we have forgotten all for you!

2007-01-26T10:25:00.001-05:00

Forget the world and its real concerns. Shilpa is crying and let’s all do what we can to save her. Aren’t her tears more moving than the killings in Iraq, global warming… et al? Savour the newsbreak of 2007!

LO AND BEHOLD! We have another world crisis - this time because poor Shilpa Shetty is being victimized on the oh-so-classy Big Brother. In simpler words, for all you not-so-alarmed people out there, she is being racially discriminated against. Oh the disaster! What will we do? How will we survive? Help!

So, this was the top story of the week… it is so important that this can be easily said to the top story of the year! And, it’s only January. Let me give you a glimpse of all the other not-so-important stories that we are constantly bombarded with: Darfur – 400,000 people dead. This is termed as one of the most gruesome periods in the region. As many as 400,000 dead and countless displaced. Have you heard? Thousands of orphaned children and incidents of rape and murder are a common occurrence.

In the name of ethnic cleansing, Arab militiamen, known as the Janjaweed, are massacring the people of Darfur. The Janjaweed have terrorized the Darfur region by raping women, burning villages, killing Muslim religious leaders, destroying mosques, ruining food stocks, and murdering men women and children alike.

But hey, this is not as horrifying as Shilpa Shetty being called a “Paki”… save Shetty… forget Darfur, it’s not that important.

Civil war in Iraq - yeah, here is another not-so-important piece of news that we hear about everyday. For latest updates on every day killings, visit http://www.iraqbodycount.org/, which puts the Max figure at 600098 and Min at 54432 as on January 24, 2007, 2:38 pm. Some wonderful stats can be found also on http://www.icasualties.org/oif/.

The Sunnis kill the Shias, who kill the Sunnis back, till each of them have bodies piled up in stacks and blood everywhere, dismembered parts lying for the dogs and other scavengers to find. In this wonderful situation also throw in the inherent hatred for Kurds and what you have, my friends, is present-day Iraq.

And, to top it all, the US is planning to deploy 20,000 more troops to the region for sacrifice - oops!! - oh, I mean to stabilize the region.

But Shilpa Shetty being called a “dog”... How dare they? ... hey media… stop boring us with Iraq… tell us more about the DOG incident.

Next, the reservation issue. The Bill has been passed and the politicians have included the creamy layer, just to ensure that there is no doubt left in our minds as to who exactly this reservation policy is to benefit. Thousands of students, whose voice of reason was met with brutal police force, stand witness to exactly how deaf our political system has become to the real issues faced by a citizen.

It works in Tamil Nadu, they say - 69 per cent reservation! So, why cannot 50 per cent work in the country? In Tamil Nadu, they count 80 per cent of the population as minority. So, the 20 per cent so-called upper class is still majority over the 80 per cent minority! Hmmmmmm...

So, now that the Bill has been passed and merit rendered useless, we can rejoice because the foundation has been laid for mediocrity. Still this is not as important as Shilpa Shetty being called a FAKE… She and fake… NEVER… poor thing!

Now turn to Global warming, which is bringing us closer to the Doomsday. The ice shelves are melting, a gigantic piece the size of 11,000 football fields, just broke away from the Canadian mainland in record time. The Artic Ice has shrunk by 250 million acres. As many as 60,000 people die every year from the effects of global warming, from malaria to malnutrition, children in developing nations seemingly the most vulnerable. These numbers could almost double by 2020. Severe weather patters emerging all around the globe, floods in Thailand, hurricanes in America, typhoons in the East. Hundreds and thousands of people without food water or shelter, and so many on the other extreme living in conditions of drought. Not Important!!! What is important is Shilpa Shetty is crying. God, I can’t stand it!!

So, shrug aside the bodies found in the Nithari connection, the many children molested and killed; but please cover every precious drop that cascade down Shilpa Shetty’s cheeks.

Don’t tell me about the million of children who are financially exploited as labor, denied and education and robbed of their childhood. But do tell me how hurt Shilpa Shetty was when the housemates rejected her chicken. Don’t tell me about the father and mother who cannot afford to spend time with their kids because they barely can afford to survive on both their salaries. But please publicize the measly Rs 3 crore that Shilpa Shetty is getting paid to go through this torture. (Somebody please start a petition to pay that poor girl at least Rs 15-20 crore… she deserves better).

Shilpa is constantly taunted, because she has servants, she is taunted about her accent. But thank god the Indian government has taken up the issue… How could they have been blind to the utmost important issue for so long… I demand answers!!!

Source: Hyderabad Masti
merinews.com

Happy 'Phew!' Year

2006-12-29T16:22:00.001-05:00

I detest New Year's eve. It's the day when I want to crawl under my blanket and wake up on the other side - in the New Year - fast asleep.

The build up to New Year's eve reminds me of this huge wave, that once swept me off to sea at the Majorda beach in Goa.

Hype, hoopla, razzmatazz, where are you goin', what are you doin', let's go here it's the most happening, let's go there it's the most expensive - WHOOSH! You're just standing on the beach of life, watching the sun set on another year and WHOOSH! This wave of 'let's parteeee!!' hits you. And if you're not looking it sweeps you away to some farmhouse, or hotel, or pub, where your senses are numbed by booze, or drugs if you can afford it, and you're dragged into the New Year with a thousand other people you don't know, or care about.

Can some real Slim Shady please stand up and tell why is it we need to party to welcome the New Year? Or get rid of the Old One?

As far as I can see the only end-result 28 New Year's eve bashes have left me with, is thousands of rupees spent and fond memories of either me, or some friend puking. Vomit and money - the Great New Year's Eve cocktail.

Every year, I see everybody just jumping onto this roller-coaster ride to get into the New Year, as if, the New Year wasn't going to accept if they didn't land up on the other side with a cap on their heads singing Old Lang Syne.

I prefer to creep into the New Year. Almost steal upon it, while it's expecting me to burst through the front door shaking my bon-bon to Ricky Martin.

I like to believe that the New Year exists for me and not me for the New Year. I don't need to get pissed because it's New Year's eve. I need to get pissed, if at all, because I need to get pissed.

I am digging my heel into the sand and not allowing the wave to sweep me away this time. At most, I might wade into a small party with a few close friends. But no, none of that standing on the table and joining a collective inebriated scream of 'Happy New Year'!

And I'm not burning the Old Man either. Instead, I think I'll bar-be-que him. I want everything in slow motion this year. The world is just moving too fast and with every New Year's eve, it's like we go one match quicker.

Life is becoming one big cliché - and New Year's eve is the PR party that markets the cliché. It sets the tone for the year. It keeps us focussed on cloning ourselves, into what the world wants us to be.

Good Morning Pune. Don't mind me. You go ahead and have a blast!

Source: Good Morning Pune – Roopesh Raj
Pune Times

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2006-12-25T06:58:00.001-05:00

A demeaning and conservative call was spread all over Kuwait asking Muslims to avoid wishing Christians on Christmas or the New Year because it is 'haram' and we should not commit such a sin! Some Muslims believed it and started to wonder whether what they had been indulging in for many years was a sin! Why do we still receive and believe such degrading calls?

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to people in the whole wide world, who are busy with preparations in their grand celebrations during Christmas and the New Year. But, these wishes unfortunately cannot come from us all, because we in the Arab world still have some pessimists who are good for nothing except in polluting the clean atmosphere of any occasion which involves spreading love, joy, happiness and good cheer. These pessimists denounce all celebrations enjoyed by the Christians like Christmas, New Year, Thanksgiving as well as Valentine's Day.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all Muslims in the Arab world, who obviously have a problem in spreading joy and in letting people around the world, to celebrate their festivities as they like, and on any occasion. Some people cannot stand the thought of others spending a little time in peace and harmony. They would rather prefer to see us all, especially the non-Muslims in misery, poverty, in conflict and on each other's throats.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all because I can't see what harm or disaster could befall me if I wished someone, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Most of us prefer to overlook the fact that we too are included in the New Year celebrations, as any new year is a new year for all of us, and well, if some pea-brained individuals chose not to herald in a Happy New Year, then it is up to them to be wretched and miserable all year through.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all peacemakers and peacekeepers of the world who strive to spread love, peace and harmony. We have never heard of any pope, priest or even heads of states of Western countries who force their peoples not to wish Muslims on their religious occasions such as the birth of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) or on their Eid celebrations. In fact it has become increasingly evident in recent years that Christians are more eager in expressing their desire of sharing the festive spirit with Muslims on their religious occasions even more than the Muslims do among their own sects and creeds. CNN fervently telecasts a live report from Makkah during the haj season every single year, which is a very religious occasion for Muslims only. How come then nobody raised any objections against such live telecasts???

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, to all the so-called reformists in the Arab world, who condemn and denounce, anything opposing their confused way of viewing the world. Thus any attempt to change their attitude in celebrating a religious occasion, not related to their religion, or spreading joy and happiness would only incur their wrath by immediately resorting to the frequently used weapon 'fatwa' to threaten the Muslims with hell's fiery fury.

This type of warning that they always issue, of incurring Allah's wrath and punishment, have always been their weapon, which has been abused a lot throughout the Arab world, especially in recent years. What better example can be cited than the merciless slaughter going on in Iraq through the 'fatwas,' which permitted the innocent killings of Americans, Shiites and Sunnis? Now everyone is killing anybody and everybody in Iraq. Those who don't implement these 'fatwas,' are also threatened of burning in the fires of hell, while those who kill others are promised the kingdom of heaven!!!

I wish to conclude my column with sincere New Year wishes, which came my way from a European who is based in Iraq now and wanted to share his wishes with me for the New Year. He wrote to me saying, "Another year is behind us and we continue to move forward. I hope you have all had a healthy, prosperous and a spiritually enlightened year and I sincerely hope it will continue with you and your families right through the entire New Year."

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!!!

Source: Local Spotlight - Muna Al Fuzai
Kuwait Times