Miers Vs. Alito

Harriet Miers withdrew as expected and now Sam Alito is the Bush nominee for Supreme Court. Miers didn't have the support of many Conservatives, notably the talk radio host Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh has as many haters as he has fans, if not more.
The reason he dislikes Miers - she is a feminist.
A brief introduction of Rush Limbaugh to the ones who are not very famliar with him. He is the extreme righwinger that even (moderate) rightwingers like me would hate. Why do I listen to him still? When you listen to him, your reasons for hating him are validated and you feel good about hating a fellow human-being(!?).
He thinks feminists are needy at heart and want to settle down with a man and a baby but refuse to say so in public. Thats some definition! He is against men and women being paid equally as women can't do justice to work when she has family commitments.
For all his crap on "family values", "conservatism", "church-life" etc, he had 3 failed marriages.
Wasn't he the one that said he wouldn't accept a woman as a President because she wouldn't do her duty well for at least 3 days every month? A week or two ago he said he needn't prepare much before his show (he hadn't that day as he was apparently distracted with Florida storm news) and it would take him all of just a night's preparation when other hosts would take 6 months. Clearly, modesty is not his forte. It would be great to see him suck upto Condy Rice if she indeed runs for Presidency.
Read this if you have wanna have some fun.

We get on....

Bomb blast in Delhi kills about 70 people just a few days before Diwali. Wonder what goes on in the minds of these scumbags when they target people like this and claim they are doing this for the kashmiri cause! Some moronic group that claimed rsponsibility says this is a revenge for the way the armymen act in Kashmir. Last we heard from the kashmiris themselves was that the army helped them after the earthquake. But who cares what the kashmiris say, Indians in all the states would be targeted by these b^&^&*. By planting bombs in crowded places, they are going to change the attitude of those army men who perpetrate such crimes. Are they serious when they say they would get 7 virgins after death in heaven if they kill the infidels? Maybe we should help them get there soon.
We feel bad, we call them names, we empathise and sympathize with the victims and we get on with our lives. The Indian main-stream media (MSM) covers the blasts till the next ODI starts and once the world peace is restored with Dhoni's blazing century, runs numerous reports on how Dhoni hit the ball, why Tendulakar failed, what Dravid said, how many effigies of Roy were burned and then calls us insensitive and the cricketers, over-paid, hyped and greedy. After all, we forgot to think of the victims of the blast that happened just a couple of days ago. But this report would come out only after India loses a series. Yawn...don't we all know this cycle too well?

Comparison Syndrome

He grew up listening to how his cousins were better than him in studies, how his neighbours were more disciplined, how his friends had better reading habits etc. Fortunately, all these comparisons didn't have much impact on him, he thought. Now he is successful in career and has a good life style. He was reading a report on the net that said India's corruption level has come down a bit and its ranking has improved in the list of 150 countries. Immediately, he scrolled up and down to see where Paskitan stood. After a few seconds, he stopped and wondered what prompted him to do that and couldn't figure it out.

Of IIPM and its heroes....

IIPM issue has been beaten to death and this is not yet another blog that calls them "bullies". These bullies...oops IIPM and all the bloggers have created a few heroes and villians. Rashmi Bansal, Gaurav Sabnis and Varna Sriraman belonging to the former group and Chauduri Sr, Jr and Andy (whoever he is) as villians. Of the heroes Gaurav seems to be more popular because he refused to be cowed down by threats and quit his job.
My alter-ego and I were having a discussion on IIPM. AE seems to think very high of Gaurav and asked my opinion on this "dude". I said "I like his blogs and my liking has neither increased or decreased after he quit his job". What I meant was gaurav quit his job because he had some personal convictions and even if he hadn't quit and retracted all his statments on IIPM, I would still go to his blog and I would still like his views.
My AE didn't get my point and asked me how I couldnt think high of a guy who
actually "quit his job" to defend his freedom of expression. Hello!! He quit his job because he could afford to. I dont mean to take anthing away from this guy and am glad somebody has such strong convictions in life but stop making heroes out of people.
Maybe Gaurav doesn't have a younger brother who would get admission in a decent college only if Gaurav paid a few lakhs. Maybe he doesnt have a younger sister whose wedding is scehduled to be next week and the in-laws are expecting a few lakhs as dowry. Maybe he wouldn't be banned from being the bandman of her wedding procession. Maybe he doesn't have an elder sister whose hubby gave her one slap that pushed her from her residence to Sr. Sabnis' feet and told the family that he would take her back only if they gave the promised extra dowry. Maybe he doesn't have any of these Made-in-India problems. Apparently, he is not starving because he has no job now. After all, he has the IIML degree up his sleeve. Imagine if he had these problems and hence decided to continue at IBM and retracted all his statements on IIPM. WOuld that make him a lesser human being? Give me a break!!! Let these people be and lets continue blogging. What makes us look out for heroes anytime something like this happens!? Beats me!

No Fluke

The 2nd ODI between India and Sri Lanka just got over. 123 was the target for India to chase. The bowlers, especially Pathan, did a good job to restrict the opponents to 122. Sachin was 70 not out. And more importantly, the strike rate was more than 100. Many anti-Sachin friends of mine said his 93 in the first ODI was a fluke. Some even said "After all, its against Sri Lanka and we are playing at home". Some people can never be satisfied, right?
I came to work this morning and constantly did alt+tab to check on the score. Sachin moved from 30s to 40s to 50s in no time. Only when JPYadav got out (lbw Muralitharan), did I realize I had been keeping track of just Sachin's score and not the team score. Well, I would have if the target had not been 123...I reconcile. Here's to Sachin...Cheers! Well done Team India. Its high-time you made us all happy.

Chennai Floods

Reports of floods in Chennai (& B'lore) keep pouring in from all possible sources. From what it seems, TamilNadu Govt. is doing a good job. Its also entirely possible that people are more proactive & less dependent on Govt. during calamities. Whatever be the reason, the end result is good. And there are no complaints. Would you want to know what the Govt. did? Because there is so much water everywhere, TamilNadu Electricity Board (TNEB) has disconnected power supply to such areas lest accidents occurred. I call this "The Anniyan effect".:-)
A Velacheri resident Ms. Vasantha has told rediff that she was happy to see the Govt. officials asking the residents if things were OK. Though things were not OK, she was glad at least some Govt. representative was enquiring. Hey Government! Do you see how easy it is to please us? Why do you make us whine all the time?

NRI Homecoming

He was sitting inside the calltaxi he had hired to go to the fancy restaurant where he was going to meet his gang of friends. He had landed only 2 days ago and was in India on a 3 week vacation. How much he missed his gang and he couldn't wait to get there to meet them after a gap of 2+ years. The last time the entire gang met, it was so much fun. He happened to be the second guy in the gang to work abroad. He had a sudden flashback.
It was when "the first guy in the gang who got a job abroad" was visiting. The entire gang including himself wanted the NRI friend to treat them in the new hotel that had come up in the city. The gang was already there and the NRI friend came a little late blowing his ruddy nose. The customary ragging started when the NRI friend told them that he caught cold because of the pollution and that he had been moving around the city a lot. "You guys start talking about pollution in India the moment you get visas, don't you?" "So would you drink only bottled water now?" "Didn't we all go to college in the city bus hanging on the footboard for so many years without falling sick?....dhoda". The NRI friend was ribbed royally and he only replied "You would wish that immunity sustained for the rest of your life but that doesn't happen". After a lot of catching up and calling the NRI guy "a typical NRI", they had all dispersed.
The taxi stopped at the fancy restaurant and he was delighted to meet his gang. After the hugging, one of them asked him "Are you not well?". "No, I am fine, have been having this cold for more than 2 weeks. Now that I am home, should feel better soon", he said in his nasal voice. He had to lie and he was glad his friends believed him.

"Not Fair"-y Tale

Our Princess met her Prince Charming. They kissed and decided to live happily ever after. One day our Prince went shopping amd bought a pair of jeans for the Princess' brother. The whole world applauded and exclaimed that the Princess and her family were very lucky to have this Prince. The Princess was confused because when she bought a saree for the Prince's sister, the same world wondered why she didnt get matching accessories to go with the saree.

Chennai Phobia

Being a hard-core chennai-ite (madrasi sounds better, right?), I've always wondered why is m'ras so loved by people who are raised there and so hated by the ones who are from elsewhere. The curious cat in me even interviewed some people who proudly call themselves madras-haters. I've always been up in arms against such people.
Me - Why do you hate Chennai?
Them - Its too conservative
Me - whats so modern about any other metro, say Kolkata?
Them - ummmm..... and the weather is too hot. Can't even imagine being there in summer.

Fair enough. But chennai has Marina I shout but no one is intrested. This madras bashing is very prominent in matrimony circles. Tamil guys who are from any other part of India don't want M'ras girls. Girls from other parts of India don't mind M'ras guys as long as he studied in IIT. I caught one such guy who used the conservative card first. But me continued....
Me - Whats so wrong in being a conservative? (right-wingers hold on, this is a different conservatism)
Not me - M'ras is neither conservative nor modern. Thats why its easy to spot a girl sporting a jean and accesorising with pottu (bindi) and rose or mallipoo on her hair.

Me was stumped. I can't say no to that. But still added "The West would soon embrace jeans with pottu and mallipoo like it did Yoga and then you guys would die to get introduced to such a fashion diva". As funny as it sounded, I was happy I defended my beloved chennai yet again... until I came across Chenthil's article.
I obviously don't hate the city but won't support such hypocrites who infest Chennai. Its hypocrisy in the name of conservatism that people actually hate, I reckon.

Return of the King

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar played his first ODI after a gap of six months. He made 93! Thats enough reason for me to fill my mouth with M&Ms. I am one of the million fans that watch wide-mouthed even when he scores a duck as long as he gets out trying to hit a lofted straight drive. And then we wait for the next innings when he would bowl. Yes, the adulation borders on craziness/stupidity. Sharjah Sachin has given so many joyous moments for fans like me that his failure or "careful/curtailed" batting don't deter our enthusiasm. We don't get mad at him even when he asks the Govt. to waive the tax for his sports car. Hey! If the Govt. is stupid enough to listen I would ask too. Don't blame him.
Welcome back Tendlaya. Would you get your 39th ton against the lankans in this series?

Well...

Whats your blog URL?
For the past couple of months, I've been posted this question quite a few times. Thought having a blog is a kind of fad. And I wasn't keen on having one for myself. I had so much fun reading other blogs that I didn't have time or inclination to create my own.
When I am happy or sad or excited or upset, I spam my friends with an email. That email would contain all my intellectually-stimulating (read meaningless) thoughts. One of my friends spamblocked me if the subject contained anything other than "Hi". She suggested I maintain a dairy instead of spamming friends.
If the movies or sit-coms are anything to go by, someone is gonna read my dairy someday. Blog is better than a dairy. So here I hop in.