Today was a very busy day....and also a very funny day.
It was 10 in the evening. I was in the officers mess having my drink when i got an emergency call. The incident was so that, one of our vehicles had stopped in front of a unit gate and the driver had got down to prove his identity. But the goof had placed his vehicle in neutral and the vehicle rolled over the hill .... hitting the gate and totally destroying it.
I had to give up my drink and rush to the spot to acess the damage.The adjutant of the unit was already there, and more than acessing the damage it was save your face for me. I had to apologise for the soldier very sheepishly and the adjutant just could not stop laughing at the incident. Good i knew her or we were for a very tough evening.
The thing is that sometimes our soldiers do such idiotic things that are beyond the comprehension of normal thinking. But they are the same people to whom we depend our lives on. One thing that is noticiable is that collectively they are a strong force, singularly non-existent. It takes all the time and patience of an officer to take into account the situation and manage the task satisfactorily.
Another thing many civilians and Army probables think that the Army is all about sitting in the border and protecting the boundaries of our motherland. But the truth is that, its just a small part of our jobs. Most of our energy and time is spent on keeping the troops fit and their morale high. Make sure that they get right pay and dont go for an overdraught, get their food in the right time,get their clothing issued in regular intervals, take speacialised training capsules, keep the unit in ship shape form and in that time when you are deployed for an operation make sure your troops are ready to take on any danger possible with a "pinch of salt".
The problem is you get to see more administration than you see action,(some do see a lot of action, but then like i said, some...), and this leaves many an officer in the begining years of their service dissapointed. They keep raving for action but most usually are again dissapointed with "only" administration. But this does not mean they are disgruntled, which most usually is thought so, they learn as they grow in service the importance of administration. The sinscerity is never lost and the "josh" remains. Somethings in the heart never die.
The one other most dissapointing part of serving in the army is the media. They seem to just waiting to bite our backs. They want a scandal in the army so that they can feed their tummies, and in the same breath they want us to do a good job so that thay can sleep in the nights peacefully. Now thats what you call an oxymoron (i would prefer moron). Its not fun when the media slings mud like on a major who seemed to have taken fake videos on killing pakistanis in the impossible terrains of siachin. Come on guys--- thats a place where you are fighting to live, and the last thing you are going to do is produce a movie!
Temperatures range to upto -50 deg cent. For atleast 6 months you dont see a single blade of grass, leave alone trees. No people, no movies, no drinks, no smoke - only snow, mountains and the damn mist. People lose their limbs if they dont wear the right thickness of gloves.
Every moment of yours is a pain. You are in an altitude of above 18000 ft. You have all kinds of problems like high blood pressure, breathlessness, loneliness, and the pain of seeing others in pain. Even bacteria does not survive there. And finally when you come down you are a wreck. You most probably are not able perform sexually, in the worst of the cases, and you have conditions like high blood pressure for the other half of the rest of your miserable lives.
And you have the energy and time to produce a movie and a fake one at that?. Then trust me the guy really deserves a medal and the government has not made a mistake in giving him one.
Ladies and Gentlemen, he just made the first and only motion picture in the world's highest battlefield and also one of the most inhospitable regions of the world. He deserves an oscar.
In the end allow me to quote one of the most patriotic songs ever made in the country. One of my personal favourites and loved by millions..... and this is dedicated to the Indian media.
Mazab nhin sikhata, Aapas mein pier rakhna,
Hindi hain hum, Hindi hain hum, Vatan se,
Sare Jahan Se acha, Hindusthan Hamara.
(Religion does not teach us to interfere in each others affairs! We are indians, and our country is the best in the world.)
Here is a good humour page....
http://www.armyinkashmir.org/v2/laugh_bytes/humour_uniform.shtml
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
My Busy Day.....
Today was quite an hectic day.
I did a lot of travelling.
It started with me going along with Vinay to M.G. road for a an art exhibition on the non shopping side of the road. It was great to look at all the pieces of art made by the artists, but as usual the art pieces were beyond anything like affordability.
I also had my hands read by a passing astrologer. He promised me to tell me everything. For 51 bucks i felt it wont matter much. He began with how great a person i was and how bright my future was. He told me that i had many family problems and all this could be solved astrologically. I would have to pay him 800 bucks and then he would give me a piece of cloth which i will have to keep immersed in water for five days. After five days the cloth would disintegrate and so will all my problems. Oh bother....
People whom these astrologers go around should be really naive. The mind job he atleast tried on me was impressive. Any religious guy would have just taken him as fish to water and given him good buisness. Or had he already?
Later in the evening i went to the Kanteerva indoor stadium for a jewelry exhibition. They claimed to have on display crores worth of jewels. They had a variety of jewelry but the place was so damn crowded, it was actually difficult to breathe. Also not everyday you dont see so many women whose eyes are glittering at the same time. All the husbands must have lost months of pay today after seeing the buisness these guys were doing.
Another interesting thing that i missed the previous day is that they finally killed Veerappan. The notorious forest brigande who smuggled sandalwood and poached elephanta for almost 30 years was finally killed by the Speacial Task Force (STF) - what i consider as the most defunct organisation of our country. Veerappan has been responsible for murdering over hundred people, the list including even the top brass of the STF and the police.He also had kidnapped Kannada superstar Rajkumar and had kept him hostage for more than 100 days. He had also kidnapped an ex minister and killed him. What do i have to say about this? - Well Wow ! This guy was something or the STF is actually the most defunct organisation i have come across. They were even celebrating his felling along with four of his accomplices. Well shame on you STF for taking 36 years what you should have done within a month.
The links for Veerappan
http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/oct/19spec3.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/891241.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/890783.cms
What Another One???????
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/890849.cms
Some cool stuff about Veerappan
http://people.indiatimes.com/articleshow/890960.cms
I did a lot of travelling.
It started with me going along with Vinay to M.G. road for a an art exhibition on the non shopping side of the road. It was great to look at all the pieces of art made by the artists, but as usual the art pieces were beyond anything like affordability.
I also had my hands read by a passing astrologer. He promised me to tell me everything. For 51 bucks i felt it wont matter much. He began with how great a person i was and how bright my future was. He told me that i had many family problems and all this could be solved astrologically. I would have to pay him 800 bucks and then he would give me a piece of cloth which i will have to keep immersed in water for five days. After five days the cloth would disintegrate and so will all my problems. Oh bother....
People whom these astrologers go around should be really naive. The mind job he atleast tried on me was impressive. Any religious guy would have just taken him as fish to water and given him good buisness. Or had he already?
Later in the evening i went to the Kanteerva indoor stadium for a jewelry exhibition. They claimed to have on display crores worth of jewels. They had a variety of jewelry but the place was so damn crowded, it was actually difficult to breathe. Also not everyday you dont see so many women whose eyes are glittering at the same time. All the husbands must have lost months of pay today after seeing the buisness these guys were doing.
Another interesting thing that i missed the previous day is that they finally killed Veerappan. The notorious forest brigande who smuggled sandalwood and poached elephanta for almost 30 years was finally killed by the Speacial Task Force (STF) - what i consider as the most defunct organisation of our country. Veerappan has been responsible for murdering over hundred people, the list including even the top brass of the STF and the police.He also had kidnapped Kannada superstar Rajkumar and had kept him hostage for more than 100 days. He had also kidnapped an ex minister and killed him. What do i have to say about this? - Well Wow ! This guy was something or the STF is actually the most defunct organisation i have come across. They were even celebrating his felling along with four of his accomplices. Well shame on you STF for taking 36 years what you should have done within a month.
The links for Veerappan
http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/oct/19spec3.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/891241.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/890783.cms
What Another One???????
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/890849.cms
Some cool stuff about Veerappan
http://people.indiatimes.com/articleshow/890960.cms
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Last Sunday.....
The last sunday of the rest of my holidays.
There was a tinge of sorrow somewhere at the back of my mind as there were only two days for my holidays to end. Today also happens to be a major Coorgi festival. The place where the river Kauvery emerges begins to bubble violently on this day every year without fail. Some of the mysteries that i cant figure out.(apart from ghosts).
I met Chaithanya, my colleague of my teaching days. We spent most of the day with a friend of his - Jeffrey. An interesting person whose family had a history of royalty. The riches lost over the years to such an extent that he lives unmarried in a single roomed appartment. Tragic?
Two days to go and then back to the daily humdrum of Army Life......
There was a tinge of sorrow somewhere at the back of my mind as there were only two days for my holidays to end. Today also happens to be a major Coorgi festival. The place where the river Kauvery emerges begins to bubble violently on this day every year without fail. Some of the mysteries that i cant figure out.(apart from ghosts).
I met Chaithanya, my colleague of my teaching days. We spent most of the day with a friend of his - Jeffrey. An interesting person whose family had a history of royalty. The riches lost over the years to such an extent that he lives unmarried in a single roomed appartment. Tragic?
Two days to go and then back to the daily humdrum of Army Life......
Fuel
Today was a good evening after a long time. Me and my friend Vinay went to a small nondescript pub called Fuel. A very small place with the D.J. playing some really good music. Me and Vinay did a lot of soul searching and in short had a very good time.
Today i came to know of a story that happened a month ago which proves nothing but what evils mankind is possible of collectively.
A month back a TATA Sumo overan a person. The people who were responsible were never caught.
This did leave the citizens of the locality very upset, for the pain they had to possibly witness for the family of the bereaved.
A week back another TATA Sumo, one belonging to the company that Vinay belonged to, was trying to overtake a motorcyclist. I guess he honked one too many times but the motorcyclist did not budge. The motorcyclist did, but, stop in the same locality where the accident had occured a month back. The motorcyclist got down , in turn stopping the Sumo, and verbally abused the driver of the S.U.V. Soon a crowd gathered and physically abused the driver of the Sumo. The excuse?, well the excuse was the accident that happened a month ago and the anger was that the same crowd was not able to do anything about it. The driver was assaulted till he bled. Seeing this one of the passengers went to stop the disturbance, but then he was assaulted too. The crowd went further to threaten a lady, supposedly pregnant, who started to cry hysterically seeing all this.
What the crowd was trying to prove is unknown. But all the while they were quoting the accident that happened a month ago. I doubt whether the real culprit ever came to know about the incident. But the story ends with the Director of the company going to the "basti" and requesting the "good" citizens that in future if any of his drivers get to fault, and if they find the company sticker on the vehicle, then they should call him up and he would resolve the issue favourably and peacefully.
Our country is still made up of people who decide what is wrong and right only during the heat of the moment. If not then there would no longer be theatres destroyed trying to exercise freedom of speech or there will no longer be Godhras where the only people who profited were those who stood for elections. Communalism is not a state of mind or freedom of speech revoked. It is nothing but the attitude of the people who suddenly become religious or supposedly "realise" that their religion or sect is endangered to extinction.
And this does nothing but disgust me coz in everyday life i do have to deal with such people regularly. The very peolple who constitute a country that i serve. The very people that are supposedly proud of their actions.
Today i came to know of a story that happened a month ago which proves nothing but what evils mankind is possible of collectively.
A month back a TATA Sumo overan a person. The people who were responsible were never caught.
This did leave the citizens of the locality very upset, for the pain they had to possibly witness for the family of the bereaved.
A week back another TATA Sumo, one belonging to the company that Vinay belonged to, was trying to overtake a motorcyclist. I guess he honked one too many times but the motorcyclist did not budge. The motorcyclist did, but, stop in the same locality where the accident had occured a month back. The motorcyclist got down , in turn stopping the Sumo, and verbally abused the driver of the S.U.V. Soon a crowd gathered and physically abused the driver of the Sumo. The excuse?, well the excuse was the accident that happened a month ago and the anger was that the same crowd was not able to do anything about it. The driver was assaulted till he bled. Seeing this one of the passengers went to stop the disturbance, but then he was assaulted too. The crowd went further to threaten a lady, supposedly pregnant, who started to cry hysterically seeing all this.
What the crowd was trying to prove is unknown. But all the while they were quoting the accident that happened a month ago. I doubt whether the real culprit ever came to know about the incident. But the story ends with the Director of the company going to the "basti" and requesting the "good" citizens that in future if any of his drivers get to fault, and if they find the company sticker on the vehicle, then they should call him up and he would resolve the issue favourably and peacefully.
Our country is still made up of people who decide what is wrong and right only during the heat of the moment. If not then there would no longer be theatres destroyed trying to exercise freedom of speech or there will no longer be Godhras where the only people who profited were those who stood for elections. Communalism is not a state of mind or freedom of speech revoked. It is nothing but the attitude of the people who suddenly become religious or supposedly "realise" that their religion or sect is endangered to extinction.
And this does nothing but disgust me coz in everyday life i do have to deal with such people regularly. The very peolple who constitute a country that i serve. The very people that are supposedly proud of their actions.
Friday, October 15, 2004
Couriers.
Today was an example of the apathies possible by mankind. I had ordered for a DVD writer from baazee.com. It was supposed to have reached me a week back. I checked it out with the courier service, DTDC Ltd, and learned tht it was still with them in one of their branch offices.
After my computer class i went to collect it from theit Domlur office, which is pretty far away, my way helped positively by a very helpful and nice person in the my bank. I colected my package and on my way back home got stuck in traffic. My curiosity got better of me and I opened the package, and what do I find?, the carton is full of waste paper and ofcoarse my bill. This really had me floored -- no DVD drive. I called Mumbai and spoke to the dealer. He told me that I should have opened the package in front of the courier, but anyway take it back and show it to them. With my fingers crossed I went back and they kind of accepted their fault. It seems that on the package cover the weight says 375 gms wheresas the folio that comes along with the package from Mumbai says 1.2 Kgs. Somewhere someone opened it and flicked the contents. Well right now they are investigating the loss and they have asked me to come tommorrow and speak to their customer representative.
I sat in the courier service for quite some time, and what I saw really impressed me. The setup was just like a post-office, only more suffosticated. They were packages coming and there were packages leaving, and they were in thousands. Packages of various shapes and sizes, packages from various parts of the country and packages to various parts of the country. Or maybe elsewhere. Everything was so organised and everything was so quick. I couldnt help thinking that maybe one day I may too own a courier company. I was thinking what I should do to keep it successful.
I would have to have various offices to start with in two cities. Make it really cheap and let the buisness grow a bit. Then open offices in another city, then another, then another.... But what is so diferent about my courier service that people will come to me than go to others? Well mine will have to be cheaper, qicker and able to assure guaranteed delivery, or your money back. It will be tough and I will have to wait for a long time to see it succeed, and I may lose quite some money in the begining, but with a lot of interest and acute monitoring, I guess its a good shot with good returns.
But for now I just hope that i get my 6 grands back for the writer......
Today I also saw some heavy rain in Bangalore, I guess the heaviest till now. Driving had become really difficult with all the water on the windshield.
After my computer class i went to collect it from theit Domlur office, which is pretty far away, my way helped positively by a very helpful and nice person in the my bank. I colected my package and on my way back home got stuck in traffic. My curiosity got better of me and I opened the package, and what do I find?, the carton is full of waste paper and ofcoarse my bill. This really had me floored -- no DVD drive. I called Mumbai and spoke to the dealer. He told me that I should have opened the package in front of the courier, but anyway take it back and show it to them. With my fingers crossed I went back and they kind of accepted their fault. It seems that on the package cover the weight says 375 gms wheresas the folio that comes along with the package from Mumbai says 1.2 Kgs. Somewhere someone opened it and flicked the contents. Well right now they are investigating the loss and they have asked me to come tommorrow and speak to their customer representative.
I sat in the courier service for quite some time, and what I saw really impressed me. The setup was just like a post-office, only more suffosticated. They were packages coming and there were packages leaving, and they were in thousands. Packages of various shapes and sizes, packages from various parts of the country and packages to various parts of the country. Or maybe elsewhere. Everything was so organised and everything was so quick. I couldnt help thinking that maybe one day I may too own a courier company. I was thinking what I should do to keep it successful.
I would have to have various offices to start with in two cities. Make it really cheap and let the buisness grow a bit. Then open offices in another city, then another, then another.... But what is so diferent about my courier service that people will come to me than go to others? Well mine will have to be cheaper, qicker and able to assure guaranteed delivery, or your money back. It will be tough and I will have to wait for a long time to see it succeed, and I may lose quite some money in the begining, but with a lot of interest and acute monitoring, I guess its a good shot with good returns.
But for now I just hope that i get my 6 grands back for the writer......
Today I also saw some heavy rain in Bangalore, I guess the heaviest till now. Driving had become really difficult with all the water on the windshield.
Monday, October 11, 2004
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Cat Woman
Today saw Cat Woman In VCD. Mmmm this movie doesnt really give you the high you usually get when you see a superhero movie. We have Halle Berry on one side trying really hard to be a hot cat and on the other end the movie is trying to make a story of a no story. Come on Hollywood stop showing people who come back from the dead just to give us innocent citizens justice.....
Freedom....
Long time since I posted to the Blog. I had a very busy week. To start with I had my tooth extracted. The molar tooth tht lives right at the back of your mouth. The dentist had a tough time removing it and I had a tough time bearing him. The pain lasted for quite some time.
I met a friend of mime from J&K yesterday and then we went to Pub - World and had a couple of drinks. We then went to Pizza Corner in Brigade Road and had a Pizza. Brigade Road looks beautiful from the Shop. The shop is in the second floor and the windows are huge.You get to sit next to the window and can watch the world walk by below you. Me and Amit had a lot of fun just doing that.
We couldnt go for a movie. Why? --- Well coz there is a seven week ban on Any other movie being released other than Kannada movies. The members of Kannada Raksha Veddna (The save Kannada language people) caused a mini riot in one of Bangalore's muliplexes and broke many a window panes. This is the attitude that makes me feel that we still dont have independance of doing whatever we want or exercising free speech in a so called Democratic country. Atleast as long as unemployed, jobless fanatics like these exist.
Now this seven week ban on movies other than kannada movies didnt for sure encourage me to watch a kannada movie. But what it did was despise kannada movies more than ever. Kannada movies are movies of the worst kind. The actors have practically no acting skills and try to live a larger than life lives. The movies are practically made for tax evasion. There are no story lines and the movies usually contain nothing but untold violence and immense sexism. And they even have the nerve of calling it culture.
If I was a theatre owner in Bangalore I would have turned a blind eye to the ban, which of coarse is not legal, and continued to screen movies. As long as there are those who fear will live those who will be feared.
I met a friend of mime from J&K yesterday and then we went to Pub - World and had a couple of drinks. We then went to Pizza Corner in Brigade Road and had a Pizza. Brigade Road looks beautiful from the Shop. The shop is in the second floor and the windows are huge.You get to sit next to the window and can watch the world walk by below you. Me and Amit had a lot of fun just doing that.
We couldnt go for a movie. Why? --- Well coz there is a seven week ban on Any other movie being released other than Kannada movies. The members of Kannada Raksha Veddna (The save Kannada language people) caused a mini riot in one of Bangalore's muliplexes and broke many a window panes. This is the attitude that makes me feel that we still dont have independance of doing whatever we want or exercising free speech in a so called Democratic country. Atleast as long as unemployed, jobless fanatics like these exist.
Now this seven week ban on movies other than kannada movies didnt for sure encourage me to watch a kannada movie. But what it did was despise kannada movies more than ever. Kannada movies are movies of the worst kind. The actors have practically no acting skills and try to live a larger than life lives. The movies are practically made for tax evasion. There are no story lines and the movies usually contain nothing but untold violence and immense sexism. And they even have the nerve of calling it culture.
If I was a theatre owner in Bangalore I would have turned a blind eye to the ban, which of coarse is not legal, and continued to screen movies. As long as there are those who fear will live those who will be feared.
Sunday, October 03, 2004
Night Out
Another day passes and i had a great evening with my friend Vinay. My day started at 12 in the afternoon,thats when i woke up. Later in the evening i went with him to M.G. Road to see a movie - The Bourne Supremacy. But we did not make it to the movie in time -the 6 30 show was house full, so we bought the 9 30 show tickets.
We then decided to just go around when Vinay got a call from his friend Puneet. We went to Guzzler's Inn my favourite Pub coz they play good music there. The D.J. is pretty unassuming but the music he plays is good. KingFisher beer and good music is a heady combination. But i guess I had too much of it because later i slept through most of the movie.
I returned home at 1230 in the morning after leaving Vinay back in his house. Me and Vinay go back to our college days, pre university that is, and we been together for a good 8 years now.
Another point of mention was Vinay called up Ayesha, a girl whom we knew in our college days, and surprises after all these years she recognised my voice the moment I said Guess who. We used to be a good friend circle. This goes to say that you make friends only once but the friendship always remains forever if you are true to yourself and your friends. She now has a 2 year old baby girl called Dana.
Vinay and me spent a lot of time remembering our old days and he said something that i will Remember for days to come- "We had a low life, but we lived it high."
We then decided to just go around when Vinay got a call from his friend Puneet. We went to Guzzler's Inn my favourite Pub coz they play good music there. The D.J. is pretty unassuming but the music he plays is good. KingFisher beer and good music is a heady combination. But i guess I had too much of it because later i slept through most of the movie.
I returned home at 1230 in the morning after leaving Vinay back in his house. Me and Vinay go back to our college days, pre university that is, and we been together for a good 8 years now.
Another point of mention was Vinay called up Ayesha, a girl whom we knew in our college days, and surprises after all these years she recognised my voice the moment I said Guess who. We used to be a good friend circle. This goes to say that you make friends only once but the friendship always remains forever if you are true to yourself and your friends. She now has a 2 year old baby girl called Dana.
Vinay and me spent a lot of time remembering our old days and he said something that i will Remember for days to come- "We had a low life, but we lived it high."
Saturday, October 02, 2004
Why A Blog
Why did i decide to get me my own blog? I realised that i have a very active life and as forms of memories i required to put it down somewhere. Due to the nature of my job i cannot write it down, i most probably will lose my diary somewhere. A blog helps me to write from anywhere and just upload it. So here i am on leave for a month or so. All my friends are working on week days so i have nowhere to go. I spend most of my days sleeping and watching T.V. Today is a sunday so i may just go for bowling and some beer with my friend Vinay.
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