WHATEVER HAPPENED TO CENSORSHIP?

I am, and have always been strongly opposed to any kind of censorship. I just hate the idea of some geriatric prude sitting in a cubicle somewhere dictating what i can watch or not.

However since there is censorship of all kinds, both official and unofficial, in India, my question is, why is it selective.

There was this recent ruckus created over the accuracy of Jodha-Akbar by some fringe groups who incidentally on being interviewed admitted to not even having watched the movie. Yet they managed to get it banned in many areas.

Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses similarly was banned on the basis that it may create trouble.

That's an example of censorship. Film and Literature style.

BUT who censors TV. News in particular.

Just because it is LIVE, is anything ok?

Rakhi Sawant built an entire career on one infamous kiss (which was shown maybe a million times)

Before Jab We Met made him a marquee star Shahid Kapoor was more famous for his MMS kiss with then flame Kareena.

Yet when Hrithik & Ash kissed in Dhoom 2 or when Richard Gere kissed Shilpa the poor guys had court cases filed against them.

The Darjeeling strike has been on for more than a week now and there are many people in different parts of Darjeeling who are on hunger strike and some quite critical too. Yet the national press seems to be oblivious to it all.

That is till Yesterday.

A few days back a woman was being interviewed by a news channel (and i use the word NEWS very loosely here) outside Pintail Village in Siliguri where the GNLF leader Ghising was holed up.

On being asked about her presence there she grimaced and in an accent that even the stereotyped fake nepali guard of hindi movies would find over the top said

"Ham Ghising ka khoon karna aaya hai. Ham maar daalega. Hamara ragho mein gorkhali ka khoon baghta hai. Saachi ham maar daalega"

The amused reporter then asked her,

"Aap ki ragho mein gorkhali ka khoon hai toh Ghising ka ragho mein kya hai?"

Without as much as a pause she answered

"Bhattacharji ka pishaab"

Now this became national news.

Infact its almost a catch phrase. If you disagree with anyone just say

"Saala tu hai (add any obnoxious politico's name here) ka pishaab"

I know that hardly any nepalis (let alone women) speak like that but if there are fringe characters who do, shouldnt they be censored? Dont they dilute the whole argument and the cause?

She has now become quite (in)famous in Darjeeling and quite fittingly, is apparantly known as the Rakhi Sawant Of The Hills.

Do we even need an agitaion anymore?

An Eye For An Eye Will Make The Whole World Blind

I was supposed to be in Darjeeling on 21 for a short holiday but am still stuck in Delhi because there is an indefinite strike going on.
As i write this blog i can only hope that things will improve soon. The situation looks bad but one can hope i guess, coz without hope everything is lost.

A brief history:
23-24 years ago an ex-army man galvanised the hills and began a movement for statehood.
In those times the hills was a peaceful and prosperous place but where water resource was plenty but supply minimal. Like his neighbour in Bihar who promised roads as smooth as Hema Malini's cheeks, the cheeky armyman promised swimming pools in each house in Darjeeling.

The gullible nepalis followed him like the mice would Pied Piper.

After many people had lost their lives and a whole generation displaced and almost as abruptly as he began the agitation, he and his party accepted partial autonomy and ended it.

Now 20 years later with the taps still running dry and the utopian swimming pools still a mirage, a small bunch of rebels have decided to demand statehood again. The armyman and his ruling party are happy with the status quo and dont want any kind of statehood (not that it is being offered).
The present state government obviously doesn't want to give in to any demand. They are presently just happy that 2 groups of nepalis are fighting among themselves.

In the middle of all this, the splinter group goes ahead and announces an indefinite strike in the hills.
Is the state govt worried? Hell No!

For all they care the stupid Neps can fight among themselves. In the process if the livelihood of the poor hill people get affected all the more better.
They will come to the bargaining table weakened.

So who benefits from this strike?

Isnt there a better way to show dissent? A more effective way to protest?

If closing down the hills could somehow affect the state or federal govt then by all means go ahead. But if the closure is only hurting the economy and life of the local people then why do this?

Maybe what Darjeeling needs is not another neta, not another rabble-rouser but a Statesman.

Is that too much to ask?

Afterall Gandhi was a frail old man, Ambedkar was an untouchable, and hell, Madela was in prison for most of his life. Yet they were able to provide Leadership with a Vision.

A Vision towards making Life Better.

Bhanubhakta is revered here in Darj more than in Nepal.
The schools and quality of education in the hills is almost legendary.
And Nepalis are generally peace loving sensible people.

So can't Darjeeling produce a Statesman?
If you ask me, we already have them. More than one infact.
They just need to stand up and be counted.
Afterall, If not now when? If not you, who?

Only then will the hills have a voice and a vision which should hopefully become a reality.

He may not be able to fill our swimming pools but atleast our taps will not run dry.

And if more than a couple pop up then maybe we could lend 1 across the border too. They sure look like they need it right now.

I just hope that this senseless self flagellation is not symtomatic of Nepalis in general. Because then we have no hope. And without hope......

Cause I'm Leavin On A Jet Plane.....

Dear All,


I will be on a short (and badly needed) vacation from 17th Feb -13 March.




I will try, but to be realistic, i am not sure i will be able to blog during this time.

In case of emergencies i can be contacted on +919811028646 or +919851383583

Till then....

Ciao & Lotsa Love



Vishal

BULLET PROOF STONE ??

Sometimes I cannot believe what I read in the papers every morning.

Dubai is not only filled with lots of rich people, they seem to be gullible as hell too. As if the emails from supposedly deposed african ministers offering millions is not enough, now we have people physically arriving here to swindle.

Apparently, as a leading international hub for trade, tricksters and the trustful, there is no better place to buy "magic stones" than Dubai.

The latest peddler of paranormal pebbles is a Yemeni man who is now currently in prison charged with trying to sell a bullet-proof onyx for half a billion dirhams:

The suspect said: "I am not a cheat. I had a stall at Global Village where I displayed precious stones, including the onyx. I asked the police to try the stone before confiscating it and arresting me. They refused. I brought it with me from Yemen."

I am presuming that you need to declare what kind of merchandise you are planning to sell when you apply for a store in the Global Village so shouldn’t some crazy bureaucrat also be arrested?

Anyway moving on…

His lawyer meanwhile said his client claimed that he tried the stone many times on sheep and other livestock and it worked. "We will bring witnesses to corroborate his claims before the court when it reconvenes next week," said the lawyer.

The solution however is amazingly simple:

Have the man test the stone out himself.

If the bullets bounce off him, he's obviously innocent and the stone is a miracle and cheap at even ten times that price.

If not: well… problem solved!

"I LOVE YOU - those three words have my life in them. "

~ Alexandrea to Nicholas III ~


Hiya All,



Valentines Day is just around the corner and I must share this old favourite story of mine. I remember reading it somewhere long ago and i had saved it. Hope you like it too.



Happy Valentines Day.


Enjoy


Love

- Vish

JOHN BLANCHARD

John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his Army uniform, and studied the crowd making their way through Grand Central Station. He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn’t, the girl with the Rose.

His interest in her had begun thirteen months before in a Florida library. Taking a book off the shelf he found himself intrigued, not with the words of the book but with the notes pencilled in the margins. The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and an insightful mind. In front of the book, he discovered the previous owners name, Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort he located her address. She lived in New York City. He wrote her a letter and invited her to correspond. The next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II. During the next year and one month the two grew to know each other through the mail. Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile heart. The romance was budding. Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn’t matter what she looked like. When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting – 7.00 p.m. at the Grand Central Station in New York.

“You’ll recognize me,” she wrote, “by the red rose that I’ll be wearing in my lapel.”

So at 7.00 he was in the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved but whose face he had never seen. I’ll let Mr. Blanchard tell you what happened:

“A young woman was coming towards me, her figure long and slim. Her blonde hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears, her eyes were blue as flowers. Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness, and in her pale green dress she was like springtime come alive. I started towards her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose. As I moved, a small provocative smile curved her lips. “Going my way, sailor?” she murmured. Almost uncontrollably I took one step closer to her, and then I saw Hollis Maynell.

She was standing directly behind the girl. A woman well past 40, she had graying hair tucked under a old worn hat. She was more than plump, her thick-ankled feet thrust into low-heeled shoes. The girl in the green suit was walking away quickly. I felt as though I was split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her, and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned me and upheld my own. And there she stood. Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible, her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle. I did not hesitate. My fingers gripped the small worn blue leather copy of the book that was to identify me to her.
This would not be love, but it would be something precious, something even better than love, a friendship for which I had been and must ever be grateful. I squared my shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman, even though while I spoke I felt choked by the bitterness of my disappointment. “I’m Lieutenant John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me. May I take you to dinner?”

The woman’s face broadened into a tolerant smile.

“I don’t know what this is all about, son,” she answered, “but the young lady in the green dress who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose in my coat. And she said that if you were to ask me to dinner, I should tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of a test.”

……………………………………*……………………………………
“Tell me who you love,”

Shakespeare once wrote,
“And I’ll tell you who you are.”

NANO कर्ते प्यार तुम्ही से ....

There was a monkey on my back for a long time and finally it has come off.

I may not be many things but a man of my word I most assuredly am.

As many of you who follow my blog (bless you, you good decent people) can see, my friend did win the Perfume+Gold in the recently concluded poll.

I have made a commitment and will abide by it. I am not going to speculate about underhand methods used here as the lady in question has already admitted it and furthermore I do need and want to give her the gift. Really… Sach-Much.

Anyway what I am am more shocked at (pleasantly i may add) is the choices made by some of the others.

A Warm Letter.
Something Sentimental .

What The Fcuk? (Again in a good way) By the way is F*&$ still a 4 letter word? Forget it, Let's leave that for another post

In today’s materialistic world, does a letter (however warm) or a small gift (however sentimental) even count?? I am not sure but if there are people who still are voting like that I sure hope it does and that realization makes my heart with pleasure fill and dance with ….. Never mind. Moving on.

Now coming back to the gifts that my friend “won”.

With the price of gold as it is now-a-days and with her selection of perfume (think Harrod’s and Al Fayed and see pic) and the delay from my part in te delivery, I am thinking of updrading her and just giving her a CAR.

The new Tata Nano to be precise.

Dear readers, what are your views on this? Yes? No? Nano?

I know and have already written about hindsight being 20/20 but what about foresight being Na/No ?

I must add a caveat here though. As is generally the case with gifts and lottery winnings the tax must be borne by the recipient. Seems fair doesn’t it?

Maybe the monkey can finally get on someone else’s back.

What Say You?

Cheers till Next Time.

Love

Vish