And we say they are Racist

Recent attack on Indians in Australia certainly baffled the whole India and matter was blown so out of proportion that I was puffing answering calls about my well being. Media daily conducting interviews and writing articles about Australia being racist and busy collecting proof for it, seemed like madness India media is famous for. What happened in Sydney and Melbourne can not be justified by saying anything, it was a criminal act, whether was racial in nature or not is a debatable issue. Some of them might have racial content in it, but all of them, certainly not. Why every attack on Indians has to be racial in nature; it could simply be a case of wrong timing and wrong place. Neither a mugger waiting in dark has any intention to mug somebody with racial intent nor a group of drunk youth who just want to bash somebody because they are high. Indians might have been easy target because of their weak physique and humble nature; so would be any hooligan’s preferable choice. I will discuss the issue in later posts but first let us talk about our own backyard.

Why to bother about racial discrimination in India when we have variety of discrimination to pick up from. It hurts me when somebody says me that you can not work in Mumbai because you are Bihari. It hurts me when my mother asks me the caste of my friend, so that she can use separate cutlery kept for my dalit friends. It hurts most when I see old poor men told to sit on the floor in a general compartment (railway train) even when there is enough space for him on the birth. With everybody judging everybody it feels like living under a scanner and worst part is you can see hatred for yourself in their eye and you can do nothing about it. Rich in India treat poor as trash, higher caste despise lower caste, Assamese hate Hindi speaking, Biharis are not allowed to work in Maharashtra, every dark child has nick name Kallu, English speaking population snobs non English speaking; with lot more to list, who cares about racial discrimination. I do not have to give any example to you to visualize any of these situations, otherwise you have been blind enough to realize. Discriminate of any kind should be intolerable. We claim that attacks on Indians in Australia are racial in nature, but what about murder and rape of foreign tourists in India. I believe most of us will say they are not racial in nature; because we are brown and only whites are racial. What if these cases are no different then what happened in Melbourne and Sydney.

Issue of racism in Australia is not new. Ugly text messages, comments and postures relating to Aboriginals, Muslims, Jews, Indians and refugees are little common then other countries, so Australia is racist. But one has to understand that Australia is a relatively new country and started as penal colony. Its culture has never been so polite and sledging has always been integral part of Australian sports. With their huge physique they look daunting and solving matter with brutal force is in their nature. It is still in the process of building its reputation as multicultural society. Rules against racism are very strict but it will take time to change the mindset of whole country. By opening the door of immigration it is trying to build an image of multicultural society. Just like any other country Australia has some problem but I am happy that here people do not judge me for my caste, economic condition or my education status. I do not have to worry that people are judging me or at least they do not show it.

Cleared BARC

Today I saw the result and luckily, I have cleared the interview stage too.

This summer # Launceston to Kolkata

Guess, what I was doing when I was not surfing? I had lots of expectations from my last trip to India. It was an eventful summer.

Early morning my journey started from Launceston. Plan was to fly to Melbourne and then to India via Singapore. I always feel comfortable as long as I can feel solid ground below my feet, or in other words, I am a little afraid of flying. Even when I am up in the air, I feel more comfortable when plane is flying over ground than when it flies over water bodies. I know it does not make any difference at that height, but still I can not help it.

There are few things I like about airports. You get to see people from different country, tourists squeezed between heavy backpacks, rave of emotions at arrival & departure and off course free internet to pass time. Few things will always elude my comprehension though. I never understood what pleasure do people get in pushing 7 Kg trolley, for carrying their 0.8 kg laptop? Why people rush to toilet immediately after pilot switches off seat belt sign? Why even sophisticated people would grin to air hostess to get another sachet of cheap peanuts? But hey, who am I to judge?

Usually I love to listen to my iPod to pass time, but this time I had to study Thermodynamics for BARC examination. After 11 long hours of study, flight finally reached Kolkata. It was almost midnight and I was feeling tired. At immigration, officer asked me that why I have not written Quarter no. in my address. I felt a strong urge to ask him that “Is he going to send me Christmas card?” But, instead I quietly wrote my Quarter no. Mother, Neelu Didi and Jeeja Ji were waiting at arrival to receive me. After that, whole night we kept talking about Australia and India.

Susheel, Neelu didi’s son is live wire in the family. Mama (uncle) do this, mama do that, mama come and play with me or in nutshell I had a year exercise in three days. Once, Neelu didi asked him to check whether I was awake or slept. He came to me, sprinkled cold water on my face to wake me up and then said back to his mother that mama is awake now. My mother told him not to disturb me in revising the notes. He said to her that he only wants to study with me and after that you can guess what would have happened. None of us studied.

After BARC examination, we (I, mother, Neelu didi, Jija Ji and Susheel) went to Dkchineshwar Kali temple on Ganga shore and for a drive around town (Victoria memorial, Science city etc.). I am very thankful to Neelu Didi’s family for great hospitality and lovely tour of the city.

One good thing about returning to India after a gap is you can instantly realize things are changing rapidly in India. Two changes which stand out of the rest are visual development in Bihar and increased fashion awareness. One thing which really struck me was sunglasses; it is becoming new fashion among youngsters. Now we are one step away from becoming perfect Gandhi’s monkey (sunglasses for eyes and iPod for ears).  With big burger from McDonald in our mouth, we will be just perfect. Shopping Malls and supermarket are becoming new trend in urban society. Mall is a good place to hang out for love birds and see things which one could have bought if they had that kind of money. I always feel like outsider when I am in a mall. When I see elderly women walking in t-shirts, feeling uncomfortable, and just trying to keep up with the new trend or people digging their way through pile of clothes for finding cheap ones, makes me think are we trying too hard to be acceptable in modern society or society has lost its tenacity to accept people for who they are? I will give you an example. I still use my Nokia 1100 mobile. So many have commented that I should upgrade and it does not suit me. As long as it does the job, I am not going to throw it away just because someone thinks it is outdated. Mobile started to become popular almost 6 years ago and since then so many models have become outdated. In the beginning it was necessity but now it is more of status symbol of how modern you are.

Kolkata is among four largest cities in India and has an international airport but city did not turn out as I had expected. City was congested, dirty and unmaintained just like its international airport. Condition of famous “City Tram” was nothing like in the stories I had heard from my mother about her visit to city in her childhood. Staying with Neelu didi confirmed my fear, why I do not want to work in big cities. They hardly interacted with their neighbors. Neelu didi used to take Shusheel to City Park every Sunday so that he can play freely. For rest he the week he has no place to be himself. He is like a dolphin in a bath tub. I want to live in a place where in the evening I can put couple of chairs in front lawn and see kids playing on the street while talking to my neighbors.

May be I am outdated and unable keep up with the modern changing society OR may be I want to hang on things which makes me happy and defines me.

Update

I am having fantastic time in India. This vacation has been eventful; BARC examination, two day tour of Kolkata, a week trip to IIT Kanpur and brothers marriage. I danced all night (most of it was just unorganized jumping) and ate 20 mangoes (in a go) as breakfast in brother’s marriage. Next day my stomach was dysfunctional like  any Chinese electrical equipment after a month use. I have lots of stories to share, but sometime later.
Just for information: I have successfully qualified written examination of BARC and interview is scheduled on 6th of July. I hope with everybody’s grace, it will also go fine. See you guys later. Thanks to everyone for good wishes.

Hail the Champion

Here is another Anand for you.

 Current World Chess Champion

Prior to the World Chess Championship 2010, Anand, who had booked on the flight Frankfurt-Sofia on April 16, was stranded due to the cancellation of all flights following the volcano ash cloud from Eyjafjallajökull. Anand asked for a three day postponement, which the Bulgarian organisers refused on April 19, even though they had promised neutrality when bidding to host the event. Anand eventually reached Sofia on April 20, after an exhausting 40-hour road journey. Consequently, the first game was delayed by one day.

The match consisted of 12 games. After 11 games the score was tied at 5½-5½. Anand won game 12 on the Black side of a Queen's Gambit Declined to win the match and retain the World Championship. Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand is quite simply, the greatest sportsman India has ever produced.

Teesri Kassam: Doosri Kassam

Smart people learn from their mistakes, wise people learn from the mistakes of others.

Gone are the days when you had to depend on pigeons to spread the word of love and wait for another month to get her reply back. Half of the time poor birds used to get confused making wrong connections like delivering my mails to your girl friend (and you used to blame me).
Pope and catholic nun fantasy must have started something like this. Pope writes a letter to choir kids who were bored of routine night prayer practice. Pigeon makes mistake and nun gets the message saying “Tonight we will have fun. We will do role play. ~ Pope”. It is perfect example of how an innocent message becomes raunchy topic due to an honest mistake.

Thanks to advances in science, love now knows no boundaries.  Reliance and social networking sites has helped love grow faster and quicker. On the negative side, the social networking sites have also given birth to a new generation of Net Romeos, stalking every female profile across globe. If you really want to imagine the pain of a Brazilian girl who receives thousands of friend requests daily on Orkut (from horney Indians), you have to think of how you feel when you get unsolicited sms from Airtel about their nonsense promotions.

Where there is demand and desperation, there will be Con man. Last week my friend decided to meet his six month old love in Rave Movie Theater only to find his own room mate as his lover. No wonder my mother said to me to stick to arrange marriage. 

But I slipped from the promise and fell in love with her.  Nearly a year ago I saw her profile on Orkut and you can say I fell in love with her on the first sight. She looked so beautiful in the profile pic that I couldn’t resist to write her a scrap. I still remember the words, “Will you be my friend.”  Though her album showed 42 snaps uploaded, but I couldn’t see them as they were locked and I had to wait for her friendship approval which I requested just after writing her that scrap. Seven days later almost when I had forgotten her, I received a scrap from her asking about my details. We were taking it slow and remained in Orkut stage for a month.

Usually web based love grows spiraling through four stages.  Orkut stage (or introductory stage) lasts for 10 days where both parties get to know each other on basic level. Since privacy is an issue with Orkut, love moves to second stage, G-Talk stage. In this stage both lovers gets more comfortable with each other gathering various personal information like count of previous boyfriends (/girlfriends). They also start sharing their pictures to each other and male will change his computer password based on her name. This stage nearly lasts for 2 months. Then lovers move to Phone stage. In this stage, phone bills start increasing and finally both parties switch to Reliance as it gives free talk time to other Reliance phones during night. At this stage lovers mostly discuss their daily routine like when did they take shower or what she bought from the market. At this stage both agrees that they love each other and can not live without each other.  Then finally comes fourth stage, Face to Face stage. Both decide to meet somewhere to discuss how they are going to disclose their love to their parents.

We took time to grow our love. For once in my life everything was beautiful and romantic. Nothing worried me, not even my falling grades as I had the power of love. I started listening to Ricky Matin (at that time he wasn’t gay). As phone bill started to climb, I switched to Reliance.

We were about to enter our fourth stage, when the catastrophe happened.  I read in the news about poor Shoaib Malik being cheated by Ayesha. I wondered how people do not have any morality left; the way Ayesha sent somebody else’s picture and deluded him to marry her.  I always believed in learning from the mistakes of others. I did not want to be next Shoaib, so I called and told her that I was sorry for breaking up as I feared she might have also sent someone else’s picture too. After she pleaded me, I told her I will only consider after we meet together.  A week ago I met her; she was more beautiful than her pictures and I thought, I was fool to even think about breaking with her.

I do not know what went wrong in the meeting; she is not picking up her phone since then. I tried calling her repeatedly. Today operator was saying, “This number does not exist.” I have already started to search for new profile. By the way, if you are on Orkut and available let me know.

How can I forget someone has also said that "Never listen to a moron". Shoaib's lies cost me my love. I took a pledge to "Never learn from morons' mistakes." Wait, I hope you consider me wise, otherwise it will be very confusing to you.

A True Behen Ji

"In U.P., it is easier to count number of stars in the sky than counting Mayawati’s statues."

In exciting news, recent survey done by NCP (National Commission on Population) has shown reduced fertility rate (nearly halved) in U.P. since Mayawati started erecting her own statues. Scientists are yet to confirm, but initial results show that significant loss in sexual appetite after even visualizing U.P. chief minister. Spokesperson of NCP, Nityanand Durachari, said in an interview, “It could be a major break through in the field of family planning. It seems like Mayawati’s erected statues have negative impact on other sorts of erection. Imagine what happens to a common man who is on a daily basis exposed to nearly hundreds of her statues. She is true “Behen Ji” unlike nurses who are called “Sisters” but everybody keeps drooling over them.” He continued further, “NCP is going to recommend it to Government and will encourage other states also to build her statues. We are also going to recommend hospitals to distribute her miniature statues along with condoms as a family planning initiative. NCP thinks it is excellent way of natural family planning.”

When chief minister was asked about it, she said that she had always national interest at heart. “I feel sad when huge number of U.P.ites are born every year just get beaten in Maharashtra. I did not want that for my kids and so I remain unmarried. Why else do you think I did not get married?” “U.P. is highest populated state in India. After discussing the issue with my advisers, we decided to divide U.P. in 5 separate states, so that population of U.P. becomes less. But central Government would not understand such easy fixes.” said Mayawati.

“Now I am thinking global. This year I went “green” by accepting multicrore garland made of notes. I did not want my followers to pluck flowers.” “Somebody told me that tree pulp is used for making notes. I suggest my followers to make a “check” (bank) garland next year, so that I can capture all their love by damaging environment least”.

“India has a tradition of molesting poor dalits, so I was targeted by Supreme Court. Now, nobody from SC will comment on the findings. I can only say, in your face SC.”  and Mayawati left to cut a 52 kg cake made especially for her birthday.