A quickie here

Just read this interview with Shobhaa De. It is sad to see our so called open minded 'modern' folks support the rhetoric of the MNS. Hmm...are most 'intellectuals' this narrow minded in our country or is this a unique case? Or are they tolerant only if they are spectators from afar? This mindless violence reminds me of the 'real Americans' rhetoric put forward by McCain supporters. It seems wherever you are, xenophobia and fear mongering is the way to go.

Sigh...where are we, as a nation going?

P.S. : Of course I might be wrong. But my conscience can't accept the possibility that the alternative may be right.

P.P.S. : I hate news sites that split up stories into umpteen fragments so that I can view more ads.

Twitter..."the newest threat to my morals"

So...I was reading a blog post about it....and decided to check in out. And guess what?....It is blocked!!!So twitter is the latest additions to the bunch of normal sites blocked for pedantic reasons in the UAE. This list includes MySpace and Flickr. I had allude to this phenomenon in a previous post of mine.....

DAMN these self righteous pains in the ass who think they can regulate my freaking corrupted morals!!!!!!

Telephone Helplines....

I found this link and was instantly reminded about my experience with the Etisalat hotline, or whatever they call it. Tired of the sweet voice telling me that all their customer representatives or whatever they are called were busy with other calls....I decided to call them at 4 am in the morning. Guess what...I heard the same message.

Hmm...wonder what the customer whatevers were busy with at 4 am....anyway...to be fair, once you get through to them, they are pretty helpful and readily solve all our concerns.

Spoof Physics Question Paper

here...

It scares me to think about what passes for science education in one of the most powerful countries in the world.

This is an open letter from the cartoonist regarding the same. Yep, it doesn't affect me in any way, but anyways....

18 Ave de Suffren Paris, 75740 France

I am just sick and tired of people making a big fuss about Paris Hilton. I don't know what people find so alluring about her.Is it the fact that she is a millionaire heiress or her looks(?) or (god forbid) her songs? Or the fact that she had no qualms in distributing...err...home movies(?).

Anyway, everything she or does makes the news. I can't comprehend the fact that most people have lives so mundane that they have to generate excitement by being up to date about their favourite celebs' exploits. It pains me to think that some folks might actually consider her to be a role model.

Coming back to Paris Hilton. Now it seems the latest buzz is about her jail sentence. Well, I have no idea what her crime was, but I don't think it matters to the general public. A huge fuss is being made by the media about everything, from what she plans to do in jail, to her new surroundings, to her to be jail mate.

Hmm..I am in the mood for predictions. I predict that her cellmate is gonna write a book that outlines her memoirs about sharing the same space as Paris Hilton. This might also lead to reality shows being made, where Paris Hilton lives with other people in extremely cramped spaces(a spinoff of her previous reality show) and the so called drama that will follow. Ahh...but today's world is shaped in such a way that I am sure that it would be a huge hit.

Networks...I hope you get this idea somehow so that I can brag about how I saw it all coming. Who knows...I may even decide to start my own religion...or atleast a psychic helpline...

But that is a discussion for another day.

Oh yeah, if anyone was wondering what the address above signifies....Well it points to The Paris Hilton(the hotel).....

April 15, 2007 or GSK day

On this day...I am sure that a hell lot of stuff must have happened. But which piece of news was splattered all over our news channels(I mean Indian of course)? The now infamous Gere-Shilpa Kiss (or GSK in short). I can't understand the furore that was created due to this silly incident. It seems that there are hordes of mindless people just waiting for something small to happen and then unleash their violence on public property. On the other hand, we have our lovely Shiv Sainiks who have justified their acts of violence by a statement that this incident goes against our "Indian culture". Hmm...so I guess, that according to them, destroying public property, unnecessary violence etc. showcases our "culture" pretty aptly.

Yeah RIGHT!!!

On a lighter note.....here is a pretty funny article on the same topic.

(Sigh...I know its a bit too late to discuss this, but hey, I strongly feel that our media and our all these "caretakes of Indian culture" have got their priorities wrong)

President of India

All around India, meetings are going on about who is to be the next President. The fact that that the President is more of a symbolic head, rather than the ultimate figure of power like the one in US, makes the candidate more of the academic type. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam is an extraordinary person and I admire his talks and attitude. I consider myself lucky to have seen him face to face and heard his words live. They are truly inspiring and listening to them aroused in me an immense feeling of patriotism that has never been replicated before or thereafter in my mind.

But the question remains....how many of us are truly willing to act like he says? For every hundred people that listen to him, how many sincerely try to make a difference? I don't want to blame anyone or anything, but I feel that most people give his talks the same kind of attention as, lets say a moral science class.

Here, I remember the words of one of my English teachers. The gist of it was, as a President is just a figurehead, why should one of the best minds of India be wasted on that position? Indeed, Indian research has lost five years worth of brilliance and sheer genius as Dr. Abdul Kalam's services has been lost.

Any comments?....

Me, my dial up connection and my internet service provider...

Hmmm... I was wondering why I hadn't posted much after my initial flurry of posts. Is it because I'm just plain lazy or what? It is not as if I didn't go online afterwards, its just that I haven't been able to connect to this site due to the amazing net connection I have at home. It takes an insane amount of time to post anything on the blog.

I have a dial up connection which finds new methods to piss me off with amazing consistency on a regular basis. Now I know that sounds redundant, but I ain't not gonna change. ;)

Anyways, at present I am in UAE where everything is regulated pretty strictly. Contrary to popular belief there is a pretty ok (as in moderately below the so called 'normal' level) freedom of speech. Yeah, you ca say anything you want as long as it doesn't offend their 'values' in any way and of course, you shouldn't complain about the rulers. It sounds paradoxical, but all this amounts to "You can say anything you want, as long as it isn't directed against us."

Oops, went off track there. I wanted to talk more about my ISP. As most countries in the Middle East, there is a proxy server which blocks all sites that are not " consistent with their social, moral and political values" or some other bull. Note the word 'political'. So, it means that it will block alternate political views as well. Ahh...I cannot comment on that because truly I don't care about what these folks think.

Damn!!! Went off track again!!! What I wanted to point out was among the myriad of websites they have blocked, Flickr.com is blocked. Now most net savvy people know the website in question and recognise it to be Yahoo's photo sharing website. It is used widely all over the world and I was stumped as to why the damn site was blocked. I promptly sent an email to them, highlighting the fact that I didn't understand how this site could go against their so called 'cultural' and 'moral' values (I believe these were the actual words I used). Unfortunately, I didn't take into account the fact that they might not appreciate or understand the sarcasm. I sent that email in a moment of frustration and I didn't think much about it afterwards.

Imagine my surprise when I got a reply the very next day...I will paste the letter here...


Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting Etisalat Customer Care Center.

Please be informed that we are unable to process the requested action for unblocking the site requested by you.

URL: www.flickr.com
Reason : Nudity

Once again we thank you for contacting us with your query and looking forward to serving you in the future.

Best regards,

Etisalat Customer Care Center
Tel: 101 (toll-free)
Email:help@eim.ae
URL:http://www.ecompany.ae

Serving you 24 hours, 7 days a week.


This letter just cracked me up. Damn, the reason just cracked me up. Anyways, I understood that there is no use trying to convince people who have stuffed their ears with cotton. But I appreciate the promptness of their reply though... And the reply was pretty professional. ;)

Sigh...thats lyfe...

P.S. I found that Flickr is not blocked by the UAE University. I was able to access Flickr from their library.