The Agony of Harry Potter 6

PraanBhakshi
Garud Dwar
Bolti Topi
Chir Nidra Kadha

I have to write this one.

Yesterday, we saw The Half Blood Prince.
Sorry, Ms Rowling, this one was in Hindi.
Also, Ms. Rowling would be surprised to know her creation Mr Potter is no longer a child but a half grown man with quite an appetite for chicks and what more, even Saint Dumbledore has turned naughty.
I never knew Mr Weasley had such an intense and raunchy relationship within the pages of the novel, neither did i knew Ms Granger had harbored such an intense sense of desperateness for Mr Weasley(Although I would always keep loving Ms Emma Watson for whatever she does ;))
Our dear old Hagrid too has adopted the peculiar tone of Dharam Paji, and boy, I bet the whole hall would have cried seeing Hagrid offer prayers to Aragog, what an emotional scene that was...

Ahan, How can i forget Ms Weasley, that pretty, naughty girl, who throughout the film, is either hugging or kissing anyone that bumps into her, even our very own Miracle Boy, Mr. Potter.

The standout performance of the film was no doubt, but Mr Weasley, who seems to have grown far too big and broad, butterbeer they say, and who throughout the movie has taken the role of lead comedian, pretty much like the Chota Chatris or the Pappu Pagers of our Bollywood tales.
Bravo Mr Weasley !!!


The best scene of the movie, any guesses, well ladies and gentlemen, kindly hold your beats, here it is : A love sign, yeah a love sign, drawn on the forst ladden viewglass of the train compartment, yeah you guessed it right, for Mr Weasley, the forbidden love.........


I am sure, Ms Rowling, sorry, Ms Julia Roberts, is the original script writer for this movie.
What awesome emotions, what romance.
Even our own Nadiadwalas, the makers of Kambhakt Ishq, would not have been able to deliver a better crap romantic emotional drama than our beloved foreign partners, Warner Borthers!!

As Far as Mr Potter is concerned, i would love to see Ms Rowling's creation take the centrestage.
As it looks now, the agony is, it's our love-struck, melodramatic, technicolor bollywood hero, Dude Harry, appearing in the feature films.


In loving memory of the Half Blood Prince:
By Harry Potter Fan Club.

P.S.: I forgot to mention Mugglu, Jhaduwale, my companions, but, that's another story !!!

The Great Indian Curry

India...
Bharat..
Aam Aadmi..
Markets...

Sometimes, I feel, we Indians have got a habit of complaining and cribbing for almost everything that the government does.
Yesterday was no different, when the much hyped budgetary hoopla once again gained the center stage of the Indian psyche.Our Chief Chef, Pranabda, served the Great Indian Curry, the Union Budget, to the people of India, keeping in mind the tastes and preferences of almost everyone from the home servant Ramu, the Nukkad paanwala Raju, the office executive Rajesh and the corporate czar Reliance, and only time will tell, how good the curry is for the health of the Indian Economy.

A little enquiry into the backdrop of the scenario in which the budget has been prepared reveals the following important points:

• The world is under the effect of the worst recession ever, bigger than the great depression, and markets around the world are tumbling.
• Indian GDP growth rate has dipped to 6.8 % in 2009, still the second highest in the world, next after China.
• Foreign funds have dried up in the Indian Markets and therefore there is a dier need for an increased fiscal spending to stimulate demand, which ultimatley links to having a higher fiscal deficit in the present scenario, to stimulate demand and consumption.
• The UPA has won the general elections on the poll plank of Aam Aadmi and socially oriented schemes like NREGA, JNNURM etc.
• The popular sentiment of the Indian masses has been majorly against the disinvestment regime of the government in the PSU's.
• There is a growing need to increase internal as well as external security network and capabilities in view of the increased terrorist and criminal activities, that are threatening to take away the essence of democracy- peaceful coexistence.
• India needs to build infrastructure at a rapid pace to enter into the next stage of economic growth and sustainability.
• The global cilmatic change regime is a major challenge and needs to be tackled right now with utmost importance and sustainable measures.

Keeping all the above points in mind, my opinions about the budget 2009 are as under:

• The budget has focused on social inclusion, or what we can say as inclusive growth, keeping in mind definite political gains as well as the challenge of putting the economy back on track.
• The flagship schemes of the UPA like National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, and the Accelerated Power Development Programme have been given the top priority both in terms of fund allotments as well as in terms of action items, which basically target the rural population, roughly 70% of our total. This is a big paradigm shift from the earlier budgets, and the focus has been on spurring growth through rural empowerment and rural spending. This is a direct indication of the consumer market getting shifted to the vast, untouched rural markets of India.
• The agricultural growth rate has been targeted at 4%, which is a very tough task to achieve in practical, and the major disappointment in this regard is that there is no major scheme announced which deals with implementation policies attached to this goal.
• The government is betting big on rural spending and rual consumption, and the middle class consumer may feel a little unhappy with the fact that he has perhaps lesser items in his kitty.(Read Tax sops)
• The government has certainly increased the spending for higher education, allocated more funds for IIT's and NIT's, but I feel disappointed with the lack of funding and focus in the primary education sector, the base of our society.
• The widening of the standard deduction limit is a mere Rs 10000/-, is a big disappointment. The Middle Class was expecting something much bigger to cheer about, and it will certainly feel cheated, as it is the middle class which will be paying almost the same tax and paying the price of inflation too. Is national development or social development of the Aam Aadmi, something different from the problems of the middle class? Time and again, Middle class feels cheated in this neo-liberal, semi- socialist, semi-capitalist India, and to be honest, our governments have given every reason to them to feel so.
• Some taxes like Fringe Benefit Tax, the CTT have been abolished, some more sops have been extended to IT industry, on the other hand, MAT has been increased from 10% to 15 %, and the smaller players in the IT industry will feel the pinch of MAT, but overall, a balanced menu for the Industry.
• The government has finally focused on healthcare and related services, which is indeed a good sign for a healthy nation.
• There are provisions for separate education schemes for female literacy and this is one single highlight of the budget in my opinion, that will turn into a much larger scheme like NREGA in times to come.
• A great amount of funds have been announced for funding Infrastructure projects, and I think this is indeed a right step, and a much needed one.
• Bharat Nirman, the flagship scheme of UPA, for buiding social infrastructure in rural areas, has been given a great impetus, and looks more of a populist measure coupled with increased employment generation.
• I am sadly disappointed with the budget having no major initiative for skill development, as half of our population is in the agegroup 18-30, and this was the right oppurtunity to use this manpower for national development, an oppurtunity gone missed.
• I am wary of the fact that our fiscal deficit has risen alarmingly to 6.8% of the GDP in this budget, but to be honest, any recession requires expansionary government policies(Read Keynesian Expansionary policy, a fundamental in economics) and at this juncture, I only hope we return to fiscal deficit minimisation as soon as possible, for a large fiscal deficit means we are burdening our future generations with debt, but pragmatically, this is more like a necessary evil than an outright idiocity.
• The government has finally acknowledged the pressing threat of climate change and its good to see National Plan on Climate Change getting good funds to start with.

Overall, I will give it a rating of 7 out of 10.

By the way, can someone please define this Aam Aadmi?
I need a certificate for sure.................

LOC:Line of Control

Will you take dowry?
No, I won't.

A deafening wave of laughter submerged my response even before it could surface on the canvas of our discussion. Mocking won't be the right word to describe it, though irony may just be perfect.
Sitting in a class of aspiring civil servants, I expected this response to be accepted as quite natural, on the contrary, it generated a series of laughter and comments:

"Humain kuch nahi chayiye, lekin aap apni beti ko dena chahte hain to koi problem nahi"

"App cash mat do lekin ek badi gaadi hoti to"

No one pointed fingers at me, no allegations were made.
Yet, i felt the pinch.
The ladies laughed, the gentlemen smiled, as if I had cracked the greatest joke at that hour.
Maybe, what they were referring to was correct, the prevailing customs and prejudices in the society, but then, who is to blame and correct, if not but we?
I often get the advice of keeping idealism separate from realism, yesterday was no different, but again an eye opener of the brutal fact, that in reality, a whole lot of us is still a barbaric, selfish bunch of individuals, afraid of the society as a tradition.

The Line of Control between good and bad, between values and objectives, between opinions and beliefs, seems to be diminishing at the pace of nauts. Our education too is of little help, as it is but ultimatley the environment that one gets at home which dominates one's thought process and defines the freedom with which one percieves the blurred reality.

Time and again, society bombs my wall between idealism and practicality with heavy canons loaded with pounds of reality.
In the wake of yesterday's fresh attacks, I am mending the walls.

This line of control may not last forever, i can only hope, it does.

A Red Day

15th June 2009.
So?
Middle of the Year?
Very hot?

To be honest, one of the best days of my life.
By god’s grace, I finally bought a bike, a splendid machine, by the name of Honda Stunner CBF.
The Red beauty beamed towards me as a newly wedded bride beams to her groom, at the wedding ceremony, and boy, it felt awesome!!
Some men dream, few accomplish what they dream, and even fewer go beyond what they dreamt of. That evening, I felt, I belonged to that last category, maybe for an instant, but I was there, with a bang.
Like a gang of college friends going to attend a wedding, My colleagues Nitin , Bharat and Poornima, literally took me to the showroom as a groom is taken to the wedding Pandal, a little tense, and a lot more happy inside. By the time we reached to the showroom in Poornima’s car, excitement had taken over our office boredom. Then, we saw her, standing there, like a bride dressed in all red, ready to take the final step out of her house, into her new home.

After about an hour of chaotic documentation, after going through all those idiotic formalities, and the cash, came the moment all of us were waiting for.
Poornima, smiling like a fairy in dreams, handed over to me, the keys of my bike, and suddenly I realized, it’s done!
For a moment, I thought, I wasn’t there. I was seeing things, there was Bharat, beaming with joy, and also Nitin, acting his usual self, and everything was just perfect, but was it true?

Indeed it was, and the clouds of disbelief were soon drowned in the ecstasy of euphoria that followed. I touched my bike, gently, and put in the key. And then, away we went, my bike and me, out into the streets of Noida, as if, a Happy beginning…..

I had heard an old Indian saying, “Sabra Ka Phal Meetha Hota Hai”, and boy, it really is sweet, in fact, and it’s amorous.

As of now, life’s good !!

Ye Pirate!!!

15 men on a Dead Man's Chest,
yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum.
Drink and devil had done for the rest,
yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum.

Rum, drink, Devil , death.
Is that all?
Nah.

It's the song of Freedom, of free men, the ones civilizations have hated for centuries now, the one they call the Pirates.
Born from the marriage of crime and freedom, Piracy, never fails to attract young men, like an enigmatic lovely beauty, casting dark spells resulting in fatal attraction.
If I forget for a moment the wickedness, treachery and crime involved, I would love to be pirate, explore the open seas, be the king of my world, and cherish the feeling of adventure.
More than anything else, being a pirate, symbolically, would have released me from the countless notions and prejudices that the civilized society follows, and given me something I have almost lost now, the freedom of my thoughts, the freedom to break rules, the freedom to look beyond customs and traditions.

Someday, this world would have caught me, tried me for going out of the norms, and then choked my thoughts, unto death.

Yeah, A pirate!!!

But what if I am always ahead of them, and I escape somehow, every time as his holiness Captain Jack Sparrow does. Talking of Capt Jack, he says somewhere in the Pirates of Caribbean Trilogy, that it's all about the thought of being free, of freedom, that makes him a pirate. Aye sir!!

R.L. Stevenson gave me the most fantastic tale of my childhood in "Treasure Island", with Jim Hawkins, the 17 year old lad, capturing the imagination of my fantasies through his tale of adventure and bravery against the pirates on the Treasure Island.
I never knew that time, that I would like Long John Silver, the one-legged Pirate Captain, the lion of the seas. Pirates, the free men, sang this to celebrate their freedom:

15 men on a Dead Man's Chest,
yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum.
Drink and devil had done for the rest,
yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum.

Return of the Middle Path Approach

After a week or so of torturing introspection, as always, I have decided to opt for the middle path once again.
My getting into the endless list of Indian Civil Services aspirants was just a matter of time, and to be honest, this is my only option, as it seems, to be the change that i wish to see in the system.
Once again, I have a big dream, once again, I am caught between the past and the future.
Torn between the rebel and the responsible, my identity seems to be taking the path of the common man, powerful yet full of the fear of the unknown.
What is it that ignites my soul, the plight of the poor, the power of the post, the thought of getting into the system, the glory that surrounds a leader, the fame, the money or the passion to live forever through the pages of history?
The quest is on for the search of my identity, the route is shaping up, the approach is of the middle path.
What is it that I look for?
Am I afraid, yes somewhat..
But I am not giving up, not yet......

Mother of All failures

It has been almost 5 years in continuation, where I haven't backed my ability to perform and compete at the highest level. Be it the IIT preparation, be it CAT, be it with IAS or be it with Economics, I always seem to fins some excuse or the other for my complacency and ill planning and hazardous execution.
In spite of showing promise, i always fail to perform as my motivation level and hardwork goes down after a month or so of any preparation I do.
I talk big, yet fail to deliver.
I am a total failure in life, and have almost come down to pity myself.
I wasn't this, i was a much better person in college, i had the courage to back my words, to say what i wanted.
Suddenly the world has grown dimmer, i don't see things clearly, and i have developed this bloody fear of the unknown.
What if I do this and it does not work syndrome has caught me like anything and I am almost nearing the peak of my identity crisis.
i want to do a lot, I know i have the potential to do a lot more than i can ever imagine, yet the quest for glory, glamor and destiny is stealing away the success map of present from me.
I am totally lost, and I am the one to blame, the problem is me and I have to find the solutions.
I am down, hopefully not out.
Not yet!!