Mumbai Mayhem

While people make facebook groups, write blog posts and discuss the failure of Indian security system, the bottomline remains – there is nothing one can do but to hope. Hope that one day, India will invest time in checking its security system instead of sending missions to moon, India will make it safe for her population than handling pirates at the high seas, India will remember the 13 bomb attacks this year than just those buttered speeches by LK Advani and Sonia Gandhi, and India will one day value her people’s life than just counting them as dead bodies.

To those affected directly and indirectly, I feel sorry and helpless. I feel guilty for spending about half of my expected life span in the country and yet not being able to contribute to making it a better place. On this day, while Mumbai Police – so called one of the top 10 tries to combat terror, I read this:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action-
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

via IBNLive

I get the same feeling as I read about Sohrabuddin’s fake encounter in Gujarat, of suddenly opening a trap-door and tripping into something kafkaesque. There is a normal world that most of us inhabit—of families and weekends and office politics—and then there are the strange and unrecognizable deep waters, which sometimes surface unexpectedly. The experience is so intensely discomforting that we don’t know how to cope with it. We want to convince ourselves that this parallel world doesn’t impact our lives. The truth is that our canoes can be capsized by just one swelling of these squalls.

Beautiful.

At the same time, Matthew Bookspan clearly demonstrated his IQ, or rather lack of it, by deleting his /usr folder to render his system inoperative and then blaming apple to be less intuitive. (Found via DF)

And now if only Australia can overcome South Africa, I will book my April 28th evening for two of my favorite teams.

Update: Australia it is. The evening of Saturday, 28th April shall be spent watching the class of the titans. I can only imagine the crowd going wild at Crown or Flinders Square if they happen to telecast the match there.

no chanceby Full2njoy on Mar 29, 2007 08:56 AMTill the 50 year old airhostess aunties with their faces looking like a cake (due to the makeup) are sacked and some youngsters are recruited and good service is ensured, there is no chance for Air Indian against Emirates, SIA, BA etc.Its like trying to paint the donkey and trying to pass it off as a horse. no point going in for a cosmetic change. truth is nothing run by the govt functions in India.

RE:no chanceby bharat on Mar 29, 2007 09:04 AMTypical Air India/ Indian Airlines Airhostess:1. Tummy cascading over the saree.2. Can barely pass through the aisle with the backside bouncing against the seats as she walks.3. Facial expression as if someone has forced her to drink castor oil.

I can’t seem to recollect the last time I travelled in any of these national airlines, but somehow by the thought of it and the things I heard, I seriously would prefer travelling by train than travel in one of these airlines. As if stories of the pathetic service, food quality and young old hostess were not enough, there were recent stories on how the aircrafts are not tuned and managed according to current industry standards.

On the other side, our favorite competitors, Pakistan have been bruised out of the worldcup when they lost to Ireland. So for all those who made plans to watch India play Pakistan in the next round will have to do away with watching some other teams compete.