Dictator

Saali Khushi

2011-01-23T17:46:00.000+05:30

It's back. Fuck you, Henry Dunant.

2010-10-01T08:02:00.001+05:30

Dear World,

Religion is like a penis. It's fine to have one and it's fine to be proud of it, but please don't whip it out in public and start waving it around.

Sincerely, tired of hearing your religious guff.

Washroom is where the fart is

2010-05-09T21:18:00.002+05:30

Drab title. Sorry.

So, at 6 PM, barely 9 hours after reaching home, I took the metro (which is now 5 mins from my house :D) to Chawri Bazar. Reached Jama Masjid, ordered a plate of beef kebabs from the nearest Kababchi (10 bucks a plate). That familiar feeling (albeit of dead cows). Short in time, but a beautiful tryst with the walled city.

10 minutes later: Rajiv Chowk Metro Station. Just a face in the crowd. A soul existing with 13 million others. A speck in these hordes of humanity that is Delhi. That beautiful feeling of belonging, of familiarity. Home is where the heart is.

NALSAR main ho agar hum, Dil rehta hai Dilli main
Samjho waheen humein, Dil hai jahaan hamara...
(My sincere apologies to Allama Iqbal for the perversion of his eternal words)

The White Tiger, Ranvir Sena and Casteism

2010-04-08T23:37:00.002+05:30

I particularly liked The White Tiger by Aravinda Adiga owing to the darkly humourous tone the author employed in describing the dynamics of caste in Bihar (which he refers to as 'the darkness'). There were parts of it which described the failure of the Indian state to provide for a semblance of human rights to its most repressed people, especially in terms of participation in the democratic process. As the protagonist said, "I've voted in every election like a good citizen; and I've never stepped foot in a polling booth". Haha.
In the real world, when the state woke from its stupor and attempted to extend a threadbare conception of rights to the people, the upper castes of Bihar felt their existence as the holders of hegemony threatened. They chose to resort to a measure they were best at: repressive violence. Thus was begotten the Ranvir Sena. The Sena is essentially a militant conglomerate of landlords and political mafiosi, that strives to defy any form of restructuring of inter-caste relations, and attempts to do so through conspicous killing, and insidious politicking. The deputy CM, S.K. Modi, is a member of the Sena, and no less proud of it. So, the timeline looks crudely like this: Oppression, persistent oppression, Some semblance of hope, more oppression. It's a sorry state of affairs, which merits the attention of the state considering the fact that dalit-hunting is the favourite passtime of the Sena.
Yesterday, a Patna Court sentenced 16 members of the Ranvir Sena to death for the brutal massacre of 58 dalits in Laxmipur Bathe village in 1997. The victims were inclusive of women and children, killed for 50 acres of land. 'Justice delayed is justice denied' couldn't have been more accurate, considering that the victims' families, already languishing in penury, have had to take on a political force in order to secure justice. Beyond evoking melancholy sentiments, the purpose of highlighting this incident is to exhibit as to how even with its supposed 'growing' tag, the state of Bihar still survives in the social paradigms of the previous century. Casteism has been the most compelling factor for this, possibly second to government apathy.
The concretisation of casteism as a potent political tool, while not unique to Bihar, is extremely problematic in the social milieu of Bihar. UP has seen the growth of Kanshi Ram and Mayawati into the most potent political voice in UP. Such a shift in bases of power seems very optimistic, if considered in the perspective of Bihar. Caste relations and caste opportunities are too hegemonized by the wielders of power that the idea of dalits finding themselves in an assertive position, while not unprecedented, is rare.
To put it crudely, mighty fucked up situation. Ahshit.

Kanu Sanyal RIP (1932-2010)

2010-03-23T20:42:00.004+05:30

(This article has been taken from http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/mar/23/life-and-times-of-kanu-sanyal-rebel-with-a-cause.htm)

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Kanu Sanyal, one of the founders of the Naxal movement in India, committed suicide at his residence at Seftullajote village in north Bengal on Tuesday.

Rediff.com takes a look at the life and time of the veteran leader, who changed the course of Communist politics in India.

Who was Kanu Sanyal?

Kanu Sanyal was one of the founder members of the Naxal movement. Sanyal, along with fellow Communist revolutionary Charu Majumdar, started the Naxalbari movement in West Bengal [ May 25, 1967. Though the movement was brutally crushed by the police within a few months, Naxalism as an ideology managed to survive and has evolved into the Maoist insurgency, considered to be the biggest threat to internal security in India today.

Sanyal was born in 1932 at Kurseong in Darjeeling. While working as a revenue clerk at the Siliguri court, Sanyal was arrested for waving a black flag at then West Bengal chief minister Bidhan Chandra Roy, to protest the Centre's ban on the Communist Party of India.

He was lodged at the Jalpaiguri jail, where he met then CPI district secretariat member and future comrade-in-arms Charu Majumdar. Influenced heavily by Majumdar's ideology, Sanyal joined the CPI after his release, and later sided with the CPI-M the party split over the Indo-China war.

Sanyal soon became known for his firebrand politics, and in 1967, he famously led the armed peasant's movement in Naxalbari village in north Bengal. The movement marked the beginning of armed Communist struggle against the government, which later spread to other states and assumed virulent proportions in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

What happened at Naxalbari?

In May 1967, an armed peasant uprising against the oppression of landlords broke out in Naxalbari village in Darjeeling district.

Led actively by Sanyal and Majumdar, the movement was envisaged as an 'agrarian revolution to eliminate the feudal order'. Both Sanyal and Majumdar defended the use of arms and violence to fight back against the landlords. However, the state police, led by then chief minister Siddharth Shankar Roy, brutally suppressed the movement within a few months.

But the discontent and anger of the marginalised and the underprivileged sections of society continued to simmer in Bengal, which witnessed an intense surge in Naxal violence in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

What was Sanyal's next step towards a Communist revolution?

Sanyal and Majumdar founded the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist in 1969. The duo aimed for an 'Indian revolution' via a sustained arms struggle, to establish 'liberated zones' across the country that would eventually be merged into a single vast unit completely under Naxal control.

Sanyal publicly sought help from China to further the arms struggle, and reportedly even visited Beijing, via Kathmandu, Nepal, in September 1967. However, it is not clear whether China offered any moral, financial or logistical support to the Naxal movement raging in Bengal.

What were the activities of the CPI-ML?

The CPI-ML believed in capturing power by violent means and carried out political assassinations by targeting the 'enemies of the proletariat'. They also conducted raids on banks and armouries to build up their resources.

Was Sanyal arrested for the group's activities?

Sanyal, who had gone underground, was arrested in August 1970. He was convicted in the Parvatipuram case (an organised uprising against landlords in Andhra Prdesh and Orissa), often dubbed as the biggest conspiracy case in history, and imprisoned for seven years at a jail in Visakhapatnam.

In July 1972, Majumdar was arrested from his hide-out, and he died in police custody at a Kolkata jail a fortnight later.

By 1977, West Bengal had heralded in a Communist government and then chief minister Jyoti Basu intervened to ensure Sanyal's release.

Was Sanyal involved in politics even after his release?

Though Sanyal had renounced armed struggle, he formed the Organising Committee of Communist Revolutionaries after his release. He later merged the OCCR with the Communist Organisation of India-Marxist-Leninist.

Sanyal later became the general secretary of the revamped CPI-ML, which was formed when several like-minded groups coalesced to form a Left-wing organisation.

On January 18, 2006, Sanyal was arrested with fellow agitators for disrupting a Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express train at the New Jalpaiguri Railway Station in Siliguri, while protesting against closures of tea gardens in the region.

Sanyal was a vocal critic of the land acquisition methods adopted by the state government in Singur and Nandigram. He slammed the CPI-M-led government, calling it capitalist, and hailed the popular uprisings in the two regions. Sanyal believed that led by selfless and strong leadership, the protests in Nandigram had the potential to surpass even the Naxalbari movement.

What were Sanyal's views about the Maoist insurgency?

Ironically, Sanyal often spoke out against the Maoist movement, even though he is considered to be one of its founding fathers. He was disillusioned by the relentless violence perpetrated by the Maoists, and the indiscriminate victimisation of poor farmers and tribals.

Readily admitting the mistakes made by his CPI-ML in its hey days, Sanyal often declared that acts of terror could not bring change; they only hurt popular movements and alienated the masses.

2010-03-15T21:39:00.000+05:30

It's a sad time when you don't have much to write. In the middle of midsems, with much to read, I chose to write. (All my posts in 2009-10 have been laments of some sort; Law school does make you sad).

Recently, I read Brave New World once again. Beyond its Dystopian overtones and its idea of hope and its subsequent extinguishment, what I find really appealing in the book is the manner in which society is shaped. An extremely communal form of life, with privacy a shred of the embarassing past, the notion of family long forgotten, the notions of commitment and monogamy buried. The idea of humanity reverting to its most primitive form of existence, albeit with modern technology ensuring it, and its manifestation in the manner described, is rather disconcerting to anyone who espouses morality of a strict kind.
The idea of morality, in the sense of the permissible and the impermissible, is a very impragmatic idea. Human nature is of greed and indulgence and any fetters on it will only result in an organized facaded chaos, as is happening today. To quote Khuda Kay Liye, 'log haraam kaam ke baad halal ghosht ki dukaan dhoondte phirenge'. Every religion dictates that one should follow a certain path, and that the path is one that shall lead you to eternal salvation. If you divert, eternal damnation. The inherent paradox of the Abrahamanic religions is evident, in terms of having a vengeful yet merciful God. Religion, or any other form of collective morality, fails to take into account an individual's degree of resistance, or an individual's propensity to indulge. This ignorance, as many beef-eating Hindus and wine-gushing Muslims would propose, will lead to the subversion of religion, and its ultimate disappearance from civil society.

Break done. Shall continue. As stated 1.5 years back, this blog stands resurrected.

2010-01-27T17:48:00.002+05:30

"Saade dil te, saade dil te, saade dil te, chooriyan chalayian
Saanu kateya (hoye!), saanu kateya (hoye!)"

Deep, profound shit.

As profound as shit comes.

I'm bored. With a capital R. BoRed.

Dil Dil Pakistan

2009-12-24T21:04:00.002+05:30

The following is a newspaper article from a Pakistani daily. Beyond humour, it provides the reader with an accurate idea of the average Pakistani's perspective on 26/11 and other incidences of Islamic terrorism in India. Also, the bit on the genesis of the Godhra carnage is of Gunda-esque standards

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The so-called lone survivor accused of last years deadly attacks in India’s financial capital, Mumbai Ajmal Kasab( or Kassaab) is set to get a court verdict today, Thursday. The Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Mr. Shashi Tharoor has already announced that Indian government was in no hurry to punish the accused as to the Indian government, the accused was a fountain of information regard Pakistan related matters. Tharoor also took this opportunity to reaffirm New Delhi’s stubborn stand that it would not resume the dialogue process with Islamabad until Pakistan does not take action against those, responsible for Mumbai attacks. The Indian government has also handed over a dossier to Pakistan government, claiming that the dossier was an ocean of evidences and knowledge about those who were responsible for Mumbai terror attacks. The main source of information in the Indian dossier however remained the alleged arrested accused Ajmal Kasab who has already retracted from his earlier statements, saying that he was forced and tortured to make those statements by his captors.

It is surprising that the Indian government is constantly insisting that Pakistan must act upon the information that is more than 90 % based upon the statement of the accused that he made under the custody on February 21,2009 before lady Magistrate R V Sawant Waghule. Interestingly Kasab, later, just after a few days and upon his maiden formal appearance in a court retracted his confession and gave a completely different version of events before judge M L Tahaliyani. This development, according to Indian law as well international judicial norms, made his earlier statement null and void and made that inadmissible in any court of law as it was a statement in custody and not in a court. However, the Indian government, without keeping in view the new development, continued and still continues upon the Pakistan government to act in line with accused Ajmal’s custodial statement that has already become invalid.

The Daily Mail’s investigations into the matter reveal that that there were enormous lacunas in the Indian dossier, based on Kasab’s custodial statement. The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that the Indian dossier was nothing more than just a wish list of Indian Intelligence agency RAW. These investigations reveal that the 900 plus pages dossier including accused Ajmal’s statement, that was handed over to Pakistan government was ironically written in a regional Indian language Marathi and there was no English version of the same provided to Pakistan. The Daily mail’s findings indicate that New Delhi was bound under UN Model Convention Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) to provide Pakistan with officially authenticated English version of each and every paper that it gave to Pakistan as the UN laws clearly restrict the for the same. However, upon repeated requests of Islamabad New Delhi finally acted but to everyone’s dismay, Pakistan was given only a 2-page English translation out of the 900-page floppy dossier and these 2pages were those of accused Ajmal’s custodial statement while English translation of no other documents has even so far been given to Pakistan as if rest of the documents of the dossier were either irrelevant or of no importance at all for India. This is not the end of the non-serious attitude of New Delhi as in yet another blunder; New Delhi sent DNA samples of same person with 2 different names to Islamabad and upon Islamabad’s pointing out, the Indian government termed it merely a typographical mistake, irrespective of the highly sensitive nature of the issue.

The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal that whatever the Indian government’s Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affair have been doing and saying has been scripted by RAW with very faulty, sandy and easily challengeable evidences, based upon accused Ajmal’s custodial statement. These investigations indicate that RAW, with the connivance of Mumbai Police and Crimes Branch acted in some acute haste to frame a Pakistani who has now emerged as a pre-arrested accused.

The Daily Mail’s investigations further reveal that in the trial of Ajmal Kasab case, the prosecution has far earned nothing but just complete embarrassment and shame. These investigations reveal that in the beginning of the trail, just ten days after a witness testified regarding the participation of India’s “National Security Guard Captain R.K. Sharma” in the operation against terrorists at Hotel Oberoi Trident during the 26/11 terror attack, the director of the elite commando force intimated the Mumbai police that the NSG does not have any officer by that name. On September 24, 2009, Rajesh Kadam, an assistant chief security officer at Hotel Oberoi Trident, testified that Captain R.K. Sharma had participated in the operation against the terrorists at the hotel and played a key role in arrest of accused Ajmal Kasab. He testified before the court that the captain had also participated in an encounter in the morning of November 28.

The special court had sought the NSG captain’s address to summon him to court. However, special prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam informed the court that he had received a fax from the NSG director saying no such officer has ever worked with the elite commando group. The development came as huge shock and brought massive embarrassment for the prosecution and it forced the prosecution to express before the court that it had no further unwillingness to examine NSG personnel as witnesses in the case. Many similar flaws kept emerging as the trail went on but the drama took a new turn earlier this month when, in another case, an Indian Lawyer exposed the tactics of RAW and Police to frame innocent people as terrorists from Pakistan and proved it in the court. According to The Daily Mail’s research, a Delhi based criminal lawyer M. S. Khan, earlier this month succeeded in proving the innocence of two persons who were alleged to be associates of a Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba divisional commander. Advocate Khan successfully proved it in the Delhi court that both the persons who were arrested by Delhi Police in September 2006 on the charges of being terrorists with Pakistan links were actually framed by Delhi Police and Intelligence officials of RAW. On the basis of concrete evidences that the lawyer presented to prove that it was just a case of framing innocent people into terror cases by Police and RAW, the Delhi Court dismissed the case and declared both the accused innocent and ordered Police to set them free. Now, this case has emerged as a very big legal reference for the defense in Ajmal Kasab case as Ajmal also pleads that he is innocent and is just the victim of framing tactics of Police and intelligence officials.

In his recent statement before the court the accused Ajmal Kasab has stated that he was already in Mumbai Police’s custody without any charge when the terror drama took place
Giving his statement in the court, he said that he was not a “Jihadi” and had not undergone any training at the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) camp in Pakistan.

Kasab told the court, which was recording his final statement on the prosecution’s evidence; he was a cook with a catering company in “Saarayee-Alamghir” near Jhelum in Pakistan. “I heard the names of Lash-e-Taliban and JUD from the police here. Crime Branch officials had shown the photograph of Lakhvi,” Kasab said.
Asked by the court if he was introduced to one Major General Saab at the training camp, Kasab said, “This is absolutely wrong.”

The judge, M L Tahaliyani, was putting questions to Kasab on the basis of his confession before magistrate in February; however Kasab disowned the confession, saying it was given under duress.

When special Judge M L Tahaliyani referred to his statement in the confession that Hafeez Sayed had told 30 boys at the LeT training camp that they would have to lay down their lives for liberating Kashmir, Kasab said: “This is absolutely wrong”.
Alleging that the police had threatened to administer electric shocks to him if he did not give a statement to the magistrate, Kasab said the police had prepared the confession and forced him to recite it.

Asked by the court, if he was told in the training that they would go to heaven if they attacked India, Kasab replied in the negative saying he did not attend the training.
Kasab also denied having told the police anything about Kuber boat and a dead body found on the boat. According to the prosecution, the group of ten terrorists had highjacked Kuber on their way to Mumbai from Karachi in Pakistan.

“I have never seen the boat; crime branch and FBI had showed me pictures of Kuber and my clothes and articles seized from the boat. These articles must belong to either fishermen or smugglers. The AK 47 rifle may belong to the police and it is not mine.” The accused earlier told the court that he had come to India in search of some place in film industry and was looking for a place to live in Chupathi area of Mumbai. He was walking with some local friends in Juhu when Police picked him up without any reason, a day before the Mumbai terror attacks took place and later forced him to narrate what he was told by police and plane-clothed (RAW) officials. He also told that he was shot in the hand by police during his custody.

The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal that the Indian government is constantly dancing foolishly to the tuned of RAW and the extremists of Hindu radical influential groups of Hindutva Brotherhood. These investigations clearly indicate that the basic purpose of Mumbai terror attacks was to get rid of Hemant Karkare who had exposed the nexus of Hindu extremists with their like-minded officials in Indian Army and RAW and who was going further to expose this nexus completely. The Mumbai terror drama was created to eliminate Karkare and to divert global focus from the outcomes of Karkare’s investigation that led to the arrest of a serving Indian Army Colonel for multiple terror attacks including that of blazing of Pakistan bound passenger train Samjhota Express, for which RAW made Delhi believed to have done by Pakistanis.

The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that there is no truth in the Kasab episode of RAW’s 26/11 drama as the actual purpose of the same was eliminating Karkare and changing the wind towards Pakistan. These investigations prove that Saffron terrorist groups belonging to Sangh Parivar were behind the recent Mumbai Carnage and several suicidal attacks and assassinations in Pakistan and India. According to these findings Indian terrorist setup Atma Ghataki Pathak (Hindu Suicide Squad), established by General ® Premnath Hoon founder of Shiv Sena’s Military Wing and his disciple Colonel ® Jayant Chitale, was responsible for planning and execution of the operation. AGP, because of its close linkages with the Indian military has succeeded in forming an unholy nexus between the serving Indian military personnel and the Hindu extremist-terrorist groups. Lt Col Shrikant Purohit, alias ‘Mithun Chakraborty’ who was arrested in connection with the Malegaon blast and 2007 Samjhauta Express blaze ( killing 69 Pakistani passengers returning from India) was also working for General ® Hoon and Colonel ® Chitale’s Atma Ghataki Pathak (AGP). AGP was also responsible for Godhra train fire leading to Gujarat carnage against Muslims in 2002 and attack on Akshardham temple in Gujarat also in 2002. Colonel ® Jayant Chitale and his associate Sanjeev Atre, were arrested in November 2002 for running a suicide training camp on the outskirts of Mumbai but were later released at the intervention of RAW. It is no coincidence that Col ® Chitale is now the next door neighbour of Col Purohit, the main accused in Samjhauta Express blaze and Malegaon blasts.

The Daily Mail’s investigations into the encounter leading to the cold blooded assassination of Karakare and his team investigating the terrorism perpetrated by Indian home grown terrorists reveals that the terrorist were staking out for Karkare and that Karkare also had revealed threats to his life to his wife Kavita, because of which, she refused to accept compensation from Indian government and later filed a case that the bulletproof vest given to her slain husband was faulty and was part of conspiracy to kill him. The Indian police have now, after more than a year, created a sweeper who claims that he had thrown Karkare’s bulletproof vest, mistakenly in a dustbin.

The Daily Mail’s finding say that according to Constable Arun Jadhav, who was with the officers Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamte when they were assassinated, the three officers and four constables had received information that their collegue Sadanand Dutt had been injured in the gunfire at the Cama and Albless Hospital for women and children. They took a Toyota Qualis which was being driven by Salaskar while Kamte was in the passenger seat, Karkare in the second row, and the four Constables, including Jadhav, were in the back row of seating. According to Jadhav, five minutes later two terrorists stepped out from behind a tree and opened fire with automatic rifles. The six policemen, other than Jadhav, were all killed quickly in the gunfire. The two terrorists approached the vehicle, dumped the bodies of the three officers on the road and, leaving the constables for dead. They proceeded to Metro Junction where they aimed three bursts of automatic fire at police and journalist vehicles drawn up at that location, then drove off towards the government offices (Vidhan Bhawan) in South Mumbai. Here again they fired several times. While attempting to leave the area, one of the tires of the vehicle burst, so the terrorists departed to obtain another vehicle. At this point, Jadhav emerged from the heap of dead bodies of his collegue constables and was able to contact headquarters.

The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that there is a long-standing internal feud amongst Hindutva groups vying for ascendancy with each other. Although Bal Thackeray is probably the most popular icon with cultist following amongst the Hindu fanatics yet at times he has shown signs of frustration that this popularity has not translated in electoral successes outside his home state of Maharashtra. Much to Thackeray’s annoyance when it comes to votes, BJP through a broader and more organized supporting network of RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal managed to steel electoral success at the cost of Sena. Although his Shiv Sena (Hindu God Shiv’s Army) was in coalition with BJP in the Union Government and in the state of Maharashtra, Thakeray was not happy with the portfolios allotted to his party.

Thakeray who has always maintained big political ambitions now wants to assume the image of militant Hindutva’s sole champion in a bid to woo many elements in the ranks and file RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal that are disillusioned with the BJP. These disgruntled elements regard top leadership of BJP, all of whom incidentally are concurrent members of RSS and VHP, to be “soft paddling” on converting India into a Hindu Rashstra (Hindu State) denouncing secular character of its constitution. A former Minister belonging to Shiv Sena in Indian Cabinet reflected these sentiments in 2003 stating that “everyone living in India must either be a Hindu or subservient to Hindus”. Nonetheless, the core supporters of militant Hindutva feel that time is ripe to make this declaration and the doctrine of Hindu Rashstra to become a state policy by formally ending the secular constitutional status of India. Sensing the infuriation of these elements Thackeray finally let the cat out the bag in a further recruitment drive of Hindu fanatics to his camp by giving an open call for Hindu suicide squads.

The Daily Mail’s research reveals that two names that surfaced in press in November 2002, in connection with Hindu Atma Ghataki Pathak (Hindu Suicide Squad), General ® Premnath Hoon former Chief of Western Command and who after retirement became Chief of Shiv Sena’s Military Wing and Colonel ® Jayant Chitale, had served on deputation with RAW imparting training on the Sri Lankan Tamil militants. Col ® Jayant Chitale also headed the Army Services Selection Board Centre in Pune for several years, where he was able to select Hindutva militant sympathizers for regular commission in the army. Col ® Chitale kept a contact with these recruits who through normal and sponsored progression in their careers went on to assume many responsible and important posts in the Indian army.

According to The Daily Mail’s findings the fanaticism of these Hindu suicide squads took a spine shuddering concept of ‘target reverse’ suicide attacks in early 2000s as witnessed in the reverse suicidal attacks against Hindu temples and government installations to blame Pakistan and Muslims. The attacks on Indian parliament in 2001, Godhra train fire in Gujarat and attack on Akshardham temple in Gujarat.

It may be recalled that the official findings of Forensic Science Laboratory of Ahmedabad, revealed that the fire in the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, in 2002 which became Casus belli for Muslim mayhem in Gujrat, was set from within the train compartment all filled with Hindu passengers and not from any outside pouring of gasoline by Muslim vendors on the train station, as alleged by Hindu fanatics. According to, Forensic Science Laboratory’s Assistant Director M J Dahiya about 60 litres of highly inflammable material inside the train, probably petrol, was responsible for the fire in the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express. Giving evidence before the Justice G T Nanavati and Justice Shah Commission of Inquiry, Dahiya had ruled out the possibility of the coach catching fire from outside as that would have left its effect on the outside of the coach. Besides, the quantity of fuel required to set it on fire could not have been poured from outside. He said that a large number or quantity of burning objects or liquids could not have been thrown inside and neither would burning rags alone result in such a big fire that burnt the entire coach in just 40 minutes. It is pertinent that all the passengers inside the compartment comprised Hindu Kersevaks, as it was a train especially reserved for them and the group members knew each other. There was no chance for an outsider to get in to set fire as he or she would have immediately spotted. Thus it was a clear act of a Hindu suicide volunteer carrying large quality of inflammable liquid, who self immolated to create raison d’ etre for carrying out Gujarat carnage.

In light of these facts that speak loudly, the analysts believe that Mumbai carnage was another act of India’s home spun and nurtured saffron terrorists with the main objective of eliminating Mumbai anti-terrorist squad Chief Hemant Karkare and his colleagues to sabotage the on going investigations into the unholy nexus between Indian military and terrorist networks with gratuitous benefit of maligning Pakistan by framing people like Ajmal Kasab. Ironically the Indian government finds itself helpless in front of this RAW-Hindutva nexus and keep dancing foolishly to their tunes.

Shaurya Divas

2009-12-06T20:27:00.004+05:30

"6th December 1992: They clambered the walls and domes of a structure that had stood for 467 years; The Babri Masjid crumbles under the blows of thousands of Kar Sevaks."

-S. Hussain Zaidi, Black Friday

17 years ago, we saw (what was deemed as the then-PM Mr. Rao as the most shameful day in Indian history) the destruction of a mosque. The defence: This is where Lord Ram was born, and hence the site should be commemorated with a temple of Ram lala (Infant). Further, a temple at this very site was destroyed by Zahir-ud-din Mohammed Babar. The veracity of the former is highly disputed, and a compromise is hindered by ideology. However, the latter seems reasonable considering many Muslim invaders destroyed temples, out of lust for Gold or love for Islam.
In order to see the logic in the claim of the Sangh Parivar, one needs to make one of the following assumptions:
1. L.K. Advani was present at the time when Kaushalya gave birth to Ram. Not implausible in the least, considering Mr. Advani looks of that vintage.
2. L.K. Advani had an epiphany, where Ram told him about where he was born. That means that Mr. Advani is supposedly our version of the Prophet. (Small prayer to the Lord: Please reconsider your choice in prophets).
3. L.K. Advani can see the past, including Hindu myth. Wish he could see in the future and predict the rodding of general elections 2009 and save himself considerable embarassment.

After you've taken the most logical pick from the aforementioned choices, discard the following streams of logic that might be flowing through your mind:
1. Ayodhya is Ram's birthplace. That means that the precise location of his birth is immaterial, and it could be anywhere in the city.
2. This might just be a story concocted by the British in the late 19th century to instigate discord between the Hindus and the Muslims.
3. This is all a political gimmick.

Now, completely ignore the following facts:
1. Destruction of temples was something that Muslims invaders indulged in, without a doubt. On one hand, we claim that we're non-violent and thus, superior to them. On the other hand, we resort to acts in vogue 600 years ago. Contradiction, anyone?
2. The Ramjanmabhoomi movement was almost completely abandoned by the BJP post-Mr. Vajpayee's government coming in power in 1999. Still a hot favourite during election time, as evinced by the youngest Gandhi in Pilibhit.
3. A mosque of numerous domes is brought to debris within hours. Simply through faith and the use of clubs. Seems like the Lord sent his own invisible bulldozers to deal with the 'Pakistanis'. A scandalous, yet plausible explanation, could of course be that there was external machinery used to raze the mosque.
4. The police did nothing to stop blatant abuse of the constitution, a document on which they take an oath to protect its ideals to the peril of their lives. The Kar Sevaks should've just urinated on a copy of it.
5. Justice M.S. Liberhan took 17 years to come out with a report. That too, an allegedly plagiarized one. Even by Indian standards, an excessively poor result of 45-46 extensions and 8 crores of public money.

When done, recognize the greatness of what we've achieved. But wait, chappies. There's more to be done.
As the super-sexy Sadhvi Ritambhara reminds us, "Ye to bas ek jhaanki hai, Kashi Mathura baanki hai!"

I don't blame any community. 85 million cannot hate their fellow man. But for 85 million to allow a handful of maniacs to represent them labels the 85 million to be such. The same is true for Islam and the manner it is perceived in post 9/11.

The problem lies in allowing idiots to make decisions. Be it any religion, any community.

"Yunaan-o-Misr-o-Roma sab mit gaye jahan se, Ab tak magar hai baaki naam-o-nishaan hamara"

-Sir Muhammed Iqbal, Taraana-i-Hind, Bang-e-Dara

मगर कब तक, इकबाल साहब? यूँ ही चलता रहा, तो कब तक?

2009-12-06T17:07:00.002+05:30

I've been going to Nizamuddin for almost a week now. Not for work, but for food. I found a place called Ghalib Kebab Corner (located a stone's throw away from where Ghalib's remains rest) which serves amazing kebabs at the cheapest rates possible in Delhi. I'd also heard of a Ghalib Academy there. Decided to check it out yesterday.
To my surprise, it was quite well-maintained (for a sarkari building). There was a vendor of books in the atrium whose collection was well beyond Diwan-e-Ghalib. It included Faiz, Majaaz Lucknavi, Josh Malihabadi, Akhtar Sheerani etc. All available for 60-80 bucks each. Being the perpetually tapped-out-of-cash one, I'd to satisfy my Urdu poetry leanings with Diwan-e-Ghalib. The next visit was three floors up, the Ghalib museum. The museum was rather disappointing except for pictures of Delhi from the 19th century and some letters penned in Ghalib's time, the ink as fresh as the day the quill moved across the paper 160-170 years ago.
What really caught my eye was the Notice board. There were Persian classes (conducted by the embassy of Iran), Urdu classes (conducted by various institutions), courses on Urdu literature and poetry, and random mushayras. It was a crude reminder of how much we've lost by going to law school. It reminded me very acutely that I hadn't read more than 8-9 books over the past 1.5 years, which is a saddening thought. What really happened? was it the urge to succeed in law school? was it the urge to beat others? whatever it was, it has effectively managed to kill a lot of me (and I believe, a lot of us). I once blogged about how I wished that the person who blogs 5 years down the line should not be entirely unrecognizable from the me pre-Nalsar. I'm not so sure if that is true, and there are still 3.5 years to go.

2009-10-30T08:49:00.002+05:30

Yaksha: "Jag ka sabse bada bojh kya hota hai"?

Yudhishthira: "Pita ke kandhon par putra ka shav"

(Yaksha: What is the greatest burden in the world?

Yudhishthira: A father carrying his son's corpse to the cemetery)

If there exists a God somewhere obscure, I pray with all my fibre that he who lost his 23 year old son yesterday finds the courage to accept this loss.

RIP

Sem 3

2009-10-18T20:36:00.002+05:30

The sad time of the sem again: A week before the endsems. This is the time when you discover the amount that you've allegedly learnt in 4.5 months. With very substantial portions of the course left to be completed in 4 working days, this week looks gloomy with the amount of self-studying involved.
This semester can be summed up in one word: loony. The elections, crazy teachers (standards of teaching have reached their nadir, or so I'd like to believe), crazy times, trips of self-deprecation, weed, 1 paper published (the whereabouts of which I'm clueless of), trips of sweet envy, 1st batch of juniors, the swine flu break, moot work, thursday debates, discovering very alarming standards of superficiality in the friendships I'd valued, and the world in general, Teacher's whisky,blah...
Ah my Quaid, if only I could be like you. Coldness is a virtue that fosters respect.

دھوپ کنارے

2009-08-17T18:32:00.002+05:30

"Dhoop Kinare (at the corner of the sunshine in Urdu) was a Pakistani television serial on the PTV network. The show centres around a team of doctors in a hospital in Karachi and revolves around their routines at the hospital and private lives at home. The show starred Rahat Kazmi and Marina Khan in lead roles, was directed by Sahira Kazmi and written by Haseena Moin.

In the early days of PTV, drama serials were usually applauded for being richly diverse in their plots and direction. The were celebrated not just in Pakistan but their quality content was cherished over the border in India as well. A long list of such dramas may usually include Dhoop Kinare as one of those at the top."

-Wikipedia

The Chronicles of the Flu-ing Swine

2009-08-12T21:41:00.003+05:30

Been an extremely eventful 36 hours, the end of which was impossible 36 hours prior to it.
The timeline moves thus:
-11th August 2009, 9:00 AM: Classes at NALSAR
-11th August 2009, 1:40 PM: End of the aforementioned classes
-11th August 2009, 2:40 PM: Ordered lunch at Greenland Dhaba, Shamirpet
-11th August 2009, 3:30 PM: Receieved a message that read "no classes till the 23rd"
-11th August 2009, 4:50 PM: Booked a plane ticket to Delhi
-11th August 2009, 5:20 PM: Left NALSAR
-11th August 2009, 8:10 PM: Reached Shamshabad airport
-11th August 209, 10:15 PM: Flight SG-236 takes off from Shamshabad airport.
-12th August 2009, 1:30 AM: Lying on my bed at home.

All thanks to the great species of pigs: First you gave me Chilly Pork, now you give me the chance to feast on it whilst I'm in Delhi. I bow to thine magnanimity.

I fervently hope that my moot doesnt get screwed up due to this.
"And all the work shall set you free.."(Nalsar, 1:12).

2009-07-19T19:22:00.004+05:30

"People like Shyama Chona never retire"
-Khushwant Singh, Babri Finale, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 18th July 2009.

After 44 years as an educationist, a Padma Shree in 1999, a Padma Bhushan in 2008 and around 60 other awards in the field of education and social welfare, Chona is calling it a day.

14 years of formal education at DPS, R.K. Puram had me fearing Dr. Chona. One of the best orators I've witnessed, she has an intimidating persona.
DPS, R.K. Puram shall always miss her presence post 12th August. So shall every student who ever knew her.

Severin,Severin, awaits you there..

2009-06-22T13:57:00.003+05:30

"They are based on the experience of thousands of years," she replied
ironically, while her white fingers played over the dark fur. "The more
devoted a woman shows herself, the sooner the man sobers down and
becomes domineering. The more cruelly she treats him and the more
faithless she is, the worse she uses him, the more wantonly she plays with
him, the less pity she shows him, by so much the more will she increase his
desire, be loved, worshipped by him. So it has always been, since the time
of Helen and Delilah, down to Catherine the Second and Lola Montez."

-Venus in Furs, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

And thus it began, masochism.
Random.

Bees Saal Baad

2009-06-09T12:30:00.002+05:30

20 in 4 days. I'd always thought that I'd die before I turned 20. Apparently not.

I've transformed into an urban tourist. Been roaming around Delhi through these vacations. Discovered amazing non-vegetarian food almost everywhere: Nizam's at Connaught Place, Kababs at the steps of Jama Masjid, Chilly Pork at Kamala Nagar, Chilly Beef at Tibetan Refugee Colony.
Delhi, outside of being home, always gives me the feeling of living history. Connaught Place, so quintessentially British; the colonies of South Delhi, where the generation that experienced the partition and witnessed the growth of Delhi is gradually kicking the bucket; Delhi-6, where each gali, each corner, has its own story to tell; Aurangzeb Road, where those who frequent the corridors of power reside.
It's been a while though. Damn heat.

307,BH-3

2009-06-05T08:11:00.004+05:30

Taking a cue from Sam's blog, here's my ode to the hostel.
NALSAR seems more home now. Everyone who knows me well enough is aware of the fact that I used to stay in Vasant Vihar till 2003. I moved to my present location, Kaushambi, after that. Through 2003 to 2008, I never cared to interact with people around here. To be honest, outside of the 1500 Sq Feet of my home, this place was never home. I always looked at it as a temporary existence, one that'll be over soon.
And then came NALSAR.

It was like moving from 14 to 19 straightaway. NALSAR brings back everything that I lost by moving from Vasant Vihar. Great friends, a lot of fun in life and a general sense of satisfaction and happiness. It has reduced my 'Dilliwalla' attitude a lot(Read: Levels of anger have reduced drastically, become more patient and tolerant).
It has brought to me something almost akin to Delhi: Hyderabad.

What I truly value about NALSAR is BH-3, more specifically, 307. It's not only Abdaal and me. It's every close friend of mine(who drops by daily; 307 is the hub of all activities). It's long nights spent listening to music, watching movies or just randomly chatting. It is a space I call my own. It is an address I wish I can remember and preserve forever.
And yes, it is also the room that brought 'Gunda' to me.

Checkmate

2009-05-14T20:19:00.002+05:30

Passed first year. I am now 20% lawyer. 4 years to go.

Been a rather uneventful two weeks, minus having beef for the first time in my life and quite liking it. Been to CP a couple of times for the quintessential Delhi experience.

Flying to Bombay tomorrow. 9 days: Food, Alcohol, more food, more alcohol. Old Friends. All I could possibly want.

Life is a funny bitch.

Jean-Paul Sartre still survives. So does Charles Baudelaire.

2009-05-05T19:03:00.003+05:30

Bada Kaske Gale Lagata Hai
Dhadkan Ki Dhun Sunata Hai
Iske Baayen Taraf Bhi Dil Hai, Iske Daayen Taraf Bhi Dil Hai
Haan, Yeh Shaher Nahin Mehfil Hai

A Case Comment on K. Subbharao v. State of Andhra Pradesh

2009-05-03T18:43:00.006+05:30

Freaky title(especially for my batchmates). My sincere apologies to those who intend to bask in blissful ignorance of the law till 15th June.
The judgment in the case of Koppisetti Subbharao v. State of Andhra Pradesh was delivered on 29th April 2009 by Justices (Dr.) Arijit Pasayat and Asok Kumar Ganguly.
The main issue in the case was whether a presumption of marriage, rather disregard of a contravention of the idea of 'legally wedded', could be entertained by the Court when the matter dealt with socially relevant issues.
In the instant case, the husband was charged for demanding dowry from his wife, an act that constituted an offence within the meaning of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code. The husband contended that he was not guilty under Section 498A and to substantiate this claim, asserted that the woman was not his 'legally wedded' wife, as understood by Hindu laws.

Justice's Pasayat's response was like a stream of light at the end of a dark tunnel of positivist judgments:
"The concept of marriage to constitute the relationship of ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ may require strict interpretation where claims for civil rights, right to property etc. may follow or flow and a liberal approach and different perception cannot be an
anatheme when the question of curbing a social evil is concerned".

In the past, the judgments in Bhaurao Lokhande v. State of Maharashtra and Surjit Kaur v. Garja Singh, have laid down that a man may not be prosecuted for bigamy under Sections 494 and 495 of the IPC, if his second marriage wasn't duly solemnized.
To put it in absolutely naive and caustic language, they gave a man in India a carte blanche to marry as many women as he wished, by purposely defaulting on some essential ceremony. These women were women sans any rights of inheritance and maintenance. The children were deemed to be illegitimate. This approach of the Court seems like a first year answering a Family Law-I paper: Apply law. Get right answer. Come out. Discuss with friends. "2nd wife fucked; won't get any maintenance; bache haraami honge (the issue will be illegitimate)". Forget about it.

The judgment in K. Subbharao's case may be distinguished to make it inoperative as precedent in cases pertaining strictly to civil matters. Rather, his observation on 'strict interpretations in matters of property rights' may be construed to support and proliferate bad law. However, it my ardent hope that the lacuna in the law, manifested in the travesties that 2nd wives and their children have to undergo at the hands of the colossally twisted system of law, be recognized and remedied by future decisions of the apex Court. So that women, who have fulfilled all their obligations as wives, are not stripped of all rights that a wife may enjoy, due to the fact that their marriage was solemnized with 6.5 steps around the sacred fire and not 7.

Here We Are Now...Entertain Us

2009-04-23T01:31:00.002+05:30

Let us all sing in praise of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. If not sing, celebrate with jumbo meatballs.
It's been a rather dull week.Not much to do apart from reading the Sociology-I module and listening to music. At times, both situations coincide and the result is what I'd like to refer to as the baap of procrastination. After 4 months of reading Contract Law and Family Law, I can quite confidently say that I've learnt almost nothing. Yes, I may be competent to tender legal advice to someone who asks for it but it still seems quite incomplete.Law School does require you to read a lot on your own, especially with the highly qualified faculty we have at hand(This is not a statement; Rene Magritte, forgive me).
What is amusing is the Kundera-esque twists that life seems to take.At times, I truly wonder whether this adversarial approach of mine towards a lot of people really is part of me. I leave the question unanswered, for I can't furnish an answer myself.
In another 8 days, I would've completed 1 year of instruction in law. It's been a fruitful year. Gained a good lot of friends, lost a few(not that I particularly regret it), learnt stuff. Most of all, I truly believe I've emerged more knowledgeable and much more humble. To put in absolutely blasphemous terms, I don't consider my trysts with Camus to be the pinnacle of intellect. There are people here who scare and inspire me with their degree of intellect. I wish I could cultivate that.
The radical difference that I see is that everyone really liked being here in the 1st Semester while everyone just wishes to escape to whichever part of the country they're from after the 2nd Semester. I won't deny that I feel the same. 4 months away from Delhi can drive a Delhite to suicide. I'm one of the few that made it. At the same time, I know I'll miss NALSAR's hostel life all my life.That precise moment, 2:30 in the morning, Roy,Abdaal,Laban,Mrinal,Sanjay and Me, on the terrace of BH-3, speaking utter rubbish, will be a moment that'll live within me forever.Nothing can come close to hostel life. It is, to put it in very mild terms, beyond this mundane world.
Ideally, Duryodhana should've killed Bhima. Ideally, Kubrick and Kurosawa should've been immortal. Ideally, I should be reading Sociology now.Let us all strive towards perfection.
P.S.- My grandmum's 10th death anniversary today i.e. 23rd. May her soul rest in eternal peace." Wherever you are Nani, watch over me". Love - Anjaney.

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention

2009-04-16T10:59:00.002+05:30

My Guitar's Gonna Kill Your Mama. My Mandolin may manage it too.
15 days left for the end of the 2nd semester. 1 year of legal education over.It's been quite different from the 1st semester. While the 1st was a drag, the 2nd went away in a jiffy. Chennai, the Moot, surprises,midsems,projects. 3.5 months without ever realising that they went by. Life went tumultuous to the point where I decided to let go off something I should never have.It's funny how one can live a life full of regrets.

Work awaits. Some other time.

Douglas Noel Adams

2009-04-08T23:17:00.002+05:30

The question is: Whether DNA was divine or bovine??
Random. Stop.
I finally stepped out of campus today. Albeit for moot work, it was quite a welcome change from the 55 acres of expanse that NALSAR has to offer. I went with two 5th Years and the entire trip was brilliant. From buying stuff you'd have considered absolutely irrelevant to discussing college to listening to Ustav's memoirs of life both inside and outside of NALSAR, I had a great time. oh, and to all the who think that I look like Shyam, the Shamirpet lake is quite a drown. The chap's actually good looking. Now to further randomness.

It's been a long time since I gave up my guitar.Here I am, sweating my ass in law school, while she weeps gently at home. I guess I'll get her repaired and bring her here next semester. Miss playing my guitar a lot. Also, chucking it was not a prudent decision. There's no thrill in life equivalent to creating music and I wish I was doing it right now.
The travesties of music aside, work is a requisite in NALSAR to keep yourself sane. If not work imposed by the academic sphere, work of any sort, even learning languages. I learnt Urdu this semester. Italian and French in the summers. Telugu in the third semester. Being a polyglot is something I'd always strived to be. If Hofstadter is to be believed, I'd be a pi-glot (Not a reference I expect anyone to understand; As a friend refers to me, I am quite a snob).
Inlaks, be mine. Till then,life, be mine.

The Untitled

2009-03-29T12:44:00.001+05:30

In the garden of thine impotence, O redeemer

Flow those flowers of evil, callous

The nectar of them, bloody wine of misanthropia

Rivers of dogmatic poison in thine veins.

Thine church of Sixtus, glorious temple of Satan

Radiantly glowing in its deception,

Thine son, my father celibate

Inebriated by the cannabis of indulgence.

O, are we then your sheep unguided,

Left desolate to find our own, while

You shine upon thine Cross so high,

We look at thee, O savior of none

Through a glass darkly

Death, that profound philosopher, is my redemption

For in life, you were to be mine

Come, my glories shall, when you judge

For I have already judged

And you, my lord, are condemned to fiction.

-Anjaney Das
28.03.09

Hamra Baba Ke Likhayl Adhikaar Chahiye

2009-03-21T18:08:00.002+05:30

There are some who are venerated beyond measure.There are some for whom any degree of veneration is too little an acknowledgment of their brilliance and greatness.To the man who represented, and will always represent, the hope of the opressed castes of India.To Babasaheb Ambedkar.

"Sun lo re bhaiyya hamri ek arji
Jeevan ha julum bedardi
Ab jhootan nahin koi ikraar chahiye
Hamra pyar chahiye
hamre Baba ke likhayl adhikar chahiye
hamre Baba ke likhayl adhikar chahiye"
(A Bhojpuri song popular amongst the Dalits of Southern Bihar)

'Jaativad' and 'Sampradayakta'

2009-03-19T22:40:00.005+05:30

Our sociology teacher screened a documentary called 'India Untouched' today. Based on the insidiously prevalent institutions of caste and untouchability, it explored the scenario in eight states of India. More than what the documentary contained (which was quite disturbing), it was the reaction of my classmates that truly astonished me. They flinched at the depiction of atrocities whose reports can be found in the average Indian daily on a quotidian basis.For me, it was something that I knew and had personally seen on my last trip to Mithila.
Whenever I've debated with someone on the issue of whether or not India has failed as a model of governance, I've always been told that the state has done a lot for its people. Indeed, it has produced countless doctors, engineers and professionals.They can be found in LA or Birmingham or Paris.My only response to an argument so fallacious is the state of Bihar, a classic case of rape and neglect. For a state which did so well in the time of Shri Krishna Sinha and Anugraha Narayana Sinha, the apathy shown towards it has led it to be the worst state worth living in India.The intellectual tradition of Bihar,and especially that of Mithila,can be traced a long way back.The knowledge of polity and history is second only to Bengal and Kerala.What Happened?
I believe the degradation of a state so enriched, in natural and human resources,is solely due to the stratification of society on the basis of caste and religion.The Bhagalpur riots of 1989 were an orgy of murder where brutality and inhumanity reached colossal proportions.Casteism is not rigid, like it is in South India, but it takes a form which is inhuman to the point where compassion for one's fellow being runs in the negative.The politicians have exploited this stratification and have reduced the degree of knowledge and education of the masses in a phased manner to the point where the literacy rate has fallen down to 47%.The dream is not of having a comfortable life in the home state.It is to escape. Every single educated Bihari dreams of being an engineer or an IAS.None of them wish to return to ameliorate the condition of their kith and kin.The spirit of kin, the spirit of doing something for the motherland, dies in this tussle to survive and excel.
To each Indian who draws derisive elation from Pakistan's failure as a state,look Eastward.We, the people of Bihar, the land of Patliputra, the land of Buddha, the land which has produced extensive and incomparable amounts of literature on every subject imaginable, are today reduced to an existence where our own nation is turned against us.It is commonplace to curse Bihar and Biharis for overpopulation in the major cities of India.Why do we come to alien cities to lead a life of indignity and abuse?Because we believe that if we live out a life in severely inhuman conditions,our sweat and blood may culminate into the emancipation of the generations to come.The hope never dies, never even flickers.For a state so cheated by her own people, we're remarkably optimistic, almost to the point of stupidity.But we cling to our stupid hope, hoping that the God we profess faith in will deliver us.Are we children of a lesser God, if at all he exists, to suffer thus, and that too at the hands of our own countrymen?
As a person brought up in Delhi, more Punjabi than the Punjabis,my observations can at best be described as those of a concerned outsider. Yet, for every single uninformed individual in India, for whom India is Delhi or Bombay or Bangalore,see the plight of your countrymen and then decide whether we truly are the largest democracy of the world. Whether that document of 395 Articles, 22 Parts and 12 Schedules is worth celebrating.

The Fact of Crap-Ness

2009-03-16T23:36:00.002+05:30

Monsieur Fanon, Forgive me.
It's been a long time since I read anything substantial. I tried reading 'Waiting for Godot'(Samuel Beckett) and 'No Exit'(Jean-Paul Sartre) with very limited success.I came across certain poems of Charles Baudelaire. HBH Morrison was quite in love with them.My own favourite piece of poetry is from Book II of Paradise Lost.Playing the absolute nincompoop, I came across it while reading 'His Dark Materials'.
Here Goes:
"Into this wild abyss,
The womb of nature and perhaps her grave,
Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mixed
Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless the almighty maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more worlds,
Into this wild abyss the wary fiend
Stood on the brink of hell and looked a while,
Pondering his voyage."
Sheer brilliance. As is HDM. I still remember how I was reading the third book a day before my chemistry paper in Class XIIth. It was intricate and exciting to the point where you're rendered open-mouthed with awe.In terms of Cinema, Bunuel and Kubrick have managed to do that to me.In terms of music, hail Morrison.
Sociology paper tomorrow.We have 3 referral texts: 2 that deal with the institution of race and 1 that deals with the institution of family.The text on family, albeit lengthy and boring in parts, makes for very good reading if one is to read it detached from exam mania.Certain explorations, and certain assertions, are so simplistic that a reminder of their existence or the rationale behind them manage to
bring that flash of clarity in your mind. Frantz Fanon, in his quite verbose and abstruse text on race, has quoted Mian Jean- Paul Sartre in places. Sartre's works have never really found a good reader in me due to my sense of impatience with his form of writing.Yet,'Antisemite and the Jew' made a lot of sense and also brought forward certain inherent characteristics of humankind which are contradictory to the point of splitting the mind.Every field has its Gods and I believe human nature was best understood and explained by the absurdists and existentialists, particularly Camus(I know Ipshita shall mock me for this) and Sartre.To be fair to classmates, I am smug. I like it this way. However, I am not self-obsessed. I am obsessed with the realisation of the self. Which is why I watch 'Gunda'.

2009-03-03T23:49:00.002+05:30

8th Amendment to the Constitution of the US: "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted".

The contradiction is not of theory and practice. It works at a much more fundamental level. It is the contradiction of pre-war and post-war. It is the contradiction of human ethics and the lack of them.
"What we have here..is failure to communicate."
-Srother Martin, Cool Hand Luke

Daddy, Junior and the Holy Spook

2009-02-22T15:28:00.004+05:30

This post is not a tribute to Kancha Illiah although I concede he was a man with thoughts and experience worth respecting. This post is my reflection on why I do not believe in the institution of God. I shall, at times, refer to the 4th Earl of Russell's arguments.
The primary reason for not believing in God has been the extremely religious atmosphere I've been brought up in. I come from a typical middle-class family which traces its roots to the poorest yet most religious part of India. Religious, not in the bigoted, but rather in the too-devoted-to-care-about-others manner. Religion has never been enforced on me but at the same time has been a constant companion in my formative years. At the age of 8, I knew more Hindu myth and prayer than the average 18 year old in India. With the imbibing of religion in my childish mind, the institution gained a follower. Premature celebration, religion. Apostasy had to follow, for the rational mind makes its choices based on reason and logic, rather than epics that run for 100,000 verses.The sweeping statements end here.

Religion, as Marx(of the Karl variety; Groucho was too busy with women and comedy to notice) defined it, is the 'Opium/Opiate of the masses'. Scholars of tremendous learning have connoted this statement to correspond to their own thoughts on the institution of religion.I, in my capacity as a person of very limited learning but a decent amount of exposure, am of the opinion that religion is too interweaved with the populace and their daily life for it to be given up as a whole. At the same time, it is an insidious poison that spreads in the veins of society, corrupting the path of the pathbreaking. His Beyond-Human-Greatness (HBH) Russell has stated that religion has only enforced the morality of a few on a whole. The contemporaneous example that springs to mind is of the Hindu fundamentalists. Religion is a force both adhesive and divisive.In the present time, it is almost quotidian to hear about some conflict in the world whose roots are latently entrenched in religion. From where I can see, the view suggests that its divisive.It led to the greatest exodus in human history.It divided sons of the same father and led them to fight for decades altogether. As HBH Russell believed, religion has done nothing for man but curb his spirit,royally screw his life and deny him his right to indulgence.So much for religion.
Now for God. If I were to refer to Hofstadter, it'd be an endless loop of 'God Over Djinn'(I don't expect anyone to get this reference). God, in the Biblical sense, is the creator of the earth and the heavens. This is one of the arguments that everyone, ranging from evangelists to saffron clad men selling Bhagwad Gitas in the Bangalore Rajdhani Express, has tried.The fallacy is obvious.If you possess the power to create,you ought to be have been created. It becomes what is defined by Hofstadter as a 'strange loop'. Loopy Loopy God Thou Art. God, in the eyes of the rational HBH Russell and Thomas Paine, is a creation of man.Man, in his height of Godless glory,created God to make modesty a continuing virtue.The virtue remains while the sanction of God is proliferated at an exponential rate. The institution has benefited the few of power. His Holiness Pope Leo X is alleged to have said: "It serves us well, this myth of Christ". Myth it sure is,Leo. Myth becomes legend. Legend becomes History. History becomes Scripture. Scripture becomes code. Houston, we have a problem.
In all,I believe George Carlin said it the best: "Religion is bullshit".
In a totally unrelated vein, I detest works of literature that have self-help motivational messages. Those are for dweebs.

Forever Dead

2009-02-15T18:15:00.002+05:30

the title is random. As shall be the post.
'Indian culture'. Brilliant term.Brilliant Cliche.Every single act of violence against expressions of love, the fairer sex and anyone who dares oppose all of this is justified at the behest of Indian culture. If those proliferating this nonsense had their way, my mum would've never got her PhD. My sisters would've never been able to exercise their right to education. Like 'good' Indian women, they'd be illiterate, subservient and oft abused.
If their ideology was to be subscribed to, Hinduism says that men and women are to not fall in love with each other. Any external or material manifestation of their love is to be questioned and quashed by any means possible.Even from the point of an atheist, this is fiction penned down with a lot of imagination.Let us not debate scripture, for the Bajrangis shall lose hands down on that point. Let us rather solve a silly little paradox here. Prithiviraj Chauhan is listed as one of the inspirations for these organisations, as he managed to defeat the 'bad' Muslim ruler, Mohammed Ghori. The same Prithviraj who abducted Samyogita in order to defy society and marry her.Go Bajrangi,solve.
If we are to progress on the incorrect premise that Indian culture advocates repression of free expression,then the very idea of free expression should be repugnant to Indian society. A clear proof of it being an incorrect premise comes from the fact that policemen in Delhi, without any orders or instructions,were bashing up the Bajrangis who dared to create any disorder. 'Screw you saffron brigade' is the clear mandate of the urban Indian population, which is somehow conveniently ignored by the fundamentalist groups.
One of the many reasons for my apostacy, this.Hail Bertrand Russell.

ءردء اءر بعنازیر بھءتته

2009-02-05T22:17:00.004+05:30

For the past one month, I've been on an off-and-on Urdu learning spree. I can read and write Urdu with average fluency now. It's quite an exciting prospect to learn a language. It's like diving into a world full of human expression. If my language spree continues, I shall graduate a polyglot.
At NALSAR, we rarely get the time to read beyond the course (barring Political Science, wherein we do manage to read things of interest although the didactics are absolute bullshit). I'd vowed to myself that I'd read a lot this semester.Being an avid reader, especially of works that relate to politics or humanity, reading Benazir Bhutto's autobiography, "Daughter of the East", was quite an irritating exercise, partly due to her fibs and partly due to a mild fever that I'd acquired. She's glorified her father beyond the wildest imagination of any person who knew about Zulfi's politics. She went to the extent of saying that it was Mujibur who was responsible for the 1971 war, at no point mentioning that it was her own father's ego that led to the Bengali agitation and the formation of the Mukti Bahini. The very same father did not allow Bihari refugees from Bangladesh, who'd supported him through the war even though they were residents of East Pakistan, to settle in Pakistan. Those people exist today sans rights,passports and worst of all,food. They can be seen in the slums of Delhi,Bombay,Calcutta and possibly, smaller towns of East India.The same father who spoke of Roti, Kapda and Maqaan but never spoke of how he wished to provide those to the common Pakistani. He was every bit like the Quaid-e-Azam. Pakistan's Quaid-e-awam, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who never cared for the Awam(Common Populace). The period described by Benazir is the time of General Zia. Zia is accused of having proliferated Islamisation in the legal system. However, it was Zulfikar and not Zia who'd started it. In a half-hearted Islamist gesture, he'd declared Friday as a public holiday and banned drinking and gambling.It is highly regrettable that a woman of the stature of Benazir(although, from what has been written about her, it can be inferred that she was an academic disaster) had to resort to this degree of untruth to back her campaign and to forward the interest of PPP.Enough of Benazir bashing. Daddy may not approve.
My love for poetry in chaste Hindi was something that gradually died after I discontinued formal instruction in the subject. These past few days, thanks to Abdaal and Urdu, I'm rediscovering poetry and have fallen in love with Ghalib's "Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi" and Majaaz's "Awaara".It's always been my belief that Hindustani poetry manages to convey emotion, particularly sadness, in a much more intense manner than English. English poetry, particularly that of Milton,is impressive but lacks the depth of Hindustani. An example of which is Taraana-i-Hind by Allama Iqbal(What we term 'Saare Jahan Se Acha').
Enough.The law of Contracts harks silently from a corner. To quote Carl Emmanuel Bach,"I'll be Bach".(And I shall forever be glad for batchmates who've heard of the Goldberg Variations; and I succesfully managed to lose my Glenn Gould CD).

In Memoriam and Undying Respect

2008-12-27T09:26:00.003+05:30

"Aye mere watan ke logon, zara aankh main bhar lo paani
Jo shahid hue hain unki, zara yaad karo qurbani"

This is my personal homage to the men who shed their lives so that you and I can sleep with contentment and security.To the men who died for their nation, a nation that has scarcely rewarded them. Sometimes, patriotism becomes a love beyond sanity. And so it was for them.I do not suggest bombing Pakistan or killing the politicians of India. All I suggest is that let this time, Indian be Indian before anything else.
I wish we never forget this incident, these martyrs.

Karz in shahidon ka hum chuka na payenge kabhi,
Par mil kar ye koshish aur dua karen,
Ki jo aane waali nasal is jahan ko dekhegi,
Wo ek roshan aur sunehra jahan dekhe, Inshallah
-Anjaney Das
27.12.08
(I'd refrained from writing anything till now because I've always felt that putting emotion into writing always conveys much less feeling than what is inside a person)

Bhaiyyaism

2008-11-14T20:01:00.003+05:30

The movie 'Deshdrohi'(Literally,one who betrays the nation) has been quite in the news the past 2-3 days. It's a movie depicting the amount of hate that a migrant from UP and Bihar has to face in Bombay. Fearing retaliation from the parochial Maharashtrians, the movie was banned from being screened in Maharashtra.Quite proximate in time,considering Raj Thackeray was cutting a cake today which was shaped like the Hindi text for the word 'Bhaiyya'. 'Bhaiyya' is a term, meant to be derogatory, used to address North Indians residing in Maharashtra.
Personal animosity aside, I condemn Thackeray's views owing to the fact that they are separatist in nature. Due to 4 months of law school, the first thing that strikes my mind is the illegal and unconstitutional nature of his views and their manifestation,ie, acts of violence against migrants. I do concede that migrants have infested the city of Bombay to the point where quality of life has reached hitherto unknown depravities. I however, do not see this as a reason good enough to draw lines between Maharashtra and the rest of India. We have lived a farce of unity for 61 years. Albeit a farce, it has managed to lead the various nations within India towards a common upliftment. Thackeray is of the opinion that jobs in Maharashtra should be reserved for ethnic Maharashtrians. In such a situation, where exactly do the muslims of Bombay, who've inhabited the city for over 7 decades, stand? Oh wait, they're Muslim. Therefore, by the definition of Thackeray Sr., they're not Indians. Matter settled.
Parochialism has been prevalent in Indian politics for quite some time. Periyar's anti-Hindi agitation, a movement I abuse superficially, is a thought that I wholly agree with. A language, alien to a people, cannot be enforced on them to suit a farcical national interest. It was a latent expression of domination which deserved to be questioned by all means possible. Language has always been a sensitive factor in India, considering the states were re-divided on a linguistic basis after the Fazl Ali Commission Report. Here is where the fallacy in Thackeray's argument lies. Most of the Maharashtrians study, or at least know, the basics of Hindi. There is no active anti-Hindi movement in the arteries of Maharashtra. How does the question of learning Marathi compulsorily come in to play? Trust Raj Thackeray to answer that.
The day is one where a man cannot move around in his own nation. Are we then really 'an indestructible union of destructible states'??
The CM of the state accuses Thackeray of besmirching the name of the state. Thackeray is doing what demagogues of his state have been doing for over a century now. From Tilak to Savarkar to Godse to Golwalkar to Thackeray Sr., the politics of hate has always been the hallmark of the state. The average,middle-class Maharashtrian is Indian over anything else. It's only a bunch of goons, from times historical to contemporary, who manage to fan hate to the extent where the majority's sane voice is drowned in an orgy of violence.
The need of the hour is silencing all polemic, by means lawful, unlawful or plainly inhuman. Our quest to survive rests on a threadbare base that needs to be supported at all times. Let's hope this fire is temporary.

That Which Once Was

2008-10-15T20:45:00.004+05:30

Today, my mentor at NALSAR(We have a mentor-mentee program here) was speaking to me. In the middle of the conversation, he told me about how he'd heard of my Columban 06 win from someone I knew when I used to live in Vasant Vihar. It suddenly brought back everything that happened in August 2006. It's been over two years but the memory is fresh in my mind. The semis, the tie-breaker with Sanskriti, how we got Caligula right, the finals, Chugh on fire during the finals, the last answer of mine(Phileas Fogg),glory. Been a long time but I still count it as one of the finest moments of life. To the Columban.

I miss school a lot. I didn't do so in '07 but after coming to college, and especially during the Delhi trip a few days ago, I've become quite sentimental about RKP. It's been a long time since I donned that uniform, went to school in a bus full of crazy 12thies, to a class with crazier classmates, the quizzes, the times...everything.
I'm in quite a 'I-miss-things' mood today. Need to go back to Delhi soon.

Delhi

2008-09-21T20:04:00.002+05:30

Delhi,13.09.08,6:13 PM: Noise.Noise.Colossal Noise. Silence. Blank Noise. Connaught Place saw a bomb explode. Within half an hour, Delhi saw six other bombs take off. Gaffar Market and GK-1, M-Block Market, places excessively crowded on a Saturday evening,were targetted.Again it leads us to question ourselves and the system: What is terrorism?? Why is it?? What can we do??
Terrorism, as I see and define it, is a mere political weapon. Its efficacy and immorality far exceed all other methods of destabilising a regime. At the risk of sounding a superficial reader, I quote Dan Brown on this: "Remove the facade of infallibility of a Government,and you remove its people's faith". That is precisely what this attack has done. As a resident of Delhi, I shall never again feel safe in a DTC bus. The end objective of terrorism is not to kill and cite retribution as a reason, but to achieve a political end. We had a recent debate in class(With extremely juvenile views on terrorism being expressed) over this and it was astounding that no one saw terrorism the way I did.Enough said.Moving on to generality-

I shall land in Delhi on the night between the 1st and 2nd of October. I can't predict what I'd do once I land. Once the gravity of it hits me. Being back in the city I've lived my entire life in. Too much in love with it to appreciate any other, almost prejudical in my ignorance of them. Reading about the Sultanate period, I realise how much that city has to offer culturally. There's a separate pride in me when I count myself as one from Delhi. The smell of her land, the people, the manner of speaking and the courtesy, the tiffs in the DTC buses, the perpetually under-construction bridges, the lanes of Vasant Vihar, the times in Kaushambi, the last ride through Delhi. Magical city of mine, Je t'aime beaucoup.

The times they are-a-changing

2008-09-07T21:47:00.002+05:30

Pakistan has a new President: Asif Ali Zardari. I am unable to understand the psyche of the people of Pakistan(DISCLAIMER: I do not believe in the typical Indian sentiment towards Pakistanis). They have,albeit in an undemocratic manner, elevated to the post of President, a man whom they once jokingly termed "Mr. 10%"(a reference to the amount of commission he used to demand for his facilitation of a mercantile transaction, in the capacity of the PM's husband).
Asif Zardari is the son of Hakim Zardari, an industrialist and the leader of the Zardari clan(Originally Baloch Jats). His marriage to Benazir Bhutto led him to be one of the most important men in South Asia. He is alleged to have abetted the death of Mir Murtuza Bhutto, his brother-in-law and a potential threat to his '10%' activities.
I do not question the political knowledge of the Pakistani people. What I don't realise is why they don't ever express dissent towards blatant misuse of power and for that matter, unworthy people usurping power. I believe this silent repression is a direct consequence of the feudal structure present in the states of Pakistan, from pre-partition times.
Whatever the case may be, I believe this decision is one that Pakistan will regret.
In a lighter vein, a mention of Pakistan makes me want to watch Dhoop Kinare and listen to Nayyara Noor.

NALSAR

2008-08-28T15:47:00.003+05:30

As promised,the NALSAR post. Left Delhi on the 27th of June 2008. Going to college is generally a mixed bag of emotions, from excitement to anxiety,elation to melancholy but for me it was all sadness. Leaving behind the city I grew up in, leaving behind a home I knew would change beyond repair by the end of my course, leaving behind a world, perfect in every aspect. Landed in Hyderabad at about 11:45.Went to the RBI guesthouse.I had my interview on the 28th.Mighty misnomer. It's just an advertising session on the part of the VC.
Joined the hostel on the 29th.The most terrible night ever(Considering the fact that I had 4 months at NALSAR in front of me at that time; DISCLAIMER: Nothing against NALSAR).
Classes commenced on the 1st of July. One week into the NALSAR life and I had friends, friends who'd be with me these 5 years, I had my prejudices, prejudices against people whom I deemed arrogant berks(A foolish thing to do for a lot of people;Some I guess will be addressed that way for all of the 5 years).
Made trips to the city. Had my life's first solo adventure trip on the 2nd weekend of August.Did projects.Got ragged.Stopped hating it.Started getting along with seniors.Preparing for a cultural fest.Introductory Moot.Sleepless nights.Long phonecalls.A vision of the future with the person whom I adore the most.My roomie,the authority on History and one of the most genuine people I've ever met in life. My moot partner,high on life, redefines assiduous.All my friends, the best there can ever be.The late night birthday bashes(which well,as the literal meaning may suggest, involve a lot of bashing,especially that of the posterior).Cheap movies. Songs off the LAN.

These 2 months have been less of an experience and more of a lesson. I've learnt how not to be cocky, how not to be verbose, how not be a smartass all the time.I've learnt what genuine hatred means.I've learnt how much I love my city.I've learnt that I'm much more confident and strong(in the sense of courage; for my external strength, I believe the maxim of 'res ipsa loquitor' is the most appropriate one to cite) than I thought I am.I've learnt what 'multi-faceted' truly means.

I won't say I love this place. It's too restrictive to love it. I do concede though that I love my hostel life. I now realise what my parents really meant when they told me about their college experiences.College life is an altogether new experience with its highs and sobreties(pun,if found,intended).

5 years down the line, it won't be me. It'll be a different person sitting here and posting.With due regard to my future self, I hope I don't change beyond recognition.Deep down,I always wish to remain the person who boarded that aircraft to Hyderabad and before doing so shouted out in rem(Do excuse the legal jargon;One of the irrepairable things law school does to you), "Delhi I love thee".

To one and all, This blog stands resurrected.

Ni Ni Ni Ni

2008-06-15T10:59:00.002+05:30

Long Long Time.
15th June 2008.2 days past my 19th Birthday.12 days left before I go to Hyderabad.17 days to class.5 years to Graduation.65 years to Death.
Next Post about NALSAR.

Killing in the Name of

2008-01-23T14:25:00.000+05:30

"Mazhab Nahin Sikhaata , Aapas Main Bair Rakhna
Hindi Hain Hum,Watan Hai,Hindostan Hamara

Iqbal!Koi Mehram Apna Nahin Jaahan Main
Maloom Kya Kisi Ko,Dard-E-Nihaan Hamara"

(Taraana-i-Hind by Sir Muhammadal Iqbal)

Here We Are Now

2008-01-23T14:04:00.000+05:30

Two images.One of a wounded child begging in Connaught Place(Clicked by me).The other of billionaire,socialite Vijay Mallya.Both revealing a different obscenity.One,the obscenity and indignity of poverty.The other,an ostentatious exhibition of affluence and supeficiality,almost grotesque in nature.

This is what we have to show for 60 years of self-governance.A nation divided on the lines of Region,Religion,Caste,Economic Status and so much more.

I do not say there is no hope.The hope is me.The hope is you. The pain in me,is the pain in you.

2008

2008-01-04T21:05:00.001+05:30

Another year over.I'm 18 1/2.I started drinking in '07. I quit smoking in '07.So its been quite an eventful year(as far as vices are concerned).Oh and I also lost faith in '07.

'08 has started on an extremely happy note.I just hope it continues that way. I've gained something too precious to lose.

Things I'm currently in love with:
1.Shona
2.Episode 1108('Make love,not Warcraft') of South Park
3.The 'Dead Parrot' sketch from Monty Python
4.J.J.Cale's 'Cajun Moon'
5.Rene's Magritte's 'The treachery of images"
6.His Dark Materials(Its so friggin brilliant)

New Year Resolutions:
1.Work as hard as possible to find Rakhi Sawant remotely hot.
2.Work as hard as possible to consider 50 Cent remotely music.
3.Work as hard as possible to read an Erich Segal novel and actually like it.

Happy New Year. Hope its a great year for you.Its turning out to be brilliant for me.

Cheers
Anjaney(Pronounced:un-juh-nay)

The End of Time

2007-12-17T22:19:00.000+05:30

This is not about an apocalypse,as the title might be appearing.Its too random to categorise.

The Kant family has specialized in refuting all existing arguments and conventions of the day.Immanuel "Why-the-fuck-am-I-so-obscure-and-gay" Kant rejected various arguments concerning the existence of god and rejected the idea of the knowledge of an object in its true form. His great-great-great-great grandson,who incidentally was born in India due to imprudent disposal of a condom, has rejected classical mechanics and all that Sir Isaac "I'm-gonna-screw-the-lives-of-all-sciencees" Newton stood for. He is our very own Shivajirao Gaekwad aka, Rajini-KANT. His rejection of gravity drew Erwin Schrodinger to suicide(but not before stating his famous equation whose textual form resembles ancient cave drawings),Albert Einstein to a haircut and Wolfgang Pauli to heterosexuality.He is what Friedrich "God-my-moustache-is-just-so-sexy" Nietzsche described in his magnum opus(Thus Spoke Zarathustra) as the Ubermensch(or the overman).

Nietzsche:

Behold!I teach you the ubermensch

NT Rama Rao(With Grand Heroic Entrance):

Screw you bunghole!We've got our own.

He is the saviour:Krishna Part X,Jesus Part II and all those who're supposed to come down to earth someday.Worship Him.

Another Prick Amongst Us All

2007-12-12T18:45:00.000+05:30

Long Time.
2 kids in Gurgaon (Aged:14 and 13) killed their classmate by pumping six bullets in him.Guys who've barely come to terms with puberty are shooting their fellow students at point blank range. The Richard-cranium filled media wasn't patient. Aaj Tak went to the extent of extracting the report cards of the shooters and informing the public that these kids used to flunk or barely pass.This is why their minds are messed up. I'd be a mass murderer by those standards.

It's not the kids who're at fault.It's the way we're bringing up our kids. 8 year olds(Seen this myself) in my old school are calling each other "Bhenchod".No understanding of what it means.No clue about why it's offensive.Saying it because they sound "adult" when they say it.Spiders help us.

I belong to what I call the 'Porno' generation. We discovered the internet at the age of 10-11 along with the darker side of it.We were the frontrunners of what is today a full-fledged billion dollar industry.Social pressure is such that 13-year old girls need to wear extremely short skirts to look cool. 13 year-old Guys need to have a Ciggie in their mouths to look cool.Where are we heading??
Rhetoric question.No answer though.

Absurdity

2007-09-06T18:38:00.000+05:30

Albert Camus once said " Any man appearing for competitive exams in India is liable to look like a geek and hence has to not have long hair".

Bye Bye Long Hair.

The Present:

When the Hymen Breaks

2007-09-03T10:04:00.000+05:30

The title is irrelevant in a very relevant manner.

The state of the media is getting worse by the nanosecond. Plug in to a Hindi News Channel and this is what you get:

Anchor: To ab Salman Khan aiport pahuch chuke hain.
5 mins later...
A: Ab Salman Khan gari main baith chuke hain...
1 second later...
A:Ab Salman Khan ki gari chal chuki hai...
THIS IS NEWS. SPIDERS HELP US.

I need a break.I was solving the integral of (1/x^2 +3x +2) in my sleep last night. IIT JEE has put a stop to my wet dreams.This is worse than the thought police.Winston atleast screwed Julia before being tortured.(Those who haven't read 1984 and are therefore clueless about the previous lines,kill yourself.)

Recent Acquisitions

2007-09-03T09:54:00.000+05:30

I've been on a book buying spree for about a week now.The Delhi Book Fair was a huge disappointment.No Camus,No Kafka.Yet,I did find a lot of buy-worthy stuff.
Them Being:
1.The Prophet-Kahlil Gibran
2.Essays on Aesthetics-Jean Paul Sartre
3.English Translation of the Adi Granth
4.Animal Farm-George Orwell(Brilliant is a grave understatement)
5.Paradise Lost-John Milton(")
6.Crime and Punishment + The Idiot- Fyodor Dostoevsky
7.Rashmirathi-Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'

P.S.Catch-22 is an amazing book.It personifies the term Dark Humour.

The School That Was,Is and Shall Remain

2007-08-20T18:50:00.000+05:30

"DPS R.K. Puram has ranked first among the top 10 schools in India, in a survey conducted by IMRB International- India's No.1 market research agency (a constituent of WPP Group pic, London) and Education World.DPS R.K. Puram stood out on infrastructure provisions, quality of alumni, integrity/honesty, selectivity (in admissions) and parameters."

And thus the Dipsite conquered them all....

Ingmar Bergman(1918-2007)

2007-08-02T07:26:00.000+05:30

Ingmar Bergman is dead.I saw 'The Seventh Seal' again and bits of 'Through A Glass Darkly'.Cinema has lost one of it's most prized directors.Bergman's movies were nothing short of art.The witch-burning scene of The Seventh Seal can move the hardest of men for it's strength lies in the eyes of the child to be burnt.The concept of playing a game of Chess with Death lacks originality(It's a part of Nordic folklore),but in it's cinematic form is brilliant.
INGMAR BERGMAN R.I.P.

P.S. The oddest and perhaps the saddest thing(for movie buffs)...Michelangelo Antonioni died on the same day.

Fuck You Okay??

2007-07-16T10:44:00.000+05:30

2007-07-08T20:11:00.000+05:30

VMC + LST + ADKTU

2007-06-28T07:18:00.000+05:30

He who joins VMC and LST, is an idiot.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Yesterday, I enrolled for LST's Plus programme. It's nothing extra or fancy. That's what they call their classroom programme.In the coming week,I'll be enrolling in VMC's correspondence programme. Thank God for regular names.

If a 'fucked up life' could ever be personified, this is it.

Ayush came up with a paradoxical question(unconsciously(OBVIOUSLY)).

Ayush V/s 'Excretally' challenged Southie (Sometime in May)

ECS: Jo bolna hai mujhe bol,meri family pe mat ja.
Ayush: Kyon be,tu apni family ka part nahin hai kya.

This reply may seem like one of the lamest comebacks ever,but delving deeper into this seemingly innocent question,you discover that it is in fact, THE question. It promises to shatter the foundations of logic. It is one the greatest paradoxes to be ever stated.Logicians like Godel would've wetted their pants if they weren't dead already. For my comrades(no communist feelings),logic is dead. It has been replaced by the Das Kumar Tiwari Usha school of Logical Negativism. Grunchspeak and ShitHeadThought is the order of 2007(Sorry George). A man,who puts you off track by growing breasts and singing 'Jai Jai Maharashtra Majha' while scratching his crotch, is in fact Big Brother. Men,he's watching you.Women,he's watching you in more ways than you can think of.If this made sense to you,go drown in the Arabian Sea,take birth again and kill me in your next life.

Mee Anjaney Das Boltoy

2007-06-03T20:35:00.001+05:30

Tomorrow I shall not be here.
I shall be in the good land.
The dowry of Princess Catherine of Braganza.
Leased to the East India Company for 10 Rs.

Maximum city,here I come.

The Resluts

2007-05-25T05:35:00.000+05:30

I got a 90%.That's Nice.

Here Goes:
Chemistry: 84
Physics: 85
English: 92
Maths: 93
Computer Science: 96

Domi doesn't noe

2007-05-09T20:47:00.000+05:30

Been a long time since my last post.

6th May 2007,2:15 pm,UPSC office,New Delhi:5000 people. 2 hours.160 questions.80 seats.Concisely put,NLS.

The dreadful period of competitions is slowly waning.As is my hope of getting through somewhere.Sad.

For months now,I've been searching for 8 1/2,La Dolce Vita(Italian) and The Seventh Seal(Swedish).Futile. For instance,

Planet M, EDM:
Me: Do you have any Italian movie?
Salesman: No sir. We don't keep those kind of movies. You can find them in the store across the road.
Me: Look,I'm not asking for Porn.
Salesman: Oh! You want a real Italian movie? As in, one with Italian dialogues in it?

So, After many such futile searches, I finally resorted to the option I knew would fail:Palika Bazar.

For those unacquainted with Delhi, Palika is the biggest grey market in Delhi. From Undies to CDs, everything's fake(Fake undies are a scary thought;not so much with CDs). I went to the nearest not-so-shady-looking store called Electronic Zone. With half a mind to leave, I asked him if he had any Swedish or Italian movie.I knew,a nanosecond more,and I shall see those yellowed teeth leering at me.The response,those golden words, "Haan! Bergman ki mil jaayegi....italian mein movie ke naam batao". I wanted to hug the guy but realised that Section 377 of the IPC is still in force. 1 hour Later: "I met death today; we're playing chess".

Golden Memories

2007-04-19T11:42:00.001+05:30

Punjabi Songs and The Ultimate Question

2007-04-17T21:34:00.000+05:30

The most obscure form of music is punjabi music.I'm not really sure if they genuinely sing in Punjabi or they blabber anything that strikes them.Whatever the case may be,punjabi music has a deeper underlying philosophical tone.I figure Nietzsche,Kant and the other philosophers, who wrote purely to exercise their vocab and ability to write useless stuff and make it look really interesting,would've been influenced by Punjabi music.
Let us not go further into this.

For centuries,scientists have answered questions.Sometimes obscurely(for fear of persecution by the hands of the church) and sometimes openly and simply(for fear of persecution by Dan Brown in his forthcoming 'Robert Langdon' novels).However,there exists a question,which is perhaps even more perplexing than the question of life,the universe and everything.And Douglas Adams has died(else he would've given an answer to this question too:Hopefully something between 45-50 this time;I'm not a big fan of 42).This question,the ultimate question,which holds the keys to the liberation of man,his soul was originally invented in India although it is credited to Thomas Edison(with 16000 patents it's hard not to attribute every invention to him). The question,ever unanswered since the big bang and the medium bang and also the small gangbang which one routinely sees in C-Grade movies,is: Agar hum rupa ki banyan pehnenge,to rupa kya pehnegi?

With these sick words,I leave you to ponder over them(and if you're male,you might as well fantasize too).

Them Boards

2007-04-04T15:16:00.000+05:30

Physics: Disgusting

Chemistry:Semi-Disgusting

English: Pretty Good

Maths: Brilliant

Computers: MegaSuperb

Blank Verse

2007-03-18T14:47:00.000+05:30

Part-C is a terse boring....

So this is what I did in the time in which I was supposed to be studying:

Was it her death that tailed her
Or was it her conscience
Or was it her Schizophrenic mind
Which she so desperately wanted to find

In the depths of her punctured heart
Lies a madness untouched,a voice unheard
A wicked smile through broken teeth
A scar on the dirty flesh,A vision blurred

The manifestation of her dreams
Her abstract nightmare
Her crooked eyes see it
Through her intelligence threadbare

At last she spoke to her God
A voice honeyed yet corrupt
A question most abrupt
"Tell me,O omniscient master,
Shall Vesuvius erupt??"

-Anjaney Das
17.03.07

Developments

2007-03-02T12:58:00.000+05:30

My Physics paper sucked...I shall not achieve my desired percentage...no matter how well I do in other subjects....

I got 136/180 in the NUJS paper...missed the provisional list by 2...25th on the waiting list...not bad for 4 days prep.....

AS YOU DID UNTO

2006-10-19T18:49:00.000+05:30

With your clairvoyant hands you write
In fine scripture, my destiny
Releive the pain and anguish of my amputated spirit
Uplift me from my mind's penury

Oh supreme father,counsellor,lord
Make these iron chains of the materialistic world change to roses
Make me rise to the summit of Sinai
Where you may command me, as you did unto Moses

I am but a worthless speck in the theatre of life
I am but an instrument of thy purpose
Lay your divine hand on my soul
Call me your son, as you did unto Jesus

Give me a glorious,redeeming vision
Let me rid this horrid world of it's sins,it's evil,it's maya
Let the comeuppances of the people come
Make me a prophet, as you did unto Isiah

-Anjaney Das
18.10.06

The Ground Beneath Her Feet

2006-08-25T22:11:00.000+05:30

Pearls of tears stream down my forlorn face
The melancholic church bells ring somewhere
i slowly fall on my knees and kiss
the ground beneath her feet

Her grave is just across the road
but for me the distance is eternity
life ceased to have a purpose
who knew it would end thus

her thoughts dominate my dreams
her voice rings in my ears
i speak to her knowing she listens
laying aside my worldly fears

i raise the gun to my temple
so that in heaven we eternally meet
suddenly i remember how sweet it felt
the ground beneath her feet

-anjaney das
24.08.06

(title stolen from the salman rushdie novel...nd da U2 song...)

The Passing

2006-07-28T21:13:00.000+05:30

And thus walked my Messiah;His head lowered
The cross cutting into His torn hide
A crown of thorns decorating His forehead
The Lamb of God condemned to be dead

Then they nailed Him to the cross
Scorning,mocking the purest of souls
Piercing His sides with javelins and swords
The divine blood gushing out of the holes

Then spake Jesus,His final words
"My God!My God!Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?"
The light of life left His eyes
Golgotha silent after his blood-chilling cries

Then came the sign of the Supreme Father
The skies split apart,thunder struck
A sign to those,believe who can
And thus passed Jesus,son of God,redeemer of man

-Anjaney Das
28.07.06

The lady besides the golden door

2006-05-06T20:25:00.000+05:30

There stands my lady besides the golden door
Her radiance reflected on my patched skin
Beyond the door lies the unknown
The air is filled with a monotonous din

She opens the shimmering door
Her body slowly melting away
Tears cloud the whites of my eyes
As her figurine begins to sway

She looks back at me one last time
Her smile intoxicating my senses
I hide my tears and falteringly smile back
Even as the walls of emotions within me begin to crack

The Angel of death, alight with a divine glow
Ignores my futile sobs and takes her away
I fall on the ground, crying like a child
Knowing that she was now in heaven,far away

-Anjaney Das
29.04.06