A Lone Terrorist

Almost a year since the horrific attack on Mumbai. The city is back on its legs quite some time back. Upholding once again, the spirit of the city. There have been many attacks on Mumbai. And this one's same but with a difference. India had managed to capture a terrorist alive.

And, he is becoming a liability. The amount that goes in to the security and well being of this lone person!! But is it in the benefit of India that this terrorist has been kept alive, as against carry out a sentence quickly as in many of the hardliner countries.

For one, India is the largest democracy with equal rights to all humans and blah blah blah....Bullshit!! He deserves to die a more cruel death. Just yesterday I read in some newspapers that after killing lots of people during the attack, one terrorist asked a person for water, drank from him, and then shot him dead.

Then why is he being kept under maximum security with all the expenses incurred? Well, he is an international figure now. And his well being will help India prove that our neighbours are the centre point of terrorism. A lots of proof has come up against our neighbours, and though they themselves in trouble internally, it is being proved time and again that they are the root of all the evil in the world. Day after day, more and more revelations come from this lone terrorist, and killing him would mean an end to this information inflow. It's worth a thousands of intelligence agents.

The whole exercise, by the way, is to prove to the "super powers", who is the real victim and who is the criminal. This might not warrant any inflow of counter-terrorism funds to our country, but might stop the funds being provided to the wolf in sheep skin to counter(read promote) terrorism.

The Glorified Racists

A lot is being said about cafe leopold lately, due to its involvement as a victim in the 26th nov 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai. The attack had killed 10 people including two staff of the cafe. But keeping up with the spirit of Mumbai, it reopened for business very soon, preserving the telltale signs of tragedy that was 26th Nov.  Its a very good example of the phoenix rising out of ashes.

But now for the darker side. Does the cafe belong to Indians. It has been frequented by foreigners since its establishment, the most noted of all being the criminal turned writer, Gregory David Roberts, a.k.a. Shantaram. Its is visited my many a celebraties from India and abroad along with shantaram himself.

But you try to visit it. If you are not know to someone of "someone", you are sure to wait out for a long time. An incident with a friend of mine. He along with his mates had gone to this cafe for the first time. There were many a tables empty which could be seen from door, but they were kept waiting out side. On being confronted with a question about this, the  staff informed that those tables were for foreigners and if they didn't have enough patience to wait, they might as well leave.

This incident can be compares to Mahatma Gandhi being pushed from the train, of Cassius Clay not allowed entry in an all white cafe. I do not have any  word for this act, other than racism.

My friends didn't have large followers to take a march against this, nor did he win any gold medal to throw in the sea as a protest.

Political HeavyWeights. Literally!!

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Barter!! Its Still Exists !!!

Being a marine engineer by profession, my job took me around the world in past five years. This particular incident at an Argentine sea port, Necochea.

Me and an electrical officer had gone for a city visit in the evening. A very good and non crowded city it is. Both of  knew only one word in spanish. Gracias. So with this asset in our hand we were going about the city. Well, time came for our return to the ship, and we started the search of a cab. And no one was ready to come. It was very difficult bargaining with them since there were only private cabs in sight. No meter based cabs were around.

Finally with the help of one cab owner, we managed to persuade a driver to take us. He asked us for five dollars, and we had three. And another 100 dollar note which they wouldn't have change for. We tried to explain the situation to the driver but couldn't, with the only word we knew. But some how he understood the situation and agreed to take us.

Half way to the port, he stopped, and made a sign with two fingers indicating that we should go walking from there. After all the unintellegable agrument that followed, the driver pointed at the shopping bag in my hand. I saw a bag of  potato chips protruding from it , with the price clearly visible as 2$. Immediately we agreed and he reached us to our destination in exchange of 3$ and a bag of potato chips.

Well, who says barter is a thing of past?

We could do with this

As we know, Mohammad Rafi, the top class playback singer of yesteryears, was also a contributor as a play back singer for marathi cinema. I personally love his marathi songs, 'hasa mulanno hasa' and 'haa chanda jivala laavi pise'. Its difficult to make out that this person was a non marathi play back singer.

His entry to marathi cinema was with a quite examplary story. To whom, I will let you guess. He was asked to sing a particular song in marathi, but he was not well versed with the language. The lyricist of this song came to his rescue in a very innovative way. He, being well versed in urdu,  wrote the entire marathi lyrics in urdu script and Mohammad Rafi sung the song in that script.

Can you guess who the lyricist was? Well it was Mr. Shrikant Thackery, father of our very own marathi maanos, Raj Thackery.

A Non Issue Well Handled

As we all know, Mohammad Rafi, the well known