Archive for the ‘Citizen Blogging’ Category

Pak media says that the Mumbai attacks were carried out by Indian elements

Friday, December 5th, 2008

This piece of news came to me as a shock, when I saw the Pakistan media blaming the Mumbai attacks on Indian “terrorist” elements.

Here are the proofs they claim.

Mr. Hemant Karkare had worked hard on the Malegaon blasts case and already found that some elements supported by Mr.Modi and BJP was behind it. And Mr. Karkare was about to get close to them.

It is for this reason, that the Mumbai attack was orchestrated, and blame put on Islamic Terrorists.

They also claim that Indian elements did not want the Hindu extremist groups behind the Malegaon attacks to be arrested, and wanted something outrageous to happen to blind the common man and turn their attention away from the Malegaon case.

Some Paki bloggers have also claimed that this is the reason why Mr. Karkare’s wife denied the “gift” from Mr. Modi.

The media also reported that they terrorists had saffron thread banded on their hands, and was looking more like Hindus, which are evidences that the attackers were Indians.

This gentleman in the video above also claims that the name of the two attackers are “Amar Singh” and “Heera Lal” , which he confirmed from police officers belonging to the Dalit and oppressed communities of India. (That sounds like a perfect plot!!)

Now, the interesting part is that none of them are commenting about Amir Ajmal Kasab being captured and interrogated. Wonder what their reply is to his disclosures !!

What can we learn as citizens from the Mumbai attacks

Friday, November 28th, 2008

The sad side of the Mumbai Attacks and the questions raised.

After almost 36 hours now (while this is being written), over 101 people have been dead and more than 300 injured, 3 top Police officials dead, and a lot more havoc. Now what does all this teach us?

India have been a country who has thrived many terrorist attacks earlier and this attack is different in the sense that Terrorists have dared to show up themselves. As a normal citizen this is shameful to me to have let known the rest of the world that in a highly secure area like Mumbai, nothing is secure and terrorists can simply drive in on a speedboat with heavy loads of ammunition and just break into a seven star hotel. That’s simply outrageous.

simple question. What kind of competency do we award our defense system and intelligence? Is there anything at all as intelligence?

As we all know, the intelligence of a country is in detecting attacks and getting the nation to pre-occupy with measures to counter attack the anticipated attacks. There is nothing whatsoever of this kind known.

Forget intelligence. What is the kind of professionalism and competency we hold in executing these operations? Army arrives 3 hours later and completely clueless about what the hotel is like, no layout plans, nothing whatsoever!

Unbelievable – or you tell me what is the right word to describe the act when two terrorists  escape in a police cab shooting the people around on the roads. And they move to the most secure area in the country with ease and get away with it? I mean, what sort of explanation can we give for these?

Two terrorists aged around 20, boys if I can call them let the entire nation stand on a stand still for almost three days and that too in a place like Mumbai letting more than 100 people killed ? That’s a serious issue.

Problems

Politicians – Leeches sucking blood from where ever possible. These folks does not deserve any applause at this moment or ever. They have been as good as pimps, helping none, but themselves.

The losers

Mr. Hemant Karkare, and the other two police men who took bullets in their chest for the citizens of India, and their families are the ones who lost in this battle. For what cause ? Is anyone going to learn anything from it? NO.

We will let the terrorists repeat themselves, proving that they are way smarter than the countries intelligence. Help them giving free advertising, and “hero image”.

Policemen like Mr. karkare will keep losing their lives. Political pimps will keep begging votes in their names and they will attend private parties hosted by the pimps.

But there is a rising happening. In the youth, in the knowledge empowered citizens of India, against the numb politicians, against our own inefficiencies, against our flaws in the system.

There should be drastic changes. In the power folks, in the system and the controlling powers of the country.

New and young powers who will live passionately to fight the risks should rise in to power and the pimps should be avoided and pushed away. India has suffered a lot, she cannot tolerate any more, for she is no second to any other country in the world and she needs to tell that to the world now. All she needs is a better motivated leader.

My middle finger to all those political pimps out there.

Construction workers or gymnasts?

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

This is a view from my apartment to the next building where construction work is going on.

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This picture that you see is a view of the 13th floor. Sorry for the vague image but this is the closest I could get. It shows construction workers, without any safety equipment whatsoever, working at odd heights risking their life. They are on the edges, with no safety gear, no protection whatsoever.

Most of these workers are “imported” from Orissa, Bihar etc and are given the scantiest of everything – be it protection, living conditions or wages. There was an unreported incident in one of these buildings where one worker fell down from the heights to lose his life and now you know why.

The recent real estate boom in Cochin, has resulted in unbalanced and dangerous growth in many sectors such as this.

Malayala Manorama’s obsession with “blue” tooth

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

There should be a genuine reason why they are boldly at it, I’m damn sure.
What shall I call it – “Youth empowerment” ? Yes, that’s a comparatively lighter title for a commendable effort from Manorama.

Manorama is all set to do a “jan jagran” on the “blue tooth culture in Kerala”. And if you have no idea the seriousness of this issue, watch out for front pages of Manorama when there is no harthals or scoops. There would most likely be a “news article” on the new media culture, youtube, blue tooth etc and how they are making the young blood of Kerala notorious on the internet. If you want to push this aside as “yellow journalism” then my friend you are mistaken, I’d say you are rather a “non-responsible citizen” who does not understand the importance of fighting against the impending of the evils of ur society.

Malayala Manorama

Manorama have two stories to their credit on “blue tooth” until now, one on todays frontpage and another on a sunday mag (cochin edition). And I can guess how disturbed they are with this, as is a responsible citizen of free India.

What is the big evil that’s cropped up in our society today?

Mobile phones, Blue tooth, MMS, YouTube, Sleazy SMS – yep big time! If you want to know how MMS are being made, ask Manorama. Manorama’s authors know exactly how they are being made, executed and distributed across. They have illustrated each MMS story with the taste of a film script, so that even the school going children can comprehend it and understand the consequences of it. That’s a commedable effort I salute. Had they written about arrests and legal consequences of the evil, people would be disinterested for sure. So instead of writing about how to stop it, or what the truth is, Manorama takes a bold stand of illustrating each MMS stories with their stories, how they are made, who’s behind it etc so that it is palatable to everyone. Perfect plot!

According to Manorma, they have all the inside stories and details of the movie clips being circulated on the internet and mobile phones, their creators state of mind, the clips script, their plot and location, the actors, their complaints, petitions, police reports and all that.

So all those guys running the sleazy websites and porn discussion boards, beware, one day Manorama will catch you red handed. We have started a revolution to empower the youth against impending dangers from these evil deeds.

Towards a “Blue tooth less Kerala” !

Kerala Citizen Bloggers is live – Pls join if you think similar

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

As mentioned at BlogcampKerala, as an initiative to popularize “citizen blogging” and to provide a platform for passionate bloggers with social responsibility, the KCB project (Kerala Citizen Bloggers) is now live at www.keralacitizenbloggers.com

To me along with the five authors who’ve already joined hands at KCB, this is exciting. Dinu, Kenney, Anand and Juwal have pledged their contributions to the initiative and has already started their efforts.

For those who don’t know about it yet, KCB is an initiative from us bloggers who wants to raise our voice through a shared platform, against and along with the social issues around us that we all see, hear and live with. We are not revolutionists or rebels but the common mans eyes and ears. We discuss what everyone hears and we show what everyone sees.

A very simple non complicated concept, where through “group blogging” we try to grab attention towards the often neglected..seemingly “non-harmful” yet serious things around us in Kerala. It may be a consistent traffic block at a junction, or an offensive ad on that billboard, or a broken road in the locality that’s worth showing others.

We all maintain personal blogs and the initiative too will remain personal and does not reflect any thoughts of a community or group, but personal views of a group of bloggers (which grows everyday as anyone who has a valid story can contribute), who wants to tell the world a simple story – about the world we live in.

If you are passionate about it and has an interesting story you want to illustrate, feel free to join the team. Or you can subscribe to the feeds and show your opinion on the comments.

Mobile phones ban in Kerala colleges and sleazy MMS culture

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

Today there was a program on one of the Malayalam channels, where the host dressed as an advocate, was fighting his way up against the “MMS-mobile phone-cyber culture mafia” in Kerala. It was indeed a thought provocating program especially in the light of Kerala Government banning (or trying to) mobile phone in College campuses.

The program was heavily skewed and ended up with a conclusion that mobile phones are the sole reason why the morale of the youth is degrading.

Can’t think of any reason to agree to it because, I think even though mobile phones might have been one of the “side effects” of the so called “problem creators” youth culture, that definitely isn’t a serious issue calibrating and weighing the 101 plus problems we have in the Kerala society. There have been all types of people in all generations. There have been hippies in the 70’s, there were hashish and brown sugar in the campuses, and there have been guys with “sai baba hair” (No offense please) and yellow glasses complimenting pink pants in the campuses earlier. Many of them are still in the society, well in a changed size and shape.

My thought is – why does Kerala Government pick up so seemingly lesser issues and act upon while turning a blind eye(in style) to much more severe and critical disasters?

The program I was talking about showed smudged and blurred visuals of some sleazy MMS and X-rated videos, claiming that they got clippings from locked phones (which they unlocked..huh big deal!) from the campuses of Kerala. Now, is that really necessary? Are they trying to say that campuses should not talk or see porn! God almighty…what are they talking about?

According to the Law of attraction, if you start to fight against something, you are in effect endorsing it. Because you exist with your opposition only because the root cause is existent.

Similarly, trying to cut away youth from porn(shall I call it glamour?), or trying to assume that your society is holy because no one speaks about it is simply foolishness. What we need is to curb it so that it does not cross the limits where people are hurt and ruined because of it.

I’m not trying to support any sect, class or culture here, but purely agitated to the fact that Kerala, with it’s ample amount of resources, is not at all even thinking of using them for productive needs rather indulge in wasteful deeds like this, assuming that this is bliss!

Why isn’t anyone doing anything about the infrastructure development or even widening the roads? Why isn’t anyone bothered about roping in companies to Infopark? MMS scandals are scoop I know, but still.

Oh yea, meanwhile, the program – while it ended saying that the Kerala youth is “degrading” in it’s moral values and hoping that no cell phone will capture vulgar pictures of women, what came next almost gifted me a big laugh! A stage show exclusive telecast promo on the same channel where scantly clad “glamorous amrapalis”, were dancing in true “moral” style. The camera kept zooming in, don’t ask me why.

Having too many news channels is like eating from all sides

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

Yea – virtually it’s just not possible, but that’s how I feel like when I tune just another news channel on TV.

These days, there are just too many of them isn’t it? There’s NDTV, CNN IBN, uhhmm….hmm… well you get the point there right?

Too many of them = Less recall value.

If I’m right, I think there are more than 10 news channels including the regional news channels on a TataSky satellite television. One among you may be of the opinion that, more is good (Of course, if you are not pointing to the MORE retail store from the Tatas).

I think I may have to disagree. More is not good (No, not the retail store). More is confusing. More is retarded. More is un necessary.

news reader

This might probably be a one off case since we are dealing with an exceptional niche – the news channels.

Check this –

News channels are a pain in the ass for Celebrities.

I’m sure Aishwarya Rai Bachhan, Salman Khan and Sania Mirza would agree to me if you don’t. They are perfect examples of celebrities who have been ripped off by news channels again and again. 

News channels are an alternative for “sting operations”
Shakti Kapoor will give me company on this. He’s been a “celebrity” who has been “used” by the news media for it’s sting operations. I think it was unfair – the sting operations.

News channels are not really news channels all the time.
Many a times, they are news hungry paparazzis who live life in seconds and milliseconds or spots. I just had a check from my memory and have concluded safely that most of the news channels rely on non-news categories for generating buzz. Like page 3 parties, celebrity gossip, lifestyle and scrap.I mean how much of it is really news? Isn’t news all about congress, foreign affairs, international agreements and sports ?

My suggestion to all the new channels around is that –

- Cut down your scheduled time, you just don’t need to be a 24 hour news channel, just because you wanna keep looping scoops. You could do that on a one-hour per day basis while commanding more respect than now.

- Please do not copy somebody else’s story and label it Exclusive. We are all watching you guys, we know who came first.

- Cut down on your ad spots real estate.

- News doesn’t mean page 3 parties, spicy gossip or papparazzi stuff. We have mags to do that and I don’t think you can compete with them in doing it better.

Hope someone is listening, but I won’t be surprised to see a few more “news channels” this coming season.

Citizen Blogging : Some disturbing pictures from Chennai Suburban local trains

Monday, January 28th, 2008

citizen Last day, on my quests to explore Chennai city, I took one of the local trains so that I could feel what it is like traveling by a local train. This concept of local train was pretty new to me since I haven’t seen anything like that in Cochin or Trivandrum. Moreover, I’ve seen it in some tamil movies as well. So with all guts and glory I took a train from Villivakkam to Chennai central. The ticket cost is only 4 rs per person which is damn cheap. I’ve been told that only a less than 25% of the entire train commuters really buy tickets. So most of them travel free and nobody’s cross checking it. Nice. I couldn’t take the risk and bought a ticket.

After a 7 minutes wait, the train came. It was an old looking one, just like any other South Indian railways train. There were very few people on board since it being Sunday. I’m told that on weekdays, especially in the mornings and evening times, when office people commute, it’s jam packed! Thankfully, today was a sunday. So I hop in, and this is what I saw.

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People have littered the train with almost everything you’ll find at a local waste bin. Plastic covers, bottles, food items, water packets and what not? It was not a very pleasant sight at all. From the scenes I guessed that no cleaning whatsoever is being done in these trains.

People not only travel free but they also take the luxury of littering the place as well.

What a pity? The train itself is built with materials that can withstand a decent amount of wear and tear. Like the seats are made of wood, and they are polished. Had it been cushioned, I guess I would’ve seen it in a more pathetic situation.

Kudos should go to the authorities for using such materials that fight wear and tear. But I wish if there were more people employed to clean the train, and waste disposal bins placed inside the cabins (and the commuters educated to use it.).

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