Call a Northeastern 'Chinki', be jailed for 5 yrs in India

Ok, 'Chinki' is a racial slur. So is Bong, Gujju, Gulti etc, but it makes sense because NE women with mongoloid features are statistically more prone to certain crimes against them in mainland. I don't think it will make life any easier for them, but any step is good. I am cynical about the implementation though.

India is rushing towards a state of cacotopia in the guise of social equality. Political and industrial godfathers with the wrong motivation and reservation based on caste(instead of merit) are two major things that need to be corrected. What ppl choose to call each other is not a concern, if the feelings are the same. Maybe folks will learn to call 'chinky' under their breath now. Would be foolish to assume that they can erase that word from the vocabulary of the common man. It will take generations of conditioning to learn to respect differences. The MHA has done it to clear their conscience. Nothing more.

Yogurt Wars

Greek yogurt is now a billion-dollar industry in the US, and has experienced an accelerated market growth in recent years. Once a specialty item, it is now a staple in most supermarket aisles. Strained and hence creamier, Greek yogurt is a healthier alternative to ice-creams and other desserts. Also, it serves as a low fat alternative to sour cream and mayo as sandwich spread. I am addicted, and I guess so are many others.

What are the driving factors of its popularity?

Lara Croft :Tomb Raider Crossroads

Looks like Crystal Dynamics is going back to basic survival strategies with a young, inexperienced Lara.

Hope they bring out a bug-free version of TR for PS3, I really miss seeing my favorite gaming diva in action.

My previous post on Tomb Raider Legend

Satyamev Jayate (video response)

Transcript:
I know there will be a lot of cynics out there who will doubt the intent– of both the creators and the host – of the show,’Satyamev Jayate’. But let us not focus on the froth (presentation), but on the essence (content) of the show.

A lot of movie stars get paid in crores per episode for judging Reality talent shows, there is no harm in that. But when a film star appears in a show with relevant social issues, we feel uncomfortable. Some bloggers have even used the term, ’social pornography’ for daring to share the stories of women who have fought against social prejudice and injustice to survive and protect their girl child. Of course, we feel disgusted. The moment when we heard about the mother-in-law, who kicked the baby cot with her granddaughter in it, we wanted to close our eyes and shut our ears to the horrors that our imagination can't even fathom. But someone had lived through it; someone who felt that she should have empowered herself before and that could have saved her. It is not that educated women are not victimized. According to the surveys cited in the episode, fetal gender determination and consequent female feticides are more rampant in urban, educated homes.

The issue is nothing novel, we have been reading about these atrocities in newspapers since we were kids. But it is not every day a show makes an attempt and it trends in everyday conversations. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. I am looking forward to the next episode, and though I can’t change your perception about a show or its host, I can implore you to judge it for the message it is trying to convey, and not for the conveyor. And I hope that the truth shall prevail.

Twitter trends on May 6,2012 . India vs San Francisco

The show site: Link

Young adult fiction

This a tribute to the countless adventure stories I read as a kid. My apologies in advance to those who can't read Bengali, but I felt the need to write it in my mother tongue first. I might translate it upon completion.

ডাক নাম রশ্মি । বয়স পনেরো কি ষোলো । সবে ICSE দিয়ে গ্রীষ্মের ছুটি কাটাতে কিছু দিন মামা বাড়ি যাবে বলে ঠিক হয়েছে , তাই মনে খুব আনন্দ । মামার বাড়ি মানেই আম গাছ, লিচু গাছ, পেয়ারা গাছ । দুপুর বেলা পাখির ডাক শুনতে শুনতে গাছে ঝুলে ঝুলে ফল পেড়ে খাওয়া - কেও মানা করবে না ।

মা ও তখন পড়ার জন্যে জোর করেন না । আর আসে পাশে সমবয়েসী অনেক প্রতিবেশী আছে, আর আছে মাম - রশ্মির প্রিয় বান্ধবী । শুভদা, সোনাদাদা - এরাও আছে যারা স্কুল মাঠে ক্রিকেট খেলে; আর মা আম কুচি বানিয়ে দিলে সব হর হর করে চলে আসে । সেই মামার বাড়িতেই যে এত কান্ড হবে সে কে জানত ?

পরীক্ষা শেষ হলো পর ঠিক হলো যে মা আর রশ্মি আগে চলে যাবে, বাবা কিছু দিন বাড়ি থেকে অফিস করে এরপর ওদের ফেরার সময় হলে গিয়ে এক দিন নিয়ে আসবেন ।

A tale of two…

It is the nth time when a group of aestheticians rounded up on me and said how fortunate I was to never need augmentation for certain body part(s). I told them I was not too happy. Honestly, I am worried what age will do to them. Not that I was very comfortable with them in the beginning either. In my early teens, small protuberances appeared on my hitherto proud flat chest and I tried to counter their attempts at gaining acknowledgment by walking with a forward stoop. I felt the whole world knew something was wrong with my body. My mother noticed me one day and asked me why I was walking weird. One of the most wonderful things that make a mother is that she understands her child’s problems-most of the times-without explicitness. She tried to reason in an old- fashioned way about the 'ornaments' of womankind and that I should bear them with pride. Ornaments or not, I understood that for better or for worse, they were there to stay.

The Salesman

Everyone has the potential to become a hero- given the right circumstances. How many times during desperate dark hours of desultoriness have we wished our lives were a little less ordinary- that we mattered to someone – to a life other than our own? Here is one such story of an ordinary man. I wrote this in Feb for a website,  but published it in my blog now. An attempt to make the gender, personality and language of the protagonist markedly different  from the author's.:D

I work for a small Marketing Management firm- it is just another way of saying that I am a bonded laborer for a parasite organization that cleans the shit of bigger firms when no one else wants to. We are set off as Knight Templers in the beginning of a campaign the big whale wants to pilot, but if we succeed in meeting our targets, the big guys take our jobs and give it to their boys. Why? Because we work at half the pay their sales unit does, and they don’t want to waste the talent of Ivy League kids on fruitless test campaigns. It is something about managing the resources- I know that much.

I graduated from a community college- attending night classes while I worked the days at the university. I lived in an apartment with five other guys from the university so that I could make my rent; I still do. I had high hopes till the day of my convocation, but when the career fairs yielded zilch and the Finance grads were the first to start paying off their student loans, I realized that it might be a long time before I started living my dream.