Black Tuesday :-((

The week gone by was terrible... One of the worst in my life... These kind of times really help us appreciate all the good times we have in our life... Of course, I'm referring to the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai, which occurred in the Suburban trains, which is the life-line of the city...

It was a cowardly act, to say the least..I don't want to get into a rheoteric, just like our politicians do... My heartfelt condolences to the blast victims, on the behalf of the whole nation, who took the brunt of this cowardly attack... and I also wish a speedy recovery for those who were injured in this...

My only worry is that all these people's lives should not go in vain.... Just imagine.... the people who got killed were somebody's father, somebody's mother, somebody's child, somebody's sibling,some family's sole bread winner....What did the people who did this heinous act benefit from this??? .. I shudder to think about it...
Will the compensation bring these people back alive?.. No not at all....

The only way these people's life can be accounted for is by bringing those f@#ked up @S$holes who were behind the attack, to justice and provide a deterrent to those people who think they can mess around with Indians like this again... Pardon me for my strong language.. but these perpetrators of terror deserve much more than this.. This is just to bring out mine and many other's frustrations out due to our nation's inability shown at the moment to react....

But this brings out another question.... What's the value of an Indian's life?? Why is it that we don't value our own life?? I have come across many examples, where people don't realise their own life's value.. Like the drunk dude who tried to cross a National Highway, where cars were zooming at more than 100 kmph.. Like the cyclist on a national highway, who decides to take a turn in the middle of the road, without worrying about presence of other vehicles, whch are travelling at a much higher speed... and many other examples.....

I was speaking to a colleague of mine after the news about the blasts were out and he had pointed out that there was absolutely no value for an Indian's life due to our population. He had also mentioned that people will enquire about the safety of the people they know and they would carry on with their work..... This really hit me hard... How many of us worry about fellow Indians geting killed in Kashmir everyday?? We brush it as every day news and carry on with our life...

Just look at what happened after 9/11 .. the country was right behind the victims and against the perpetrators of terror and they support their army... Is the value of an Indian's life less than an American's life?? Just look at India now, the government has only condemned the attacks... Comon guys, every person in his / her right mind will condemn these acts.. We need more concrete action...
The million dollar question is whether there will be any action???

Kudos to the Police Department and the Mumbaikars.. I salute their spirit and am proud that I'm a fellow countrymen of heroes like these people... You need not go to the movies to see a hero, these people who helped out others are the real heroes.... But can we pre-empt attacks like this in the future.. Sadly, I don't see this with the overworked and underpaid policemen and the Intelligence agency, which is seemingly used more effectively to snoop on political rivals rather than the terrorists....

I have been concentrating on the problem, rather than the solution... So following are a few suggestions from my side that can be taken to check this growing global menace..

1. Modernise the police.. Pay the policemen better salaries and provide better insurance benefits than the peanuts they are getting now and improve the social status of our cops, and offer them all the modern equipment and support necessary to perform efficiently... After all our cops are our pride.. This would also attract lots of young talent to this profession.... I dunno how feasible this might be.. But I believe that these reforms have to take place.....
2. Eradicate poverty.. This has been the slogan of our Five Year plans decades before I was born and still continues to be.. Sadly, we don't seem to be making any progress on this front.. This is very important as people from the lower strata of our society are more susceptible to brain washing techniques used by our nation's enemies (read the messed up terrorists a.k.a f@#$ing cowards)
3.Target the leaders of these terrorist organizations and eliminate them...I know a bit about these guys, I expect our law-enforcement machinery to know lots mora about these peoplw.... they don't deserve to be treated as humans, as they are targetting humanity....Please don't think that I'm against any religion... I believe that every religion preaches the ways to salvation, violence against innocent people is not one among them.... I know that I'm 200% right and people in their right mind will agree with me...... The violence being perpetrated in the name of religion must stop... Without the leaders, no organization can exist..
4. Remove Coruption... ths again is one among the reasons for the current state of our nation... The only way this can be stopped is by the citizens......

Last but not the least, show those people what we are made of and develop our nation and become the best in the world...

Sadly, the public memory is short and this tragedy might be lost in the time alongwith other tragedies and wounds will heal... I urge all of us to not to let this wound heal, as we wouldn't want the death of our brethren due to a gruesome, psychotic act of some cowards to fizzle out in vain....

This post is dedicated to all the people who were affected directly / indirectly by these attacks.... We are with u and understand ur pain.... This is also to salute the never-say-die spirit of our Indian brethren in Mumbai..... Jai Hind!!!!

Learning from Unusual Sources

The promise in my previous post was that I'll review / try to review every F1 race going forward. After a disastrous sporting weekend, where Brazil lost to France in the World cup quarter final and both the McLaren cars crashed out at the opening lap in the US Grand Prix, the last thing I want to post about is sports.

One of my all time favorite cartoon characters Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is back on Cartoon Network and this series, which is being shown is amazing... Hey, what has this got to do with the topic??

The COO of the organization I work with, emphasise on "Learning from unusual sources" . Taking that into account, I'll be taking some of my favourite comic / animation characters and try to find out some characteristics which can be really useful. This's not a philosophical post by any measure, it's just to show that we can learn from "Unusual" sources, which in this case will be cartoon/Animation characters.

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : They have the most amazing attitude. According to them, being different is no sin and they appreciate that difference.Everyone is different in their own way, we need to appreciate the fact that we are different and others are different from us.
In spite of their regular skirmishes with the Shredder, they still enjoy their life to the fullest. But they beat Shredder virtually everytime. This can be related to the problems we face in everyday life.. We should never get bogged down by it and affect our life , but at the same time, we'll have to face it and triumph over it just like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...
Another aspect which impressed me was the amount of respect they have for their Sensei Splinter.. This should prompt us to respect our teachers and mentors

2.Batman : I like Batman more than Superman, just bcoz he's a normal human being and has no special powers. He leads the Justice League ;-), even though people with special powers are present... He shows that a person need not have any special powers to do good.. Only hard work is required.. BTW, it also helps to be a billionaire ;-)... He's also brilliant and a quick thinker.. this shows that only special powers donot serve any purpose, a person needs to always think thru situations and come out trumps...

3.Superman: He has a lot of Super Powers, but chose to use them for the good. If he had wanted, he could have ruled the world, but he chose to do good.... He shows the importance of choice in life... Our choice should always be such that it doesn't harm let alone help others...

4.Justice League: Individual powers help, but to face bigger obstacles, team work is very much necessary.. This is applicable to everything in life... Problems in family should be face by family members together as a team. Similarly in work environment, especially in software companies, team work is of paramount importance...


This is just the tip of the iceberg.. We can learn much more from every comic / animation character... Who said that comics / cartoons are only for kids?? I think that person has never watched any of them...