Which College Major Should You Be?
	Your major should be Engineering. Logic is your friend. With enough work, you can find a solution to anything... Unless it involves dating or parties.
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Aha!

What Kind of Drink Are You?
	You are a Fine Glass of Wine. You are sophisticated and refined, but also complicated and hard to deal with. Not everyone loves you, but those who do swear that you're the coolest thing since sliced bread. One of these days the people that matter will understand you. Until then, you will be sitting on your throne as the distinguished product that not everyone has the taste to appreciate.
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Me again!

Which Springfield Resident Are You?
	You are Comic Book Guy. Who said there's anything wrong with being a nerd? Certainly not you! You may be obsessed with things no one else cares about, but your passionate about what you do, so who cares what anyone else thinks?
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Me!

Which Friends Character Are You?
	You are Rachel. You're very selfish and pay great attention to image. Spoiled when you were young, you were always the popular and snobbish kid. Although you hang on to your adolescent attributes, you grow more responsible every year.
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Smelliness

Now we had this furore over some local TV channel calling asians (or was it just indians?) smelly just last year and the whole asian comunity (or was it just those who had nothing better to do with their lives?) rose up against the "racist" americans and there were fliers and signature campaigns and demonstrations flying all over the place....it had gotten quite ugly and eventually the editor of the channel had to apologise in public and i think we got an email from the chancellor about how "shocked and appalled" she was and all that bull

OK..now i have never really bought into all this "racism" funda....well maybe thats cuz ive never really encountered it...but mostly, its becuz if someone is being racist, it shows his indifference to "other cultures" and i actually pity such people...and try my best to "educate" them that there is a world beyond america and that besides white, there's yellow and brown and black and pink and all the other kinds of colors out there...so the point is that i never really bought into this whole smelly asians thing..

but in the last 2 weeks, ive had the fortune (or was it misfortune?) to really test this stand of mine...and it wasnt pleasant...maybe its the change in weather or some extra pollen in the air or just my hormones...but the kind of stink that i have had to bear is unimaginable....every second person who has come close (within societal limits) has stunk...stunk bad!...it gets worse when u give people a ride in your car...with the doors locked and the windows up, there's nowhere you can go if someone decides to "emit gasses"...it fills up the entire car and its not something u wanna inhale right after finishing 10 hours of a work day....and then what follows is equally hilarious...after committing the crime, they try to get rid of all "fingerprints" by pretending as if nothing happened, slightly lowering the window (in the hope that it gets rid of the stuff quickly), looking out and whistling...but people...ITS TOO LATE BY THEN...all i can do then is to play with the fan direction switches and try to create a circulation which takes most of the stuff away from me...in order to not embarrass them, i also cant confront them or make faces or ask them to stop what they are doing....but I HAVE A NOSE PEOPLE!

now im not saying that its only indians who smell....the point of this blog is just to say that PEOPLE SMELL....and thats something ive had to learn the hard way..not to take anything away from those who invest in deos and soaps and bathroom time...but its that one lazyass in a hundred that spoils it for the rest of us.....

The Namesake

Finally reached the theater fighting against all odds...starting with an annoying friend who's always late for everything..then getting a bad review about the movie and deciding to watch something else...reaching 5 mins late (anyone who knows me even reasonably well knows how much i HATE being late for movies)...then dropping the plan for the movie cuz the rest of the options were crap...and so on...but then after some yelling and name calling and tense silences, decided to stick with the plan and watch "The Namesake" by Mira Nair...starring Irrfan and Tabu and Kalpen Modi (better known as Kal Penn)...

Well...the two things that struck me the moment we entered the hall were
1) there was a fairly decent crowd in the hall unlike what i had expected
2) the crown was 100% American!
Gladdened my heart to see Americans watching a movie made by an indian about indians...guess mira nair is a big name after all...

Ok..first...the review - One of the best movies i have ever seen...driven by powerhouse performances by the lead cast..i wont deny tht it felt weird watching the characters speak in bengali for a bit of the first part of the movie and having to read the subtitles..but got used to it soon...the film is very subtle and is handled with a lot of sensitivity...it has some great moments, mostly involving Irfan Khan...the film begins with tabu coming to the US after getting married to Irfan..and the first day, for breakfast, she takes some rice krispies in a bowl, and instead of adding milk, she adds red chilly powder and some peanuts to it....just like we have farsan back home...i saw some surprised faces in the audience and i had to really fight the urge to explain to them what just happened....

the film moves lightning fast, unlike what most people have said and a lot happens in that span of just over 2 hours...i did not quite get the logic of the part when the father explains to his son the reason behind his kinda funny name....but all in all the movie moves you in many different ways..and to sum it up you will HAVE to do 2 things when the movie ends:
1) wipe your tears
2) call your father

Make sure you don't miss this one..

Oh Darling...yeh hai India

Never confess. I repeat never ever confess.

If spotted, swallow the chits.

If caught red-handed, make allegations of bias against the person who caught you.

These are not notes from an Al Qaida manual but quotes from a special session conducted by a handful of city coaching classes on 'cheating and how to cope if caught'. Listening in rapt attention are hundreds of 16-year-olds who will appear for the SSC exam in a fortnight. In these special sessions, Gen Next is also taught how to get rid of the guilt that comes with copying.

TOI has learnt from students and parents that this happens in at least five coaching classes across Mumbai; in Mulund, Sion, Andheri and Thane.

It is never announced beforehand that tips would be given on cheating. Also, like a student who attended this lecture in a coaching class in Sion on Saturday said: "I was told it is a general lecture for important tips on how to write the exam and how to revise before the exam. But after some time, we were being told how to copy safely and escape if caught copying."

Recreating the scenario in the lecture hall, this tenth grader with some other friends added: "Soon after the basic instructions, like carrying your hall ticket and sharpened pencils was over, the professor said, 'if you get too tensed, it's fine to copy. There are ways to do that without getting caught'." Quoting the teacher, she added: "You can either carry chits or in desperate situations even your text, in case your exam seat is a window seat."

On carrying chits: "To use this method of copying, you will have to practice how to swallow paper quickly. Try doing that at home before you go for the examination," the professor recommended. According to them, chits can be safely hidden in socks and under shirt sleeves. For girls, professors say, writing on thighs is pretty safe. Copying from neighbours: In case you ask a neighbour to throw his supplement and the supervisor notices it, blame that neighbour. Pick up the supplement and loudly tell the neighbour to "take care of the supplements".

At another class in Mulund, children were told that it was fine to "get objectives checked from neighbours." Similarly, a student who appeared for her tenth grade exam last year said that professors at Bharat Classes, where she went for tuitions did mention that if they indulged in the crime, they must be "bindaas". Students were advised that if they take their texts inside, caution must be taken to ensure that their names are not written on the texts. Also, when the supervisor notices the book, throw it from the window or ahead. "This will ensure that there is no clarity on the real owner of the book," a professor in that coaching class said.

Lastly, most classes laid emphasis that no bribe must be given to supervisors. The word "sorry" must never be uttered, they advice. Like a student who attended a session in Andheri said: "My professor told me that even if the supervisor takes you to the principal, go there and argue. Ask them what proof do you have? It's fine if you waste some time. To waste 20 or 30 minutes is better than wasting three years." She added, quietly, "The professor who spoke about this also said that I should confidently blame the supervisor and say that s/he is biased with me, doesn't give me supplements quickly and now she's charging allegations of cheating against me. But I am a good student and I will not accept that I cheated. Because I didn't."

When this correspondent telephoned the proprietor of Bharat Classes, he applied the same technique that he taught his students. "This is a wrong number, I don't run any coaching class," said the man. The telephone number was tried again six times, but there was always the same reply.

I love America...

Most Americans are entirely unaware that the most pro-US foreign country in the world is India. It is also one of the only countries where George W. Bush is more highly regarded than in the US. The reason for this is that during the period of Indian socialism and economic isolation (1947-91), Indians were fed a constant diet of anti-American, anti-capitalism propaganda. The utter failure of India's socialist policies, combined with the emergence of the Indian-American community as the wealthiest ethnic group in the US, led to a deep appreciation for a socioeconomic system proven to empower Indians. As a democracy, Indians could understand America more readily than the Chinese or Arabs could. All this has led to a nation with 3 times the population of Europe trending towards becoming one of America's closest economic, political, ideological, and military allies.

Another opportunity to pretend to care...

As Shaukat Ali Rana crossed over to Pakistan on Saturday with the charred bodies of his five children killed in the Samjhauta Express terror attack, another equally poignant story of human loss surfaced. That was of Shabir Ahmed, who having left his country of birth as a young boy had desperately wanted to return.

But unknown to him destiny had granted him just a one-way ticket to India. Returning to India from Pakistan, where he had settled in 1989 as an 18-year-old, Shabir perished in the ghastly Samjhauta Express blasts along with his wife and four children. As if that was not enough of a tragedy, his brother-in-law Fakruddin, too, died with his entire family of four.

As Shabir’s brother Mohammad Javed, a resident of Gaya in Bihar, tearfully identified five of the bodies at the Civil Hospital here, he said, ‘‘Bhai jaan had come to meet us after so many years. It was such a happy occasion, especially for my mother, who was overjoyed to see her eldest son.’’

Borrowed words...

The Indian reality is both transparent and opaque simultaneously. What is visible is as much a part of the truth as what remains unseen. Over the years the Indian leadership, and the educated Indian, have deliberately projected and embellished an image about Indians they know to be untrue, and have willfully encouraged the well-meaning but credulous foreign observer (and even more the foreign scholar) to accept it. What is worse, they have fallen in love with that image, and can no longer accept it as untrue.

India has been a parliamentary democracy since independence in 1947; therefore Indians are undeniably democratic by temperament. Several important religions were born and flourish in India; therefore Indians are essentially spiritual in their outlook. People of different faiths have found a home in India; therefore Indians are basically tolerant by nature. Gandhi defeated the British by relying on ahimsa, his doctrine of non-violence; therefore Indians are peaceful and non-violent in temperament. Hindu philosophy considers the real world as transient and ephemeral; therefore, Hindus are “otherworldly” and unmaterialistic in their thinking.

To demolish the untruths of the past requires courage, because it is tantamount to questioning the dogmas of the modern state. Why do Indians prostrate themselves so abjectly before the rich and the mighty, and why are they so indifferent to the suffering of the weak and the poor? Why has a nation, which had Gandhi as its towering role model of rectitude, become so unbelievably corrupt so quickly? The Hindus practised untouchability against the largest numbers of their own faith. Do they then really have a claim to being called tolerant? If not, why has secularism survived in India? Can a people, whose educated members beat up a domestic servant to near death, blind undertrials to extract a confession, or burn wives for dowry, be non-violent in their make-up? If not, why did Gandhi's strategy of ahimsa succeed?