Fire the Shoe, Get Famous!

In Dec 2008, an Iraqi journalist threw not one but both his loafers at George W Bush. I am not sure how much fame that journalist got there in Iraq, but yes, by following the same strategy, one of our journalists, Jarnail Singh has got enough fame to lead rest of his life with much more ease with so many offers coming his way.

To give a brief background, Jarnail Singh (a correspondent with the Hindi newspaper “Dainik Jagran”) threw one of his shoes at Mr. Chidambaram in protest against the Congress party’s decision to field Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar - accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case – for the Lok Sabha elections. All this happened during a press conference at the Congress headquarters when the Minister refused to discuss on the Sikhs being denied justice by the party.

Jarnail Singh throws Shoe at Chidambaram

You know what perks he got for this gesture of firing shoe at our Home Minister P. Chidambaram? Check out:
* The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) announced a case reward of Rs. 2,00,000 for his “courage & bravery”.
* Akali Dal (Amritsar) leader Simranjit Singh Mann has offered a Lok Sabha Ticket.
* The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee has offered to give a job if his current employer fires him.

Wow! That’s so cool. Well, I too am thinking of firing a shoe at my ___ ?
Never mind.

Anyways, coming to the point, just look at the offers he is getting for what he did, money, Lok Sabha ticket, job and what not. Well, I am not against his protest, but my question is does he really worth the things he is offered now? Lets evaluate one bye one.
* Cash prize: Why? You think its a great achievement to throw shoe at people? Or you think its like winning the world cup of which the whole country would be proud of?
* Lok Sabha Ticket: Aha! This makes some sense to me as the young fellow looks to be having enough courage and what we call in hindi, the junoon, to fight against unjust and evil. So, he can become a good politician, and of course, this opinion is just based on his first impression.
* Job: Well, on what bases? Just because he took his shoe in his hand? or just to put themselves in the state of showing pity when he is fired? or just for show-off? But its always welcome to hire him following the usual recruitment process.

After all this, coming to main the question, whatever he did is right? I completely condemn such behaviors as it sends bad signals to the outside world. What the Iraqi journalist did is against Bush, who is not from Iraq. But here its a different ball game together. Chidambaram is our man, our own country-man. If there is some misunderstanding between ourselves then we have to solve it by ourselves, but should not make is a matte rof joke for outsiders by doing such thing. Such act against our own leader is strictly not acceptable, it sends wrong signals to the rest of the world and to our next generation as well [coz of the perks ]. One has to protest against unjust, that is fine but not in this way though. We believe in “Sathyagraha” where peace does all for us, where non-violence is the only armor. Shoe firing is not our style, never ever. But yes, it may be Iraqi style.

Google Street View

“Cheating husband caught on Google Street View? – Wife located her husband’s (who claimed he was away on business) car outside another woman’s house and now she needs divorce from him.”

Looks familiar news? Yes, this is one of the headlines in today’s news paper. Looks like Google is helping out people, especially women, in validating the the genuineness of their husbands.

Well, its a great tech achievement to show the streets of a town on your computer screen. But each coin is having two faces. In the same way, this invention is having the other side too. How safe it is to show such a minute details of a town on web? If one can have easy access to a city’s details like this, he can easily plan his moves if he is planning for some disastrous activities. Hey Google, I am not against your innovations, in fact I am a huge fan of you, but my only concern is the way people use technology for bad reasons. In today’s world, where Global Terrorism is main concern, this feature of Google Maps may ease the life of Terrorists. But how far? I really donno.

After Burn Effects

I wonder whether I am the only one who come across such a situation.
What situation? Being in Blank feeling just after a hectic project.

Well, is it really Blank? Its definitely not as its a feeling in itself but I am not able to give it a name.. During the busy days, I’ll be waiting for some free time. And when that day comes, I browse net, do some chit-chat with friends, etc etc etc.. say up-to lunch.. Then, what else? Nothing, just BLANK.. A feeling, where I start thinking, what next but don’t get any answer from myself.. Its some strange feeling which takes me nowhere.. I don’t know whether its positive feeling or negative, I can’t even tell you whether its good or bad, but yes, I get this feeling after every eventful event.. I call it After Burn Effects.. It doesn’t happen only in office, but in personal life too, after any celebration, like New year celebration with friends, Diwali celebrations with family, or an exhaustive trip.. And I am sure I am not the only one in this space.. But don’t ask for proofs..

I see Jog Falls Crying!

7th Sep, 2008. Its not the first time that I am going to see her but still the same energy is there in the air. I remember the good old days when I first saw her. Gosh! She is so beautiful. I am eagerly waiting to see the glimpse of her smile.

There she is. As gorgeous as ever. Again, she welcomed all of us with the same beautiful smile.

Jog Falls

It was drizzling a bit and slowly fog was trying to cover her beauty. We thought of trekking down to enjoy the jog bath as planned earlier. Suddenly, a notice board caught my attention.

Visit to Bengaluru Palace

After so many days my sister was here in Bengaluru on the occasion of a family function. So we planned for a visit to Bangalore palace.

So, on one fine Saturday, I took my mom and sis to the palace.From outside, it looks really awesome. Even though its very small compared to the one in Mysore, looks real cute. Remember the song from Premaloka?

Anyways, we went and asked the security, for which he said there is an entrance fee of Rs.100 per head.
What? 100 per head?
Yes, you heard it right. And even more, for camera its Rs.500 per camera. I didn’t bother to take ticket for my camera.

I thought there might be some interesting or rare things inside. So we entered the palace. We were given a guide. (And thank god! There wasn’t any extra charge for guide)

We started off with a small dance room which looked like any normal room, but the only difference is that its having some antique touch, not much. And then the guide took us to the conference room, here also same case. The only thing which amazed me are ancient paintings, nothing else. There are old photos of kings and queens hanging all over the walls, and the guide was explaining only about them. I was thinking, what the heck is this guy doing? He is wasting our time in showing these photos. I was waiting for a glimpse of something which can catch me just in first sight. But hey, its THE END!

Yes, thats it, hardly 3-4 rooms, some ancient paintings, one room filled with ancient furniture, and loooots of old photos all over the walls, nothing else. I felt like screaming at the ticket counter. But….. forget it.

Final words, Bengaluru Palace doesn’t worth Rs.100 entrance fee, never take a chance. Just go and have a bird’s eye view from outside, enough I guess.