Be it Shahrukh Khan, management guru Arindam Chaudhary, helpless taxi-wallas, hapless cinema hall owners or the innocent cinegoers…all are turning victims of  Shiv Sena’s bid to reclaim the ground lost to Sena chief Bala Sahab Thackeray’s nephew, one-time family member and now his arch rival Raj Thackeray, who has beat Sena at its own game.

Post-Maharashtra Assembly election, while the stocks of Raj’s partyMaharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) soared following better than expected gains at the hustings, Bal Thackeray and his son Uddhav were left biting their nails and chewing their fingers in view of the relatively poorer performance of Shiv Sena. Since existence of both camps is based on hate and divisive politics, the two parties are busy making others scapegoats in their fight for supremacy.

However, to me, the real culprits are those in power in the state – the Congress-NCP combine. If the state government had to will to act against those spreading hatred in society, no Thackerays would have the courage to raise their ugly heads. Is there anybody above the might of the state? Certainly not, but the idiots just won’t budge. Apart from issuing statements off and on and providing security to Rahul Gandhi and running for his chappals, these ministers are simply good for nothing. And the ultimate sufferers are the people – the voters who elected these to the high seats.

It’s time the same people made them fart in their seats for their callous, injurious inaction. We elected them not to sit on the altar of division of India, but to keep it united. But they have turned out to be a mere bunch of jokers. Instead of preventing the hate campaign, the revered chief minister Ashok Chavan had the audacity to quip that all taxi drivers should learn Marathi to be eligible to obtain driving licence! Shame on you, Ashok Chavan! As a young and dynamic leader, he should have been inspiring the youth to take on the ills of the society, but instead he himself busy uttering the blasphemy.

Who will kill these Ravanas? Any answers? Well, we need to find one, and soon.

Lord Ganesha seated inside Shree Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai

GOD was never before so easily accessible! If you feel like offering prayer, and don’t feel like walking up to the temple, all you are required to do now is just SMS your wishes to the temple-managed electronic message box. After doing that tough, tedious and tiring job(!), you can rest assured that your prayer has reached the destination, the temple, the God’s abode!

And if you thought it’s a joke, dear friend, you are utterly mistaken! Shree Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai, which is known to be frequented by celebrity-devotees, including aging-Don Big B and oft-in trouble Sanjay Dutt, has struck a deal with a mobile phone service provider. Using this mobile service, now couch potatoes and those really hard-pressed for time can SMS their prayers to the “wish box” of the temple…to be heard (and acted upon?) by Lord Ganesha at His convenience. With around 1,000 SMSes lying to be attended to by the deity in just a week’s time, it seems hi-tech prayer is catching fast!

Shree Siddhivinayak Temple management’s love for technology is not new. The temple runs a website, where devotees can book online puja, buy devotional items from an e-shop and can also watch puja webcasts live from the temple.

“Technology has become a vital part of everyone’s life and the latest service we have started is to make praying convenient for the people who may not be able to visit the temple,” says Sanjay Bhagwat, CEO of the temple trust.

According to Shashi Kumar, of Mauj, the telecom solutions company providing the service, “Though we have not publicised this service on a large scale, the response has been good. Now, it is convenient to make a wish at any time, from anywhere…”

Now, if devotees are happy and so are the service providers, why should we crab?

A still from 'The Day After Tomorrow'

CALL it fiction paving the way for fact, or the vice-versa…it works out to the same. The likely future shape of things, as depicted on celluloid by the acclaimed Hollywood filmmaker Roland Emmerich in his movie The Day After Tomorrow, sent shivers down my spine. It has the potential to kick up a global debate on whether the mankind would actually witness the natural catastrophe that the movie talks about — the Ice Age, a fall-out of man-made environmental pollution.

Eternally yours, my love!

A few days ago, a Facebook friend of mine forwarded me the lines below. I read them and read them and read them… The poem touched my heart and soul, and I was so badly reminded of my love, who chose to desert me a few years back in pursuit of mirage-like brighter tomorrow. These simple lines reflect the urge to love and be loved, and the need to have a sense of belonging and emotional security in the most sublime manner. However, the beauty of the poem lies in its simple narrative, without using a single complex term, idea or thought. Hope you enjoy it as well.

When I worry about the future,

However, the root of the plight of our so-called (Singh is) King does not lie so much in the size of his ministry as much as in the composition of it. Owing to the politics of compromise(s) and appeasement that the Indian democracy is witness to, Manmohan Singh’s Council of Ministers has characters of all castes, creed, regions, religions, complexions, shapes, sizes and age.

There are Farooq Abdullahs, Pranab Mukherjees, Sharad Pawars, Veerbhadra Singhs, Mamata Banerjees, Kamal Naths, Ambika Sonis, Kapil Sibals, Jaipal Reddys and Ghulam Nabi Azads, to name just a few, around him to keep pulling his strings from all sides, apart from the bed-ridden, oxygen-fitted ailing M Karunanidhi calling shots from his wheel-chair in Chennai! How many calls will Manmohan attend to!!!

Then there are the members of “youth brigade”, as Rahul Baba would affectionately call his peer group. In fact, why Sonia Gandhi and her Prime-Minister-in-waiting son took their time to finalise the Team Manmohan was also because they had thrown terms like “youth”, “change” and “young leadership” during their election speeches. This necessitated inclusion of at least some young faces, which complicated the whole process of naming ministers, with the alliesdemanding their shares in the government.

Now, what goes without saying is that those pretending-to-be-serious novice faces of the Rahul Brigade would have equal allegiance, if not more, to the younger Gandhi, too. So, while outwardly it may appear that the youngsters are acting as per the commandments of cute Manmohan Singh, the real hands remote-controlling the events would be those of the Gandhis.

However, to top it all, the biggest misery of Mannu Uncle remains his backdoor entry into Parliament: his entire Council of Ministers is formed of those proud winners of the Lok Sabha election, who can claim to be the true representatives of the people, whereas our nominated Prime Minister preferred to stay away from the poll arena. What a pity! Even I like the “person” called Manmohan Singh, but can’t feel the same way when it comes to “Prime Minister” Manmohan Singh.

His nomination as PM in 2004 was because of his clean image, proven competence as economist and his amiable persona, while 2009 saw his re-nomination solely because of his unquestioned loyalty to the Gandhi family. May the Almighty give him courage and wit to steer through the tough times he is headed for! Amen.

Space Tourism

“WHERE there’s will, there’s a way” will perhaps be the best way to say it all. It was a wonder of sorts as investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen, in association with Scaled Composites, flew in the first-ever private manned vehicle beyond the Earth’s orbit. Apart from being an individual rare achievement, this historic event is sure to throw open a whole new world of opportunities for private space tourism, a term virtually unheard of until a few years ago.

The spacecraft—SpaceShipOne—test-piloted by Mike Melvill on the 21st June 2004, reached a record-breaking altitude of 328,491 feet (approximately 62 miles or 100 km), thereby making him the first civilian to fly a spaceship out of the atmosphere as also the first private pilot to earn an astronaut’s wings.

On the successful completion of the mission, Scaled Composites founder and CEO Burt Rutan said: “Today’s flight marks a critical turning point in the history of aerospace,” adding that “we have redefined space travel as we know it”. And an overwhelmed Allen felt that Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites were part of a new generation of explorers, sparking the imagination of a huge number of people worldwide and ushering in the birth of a new industry of privately-funded manned space flight.

Indeed, without even a single penny’s help from the government, the duo have driven home the point well with the prospective entrepreneurs that manned space flights do not require mammoth government expenditures. The success of SpaceShipOne flight has the potential to put commercial space travel on the itinerary of more private space enthusiasts, thereby widening the scope of leisure travel far beyond the skies. And then, who knows, orbiting hotels and space retreats might no longer be fantasies?

It was in 2002 that millionaire Denis Tito had to pay a whopping price of $20mn to have a truly out-of-the-word experience. Besides, he had also to pay an exorbitant price to undergo a rigorous training at the Russian space centre before blasted off to reach the International Space Station. But in the given scenario, once suborbitals become operational, space holidays are sure to cease to be the preserve of the millionaires.

Added to this is the fact that participation by private entrepreneurs will also liberate the so-called final frontier from government monopoly. However, it was only within hours of the first private flight to outer space that NASA went on to declare that it might offer millions of dollars in prizes to encourage commercial missions to orbit the Earth or land on the moon. “What we’re looking for is innovation like what Burt Rutan brought to the table today,” said a top NASA official, Michael Lembeck. True, bucks follow the success.

THE HINDSIGHT: Eco Brigade Opposes ‘Space Tourism’ Promotion

The success of SpaceShipOne flight has made the eco-activists sit up. They feel that holidaying in the space is bound to turn the solar system into a junkyard. The US government’s decision to issue licences for manned suborbital rockets is good only on the face of it, they insist, arguing that such licences will culminate in commercial space flights for private individuals in a decade or so.

This scepticism has its roots in the fact that opening up of space to tourism might lay to rest the delicate and hitherto unexplored “eco-space” — a virtual corollary of the numerous disasters on the Earth. To prove their point, the sceptics cite the example of Mount Everest. They say, when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgey scaled the mountain peak in 1953, it was breathtaking in its virgin beauty. But today, the magnitude of garbage and litter left behind by the tourists is good enough to take one’s breath away, thus rendering the Everest as the world’s highest junkyard.

The eco-conservationists maintain that in the recent years, the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and the Pacific have been promoted as ideal tourist destinations with abundant sun, sand and sea. But, according to UNEP, the level of plastic wastes on these islands has increased almost by five folds due to the tourist influx since nineties. Therefore, it can be safely said that space will also succumb to the habit of human beings to leave trash wherever they go.

However, the other lot of eco-activists opine that space tourism is not all that perilous. After all, space holidays are unlikely to become the ones as those on the beaches and the hill stations. Tourism threatens the environment only when the numbers become unmanageable. (From the Archives)

Also read: SCIENCE FICTION & REALITY 

Vellupillai Prabhakaran with son Charles Anthony, wife Mathivadhani and his daughter Duwaraha

“THOSE who live by guns, die by guns” is an age-old belief, which may be true in letter but not always in sprit as well. The extent of appeal of the cliche depends on who are “those” being referred to and what prompted this “those” to take up arms. A cold-blooded killer, a hardcore criminal, a roadside robber or somebody akin to a freedom fighter? They may all use arms, but their mens rea – the real intent – just may not have any similarity.

No, you got it wrong if you thought that I am here to defend the slain chief of LTTE Vellupillai Prabhakaran and what he stood for. Violence in any form must be condemned, as violence becoming the means of expression can only guide a situation to more violence.

But at the moment, the twin crucial questions raising their heads are: “Has the death of Prabhakaran also laid  to rest the cause he had been fighting for over 25 years?” and “If he was a terrorist, what should theSri Lankan army be termed as?” Yes, the Lankan army has also indulged in genocide, and indulged to the hilt. In their obssession for Prabhakaran, they ran amok killing just anybody and everybody coming in the way of “Mission Prabhakaran”, including innocent civilians.

Ever since the Lankan government went on an all-out offensive against LTTE in the northern part of our southern neighbour, the international community kept pleading for a ceasefire, not to save the “terrorist” but to allow civilians to leave. But President Mahinda Rajapaksa simply turned a deaf ear to the global outcry against the massacre in the trouble-torn land.

So, in the present case, guns seem to have only changed hands …earlier Prabhakaran used them in the name of creating Tamil Eelam, later the army used them on an ethnic minority for “liberating” a certain part of their land from the clutches of separatist rebels. Outcome in both cases was immense loss of life and property, which could have well been avoided. Now, “who was a worse terrorist?” is a question open to debate.

All these years, the fallen LTTE chief fought, rightly or wrongly, for a separate Tamil state – the Eelam, which had its roots in social discrimination of Tamils at the hands of majority Sinhalese. Journalists and other visitors to Lanka have time and again confirmed the second-rate citizen’s treatment meted out to the Tamil population. One such representative instance is that of a policeman, who refused to take down a complaint because it was being made in Tamil and not Sinhala!

The answer to the question “Whether there will be more Vellupillai Prabhakarans in Sri Lanka?” will largely depend on what the government of that country has to offer to the Tamil populace in terms of socio-political inclusiveness, coupled with a drastic change in the attitude of the majority Sinhalese. That alone can pave the way for a new era of peace and harmony to follow.

Now, no more guns, no more bombs, please!

Illiteracy

A revelation: “All developing and underdeveloped countries have a large number of illiterates!” You are neither surprised nor amused…I bet! “Revelation? Joking or what…!” you might say. And one won’t dispute you. It’s been a Third World truth since ages. But what if you were to hear that 11 million Americans can’t read English? You might say again, “Joking or what?” But now it’s your turn to be truely surprised…that’s another piece of TRUTH.

However incredible it may sound, the fact remains that one out of every 20 American adults can’t make out the head and tail of English language, leave apart English literature, according to a federal study conducted some time back. This means that no less than 11 million Americans are unfit for performing even everyday tasks.The survey studied a varied sample of 19,000 adults, who are living in homes, college hostels and even those behind the bar. As many as 30 million adults have ‘below basic’ skills in English language. Their ability is so limited that they may not be able to make sense of a simple  pamphlet, for example. However, those declared “illiterates” in the study include those, who may be well-versed with Spanish or any other foreign language but are unable to comprehend texts in English.

Illiteracy is a blot for any progressive society, and more so in case of America, the “Global Superpower” (now sounds hollow, though). There must be something seriously wrong with the system of that country where a sizeable number of people don’t know even their mother tongue that also happens to be the world’s lingua franca, incidentally.

Will you do something about it, Mr. Obama? At least, give some thought to the issue if at all you get some time free after bothering about your economy and the state of the rest of the world!