Fahrenheit 9/11

What a documentary! I liked specially the part where Michael Moore attempts to persuade senators to sign up their children for Iraqi war. His details on Bush Family's financial so much aligned with bin laden family reveal truth. The only things which can come closer to this type of media is sting operations conducted by Tehlaka.
I was also impressed by the freedom that media enjoys. Moore did not had to go through all what Tehlaka had to.

Pirates of Caribbean

I watched the pirates of Caribbean movie over weekend. One particular dialogue caught my attention.
" I am dishonest, so you can always expect me to do dishonest things. It is the honest one who is hard to predict. You never know when he will change his mind."

superb performance by Johny Depp.

America: What it means back home

I was talking with my sister on a Saturday morning. After the usual exchange of greetings, she started talking about my decision to earn than learn. She did not like it initially. Thanks to Sakal, she started looking at things from my perspective. Sakal started a series of newscolumn about successful business men and while reading she realized that everyone has taken a same decision as mine.
Then we started talking about my experiences in USA. She was upset to hear that I have never been to a american home. Then she started her typical questions like which book I read since we last talked? Which Plays I have seen? "No" Came the reply. By now, the teacher in her had got up. She gave me a handful of tasks as a homework. I have to explain the basic structure of American society, the single thread which explains their way of living and how all things correlate to this thread. I have to explain her how Play, Books etc, things work here. So I am gonna write about the same over few days.

Ever wondered why September?

A long queue of reminders on my orkut page! I saw many reminders in September for birthdays. Around 15% of the birthdays are in September as per my reminder stats. I slept with a thought to churn. "Why September?"

Hurricane Katrina and American Politics

Never before Hurricane Katrina I followed American Politics. Well it looks like more or the less same as its Indian Counterpart. My travel through subways gives me ample time to read different views on preparation of US Fed. Government for hurricane katrina or any such disaster. All of them accusing Bush and his government for Racism, the word charge you can throw against a politician after threat to national security. I compare it with Secularism in India. I was laughing at all of them being any other news considering the planned way to attack a Prez you do not like. ( Bush's rival was from Boston, MA).

But one comment from Mama Bush shook me up and I thought may be all of them are right. The comment was
"So Many of people here, you know were underprivileged anyway. So this, this is working very well for them."

Maine

This weekend was long weekend. I want to Maine with my friends. The scenery was a treat for my S1 IS Canon Camera. I enjoyed shooting in the range of Cadillac Mountain. Then Bikas treated with one of the best parties I have enjoyed here. He had every armour in his collection. Tequila, Irish Liquor, Whiskey, Rum, Margiritas and so on. I do not remember if there was a day 5-Sep-05 in my life.

Eve Teasing: My View

Last month Gaurav posted his views on his blog this post. Then subsequent posts expressed other views here. 1 & 2 & 3 & 4

I though may be I would like to write about it.

We need to understand the need to dress. We dress to protect ourselves from environmental factors like heat, cold, sun, etc. In west people dress in short clothes in summer to enjoy the sun which they miss mostly during winter. Did anyone ever saw someone is short clothes in winter? Our clothing should match with the environment of the place where we live. Having said that, each grown up is capable of taking a decision of what is good for him/her in that place. So we should not force our views of what is good or bad on others.

One of the examples which features in all above post is each of eve teasing and it is then compared with a woman wearing a lot of jewelry. I support Gaurav on this point because the attack on such woman is not a property/feature of good society. If she acknowledges that she might be robbed it is her practicality and such assumptions are not good for healthy society coz we are justifying the thieves in this case.

Other example is lot of talk of culture and blah! blah! Well, no book/literature specifies that wearing any type of clothes offends any culture. If a culture is offended by such limited bounds like clothes then how it can be applied to diverse people. Culture is not about what you wear. On the contrary our culture does tells us to respect women. Do we do that in case of eve teasing?

If a girl refuses to wear clothes she likes because of eve-teasers, then she has compromised due to reality. By doing so, we have also attacked her basic freedom of choosing what she wants to wear. Once a mob/group starts eve teasing it does not restrain itself to girls wearing short skirts or minis. The mob does not have a purpose it does it only for sadistic pleasure.

Let look at the thought process of a eve teaser. Has anyone ever seen a lone guy teasing girls? Why?
So as a individual we think it is incorrect but as a group we think the same process as correct. Why?
Because what we do as a group really does not matter. We just want to do something for fun. Or may be because there are no laws to punish a mob/group. Our basic thinking is at fault. We consider any action in relative terms. If there are 10 people backing one stance and only 1 backing the other, chances are 99% of us will believe that the mob is correct because 10 people have less likely chance of getting a thing a wrong. We need to see actions in absolute terms for deciding what is correct or incorrect.

I consider the supporter of other stance same as Taliban. Play football in pathanies because shorts are not in our culture. For a split of second imagine Sachin adjusting his guard in his dhoti. Aha! Imagine you have to wear dhoti each day because that is what our culture will say if we interpret it by bounded materials like clothes.