Censored!!

One of the former Chief Justice of USA has made a landmark statement abt censorship. He say it represents the lack of confidence of society in its system.

National Aerospace & Science Museum

There are some monuments which tells us the history of a great nation, some of a great man some about a great culture. Then there are monuments which show us why mankind is superior then all other animals. The science museum was one such place. It shows you the greatest discovery mankind could make, flying. We could compete with all mammals but not birds. Planes offered as a medium to compete with them or overdo them.

I was also impressed with all the models that were displayed at museum. The details of each model and their resemblance with the original one was awesome. I have not cam across or heard of anything which is closer to this kind of preservation of history. If we could build something similar with our history. I am sure we will be able to preserve our monuments and also keep people interested in watching them.
Another notable difference among all things was photography. I was not restricted anywhere while photographing. This leads to the propagation of the monument's beauty. Wish we could adopt some of goof points!!

Washington DC

Of all the monuments in DC I liked the US Capitol and the lincon Statue. All other memorials were pale in front of them. The White House especially was a let down. Virginia Caves was another big disappointment. Though the guide was had a sweet voice. Y'day we were in Philadelphia. I learned quite a bit about American history. It was good to learn how a fellow British colony has advanced to such heights. I wish we had a time to see declaration of independence.
The casualties toll in Korean war left me wondering on why the hell we wage wars?

Gully Cricket

While reading Yogesh's thought on gully cricket, many memories of it gathered in my mind. I was always a loser in field of cricket. I was lousy in catching. You can easily say I had butter fingers. Not good in batting and a chucker in bowling. I still recollect the joy in my heart when I first had caught Anup deep on a boundary. I had a uncanny habits of hitting slowest of fours in most difficult parts of ground. I could pull up a offside ball to score a boundary exactly behind the keeper. My memories of Interhouse cricket are also of a big loser. I participated in 2 most humiliating defeats of my house at school.

That's why I liked gully cricket. I was able to forget my image of a loser here. We used to play a game where you cannot hit above top and you will be given caught & bowl even if the ball is caught at first bounce. I used to bat for hours in such situation. So my friends introduced a upper limit for this game. I could also prove point or two in fielding. I had cover up my lousy fielding by showing what I had. I had a lot courage, so I used to stand very near to batsman, fearless about what can happen. So anything which could fit in my hand or I caught was a bonus. Beside it used to play on the batsman's mind that he did not wanted to hit a fellow player.

You see for my own sake, I liked it.

Muzzaparnagar

Looks like Today's TOI had more than one interesting articles. This one was for burning his own daughter alive b'coz she was in love. Needless to say the boy was also killed. I was able to understand that her lover was killed but burning your own daughter alive was a bit too much for me to digest.
The father's answer to it was "Mari beti thi, manne mar dala, tanne kya?"
What shook me was not her father's answer but that of his brother's ( the victim's uncle). He is a teacher and he justifies these killings saying "youngsters should respect elders decision." In a society where teacher's do not guide correct course of action, they are bound to be such incidents.
My roomie narrated me another saga of this infamous town. The Hindu and Moslem population of town stays in ghettos divided by a river. During any Indo-Pak match, 2 men ( one from each community) are kidnapped by another community. Depending on which side won, the victorious side will slaughter the captive and the corpse will be thrown in river. The other man will be set free. I froze for a minute and then I could digest this new story.

VHP's Fatwa in Bhopal

This peculiar news in TOI caught my eye. VHP had issued fatwa for Moslem youngsters to stay away from Hindu girls at Garba. Three contrasting things in this news:
1) A fatwa is issued by maulwis and a right wing Hindu extremist organization like VHP issues it in itself shows how these two organization work on same principle. I suggest them to form a alliance for larger interests of state and nation as politician always say while forging a alliance. :-)))
2) Eve teasing at garba is not solely the proprietary of Moslem youngsters. Come on! This is discrimination. Hindu youngsters need equal rights. What is VHP doing? Giving all rights to Moslem youngsters? Do they really represent Hindus? :-))
3) Hindu girls are not sole sufferers.

Gandhi

I received a mail today in my mailbox. The mail was on occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. It declared Gandhi, a Hindu religious leader. Now not that I like Gandhi, but he was far from what he has been described in the mail. Please! At least do not refer him that way. He was a Hindu, a religious man, a political leader who led masses by non-violent means to free India.