I remember it was in a history class in high school that we were having a discussion about how we often overlook the importance or impact of events in the present. I don't remember the specifics, the history teacher had picked a day in the 20th century when a significant event had taken place, some government had been overthrown, however on the same day some country on the opposite side of the globe had tested a weapon or something...The former event was covered on a large scale and the latter, equally important or may be even more, went unnoticed at the moment these were occuring. I remembered this because of what happened in the last few days.
The Iranian leader spoke at an Ivy League college and on the other side of the world people protested the military over taking their government and oh yea! hal03 came out.
Now for those of you who think that the last one mentioned can hardly be compared with the former two... you need to go check out the stats on how many brains are wired to that game as we speak... yes people this is the world you live in ... where at the same time all these unrelated events could be occurring....
Monks in Burma urged citizens to engage in a non-violent protest against the Burmese military, these monks besides their non violent stance are being attacked by the military and killed. It is difficult to get information out of Burma because military is crack
ing down on the journalists and fabricating figures of casuality to the outside world. I just heard a coverage on NPR over the radio that talked about how monks were actually being killed and arrested. It is a difficult time for the country, what I don't understand is what other countries are doing to help. Unfortunately, it seems India is not supporting the right side, what amazed me and my co-blogger friend was ... isn't India the country where Buddhism originated? Does anyone else know about what other countries are doing about this situation in Burma? Do let us know.
Going back to the Iranian leader, I do not support hatred or extremists, however I do support open dialogue. I think it makes sense to have leaders everywhere talk to people in different countries. That way we will know what they say, when they say it and to some degree be able to judge their character for ourself. That way we won't have CNN telling us what is important and what is not. Many people did not like him coming over here and talking, these are the people who confuse listening to the other side talk with supporting the other side. You are not supporting the opponent when you listen to them, you are only making yourself knowledgeable about who your opponent is.
their basic argument : "Oh, he's gonna come over here and spew hate"
my question: "do you think if we choose to not hear this from him, the hate will simply disappear ?"
Dialogue is important, communication is important and it is most important for leaders. No matter how much we all wish that this guy was not a leader the fact is that he is a leader, he is a leader of a country, a country next to the country where the young men and women of this country are fighting. Why in the world would you NOT want to know what this guy has to say ?
So, these two things happened in the last two days, but I'm sure a lot more happened that I didn't even hear of, a lot more happened that changed some lives somewhere out there, which we probably don't see now. Years from now these two events will be discussed and may be something else along with them something that we have conveniently overlooked..... Let us know if you felt something important went unnoticed.
Hey YOU! This blog has posts written by many people...
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Let it not be unnoticed
Posted by sprakash at 3:49 PM 0 comments
Labels: ahmedinejad, burma, china, columbia, communication, dialogue, india, iran, mahmoud, military, monks, myanmar, non violence
Monday, September 24, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Dhamaal vs. Dhokha
Saw two movies in the past few days that deserve some reflecting upon.
First is the so called funny flick Dhamaal. The movie turned out to be nothing but a mix of scenes from Road Trip/Johnny English/Mr.Bean The Movie/Mad Mad World/Rat Race. Sure, some of the toilet humor can definitely receive a chuckle or two, but overall, it's a blatant, blatant, blatant copy of some of the English Comedy movieS that I've seen a pathetic number of times. Most of the while, you're just comparing the desi scenes to the original ones. But hey, I was always a fan of slapstick comedy, so I didn't mind the silly and crude jokes. But the frame by frame duplicating of scenes from the originals were kind of annoying.

But the movie Dhokha on the other hand... (I think Dhokha means betrayal.) Anyway, GOOD movie. It is at the opposite end of the spectrum of genre in comparison to Dhamaal. Basic plot is about a Muslim police officer who is a resident of Mumbai. He's basically looked down upon and is segregated in the department after the Mumbai bomb blasts happen. And later, he gets notice that his wife (who is also Muslim) was a suicide bomber and was behind the blasts. The movie pretty much flows into her husband desperately trying to prove her innocence, and trying to break racial barriers. There are some scenes that definitely are powerful and not meant for all sorts of audiences. I had to fast forward through some of those scenes, since my heart just could not handle what was shown.
So in an industry that has put forth great creative movies this year such as Chak De, Ek Chalis ki Last Local, Awarapan, Life in a Metro, and now Dhokha..., I think that we should slowly move away from making silly duplicates of English/International movies.
That's all folks!
Posted by Arranged? at 2:42 PM 7 comments
Labels: bollywood, dhamaal, dhokha, funny flick, movie reviews, mumbai
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Hey y'all ... people from all these other countries...
Sup, y0 c'est moi! Since I've added this thingy to the blog (above the sudoku puzzle on the right hand sidebar) that let's us see which countries our readers are reading this blog from...(that sentence structure is wack... ) and every other day i see some new country blinking... it's crazy... and pretty cool....so I wanna know who y'all are, and what y'all upto at India, U.K., Canada, UAE, South Korea, Costa Rica, Pakistan and Germany....so go ahead... say hi! and do so definitely before this thingy's trial version runs out :( available only till Sept 25 :(
Posted by sprakash at 10:48 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
OOh new game!!
D and I came up with an awesome new game... and this is all thanks to Miss Teen South Carolina.. try it out it's loads of fun...
Here's what you do, you ask a sensible question that a paegent judge would ask and you have to answer it like Miss Teen South Carolina... so here it goes..
D : what do you think about the troops being taken out of iraq
Moi : I personally believe that troops to south africa and other places and such as ... the IRaq should not want... the us americans and should help the us americans and such as yea ...that's my belief
D: what do you think of the tsunami that occured in indonesia this morning?
Moi: i believe the us americans should ... help the indians and such as
D: umm.. what are your thoughts on the 17 candidates that are running for the presidential election?
Moi: i think there should be more dates for the election cuz the us americans need help with their president such as ... the bush who should get a date as well such as ...
I think I did pretty well... give it a try...ask me another one... or ... give your very own miss teen south carolinaish answer..
This post was inspired by ... must-see and original
Posted by sprakash at 3:12 PM 3 comments
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
An outing with Bossjee
Boss and I decided to have lunch with a candidate that I just hired before the candidate joined our company. The candidate suggested that we go to an Indian Restaurant close to his current work.
Boss and I sit in my car and I'm driving. Touch Me... The song in Dhoom Two is playing in the background. Boss and I are intensely discussing work issues and then right at the very moment when both of us get silent...
The song on the car stereo goes "Touch me, don't touch me, come touch me, don't touch me... COME TOUCH ME SONIYAAAA!" Thanks Alisha.
Awkward... I want to turn off the radio but feel that if I DO turn it off now, Boss may think that I AM feeling awkward. Also, what if he never heard this song before and is enjoying it. Me changing the song would disrupt his enjoyment... Don't want to upset the boss.
Amidst my thoughts, Boss bursts out saying, "Did you know Bipasha Basu and John Abraham broke up?"
"What?! No Way!" Thankful that the awkwardness ended with discussion of mindless Bolly gossip. And OMG... Bipasha and John did break up.. Is it because she smooched with that other foreign soccer dude?
In other news..., Dhubhra just pointed out to me that conversations about Britney Spears's recent VMA performance are taking place at her work right now.. ho-hum. Britney, stop with the whatever it is that you do, which is considered as 'music' by some. You've made enough money for you, your kids, and several others to live comfortably. So take care of your two boys.
Posted by Arranged? at 1:51 PM 4 comments
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Wow.. just ... Wow
Read This First
2. Did another one of his buddies (Attorney General) resign or got fired?
For some reason... the following picture seemed appropriate for this entry... don't know why... just kinda ... you know ... made sense... what do you think?
Posted by sprakash at 10:26 AM 1 comments
Labels: bush, crocodile tears, iraq, president, war