Hero of our times.....2

If you have money OR brains you can become a doctor. If you are unlucky OR stupid, you can become an IT engineer. But believe me it’s the toughest to become a politician.

The Indian media gives positive coverage only for cricket and Cinema. The politicians and policemen find themselves at the other end of the stick always. Thanks to the overdose of negative reporting the bad guys got more coverage and we are left with real incompetent and corrupt leaders to rule us.

As the era of liberalization rolled on, the middle class Indians had more money power. We started dreaming of Saville clad, Oxford educated politicians and leaders. The picture of Dhothi clad, pan chewing, uneducated ones got confined to the Indian comics and movies.

The parties sensed the change in mood and cultivated icons- people from movies, sports, young ones with glamour. When Soniaji abdicated the highest throne of power, the chair of Prime Minister, for the demure Manmohanji we couldn’t hide the delight. The share market sky rocketed seeing the father of liberalization in the driver’s seat. We are getting a simple, well-dressed, respected, untainted man as our Prime Minister. Besides he is educated and has taught in the top universities. Indeed the perfect concoction for the Mr. Prime Minister.

Well he carried off in style during the first term. His speeches in the turbulent sessions of Lok Sabha has been glorified by the media. And in his second term he has been showing some iron in his spine. He has told the party more than once ‘Go to Hell’.

I just love this man. He doesn’t give any Indian, even his grumpy opponents chance to hate him. I am going to put down a few reason why he should be given the highest honor any Indian can get (not the Presidency), Bharath Ratna.

1. If the poster boy of BJP, Atalji, can be eligible, anybody can.

2. He has risen above all the partisan politics, when he benevolently entitled Pakistan as our little cousins. So as elder one in the family we must act responsible and make peace whatever the pranks they play. He went ahead and admitted India has been naughty on Balochistan.

3. ‘Trust’ is the weak point of Manmohanji. When he puts trust in someone he expects them to keep their word. But sadly he doesn’t know that Clintons, Obamas and Bushes haven’t been related to Punjab even remotely. These wise guys give India a Desi version of nuclear agreement and passes a different one in their Senate. But still our Manmohanji hasn’t lost his faith in the beloved Americans.

4. Our Manmohanji literally obeyed Obama (and Bush) when he stalled the gas pipeline project with Iran. Now China is pulling the strings for the same through Pakistan.

5. Manmohanji was the first PM to say ‘All Indians love you’ to Bush. Even Bush’s closest ally, Tony Blair didn’t give him Britain’s love. Now the US government has agreed for a nuclear deal with Pakistan. Now Manmohanji has to declare his love to Obama too.

6. For this nuclear deal that never happened, the government was on the verge of fallimg apart. Who can forget Manmohanji spirited speech in the Parliament. All for nothing.

7. The crowning moment for our PM was when the Padma awrds of the year was announced. He felt the fellow Sikhs had been ignored since Independence. So he nominated two eminent personalities.

Sant Singh was nominated because he kept beautiful Russian models as his secretaries. He was more than happy to share them with visiting Indian diplomats.

Harbhajan Singh was nominated as he created no trouble for batsmen. The biggest achievement was motivating Andrew Symmonds with encouraging words (in Punjab calling one’s mother choosy words is considered as an encouragement).

8. Manmohanji savvy friend and Home minister has come up with a startling discovery. Jihadis are no longer a threat for India. The biggest threat are the Maoists. Interestingly they are home grown terrorists with no proven assistance from a foreign power, The ministers completely forgot to mention countless MoUs signed with mining companies, thus deriding poor villagers their home and livelihood.

9. It seems no one bothered to inform Manmohanji that price for essential commodities has been increasing all the 6 years he was in office. He was under the impression that people are eating electronic items while they are hungry.

10. His best friend and disciple, Karzai, is planning to join the Taliban

Sadly Soniaji is distancing herself more and more from thee party.

Half a Ton Thanks.... 15 unknown facts

Ladies and gentlemen, in case you didn’t notice the world’s best blog ‘My Times’ has crossed the No.50 mark. I guess it calls for a treat. Yes, as a treat I am going to write down things you may not know about ‘My Times’.

1. . My real name has never been Jon or John or Johnson. I always had the fancy for the name John from childhood. It could be because of the dashing young jeweler with the name Johnson. It could also be due to my dashing and handsome cousins with the surname John. Besides right from the kindergarten to college, there were 2-3 people sharing my name. They all were either dumb or geek. At least in my blog I chose the name I like.

2. Blogging happened purely due to situations beyond my control. I was asked to come in as a part time author for a private blog. As I started writing for the blog I realized I had the potential to write. Very soon the blog closed down. But it opened to me the new horizon of blogosphere. Thanks to my old friend and quite famous blogger Praveen, I kick started ‘My Times’.

3. I am particularly sensitive towards the hypocrisy around. I hate news papers and magazines using media as a platform to illegitimately spread their propaganda by publishing tweaked news. I wanted to interpret the happenings around in my way. Hence I went for a name resembling a daily- my own daily. Thus came the name ‘My Times’.

4. The dull and boring hours in the office also accelerated the birth of ‘My Times’. I found no meaning in the work. I wanted to do something that mattered.

5. The first step was to check if I was good enough to be a blogger. So I started writing down some 10 posts before I started the blog. Contrary to my plans ‘My Times’ went online in one unbearable morning. The rough draft of a blog is still written down in a notebook before it goes online.

6. First few blogs were typed from my office PC. Later I brought a laptop of my own. That was one of the best purchases I ever did.

7.. As soon as I started blogging I realized that the biggest challenge is to optimize the length of a post.

8. Once I met an old school pal in a park, unexpectedly. I decided to write about it. That is when I realized I could narrate stories very well.

9. I got pissed off at my good friend because he wronged someone. I wrote about it and feels guilty about even to this day.

10. I went on with a pathetic template for a long time before I settled on with the present one. I hate to tweak the HTML.

11. In the initial stages I marketed the blog directly to my friends. I stopped doing that soon. When I started ‘My Times’ I had this idea that I will turn out to be a blogger with hundreds of followers and hundreds of comments on every post. A few months back I realized that I will never be a famous blogger. I made peace with myself.

12. I try my best to do a minimum of 5 posts every month.

13. Once upon a time I realized ‘My Times’ is growing cluttered with so many meaningless posts. Thus started ‘Think’. ‘Think’ is to put small, unrefined posts that can spark the reader. I put posts on it impromptu and most of them are big craps. But to my surprise people love craps rather than good blogs.

14. One day I went ahead and brought a camera. Thus started my photo blog ‘Photo tells a story’. Today I don’t put any images in ‘My Times’.

15. I felt really good when quite good bloggers started following my bog (very rare. Doesn’t happen now).

Blogging is lonely affair. There are times I get depressed when I feel that my blog doesn’t matter to anyone. At such times people who say ‘You write well’ matters a world to me. During my initial days Praveen followed and commented on my blogs without fail. That is a reason ‘My Times’ is going strong to this day. Then there is my good friend Kalaam’s sister who claims I have got so many female fans ;). Although I don’t have the reason to believe that, her words gave me a sense of pride that propels me more. Then there are countless people like Vattu, Kalaam few of my colleagues who still push me for one another post. Thanks a lot good people.

Goa Chapter3 - The land of Canaan

Goa is a fast dying Indian tourist spot. Thank us, the Indians. When we see a potential tourist spot somewhere, we suck the life blood out of it. It’s not a bad idea for the government to practice ‘sons of the soil policy’ when it comes to tourism. The whole idea is to maintain the identity of the region.

North Indians are good business men. But money is the only thing that matters to them. These can possibly be the reason you find regional strife wherever they step into. No hard feelings intended. We could see the unrest in almost all the local people we met.

Some of the funny things we saw:

Any direction we turned to, we saw chicks (Indian tourists) that seemed to be manufactured in the same plant. Everybody had the same green, yellow or white T-shirts and mini-skirts or shorts. Everyone had over sized breasts and huge wrap-ons. Anyone would mistake that the huge glasses are the trend of the season. The minute these girls remove their glasses, they would resemble Cinderella’s step-sisters. Mind you they remove the glasses only when they eat. They tempt you with their jugs, But you can get real bad stare if you steal a look. Well if you don’t want anyone to notice your assets, why does your T-shirt has to be tight? No prize for guessing.

Equally unbearable creatures are drunk South Indian men. Down here men drink to lose their shame. I saw three men with a beer bottle bathing in the waves. The wave was washing sea water into the bottle. These men were too drunk to notice and were drinking out of it again and again. They must have been wondering when Mallya got the idea of salty beer. Needless to say, they were half/almost naked. I feel pity for all the innocent children in the beach who had to see such evil things so early in their lives.

There was this famous eat-out, ‘For Rest’, with a magnificent ambience in Miramar. It had swings where you can eat swinging. We guys went and sat out there when a waiter came and asked us not to sit on a swing. He said it was an exhibition piece. Later a fat lady came and sat with her boyfriend. We waited for the same waiter to reappear. But he didn’t bother.

These kinds of incidents happened more than once. We can call it isolated. But piecing them together we can draw a fair conclusion. Either you will have to be rich or at least pretend to be one- show attitude in other words.

We had some friendly encounters with our hostel warden. He was an encounter specialist-when it came to college kids. The first night we came in, he was violently preventing a group of college kids from entering into the hostel with a bottle of brandy. He asked them to hide it in the bushes outside the hostel. Well, the kids didn’t find the bottle there the next morning. The only object of enjoyment in the hostel was the cook in the pantry who came with heavy make-up. Her tailor stitched her salwars while she was in it. She would have had tough time to peel the clothes off J.

I have posted the photos of our travel in my blog. I had to sacrifice bath in the sea for walking along the beach seeking a good shot.

1.Colva and Benolli:

These are the greatest beaches in South of Goa and they are awesome. Quite, white, long stretch of beach will unfold before your eyes and you can have a peaceful time. I saw many local kids cycling their way after school.

And we had a fabulous late lunch washed down with beer. There are shacks along the beach where you can sit for hours on end. The clocks are so slow in Goa. So please don’t hurry up the waiters. You aren’t supposed to do that in Goa.

The specialty of Indian tourist places is that you are bound to get cheated.’ Water sports’ is a potential threat. We got cheated in Colva. These two beaches aren’t good for the water sporting.

2.Baga and Calangute:

If you love crowded beaches, then these are for you. Baga has got a decent flea market too. The water sport facilities are the best there. You can race in your speed boats or land on a parachute in middle of the sea.

You can watch a lot of bikni babes sun bathing. If you don’t have the taste for foreign babes, you can catch a glimpse of desi babes in equally tiny shorts. You may as well get desperate on seeing the couples huddling to each other while you see no such luck in the horizon.

3.Anjuna:

Anjuna beach has no bathing facility. It’s famous for its flea market. Awesome but make sure than you don’t buy any stuff for more than thirty bucks. I saw a shack called a tattoo shop. It had a photo showing the man tattooing Sushmitha Sen.

Anjuna has got slippery rocks, where you can get a few good snaps. We didn’t stay there for long as we weren’t interested in beach with no bath. But I got for myself a few necklaces.

4.Fort Aguada:

It has the real feel of a prison. I took a couple of risky photos too standing at the edge. A batch of college kids from Mumbai had come and we got an eyeful of delicious candies. This fort holds a special memory for us. While we came here during our college tour, a rift happened between two sections. So here our batch split into two. I guess it was one of the painful memories from the college days.

5.Fort Chapora:

This was the place where a song sequence in the famous Hindi movie ‘Dil Chahtha Hai’ was shot. It was the story of a group of youngsters and was released during the first year in college. The tune was a chart buster. We always wanted to visit this place. It has a breath taking view. But unfortunately I couldn’t take the best of pictures.

The journey to the Fort was hot and tiresome. We were squeezed out by the time we reached there. We hit a shack and had cold beer to wash down the heat. What a relief it was!

6.St.Xaviers and Se Cathedral:

Goa is known for its famous Portuguese architecture reflected in the churches. St. Xavier’s is also known for the undecayed body of St. Xavier still present. The statues and the pillars are awesome. The catholic church is very rich, no doubt.

Some thing I hated about the place skimply clad women walking around. The funny part is it’s not foreigners but Indians. When will these bitches realize it’s not a tourist beach but a holy place! I wonder if they would dare to wear it to a temple or mosque.

7.Miramar and Dona Paula:

These beaches were thankfully near the place we stayed. They are the most highly rated beaches in Goa. We used to go there for the casual morning walk.

You can also read Chapter1 and Chapter2 of Goa

Hero of our times...1

From his childhood Pappu had been an avid reader of books. He grew up as a rebel. But he lived in an era when the youth had become disillusioned with the ideological vaccum created by the independence era generation. August 15, 1947 had given them high hopes for a better tomorrow. But their hopes were crashed by a corrupt system.

He was a member of neighborhood library and did many plays in the local cultural community. He had started writing at an early age but could never overcome his shyness to publish them.

As expected he did very well in the high school. He did exceptionally well in the language subjects. He went with his father to get admitted to college. Literature was his dream destination. With his marks he could easily secure an admission.

While waiting for an audience with the Principal, his father met his old friend, Ayyappa Panicker. AP had recently got an award for his poems. He was very well known in the literary circles. On learning that he wanted to put his son in literature, AP took Pappu’s father aside. AP explained the difficulties of securing a job with a literature degree. While as science degree had become the trend of the season. It was easy to secure jobs, go for higher studies, go abroad etc. A literature student could become a teacher or professor with much luck and bribes. There is a good chance he will roam around the streets unshaven and hungry.

Any ways his father acted very quickly. Before Pappu could protest, he found himself in a chemistry class.

Chemicals were never his cup of tea. He sat at the back benches reading through the great literary works he got from the library. As long as he was not a bother his teachers didn’t disturb him. He soon grew to be a nuisance, getting into arguments with his teachers. Some of the orthodox teachers lavishly cursed him.

Pappu joined state radio as a presenter. He befriended the literary geniuses, weekly publishers and others of his wavelength. Slowly people started realizing his abilities. He managed to get his first novel published. That was very well received and he won a national award for it.

Encouraged by his friends, he quit his job and started writing scripts for films and then moved to direction.

Pappu grew on to become on the greatest Malayalam director ever. His films became the bench mark for Malayalam industry. Movie buffs, like me, still think of him with pride.

Ladies and gentlemen introducing to you my favorite Malayalam director- Padmarajan. Here you can read one of my first post about him.

Afterword: Whatever the situation you are in, with a bit of hard work and luck, you can reach your destinity

Sad, Bad, Mad, Glad world of Blogs

Take a snapshot of humanity at any point of its evolution, you will see a few individuals standing back and laughing at the society around them. Some may play a proactive role , most of them will not.

This is what I wanted to do when I started the blog a year ago- stand back and laugh. I am too timid to use my real name or picture. Like everyone else I wear a mask around my home, office and friends. I remove that mask when I sit in front of my laptop.

Almost into my 50^th post, I feel this is the best time to make a few observations on a world which pretty much became my own.

Writing and blogging are miles apart. After a few good posts some get the feeling that he/she will make a good writer. The problem lies with poor reading habits. Unless you get a taste of good literary works you will rank yourself very high in writing skills. But yes, there are bloggers who can make good writers. But I have met only a real few.

Blogosphere is not utopia. It’s a very competitive area and the competition is imperfect. ‘Recognition’ is a relative term. Widely, popularity and fame of a blog is judged based on the comments and followers. So what does it take to become a ‘popular’ blogger?

Decision. The toughest question is- What to blog on? From a personal front, my blog was mish mash of everything until I diversified into three. That is the story behind the creation of my photo blog and think blog. It’s important to have a blog specialized on something.

Coming back there are popular topics and ‘who-cares’ ones. Most of the bloggers I have seen are free from any kind of political affiliations and so doesn’t care about any political or social issues. Only thing that possibly hurt them is their relationships. In short words 99.9% of them are metro sexual. So a blogger will gain attention only if he fulfills the norm of their taste buds.

The few bloggers I have met with any political conscious belonged to the right wing- people I love to hate.

Humor blogs and relationships (romance in other word) are the ones in great demand. But since there is a tough competition here, you will find it hard to thrive. But if you have got the ability to lace your posts with sex here and there you are sure shot success. The surprising part is girls are more active than the guys in category (as authors and followers).

Then there are girl just in college who doesn’t get enough people to listen to them. So they put every aspect of their life in blogs. It’s really cute to read them and there are many who find so too. But amazingly many of them stop midway, real reason being they find no more inspiration in blogging.

And I am on my journey to find out some real amazing bloggers with a difference.

Marketing. If you want to be a known blogger it’s really important to market your blog just like everything else in the world. As a first step pick up an eye catching template. The built in templates of blogger is a big time bore (their fonts are worse). Thankfully, there are number of free blog templates for you to pick up from.

I am irritated with templates that gives you an eyesore when you try to read. The girls go for pink ones with lots of flowers. The rebels (with psychological problems) go for outlandish dark colours . I believe a blogger with content just put up a simple template and guys like me browse every week for a new template.

The most important step in marketing is letting people that you have arrived. Non-bloggers doesn’t regularly follow blogs. So get into a community and follow blogs. Comment regularly and you needn’t read through blogs. Just put in some regular words like ‘Good post J’, ‘Awesome’, ‘’ :D’ etc. To be frank I haven’t read any critical comment in most of the posts I have gone through. It is world of hypocrites. Better visit fresh bloggers they will appreciate the fact that you are following them and will do the same in return.

Post blogs only in regular intervals. Never crowd the intervals.

And here comes the main reason for this post. Here are the ones I consider as the best blogs.

1.Crusader: He is one hell of a great blogger. He always keeps the post with in a limited length but never loses the quality in content. He has got an exceptional language too. He lives up to his reputation and rarely comes up with a crap but can be really impulsive at times. I will have to thank him for getting me started and keeping me motivated in my initial days. I have known him from school and he is equally talented in photography too.

2.Just some thoughts: I watched her growing up to a terrific writer/blogger. Her posts used to be raw earlier but still they had a hint of talent hidden. Now she is more refined. But the poor thing gets de-motivated at times because of few commentators/followers. A sweet baby with exceptional abilities.

3.A hint of coffee. I have read many disillusioned posts but never one as good as hers. She will touch your heart with her posts.

4.Chronicwriter: He doesn’t need my recommendation.

5.Colours, shades: He is a typical metro sexual and laces almost all his posts with a wee bit of libidinous entertainers. He has got a huge number of female followers and I have rarely seen a male commenting to his posting. And I think he follows only females (just speculation).

6.Grey Confessions: He writes great stories but haven’t been active for long

7.Tale Weaver: I am proud that I have got him in my followers list. I believe he is a software engineer who ended up in the wrong place. He should have been a writer. He writes great stories.

8,Country gal: You must see her photos to believe.

Goa Chapter 2- The Exodus

Travel arrangements were done and dormitories were booked for our stay. But still there was a silent fog of doubt hanging in my mind.

The person who unwittingly helped me overcome my doubts was a slimy, asshole whom I call my manager. Managers, good or bad, are the most hated creatures in the earth. But the (former) manager of mine goes around with a sticker on his forehead ’Hate Me’. Just days before the trip our performance appraisal came and the sycophants went away with great grades while I found myself in a swamp.

Some people chase dreams set out by others all their lives. But at the end of day they realise what they were chasing was just a mirage. I want to set my own goals. I want to have dreams, which I can call my own, I had to make this journey.

So as I boarded the train I had this feeling of escaping from getting suffocated. Travelling in Indian trains are usually eventful. You walk across the aisle and you will meet the cross section of Indian culture. The first prayer a single Indian will have before he boards the train is to get a hot woman as the companion. But this time we got an elderly couple travelling with us.

As soon as she got into the train she opened a box secretly and looked around. After making sure that no one is watching she quickly placed something in her mouth. I started feeling uneasy, ‘What could that be? She looks frail. But that doesn’t make her innocent. Should I call the police?’ Thankfully my brain cells worked although a bit slowly. It was just her false teeth.

As the journey went on, the old man opened up. They were Goans on a pilgrimage to temples all over India. We Indians have a firm belief that we will face the consequences of our deeds this life or the next. So it has been a practice among Indians to go on a pilgrimage after retirement, to escape the eternal damnation. That is one of the reasons why Indians make poor tourists. But thankfully the average age of Indian travelers has been coming down.

The best train to travel around in India is ‘Rajdhani’. The train is wholly air-conditioned and the staff treats you royally with blankets, food and extra food (if you tip them liberally). The interior is very clean. And the ticket fare is not unaffordable too. That could be the reason why Rajdhani is a preferred train today. Indian railways are run by real efficient businessmen.

Out of 6, three were supposed to reach earlier than us. The mode of transport in Goa was something we broke our heads up on. We had to choose between bike and car. Thankfully good senses prevailed. We chose a car. Unless you are sun hardened travelers the hot sun of Goa can wear you down in a few hours. Traveliing around in bike can be adventurous and macho. I would recommend that for professional tourists. But that is not the mode for soft travelers like us.

Accommodation was something we had no difference of opinion in. We had been to Goa while we were in college. While we chose the same old hostel again it was a walk down the memory lane. Those were the days when we had no money with us. Many a times we went hungry. Today we have got enough money with us. But we miss the good old days. That is something we learnt in two years, money doesn’t complete the jigsaw of life.

Well watch out for the Goa I saw in the next episode!

For the first installment of Goa

For my Goa Pics

Goa Chapter One: The Genesis

Past few days had been uninterrupted fun, frolic and travel. My body needs some rest. Blogging is the best form of rest- body and mind.

Within a few days I will have to get into regular grind of life. Goa will start fading into a distant dream from past.

Goa gave me a lot more than expected. It felt like turning more than one pages of life together. I will turn the chapters one by one.

From the moment plans were announced about Goa, I had doubts about its practicality. In reality self doubt is becoming my enemy no.1. Thanks to enthusiastic friends (former college mates) of mine everything became a reality.

Then there is a universal power that leads us to our destinies. I believe the power had something to do with smooth functioning of things. There was an old man with us in the train. He described a bomb blast in a train that happened some years ago. The conversation sent shudders through my spine. What if it happened to us? We are just toys in the hands of fate.

The friends of mine did a good deal of research for this journey. That’s some difference between Indian tourists and their western counterparts. Indians prefer a packaged trip. They pay a huge sum to some hotel. The hotelier plans the entire trip for the customer. Our Indian goes where his hotelier leads him with a hot wife and cute kid hanging on. It’s one of the best way to make money (for the hotelier) and worst way for vacation(Indian).

So thanks to my mates, we had a good idea on where to go and how to end up there. There were minor differences in opinions. We had to wait till the last minute to iron them out.

The rule no.1 was to carry as little luggage as possible. I had this problem of carrying a huge one wherever I go. The advantage is I will get to wear a clean shirt every 6 hours. But huge luggage is trouble if you have to carry it for long. Besides if your fellow mates are bachelors what’s the big deal about clean shirts. If you have to carry a family/girlfriend along then clean shirts do matter. Thanks to Big Bazaar I managed to get a cargo for bargain price.

Three T-shirts and a single cargo for 3 days in Goa and of course my precious camera, this made up my luggage.

Needless to say the colour and smell of clothes were beyond description by the time I returned. Thanks to my friends for putting up with me.


PS: For pics please log on to Jonpics