A scene from London tube

Can Tantric power kill humans?

An interesting read on a weird incident that happened in my country.
I dont know if I should be angry on the news channel people as well..

Ad 2

Take a look at this one:

The first two words in last line reads, Benefit Fraud...

Ad 1

I had mentioned about an Ad stuck in the local buses of UK on joinng the Army?? Well, I managed to click a picture of it today.

What could it be..

I found an ironic picture on a fifty pence coin.
It had a picture of a soldier carrying an injured man.

Is this injured man a fellow britisher or could he be a harmless Iraqi civilian?

How do you feel..

.. when you gain weight without eating good food?? :( .. Okay, It is the golden brown water that I keep drinking.. Not my fault really, In this country, beer comes cheaper than water, plus it is a great thirst quencher ;)..

But now there is a mission: I will post another picture around mid May after I dedicate a month to regular workouts and a 'watch what I eat/DRINK' routine and then we can have a 'Before' and 'After' picture for all your laughs ;)

Shameless American Leaders

This one is on the Vietnam War..

Is everyone listening??

This is a very simple to understand video on Iraq war -- I think it is the responsibility of every person to know about this and do their bit to help the world.

You just CANT afford to miss this..

.. I am so proud and amazed to see what my people can do.

Covering IRAQ War

http://www.back-to-iraq.com/

I know..

Took this one from Mindless Mumbai..

another funny comment by a popular networking site..

What will you be?

When we were small, one of the very patent and regular question the uncles and aunties used to ask was 'Bade hokar kya banna chahte ho?' (What would you like to be when you grow old (read:what will you do for a living)), and most often I used to say 'pata nahi' (I dont know) and that would embarrass my folks. So to compensate they would say , 'Oh, she is good at science, I think she would like to be an Engineer or a doctor', and I would stand there smiling sheepishly, thinking what the fuck is does an engineer do.. repair TV Sets? Who wants to do that!!

Anyway, after many such blush instances, I eventually, even when I secretly wanted to be a teacher / a chef or something bizzare, I still said 'Mein doctor banna chahti hu' (I want to be a doctor).. and just as much dis-satisfied the world is, my folks used to break in complaining 'What doctor!! She doesn't study a bit.. Doing badly at school.. blah blah'.. So I realized that there is no correct and safe answer to this question and so I stopped entertaining these questions all together.

Its been quite sometime now, I have been working for almost 4 years. The regular road map now is to do an MBA and jump the corporate ladder. Trust me, my folks are after my life to get myself enrolled in a B school, but that is not what I want to do. I am not happy in this corporate set up. My parents and friends keep asking me, that if not an MBA, what is it that you want to do? But now, unlike before, I have an answer. Though not a convincing one, but I do have an answer.

I want to get into the development sector or become a designer or just write.

These activities give me unspoken satisfaction -- The sense of creation, the sense of being able to pass a smile to someone who really needs it -- it gives me a huge kick -- a feeling of fulfilment.

I do these things which make me happy, but they are limited to only weekends -- maybe once, twice or thrice in a month -- not more than that. But I want to do it full time -- I tried to persuade a NGO to hire me, but looking at my technical background, they don't even consider my application. :(

They are ready to give me voluntary work (something that I already do) but not a 'on the roll' job. I don't mind doing voluntary work actually, but the only fuck up is that if I justdo voluntary work full time, who will pay for my existence? Then someone has to do voluntary work to sponsor me!! :) And sadly I have not found that kind hearter sponsor yet !! :) :)

I am not sure if this is the problem in developing nations -- that we can't do what we want to -- I mean, atleast we cant do it easily. Like for the UK -- there are a plethora of opportunities for every kind of work you can think of. You want to be a driver of a bus, no problem. You get a valid license and you get paid 8 pounds an hour -- you work 35 hrs a week and get paid 1120 pounds a month -- not bad at all.. You want to get into the development sector like me, they have many options -- you want to work for the immigrant workers - no? okay, elderly people - no? okay, how about the AIDS patients in a remote village in Africa -- sounds ok? Come on, and you are good to go. How about joining the army? I have seen posters in the local buses here which read that the recruitment people from the Army will come to your house and you can sit and choose which sector you would like to join. You just need to call them up and say 'I want to..'. And, money is not a problem at all -- almost all jobs pay enough to live a decent life. Of course if you want a fancy life, then the competition becomes global. In places like UK (I think US too), if you want to do something, it can be done. But in places like India, you have to worry too much -- firstly, you will have to prove that you are fit for the job, next you will have to fight the competition, then you will have to worry if the money that earn will be enough to pay your bills .. all this apart from facing the regular reactions associated with the 'status' of the kind of work you choose to, the social taboo attached, if any, etc etc ..

I recently read an article of a Londoner who works at a soup kitchen (soup kitchens are kitchens which provide food for the less fortunate) where she talks of her experience of watching a hair dresser come and give haircuts for free to the people visiting there. What a wonderful thing to do.

I suddenly want to be a hair dresser myself and go around giving free haircuts to people who cant afford to go to a parlour.

Now I turn to reality and see what I really am doing -- a stupid IT job that any jack ass can do -- which presumably many jack asses are doing -- filling up the pockets of the already rich and getting no spiritual benefits, doing nothing really worthwhile.. and most of the idiots cant even comprehend what I am talking of, however good in binary logic they might be..

Alas.. when will be the day when I can proudly say -- I am doing what I want to do, that I love my work and that I have become what I wanted to be.
(Secretly, I think I will at some point of my life be able to say all this..)

The little blue tin..

.. has actually nothing blue in it :(

Spaces

My office here is very beautiful (atleast from the outside!) -- there is everything a person can think of when I say the word picturesque: ponds, ducks, large sprawling gardens, pretty wooden benches, clean air .. but still there is something missing -- maybe the warmth of a home -- the feeling of belongingness..

This one made me happy

Aawara - Majaz

Shaher ki raat aur main naashaad-o-nakaraa phiru
Jagmagaati jaagati sadakon pe avaara phiru
Gair ki basti hai kab tak dar badar mara phiru
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vehshat-e-dil kyaa karu.

Jhilmilate qumqumon ki raah mein zanjeer si
Raat ke haathon mein din ki mohani tasveer si
Mere seene par magar chalati hui shamasheer si
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vahashat-e-dil kyaa karu

Ye rupahali chhaaon ye aakaash par taaron ka jaal
Jaise sufi ka tasavvur jaise aashiq ka Khayaal
Aah lekin kaun jaane kaun samajhe ji kaa haal
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vehshat-e-dil kyaa karu

Phir vo Toota ik sitara phir vo chuyi phuljhadi
Jaane kis ki god mein aaye ye moti ki ladi
Hounk si seene mein uthi chot si dil par padi
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vehshat-e-dil kyaa karu

Raat hans hans kar ye kehti hai ke maikhane mein chal
Phir kisi shahnaaz-e-laalaarukh ke kaashaane mein chal
ye nahin mumkin to phir ai dost viraane mein chal
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vehshat-e-dil kyaa karu

Har taraf bikhri hui rangeeniya ranaiya
Har qadam par isharaten leti hui angdaiyan
Badh rahi hai god phailaaye hui rusavaiyan
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vehshat-e-dil kyaa karu

Raaste mein ruk ke dam le lun meri aadat nahi
LauT kar vaapas chalaa jaau meri fitrat nahi
Aur koi hamnava mil jaaye ye qismat nahin
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vehshat-e-dil kyaa karu

Muntazir hai ek tufaan-e-bala mere liye
Ab bhi jaane kitne darvaaze hai vaha mere liye
Par musibat hai mera ahed-e-vafa mere liye
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vehshat-e-dil kyaa karu

Ji mein aata hai ki ab ahed-e-vafa bhi tod du
Un ko pa sakta hu main ye aasara bhi chod du
Haan munasib hai ye zanjeer-e-hava bhi tod du
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vehshat-e-dil kyaa karu

Ek mahal ki aaa se nikala vo pila mahtaab
Jaise mullah ka amamaa jaise baniye ki kitaab
Jaise muflis ki javani jaise bevaa ka shabaab
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vehshat-e-dil kyaa karu

Dil me ek shola bhadak uthaa hai aakhir kya karu
Meraa paimana chalak uthaa hai aakhir kya karu
Zakhm seene ka mahek uthaa hai aakhir kya karu
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vehshat-e-dil kyaa karu

Muflisi aur ye mazahir hain nazar ke saamane
Saikdon changez-o-naadir hain nazar ke saamane
saikdon sultan jabar hain nazar ke saamane
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vehshat-e-dil kyaa karu


Le ke ek changez ke haathon se khanjar tod du
Taaj par us ke damakata hai jo patthar tod du
Koi tode ya na tode main hi badhkar tod duu
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vehshat-e-dil kyaa karu

Badh ke is indar-sabhaa kaa saaz-o-saamaan phunk du
Is ka gulshan phunk du, us ka shabistan phuk du
Takht-e-sultan kya, main saaraa qasr-e-sultan phunk du
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vehshat-e-dil kyaa karu

Ji mein aataa hai ye murdaa chaand-taare noch lu
Is kinaare noch lun aur us kinaare noch lu
Ek do ka zikr kya, saare ke saare noch lu
Ai Gam-e-dil kyaa karu, Ai vehshat-e-dil kyaa karu

Wet Wet Wet

Today I reached office drenched to my skin with rain water..

Had to wait 50 mins at the bus stop for the bus which finally never came.. And then took another one which halts 15 mins away from my office..

From there I came walking ..

It was raining too hard but the wind was so wicked that it soaked me wet and kept me dripping.. As I write this post, I am shivering with cold, my jeans all wet and fingers all numb.

Sitting bare feet because my socks are wet, just managed to dry my hair in the hand drier installed in the bathroom.. actually I tried drying my Jeans and shoes as well.. Yeah my favourite new maroon shoes and not that new anymore :(

Anyway, wrote a huge crib post..

All because I took the suggestion of a buddy and dropped my idea of taking a cab to office.

I was out of my house at 9 am .. And I have reached office at 11am when it just takes 20 mins otherwise..

A wet start to the week.

Did you know?

Kismet is an English Word as well...

kismet \KIZ-met; -mit\, noun: destiny; fate.

Saturday

khoye khoye..

Zindagi sawaalon ke jawaab dhundne chali,
jawaab mein sawaalon ki ik lambi si ladi mili.
Sawaal hi sawaal hain soojhti nahi gali
ke aaj haath thaamlo ek haath ki kami khali.

Quiet or Silent

Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it.

Khaled Hosseini (Kite Runner)

Its raining Men

A report says, given the rate of female foeticide, India will end up with about 1 female per 10 males by year 3000.

You may also like to read this.

JUST-ice

Some places there is absolutely nothing called Justice, and in some, it is almost become a joke!
Check this out.

A wonderful story teller

Khaled Hosseini

Archie Update

.. becoming more and more adorable by the day..

Oxford wheels

Last time when I went to London - Oxford Street, I saw cycle rickshaws. Dont know what it really was -- a step towards reducing Global Warming or, just another mode of income -- or, was it both!

CCC

Compulsive Crib Champ :(

?

I was reading a book today and it again made me realize that I was being a stupid self centered person who was so contained whining under self pity until I was made to come face to face with reality yet another time.

The book I was reading was greatly about Afghanistan, about Kabul, and how life changed for the people after the atrocities first done by the Russians and then the Talibans.

It is hair raising to read how an entire civilization got washed out -- how the already scared, defenseless and oppressed people were and still are, being subjected to inhuman treatment. It is so disheartening to think how the rejoicing of the Afganis turned into mournings when the talibs took to their way of controlling an already devastated nation soon after the roussies were made to leave after creating much damage themselves.

They say that many women have lost their husbands, fathers and brothers, and since they are not allowed to work, they are left with no option but to survive on alms collected my their children or just be on the mercy of the Talibs. The people who grew up eating meat can no longer think of affording a stomach full of meal for everyone in the house. A mutilated dead body is common there -- the children are growing up watching violence and are deprived of all childlike innocence. They are being raped -- not even the little boys and girls are spared. And then the Talibs roar that they are doing what they do in the name of Allah!! Fathers are selling off their artificial limb just to get enough money to feed their hungry children. The learned men and women, who were once professors imparting education to the children of Kabul were now on the streets -- homeless and hungry.

And then there are people like me -- aware but still so oblivious of this for a large duration of our day, and instead we spend it on ghamkhori (self pity) and thinking how unfair out lives are. Even as I write this post, or even as one of you read this on something called a Computer, there are people in this world who have not heard or perhaps have not even cared to hear that something like a PC exists -- people who's lives revolve around just surviving another night and if lucky, get a meal to even partially fill their shrinking stomach.

I was thinking of what subject I should give to this post, and I really could not think of anything that could define what I am feeling right now, so I chose to leave it blank.

Sunday

Was mainly spent reading and cooking sinful food for everyone in the house..

Saturday

This is how the place where I stay looks from the outside:

These,

are enough to buy me this,

at a typical English Pub

Resulting in a smiling me!

One of my fav bengali songs..

.. By Manna Dey

Nusrat Saheb

.. Gorakh Dhanda ..