Friday, July 26, 2013

Let's Laugh At Ourselves!

There is a lot of brouhaha over how movies stereotype people from other region. Specially due to Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika padukone starer "Chennai express". I am sure the producers would not mind the media attention its getting.

Racism is not just one way traffic that flows from North India to south India, Its omnidirectional  People from North who stay and work in South crib about the food, language and other things, same with people of south who stay in North, they crib about the same stuff. Bengali's, Bihari's and people from that entire East India, do crib when they travel and vise verse when people from West Indian states like Gujarat and Rajasthan go cross country. India is a land steeped in varied customs and culture. And many people have not traveled out of their villages to experience other cultures and states. Hence its natural to speculate about things you have not seen and they spread it too. Don't Tamil movies stereotype north Indians as sethiji, sardars as dumb and these characters are supposed to directly/indirectly elicit laughter from the audience. How many Tamil movies are there with hero's as north Indians? In south many people think all from North speak Hindi, is this correct? So to pin point one section of the country for racism is wrong. We all need to correct ourselves from within.(I have given example of only Tamil movie, same applies with Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Oriya, Marathi, Bengali and the list goes on)

Movie industry is a commercial Industry and runs on profit. So it would show what sells. If you do not like something do not watch it. Haven't movie industry across India stereotyped Bengali's as nerds, who speak in heavy bong accent (I am a bong and speak a normal accent...and...I think I am not a nerd!), Punjabi's as dumb, Bihari's and UP's as goons, people from west i.e. Gujarati's and Rajasthan are cast as marwadi's and hence stingy, all people from east India are shown as goorkhas.

In India every region is associated with a caricature, we can either huff and puff and point fingers at each other and say how nasty they are OR take it with a pinch of salt and enjoy ourselves being made fun off. Because fun is always at the expense of others. Just think when was the last time you laughed at a street light, at a tree out side your house or a stone on the road? We always laugh making fun of someone, girls make fun of boys, boys make fun of girls, we make fun of colleagues in office and of friends. When others make fun of you, you get an equal opportunity to make fun of them. On the whole we all get to laugh a lot and concentrate on much more serious issues effecting us.

Lets not fuel intolerance and forget to laugh at OURSELVES!

Monday, February 13, 2012

New Post

New post after a long time

Thursday, September 02, 2010

SubWay - Sub Standard Food




After a long time(Almost 3 years) I went to Subway(Indiranagar), was really hungry and wanted to eat some Veg and non-veg lunch. I selected what I wanted to eat on the net so that I don't wast time selecting it there. I wanted to eat Chicken, Turkey and roasted lamb sub. When we reached there Lamb was not there in the menu, so I decided to eat Chicken and Turkey sub instead. It looked big and good, but my first bite reveled a hair in it. I did not make a fuss of it and informed the guys of it, they gave me another sub, but just as was about to finish it I found another hair. This totatly put me off. I complained to the guys there but they ignored it and looked at me as if I had put it in it.

It was just not me, my friend who is a hardcore vegi found a chicken feather in his Veg-Sub. I can understand a piece of chicken, BUT a chicken feather? Thats not acceptable to a non-vegi let alone and veg guy. So my friend decided to call the outlet manager (Sanjay Bajaj). The only thing he kept repeating was it will not happen again, but now since it has happened he can't do anything about it. Thats for quality control. Have posted the pics of the Sub too(one with hair). Forgot to take pics of the one with chicken feather.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Manchinbele

I had been to Manchinbele last week, its a reservoir created by a small dam surrounded by small hills. Its decent place for day out with friends and close to city, its approx 45 km from Bangalore on Mysore road. One has to leave early though or you might get stuck in traffic within the city limits. People who have been there before say early morning is a good time for bird watching... did see some birds but did not have a good camera.

We carried along some food with us and also a charcoal grill and lost of chicken. Turned out to be good as there is nothing you can do their you need some activity to be going. It was fun lighting up the coal(almost took us 45 min) as non of us do it regularly. The chicken was marinated over night and turned out to be really juicy and tasty when cooked. the recipe too was an experiment and also a little bit of help from our Mommy's at home. Recipe was simple

We used some off the shelf Tandoori masala, Turmeric powder, Ginger,Garlic and salt to taste.

Chicken 4 Kgs
Garlic - 200 gms
Ginger - 200 gms
Turmeric powder

Make garlic ginger past, add turmeric and about 50-60gms of tandoori masala and mix well with chicken, add salt to taste, leave it over night in the fridge do not put in the freezer.

Next day light up your charcoal grill, and it won't long to eat your juicy chicken.

Though the dam is close to the city, it is quite secluded and doesn't look safe for couples planing an outing...its always good to go in a group. Villagers might drop in asking for some food or money.

You might find couple of cops standing at just before a turn leading to the dam and might stop you going there... looked like they just wanted to make some money... we didn't pay though just drove in. Cops don't seem to there to help people rather want to make some quick bucks.

The drive from Wonder la to the dam is quite picturesque and green, you would enjoy it, try not to drive fast as the roads are narrow you might never now, there could be Kidd's running around in the next corner.

Some tips that would be handy

  • DO NOT try to swim in the waters until are an expert in it as there is no one to rescue.
  • Though there are hills surrounding the reservoir there are no shady trees...it was lush green when we visited as its a rainy season.
  • Carry sun screen lotion along
  • Sun Glass
  • Food,beverages and fresh water to drink, you won't find these there.(Believe me carry a grill along it awesome to cook and eat, the chicken doesn't taste better than this)
  • Go in a group
  • Need to answer nature call in the nature.
Will post some photos soon.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Trip to Chennai

Had been to Chennai couple of weeks back for BD meetings, love to go for these meetings, love to make presentations, love the feeling that it might generate new business... BUT the journey this time wasn't pleasant at all.

It started with a mild surprise, my ticket was booked on a Sangeetha Volvo for a bus leaving at 11:30 pm, my friend came to drop me at the bus stop and while waiting for the bus we went into a chat about our conquests, goof ups and how to avoid getting into a marriages... didn't know how time went by, it was 11:45 and no sign of a any bus, then a bus came in called SEA BIRD and the conductor started shouting Chennai...Chennai...Chennai, since it wasn't from Sangeetha travels we continued chatting, but soon realized that we were alone there all other people waiting for bus to Chennai are gone are gone, just thought, let me enquire with SEA BIRD just in case... and guess what he said "Sir this is a bus from Sangeetha travels" just took two step back and checked the bus to see if I had missed to read Sangeetha (my boss complains I miss out on details sometimes) but I was sure even he wouldn't find it. I didn't know when Sangeetha travels changed to SEA BIRD travels, I boarded the bus said my friend good by and started looking for my seat... there it was, a window seat I looked up for a place to keep my bag as I kept it and walked towars my seat... woaooo...awa...it was the worst odor one could come across, it was like thousand world war II soldiers removing the show after 5 years of war...add to that the snoring of a man in the seat behind, it sound like someone has serious constipation...add to that a boring movie that was on.
All my three senses were under attack, this was only bus journey I made with a hand kirchief tied around my nose for the entire journey.
Overall it was a good trip though...

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

I am back

At last I have my blog back, I used to maintain this blog and had also bought a domain name for the same. Unfortunately or ultimately or as it should have happened the domain name expired and so did my blog with it. I have been thinking of reviving it for some time now, some fond memories are associated with it and at last its back.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Online casino review site

I am sure many off us want to play poker online from the comfort of our home, but how do you know that the online casino site is reliable and trust worthy. Won’t it be great is some one can guide you through it. Well I have found a great site called Online casinolinks, it is one of the best online casino review sites on the web.

It has close to 100 of the best casino sites listed with reviews. I am sure that they have done lot of research or one cannot have such detailed review. This surely cuts out your hard work of selecting the right online casino site. You can play at one of the best online casinos by simply selecting one of their top reviewed game categories select an online casino directly from their home page. online casinolinks.com also have a list of casinos accepting US players and the most popular casinos by player votes as well. So don’t wait check it out today.