26/11 I Will Never Forget the Day

For a small group of people they were ‘heroes’, for us they were terrorists. Their heroes killed our heroes.

A few new heroes emerged.

Some heroes from the bigscreen became zeros overnight.

The same set of words, pictures and videos were used by media in as many combinations as they could have. But why?

The real criminal — a failed political, and intelligence system — went scot-free, after making a dozen promises.

Tears gave way to anger, to frustration, more frustration and to tears again.

The Earth has come a full cycle, so have we. But we will never forget will we? We shouldn’t, because nothing has changed.

#2611neverforget

Look towards our west.. what do you see?

I see a #fail sign to the west of our border. Why? Let’s look at a few headlines shall we?

Taliban Close In On Islamabad

Taliban captures new areas in NWFP

Punjab militants link with Taliban as Pakistan backs Sharia law

Taliban begin enforcing Islamic law in Bajaur

Mehsud has links with ISI: report

‘Cornered’ Pak gets uppity over ‘intrusive’ US conditions in new AFPAK policy

‘Getting ISI to end support to militants difficult’

‘Terror plotters’ were allowed to stay in UK despite visa breaches

If you thought India was a screwed up country (considering the way our politicians run it.. or don’t run it) look towards the west to feel good. But oh no don’t get too comfy now. Taliban are knocking on our doors.. what do we do? All out war against a bunch of radical idiots is not a solution. They got nuclear weapons dammit and they don’t give two hoots about diplomacy or after-effects. If they want to do something they will.. I am a angry young man these days. Not the Amitabh Bachchan kinda angry, more like hmm I have no one, or nothing to compare myself to. But I can tell you that I am not angry at anyone else but me, I am angry that I can’t think of a logical solution to the whole issue. How can I blame politicians when I myself don’t have any suggestion for them? The only suggestion I thought of involved scooping out the troublesome region and dumping it on Mars. It’s not our problem then, the martians will take care of them.

So is it time to officially declare Pakistan a failed state? Are we being judgmental? Are we generalising Pakistan based on the actions of a few extremists? Is there a solution for Pakistan?

Attacks on women continue

Women are still being targetted in Bangalore by right wing elements who have totally lost it. Pink chaddi campaign for all its “fun” seems to have backfired! =( The kind of abuse being hurled at them goes beyong shocking. Why they resort to such down trodden act is beyond my understanding. 

I got these three cases as an email forward. Please post this on your blog as well, if possible.

Incident #1

Time, date of Attack: 9:00 p.m, 24th Feb 

My name is Lakshmi. I was attacked on 24^th Feb at around 9:00 pm. I was walking down Vasanthnagar after I’d wrapped up work looking for an auto. At the underbridge I noticed four men walking down the road towards me. I crossed over to the other side, just in case. I continued to walk down towards Kodava Samaj. Suddenly I realised that the four men had crossed the road as well. Once they were close enough they started pushing me and passing comments. I tried to ignore them, stepped around them and continued walking. They turned around and walked back towards me and started pushing me around. I finally lost my temper and turned and told them to leave me alone,  

One of them came really close and started abusing me in Kannada and Hindi. At that point I pushed him away from me. The next thing I know I’m in the middle of a roadside brawl. The guy who spoke to me punched me and the other three started hitting me as well. I fought back and all of us were in a scuffle All through the attack I was abused in Hindi and Kannada for wearing jeans and fighting back. After what seemed like an eternity I heard an auto go by and I shouted out to him. Luckily for me he stopped. For a split second the four men were taken aback and let go off me I pushed them and ran across the road, climbed into the auto and begged him to take me home. The four men followed me to the auto and tried to drag me out. At that point the auto guy started the auto and rode away. The whole attack must have happened in a span of about 5 or 6 minutes.

 

Incident #2

 

     Time, date of Attack: 11:15-11:30 on

My name is Jasmine. I am a Bangalorean. At least I think I am. I fell in love with this city two years ago and shifted base from Mumbai. I was on my way to work at Koramangala at around 11.15-11.30 in the morning when my auto broke down at Ulsoor. As I was hailing another one a white Quallis slowed down next to me and the occupants said something to me in Kannada. I rolled my eyes. That was their provocation.

I do not know if that angered them but the more I dwell on that unforgettable episode in my life, they seemed like predators, on the hunt. Before I knew it four middle-aged men emerged out of the vehicle and began verbally assaulting me.  

First they started hurling obscenities at me in Kannada and then it became physical. They started touching and pulling at my clothes. One of them tugged so brutally at the shrug I was wearing that he scratched my neck. Their goal — to show the collected crowd the top that I was wearing underneath my shrug.

When the shrug didn’t come off with their tugging, the violence of the tugging increased. In self defence I hit out at an offending hand that was trying to disrobe me. The response, he slapped me hard across my ear. Then they began trying to lift my top up while making references to ‘pink chaddi’ – the only words I could understand of their tirade.  

I told them I would call the police and one of them arrogantly proffered me his phone to make the call. The few people who dared to gather and watch were dumbfounded and no one said a thing. Some passing cars even slowed down, but not one stopped to help.

The whole time, the four of them kept up the tireless rant of obscenities, calling me names and trying to humiliate me in front of the gathered crowd. They couldn’t bear that a woman was looking them in the eye, and each time I raised my head to look at the tormentors, they kept pushing my head down, threatening me not to look at them in the face. While they were hitting my head, an army vehicle drove past. They stopped and intervened. Finally the army men helped me into a rickshaw to continue on what I thought was going to be a regular day at work. 

It looked like these guys just wanted to make a spectacle and humiliate someone that day. And I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don’t want to imagine what would have happened to me if the army men hadn’t put an end to the humiliation. I do not want to talk to the cops as even with hardcore evidence, the police didn’t do anything about the Mangalore episode and those hooligans are out. I do not want to talk to the press and be anyone’s political scapegoat. The whole situation was a nightmare and every time I talk about it, I relive it.

Incident #3

 

Time, Date of Attack: 13:10 to 13:40 | 17.02.2009

 

My name is Geetanjali. At 13:00 I get into my car start driving home. Almost immediately I notice a motorbike with 2 men chasing horning, hooting, and over-taking my car in a dangerous manner.

 

I turn onto 100ft road. The bikers follow me, then while over-taking the driver shouts at me and spits onto the window of my car. I make an angry gesture at this unprovoked action. The bikers then block my car from the front and ride very slowly. Cars behind us are now honking loudly.

 

I arrive at the 100ft Rd and 12th Main junction. I intend to take a right and have my right indicator on. The bikers also take the right turn and then stop their vehicle in such a way as to obstruct my passage.

The driver of the bike proceeds to get off his bike and starts attacking my car. For the next 5-6 minutes he then proceeds to beat on the car and shout obscenities in Kannada. I do not retaliate in anyway. No-one tries to help!

 

The pillion biker looks shocked at his friends actions and begins to roll the bike to the left side of the road. I seize the chance, and try to drive away. While doing so, the front bumper of my car grazes the bumper of the bike. This infuriates the attacker further.

He gets onto his bike and chases me. I realize that I don’t know where the police station is in this locality, and decide to seek refuge in my friends house. With the attacker following me closely, I drive straight into the basement parking area of an apartment in Indiranagar.

 

The attacker parks his bike outside and pursues me into the building. I get out of my car in an attempt to flee, but he corners me against my car and proceeds to shout obscenities while constantly stepping closer and closer to me. This goes on for about 5-10 minutes. I do not retaliate verbally except to shout for help from the security guard.

By now he is less than a foot away from me. I cannot move back as my car is behind me. I slap him on his right cheek. He lunges at me and tries to punch my face, I manage to evade him, however he succeeds in punching my jaw.

 

At this action of his, I start to shout at him loudly in Kannada about his shamelessness at raising his hand on a woman. He is startled and steps back. The security guard now steps in and tries to push him out of the building. I use this opportunity to run towards the staircase.

I have just managed to climb 4 steps up when I realize that the attacker has run outside to the road and has started to come running back in with a large stone in his hand. He is continuously shouting and swearing.

 

I run upstairs and find the resident of the 1st floor apartment rushing out of her house. I caution her about going downstairs. The attacker is still shouting. I hear a crashing sound as he throws the stone at my car.

From the 1st floor apartment window, I can see that the attacker is waiting outside the gate of the building. I ask the owner of the apartment to call the police, but she refuses to do so. I then ask her to call the guard via the intercom and ask him to take down the license plate number of the attackers motorbike. By the time the guard picks up the phone, the attacker rides away.

 

Post-mortem

On questioning the guard, he said that the attacker took down the license plate number of my car and threatened to find and harm/kill me later. None of the neighbors who were watching helped or took down the license plate number of the attackers vehicle!

 

I have never felt like leaving my country for good. Yesterday I felt that. For that day I was homeless and orphaned and helpless in a way like never before. The residual feeling today is one of deep sadness at the frailty of humanity. The end of innocence for having stared at the nobility of the human spirit caving into the heart of darkness.

 

 

 

 

 

I am tired.

The big question.. where did these people prop up from? Out of the blue? Who gives them right to go ahead with such fanatic act? Why isn’t anyone doing anything? They are a disgrace for kannadigas but why aren’t the real Bangaloreans who lived in the city for ages doing nothing about them?

UPDATE: @santoshp says “Did you listen to what Home minsiter of k’nataka says ”do not bring such silly things to my notice” BJP in K’nataka is worse!”

Champions trophy dates shifted

Image via Wikipedia

After England, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and West Indies expressed fear over the security conditions in Pakistan, ICC decided to push back the event by a year. Good decision or bad decision? Irrelevant decision I would say.

Why? Because, Champions trophy never made sense to me, there is World cup which happens every four five years, there is T20 world cup which started just last year and yes there is a ICC Trophy through which two associate countries are selected for the world cup. So why is there a Champions Trophy?

The tournament which began in 1998, and was a big hit because of the shorter duration and the knock-out method of elimination. Now if that style is so cool, then why not get rid present system followed in cricket world cup and use this method there? ICC wouldn’t do that because they stand a chance of earning big-moolah from the tournament!

The only who people who have lost something because of the tournament are Pakistanis. This is not the first time Australia and other “western” cricketing powers have raised objection in playing in areas in the sub-continent. Australia refused to play in Sri Lanka during 96′ WC, they later on canceled a tour in Pak last year (or the year before that) and now they have successfully postponed a tournament which I suspect will happen next year either.

The main reason, Pakistan is still facing a threat of political instability in spite of Musharraf stepping down form his post of President. Now lets say things don’t improve, what then? Will they postpone the tournament indefinitely or would they want the tournament to be held in India? How safe is India, sure army is not going to do a coup-de-tat, but hey we do hear of a bomb explosion in some part of the country or the other. Even we are at war with terrorists every day, so why is Pakistan looked down upon while India is looked upto? Are we in good books just because we are the money minting machine of the ICC, or is there a more political reason to it?Michael Atherton agrees with me

No tears need be shed for the ICC Champions Trophy, a misnomer of a tournament conceived out of pure greed. Like most things with a solely monetary value, it is a worthless affair.

On the other hand Pakistan Cricket Board seems pretty okay with the decision

“We are naturally disappointed but in a way the postponement is a victory for us. Under these circumstances there were only two solutions: either to relocate the event to Sri Lanka or postpone it. “Had it been relocated it would have deprived us of the hosting rights,”

Chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi said

This kinda response is very lame coming from one of the top guys of Pak cricket. Is organising the event all that maters? How about some self respect, would you let a few countries dominate which all tournaments are organised in your country? What would India have done if countries refused to tour India. I am sure we would have started a new tournament and provided solid entertainment for Indian viewers something on line of the recently concluded IPL.

India’s security compromised?

This post is a continuation of the thought presented by Chacko on the post India’s Internet security at Mutiny.

Why do terrorist attack or at least make plans to attack Mumbai so often? May be because Mumbai is the financial capital of our country! The extremists are under the impression that a bomb can pause a city that never sleeps. They wish to halt the booming Indian economy and want to see our stock market crash more often than windows! None of this ever happened even though they ripped through the soul of the city multiple times in a decade.

The recent turn of events in West Asia aka Middle East, though has exposed a chink in India’s armour. The growth of the Indian economy has a direct relation to the booming BPO industry, which is over dependent on the new medium.

Also check this part from Emily Wax’s report on the incident at Washington Post

 ”Most of the larger companies know that you have to have multiple layers of the Internet to do business on the world stage. Indian companies have learned their lessons to have backups during past breakdowns,” said Raja Varadarajan, executive vice president of Quatrro, a company that provides technical support to computer users in the United States. “We are talking about millions of dollars and jobs. What we want is to have such a good setup that the only way we find out there was a slowdown is by reading it in the papers the next day.”

Now let me think like a terrorist… I want to hurt the Indian economy… What if I disconnect India from the rest of the world? What if I simply break all those cable passing through India? Wow, that will be fun. They will loose all business links and will loose out billions of dollars in form of losses! WOW that’s fun! Also its easier to carry bombs on open seas than to smuggle them or create them in India! Oh I don’t need bomb all I need is an ship which obviously has an anchor!

Now here is my point. Should we wait for such a terrorist attack or should we create a backup? An internet connectivity with the help of a satellite linking instead of physical optical fibre linking alone? An internet connection which cannot be compromised from forces outside our border?