Clarify what?

There is something eerily funny in how people have inquired about my views on the recent spate of bombings all over India. "How come you haven't written about all this? I thought you would." What's funnier is how some think they are being politically correct by saying, "All Muslims are not like this. But a majority, the moderate ones, keep silent and that is what's annoying." Earlier, you would have gotten replies from me that you want to hear. Not now.

Let's put it this way: Did you find this "moderate" Muslim dance in joy when these bombings took place? Did no Muslim die in the explosions at all? Do you find these same moderate Muslims defending what happened? I doubt. You only defend those you choose to represent.

I will not clarify what I stand for just because some arbit dick sitting on "intelligent" reports based on the oh-so-non-anonymous email claims says that I owe the nation an apology. I don't owe anyone an apology nor an explanation. Because I do not represent those responsible for these acts. I represent the Muslim Community in India and it has nothing to do with what these guys claim to do it for.

What I do have, is an opinion. My opinion, among other things, is that religion is a private affair. I will not intrude in your private affair and will not allow you to intrude into mine. My religion does not allow me to kill random innocent people on the road. Hence if someone follows the religion I follow, he will follow the same principle. Anyone who doesn't, clearly doesn't belong to my religion. Even if he was born into it. In my opinion, he cannot be stopped because he has no logic that can be appealed to.

My opinion is also that all civilisations that begin, must end. They will do it under several pretexts or contexts. And in phases. If it isn't meteors or the ice age, it's Race or the N-bomb. If it's religion and fuel today, it will be water and The Markets tomorrow. I believe that your question, or my opinion, is not above this cosmic agenda, rather, a part of it. We are not Gods. We are merely players. Shakespeare got that centuries ago. It's time you get it too.

Lalbadshah says..

Life screws you anyway. You can either fight back and call it a rape or lie back and wait for an orgasm.

Max Payne - The Movie

It's finally here. The game of nightmares that implemented the kickass concept of Bullet Time that 'The Matrix' used to its fullest, has arrived in its cinematic form. Though Mark Wahlberg's face doesn't quite match the sharp features of the original Sam Lake, the trailer looks promising. And yes, they have retained that haunting music we all love.

Trailer:

On Independence Day

We all know that WWE is staged. The wrestlers don't really wrestle, that they are just well built actors. Knowing this, and watching the live audience going mad on TV, you are either disgusted or plain amused. Right? I mean, how can they fall for such a hoax?

Now, lets talk about patriotism. Do you think you are proud of Abhinav Bindra who won the gold at the Olympics because you are patriotic? Or is that happy feeling just something you get by knowing that you belong to a country that has been placed at a slightly higher rank in a medal tally than it was 4 years ago and hence a symbol of higher power?

Lets go back a little. Countries were formed by rulers and people in power because they got a kick from being in control. Sure, obviously they had to be "nice" to their subjects else they would be overthrown by rebels. Hence, good governance was a way of avoiding losing power. The Indian border that we are so "patriotic" about is largely the extent to which the British and Moghuls could control a piece of land as a single entity and the rest by efforts of rajas, maharajas and other arbit empires to hold their ends together.

All these rulers all over the world at all times had one task at hand - To retain and grow in power. Hence they started building armies to conquer more. Now it takes more than just monetary benefits for a man to risk his life, hence they introduced the concept of patriotism. "Die for your motherland!", they said and people did die. Compare this to the WWE stage where they yell "Fight to the finish!", and the live audience goes mad in throes of fanatic orgasms. What's the difference?

What I'm coming at, is that patriotism is overrated. Symbols like flags, Independence days and National Anthems in movie theaters are just tools used to make us feel emotionally attached to the country and hence cloud our judgement about keeping the corrupt as our leaders and actually giving our lives for such an idea. The government is supposed to be a set of people we choose to take care of our roads, electricity, food, law and order and we pay them for their services in the form of taxes. Now these same people you hired, are asking you to stand up at home or stop on the road every time a song called the national anthem plays on the road when most of us don't even know meaning of this song.

Task for this year: sit back and carefully think from scratch and without any biases as to what is patriotism and to what extent is it a fraud emotion. What exactly do you mean by "Love your country"?

Note: I'm not asking you to hate your country. You will inevitably feel patriotic about things. That's the way it has always been and that's the way it will always be. I'm asking you to realise why you feel that way.

And oh, Happy Independace Day!

Fraud Correlations

I have this thing for figuring out stuff which seemingly has a strong correlation but might not be causal after getting acquanted to Regression Analysis during my MBA. Some of them are:

- Bong and Mallu chicks are known to be hot. Both belong to commie states.

- AIDS has increased at a rapid rate in India and so has Karan Johar's financial reach.

- Random multiple bombings. Presence of IIMs in these cities.

- My departure from bangalore. Increase in female suicide rates in Bangalore.

Any more that you can think of? Do comment..

Review - The Dark Knight

Why so serious?

I went. I watched. I was floored.

Never before has the conflict within Batman been depicted so starkly on the big screen. Never before has the Batpod looked cooler. Most importantly, never ever before has The Joker appeared scarier.

One has to admit that in spite of Christian Bale's freezing stare and the mind numbing action pieces, Heath Ledger as The Clown Prince of Crime takes the cake. His portrayal of the absolute unadulterated evil bordering on sheer brilliance is what leaves you shaken after the movie. It also leaves you sad that you would not be able to see more of him in the future movies.

The plot is rapid, barely giving you time to breath. It revolves around the emergence of The Joker as the kingpin of Gotham underground and that of Harvey Dent as the upright DA who stands by his principles till they leave him scarred for life.

This movie goes beyond the regular conflict of good and evil. It actually explores their coexistence. The joker at one point says, "You complete me" which I believe is true. I mean, admit it - apart from the Joker, none of the bat villians have really been upto the mark except Ras Al Ghul to a certain extent maybe. True good needs true evil to compliment it and that part has been best explained in this film. Kudos to Chris Nolan for pure genius and for taking this movie enterprise to a whole new level. Gonna be hard to beat this one.

The only setbacks in this movie are that the plot goes a bit too fast sometimes to get a grip of, and is perhaps a tad bit too long.

All said and done, this is clearly the best movie this season has had to offer this year. Go watch it.

Rating: 9/10