1) Dont let your ubuntu resolve any “dependency issues/errors” with relation to ttf-opensymbol related to openoffice fonts. It just basically removes every program on your system with the slightest usage of fonts:) I learned it the hard way .. thanks:)
2) Don’t bring in politics as a topic of discussion for a small-talk with a prospective client/partner and especially NEVER with a prospective employer. I learned that the hard way too 
India is in election mode and there’s lot happening in the IPL (Indian Political League) and as usual all is not good. The weeks saw Varun Gandhi’s rabid comments at an election rally that invited flak from various corners including EC. The BJP which initially distanced itself from the comments is now seen backing Varun Gandhi. Almost unkown to most people beore 2 weeks, Varun has suddenly become the saffron poster boy for BJP and is eagerly sought after for election campaigning.
Many would have forgotten the attrocities that happened in Orrissa last year. Thought the visible violence have subsided, the area is far from normalcy. More than 200 families still live in refugee camps because they are afraid to return to their villages. The sangh parivar factions have given decree that they are not to return to the villages unless they convert back to Hinduism. Most of the refugees have lost all identification cards and have not received any new voters identity cards to register their votes in the coming elections. As such they are still sidelined since their sentiments wouldn’t matter much in the elections.
The christians in Kandhamal may have been persecuted due to lack of any political power. However, the situation is entirely different in Kerala where christians wield great political and social powers. However, the power seems to have gone to the head for the catholic church which has issued guidelines to its cmmunities on who to vote for(the church is anti-left and right) . Why the hell does the church have to stick its head in the political process. The bishops and clergy should just stick to addressing the spritual and religious needs of its followers and should just stay out of politics.
But, all is not bad I guess. The Jagore and Lead India campaigns have gained lot of momentum and are doing a great job in coaxing all educated Indians to vote and hopefully it will be a success. We also see a lot of middle class professionals like Mallika Sarabhai, Shashi Tarur, Meera Sanyal, etc are taking part in the elections as candidates, which is a great sign. Newly independent India had intellectuals elite and thought-leaders at the helm of affairs which slowly gave way to dynasty politics and corruption.Hope what we see now is a reversal of trends.
it’s pretty late that i have found the heaven called open ( and i mean free) software. I just filled up my address and within around 2 weeks delivered to my doorstep was the cd for ubuntu 8.10 installation absolutely free of cost!!:)
The basic installation looks nondescript and plain. But once you start exploring a bit and tweaking things, you’re in for a real surprise:)…. Most of the software any normal user runs in the windows have an ubuntu/linux version too.. so thats not an issue. So over the past couple of days i’ve been experimenting and exploring this whole new world…. The graphics and utilities are simply awesome — one eye candy for example is the Avant windows manager that gives a MAC OS kinda feel to the desktop…check it out..There’s one more too by using a tool called compiz.. but i cant seem to take a screenshot of it.. will upload as soon as it figure out:) 
So, around 3 months after its release I finally got to listen to the much awaited second album from Motherjane – Maktub. I should say I have a pretty mixed response.
The album starts with Chasing the Sun which is absolutely superb followed by another one of my favourites from the album- Fields of Sound. But one of the songs that I was really waiting was a little disappointment though. I was an instant fan of Broken when I heard the initial version around 2 years back. However, the version in the album for some reason didn’t evoke the same kind of feeling inside. Especially the vocal rendering near the end of the song[...tempered with black melancholy], in fact made me cringe — 
. No offence to Mr. Mani – he’s surely one of the best singers I’ve heard with unbelievable control at any range. It’s a treat to watch how he manages to deliver stage shows with studio recording precision. The “over-classicalisation” as I call it, especially in the vocals lasts throughout the album and would be one of the things i would have loved to do away with. The title song – Maktub also found a place in my permanent play-list instantly. The groovy guitar lead staring from the second stanza changes the pace of the song and takes the listener to a different level. Another one of my favourites in the album is Karmic steps.
Byju chettan certainly hasn’t disappointed a bit in the album. The guitarist icon who claims to be inspired by Prasanna(I think) has done an excellent job in the album with unbelievably superb guitaring one after another in before one million, chasing the sun, karmic steps and maktub.
The album definitely defines the new style of Motherjane - heavy Indian classical touch to all the songs. All songs adhere to their trademark progressive rock category with a lot of twin guitaring and mind numbingly fast leads and not to forget the over-classical vocals.
But, then the album is not just about the music. In these times of rampant music piracy, the album has been released in a way .. people would rather pay up.. We dont see the Rs.200 price tag for the album on this one. Each song can be purchased seperately( if needed) at anywhere from as low as Rs.20 to ..(get creative). Motherjane has made trhe process ‘personal” by calling it contributing to the music fraternity rather than paying for the album. And this has in fact worked out in their favour. Almost everyone I know who has the songs have contributed in some sort… and some generously too -(for one thing the songs do deserve it) . So head straight to www.motherjane.in. Contribute, download and enjoy:)
I believe Writers’ block is what they call it.. anyways .. wondering what to write about. Had thought about a lot of topics in the meantime — but dropped due to lack of drive. tired of writing about the sick politics — family centred election strategies and shady alliances, bangalore’s wondeful climate for 2 days when it almost rained, indian team’s thumping victory of the NewZealand series, my visit to Vellore, U.S. double standards by giving into “good taliban” – “bad taliban”, review of Motherjane’s album Maktub, etc, etc. Nothing really materiased i guess.
However, today morning while on bus to office i saw something that caught my eye. I have never seen them in Kerala. The first time I actually saw one was in Bangalore Market and thereafter regularly on Bangalore Chennai trains. Men try to avoid them at any cost. Most people look to other away or just pretend to be asleep until they pass.
Its a cruel fate to be left in the middle — in the middle of nowhere. Caked in cheap rouge, kajal, powder and lipstick; dressed in ill-fitting blouses and colorful sari’s in a grotesque parody of womanhood, they roam around the busy streets and market place terrorising pedestrians for a tenner. im talking about eunuchs; or hijras as we know them in India.
Apart from the brief encounters we have with them in trains or markets, most people dont even know such a lot exists. Even our government does not quite recognise their existence legally. I wont dwell on debates if they are male or female, but I would like to see the community accomodating them.
Hijras have been a part of the Indian culture for a long time, finding references even in the sacred texts(i think). However, they have been marginalised throughout the centuries, with their conditions being pretty pathetic in the 21st century. Apart from rare exceptions were i have read of hijras winning some local election in the north, i have never seen of their lot in respectable positions in society. Reports claim that there are almost a million hijras living in India. Most of them stuck in slums and making a living out of begging or as sex workers.
Hijras do not have the right to vote, marry or own a ration card or a driving licesnce and cannot claim employment or health beneits. Furthermore, they are decreed as incapable of acting as a guardian, making a gift, drawing up a will or adopting a child.
I have more or less mixed feelings for their lot. I dont feel any affinity however, I do believe they are huamn beings, and as citizens of this country, deserve a better treatment. Education and accomodating them in the mainstream society are the only ways of ending the numerous troubles faced by them. Providing employment opportunities can help to pull them out of prostitution. NGOs and social welfare institutions should play a more active role in organising them into welfare and co-operative societies that can help them in gaining self employment and better economic conditions.
One thousand hits 
!!!! of which I’m sure half were by myself — popping in twice everyday to check the count!! [;P] !!! Keep reading!
A very elated and unassuming person walked on stage. After, the initial elated, surprised, comments about the oscars he said,
“I dedicate this award to my country. This is not just a sound award but a piece of history that has been handed over to me. I come from a country and civilisation that gave the world the word that precedes silence and is followed by more silence. That word is ‘Om’. So I dedicate this award to my country,”
Later on, while speaking to reporters from LA, he dedicated the oscar as a gift to the people of India on the day of Shivarathri(which was on the same day).
I watched this on TV with the growing sense of elation and pride, as would have a million Indians around the world. What he said condensed India’s true culture, heritage and secularism. His words reflect the true spirit of India ; that secular backbone of the India that makes us one inspite of the efforts of agents with petty political agenda to polarize this great nation on communal lines.
The Supreme Court dealt quite a blow to freedon of speech this week with its ruling on the case regarding Ajith & his “I hate Shiv Sena” orkut community. The community apparently made derogatory comments against Bal Thakeray and his party was spotted by a member of the Shiv Sena youth wing which promptly filed a case against the 19 year old Ajith.
So has it finally come to a point that Indians are not allowed to freely express their views in public? During the proceedings, one of the statements made by the court was:
”….you know how many people access internet portals. Hence, if someone files a criminal action on the basis of the content, then you will have to face the case….”
Then how come the courts were not ready to ban the movies “Da Vinci Code” and a hindi masala flick “Sins”, in 2006 and 2005 resp even though there were mass outrage by the christian community? Were these movies not played in Theaters that made them accessible to people across the country? Or does the law only ban people from talking against political goons like Thakeray?(both senior and nephew).
Is it a criminal offence to air our views, or open our opinions to dicussion — whether in print or online ? Are we not allowed to have any views or post any comments against Shiv Sena? ( or any other political party for that matter)? Last year the Shiv Sena went on a rampage in Kalyan attacking cyber cafe’s and asking to ban orkut since there were hate communities in there. Who caused more damage – Shiv Sena activists or the guys who started the community?
Anyways, this leaves a lot of us in the bloggosphere a bit bewildered with regard to what we are allowed to post. If the Supreme Court would like to drive a point, it could probably go ahead and ban the following too: -
- All the news channels and press that aired or published the Sri Ram Sena activists rampage and opened discussions on the incident.
- Ban all film, art and music critics since they ALWAYS have something bad to say about the works of others.
- The Indian Parliament and all the MP’s, MLA’s — all politicians in short – for comments (open and vieled) against one another.
- Yeah — go ahead ban orkut, facebook, blogger, wordpress, and god knows what not — probably just block whole internet for India so that the people are not able to access any of the above content.
- Don’t forget to prosecute Nisha Susan for starting the “Pink Chaddi campaign” (that was a good one by the way ) .
And to quote another blogger :
Can <anybody> sue <any blogger> since the blogger doesn’t think positively about <anything> made/ associated with the first <anybody> in question?
And as a foot note : I hate Bal Thakeray, and his nephew Raj and their respective gunda gangs.
The interrim budget 2009 tabled by Pranab Mukherji turned out to be more of a political statement rather than an interim budget. Most of the budget speech dwelt upon the UPA’s “achievements”. Mr. Mukherji seems to have totally lost it when he said that the FY’09 outlook was good for the country while the global outlook was “not encouraging”.
The govt still seems to be in a denial mode and not seeing the writing on the wall. The country is going to a really bad time. The 7% GDP growth rate that the government has been touting is definitely not an indication of economic well-being. Considering that almost 35.5% of the GDP is accounted for by foreign trade, the global financial turmoil is going to really hurt in the coming financial year. It is believed that in just the December quarter of FY 08-09, almost 500,000 jobs were lost in the country.
However, the government seems to be oblivious to this fact and has done nothing to address this issue. Moreover, in a economy that is slowing down due to uncertainty, the government has not been ready to make any taxation reforms that could help the industry a lot.
The Congress on the other hand has defended the budget using varous reasons. Worst of it being the spokesperson, Mr. Singhvi’s statement, ” The FM did not announce any new schemes deliberately so that no one can make any allegations”. It is shameful that the government is blaming the utter lack of creative problem solving on its part on opposition pressure. How come we didn’t see such a sentiment when last year’s budget was presented before the state assembly elections, wherein the government went on a massive public bribery campaign by giving away around 65,000 crores as farmer loan waivers. And we wonder how much that has helped the farmers(sarcasm intended).
The tax paying minority in this country is not a great deciding factor in this country when it comes to elections(partly due to our lack of interest – we consider election day as once in five years leave — why stand in long queues all day whe you can stay at home and relax?) . Overall, this has been an utterly useless budget with nothing in it for the people. Will this inaction on their behalf cost the country gravely in the coming years will have to be seen.
In a major incident that restores our faith in the judiciary, the court has sentenced death penalty for both the accused, Moninder Singh and Surinder Kohli. Though I’m not a supporter of capital punishment, the judgement of harsh punishment for these monsters is definitely welcome. Earlier the CBI, which had been trying to shield the politically connected Moninder while pushing for death penalty for Kohli. The courts have thankfully seen through this farcial investigation conducted by the CBI that, as put buy the supreme court last week, is a mere puppet in the hands of the ruling party.
