Film Review-Barfi:Gives you Weep Therapy

(*Spolier Alert)

Finally under peer pressure I went to watch Barfi last night. I was avoiding it after I got to know that the movie is highly plagiarized and in some cases scenes were lifted from the original movie as it is. Too much for the inspiration I must say!

Frist the good things about movie: All the actors did whatever director told them convincingly. If not for the acting the movie would have been disaster. So a big thumbs up to actors. Movie also fares good on production values: From Cinematography to Editing to Music. Beautiful landscape of Kolkata and Darjeeling makes you feel cozy, the sleek editing makes sure you are not distracted and the melodious music draws you in to forget everything else.

*But even after all this Barfi didn’t win my heart…Surprised. Let me tell you Why. The story was disappointing to say least. Nothing made sense to me. I understand cinematic liberties to tell story but how come a Deaf/Mute Kidnapper manages to stay and found a job in Kolkata which is hardly 300 miles from the scene of kidnapping that too with the Autistic girl he kidnapped. Remember in one scene our Protagonist finds a newspaper with news of kidnapping of Rich Autistic Gal. Regarding the love story of movie…it was Kuch Kuch Hota Hai with special able people in lead role :O Barfi settles down with Jhilmil because she passes his test of Dosti…so Pyaar Dosti hai. In this case also our sane mind Barfi doesn’t take Autism of Jhilmil into consideration before taking the test. The whole movie reel is filled of tear jerking moments to make sure we cry our gut out and forget to keep track of story which nevertheless meanders directionless here and there. When we are done with crying we suddenly realize that movie is tad too long. I am not going to talk about plagiarism thing as it is already in public domain.

Barfi works well only because of our guilt feeling. It is perfect catharsis for We the Mean People who have lost all the innocence and the only pleasure we derive now is materialistic. So If its long you cried your heart out then go and watch Barfi. Do keep a handkerchief with you as you don’t want to get caught all teary eyes when lights turn on during interval.

Kejri-Walled by Anna

Okay so we all know Anna-Kejriwal have parted their way on the issue of forming Political Party. While watching the news I was wondering why Anna is so opposed to form a political party. Suddenly my mom who was also watching news said “Accha hua Anna Politics main Nahin Gaye…Politics main to saare Chor Ucchake jaate hai”. My mom candid take on issue made things clear to me. I guess even for Anna politics is for Crooks and Thugs and he doesn’t want to malign himself by getting into political slugfest and same is true for lot of supporters of Anna (including my Mom).

But in my opinion by not going political Anna is creating a Catch-22 situation where he is demanding Jan-Lokpal from Corrupt Politicians to curb Corruption :O Now we all know that the only thing which can make Ruling party's Politician think of enacting something like Lokpal Bill is when they will find that failure to enact Lokpal Bill will heavily dent their chance to win next election. How this will happen? Either Anna has to support an Opposition Party which commits Anna to give his Lokpal Bill when they come to power or Anna himself forms a party. The former option can backfire for Anna as it may happen that after winning election the Party tells Anna the same story Congress told him in first place “Let Parliament debate/decides on Lokpal ”. So the only logical option available for Anna is to create a party. Even if Anna’s party is unable to win any seat of own all political parties will look forward to get Anna onboard to tilt battle in their favor and in Seats where a political party feels there is 50-50 chance then they can support Anna’s Party candidate to fight election. All in all Anna’s party can become a formidable political force which can use its new found power to push Lokpal bill and in long term may be they can become a better alternate for public which is done with BJP and Congress both.

As Anna doesn’t want to get into political turmoil his able lieutenant Mr. Kejriwal has jumped into the fray. But we all know Mr. Kejriwal is not Anna. The problem lies here. In today’s Cynical India we see everybody with doubt. Same goes with Mr. Kejriwal and due to this cynicism all kind of accusation such as brain washing Anna, Using Anna, Jeopardizing Anna health etc are leveled against him as an aftermath of the split. Even Anna asked Kejrwal to not use his credentials going forward. So hereafter Kejriwal is on his own in the Political Battlefield. I am not sure how will he fare but guess do or die time has come for Kejriwal. I can wish him best of luck as this is the only logical step he could have taken going forward.

Secularism to Sickularism

“India is secular not because Muslims need it, but because Hindus want it.” M J Akbar

Read the full article here: http://mjakbarblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/bjp-needs-to-convert-modern-hindu-woman.html

I see/hear “Secular” world lot especially in our Media and Polity and the take away of all my seeing/hearing is if you belong to Majority i.e. Hindu Community then you have to be Secular but if you belong to Minority then you can be Anti-Secular i.e that you can demand your rights from States on the basis of religion..

Dictionary meaning of Secular: not pertaining to or connected with religion

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/secular

If I go by dictionary meaning than most of the Indians are not Secular Individuals. Only our State/Nation is Secular i.e. not pertaining to or connected with religion so it means that personally I can be a religious person but when I function as part of State than I should be secular in performing my duty. But is this true…The answer is big NO.

General Trends of our Elections are 40-60% polling of which 25-35% goes to winning candidate i.e. if 100 people are eligible to vote, 40-60 will vote and 15-20/100 votes are enough to win you election. Politicians in their wisdom knew that Hindus are not homogenous group so it is hard to convince the whole group to turn in single vote bank especially on the basis of perceived threat. On the other hand largest Minority community i.e. Muslims can be converted into single vote bank by keeping them in fear of Hindu Fanatics of which Mr. Narendra Modi is a poster boy. To play this dangerous game the best of our Secular leaders work in anti-secular way. They target a group based on Religion and pitch one Religion versus other to get the arithmetic right. And due to this a large section of Indians are kept improvised and uneducated so that they don’t understand this game.

Even our Media gets into this trap. Instead of empowering a community they pity them and play out their agony to pitch their Secular Credentials. A MOB is a MOB is a MOB. It doesn’t have religion. It just looks for binding factor and the factor can be Nationalism, Sex, Color etc and Religion. And when a Mob forms, the logic go for toss and most gruesome crime can happen. So why a crime committed by MOB, made up of particular religion, is paid so importance. Why Media does not go after a State/Police which allows such MOB to form in first place. Indian has been suffering from Religious tension since Independence and many gruesome riots happened under Secular Government but instead of looking it as complete failure of Indian State and Police Media painted a picture of Fanatic Hindus which further installed fear in a community. Media as a fourth state of Indian Democracy could have done better by not foolishly playing out Secular Credentials of Politicians who are worst Anti-Secular.

But I wonder most of the time why people don’t call this bluff. Even the worst riots happened for a building or a land. There was never a riot in Independent India because Majority community planned to change the Constitution to make India a Hindu State. This thing can never happen because Average Indian has utmost faith in Democratic and Secular Credential of this country. Then why a Mob clash between a piece of land/building continues to divide the population of Indian. Why don’t average Indians (from all community) just tell Politician that if our Police and Judiciary will work as they should be then life of Indians (not a particular community) will be safe. If government school and hospital will work fine then all Indians (not a particular community) can get a shot to a better life.

Interesting Discussion on Recent NE Exodus

Recently I was involved in a discussion with a NE Brother on recent NE Exodus. The discussion happened on comment section of blog: http://ibnlive.in.com/group-blog/The-North-East-Blog/3374/rowdy-sandrembee-we-the-people-with-no-country/63828.html

I want to share this discussion as I feel we all were representing our views as normal Indian Citizen belonging to different part of India with all earnest.

(No Edits are made to this discussion and same is available at above mentioned blog post)

Panel:Saurabh Rauniyar (North Indian)
         Anbu Chembian (South Indian)
         Tetenawa Chatidea (North-East Indian)

Saurabh Rauniyar: No body should run due to threats...if you will not fight your battle...nobody going to do that for u...nd why NE people should be told that India is their country...We have to remember Mahatma Gandhi's wisdom all the time...specially in trying times...Never back down from your opponents...non-violently defy opponents diktat nd walk the right path... Oppressed is always in league wid Oppressor (atleast in legitimizing the action of Oppressor).

Anbu Chembian: Non-violence against a riot (even if it is rumoured)? It will fail terribly for many reasons. First, rioters, unlike British, are unreasonable people and second, you can't protest when your life is at risk. Safety is second, just after Physiological needs, in the Maslow's hierarchy of needs - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs#Safety_needs

Saurabh Rauniyar: Mr. Anbu Chembian: Protest without fear is the true protest...it sounds too preachy but dats wht Bapu taught us...when he took mighty british empire in champaran...he jst had his fearless conviction against a very oppressive brit rule

Tetenawa Chatidea: Remember in the land of Gandhi,Irom Sharmila is left to rot with nasal feeds in a dark corner where there seem to be no bridge. We all should cut this historic crap of winning freedom from British with Non Violence of Bapu ( no disrespect). It was mainly for the fear of mutiny in British Indian Army that United Kingdom came to the conclusion to withdraw gracefully before getting a shameful defeat from a new more organised INA of WW2. Some where in some corner some community took the advantage of this whole misadventure and said we won you freedom, well what about other millions who died fighting brits were not even credited? We are taught with pseudo-inclined history to appease some section while the remaining were pictures of dead photo frames.Indian history itself is so concocted that we don't want to tell our children any more lies.

Saurabh Rauniyar: Read Ideas and Opinion by Mr. Albert Einstein(hope u believe he was man of reasonable logic)...he clearly pointed out that violence for any noble cause will finally attract ppl wid low moral nd d cause will be lost nd Mr. Einstein was big fan of Mr. Gandhi...In troublesome africa Mr. Nelson Mandela realized d power of non-violence and now we hv South Africa as an Oasis in middle of battle torn Africa...Mr. Martin Luther King realized that apartheid and slavery can be ended only by non-violence...cause as our very own Gandhi(bad dat we forgot him when whole of world is waking to its ideas) said "An Eye for An Eye will make whole world blind"...fi8ng nd dying will get instant result for one side but not long lasting peace...world is full of such horror stories...I agree wht hppnd to Irom Sharmila is bad but then you need to appreciate her resolve to continue her non-violent struggle...may be if ppl in NE become part of her struggle in cohesive manner then Indian Government had to listen to their legitimate demands...The right path will always be d toughest one because it will test your character...nd sometimes path is more important than destination :)

Tetenawa Chatidea: "A mob is a mob is a mob" is very potent proverb if you are teaching of non violence, so all the valor fearlessness etc etc is a rhetoric irony. Thats why ppl made the exodus. Fear is something that dwells in every army of the world.The idea of standing up works in for freedom struggle so do you suggest that we are here for a freedom movement in this Independent Nation of ours(if you insist). Yes we believe in non-violence thats why the exodus HAHA

Tetenawa Chatidea: one last addition if you don't mind, see the word non violence is over hyped as compared to non cooperative movement.

Saurabh Rauniyar: Shakespeare must be turning in his grave :O Courage/Cowardice both stem from Fear...this is something everybody must hv felt...some ppl stand ground to win over fear or some ppl loose ground to let fear win...nd for ur cowardice u shud not be blaming others...d idea of standing up comes very frequently in our life when we had to make choices...nothing is perfect in this world so we can not assume a fair society...our country has also got problems for which we all have to struggle so that we can give a better country to coming generation...NE ppl exodus was d worst thing NE ppl could hv done specially in d context it had happen...dey jst reacted so strongly to d rumors...in Mumbai Biharis and UP labors/cab wallahas/etc are threatened so often...even force are used again dem...still dey continue to say dat India is a free country and dey hv freedom to stay anywhere...non cooperative moment is jst plain defiance which is natural reaction...nothing gr8 abt it...its defiance wid non-violence which matters...

Tetenawa Chatidea: The last man standing still lml :p

Lets rephrasexxxx refresh the line again "a mob is a mob is a mob"

I will not let my child hang on standing a lost ground " arm-less and un-protected" to achieve his/her bravery award when his/her soul is in the grave,

this is an every parent night-mare.

I will not wait for the mob till the rumour becomes eventuality and regretted not having boarded the exodus tram along with all our

" look alike" brothers and sisters.

I have never seen dead coming to life to tell me the happy journey of the other avatar life (if there is) except see them in my dreams.

The main reason for NE exodus is not just being coward or scared but they will be out numbered,any case we are, in "eventuality" .

Sikhs were pulled out amongst the people in Northern India during sikh riot because they were easy to differentiate , NE will be an easy target unlike Biharis or Upiite who are anyway a camouflage in INDIAN look alike Indians.

Mumbai: Azad maidan rioter vandalised the police personnel and the soft rumoured target expect their life will be protected?

Pune: NE people were assualted thats for the fact added more fuel.

Mysore: a Tibetian was not spared, Bangalore: many got one on one threat and assaults.

NE ppl are targeted on daily basis in Northern belt of the country from last 30 years.

Introspecting: "Some where in Assam the monkeys fought over the bananas and the dogs were howling in mumbai because their ass got mite itch and the pune cats were running helter skelter because they were sex starved and the parliament hooligans were shout stop stop there is too much of violence in Pakistan, does it make sense?"

Have you ever seen a rioting mob in your life?

We NE have seen thousands of time. its nothing to be proud of standing ground and fighting, it sound cool in COURT ROOM not on streets.

Don't blame others?

First lets concentrate how about you educating those mob (your counterpart) more about NE rather then you educating NEers about rights and courageous.

Every dogs has their colony like wise NE dogs also have their own colony where they stand their ground fiercely. You will be very shock to see those fleeing

NE holding huge guns and swords in their home turf.

Not that there is a war but there was a propaganda war with vested interest, blaming other country will never solve the issue because the harms were indeed done by the very locals of the region. This is something many Indians failed to acknowledge it.

Lets drop that Idea "we have a long way to go for the next generation" We say You have a long way to go before pretending to understand the NE while we have not at all understood what India itself is all about.

I think NE exodus was the right thing because its better to be safe than being a sorry ass or headless shoulder..

" we shall fight the battle some other day "- just out of curiosity i blurted - curiosity killed the cat-

Rumour killed millions in the Partition, its a dangerous tool, buddy.

World-wars writing on the wall "hear nothing, speak nothing because the wall has got ears'.

This is Che from heaven speaking not some Britney sex spear from her grave. --- Lovingly

Your turn :0 ImI

Saurabh Rauniyar: My dear Brother...i understand your concern...sorry i belong to Majority community looking like Indian(i don't knw wht it means as features changes as we go from north to south or east to west) who has not faced threat to life from other community or group...but i do feel threatened for my life when i drive on road, when i m in crowded place, when a powerful gunda or neta assaults me, when police threatens me. in all my capacity I told my NE brothers that make us part of your fear but don't run. I understand that India's Law and Order situation is bad it has not come to a situation where a particular group of ppl will be killed by handful mad ppl and whole nation will watch. Rest easy bro...In our country sanity is more den insanity and plz don't ask anyone to make u feel part of India...you are India...Jai Hind _/\_

The NE Indians should have stayed back and believed the Governments's assurance. But I guess there confidence in Police and fellow Indians is very low.

(Apologies for Bad Grammar and Spelling)

Check Your Indian Provident Fund Account Balance Online

I am like most of you; Salaried Professional who has switched multiple job but forgot to transfer previous PF Accounts to the new PF Account created with New Employer and is clueless about money stuck in old PF Accounts. Today I finally got to know about the fund in my previous *PF Accounts that too ONLINE :)

* PF Accounts with PF Chennai and PF Pune Offices.

Here are the easy steps to check your PF Fund Online:

1) Keep your PF Account Number handy. It will be something like: TN/MS/*****/******

2) Go to: http://epfindia.gov.in/MembBal.html

At the bottom of the page you will see: Click Here to know the balance. You know what to do...right
3) On Next Page Select the State.
TN/MS/*****/******  TN = Tamilnadu

4) On the same page you will be given option to select EPFO office.
TN/MS/*****/******  MS your EPFO Office.

5) Finally you will reach below page…phew

6) Fill the remaining boxes for Employee PF Account Number
Third box = Provide */asterisk in red if your PF number looks like this TN/MS/*****/****** 
Fourth box = I kept it empty
Fifth box = Provide */asterisk in red if your PF number looks like this TN/MS/*****/******
(* /asterisk denotes number here)

7) Give your Name per your salary slip and Mobile number and then check I Agree.

If your PF Office has made data available online then you will get SMS on your Mobile Number within 5 min.
Chennai and Pune PF Office data is accessible through this portal.