Time of your Life

I went on a nostalgic trip this weekend as I was talking to some friends of mine and listened to some good old favorites. I was on you tube and was surprised when I saw some cool videos of MIT Manipal, my alma mater. Check out these cool videos.

I could go on and on about the good times we had back in those days. No lyrics can capture the fun, passion and the moments. Here's a couple that really get close...

Time of your Life
- Green Day

Another turning point;
a fork stuck in the road.
Time grabs you by the wrist;
directs you where to go.

So make the best of this test
and don't ask why.
It's not a question
but a lesson learned in time.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs
and still frames in your mind.
Hang it on a shelf
In good health and good time.

Tattoos of memories
and dead skin on trial.
For what it's worth,
it was worth all the while.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

----



Promo for the Manipal Group:






This is where I spent the best days of my life:
It starts from the cottage where I spent my final year although a few things displayed have changed from our days



Yet another Promo:




I some cool videos of all the idiosyncracies that we used to do in the hostels, called as Bakch**di in our lingo.. a name that i really wanted to keep for my blogspot Id. It certainly bought a few smiles and memories down the path. Here's my advise to u guys who are in college... This is the best days of ur life... Enjoy them.. coz later in life travelling down this memory lane is what soothes ur heart n mind.

Hum, rahen ya na rahen kal
Kal yaad aayenge ke ye pal
Pal, ye hain pyar ke pal
Chal, aa mere sang chal
Chal, soche kya
Chhoti si, hai zindagi
Kal, mil jaaye to hogi khush-naseebi

Hum rahen ya na rahen yaad aayenge ye pal

How Bizzare !!!

Can you imagine,
You can't take a flight out of Blore at night, coz it ain't legal for the air hostess to work!!!
You can't get a nurse to attend the patient in the ICU coz Hey, she's gotta be home!!!
A lady can't deliver a baby at night coz the lady doctor will not be available till 6AM!!!
You cannot arrest any ladies at night.. coz u need a lady cop to escort her and the lady cops will be at home as they are not supposed to work at night !!!
The economy in the IT/ITES sector shall go down..but that's ok!!
The prostitutes/ bar gals will still be available at night, coz they have never been legal!!!
How Bizaare !!!!

That's what I felt when I saw the latest ban by the Karnataka govt. on Women working past 8PM took me by surprise. How dumb can you get Mr Ansari. You are the minister of Labor after all.

In the modern times when we talk about equality and equal employment rights... the step back to stone ages with a rule like this seems so preposterous that I wonder if this was even discussed and approved by even a sub set of ministers.
Let's be practical guys, what we need is
- Better Law and Order Regulations.
- Safety for commuters across the city (incl Women)
- More awareness for ladies and some self-defense skills (even it is a pepper spray)
- Access and response to 100
- Less red-tapism in police stations
- More aggressive stance and faster resolution on rape cases

These would give a sense of safety to all the people be it Men, Women or children. We need better governance and not stupid Laws !!

Sab Maya hain

The UP election seems to have taken everybody by surprise. After a decade of patch work coalation govt. and presidential rules, UP seems to have unanimously voted for the Mayawati's BSP. BJP, SP and Congress all were far too behind to even give a worthy notice.

Mayawati who after 2 maybe three failed attempts as the CM now comes onboard as the Cm of UP. Probabaly the stint with BJP that lasted 18 months was her longest stint as CM as the first one was harldy for a few days.

Maya bought about a new turn around as she went away from the party to the dalit image and bought in upper caste brahmins into her party. This has improved the image of the party and made her standup in the light of the current events. Mulayam Singh had to take a huge beating as the SP was no-where close to be noteworthy. THe media friendly Amar Singh seems to have gone under-ground as the poll results were declared.

Maya seems to have bought about a renaissance into the party's image and is now seen as the party commander than the founder Kanshi Ram.

Let's hope that this is for the good of the people of UP, the largest state in India. This means a huge change into the Indian political arena as the UP constitutes the highest # of MLA's into parliament. How I wonder what's in fate for the coming elections.

Obituary - Freedom of Speech

A few events that I read in last couple of weeks prompted me to write this one.

Last week, the Mumbai police negotiated with Orkut to block/ban groups that they felt were not nationalistic.
I do agree that they need to be moderated and that this should not be the center for terrorism, prostitution and scams. However, we want to have a free press and a place where people can express thier feeling as well as vent out thier frustration against the current state of economics, politics; gossip on Page 3 etc...

Half way around the globe, post the Don Imus episode, where he was suspeneded from msnbc after the controversial statement he made on his shows where he called a Rutger's basket ball team as ho's brought in another drama. The Afro-American leaders got together and protested against the record companies in NYc demanding that record companies have been promoting crass lingo into the Hip Hop culture.

Hip Hop or music in general has had a long lasting relationship with radicalism be it sex, drugs and voilence to abusive language, anti-war/politics. Again, this is not limited to music but would be applicable to all forms of art including literature and paintings.

Free speech is a boon and a bane. On one side, we need people expressing thier views/ opinions and on the other, we want them to remain within the societal norms. Sometimes just dont work. Time and Time again we have had artists play a crucial role against various subjects. Singers have talked about safe sex when sex was a taboo (Including our very own Remo Fernandes in Everybody wants to uhh..). they have talked against the wars (My fav on this being Zoombie from Cranberies which is against the IRA); post-war trauma (Final Cut- Floyd). Bono, Bruce Sprigstein etc.. have talked about politics. Our own poets have been crucial in spreading messages during the freedom movement. So history has been the proof that we do need free press for the betterment of this world. We don't want to be yet another berlin wall or the iron curtain.

Some of the sites that they are talking about banning are hate sites against Gandhi, Nehru, Indian cricket team and the likes. These are personal views and should be respected. If need be, we need to regulate it so that children below 18 cannot join these sites. But, the social sites build the social network in the virtual world. The world is a global village and the net brings us together irrespective of the social status and the geography.

Hey Moderators, leave these sites alone......... what beats me is Google joined them and agreed to it so easily!!! I also saw google de-activate a lot of accounts on youtube where people had uploaded movies. This one I support as it is impeachment of the intellectual rights and the copyrights.

We need Laws without boundries to govern these issues as what is legal to one is not legal to another. The global bodies need to decide on the code of conduct and not just another so called social police.

Our Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman is back

Our friendly neighbourhood spiderman is back with a bang. This time it's a mega melodrama with all the right ingrediants to keep the audience on the edge of thier seats for the 2.5 hrs. There is humor, Action, Emotion, Love, Jealousy and Hatred.

Spidey seems to be attracting more villians. They add two more nemesis, the Sand man and another arachnid Venom apart from the second gen Green Goblin (Harry Osborn)

Spidey gets taken over by an outer space host that enhances his super powers but the one's on his dark side. We can see spidey turning into a casanova. He gives some groovy moves, flirts around and gives a spidey kiss.He has to fight a internal battle a kinda Dr Jekyl n Mr Hyde... the super hero vs sycophant.

Sandman comes out as a result of a phsyics experiment where he is de-molecuralized and resurrects from sand.
When spidey finally gets to sway away from his dark side, the host takes over Topher and makes him venom (his dark side).Venom has an arachnid suit similar to Spidey but has a vicious face.

The film is filled with a lot of humorous moment as spidey tries to be a casanova, who gives some saturday night groovy moves. The Boss of Daily Buggle is also entertaining.

The movie is full of feel good factors; Peter Parker forgives Sandman, who had killed his uncle; Harry turns away from the effect of Green Goblin and turns around to help Spidey fight Sandman and Venom.

Overall, it's a movie that is worth watching. The movie seems to be the last of the series as the character trail ends here.