Thursday, March 23, 2006

smoke on the water?


Everyone has the right to speak. The right to be taken seriously depends entirely upon what they have to say

In the seventies Deep Purple did their thing with a track called 'smoke on the water', and as I write this, there's news of Sonia gandhi having resigned from her post of Member of parliament and Chairperson of the Advisory Council folllowing the ruckus the opposition kicked up after opposition MP Jaya Bachhan was shown the door because she supposedly held an 'office of profit' while being an Member of India's illustrious Parliament.

[BTW, you can be as corrupt as you want to, have a few dozen court cases registered against you for being a party to embezzlement of public funds, even have the od criminal case gainst you wish... and that's not cause for being kicked out of the House of Representatives, but hold an 'office of profit' and the fat will be in the firs]

It's another matter that the resignations may just be smoke on the water, but there's no doubt that the Italian lady in Indian Politics has fired a faler into the sky... and developments are going to be very interesting over the next twenty-four hours.

In the meanwhile, I'm still in Lucknow.......

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Luck -now!!!

Second day in the city of nawabs
Chehellum: though I didn't get to go out and see
Shia culture in all its splendour
because folks, I was sitting like a chicken in an overcrowded farm
waiting to be halal.... work, work and more work
beacuse SK must have been a slave driver in his last birth...
More about the kababs when I get the chance to Consume some.

I need some LUCK NOW....

Monday, March 20, 2006

city of nawabs

I write this from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh
The city of nawabs who probably invented
and indulged in eating kababs.

It's a place which fills me with an awesome sense of history
and the mingling of cultures blend together to give you a feeling of
beauty, motion, and at times other-worldliness.

Of course, it's going to be five days of work
mainly cooped up in a large room
absorbing inputs on how to effectively put together a programme
that will help empower the most marginalised of our population:
non-heterosexual effeminate males ...
how do we put together an enabling environment
that provides information and services to
help them combat the HIV infection in a society
that uses all its powers to render them invisible.

But Lucknow has its rewards... more on that later.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

attractive folks


Now and then, conversation veers round to attractive people. Who are the guys or girls that have the 'it' factor? What is there about the scent of a woman that translates into an award winning movie?

And now, I'm wondering about what 'type' of people i feel drawn to... who are those that 'attract' me?

Obviously one's eyes are drawn to the snappy dressers, those with self assurance and so on.

But besides the people who look like they are in an eternal competition to bag the wannabe supwrmodel of the millenium titls, there are many others, who are just beautiful because they have an inner glow, an intangible something, that makes the pheremones flow.

However, today I will introduce to you a rather attractive specimen of the human race... a guy who works as a daily wage handyman, named Mathew.
He's a tribal, with some education till secondary level.
What is very attractive about him is his smile, it's so innocent and nice that it really brightens up your gloomiest morning.
He's very quiet. He moves with a gentleness that soothes you. I've never heard him talk loudly. He is always found busy on some odd job or the other. And whenever he sees you, there's that wonderful smile... now that's one attractive person.

Friday, March 17, 2006

slooow connexions

aaaAArrrghh!!
really pissed off today... extra exasperated
and why???
because of the slow-boat-to china
that internet providers in this country tout as
'fast connections!!'
I'm on a connection today that would make
a pregnant snail on tranquillizers look like that formula one racing ace
why can't the advertisements match the service???
any answers???

Thursday, March 16, 2006

HOLI THOUGHTS


Holi is the festival of colours
And celebration

but my thoughts are elsewhere...

I think Manish
Whose dad finally came home from prison
On the eve of Holi
[the Hindu festival marking
The triumph of ‘good’ over ‘evil’
Or bhakti over arrogant ungodliness]
Has just cause for celebration…

For the past week
Manish and his mother
Ran from pillar to post
To scrape together some 40 thousand rupees
To pay the finance company
An instalment on the interest
And they in their ‘magnanimousness’
Would make it possible for his father
To be released from prison

His father… partly paralysed, diabetic
Thrown into Bihar’s infamous Beur jail
because he owed The finance company
40 thousand rupees…
Like something out of 18th century England
Or a Dicken’s novel…

Monday, March 13, 2006

James Blunt – I’m a fan

The tousled haired ex-Army captain may have left behind the short back-and-sides haircuts of his days in the forces, but he's still guiding his career with military precision.

The Harrow-educated singer has wedged a lifetime of realised dreams into his 28 years. After graduating from his army-sponsored place at Bristol University, he re-tread his father's and grandfather's footsteps into the force.

He was sent to patrol the streets of Kosovo as a peacekeeper before being promoted to captain.

He was put in charge of leading 30,000 troops into Pristina as the first British officer to enter the Kosovan capital.

Having decided to become a singer while still at school, James found song-writing didn't offer much of a distraction from what was happening around him and it was time to replace guns with guitars.
Within a year of leaving the army, he'd teamed up with former 4 Non Blondes singer Linda Perry who has written and produced songs for Pink, Courtney Love and Christina Aguilera.

She signed him to her US-based label and he recorded his album in Los Angeles while lodging with actress Carrie Fisher.

A support slot on Elton John's 2004 tour followed, while this year he's headlining gigs around Europe and hitting the festival circuit at Glastonbury and Wireless.

James Blunt -new crush




Hang on… hang on… I have to update my 7 things list because

My latest crush.. right this evening while watching him perform that wonderful song on Parkinson’s… is James Blunt… there’s absolutely nothing so wonderful as watching him sing ‘goodbye my lover, my friend’ while his hands work the ebony and ivories of the piano.

Okay so my current 7 crushes must now read…

1. James Blunt 2. Jack Nicholson 3. Yul Bryner in the King and I 4. Shrek 5. Whoopie Goldberg … and so on...
and hey!

what about Sanjay Dutt
how can you NOT root for him after watching him on Simi 's show?

Sunday, March 12, 2006

My pal of yesteryears and beyond, Allenbhai the tripewriter gorilla visited here and read the preceding post and rightly reminded me, that apart from those ‘7 expressions’… I also use my down to earth, rustic, dulcet rural sikkimi-nepali expressions that cannot compare to anything… [a la Sinead O’Connor]

APEEEEeeeeeEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeee that starts at a normal pitch and goes an octave and a half higher to express my pleasant surprise, utter bafflement, or shock… That’s a favourite.

And then there’s the loud, bass pitch that a guy uses to say
AMMMBOUnnnnnnnnnh [the nnnnnh denoting the resonance that goes with the chant of auuuuuummmmmmmnnnnh]…NOW this expression is actually my MOST favourite one… it beats the crap out of baap-re! Mummy! Arre maaa! … it means MY mother AND my father and must be accompanied by a slap to the forehead. Oh the wonder of hearing this sound at a bursting-to-the-seams Paljor stadium at the height of the Gold Cup Football when a particular agile striker shoots that impossible goal…and everyone goes AAAAAAAAMMMMMBOU
nnnnnnnnnnnnh!!!!!!!!!
And then what better rejoinder than a curt Timro TAUko!!! to some silly idiot who has just made a [obviously] asinine suggestion, proposal, or remark It literally means Your HEAD!!!’

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

SEVEN THINGS ???


Well, I have been tagged by Ajit, and being the good sport I am, here are the seven things

Seven Things I plan to do before I die

Write a book
Complete a documentary about male to male sexuality in Bihar
Bungee Jump off a bridge
Catalyse the Dalits of Sasaram into running an organic farm
Get a state-of-the art dental makeover
Run a TV show based on village working class males who could beat the pants off the elite-waste money –in- the gym models
Host my own [controversial] radio show

Seven things I can do

Cook a variety of mouth-watering south Asian dishes
Concoct an Irish cream that critics say rivals Baileys
Be the life of the party when I want to
Build and maintain aquariums without air-pumps
Use the written word in a variety of interesting ways
Be difficult, and eccentric – it’s a fine art
Avoid getting into the ‘love and marriage’ type of commitments

Seven things I can’t do

Give up music
Tolerate cigarette smoke blowing in the immediate region of my face
Forgive the creep who smokes in my bathroom and leaves a butt in the toilet bowl
Discourage somebody who believes in what he/she is doing even though I may not agree with it
Take fanatics of any kind seriously
Be nice to educated people who relieve themselves on public walls
Smile at somebody who’s messed up my computer

Seven things that attract me to the opposite sex

WHY should I be particularly attracted to the opposite sex? However
Here are seven things that make me like a woman:
1. If she’s direct and takes no nonsense
2. If she rides a motorbike and lets me pillion ride
3. If she can taste wine and has an educated palate
4. If her tastes in music, food, and men complement mine
5. If she has a sense of humour
6. If she’s a good story teller, no matter what her age is
7. If she can take a stand for women’s rights, gay rights, lesbian rights, a nd the rights of the disadvantaged and acknowledge that not all men are bound to patriarchy.
And, for good measure, here are the seven things which make a MAN attractive to me:

1. A pleasant smile and a good singing voice
2. If he rides a motorbike and lets me pillion ride
3. If he can taste wine and has an educated palate
4. If his tastes in music, food, and men complement mine
5. If he has a sense of humour
6. If he’s a good story teller, no matter what his age is
7. If he can take a stand for women’s rights, gay rights, lesbian rights, and the rights of the disadvantaged and still be the life of the party

Seven things I say most
1. As a matter of fact…
2. Gross!
3. Kaisan ba?
4. I’m not gonna do ABMM [aa bail mujhe maar]
5. Really?
6. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
7. You have a right to your opinion, and I have mine

Seven celebrity crushes
1. Jack Nicholson
2. Whoopie Goldberg
3. Elton John
4. Ally Mcbeal
5. Will in Will & Grace
6. Shrek [‘cos he has layers, like an onion]
7. Robin Williams

Sunday, March 05, 2006

And again... from Bihar

Eunuch's killing shocks peers

Patna, March 4 (IANS) The eunuch community here is shocked at the killing of one of them by armed criminals in Bihar, saying such an incident has never occurred before.

Chameli, 35, was Friday killed by armed men at her residence in Kamla Nehru Nagar, a middle class locality here, when she was brushing her teeth. She died on the spot.

"If we (eunuch) are not safe, it is bad news for the state because even criminals usually don't dare touch us," said Kali Hijra, a leader of the community here.
Kali Hijra, who is also a ward councillor in the Patna Municipal Corporation, said never before had a eunuch been targeted by criminals. "We are shocked at the incident," she said.

Most eunuchs who gathered at Chameli's house Saturday morning expressed similar concerns and wanted to protest the killing.
"We will be forced to stage protests across the state against police failure (in preventing such crimes)," another eunuch said.

Dozens of eunuchs protested Chameli's killing Friday by blocking roads and surrounding the residence of the Patna district magistrate. They demanded the immediate arrest of those behind the killing.

scorpio says: In many communities, the Third gender is treated with awe, respect, even fear, because of the potency of the 'Hijra curse'... and also the potency of the 'Hijra blessing... that's why the killing of a eunuch has caused so much of consternation....