The UnCivil War: Freedom Of Speech V Unwarranted Violence!

So, Tanmay Bhat did something inexcusable when he made fun of two of India's biggest icons. Here, have a look.

Was it that bad? That should be the first thing to think about. For me, it was. To have grown up listening to one of the most melodious voices ever, it came to me as a shock that someone actually can say something like that. Forget even that, you all have parents & grandparents, would you be ok with some retard asking you - they are so old, why dont they just die? If humor is so dependent on such things, then it stops being a source of laughter but becomes a tool to make yourself feel good by disrespecting others. Think of all the yo mama so fat jokes in here- if a random person comes up to & says something like that, I am sure most of you will punch him as hard as you possibly can. Now replace yo mama so fat with yo mama should die. I know I am kind of dragging it a bit but I wish to make what I am saying very clear.

What I am trying to say is that the joke was terrible, he should feel embarrassed for making such a stupid joke. For me, who usually refrains from getting into such stuff, having a strong reaction to it makes one thing clear for me. Thats its understandable if others are getting pissed about it. & yet, I see people (mostly on twitter) trying to justify that there's no reason to feel offended. Why not, I ask you. Do not mistake Freedom of speech for a license to talk anything you like & not get kicked down for it. If people dont like what you say, they will react to it.

So that was one side of the story. Other was the calls for Tanmay's arrest & God knows what else. Half of those people asking for this are responsible for the violence around you & other half are responsible for turning an blind eye towards it. You felt offended with it, thats great. But don't contribute to the madness by bringing your crazy to the table. Its not a competition for crying out loud. Lata ji & Sachin both are more than capable of putting him into his place. Let them do it the way they seem fit.

To add to that, lets go back to the savior-of-the-so-called-comedians phenomena, The Freedom of Speech. If you're telling me with a straight face that freedom of speech is what enables the comedians to talk about anything & anyone in whatever context they wish to & the same doesnt apply to people calling for the same comedian's arrest, then I must say you don't really understand the one thing you're holding as a shield for yourself.

Now probably there will be issues raised against the concept of Roasts or insult comedy which is quite prevalent these days. Although not against the concept or a fan of it, I would say the biggest different in both is that in this format you usually have the person being roasted sitting there, voluntarily taking it up. He or she knows what's coming their way. Probably not the right kind of justification but, hey, I did not come up with the concept of consensual sex. (You see what I meant?)

Ah, feels good to get so much off my chest. Its not right for anyone to make such remarks about anyone. I read someone on twitter saying that we wouldn't be so pissed if same thing was said about Vinod Kambli. Could be right, I dont know. I would have hated that too but with much lesser intensity I suppose.

Anyway, parting shot- I guess its more offensive coming from a not-so-funny-self-proclamed-comedian-noob who's not even worth his weight in gold. (I had to think a lot to force a weight joke in there.) Does it feel bad if I call Tanmay fat or make a weight joke on him? If you think thats offensive then how do you think a death joke can not feel offensive?

Study-ectomy...

Along the standards put up by Barney Stinson, you could think of this name as a attempt to highlight my 'Visitivity' (Those who got no clue what I am talking about, watch How I Met Your Mother). Study-ectomy, although the name is self-explanatory, I would like to put it down because of my recently acquired habit (during MBA) of stating the obvious. Study-ectomy is an act cutting out the brain cells which help in studying. (Not sure if its cells or liquid or acid whatever that makes us study, lets just agree upon cells for now, shall we??) Value Addition isn't it?? :P

Since engineering, it is becoming evident to me that the study books are the best tranquilizers been invented till date. You pick up one and you doze off. There are times when you dont even have to pick one up. And then if you put down the book and watch tv or something, all of a sudden you are not sleepy anymore. As far as I understand evolution, our body adapts and changes itself to a form which is required by adding or removing certain things (I know its a bad definition but smart logo k liye chal jayega, else try google :P ). So, is it that our body itself removes these cells which make us study? 

We have been studying for a long time (or we say so, at least I do), and now our brain is responding to the changes that are required. Its our body telling us that its time to stop studying. This happens may be because higher the education we go for, lesser is the time we give for studying (plot my study graph and you will agree). So, our body starts thinking may be there isn't a need for studying and removes those cells for 'good'.

Now, the trouble is I want to study for the exams coming up (honestly) but there seems to be no way of being able to study. Right now, I am writing this because I wanted to avoid dozing off and I know if I pick up a book, all these efforts will be in vain. But the battle is on, I will grow those cells back. I just hope it happens before its too late. :)

The Mother of ALL games!!!

Yes. The Mother of ALL games...(You can count all the other sports as well). And its not the World Cup Final. Its India against Pakistan. Some might even say its not a game, its a battle. I think they might be going a bit overboard with that one. Old days are gone. There was a time when India would play Pak which is always a high-tension, high-drama affair, even spicier when its in the World Cup. One can always think of the Miandad's frog jumps (Recommended for watching :P) or the Sohail-Prasad spat in 96 World Cup (I hope you like this post just because I mentioned this incident :D). These days though you wont see similar kind of altercations, it will be more of a verbal dispute but you cannot say that happens in only Ind-Pak games because thanks to Aussies, you can generalize this stuff. But this WC it was different or to be more precise it was supposed to be different but again it ended the same way, India- 5, Pakistan - 0.

 

People said this was different because Pakistan's team looked balanced and India's bowling minus Zaheer looked like a bunch of trolls. But everyone had forgotten the spirit that plays a huge part in these games. India had it, Pakistan I doubt, even strongly after the game. Pakistan's bowling always was better. The Imrans, Wasims, Waqars or the Shoaibs; no matter who they brought in, India always had the answer, at least in the WCs. Whereas India had one man all this time and who turned up for almost every such game, Sachin Tendulkar.

He was again on a roll and played a decent knock to put up a good score on the board. 85 is a better knock than decent but if you saw this game, no need for telling you why its just decent. Out of the earlier 4 WC games between India and Pakistan, Sachin was Man of the Match for 2 times and this time collecting his 3rd, I am sure he must be feeling most proud because he had taken India into the Finals, one step away from his own and the whole nation's dream.

India put up a 260 on board which looked bad considering how Sunny kept on saying that its a 300 run wicket, although when a commentator who is not Harsha Bhogale says something, its most likely to be wrong. And the pitch turned out to be something different than expected (who could have guessed) but lets just not give all the credit to the wicket. Indian bowlers put on a great show, contrary to the popular belief, and turned the game in our favor. Munaf was almost inch perfect every time he bowled, Yuvi was getting better with every game, Bhajji was taking wickets too along with stopping the runs, Zaheer was, well Zaheer and Nehra was smiling less which meant he wasn't getting hit for fours often.

India, in the finals of the WC...with SriLanka waiting with even tougher ask. But Team India is not the one to be beaten easily. Ask Pakistan, they have the experience since 1992.

The Banana Ride

Pre-Script(No idea if thats actually a word) : DO NOT IN ANY CONDITION CURSE ME AFTER READING THIS. I have intentionally gone into philosophical stuff knowing full consequences and damage it can effect to the perception you guys have about my posts. But this was one of the most memorable events of my life, however frightening it may be and thought it must be shared.

So I am on the way to Goa along with 14 of my friends and 3 already there in Goa, waiting for us to be there. Now, there is a lot of stuff along the journey that happened which I can tell, fun stuff and mostly others which I should not just to keep the 'decorum' in place of this post. So, lets just say we skip to the main stuff.

So, Goa, Calangute Beach, Water sports. I haven't said much but those words must have set up the premise very nicely I suppose. I have never been to Goa before. In fact, I had not been to a beach before if I had not gone to Kashid just a couple of months back. And this was the first time I was going out of Maharashtra, as duly pointed out by a friend of mine just before I went to Goa. (I haven't traveled much.... huh...apart from the to and fro journeys from Pune to Amravati, there's hardly been any travelling...enough stuff to think about already, lets get back to the story). I was having enough fun on the beach already ( ;) ) when a friend suggested water-sports. I thought what the heck. Abhi aye hai to itna to karna hi padega. But no one told me what I was signing up for. I mean, not that I was thinking water sport on the beach would entitle me sitting in bath tub but this was pretty brutal.

First came the bike ride. Not a cake walk but come to think of what happened afterwards, it seems now like one. Then was Bump ride. This was amazing, I kept shouting loud through out the whole ride and enjoyed it a lot. Felt it was a bit scary at first but once it started, didnt feel like that at all. And then came the moment which could prove what Rani Mukherjee says in No one killed Jessica to a man in the flight. Dont mind thinking which dialogue that is if you cant remember as I am exagerrating anyways.

We were returning from a bump ride and saw guys getting on the banana (quite weird to say that actually), getting on the banana ride sounds better. So as soon as we get back we had to get ready for the banana ride. And to make matters worse, only one seat is left for me, the one at THE front. No going back from here I thought to myself. First kya last kya sab same hi hai. No idea how the guys at the back felt, theres only one to find that out and I am not very enthusiastic about it. So, it starts and I am watching it from the front seat, with no clue what-so-ever about whats going to happen. But I didnt had to wait for long.

The boat thats dragging the banana ride into the sea suddenly takes a sharp turn and we all fall down, holding on tightly to the handle on the ride which makes it even difficult to get above water as theres this whole banana ride pushing you down. Then comes the helper guy to tilt the ride back in position so that they can make us fall down again (that too 3 more times). And then he starts pulling people up on that ride again ( I wonder where the hell he was when Jack was drowning in Titanic). This happens another three times as I mentioned and I am deliberately skipping the part where I was shouting at those guys that it was enough and I will go back to the beach in a boat and not on that stupid banana.

Reason for writing this post is not to frighten you about banana ride, although I would say its something to be frightened about ( :P). But when I look back to this incident, I can see how it relates to life and so much can be learnt from it. I know its an unusual metaphor for life but thats the best I can do for now so suffer.

Life is like this banana ride, so many ups and downs, you never know whats gonna come and hit you in the face. You will never be ready to take it on but you willingly or unwillingly have to get back on it and start your journey again just to fall down again not to mention keep fighting again and again. The most important part of this is that you will have people around you to help. When I fell down from that ride, my FRIENDS were around me, fighting to stay up and helping me to do the same. These FRIENDS will be there for you for what may come and help you fight for yourself because thats what FRIENDS do. Imagine you being alone on that ride and you fell down and no one to pick you up. Not a comforting thought at all is it? Same goes for life, theres no point in living life without FRIENDS and FAMILY.

And finally you have to learn to fall down, make mistakes because that gives you the most important thing in life. Experience, of knowing whats wrong and whats right. Learning who are your Friends and how to be there for them just as they are there for you. To finish this one I would like to quote one of the best movie dialogues I have ever heard- "Why do we fall?? So that we might learn to pick ourselves up"....

The THREE states...

Alright, let me first at the outset give credit to Mr. Bhagat for the name and apologize for using it. I try to be original always (apart from my regular quotes stealing habit from FRIENDS) and i dont happen to like this book a lot as well but it just sounded like a good name for what is coming your way now.

We can divide everything in states or phases like I recently learned in marketing management. All products have four phases, namely, Introduction, Growth, Maturity and finally Decline. I wont bore you with more details (and you are free wonder if I dont want to talk about it or if I know it at all). But the fact is that things can be always divided into phases and so can be our lives. For the time being, I would divide mine into 3 parts all of which have something in common in spite of being different overall.

The first one starts with the Bond.. James Bond. This was the time when I was in 7th, 8th standard and I used to watch a lot of James Bond movies with friends at home. But there was a catch, we used to watch it when no one was at home. Well mostly because all James Bond movies have scenes which are not suitable for adults, or rather not suitable for kids to watch when adults are around(well, this sounds about right). But one thing was sure, Bond had some serious style and we loved watching the movies for that (if you thought we watched it for something else then please stop your dirty mind :P ). So that's about the first phase, James Bond.


The next one... Jason Bourne (I hope you got the resemblance I was talking about). During engineering, I watched the Bourne series and was totally blown by it. Jason Bourne isn't totally like James Bond but in fact he is not at all flashy like Bond but much better in terms of style. James Bond was sidelined because of Bourne and some credit should go to Daniel Craig as well. (He makes Bond look stupid I guess probably he is trying to mix Bourne and Bond by not talking much but it simple isn't working).



And here is the current one. Being in Jamnalal Bajaj. You must have got the connection, all names are JB (I guess I didnt build up much of a suspense :P ). Its been just a few months, I am here at JB but I am having time of my life. Although the schedule has been hectic but along with friends I have been able to find out time to have fun. (I was trying to make it funny but cant seem to find any jokes, may be my powers are fading as I am going into more phases..Ohh Dear GOD.. :P ).

Finally, I end this one without knowing how to end it....If you find any suitable finish to this then please help me out but I guess there should not be an end to this one... :)

Forgive me for coming up with this... :|

Don't blame me for thinking about this. It's just the time which made me. That reminds me I should not be writing blogs when exams are going on. Oh, right, I am talking about exams. I hoped the picture made it clear right away. The thing that makes me and most of you go weak in the knees (for some totally different reasons) and makes me wanna sleep at just the mention of it. Exams.

We all have been writing exams since ...(alright that's gonna take some time). But you know what I mean. You go to school, college and you have have an exam sometime soon. What's funny actually is that you loathe exams so much but still you have to write an exam for getting into a college where you have to write more exams. Man, this word is getting on my nerves now. From now on I will call it a movie and writing it will be watching it, just for the sake of living through all this. So I was on entrance movies I guess. To be completely honest with you guys, I don't think entrance movies are bad but you will not realize the aftermaths until you get a good score in them and get into a theater (well calling colleges theaters just felt better in my head), and watch more movies again. I have had a lot of entrances and I actually liked watching ( :D ) those. But I just can't handle college movies (uhh...college movies, gives it a totally new meaning, if you know what I am saying :P). Whichever movie though, you can't avoid it.

Its a pity really that your movie score, if good, will buy you a great guy image at theaters ( Don't wanna be a sexist here but gals are generally considered padhaakoo so this doesn't apply to them. If you think its wrong, just think it as I am saying all gals are great :D.. :P). All the time you spend in different theaters, people will ask you about your movie score and that will decide how others see you. Your relatives and neighbors jump on you when your 10th, 12th results are out hoping you have flunked somewhere which they will tell their sons and daughters as "Wo dekha, hamesha khelte rehta tha, ab ho gaya na fail, now don't go out n play, nahi to uske jaise fail ho jayoge". And if you do well then again they will tell their kids "Agar usse jyada marks nahi laye na to pocket money band". God save those kids (I hope you didn't think our parents weren't smart :P).

If you thought any of the time reading this, that exams....err movies (phew) don't suck, then with all due disrespect, you are a scholar. But jokes apart (I guess we all kept those apart already, when we started on exams...damn...movies), you cant duck exams(ok forget it, we are back to normal slang), they will keep coming, and we will just have to go with it. You wont be taught anything worthwhile in colleges, well in most of the colleges, so writing exams doesn't really help with you anything. Because if you are not learning anything, then there's no good in evaluating that through exams. So I will stop this exam nonsense here, hoping you will make sure you learn something yourself in schools and colleges without depending on what they teach you. It doesn't have to be only acads because there are too many things to learn out there.

Haunted!!!

I got up. Its a regular day but weird. Regular because I had to get up early for college. Weird because its still dark. So much portion of my life has gone till now when I used to get up around 9 or even 10. Just getting up at 6 makes me feel proud of myself...and at the same time freaks the hell out of me. If I tell my old friends that I get up almost every day at 6 they would ask me to prove it or at least laugh hysterically about it and will say 'Abe tu...' (and then laugh hysterically some more). But I do it regularly now as I mentioned and yes, that day was weird for another reason.

It was a weekend and my dad had gone to hometown(BTW FYI...We do have college on weekends...). So, I got up around 6am (I am deliberately avoiding using the word Alarm which bloody woke me up..) and apparently I am alone at home. Its dark, I am lying there on the bed and I look out of the window and ....No there's nothing there. (Just because the title is haunted, does not mean its gonna have ghosts throughout.. :P). It looked quite calm outside. Sound of a train passing by from the station near my place. Rest is all serene. No matter how much I want to lie there in my bed feeling sleepy(as always), I have to get up. And I do get up like every other day. Then I get ready for college(brush, shower...blah blah...do not wanna go into details and you also stop imagine those :P).

With the last big task at hand, combing my hair, I will be ready to leave. I stand in front of the mirror and start combing when I thought I saw something in the mirror which was a reflection of the window behind (yeah if you guessed it, you got it right this time). It feels weird but I turn around I start going to the window when I start thinking about how stupid guys in horror movies go where they simply shouldn't and end up getting... well..you know. I retracted a bit but then thought what the hell. Lets have a look. Much to my disappointment(Read RELIEF) there's nothing there. I finish the rest of the stuff, shoes and all and lock the door and I left, my mind still on what happened about five minutes back.

These are the times when you realize disadvantages of living on the 17th floor and going to the ground floor in a lift...alone. So I am waiting for the lift. It comes. I get in. Press 0 and lift door closes. Just when I am thinking about some classic lift scene from a horror movie, the lights go off for a moment or so and it gets dark. I skipped a heartbeat but felt glad it was out for just a second or two may be. I get off the lift as soon as it reached ground floor. Yes, relieved again.

I am on the road now, walking to the station like everyday, feeling good that I am in public place now. Its about 7 am so there are people on the street (Its Mumbai after all!!! :D). I am walking on the right side of the road(dont get it wrong...I meant road's right side not the right side...baah..you get it I hope :P). So I am walking (:|) and I happen to look at a guy walking towards me who is wearing a cap at 7 am with hardly any sun out. Boy, that gets me thinking, much credit to the earlier events of the day. And to add some more suspense that guy is looking down. I cant see his face and some more movie scenes come to my head. I am this close to imagine him getting his head up and seeing void instead of eyes or some abnormally weird marks on his face, he looks up and kills all the fun(Read: You know what). Regular guy with a weird habit of wearing caps at unusual times I guess. And I move on.

I reach the station, train arrives in some time, I dont know how much, I am kinda occupied with thoughts already (You can guess ..). I get on that train and leave for college and start thinking 'Dude, you are just going to college now. The real horror hasn't even started yet.'