India, I prostrate to thy politics !

The recent BJP-Sonia brawl (not lexically), that started with the demand and disqualification of Jaya Bacchan has gained significant limelight, thanks to our ever-agile media, flooding us with all sorts of accounts and viewpoints. The democracy preserves the freedom of the press, and then we get media reports that are biased and glamorised.. is that deviant from the intended motives of the free press?.. I guess I too deviated from my topic and would return to it some other day.

So the issue at hand.. as ably communicated to me by Animesh bhaiya :), is whether Sonia by resigning at the right moment has gained a moral highground for her.
Of course, I was keeping tracking of the event, but to write something for public view.. should be factually correct, unless it is my viewpoint.. which I, anyways am free to express.
Circa 2004, a similar situation arised after the general elections.. where the BJP took a stand against Sonia becoming the PM citing her foreign origin.. and Sonia took BJP by surprise.. and raised herself in the annals of Indian politics as a righteous and selfless individual working for the betterment of the nation and her party.
But today, the situation is, alas a different one! .. to begin with, all this row over disqualification was started by a petition filed by a congressman. If only the congress had known, it would turn a Frankenstein's monster situation.. anyways, i guess different things were in the offing.. and the BJP was of course, quick to pickup.. being a 'vigilant and responsible' opposition, though the Petition against Ms. Gandhi was initially filed by a TDP guy.
To quote in her words, "“atmosphere was being built up in the country to give an impression that government and Parliament were being misused for my cause only... This has hurt me greatly,” Sonia stated before stepping down. She also reminded everyone that she had “come to politics and public life not for any personal gains” but to serve the nation.
I am afraid however, this second renunciation may not have the same effect as the first one. To quote one of the articles I liked, (Click here for the complete article)
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If Sonia Gandhi’s 2004 ‘renunciation’ gave her a halo that has stuck to her head more steadfastly than Manmohan Singh’s blue turban, her 2006 ‘resignation’ is the moment when we get to see the swathes of cellotape that keeps that halo in place. By pre-empting any embarrassing ordinance, Sonia may have come across — again — to those willing to be bewitched that she is the moral answer to immoral politics. But renouncing and being pushed to renounce have always been two different activities.

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But, again there are counter-view points available as cited in this article "Turning outrage into applause" ..

Of course, BJP isn't letting it go out so early.. they are 'rightly?' describing is a ‘‘a move to save face’’ after having been ‘‘caught red-handed while trying to subvert Parliament and the Constitution.’’ The party has convened a meeting of senior leaders for tomorrow forenoon to decide its future course of action.
Describing the resignation as mere “eyewash”, Leader of Opposition L K Advani today made clear that his party would continue to target Gandhi’s “dual standards for herself and other leaders in the House” and for “still holding many a post of profit”. .. (see Link)

In all, I would say the reader has to take his own discretion and form his viewpoint.. though, in my opinion, Sonia is playing another schmaltzfest... are you game?

-Vinod

P.S. Your valuable comments and criticism are invited.
And thanks to Animesh for instilling in me enthu.. to write this.

Are You Romantic or Realistic?

Guess my blog has been inactive for a long time now.. and there is not much to write either :D.. anyways I've found this blogthings.. which is a funsite and lets to create a lot of quizzes.. so guess that will keep my blog running a few more days

here's what it has to say on how romantic I am :P

You Are A Realistic Romantic

You are more romantic than 60% of the population. It's easy for you to get swept away by romance... But you've done a pretty good job keeping perspective. You're still taken in by love poems and sunsets You just don't fall for every dreamy pick up line!

Are You Romantic or Realistic?

Musings of the heart...

Seeking a purpose
-----------------------------
Those yesteryears, I sometimes wonder
The childish fray and light-hearted banter
The feeling of joy at trivial finds
The thoughts that knew no binds
Why is it that we grow big and rational
Pursuing something feasible and practical
The issues of heart become so maimed
Advance in career is the sole thing aimed
Not that I'm unhappy with this way of life
Seldom a passing thought becomes so rife
Unseen unattended a feeling does linger
Shouldn't we cater to something tender?

- Vinod K. Shukla

Funny C Declarations!

I accidently browsed through this humorous page containing some funny C Declarations.. enjoy!

auto accident;
register voters;
static electricity;
struct by_lightning;
void *where_prohibited;
char broiled;
short circuit;
short changed;
long johns;
unsigned long letter;
double entendre;
double trouble;
union organizer;
union jack;
float valve;
short pants;
union station;
void check; unsigned check;
struct dumb by[sizeof member];
union onion; /*submitted by srp*/

/*if GCC extensions are allowed -- Dave Gilbert */
long long ago; /* in a galaxy far far away */

/* Submitted by James Buchanan */

const ipated;
case closed:
double or_nothing;
short sighted;
void if_removed;    /* warranty */
volatile buggy_code;
unsigned anonymous;
int erbreed;    /* duelling banjos */

/* Borland's additional C keywords */:
huge penis;
interrupt ed;
near sighted;
far out;


men()
{
   goto pub;
  pub:
   return pissed;
}

women()
{
   goto bathroom;
  bathroom:
   while (1) ;
}

(Source: http://gnuweb.binarycompass.org/fun/jokes/declarations.html)

Some interesting banned Commercials

Banned Master Card Ad Video
Soccer Ad
Some more interesting videos can be found on this link.

Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Ever wondered how easily you press "Ctrl-Alt-Delete" when your computer hangs up... and who was responsible for this innovation... the keyboard combination was designed by "David Bradley"
He is the One who spent 1 minute and 23 seconds in writing the source code that rescues
the world's PC users for decades This extraordinary IBM employee is retiring on
Friday, 25th March 2005 after a prolong service of 29 years.

His formula forces obstinate computers to restart when they no longer follow other commands.

By 1980, Bradley was one of 12 people working to create the debut.

The engineers knew they had to design a simple way to restart the computer
when it fails to respond the user Bradley wrote the code to make it work.

Bradley says. "I did a lot of other things than Ctrl-Alt-Delete, but I'm famous for that one."
His fame and success is achieved each time a PC user fails.

He Commented His relationship with Bill gates by saying
"I may have invented it, but Bill gates made it famous by applying my formula
when ever any Microsoft's Windows operating system made by him CRASHES,
thus I win when ever he looses..........."

Here is what wikipedia has to say more abt this great landmark.

Poems reloaded

I got this interesting e-mail today...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I wrote your name on sand it got washed.
I wrote your name in air,it was blown away.
Then...
I wrote your name on my heart & i got Heart
Attack.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
God saw me hungry, he created pizza.
He saw me thirsty, he created pepsi.
He saw me in dark, he created light.
He saw me without problems, he created YOU.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Twinkle Twinkle little star
You should know what you are
And once you know what you are
Mental hospital is not so far.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The rain makes all things beautiful.
The grass and flowers too.
If rain makes all things beautiful
why doesn't it rain on you?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Roses are red, Violets are blue
monkeys like u should be kept in zoo.
Don't feel so angry you will find me there too
not in cage but laughing at you.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
(P.S. The views intended here are not mine. The information is fictional and any similarity of experiences would be purely coincidental !)

So dark the con of man :D

It some times looks like maintaining a blog is real difficult for me..i haven't written on the blog for many day..and the spring sem has started since 9th Jan 06. It's not that I dont find time..of course, I involve in lot of "productive" work :D ..anyways there can be hundreds of excuses for not writing!

Recently I have been reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.. however I took a quick break to finish Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I read a special illustrated edition of the novel, so it was good that all the monuments, paintings and some legends had been illustrated through pictures to present a better view. However, the claim of the author that everything in the book is authentic is definitely deviant from truth. This article on wikipedia gives some listings of the discrepancies of the novel.
Interestingly, there are some popular books written to point out the fallacies of Da Vinci Code. Now, is this some kind of vicious circle to explore the truth?
Of course, the book raised many issues, which if authentic, may be claimed "heretic" to present Church.. any comments?

SO DARK THE CON OF MAN

There are many interesting thinks to write about this novel, but i guess the blog has to wait.

Halva

Recently at the HyVee store... I saw something called Halva..later I realized that it was Greek and had eggs in it so I didn't buy it ..
However i was surprised that the dish is common in other parts of the world too... I found this interesting article on Halva. The wikipedia article says that the dish is originally from India and later spread to other parts of the world. However there is such a variation in preparation, that the only ingredients common to all recipes are semolina and sugar.

More movies.. :D

Though not the best way to write on the blog... would just like to record some more movies I have recently seen in the past two days..so here goes the list :D

• Signs
  
• The Bourne Supremacy
• Legally Blonde
• Tuxedo
• Black Hawk down
• One fine Day
• I-Robot
• Rope