It's a grey Christmas....

Christmas....aaah...that time of the year when the roads and trees and houses and cars are covered in many inches of thick snow and little kiddies are making snow angles on the ground....

well not quite...

there hasn't been an inch of snow so far and the only thing close to snow is in my fridge...(though i suspect that is more because my fridge is having problems than anything else). It snowed for like 10 mins a few days back (and this was exactly when i was running to catch a bus at 6 in the morning....i hear it stopped the moment i got into the bus...and then the sun came out and the fraction of an inch of snow had melted away before you could say "Snow")

All that I see now is grey skies and cold rain and chilly winds!

How is that Christmas??

Look i'm an Indian....but I like Christmas and I come to Liverpool expecting to have a bunch of snow to make my own versions of Calvin and Hobbes morbid snowmen...(the cat belonging to the man downstairs must be happy knowing that I didn't make a fake snow mouse for it to hunt....damn!!)....so it's not fair to take that away from me you know!! I mean if you are going to be cold as hell might as well atleast snow right!! Like in all those movies and series that i watch with a few thousand feet of snow for every Christmas....but guess what...that's just creative liberty that the producers take...snow doesn't really happen like that...not anymore anyway....

There might actually be something to the Global Warming thing.....generations to come will never know the connection between snow and a carrot! But screw them....I am more worried that my dream of building the most awesome snow man ever will never be fulfilled...and that's not cool!! It was the main reason I even decided to do my MBA in a snowy country in the first place....and now....no snow!! i mean...come on!!

Looks like I have to satisfy myself with the snow substitute for now...in my fridge...whcih isn't much by the way....

Aah well...guess my Jack Frost expectations were a bit much then....

Ethos?? What Pathos!!

"Our Ethos are important to us!" That's his argument to get internet companies to censor content on the web in India.

As if the regular parade (and charade) by MNS, Shiv Sena and every other Vanar Sena out there on Valentine's Day, couples on the road, on their bikes, in their homes etc was not enough, now they want to make sure you cannot put up anything "offensive" on the internet!!

And offensive to him, and what started this whole witch hunt, is an apparent photograph of Sonia Gandhi which he and the rest of the "I am Sonia Gandhi's bitch" brigade did not like. Having not seen the photo, I cannot comment on it, but no matter what it's hardly a reason to turn it into a national sentiment argument. Guess what....I don't give a crap!! And neither does anybody else! It's Sonia Gandhi for crying out loud! Now if it was Katrina Kaif, I can understand the logic behind wanting to atleast see the picture, but Sonia Gandhi??

He even goes so far as to say that he wants Facebook, Google and other sites to provide data as to where the picture was uploaded from, who did it etc etc. What is this? The CIA? or old school KGB?? What happened to privacy and my rights to free speech and all that? Yes, I get the argument about inciting communal feelings, but surely this is not the answer! And you aren't even doing it for that reason...you are doing it purely to satisfy your bosses and cement your place in the government! If you read his interviews, he doesn't even try to make it sound like he actually cares about anything to do with the country and has a valid argument for his demands. You are a lawyer, are you not Mr. Sibal?? Surely, you must know you are making no sense!!

And where does he get off saying that he wants to protect the sentiments of the nation?? I never understand this moral policing that politicians take it upon themselves to engage in wrt the country and the people. Who are you to decide what is morally the stand of the county? Who are you to stand up and claim responsibility to protect the country? And are we, as a people, so weak that we cannot decide for ourselves what is right and wrong and good and bad that we need you to herd us in the right direction?? Surely a nation that has produced pulitzer prize winners and nobel prize winners and sport champions and business leaders and technology giants can trust its people to make sound judgements on a moral level! And, when you start comparing the "western culture" and the complaining about the nudity and sex that is "corrupting our young minds" and "going against our culture" I have to ask you.....ever heard of Kama Sutra?? Or was that a result of "western influence" as well, even in days when they did not have cable telelvision??

But most importantly, there are so many other real issues you should be campaigning for! Corruption for starters. And I don't mean the moral kind either. I am talking about the good old materialistic version. Surely, your effort is better spent working to eliminate that! Or is that in our culture? Seeing as everybody anyways associated the government with bribes, delays, in-efficiency and everything else that is a malaise, wouldn't your time be better spent trying to change that image? Or do you see this "moral policing" as an opportunity to line your pockets further? Will you back down if these internet companies offer "donations" to "the government's efforts to curb such activities"?

What we need Mr. Sibal, from you in your current post as Telecoms and IT Minister is to give us increased broadband speeds, better mobile services, higher connectivity and such other serious infrastructure changes that will actually impact more than the 1 person in the country. So why don't you actually use your post to make a positive difference as opposed to chasing after alleged photos that makes no difference to anybody...

Oh and by the way....#IdiotKapilSibal is now trending on Twitter...maybe we should ban that as well? What say?

Change is a good thing??

As I ride back in a rickshaw from a trip to get a change of hairstyle, I start thinking about change and my life online. Don't ask me how they are related, but the mind goes where it goes and there isn't much you can do about it. So then, "Change is the only constant" they say....and it's almost like websites the world over are out to prove the point (or disprove it..depending on which side of the fence you are on...)

First there was facebook. They really took this to heart by introducing a new interface every day. Look your posts now appear in chronological order. And look now, your friends are tagged along with your posts so everything is viral. And look, even better, news feed is now the main section on your profile. Maybe we'll move your photos to a different format. You know what, why don't we move your photos to your wall in a format that will chronologically tag all your friends while they feed you news!! Ok, I might have got the last one a bit wrong, but you get the point....

Off late, its google who've taken to ripping my digital world as i knew it apart and rearranging the furniture...almost like Darren Sammy's stumps in the India-West Indies series..

First they change the google home page with a drop down that collapses and then drops back down if you mistakenly run your mouse somewhere near the top of the page. And now Youtube looks like a facebook page now.....

And I don't like it!

I mean, I like my pages to all look different so that I know where one site ends and the other begins. So if everyhting looks like everything else, it is really painful to organise my life. Yes, users should have ease of navigation and movement from one site to the other in the new completely digital world and all that...but I like my life as it is!! Don't change it!!

If you want to bring in something new, bring in SIRI.. now that is something I can get used to. The cheeky responses to questions like "What is the meaning of life??", that alone will make it worth it. But otherwise, don't move the pieces of the puzzle around...I have so many other things happening in my life, I come here for some semblance of stability! My site cannot stop co-operating with me on an important project, stop talking to me, not give me that promotion i deserve, not give me a loan and so on and so forth. It is dependable....SO DON'T CHANGE IT!!

But, alas, I know I am probably the only voice crying out for no change in a world obsessed with it. And as if to prove my point, the auto driver turns towards me when I hand him the money and says..."Change hai??"...

Hanh hai...thoda zyada hai...sigh!!