Deep Impact

Well, guys it is time to gear up for a nice ride! No actually, you don’t need to, especially if you are looking at driving a car. The reason? Ladies and gentlemen please brace yourselves to welcome Google’s driverless car! But maybe, few years from now! Google, tussi great ho! I don’t know how many of you have read about this driverless car, so I just thought I will share a thing or two about this amazing new development I read about on the Forbes Magazine portal. To begin with, hold your breath, as this car has potential worth trillions. While on the one hand this monumental development has in store business opportunities which can overshadow the current search engine leader, at the same time it will have serious repercussions on auto related businesses. On the brighter side there are claims that such a wonder car can –    D ecrease the number of traffic accidents    T ime and energy wasted on commuting from one place to other and    R eduction in the number of cars

The morning dawned with splashing of news of former Haryana CM Prakash Chautala and his son’s arrest all over the news channels, online news portals and any other news medium one could think of. It was just interesting to notice the irony in our political scenario. While a certain party supremo is let off and has regained his position, the other is now going to have face imprisonment. The judgement was passed amid a lot of violence outside Rohini Delhi Court complex. Teachers' recruitment scam landed the 78 year old politician in trouble along with his son. Well, der aaye , but is it durust aaye ? No doubt this is a welcome decision as far as curbing corruption goes.  But what about the other politician whose corrupt practices were blatantly proved? He was let off and he is slated to be reinstated to his previous position. It is such an irony really. And to add to it, there was this breach of ceasefire agreement between us and Pakistan. And suddenly as one my favouritest (I know

Yes, finally, a well deserved victory for the Men in Blue yesterday on 15 January. Perhaps the fact that I was completely indifferent about it helped! :P  I have been told that whenever I am not interested and not watching India match, we win! So much for superstition! On a serious note, the spark which was not seen in our players for quite some time, (inspite of being there) shone well on a reasonably pleasant afternoon in Kochi.  A poor run of performances was finally given a full stop, for the time being. Even as there were a couple of things to be worried about, India got it right for most part in yesterday’s encounter. It was not at all heartening to see the likes of Gambhir and Rahane failing to click and deny India a good start once again. But propelled by Chandigarh Southpaw Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Raina, Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja, India put on a formidable score – 285 on the scoreboard. Kudos to them! Dernbach had his last laugh, which was actually very early in the da

RAPE. This is the only thing I am reading about these days. And as if the whole incident was not gut wrenching enough, anyone who thinks he or she is an authority on Bharatiya Sanskruti, is going on a rampage giving advice to the fairer sex. From wearing Burkhas to chanting mantras to migrating to rural areas, everything (only condition is that it has to be outright outrageous) has been suggested to girls to avoid being raped, molested and murdered, with incomprehensible and unimaginable brutality (in a few cases). Candle light vigils, protest marches and other acts of defiance notwithstanding, I really wonder how much will it help. I totally support these acts of solidarity, but will it ever be able to transform the draconian laws and the stereotypical male mindset? In one of the columns in a leading English daily by a luminary on social affairs a couple of days back a very valid point was raised. The column said that unless and until women are looked at as individual entities,

After a rigorous election campaign, which was running almost for a couple years, the US Presidential elections are finally over. President Obama comfortably defeated his Republican counterpart, Mitt Romney. While I was not following the campaign related news zealously, I was definitely glued to the TV on the D-Day and a day prior, when the pre-election stats and predictions were going on in full swing. And there were some stark differences I observed between the American election scenario and the India one. The first thing I noticed prominently was the supporters of both the worthy candidates had American flags. No one was without the American flag and not a single American citizen was seen holding the flag of any political party. This is a huge indicator of the fact that the nation and the feeling of nationalism is far more important than the parochial considerations which come with supporting a single political party. Another remarkable thing I came across was that there was a lot

Well, the 10-day frolic and frenzy of the much, no, desperately awaited Ganesh Festival has almost come to a fitting finale. It is finally time to say good bye to the lord with a crooked trunk and an adorable pot belly. Oh and it is ciao to lip smacking modaks too, unfortunately. Yes, good byes are always difficult and saddening but they hold a promise and hope that whoever you are bidding adieu to, will be back sometime. With our Ganpati bappa too, it is the same thing. He gives us a booster dose of hope, faith, love, reasoning and most importantly of being together, as a community, being united, till the next times he arrives. Like what legendary Bal Gangadhar Tilak had envisaged Ganeshotsav to be, a platform where people would come together and discuss teething issues faced by the society and country at large. Subsequently try and find solutions and work towards the betterment of the society and ultimately the country as a whole. There were skits, plays and random cultural perform

As sweet as the name suggests, Barfi! did not prove  to be anything else. It is a sweet, touching and feel good film. Barfi! is the story of Murphy, who is deaf and dumb and so he barely manages to pronounce his name. But atta boy! He woos the new girl in town with his carefree heroics and absolutely no holds barred attitude towards life. Yes, despite him being differently abled. However, there is a roadblock in his love story. The girl he loves is soon to be married and unfortunately does not have the courage to go against the rules laid out for her. Things though, take a different turn and Barfi stumbles upon an autistic childhood friend. Life then becomes a roller coaster for all the three. Barfi’s lady love is drawn to him on account of some unpleasant circumstances. Barfi is now the autistic girl’s guardian and he simply cannot let go off her. At the same time, Barfi’s ex lady love has separated from her husband to be with him. In the end, both Barfi and his childhood friend d