Pondering on Freedom...

It was another late night commute in the bus.

I boarded many transit buses n finally I got a bus directly to my destination.

I quickly boarded it, thankfully, I got a seat as well. Feeling happy, I sat and started reading a book as usual.

There happened to be a daily-wager from UP in the bus. I couldn't get the full context but the local people around him were trying to push him to a separate league. They were questioning his Benglur quotient and he seems to have an above average score to his experience. They were branding him intelligent.

These local people were trying to question him in Hindi (yes... irony...) n were very good at it. At the end, one of them said 'ಪರವಾಗಿಲ್ಲಪ್ಪ! ಇವನಿಗೆ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಗೊತ್ತು. ಯಾವ್ ಯಾವ್ ಸ್ಟಾಪು ಎಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲಿದೆ ಅಂತ ಗೊತ್ತು. ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಏನ್ ಸಿಗತ್ತೆ ಅಂತ ಗೊತ್ತು. ಆದ್ರೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ಮಾತ್ರ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ. '.

This actually triggered various topics among them. It started from outsiders, and then they started cribbing about the lethargy of the locals and it reached the inflation and finally about the country politics... One man started cribbing that the country would've been better had it still been under the British till today... All these wicked, corrupt politicians are selling this glorious country for selfish motives. Bleh bleh bleh...

I, as always was silent reading the book but the disturbance made me close it. I alighted at my stop and started contemplating on the thoughts they were discussing.

One should notice that for him to express that 'this country would've been better had it still been in British rule' the right to express the same is obtained by the freedom what our forefathers fought for. Had they remained silent, this guy wouldn't have got an opportunity to even say those words. He would've been in jail had he said anything against the government.

Our generation doesn't know the value of actual freedom as it was known for those who really fought during freedom struggle. You'll know the value only when you lose it.

Also, if you're so concerned about the country, you would've elected the right candidates (if only... well, that's another story...) and not crib about after voting out the wrong candidate term after term. Yeah! I'm talking of Utopia.

Before this post turns preachy, I just want you to ponder over the above questions and  think about the real value of freedom.

__|__ Happy Effentine Day __|__ !!!

Before beginning the post, lemme write the disclaimer... =)

1. This post contains highly offensive material. Apologies for those who repent reading this article.

2. This post may be fictitious today, but in the near future, there are all possibilities of this getting true, thanks for the possible support from the followers/supporters/silent adherers of Valentine Day, some might have already been celebrating it.

3. Those two emoticons around the title represent the middle finger and one needs to decorate both of his/her hands while wishing on this day! Its something like \m/ for rock out!

4. The writer is not lunatic.

This post was supposed to be posted on the so called 'Valentine's Day', thanks for the problem with my PC and BSNL internet connection, Its getting posted today though it was drafted already in my mind on that day.

Yes! You read it right. Its Effentine. This word was coined in my mind on February 14th, 2009 according to the English Calendar, I thought someone would have coined the same and searched the same on google. Click on that link for results. Hardly a page that contains links to some geneology stuff, some porno links etcetera. Hopefully this post would enter the list after being posted (also, some which link/comment/protest to this post)

So, I wont claim that I coined this word but am using it for my purpose here. Offenders are neglected. In case, one needs to change, please suggest another name.

Okay! enough of disclaimer notes, why was this coined?

A few days ago, you might have seen my post on Sri Rama Sene(SRS) and its attack on pubs. Check out the post as well as the comments here. Soon after the incident, wide response awaited nationwide and supporters for the pub goers were a lot.

They thought that SRS need to be taught a lesson on Valentines' day and hence, they got together, planned to send pink under-garments to SRS from across the nation. Hehehe! Even SRS guys are intelligent. They gave a stunning reply by auctioning them starting with a meagre 25 paise and send the amount to the sender...

After writing that post, I got to know that SRS did that intentionally to get media attention and media sued it in a wrong way. I oppose SRS for doing that. It would have been better to do it without notice.

Come Feb 14th, 2009, I wake up seeing a message on my mobile which says 18,000 police(Only in Karnataka) have been alloted for a safe V-Day. CRAP! Crap news to get up with.

I open the newspaper(Deccan Herald), I see the supporters of V-Day, chilling out with beer mugs holding together, saying "Cheese" with a anti-non-valentine slogan board in the middle. Another crap news to start the day with.

Do they need a day to love? express their love? Dedicate a day for a person who allowed people to express their love openly? Then let it be in those countries where you cannot express your love freely, not in India where you are free to express any of your thoughts, not only love in an open fashion.

Then a thought struck my mind, if there are so many people who claim the right to valentine, one day will come when people fight for the right to Effentine. Note the 'F' in the word. I could have used the F word instead of Effentine, but I'm not for that. I dont want to be cheap in writing a blog using words that I wish wouldnt appear in my blog. I dont like it.

That day would surely come if the rate in which V-Day is getting celebrated in India doesn't come down.

Now don't ask me why I oppose V-Day, guess I've already written a post on that a couple of years ago. Check it out.

Coming to Effentine, who would be St. Effentine? Who else? someone like Umesh Reddy. (This was the immediate thought I got thinking of St. Effentine). Who else can decorate the position other than a person who has 23 rapes, many misbehaviours etc to his credit and so popular? If you dont like it, you can replace him with any international rapist. I dont wanna google it. DIY!

What would be the date they celebrate? May be the B'day of Umesh Reddy (Or the international rapists') or a better date would be their death anniversary. Umesh Reddy has got his death certificate now(when I write this, I see a news that Umesh Reddy is sentenced to death). That would be more relevant. I tried to google the date they would hang Mr. UR, Dint get it. Do tell us if you know.

Who would benefit with St. Effentine's Day? Obviously the Effers who celebrate it. Apart from them, who would?

1. The media, again giving the most needed publicity, hype to it.
2. Gift Centres like Archies who would come up with cards like "To my beEffed friend, I Eff you!" blah! blah! blah!
3. Telco operators, all of them, who would send you messages saying "Impress your EFFriend by having these cool ringtones, send them. Here are the samples. Some would be the dirty version of Akon's "I wanna Love you" to some regional hits like "I _______(DASH) You" from Upendra's Hollywood. who knows??
4. Politicians, who would support Effentine Day, raise it as an issue if a riot happens on its cause from guys like SRS. Also would provide huge security for a safe and sexy(?) Effentine.

List out if I've left out any. Post in your extended thoughts on Effentine's Day.

Once again, advanced wishes of St. Effentine's Day! __|__

Tragedy of the day

What to say about this?

There is a saying in Kannada. 'ಇಮಾಂಸಾಬಿಗೂ ಗೋಕುಲಾಷ್ಟಮಿಗೂ ಏನ್ ಸಂಬಂಧ?'
which literally translates into 'Whats the relation between imaamsaabhi and gokulaashtami?'

People today are bloggin, talking(in fact doing all sorts of things) about Barack Obama winning the elections in the US. I'm not pro Obama or against him. Why should people in India talk so much about him winning elections over there?

Some might ask the question that He will decide the relationship between India and US. About the IT deal which ends by March 2009. Some predict that he might close all the doors for IT in India from the US.

SO WHAT???

Arent we an Independant nation? Why should we care so much about policies made by some foreign leader. Arent we self sufficient? We should look out for opportunities within and not outside.

If you've gotta look at problems. there are hell lota them right here in this country. Please look into this. To mention some, there is the alltime debt of the country. Two months old financial crisis, never ending conversion and evangelism by the cemetic religions and what not?

Another saying from Kannada 'ನಮ್ಮದೇ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಹಾಸಿ ಹೊದ್ದ್ಕೊಳ್ಳೋವಷ್ಟಿರೋವಾಗ ಬೇರೆಯವರ ಗೋಜು ನಮಗ್ಯಾಕೆ?' translates to 'When we have so much to think of ourselves, why should one think of the rest?'

Please have your say here to what I say. Lemme reply to your comments.

Plagiarism - Views on it.

This post is regarding the blogathon against plagiarism which I had promised Shrinidhi to post today.

TheFreeDictionary.com defines it as "The act of appropriating the literary composition of another author, or excerpts, ideas, or passages therefrom, and passing the material off as one's own creation."

In simple English, it means flicking someone else's idea, propertie, [usually which is creative] and giving it their name without mentioning the original author.

I've seen many such cases. Will mention my own case, which is not that big or critical enough though... Here is how Nidhi's picture got flicked by The Times of India.

Simple plagiarism examples you can see is local showrooms, photoshops where they have photos of many celebrities like film stars, cricketers, other less popular sports players like tennis etc to attract people. Such cases cant be reprimanded as the profit they make from such things is pretty meagre. They dont know what is plagiarism, thats one thing, also, if they are aware of it, they dont know how to give credit to the propreitery owner. We can ignore such cases.

Another form of plagiarism is what i'm gonna explain with an example in this paragraph. Can you call this plagiarism, i cant say but its kinda plagiarism for me. If you can recollect, We had a detergent Nirma (Think it still does exist... dunno), which was quite popular till 90s. While a competitor called Nima comes in with almost same logo, same kinda size... almost identical to Nirma with some variants but with a lower price, people tend to take such things. Another example would be Nokla 95 available in National Market [ Bangalore ], compared to Nokia N95. Its features are almost same, some cases, better than Nokia N95 they say, but available at a price of Rs. 5000 when compared to 20 odd grands for N95. I think it as plagiarism coz they are using the brandname of Nokia to some extent.

I'll explain my experience with plagiarism. I upload some funny pics on orkut.co.in and I do have many of my friends following it. Some of my friends, friends, flicked my pics and didnt even mention my name. One of my friend, noticed this and informed me, on asking that person, you know what he did? He made the photos private. Bugger! I dunno how many have done sucha thing but its common.

This is to a lower scale, I dont mind people flicking my pics and posting it in their profile, but this can cause harm. If they use it to some criminal purpose? what can we do? What if they use our pic in some terrorists websites? Forget that, don't you think that it is robbery? In this internet world, its not that only tangible things can come under robbery. What if giants like TOI flick?

Few of the remedies i can think of are :

1. Develop a mechanism through which you can't save a picture. [ I've seen many sites that do not allow right click, dunno about the mechanism, but its easy].

2. Clever people would take a snapshot using ksnapshot [linux] or Shift+Print Screen on Windows or through some software which allows you to take snapshots of the screen. Some sites even disable this. Mechanism they follow is unknown to me. Will search on it and let you know.

3. Place an ugly mark, or a watermark on pictures [if it is a photograph], this somehow would make the pic ugly and some of the readers might object.

If you can think of anything else? do comment.

Any technical mechanism can be for and against it. There are softwares which can do wonder and do whatever you want with pics. If you comeup with a mechanism against plagiarism, the plagiars would come up with another mechanism to overcome it.

Finally, Its upto the flicker to mention the original author from the moral point of view, that would make both sides happy.