Why “Justice for Jessica” only???

Media is patting its back; activists are smiling and the general public happy about what they achieved. This is the general sense after the court found Manu Sharma guilty of murdering model Jessical Lal seven years ago.

My reaction - what a shameful day for media, activists and us. Shocked, baffled about my statement? Read on…

A cold night of Dec in year 1984. A beautiful city, filled with lakes, was converted into gas chamber. Yes I am talking about Bhopal. On the night of 3rd December, 1984, 40 tonnes of highly toxic Methyl Iso Cyanide got released from the tank of Union Carbide factory (now owned by Dow Chemicals). Initially 3,000 people died and over the years till now more than 20,000 people have died (Greenpeace figures). Average amount paid per dead person USD 2,200.

Till today, neither the officials nor its employees have been prosecuted. Warren Anderson who was CEO of Union Carbide is a declared fugitive but United States Govt. has not handed him over for prosecution.

(http://en.wikipedia..org/wiki/Bhopal_Disaster)

Case Status: Awaiting Justice

There are countless cases where people who committed crimes are walking free, be it gangsters, politicians or people in uniform. They are free. Not held accountable for the crimes they committed.

Where were those 2 lakh Indians who signed NDTV’s petition against lower courts’ acquittal of Manu Sharma, when other criminals were let off the hook? Why did media only propagate and make a big issue for the Jessica Lal,or Nitish Katara murder cases? Is the life of a model, a politician’s son or an industrialist more valuable than those who sleep on the roads?

We (media and us) should not be happy just because 1 person out of those thousands has been convicted. Those who were active in bringing Manu Sharma back to court now have a responsibility to bring justice to all those who have been denied it. After all, justice cannot be only for some chosen few.

bhai stuff... (in someone's words...)

Someone wrote me this cute poem :)

farid bhai, faird bhai, hes on his way,
to help the sisters and save the day,
hes not so big and hes not so tough
but when he works with sisters
hes got the right stuff!
heyyyyy farid bhaiiiiii

(inspired from the song from the cartoon 'wonder pets')

me and my thoughts... again troubling my own self..

Its me, back again after holy month of Ramzan putting on my thoughts or would say the issues which burns me from inside...

where should I dwell finally, in India where our great politicians are bringing down the country whereas some great souls are still trying to make it more greater or should I start thinking about some other country where the discriminations does not happen on what caste, religion or my political backings. A place where a human is respected based on him being a human and not based on his attributes. In India, the reservation policy is being extended. Politicians are pressurring private companies to include reservations in jobs. What will I tell my children, why they cannot study in a premier institute because even though they are better intellectually than 30% of those selected they cannot go just because I am not a backward / OBC category person. When its time for job, waht will I say that even after fighting and studying they still have to fight to get a job.

When I think more deeply I was not able to find that a single place where this is possible.

In West, though its better than in India but still internally there is a clash of civilization which is happening between people of books. In US, everyone is respected as human but still there are some laws which can send chill down your spine, which if used will send you to unknown territories with no access to any law. In Europe again the clash continues as is seen with whats happened over the past few months.

Holy month of Ramzan did not cause any respite in the killings of innocents in middle east. People are being executed by death squads, people are being killed by blasts. Finally after bringing Iraq on brink of civiil war where potentially it could cause a breakup in three separate regions - managed by Kurds, Sunnis and Shias, US its puling strings on the Iraqi govt. to tighten its grip. When US / Iraqi soldeirs raid against the death squads in Sadr city the Iraqi PM lambasts it just because people who were raided are part of the govt. How can Mr. Nouri al-Maliki forget that as being a ruler of a county he might not be accountable to his people (though by rule books he is) he will be accountable on the Day of Judgement to Allah Subhanahutallah. How can he forget that ruling a county is not about just clinging to the chair, its all about going what Allah has mentioned to all the rulers and have also shown the rulers that there is no ruler who can override and go against the rule.

Its only hope which keeps the world going. Its complete belief that keeps this hope going and its the will that keep oiling all this machinary. May we all get values so as to we do only right and keep away from wrong as is the caption of CNN-IBN "Whatever it takes..."

ohh man.. how many times the ultra-brains will change there mind :-)

Now have to re-learn things.. These scienntists just keep changing things. Hope they do not refine their defination of planets more going forward...

But now sure what Pluto will be defined as going forward!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-08/24/content_5003641.htm)
PRAGUE, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The International Astronomical Union (IAU) on Thursday adopted a resolution on planet definition, according to which Pluto had been stripped of the planetary status.
Pluto had been regarded by international astronomers as a planet along with other eight planets since its discovery in 1930.
The decision, made by the IAU at a meeting in Prague, defines a planet as "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."
This is the first time that scientists have a formal definition of a planet, which disqualifies Pluto as its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.
Thursday's definition left just eight classical planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
The IAU, the world's largest astronomical society, was founded in 1919. It holds its international conference every three years. Enditem

Attack on Qana

History will never forgive the leaders who inspite of having powers to stop the massacre of innocent people, just wait without doing anything.

No where in history of mankind you will find a person as George Bush, who is not moved by the loss of more than 500 lives with 34 'children' getting killed yesterday night.

When WTC were attacked and some 5K died. America's response was to attack Afghanistan and Iraq. Thousands of civilians died in those wars. Were those life not of any value?

Israel attacked Lebanon as 2 soldiers were captured and now more than 500 innocent people are dead, is that the value of 2 soldiers who are still alive?

One day all these leaders/countries/armies will be tried for 'war crimes' which they are committing right now. Till then we can only pray that Allah show mercy on the opressed people.

Value of life...

How much can materialism bring a man down? I think it brings him down to his lowest point where he considers a life's value as worthless.

I will take it backwards....

Current war in Lebanon - Lives lost: 472 (Lebanon) + 47 (Israel)
Reason: 2 soldiers kidnapped Prisioners in Israel: more than 10,000 (inclusing women and children).

This was clearly demostrates how much powerful regimes value an opressed/weak coutries population. Instead of targetting millitants, civilians and U.N. peacekeepers are being targetted. World's opinion/voice/concerns are not being heard. This is height of arrogance and shows how much these countries value life.

War in Iraq - lives lost: I lost the count, but it is in thousands with more still getting killed everyday.
Reason: To despose a ruler who was not in line with powerful regimes and to gain control over Oil.
Cost: USD 300 billions and count increasing forever (http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182)

War on Iraq has not served any purpose apart from getting thousands of people killed and paving way for countless more to die in future.

War in Afghanistan - lives lost: I lost the count, but it is in thousands with more still getting killed everyday.
Reason: To get oil route opened up by putting a puppet government. To destroy terrorist base.
Cost: USD 500 billions and count increasing forever.

War on Afghanistan has not served any purpose apart for putting up a puppet government. On the contarary it has galvanised people's opinion, either towards the side of Bush or towards the side of Laden.

All the other wars before that. Millions of lives lost. Trillions of dollars spent and infrastructure destroyed. Harm not done just to man made structures, mother nature also not spared.

Is this all justified. Not at all.
Instead of spending $800 billion (from just last two wars) in killing people and destroying things, if that money would have been spent on infrastructure development, primary health care, primary education (to all in world), housing needs and for research against diseases, there had not been any need for wars. For Bush, there had not been al-Qaida, as there would not have been disgrunted people ready to die for Laden. For Laden, there would not have been US as enemy #1. As this country would have been treating less privileged people and helping their with lives. Better this earth and people who abode this planet, the ultimate creation of God.

In Islam, there are detailed rules of war. On the Day of Judgement, all those who broke the rules will be answerable.

"If any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people" - Quran 5:32

"Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loveth not transgressors." - Quran 2:190

"Do not kill any old person, any child or any woman... She was not fighting. How then she came to be killed?" - Prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h.)

Abu Bakr, the first caliph or successor to Prophet Mohammed established a detailed set of rules for Islamic conduct in war. He gave these instructions to an Islamic army setting out for Syria, then still part of the Byzantine Empire:
"Stop, O people, that I may give you ten rules for your guidance in the battlefield. Do not commit treachery or deviate from the right path. You must not mutilate dead bodies. Neither kill a child, nor a woman, nor an aged man. Bring no harm to the trees, nor burn them with fire, especially those which are fruitful. Slay not any of the enemy's flock, save for your food. You are likely to pass by people who have devoted their lives to monastic services; leave them alone"

Trip to Wayanad, Kerala (Project team trip) - 02/11/2006

Here I am. This is me. There's another place where I have been.

So here I am back again with another trip experience. This time place was Wayanad which is also in Kerala (My previous trips in Kerala have been to Ponmudi and Munnar). Funding for this trip came mostly from the project fund which we have accumulated (or collected or u can say extorted for various reasons).

It was Team Kmart (Mangalore offshore team) except for few who left out because of various reasons. Here's the team which went:
Sandhya, Ketan, Divya, Thaman, Naina, Kiran, Mehul, Sandeep, Nishant, Manoj, Alkesh, Shashank, Farid and ShriShyam

We had booked a mini-bus for the trip. As per the plan we started from Mangalore on Friday night. Had some fun, singing in bus till people were tired and wanted to sleep. But as you know, problems occur in every plan. So in the middle of night we discovered a problem, which was that our driver was not aware of the route which we were taking to Wayanad. Some how by finding people and asking for directions we were trying to reach our target. One stop worth mentioning is when we stopped at an intersection not aware which way to go (either straight or take a turn). There at 2 in morning, 16 people were trying to stop vehicles. After sometime we realized why people instead of stopping were turning away. We seemed like some bandits trying to rob on highway ;). Somehow we managed to stop a truck and a sumo and confirmed the directions. After that the way was found after confirming with some soul who could be found on the road.

We reached hotel somewhat off our target time, but not much delay. We revised our plan of visiting places. First day we planned to visit Edakkal Caves, Meenmutthy Falls, Neelimala view point and then to camp at some place at night.

We started for Edakkal caves:
"An interesting trek up the Ambukuthi Hill near Ambalavayal town takes you to the fascinating neolithic cave site of Edakkal. Etchings found on the walls of these caves have drawn the serious attention of archaeologists and historians worldwide.With at least three distinct sets of petroglyphs, the earliest thought to date back over 5000 years, it is assumed that the Edakkal caves had been inhabited at various stages in history."

It was good trek up the hill (half of which we did in Jeep :P ) and remaining on foot. From the top where cave is located it was nice view of the surrounding. Also from telescope which is installed there you could view the surrounding. Major view point was Phantom rock (a rock in form of human scull). Once inside the caves it was interesting to see the etchings which we could not initially understand at all. But the guide there showed us the patterns which were made there, a man, woman, child, tiger, dog and elephant carved on the walls. After that it was our imagination running which tried to decipher rest of the paintings. Also on the walls was some things written. I vaguely remember what guide told us, but that was about someone of that time. He translated some more lines for us which were clear. It was nice to see the old carvings and decipher them. After spending sometime there it was time to move to next destination which was Meenmutthy falls where water falls from 300 mtrs and its the highest waterfall in the area.

When we reached the place where we have to track for the falls, localities told us it would be 7 kms trek and most of us were not in mood to trek that much. We decided to skip this and instead go to Neelimala view point which gave a nice view of the falls. We reached and started to trek, which initially was some 800 mtrs (from where there was not good view) to some good 2 kms. When we reached the top from where we could see the waterfall we realized how amazing the falls were. They were huge with water thundering noise coming to the place where we were standing. It was amazing. After watching the beautiful falls we decided to move on. Some of the people went towards the mountain top while remaining (including myself) decided to go on the path which we can see. Later this decision which we took seemed excellent. After trekking up and down the mountain we reached the cliff, it was just end of that mountain. In front of us was a valley, covered in green. The view seemed to look like some film shot, but it was real, we were standing at the end of the mountain with valley in front of us. Since it was sunset time, we decided to see the sun set behind the valley before traversing back. The moments spend here were one of the best, I wished I could just stay there forever. It was so peaceful and beautiful. But alas we have to go back as it was getting darker. We trekked back to base location where bus was waiting before it got dark. After this hectic trekking it was time to go back to hotel. We could not arrange for nice camping place so had to drop that idea. After reaching back to hotel we celebrated Divya bdday and as per tradition painted her face :-). After having dinner it was time to fall on bed. After the tiring trekking it was really a good night's sleep.

Next day plan was to leave the hotel, go to Pookote Lake, then to Kuruva Island and then travel back to Mangalore. We had some delay initially in leaving the hotel and then also when doing brunch we got late. While going towards the lake we got tea gardens. We wandered for some time in the gardens which was nice. Had some nice pictures in the gardens and then again proceeded towards the lake. The lake was full of water :P and surrounded by hills and greenery. We took three pedal boats and then had small race, boat fight, tug of war (yes tug of war between two boats :-) ) and water fight between ourselves. It was nice time pass there. From the lake we had to travel to Kuruva Islands. But before we could pass the city our bus's tire punctured and changing the tire too so much time that we decided to drop Kuruva Island plan (third place to be dropped :P) and after the tire got replaced decided to start for Mangalore so as to reach and have proper sleep. While the tire was getting replaced, we had ShriShyam on guitar playing some tunes for us and also teaching how to play guitar. He made lots of locals his fan also.

Traveling back through the jungles was awesome. Saw wild elephant but did not try more to venture out for more dangerous animals.
We reached back Mangalore sometime around 2 AM and dropped people home and as soon as I reached home I too was fast asleep before I could blink (I tried to blink but I fell sleep :P).

This was also one amazing trip with couple of hiccups, which by now you will know is integral part of all my trips :). Would like to go back to Wayanad, so as to spend more time on Neelimala point, trek to Meenmutthy falls and also trek to Chembra peak (which we had not planned in our trip) as it is one whole day trek. "At 2100 metres, the spectacular Chembra Peak located towards the southern part of Wayanad is the tallest summit in the region. Climbing this peak is a challenging mountaineering endeavour and would take a full day. The surrounding areas offer exceptional photo opportunities. Camping on the peak is a unforgettable experience."

Its good bye from my side for now. I will be back soon with a new exciting trip to some part on this planet Earth. Hope to have some trip very soon.

Trip to Munnar, Kerala - 01/26/2006

Here I am back with another of my trips. This time the location is somewhere in India and not US :-) Its a long mail (mostly all my mails are long), but I hope you too enjoy this trip :-)

Not going to home in long weekends brings the problem of deciding what to do, how to spend time. This long weekend we faced this problem. Issue was where to go. Place discussion started with Wayanad, switched to Munnar, Pondicherry, Lakshadweep etc before we decided to go to Munnar. It was all runtime with no bookings, not even for bus / train. From Mangalore it was me, Shashank, Sandeep, Shailesh and Ravindra Tandel. Sandeep's friends, Arvind and Puneet, were coming from Bangalore and they reached Mangalore Thursday morning.

Thursday we took bus tickets for Cochin and at night started the journey. In morning after reaching Cochin at 7.30 we decided to continue our journey before taking a break so we took KSRTC bus (that is Kerala state transport :P) and continued for four more hours towards our destination of Munnar. Journey was quite good in the sense that the surrounding was tooooooooooooo good... It was shades of green splashed everywhere by God. On high peaks to the leveled ground, it was green.

In the long journey to Munnar, the conductor became our friend and gave us lot of important information. Also before reaching Munnar he made arrangements for us to stay in a lodge. So first hurdle cleared before reaching. After reaching lodge, we rested for some time and then also started to get ready for the trip. We were all very hungry also. We reached town which was very near and had our lunch.

The plan i.e. what all places to see and where to go was still in rough stage :-) So we took help from restaurant's owner who guided us and told the places which we could visit in the half day. The route which we decided to visit was Rajmalai, Eravikulum National Park Attukkadu water falls. We hired a jeep, yes Mahindra jeep and started for our first destination which was Rajmalai and Eravikulum National Park. It is one of the highest peak and also home to Nilgiri Tahar (ie the mountain goat). The route and view was again full of greenery and also from that high point the view of far away peaks hidden in clouds was amazing. After this it was turn to go to watch the blue blue water in Attukkadu water falls. The road was quite difficult to navigate, by jeep, but driver was quite experienced. In some time we reached the waterfall's base. After some time we bid adieu to the falls and started journey back to hotel. Everyone was quite tired and needed sleep so as to recharge for next day's trip.

After reaching hotel I just fell asleep in sometime. We have called the same driver next day morning to take us to the most amazing and beautiful route on which I have ever been.

Next day we got up somehow as it was cold and no one wanted to wake up :-). Some how everyone got ready and also driver cam on time. After small delay we started for the Mattupatty Dam - Echo Point - Kundalay Lake - Top Station (6300 fts above sea level) route. I fell almost in love with Munnar as soon as we reached Mattupatty Dam. The lake was surrounded by mountains covered in green. There we did boating as it gave an amazing view of surrounding. After spending time here we started for next stop which was Echo point. On the journey we were not sitting inside jeep but standing on footrest, this single thing (though risky) made the journey pleasurable. Echo point is not at hilltop as I had earlier thought, but at the level of lake only. After screaming and hearing our voices back we started for Kundalay lake where we did not spend much time. We just had tea and started for Top station which is one of the highest point and he route is through tea plantations.

This part of the route is the best. When we reached at some level, it was only clouds and fog which can be seen. We could not see any tea plantations. On reaching top station, we had some makeup with tomato (as that person said). It is the red juice from the fruit that is on my face and Puneet's face and not blood :P On top station nothing can be seen (as everything is covered in fog) but it is still beautiful. There we tracked down till a cliff, from where you cant see anything below, but you know that there is nothing, it is steep fall. After staying there for some time we came back and boarded our jeep. Plan was to get back to Cochin and go to Alleppey for house boat ride.

From Top-station to Munnar city and then to Cochin it was hectic ride, one because we were all tired, had not had proper lunch and also because we were leaving such a beautiful place behind. We reached Cochin back at night. From this point onwards it is another set of adventure :-).

After reaching Cochin we first went to look for tickets back for Bangalore and Mangalore. To Puneet's and Arvind's shock (which we were also to get later), there were no seats available for Saturday (we reached back Cochin on Saturday) or Sunday. After some searching (which made us very accustomed to MG Road :P), we found a bus which was leaving for Bangalore in 10 mins and which had seats. So Arvind and Puneet without any hesitation or any thought of missing adventure in Alleppey boarded the bus back for Bangalore. But by this time we also had decided to start our journey back for Mangalore and keep Alleppey trip for next time. We found out that there were no seats available for Mangalore for next two days (no idea how come so many people were coming here). After some searching, some thinking we decided to come back by train which seemed better option. We reached station. tool general comp ticket for train at 11.30 and had dinner :) Proper food after a day.

Decision to go by train and that too general compartment was taken after doing some analysis. The assumption was that it was Saturday night, people might not be traveling that much and also as it would be reaching all major stations in middle of night people will prefer another train which is at 1.30 night. But when train came, general comp was full and so all our assumptions and calculations and analysis went for a toss. We boarded sleeper class as we were in no mood to stay in Cochin now. We decided to get seats in sleeper and come sleeping arraam se. We captured a berth and waited patiently for TC to come. After some time I decided to take out the ticket from my pocket so that when TC comes it takes less time to do dealings, but the trip back home seemed noty to be easy. To my utter astonishment I could not find the tickets in any of my pockets or purse. After this great loss everyone suddenly have seemed to lose their sleep :P. After some discussions we decided to approach TC and explain him things instead of him coming and then we explaining. So myself and Sandeep (who has made his face look serious, though I was trying to control my laugh) went and talked to TC. Here is the transcript of the same as I still find it interesting.

Me:"Sir we have a problem. Actually a very big problem?"
Me:"We took general ticket, but after finding the compartment full, we boarded sleeper class. We boarded from ...." (now here i forgot the station - Cochin - name, but Sandeep filled the gap and told we boarded the train from Cochin.
TC:"hmm.. so the amount which you will have to pay will be (250 + 90 ) * 2 plus extra for berth"
Me:"Sir we are five people"
TC:"You lost all five tickets!!! :O" (amused expressions)
Me:"Yes sir. All tickets were together"
After some thinking he told it will be better if we get down at next station and take tickets and board next train as it would be cheaper. I would say and on which all of agreed that this TC was a really nice person. He helped us a lot later also.

So me and Sandeep came back and told others what has just happened. At next station we got down, but again no one was in mood to wait till next train and after confirming form TC we boarded the train again. When later TC came to us he had a brilliant idea with him, he told that one person get down at next to next station and take tickets and then he will just take extra amount for reservation and seat. He also told us which comp will come in front of counter, so me and sandeep went for the "ticket sprint" - to get tickets within 2 minutes. When train stopped we ran (as that comp did not came in front of counter) got the tickets somehow and came back to train (later Shashank and others told that TC had also come out and ran behind us so that we find the counter). This quick sprint lasted a minute (and I assume can be a world record :D). We boarded the train, got three seats, initially TC asked us 1000 bucks which we gave without any bargaining as he had already helped us a lot, but he was quite generous and returned us 200 bucks :).

We reached Mangalore Sunday morning thinking Arvind and Puneet missed some excitement. But on Monday it was news from there side.

Now I take you to the trip which Arvind and Puneet started from Cochin to Bangalore. Time is 3.00 AM and location: unknown (somewhere between Cochin and Bangalore). The bus stops and these two also get down to have tea. But when they are back they find that the bus has left without them with their luggage. So we have two people stranded somewhere in middle of night with nothing :-). Luckily there another bus for Bangalore was there which they boarded after giving money and then started "peecha karo". Well they caught up their "actual" bus at 5.30 AM in morning and so they also had their part of adventure.

So this is the adventurous trip which we had in "God's own country", the beauty of which can not be told but shown or experienced.