Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Don't cage birds...it robs them of life....


heres one poster done, meant to spread the message of freedom...for birds....


pass it on to ppl u knoiw who keep pet birds....


Another page...another day....another moment....

My day started with a bang, in the truest sense. When my bike tyre blasted. Chalo, maybe today a cabbie will be 500 bucks richer, thru me, although not altruistically, I thought.

As usual, another exciting day ahead, and I got into the cab. A well-groomed sardar at the wheels, and I dug into my dose of rape, crime, the latest score in Iraq(no, they don’t play cricket, I’m talking bout the daily killings). Strange, that so many matches are going on in that arena, it’s America v/s Iraq, Sunni’s v/s Shias, America v/s Shias and Sunnis United, And so on and so forth( not to mention the matches in Afghanistan and other parts of the world.

Let’s start with news bytes of the day:

A girl selling goodluck charms ( lemon and chillies tied together as a means to ward off evil) is raped in Priyadarshini Park, Mumbai. Poor thing, I guess the guy was more interested in her charms rather.

Doctors at Calcutta medical college accused of raping a woman, who later died. There’s more. Ward boys rape a mentally retarded girl in Meerut. And what is definitely the grand prix news of all, is as we all know: Doctors blamed of terrorist attack in UK. Phew…anything more coming, Doctors??

Talk about drinking, and I got hiccups about 2 pieces of news. TimesNow, carried the news of a DIG being accused of molesting an IAS. Read between the lines here, and you will smell more. And then, there was news about Alistair Pereira, Mumbai’s poor little rich boy who mowed down some 6 to 7 people in a case of drunken driving. Guess what, now he says, that those crushed creatures ooops people were sleeping on the road, and not on the footpath. My dear Alistair, no one needs to be an Alistair McLean to decipher the mystery of your wise comment, for, when drunk, man can rarely make out the difference between a zebra and a zebra crossing. Anyways, we understand your slip of tongue.

Roads(or whatever it is called, in Mumbai) reminds me of a lovely cartoon I had seen as a child. Dabooji, the famous character was walking on the beach with his son. Son asks “ Papa, how do they make nets? Calmly, Dabooji answered “ First they collect all the holes, and then, they sew them together”
Guess, Bombay Municipal Corporation has the same explanation when it comes to the road conditions in Mumbai.

And finally, (it’s just 4.56 pm) when I’m writing this, and a lot of hours left in the day. Yet, this is a nicew way to end: Saw this driver of a mobile cardiac unit, smoking his way to glory on the highway.

Excerpts from my daily diary

SEEN. HEARD. READ. OBSERVED. WONDERED.

Well its another lovely day, and ask me how handicapped I feel, when I don’t have my bike. “Taxi”, I called out. And next moment I was on my way to office. Damn, I’m gonna be late again today…I said to myself.

Newshound that I am, I opened the first newspaper.


And before I could read the first headline, I stopped at a traffic signal, where there was this charming street girl selling roses. Without a moments delay, I called her and picked up a bunch of red roses and paid her off. Cut back to me, sitting in the cab, hitting the first headline of the day- RED MOSQUE ( Lal Masjid) operation successful. Ghazi killed. The report continued, quoting an eye witness. That there was blood all around, lots of dead bodies..ooops…I glanced at the bunch of red roses on the seat. Red- it’s the colour of love as much as it is of hate. Wish reality could also be so rosy red. But then, that would be called “ Wonderland” isn’t it? Ran a few pages more inside, and reading the last interview of late Apar Singh Bajwa, who was, the then DSP of Amristsar, when operation Bluestar was carried out. Sounds so similar when today it’s Lal Masjid in the news, where radical extremists have taken control of a religious place. Re-cap to the time when the Golden Temple was annexed by Bhindrawale and his maniac bunch. And even that operation ended in red.

Well, let’s talk bout roses now. I wonder what Rose, a 14 year old girl, from Calcutta, might be doing. Rose was a maid in my society and was a victim of major abuse, violence and torture while she was in the clutches of her cruel employers. After a women’s organization was informed, she was rescued. She survived the ordeal and though her bones were battered, but not her soul. Bones, did I hear? My parents wanted me to be a Bone Specialist, but what I became was a funny bone specialist, Huh. As we all know, today, is 11th July, the first anniversary???) of the Mumbai Train Blasts. And how strange, that Mumbai Police thinks that terrorists will/may strike on this very same day. Arre CP Sir, even terrorists have an I.Q. Why should they attack on a day when security is supposed to be the tightest.

Saw this picture of a sniffer dog conducting checks at nthe railway station. Here’s how the conversation goes between the 2 sniffer dogs of Mumbai Police:

Dog 1: Arre boss, kuch mila kya.
Dog 2: Nahi yaar, yeh Mumbai police bhi na, khali peeli bahut kaam kara tein hai. Arre yaar, everyday I have to work 14 hours a day.
Dog 1: Man, guess what, I’m having such a bad nose and a sore throat now. I’m planing to take part in a Himeshbhai voice contest.
Dog 2: Wish there was a bomb threat at Mallika Sherawat’s house. Atleast bomb nahi, toh sex bomb toh dekhne ko milega.
Dog 1: Chalo, I hope your wish is fulfilled. Every dog has its day hahahah.

Headlines are funny stuff these days. Sample this: HT says 24 cops slaughtered by Maoists. DNA says 20 Maoists killed, and 27 cops missing. Now, what’s missing in both, is the real fact, right? Or so it seems. I tend to go on to serious topics more often but then blame it on Newspapers, ok? Ask them why they carry news items that are mostly serious. Or else why should I write about cops and Maoists being killed like flies.

And flies bring me to another item. I mean news item. A study says that Bird flu can spread through houseflies also. Gosh, how are we going to cull all those flies now, just as all the birds were culled during the last scare. Think, think think. Write in with your answer…early bird( !) wins a surprise gift.

A few more tit-bits.
Headline: Pawar kills several birds with one stone.
My line: Sir, instead, could you please spare a thought for a bird sanctuary?

Headline: Mayawati orders the razing of a stadium for a Kanshiram Memorial.

My line: Thank god, the vigilant citizens and players were more athletic than her, and managed to run to the judge’s home at 1.15 in the night to get a stay order.
Having a beer. And I read this news. 76mn in the world suffer from alchohol related disorders. Reminds me of a line I read sometime back. When I read the ill-effects of drinking, I stopped. Reading.