I'm a dreamer

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

- John Lennon

This post goes out to all the victims of terrorism, particularly those perpertated in the name of religion.

In memory of all those who lost their lives to the fanatics.. In memory of every son murdered; every daughter killed; for each father, mother, husband and wife taken away....

A Study In Orkut - I

This post was inevitable.
I, like 24,603,356 others connected to me through my 109 friends have fallen. It is fun, it is extremely addictive and sometimes frustrating. Its a whole new world, to make new friends, to find long lost ones. I am still trying to understand what makes it so popular, especially in India Why do people behave in a certain way in orkut? What drives them to try all the available proxies, and then some, to connect to the site from office. Is it just to satisfy an urge to socialise? To get more friends than your room mate? To tell the whole world that you are an "elegant and whole-hearted person" [sic] ?
This sounds like fun...

Block This !

Did you hear that? I just broke the law! I am not supposed to blog. I am not even allowed to read my blog. Very funny. That is what Indian goverment says. And that is what my ISP says. Reason? National security. After the Mumbai bomb blasts, the Indian govt has decided to crack down on sites featuring anti natinal writeups or other inflammatory stuff. Apparently some bone heads had posted such stuff on some blog sites. The goverment wanted these pages to be blocked. So what did the ISPs do? They just blocked off the entire domain. So that means if my blog 'http:\\2bored2live.blogspot.com\' contained anti national stuff (just for the sake of an example) they will block 'http:\\blogspot.com\' Applying the above formula; if I was a terrorist, and they wanted to finish me off, they might as well nuke Chennai.

The truth is still out there. Apparantly the govt. ( Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-IN )forwarded a list of websites to be blocked to all the major ISPs in India. Ofcourse it is a confidential list, in case you were curious. Everybody says that only certain domains were blocked, but from first hand experience I can write here that my ISP ( thats TATA INDICOM for all the world to read ) blocked all of blogspot.com, including my pitiful boredom blog. Either they dont have the technology or the common sense to block specific sub domains, I dont know.

So how do u complain? To the CERT's director ofcourse. And what does the gentle man say? "Somebody must have blocked some sites. What is your problem? "
[ Quoted from www.rediff.com . You can read the full story here ]

I dont have much time. They might come any time for me. As I said, I am a criminal now. They are coming to take away my voice. I did something wrong. I spoke out.

Reserved Justice - II

It was a hectic week, and on top of that my internet connection was down, so I couldnt blog as much as I hoped I would. So much was happening and I was unable to share it with my millions of eager readers! (Ok.. I exaggerated a little)

I was planning to cover the reservation imbroglio and the protests against the recent govt order extending 27% reservation to OBCs in great detail. But due to my unplanned blog absence I am left with a lot of catching up to do. Besides, the pitch of the protests seem to be dying down.

Already millions of square feet of print have been used for analyzing the issue; megabytes of info are already available on the net; and the forwards and chain mails gathering votes to be passed on to the President ( God help him, if they really do !) have all but stopped cluttering my inbox.

There is something different about the nature of protests this time. For once no political party called for them. For once no religious group ordered them. For once the organised protests were…well, unorganised. For millions of students across the country, it was a spontaneous eruption of rage, which found expression in the innumerable rallies and marches and strikes taken out by them. What is ironical is that the very segment of society for whom the reservation applies, is the most vocal opponents of it. Engineering students, medical students, IT professionals ( ie , some of the brightest minds in India ) think that the govts move is ill advised and disastrous for the future of the nation.

Now is it just me, or does anybody else think that the movie “Rang de Basanti” had anything to do with the new found activism among the youth? Remember the line: “ No country is perfect…we have to work to make it perfect”. Well I may never know the answer to that one, but the truth remains that the youth have flexed their muscles in the political arena. It remains to be seen whether the powers that be get the message. Already the young people are getting the message.. that they have strength.. they too have a voice… that they can and should make a difference… as RDB proclaims – A Generation Awakens ??

Reserved Justice - I

         To reserve or not? A burning issue in India at the moment. Everybody has taken a stand on the matter, depending on their perspective of the issue at stake. The politicians, ofcourse take stands based upon what's good for them, their party, their family, their pets and their country - in that order, I must add. As for the common man, he too has his reasons for justifying reservation or opposing it. First of all I must admit that my friend circle is kind of limited to my college mates and colleagues - well educated and well informed ( supposedly), but maybe more importantly, doing good financially. That means that all of them have a secured future for them as well as their families. Unfortunately this segment makes up less than 25% of our 1 billion plus population. ( and that is an optimistic estimate ) Its one thing to blog about the ill effects of the reservation system on the technical competency of our country; quite a different thing when you don't know where your next meal is going to come from, if at all.