Biker’s Fate

Fate can hack your plans in a second. In this brief span that we exist on this earth, with all our arrogance and egos and those weird sense of achievements, everything can come to naught in a fraction of a second

Scene: A drunken 27 year old NRI, Noori Haveliwala was speeding in her black Honda CRV from Breach Candy to Colaba around midnight. She collided with a taxi standing on the road. The car skidded to the left of the road where the traffic police was checking for drunk drivers. The Honda dashed the police’s Qualis, killing a policeman and a biker and injuring 4 other policeman.

- End of Scene -

The above scene could be a daily episode anywhere on this earth. Lets not contemplate on the drunk driver or the policeman killed or injured. The spotlight here is on the biker.

The biker had an eating joint in Kurla and was returning from South Mumbai after a meeting. The police stopped him during naka bandhi. While the police were checking his documents, Noori’s Honda struck, killing the biker. What timing! Had the biker been late by a few seconds (stopping the bike for a phone call, scratching his back, skidding on the road, etc), he would have arrived on the scene of the accident and fate could have him lending a helping hand to the injured.

Suppose we had the power to video tape our life, we could have seen this scene from a different angle.

Now here is something bizarre.

The biker was not alone. He had a pillion rider with him. When the police stopped the biker, the pillion rider got off and walked a few feet away to speak on his cell phone. He missed being hit by the Honda but saw the incident take place. Everything happened in seconds. I got goose pimples thinking about it.

Noori’s destiny – she survived.

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The Tax Poetry

Tax my land & water, tax my bed
Tax my table, on which I am fed

Tax my books, tax my son’s school.
Teach him taxes, that’s the rule.

Tax my work, tax my pay
I work for peanuts anyway

Tax my shirts, tax my pants
Tax my breath tax my pants

Tax my tobacco, tax what I drink
Tax me if I even dare to think

Tax my cigars, tax my beers,
And if I cry tax my damn tears

Tax the road, tax my car, tax my gas
Find alternate ways to tax my poor ass.

Tax all I have. Then let me know
Till I get on my head, a tax blow

So? Still think this is weird & funny?
Got taxed when the day was sunny.

And when I screamed, they taxed me some more
They Taxed me, they axed me, till I was no more

Tax my coffin, tax my grave
Tax the soil and then rave

Put these words, upon my tomb,
'Taxes drove me to my doom...'

When I am dead & gone - Do not relax,
its time to apply - The inheritance tax.

I will have a lot of time on my hand
To reflect that tax was like quicksand

I got engulfed in all kinds of alphabetical tax :

Accounts Receivable Tax
Airline surcharge tax
Airline Fuel Tax
Airport Maintenance Tax
Building Permit Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Death Tax
Dog License Tax
Driving Permit Tax
Electricity Tax
Excise Taxes
Food License Tax
Petrol Tax
Gross Receipts Tax
Health Tax
Inheritance Tax
Interest Tax
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Mortgage Tax
Personal Income Tax
Property Tax
Poverty Tax [yes – even that too]
Purchase Tax
Prescription Drug Tax
Real Estate Tax
Retail Sales Tax
Sales Tax
Service Tax
School Tax
Telephone Tax
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Water Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
XY&Z Tax
Zzzz Tax (I’ve fallen asleep)


Not one of these 100s of taxes existed a 100 years back
Our nation was rich and we had money in our bag pack

We had no national debt, had a large middleclass,
And my Ma stayed back home to raise all of us

what the hell happened? Can anybody say?
While buried and dead in my grave I lay

Those who can, teaches!

Continuing my outlook {Solitude______Teaching_______, dated 29/Jan/10} where the young job seeker replied, ‘I can teach both ways,’ to a question on which way does the Ganga River runs, does this mean a teacher can teach any subject in any manner that he wishes?

Then let us take the case of plumbers. Going by that view, a plumber then is entitled to place pipes in the position his experience or quirkiness has taught him. But what if the customer’s wants are different than the plumber’s professional, artistic, aesthetic and other quirky judgment as to where the plumbing should be?

We have freedom of speech, freedom to come and go, and freedom to quit a job. We have the usual freedoms that everyone has. Thus the teacher or the plumber of course has the freedom not to take up the job if his sensibilities are outraged. (we are a ‘free country’ and do not have forced labour, except of course when some old men decide that some young men have to fight and die, all in the name of ‘patriotism,’ in our neighbouring borders, because these old men, including our neighbouring countries, could not control or keep their egos in tact)

On the other hand, he may demand not simply the right to refuse the job, but the right to take the job and to do it his way. The customer may not always be right! The plumber may of course say that ‘those who can, do, those who can’t, teach!’

Going forward, we have to deal with "doctors' freedom," "lawyers' freedom," "chemists freedom," "musicians' freedom," "artists' freedom," “politicians freedom,” and so on, in mind-boggling array.

But let’s defend the teacher’s freedom on the ground that it is perhaps the only mechanism by which control over the educational system in this country may be wrested away, at least in part, from the ruling class, or power elite which currently controls it. Now it is up to the teacher to practice and profess, “Those who can, teach!”


׀Ө׀Ө׀׀Ө׀Ө׀ Ө׀Ө׀ ׀Ө׀Ө׀ ׀Ө׀Ө׀ ׀Ө׀Ө׀ ׀Ө׀Ө׀

Solitude_________Teaching_______

Now that I have opened up, death is the only thing that can shut me up. And after I pass away - there will be a terrible silence.

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Solitude has various meanings to different people. For some it is Freedom, for some it is bitter medicine, whilst for others it is like poison which makes you beat your head against the wall. Now you have to decide for yourself what kind of solitude would be preferable to you.

Whether you have consciously chosen, or a relationship goofed up, or mental illness, or contagious disease, or being marooned or choosing to be a monk, solitude most of the time refers to physical solitude. What about mental solitude? How about some mental privacy?

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Teaching can be a treacherous job. Just envisage how teaching can distort or camouflage facts. Take for e.g. a young job candidate who went for an interview in a college for the position of a geography lecturer. When one of the ‘higher-ranking faculty members’ asked this straightforward question, “which way does the Ganga River run?” In ignorance and in fear of losing the job opportunity, the candidate gallantly replied, “I can lecture either way.” The candidate got the job. Conceivably the job was offered to him for his quirky reply, but concerns remained that the candidate was ignorant and a teacher.

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Thank the Govt.!

Thank your gods that there exists a Government!

For everyone is smoking themselves to death. We thank the government who forced the manufacturers to put a warning that cigarette kills. We thank the Govt. for banning the smoking of cigarettes in public places. We thank the govt. as we didn’t know that smoking kills.

We thank the govt. for raising a censorship board. We thank the govt. for guiding us on what films to see. Otherwise we would never have known that certain films are bad for us.

Thank goodness our govt. has created laws against discrimination and sexual harassments. Otherwise how much better are we, than those 4-legged creatures, which fuck around and rapes every other specie of their kind. We always had this patriarchal domination and savagery before the govt. tamed us.

We thank the govt. that there is a compulsory warning on plastic bags telling us not to wear it over our heads. Mothers are a stupid lot for they never tell their children not to suffocate themselves with plastic bags

The same is true with cars. Drinking (in fact in Mumbai you need to have a license to drink alcohol). Seatbelts. And every other small or big thing you can conceive or think of. Every high profile Govt. bureaucrat has adviced his political master to provide the govt.’s view and endorsement to our homes, business, public and private lives. It is the inability of the people to survive without the helping hand of the Govt. Thank the Govt. that there are laws against discrimination, harassment, safety rules, and even smoking. This has saved us from an eternity of serious social injustice and deadly danger to our lives and dignity.

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Admire the Burj Khalifa

Ω Burj Dubai now identified as Burj Khalifa is the tallest skyscraper man has ever built to date. One can call it an indomitable if not stubborn attitude of human to scale new altitudes. One should not be perturbed and distracted that the aggregate cost of erecting this concrete structure which now stands at USD 1.5 billion could have assisted a lot of deprived neighbouring Arab countries. One should not pay much attention that the Burj Khalifa was built with blood money, predominantly by workers from South Asia, who earned around USD 4 a day, residing in horrendous conditions, their pay withheld and passport impounded by their employers, labouring in perilous conditions leading to high number of deaths and injuries on the site. One should appreciate and be in awe of this edifice and not be too distressed about the environmental impact. After all Dubai symbolizes and represents the playground of millionaires, and the city presents activities not offered by the neighbouring kingdoms. Who cares in this generation that one day there will be a loud thud and a lot of dust?

ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ

Ω When you find something more interesting than sex, you become an intellectual.

ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ

Ω Keep your mind open. It makes you wonder
Close your mind and become a fanatic

ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ

Ω Everything is feasible but nothing is definite

ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ ώ

Ω There are some ideas which you taste, some ideas which you swallow and some ideas which you bite, chew and digest.

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John Coltrane :-- My Favourite Things

Few pleasures are still left on this earth.

It was expounded during the listening of the quartet track called “My Favourite Things,” by John Coltrane on Soprano Saxophone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Steve Davis on Bass and Elvin Jones on drums.

A simple theme converted to complex reworking which became impossible to comprehend, was presented so charmingly that I nearly forgot the surroundings. I would never know whether Coltrane personalized it or universalized it, but the sheer joy of letting the track lead you to bliss, could not be denied or ignored.

Is it futile?

A friend the other day was narrating a tête-à-tête which transpired between him and a stunner some time back.

Stunner: “Oh, and what do you do?”

Friend: “Me? Oh I compromise!”

Stunned, the stunner vamoosed.

Guess, if the friend had asked that question and had the stunner replied, “Me? Oh I compromise,” it would have been a different take altogether.

The stunner never understood what compromise meant to him. From the time a man comes to this earth, till the time he leaves, every thought, every step or breathe that he takes, consist of compromises. Life is a compromise. Man compromises. To exist,is to compromise. The faster you understand, the less pain will infiltrate your consciousness.. . . . . . . .

You stroll along, and each stride brings a reminiscent of the struggle, through which you treaded on misery, pain, loneliness, hunger, agony and depression.

There is no end to it. No matter how hard you strive, you can’t shake it off. It tags along with you. It is in front of you. It consists of you. You were born into it. You will live with it – and die with it.

It is a sorrowful state of affairs. You continue asking, when will it all conclude. Then you discover that people have been asking similar questions for generations. Still we haven’t learned to live with it. One should be grateful that it will all end soon. By now you must have accepted the fact that your religion or for that matter any of the earthly religion truly knew what the afterlife would be. They made guesses and established faith on it. Your realization has liberated you.

Man’s life is short, but mankind’s existence isn’t. Right through his life, he is learning to cope with it, to master it – but in vain!

Meanwhile, till the time you are here on this earth - compromise!

ΩЮΩ ЮΩЮ ΩЮΩ ЮΩЮ ΩЮΩ ЮΩЮ ΩЮΩ ЮΩЮ

In any kind of relationship, if you are affected by someone’s policy, deed or act, words, thought or insults under whatever circumstances, is it just sufficient enough to apologies or put up an excuse with a mere, “I didn’t mean it?” Is no further action required? Will just uttering “I didn’t mean it,” necessarily make things right? Will this make things up?

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I am yet to meet a man who shuns making money, acquiring fame or publicity, or taking part in current affairs. I am yet to see someone singularly trying to lead an uneventful life, leading a solitary life or not poking his nose in other people’s affair and thrusting his thoughts and ideologies in other’s throat. Man can never be at that level where he never complains, never argues and never explains. Such is the immodesty of man.

But as the saying goes, a man is what a man thinks and no amount of education can make him think otherwise.

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Freedom or Starvation

Life indeed is weird and wonderful. Man may have understood a lot about life and for hundreds of years have written quite a bit about it but no one has left any enough description of it. For e.g. there are these streets of Mumbai with detailed maps but no one has ever charted our enthusiasm. What are you going to meet if you turn this corner?

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Our society consist of two classes – those who govern and those who are governed. Those who have brains, for some funny reason do not get into the class that governs. Those lacking the capacity to think, governs the latter. Otherwise I have no way of expressing my misery and repulsion when I learned that there would be a separate Gym constructed for the MLAs and MLCs at a cost of Rs 200-300 crores! (Tax money of course, silly!)

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Freedom or Starvation
I am more than often reminded of a famous quote by Jean Jacques Rousseau: “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains” I cannot find anything much truer than this statement. It moves me from inside. How true it is, even in today’s world. We gave up slavery with the Yankees winning the American Civil War in 1865. We abolished monarchy when Louis XVI was guillotined in 1793. But in our present democratic world I have this awkward feeling as if I exist in a zoo, like an animal. The animal in a zoo is captive. The animal’s compound may be big and his surrounding and environment may replicate his natural state. But for all purpose, he is a captive. He cannot seek his own providence. He is not at liberty to lead the life for which he slipped into this world.

I feel that though there is this supposedly and self-styled democracy, I live like that animal in a sort of national zoo. I am the captive of a state planned economy. My compound is my country. I cannot leave it, except to upgrade my financial conditions. I am rationed and heavily regulated and I have to endure the restrictions, restrains and constraints which the authorities impose – since the alternative is to starve.

ΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞ

The Times, They Haven’t Changed Much

Reading about pantheism, I discovered that each century has some miserable story to reveal, concerning free thinkers being prosecuted. Each generation has their own iinterpretations of literature, drama, architecture, cinema, journalism, design, marketing, business, history, law, culture and religion

Remember Galileo Galilei? During his life time another such character was Giordano Bruno, an Italian astronomer, philosopher, priest and mathematician. He was burned in 1600 by the Roman authorities who found him guilty just because he had opinions which did not concur to the Catholic faith, spoke against the faith, had misguided opinions on Christ, incarnation and the bread and wine/body and blood theory. He was found guilty for believing that the soul passes on to other bodies after death and that it migrated from the human to animals. He was found guilty for believing in magic and questioning the virginity of Mary.

So beware. Times have not changed much as Bob Dylan claims in the title of his song, “The Times They’re A Changing.” If you dare to think or scorn at established opinions or have a theory contrary to what the mass and authorities believe and do not throw a veil over your sentiments, you might be heading for the gallows or burned, if not pulverized, stabbed or shot to death.


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Life’s A Symphony

Is it this, what is called “It’s a man’s world?”

The rights of a man have been altering constantly over time due to social, legal, religious and political influences. Today the rights have also been tainted because of technology. But it has to be admitted that there is not much to a man’s right as compared to a woman’s or a child’s right. But do they need all those rights? After all since time unmemorable, man has been the vanguard of all worlds’ activities, whether amazing or awful.

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Human for generations have made gods as they are, they have clothed the gods as they clothe themselves and have given their voice and form. Man has created god in his own image. The Africans have created their gods flat nosed and black. The whites have created their gods white with blue eyes and blond hair, the Indians have created various versions of their north and south Indian gods, the Japanese, Chinese and Far East people have created their gods who have slanting eyes. If tigers, horses and elephants could draw and make sculptures like men, then tigers would create gods as tigers, horses as horses, elephants as elephant. Bodies of gods would be made as they appear, each one of their own kind.

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Life’s A Symphony


When a man is born, the same music starts all over again, the same old tune is repeated once more, the same symphony played over, movement by movement, with very little variation. I am so tired of hearing the same old cliché: “We are here for a reason.” “Life has a meaning.” I feel like blurting it out that there is no meaning to life, that it is up to you to give it a meaning, that there is no value, that whatever you choose to think becomes value, that you are dumped into this world, that you are entirely and solely accountable for what you do, that you are alone in this world without any help, and that you are responsible to engage yourself with the world – otherwise you starve. And when the music stops – everything ends. Let us wait for another conductor.

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Captain Or Referee?

I am not trying or demanding to promote, endorse or sponsor the three Xs. But I wonder what kind of obstacles these producers of porn articles (including audio, video and paper) have to overcome to sell their products with all those local, state, national and international laws. What about those viewers? Is it the business of the Law and the Government (which I think is highly impractical and improbable) to make someone good or ethically clean? Why don’t we leave each individual to decide for himself?

History is witness. You can never force human to carry out or restrain his thoughts, belief opinion and activities.
All the great powers tried it (from the Roman Empire to the Nazi regime) – and failed! Using state powers on people have never worked. The best you can do is declaring it illegal.

I wonder if life is to be treated as a Game, then should the Government be the captain or act like a referee. Or should it be procuring tickets and sitting at the stadium cheering or jeering the players? Or further still, should it with batons and guns in hand, promote and maintain an ‘ethically clean environment.’

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The Crisis of Identity

It is amazing how your work defines you. It identifies you. You are what you are because of a job. In today’s world you are reduced to a nobody if you do not have a job. When you meet someone for the first time the most obvious question is: "What do you do for a living?" It is a different matter, that we sort of traffic our time and talent, to put food on the table. You are what your trade is. You also begin to have a love hate relationship with your work.

When you are employed you feel invincible on the job. You feel as if your employers are damn lucky to have you. You tell the world what you do with a lot of zest and arrogance. You confidently spend your salary. You compel and bind yourself for years of high interest EMI payments with nary a thought and perhaps even with a bit of smugness! You no longer think, what if your job blows away. You start thinking that leisure should be given more importance. Since you have satisfied your most basic needs, now you strive after freedom.

When you had a job you did not fear that employment could have evaporated any day. When your job’s gone, leisure and freedom does not look too important then. You are then left to fend for yourself. It is you who have to pay all your bills. There is a loss of career. A career, that you spent years nurturing. Now suddenly you seemed to have lost your identity. You feel your self respect has been stubbed out and your value has gone down. Now you feel you have no place to go five days a week. You have nothing to produce. You have no service to provide. And your identity has vanished. This was because you had always put your value and your existence with the work that you do. Without work you are reduced to a non entity. It is as if ‘no work – no existence’ kind of a syndrome. All your education did was it gave you a passport so that you can find an identity in your work place,(earn and spend).

It is startling to learn how important work is in your life. The salary is deposited in your bank, i.e., “you get”. Then you “spend”. Same old story: “Getting and Spending.” You don’t remember where the money went. But you remember all of your jobs. Maybe the dates get a bit of trimming as far as your Curriculum-Vitae is concerned. But your customers, bosses, colleagues and juniors are all etched in your mind. Your life becomes attached with the goods being manufactured somewhere, shipped somewhere else, warehoused, and shipped finally to where the consumer has the opportunity to buy them. Apart from this there is no life for you. In fact you have never known life beyond this.

Can't blame you - After all your father did not leave you with a 1,000 crore in your bank.

ΔΟΔ ΟΔΟ ΔΟΔ ΟΔΟ ΔΟΔ ΟΔΟ ΔΟΔ ΟΔΟ ΔΟΔ ΟΔΟ

Honesty, Integrity & Loyalty!

Honesty, Integrity & Loyalty! How valuable are these? How useful are these? Can they provide the basic provisions and necessities of life? The things, that man cannot do without? Can they fill a hungry man with roti? Can these clothe a naked man? Will they provide a shelter for the homeless? Shouldn’t we try to get as much money as we can so that we can lead a comfortable, if not a luxurious life?
After all we have only one life to live. Why should we suffer? Why should we be deprived? Why should others move around in cars and we walk down the streets like dogs? Why should others live in comfortable apartments while we live in slums? Why should others sport fashionable clothes while we garb ourselves with torn rags? Why? Don’t we have the privilege of enjoying life – a little? Can’t we eat good foods at a 5-star restaurant? Can’t we cruise around the world?

No we can’t! It’s because honesty, integrity and loyalty are killing us. We should learn to throw out these words, into the gutter. These are meaningless words. Only an insane would go hungry, naked and homeless practicing these words.

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Imbeciles- Egocentric buzzards-Freaks-Exploitations-Reincarnations-Austerity drive

When a king rules a kingdom, everyone has a dilemma. They crave for Democracy. Isn’t it better to be ruled by a solitary imbecile rather than 500+ imbeciles in a democratic environment? I don’t know. Do you?
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When you start looking for something you tend to find it. So does this mean that if you start looking for god you may find him/her? Can I believe in this lie? Can I have selective perception? Will I ever know how much of everything is real and how much is fake? Haven’t we all been brainwashed by our religious leaders, our political leaders, our teachers, our parents, our philosophers, guides and friends? Hasn’t our belief systems made us all deaf, blind and dumb?

In spite of us being egotistical & egocentric buzzards, these queries have punctured my complacency. These questions are even more consistent and rigorous than I had imagined.

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Every morning I wake up, I read the newspapers and I switch on the TV. I glance through the pages and the channels to see if there exist any reasons for optimism and hope. I read and see that the killings continue

How are we different from the animals? I was watching the Geographic Channel and understood that the leopard and other creatures mark their province with piss and excretion. We human beings too mark our terrain by the piss and excretion called ink on paper and ideology in our mind.


First I was a believer. Then I discarded this lie that god is someone who would through all eternity and infinity, continue to torture you if you don’t believe in his religion. I became an agnostic. I realized that an agnostic is a terrified atheist. I shredded off the terror and became an atheist. Today I have given up atheism too. Now it does not matter if one is a believer or and atheist. I have grown above that. If someone comments that he is a believer, my response is,” good for you”. If another provides clarification that he is an atheist, I retort,” good for you”.
If he poses me the question, what am I? I enlighten him,” Me? I am just an observer”. Today it sounds silly to me to get into this trifle issues like believers and atheism. Today it does not matter to me. Actually I don't care whether people are believers or athiests - I have stopped believing in these ‘isms’.

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Don’t know after death where do all the Americans, Cubans, Naxals, Marxists, Maoists, congress men, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, Satanists, Carl Saganists, separatists, Scientologists, Addicts, Fanatics, Cell phone and net users and other classified Creepy and weird Dogmatists go. With all these freaks around – I can barely think straight. In any case the world would be or wouldn’t be a better place with EWD [Earth Without Dnn}_____ Who cares if you think straight or crooked?

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Everybody who has ever been employed in a MNC will know that the corporation exploits. The religious systems exploit. The political system exploits. The education system exploits. All the systems that we have created - exploits. Exploitation is the most primitive natural human behaviour. It is like killing – another ancient natural human behaviour. We are no longer appalled and have become immune to seeing man killing man. History consist jam-packed stories of territorial invasion and annexation leading to war and killing human. Mind you-history is taught in schools!
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All religion speaks about death during this life on earth. Most religion speaks of re-birth or reincarnation too. To be reincarnated, if there is any, one must die. But I wonder what dies? Does the false self confidence, poise, assurance, self-belief of man die? Does the self-love die? Is our ego obliterated?
I guess so, if a man dies and for heaven’s sake is not incarnated. Otherwise there is not much hope.
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As a CEO I discovered that too much money was spent on wine, women and song last year. I promised the stock holders that an austerity drive would be adopted and a check done on such expenses, the current year. I vowed to cut down expenses on song.

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Advocacy of individual liberty

I am a great advocate of freedom and free-will. I assume most Indians do not have or comprehend the meaning of what it means to be a FREE MAN. My conviction in freedom is not constrained to me. It’s for ALL men

I believe man should have the liberty to pursue his ambition and aspiration. He should not be enslaved with concepts like race, doctrine or family background. He should be free to bond and correlate with whomsoever he please for any damn reason, even if the rationale appear to be moronic. He should be able to worship his own god, or be able to discard or abandon all concepts of god and religion. He should be free to select whatever trade he wants and relinquish whenever he wants, even if he likes it or not. He should be free to get into any business he wants, be his own boss, set his own work hours, even if it is 4 hours a day or week. He should be free to acquire property anywhere he pleases, hoard money in his own way, fritter away thoughtlessly or judiciously or even give it away to anyone he pleases as charity. He should be able to sell anything that he possess even if he losses money on the transaction. He should be free to differ with any person that he wants or even any majority that isn’t on his side. He should be able to choose any subject that he wants to study as long as it seems to HIM it is worth the cost and effort of studying or learning it. Generally he should be free to do as he pleases as long as he doesn’t violate, abuse or interferes into the equal privileges, rights and opportunity of every other person.

This is the philosophy of a free man. This is the philosophy of individual liberty, of a free market, of private property and limited government interference.


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"Getting and Spending."

For the last 2 decades, I sold myself to slavery. I don’t think absolute freedom exist. There are 3 options: each person owns himself, some people own others and each person owns a part of everyone else. But if each person owns himself then where does slavery exist? Maybe everyone is in control of his own will. When he obeys another person he must do as the other person wishes. Once you enter into a contract, unrestricted freedom goes astray. What is the foundation of making the contract obligatory? Simply put a contract is a promise and one should be obligated to keep that promise.

Our life is never free of obligations and promises. Whether you work in an organization in any damn position with unearthly salaries or be a musician, not obeying anyone and not bound by the Company’s contract, individual freedom is a social nonsense.

Last night I was watching a program on BBC about the Vienna Philharmonic.
I was astounded to learn that the members of the orchestra were chosen from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera and each musician had to prove his/her capability for 3 years playing for the opera before requesting the Vienna Philharmonic Board to consider an application for a position in the Vienna Philharmonic. The process is long and tedious. But the Philharmonic wants the best! Seeing the musicians and Zubin Mehta
depressed me to such an extent that I found myself thinking about my worthless existence. I felt that I was just living like an animal. I had not created anything, neither did I invent anything. I wanted to be a free man and not enslave myself working for any Corporation. I did that but it did not give me any happiness. I was told by those great advisers and philosophers to do what my heart pleases me and not what others want me to do. I suddenly realized that I did not know what my heart wished me to do. I thought I did but I realized after a certain time that this was not what I wanted. I wanted something else. Seriously now – do we really know what our heart wants? Are we capable enough to know what we want and what would give us happiness?

Most of us in any case are enslaved by the Corporation, afraid of being free and devoting our transitory lives to "getting and spending." Otherwise what great achievement have we done in our lives? “Get & Spend”__“Get & Spend”_____ “Get & Spend"

Life just passed you by buddy.

Another Brick in the Wall

I was listening to “Another Brick in the Wall”. A lot of memories came flooding by deluging my present.

We all know that Pink Floyd, the British Band’s number “Another Brick in the Wall” was banned in South Africa, was disregarded by Radio station in US and the song was literally assaulted by school teachers all over the world.

Nevertheless, the most admired record of the 80s was this song. It had a creepy tune in the background and Roger Waters showed us how schools and public establishments erected a wall so thick that one could not penetrate through them creating a vicious social condition around the individual. It is not new for students to question the value of their education and thus the song was received quite passionately.

In South Africa it was prohibited to play this song on the radio, stores could not stock or sell it and individuals could not own it. Freedom and liberty went up in thin air. In the land of Liberty (USA_) the tyrannical educationist tried to remove the songs from radio stations and teachers and principals raised their voices against the radio stations. All the protest and cries did not help and the record was in the number one slot for many months. Somehow the thoughts are always there on how children are meticulously tormented, agonized and disgraced by teachers.


Teachers and principals found this song quite offensive as this was a direct attack on their profession. And for some funny reason teachers have always thought that their profession was quite dignified and reverential. It reminds me of George Bernard Shaw’s statement, “those who can’t, teaches”. There should not have been any kind of anxiety amongst the teaching faculties as history has never seen students demanding reforms. They just choose to drop out when they feel that they have been wronged, or continue to get humiliated by the teachers.

Most students and during my time as a student I had always associated this song with a sense of frustration, disappointment and anger. The Song had 3 parts and the last part felt like Roger Waters was talking to me directly when he concludes that he no longer needs anything and dismissed all the people in his life as just “Brick in the wall” But what could I do? I was just “Another prick in the world”


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Respect for Life

Few men hold the destiny of the majority of men. These few men decide the fates of others. These men have the powers to provide the en mass a progressive life or lead them to war. Generations have enlightened us that these men have not much respect for others. There is in fact not much “respect for life”. This “respect for life” is the only solution to attain peace and harmony amongst men. We do not live in isolation. The humane relationship can be established when each goes to the aid of others.

We have learned to tolerate the facts of war: that men are killed en masse — some twenty million in the Second World War — that whole cities and their inhabitants are eradicated by the atomic bomb, that men are turned into living torches by inflammable bombs. We have become anesthetized and immune to death and the pain of others. Otherwise how do you expect to react to a 1,00,000 people dead in the Haiti earthquake. Or perhaps the world, specifically the white man’s world isn’t much interested, since Haiti isn’t a white man’s land. I always felt that the average white man thought that non whites are sub race, that the non whites have neither the intellectual, mental, nor emotional abilities to compare or to share equally with white men in any function of their civilization. They endeavour and struggle to bring the non whites to their advantages which they think that their great civilization offer. They feel that they should retain this status: they - the superior and non whites - the inferior. The whites think that whenever they seek to live among non whites as their equals, the latter would either destroy them or gulp them down. The whites think that they should retain this status, the whites – the master and the non whites – the inferior, like children who needs to be helped or taught.


Take a glimpse at us Indians. The Brits have taught us how to speak, read, write and think in their language. They have planted their habits, thoughts and attitude in us. Then they look upon us the same way you would look upon your pet chimp who you have taught to (say) brush his teeth and you go about showing it off! We like the pet chimp, are proud too, that we communicate with each other in English.

This lack of white man’s respect for life for the non whites leads to the disturbance of peace and harmony in the globalize world along with a host of local issues and predicaments residing amongst the minds of the non whites.

Let’s respect life. Let’s respect other human beings. These sentences can only become bona-fide when we alter this present world to a utopian world.

So now you may question me whether I am a pessimist or an optimist. My answer would be that my petite and insignificant bit of knowledge is pessimist, but colossal hopes are optimist.

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Surviving the Storm

The storm raged outside
It was dark, a very murky night
Many a house would be blown away
While I lie here on my bed, cozily
Tucked up, surrounded by the four walls
People must be running around
Trying to look for shelter
While the wind whistles and howls
And the dogs barks and growls
While the dust flies
Some hits the eyes
Man fights for survival – and survives
To see another painful sunrise

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Riots and hooliganism _ The past and the present

Reading about Constantinople in about 532 AD, when the Nika riots or Nika revolt took place, over the course of a week, I couldn’t help but draw a comparison to the present world’s hooliganism and riots. Half the city was burnt and tens of thousands of people were killed. The riots started with the different factions supporting teams of chariot racing. It was a combination of street gangs and political parties backing up current issues, shouting political demands between races. And the year was 532 AD!

The modern days have seen football hooliganism where fights between rival teams resulting in shouts, fistfights to riots and clashes with bats, bottles, rocks, knives or guns. In some cases, hooligans, police, and bystanders have been killed, and riot police have intervened with tear gas, armoured vehicles and water cannons. Football hooliganism has been linked with leftist, far right politics and racism.

Nothing much has changed.

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Peace and Happiness

Apart from money, fame and power – the two most important things in a man’s life is Peace and Happiness. Man has been vying for peace and happiness since the time he succeeded in tracing his roots to his forefathers.

Each new generation thinks he may have found peace and happiness. He may have achieved money, fame and power. But he will never find Peace and Happiness

It’s a mirage.


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Why do we keeping asking _ why?

Why do we keeping asking _ why?

Do you believe in god?
Yes!
Then can you explain your existence?
How meaningful and useful is your life?
Why were we born and why we die?
Where did we come from?
Where are we going?
Why are we here?
Why does the earth move around the sun?
Why is there sorrow, pain, misery, wretchedness?
Why is there poverty, hunger and war?
Why does man kill man?
Why have those women become prostitutes?
Why are there so many religions?
(In spite of your proclamation of one god)
Why does the white suppress the black?
Why is blood red and water colourless?
Why?
Why do we keeping asking _ why?
Why are some rich and many poor?
Why is there inequality, discrimination, injustice?
When you have answered some of these questions
You will find me by your side

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The Space, The Time, The Man

Time is like the bird &
Man like the candle
One flies
The other dies
The Space, The Time, The Man
Nothing makes sense
Except the sign of insanity
Which we know it as sanity

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Be envied or be pitied!

Saints, great natural athletes, beautiful woman, 6.6 footers, and billionaires – do they ever envy? Envy, the most hidden of all emotions. At first sight, envy seems to be a small town sport. Excavate a little and you discover that this virus is embedded, and almost all and the sundry has this infection.

Man is an atrociously savage beast. Civilization has not trained or restraint him. He has not been able to control envy. Envy is the foundation of greed, lust, rage, spite, resentment, indolence and arrogance. “Because you are unhappy, you cannot bear the sight of someone you think is happy”. It is said to be natural and inevitable. A human being at the sight of another’s pleasure or possession would feel his own deficiency and paucity with more bitterness. Envy is high with relation to nature – the inborn abilities and gifts in others – the genius (music and mathematics), beauty, and intelligence, are triggers. When a person compares and finds out the setback and unchangeable situation of his life, he is inclined to pose a very base and obvious question, ‘Why Me?” When he sees a greater good fortune in others, he questions. “Why Not Me?”

Neighbours' envy - Owners' pride:
Capitalist think that envy isn’t really such a bad thing. It stirs, incites and aspire people. Envy creating machine called the Advertisement Industry proclaims that one’s desire is within one’s reach, leaving little room to realize that day dreaming leads to envy. Society categorizes what you don’t have, can’t have, or shouldn’t have.

When you tell what you envy, you reveal a lot about yourself. You are demeaned, diminished and disqualified as a person. Hence people do not readily confess their envy. The Oxford English Dictionary describes envy very correctly, [1] “Malignant or hostile feeling; ill-will, malice, enmity.” [2] “ Active evil, harm, mischief; [3] The feeling of mortification and ill will occasioned by the contemplation of superior advantages possessed by another.”

The 3 levels of existence :
We have three levels of existence: [1] The person as he appears in public. [2] Person as he is known to his intimates. [3] And deep down where he only knows himself with all his aspirations, resentments, fantasies, desires and much else not for the public knowledge. This is also where the envy resides.

Envy is not jealousy. Envy is not general yearning. What you don’t have, you start by admiring. Then it leads to emulation and you begin to imitate the qualities you began by envying. You soon end up scorning what you don’t have or cannot have. Little is good about envying, except shaking it off. The dilemma is, when you have feel envy, you know it is not easily shaken off. Envy is a self poisoning of the mind. It is usually less about what you lack than about what other people have.

What the Hell?
One pretends to crave for something – but deep down inside he may want something else. For e.g. an artist gives up power, money and his love for beautiful women for his ‘art’ – through which he hope to acquire power, money and beautiful women. Envy makes the world go around.

Men takes to get put off, (envious is the precise word) by offensively good looking men. What offend them are actually not the good looks but what he can get with those looks – Women! “Women Chasing” is perhaps the oldest male sport, and when a person has the looks to get those gorgeous women – men are engulfed with envy. Male envy is generally linked to sexual success. Men peculiarly do not envy women with money, beauty or power. They envy other men who are able to attract the attention of women.

Wealth, beauty, power, talent, skill, knowledge, wisdom and those killing good looks sort of completes the list of reasons to court envy. Some comes with Nature, others you Nurture. Now here is the crisis: If you have any one or two (you would be extremely lucky to have all the above) of the reasons to get envious, you would notice that you would never be satisfied with what you have. For e.g. an extremely beautiful and attractive woman would find some flaws in her body part (oh my god, look at my wrists, I can’ bear to look at them); most handsome man would be dull-headed since their handsomeness has made it easier for them not to work hard or cultivate knowledge; the rich want to be beautiful or wish they were wise; and the wise (and if they are really wise) acknowledges they know nothing! WHAT THE HELL?

Didn’t you get your break?
Everybody looks for a break. The “break” that one day they will ‘make it.’ The problem is that envy does not let you stop even after you had that ‘break’ of yours. For e.g. people would agree to make less sum of money so long as they make more than their friends, i.e. they would rather earn Rs. 40L per annum where non of their friends are earning more than Rs. 30L p.a., rather than earn Rs 1C p.a. where everyone else is making Rs 1.25c p.a. It’s a case of better to be envied than to be pitied. People do not find life worthwhile without arousing a sense of hopelessness and helplessness in their friends, families & everyone around them. But people pretend to show humbleness and you will find them saying, (“touchwood”, “I am doing quite OK”.)

You cannot put brains in people. When by the time, you have most of the reasons that people envy (Wealth, beauty, power, talent, skill, knowledge, wisdom and those killing good looks) you begin to lose your youth. A person whose youth has all but vanished and now envy the youths around him can never explain how precious youth was, and is. The youth do not envy other youths. They have other things to envy: wealth, position, experience, power, love. The young have energy, health, solid well-formed flesh and usually very diminutive perception that life has a finish line. It is pointless to remind them that, when last calculated, the mortality rate remains at 100%. Youth is wasted on the young. Envy, doused with regret and anger, for not getting enough or more in their lifetime, breeds this generation gap.

Capitalist and Socialist:
Whether greed leads to envy or vice versa can only be settled once and for all when that brilliant visionary psychological philosopher comes around. If greed drives the capitalist world then surely envy drives the socialist world, (where no one is supposed to have more than anyone else.) How else do you explain the Marxist core idea, the everlasting class struggle, ending in the defeat and obliteration of the aristocrat life? It is less of economic theory and more of communal vengeance. In a Capitalist world man envies man and in the Socialist world, its vice-versa.

The 3rd world envies America, (perhaps America is where you make those mountain of monies) so we have Anti-American hysteria. The Americas envy the Europeans (perhaps of their way of life) so they have Anti-European frenzy. I am not on familiar terms with the Europeans to know whether they envy us.

Why them? Why not me?
So we are again back with the same question: Why them? Why did they have the outrageous good luck to be born athletes, beautiful, talented and wealthy? What entitle them to all that money, attention, love, power, easy living? Why them? Why not me? Maybe all these started, when personal things and possessions were personal, and not for public knowledge, became everybody’s business.

Today everybody knows how much an actor earns per movie, how much certain writers are paid per book, how much does a top model gets per assignment, how much does a cricketer earns from ads per year, how much does a CEO take home. We now intimately know the rich and the famous. So now we feel injustice has been done on us, and we inwardly start despising them, emulating them, envy them. The more you know about the rich and the famous, the more envious you become. And nothing gives us more satisfaction or happiness to see the high and mighty, fall.

Talking about fall, it even seems that immense pleasure and enjoyment is derived by defeat or fall of our own friends, acquaintances or even family members. We have enough strength to bear the misfortune of others. We are consoled by the misfortunes of our friends. We are satisfied when our friends fail to rise or succeed in their endevour. We are delighted to see the educational plans of our cousins going haywire. We are at joy to see our brothers’ elegant way being squeezed out. Oh yes we are happy!

Why not me?

We are happy like the fox in “The Fox and the Grapes” story. When we cannot alter a situation that we do not like, we say, ”What the hell!”

Life and desire:
There is no life without desire and there is no such thing called life without desire. You enter a grand house and you want to possess it. You see a dazzling car and you fancy driving it along the Ocean. You witness a guy getting a stash of prize money and you think you were worthier than him to receive the money. But with desire there is the reality check. You also consider the maintenance cost of the grand house, the tax, and the other bills. You think of the inconvenience of the convertible during rainy season. You stumble on the fact that some low down character won that stash of prize money. It sort of deflates your envy. You start resigning to your life. You find that you can carry on well without the customary supply of tributes, kudos, awards and accolades. You find out that you have not accumulated all that wisdom, but the world isn’t better enough. You ascertain that all those chisel cut good looks were essentially curved out by a surgeon.

Mental Hygiene:
Too much emphasize is being put on the physical aspect of hygiene. What about some mental hygiene? How about cleaning the mind of envy? How about sanitizing the mind? Do an exercise - just unleash the list of envy: Envy people who speak foreign languages so easily; envy people who travel with a single piece of luggage; envy people who have good postures; envy people who live their lives day by day- hour by hour – minute by minute; go on – compile a long list of envy! You may discover that envy, fritters away your mental energy.

While I cannot prove or disprove, whether or not, envy is a part of human nature, but it surely stresses you. It shrinks you. It belittles you. You start having a very poor opinion of yourself.

Carry on - Envy – if it is the way of life.


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Drafted Thoughts

When was man’s existence established? One million years, two million years or was it three?

When did man initiated writing? When did he start scripting his thoughts? When was the first draft?

Science has been evolving by leaps and bounds these last 150 years or so. But still man’s reflection in general is primitive. He has still been unable to dispel many a so called traditional beliefs. Man today assumes he has civilized himself. No wonder he still believes in sorcery, miracles, angry Gods, vindictive Demons, man slaughter, religion & war.

Perhaps man needs to believe in something – however irrational, however inconceivable and however desperate.

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Disguised Existence
Disgusted with existence is a disguise
Masquerading the disgust for ourselves
Our lives, confused with accomplishment
Throw the blame on the world
The world, not good enough for us

Accept the limitation of life
Don’t expect nature
To be prejudiced in your favour
You can’t light your cigar with the sun
Are we good enough for the world


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Ghastly death of a SI

The telecast of a video clip showing a police sub inspector trying to sit up after an assault by some bunch of hooligans was so gory that one could not sleep the whole night. The vision kept passing thorough. There was no assistance for more than 30 minutes and the SI kept bleeding to death on the street somewhere near Chennai. It looked like a scene from some cheap movie.

What was also irritating was the TV channels' emphatic view that two ministers’ convoy passed by but did not help or delayed help. Instead of addressing a more shocking incident of a man in police uniform being hacked to death in broad day light and being left on the road to die, being watched by insensitive passersby, the channels (and some petty politicians) went after the apathy of the ministers, wanting to sensationalize the incident and increase the TRP.

No channels bothered to investigate the psyche of the man on the street. No one queried on how could someone possibly pass by or stop to watch a man die bleeding so miserably on the street. No one questioned whether we should have some kind of a law where if someone is caught watching a man die, and not do anything about it, should be booked for murder; or a law where anyone can carry the wounded on the streets to a nearby hospital for medical attention without any fear of the authorities and that his duty and responsibilities would end there. The hospital can inform the police later. No one questioned on how could someone keep taking those video without helping the dying man?

Where are we living? We, who are taught to be caring and kind, can turn a blind eye to such incidents. We who are so civilized and concerned about the street dogs and term ourselves as animal lovers can see a man bleed to death on the street but raise our ugly voices against maltreatment to street dogs. We are so cultured with high thinking.

India shining, booming Economy, 9% growth, young and aspired population driving India to new heights, infrastructure boom in India, 1000+ channels, consumerism growing, malls, multiplexes, launching of small and luxury cars, highways, villas, S/w giant, growth and penetration of telecommunication, internet expansion, fashion – the gruesome visuals enlightened us a lot.

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The Young & The Dead

Here is a compilation of a list of people who achieved fame, power and money but did not last long to enjoy. These are set of people who died quite young, leaving behind full of questions on life and death.

Eric Fleming _[Ht 6’3] (July 4, 1925 – September 28, 1966) was an American actor, known primarily for his role as Gil Favor in the long running CBS television series Rawhide. Died while acting in a scene when his canoe overturned and he was swept away by the current in the Huallaga River, tributary of the Maronon River, part of the Amazon Basin. He was 41

Elvis Presley_[Ht_6' (1.83 m)]_(January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American musician and actor. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King". Question mark on his death being caused by stimulants and depressants He was 42

James Byron Dean_[Ht_5' 8" (173 cm)]_(February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American film actor. Dean's status as a cultural icon is best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause, in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark. Death due to Car Crash. He was 24

James Douglas "Jim" Morrison_[Ht_5' 11" (1.80 M)]_ (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, songwriter, poet, writer and filmmaker. He was best known as the lead singer and lyricist of The Doors and is widely considered to be one of the most charismatic frontmen in rock music history.[1] He was also the author of several books of poetry[1] and the director of a documentary and short film. Morrison died on July 3, 1971. In the official account of his death, he was found in a Paris apartment bathtub by Courson. Pursuant to French law, no autopsy was performed because the medical examiner claimed to have found no evidence of foul play. The absence of an official autopsy has left many questions regarding Morrison's cause of death.. He was 27.

Marilyn Monroe_[Ht_5’ 5½ “ (166.62 cm)_ (June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962), born Norma Jeane Mortenson, but baptized Norma Jeane Baker, was an American actress, singer, and model. Her death was ruled to be "acute barbiturate poisoning" by Dr. Thomas Noguchi of the Los Angeles County Coroners office and listed as "probable suicide." Many individuals, including Jack Clemmons, the first Los Angeles Police Department officer to arrive at the death scene,[1] believe that she was murdered. No murder charges were ever filed. The death of Marilyn Monroe is arguably one of the most debated conspiracy theories of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She was 36.

John Lennon_[Ht 5’ 10” (178 cm)]_MBE (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English rock musician, singer-songwriter, author, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles. On the night of 8 December 1980, at around 10:50 pm, Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back four times in the entrance of the Dakota apartment building. He was 40

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix_[Ht. 5' 11" (1.80 m)]_(born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is often considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in the history of rock music by other musicians and commentators in the industry, and one of the most important and influential musicians of his era across a range of genres. Early on September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix died in London under circumstances which have never been fully explained. He was 27

Charles Hardin Holley_[Ht. 5' 11½" (1.82 m)]_(September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll. Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his death in an airplane crash, Holly is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll."[1] His works and innovations inspired and influenced both his contemporaries and later musicians, notably The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Don McLean, and Bob Dylan, and exerted a profound influence on popular music.[2] Following a performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa on February 2, 1959, Holly chartered a small airplane to take him to the next stop on the tour. He, Valens, Richardson, and the pilot were killed en route to Moorhead, Minnesota, when their plane crashed soon after taking off from nearby Mason City in the early morning hours of February 3. Don McLean referred to it as "The Day the Music Died" in his song "American Pie". He was 22

Guru Dutt or Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone _(9 July 1925 - 10 October 1964) was an Indian film director, producer and actor. He is often credited with ushering in the golden era of Hindi cinema. On 10 October 1964, Guru Dutt was found dead in his bed in his rented apartment at Pedder Road in Mumbai. He is said to have been mixing alcohol and sleeping pills. His death may have been suicide, or just an accidental overdose. It would have been his third suicide attempt, He was 39.

John Denver_[Ht, 6' (183 cm)]_(December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997) was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the 1970s in terms of record sales,[1] recording and releasing around 300 songs, of which about 200 were composed by him. He was named Poet Laureate of Colorado in 1977. A pilot with over 2,700 hours of experience, Denver had single-engine land and sea, multi-engine land, glider, and instrument ratings. He also held a type rating in a Learjet. He had recently purchased the Long-EZ aircraft and had taken a half-hour checkout flight with the aircraft the day before the accident. The NTSB cited Denver's unfamiliarity with the aircraft and his failure to have the aircraft refueled as causal factors in the accident. Denver was the sole occupant of the aircraft. He was 54

Edward Montgomery Clift_[Ht 5’ 10” (178 cm)]_(October 17, 1920 – July 23, 1966) was an American film and stage actor. He was known for his brooding, sensitive working-class character roles. Clift received four Academy Award nominations during his career. On July 22, 1966, Clift spent most of the day in his bedroom in his New York City townhouse, 217 East 61st Street. He and his live-in personal secretary, Lorenzo James, had not spoken much all day. At 1a.m., Lorenzo went up to say goodnight. The Misfits was on TV that night, and Lorenzo asked Clift if he wanted to watch it. "Absolutely NOT!" was the reply. This turned out to be the last time Montgomery Clift spoke to anyone. At 6 a.m. the next morning, Lorenzo went to wake him but found the bedroom door locked. Unable to break it down, he ran down to the garden and climbed a ladder to the bedroom window. When he got inside, he found Clift dead. He was undressed, lying on his back in bed, with glasses on and fists clenched.[5] Clift's body was taken to the city morgue at 520 First Avenue and autopsied. The autopsy report cited the cause of death as a heart attack brought on by "occlusive coronary artery disease". No evidence was found that suggested foul play or suicide. He was 45

River Jude Phoenix_[Ht 5' 10" (1.78 m)]_ (August 23, 1970 — October 31, 1993) was an American film actor. He was listed on John Willis's Screen World, Vol. 38 as one of twelve "promising new actors of 1986," and was hailed as highly talented by such critics as Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. He was also well known for his animal rights activism. He was the oldest sibling of actors and actresses Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix and Summer Phoenix. On October 31, 1993, Phoenix collapsed from a drug overdose of heroin and cocaine (known as a speedball) outside the Viper Room, a Hollywood night club partially owned, at the time, by actor Johnny Depp. During the episode, Johnny Depp and his band P (featuring Flea and Phoenix's friend Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers) were onstage. He was 23.

Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances; née Spencer;)_[Ht. 5' 10" (1.78 m)]_1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. On 31 August 1997, Diana died having sustained fatal injuries in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris along with Dodi Al-Fayed and the acting security manager of the Hôtel Ritz Paris, Henri Paul, who was instructed to drive the hired Mercedes-Benz through Paris in order to elude the paparazzi. She was 36

Rajiv Ratna Gandhi (20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991), the elder son of Indira Nehru and Feroze Gandhi, was the 7th Prime Minister of India from his mother's death on 31 October 1984 until his resignation on 2 December 1989 following a general election defeat. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office (at the age of 40). Rajiv Gandhi's last public meeting was at Sriperumbudur on 21 May 1991, in a village approximately 30 miles from Madras, Tamil Nadu, where he was assassinated while campaigning for the Sriperumbudur Lok Sabha Congress candidate.[15] The assassination was carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide bomber Thenmozhi Rajaratnam also known as Gayatri and Dhanu. He was 46.

Janis Lyn Joplin_[Ht 5' 6" (1.68 M)]_ (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer, songwriter and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Joplin number 46 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Found dead on the Landmark Motor Hotel (since renamed the Highland Gardens Hotel) room floor . The official cause of death was an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol. Joplin may have accidentally been given heroin which was much more potent than normal, as several of her dealer's other customers also overdosed that week. She was 27

Heath Andrew Ledger_ [Ht 6' 1]_ (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career. His work encompassed nineteen films, including 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Patriot (2000), Monster's Ball (2001), A Knight's Tale (2001), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and The Dark Knight (2008). In addition to his acting, he produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine."[9][11] It states definitively: "We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications. He was 28

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy_[Ht 6’[_ (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on November 22, 1963, while on a political trip to Texas to smooth over factions in the Democratic Party between liberals and conservative representatives. He was shot once in the upper back and was killed with a final shot to the head. He was pronounced dead at 1:00 p.m. He was 46.

Bruce Lee_[ Height: 5' 7"]_ (Lee Jun Fan,_ 27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973) was a Chinese American and Hong Kong actor, martial artist, philosopher, film director, screenwriter, practitioner of Wing Chun and founder of the Jeet Kune Do concept. He is considered by many as the most influential martial artist of the 20th century, and a cultural icon. Lee's death is still a subject of controversy. He was 32.

Brandon Bruce Lee_[Ht 6' (1.83 m)]_(February 1, 1965 – March 31, 1993) was an American actor. He was the son of the late legendary martial arts film star Bruce Lee and Linda Lee Cadwell and the brother of actress Shannon Lee. He was also the nephew of Robert Lee, a musician and member of various Hong Kong beat bands. Lee was accidentally shot and killed at the age of 28 while filming The Crow (1994).

Thomas Richard Fogerty_[Ht 5' 10½" (179 cm)]_(November 9, 1941, in Berkeley, California – September 6, 1990, in Scottsdale, Arizona) was a musician best known as the guitarist in Creedence Clearwater Revival and the elder brother of John Fogerty, the lead singer and guitar player in that band. On September 6, 1990 Tom Fogerty died of AIDS (specifically from a tuberculosis infection), having contracted HIV from blood transfusions for back ailments. He was 48.

Stevie Ray Vaughan _[Ht 5'9" ]_(born Stephen Ray Vaughan; October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is often considered to be one of the most important electric guitarists in the history of rock music by other musicians and commentators. Six albums of Vaughan's work have been released. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Stevie Ray Vaughan #7 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, and Classic Rock Magazine ranked him #3 in their list of the 100 Wildest Guitar Heroes in 2007. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential blues guitarists in history. With fame and fortune came excess. Vaughan cocaine habit rose to 4 grams a day. To cure hangovers he would dissolve some of the cocaine into a glass of whiskey for a morning pick me up. BUT he did not die of cocaine overdose. For travel to the next venue, his tour manager reserved four helicopters to circumvent congested highway traffic. The helicopters, not certified for flight under instrument flight rules, lifted off in dense fog at 12:40 A.M. on August 27. Just past the lift-off zone was a 300-foot hill. Vaughan's pilot, unfamiliar with the area, did not climb to sufficient altitude immediately after take-off, and the helicopter crashed into the hill. According to the report by the National Transportation Safety Board, the cause of the accident was determined to be inadequate planning by the pilot and failure to attain sufficient altitude to clear an obstacle. Fog and haze, as well as the rising terrain, were listed as contributing factors. All occupants—including Vaughan, the pilot and three members of Eric Clapton's travel group—were killed on impact. He was 35

Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley _[Ht 5' 7 ]_(February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for the ska, rocksteady and reggae bands The Wailers (1964–1974) and Bob Marley & The Wailers (1974–1981). Marley remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited for helping spread both Jamaican music and the Rastafari movement to a worldwide audience. In July 1977, Marley was found to have acral lentiginous melanoma, a form of malignant melanoma, in a wound reportedly picked up in a friendly football match. The spread of melanoma (skin cancer) to his lungs and brain caused his death. His final words to his son Ziggy were "Money can't buy life." He was 36.

Martin Luther King, Jr._[Ht 5' 6½" (1.69 M)]_ (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon. King was shot at 6:01 p.m. April 4, 1968 while he was standing on the Lorraine Motel's second floor balcony. The bullet entered through his right cheek smashing his jaw and then traveled down his spinal cord before lodging in his shoulder. He was 39.

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Long live imperialism!

Long live imperialism!

Those who shouldn’t be leaders of men
Are leader of men
Those who should be leaders of men
Are sycophants
How long can this last?
Why is there no uprising?

The politicians have taken up the chairs
From where the British left
Long live imperialism!
Nothing has changed
We have been successful
To put old wines in new bottles
When will there be another ‘fight’?
A fight for ‘Freedom’
The British Police squashed down our protest
The Indian counterpart is doing a fine job
Now they even have the Indian army to assist them
When will the people of India wake up?

ØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØ


Put me to sleep

It is dark
The only sound that I hear is
Johann Strauss’ Vienna Blood
It is the sound of violin
Suddenly the music stops
I now hear only the sound of the AC
I toss to the left, I toss to the right
I lie on my back, I lie on my stomach
I keep on tossing and turning
A feeling of nausea, stomach churning
Sleep eludes me
I turn on the light
Its 2 AM
Suddenly I feel lonely, tired
So many people on this earth
Still man feels lonely, is lonely
Maybe He’ll die lonely
Maybe another track_
Blue Danube should put me to sleep

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The recusant

A recusant is a person who refuses to submit to the authority or comply with the regulation laid down in the daily order of the world. He refuses to acknowledge authority and declines to do something commanded or desired.

Would you term his as an Anti-Social?

Then there are those who want to be left alone. They do not like to mingle and merge with the society. They are loners.

Are they too Anti-Socials?

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Time comes – Life Stop

The world is a world of suffering
Wishes denied - desires infinite
Realized desire begets fresh desires

Life – with pain as its foundation
People worried about their fundamental freedom
Few fights for freedom from pain and suffering

Life swings like a pendulum
Backward – Forward
Between pain and pleasure
Till time comes - & it stops

One is not immortal
The world is not eternal.
The world exist long enough
Till you hang around
Once you hang up
Well, that’s about the end of it.


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Authority and Liberty

Drinking is a good habit. One should drink daily and get fully drunk. Men who are fully drunk reach a level that they quite forget those vast political, religious, cultural and social differences which mankind clings on to, feels is necessary and which separates them like the banks of a river.

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Authority and Liberty

Today we are not even aware what the word liberty means. The word has been twisted so vigourously like the washerwoman twisting the wet clothes, that the term has become the exact opposite. I dug out the meaning of Liberal and Liberalism as follows :

Liberal :
"One who favors greater freedom in political or religious matters" (Webster's Dictionary)

Liberalism :
"A belief in the value of human personality, and a conviction that the source of all progress lies in the free exercise of human energy" (Encyclopedia Britannica)


"Liberalism" in the historic sense is the struggle of man to emphasize his liberty against authority. In the political field, this struggle is against the authority of the state. Those who, today, call themselves liberals believe in increasing the authority of the state at the expense of individual liberty. It is true that they do so for the commendable purpose of advancing the public welfare but, whatever their motives, they have taken their stand against individual liberty and in favor of authority. Whatever they may call themselves, they are not liberals.

"Liberalism" in the historic sense regards government as a necessary evil. It looks upon all governments, including our own, with suspicion. It believes that the only way to preserve and defend liberty and protect the individual from the domination of government is to limit the functions of government. It fears government and seeks to enforce restraints upon the power of government.

"Liberalism," as the term is used today, looks upon the citizen with suspicion and upon government with approval. It seeks to build a strong government to control and corner the individual for the good of society, to prevent the strong from taking advantage of the weak, to counterbalance inequalities in wealth and incomes, and to play the historic role of Robin Hood, who robbed the rich and distributed ‘some of the proceeds’ to the poor. [I always thought that Robin Hood was a communist]

The concept of life is known as liberalism. The attitude of authority was always to enslave the human spirit during the greater part of recorded history. Each generation has fought the authority and tried to liberate the human spirit. Oliver Cromwell, John Milton, John Locke, Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill were outstanding spokesperson of liberalism.

I am reminded of an old phrase ‘ All men are created equal”. Did this mean that all men have equal intelligence, physical strength, character etc? I know it meant that all men were equal under a given country’s law. But is he really is? Under the rule of the authority a man’s status in the social structure determines what laws apply to him and what he must obey. {for eg do you think that you and the driver of Ratan Tata would be treated the same way for a small traffic violation specifically if Ratan Tata is seated as a passenger?... I am not even comparing you with Ratan Tata – but his driver!}. The special privilege that the Traffic Police would bestow on Ratan Tata’s driver is a direct conflict with the liberal philosophy of equality under the law.

Most of our legal courts try to follow the so called rule of the law, but in reality justice is based upon class distinction and social status.

Are there authorities who desire to dispel an authoritarian government and want to improve the lot of mankind? Do they want everyone to be decently housed, decently fed, and decently clothed? Can we have a government powerful enough to override ‘liberal twisters’ without being powerful to harm the individual’s liberty?
Perhaps all these questions may not be answered in one’s lifetime. There are generations which ask questions and there are generations which answer those questions.
♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠

Those dreadful writers

Want to be happy?
Be ignorant as the youth
Who has yet to discover the insatiableness of desire?
The fruitlessness of fulfillment
Who is blind with strength and exuberance
Who has yet to see the inevitableness of defeat?
Who has just started life
And death is not visible yet
With every stride, he comes near the coffin
Realizing the short span of life
Wishing he could live long
Till he becomes old, wise but unhappy
Discovering what a miserable comedy life had been
Brain, body, intelligence begin to decay
Death plays with life – as a cat with a mouse
At the end – non existence

∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑

The fear of death begins
A final cause for religion
The awful fear of death
Makes him believe in immortality
Theology is a refuge from death
Like insanity – a refuge from pain
Madness cuts consciousness
Like knife through butter
It helps to forget the memory of suffering
The ultimate asylum is suicide
But life laughs at it
Is suicide a vain and foolish act?
The individual ends
Pain and misery go on
There cannot be victory
Man has a right to live, they say
Why does not man have a right to die?
The world should accept the will
Was man’s birth consulted?

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Those dreadful writers

All and the sundry seems to be unsecured. Or at least feels insecure. Everybody needs a fortification. Some envelop themselves building a career, business, money and power, others with books, music, writing, art, etc. They engulf themselves with these frivolities.

Let’s take the case of books. Some surround themselves with Mills & Boons, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming, Frederick Forsythe, Alistair McLean, Mario Puzo, John Grisham, Jeffrey Archer, Irwin Wallace, P G Woodhouse, Robert Ludlum – others with Edgar Allan Poe, Dickens, Chesterton, G B Shaw, Flaubert, Maupassant, Balzac, H G Wells, Gibran, Twain, O’ Henry, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Butler, Thomas Hardy, Victor Hugo – and still others with Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Sartre, Freud, Russell, Camus, Arthur Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Franz Kafka, Kant, Marx, Rousseau, Kierkegaard, Voltaire etc.

Perhaps it’s an endeavor to gain knowledge, possibly an effort to form a defense mechanism, or maybe an attempt to portray a halo of intelligence?

Where will all this lead to?

Why has he swallowed himself up with such dreadful writers?

He becomes both, confused and influenced. His mind is no longer his, having filled it with such garbage. He lands into depression. Can he come out of it? Is this a passing phase? With age and time will his ideas, views, opinions and personality change? Will he again start to look for fresh trash?

∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆

Patriot or Killer?

The Child Labour

I presume I am a fool to go on living
To perceive the sights surrounding me
Labour – That’s what man is here for
The boy lifts the heavy pipes
Oblivious of Pain, ignorant of the rich
The gentleman’s elegant world, the luxury
For the boy, its vain
To contemplate on the beauty of life – if any
He will be where he is
Its futile – struggling
To keep himself alive
Its not worth it – this toil and labour
He won’t reach anywhere, accomplish nothing
Nobody can do anything for him
Nobody will
Except observe, stare at, and sympathize
Like me – who lives to see this agony?

#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/


Patriot or Killer?

You keep on hearing
The war to end all wars
But this will never end

History only consist of wars
We read history I am told
So that we don’t make
The same historical errors
Like our forefathers made

Have we learned anything?
There are still the Saddams and Bushes
The Kim II Sung, The Kim Jong II
There wouldn’t be a dearth
Of such persons in the future
As long as ego and greed exist
War will exist
People will continue to kill people
People will continue to slay people

In future if you want to exist
You’ve got to ask yourself
Whose side are you on?
You can’t be neutral
There is this possibility of getting caught
In the crossfire

ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ


When a bollywood star comes to their town or a bollywood movie is released, you will see hordes of jackasses congregate. You will, by no means find them asking “How the hell did Goldman Sach, the world’s most profitable investment bank got involved in creating the current financial mess?” In the meantime it is necessary for the Leftist to ‘glee and gloat’ that capitalism has failed.

While the financial chaos goes on, the man on the street blames the corporate pigs for the current state of affairs. He is of the firm belief that all private organizations should be handed over and run by the government.

Little does he comprehend, that he is proposing to pass the mantle from one system to another which is more bureaucratic, inefficient and incompetent.

∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏

Graham Greene-a nonentity

What can I say?

I see a little boy eating bread with salt
& I do not have anything to say

I see a little boy groveling in the dust
& I do not have anything to say

I see a little boy sleeping without dinner
& I do not have anything to say

I see a little boy being treated cruelly
& I do not have anything to say

I see a little boy working like a slave
& I do not have anything to say

I see a little boy lifting up heavy weights
& I do not have anything to say

I see a little boy without education
& I do not have anything to say

I see a little boy suffering from pain & misery
& I do not have anything to say

I see a little boy being treated like a street dog
& I do not have anything to say

I see a little boy begging in the streets
& I do not have anything to say

I see a little boy with no trace of his parents
& I do not have anything to say

I see a little boy being sexually abused
& I do not have anything to say

I see a little boy who doesn’t know why he was born
& I do not have anything to say

I see a little boy dying in the streets
& I do not have anything to say

I see a little boy – no I see a lot of little boys
& I do not have anything to say

Little boys – dreaming of heavens and paradises
What can I say?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Graham Greene – now a nonentity

Man comes and man goes. But life goes on just the same. Most men die without living a trace of their life while others leave a distinct stamp that affects and influences our daily lives, albeit temporarily.

I recall the day when Graham Greene, the British Novelist died at the age of 86. He left behind some major works like The 3rd Man, The Power & The Glory, The Brighton Rock, The End of The Affair and The Heart of the Matter. As predicted there was a heavy rush in the book stores. People wanted to possess these works, now that Greene was gone

This was a temporary interest. Soon everybody forgot and probably now it makes no difference whether Graham Greene existed and have gradually passed into nonentity.

At that time I remember quite a few of the world colleagues who wanted to become prominent. The desire to become famous resides in every heart and mind. Some pursue, while others depict listlessness. There are still others who hopes to collide with miracles.

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The Fresh Graduates

Such heavy weights on the shoulders
Its responsibilities and not boulders
Meandering about, the degree holders
Unknown future, degree in the folders

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Here is a character :

persistent feelings of sadness, anxiety, guilt, anger, isolation, or hopelessness; disturbances in sleep and appetite; fatigue and loss of interest in usually enjoyable activities; problems concentrating; loneliness, self-loathing, apathy or indifference; depersonalization; loss of interest in sexual activity; shyness or social anxiety; irritability, chronic pain; lack of motivation; and morbid suicidal tendency.....

Looks familiar?

A self – analysis will help you understand that at one point of your life or the other you must have experienced some, if not all of these symptoms

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Legalize Drunk Driving

Mumbai has become a terrible place. I always had great pride in the Mumbai system. If you want to be left alone – Mumbai leaves you alone. One of the reasons I fled Calcutta was the interference of the Calcutta Police if you were caught driving after 11 PM. The Cal Police invariably would put up barricades, stop the car and put those glaring torches on your face to enquire your destination and your starting point of the journey. I was really fed up.

I came to Mumbai about a decade back and found the environment more free. You could drive anytime of the night, reach a dance bar fully drunk at 4 or 5 AM, have more drinks and come back peacefully to your home.

Now that has changed. The dance bars are long gone. And last year the AUTHORITIES declared that a blood-alcohol level of X % and above is criminal and must be severely punished.

I have an elementary point. What precisely is being criminalized? Not bad driving. Not destruction of property. Not the taking of human life or reckless endangerment. The crime is having the wrong substance in your blood. Yet it is possible, in fact, to have this substance in your blood, even while driving, and not commit anything like what has been traditionally called a crime.


What have we done by permitting government to criminalize the content of our blood instead of actions themselves? We have given it power to make the application of the law illogical, whimsical, and dependent on the judgment of cops and cop’s expert. Indeed, without the government's "Breathanalyzer," there is no way to tell for sure if we are breaking the law. [Did the manufacturers of breathanalyzer had a part in this bizzare decision?]. Hell.

Sure, we can do informal calculations in our head, based on our weight and the amount of alcohol we have had over some period of time. But at best these will be estimates. We have to wait for the government to administer a test to tell us whether or not we are criminals. That's not the way law is supposed to work. Indeed, this is a form of tyranny.

Now, the immediate response goes this way: drunk driving has to be illegal because the probability of causing an accident rises dramatically when you drink. The answer is just as simple: government in a free society should not deal in probabilities. The law should deal in actions and actions alone and only insofar as they damage person or property. Probabilities are something for insurance companies to assess on a competitive and voluntary basis.
It’s like doing a racial profiling. If there are too many bhaiyas in a particular region, then there is a high rate of crime there. Government should be preventing and punishing crimes, not indulging in probabilities and predictions. So should we have a driver’s profile and assume that just because a person had a few pegs, he is automatically a danger.

In fact, driver profiling is worse than racial profiling, because the latter only implies that the police are more watchful, not that they criminalize race itself. Despite the propaganda, what's being criminalized in the case of drunk driving is NOT the probability that a person driving will get into an accident but the FACT of the blood-alcohol content itself. A drunk driver is humiliated and destroyed even when he hasn't done any harm.

Of course, enforcement is a serious problem. A sizeable number of people leaving a bar or a restaurant would probably qualify as Driving Under Influence. But there is no way for the police to know unless they are tipped off by a swerving car or reckless driving in general. But the question becomes: why not ticket the swerving or recklessness and leave the alcohol out of it? WHY INDEED?.

To emphasize the fact that it is some level of drinking that is being criminalized, government sets up these outrageous, civil-liberties-violating barricades that stop people to check their blood – even when they have done nothing at all. This is a gross attack on liberty that implies that the government has and should have total control over us, extending even to the testing of intimate biological facts. But somehow we put up with it because we have conceded the first assumption that government ought to punish us for the content of our blood and not just our actions.

There are many factors that cause a person to drive poorly. You may have sore muscles after a weight-lifting session and have slow reactions. You could be sleepy. You could be in a bad mood, or angry after a fight with your spouse. You could be under a lot of stress or duress. Should the government be allowed to administer mood test, anger tests, tiredness tests, stress/duress test or soreness tests? That is the very next step, and don't be surprised when THE AUTHORITY starts to examine this question.

Already, there's a law which prohibits cell phone use while driving. Such an absurdity follows from the idea that government should make judgments about what we are allegedly likely to do.
What's more, some people drive MORE safely after a few drinks, precisely because they know their reaction time has been slowed and they must pay more attention to safety. We all know drunks who have an amazing ability to drive perfectly after being liquored up. They should be liberated from the force of the law, and only punished if they actually do something wrong.

We need to put a stop to this whole absurd and bizarre trend now. Drunk driving should be legalized. And please don't write to me to say: "I am offended by your insensitivity because my mother was killed by a drunk driver." Any person responsible for killing someone else is guilty of manslaughter or murder and should be punished accordingly.

But it is perverse to punish a murderer not because of his crime but because of some biological consideration, e.g. he has red hair.
Bank robbers may tend to wear masks, but the crime they commit has nothing to do with the mask. In the same way, drunk drivers cause accidents but so do sober drivers, - and many drunk drivers cause no accidents at all. The law should focus on violations of person and property, not scientific oddities like blood content.