Unashamed Love – Pure and Simple!

It's never too late to admit your love affairs or is it? I am in love will all things Google. My work day starts with google and ends (in most cases) with google. For me its Google Google all the way!

The guys out there are doing a fantastic job and kudos to them!

Debating the dealth penalty

"To be or not to be, - that is the question…”
Hamlet (III, i, 56)

Death penalty – as the ultimate punishment, has been a raging debate in this country, fueled by the recent death penalty awards for two heinous crimes – attacking the ‘heart’ of Indian democracy and the brutal assault and murder of Priyadarshini Mattoo. Were the judges right is awarding the death sentence? Can’t comment on that, but then the judges handed down the stiffest sentences in the rulebooks and justifiably so!

The larger question here is – “Is the death penalty the only form of the strictest deterrent and punishment for the rarest of rare crimes?” To my mind no!, not because I believe in mush such as “if you can’t create life, you can’t take it” or “only God has the right to take life” etc etc but then the criminals, the lowest form of vermin, get away with so much less minus all terrible moments that their victims had to endure.

We got to change the rulebooks! The severest punishment for these vermin’s would be to throw them into solitary confinement. A cell with no natural light, no access to human faces, doesn’t get to hear human voices or any natural noises – only eerie silence, no TV, no radio, no newspaper, no magazines, no books, no nothing! Let them sit absolutely alone, and I really mean absolutely alone, and contemplate their deeds and their lives. Let them forget how the world looks! Take them out for 10 minutes on a varying frequency – once in 6 months, once in 8 months, once in a year or two! Nothing that the guy can look forward to.

To live and live like this! God!, the guy would barter it for death penalty any day! Then you know that they have faced their nemesis. Record what these guys have to say after 3 years of confinement and play that as the deterrent.

I guess its time we change the rulebooks!


"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;"
Macbeth (V, v, 19)

Celebrating Diwali

Have been extremely late in getting this post together, but then its 'better late than never'. Snaps from our second diwali in Kolkata. These are snaps from the fireworks that we lighted, which for me was after many many years!


Picture 1: Rocket ignited and ready to take off.








Picture 2: Rocket takes off leaving behind a fire trail.







Picture 3: Flower Pot...









Picture 4: Flower Pot ...









Picture 5: Spinner

The swagger of the powerful

For those of you guys who have been following the Mattoo case, the sentencing of Sanjay Singh has come as a welcome development for a nation deeply skeptical of the political and executive will to punish the powerful accused of heinous crimes. While a lot has been written on how justice has prevailed after 10 long years and so on, the human side of the story hasn’t been given its due share.

To me the rot starts at the very top. J. P. Singh, Sanjay’s father is as much to blame, if not more, for the assault and murder of Priyadarshini Mattoo. From the so called educated gentry and an IPS (Indian Police Service, for those who don’t know) officer to boot Mr. Singh should have instilled the right values in his progeny but then he himself was arrogant, abusive and reveled in his own power. One should have seen Sanjay’s younger brother’s expression while threatening jurnos, covering the story, to believe the deep- seated arrogance and power syndrome of the Singh’s. Senior Singh broke every rule in the book and twisted all the government machinery handles to protect his murderer son – the most sickening of all things.

Sanjay’s one act, planned and premeditated, have in turn impacted so many lives that it is not funny. Priyadarshini’s parents were devastated, the most horrible kind of an experience for a parent to undergo but then that’s not all. Sanjay got married and had a child. I keep thinking of his wife and how an innocent life has to go through such a harrowing time for no fault of her’s and what to say of the child! The kid has been scarred for life. The man and his family were arrogant enough to devastate another set of family.

The death sentence, to my mind, is the easy way out for Sanjay. If I had my way I would have given him a no-parole solitary life sentence with no access to any humans, books and mags, visitation rights …..nothing! Sit alone and contemplate all your life. Reflect father and son and all you critters of the most horrible kind.