Choosing a better demon ..

Well, i guess this the most apt statement statement which I feel anybody in Karnataka can agree to today. With the voting set to kick off in a few hours.

Important:
http://ceokarnataka.kar.nic.in/SearchContestingCandidate.aspx

Use the link above to search and find out about your candidate. (you can find their nominations there), i went to the extent to digging up what their net worth (assets, liabilities), prior experience, education , what are they promising etc.

This blog post is in response to a good friend of mine prompting me to vote for a party since his "Uncle" was the contestant.

Today I see a newspaper article where he promises to rejuvenate the lakes in South bangalore, and asks us to go visit one such lake as a proof of his achievement.

I almost lost my temper, as I have been following the happenings of this lake
http://www.puttenahallilake.in/about-pnlit
(I remembered this lake has been developed by donations and not government funds)

My friend had one reason - Everybody eats.
I still haven't got a response for a few questions i posted to my dear friend .... there aren't any


So what...
I have a little request from all

1. Take time out (30 mins), get online, search about the candidates contesting from your area.
2. Make a choice
3. Leadership, Integrity, ethics.
4. Do not vote for someone if it benefits you, ask yourself - Is this person going to make a difference to my constituency, my state or my country.
5. Do vote, or go to the polling booth and record your choice not to vote.
6. Remember it is we who are responsible in electing our leaders. Do not put the blame that all the leaders are like this.
7. When my grandfather was faced with this choice he chose to stand for elections himself ( so do not say there is no capable / good leader). It is we who do not have the courage to stand for what we want.

All the best, do fulfill your duty tomorrow.

Sebastião Salgado: The silent drama of photography

Delhi 16-12-2012

Here while I sit a week after 16/12, I realise this is the time where it all happened, or as I check the time maybe the time where it all ended. the girl full of dreams and responsibilities being torn apart, quite literally and dumped on the street.

Yes, I am referring to the Gang RAPE incident.

Delhi, the farthest city which my mom travelled to quite often over the last year and a half. The city I wanted to explore a lot more. A city whose surroundings I still want to visit, photograph, and capture in my memory.

First it came across a daily news item, a headline on my phone, feeling bad as usual, not an inspiration for any action. It was a headline, which surprised me for that was almost a daily occurrence at the rape capital.

Rape Capital - a label to be ashamed of, for that's also the capital of my country.

Dear friend, wait and look how fast / how content / at ease we are once we put a "label".

Label/No-Label :::: Statistics/reality says a lot, and numbers don't lie.

Open your eye, look around you, lean back !  now again look around you.
I am keeping my eyes on Delhi, I looked around, looked back from my memories of Delhi, and what was Delhi made up of, and what's around Delhi.

Down south in relatively nice and safe Bangalore. A single guy sitting writing his blog post, awaiting his 30th birthday.
"Hey I'm single, so are many of my friends (guys) my age. My classmates, friends are all either started delivering kids and have even moved on till even their third kid. Ok, the final Batsmen are finally having their wickets fall but still a gap is obvious even as I realise I do know a few single ladies... There are considerably less girls around"

For those of you who still managed to keep your eyes fixed on Delhi, let us make list of some its neighbours

• Haryana
• Punjab
• Uttar Pradesh
• Uttarakhand
• Bihar ??

Do you know geography ?? that may be your question right now. But was just making a wild guess of the origin of a bulk of Delhi's migrants. Speaking of migrants I'm not referring to not ones with white collar jobs but the more visible and yet insignificant, lifeline but the significant unimportant people like the rickshaw wallas, labourers, small time labourers etc.

PS: I did a quick look up at the sex-ratios  (obvious thing rite)

Now Eureka!! I found another root cause of the problem, the lack of girls/women ...

Wait, that's half of the problem.

All the 6 were really backward/poor who would have married them, poor lonely guys 

Oh! wait late in the night, a girl with a guy... ah haa... 

Oh! these politicians, only concerned about their security, is any cop left to protect the aam (mango) admi

Oh! there unruly illiterate (and literate) pigs men

STOP !!

I can go on and on. Finding more reasons to justify explain what happened on the fateful night and why, how to prevent. A thesis too may actually be helpful.

Ohhh!! WTF (What the Fuck)

• A Kid was raped inside a store (while the shopkeeper's friends diverted the relatives of the girl who came looking for her)
• A middle aged woman was drugged and raped in Delhi 

 (a gang rape, at a time when when prisoners are making one of the accused eat excreta & drink urine, forget harsh sentence, a jail ready to tear you apart is not deterring some assoles)

People Get it THERE IS NO REAL REASON / CAUSE / EXPLANATION

Even with the country burning with disgust, more incidents are making it to the the headlines

• Will anything ever change ??
• what will deter these cowards.
• Hopeless Situation is this, totally out of any sense of repair.

Without much further ado, I'll skip to my own little 2 cents worth of thoughts

• Women want to live, play all the roles they possibly be can be it their hobbies, career, learning, be a kid, be a friend, be a mother, be a winner, be a equal . . .
• Its high time we (men & women) accepted this and gave the respect, and acceptance to this fact.
• Its high time we overcame our insecurities
• Its high time we embraced change
• Let every girl live, be born, express her possibility fully in this world.

We (including me) are responsible for every atrocity. Its my duty to stand up, You/I may be beaten by the guy in this incident. Me even loose our lives. But what life it is to live of a coward. Live a life for a second than hide for a hundred years.

A Zero Tolerance is what we need to develop.

• You don't have to get violent / need to.
• But Never ignore any indecent, speak out, say you disapprove
• Its not out Govt. / Police / Law that can give us solutions
• Its high time INDIA stood up for itself.

This girl is standing up for herself, by wanting to live, by caring for her friend even when its hard for her to live, she is voicing out to bring the guilty to justice. THAT MAKES HER A WINNER

Woman, you truly are a man. One I respect and salute.

Your live may never be the same, but girl you are a winner for having come this far.

We are here for you today and when in need

There is hope

• Thank you countrymen for standing by for standing by a fellow countrymen for what was done to her by some of our own.
• Her identity is still not been disclosed. Good work (doctors, police)
• Thanks for offers of help (docs, politicians, public - INDIANS)

Women

Friends, Crushes, Sisters, Mom ...

Have got to know quite a few, and had lots to learn from all.. A lesson from each, had me appreciate the new one a tad bit more.

Till I got talking to one, whom I assumed being a workaholic, turned out to be a committed, sensitive n adorable little one...
Rare, for I had not found who had the innocent child in them alive.
For I saw strength, fear, compassion, determination and a heart as clear as a child's

I thank you for having got me to take a moment to appreciate & acknowledge all the wonderful women who have made a difference to me.

Pics from my phone

Some pics after a long time...

100 Experiments . . .

Yes, 100 snaps or a hundred experiments with light, this has been the highlight of my day.
Penned a Independence Day Speech, a baby step which got me as exited as parent watching their child have its first step.
I day I took on something I had once failed at earlier.
Met a baby, a witness to the courage of two people making a resolve to make things work.
A day when I actually felt low, a day where I am ready, desperate and hurting to give up my freedom, my freedom whom many a wish they still had, this prized freedom I so wish to let go, let go so as to to belong to someone other than me and have the other be my own. To be owned I so long, for my loss of freedom is where I find my freedom.