Groping at Gandhi Ashram

I have to say it was very comforting to read the news about a foreign tourist being molested by drunk youngsters at the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, in the morning paper. Ironically they were viewing the photographs of the Indian freedom struggle when they found found themselves struggling for their dignity.

Well what happened was totally against Gandhi’s dreams and what followed was violence. One of the youngster damaged Gandhi’s photos and was later beaten up(castration could have been better), the pther escaped. No complaint was lodged keeping in mind the sanctity of the place.

Is Gandhism dead? Doesn’t his principles and teachings hold no value any more? Was He just meant to liberate us from the British Raj so that we could freely molest our women? Why is Indian Youth forgetting that they are the pillars or the country?Is bad parenting to blame?

He dreamt of an India safe for women, and what did we finally deliver? Strip teasing women in public and marry off couples in public(thanks to Bajrang Dal the whooping marriage cost is avoided). Celebrating Gandhi Jayanthi would be more insulting now.

Ask anyone if Gandhi’s teaching hold any value and 90% will say Yes. But does it really? Ask yourself…

07 - India - 08 Report

2007, India turned 60 and yet She has the vigor and sensuality of a 16 year old. She still has the tenacity and the power to indulge herself in anything. Indians have grown at a tremendous pace in the last 5 years.

2007 bids good bye with the threat of another election looming at large. The Nuclear deal with US is proving to be a bit costly for the Indian National Congress lead UPA Govt. With Gujarat and Himachal polls suggesting that Congress rule at the center is loosing steam, they cant afford to go on an early election. BJP did it and they lost. The question of aam aadmi, is likely to prove costly for INC. There are enough over-the-teacup discussions on politics, lets move on..

In the name of GOD, still proves to be a hindrance in development process, with politicos going to the extend of deliberately forgetting the fact about a Secular state. Wounds of past events are kept fresh. The sad part is that, even the highly educated people fall for such roadblocks. Education is still not able to curb the differences. Yes the literacy rate is up for the Nation from approx 52% in 1991 to 65% in the 2001 census. But yet we heard about infanticide in some of our modern cities.

US Conspiracy behind Bhutto’s Assassination?

Is there a US funded conspiracy behind Benazir Bhutto’s assassination?

Well thats why we call it a conspiracy. The attack has been said to be an Al Quaida has been already blamed for it and like any other suicide attack, this one too will end up in Al Quaida’s backyard.

So is there as US mastermind behind the killing of the prolific leader, who was greeted by 3 million supporters on her return in 1986. Though she claims that the military was trying to ‘eliminate’ her, it was more or less brushed aside as allegations.

Look at US. Post 9/11 saw a major sympathy towards the US and when they attacked the then Taliban ruled Afghanistan, the world was with them. Bush had the sympathy of his people, people forgot about Vietnam and supported him. US’ earlier crusade on the Gulf soil against Iraq, on the pretext of helping Kuwait had mixed support. With the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) backing US and providing them a base, they won the war, drove away the invading Iraqi soldiers and were Heroes overnight. Enough to save their face and a step closer to build allies in the OIL rich Gulf. But what people didnt see that the war expenses that the US put forward for Kuwait. The oil rich nation could only look on hands tied as their only wealth was being taken away to foreign soil in the pretext of the war expenses.

Look at the allies for US in Asia. We have South Korea, South-east asia was almost a failure with Vietnam, South-asia has India (who forgot the ties with Iran and Iraq and supported US in every deal to some Nuclear deal that looks no where near), Pakistan (their long time ally), KSA (their only friend in the Muslim gulf for a long time, pumping out oil for them) and Turkey in the far west. Lets rule out Turkey as its Europe.

So if you see US doesn’t have a really have many strong allies in Asia. Russia in rags is against them, China is not and that is a power to be reckoned with.

Benazir on the other hand, was sure to come into power and with the current US international affairs had only half the chances of supporting them. Mush was always in love with Bush. He let his backyards burn when he supported the US attack on Afghanistan.

So the only way any one could have really touched Ms. Bhutto, with the kind of protection that Mush had provided, was with his knowledge. Pakistan had the backing of US and any impending attack on Ms. Bhutto would have made the US Intelligence alert the Pak Security and in effect forced Musharraf to alleviate that.

If you see the patter of the initial reports - “…Suddenly, there was an explosion and Bhutto’s bodyguards immediately bundled her into a SUV and attempted to move out of the area…Just then, two men rode by the car on motorcycles. One of them blew himself up and even as Bhutto came out to see what had happened a sniper pumped five bullets into her neck and chest…”[IBN Live]

Rediff reports it as - “…Benazir was shot at by a sniper rifle from close range and a few moments later a suicide bomber created the blast to make sure that she is assassinated. It was a determined effort. They made sure she doesn’t survive the attack. She died due to the injury in her neck…”

So clearly the attack was planned with the notion of how the security was going to react and the timing was impeccable. If i’m sure, when even high profile leaders, especially leaders who has already been a target of suicide attack, travels the security is so tight that no one stands a chance to even approach them.

Definitely MUSH loves BUSH … look at them cuddling…

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated

The former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated earlier this evening. She was attending a campaign rally. Reports of the attack go like this :

Suddenly, there was an explosion and Bhutto’s bodyguards immediately bundled her into a SUV and attempted to move out of the area…Just then, two men rode by the car on motorcycles. One of them blew himself up and even as Bhutto came out to see what had happened a sniper pumped five bullets into her neck and chest.

The news reports -

IBN Live Reports : BENAZIR BHUTTO ASSASSINATED and Benazir’s day began in triumph, ended in assassination

BBC Reports : Benazir Bhutto killed in attack

Rediff News : Benazir Bhutto assassinated

Its a sad state of affairs. Yes, we need to shoot the politicians, but this is not what we had in mind. Pakistan was in chaos, now it is … and God forbid, but it seems like its going to be in more chaos. Musharraf is failing in keeping the only few ties that was helping him build a democratic nation that he promised. Or may be its was his idea to keep the coup running and keep the power.

Well after all what happened, this is what the leaders had to say -

“The subcontinent has lost an outstanding leader who worked for democracy and reconciliation in her country,” said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

US President George W Bush condemned a “cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan’s democracy”.

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said “extremist groups… [could] not and must not succeed”.

What ever the result may be or how ever we say she was, indeed its been a loss beyond any repair for Pakistan and the world has lost another charismatic leader.

DOMPlayer and the Doom.

Creativity has no limits and the fact that people can go to any extend to infect you machine with malware, let me say comes as a total relief. After people has spend dollars securing their machine with the latest spyware remover, anti-virus, pop-up blocker and all the shit that you can get you hands on, there is no stopping a curious browser who downloads some thing and authorizes it to do some operation and ends ups in a deeper shit that he was before.

We all love torrent. The countless torrent files that you looked up on the net to download your favorite movie, would have at least made you thin, what you would have done with out those torrent sites. Its the same feeling you get when you thank George Bush for the oil that he is bringing in from Iraq and Kuwait.

So when some thought of the idea of infecting your machine with the help of torrent download and get paid $3 for doing so , has to be credited with the ingenuity of the idea. Here is the whole scenario.

You download a movie (most of the reports came up with the latest movies like Hitman, Beowuf, National Treasure : Book of Secrets) or an episode of your favorite series on TV. When you try to play it it says

“This video can only be played in DomPlayer, Visit Download.Domplayer.Com“

Like any other desperate downloader you visit their site :

Pretty neat site of a movie player, compared to VLC Player and Real Player. So you go and download the player, the Download button is right in front of you. So whats the big deal. Go ahead download the file… At this point i got suspicious and thought hey i never heard any of my friends talk about such a player, instead of installing it at the home PC (Windows XP), let me try to get an installer/player for Linux. That way its safe and its my Laptop, if anything gets screwd up i can just install all over again. Big Deal!!!

Web searches got me to couple of forums here and here. They talked about another player 3wPlayer by Wildman Productions(i have no idea who the hell they are).

In fact the real deal here is as reported from Best Security Tips is DOM Player says its clean but you call them up and pay them to activate the attack on your P. If that doesnt work they ask you to download 3wPlayer. Which is another piece of shit and load the malware to the PC free of charge.

Now that is a cool idea. You get paid to get infected like the way you paid to get protected. Over that you download movie files (AVI files) which might be renamed porno movies.

Security of an IT Company and YOU…

Security is still a big issue in India. Since there are terrorists ready to blow up anything here, we must be aware of the fact that we are vulnerable and take all means in avoiding it. Of lately when the security measures in my company was stepped up, many employees expressed dissatisfaction and where highly irritated. Sadly they dont realize the threat. They all complained that the Security at the main gates and buildings scrutinized their belongings and treated them equally like terrorists. To a mail sent by my colleague to the Security in charge, part of the reply went like this

… We (the security and the company) are not bothered about what the employee takes unauthorized from the company(hardware and documents). But more worried about the a much more grave situation… The attack at IISc Bangalore was first planned against IT companies as they (Terrorists) realize that a well planned strike at the heart of the Silicon Valley of India, will send India’s market crashing and the country will be in a chaos in no time. Sadly our company was also in their list. They were outside our gates, looking at every move and they found the security tight even for a normal employee. Thus we were spared. Else the AKs would have gone in any of the leading IT company…

A normal Techie, works from 8-to-8 and is completely oblivious to much of the things shaping up in the outside world, spare may be Bipasha’s curves or SRK’s Abs. He doesnt realize that the Bad Guys have really turned ugly and they are recruiting Graduates and Post Grads, like most IT companies, to do the dirty job (both ways its true for the Terror Organization and IT Company). I was surprised one Monday morning when i was asked to stop at the gates and the security guy checked my ID to verify its me. After 2 years, that day i entered the campus a bit happy, coz i found the Security doing their job properly.

Sadly, the fact is, the Security at majority of the IT Companies are a bit inadequate. They in most of the cases doesn’t realize the force they are up against. Everyday i see the security at all the companies on my way to office and i bet i can breach their physical security. I dont know why i do that. But i like doing it. Every time i face a security at a gate, i think of a way of beating him without raising the slightest suspicion.

Leave alone the physical security, its the Cyber age and are we prepared against an attack via the net. No!!! Network security, if you look at most of the intranets, is getting internally compromised by the employees. Simply coz a fair number of people will click the “You won a million dollars“, flashing ad on a web page. In most of the case, that will lead to a pornographic site, at times they open up the pandora’s box for the network of the company. E-mails in particular can bring a network down. A well placed attachment asking the user to open it is more than required. Remember “I love you” or you dont coz you remember it as what your lover told you.

I have had friends approach me saying “I think my damn system is affected with virus. I have the latest in anti-virus updated everyday, the latest pop-up blocker (how did that ever block a virus), a bazooka and an entire army guarding my system… but still. Damn windows … its all because of Windows.” Let me tell you there is nothing wrong with Windows (may be not entirely and probably this will be the only time i’ll be talking for Windows and Microsoft), what is wrong is YOU. Couldn’t resist visiting the site that flashed “Sexy savvy teens… going dirty…”, or couldnt resist opening the attachment that told you how to increase what ever you have or may be had. Think before what you click on or open. They are out there to make money and they will make it any way possible.

Knowing all this what can you do … if u cant make that out by your self, then how lame are you???

“How lame are you???”, the words that lead the world’s biggest Hacker Kevin Mitnik to his fall.

Literacy can be a PIA…

PIA is Pain In Ass and not Pakistan International Airlines.

Being a Mallu or Malayali (not being offensive in any way by calling myself a Mallu), i’m proud that when it comes to literacy we are doing fairly good as a state. So when this article came to my attention - 300% increase in violence against women in India’s most literate state - i did feel very bad. Being literate we were supposed to be as a model for others to follow and we all together portraying a wrong picture here.

But the i saw the other angle of that. They reached that statistics coz women in Kerala realized the power of law and that there are laws that protect them from domestic violence. They approached the law when in need. The clause that caught me is - “cases files”.

So all those state that say that there is only a marginal increase in domestic violence or that the stats have fallen, RETHINK!!! It could be because that people dont know about the law. Tell them about the law and then lets see.

Even though the report said all that about Kerala, it still quotes this -

But change could happen fast in Kerala, thanks to high levels of literacy. Greater awareness, redressal mechanisms, etc. could help women move forward, as has been seen in recent times.

Thats why i say Literacy can be a real Pain in the Ass at times …

Damn you senseless prick…

Whats wrong with people? Well nothing. They are just as lovable as anyone else until they start driving. I still dont get it, with the vast majority of Bangaloreans being techies, who create marvels in the tech sphere, with all the brain and talent pool concentration than any where else, we surprisingly act so dumb on road.

The police is bent on even taking 10rs as bribe and wont issue a ticket. The bikes go on the foot paths, cars wont let you overtake through the right side, and buses that only go through the middle of the road with no concern for others… i’m just about had enough with the whole mess.

I’m now determined, even if i get beaten up, i will smash the next b***h or the next son of a b***h who tires to mes with me on the road. Having picked up the first fight against a car driver who wanted to take a U-turn a jammed junction.

What is the point in complaining? When a person who held one of the highest position in India along with is son, puts power in the front line than the welfare of the people, chaos is there to reign.

No wonder why they have their flag as red and yellow. Yellow to slow down development and red to arrest any growth. A f**king whore could do better. Right now i’m totally pissed with the completely impotent nature of this rich and vibrant place.

When thieves END ‘Format Wars’

The Format War which started as the drum-disk war, has been around for quite a long time. The latest war is the one between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

Now it seems that no one is escaping the war. Even your not-so-friendly neighborhood thieves are supporting the BlueRay format.

The report from The DVD Dossier,

They seemed to know what they wanted.”

What was missing?

“They basically took our whole Blu-ray section… genre didn’t matter to them.”

We called the store to verify this and were told that, yes, they were wiped out of Blu-ray Discs on Sunday, about $7′000 worth.

We then asked if they sold both high definition formats, HD DVD and Blu-ray.Once again, the answer was yes. But they still have a “good selection” of HD DVDs, as none were taken.

So if the thieves doesn’t prefer HD-DVD and went for Blu-Ray disk, it shows only one thing, “Its the next big thing, DUDE!!!”. They don’t get profit out of stealing HD-DVD, but out of Blu-Ray.

Good news for SONY, and they would be laughing over the loss.

(Pic courtesy - CEPro)

Related Reading:

• Thieves choose Blu-ray over HD DVD in mass disc heist(got the news from here)
• CEPro - Is the Blu-ray HD DVD Format War Over?
• Big Blue Backs Blu-ray Today

Orkut claims the next victim

Orkut again seems to be a bad place. This time it took a life, brutally.

Koushambi Layek(http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=11725203022944506305), a 24-year old software professional working for TCS was brutally killed by Manish Thakur (http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=348385650417627297), in a hotel room at Andheri.

As reported form MeriNews,

Koushambi met Thakur, a navy officer, online two years back and the story goes like this. Manish, in spite of being married lured her to marry him. Koushambi had informed her family, but they advised her against it. Their relationship continued and the police suspect that he might have murdered her because she denied marrying him. Manish tried to convince her several times that he will divorce his wife to marry her. In fact, he had not informed her initially that he was married. Her body was found in a pool of blood in a hotel room in Andheri. They had checked in as Mr. and Mrs. Thakore on May 12. She had been killed on Sunday night and by Monday afternoon the hotel employees found her body. By then Manish had sneaked away.

Police confirmed that this murder was preplanned. This is because Manish was already carrying a chopper and a gun with him. They also suspect that he might have shot her in her sleep. The latest updates on CNN-IBN say that after shooting her (through a pillow to avoid noise of the gunshot! and he had also turned up the TV volume), Manish wanted to chop her into pieces. But, he couldn’t and stayed on for almost five hours drinking a whole bottle of whiskey.

There is already a community in Orkut to pay tributes to her, http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=32445399.