Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Aamir’s wife, Col Mahadik and the Tolerance meter !!


Aamir Khan tweeted that his wife is scared for her kids safety seeing the levels of intolerance in this country and wanted to move out. It's her view and has all rights to say so. Since then they have been targeted by the religious, nationalist and tolerant hypocrites all over. Some comments are pure insane but some are sheer abusive. One has the freedom to express their views in this country and no one has the rights to abuse them for that. There has even been a PIL filed against him (?). The saddest part is the comparison with Martyr Col Mahadik’s wife’s comments on her kids being committed for a career in army vs Aamir’s wife’s comments.

I have huge respect for Col Mahadik and his family.I have friends who are in border fighting the same bastards who martyred him. But it’s totally wrong to compare Col Mahadik with Aamir.

Our hero concepts are wrong. How many times have we discussed martyrs here?? Who was Aamir’s wife till yesterday? A nobody!! But we have enough TV time, Print space and social media activism to dissect and discuss what she said probably in a bedroom conversation to her husband. We will forget and move on, when another nobody makes another remark, but we still won’t have time to discuss the real heroes; the guys who fight the real enemies at minus 60 degree temperature to give you and me the freedom to sit , sip a coffee and do this armchair activism.

Who is the most worried about Aamir and family wanting to go out of India? Not the people who live here, but those who left this country for what-so-ever reasons to make a life out of India. The NRI’s. They are all over the place slamming Aamir. Why did they move out of India if the love for the country paramount for them? He is the hypocrite who comes out after taking the oath as an American citizen and spills his anger all over Aamir and family for them wanting to move out of India.

Is there intolerance?? Yes there is. When a set of people decide what one should eat, say or live in, that is intolerance. What our tolerant folks are showering on Aamir family is intolerance. There are comments like, Go to Syria and join “their people" in Isis. They don’t even realize she is a practicing Hindu. What Aamir and his wife practice in their home is tolerance, towards another person, and their beliefs.

Is it religious against Aamir? I think so!! The same hindutwa forces wanted Sanjay Dutt to be released on humanitarian grounds.. No one asked him to be deported to Pakistan. Aamir or his wife has not done a bigger crime than Sanjay Dutt.

Yes we are intolerant and our meters have hit a new low.


On another note, though I understand the sentiments and the emotional outburst of Col Mahadik’s wife, and totally sympathise with her, I think it's wrong on her part to commit her kids to army careers. It is wrong to put that pressure in any kid for any career for that matter. They should grow up and decide if they want to become a commando or chef.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Totally Beefed up

The whole comedy surrounding the beef ban took me many years back. 1996 to be precise. 

Myself and my cousin brother  had recently moved into Bangalore city. For some time we stayed with his sister,and then moved into a house of on our own. It cant be called a house. It was rather a room built on the terrace of a commercial complex. But, we had enough time in our hands especially over the weekends. 

One such crazy weekend, we decided to cook beef. We had no clue how to !. We went to Yeshwantpur and bought couple of kilos of beef. Yes, 2 kg for two of us. What were we thinking ? Only Gomatha knows !! Now that we had the beef, it had to be sipped down. So we bought some spirit.a bottle of rum.

How do you cook 2 kgs of beef ? My bro seemed to know. So in went the beef into a pressure cooker. He told me it cooks slow. So slow it was!! . The rum was vanishing as the pressure cooker kept whistling tirelessly. Beef wasnt getting cooked it seems ! And we were running out of patience and rum. The latter being a tougher commodity to replace. 

My cousin took out the beef from the cooker finally. A tawa replaces the cooker. Various masala powders get sprinkled generously and the beef is getting prepared well ,for our taste buds to feast. After a while, probably when he got bored stirring it endlessly, my cousin takes some out into a plate and serves our first ever self cooked starter. We both have a piece each. I chew it to what seemed like eternity, and after gulping it down with a generous doze of rum, I look at my cousin. He was trying to come in terms with his beef adventure himself. 

After an hour, the only progress was aching jaw bones and  heavily sloshed  head. Two kg of beef was still staring at us. I felt it was ridiculing me, or may be I was in fact drunk. We kept our egos in the pressure cooker and proceeded with a huge vessel full of beef to our sister's house. She took one look at our culinary production. I don't remember if she laughed or cried. It wouldn't have made a difference, anyways.

She took the beef into her kitchen and in half hour came with a remixed version of our very own original preparation. Needless to say, that smelled eatable. We realized why we should not have experimented so much. 

We all feasted for a week on beef. Yes, a whole week !! That officially is the last time I bought beef. We had so much of beef that it took the excitement of craving for beef away. 

Now that someone wants to ban it, it might be enough reason for the crave to be back. 

Now, I'm Ready to be beefed up again.