Enough!

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Our Constitution

It’s never too late to write about your country. Rather than getting into raptures about our independence, I decided to take a look at our Constitution, and see what it provides for us.
The Consitution consists of the following:

1. The Preamble


2. Parts I to XXII, covering Articles 1 to 395


3. Schedules 1 to 12


4. An Appendix

Of course, even though each and every part of the Constitution is important, The Preamble and the Fundamental Rights guaranteed to every citizen, have the most importance.
Here’s the Preamble to our Constitution:

“We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic and to secure all its citizens:
Justice, social, economic and political;
Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
Equality of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all
Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
in our constituent assembly this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do hereby adopt, enact and give ourselves to this Constitution.”

The Rights we have…

Part III, Articles 12 to 35, covers the Fundamental Rights.
Here they are:

1. Right to Equality


2. Right to Freedom


3. Right against Exploitation


4. Right to Freedom of Religion


5. Cultural and Educational Rights


6. Right to Constitutional Remedies

The Rights we don’t have

When we talk of Fundamental Rights for each and every citizen, we must realise that these Rights are for every citizen. So if you do as you please, it doesn’t mean that you do it at the cost of someone else’s Right.
And Right to Freedom doesn’t mean:

• The Right to spit and piss wherever you want


• The Right to kill, rape or hurt someone else in the name of religion


• The Right to sit in prision while carrying on your usual activities


• The Right to make false promises to the people just to get voted to power


• The Right to dirty the roads, and then complain about the garbage. Ditto with pollution


• The Right to sit and read this and do nothing to understand and implement the subtle (or not-so-subtle) meaning.

Any more Rights we don’t have?

Dumb Songs!

Who doesn't like music? Hardly anyone will reply "Me! Me!" to the question. We all like something or the other. Some like pop, some rock, some jazz, blues, etc. And then there are those who love only Hindi film music. Tough luck, guys, for what is good in Hindi film music these days?

Think of this song: What is mobile number? What is your style number? and Govinda comes to mind, with those dumb dance steps, pelvic thrusts and cheap gestures.

Sadly for Hindi song buffs, his songs aren't the only ones which are dumb and silly. There's this new genre of songs- women-degrading numbers. Want an example? Think of Mujhse Dosti Karoge, and close in on Hrithik (yeah, he's still surviving) and Kareena (who can only think of herself as the sexy and bimbo-like Poo). You might hear of a song which goes something like:
Aaj ke ladke I tell you, kitne laloo, what to do................., koi na kahe mujhe I love you!

Loosely translated it means that the girl thinks guys these days are foolish because none of them declare their love for her!
Are girls these days so desparate for guys to fall in love with them that they actually sing songs about it? Can't they just be content with their singledom and wait for Mr.Right to come along? And what went through the lyricist's mind as he wrote this song? And how could a well-known producer like Yash Chopra actually give the go-ahead to this song?

I have half a mind to write him a letter.

Best British Blog?

The controversy surrounding the Best British Blog Award by The Guardian is kinda interesting. Tom Coates (who else but a blogger) called it a 'bloody, stupid idea'. And he enlists various reasons for his opinion. Go ahead and read it!

I agree with him. And my reasons are (some of his and mine may coincide):

• A blog is an entirely personal site, where the blogger is free to write whatever is on his/her mind. If blog entries are of a personal nature, how can anyone say whose thoughts are better? Better could mean anything!


• Another important aspect is design. Some (rather, many) bloggers know only basic HTML and nil about cool graphics and CSS. If one blog is more visually appealing than the other, does that make it a better blog?


• And how would the judges define better content? Content differs from blog to blog. One blogger may just enter what's on his/her mind, another will probably lecture about the harmful effects of smoking. One blog may be well-researched, while another may be written on the spur of the moment. Which would be better?


• One blogger will use incomprehensible words for which you need a dictionary, another will probably use casual day-to-day words to get the point across. Again, does that make one blog better than the other?


• There are some blogs which have lots of decoration and frills- site meter, message board, image roll-overs, links to 10694 other blogs and sites...others prefer to keep theirs simple and sweet. Can we say which is the better one?

Sure, there will be blogs you'd like to visit again and again, but that is a matter of taste and choice- on what you like to read. The judges for this award will be humans after all. It's not possible for all of them to be entirely objective.

But the main reason why an award for blogs is a silly idea is simple- blogging is not an arm form like short-story writing or painting. It's a natural process, no one can you how to blog. Besides, it's totally, totally personal. We don't have awards for best handwriting, do we?

Hollywood Stretches the Truth!

Murder in the First was aired on Friday, 2 August 2002 at 11.30 pm on Star Movies. Christian Slater looked cute without his glasses.
The story went thus:
A prisoner named Henry Young (Kevin Bacon) is jailed at Alcatraz Prison (in San Fransisco bay) for a petty crime. When he tries to escape, the warden punishes him by keeping him in solitary confinement for three years. When he comes out from the dingy cell, he kills a fellow inmate, Rufus McCain. And then begins a court trial, United States vs. Henry Young. Christian Slater (his lawyer) saves him from execution by proving that it was the solitary confinement that drove him crazy enough to kill someone. He finally gets manslaughter, imprisonment for only 3 years.

All this sounded so amazing. And I thought of how brutal the Americans were at the time. And how touching it all was….

Until I read up a few things on the Internet which left me absolutely confused.

Here goes:

Henry Young was not a petty criminal, who stole $ 5 to feed his starving sister. He was a bank robber who had assaulted a hostage on at least one occasion and committed murder in 1933--some 3 years before being locked up at Alcatraz.

It is true that Young tried to escape in 1939, but it is not true that he was kept in solitary confinement for 3 years. Instead, he was kept in a disciplinary segregation unit (a normal cell, and not a dungeon) for only a few months. The cell had plumbing, a light, a cot, and other appropriate cell furnishings.

He did murder a fellow inmate in December 1940, but more than a year after returning to the general cell.

The movie claims Young committed suicide in Alcatraz in 1942 (after being convicted for manslaughter) after scrawling VICTORY on the floor/wall of his cell. Again, not true. He remained at Alcatraz till 1948. After that, he was transferred to another prison, and then another, and was freed in 1972. His whereabouts are unknown today.

So there you are, the truth and the myths. What I thought was true (because it was a Hollywood movie), was actually an exaggeration by film-makers in order to make more money.

Can’t say Hollywood is much different from Bollywood in his aspect, heh?

Talk to Me!

If you like some of my previous entries and want a link to it in the archives section, leave a message in the comments, or mail me! Don't hesitate!