mUnKy bUsInEsS

God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve...

Hmmm... I was going to write an entry on Derrie-Air but I think I found a more controversial issue than stupid body-image-shattering news. First of all, belated Independence day wishes and hats off to Abhinav Bindra and Akhil Kumar. So, what is it? It is this Independence march of the Queer community in India. They seem to be fighting for their rights. Now, queer relationships are not unheard of in India but I feel like this is just getting too far. India's gay population has been existing for years and nobody had any problem with that. The gay population had been talked about, in the news and a very good population of India has heard about and seen them. But, people just don't seem to accept them. It is wrong for them to be looked down upon as if they were lesser than humans. OK, now I think I have to talk about another community that is discriminated, the hermaphrodites. I remember this incident when I was in the train on my way back from Secundrabad. We went to the National Youth Leadership conference/Retreat at Secundrabad. By the way "We" here means YST (unfortunately, the link is obsolete but does have basic info), the group I was involved with in Chennai. On our way back, when we were all chatting I took a break for a nature-call and there, by the entrance/exit doors, came a hermaphrodite and demanded money. I didn't know how to respond but just say I don't have any money. The person threatened to expose her ("her" because the person was dressed in a sari) privates if I didn't give her money. To save myself the embarrassment, I gave her Rs. 10. Later I was made fun of by all my friends for being a chicken instead of saying NO to her and keep moving to the bay where we were sitting.
Why did the person have to do that? Because she was not accepted in the society. She can't get a job, not move in the community like the rest of us do and be who she is. The same thing applies to the gay community too. They need to be treated like all other people but, that doesn't mean their behavior is right.
If the march in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkota were for their right to be treated equally, I agree they were correct. But to legalize gay relationships (it doesn't do much anyway), I don't agree with that. When not all marriages are even getting registered in India I am wondering what it changes for the gay community to have their relationships legalized. Will it give them the freedom to walk around hand-in-hand like couples? I think there is a long way and time for that to happen in India. But, my argument is a little more than this. I am not saying that homosexual relationships are right. To me, it is so very unnatural. It is morally not right. It is merely the perversion of an individual who has either been abused earlier in life or had some other intense bad experience. Homosexuality is not natural, it is immorality. Science today can propose an idea from research that it may be in the DNA albeit, it's just going to be a theory like the Big Bang which cannot be proved. Not even the theory of 'evolution' can prove homosexuality to be natural, because it is not a trait acquired for survival. Homosexual relationships should NOT be legalized but homosexual people do have to be treated like any other person. That is basic human responsibility and morality to treat fellow beings as themselves and all of us who insult or make fun of those who are not like us should be brought before law. But, sexual perversion is not natural like hermaphrodites. Hermaphrodites are born that way, homosexuals are not.
Though nothing has been proved about homosexuality being natural or unnatural, this is my view. Because sex is an instinct and it is natural for male and female species to have this instinct to reproduce, but, homosexual relationship doesn't even serve that purpose of reproduction and seems merely a sexual deviation. This thing is becoming a big issue in the west and I think such care-free culture and perversion is spreading across to conservative and traditional countries like India somehow, just like the advertising of use of contraception. Some NGOs' urge to reduce AIDS in India is very, very appreciable but, instead of trying to stop people from going to red light areas for extra-marital sex, these NGOs are asking them to use contraceptives and continue this immorality. I do not know much about the laws regarding prostitution in India but, I do know that is highly ambiguous, it is neither legal nor illegal. The sex workers should be given other job opportunities or quotas or whatever it is called to improve their quality of life instead of selling their body. Well, that opens a whole other can of worms. I will probably write about this in another entry. I mean, instead of giving quotas simply based on castes (rather than financial status) for education and job, interest should be diverted towards these issues of brothels. Again, this caste quotas thing is another issue for me. May be I'll have another entry on that too, but, for now this is what I think about queer in India.

Chandrayaan-I, II and then Indian on the moon.

The Indian Space Research Organization has been surprising the world with remarkable achievements ever since it was started. Seriously, I wasn't really aware of such a department in India until my 7th or 8th grade when my long time ol' buddy Ravi mentioned about it. Honestly, I am still not aware of all of ISRO's accomplishments and history but, I do know that we ( you, me and ISRO as Indians) are soon going to launch our first vehicle on the moon to study it. Wow! this is a proud moment. Just over 50 years of independance we have advanced so much in space research, which took some of the other countries several years. Our scientists' zeal in space research has resulted in what we are going to call Chandrayaan-I. Obviously, the the roman number I that follows the name of the project ensures a plan on sequels, though not how many. India is one of the 7 countries to put it's property in space independantly on it's own indigenously developed launch vehicles. It's barely 2 more months before we put one on the moon :-).

The news about our manned space odessey is in the article on the right. Sure we don't want to be far behind huh? Let's go whoop a#$ machis.

Courtesy - Indian express ePaper.

Tamil Nadu's politicians

Finally, found this comic strip about the REAL Tamil Nadu politicians. What do you guys think?

Image courtesy - Dinamani/Dinamalar ePaper

Is there selfishness in this case?

Came across this piece of news a few days ago. Although I agree that the parents do not seem to want to let the baby suffer due to its handicap, I feel like it is selfishness on the part of the parents to just kill it. If they can truly love and take care of a baby even if it is handicapped in any way, there is no way the child will feel bad anytime in his/her life. After all, that is the basic responsibility of any parent towards his/her child, to love UNCONDITIONALLY. What if they had not known that the baby will have such problems?

It is so sad that a lot of Indians too are supporting the abortion instead of saving the baby. People talk about legal rights and stuff. Hey, you first have to obey the law to claim more for your legal rights. How many of us bribe govt. officials, don't pay taxes, produce fake medical prescriptions, among a whole lot of other stuff?

I personally feel that it is more like killing a baby to abort. Just because it is not out of the womb it is not another human being? Study shows that the human embryo becomes a seperate being right at the moment of fertilization. Above all, nobody has any right to kill another human being. Why do high courts and supreme courts do no excercise capital punishments and instead impose life imprisonment as the highest verdict in most cases? Because, they do not want to punish people with death. It is morally wrong to punish with corporal punishments. Only God has the right to take or give life because He is the only Potent Almighty who creates life.

I appreciate the Mumbai HC for their decision and above all the Indian constitution that made a law that allows abortion only in case of danger to either the mother's or the baby's life. Abortion should not be allowed in any other case. It is not a right to kill an innocent and helpless new creation even before it breathes the world's air. I was appalled when I saw this among Chennai-ites. Though science has taken the world by storm in medicine, it is morality that counts at the end of the day. It is not moral to kill. Why don't we just start killing every other handicapped, mentally challenged, or AIDS infected Indian citizens and justify ourselves saying we are "concerned about the quality of their lives?" They are leading a miserable life anyway , aren't they?

iPhone smaller??? Man!!! these guys just won't stop.

The perpetual shrinking of Apple products and shrinking all types of Apple products is just continuing. Yeah, you guessed it right... iPhone NANO. Though this is rumor started about a month ago, there were no credible, near-to-credible sources to give a positive sign. But, looks like now there is. Patents for iPhone NANO's idea have been rumored. But most sources are from the UK. The price seems to be a few bucks more than the 3G version but, looks like it may be available at that price without having to buy an AT&T contract (needs proof).

I personally think iPhone is just a little off beat for today. I don't think people need such a complex, all-touch-screen device. I'd be just too scared even to carry it around sacred of dropping it or scratching it. If you put on a protective cover, it just spoils the look. I dunno how others feel about this but to me, it just loses it's looks when covered with something. I have an iPod nano 3G, I got the stainless steel back scratched in just 2 weeks and I regreted it. Now, I have a leather cover around it. It doesn't even look like an Apple iPod anymore. Apple's design and style is one of the reasons why it is popular but it is just too risky to leave your device bare... a single scratch spoils the look. Anyway, back to the iPhone. A smaller version of it is rumoured to be coming out around Christmas. Wonder how the 3G version is going to survive since the possible differences will be only in sizes, both physically and memory-wise.

dA wrD amNg dA teEnz

It is sometimes irritating to me when people use too much of chat/text message/SMS lingo in e-mails. It is acceptable to me when you are chatting to me or sending me an SMS but, even in your e-mail? In the screen-shot of the e-mail that you see on the side, you will find a very bizzare langage used by one of my friends. I have edited the rest of the texts for privacy and left only the most outrageous one. This guy used this so religiously that he eventually forgot the real english. He forgot how to spell "FRIENDS" since he is so used to "FRENS" instead. How pathetic? I do use the chat lingo but, only when I chat. Some people just take it too far. Let me know if you understand what he is trying to say. The most funny part was the word "thin", take a look at the picture to understand. I was tolerant to this in the beginning but, I do not know why, I am starting to hate it. Type in english dude, I don't wanna see how talented you are in your conservative complex word formation.

Here's an article from the Wall street journal, a very good example of such a tragedy. Hmmm(sigh)...

CALIFORNIA RULES ;-)

more graph humor and song chart memes

Californians are Da Bomb!

KAIROS '08 - India

Kairos '04 was the most important event in my life that changed my life. Here's the next one. There's another Kairos in the West which is different and probably not Catholic. This is by the NCCYC.

Ulaga Nayagan

The TV world today

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/08/06/marriage.tv.ap/index.html

This is what today's teenagers and kids are influenced by. Unbelieveable commercialization of human bod and sex.

The forgotten Classic

The Hindustan Motor Contessa. Though it was a remake of the UK based General Motor's Vauxhall Victor (a fact that I didn't know until today) it used to be the Beast of the roads and still is considered to be one. Many refer to their cars as "baby" (in a feminine gender), nothing wrong, but if I were to own one of these beasts, it will definitely be called a 'rogue'.

I wasn't really interested in cars back then but I still liked the long body and rogue looks of this beast. Easily the 'macha*' version of the western muscle cars. With its 5-speed manual transmission, 1817 cc displacement, and 75 bhp look reasonable for its vintage. After all, for the Indian roads, it seems far reasonable. This beast is still a hearthrob and obsession for some in the country. Unfortunately, the Company stopped production in Chennai in 2001 and people have to go to other states to get one today. It would be a total a#$-whoop, like a sip of refreshing panneer soda in the Chennai summer, like a bite of Saravana Bhavan's Masal Dosai after a tiring shopping in Renganathan street, like getting off a Chennai MTC, if Hindustan Motors came up with a new version of this rogue in the future. I would love to own one.

* - macha is the most commonly used word in the sub-urbs and college commmunities of today. Though it technically stands for either 'sister's husband' or 'wife's brother', it is the most popular endearing word between friends. I use this word especially because I am tired of seeing "Desi" everywhere to refer to Indians. No offense, I do respect the national language, but I prefer calling my people 'machas' to 'desis'. whoop-on machis and mamus.... varta?