2008 seems to be the year of the terrorist. After serial explosions in Lucknow & Jaipur that claimed over a 100 lives earlier this year, two more cities have faced the brunt of terrorist strikes.

On Friday(25-July), 8 explosions rocked across Bangalore, the IT capital of India. The bombs were reported to be low intensity explosions, with 1 death and around  20 people injured. Mobile networks were jammed to avoid spread of rumors, but abundant (and critical) information was being posted from Bangalore via channels like Twitter. High alert was sounded across India.

The high alert could not prevent what happened the day after. On a busy Saturday evening, 16 blasts ripped across Ahmedabad. Most of these were low intensity blasts, but some were high intensity blasts. The heaviest blast happened at the Civil Hospital, right outside its trauma center where injured from other blasts were being brought. The number of dead stands at over 40 now, and it keeps rising by the hour.

I am outraged. And so will every other citizen of this country. The internal security scenario in India seems to be really pathetic, with terrorists blasting bombs at their own whim. In the recent past, the buzzword has been sleeper cells. This means a group of terrorists ready and waiting to strike, literally sleeping till the time comes for them to carry out their cowardly plans.

There have been no arrests in the Jaipur blasts earlier this year. This proves the weakness in our security agencies, be it the State Police, CBI, RAW, IB ….. whatever. Nobody seems to bother about these terrorists whose dastardly acts claim hundreds of innocent lives every year.

And the terrorist group that has claimed responsibility for these strikes calls itself “Indian Mujahideen”. Well let me tell you something, you “Indian Mujahideen” pricks, you are not Indian. An Indian will always work towards the benefit and progress of his nation. An Indian will never think about harming his fellow Indians. An Indian will always rise above cast, religion, region to be an Indian first. You sir, are not Indians. You are cowards, cowards who want to follow the agenda of death and destruction. Forget Indians, you do not even belong to your religion. No religion ever asks it followers to take innocent lives.

And if you are so interested in being the Mujahideen, and fighting a holy war, go on the border. And take on a war with the Indian Army. I am sure they’ll rub it in your face that you are neither warriors, nor brave. You are just a pathetic bunch of cowards who can hide and take lives of innocent people. Don’t hide behind excuses of religion and holy wars, you are just ignorant fools with no understanding of life. Maybe if your mother, your father, your sister, your wife or your kids were to die in one of your terrorist attacks, your sleeping conscience would wake up.

And to the Indian Government, and our politicians who run this country, get a spine!! Your vote bank politics have led us to a situation where we innocent people bear the brunt of your inadequacies. Our lives are lost because you are more interested in saving your vote banks than taking steps to make this country safer for its citizens.

We need to stand united, we need to stay calm. These terrorists want to disturb our peace, our lives. Let us be resilient, let us be peaceful and tolerant. Let us not fall prey to the plans of these terrorists who want to instill fear in our hearts. Let us show these terrorists that our unity cannot be shaken by their cowardly acts.

And in all this, let us pray for those who lost their lives and loved ones in these attacks. May God be with them in their hour of need.

In my case, the Red October is not a nuke powered sub. I am searching for a JD761 series laptop battery to power my Dell Inspiron battery.

I had purchased my laptop when I was in the US last year, and one year later its battery died. Now I am faced with the near impossible task of locating a battery for my laptop. Dell’s India site sells laptops, but I guess they are not really interesting in supplying battery replacements for their laptops. The original 6-cell battery is crappy anyways, to top it now, I cannot find a replacement.

Though I am in contact with some computer dealers in Nehru Place to see if I can get a battery via them. I am still waiting for them to get back to me, but till then, my laptop is pretty much dead. With the amount of powercuts happening in India’s own New York (gurgaon) and the lack of power backup at my place, it gets dangerous to run a laptop without a battery.

As of now, I am waiting. If I get no response in the next few days, I may have to bite the bullet and spend 185$ for a Dell branded battery from the US.

If you know a place to buy Dell Inspiron batteries in India, or have got one yourself, please share the info.

As the countdown begins for another Women’s Day, I have a few thoughts that are bouncing around in my head. So here I go.

The buzzword that is heard around these days is women empowerment. For women to be empowered, independent & free of any form of oppression is essential for a positive evolution of the society. The blame for women not being any of these has traditionally been dumped on the males. The Indian society has long had a patriarchal setup, which had gone unquestioned for centuries. Even laws like the Hindu Marriage Act, and the Hindu Undivided Family Act had been biased for several years in the favor of men. Now this is all changed. CBSE has made the Mother’s name an entry with equal importance as the Father’s name, a women has equal power, and can demand her fair share in family property or her husband’s property.

The number of educated women in the country has gone up. More and more women are taking up higher education, and becoming doctors, engineers, lawyers et al. The Times of India in its buildup to Women’s Day writes, “Its a women’s world!!”

Is it?
(more…)

I have the following message coming up when I log in to my flickr account:

Hey ashchopra! About your photos…

You’ve run into one of the limits of a free account. Your free account will only display the most recent 200 photos you’ve uploaded. All of your photos beyond 200 will remain hidden from view until you either delete newer photos, or upgrade to a Pro account.

None of your photos have been deleted, and if you upgrade, they’ll all come back unharmed.

So basically, if I ever want to see all my snaps, I better pay Yahoo $25…hmm….sounds like one of those extortion calls we hear so much of in the movies. Shame on you Yahoo. If you are so short of cash, maybe you should have let Microsoft buy you out!!

Bad bad yahoo…!!!!! No $25 for you!!!

Wondering why states in North-East get so little media coverage on any news channel, even when they seem to have loads of reporters lying around to cover irrelevant news like celebrity love affairs & the like?

Hocus pocus….try as much magic as you might, I shall still insist on not disappearing from the site. Though there are always going to be temporary periods of absence, which will be followed by insane postings such as this one.
(more…)