Losers !!!

Please....it is not audacious, it is not daring and it certainly is not well coordinated. Please stop the using terms that are reserved for when something is being protected, something is being rescued and something is being saved, all courageous actions. If someone wants to throw around adverbs and adjectives to describe the insanity that started it all and that is still unraveling at Mumbai, call it timid, call it cowardly and call it desperate (for attention). It does not take balls to walk into a crowded place and spray bullets all around and kill people. It does not require great degree of co-ordination to come prepared with arms and almonds, take unarmed people as hostages and remained holed up in some dark corners of a huge hotel, like some vampires afraid of the light, and count the seconds till their eventual and inevitable horrible deaths. So call them what they are. THEY ARE COWARDS. NOTHING MORE. NOT HOLY WARRIORS, NOT JIHADIS, NOT MILITANTS. PLAIN COWARDS. It is a waste of time and energy to even try to string together a rational argument/explanation for why such dastardly acts are perpetrated by ghastly ghouls. Oppression of minorities, Babri Masjid, Godhra incident, Mumbai riots and the aftermath bomb blasts - though these merchants of death try to cite the above reasons to incite a sense of shame and try to trip the country in guilt into thinking that, in some twisted way, it brought this all upon itself, make no mistake, this is not about retribution, this is not about revenge and this certainly is not about retaliation. This is about a bunch of losers, who have lost all purpose in life, trying to escape the misery in their own lives. And the only way they know - pulling down others with him, than pulling themselves up. For a little while, the losers have certainly managed to achieve their agenda. Yes, the entire country is awash with misery. Not because of the gloom or doom or even the prospect of it, but because of the natural human reaction to CARE about their fallen fellow beings, a trait that even the thoughtless animals possess, and something that these beasts have long lost. If anyone sees the country, and particularly Mumbai on its knees now, it is because it has bent down to feel sorry, express regret, and mourn alongside its fallen innocent and unwitting victims, and not because it has been BROUGHT DOWN to its knees. Losers, try to understand the difference between the two!

Idiots, you are not the first ones to launch a mindless attack and terrorize people into subjugation. Your ancestors, forefathers, and many others before came in from that same direction and have tried this irrational tactic from thousands of years, with waves and waves of invasions. This country is not new to attacks, and you are no different from them. (At least, some of those plunderers waged conventional warfares. They didn't hide in corners and shoot at the crowds from the dark). But in your puny minds, you failed to grasp a very simple fact. Your brethren Babar is no more, Ghajini is no more, Ghori is no more, Khilji is no more, but INDIA IS STILL HERE, and its people are still here, and its children and their children would still be here, proudly STANDING, long after you are gone. You are not misguided youth. Misguided youth torch buses and destroy government property, at worst. You are a frustrated lot. You are frustrated, because the rest of the world has left you behind, and marched towards progress on the road of betterment. You are frustrated because you don't see any prospect to look forward to, any hope on the horizon, in effect, any valid reason to live for. And so you take that frustration out on others. By killing others. You know what some people cursed with the same misfortune do in the country you attacked? They don't kill other people. At best, they curse their luck, and go on about their lives, as rag-pickers, as beggars, as bums. They do not cloak their impotence and frustration in some extreme interpretations of religious texts and go about massacring people. Your own religious text calls a Jihadi as a holy warrior, a pious soldier. But doing what you did, you are not pious, you are pitiful, and you certainly are not a warrior, you are, at best, a rabies stricken dog, which goes about biting and attacking people (and in the dog's defense, rabies infects the brain and its judgment. In your case, your interpretation of your religion proved to be your rabies).

All that you managed with your bullets and grenades, apart from taking innocent lives, is BRING A COUNTRY TOGETHER. Here is what is going to happen to the country and its people, after some of you are captured and some of you are mercilessly killed. NOTHING. The country will pick up the pieces, just like it has been doing from a long long time, and go about its way. The people will recover from the initial shock, and get on with their lives, just like they have been doing since eons. That is because terrorism, at best, can leave a scar, a scar that will mend and disappear with the passage of time. Terrorism cannot bring about a change of hearts, a radical revolution and herald in a new world you wished for where religious extremism is practiced and progress is turned back in time. It never had, and it never will, not here, not anywhere, and certainly not in civilized societies. You remain the pest you always were and always will be, that will be crushed under the foot of collective cause of like-minded agendas. The society recognizes you will not completely die off. As long as there is frustration, as long as there is false hope, as long as there are religious zealots spewing false prophecies, and importantly, as long as there is a loser pool that these false prophets can tap into, the society recognizes that attacks like these will continue, many more people will be martyred (you are not the martyrs, the people who are killed are the true martyrs, because their deaths would amount to something eventually, unlike yours) at the altar of freedom. The same city that you attacked many times before has become one of the important players in financial, social, political and cultural sectors in the world. And it has gone from strength to strength with each attack. And that alone should have given you an indication as to how hopeless your cause (if you can even call it that) is. And if you think, it is a masterstroke to target the guests of the country, and terrorize them into leaving the place, you know nothing about economics (among everything else). The entire world recognizes that this is not a problem of one country, one religion and one society. Just as your kind bandied together to become a border-less organization, the world is coming together to become a boundary-less society when dealing with your menace. In opening up the world that way, you forgot to realize that you cannot run anywhere, you cannot hide anywhere, no country will give you the protection and backing you seek without jeopardizing its own image and prospects in the eyes of the world. In effect, every ghastly action of yours is bringing the world one step closer. If prosperity does not bring the world together, this adversity certainly will. You false leaders may use the phrase - in the end, your agenda will be achieved - during your brainwashing sessions. But, the rest of the world does not use the term "In the end", there is no end here. We will prevail, and we will continue to do so and prosper, AT YOUR COST.

source - idlebrain.com

Losing my religion

The events of the last few weeks are freaking me out. Anil Kumble has gone, Sourav Ganguly will go, and the other three may not be far behind. I assume there is a large group of cricket fans in their mid-to-late 20s, like me, who are grappling with the implications. This transition is messing with our minds.

Let me explain. For many of us cricket began in November 1989. Pictures of what went before are too hazy. I remember Allan Border lifting the World Cup but don't recall what I was doing then. So I can't connect Australia's World Cup win to my own life.

Sachin Tendulkar spoilt us. He commanded that we sit in front of the television sets. He ensured we got late with homework, he took care of our lunch-break discussions. He was not all that much older than us, and some of us naïve schoolboys thought we would achieve similar feats when we were 16. We got to 16 and continued to struggle with homework.

Then came Kumble and the two undertook a teenager-pampering mission not seen in India before. Tendlya walked on water, Jumbo parted seas. Our mothers were happy that we had nice heroes - down-to-earth prodigy and studious, brilliant bespectacled engineer. They were honest, industrious sportsmen, embodying the middle class.

When we thought we had seen everything, they reversed roles - Tendlya bowled a nerve-wracking last over in a semi-final, Jumbo played a match-winning hand with the bat. We were such spoilt brats that we pined for openers and fast bowlers. We cursed the side for not winning abroad. Such greed.

Economists would probably have predicted the bursting of the bubble. We had a deluge instead. One fine day at Lord's we got a glimpse of two new saviours: Delicate Timing and Immaculate Technique. Suddenly my group of eight friends was split into two camps. You were either with Ganguly or Dravid. In that period we even took Kumble and Tendulkar for granted. It was adolescent indulgence taken to the extreme.

When we played cricket on the streets, we had a number of choices. Left-handers were thrilled, defensive batsmen were happy, extravagant stroke-makers were delighted, the short boys didn't need to feel left out anymore, spectacles became cool, and freaky bowling actions were no more laughed at.

In such a state of bliss did we live our lives. We flunked important exams, shed tears over girls, crashed bikes, had drunken parties, choked on our first cigarettes, and felt utterly confused about our futures. But every time we felt low, we had an escape route. One glimpse of Dada stepping out of the crease, or Jam leaving a sharp bouncer alone, or Kumble firing in a yorker, was an uplifting experience. So what if India lost? Could any of those Pakistani batsmen even dream of batting like Sachin or VVS?

I remember Ganguly and Dravid soaring in Taunton, mainly because it was the day I got my board-exam results. And boy, did that provide some much-needed relief. I remember Tendulkar's blitz against Australia in Bombay because my dad, who thought cricket was a waste of time, sat through every ball. So connected were these cricketers to my growing up.

Now, after close to 20 years, my generation needs to brace itself for this exodus. Some of my friends, crazy as this sounds, have been talking of needing to revaluate their own careers. Others are realising they need to recalibrate their childhood definitions of cricket. "Part of me just died," said a college friend who was the kind of extreme cricket buff who memorised scorecards. "No Dada, no Jumbo. I'm positive I'll stop watching after Sachin and Rahul retire."

These players were not only outstanding cricketers but also great statesmen. However hard they competed, they were always exceptional role models. Now we dread the next wave of brashness and impetuosity. Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth are talented cricketers, but there's no way anyone would want a young kid to emulate either. The younger crop seems worse - a visit to some of their Orkut and Facebook pages tells you enough - and things may only get cruder in a cricket world when you can make a million dollars in a little over three hours.

"Our childhood is ending," said a friend from school, and in some way he was probably spot on. Tendulkar's retirement may mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but for a generation of 25- to 30-year-olds it will mark the end of the first part of their lives. Switching on the television the day after will be a serious challenge.