Parthiv Patel and fake weddings

I came across this news item today.

Oops! Has Parthiv Patel done a Britney?

According to initial reports, One fine day Parthiv Patel found himself LEGALLY MARRIED to a girl called Richa Sharma much to his and his family's bewilderment. Read more

Later I was flipping through news channels when I came across Sahara Samay.

It proclaimed how the whole Parthiv Patel issue was a sting operation in order to expose the marriage racket in Rajkot. Read more...

I was just way too shocked as Sahara Samay justified the sting operation. According to them, "We chose a popular figure like Parthiv Patel because we wanted to highlight the fact that if celebrities could be so vulnerable to the racket, then ordinary citizens could be fooled so easily!"

Well....I don't question their intent, but how could they go ahead and involve the unsuspecting Parthiv Patel in the whole expose. They did not even bother to take his consent. He unnncessarily finds himself embroiled in some scam all due to the channel. While I agree the channel wanted to expose the racquet, but they had no right to involve Parthiv Patel in the whole damn thing just because he's a celebrity. Now Parthiv Parel finds himself in a legal mess..........HE'S LEGALLY MARRIED FOR GOD'S SAKE....AND HE'S NOT EVEN 20 :|

Mid-day also carried a similar expose in Mumbai. However they involved thier reporters who exactly knew what they were doing. They did not involve any unsuspecting celebrity in the whole drama.

The channel went a bit overboard I think. There could have resorted to other methods. Investigative stories are very dicey, one needs to follow the ethics and principles. In the era of BREAKING NEWS and SABZE TEZ, I think we would be witness to more of such sad sensational stuff.

Bharateeya Languages
**Warning**: This post contains various threads of thought and would be a long post. Don't complain later that you got lost :P

I was reading Radhika's recent post. She talks about being pulled up by her daughter's teacher because her daughter wasn't well-conversant in English (and she is only 5 years old!!!!)

The post set me of thinking. When I was a child Amma and Appa made sure that I was well-conversant in Tamil. According to Amma, it is imperative that every child should know his/her mother tongue properly. I am not very fluent in reading and writing in Tamil, but I am learning. Amma is only too eager to teach me. Initially it was only tamil for me. Later as I started playing with my building friends, I slowly started picking up Hindi and gradually was well-versed in Mumbaiyya sadak chaap Hindi. I joined an English medium school though the medium of my communication with my friends, peers was mostly in Hindi. My usage of English was very minimal. After my 10th, during College, usage of English became more dominant and now I speak both Hindi and English with ease.

It is very funny as to how English is viewed in our country. English is considered as an elite language, a language of snobs. Ok....I am not making a genralistic statement. English is viewed as a language of opportunity. Sending your children to a English medium school is viewed as a sign of progress, as an ascent in the life of the child. I once asked Amma who takes immense pride of her language if she would have ever sent me to a Tamil medium school. Amma replied in negative and said that she wouldn't have sent me a to a non-english medium school because KNOWING ENGLISH is very essential and that she couldn't afford to jeopardise my future by sending me to a non-english medium school. Quite a honest answer and that's sadly the reality.

When I was in my Junior college i.e. 11th and 12th, I had many students in my class from Gujarai, Hindi, Marathi medium schools. With a sudden transition to English in 11th std after having studied in an indigenious language is very tough. I used to see merit holders struggle just because they didn't know English well. I felt that was very unfair.

I sometimes feel very sad because of my inability to enjoy some classics in Tamil. Tamil is a beautiful language but my knowledge of it is restricted to colloquial Tamil. I know zilch about Tamil literature though I keep hearing from Amma and Paati time and again. I am very fond of Hindi too. But I never read much of Hindi literature either. My speaking in Hindi is restricted to speaking alone. Also nowadays I hardly read anything in Hindi. I realised how pathetic I was when I first read Premchand's Gaban in English. :| It really hit me that time. I just thought as to what the hell I was doing reading a translated version of a Hindi book when I can perfectly understand and read Hindi. Offlate I have picked up a few books in Hindi and I intend reading them soon. The problem I faced was that being in a English medium school, my reading was restricted to English only. I was too lazy and never even bothered to make an attempt to read books in Hindi or even Marathi for that matter. I have realised I have lost out on a lot and don't wish to any further, better late than never as they say.

I think English-medium schools hardly encourage the students to read books other than English which is pathetic and extremely sad. Ours is a multi-lingual society. It is very important that we KNOW our languages well and not in the fractured way that I know. Also there is ridiculous thing of branding all Indian languages as vernacular. VERNACULAR has a derogatory tinge to it as it was a label given to the Indian Languages by the BRITISH. Our Languages have a rich heritage and we need to respect it. Either it is disrespect or it is complete ignorance.

I was reading Mark Tully's NO FULL STOPS IN INDIA. He is an amazingly observant person. I like that about him. The second chapter of the book is called NEW COLONIALISM. It's an amazing write-up. Guys, if you ever get hold of it, please do read it. It is very ineresting to note the objective observations made by a Non-Indian about the Indian society.

I have a subject called Indian regional journalism in my course. We had been given this project which made it imperative for us to have a compulsory interaction with the editors, journalists of both English and Indian languages. It also has us reading newspapers in couple of Indian languages. There are glaring differences. There are differences in the readership, the content published etc. English newspapers in comparison to regional languages contain shit load of fluff. Regional language newspapers address real issues of real people. It was also observed by us that English newspapers are cut off from the reality. English newspapers amount to a miniscule readership in India. It is the Indian language press which is experiencing a big boom. But it is a big irony when majority of the ad-share goes to the English press leaving the Indian language press in doldrums. Many of the regional papers just plainly ape English papers with a hope that it would sell more. For example, I don't understand what is a cut out of Britney Spears doing in the front page of Navbharat Times? It is seriously ridiculous. The support to the regional languages is very poor.


In Mumbai, the numbers in a Marathi medium schools are dwindling like crazy. There are simply no takers for it. Also the local langauge schools consist of students from the lower strata of society. I sometimes wonder, are Indian languages only for the lower strata? English is gaining such prominence in India that the Indian languages are sure isolated. If Indian languages were given their due respect and the atmosphere such that the opportunities were aplenty, I don't think my mom would thought twice about sending me to a local medium school. I am not saying 'DONT PROMOTE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE" Promote it by all means, we need it in order to succeed globally. What I intend to say is that DON'T NEGLECT INDIAN LANGAUGES IN THE PROCESS. Well.....*sigh*

I think I have rambled enough..... bye for now! :)

Random Thoughts

Hmmmmmm.......I love wishing people on their b'days. B'days for me are special and that is one day where one in their own way can make the b'day guy/girl wonderful. (Who doesn't like pampering and attention?) It would be an understatement to say that I ABSOLUTELY HATE FORGETTING PEOPLE'S BIRTHDAYS. There was a time where I forgot birthdays of my close friends. i don't like that stupid feeling which engulfs you when you realise you have forgotten your pal's b'day :( Therefore I decided to use the services of Birthday alarm. It has been extremely useful for me till now.
Well...I forgot to wish my friend. His b'day was on September 5th. It's not that I did not enter his name, b'day in my b'day alarm calender. I ENTERED A WRONG B'DATE :| :| Now can anyone be more irresponsible or plain stupid? :| I hate it, I hate the damn feeling.......grrrr....and I meet him in the college, He doesn't say a word. In the evening I was speaking to him on the phone and I just happen to ask him, Listen your b'day is just around the corner..um so what plans? :| (One tight slap!!!!!!) and then suddenly a brainwave!!!! I asked him, Have I by any chance forgotten your b'day? He meekly replied, "Yes, You very well have!" I just felt like downing myself in a deep river or just wanted to jump inside a big well. huh!!!! Last year too the same thing happened. I actually wished him 10 days later, I thought his b'day was not september 15th and september 15th.....grrr! Now this is not absent mindedness......This is absolute foolishnes!

On a different note altogether, NDTV news headlines screamed.." INDIAN CURRY WINS THE FINAL BATTLE". I was curious to know what it implied. Later I understood that Indian curry has not become the offical diet of the British soliders fighting at Iraq, apparently the most conservative organisation....Blah! I care 2 hoots....Well, how true it is when people say the colonial hangover still exists in India. This is just such a perfect instance. Indian curry is making it big everywhere. i dont understand why it is news. Also why are we waiting for their certificate to acknowledge a fact that WOW, WE HAVE REACHED THERE......Its sad when media resorts to such stupidity. No wonder India is full of so many wannabes! Well....Blah!!!!

My amma has been diaganosed with slight diabetes and thodusa BP problem too. :( Poor thing! In a span of just 2-3 days I have noticed the drastic change in her doet. She loves eating fruits, now she just stares at them. poor thing....She has to drink sugarless coffee....She's the 4th member from her family to join the elite club, which we jokingly refer to as THE SUGAR FACTORY :P It used to be joke till others were a part of the club, now no longer! Amma laughs it off..but still ya, its sick! Stupid diabetes......

Have you guys seen the Extraa Innings hoardings all around the city? Atleast Mumbaikars should have. It has Mandira bedi in it wearing a saree, shawl????? (God alone knows , what) I was wondering...Mandira Bedi and Too much clothing....the saree thing is draped in a funny way.....and then I see the accompanying slogan......Mandira in EXTRA COVER......:| :| :| So the extra clothing meant that? Oh puhllezeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Then there is another hoarding wherein she is seen in some net type thingy, the slogan accompanying it says...Mandira in the nets :| That's not all.....there's one more. There's a hoarding wherein She's wearing this short pink number and the whole focus is on her legs.....guess what the accompanying slogan would be.......YEA...EXTRA LEG :| Could it get any more typical and cliched? Even I can come up with such stupid ideas and they get paid also liek crazy for such crappy work........grrrrrrr!

Teaching, me etc.
Yesterday was Teachers day. I don't want to go gaga about teachers have influenced my life and blah blah! (That maybe sometime later in another post)They have no doubt had a tremendous impact in my life. But today I want to talk about something else.

My mommie is a teacher. She teaches the kiddos, the primary section..from std.1st to std.5th. I always tell Amma that she's the most luckiest person. I have enjoyed teaching of whatever little I have done till now. (genes I guess) Teaching, I believe is one of the very jobs which actually make a difference in lives of thousands of people.......directly. It is one profession which is emotionally so gratifying. At the end of the day one does feel good about themselves after having taught people. I don't know why i did not take up teaching as a career. I could have probably. But I dislike the correction and the evaluation bit. I see Amma with those hundreds of Answer papers and I know that I don't want that. I can't see myself doing that all my life. But well.it does come as a part of the package. I remember when I was in 11th std i.e. 3-3.5 yrs ago one family friend of ours came to me very tensed. His son S was struggling with Maths. S barely passed in his semesters scoring barely 40%. I agreed coz he's almost like a bro to me, a kiddo with whom I had grown up with. I only used tot each him during weekends. But well...he scored 75% in his final exams and I was obviosuly on top of the world. I used to enjoy the whole process so much. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I read this Manmohan Singh wonders how he lande dup in politics and talks about How teaching is his first love. I agree with him completely. Later he goes on to say how teachers shape the nation and all the usual stuff.

On the teachers' role in nation building, he said. "Teachers shape the minds of the children who are the future of the nation."
They impart a value system, groom personality of children, he said. "A lot depends on what you teach."

Well....The conditions of teachers are pathetic in Maharashtra. The oldies don't have much of a problem. But the new batch of teachers are in absolute sad condition. Every new teacher appointed by schools and colleges are appointed on a contract basis with a measly Rs.3000 per month. Whether their contract would be revived every year would be a permanent question mark. After some years years , may be they might get permamnent. All is RAMBHAROSE! Not many educated people are opting for teaching, especially in the primary level. Teaching Higher secondary and college is kinda economically helpful for the teachers because of the mushrooming coaching classes. Its like a vicious circle....U don't pay well in colleges, teachers opt for cocahing classes wherein students like us willingly pay fees thousand times more than what we pay in the colleges and then one can find people teaching well in classes but not well in colleges and all sort of unethical practises. I had a teacher in my school who used to conduct her owning coaching classes. She wouldn't teach properly in school and if in case anyone would ask for doubts she would indirectly hint at joining her classes, shamelessly!

The number of younsters taking to teaching as a profession is depressingly low especially in the primary level. That's the age when one mould's the minds of the children, if the teachers are substandard there, what future are they creating? Many a times I have found children are more knowledgeable than teachers....Its a sad situation out here, really sad. Even one wants to stem the rot, its impossible to make a career with such measly sum of money as salary. Not everyone can do social service, can they unless they have huge potloads of money? That's why I dislike the Ambanis coz they have started a school wherein the monthly fees of a student is 1 lakh :| And then they talk about their commitment towards education. What a whole load of bull! With the kind of money they have, they can do so much......*sigh* But they bloody wanna make money in the field of education too. Huh!

With this kind of sad treatment meted out to teachers, INDIA'S future is dark!

Hats off to Vardan Kabra and Ghazala & Irfana :D :D In times like these, they are breath of fresh air :D :D

I have met Ghazala and Irfana, will narrate my lovely experience about that sometime later. :) Check this out too.

(Please do take time to read it.)

and yes.....

Happy teachers day

Kuch bhi Bud Bud.....

Dukhi mann Mere sunn mera kehna.......
Jahaan nahin chaina. wahaan nahin rehna.....

Kishore Kumar croons his way to glory. Perfect song ya, totally apt! Wish i could follow his advice. bloody, I would run away...NOW...RUN RUN RUN..SCOOOOOOOOOOT! Kya zhindagi hain.: : : Soooo many projects! Shesssssssssssh! But the twist is I like doing them..: then if u ask what's the problem.....overdose ho gayela hain idhar! Zindagi ka poora vaat mera.......One more week I survive, WOW! that would be one helluva thing, no! I am in a super cribaholic mood.....CRIB CRIB CRIB CRIB.....BLAH BLAH BLAH.....CRIB CRIB CRIB.......!!!!!

I have this subject called public opinion. Boy oh Boy! Wish human beings were born with no head at all. Koi opinion hi nahi hota na! Sadoo......every damn dimwit (including urs truly) has a goddamn opinion about every second thing in this world. Ok.opinion hain jaane do na, kya pharak padhta hain........NOOOOOOOOO!, We are world samaritans na.......MAP PUBLIC OPINION!!!!!! Bloody hell........I have to read about every chotu thing happening..Dhanonjay case, Godhra, INDIA-PAKISTAN, INDO-CHINA RLEATIONS.[am jhaaaapped in this topic, no notes :( ] Vietnam war......U NAME IT WE HAVE IT! Now we will have Iraq war also, all coz of Stupid Dubya. he should be pushed down from the Himalayas.nahi best from the niagara falls....USA se paas hain......kutte ki maut he deserves......HUHUHUH!!!!!!!

But you knowwat, I like reading about such stuff. Indo-pak relations, Indo-china relations, Bangladesh war and all stuff like that, lekin I hate it when we have to do it for the exam......****sigh**** Neways, ............wowow......I feel so relieved.....I had to throw it out of my system...tee hee hee.......

My house is full of newspapers now. Hindi, Marathi, Gujarathi, tamil....u name it, i have it! For doing an asisgnment on Indian regional journalism. Funny it is, I had urdu paper also.....Such a beautiful language Urdu is, pity i can't read it, I though the font looks like hen's shit (loosely translated from tamil, kozhi pea :P) My table resembles raddiwala ka shop. all type of papers I have. Today it so happened that, I bought, 6 papers........hindi, marathi and english. The bookstall walah looks at me weirdly and asks me.....itna saara paper chahiye kya? I was like," Haanji, chahiye.....kyun?" He gave a quizzical look and gave me the papers. Sometimes it seems I am buying something from wholesale market. "ek navbharat dena, ek Saamna dena..and it goes on....." Then I went and caught my train. As usual Train bole toh supakk neendh....so I dosed off. Suddenly one lady taps my shoulder and I woke up suddenly. Now Now Now, the one thing I HATEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE is when someone wakes me up from my sleep, especially when I am in the train. Stupids, they would wake me up for all flimsiest reasons....once a lady woke me from my deep slumber and asked me time kya ho gaya hain? I was so irritated.......I burst out," Akkal nahi tumko? Dikhta nahi so rahi hoon? time ke lioye uthaaneka kya?" She stood there chup chaap. IDIOTS! Haan, back to the story.....She wakes me up and then she asks me my newspapers!! ****Ding Dong**** I had forgotten to keep my newspapers inside my bag. So there I was....apne compartment ki newspaper vendor distributing papers. One lady actually asked me," Ek Saamna dena" I was like grrrr...."Saamna khatam ho gaya...aage jao! :P" Thus all my papers made a compartment darshan before they finally landed on my hands. Ufff......my sleep gone by now :( :(

Ummmm......Something offtrack.....One professor of mine is leaving Mumbai for Pune permanently. He moved out because he wanted his chotu daughter (all of 1 yr old) to grow in a small town, have a slow paced life. I dunno how, but I somehow seemed to agree with his take. Mind you, I lovee Mumbai, but i dunno, his decision seemed perfect, it made sense....Well, dunno, i'm happy for him :D Also , I like Pune :D :D

Chalo now, lemme get back to work.....seeya soon, dont ask me when coz I myself dunno! Tadah!

p.s.: have u ever tried walking on the road with a copy of a ummmmm....... Navakal in ur hand? I did and boy, it was funny....people's reactions..BUHAHAHAHA! :P Anyways, me off!

PPS: Shonu's Budday today.........ppl, go and wish her! :D :D *Hugs* girl, have a great day......! All da best to you........:D :D

PPPS : ok....Saamna is Shiv Sena's mouth piece aka newspaper in Mumbai.
Navakal is also a Marathi newspaper. Ummmm....kinda downmarket with zilch news content. once they carried a news report...L K Advani dided :| :| (Am not kidding :P )