Promises, promises...

In 1998, Vinod Khanna, one of our army of filmstar-politicians promised to turn Gurdaspur into Paris. Now, this was, to state the obvious, rather impossible. I mean, centuries of French culture and their habit to sulk when things don't go their way (epitomised by their President) into a place which isn't half bad and still sends most of their sons to the 'real' Paris. In 2004, I spent a few days in Paris during an extended summer break. I stayed with an old friend from school and remember going down to the Eiffel Tower like good tourists and right next to the tower I met and chatted with the guys selling overpriced trinkets who all happened to be from Gurdaspur. Well, I guess they got frustrated and left. Of course, Khanna has been moderately successful in politics much like his sons have been moderately successful in films. Unlike Govinda of course, who like any fading filmstar is blaming others for his problems - I doubt that includes his abysmal turnout in the Lok Sabha and according to the Delhi grapevine the pretty literal threats that were made to get him to show up for the nuclear vote.
But I don't know how I missed this. maybe because the 'evil' Ratan Tata stole all her thunder by releasing the Nano the very same day. But Mamata plans to make Kolkata into London! I really don't know what to say to this other than to request Mamata to pass me some of the stuff she has been smoking. I know that London is home to thousands of loony lefties and the Maoists in the southern districts of Bengal are extremely violent loony lefties, but other than that I doubt the former capital of Britain's crown jewel can match the motherland. Though that said, Dum Dum airport is a lot smoother than Heathrow, but then again it handles maybe one percent of Heathrow's traffic.
As they say, promises are promises and people can't take you to court when you don't deliver. Then again, maybe Mamata, a Ph.D (supposedly - though she makes no such claims in her 2004 affadavit) knows something about plate tectonics that hours of watching Discovery Channel and Nat Geo TV don't tell you. Maybe Kolkata is heading to London througha giant worm-hole through the Earth's crust. Anyhow, I don't see anything happening in bengal for a while, but then again, the most hare-brained scheme in Bengal right now is the Durgapur Aeropolis (which mind you, is still a promise). Because, depite everything the Commies might win a lot of seats, but weirdly enough they are the worse of two evils. The Bengal Commies that is, not the Kerala Commies, but I'm opinionating too much - so see what Great Bong makes of Didi's latest pronouncements - I, by the way, will start calling Mamata 'Mashima' - the same as I called the lady under Dhakuria flyover who used to sell some really nice weed back in the day (I was young and impressionable - so there).
PS: If you have the time, read this brilliant article by Matt Tiabbi on the financial crisis. And if you want to subscribe to this blog on a feedreader either on your mail client or Google Reader, click this link please.

Intolerance

One of the rather horrible side-effects of the media explosion is that it has somehow made India far more intolerant by giving rise to a media-obsessed bunch of loonies. But I never expected this in Kolkata. A great article by Deeptanil Ray over at The Hoot. And the article that 'sparked outrage'. Sometimes I wonder if our lurch towards the 21st century hasn't made us more tribal.

And why is it wrong to criticise Islam?

Think about it, virtually all our lives, across the world have been determined by terror committed by Islamic terror. I know it is not fair to tar an entire religion because of the actions of some loonies, even though elements of the Indian media like nothing better to lump the entire right as the 'Sangh' and generally poke fun at them. Sure, they do things that deserve to poked fun at - Cow Urine - after the fiasco of the $10 laptop did we really need the gora's making fun of us again.
Anyway back to the pointm why is it wrong to criticise Islam? If one even dare question the religion in India they are dubbed 'anti secular' or 'communal'. What? Democracy allows me the right to question something? Sure outlaw imflammatory comments -flamebait in internet speak (sorry for the net analogies) - that is the more resposible blogs have 'comment moderation', but that said this utter intolerance will spark more Muthalik's and Togadia's people who support them. If your inner liberal shudders at that thought, you might be facilitating it because you're the intolerant one.
By arresting the Editor and the Publisher of The Statesman, the commies of India have again exposed themselves as Grade-A hipocrites. But what else did you expect in Commie-dom! While Chinese Commies sup on the opium of money, Bong Commies grow fat on Religion. Didn't all Commie philosophy question both of those things?