Australia, Germany....India..

It is nice to see the smiling face of the bride

Hail India

India has achieved what America is still struggling to..... A woman President.

Men Rule

First, about the Men in Blue. They surely won and made India proud of them. Hats off to our Cricketing team especially Tendulkar and his century, first ever in Australia against the home team. The Boys in Blue too did it in style winning the Under 19 World Cup in Malaysia. Way to go Boys!!

Second, Vatican says this is still a Man's world. God is Man and no feminists allowed to try to change that. I wonder, why should anyone try to tamper or tinker with what has been there for ages as long as this isnt adverse to anyone or doesnt affect anyone.

One bit of news that Kapil Sibal, Anbumoni Ramdoss and Mani Shankar Aiyar are opposing Women And Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury's move to bring amendments to the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act making men too liable under the Act. There are special Acts for Women which many "Male" organizations are opposing tooth and nail, while the Feminist organizations are moving towards making CEDAW a reality in India with India too being a signatory.

Eureka!!

Election Commission, Karnataka has published in a website the draft voter list and hopes to publish the final voter list by 10th March. Hopefully, this site will help in updating the voter database. This site has been conceived and developed by some good citizens in the IT Sector. Kudos to them!!!

Frustrating!!!!

Today, by far I could say was the most frustrating half day of all in the recent past. The reason was I had to deal with some Government Officials on Election Duty of updating the Electoral Rolls. I had to get our names deleted from one place of residence and add it on in the list in another area where we live now though both the places are within the same ward, same Assembly Consituency. First to delete the names, the person on duty said, no your names are not there. But I have voted from there and so was sure our names were there in the list, so I sat down and searched the rolls and found our names at last. It took me an hour to do so. Then fill up the form to get the name deleted and get the acknowledgement. Then go to another place to add on the names in the rolls there. Here again, the exercise of filling in the form and as advised by the person officiating at the earlier centre, got a copy of my husband's passport for proof of address and went and submitted all our forms. The lady who was there at the Center was so haughty that she was screaming and shooing away everyone there. I waited for my turn and handed over the forms. She said that there were instructions that they were not to take passport copies which was truly frustrating. Information on this is not publicized widely enough. Anyways, I had a telephone bill which she said was perfectly all right as proof of address and handed over the same.

The lady behind the desk who was collecting the forms also let our a wail and started weeping and crying suddenly when one person asked her why the form he was handing over was not being accepted. She started saying, she is from some other department and this was not her work and that he should not ask her such questions. Come on!! Election duty is the duty towards your country. Towards ensuring your country remains a Democracy and you should be proud of it. I do not know why they post such people to do this work. Whether they get remunerated or not is besides the point here, (There is separate remuneration in addition to their regular salaries, howmuch ever it might be)it is about doing your bit for your country.

But this should be so frustrating an exercise for people who have to keep going up and down for things and also information as to what centre they have to go for adding/deleting names in Electoral Rolls. This should be made available to people. Though today, they say is the last day for this exercise, addition can be done till the date on which elections are announced. But bottomline, interacting and dealing such people is truly totally frustrating.

And I spent half a day doing, well, almost nothing. But achievement, Yes!! submitted the forms for deleting our names and also submitted the forms for adding our names in the list of voters in two different places. Now, have to patiently wait and see if the list is updated!

In the Software Capital of India, can this updating be done through computers or some online kiosks be set up to do the updating. Atleast in Bangalore? We have a long way to go!!

Pepsi's Brand Ambassadors

Pepsi is tight lipped about Sachin Tendulkar continuing as Pepsi's brand ambassador. But they have confirmed that Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid have been dropped. So, as long as a person is in form, he is retained, if he so much as falls a notch lower than expected, he will be thrown out by both the people as well as the brands that they endorse. These cricketers when they are praised to heavens when they do well, should be prepared to face the brick bats too when they dont deliver. The best would be for these to do a Gilchrist and retire before they are thrown out of game.

From the world of Hindi Cinema, Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor have joined Shahrukh Khan in promoting Pepsi.

1000 days And A Dream

Pedestrian Pictures, a media activist group, based in Bangalore and working across Karnataka since 2001 to create an understanding of socio- political realities existing in our society are presenting the film which has won the Jury Award at the recently concluded 10th Mumbai International Film Festival, 1000 days and a dream. Since its release in 2006, the film has been screened at nearly 20 film festivals in India and abroad.

The film is screened at the Institute of Engineers Bangalore between 5 and 7 PM on Saturday, the 23rd February 2008. Seems like a must-watch film

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Pic - The Hindu