Once my life was shifted outside Kerala, I was not too keen on celebrating festivals like Onam,Vishu etc etc. It was a result of the fast  metro-lifestyle and work related commitments.
But this year, I celebrated Vishu ( New Year for Keralites -14th April) like never before!. I joined my brother and sister ( She came all the way from Kerala to Mumbai for this ! ) at my brother’s home. I was so busy goofing around with children. We enjoyed “kani” at home, exchanged new year gifts, prepared a kerala style meal, went out for some shopping in the evening etc etc.

I was realising that how much I had missed in the past. I was wasting my time around the daily robotic life in metros.
Next few days , we roamed around Mumbai to visit Gateway of India, Fashion Street, Boating…… I clicked some nice pictures too. I will upload them to Gallery soon.

🙂

Something very bad happened. I never thought something like this would happen in Mumbai again. Now that it had happened, I am sure it could happen again. That’s what I am really worried about.

On the day of Holi, some people living in a society ( like 8-10 buildings in a single compound) poured colour on a person from another society. People living in these two societies used to have arguments earlier regarding acquisition of land etc. Unfortunately some crooked minds thought that this incident could be used for abusing the others. A group of people attacked the other society with stones and firearms. Situation got even worse when the other people also started their revenge. Result : 3 people died.

Next day, the issue grew to some level I never thought about. An entire area was under this riot. The issue between two societies had become a riot between two communities ! in one day. Lots more people got seriously injured and 8 people were killed. Even the police stations were under attack. No it was not between Muslims and Hindus as it was earlier. This was between two communities in Hindu religion itself. If it was between Muslims and Hindus, probably I would not be alive to write this.

However, the government got into action. They enforced curfew in our area. Within 2-3 days everything returned to normal. But still some questions remain.

Why people just jump into these kind of extreme measures everytime for such silly reasons? Who is playing with relligion and community sentiments? In a city like Mumbai, why do people behave like animals?

Oh… Even animals won’t do such things.

Check this out !

A couple met with an accident while they were on a long trip.Some villagers helped them to recover fast and resume their trip. While coming back the next day, they decided to thank the good samaritans and unfortunately gets killed in another accident. At the same spot !!!!

Hard to believe? well… you have to !

More info here

My friend Joseph has written in his blog about the protests and media hype that is going across India regading the visit of Mr. George W Bush. This is my opinion, reply, argument.. whatever.

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I think there is something wrong with these “protesters”. They are the people who actually makes up the hype for GWB’s visit to India. Nowadays it has become a tradition for these “soldiers of culture” to protest against anything and everything!

If the protest is because of what his stand was against Taliban and IRAQ, here is my personal opinion.

1. Taliban was the worst form of Islam extremism. It needed an end. Remember one Indian aircraft was hijacked and illegally flown above Packistan and landed in Kabul?. That day we saw what terrorism means. It is not just smuggling things in and out of Inida. It is not just killing some people with bombs. It becomes even worse when they start to play and negotiate with lives. When they start to take the freedom away from us. What we did when our Parliament was attacked? We arrested a few people and found that there was certain extremist groups behind the same. Then? . Like always, we slowed down. We left the case as it is. Where is the people who sent the bombers. Who gave them bombs and guns? Who funded them? There are endless cases like this. Our polititians are not interested in finding out all this. American did. And they reacted. Where is Taliban now?.

2. IRAQ was a “big mistake” from GWB’s words itself. And it is not only the president’s order to attack IRAQ. If I am not wrong, USA has a senate which can even “veto” it’s president over the decisions. So why they kept silent. What about the allies of USA in this war?. Be it power politics or tactics, you cannot blame GWB alone.

GWB’s visit can be a “show” for the media and they will try to get the most out of it. But the protester’s words are “just adding to the fun” for this media morons. They are not actually going to show GWB that most of India does not want to see him here.

GWB has a great tolerance to critics. He is facing it in his own country itself. It is not a new thing to him and his party. This is not going to make any difference at all.

I do not see any harm in his coming to India. It would actually bring in more world attention to India in regards to business and politics. It will give our people a chance to express our stand in many global issues today.

USA is not an enemy of India. They are providing us cutting edge technology, thousands of jobs (where our govermnets just promise jobs!) and support in many other areas.

My questions is, then why we need to protest? You are welcome, Mr. Bush.