SG OwnBlog

I have seen various types of people in life. From armchair warriors to snobs etc etc. Religious or ethnic hatred is one of the most common that I have seen. But so far all of those had some political ideology mixed with faith. For example I have mixed with conservative Hindus who did not like Muslims, and fanatical Muslims baying for Hindu/Sikh/Jain/Buddhist blood. But the Hindu was invariably a Hindutvadi or a BJP supporter or something of that sort. The Muslim would also be an Islamist. This time I met a third kind - pure hatred, that does not derive it's strength from any political ideology. This beautiful lady hates Muslims without having any affinity to the Hindutva ideology and not even any to Modi or RSS or the like. I am yet to come to terms with the exceptional exception but I will produce her answers to some of my questions, without any modification. I, of course, don't endorse any of this nor do I insinuate that she is a hate monger. I don't wish to portray he...

Mysore is a far from neglected when it comes to tourism. Mysore has long been a very beautiful small town with exquisite temples and destroyed forts. Once the capital of the princely state of Mysore, it has now been eclipsed by Bangalore. Even then the history is rich and has extremes of good and bad. Mysore palace topmost point Fake HDR-ed from the Mysore Temple complex - the aura should give you the hint We got a gorilla. If we are to go by what's written on the board outside, he is the sole gorilla in India now. Spotted this bear playing with a few ducks Mysore zoo - The look should tell you what he thinks about me or my camera A temple from the Mysore Palace Complex itself - fake HDR-ed Vrindavan Gardens - The cool thing is that this is built adjacent to the huge dam. The Mysore Palace from the cart that we hired for a round trip. The Mysore Palace - The House of Wodeyar has come to an end though. The last 'king' died a cou...

I am approaching the bastion of Indian sickularism. Yes, what is known as God’s own country – this is called Kerala. This is one of those places that make a self-respecting Dharmic person to bash his own head at the mindless exposure to non Dharmic influences. I had plenty of experiences on my way itself. This is not the first time I am going to Kerala though. Actually this is the third time. The first visit was by far the best. It was a family trip to one of the most beautiful places of Kerala, the tourist circuit. From the backwaters of Allipuzha to the silent beauty of Munnar and the expanse of the Periyar, I have seen them all. Kerala is very green; there is no doubt about it. This is not entirely a plus point as I will expand later. The people are okay, I have had very widely mixed interactions as opposed to the people of the rest of India. The route that our train is taking goes from Bangalore to Tamil Nadu, all the while bordering Kerala. It enters Kerala at its ext...

I saw the trailer of this movie once and really really liked it. What was really interesting was the Thomas Kretschmann acted in a movie with the same name exactly 20 years back. Stalingrad was released in 1993 and the young Kretschmann played the role of a dutiful but conscientious German leutnant of the ill fated 6th Armee. Here also he comes back, slightly older and rugged. The spectacular visuals, the background sound and the lack of background music makes it a realistic watch. That is all positive that I have to say about this trash. Yes, that's what I will this. Naturally, while watching this I brought in similar scenes of Stalingrad (1993) among other war movies. And in comparison this movies cuts so sorry a figure that I dared not watch the entire movie even! The story starts of slow enough and just completely refused to pick up pace. The entire movie seemed to be directed by an amateur school student, bolstered by some insanely talented special effects team. This made t...

Spoiler Alert : If you read this, watching the film may bore you. Yer warned. There are only very few war movies that I did not like. Empire of the Sun is one of them. The war movie directed by none other than Steven Spielberg is set in Shanghai, China during the World War II. It basically documents the life of an young English boy under Japanese occupation. The movie is so bizarre right from the beginning that I often wonder what got into the head of the director. An overly irritating English boy is shown as living the life of extreme luxury while China is being devoured by Japan. So far so good, as that was pretty much what happened in real life as well. But after the Japanese take over the city things become more and more ridiculous. Starting from American adventurers in occupied China to the boy turning into a surrender freak! You would often wonder if the boy is just plain childish or retarded, or God forbid, both! An innocent boy's chronicle of life under foreign oc...

Recently in India all nutjobs from across the political spectrum are busy painting terrorists with religious brushes. The ultimate motivation for this action is unknown to me. But let's briefly discuss how evil the Hindus have become. In the last few years some of the vilest crimes committed are by Hindus. These are Samjhauta Express Bombing Malegaon blasts version 2008 - apparently terrorists have a certain fixation with this place Mecca Masjid bombing - This mosque is in India and not in Mecca I could not find any major involvement other than these. For an evil militant Hindu civilization, such poor record is disturbing. But anyway - let's examine them one by one. Check out the captions - you are looking at one of Indian media's judgements passed against an individual to increase sales. Note terms - Hindu terror and 'The Believer'. The movie is about a neo Nazi fanatic who likes to attack Jews. Check out the poster here. I did not find any similar...

Ajmal Kasab on his tour in Mumbai - Mumbai Terror Attack Islamic terrorism is a reality and anyone denying it is living in denial. It is also a known fact that the terror activities are largely inspired by faith. Of course, when I asked a mufti he said it was entirely due to politics and there may have been some religious justification but that the casus belli was politics. So this quesiton has been posed many times by academics, scholars, intellectuals, right wing lunatics, conservatives, bleeding heart liberals and so on. Everyone has their own point of view. Of course there are plenty of verses that can be used to justify the acts of terrorism. I can say that there is plenty of justification present in other Abrahamic religions. But hey, Jews are not blowing up a bus of school children in Iran. Christian extremists are considered extreme even when they only shout against abortion. But Islamists have been engaging in acts of terror long before 9/11. This post is not a...