Until now, shootings in school were only things that happen in America; but the recent incident of two 14-year olds shooting their classmate in cold blood in Gurgaon has made us all think again. That the murder was premeditated has shocked us all the more. That the two teens belong to well-to-do & respected families and are old enough to know what is right and what is wrong only makes their crime all the more heinous. That the boys did not lack for anything in their life - love, care, affection, money, education - makes us wonder what was the motive behind the whole crime. The motive was that the victim had been bullying them for the past few months.

I wonder - how bad was the bullying that made the boys take such a drastic step. Was it that extreme or was it that the two killers couldn't stand up and fight? Didn't the school take note of the bullying and take any action? We also had bullying in various other forms, but w stood up against it and emerged as stronger n smarter people. We may have had the occasional 'War of words' as it happens among girls while I'm sure all guys have had the occasional fistfight. But a step as drastic as killing a person goes against the very moral and social fibre of society. Is this what our new India is going to be - people who fight at th drop of a hat, bloodshed being a common thing. Those of us in Delhi have heard of enough incidents of road rage where an unnatural display of aggression have led to untold tales of horror. I would be scared to send my children to school now if the kids were brandishing guns and pistols. I am in any case wary of sending my kids to a school where most of the children have been taught an ostentatious show of the newly acquired wealth and power of their family and abandonment of all morals and values in the name of conservatism. When there were so many witnesses, why did Jessica Lall and Madhumita's families have to wait for so long for justice. It was an open and shut case. But the witnesses were scared to speak up against the wealth and power of the killers - they feared for the safety of their families and their own. If the British took over India today, we would not fight them with the weapon of non-violence, but with loads of violence, I am sure.

I confess there have been times when I have actually wanted to kill someone - could be a teacher or a professor or examiner or that bitch eyeing my man or just that asshole who is very happily walking the road like its his own personal garden or just simply anyone who comes inf front of me when I'm in a temper. I really wonder had my father also left a loaded gun lying around carelessly at home, if I would have also just picked it up and killed someone.

All said and done, I do feel a little sorry for that poor child waiting for his parents in the juvenile home. They have for all purposes, as of now, disowned and abandoned their wayward killer son who has ruined their family name. I wonder what will be the outcome of his entire sordid tale - but one thing is for sure, that the two teenagers have definitely made a mess of this now. The arguement that they did it to protect themselves and take revenge against the bully does not deter from from the fact that they have killed a human being. They are now old enough to know that what they did goes against the very morals of society.

Uda ke rakh diya

Aimlessly channel-surfing yesterday, I started watching Sa Re Ga Ma Pa on Zee and boy was I bowled over.

This is one of the fist reality shows which gets members of the public to compete on the basis of their singing prowess. This particular International edition has been going on for the past 6 months or so and I have been following it intermittently. Now its between the top three who are vying for the top spot.

I caught their final episode before the Grand Showdown yesterday.

I had watched Anik singing 'Laaga Chunari Mein Daag' a couple of weeks back and well, I was left speechless.

Another time I saw Raja singing 'Teri Deewani' - again speechless.

Then yesterday, Amanat sang 'Tujhse naaraz nahin zindagi' - I actually had tears in my eyes by the time he finished. he sang with so much of emotion.

All three are winners in their own way and hats off to all three of them - they'r waaaay better than all those Mika, Rehaana etc etc etc. I don't even bother remembering their names now. Their albums would be blockbusters only on their singing and not because of the hordes of almost naked females going 1,2,3

Wishing all three all the very best for their Grand Finale

If you had an inflow of Rs. 50,000 per day, for the rest of your life, and you earned this money without lifting a single finger - Would you still work?

My first reaction was that I would immediately resign and spend the rest of my life in contented idleness - sleeping late, shopping, reading, watching movies, partying, traveling etc etc etc. You get the basic idea.

My second reaction was that I would get utterly butterly bored within a week with such a lifestyle. I know for sure that I am the kind of person who cannot loll around 24/7. I guess I would probably buy myself a full booksho[p and then devote myself to some altruistic purpose like working with pro bono with some NGO or something along these lines. I would also defintely take a year off and go for a round-the-world trip :)

What would you do?

Love or family?

What would you choose if you had to make a choice between the two?

Would you sacrifice your love for family or family for love?

A difficult choice indeed..a.and whatever road you choose to travel will be full of obstacles. A tough choice indeed.

And whatever choice you make, I stand by you as a friend

New Shoes New Shoes

"New shoes new shoes
Tell me what would you choose
If they let us buy

Red shoes pink shoes
Pretty pointy bow shoes
Tell me what would you choose
If they let us buy

But, flat shoes fat shoes
Stamp-along-like-that shoes
This is what they would choose
When they let us buy"

I confess...I LOVE SHOES. I love buying shoes - be it comfy practical black sandals or that pair in blue to match that blue top or the sexy strappy pencil heels or the V slippers or chappals from Janpath or sneakers from Nike or just cuz I fell in love with THAT pair and oh look they have it in my size or there is a sale in my favourite shop and if I don't buy, their poor kid is going to go hungry :P

I love my shoes......
Right from my Nike oh-so-comfortable-floaters (my vote for the most comfy pair of stamp-along-like-that shoes definitely goes to them)
To my Bata chappals (I am a staunch Bata loyalist when it comes to bathroom slippers...right now I have the prettiest pair of white slippers with flowers on the V strap)
To my golden-coloured sandals (both of them)
To my silver sandals (with coins on the V strap)
To my black sandals (all 5 pairs of them. You see I am a sucker for black sandals - my logic being I wear black n white six days a week so I need lotsa pairs in black in all shapes n sized n heights)
To my white wedge heels (when I wear them my grandmom wonders how I manage to retain my balance walking on stilts)
To all my tie-up sandals (Oh they look so sexy, so comfy, so 'In', so chic, so cool, well I can go o and on and on like that Duracell battery)
To all my Osho chappals (I loved you all)
To all my jootis and the ghungrus on them(I loved them so much that I buried them in the back gardens of my PG in Pune...May you all rest in peace)
To my Power shoes (Pointy slingbacks - one pair in black n one in brown)
To my chappals picked up n he beaches of Goa (I can never go wrong in these)
To THAT pair of red sandals that I saw n the shop window the other day (Oh yes you are going to be residing in my wardrobe one day soooooon)
To all the future pairs of sandals to be residing in my wardrobe

Yes I love shoes...and yes Arjun will hit the roof when he sees me walk in with a huuge smile on my face and another shoe box in my hand....

These last couple of weeks don't seem to be going too good for me...I feel like I can't do one thing right, like whatever I do is wrong, like I forget the most basic of things, like I am letting down everyone time after time, like I am the stupidest person on earth and am the scum of the earth.

Spare the Rod and.... ??

As school kids, we used to have major competition amongst ourselves to see who got the most raps on the knuckle for not doing homework or who stood the most number of classes being an 'outstanding' student (pun intended) or who had the most number of lines to do for playing pranks in class or who had to rum more rounds of the school for being too 'active' (read unruly) in class or whose parents got called more number of times to school or who had more notes in the diary to be signed by the parents or who had more demerits or who was made to sit out a P.T. period for wearing wrong shoes or who had to walk around the most number of times in a month for wearing wrong shoes or who was made to unhem her extremely short skirt (which meant an inch and a half above the knees).

I don't think any of us suffered physically or mentally by being disciplined. Our parents too do it at home. Which parent has never scolded his/her child or punished the child in some way or the other.

In fact, I would say that we all benefitted from this (at least we knew which teacher gave the most severe punishments and the level of pranks to play in each class). I clearly remember the time we were caught reading an MB (yes people a MILLS & BOON) in class by the teacher and our book was confiscated. We had to beg for ages for the book to be returned. I remember the number of times girls would be called out of the assemble line and were handed a safety pin for unhemming their skirts (this would then not make it obscenely short any more, as in it would cover your knees). I remember the time we got pulled up for talking in Hindi in class or the time we got pulled up for talking English during our Hindi class.I remember the time we got called to Sister Gracia's office for singing HINDI MOVIE SONGS in class (I was in Class II at that time).

Of course, we were lucky that we didn't have extremists or sadists who shoved electric rods up our ass or made us stand in the sun for hours on end or molest any of us or beat any of us to death.

However, if the new policy of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights does get implemented, the teacher will have no way to discipline the child. As children we were always told that our school was our second home and that our teacher was like our other parent, and she had all rights to scold us or tick us off. If this new policy comes into being, the teacher won't be able to even verbally tick off a student for playing the fool in the class. Besides by encouraging parents to file FIRs against teachers, the very idea goes against the concept of teaching being a noble profession. By encouraging parents to file FIRs, there will defintely arise several cases where such power would be misused by the students and parents, maybe where the student gets less marks, they file an FIR allegeing bias against the student. What is there to stop soemone from filing such a complaint? In any case, most Indian mothers are firmly of the opinion that their son can do no wrong, even if he is the gunda of the class. One remark from the teacher and parents will go filing complaints against the teachers. And what about those spoilt rich brats who need to be put in place? What is some student files a complaint stating that their fundamental rights are being infringed by being made to wear school uniforms? What if some student who did not do well in an exam and is too scared to tell his parents that, goes and says the tacher scolded him?

Teachers, as we know, mould the young minds - for which they may even require to pull up the young minds. This policy is rather extreme, in my humble opinion. If they have the right and duty to love and praise, conversely then they also have the right to criticise and scold. Taking punitive exemplary action against the sadists as mentioned earlier is defintely called for. However, taking such an extreme policy is definitely uncalled for.

Spare the rod and spoil the child or use the rod and beat the child????

What is your take?