It was early 1984. Few primary school kids (Aam Bachche!) as usual crossed the backside of their school campus & entered the sprawling place called 'Feeld' !! Feeld was the sports ground (field) which to one of its end had a 'officers club' & to the other end was the DC office. Though the school campus had lots of trees & stone 'Dining tables & benches' this bunch of kids prefered the grassy ground in front of officer's club - or - the front verandah of the officer's club building it the son was too hot! The reason was they could play around in grass after eating the lunch quickly. Truly they were the original Trinamool kids ;-)

That day the sun was hot, so they were having lunch in the verandah. suddenly they hear sound of an helicopter & surprise its heading towards them. Soon the chopper lands 50mts away from them. From the chopper comes out a lady escorted by 4 men. These 4 are now heading straight towards the kids. The seven aam bachches are awestruck & have stopped eating - some stopped chewing wat was alredy in mouth, some stopped their hands full of rice midway!! ;-)

The lady & the men reach the verandah. One of the aam bachcha (yours truly) being good at general knowledge recalls who the lady is. The lady is now with the kids - all awe struck. She runs her hand over each head & cheek. She is saying somethings which kids were too awestruck to understand. ( also they were not smart as they were not brought up on horlicks, boost etc) ;-) The lady sits with the kids & asks names. The kids knew the standard answer to 'What is your name' - 'My name is .... '! She smiles, now resorts to feeding the kids. she took the spoon from my hand & fed me the upma that was in my tiffin box. My marwari friend was fed the ghee-rich chapthi by the same hands.

As this is going on the men try to ask her to move inside - she doesnt go inside, nor take the chairs that was brought out for her. She kept on speaking to the kids in English & another strange language ( now i know its hindi). I recall she asking each what do you want to become. I prompty said 'Inspector'!!!. This must have gone for 10minutes. Soon we see 2-3 ambassador cars coming towards us. Later we learnt that the men who were with her, managed to call the DC from his office nearby.

Once DC came, the lady sat on chair & began talking to him, we continued eating. In another 15 minutes , we had finished lunch, but didnt go to play, as we stood there watching this lady. Soon she was done with DC & ready to leave. Came again to us & kissed few of us on cheek, waved bye, asked us to study well & went back to the chopper & flew away.

Later after school, I returned home, kept my bag, went to play & returned around 6pm. I see an argument going on between mom and dad.
Dad: will people spread rumor just like that. I heard she was here for few minutes.
Mom: If she is coming here, wudnt there be announcements, public meetings
Dad: There are also people who saw an helicopter flying low & landing
Mom: Helicopter fly even without her, remember they are also used to railway survey ( that raillink is still not happened!!)

I intervene & tell my parents that I was there when the chopper landed & all of the above story. I confirm it was THE lady my dad refered to. Once I confirm mom also agrees she indeed came here(she trusted her son!). That was the first time i was able to bring peace (& an end) in a husband-wife argument ;-)

after few months news papers report the death of the lady, the nation mourns - so do the seven aam bachche who were there when she landed due to some glitch in the chopper & resumed once it was fixed. She was on her way to somewhere else.

THE lady was Former prime minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi, one of the aam bachche was yours truly who went on to grow to be THE Aam Aadmi ;-)

P.S: today is death anniversary of Indiraji, may her soul rest in eternal peace.

After Thought: Today when I look at a bleeding India, I am of the opinion that its due to leadership. Who was the last leader who captured the attention of whole nation & commanded respect everywhere? Today every state has chota-mota netas who are going fanatic & separatist. Its time India needs a leader of impeccable character, someone who can hold the nation together! As far as I know Rajiv Gandhi ( may his soul rest in peace) was one such capable candidate. I wish if only these two had lived another 10-15years, India woudnt be in this kind of polarised state.

After 3 rings he picked up the call.

Me: Eno Goobe (wats up u owl)
He: Enilla kano kappe, neenu helu (nothing much u toad, u tell me)
(that was the greetings part, then follows some how is work, how is family talk, then..)

Me: ok, tell me something. Did you pass your science papers in school
He: Am i YOU, to have failed. You called me to ask my science marks ?
Me: hmm me & failure .. dont u remember how your mom used to tell you to be around me, so u cud pass?
He: She asked me to be around u in tests, so u cud copy from me & pass.
(this leg pulling goes on for a while & then i change gears.. )

Me: I called you to ask abt the sms u sent me on sunday
He: Which one? ( as if he sends many a day!!)
Me: u sent only one, let me read it for you ( i read from my phone)

"Coming October 17, 2008 the sun will rise continuously for 36 hrs (1.5 days). During this time the US countries will be dark for 1.5 days. It will convert 3 days into 2 big days. It will happen once in 2400 yrs. We're very lucky to see this. Forward it to all ur frenz"

Note: Oct 17 is over, we know nothing happened except that many man hours were spent spreading hoax.

He: oh this one.. i got it from someone
Me: didnt u think before sending it to ME. you thought Santhosh khush hoga ? ;-) thats why i am asking u, if u passed ur science papers. if there was some phenomena like this wudnt we have heard of it in our science classes just as we learnt about eclipses?
He: (in a fake humble tone) forgive me, i forgot for a while u hate fwd mail & sms .. now bark watever u want to bark (his word for my preaching!) ;-)
Me: How did you study from 6th std to engineering in the same bench with me? is there brain or cowdung in ur head? cudnt you think scientifically for a second? tell me how can you have day for 36 hours? will the earth stop with india towards sun? How can you fwd such sms, arent u educated? with this you let down yourself, your parents, me, our school, college & india itself. you have no reason to live now, go hang urself ... bla bla bla (we both are laughing as this barking goes on)
He: i think its better to die than hear ur barking! i will do that after lunch! but tell me are meeting this sunday?
Me: of course, lets put blade to Lokesh (another classmate) [ put blade = cut his pocket, eat at his expense]

On SMS & Internet Email Hoaxes: I am one of those who belive technology is a gift from God, that has to be used for common good. But I am amazed how these media are used by us to spread falsehood, hoaxes. Yes, I belive in God, But I am rational too. Thats why i question the fwd mail that says "fwd this mail & AOL/Microsoft will pay 1 cent toward treatment of this baby girl" [ attached: a pic of a suffering baby]. Do you think AOL/Microsoft will put a condition if they wanted to help that girl? Is there not good to do for me in India, that I have to fwd mail & help an american girl. Have we addressed our own (Indian) suffering poor millions afected by riots, flood, drought, poverty? How can we educated think, the world becomes a better place just by fwding mails that are most often Hoax. If that was the case, mother teresa wud have opened a 1000 email accounts & kept fwding mail day & night !! ;-)

Another category of mail whose template will be something like "an image of diety + fwd this X no. of ppl & get Y benefit" . Please note as X increases the Y value also increases. Then comes an aspect of Cyber terrorism - spreading fear thru email - "IF U DONT FWD ...( list of bad things that will happen to you)". Some forward desiring the blessings, some fwd fearing the curses - net result we contribute to internet junk. I wonder who is profitting from these. If it was a sms chain, the operators are surely happy. Believe me, I have never fwded such 'conditional' mails & nothing has happened to me.

conclusion: I think its an insult to our education & God-given rational abilities & to the technologies itself (say technology abuse) when we get into hoax spreading thru sms/email. Please think before you hit the fwd button ;-)

P.S.: attached is a pic of hoax phishing sms & a edited hoax picture circulated!

P.S: comments welcome, I will reply after I return back .. I have to fwd a mail .. it says i will get a GF in 3days if i fwd it to 10 people ;-) lol

(Flashing on your Screen) - This is an Headless Today Exclusive (flash, flash)

Aam Aadmi Anchor(In a Dramatic voice) : We want to remind our viewers(readers) about an exclusive braking news we did sometime back. Yes, we are refering to the reunion brought about by our channel of 2 brothers who were separated at a kumbh mela years ago. You can watch that right here, right now. Dr. Sudiptos Missing Brother Found!

Now our question is, is history repeating itself again ? Do we have another Kumbh Mela missing brothers episode happening again in our midst on MS? We are not saying the last word on this ( our channel does speculative journalism most of the time), so you decide for yourselves.

pictures speak better than words, look at these pics & the profile Pic on fellow MSian Sajith Nair's profile & album pics @ Sajith Nair . Arent they similar ?

Kumbh Mela?? : The guy in pic is Anil Jospeh Alexander, a friend of mine whom i last tracked in Mumbai. Sajith happens to be at Pune, so isnt there a chance the 2 brothers lost each other a some place in between the Mumbai-Pune ..and both headed in different directions to reach the 2 cities ? ;-)

You can voice your opnions (comments) quickly by the way following ways:

by SMS: sms <Headless Today> your opinion to 52424
by email: HeadlessToday @ Indiatomoro.con {domain is .con bcos we are con men!)
by live phone in : 011-44444444 ( at 930pm in our program Centre-Cage!!)

else please comment here ;-)

P.S: We have not taken prior permission from any of the parties (sajith or Anil ) before breaking this story, as we think they will take this in good humour. We always belive in Braking news, without verifying it ;-)

Legend used in this Post: a) Death = Untimely death of Soumya, a Journalist in Delhi.
b) HeadLess = HT = a nuisance channel masquerading as a News channel
c)Business = Making Money with rampant disregard to morality, ethics & by distortion
d) CM = Sheila Dikshit, Chief minister of New Delhi

Prelude: Wednesday evening 2 of my friends call me saying lets meet for dinner at their place. I take my Mother-India's permission to go out, I also add I will be back before 12. She agrees adding "if it gets late stay back there & come early morning as tomoro is holiday". I went, had dinner it got over by 1130pm. My friends also suggest 'U can go in the morning, stay back'. I didnt stay back.

Gandhi Jayanti : I sat at home meditating on Gandhian thoughts & watching a movie on him for the 17th time. In between commerical breaks, I switched to news channels randomly to see if some blasts had happened! Thats when I saw a HeadLess Today channels going on with its MindLess business using its BrainLess anchors & some guests. As I watched it I just couldnt stop wondering at the 'art of making news' with crap & broadcasting the same in between ads. I also witnessed how quoting someone out of context the channel was trying to villyfy a CM. Also the difference between spoken & written, & how the news channel was trying to instigate people, spreading fear.

What the CM said in video: (exact words, in a compassionate tone) "... she was also driving alone at 3am. In a city like Delhi not safe for women, one should not TRY (she stressed here) to be so adventurous"

What the channel was spreading: HT showed the video as few times as possible, but kept on flashing "CM insensitive" , "CM: Soumya was being adventurous" , "students protest CM insensitive remark" , "BJP asks CM to resign"

They also showed a few 'students' ( looked more like thugs) who gave 'get well CM' cards, roses to the security guard at CM's residence. If i recall the faces right, all those 'students' were union members of Delhi university, of course from the opposition wing. The florist did make some business & the security guard was happy to get so many roses.

Also considering the vicious campaign was only being done by HT, CM didnt apologise. If someone begins to apologise to Nuisance channels like HT, CM will only have time for apologising.

My opinion : If my mother & friends can ask me to be careful returning at night, why cant sheila dikshit express similar concerns? Would she look better if she were to say "its unfortunate, we lost a gem in journalism, we will soon arrest the culprits " - without meaning any of them. What she said was perfectly correct & practial. Why cant these HeadLess people see the truth in it?

Also call centres are required to send a security for female staff in their cabs. Why didnt HT do something similar? Why did they allow Soumya to drive alone at such odd hours, when even ghosts fear to walk? Does HT have any policy about giving conveyance & security to female staff that stayback late? Is HT going on offensive against CM so no one questions the shameful part they have in Soumya's death.

Centre-Cage: Their barking against the CM continued till night where in their 'Centre-Cage' program - the one where their host stands in the centre of an invisible cage & does his monkey business. ;-) Another reporter of HT who thinks he is an intellectual ONLY bcos he wears spectacles, went around interviewed women who have to work late & together they declared CM was insensitive. One even suggested CM shud have given security to Soumya on that night!! ( Did Soumya/HT call the police to inform the route she wud be travelling, so they cud arrange a security? ) Why dont they understand that CM was conveying the safety message to the others who are living?

BJP barges in: In the melee, BJP realised they have a chance to ask for CM resignation. So they also issue a statement. 'CM is insensitive, she has to resign" - How long can the political parties & media think aam janta belives in statements. How can the BJP expect CM to resign taking 'moral responsibility' ? if any of these had any morals would they be in politics? Didnt resigning on moral grounds end with Lal bahadur shastri ?

Useless Questions: Also HT has been only covering Soumya's death since she died, inviting viewer opinion on everything from how it shud be investigated, how much more security delhi shud provide. at 3RS each sms HT is making good business, not to mention the adverisements they are showing. just imagine one second they are showing mouring staff of HT, next is a flurry of ads. It looks like programming, lets call it making money out of someone's death.

thanks for reading, comments welcome - have a nice weekend :)

Fwd Mail1: (Globe Pic) - Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 180 countries of the world considered by Transparency International

Least corrupt nations (ranking 1-5): (green) - Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Singapore and Sweden corner the top five spots -- Most corrupt nations ( ranking > 130) - Red -Bangladesh, Russia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Nepal -- Tie with INDIA (rank 72) - Brazil, People's Republic of China, Mexico -- Others countries - Ranking Switzerland 7, Canada 9, United Kingdom 12, United States of America 20, Malaysia43

Fwd Mail2: (Railway track Pic) - Insight into Decision Making.
A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track.

The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way? Let's take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make........

Answer: Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train's sirens.. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.

'Remember that what's right isn't always popular... and what's popular isn't always right.' - Everybody makes mistakes; that's why they put erasers on pencils.

Occasion: Few days back when i came out of a shopping centre I found my bike missing. Before I could fret an hawker there told me it was towed away. 50metres away was the traffic police centre & my bike would be there.

I was greeted 5 guys whose bikes were also towed, One of them a gawky teenager. pay 300Rs fine & I cud take the bike. Just as I was about to comply I was called by one of those 5 guys. By his body langauge I made out that he was the 'instant leader' there & had gathered trust of the remaining four. He tells me, "see, if we all pay fine its 6 x 300 =1800Rs, I have experience in situations like this. The cop will agree for 1200 ( 200 per head) & he will make receipts as if only 4 bikes were towed. We all can save 100 each, what do you say?"

I stood there, thinking between right & wrong. I was reminded of the above 2 mails which came as Fwd. I also resorted to my core values, prayed to God to give me the strength to choose the right & I told him "No, its wrong. I am not party to it. I have done one mistake parking in no-parking zone, now I dont want to add to corruption. I am paying 300Rs & going away" I went inside to pay fine.

As I paid, I felt someone at my back. I turn back, I see the teenager behind me. He tells me "Sir, what you said is right, so I decided to do like you are doing". We both paid, came out, thereby bringing corruption in India down by 0.000013% ;-)

p.s: Dont congrats me, bcos i wud have chosen the right, considering it was only matter of saving 100Rs ;-) .. but congrat me because today I complete 4 years

This post is to announce the results, winners & prizes of my recent contest :

http://www.mouthshut.com/di
ary/gblttq/Caption-contestWin-2
-Prizes

Contest A - Which was for cracking the original caption. There were many valiant efforts but the one who cracked it was Spikeguard. It was so to the point that the ones who came after him to the contest, simply chose to 'Copy' from him. They wont get any prizes, but now we all know how they passed their exams :P

Correct Answer: is 'When Doves Cry' . Now I have more questions 'Why/How Doves Cry' ;-) .. may be questions for another contest!

For the contest B results, ie for own captions. I hand over the mic to our honourable(yes, he is still !! ) judge Vivek (Veekey). Also a word of thanks to him for taking the thankless job & doing a good job of it! ;-).

{ I pass the mic to him ..ie I copy paste his email with results }

Most of them were hell bent on cracking the 'A' part, thanks to the curiosity u generated there.. not many wrote for B and whoever wrote for that did not say much apart from giving a direct relation to crying.. anyways here I choose the ones which I liked:

1st - Vibes: No woman, No cry.
Justification: I would have plainly passed this if I had not seen her second comment.
The song is from Bob Marley, a Rastafarian.. who simply put meant that, Please don't cry woman. Very simple, very true to the picture, its like man telling to her girl in plain words,"Please don't cry"..

2nd - Me_101:
1) Despondency vanquishes the beauty.
2) Expressions echo ones feelings.
3) Tears complete the discourse.

I liked 1st and 3rd, but after much thought, I chose 3rd.
Justification: Its quite straight to the point that, tears indeed complete the discourse.They are part of you, a version of your feelings inside and without which no emotion is complete.

3rd - Paul: My Joy and Sorrow is my own...
Justification:Hahaha. A 'Period' was all that was missing from Paul's line. Anyways, its the ultimate truth and a reality check to all. No matter who makes you cry or happy, at the end of it.. its you who has to deal with either of them..

Prizes: Spike & Vibes will receive prizes worth 1000MSP. Sailee & Paul will get prizes worth 500, 300 MSP respectively.

Thanks to all who made this contest a success by your esteemed particpation & once again congrats to all winners.

Why this contest : Many years back ..err actually few days back I was going thru an album & a certain pic made me comment. That pic also reminded me of this pencil sketch a artist friend of mine had made. Incidently both had something common in their caption!! So i thought of conducting a caption contest!!

The other reason is my hands are itching!! Now I have to give away something!! I checked I have MS points which I wont be able to carry in my coffin, so thought of spending it here itself on earth, on MS !! Since I dont have time to normally get into gifting on MS, I am using contest to giveaway.

What you have to do: is very simple. Look at the attached pencil sketch. The original caption given by my artist friend is "XXXX XXXXX XXX" ie the caption is 3 words, with 1st, 2nd , 3rd words having 4, 5, 3 letters respectively.

contest A) Can you make your guess of those 3 words - anyone who guesses exact will be the winner. if not anyone who get maximum closest either in words or in meaning !

Contest B) also try contributing your own caption not excedding 6 words!

Prizes : There will be one prize each for the best entries in both contests - prizes will be worth more than 1000 MS points. I will make efforts to get a 3rd party judge to evaluate own captions entries, if not I will do it myself! ( dont worry, i am not particiating..which ensures I will not be the winner) ;-)

T&C : The contest is open till 30 June 2008. No restriction on number of entries.

Hint: By public demand I am giving a clue for contest A - the pic has relevance to MS .. may be in terms of a topic, pic or person .. think of MSians too!! !! ;-) .. giving letter clues will make it too easy!

More Hints: Since I find many groping in dark, here are more clues - the pic i refered to is in Paul's album & also think of profile pics which are similar to the pencil sketch ( like girl, loose hair) & also of the 3 words one has a reference to one MS id, one is a verb, one is a word used in questions beginning with 'W' !! ;-). i just noticed Paul has 360pics in his album - so dont flip thru all, in the thumbnail view looks for any pic similar to sketch ..a girl, loose hair etc ... quite recent, in the last 10 days i guess !!

Hi, Everyone..

I am sure you all enjoyed the just completed IPL. Many things related to IPL made news one of them being the cheergirls issue. In fact the first post about it on MS was made by Ambuj somedays back. His post made me think of writing a whole revu on the topic, so I kept my comments minimum at his post!From day one I didnt like the concept of cheergirls! What with vijay Mallya bringing 'famous' cheergirls..i wish he had spent the money hiring good cricketers ;-)

I mouthpadded the topic "Are cheerleaders required in cricket" .. but thanks to MS obsession with their cliche phrase 'general advice', it came out as the current Title - "general advice on cricket cheerleaders"!! ;-)

I have written my thoughts in a revu, but this post i am using as i can attached related pics. I am against the use of cheergirls (esp the outsiders) for the reason that Cricket is too big a game to need some girls to make spectators involved in it. Cricket on its own is a crowd puller, so let no one try to add gimmickry into it. Also its not cheergirls adding value to cricket, but on the converse they are hitchhiking a entry into india thru populairity of cricket! I have also tried to present in brief my objections to it on cultural, moral & other grounds.

Please do read the revu and share your thoughts. If possible kindly comment only on the revu as that will help us keep the discussion in comments at one place only. The review can be read here: http://www.mouthshut.com/revie
w/General_Advice_on_Cricket_Che
erleaders-144404-1.html

P.s: kindly leave your comments in revu, I will come back and reply later or tomoro morning!

I am happy to be using the Diary feature of MS for the right purpose - to record 'an event'-ful 25-05-2008. This post if the First Information Report(FIR) of  the wedding of fellow MSian - Shalini (angel25). Its not everyday that an MSian gets married, also its not everyday that an MSians has wedding in your city, so the moment the invite came I confirmed my attendance.

The Planning: Abha, Mayunk , Kabir & Myself confirmed as soon as the mail came. When the rockstar of MS (Vivek) & latest Heartthrob of MS (Gautam) also were part of planning, we made sure that this is going to be a encounter of MSians, this time at a wedding. & history is witness that everytime MSians encountered MSians there have been shots, shootouts..this time they did it with Mobile cameras. They shot many pics :-)

Wedding: I reached there by 10am & saw the religious rituals were alredy going on. From a distance I saw shalini & groom seated in front of a havan-kund. My first reaction on seeing her was 'She is Very Useful' err i mean 'she is very beautiful' .. see some MS habits never die ;-). Shalini looked very resplendent & she was everything a typical south indian bride wud be made of. I am used to seeing brides who sit grim & complain of aching jaws after giving fake smiles to 600+ ppl that attend weddings but none of them for shalini. She was smiling all the time, as priest was saying the mantras, in between she waved to her friends whom she recognised in the crowd.

I sat there watching the rituals. All ladies downstairs were busy talking, while the men folk were busy discussing the outcoming legislative election results ..since neither was my cup of tea, i sat there sipping a glass of nimbu sharbat & watched the happenings on stage. The priest made the couple, sit, stand many times from place to place, i wondered if he was doing re-takes. The groom was serious, but shalini's teeth cud be counted from the last rows in audience. At one time the priest stood in between them & was seen explaining somethings, that instanly reminded me of refreee explaining rules of engagment before a fighting! it wasnt for boxing, as it turned out, i saw the guy touching bride's feet! Shalini surely seemed to be enjoying! please note that I am saying this with pinch of humor, as i saw it - the technical, ritual, religious aspects of it will be explained by Shanthi /Daya in comments section.

Soon Abha & family joined. Soon the couple took a break from ritual & came to the front edge of stage to accept greetings from the wellwishers. We went last in Q & suddenly the bride screams 'ABHA' & leans on to abha for hug, we wish the couple. Shalini asks us to enjoy the lunch assuring she will come down to meet us.In fact shalini introduced us to her father-in-law in tamil saying 'these are my friends from a site where we write reviews & we are seeing each other first time' ! I waited there thinking she will add that we were 'star writers like her'. she didnt add that sentence ..chalo koyi baat nahin ;-)

We go back waiting for Vivek & Gautam to join. Soon enough the 2 happening guys arrive in style making a million female heads turn in unision! ;-) Another round of introductions, meeting the bride, shooting & we head to dining hall for a many course lunch, but pure vegetarian! On return we again meet shalini & bid her goodbye & then disperse promising to meet again.

It was a special event bcos we were meeting someone whom we only knew through RRC & why miss a chance to 'Be There' on perhaps the greatest day in their life. If I recall right there has been only one instance before this when MSian wedding was attended by fellow MSians. Generations to come will also mention of this MS-meet. Ask me how ? ;-) read next para ..  

25 saal baad: Imagine 25 years from now Paul's son organising a wedding-pics-taken-with-mobile contest & these photos being entries there. How nostalgic it will be for Kabir to comment saying 'I was there' or Shalini's daughter commenting 'Hey thats amma & appa' or Vivek's Son saying 'Mera baap, photography ka baap' or Gautam's daughter countering that saying 'My fathers big resultions pics' ..add to it FE's son saying "this is nothing, my dad shud have been there to do out-of-focus photography" ;-) .. dont stop here, let ur imaginations go wild ;-)

P.S: 1) Vivke's tattoo is real, not chipkaya hua ;-)
2)Gautam sounds like Vivek on phone, but on land they sound different !
3)Kabir beat all of us in ogling at women - he was even found eyeing the bride!! finally I told him 'Abey apna umr ka toh khayal rakh' !! He also tried 'snatching' the bride's golden chain -wonderd if aage jaake yeh chain-snatcher banega ;-)
4)Pics by Vivek & Gautam -check albums!

Braking News: on hearing this viewers/readers are expected to apply Brakes to their lives, ie stop whatever they are/were doing to a screeching halt ( like the cartoon characters like Tom, Jerry come to a screeching halt in their chases)

The news today: is that the long missing brother of Dr. Sudipto has been found in Bangalore & soon a reunion of brothers is to happen. To divert any undue media attention he is so far only identified as Mr. J.

Flashback: Many years ago a certain family went to a kumbh mela. While the elders were busy praying, the 2 brothers went roaming. ( nationwide roaming was free even then!) They were both roaming hand in hand until at some point due to laparwayi of Sudipto, J got lost in the crowd. J recalls now that sudipto laparwayi was due to the fact that a film heroine's poster enamoured him & he didnt move from there! ;-) Being less talkative J cried, cried & roamed around the mela for days until it ended. After changing many trains he found himself in a new family at Bangalore.

Current scenario: Sudipto didnt let go the laparwayi & went to great height in laparwayi & even majored in that subject - in english its called Laparwayi-scopy or Laproscopy for short ! J went on to study engineering & works in an IT company. J even now continues to be less talktaive, soft spoken unlike sudipto who is undergoing own treatment for word-flu ;-)

Kahani mein twist: came when a common friend mentioned to J about a look alike. J sobbed and told the above kumbh mela story. Further confirmation came in the form of brotherhood came in the form of brilliance in( & on?) their head, as both are good at their subjects. I told J that sudipto is now a star writer on MS, to which J replied "i always knew since i had seen his word-flu(ency) in childhood". I queried J about the discrepancy in their colors as sudipto is milk white & J is wheatish. J responded saying that he doesnt believe in fairness creams ;-) but also added that the scorching heat of chennai where he spent good time may be the reason. the attached pics are from sudiptos album & J's pics were taken by me. he doesnt wear glasses, but i made him wear one to make a case for the non-existent brotherhood ;-) [2 pics attached, refresh & see both ]

Reunion: the whole nation waits to see two brothers meeting after nearly a quarter century, and running in slow motion towards each other sobbing 'bhaiyaayya'. After that they are expected to discuss what they both have, & sudipto is surely to say 'Mere paas star hain" ;-) readers are also encouraged to share their opinion as to how the reunion shud be conducted.

cameraman socrates ki saath main aam aadmi reporting from Bangalore!

P.S: due permission has been taken from both parties about this scoop, so no one is permitted a file any Public intrest litigations against me ! ;-)