Indo Pak dialogues- a fruitless road

When I have nothing to do, I prefer to talk. I suppose the Indo-Pak dialogues over solving the issue of terrorism rests on the same ground. Every single dialogue is a futile attempt towards curbing terrorism.
The Indian Govt is very well acquainted to the fact that why terrorism prevails in India, that includes issues graver than the Kashmir one. Still it behaves like an infant by continuously clamoring for Hafiz Saeed.Anti-India Terrorism does originate in Pakistan but the fodder it nurtures on is freely available in India. The motivation is floating in Indian air. One needs to just tap it which is not at all a tough job.
Time has come when government should act prudently and nip the peril from it's root, and stop playing charades.

I feel bad

This issue never made me feel incompetent, neither has it ever done my head in. But at times it has given me a reason to feel bad when I realise that I have never been able to 'enjoy' a head-phone....

hand got bruised, still happy I am

Today bruised my left hand with clogged gear shifter of Bajaj chetak.. hell lot of effort it needs for a shift, and has got a lot of play in it... still I don't feel bad about it, owing to the fact that it has been nudged out of the production lines... but not from our hearts... Hamara Bajaj
Note: play is a term used to define a peculiar condition of a machine element in which it has got undesirable motion in addition to it's usual motion, if at all any.
For eg.: a worn out bolt tends to sway orthogonally to it's axis when fitted .
:-D

I didnt like this movie

inglorious basterds is a falsely glorified movie, as I perceive it. The history has been pathetically manipulated and the subtlety is missing in the modus operandi of double agents.Finally I'll write what a movie review quotes:"A movie satisfying the desire of torture porn against Nazis....." But do watch it if you love fiction.... and unpredictable stories.

Minor Minor burning bright, MANIT students with all your might

Have you heard of ironies??? I am sure you must have. Minors is specifically what we can call a perfect irony. They have named it minor. But it has hardly anything to do with its name. It's as much enormous as diminutive it sounds to be.
They torture you, slit your throat, amputate your limbs...
Okk I am exaggerating...
But two minors a day!!! Which kind of right in Indian constitution permits them to do so? Still they call it a minor!! The only possible justification that I find is that they have Majors in the end, which are bigger than these counterparts. But then they should name these as Minor-attack and Major-attack respectively. However, sometimes... rather most of the times, the minors are far more torturous than majors, owing to the very little time they give us for preparation. Nobody is going to ask them, so why am I bickering? All I can do is thank them for one-subject-a-day for this minors. But I am sure that they will return me my 'gratitude' in the next minor, which will be probably two in a day, or may be even three in a day!!!

No more balkanization please

Telangana protests have begun once again. Govt should see to it that demands for new states should be nipped in their buds, by passing a rule freezing all the states from further fission. The demand for a new state should only be put forth when there is a serious adminstrative and bureaucratic failure in the state, to which a division of state is the only solution left. Such claims should be backed by reports submitted by constitutional committees. Further any violent protest for the sake of New state should be declared a national offence, since it further challenges the integrity of the country.

Why do I abuse........

Today I could have been in real trouble had I not narrowly escaped shouting swear words in front of one of my friend's parents.
I had just finished with the engine assembly workshop, which was specifically meant for sophomores and had taken along JD with me. I was returning home after looking out for some stuffs at Vishal Mega mart, which unfortunately I coudn't find. I decided to refill some fuel before leaving with JD, who had gone for susu. I looked around for JD and found him across the road. I shouted ,'JD!!!'. He didn't hear. I shouted again. Still no response. I was about to shout,' m@##@$# susu karne gaya hai ya gaadiya gin raha hai ', when suddenly I saw her parents. Whoaa... Goodness I didn't start my Shlokas. I greeted them with trembling hands, out of the fear that what would have happened if I had begun with my cat call. But I was happy that I didn't.
Maybe I should put a leash on my swear words... They come out in some of the most awkward situations across my life. The last time it happened was in front of some professor when I shouted 'behen!#!@#!' for Mahitosh and it reached the professor's ears earlier than it did to Mahitosh's. He turned back but I disappeared in the crowd... Thankfully, once again, I was also 'some' student for him so neither of us knew the other.
Another hillarious incident took place with 'Shefali'... My mech brothers know who she is... She liked me a lot... And it's apparant from the fact that there hasn't been a single electrical Lab when she didn't yell at me; despite all my pre-emptive measures to make sure she doesn't... Finally I started enjoying it and she gave me good marks in Lab. So it happened like this, she had just finished scolding me for switching off the supply to our experimental set up. Weird act by me of course, but I had just got an electric shock at home the previous day, so I was a little jittery with electrical appliances. Let's return back to the story. I was really pissed off with her behaviour since I was in I-yr and hadn't been through this before. I started grumbling, ' K#@$@ kahi ki. kya samajhti hai khud ko...' only to be interrupted by Mahitosh,' Saale baaju mein khadi hai... marwayega kya'. Phew.. she didn't listen us
Lets hope that things always turn up like this and never land me in trouble, till I shirk this habit of abusive disgruntlement

Listening to Grasshoppers

There can be no other book that can devasate your reverence for India, that you have within yourself, as much as this book can. In fact Arundhati Roy has stood apart for her communist ideologies, blended with the grudge, however justified, that she holds against the industrialists for forcefully acquiring the lands from the weak. This book is a scinitillating compilation and analysis of the events that reveal our country as a saffron chuvinist, the law and order as a bestial body and the politicians, whose image was ameliorating, as parasite. It consists of essays that were written in the wake of incidents like 13-dec, assaassination of hrant dink, godhra massacre, nandigram issue and 26/11.
The book makes shocking revelations, backed by proofs of webpage links from international press, that changes the way we think of the 13th dec parliament attacks. A lucid evidence that's given is that how can Afzal make a clear confession when his family lives in the kashmir valley where they are an easy kill for the people he is speaking against. As a matter of fact it is possible, provided the torure he was subjected to, like giving electric shocks to the genitals, thrusting iron rods into anus, wearing shirt for weeks which must b used to cleac toilet and forcefully made to drink urine. A fact which many people don't know is that afzal was a suspect much earlier than the attack and was in close touch with the STF. Then how is it possible that nobody kept an eye on his activities.
It also condemns the Indian media for the irresponsibility the show while airing a news. Despite the Godhra event, things havent changed much. The credit for Afzal being viewed as a public enemy is indisputedly claimed by the media. Further the death sentence issued to Afzal becomes a little cloudy when we read the supreme court decision that quotes ' The hanging would satisfy the collective public conscience'. It's quite disappointing to learn that the death sentence awarded to Afzal is not consolidated by any of the evidence, rather they make it more confusing.
Other issues that the book raises includes the hegemony of saffron politics, the credit of which is claimed by more than 'one' party, under which thousands of minorities have been killed in two seperate state organised massacres. There are explicit description of the bestiality bestowed upon those people, the brutal killing of former MP Ehsaan Jaffri, the heart-shattering interviews of victims and other ruthless events.
The most important issue that the book discusses is about the Supreme court. Specifially the Chief Sabarwaal case. But folks, there is a law that refrains people from condemning the apex court, so it'd be better if you read the book and spare me the trouble.
here is a link to one of the essays http://www.countercurrents.org/roy260108.htm

last few minutes

The clock has struck... marking the eleventh hour that crept in when I was sleeping. Or perhaps I wasn't. I knew this day would come but I hardly prepared for it. Time is swaying away like the pages of an open book fed to the wind. I can feel the stress in myself and sense it in my comrades as well. No wonder I try to abstain social networkin as much as I can, but seldom i do log in to express myself. The call of the hour is commitment, which I can't see in myself, but I have to deliver the untold promise. Two and a half years swept away like smoke and I ain't sure where i will be 10 years from now. When people ask me why am I preparing for management when I am into technical discipline, I prefer to keep quiet. Not because I don't have the answer, but I prefer to act rather than to speak. Parallely I am looking out for campus placement as a Plan B (or is it?). I will take the CAT and appear in the Placement window by the fall of this year and I got to get in one of them. Wish me good luck

Out of this incorrigible s****house

This is not just a pic in front of a Public loo.... This is a symbolic interpretition of our lives when we'd be done with this education system. I am not pessimistic about our system, it's just that it has been manipulated to an inconvenient form. Be it IIT's,NIT's or XYZ-IT's, or even the med-colleges,for that matter ... we all belong to this and stare bleakly at the prevailing situations.
So here we are (symbollically) out of this SHIT!!!
P.S.:Ayush is missing in this pic, since he is the one who is taking it

My B'day treat...

At last my teenage is over and I am 20. Most of the people look at this as just a normal event but as everyone knows I have got a different perception for this thing as well.
First of all I won't be a teenager hence no teenage problems.
I have completed 2 years since I am eligible to go to an Adult movie in any theatre.
I am trailing behind the lawful age of marriage by just one year.
I am only 5 years short of the age for contesting elections.
I am one year short of becoming eligible to avail for most of the loans like car, housing etc. This will contribute to annoying calls from banks asking for buying loan from them, which sounds more like a do or die threat than a mere telemarketing call.
Apart from all these I am nearing to the end of my college life, this one is a bit gloomy, and falling short of time to prepare for CAT. Have I even started yet?? I don't think so... Do I really want to? BAH!! I don't think so...
So keeping aside all these pestering issues, I took time to celebrate my birthday with my D-10 gang and couple of other college friends. I am really unhappy that Saproo's name slipped out of my mind while calling up people, but I promise he will be there in any other party I chance to throw. I didn't have the guts to tell this to him today.
The party was at Rajhans and everybody was supposed to reach there at 8 o'clock sharp. I knew no one would but Apoorv and Yash made it on time. I reached there as well and everyone moved in pretty soon, not that much soon but it's okay as compared to what they did in Ayush's party. After a couple of photo sessions, we moved inside, had the dinner and came outside, and all the way through we didn't behave with any etiquette at all. A friend, who lost his alcoholic virginity a few days ago, was constantly asking for beer which was hindered by durri's condition that he will prefer macallan whisky........................ what? okk I am lying he is a teetotaler. Any way we didn't spare him even that night from our leg-pulling session, to which he kept on retorting, 'pehle padhai, uske baad kuchh sochunga'( Study is my priority and after that i'll think of ____). Finally we rutted to D-10 headquarters where we spent an hour or so, discussing non-sensical issues and retreated to our homes.

IPL ain't no monkey business

This blogpost should have been a little earlier when the matter was burning hot. But even today the matter now and then jumps out of the coffins. I am talking about the incident of Pak players not being chosen in any IPL team which, Pak should understand,way beyond any political game. It's a matter of marketing and advertising. As it's quite well known that IPL players are endorsed for many purposes of which IPL matches seem to play a trivial role, as in the case of Kolkata Knightrider, who bagged the biggest share of money, last season, even after not performing well in the matches. They have to promote products, make sure that people are crazy for the merchandise, embark on promotional tours and the list goes on.This is simply not a matter of diplomatic game played to show them down or show grudge against them. It is rather a matter of 'what people want to buy and what you sell them'. For the last 2 years Indian juntaah doesn't seem to be having a good taste for Pak people, reasons need no introduction. We all know this emotion will last till the apocalypse but the intensity of such proportions is ephemeral. In other words, call it an off-season for Pak players. Now why would a good businessman think of investing in sweater-market during peak summers???
Pak bureaucrats should stop being petulant and wait for the 'winters' to arrive...

Crush Crash

Jan 31 '10,
7:00 am

I had promised my readers, whom I have failed in keeping my word of writing this diary regularly, that I shall one day write about my first ever crush. So it was essential for me to draft this post as early as possible to avoid this from losing in priority to other tasks and hence getting left incomplete.
I rewind back to Oct 21, 2007 the day I first saw her. It was Dussehra, the time that the Bongs find to be most disheartening. Three days of fun and gaiety finally moving into trance with the idols embracing muddy waters with nothing but the wooden frame afloat and aqueous ripples emanating and fading towards the bank like the moments of joy that we cherish in those three days . But unlike early dussehras, this time I wasn't going to be left disheartened, but shattered instead. Thanks to the girl that made me realise that everything I like is not within my reach always. It's however a matter of surprise and puzzle for me that she has been joining us for last many years, yet remained unnoticed by me. May be because I started staring at girls, shamelesly, only after I came to college, ya... this is mact-syndrome, precisely of M type, the most dreadful of it's kind.(M stands for mechanical)
Let's get back to the scene of crime, where Cupid shot me point blank. Destiny had planned the murder in cold blood.
I remember, so clearly as if it were yesterday, she was in a white attire, standing next to her mom. The sun had crept far enough to leave any traces of light in the sky. And smells of agaves(rajnigandha) tickling my olfactory senses added to the beauty of this serendipity. The halogen lights were shining bright, flashing at the idols that were ready to embark for the annual adieu. I was sitting aimlessly, but waiting for my friends, when suddenly my eyes caught the most subtle and serenely beautiful opus of God. I pegged my eyes on her for don't know how long but till I realised my stupidity. I tried to swallow the lump in my throat but was choked. I couldn't move an inch of my body, as if smitten by paralysis. I could feel the thump of my heart which was hammering on my chest. She was looking out for her father, perhaps, she tilted her countenance to every direction she could and caught my eyes. she didn't notice at the first encounter, but after a few more she sensed, which I realised through her discomfort in standing, the eerieness in my behaviour. I got a little jittery and quickly trudged away to a quieter place. The vicinity was not so romantic as it sounds to be, if at all it does. But this is how things appear to be, when you meet your crush for the first time. I bet whenever I saw her, that evening and eves to come, I was no better than a deer caught in a headlight. I talked to her in a stifled tongue, tried to make myself as comfortable as i could but in vain.She made me feel trivial everytime I stood in front of her.
The very next year I gathered courage and talked to her. I was still shivering at the time of year when people have their sweaters stuffed deep inside their cupboards. Anyway I asked her for her phone number, she gave it to me without any hesitation. But unfortunately I rarely called her up, how idiotic it sounds, yes I am a loser in this regard... As one of my friend argues, that if i look deep into my memories then I'll find many more girls that I can call my crush. So I did, but found none.
The reason why I am writing about this on 31st of Jan is because an year ago, on this very date, I talked to her for the last time. The last time I sat next to her. After this, I never saw her again. I don't know where she went, neither do I want to. I don't know if I should regret for not stepping forth or should I thank destiny for doing this to me. For now I seem to be more composed and thoughtful, not to forget the word 'human' while talking to stranger girls, as another friend pointed out. Now I can hope my friend( the same I just mentioned of)will not refer to this girl as pathetic . :-D

29 Jan '10,
I have been constantly expressing dissent over the meaningless security provided to VIPs, that is nothing but charade, a false assurance of their safety. In reality, the security that a 'common VIP' is provided with can do no better than save them from primordial weapons like spears and daggers. The security is alarmingly vulnerable to snipers and assaulters, or even a handgun for that matter. This is not at all hiddden from the authorities, then how do they justify choking of traffic on the name of security. In plain English, I ,as a common man, if willing to assassinate a VIP, can easily be stopped with much lesser security arrangements. While If I am a contract killer or an assassination expert, then these security arrangents will hardly fetter me.
Today I chanced to come across the caravan of an excruciatingly diminutive VIP. I inferred this from the fact that the traffic wasn't held for him. Unknown of this fact,I drove past the trailing vehicle of the caravan. After a while I realised that someone was shouting at me, however politely(I call it so, on grounds that no abuses were included). I looked to my side and found out that a mahindra, stuffed with cops was loosing temper since I was overtaking them. I paid no heed to them and kept diving at usual speed. After a while they drove ahead of me. I chose not to overtake them anymore to avoid getting into trouble, but what amuses me is that the VIP, whosoever, was actually feeling safe. And perhaps they are supposed to. Since it's only a common man who holds grudge against them.

Happy times are evanescent.. But they etch deep within

Seems like my frontal lobe has suffered extreme exhaustion and now needs rest. I am not expressing discomfort if that's what you are interpreting. I just came from Shilpi di's marriage and 3 days of ephemeral frolic has ended. And it kept my frontal lobe busy like never before. Frontal lobe is associated with emotions and humour, and these 3 days seemed like nozzles of my emotions. I didn't refrain any emotion from expressing itself, they were free to do whatever they wanted. Thankfully they were obedient enough to not manifest themselves at the wrong time.
Perhaps this is the first marriage ceremony where I wasn't acting like a hammer-headed introvert, pretending as if I have issues with everyone. I was impressively gregarious. ( I mean I impressed myself by acting like this)If time hadn't been an issue then I could have taught the entire MACT lexicon to Ritesh and Anunay who were extremely amused after learning the word 'Pelam'. I also came to know during these 3 days that only a handful of people in Bhopal are experts of HTC mobiles . So think thrice before buying one. I wish I could freeze the time to live the moment, but it swayed away. Life is back to being what it was, and I just recalled that I haven't finished the book that I am supposed to return tomorrow. And yes!! Happy Republic Day....!!!!

Education: A slow process of genocide

Not a single day has passed since last week when I haven't heard of news of students committing suicide. It's quite weird for sure, that all of them are hanging themselves when so many painless methods are available. I am not being sarcastic, instead I want to point out to the reason that everybody is discussing already- 3 idiots, the movie.

While watching the movie as many times as one can, nobody noticed one thing. It's Joy Lobo's ghost. The entire movie sympathises Joy and his suicide serves as a purpose, scantily however, to sketch the tailing portions of the story. In other words his act of cowardice complements the sole theme of the movie viz. condemning the education system. This is perhaps what is compelling the students these days, who were already at the brink of a breakdown, to take themselves to the next level which they consider as emancipation. Who is going to frame them for this act. But unfortunately they have shown nothing wrong. Students died even before the movie was there, but after it the cases surged.
The govt has tried every possible measure to improve the mental health of people but it appears that the students have been least affected. All of us clamour for a neo education system that rewards individual talent instead of conventional wisdom, while we are very well acquainted to the fact that it's a long and tedious journey. So are we embarked on it? The answer seems like a yes. But by the time we reach the destination we'd have lost comrades counting to numbers of enormous proportions. It's a Genocide, a disease that has to be controlled first, before seeking out for the cure.

Who is the culprit.. is it 'We'??

While last year witnessed so many incursions into the Indian territory by our petite yellow skinned neighbors... Am I being racist?? Okk then I'll call them Chinkeez... what?? Pankaj Singhania is feeling offended!!! (sorry bhai I didn't mean that) Then 'chinese' will do the part... So while chinese incursions were the hot curry of every table of discussion, people focussed on comparing the two nations on different aspects. Not surprisingly though, which should have been exactly an year before when India finished 50th with 3 medals in the medal tally of Beijing Olympics, 49 places behind China and 97 medals less. However We Indians are famous for our ability to gulp our foibles... well...not getting medals is too trivial for us to ponder on... So We celebrated the success of Abhinav Bindra all the way till We realised that he has been publicised enough and We can't take it anymore. Bindra broke the 84 year long goldless tradition of India in the Olympics for any individual event. I don't find a justification in celebrating his victory on a scale that it was done, for he had highlighted 84 years of our ineptitude as a Nation. Along with his gold came series of credit seeking claims by state govts, Archery federation and other 'God-knows-what-they-are-for' institutions. Sadly though, We all came to know the real story behind his success. To Justify our inability to climb the medal tally We have our own justifications. However the excuses that We give are no better than Dog-ate-my-homework, rather Dog-eats-my-homework will be a perfect fit. We argue that Africans have got a perfectly moulded body with fathom-long legs that perfectly compliment in sports which involve longer strides, while Chinese are petite and supple prototypes of human beings that are unbeatable in Gymnastics. Don't We sound a bit racial in this? Gymnastics is just one single chapter of the Chinese epic of Olympic medals. To contrast this point someone might present the fact of authoritarian government of China as a premise, where children are into state backed training schools and so that they always finish in the upper portion of medal count. This won't shadow our pathetic attitude towards Indian sports. We, as citizens, are not solely responsible for this apathy(you can take a sigh of relief). We share the blame with our fellow elite countrymen. Hardly any Sport body is being runned without a political interference. How can a parliamentarian know what are the requirements of a struggling sports-person? How can a politician know how to harvest raw talents?
How can a Retd. police officer know the agony of Hockey players who is far better acquainted to the pleasures of pinching a woman's bottom? Hockey Players are not millitants, so it'd be better if 'We' stop treating them like one and understand the situation.And talking of Cricket for that matter!!! stop criticising the game for it's popularity. No doubt it's a gift from the colonial times, perhaps that's why We should maintain it. As far as blaming the game for subsiding other sports is concerned, even US and almost entire Europe have got baseball and soccer where the money spent on these games is much bigger than We do so on Cricket, yet they prove their mettle in other sports... Wait!!!! Are we back on blaming education system??? LOLZZZZ !! Now this is one horrible vicious spiral. Everything zeros down to one culprit. Or is it really the culprit??
Actually there is no such thing as a vicious spiral. There are only cycles. You always have someone else to blame for your mistakes.

Winners of Marathon...

11:06 AM,
9 Jan '09,
Bhopal,
Finally Chhotu, Gampi and I won the Golden Jubilee Marathon, however from the tailing end. Ya thank you thank you!! for the praise... we actually deserve it... It has never been so overwhelming as we felt today... prize distribution had ended half an hour ago, and we were getting messages on our mobiles like " kaha reh gaye.. sab jaa rahe hai!!!"," abe saare prize distribute ho gaye...". At least we were not like Magga, who disappered after registration, that even we don't know where. But we saw him at the finishing line eating halwa, chips and other stuffs, that was actually meant for the runners.
Finally we returned home, not with head hung in shame, but held high... saale magge... hamne race to complete ki... :-P
Apart from all these nonsense, what nobody noticed was that this marathon could have turned into a stampede claiming important lives of our college. The marathon beagan with our Director standing at pole position(if there was any) and the students standing behind them. A photographer was clicking pics and everybody was posing for it. I don't know if I couldn't hear or what, but the race started like a blink of an eye, i.e. without any prior information. And everybody ran as if their lives were at stake. This could have possibly resulted to Director and couple of faculties ending in the ambulance standing by. But fortunately it didn't happen.

Operation Blue star: K.S. Brar, A story misconstrued

Lies, Myths, Half-truths and mis-interpretitions. How disasterous these words can prove to be, is no better explained as the 1984 cataclysm does. An year commemorated as an year of demise in Indian History.25 years have passed since the apocalypse, in which India nearly fell prey to anarchy and terrorism, took place. A new generation, to which I belong and is least affected by the ghastly incidents has emerged. Even if some of us belong to those families that confronted the riles, we are not as much in pain as our elders were at that time. Our Country witnessed a tough time and paid a heavy price for it. History can not be repaired, nor do we have any tool to verify it's veracity. Is it a truth or a charade, can never be known. All we can do is look for the factual and unbiased narrations of those incidents, if exists any. I chanced to read one such book on the 1984 "Golden Temple-mayhem", compiled by Lt Gen K.S. Brar(Retd). At the time of the operation he was a Lt Col and commanding officer of the operation.The author has meticulously explained every incident that occured in the wake of the incident- the ineptitude of Govt in nipping the threat in bud, the bureaucratic and judicial failures, the predicaments of Govt while taking the costly decision and the catch-22 situations the Indian Army was in and later was docked in after the operation was over.It will be very interesting to mention (from the book) that Bhindranwale was oiled by Zail Singh with patronage. Furthermore, the akalis found their own self in a free state Khalistan. So they never spoke against the antagonist of this whole drama, besides his fears paralysing them as well. Bhindranwale, along with Shabeg Singh, A retd. armyman and war hero of 1971, conjured up a plan of fortifying the Golden Temple to use it to clamour for autonomy. This was already being fueled by Master Tara Singh's campaign of recognition of Sikhs as a seperate community and seperate state of Punjabi Suba. Situation worsened in due course of time when Bhindranwale and his followers were intransigent in their demands and kept washing off any threat that sprouted. The cold blooded killing of Hind Samachar Editor Lala Jagat Narain, and DIG A.S. Atwal near the temple premises followed by the ineptitude of Govt. to arrest the perpetrators further added to their courage and the circumstances were totally out of control by then. In the meanwhile the Golden Temple was being turned into a bastion. Ridiculously however, the news that spread all over the country condemns the Indian Army for encroaching the dignity of Golden Temple, overlooking the acts of disgrace commited dauntlessly by the millitants. It was,however, the fault of strong and uncontrolled sentiments of people with the fuel of the miscommunication propagated by Media that the millitants were looked as martyrs while the Army was perceived as culprit.
In my whole life I have never chanced to read such a live and vivid description of an Army operation to the most precise detail. Brar, impartially confesses the mistakes commited by Govt. and Army while weeding out the terrorists. The writer personally believes that freezing the free press was the biggest mistake by the Govt since this gave rise to incoherent speculations which in turn raved up the sentiments. The entire operation of flushing out millitants has been explained from planning to execution, the dramatic situations that sprouted meanwhile, and the accurate description of emotions of people. This is one book of historical significance that will five you goosebumps for sure.The writer, in preface of the book, hopes this book to be useful for understanding the historical event of biblical proportions, and after reading this book I am sure that it will.

I think Joel Pereira got the beetle wrong

I am an ardent viewer of Times Drive, an auto review show, on Times NOW, and followed them blindly till lately, when Joel Pereira, one of my favourite auto show anchors, owing to the funny-quotient he adds to the show, commited a gaffe. In his review of the Volkswagon Beetle, a cute little bug with 150 bhp max power, 172 Nm max torque and 1980cc displacement, he called the vehicle to be overpriced at 20.5 Lakh. Let's not forget that beetle is a legendary car, better reminisced in India as Rampyari from the movie Akela. The Legendary tag of this car can only be retained if and only if it is owned by very few. The 20.5 lakh tag is perhaps not a constraint for auto enthusiasts who have ogled at beetle aka rampyari from time to time. It's an exquisite car and should remain a legend forever. So I think the beetle is aptly priced and Pereira seems to have missed the uniqueness of this car.