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Showing posts from 2014

Celebrating 7 years since we said goodbye to Harry Potter

I'm trying really hard to finish this article before midnight. Because midnight will end this rather special month. Thanks to BoingBoing , I realised that this month marks the seventh anniversary of the seventh book in the Harry Potter Series, which was released in the seventh month of the seventh year in the new millennium. As Caroline Siede points out, our generation has been shaped and defined by Harry Potter. Yeah, I've had my fair share of a love-hate relationship with Harry Potter. I've even blogged about how I dislike the series in the past, something that, I always joke, lost me five friends on Facebook. And yet it is Harry Potter that shaped my adolescent years, just as Enid Blyton shaped my childhood years. Harry Potter, for us who grew up in the middle of it all, is much more than ever could be for those who came after us, those who never have felt the anticipation of waiting for the next book to be published, while dreaming up their fates, and being disappoin

Ab Ki Baar, Modi Sarkaar: The Aftermath

That the BJP led NDA won this general election came as no surprise. However, the fact that the BJP itself got enough votes to (in theory) form the government single handedly did catch me off guard. Turns out that the only exit poll that got it right was Today's Chanakya, a poll I regret having scoffed at. I was giddy with excitement having read the numbers and trends that appeared within hours since the counting process began. I'm not that politically inclined, and rarely voice my opinion on a platform which invites people who are wrong. Nevertheless, I cannot resist commenting on the biggest democratic event in the history of the world. There are, however, a number of trends that can be observed in this election. Chief amongst them is an anti-incumbency sentiment, and a pro-Modi wave. What's the reason for the pro-Modi wave? Why is it that I, even though I've never visited Gujarat, rooted for him as PM for the past five years? Looking back, I honestly have no an

Dangerous Democracy With Arvind Kejriwal

Hello, and welcome to this pilot episode of Dangerous Democracy with Arvind Kejriwal. In this series, I will attempt to expose (cue: dramatic tone) the dangerous ideas that are being propagated by those who seek to be elected. Let's start with the underdog here. The AAP, a nascent party, has suddenly sprung out of the wilderness as the most dangerous party in the world. It feeds on the peoples' fear of corruption and fools them into a false sense of security with its innocuous sounding name; which portrays it as something that is for the common person. However, behind the innocuous façade, and the X is worse than Y game lies a dangerous mind. The mind of Arvind Kejriwal, politician wannabe, and complete moron. For once, let's not go over the utter idiocies of the AAP's short term in Delhi, which ended in a temper tantrum that would put any five year old to shame. Let's go to the point before they were ever elected. To the book that should have warned us of the

An Appeal: Don't Vote for the Aam Aadmi Party

I'm perfectly SERIOUS. This is NOT SATIRE. Do not, if you love this country, vote for the Aam Aadmi Party in the upcoming general elections. I did not support the AAP throughout its campaign. My reasons were simple. The AAP was and still is a party of agitators and idealists, filled with people who raved and ranted about how rotten the system was, yet decided to fearlessly enter the same arena with a promise to clean up; yet with absolutely no history of governance, and no experience running an office. To some extent, the AAP reminded me of the Indian National Congress, which agitated to give India independence, only to hand over power to Mountbatten immediately afterwards, because they found themselves woefully ill-equipped to govern a country, and the crises that followed independence. Now, given that the AAP has tasted power for around a month, I'm convinced more than ever that the AAP does not deserve another win. In fact, I'm convinced that the AAP would be the a