Losing Faith...

I have absolutely no faith in the judicial system anymore… The Jessica Lal case is alarming and very very disturbing. After 7 years of dragging this case on, the court finally acquits the 9 accused ....what kind of justice is that ??? The evidences have been manipulated and have been tampered with. Even the prosecution hasn’t done its job well. When asked in court why the prosecution was targeting Manu Sharma as the prime accused, the public prosecutor only said that “I was ordered to do so”. I’m disgusted by the way in which the glitterati has responded… There were hundreds of people present at that party and no one but Malini Ramani testified…I wonder how their families would feel if they were shot in the head and nobody did anything about it… People like Manu Sharma should not be let off scot-free just because they come from rich and influential families.
Sabrina Lal has all my support and I believe she should not lose hope despite all her personal losses during these 7 years. This is where I think public opinion can play a very strong role by forcing the courts to order a re-trial.
The problem is, the law does not permit the victim or the victim’s family to re-appeal. The state court has the right to appeal and I wonder why they are still tight-lipped on this issue. I believe the law must have provisions through which the victim or the victim’s family is given the right to appeal in a higher court of justice. I have already signed a petition to be sent to the President requesting him to make possible the re-trial of this case, which should come to a conclusion within a fixed time frame, so that Jessica’s family wouldn’t have to go through 7 more harrowing years of waiting for nothing. I hope this grief translates into hope – not just for Jessica’s family, but also for the several other families whom justice has eluded.
Since this is a high-profiled case, it is getting the much needed public attention and sympathy...I believe that the accused should be proven guilty and put behind bars or even sentenced to death...... and justice should trickle-down to even those cases which are not as high-profiled as this one. Glamourization of justice should stop.

Stop the Madness !!!

The situation on the cartoon issue is going way out of hand...... I think the Islamic community is reacting in a very unreasonable manner. I don’t know if the rumours are true....but I think a prize money of Rs.51 crore has been announced to whoever kills the cartoon artist.....Why can’t the government focus on more constructive matters ???? The progress in states like UP is so sluggish that sometimes I wonder where they get so much energy from when they’re burning effigies and staging unnecessary protests.

No one even complained when cartoons of Lord Buddha were released. Islam in no way advocates violence to prove a point. However, by protesting in such a violent manner, the Islamic community is only proving their lack of tolerance and narrow-mindedness. The cartoons should have been taken in a light vein. The western world is already prejudiced against the Islamic community since 9/11. Such extreme reactions now only reinforce this kind of prejudice, not just by the west but also by other communities worldwide. Please put a stop to all the madness and focus all that energy into more meaningful activities.

What a Day !!!

Well....today has been an amazing day !!!!!!!! To begin with a very Happy Republic Day to all my fellow Indians.....I didn’t attend any flag hoisting ceremony today coz I was busy remembering my speech for the finals of the A.D.Shroff Memorial Inter-collegiate Elocution contest.....something I’ve been nervous about since September ever since I was selected to represent our college..... Anyway, the good news is....I stood second…and I was awarded a cash prize of 5000 rupees (can u believe that !?!?!? ) and the biographies of Mr. A.D Shroff and Mr. Nani Palkhivala........God, its been a crazy month....just 20 days earlier, during the eliminations, I thought I wouldn’t even stand a chance coz the speakers were sooooooo good....and now I’m elated.....coz believe it or not, out of the 500 odd speakers in my age group in Mumbai, I’m second best !!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy !!!!! It’s a wonderful feeling !!!!!

I really really have to thank a lot of people for this actually..... firstly my dad, for making his silly predictions every now and then, my mom who never understood the humour in my speech and yet she told me to go ahead with it just bcoz I thought it was funny (luckily a lot of people laughed while I said it...phew).....Anuj, you have to take back your words now, My sense of humour is not non-existent !!!!! It’s just dormant !!!!!

I cant forget to mention Preeti and Shruti who must have heard my 5-minute speech an endless number of times trying to help me perfect it in every possible way.....same goes for Ena, Rakhi and Aaraatrika as well !!!! And yes Kartik and Vinay who’ve been sooooo sweet all this while....sending me best wishes and listening to all my gibberish while I was all worked up....Geeta kept saying “you have to win”....god, all the pressure....!!!
And yes, Rajam maam of course..... for giving me proper points and having so much of faith !!!


Wow....ok.....so after that was done, Shruti, Preeti, Sanjana and I decided to watch the movie ‘Just Like Heaven’...It's been ages since I watched a movie and today I just couldn’t say No.....I loved the movie.....its one of those romantic and mushy movies that you can keep on watching and u can dream about it later as well....I bet Shruti will :):):)

Then we went to enjoy the Mumbai Festival and walked till the Gateway of India, saw a dance show...it was sooooooo nice....there were palmists, artists, open-air buses, vendors and everything that one can imagine.

I don’t think people can quite understand the spirit of Mumbai unless they live there for a long time. You see, for me, Mumbai is not just a multi-cultural city....it’s a Lifestyle....something you just cant get enough of....I’ll post more on this later on.... For now, I just want to enjoy a good nights sleep, which I’m sure I’ll be denied next week………Thanks once again guys !!!!

Apologies

My most sincere aplogies to all those who've been hoping to see some pictures of manori. I know I promised that they'd be ready by sunday....but I haven't been keeping well for the past few days....I'm on my way to recovery and I'll upload the pics as soon as I can.

Manori Magic

As of this moment, my heart’s filled with mixed emotions…. On one hand I’m so grateful for having the friendship of such wonderful people over the past one month while we were planning Twister 2005 (I’ll post an entry about that later)...And on the other hand....I’m terribly sad that it’s over.....

After what I believe was one of the most exciting, stimulating and enjoyable events ever, we all decided that as organizers, we deserved an outing. So we packed our bags and set off for manori beach near malad for a nice little picnic....

The 12 of us (Anuj, Kartik, Shruti, Preeti, Nazneen, Rushabh, Amit, Harshal, Meenal, Punit, Gaurav and myself) had such an amazing time out there.... We played dodge ball, cricket and even volleyball (although Shruti and I really suck at it) on the beach. We also made a sand castle and we had sooo many ice-golas that I cant even remember....

Shruti’s weird love or rather preference for petrol was enough to keep us entertained ....hhahahaha....and Anuj’s enthusiasm made it so much more enjoyable….One thing that I’ll remember is that I played doctor to Preeti, whose nail was almost detached from her toe......something I guess I should be proud of....

Anyway, the most memorable part of the day for me atleast was watching the sunset from the cliff....God, how invigorating !!!! There’s this thing about sunsets....It always gets me into a reflective mood.... And as I sat on the cliff watching the sky slowly change from a bright yellow shade into tones of purple and orange, I realized how amazing this entire journey has been. When we conceptualized the event “Twister”, I never thought that I’d get so close to those whom I’ve worked with. I still remember the first meeting that I had attended and how formal I was..... and today formality isn’t even an option. This post is dedicated to all my seniors and colleagues who worked meticulously on Twister. Anuj summed it all up in one line....he said “this is one of the defining moments of my life in college”....And I said this to Kartik already that this friendship and this experience will be counted as one of my sweetest memories as a college student.

I still remember our Barista meetings, the late night chat conversations with Shruti and also how annoyed we used to be when Anuj and Preeti always turned up late. I’ll always remember Nazneen for being such an angel and Kartik who’s been such a gentleman. Without Abhishek, I don’t think we could’ve had so much fun.....Even Rushabh and Meenal who really really slogged till the last day....Harshal, Punit, Aarti and Sameer who worked so hard on the Mockstock event.... One image I’ll always remember is that of Sameer and how frustrated he was the day we had to shoot the video and how all that frustration eventually translated into a wide satisfied smile when the video turned out to be so good.

I’ll never ever forget the people I met and the bonds that were created. It’s one memory I’ll always hold on to. Thank you so much for making this sooo special guys !!!!!!!! I love you all