Comrade Chakra

Well, early this week, two pieces of news looked up at me trying to say something:- 1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6681793.stm “Female hammerhead sharks can reproduce without having sex, scientists confirm. The evidence comes from a shark at Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska which gave birth to a pup in 2001 despite having had no contact with a male. Genetic tests by a team from Belfast, Nebraska and Florida prove conclusively the young animal possessed no paternal DNA, Biology Letters journal reports. “ 2. http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=10&theme=&usrsess=1&id=157116 “Mr Partha Sarathi Ghose of the state’s animal husbandry department today said that the hen changed its gender without artificial intervention at Kamat-Chengrabanda village in Mekhligunj sub-division. Officials of the department rushed to the village with the local block development officer after a paper published the news yesterday. Claiming that there were scientific reasons behind the chan...

I have been thinking. Well that’s what I do when I am doing nothing else (and its most of the time really). What are the things that I am really ashamed of having done and will never do again? Cheat in my exams…well I am not all that ashamed of it in the first place…so the second part does not arise. The lies I told to my parents/family? Hey get real…are you joking….consider the lies I did not tell. Ashamed, no way! Picking on those weaker than me? Offcourse not, that’s what every one does. In History books they call it war. Infidelity, well I have not yet got the opportunity and when I do, believe me that will be a proud moment for me. Being dishonest? Now that’s a tough one….but considering that we have already got lies and infidelity out of the way… that takes away most of the dishonesty part with it, does it not? I think it does. This confessional isn’t working; let’s try to turn it around (it is at this point that the lawyer will dramatically turn to the Judge and say, “Mi-lord, p...

1 Richard Gere kisses Shilpa Shetty 2 Iranian President Ahmedinijad kisses his childhood teacher’s hand. 3 President Bush winks at the Queen. The above has hogged the headlines for the last couple of weeks and it is all for the good. Why? Well, here’s why:- 1. Richard Gere kisses Shilpa Shetty It’s good. Brings Shilpa back in the headlines (and Gere also, for the guy is pretty much a has-been now). So it’s good for them. Gets a presumptuous publicity seeking Judge transferred from Jaipur to the obscurity of Kishangarh - good for the judiciary. Exposes the shallowness of the country’s moral police – that makes it good for the country and society, and …this is important…allows warped minds such as mine to fantasise on what it would have been like to be in Gere’s place (especially considering Shilpa’s height, the average Indian male would not have reached as far as her cheeks…) which makes it good for, well, me. 2. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad kisses his child hood teacher’s hand...

On the verge of stepping onto the wrong side of 30, many memories flit by, not all pleasant. Of the memories that are pleasant, the ones from my days in school, standout. I passed my 12th Std in 1991… from one of the not quite leading schools of Calcutta…sorry….Kolkata. It was a Kolkata without today’s multiplexes and shopping mall. For better or for worse, Lindsay Street, Chowringhee, Park Street were still the most happening places in the city and school days were much different from what they would be now, at least in one aspect. The difference was pornography…or more accurately, the availability, sharing and quality of it. Yes, the wonderful, stimulating and informative world of pornography was different then. Those were the days when the internet was unheard of…a VCR (or the cheaper VCP) was a possession of pride… to be found in only a few privileged households in the neighbourhood or for that matter in our circle of friends… and the colour TV….though catching on was still a novel...