We venerate loyalty- to our schools, employers, institutions, friends-as a virtue. Loyalty, however, can be at least as detrimental an influence as it can be a beneficial one.

Loyalty by its definition is complete faith in someone or in some cause. By this definition alone we cannot understand the detrimental side of loyalty. In its simplest form, it is observed as a virtue that reassures us that amidst the vices of man, there is some good. In most things that bring immediate good, we tend to not look for the harm that it could cause in extreme cases. Thus we always tend to ignore the detrimental aspect to it. It is possible to discern the detrimental side to it if we look at loyalty in its extremes. 

The serious leeward side of loyalty is the blindness it brings. A complete lack of cognitive behaviour because of peoples near fanatical loyalty to a faith, are the causes of destruction and devastation today. A more relevant example is not available to confirm the veracity in the fallibility of blind faith. It is a characteristic of terrorism. The fanaticism and insane loyalty to a cause, where they pledge allegiance to their faith, and see it fit for numerous atrocities to be committed.  All attacks on humanity or prevailing harmony, which are globally condemned, are all acts conducted by such intense loyalty to a cause. This loyalty leads one to ignore all reason and then perform dastardly acts.

Intense loyalty is not only harmful to others, it can very often be, in fact more often be harm to ones-self. When it comes to loyalty to God for example, it brings with it blindness; a kind of fanaticism again but which harms the self.  When among the religious, become ill, if they believe that god or his miracles will alleviate them from their disease, and wait for another miracle they are doomed. People are believed to have refused medical attention to treat their cancer, because they believe that God is the one who put in a cancer, he is the one who will remove it.

These are the more severe effects of loyalty which make it as detrimental at least as much as it is beneficial  As it is so with everything, it is so with loyalty as well, in its excess it is extremely harmful.  Everything must be reasoned out. Even loyalty as godly as it maybe, sometimes has its shortcomings.

Jaane Tu..Or dont u know.

The Craze that is following the latest release is amazing. i don't claim to be a movie buff, but i generally have an idea of what the public reactions to a film just released are. The first 2 days following a release are really busy, because a film releases on Friday and then comes the weekend, and its generally with good Pre-release marketing and a rather favorable review that the shows go house-full.

The week that follows manages lukewarm to warm business at the box office, because the days now turn to the working days, and mostly people go to work, and those who don't are engaged in other responsibilities. This takes up the majority of society. The remainder are those who have the time to go to the movies. Even among those there are few who would prefer to watch it with someone so wait till the someone is free, and those who wily few who managed a ticket for the opening weekend.

This particular film has done so well over these few days, that almost all shows every where have been declared HOUSE-FULL! Imagine that. Owing to the fact that it was well marketed before the release, a very very favorable review, and that most people among the target audience lie in the age group depicted in the movie are lazing around with the vacation season over them. 

The movie released 4th of July, and today is the 8th of July the first Tuesday where the shows are declared house-full an amazing three hours prior to the start. Even i managed to see the show with front row seats for the late night show which was declared House-full soon after i bought tickets which was around 8 hours before show start time. 

This is what some site had to say:

The film fetched a flying start, collecting 80% + in morning shows and was 100% in noon shows across the country. It's one of the biggest starts of this year. The reports are very good and the film is expected to enjoy a strong, meritorious run in days to come."

                                                            -http://www.indiafm.com/trade/boxoffice_update/84.html

Well, there you have statistically, 100% in noon shows! I have never seen a response to a film like this.i suppose they initial response is going to go a few more weeks, this is when we can really figure the population of a region. 

Like Ninad (aka Belo) a friend of mine observed today- the title of the film suggests to the people, Whether you know ...Or not - that you just might not get tickets.

But Pappu can't dance

If there were ever a person by the name of Pappu, he would surely by now be hiding some place safe with an attic. And when he'd have to move around he'll have a doggie bag with 3 holes (2 eyes and a nose) handy. Thats all he could do, even to change his name he'd have to reveal it. Everyone seems to have taken a strong passionate liking to the idea of defamation of Pappu!

It all started one sunny morning, when the papers and other forms of media our protagonist enjoyed, accused him of have a chronic problem of failing. All over the tube people began saying itne saal hua pappu pass nahin hua! . At first it was only over the channels that aired children's shows, which pappu didnt really mind. But then shows that aired more popluar adult shows like saas-bahu serials, and the news began transgressing his private school records. When such ideas were in print pappu without being able to stand it any more, decided to take to the courts. Thats when they agreed to let pappu pass. Finally Pappu pass ho gaya!
How much of a relief it brought pappu to have the record set straight was not revealed to the public, who merely took joy in the fact that the guy passed the grade!

They mongers of such slander went a step ahead and even showed people that a really old fellow as pappu who just passed the 10th! The papers and media ever since have referred to people who pass the 10th standard long after their contemporaries as 'Pappu' . He even consulted astrologers who refused to see his horoscope saying that their horoscopes foretold trouble if they tended to his. It seemed nothing was going right.

then there was a lull. nothing much was said about pappu, at least not openly. he still when passing along areas where collegians gathered and 'hung around' heard allusions being made to him when someone goofed up. but that was the most.

Come 2008, it seemed to him that the stars decided to finish off any remaining self respect, they may have missed in the first round. They were rubbing everything he never was right in his face. This lean, shy and reserved fellow was being teased. he was never all those things they said he was....and he knew they knew it. they were just poking fun. He couldn't understand, why they were after him.
They were all after him. He wondered if there were any in his ancestors that were the cause of nearly all his countrymen having such an unpleasant sentiment towards him. he looked up libraries, in search for historical events that connect him to traitors or a variety of bandits.
He found nothing.
One day, he finally gave up, and decided that he would merely change his name. that would end his misery. he went to the court and submitted to change his name to something with more weight. After a few minutes the form was accepted and stamped by a giggling clerk. Pappu was no more, he was now Raj!
A wave of triumph swept over him. he felt he had just defeated all the evil spirits that surrounded him. All he had to do now was go over to the bank, and ration card office to get them to recognize the name change.
He was whistling on his way home, expecting his life to change for the better. At his doorstep he stopped to check the mailbox. It contained a cheque for a PAPPU of 10,00,000. And that not the bearer, but PAPPU himself must cash it.
Why me was all he remembers thinking before he fainted.

Trying stuff out

This is me again, trying stuff out on the iGOOGLE page.
This is an amazing innovation from google, which allows us to add our favourite tools on to our google home page.
to make it lucid...i have on my google home page, my gmail, my facebook account pages, orkut pages, my blog(which i am accessing right now) and more cool stuff like thoughts for the day, the date time and weather, google maps!!!!
I hope this gets posted on the blog correctly!
Kudos to GOOGLE! :D

Make like the birds...

We have grown up knowing and taking for a fact that Birds fly south for the winter. Now, just because we make allusions to dumb people as bird-brains doesn't necessarily make the original owners of those brains dumb.These migratory birds, leave the northern regions in search for alternative food sources, or the 'beat the cold'. The northern parts of our planets can get frigid in the heights of winter, and so these birds fly south, where the climate is far friendlier. So also for the southern parts, where the birds fly North for their winters. These are migratory instincts, that the birds and animals have.

An instinct is an inherent disposition of a living organism to a particular behaviour -Wikipedia.en

The seasonal movement of a complete population of animals from one area to another. Migration is usually a response to changes in temperature, food supply, or the amount of daylight, and is often undertaken for the purpose of breeding.

-Dictionary.com

The instinct of migration was true even to animals and mammals. From the prehistoric era onwards man has recorded that mammals like the mammoth find that the grass is greener on the other side, often of the equator(considering all the continents were joined together). They all went in search of better land and places where food was agreeable to their palates'. And when the climates changed, they would return, to the very same place from where they had left.This shown in the popular film ICE AGE 2. When the ice begins to melt, all the animals begin to move from their habitat.

This instinct i feel was a part of the humans as well, but a little different in nature. Whenever our ancestors found climates were unfavorable, and could not carry on in the same location, they moved. i suppose the difference is that they moved away, which is to be understood different from migrate.Apart from the accounts of Mohammed-bin-Tughlaq, who kept moving his GHQ from Delhi to Daulatabad every so often, we really have not come across anecdotes of migration by our ancestors.

However i feel it is time that we took to migration and learn from the birds and animals. With the seasons of today, we are faced; at least in the city of Bombay, with torrential rains. Where in other countries rain falls, here it comes down with something that can only be described as a wrath or vengeance. And Thanks to all the reconstruction and badly spaced out areas, not to forget the low lying sections of our 'mega' city water collects, claiming lives, or worse, destroying everything that makes life live-able and sparing the life itself.

Why not make like the birds, and leave town starting Early June, and return to where we were, just 3 months later. We could make migratory patterns of our own. We could collectively leave this city, to go anywhere. Pack our stuff, and leave.

They city already comes to a standstill every so often in the rains. Us leaving would just make sure there is no loss of life and distance the inconvenience in living in this season.The picture clearly shows what this city is put through during the monsoons.An entire stream of traffic just clogged,waiting endlessly for the road ahead to be cleared. This is worse than a complete standstill to city life. We leave for a few months, and effectively bypass the devastation, saving us the frustration, anger, irritation and other negative effects the rains have on us. All the Governing body has to do it make if official. June to September is Bombay's Vacation Season.Whats better is we don't have to go only to one place each time, we could plan in advance, and go visit different cities. Every year a new place to see. Its not impossible to do, and since the city would be deserted, maybe the conditions that bolster the chaos causing rains could be corrected. Till then, Lets just Make like the birds...