Category Archives: sirens

Apr 11

QUOTAQUOTAQUOTA

The Supreme Court of India has upheld legislation for dramatically increasing the affirmative-action quotas at institutes of higher learning. the legislation effectively takes the quota to 49% and encompasses all sections of society that belong to scheduled castes and tribes(22%) and other backward classes(OBC’s who get most of the new 27%). This does not include those who are economically well-off, for obvious reasons.

Given the treatment meted out to the so-called ‘lower’ castes in India over the past few centuries at least, this is a reasonable first step towards social justice. now if only they could bring the same attempted fairness into agricultural policy and foreign relations, we’d be well on our way to a just state. i’m not holding my breath on this front, however.

For all the furore raised by certain sections of the news media about the system in institutes of higher education in india, the fact remains that the government has rather consistently stated that this will not affect the ‘general’ category and that the quotas will be met through increased capacities rather than restricting entry. of course, whether the government is willing to spend the necessary amount to bring the same quality or pulls a u-turn on this, effectively crippling the quota system, will determine the final outcome of the legislation.

Oct 5

thursday random random

because this weekend starts today!!!

1) Back in the USSR – The Beatles. i first heard this as a cheesy euro-rap song from the 80s… in 1992!!! the original is WAY WAY better.

2) Never Enough – The Cure. story of my life, and a lot of others’ too. robert smith is more awesome than you. oh you thought i was talking about never being able to meet expectations? well maybe there’s a bit of that in there too.

3) Where You Stand – Coldplay. yes, i have them in my library and no, i am not ashamed. it’s just that sometimes, it sounds so good. but they do get overplayed everywhere

4) Hotel Yorba – The White Stripes. i don’t understand the song, but bounce bounce bounce relax for a few seconds, bounce! such a catchy ass song that i love it!

5) Swing Low Sweet Chariot – Eric Clapton. i first heard this song sung by Bender on futurama(#16 on the list). this version makes that version even more awesome and hilarious. otherwise, not such a fan, what with the religion and everything

6) Every You Every Me – Placebo. angry nasal power pop. some like it, a lot don’t. i like.

7) Lies(live) – Violent Femmes. from the greatest hits album, this one has a sitar jamming session. what more could a guy ask for?

8) Jeb Rand – Bedouin Soundclash. if you like the Clash, chances are you already listen to this band. you wouldn’t think a white dude made this music if i hadn;t just told you

9) The Ghost of P.I.M.P – ToToM. a ‘reverse-mashup’ with Zach dela Rocha’s version of ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ laid out over 50cent’s P.I.M.P. interesting, if not always pleasing album, and this is one of the not-so-pleasing ones.

10) Jakov’s Suite – Tapes ‘n’ Tapes. excellent song by a pretty cool but relatively obscure band, song was introduced by this awesome person with whom i have lost touch since 2006. if you’re reading this, EMAIL ME!!

11) You could be (mine) – Guns ‘n’ Roses. unleash your inner beavis and butthead and ROCK THE HELL OUT!

12) Liar Liar – The Castaways. Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels soundtrack. hot damn this is right up my alley.

i think a dozen is enough for now. add any interesting comments down below, or else visit one of the many hot little sites on the right and leave comments over there.

Oct 4

who in their right mind could have predicted this*?

take out the invading army, and living gets a little bit easier.

yeah iraqis, who the fuck do you think you are?

don’t you know you are supposed to devolve into a sectarian civil war, tearing all thoughts of the united lives you used to live out because of 4 years of white-bread assholes bombing you?

Thanks to the indefatigable and elegiac Lenin’s Tomb for both the above links.

(* the correct answer to that rhetorical question is: everyone who didnt have their favourite defense contractors’ heads stuck up their asses)

Sep 30

it might be… it could be… it IS

an empire!!

what gives 100(technically 75, but everyone else is tainted by association) assholes, jerkwads and all-round all-star cobags the right to decide the fate of millions of people in a supposedly sovereign, democratic country thousands of miles away? if you’re not thinking empire, you’re not thinking straight. in light of this, a short letter follows:

dear Democrats and Republicans,

Fuck you and the Aircraft Carriers you rode in on. in every single way possible, any further words you say are thoroughly discredited as being nothing more than the hand-wringing of courtiers of His Majesty King George the Lesser and Duke Richard the Impaler.

Love(wish you knew what that was),
Almostinfamous

Sep 29

an unusual place – part the first†

this is a bit autobiographical, or to put it in less fancy terms, a noodle-blog. of course, the blame for all this goes to the manliest mannion around and his little essay filled with angel dust and other magic, so he gets to take the blame (even for my crappy writing) :)

i was never a straight-A student. i could have been(a contender too, while i’m at it) if i had put in the effort, but i never saw the reason to do so. getting along at 80% with minimum effort meant more time for me to spend dreaming, or with friends, or dreaming with friends, or something along those generally unproductive lines. i had a lot of fun. let it never be said that i hated school or the teachers there. i always went, and went happily. i just couldn’t bring myself to scramble for the top spot. the teachers at my various schools would always put in my annual reports the phrase ‘can do better’. my mom, being mom, tended to take that point as an excuse to indulge in excessive goading, along with the occasional threat that i would end up as one of many unsavoury things such as waiter/busboy,bus conductor/ticket inspector or somewhere in that perceived social stratum. but even that never really motivated me to actually do better. i could never get into the academically ultra-competitive mode that urban high school education in india generally grinds into you, mostly because i didn’t see a purpose to it*.

fast forward a few years and today i find out that i top-scored in the first year examinations for the BFA. it does not elicit from me a whoopee!! response, nor do i feel like nit-picking at the flaws in my performance(how could i, really?) but it does give me a great deal of reassurance that doing something that i actually enjoy can work out. a highly unusual feeling. all the hours spent reading about photographers, equipment, styles, events, not to mention the endless hours behind the cameras and in darkrooms do not drain me of my enthusiasm to keep doing it. if this is effort, then there’s heaps more where that came from.

† more parts will spew forth if i ever get around to clarifying the many words i am now accumulating in the drafts, answering such questions as: what was THAT part? from the time you were fast-forwarding. oh, you haven’t read the post yet? do so, and come back to these notes later!

*of course it had it’s purpose, and that was to make you an engineer whether you liked it or not… most of the 100-odd kids that graduated with me, including those that pursued the holy-crap-that-stuff-is-hard biology stream are now engineering graduates working for some software company or the other,or in the states, making quite decent salaries but of course unsatisfied and thinking this has something to do with their level of pay. none of them hopefully read this. i don’t want any competition.

Sep 25

WELL WELL WELL!

scenes of unrestrained joy and happiness rang throughout the streets of india, along with plenty of fireworks and the latest music, as india beat pakistan(barely) in the final of the first ever world twenty20 cricket championships. it was a match to remember, and the excitement was barely contained in the AIF household, leading to quiet a few whoops and hollers.

regular blogging will resume, now that there is no exciting ass cricket to distract us.