The reason that the actress was convicted in the first place was that in her latest movie, she was shown without a head-scarf in one scene and then in another one, she was shown consuming alcohol. And for this, she was sentenced to a year in jail and 90 lashes..that is, 90 times to be beaten with a hunter.

For the next few minutes, I just couldn’t stop marveling at the heights of ignorance and hypocritical behavior and male chauvinism possible. In a day and age when even countries regarded as third world, like India, have accepted to an extent that women deserve and are getting the same position and respect, the same everything, in some areas even more than men, is a country where a woman is being lashed with hunters just because her profession demanded her to remove her head-scarf (something every woman born in that country is supposed to wear since someone, a man obviously, in the old times in that country thought that they should, for unfathomable reasons, even if it is without their own will) for a few moments and consume alcohol, which nowadays is shown being freely taken in by girls and boys of all ages on screen and off screen in practically every country where it can be afforded.

Its just pitiable. Even today, such governments exist, which instead of ensuring the well-being of all their citizens, pass the judgement to treat a woman in their country this way. Agreed, their religious “rule book” says that a woman who removes a head-scarf and blah blah should be punished this way, but I ask them, where the hell do those rules go when it comes to men? Are the men in that country subjected to beating if they drink, and not professionally mind you…in their real lives, or if they sleep around with other women, or if they abuse and beat up their wives? Why do all restrictions always apply to women? And who the hell gave all the men in the world the right to make all the major religious decisions?

Some things in our world are just so humanly wrong, and its so sad that educated people who claim to be mature and highly sensitive to world issues go dumb when it comes to a woman’s rights. I’m sure the same country would have fought heaven and earth if a man of their country was subjected to such treatment by some other country or government. But they won’t do so for a woman. Of course, because according to them a woman is merely a second grade human!

I just want to ask them this – “Would you even exist if a woman had not given you birth? Would you have survived if your mother or your sister or your wife had not fed you or taken care of you when you needed it?” Before inflicting such horrendous pain upon another woman, who has rightfully not done anything personal against you, how in the world can you forget that your mother, or your sister (or for those mere quantities of men for whom a wife still matters) too was a woman?

Stop treating women this way, and give them the respect and treatment that they deserve as humans. I truly feel pity for the men whose peanut sized brains cannot understand such a simple thing.

One such was the one created for 9th June 2011, and it was according to me, THE best one created till date! I am putting up some pictures of it with this post, to remind some of those who might have seen it.

When I first looked at it, I didn’t understand what was so special about it. I mean, it really was just  a couple of strings placed here and there right! But then accidentally, I moved my mouse cursor over one of the strings and guess what….. a musical note played! And what note? A guitar note. So basically, the different strings in the logo, were different guitar strings, each playing a distinct musical note. I was so surprised and excited (I dunno why!) that I went ahead and experimented with all the strings to see what all sounds there were. And to make it a little more eve-catching, they’d associated colors with the different strings which got activated each time you played a string.

And while playing with it I discovered something more. You notice the little keyboard-like button just above the text box? When I clicked on it, it turned red in color. When clicked, consecutive keyboard keys produced the same variety of sounds produced by the different guitar strings on the picture, and the strings would still move and change color. And you know, with this new knowledge, I played ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’ through the “QWERTYU” keys…ain’t that neat!! This doodle was created on the 96th birthday of Les Paul, a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible.

Another interesting one was with the GOOGLE letters formed into clay balls and clay creatures. Created for Oct 12, 2011, this was on the birthday of Art Clokey, the man who pioneered stop motion clay animation. The google letters would take the shape of a live clay creature when the mouse would hover over it. Really cute and intelligent this one too!

To enjoy these doodle if u missed them, click on the following links (Disclaimer – The features mentioned herein may have slightly changed or updated) !!

http://www.google.com/logos/2011/lespaul.html

http://www.google.com/logos/

]]> http://www.sukrititalwar.com/2011/11/google-doodles-heights-of-creativity/feed/ 0 http://www.sukrititalwar.com/2011/09/la-tomatina-bangalore-cancelled/ http://www.sukrititalwar.com/2011/09/la-tomatina-bangalore-cancelled/#comments Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:32:55 +0000 Sukriti http://www.sukrititalwar.com/?p=1522 If NDTV news sources are to be believed, the La Tomatina festival which was supposed to be held in Bangalore as well as Delhi has been cancelled. Well, personally, I am pretty happy with the news!

The people who know me know that I am not a big fan of wastage of any kinds of resources, be it, food, water, electricity, paper or for that matter petrol. I find it very disturbing when I see educated people who are well aware of issues like global warming, hunger, famine and petrol exhaustion waste the resources available to them without a second thought. And if one walks up and asks them what they think about such issues, they’ll be all supportive and say profound things and what not. Hypocritical!!

Anyways, coming back to the topic in question. The La Tomatina festival should never have been proposed to be held in a country like India in the first place. Considering the poverty levels in India, when most of the population here does not get to eat a full stomach leave alone eat healthy, indulging in a sport of this sort where people throw tomatoes at each other for fun is sheer wastage of good food! Imagine how many people can be fed with those tomatoes.

I was very happy to see so many people opposing this festival, and am truly happy that it has been canceled. Finally people have started publicly opposing things which are so obviously wrong and thank God the voices of and petitions made by so many NGOs and people have been heard by the government. It really is high time all of us stood up for issues like these and at least voiced our opinions! See… it does work!

There are so many more things we should no longer sit quietly and endure or simply be indifferent to. Anna Hazare, though so hugely over popularized and hyped i agree, has actually managed to prove a point. That the government cannot forcefully impose anything on an entire nation without their will… not any more at least! There are ways to put your point across, non-violent, logical ways.. and they do work. All we need is the right kind of motivation.

Way to go people. Hats off to all of those who opposed the La Tomatina festival with all their might and made their voices heard. A big thank you to all the NGOs and social activists who took up this cause. Do continue the good work guys, we need more organizations like you.

Read more about La Tomatina in India cancellation here -

http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/bangalores-tomatina-festival-cancelled-134173?pfrom=home-topstories

He notices a crate of beer bottles and walks up to it. He takes out an empty bottle, smashing it into the concrete wall swearing, ”You are the reason I don’t have my wife”, second bottle, “You are the reason I don’t have my children”, third bottle “You are the reason I lost my job”.

He notices the fourth bottle is sealed and still full of beer. He takes the bottle, puts it aside and says,

“Stand aside my dear friend; I know you were not involved”.        Guys and Beer…….. I tell you!!

Many of you might surely have heard about this sequel quite some time ago, but I just felt like gossiping a little about it..  so am posting this up. The sequel is going to have a cast different than the first part. Its gonna be Akshay Kumar and Ritesh Dekhmukh (from the first part) along with Rahul Khanna, John Abraham, Asin and Jacqueline Fernandez. I never understand though, apart from having a different theme, if a sequel has different characters, howcum it still counts as a sequel. I mean, a sequel is literally supposed to have the same characters in a different story right? Well I guess anything can happen in bollywood.

Many a rumors have already being flying around concerning this forthcoming movie, but according to the latest one, Rani Mukherjee might be seen performing an item number in the movie. I know, sounds wierd right! Considering the powerful roles that she’s been doing of late, and the awards she’s received for No One Killed Jessica, an item number as the next move would be too long of a jump don’t you think?

Though she has not confirmed anything in the matter as yet, Rani says she’s open to the idea of an item number. Well, i guess after Shiela and Munni, Rani wouldn’t mind trying her hand at item songs! And come to think of it, she can even keep her real name for the song.

The pleasure that a bowl of pasta or a nicely dressed salad gives me is incomparable! Every time I cross a new eating joint thats cropped up on the path that I usually take, I feel like going inside and checking out the menu and see if theres something that I’d like to munch on. Even at home, whenever tiny little hunger pangs start pinching me, I start thinking of new dishes to make for myself with eggs, or brown bread, or maybe mayonnaise or cheese……… ooooh yum!! Stop it… focus!

I’m not much of a chocolate and ice-cream fan though. I know.. ironical! Being a food lover AND a woman, I should absolutely love chocolates or at least ice-cream. But somehow, when I feel like having a bite, those two options don’t crop up inside my head at the first instance. I think I get that from my parents. Both don’t like chocolates and are not too fond of ice-creams either. Hmmm..

Anyways, so as I was saying, I totally enjoy trying out different kinds of eatables.. vegetarian only though! So every evening as I am back from office, and am asked as to what I’d like to have as some refreshment, my eyes light up and I feel so excited. Oh God, I sound like a food maniac!

Going by the enormous love for food that I just declared above, you might have guessed that I would be plump and chubby. I’m not very fat I must say, but I would look a lot better if I lost some kilos here and there. You see I have this tendency to gain weight really quickly, which I again get from my father and grand-mother. So every time one of my T-Shirts doesn’t fit me, I blame it on my genes! And as soon as I do, the heavily oil fried cutlets of the day before start dancing in-front of my eyes, and theres a voice inside my head which says, you can’t blame it on your genes any more. Drat!!

So these days, actually the past few months, have been very excruciating for me. There are two big events of my life coming up and I absolutely cannot bear the thought of anyone calling me “a little over-weight”. Plus, I have so many thin people (cousins, friends, sister-in-law even my mum) around me who are way skinnier than me, and I do not want to look even slightly fatter than them.

So I have taken on this pledge to loose weight and tone my body within 6 months. And I have started my efforts since around 2 months ago. Stopped butter, extra oily food, junk food, started exercising regularly and anything that can help me shed kilos. Must say that telling myself to get up and go for a run everyday is one heck of a job and there are so many days when I become a real lazy-bum and do not go. But then, after one or two days of not doing it, when I look myself in the mirror, I scold myself and promise myself that I’ll go the next day. So the next day, even if my legs feel like 10 kilos each, I tell my legs, “Ha ha, I knew you’d do that” and go for my walk/run. Plus I’ve handed over the duty of reminding me of my mission to my cousin, and she tells me to drop and give her 20 more crunches when she sees me lazing around. I love her for doing that!!

And I’m not boasting, but it is showing results! Yes I must say, I have started receiving compliments like, “hey, you look thinner, what you doing?” I like the new me… :)

Yes I am going to continue doing the same for as long as I can, and am gonna stay in shape. But whenever, I cross a new hoarding on the street which shows a new kind of pizza or pasta that Dominos or Pizza Hut has launched, or whenever I see a McDonalds advertisement on the television…… my heart aches!!!

Very true lines indeed. Whatever little years of my life I have lived, I’ve spent struggling with trust. Done so many things, many even out of my way to gain trust. Trust of someone I’d really care about. And passed sleepless nights trying not to loose trust in someone who hurt me… really bad.. more than once. I won some… and I lost some..

By trust here, I don’t mean loyalty-wise. No, my concepts have been pretty clear on that always.. touch wood! By trust here I mean, faith in a person. Faith that a person who you regard as very close to you, would consider you the same… Trust that he’d love you back when you gave him all your love.. Trust that he’ll appreciate that you care for him… That he’ll realize that if after a little fight you’ve just taken things very lightly all by yourself, its only because you love him and your relationship with him, more than your stupid little fight… more than your ego. That kind of trust.

Why is it so hard for a person to understand such a simple truth sometimes. Why doesn’t he understand forgiveness, love and care. Why can’t he see, that if someone is trying to be normal, trying to move on even after he has behaved in such a hurting manner, that means they’ve done so for the relationship… they’ve done so because they care for him. Why does then he take them for granted…..

Nothing hurts more than the realization that the person for whom you’re caring so much, for whom you’re spendi

ng sleepless nights, for whom you crying away tears… looks at all of that like its some kind of drama. That he doesn’t give a shit for what you feel and what you’re going through. That he is just taking you for granted… thinking… “ah! she’s with me now.. she’s not going anywhere.. she’ll be alright…”

Believe me… the day the person who is being taken for granted realizes that.. they start dying inside each day….. thats when the person who hurt them loses the trust that he had gained.. thats when the faith that was there in someone’s heart for him… dies.. slowly.. and its so damn hard to win it back…….

And in my eyes.. taking a person who cares for you so much….. for granted like that, is the biggest mistake one can ever make. Making that person feel un-wanted, un-cared for… is a blunder. Mark my words…… that person won’t be around forever…. that care won’t be there for you when you need it.. you’ll lose that love… you’ll lose the dream that you could have had….. and only because you were too ignorant to see the love… you were just too full of yourself to give back some care… you were just too rigid to make that person feel wanted as well…..

There’s a limit to everyone’s patience… and that should never be tested..

Or else… you can never see yourself in the eye.. ‘coz you’ll know.. you lost the trust of someone who cared so much for you.. you’ll know you broke a heart that loved you……

Lenovo is exploiting Tobii tech in a very interactive way. The system is at heart just an infrared light source and a camera that observers a user’s eyes–by looking for reflective IR “glints” off your eyeballs. It combines that with clever software that works out where the eyes are positioned in space in front of the computer, and where they’re looking–translating the interpreted gaze into a corresponding position on the screen.

The result is that you can glance at an on-screen object like an icon and the system will pop up more info on that item. Maps can be scrolled or zoomed depending on the area of interest that you’re concentrating on, and more subtle UI events can be worked in to improve your workflow. These include things like dimming windows you’re not looking at, switching focus between windows based on which ones you what to see, and darkening the display if you’re not sitting looking at the machine.

Talk about user-friendly!!!

Here’s your very lazy writer trying to scribble something after such a long time..

I know I should be more regular with this, I created it after all and I shouldn’t treat it so badly… I even promised you guys I’d be publishing more stuff more regularly.. but none of that has happened and I truly am not happy about it. I actually have started getting these pangs of guiltiness which compel me to write more. But the truth is, unlike earlier, I really can’t figure out where to begin from…

There are so many times when I feel like pen-ing something down, but then I get lost somewhere down the line and stop midway. And then comes another spell of laziness where I don’t make the effort at all.. I can’t seem to decode why..

When I thought of creating this blog, I really had thought I’d pour out all my thoughts here. I wanted this to be my diary… where I’d right all my random thoughts, and I did for a while.. but somehow I find that rather difficult to do now….. not the writing.. the opening up.. the putting into words….. you get what I’m saying right?

Maybe its because there have been a million things running through my mind in the past few months. So much has happened in my life in such a short span of around 10 months that I really feel like my life has been through a whirl-wind. But whats funny is, that last year at about the same time, when my life was running at its usual pace, everything was normal, like it had always been, I used to write so much… there was so much to say and so much I could easily share. There were no new events and major happenings occurring in my life but still I wrote so much. And now, from the past few months, when life changing events actually have been happening for me, I have stopped sharing them. I’ve stopped opening up. The need.. the urge to write has mysteriously disappeared.

Maybe I’m just making a little too much of it. Maybe its just that my mind is a little too preoccupied most of the times and when I really do get a little time, I find something else to do.

…………. anyways…

I know it shouldn’t be this way. And I am sincerely going to make an effort to recreate the will to write again. ‘Coz I really don’t want to stop. Not so soon at least. Not till my heart tells me to stop.

I hope I can do this. And I need all the encouragement you can give me.

I don’t mean to say that I am a great astrologer who can predict stuff… I’m not even good at guessing numbers….. but I do have a pretty strong gut feeling at times… and it can be about anything… anything as trivial as what color a friend of mine is going to wear to office on a particular day, to huge stuff… and huge here includes life and death situations…..

And can I tell you a secret… what is shit scary for me… is that nine out of ten times… such strong gut feeling of mine.. comes out to be true…

This unknown element of life, is something which can bother you beyond imagination, but at the same time, its the element that brings thrill in life. I mean what would life be if we knew everything before-hand. Imagine that you knew what ultimate decision would be taken in a very important meeting, or maybe what a particular dish would taste like even before cooking it… yeah, you won’t have to put too much effort into it, but at the same time, the whole excitement that goes into making what it is or doing it the way its supposed to be done would vanish won’t it. No fun at all!!

I am a person who’s brain refuses to stop and take a breath. I mean literally…  I’m bugged by some or the other thought more than 90 percent of the time. Its like… my mind needs to feel stressed or something!! And as a result, I whack my brain too much. I keep thinking about stuff way lot more than anyone else in my situation would. Now imagine if a situation crops up in-front of a person like me where I can’t anticipate the effect or result of something or I can’t analyse something. I go nuts!!!!! And its not like I do it because I like it or something.. it happens automatically. I keep telling my mum also… God has given you a defective piece as a daughter..

But on a serious note… what is worth giving a thought to, is the thought that…… “What would you do if faced with a situation where you need to know the answer… but don’t know how to figure it out??”