Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and political correctness in the United States - what a shitty society America has become

It makes me laugh that saying Merry Christmas in USA of today makes some/many people offended, and that saying Happy Holidays is somehow acceptable. What an intolerant dustbin America of today has become. Companies such as Google - no matter how hard they pretend to be ethical, moral and a defender of rights - properly succumb to this political correctness fever every year. Thankfully, Bing rightly celebrates Christmas. Sometimes that is.

You can always, always see it on their faces!

Whenever a beauty pageant winner - be it Miss World or Miss Universe - completes one year of her reign and the fateful time comes to hand over the signature crown to the next chosen girl, you can always see a strange feeling of sadness mixed with visible jealousy in her eyes. On the stage, she pretends to be smiling, but inside her she isn't - and it can be seen on her face and in her gestures. And this is despite the fact that she had herself decrowned some other girl just a year back, and she always knew that the crown won't be with her forever.

Salman Khan's acquittal reminds me of scenes from Jolly LLB #SalmanVerdict

The photo below of a newspaper story almost clearly shows that the Bombay High Court judge probably knowingly gave a pro-Salman judgment [out of either bribery or Modi government pressure or dire threats or all three], despite strong evidence proving Salman's culpability in the crime. Reminded me of several scenes from Jolly LLB.

If a corrupt judge wants to free a murderer in front of well over a billion people's eyes, he can just quietly write that the evidence isn't evidence after all. Brilliant!

Related posts by me on Facebook here, here [alternative] and here [alternative].

I like FIAT and Fiat Linea

I've liked both Fiat and Linea for a long time now. I especially like Fiat's diesel engine that powers both Swift and Swift Dzire. I think the Linea is a good car, and it would've done better in the Indian market if not for the not-so-nice image that Fiat has here.

Pakistani and Turkish flags are so similar

Classic Putin!

‘Hopefully, no nukes will be needed’ against ISIS – Putin

Rishabh Singla claps with joy :)

It seems that Sikhs sometimes try to "fork" popular Hindu festivals so as to celebrate yet differentiate

It sometimes appears to me that the small minority within Sikhs which is radical in nature wants to dissociate itself from all things Hindu [popular Hindu festivals, for example], and yet it doesn't want Sikhs and their kids to miss out on the nationwide/worldwide celebrations that take place on these popular festivals. And so a new, different reason to celebrate popular Hindu festivals is created for Sikhs, with a different name.

Examples include Hola Mohalla, which has been popularized to coincide with Holi, and Bandi Chhor Divas, which coincides with Diwali, and Rakhri, which overlaps with Rakhi. The point here is that Sikhs do want to be a part of the nationwide celebrations that take place for key Hindu festivals and they also want their kids to not miss out on the countrywide celebrations, but they do not want it to look like they're celebrating Hindu festivals, and so they create/popularize their own reason for celebrating the day.

Update [21-Sep-16]: Similarly, Sikh emphasis on the distorted word 'Arjan' instead of 'Arjun' can be explained as an attempt to not be seen as having been derived from Hinduism, when it's the latter that's the actual word. But because the latter is a character in Hindu mythology, Sikhs have changed 'Arjun' to 'Arjan'. Same for changing 'Hari' to 'Har', 'Govind' to 'Gobind', 'Ishwar' to 'Ishar', and many more.

Update [27-Oct-19]: From Wikipedia. Another related link.

"Sikhs historically celebrated Diwali along with Hindus, with Guru Amar Das explicitly listing it along with Vaisakhi as a festival for Sikhs.[1][2][3] In late 20th century, Sikh religious leaders increasingly called Diwali as Bandi Chhor Divas, and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee adopted this name along with the Nanakshahi calendar in 2003."

Some actresses who went for plastic surgery now look somewhat different from normal humans

It's quite clear from the photos below that while Nargis Fakhri must've attempted and intended a surgical enhancement, the end result isn't exactly positive. Her lips look somewhat non-human, making her entire face itself somewhat non-human. Sort of slightly alien. Sort of like it's some cousin of the human species. It doesn't give a positive feeling.

She isn't alone. Many other Indian actresses - Anushka Sharma, Priyanka Chopra, etc. - have gone for nose, lips, and other jobs and some of them look a little weird.

Mixed-culture, mixed-ethnicity people might seem exotic, but they likely lead confused, dual lives

Two examples to explain what I mean. Sunita Williams and Mel Sabharwal are both ethnically Indian but have a look that's clearly hybrid - it's blatant that there are non-Indian structures on their faces, likely a result of having an Indian and a Western parent. Neither Indians nor Westerners think of them - and of people like them - as "one of their own".

To Indians, these hybrid/mixed people are good to gossip about, but these pseudo-Indians remain somewhat foreigners, who seem to look like Indians at the first glance, but feel distant when you try to go deep. To foreigners/Westerners, these mixed-race people are outsiders who are trying to call themselves American/Australian/British/Canadian. The end result is that these folks have one of their legs in the Indian boat and the other in a Western boat, and they aren't accepted completely by anyone [except, possibly, by other indian-origin, mixed-ethnicity folks].

Indian actresses who can't act try to hide this using anger, tears, laughs, smiles or by being an exhibit

There are dozens of such actresses in Bollywood, but a few examples make the general idea clear:

• Amrita Rao cannot act, so in Jolly LLB she can be seen displaying annoyance/anger, and even in this easy-to-express emotion, it's clear that she can't act.

• Parineeti Chopra cannot act, so she too can be seen in a perpetually-annoyed role in Shuddh Desi Romance. Annoyance mixed with anger, fear and tears is an emotion that's so easy and trivial to express that's it the first emotion expressed by a newborn.

•  Aishwarya Rai really cannot act, so she is either seen laughing or smiling endlessly like a doll, in a bid to pass time, or is usually dressed like an exhibit where she doesn't need to do or say anything.

 

• Even Deepika sometimes resorts to needless laughing to cover her hopeless dialog delivery.

 

• Alia Bhatt is a good example of an Indian actress whose acting skills are close to zero, and who tries to make up for this deficiency by resorting to unneeded wild laughs, short clothes, urban slang, etc. In Kapoor & Sons, for example, she had an almost zero role. The movie was clearly about, well, Kapoor and his sons, and Alia Bhatt was likely inserted into the movie just to "spread glamour" by showing Alia as a semi-clad doll.

What a confused and messy life Sushmita Sen has!

I used to think that she's a modern and smart woman. But when I read that she recently broke up with her tenth boyfriend, I had to think again. She hasn't married yet. She does drugs, drinks heavily, and smokes a lot. Is her personality, seen as a whole, seen as a sum of her habits and obsessions something that the public should be/would be proud of? I have doubts now. Her personality and her life appears to me more like a mess than something that deserves admiration.

[link 1] [link 2]

How safe, for a change, must Bashar al-Assad be feeling, with Vladimir Putin at the Moscow Kremlin

There was this delightful picture today on Sputnik.

 

 Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syrian Arab Republic must've felt so safe when his aircraft would've entered the Russian Federation airspace, just like I felt very safe once I was inside the Russian airspace. You know that no one can dare to violate the Russian airspace, so you know you're safe inside.

Showing admiration and respect for Russia and Vladimir Putin by choosing Aeroflot and Moscow

You shouldn't just admire or support someone in words. It should reflect in your actions too. I purposely chose Aeroflot instead of other airlines to fly to Istanbul [I could've taken Turkish Airlines to fly nonstop] because I wanted to exercise and show my support for Russia and for Vladimir Putin. It was an out-of-this-world feeling to be standing in Sheremetyevo International Airport, in Moscow, in Russia, in the land of Vladimir Putin. It can only be understood - it cannot be explained properly.

Radisson and Hilton - two more hotel chains that are close to my heart now

After Hyatt [link 1] [link 2], it's now the turn of Radisson [my wedding] and Hilton [my honeymoon, in three different Hilton hotels in Istanbul] to get added to the list of hotel chains that are, and will probably forever remain close to my heart.

 

How I would like myself to be, for her and for us

I'm aware that what I'm going to enlist is going to be a tall order. Tall order not to follow, but to follow always. Nonetheless, keeping these self-commandments in front of myself will help me to give myself to her as a husband whom she is supremely proud of, whom she treasures more than anyone else, and whose presence makes her feel all the time that she has been immensely bestowed and lucky to have him in her life. In no particular order:

1. Be her best friend first, and the other things later.
2. Never disclose her secrets to anyone. Be the one in whom she can confide with full confidence.
3. Give her your time and attention. Works are important no doubt, but she is more important.
4. Respect her parents and her siblings. Don't be like those guys who treat their wives' families with disdain and disregard.
5. Address her respectfully, using the word aap. Most guys address their wives using terms such as tu, or idhar aa; terms that I don't think I can use for my wife. She is the other half of your mind and body and is your treasure. You make or break her respect, both in front of her and in front of others. Never disrespect her.
6. Always think and act in her favor, and in our favor. Even if sometimes this means taking tough decisions, some of which she may not like or agree with. Help her understand how and why your actions and decisions will always be unconditionally in our favor.
7. Do not shout on her, unless it's really required. She's a tender flower in your life.
8. Duly accommodate her preferences, her likings and her interests. If she likes a particular dish which you do not like, order it too. If she likes romantic movies, watch these with her. If there are songs that she loves but you do not, play those too in your car.
9. Show her the world. The world is too large and too beautiful a place.
10. When with her, walk slowly, because she walks slower than me [learnt 1-Jun-15, 2-Jun-15].
11. Do not unnecessarily cut/interrupt what she is saying, or get into the habit of tokna. Let her speak her heart to you without any restrain!
12. Many husbands criticize their wives or gossip about them with their friends. Stay clear of this bad practice. Uphold your wife's respect everywhere, and never gossip about her. If you want to coach or criticize or guide her, do it directly with her, and not with others.
13. Do not proclaim to her your beliefs about your own personality. These beliefs might not be true, but if proclaimed, will probably cause her to alter her natural behavior towards you in order to "compensate" for the characteristics/qualities about yourself that you've told to her. Be the way you are, and let her get to know and understand you naturally.
14. Your word should have a meaning and a value. When you say something to her, like when you say "I'll do xyz", you should mean it ["walk the talk"]. Let her be confident that when you tell her something, you mean it. And don't forget, she remembers all your "I'll do xyz" statements :)
15. Recognize the fact that just like me, she too can at least sometimes be genuinely occupied and may not, at that moment, be able to give me her undivided attention, but this doesn't mean that she doesn't want to. Remember all those infinite times that she gives you all her attention, care and time. Give her space to be occupied at least sometimes.
16. If she accidentally does something that's embarrassing to her [such things, like belching/burping and many more, invariably happen occasionally], try to minimize her embarrassment. Do not explicitly or unnecessarily discuss that/those embarrassing moment/moments. Almost as if nothing happened, as if you didn't notice anything, so that she can feel easy.
17. Be her always-strong man. Do not engage in unnecessary complaining/grumbling about cold, heat, tiredness, weather, etc. Be her force whom she can always look up to with confidence.
18. Respect the place where she worked [Deutsche Bank, Ldh. branch]. Since your bank accounts are with the same bank and branch, uphold the honor of the place where she worked by excelling in business. 
19. Be careful about how you balance your relation with your mother and your wife. Always attempt to maintain harmony between your mother and your wife. Never let either of the two down. Don't take sides either.
20. More to come...

That day in 2010 when Deutsche Bank suggested that I open my bank account in HDFC or ICICI

It was probably August or September of 2010, and I was only 24 years old. I needed a good savings account plus a credit card in order to make payment for the GMAT. I already had a savings account with The Royal Bank of Scotland [RBS], but my branch was in Noida, so I naturally wanted an account in Ludhiana itself. I believe in using products and services that are modern and high on features and technology, so I went to Deutsche Bank to open a savings account. I don't know why [maybe because I was dressed casually like a student], but after listening to my requirement, the bank guy suggested that I go to banks like HDFC or ICICI to open an account. I was not only baffled, I also felt insulted and angry. While walking out of the branch, I thought, one day I'll surely open an account in this bank and avenge this insult.

 

Over 4 years later, now we have no less than four bank accounts with Deutsche Bank's Ludhiana branch [the only branch in Punjab], including both business and savings accounts. Today they treat us like VIPs, unaware that we've shifted to them from the same banks like HDFC and ICICI to which they had directed me back in 2010.

 

#RSDONE

Modi's tears are fake; Modi bowing down to Parliament is fake; Modi is a shrewd politician

Modi's first and foremost objective is to polish his own image on the world stage. India and Indians come later.