Friday, August 16, 2013

Rivaldo's (Nitin Gupta) piece on rapes in India

 
 
A satirical sketch on rapes and sex in India - very well written and presented for a subject matter so sensitive.
 
I have been through countless comments on youtube and other public forums, where "the Indian-culture-proponents" think that rapes are a direct consequence of India's exposure to the Western culture (Although I don't even believe in the existence of anything such as the "Western culture". The West is quite diverse and an amalgamation of all possible cultures). Just because they are more open about sex and don't wait for a license to have it, doesn't mean they go around raping anyone they want. Of course, you can find people gawking at/ogling you if you wear something revealing here, but they won't pounce at you just for that. It's absolutely nonsensical when people say that women are themselves responsible for sexual assaults and trust me I know many Indians who have lived in the United States for almost all of their lives and they still strongly believe in this theory. If that were true, how would you justify sex-mongers devouring two-year/two-month/two-day olds in India? And why is sex such a taboo? The Kamasutra and Khajuraho speak volumes of how sexually advanced we were in the ancient times, so what happened to us? Women are forced to wear veils in front of older men in the family; what exact point are we trying to make here - Men are perverts and you must hide yourself, even your family won't spare you, right?
 
- Eccentrica 101

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Blog monetization - A fad fallen flat (At least for me!)

I have been blogging off and on for over four years now. After putting immense thought in my previous blogs and mustering up only two readers at best (myself included), I gave up on blogging. But then around a month ago, I got captivated by the idea of monetizing my blog and for that I needed a wider audience, which I couldn't even imagine with dark sketches like my Capote film review. Amid myriads of "makeup" blogs, I thought reviewing products will be quite lucrative but little did I realize that for any makeup/beauty product there will be countless reviews strewn all over the internet. My reviews don't appear even at the 5th page of Google search and after that I give up - people read only the top few search results.
 
My blog monetizing journey:
 
Currently, my blog has around 1500 views (which I think is quite good for a blog in its nascent stages but the truth is that at least a thousand of the hits are my own :P). Without further digressing from the topic: Despite adding adsense widgets on my sidebars and below my posts, I have made only 5 cents so far. To attract a wider audience a) I compromised on my writing skills b) I commented on utterly random posts (I am sure everyone can relate to this) c) I wrote about things that matter little to me (jumped into the bandwagon) and d) Compromised on my ethics as a writer (I have always wanted to write to reach out to people, not to make money and given the largess of Google, I think I will disable advertisements after a month of looking at my "blog earnings".)
 
Lesson learnt: You cannot become a Gates or Ambani with your blog. Let alone making a decent living, you cannot even buy a meal with your weekly earnings (At least if you're a novice). Blog for your love of writing. Adding random product reviews to your blog only scavenges on your time and energy if your heart doesn't lie in it.
 
- Eccentrica 101

A Day Out in Tokyo - Sumida Aquarium

Sumida Aquarium is located right inside the Tokyo Skytree complex. It's home to many exotic marine species but what sweeps you off your feet are the penguins. They look so cute swimming in the tank and they're so tiny, you feel like stealing them. In addition to the penguins are jelly fish, numerous species of eel (garden eels look a little freaky but are super cool!), sharks, manta rays, seals, giant crabs, etc. Tickets are 2000 yen per person, well worth it if you're a wildlife enthusiast.
 
Here are some pictures and videos. Enjoy!
 
Penguins
 
Spotted and "Splendid" Garden Eels (That's what they're called :P)
 
Swimming penguins (So darn cute!)
 
Jelly fish 1


Jelly fish 2


Manta rays




Giant Crab
© criticalramble.blogspot.com

These videos are copyrighted and cannot be reproduced without permission.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Japan Trip - Tokyo Skytree

Ahh...The mighty, majestic Tokyo Skytree!
 
Built for broadcasting, Tokyo Skytree is the second tallest structure in the world - second to Burj Khalifa. Located in Tokyo, it is connected through Asakusa and Hanzomon lines and is right at the Oshiage station - which makes it very accessible to tourists!
 
There are two main observatories - one at 350 m and the other at 450 m. Although you have to pay 1000 yen extra to make it to 450 m, you won't regret it one bit - The view is AMAZING. You feel like a master controlling a video game - everything else looks so tiny from there.
 
At night, the tower seems to illuminate the whole sky. We went there two nights - one time it was blue and white, the other night it was purple and white. It's jawdropping gorgeous!
 
Here are some pictures taken:

Tokyo Skytree during daytime 1

Tokyo Skytree during daytime 2

Observatory at 450 m (Picture taken during daytime)

Observatory at 450 m (Picture taken past 5 PM)

View from 450 m - 1

View from 450 m - 2

Observatory at 450 m

Tokyo Skytree at night
- Eccentrica 101

© criticalramble.blogspot.com

Japan Trip 2013

Ahh...Back from Japan and I am absolutely in LOVE with it! Really miss it...People are extremely hospitable - very warm and welcoming; they want to help you out in every way possible despite the language barrier (people barely speak English there but that doesn't hamper their willingness to help you out!) - The first night when we couldn't locate out hotel, a gentleman walked over half a mile past 9 PM to help us find it. The public transport is excellent - the trains descend almost four floors - run in intricate networks connecting almost the entire country (I live in Miami and you cannot survive without a car here!). People are unbelievably honest - our professor at Kochi told us how one of her postdocs recovered her purse full of money after two days of losing it.
 
We visited three cities - Kochi, Osaka and Tokyo. Kochi is relatively smaller than the latter two but surrounded with mountains all over, it's majorly scenic - you will run out of memory taking pictures. Osaka and Tokyo are big cities - very developed and the subway system is amazing! The trains connect almost every nook and corner of the cities. Although roads in Osaka get deserted almost at dusk, Tokyo never sleeps. You can spot people everywhere even at the wee-est hours and the best part is that you feel safe walking on the roads even at 2 in the morning.
 
As for the weather, it was sweltering - made Miami look cooler. ;) We didn't expect it to be that hot but that didn't stop us from exploring the "Land of the rising sun". Sun is out at 5 in the morning and wakes you up instantly - reminds you to get up early and get going, not to waste any bit of the beautiful day!

Will upload pictures very soon!
 
- Eccentrica 101
 
 

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Off to Japan...

Dear readers (despite the number :P),

Thanks for stumbling over this venture of mine. :) I am going to Japan for ten days. Will be back soon and write more!

Love,

Eccentrica 101

Friday, July 19, 2013

Meerut girl Razia Sultan receives first UN Malala Award (Rediff News)

Razia Sultan (Image source)
How very inspiring! 

A former child laborer is now fighting against the menace of Child Labor by door-to-door campaigning and spreading the importance of child education. She has marched not only in her region, but across different parts of the country as well as Nepal.
 
A native of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, the fifteen year old Razia Sultan will be awarded the first UN Malala award to commemorate Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai's contributions towards protesting against Taliban's ban on women's education. She has already changed the lives of 48 children by admitting them into schools.

It's a commendable feat - emerging from the shackles of child labor yourself and being a proponent of child education that too at such a young age!
 
Go Razia! We're vey proud of you.

...............................
I would like to thank my brother for bringing my attention to this article.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Bihar midday meal tragedy: Principal on the run; minister attacked (TOI)

Click here for the link

  • Principal absconding - Raw material from principal's husband
  • Death toll reaches 24
  • Food didn't undergo quality check
  • Principal suspended - Is that enough? Where is she seeking refuge?
  • No arrests made so far
  • Heart wrenching pictures of villages digging graves for mass burial (Image copyrighted by The Times of India)
 
WHERE IS OUR CONSCIENCE -  Is it so easy to flee after murdering TWENTY FOUR young children and poisoning countless others??

- Eccentrica 101

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Bihar midday meal horror: 22 children die in Saran, 50 students fall ill in Madhubani (TOI)

 
It's a shame that poor children are served such trash in the name of midday meal - let alone being nutritious, this "food" claims their lives.
 
How ironic is this - this is the face of most of the Indian population and these kids DO pay school fee to attend school. Lets take an example, my mother teaches at a municipality school in Delhi and her students pay tuition. It's their money that has made my family live such a comfy life as we benefit directly from these kids' money in the form of my mother's salary. Now some will argue about how meagre the tuition is - let's just say "No students, no school; no school, no teachers and no teachers, no salary". This makes incumbent on my mother to teach her students well and she is among the very few who do their jobs in government schools.
 
I don't want to make this an oversentimental rant but my family and I are just next to primary in this food chain. We ALL pay taxes which should ideally go in the betterment of the society but we all know that only a fraction of it actually goes into the real work. Most money goes in the pockets of those who abuse their power and the result is no roads, no infrastructure, no potable water...NOTHING! We appoint these people and they are our servants but all they do is stash wads of our money and pass on their genes of corruption to their coming generations. This is a vicious circle that keeps going on.
 
This horrific incident is the direct result of people not doing their jobs. I mean how hard can it be? The government pays enough to live a decent life. Why do you want the money that's not even yours!
And then of course there is the tainted politics going on. The opposing party doesn't want the ruling party to stay in power - the easiest way is to bribe or in other words, just buy the conscience of people - it comes cheap, very cheap in India. There is over 1.2 billion, who cares about a handful, eh?
 

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

4 Pahariya girls dragged out of hostel, raped by 25 drunk men (TOI)

SHAMEFUL, ABOMINABLE, HORRIFIC, DISGUSTING - I will fall short of adjectives to describe this incident! (4 Pahariya girls dragged out of hostel, raped by 25 drunk men)

Rapes in India are on an all time high or at least we see them everyday strewn ALL over the paper, making new headlines everyday.

And I DON'T believe in the psychoanalysis of rapists; it's such a horrendous crime!

What/who can be blamed? The government? The laws? The sex taboo? The people? Ignorance? Everyone? Everything? I don't know what to say - I am speechless!

We definitely need very strong laws and strong action against the perpetrators. Twenty years or even life time imprisonment is not enough for rapists. We should set an example and show it to the ENTIRE country that if anyone sexually abuses someone, they will be castrated and then stoned to death! 

In a country like India, where a woman's chastity is her prime ornament, half of such horrific acts are not even registered with the police. It's the 21st century - we must get over such ridiculous beliefs and practices. Any kind of sexual assault is incriminating and there is nothing more foolish than acquitting the attacker on moral/cultural/social."duniya kya kahegi" norms! This encourages them to go one step further every time. 

I am leaving this article open ended. I really want people to participate!

Monday, July 15, 2013

Capote (Film) Review

 “There's such a lot of world to see. We're after the same rainbow's end,
waiting 'round the bend, my huckleberry friend …”

Those are some of the treasured lyrics to Moon River from the unforgettable Hollywood classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The naïve, eccentric Holy Golightly donning a black Givenchy dress, wearing her hair in a tall bun decorated with an ornate broach, blinking her lovely eyes spreading the splendor of Aurora Borealis, holding a long cigarette holder immortalized Audrey Hepburn both as a style icon and as an artist. A loose adaptation of Truman Capote’s novella under the same name, the movie made Capote a household name among the cinemagoers and that’s where I learned about him, henceforth this film became a must-watch for me.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/da/Capote_Poster.jpg
Image Source - Wikipedia
Capote is a film with uncommon excellence; it mostly revolves around the time when Capote authors his most famous book In Cold Blood and later years when he struggles with a mental breakdown so strong that he’s not able to finish a single book.

The film opens with a farm shot with blowing crop; you know it’s dark right from the beginning: the lack of color, the frosty, wintry backdrop makes it quite obvious. And there a ghastly murder! Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the openly gay writer of Breakfast at Tiffany’s plans to cover the tragedy and travels all the way from New York to Kansas with his confidant Nelle Harper Lee (Catherine Keener). There he interviews people, feels maladjusted because of the pariah-like reception he gets. Initially brushed off by Dewey (Chris Cooper), the lead detective, but then warmly welcomed by his wife, he somehow manages to speak to the suspects. In one of the pictures, he observes that the convicts put a pillow prior to killing the members of the Clutter family, as if singing them a lullaby to deep sleep. Riveted, he plans to write a non-fiction book documenting the killings. Rest of the story revolves around the ping-pong between the Capote’s buried love for Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.), one of the men and his lust for fame; how he gains Perry’s confidence (“I don’t want the world to think of you as monsters.”), the building of his affection for him, how Perry unveils his dark past and how each time on Perry’s inquiring, Capote convinces him that he had not started penning the book then even after having finished almost of the book. My favorite dialogue is between Nelle and Capote, when she realizes Capote’s feelings for Perry, after which he explains to her, “He and I grew up in the same house, while I took the front door, he took the backdoor.” Capote keeps finding lawyers to fend the case though there was an ulterior motive to it. The film ends with explicit execution of Perry and a distraught Capote crying to Nelle that he could have saved him, to which she replies, “Maybe not; the fact is you didn't want to…”

Philip Seymour Hoffman has portrayed the writer just as perfect as you could imagine. Playing an openly homosexual artist troubled with his fame and the affection he holds for a drifter isn’t easy. I saw Hoffman for the first time in ‘Punch-drunk Love’ as a sturdy goon running a phone sex business, the second time in Boogie Nights as a closeted gay man having strong feelings for the protagonist (And yes, there is the chronological discrepancy!), both of which are polar; led me into thinking with countless exclamation points, “What a fine actor! How versatile! Can play almost any character with the utmost ease!” This time contrary to the supporting roles, he is the protagonist himself. He wears the cloak of the writer so well that you can hardly figure he’s acting. You can sense each nuance, the slightest care he has lent – the way he puckers his lips when he sips a drink, the posture in which he sits with his legs tightly crossed against each other, the way he makes jokes, his speech, his voice – little does he falter. Clifton Collins is excellent as Perry Smith, with each detail well-studied, somehow reminds you of Steve Buscemi. Catherine Keener is amazing as Harper Lee and Capote’s close friend. The film in fact has several references to her book, “To Kill a Mockingbird” Rest of the actors, although brilliant shrink into vestiges.

Finally – Is the film actor’s or director’s? Undoubtedly, the actor’s! 

Rating - 5/5

© criticalramble.blogspot.com

Perfume collection

Perfumes in this collection:
  • Ralph Lauren Romance
  • Gucci Guilty Black 
  • Burberry Brit
  • Versace Versence
  • Alien by Thierry Mugler 
  • Nina by Nina Ricci
  • Samples - Marc Jacobs Daisy, CK One
  • Euphoria by Calvin Klein 
  • Victoria's Secret (VS) - Bombshell Summer Edition
  • VS Bombshell
  • VS Noir Tease
  • VS Body
  • VS Angel
  • VS - Very Sexy
  • VS - Heavenly
  • Aquolina - Pink Sugar Hair Perfume
  • With Love - Hilary Duff 
Will review all these fragrances very soon...

© criticalramble.blogspot.com