{mosimage}A news that disturbed me a lot was the rape of a spastic 21 yr old girl, who is also deaf & dumb, in Tutucorin. She was dwelling on the road side and feeding on the alms from the devotees. She had been raped and is pregnant but the irony is that she is not in a position to realise what had happened to her. Someone had filed a case in court for her abortion. The court had approved it and asked to put her in a orphanage. I lost 3-4 days sleep over this matter. I asked my mother whether we can adopt that girl. My mother said that she is not ready because of the legal complications involved and told me to take it easy because she had seen many such cases earlier. What kind of people we are? Why we turned so brutal that we are indifferent towards the injustice of underpriviliged? Will we react the same way if it happens to our family member?

I was really shocked to see my once fave actor Arvindswamy's marriage falling apart. Still more shocking was that it was attributed to his affair with his secretary. He was not in showbiz to get infactuated to some glamourous co-star, that's what makes this case unique. When he was a star I remember Manisha and Madhuri stating that their parents will be thrilled if they choose sophisticated and well behaved gentleman like Arvindswamy as their groom, but his current state of things show that every relationship / marriage undergoes a point of fatigue. If the protagonists manage to overcome this phase, then they are bound to rebound in a stronger way.

{mosimage}My friend SMSed me that she had changed her religion. Admitted she is bit a religious girl and she was God fearing. Initially I thought she was joking, but then I learnt that she was really serious and had got converted to another religion. When I called her she started giving a lecture about her new religion and she said that all these time she had been doing wrong being in the religion she was before. What to say, it is her personal opinion, but one thing what I can't understand is "Do religion need to be taken so seriously in a human life?" I personally believe that there is a super natural force above us and there is no denial about it.

{mosimage}Last week a news in "Gulf News" was disturbing me a lot. It dealt with the rising trend in the suicide of Indian workers (54 in 2003 to 85 in 2005) and Indian workers form the majority of suicide attemps. Even shocking was the bias of the report that it tried to project that Indians attempt suicide wherever they are, thus washing off the hands against the exploitations here in UAE. Every suicide victim has a wrenching & moving story behind them, some come here for repaying the debts, some for the dowry of their sisters). Many pay downpayment of about Rs. 1 lakhs to the agents to land in the job that fetches Dhs. 750~800 (approx INR. 8500 ~ 10,000) with false promises of overtime jobs.

{mosimage}Many times in our life we develop a strong liking towards a particular individual or thing, but we don't get them. Some of us become sarcastic towards it in the name of "Once bitten, twice shy". But there are some people for whom those incidents couldn't make any dent in their personalities. They believe in "Life just goes on..." I read one of the interviews of Sushmita Sen few years back. (I love the interviews of Tabu & Sushmita Sen as they give really sensible quotes unlike other dumb starlets). It was the time when she had broke up with her then boy friend - Vikram Bhatt. The question in the interview was that she was claiming that even though she & Vikram had broke up, he was her good friend, was it possible?

{mosimage}Today I sighed a relief that all the hype and hooplah that surrounds the Valentine's Day is finally coming to an end. It was really sick to hear the radios and media screaming love all over since February 1st. Whatever might be the story behind the Valentine's Day, my opinion is is that it is fuelled and foddered by the card manufacturers, florists, music companies and jewellary shops to increase their revenues. More numbers of love affairs an individuals have, more merrier those business men.

{mosimages}Sometimes we don't understand how certain things happen. We will be thinking of something / someone from our good old memories and to much of our surprise we would have stumbled on them that day / time. Similiar thing happened to me yesterday. While I was combing my hair this morning accidentally I looked at the calender, it had a caption - "Every journey begins with a single step". Somebody had written and signed with similiar line in my diary on the very first day when they came into my life. She had written in her words as "The secret of getting ahead is... getting started". She is someone special and always close to my heart. Whenever I was in trouble her words soothed me to greater extent. She had more faith in my capabilities... much more than what I had in myself. Physically she was around me for three-four months only, a crazy goose who'll drop just a line as a reply for 10-20 mails I had sent, but whenever I was in trouble she comes reaches out to me without any invitation to bail me out. Yesterday evening I was terribly frustrated and came to room with a headache, to much of my surprise that I got excited, I received SMS messages from her after a lo.....ng time. Sometimes life is really beautiful.

{mosimage}I think I had touched this topic previously but this starts from where the previous blog ended. We all admit that man is a social animal and we can't exist in vaccuum. That means we need others existence to survive, rejuvinate ourselves and populate, but the happiness lies within ouselves. But I believe in due course of time the concept of "social" has taken different form that completely overshadowed the felicity of loneliness. I am proud that I am one of the very few people who enjoy the loneliness among those people who claim that they'll go mad if being alone.

A Foreword: {mosimage}This is not a music review blog. I downloaded the songs of Thambi for only one reason - Vidyasagar. I didn't notice the lyrics for 1-2 times, then suddenly the line "vendaikayin kaambai killi..." caught me because it was novel. Then I heard the whole song for its lyrics. There had been so many nostalgic songs, but this one was with very simple lyrics that everybody could identify with it. Literally it shook me, because most of the lines have happened with me. Not only me, anybody who were from small town / village would have experienced these things. Those lines evoked thousands of memories.

2005 has finally bid a good bye and 2006 has started. Admitted 2006 was a shaky start at my workplace, hope it doesn't augur the way things will happen the coming days.

2005 had so many sweet memories and terrible moments, but when I look back I remember with fondness. 2005 had me in all ways - responsible and wayward, happy and gloomy yet there was a change in personality.

There was an auspicious event in our family which we were anticipating for a while - my sister's marriage. I was never a responsible brother or a dutiful son, but I am more than happy to help my parents atleast financially in the marriage. That way 2005 was a memorable one.