I have been asked a couple of times on how i feel about the whole Mumbai-terror situation.
yes, my feelings about this situation are in reference and comparison with the place i now reside, a first world.  All the things i say might be non-patriotic to a resident Indian who knows no better. but anyway, here is my answer : i feel ashamed.

Ashamed, from the cause of the incident to the way it was tackled. The nation is now busy pointing fingers in all different directions but themselves. it was a shame that in spite of the threat and several successful terror attempts, the government ignored any security measure to prevent such an act. And when it happened, it was a shame to see that the people who were in charge of national security had no charge of the situation for nearly 3 days. It was a shame to call the elimination of the terrorists a ´success´ after the death toll of 175 lives.
Ashamed to see how the police of India operates with locals running around all over the scene of crime. Misinformed police constables guarding the scene with no practice, info or clue on how to react.
The so-called elite forces were the biggest joke of it all. The Indian men in black, a bullet proof vest and a primitive gun, no glove, no helmet!… i am pretty sure they still use – jai, bhajrang bali – as their war cry. so primitive!
A helicopter drop-off made the Bollywood nation skip a heart beat. “Wow, just like in Hollywood movies“. It was embarrassing to see the first soldier trip and fall on landing. All that stunt just to discover 5 dead bodies…shame.

the drop off

The terror target were not random places in Bombay. these were places frequented by western tourists, specially Leopold café and Taj Mahal hotel. the other spots were aimed to hurt the locals. Not any random Pakistani who just sailed in, can figure these places out. They have been there for a very long time. they took their sweet time to work out this plan while the Indians were blowing their own trumpet with a space program .. shame.

With all due respects to all those lost their lives and relatives and the injured, i hope that this is wake up call for India. But I’m pretty much sure that the state of affairs will continue unaltered in my life time.. shame.

urban jungle-5, originally uploaded by barnumz.

And so, i have decided to take up yet another photo challenge. This time it is for Metro Express Global photo competition with the theme ‘Urban Jungle’. I have had a few ideas in mind, but had to narrow down to the most practical ones as the time and resourses were limited. One of my ideas incorporated a few people/models in prime parts of the city. Most of the volunteers bailed out on hangover alibis. Therefor, we (Paula and Me) had to find other ways to get this shoot done. After walking around half the city, we decided to do a chai-latte at Baresso, where i told her my plan B, which was well recieved. All we needed was a fish and a spherical bowl. None of us being pet owners and no access to the internet, we raked our brains for petshop. Paula claimed that she has seen one at Amager-Center.
“ok, finish your chai, then we go buy the fish and shoot it” said Paula to me. A statement that could be so much outta Tarrentino movie.
We managed to get the fish and the bowl, and my idea was to shoot the bowl in the middle of the city by dusk as to get the vibrant colors of the sunset. But i later realised the the cold temperature outside might kill the fish before i get my shot. So. i decided to shoot it on my balconey instead. so, here is the outcome.

This is an experimental project for an upcoming short movie shot in time lapse photography. This movie consists of 306 photographs stitched together. This kind of photography is called time lapse photography.

One cannot but notice or be annoyed(as in my case) by the teen fashion of Copenhagen, specially the group that is a crossover between EMO-lite and student-metrosexual. They seems to have given up their rock star dreams on the their MySpace.com. Whatever their dreams were, be it the dream of coveting a record contract or being a virtual groupie getting the backstage feeling, seems to have lost hope. Neither did the long loading time, the chaotic layout, force fed music, psychedelic colors and a meaningless link surfing, help those desperate teen souls.  

The teens of myspace might have moved on, but they surely have taken the layout with them to the streets. The psychedelic and fluorescent colors, Palestine scarf and the so-80′s attire. No, ‘Retro’ is not the key word, its is more like ‘Rare-Retro’. They seem to be creative.  Well again,  I’m not sure that ‘creative’ is the word, unless one can ’create’ an organized mess.

This fashion is a fad, but is for sure chasing the ‘bling-sters’ a run for their money – well, at least in the Greater Copenhagen. Its about spring now and wont be that long before its summer. And I’d be damned to spot another of these ex-myspace’rs on the sunny side of Copenhagen wearing a pair of fluorescent Nike’s and a thick patterned scarf.

Yesterday, as the default page of my web browser pops up, I was confronted by a message that never had been so full of power, especially from the front page of Google.dk. The google front page was all black as it was representing the Earth Hour campaign. I didn’t have to google ‘earth hour’ to find out what was going on, as I have had enough invitations on the Facebook to find out what it was all about.

Did I shut out the lights for an hour at 8 pm? ,  No!  Neither did I send moms and dads day cards, nor did I celebrate Halloweens and Valentines Day. I think I spread enough love to my parents once in month, give my girlfriend enough love daily and scare every one else every other day. Likewise, i don’t need ‘earth hour’ to switch off the electricity when not necessary – the PC being an exception. Don’t you people know how long a PC takes to start up, and just by the time its up and running, I have probably forgotten what I was about to surf.

Europe is gripped with this UH-HAH (yes, an Al Pacino expression) about environmental conservation, which I  think is so damn overrated. The whole CO2 issue, but wait a minute – What happened to the Ozone layer issue? Has it all patched up yet? I’m sorry I lost track of it all, will someone explain it to me?

I couldn’t help it as got lost in other campaigns like, save the rain forest, save whales, save the panda (are they still around?), save dolphins, save tigers, save elephants, save polar bears, save christiania, save ungdomshuset and the list goes on.

It is so damn easy to be an activist now a day, as all you need now is to join a Facebook group. Yes, you tell the world what you believe in or pretend to, but do fuck-all about it. No thanks; I have passed that chain letter a thousand times followed by remorse.

I’ll fly that jet plane to Amsterdam because I love holidays. I’ll buy that SUV when I can afford, because boys like big cars. I will drink canned beer at Roskilde festival as it reduces the risk of broken glass pieces on the ground. I’ll buy more electronic gadgets because I love them. And I still know how to conserve nature, environment and energy otherwise…. Want tips?

If I take a peek into my own telescope of retrospect, I see visions of American soldiers fighting the German soldiers with their strangely shaped helmets and screams Achtung Achtung! These were from a collection of black and white comic books which my uncle, a botanical professor, used to treasure back in India in 1975.
Now that I’m within hour’s flight to that nation where those comic book drawings were actual life, I decide to see it for myself using my Easter vacations.
As well suspected, the travel agency had booked us a hotel at the cleaner side of Berlin. So we decide to go bit further looking for traces of the history. Well, all we saw were new buildings, very unlike Europe. They say that 70 % of Berlin was destroyed during the war. True, but shouldn’t there be traces of it? Like dead tanks, airplanes watchtowers or buildings… none! Ok, then how about museums… hmm. So we head for the History of Berlin museum. 10 euros and we get to climb three stories of a building with history of Berlin from medieval times to present. 1932 to 1943, where the most of the gruesome but yet powerful part of the German history was compressed to a wall of one of the rooms of the museum. A room measuring less than 70sq meters in size.
The Holocaust museum. aah.. There should be something that I’m looking for, like the dungeons, cells, or tools used to torture. Hrmmm…. Well, you are still in Germany though, so one shouldn’t mention the war.
At the Holocaust museum, we spend half a day learning the history of the Jewish community in Germany…. WTF!!???…
The place did surely make me smarter by learning that Albert Einstein was a Jew and half the world still hates Jews. The latter conclusion was based upon an interesting opinion-survey-gadget located in the Holocaust museum. The question was “do you have a friend that hates Jews”. Now that is a politically corrected version of “do YOU hate Jews”. Now, all you had to do is press a discrete red or a green button. Astonishingly, in a Jewish museum surrounded by Jewish guests, the percentage of people who said YES was 46% and 54% said no. Assuming the fact that at least 30% of the people who voted “NO” had lied, I had to ask someone… “WHY?”
Now a few blocks away were the “guarded” remains of “The Wall”, because the rest of the wall has ended up in souvenir shops, at CHECKPOINT CHARLIE.
CHECKPOINT CHARLIE, another Mecca for tourists, is so extremely overrated. So overrated that I believe that ranting about it is a pure waste of time.
Now, I had spent almost a week in this concrete jungle searching for World War 2 traces, fuelled with DUINKIN DOUGHNUTS and STARBUCKS COFFEE, which apparently is at every street corner. But back at the hotel, TOM CRUISE and RENÉ ZELLWEGGER ware made to talk German in Jerry McGuire for German television. And not many television channels to opt from though.
The war might have been over, the surveillance equipments might have been put to rest, the control post might no longer exist, the city might have been cleaned of the blood and damage, but I could still hear the eerie whistle of German mind control. Mr Faulty make perfect sense to me when he mocks the German tourist by saying “but don’t mention the war”

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And the commercial Christmas just got over, and everybody is happy. Thanks to globalisation, Santa now has outsourced his production to the yellow men once Uncle Sam tried to wipe of the face of earth. The poor elf’s with the knowledge of making small toys for small kids are rendered jobless as now Christmas in the year 2007 is all about exchanging pre-requested gifts for all ages. And we have gone digital – 42-inch plasma telly, 7 mega pix digi cams the size of a credit card, game console, and mobile phones and latest from Honey-I-shrunk-your-gadget factory somewhere in Asia.

So what am I getting at? ………. Fook dat! I’m full of double standards anyway!

And I get back to my weekday routine by reading free newspapers on my way to work. 3 newspapers I read, all sharing the same info, and making me an info-junkie . And somewhere in some column I read about a girl who was explaining what she was blessed with for this years Christmas gift.
“A turntable, as I have an Ep with a rare interview of Ian Curtis from my favourite band Joy Division. I’m excited as I can now listen to it.” Says a Nina aged 21.

I smiled , thinking that in this digital era when everything is in its most space-saving format and just a goggle-click away, why would Nina want to retrograde and stuff her 20 sq feet dormitory with a turntable just to listen to an Ep ??!!.

I smiled , as I have heard that before, ………yeah, from my own mouth, and not so long ago. And I’m sure you have done it too. This was perhaps the time we were looking for a hero, a representative, an idol, a self-expressing image. An image that speaks to others how different and special you are.

The more shallow ones used just T-shirts with prints, the snobby shallow ones used brand names, be it a bag or a car. Every one who wanted to be a rock star wore their music, in walk, talk and looks. The ones not bold enough to look, talk and dress like a rock star, bought special and rare info and merchandise of uncommon bands and opinionatedly debated on it. Some didn’t bathe, and some just wore black. But yes, my point is that we all did this to be special and different. And for the people who do not fit into any of the above. ………. I’m sorry for you.

But does there come a point when one grows out of it? …. Not! We just use a new tool!
And when I smiled reading Nina’s need for a turntable to listen to Ian Curtis’s rare interview on Extended Play, I just realised that my new tool would be my smile that said, “ been there, done that baby”

After 7 months of disappearance, I am back at my desk. Now let us celebrate the release of TBF 2007. What…it is not 2007 yet? Well I know, and it’s not Christmas either. I had been battling to find some thing to write about. However, the 7 month break had actually broken my flow. Therefore, I decided to take it slow and easy.
So….yeah! Bond!….. how about him?! (applause from the audience!) sorry, for a moment I imagined myself as David Letterman.
Yeah, I did watch the Casino Royale last weekend. It is actually amazing how my social life took a turn to liveliness. Now I can discuss, I can be a part of a group, I can put my view, debate, and no longer feel isolated amongst my new colleagues who have been trying to find a subject of common interest at the lunch-bench.
When topics like – children, holidays, real estate, football, telly, golf, and “I too had a friend/aunt/cousin who….”are thrown on the table, i keep my mouth shut, opening only to stuff food into my mouth.
Finding myself a lonely corner would be anti-social, but sitting at a table with others and not saying a word is also anti-social. I choose latter, because – if you sit at a table all by yourself ignoring others, will make you a jerk, but sitting amongst people and yet maintaining silence will make you ambiguous…. A mind fuck for the lunch-bench mates.
Just then, I heard someone say “Bond! Has anyone seen it?”
Great, I have seen it! (Sorry, i have to repeat the next line) Now I can discuss, I can be a part of a group, I can put my view, debate, and no longer feel isolated amongst my colleagues who have been trying to find a subject of common interest at the lunch-bench.
However, I decided not to. As people discussed, debated, and dissected the subject, which I too could have been a part of, I drifted my mind into psychoanalysis of behavioral requisites amongst colleagues at lunch hour. And this is what I figured out – The uncomfortable silence, as they are termed, is what we all are afraid of. Stressing yourself to break the silence will only give you regrets, so let the other person be the one to do it. Learn to enjoy the silence.

Yeah, I like trains. Some like half burnt toast for breakfast, I like my train.
I like riding them, I like watching them, I like spotting them. I’m a trainspotter of a different kind. I don’t know their make, model or year of manufacture. But I am more interested in the people who ride them. So many minds, so many thoughts, chain of thoughts, train of thoughts. Especially European trains where a morning train sounds more like a funeral procession. No one speaks, some watch others, others like to be watched, some hate to be watched and they hide behind books and newspapers, the rest of them plugged into their music feeling good about their taste in music, but yet staring into the other person hiding behind the earphones wondering what the fuck they are listening to. I do it too, all of the above. I watch, observe and conclude from my corner seat. Always the corner seat, will kill for it. Observers always occupy corners seats. Corner seat gives wider perspective. The seat right below the security camera. Same range of vision, but different purpose. Morning trains are more interesting than midday trains, evening trains fucks your mind a bit.
Morning trains are filled with plans, solutions, graphs, scales, regret, projects, and megabytes.
Midday trains are filled with yawns and blacked out brains. Evening trains are filled with hurries to nothing.
Why now about trains you might ask. Nope, you surely will ask. Morning train today had 4 books, 6 newspapers, 6 mp3 players and an ipod within my range of vision. I too am usually plugged into my “special” music, but every now and then I remember to forget my 512 mb Funkey.
Now lets take a trip into my brain.
Book readers, the most ignorant of them all. They don’t give a fuck about you and your new brown cardigan. They have insecurity enough and book is their shield from their unattainable reality.
Newsreaders, well, they do care about you, but they care about the world as well. Or is it just a habit like coffee? Perhaps they think the killings in Iraq or Brad Pitt’s personal life or some kind of research that says outdated milk is harmful to the ozone layer seems to be more candy for brain than your new brown cardigan. But they do care about you.
The mobile discotheques, hmm.. They are watching you; they so wish you asked them what they are listening to. All of them proud of their music they are plugged into. Your cardigan? Well, they have seen it, yeah, and they do care about you… but please please ask them what they are plugged into. But that chic with the ipod seems rather confused. A pink top and a white handbag with a bit if bling on it, Bling-bling europian stylee, what was her problem though? Was it the ipod or was it that new Robbie William single, “advertising space”, that got her confused! Marlon Brando, Watergate, Vietnam, C.I.A., advertising space !!!???– Robbie’s songwriter, what have you done to that poor girl?

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