11 June 2009

Racism in Australia - Indian Students Targeted

 

Racist - another word for a coward/insecure/incompetent/unintelligent people.

As Shravan (an Andhraite from Andhra Pradesh, India) and his friends were partying, two drunk white boys (Australians) gate crashed into their merriment and started abusing the Indians in a foul racist tongue. The only provocation (if you can call it that!) was Shravan and his friends politely asked the white entourage to leave the party as they were not invited!

That seemed to be too much to take for these ugly racist Australians. The famous 'Aussie-pride' could not take no for an answer! They stabbed Shravan with a screw-driver (some courage these punks showed, Screw-driver, for God's sake??) in his neck and started shouting in the most foulest language only the Australians can summon (ask Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan etc).

Calling somebody a 'Bloody Indian' speaks so much for that person's character. The newest mantra for these white-trash is : 'curry-bashing'. Let's go 'curry-bashing' they say cunningly. Do we treat the foul Australian students in the same manner when they come to study in India? No! Agreed that the victims and their families had to go through a lot of trauma. But it is not as if we are shedding copious tears over the horrible incident. We too can fight back! But we do not gang-attack a single person in a lonely metro train! This is just shameful! Five bullies against a meek lonely Indian, that too in their own backyard? I do not call that courage, MATES!

And what is the cause of these dastardly acts, which have been increasing in frequency over the last few months? Well, here are a few :

Cowardice : There's no fame in cornering a single person especially when you are a gang of ugly drunk punks, out on a trip of LCDs or what-nots. Substance abuse is for those weaklings who seek supremacy in an imaginary fantasy. Wherein, they are the Supermans, Batmans, He-mans etc. That's all in the comic books mates. In real world, you are nothing than a bunch of coward, backward thinking bullies who are no less than the Skeletors, Jokers. Well, shame on you cowards. If you had the courage and had the capacity to THINK, you would not have carried out such a BRAVE attack. Did your parents give you a hero's welcome after this feat? Well, you must have be feeling tired, how about some lethal mix of scotch coupled with a bottle full of sleeping pills ? That sure must make you feel superhuman again! And what a trip that would be – a trip with a no return ticket! Ha! You sad bunch make me take up crime as a full time employment option!

Insecurity : Wow! The mighty Australians are insecure! Hear about that! What are you insecure about bubbas? You are worried about us Indians studying hard and taking all the plum jobs and relegate you roos to the no-brains-needed clerical jobs?? Well, you do not have to worry about that at all pals. Why, is there going to be a mass exodus of us 'bloody Indians' back to our places??? Why No!!!! No that's not the reason! The reason is simply incompetence! You people are not made to THINK! Leave alone study hard and earn degrees, and get nice jobs. Which is exactly my next point!

Incompetence : The apes, (our ancestors) it now seems never crossed Australia to evolve into sharp thinking humans! So if you are all brawn and no brain, then it follows that you cannot think! If you cannot think, then you are NOT! (Descartes version - "I think therefore i am"). You do not exist at all my pre-medieval friends, at least when it comes to thinking rationally. And as apes do, you maul anything in your way without the slightest provocation.

Unintelligent : Not only you, even your parents are not that smart. Right after they came to know what their bright (or rather dull) wards did, not a single Australian mommy came onto the TV to express sympathy towards the victim and his kin. No owning up responsibility down here in down under for all immoral actions, my friends! Nah! Tribal justice is all what you will ever get. A tribal will think like a tribal. When he sees another man from another territory he just takes aim and shoots that poisoned dart. Smack! Take that you invader! For that's all he has been taught about and that's all he knows. But for those punks who might have finished schooling as students, it was a terrible shame.

Now this is not the first time that Australians are being labeled racists. Not all of them might be guilty, but people will generally tell you that you can smell it in the air. The hatred they have for us. Russians too complained about this racism menace a long time back. But no one stood up and took notice.

Here are a few examples of what the US, Indian and Australian citizens themselves think:

Musing,US,says: Fact of the matter is that Aussies are the worst racists of the world. I have been all across the globe and have never seen people who are more petty and more racial than the Australians. Its also a fact that the vast majority are morons who are unable to compete with Indians/Chinese and therefore have an envy carryover which they resolve by resorting to gang violence. I remember the Singapore premiere aptly calling the Aussies the white trash of Asia... [30 May, 2009 0933hrs IST]

george harris, brisbane,says: Please understand the majority of the population are disgusted by the attacks and know that the police refuse to deal with the real issue of migrant refugee gangs because of political correctness.

Pranaoti Naik,Gold Coast,says: This is very terrifying news. I am a student here on the Gold coast and staying in the same country we are clueless about what is happening with our fellow mates. There wasn't much covered in the News on TV which is sad that Australia doesn't want to expose these matters. Apparently, we get to know about these issues through our Friends and Family from India. The most important issue here is that Universities need to follow certain rules and procedures to assure oneness among other nationalities. It is important that professors follow this in universities, as many Indian (Asian in particular) students are neglected in class. As a student here, We spend so much to come here to gain education and work experience and yet we end up being victims of miserable tragedies. Pranaoti Naik Gold Coast, Queensland Australia [30 May, 2009 1005hrs IST]

Our own Indian govt. should stop taking those baby-step initiatives and should go full-blast on demanding the reasons for the ineptness of the Aussie govt. in failing to check this menace. We must demand solid action. After all we are paying them to take care of us as well as our education. In that sense they stand to lose an enormous economical opportunity. Their Universities will stop functioning if the Indians were to be advised not to go to Australia. The economic bashing they will receive will be more resounding than the physical bashing they gave our Indian students. After all, we are paying them for the education, we are not asking it for free, are we?? We have the right to demand a safe environment to take up our studies.

In fact, we must stop going to the Aussie Universities if they fail to guarantee our safety from the racism menace. Only the govt. of India can make this stick as a rule for the foreign Universities. If the Universities fail to own up responsibility for any untoward incidents the Indian students face there, then they must be dragged to the court.

20 April 2009

A dangerous Virus called 'Conficker'.

The Conficker worm, also called the Downadup or Kido has already affected millions of computers worldwide.

What does it do?
----------------
It is not clear exactly as to what it actually does but the security analysts are of the opinion that its main aim is to create a safe haven for cybercrime. Some kind of a secure infrastructure
for running botnets. It will of course steal Credit Card information, and a host of other personal information, if your computer is compromised. However if you are running a Windows XP based system and if the Automatic Updates are turned on, then you are automatically protected. But if your system is compromised then you will not be able to visit, Microsoft, Symantec and a lot of other Anti-virus websites. Also it deletes all the previous System Restore points besides opening doors for all sort of Malware.

How does it infect?
--------------------
It spreads through USB memory sticks, networks and of course the Internet. This Conficker virus takes advantage of a Windows vulnerability and once infected, then the first thing it does is to
disable Automatic Updates, stop all the security update services (like that of your Anti-Virus's), blocks Internet access to most of the security websites. And after it has established base and contacted its author, then it remotely installs all sorts of Worms, Trojans, Backdoors, and Malware besides redirecting your browser phishing sites and scam websites.

What is the cure? - The healing touch
---------------------------------------------
Visit the Microsoft website from a clean computer and download 'MS08-067' security patch. If your Windows Automatic Updates service is turned on, this patch is already installed and your
computer is not compromised. The next step is to download to Symantec's Conficker removal tool. The link is given here.

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2009-011316-0247-99

If you want to download and install the Windows Security Patch and the Symantec Conficker Removal Tool on your own system then do the following :

1.  Go to the command prompt by either pressing 'Winkey + R' or Click : Start>Run>and type 'cmd'.

2.  Go to the root level (meaning : going to the drive letter where your operating system is loaded. This letter is most of the times 'C') by typing the following : 'cd\' and hitting 'Enter'.

3.  You will now be at 'C:\'.

4.  Now type 'net stop dnscache' and press 'Enter' This command will stop the domain blocking feature of the Conficker virus.

5.  Now type 'net start dnscache'. And now you should be able to go the security websites.

6.  Now download the following Windows security patch MS-08-067. Here are the links : 

For Windows XP :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0d5f9b6e-9265-44b9-a376-2067b73d6a03

For Windows Vista :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=18fdff67-c723-42bd-ac5c-cac7d8713b21

7.  If you still want to be sure, then download Symantec's Removal Tool here :

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2009-011316-0247-99

Tips : Always remember to Turn on the Automatic Update feature of Windows operating systems. Also regularly update your Anti-virus database. Have a good Malaware Removal Application. I personally recommend 'Spybot Search & Destroy'. This is available for free. Keep the Registry healthy by removing unused & unnecessary entries left over by previous uninstalls. There's a good free software available called 'CCleaner'. Also have a good Uninstaller installed on your system and make sure to use this when you want to uninstall. It provides a step-by-step interface which is easy to understand. What it does apart from cleanly uninstalling an unwanted software, is remove any entries left behind by the program from the folders and from the registry as well. When you uninstall a software cleanly then  you are stopping any conflicts arising in the future. No conflicts means a healthy system! I recommend 'Revo Uninstaller', which again is free. And PLEASE do not fall prey to some really impressive websites offering a 'Free Virus/Security Scan'. All it does is install spyware even while it appears to be scanning for infections! You will be issued with a 'dire' warning as to how several 'infections' have been found on your system and how you can get rid of them by buying their Anti-Virus.

17 April 2009

My Article 'Planet Earth Must Be Saved' got published on Associated Content

Planet Earth Must Be Saved
There is an immediate need for the G8 countries to sit across a table and seriously start thinking about how best they can help to save our dying planet.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1632905/planet_earth_must_be_saved.html

11 April 2009

Death smiles at us all......

near-death-experience-1

"Death smiles at us all....the only thing we can do is smile back" says Russel Crowe in The Gladiator, when Ceaser asks him if he's not afraid of death.

So why is it that we dread death?

I cannot talk for others but i can surely tell you that i am scared to death of DEATH! It's not the fear of death itself that i am scared of. It has got to do with the fact that i shall never ever be able to meet all my loved ones. I cannot even imagine what my wife would do without me. Ahem..a bit of a bold statement there, you think?? Well, we are like that! We cannot think of a life without each other. What about my little daughter?? Well, she's too small to understand all this. My mother, brother & sister??? I am sure they will be shattered beyond repair. But LIFE moves on. You got to move along, otherwise it will leave you far behind.

This thought has been bothering me from the past 2 weeks. And i have been meaning to unload the burden of such thought via this blog. Can't tell wifey. Her blood pressure will shoot up to the moon. So i figured the next best thing to a wife is ...... my BLOG! Who else??!! They weren't kidding then, when they said blogging is addictive. It's a little slow in the beginning but catches speed later on. After that you can't get off.

How true then, that we cannot do anything when death beckons. Yea, we should smile. Sure! Smile... when the light in front of you is fading and darkness is blanketing your vision! Smile....when you are holding your dear ones hand and know that you won't be able to feel again! Smile.....when your heart's breaking into a zillion tiny pieces. Man!!! How can anyone do that? Can anyone do it...??? Smile??

They say in Hindu lore that our soul stays back on earth for 10 days. It (the aatma) keeps begging the soldiers of Yama to please, please let it stay back and see to its heart's content its loved ones for one LAST time. It cries and cries along with its beloved ones down there. It does not want to go to Yama, but His soldiers are relentless. They unleash the Paashaan (the whip) and drag the aatma. It keeps looking back again and again for whatever glimpses it can see of its loved ones. How for one last time it wants to go and hug its people! The unbearable pain it endures when it is made clear to it that there's no going back!

Can any living being survive that? No wonder they are as dead as DEAD when they have to go through such harrowing time.

Does somebody believe in afterlife? Is there indeed a place called an afterlife? What do souls do there? Do they exist there in the same human form they had when living on earth? What activities go on there? Are there any cars, buildings, roads, phones, water, food, sky, wind, fire ..... etc...in the city of afterlife? If there ever was an afterlife, it must be a very crowded place! Think of all the civilization who died. How do the GODs manage such humongous traffic! Really, this concept of afterlife starkly opposes the Hindu theory of re-birth. I mean, if i was to be reborn on this earth again - not necessarily as a human though - then there will be no place called the afterlife. The cycle of being reborn again would just have continued without any interval - how temporary it might be. Then why did our wise talk so much about afterlife? Surely there must be something concrete to it. Otherwise our wise - who had the concept of TIME and DIMENSION long before our Western counterparts learned to speak - were not such fools. Then the only explanation of justifying the existence of afterlife will be that it is a temporary resting place where a person's deeds and misdeeds are calculated, punishments served accordingly, and then dispatched back to earth again with some form of a living thing's 'body', of course with all the previous memory deleted! It runs like a well oiled machine, does the God's machine. It has to ! Imagine taking birth as a PIG with all your previous human life memory intact. You would be looking at SHIT and telling to yourself 'I can't eat that SHIT.....PIGS do' !!!! Some fun the onlookers would have watching the poor soul.

It's really amazing how quickly i shift gears from all serious and grim talk to stomach splitting comedy!

Now back to being serious. Well, it all looks so strikingly similar to the Wachowski brother's epic movie 'The Matrix'. I mean, look here closely and what do we got? A near perfect similarity to our Hindu theories of afterlife and Karma. Our aatmas are nothing but some global Programes whose core structure never changes (the soul never dies), into which various functions are written. Now the programs run according to the functions which are placed in it. If the function of a chimpanzee is written into the program then it displays the character of the above animal. If the function of a dog is written it happily wags it's tail and fetches!. So on and so forth for various other animals and various other humans. Here's the legend, if you like it, for those who do not know a damn thing about afterlife, aatma and karma.

Aatma == Global Program; Body == Function written in the program; Life == Matrix; World == Mainframe; God == Universe's most genius PROGRAMMER !!.......& Rajesh == A bloody fool ..!!!

.....more later on the subject which prompted me to blog.

Rajesh G Pandhrapurkar


01 April 2009

A Worm called the I-Worm Generic/CJR

There are a lot of times when even we, who call ourselves 'Advanced Computer users', find ourselves upto our eye-balls in, not muck, but embarrassment! Embarrassment coz of the small problem we could not 'fix'. This is for all those then, who want to avoid that funny feeling of being a misfit in the computer fiefdom.

The first issue i'd be addressing is the worm called the I-Worm Generic/CJR.

The I-Worm Generic/CJR copies itself into the \Windows\System32 folder as a dll. Your Anti-virus also catches the worm and refers it to a dll file. Now, this worm tries to send mass mails from your system. It sometimes blocks the browser from connecting to the Internet and Anti-virus websites. This also does an irritating thing : it disables you to view 'hidden' files. Try as many times as you want to, but you just cannot view the hidden files even after several attempts to un-hide them from the Tools>Folder Options>View menu.

This worm can be normally removed by a majority of the Anti-virus programs. But it leaves the above anomaly behind.

Here's the solution then :

1. Use any antivirus to remove the virus first.

2. go to Run menu (winkey+R).

3. type regedit.

4. go the path : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL

5. Look at the CheckedValue key (on right side). This should be a DWORD key. If it isn’t, delete the key. Create a new key called “CheckedValue” as a DWORD (hexadecimal) with a value of 1. Also most of the times it leaves the 'CheckedValue' as it is but it changes the value to 2. So all you have to do is change its value back to 1.

You can now make the Tools>Folder Options>View>show Hidden files and folders function normally.

16 March 2009

Is the Queen of England still regarded by some as a 'Monarch'??

'Dumbstruck by Queen's beauty, grace and charm' - By Kishwar Desai (March 14th, 2009)

The above titled article appeared in the newspaper Deccan Chronicle on the 14th of March 2009, in the Editorial section. Surprised that there still exist some people who think the world of her, i continued its perusal. To my amazement and shock, the author of the above article was one of us Indians, Kishwar Desai, wife of the famous Lord Meghnand Desai. You can find the article here :
http://deccanchronicle.com/neutral/dumbstruck-queen%E2%80%99s-beauty%2C-grace-and-charm-908

Although airing one's opinions in a free and democratic country has no legal repercussions, i found the article slightly favoring the Queen and her legacy, which i must say turned my stomach a little. I did not feel it is right for an Indian to be taken back to the Queen's era, where so many crimes against humanity were committed. I thought it greatly insulted the heroes of our Freedom struggle.

Here's my reply to the author :

" Dear Ms. Desai,
this is regarding your article appearing in the newspaper Deccan Chronicle, dt.14th mar 2009,
titled "Dumbstruck by Queen's beauty, grace and charm".

Let me fire the first salvo by saying that it was pathetic the way you have shown a school-girl like enthusiasm in summing up your meeting with the 'Queen'.

You may have found 'beauty, grace and charm' in the 'Queen' but seem to have happily forgotten the ruthless 400 years of lawless rule by her predecessors! There certainly is nothing 'beautiful' and 'graceful' about that Ms. Desai.


And you were right, 'for some it may not be pleasant thought to look back upon', but for you, i am afraid, it was all so glorious!! I find it hard to put words on paper after this confession. Although, a majority of the Britons themselves are quite against the Buckingham Palace's 'royal' excesses, some of us Indians seem to happily cut off their right arm just to shake the 'Queen's' hand. Now this thought is not at all 'charming', Ms. Desai.

Now on to the moment of your life, when all of you waited 'nervously' to get a glimpse of the Queen. And what of the moment, when your 'convent' school training came to your rescue and enabled you to 'curtsey' !! WOW!! That must have been THE moment of your life, was it not Ms. Desai?? You must have been over the moon, to kneel (only a little, mind you!) in front
of the great Queen. Whilst you were thus curtsey-ing Ms. Desai, i said to myself : " there goes another one ", who hasn't quite come out of the 400 year old practice of Master and Slave. Come on Ms. Desai, you seem much to be much more intelligent than Cherie Blair. If she could see it, how could you not ??

That era is long gone Ms. Desai, when curtsey-ing was cumpolsary. We Indians do not bow to anybody, much less show such unabashed subservience to a 'monarch'. You seemed quite jolly sprinkling the words, 'monarch', 'empire', 'devotees' 'rituals' .....all across the article. Now that tells so much about your love for the Queen and her 'Empire'(??) Ms. Desai, does it not?

A professional like you, who has such a long standing in the Indian media should have shown some restraint while talking about the people who had made slaves out of us. You could have addressed the sensitivities of the Indians a little more. "

I never thought that a journalist, specially a famous one, reads feedback. But the lady really surprised me by replying back. I really consider this as a privilege and honor. Thank you Ms. Desai for even bothering to read my counter-views. You are a ture sport! Here's the email reply i received from her.


" from Kishwar Desai
reply-to kishwardesai@yahoo.com
to Rajesh Pandharpurkar
date Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 3:31 PM
subject Re: Regarding your article: Dumbstruck by Queens......
mailed-by yahoo.com
signed-by yahoo.com

3:31 PM (23 hours ago)


dear mr pandharpurkar,

thank you for your observations and it is always a pleasure to get a feedback--whether negative or positive.

do keep reading!

with all good wishes

kishwar "


Thank you all for reading!