Summary post and blog love

This post is about the posts I wrote in the last fortnight (nowadays I have started doing my summary post every two weeks) and also about the blog love that is going around. This is about some awards and a friendship bracelet. Vishesh and Amit gave me the Butterfly award and the Cup. Smitha gave me the Butterfly award. The Proximity award has been given by Nimmy and Reema. There were also the Avante Garde awards which were organised by Poonam Sharma where I won a few.

Kiran gave me the friendship bracelet and I give it to everyone one my blogroll plus all my readers, just like she did.

Except for the Avante Garde awards, the other awards are needed to be passed on to blog buddies, that is the what blog etiquette demands but the problem is that everyone seems to have got them! First of all, I award the people who awarded me – Vishesh, Amit, Smitha, Nimmy and Reema. And then I award those who I think have not yet recieved the award. Shefaly, Ruhi, Amit (Lotusnova), Amrutha, Amreek Desi, Axinia, Aathira, Anshul, Destination Infinity, Lallopallo, Xylene and Radha. I award them the Cup, the Butterfly award as well as the proximity award…I wrote down these names as I thought of them and no hard feelings about anyone I missed out! If your name isn’t here probably I think you already have the award. Please pick up the award images from my awards page.

Okay, so here goes the summary posts:
Fragging and suicide in the Army and the general population Security personnel lead the hardest life…they are overworked, , underpaid, chronically short on sleep, separated from their loved ones, and often have to put their life at risk. What is the physical and psychological toll that they have to bear? Well, in the last three years Indian army has recorded a 45 percent increase in the number of troops being discharged due to some psychological disorder. There has also been an increase in health problems, suicides and also fragging (murder of a senior officer by a junior). And those engaged in live action (insurgency, terrorism) suffer from these problems the most…the US Army suicide rate has gone up and is now the highest ever in the last 26 years…What I find a paradox is that the Army suicide rates do not seem to be higher than the suicide rate in the general population even though soldiers suffer from high stress…assuming that the statistics above are roughly correct, doesn’t it seem strange that the general population is more suicidal than Army personnel? Or perhaps not so strange…

A consumer’s travails Whether it is at the local shop, a fancy mall, at the hospital or at the airport, a laissez-faire attitude is becoming common. Shopping, an activity I never enjoyed too much, has become more of a chore. And interaction with highly educated professionals has lost its personal touch. Whether it’s denial of obvious facts to make a sale, or lying to cover up their own faults, or simply a callous attitude, the truth is that consumers are generally considered people who can be dispensed with. Here are some of my recent experiences:

War is not an option after the Mumbai terror attacks An article in the Stratfor weekly, “the world’s leading online publisher of geopolitical intelligence” which analyses the current Indo-Pak stand-off, discusses the disastrous consequences of war and talks of reasons why Pakistan won’t act makes interesting reading. I have summarised some pertinent points and interjected them with my own comments and other links…

Rab De Bana Di Jodi – movie review This two hour forty-five minute movie is light, frothy, and enjoyable, even though the story is unbelievable. The concept behind the story is a good one. It’s about seeing through superficial appearances to the real person within. It’s about an ordinary man called Surinder Singh (Shah Rukh Khan), an introvert, and somewhat repressed, who falls headlong in love with a pretty young girl…the story is fairly predictable and it is a kind of fantasy as well, despite it being devoid of foreign locations…Overall this movie is light entertainment and even if it drags in the middle, it is a must watch for Shah Rukh fans…there are a lot of funny moments in the movie, and well, it is a romantic comedy. But if you have to compare this movie to other romantic movies, it is not as good as Jab we met and certainly nowhere in the class of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.

A new voting era in India? If India had been Delhi we would be lucky wouldn’t we, because the Chief Minister there, Sheila Dikshit (Dixit) of the Congress, epitomizes everything that the middle class desires in their politician. She is educated, suave, with no allegations of being involved in crime or instigating riots, is known as an excellent administrator and remains untouched by corruption allegations…according to some political analysts, means that the BJP’s election plank of national security flopped. But it’s too soon to assume that…Here is some information of voter turnouts in some cities of India…If we take just the five states that just went to the polls to vote in their state government during/after the Mumbai terror attacks (Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Mizoram), about four of them recorded a higher than a 14-year average turnout…after seeing the huge jump in voters in Delhi and in other parts I am beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel…

Women at Work – a photo post At times I wonder what the fuss is about when people talk about giving freedom to women to work outside the home in a traditional society like India’s. So many Indian women work outside the home anyway, due to economic necessity, for their sheer survival..These are a few images that I captured…

German Bakery – Restaurant Review The restaurant German Bakery has been around in Pune’s Koregaon Park for years…it existed two decades ago and when we recently checked it out, we found it was still going strong. It’s a famous Pune landmark and is usually haunted by foreigners on a budget…It’s not for nothing that the place calls itself a Health Food joint. The apple pie is scrunchy and very full of apple, but not sweet. Same goes for many other “sweet” baked goods…German Bakery has dhaba-like feel and boasts of a casual crowd, both Indians and foreigners.