It was going out to be a half an hour discussion. But eventually turned out to be a 2 hour hardtalk. All I can recall is the angry youngster, who I thought was insane, yelling at everybody and trying to make a point. (Turns out that he speaks on Al-Jazeera very often!). And also that I did not understand the half the conversation. But the one thing I learnt at the end of it was that if us, educated youth from different countries, do not stand up for human rights or try to protest or make a difference, no one will. At the end of the day, our voice will not be lost in the noise around us. It will be heard and will matter! But that’s if we go together. One person will fail drastically, if he doesn’t have hundred’s by him to support the cause. United we stand, divided we fall makes a lot of sense to me here.

Qatari Corner Guy (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/)

It was like no other visits to a stadium. Simply because past visits have been to support home teams, or probably countries we reside in. If you have no clue as to what I mean, here I go.

It was Qatar vs. Uzbekistan (World Cup 2010 qualifiers) here in Doha (where I reside). What goes through your mind when you have to chose the team you need to support when none of them has anything to do with your origin? I know the decision is pretty much random, but I decided to cheer for Uzbekistan and sat in their patch. There were very few (sum odd 30) Uzbekis in the whole stadium and my sympathies for the visitors made me support them.

It was somewhat amusing to see the energy of these football enthusiasts. Enthusiasts from all around the world. They don’t have the number one team in the world. Not close to even the top 20. But the spirit was just in the air. I was so sure they travelled thousands of miles just to make sure their team felt they had people who cared for them and wished to see them win the games. I remember the large flags (trust me they were huge, the cloth hit me many a times), the small portable speaker system which the fanatic with the flag painted on his face had, the t-shirts with the most provocative messages and everything that constituted national love. I can still recall the drenched Uzbeki who was wearing nothing but the flag of the country and the one played the drums all the times. Even though the Qataris outnumbered the Uzbekis by around 100 times, these guys were louder. It’s all about the spirit! Felt good watching these guys back their team till the very end. They lost 3-0. But I believe they will still go to the next league match irrespective of what has happened and yell for their nation!

It’s the not-so-informed female bothering me this time. Have you ever had a situation like this: when you went to a meeting over-prepared and too loud to be ignored and see that there is another person, other than the 15 executives spending hours of planning – another person in the room who gets the attention of the leading man who happens to the President, CEO, Head etc. It’s the pretty female. The pretty female who has no or very little sense of the seriousness of the topic being discussed. The young pretty lady who is the guest invitie just because she happens to be around at the time of the meeting.

Isn’t it utterly frustrating when the charm of the woman takes precedance over your hard work for your boss? In a while you realize he (usually old and ugly) has a common consensus with the woman (irrespective of the complete bullshit she speaks). When she has totally no idea how things are dealt with in your organization. When her NIL or very little knowledge seems no lesser than doctorate thesis to the head. HE seems to forget your relentless efforts and time-consuming tasks, loyalty and experience and has a “I think SHE makes good sense” for everything she says!

Kashmiri Muslims in Srinagar, India, pray as they are shown what they believe is a hair from the beard of the Prophet Muhammad.

Aarushi Talwar

These maybe the reactions from your friends and relatives when you jobless TV addicts were sitting in front of the screens thinking you knew the Aarushi murder case better than the CBI and were the next recruitment of Scotland Yard because your version of the story was the most convincing.

What is disappointing, is not the fact that you, a common man, were making your assumptions. But what is frustrating is the very fact that you became a part of it.You are not at fault because you just demanded for your daily doze of news on the day of the murder and the following days of investigation. But the way the Television and print media cooks the news and makes it digestible for the public is the most disgusting thing one can think of. For them, it is their way to be sold.

But is it just about being sold ? The whole purpose of media is to sell? Do they forget the have moral responsibilities? The whole case became a freakin’ joke! It was all about TRP all this while. An IPL Match played by Kings Eleven Punjab is believed to have lesser TRP ratings the day this sensation was on TV (Economic Times, 2008). Why do these people forget that it was one family among thousands and thousands in our country which lost one of its young members? Why did it become just delivering the best recipe for the same dish all the while?

And this led to rumours, pressures, and varying opinions all around. Experts/lawyers from all around the country were “the thing” on news channels making their analysis for hours and hours as to how the whole murder took place and how such a fool-proof planning was executed. Where were the parents of our children? Why didn’t anyone come up and say “to hell with your recreations, let the poor soul rest in peace!”. Why was the only thing that was stopping them from speaking and making judgements – commercial breaks?

It went on as a joke till the very end. No one being convinced by CBI’s story and making sure they were heard before the case was in the court. And eventually the investigation teams ended up making it a mess.

If this is freedom of expression, we don’t need it! Please don’t give this in the hands of people who don’t know how to use it.