Kashmir - What is @stake?

Kashmir,for the last few weeks has been hogging a lot of limelight for reasons apparent and not so apparent. Immediate provocation came from the allotment of land to 'Amarnath Shrine Board '. The separatist parties raised a lot of hue and cry branding it as govt's conspiracy to settle outsiders in the Kashmir Valley.Claims were made stating 'Kashmiriyat' was at stake because of this land allotment.Eventually the govt revoked the order buckling under the pressure.

It got me thinking what exactly is 'Kashmiriyat'? Is it the unique Muslim-Hindu bonhomie practised in Kashmir? The fundamental question is does this bonhomie exist,otherwise why were 350000 Kashmiri Pandits forced to leave Kashmir Valley?

Recently Santosh Trophy football match was organized in Kashmir, during the match when Punjab shot a goal against J&K, a huge uproar starred ,hurling anti-India slogans and eventually the match was stopped because of security concerns.

It is high time we raise questions on policies related to Kashmir.Has the article 370 served it's purpose? What good our billions of dollars spent in Kashmir is bringing? All the stakeholders including govt should sit together to assess the situation realistically in Kashmir and revise policies accordingly.

The Miss Call phenonmenon ;)

Have you wondered how diligently people use 'Miss Call' service to get things done? I overheard a guy in a provision store telling somebody on his phone to give a 'Miss Call' when he reaches home.I was amused on this statement not because it was funny but a new way of life which modern society has adopted so nicely.

I did some research on 'Miss Call' , I discovered this thing causes network operators quite something.When a miss call is made, network bandwidth is used, so an operator has expenses involved.Take a guess, which country has maximum 'Miss Call' usage, it is INDIA!!!!!!

Although call rates are becoming cheaper by day, people will find more things to get done through 'Miss Call' rather than 'Actual Call' ;)

How are social networking sites influencing the society today ?

Lately social networking sites have caught up in a big way. To name a few,Orkut, Facebook,MySpace are the dominant players.The visible effect is that one can be so conveniently connected to friends, acquaints through these sites.People discovered their long lost contacts through these sites. Even new friendships/alliances are forged through these sites. I have acquainted quite a few B-school grads of the schools about which I needed info.People find their potential room mates for universities through these groups.I know couple of friends in my circle who met their partners on these sites:). With growing user base, these sites are used to advertise products and find suitable candidates for a job.

Taking the online social networking further there are niche online networking areas like professional networking, dating sites, various interest groups networking sites. The world is leveraging the power of internet in the best possible way :)

What have been your experiences in this journey of NO online social networking to full throttle online networking?

I gave ride to a traffic cop ;)

Couple of days ago,while I was on my way to office,at a junction a traffic cop signaled me to stop.My heart skipped a beat, because my motor insurance had expired a week ago and the day before I had paid fine for jumping traffic signal.The cop asked me, where are you going ,sir? I told him where was I heading. He asked me can I give him a ride till that place. I nodded with an apprehension.

All the while we were on the bike, I was having weird thoughts. Would this guy ask me for bike's papers after he gets down or may be some other thing? Strangely I got reminded of Manoj N.Shyamlan then, having seen his interview few nights ago.I started wondering what would Mr. Shyamlan think in this situation, script of another super natural psycho thriller. The ten minutes ride felt like a very long one ;)

Have you encountered any situation like this?