indian moral (po)lice

India seems to have gone mad all of a sudden. Public institutions have gone crazy conservative and the public is stupidly silent about it. The police have taken it upon themselves to instill moral values in the youth of the country. And what exactly are these moral values? Think of nimrods from the 12th century and what their values would be. A few weeks ago a couple kissing in a madras club were arrested for indecency. The club has been shut down for allowing such "obscene acts". Apparently such moral policing is not restricted to chennai. This sort of nonsense is happening in most big cities. Why is there no protest? An 18 year old girl gets a say in who gets elected to public office but does not get to decide what clothes she wears. Or who she chooses for a boyfriend and whether she can hold his hand in public. Hold his hand, mind you. And this is India Shining? A progressive country waiting to break loose. Give me a break. Soon they will start shutting down the voice of dissent and we can quit calling it a democracy.

Best of the Beatles

That was the name of this PBS show I was watching, as usual half way into the program. And in usual PBS documentary style it was a series of interviews edited and presented. Like most people would expect, I expected to see some interviews with the Beatles and some of their songs. Soon I realised this was a documentary about Pete Best - the original drummer for the Beatles (later replaced by Ringo Starr). Apparently Pete had a bigger fan following compared to the rest of the Beatles, something the others couldn't handle. For more details check out the PBS documentary and Pete Best's website.