THE DIARY OF Z

Writers beware! Travelscape, the national travel magazine based out of Bangalore, doesn’t pay its contributors. I have experienced it myself and so has a friend of mine. They haven’t paid for over 6 months now.

When I threatened to go public (after all, no one can mess with the Press), magazine CEO Srinivas Rao Mandekar shot back an email saying that he doesn’t like being intimidated and that he has instructed his accounts department to process my payments within a week. But it has been over two months since he said that, and I am yet to see him make good his promise.

Talk about patience. I gave him two more months to correct himself. But he seems intent on spoiling whatever image he has created in journalistic circles.

The rumour is that the magazine is shutting down - what else could explain his non-payment and sheer disregard to journalistic threats?

But news, news, his company, Aastha Business Innovations Pvt Ltd (ABIPL) intends to revamp it and be back in the market after a while. One only hopes, he is more professional this time around. And one hopes, he clears his previous backlog before embarking on fresh territory! After all, there’s nothing better than starting with a clean slate. Will you, Mr Srinivas?

Auras are of seven kinds. While most people have all of them, some auras may be suppressed, and others dominant.

The first aura is closest to the body and you see it in the form of electricity. With this vision, you can scan the health of a person, if you are an aura reader.

The second is what most people experience while they are dreaming. It deals with desire and imagination.

The third is largely about thoughts and that’s usually in fine yellow colour.

The fourth is a cluster of clouds. If they are brighter, it means, you are doing well and if they are dark, it means you are sad. They convey moods and emotions.

The fifth variety is something very few aura readers can see. It appears like an x-ray in deep blue or black. Many schizophrenics have these visions where they see themselves enveloped in black.

The sixth is all about intuitions. This is where you see a brilliant explosion of white light, something you experience when you suddenly feel you’ve got what you were looking for all along.

The seventh is all about divinity. It’s the gold aura you see in saints.

Here is where former advertising professional and currently spiritual master Tarun Cherian comes in. He teaches you to read auras and even meditate for a better future. Not to mention, tarot reading, reiki healing, and several meditation techniques to reach our higher selves.

Coming back to auras, Cherian says, “There is no such thing as a perfect aura. It’s rarely that all these auras are present in a person. When I do meditation workshops, it’s usually just one person for one-and-a-half days, after which I let the person experience it himself, see and touch auras and come up with his own experiments.”

If you want to be part of his workshop, you could call him on 98805-41264 or visit his website: creatorschild.com for more insight. You could even get your fortune read for free if you log on to his site.

It has photography so good, you could hang it in an art gallery — but so sexy, you’ll be glad you can see it at home.

Big ones, nice ones, sexy ones, natural ones, Bustyful celebrates the female breast. It is devoted to the finest in fine art nude and erotic photography and therefore has shutterbugs contributing from around the world.

What’s more, if you are a photographer or model, you could submit and show off your favourite photos of mammaries to the world.

‘She’s a dark pool and the ripples move out. Between her gold hoops and her round hips, she’s a miracle of circles.’ These are how stories are written on nerve.com, the thinking man’s erotica.

Don’t mistake this for a porn site. There are personal stories that range from a guy’s night out in Nebraska’s most terrifying love nest to how a guy learned to embrace his girlfriend’s ridiculous religion. Not to mention, a compilation of top steamy videos that made us sweat - from Billy Idol to David Bowie, Madonna to Shakira, Poison to Prince.

The best of all? Nerve Personals. Here is where you get to meet some of the most happening creatures on the planet. Take at look at this Personals ad: “Why you should get to know me: I’m an ideal traveller: no heavy emotional baggage and I’m always interested in the journey.”

To give you more options, there are atleast 2000 people you can chat with online at any given point. So what is Nerve all about? Well, it publishes original features, essays and photography on sex, arts and culture. Not to mention sex advice in aptly titled column, Miss Information. It could very well serve as your digital dating help desk. Make the most of it.

Remember The Sun tabloid? If you do, then you also remember that its most famous Page 3 that carries full frontal views of booty-full women.

Now, this site (http://page3.com) is the online version of just this page and a lot more. You get to see a lot many babes all at the same time and from the comfort of your computer. Not only that. You get to see all the Page 3 photo shoot videos for added effect.

And the best part of the site? Their freely downloadable desktop theme. Page 3’s sexy Keeley Hazell will ease you through your day, putting a smile on your face and providing up to the minute sport info, showbiz gossip and Page 3 news direct to your desktop.

Dressed in a stunning range of lingerie, Keeley will be at your beck and call 24/7 and comes armed with all the information you need, whether its celeb’s drunken antics, the latest football transfer news or the Page 3 girl of the day. You decide how often she appears and can choose from a wide range of topics with just a few clicks of your mouse. So what are you waiting for? Get Keeley on your desktop and you’ll never have another dull day.

This may be the most erotic thing you have ever seen, yet the only nudity it contains is from the neck up. That’s where people are truly naked. The videos were made in private by the contributor (and sometimes their partner). Make your ears blush by putting on your headphones and turning the sound to eleven.

I am referring to http://beautifulagony.com.

There are five free samples you can ogle at before signing up for a few dollars. New videos are posted five times a week. And they all have sound. In addition, their ‘Overkill’ videos section has interesting snippets, interviews and outtakes. And then there is ‘Confessions’, a place where you can watch some guys and girls tell their dirty secrets.

Their shopping section has interestingly styled dildos, key chains and tees to complete the picture of bliss.

A beautiful agony indeed.

When one avid blogger summed up Google Base as “a Flea Market except you can also sell your soul to get some hole”, I decided to check out. And he was right. Out of the many things that Google Base is home to, there’s one section that allows personals. If you don’t like seeing nude pictures of women, then please excuse. But in case you are (and it’s very likely), then visit Google Personals.

Google allows users to enter personal profiles that are targeted towards dating, complete with an anonymous email where you can be reached at. Once you are through with this site for a few weeks, you could become an expert on how to use Google to get laid. And when you do, do come back and mail your two cents of wisdom and helpful advice out here. This forum is all yours.

Dirty politics have always been the bane of every nation. In the earlier days, dictators ruled. Today, our elected representatives rule over us with impunity, and some do it in full public view. But what is most infuriarating is that they all go scotfree because the law enforcing machinery is in their grip.

The same is the story with Hindu fundamentalism and the so-called Islamic terrorism in India. The best case scenario in recent times that indicts the BJP/RSS/Bajrang Dal political factions is the Delhi High Court ruling that the ban on SIMI (Students’ Islamic Movement of India) be withdrawn as there is no clear proof of their involvement in any terrorist activity anywhere in the country.

To make this case even more authentic is the recent issue of Tehelka headed by Hindus, who have declared that the SIMI arrests were unfair and vindictive. They arrived at this conclusion after three months of extensive investigation.

All of this goes to prove that the BJP is making merry in all the states where it is ruling and blaming the Congress for all the bomb blasts that have happened from time to time. Be it the recent blasts in Bangalore or Ahmedabad, SIMI was blamed for it entirely when there is no evidence except the so-called SIMI activists’ own confession.

Now, everyone knows how the police resorts to third degree torture to compell the victims to sign on the dotted line. In fact, there have been many so-called SIMI activists who have come out of jail and said they never even made those confessions. Some have said that they were tortured to sign those confessions. Again, it’s a standard police procedure.

If you still doubt the Delhi High Court’s verdict or even Tehelka’s reporting, here are some tidbits that should get you thinking:

1. While being arrested, these ‘hardcore terrorists’ (SIMI) did not fire a single shot and gave in meekly.

2. The only evidence the police has against the Mumbai blast accused is their ‘confession’ taken under duress.

3. Police and investigence agencies insist that former SIMI leader Safdar Nagori is the outfit’s evil mastermind. But again, there is little evidence to nail him.

4. The media only fell for the bait as it needed spicy news to boosts its viewership ratings without getting to the validity of it. Quoting unnamed police and intelligence sources, the print and visual media claimed that Nagori was SIMI’s top “jehadist ideologue”.

5. Intelligence agencies claim that Nagori was networked with Pakistan’s ISI, the Lashkar-e-toiba and “West-Asia based supporters” but there is no evidence since his arrest early this year. What’s more, Tehelka’s report says that the police flouted crucial procedures while arresting Nagori, casting doubts on the police story. Eg: No reference was made to the receipt of the “secret information” in the station diary. There were no credible witnesses present at the station to testify to arrests.

6. They key piece of evidence against Nagori was his own confession made only a day after his arrest. If he was supposed to be a criminal mastermind, how would he make a confession and worst of all, voluntary? What’s more, the law stipulates that a confessional statement be recorded in front of a magistrate. But the police did nothing of that, casting doubts on its authenticity.

7. The timing of the bomb blasts are quite uncanny in all the BJP-ruled states. They have always happened when the BJP is in trouble. When the Tehelka expose came up in Parliament, the building was attacked. The Godhra incident took place when the Congress was doing well at the local body elections and BJP heavyweight Narendra Modi was not - he had merely won from his constituency by 6000 votes. During the recent Karnataka elections, there was a bomb blast in the BJP-dominated Hubli on the very first date of polling. Similarly, two days before the polling in the second phase in Karnataka, there was a bomb blast in Jaipur.

8. There is credible evidence that BJP, VHP and RSS have been involved in making bombs. In 1992, there was a bomb blast in the VHP office in Madhya Pradesh, where one VHP member died and two ere injured while making bombs. In 2002, a bomb went off in a temple in Mhow. When the police arrest the VHP activists after investigation, they confessed to making bombs when something misfired. They also admitted to getting trained to manufacture bombs. Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh even has a video tape with these confessions. Again, in 2006, in Nanded, there was a bomb blast in the house of an RSS activist where two died. And in March 2008, there were bomb blasts at two places in Tamil Nadu. VHP activists were arrested by the Tamil Nadu police who confessed that they were involved.

CONCLUSION
It is not only an anti-Muslim agenda that the fundamentalist forces are unleashing on the country. They are digging their own grave just the way the US did by breeding Osama Bin Laden, who only overturned later and became their greatest foe. Worst of all, the BJP and its non-secular cousins, are using muslims as scapegoats to further their criminal activities in the country. Who will bell this fundamentalist cat? And is the Congress as much a party to it? No one ever knows. Because today, no party has any ideology.

Sorry, if you already know about this one. But I had to mention it, because what stumps me is that this website has been around for almost eight years now. Which means, this method of delivering news has got a readership all of its own.

I am referring to www.nakednews.com.

What started off as a major distraction in the dotcom boom days not only managed to survive the dotcom bust but is actually going great guns till today. So what is the secret of Naked News? The fact that the news anchors shed their clothes and show off their vital assets even while they read breaking news? Or the fact that they have now become as much a part of a household’s bedroom?

Whatever the case might be, this is one site to check out. Even if you hate to see the news, this website will turn you into a news junkie. What’s more, you will find yourself devouring old news as well – they have archives of the previous 150 days of programming.

As a bonus, you get to see nude scenes of Hollywood and worldwide movies.

The upshot: Once you watch these babes do the dew, you’ll wish your workplace had the same dress code as the Naked News offices.

The results are out.

The Akshay Kumar Bollywood film, Singh is Kinng, raked in Rs 57.75 crore in 10 days at the domestic box office and has been declared a blockbuster both in India and overseas.

In Delhi/UP, East Punjab and Rajasthan, the film is continuing to do well with trade reports claiming “super strong collections”. Some reports even claim that the second weekend collections were even better at places than the first week of record-breaking blockbusters like Shah Rukh Khan’s Om Shanti Om and Hrithik Roshan’s Dhoom 2. 

I have watched all the three films, and I still feel that Singh is Kinng isn’t such a great entertainer compared to OSO and D2.

Why? For the following:

1. The gags and slapstick comedy make you laugh. But it’s a hollow laugh.

2. Akshay Kumar has a screen presence allright. But one can’t watch the film just for that.

3. If Govinda was physically fit, he would have played a better Singh than Akshay.

4. The film’s premise was great, but it could have been a lot better than what it eventually became.

5. Loved the previous outings of its director Anees Bazmee: Welcome, Pyar To Hona Hi Tha and Deewanagee. They were top-class. Singh is Kinng isn’t even close to it.