And which century do we live in?

What happened in Mangalore is not just despicible, it is shocking. Since when do we need a moral police to tell us what is right or wrong? Isn't India a democratic nation? What's the brohuaha about being the 'world's biggest democracy' if you can't let people, adults at that, decide whether they want to sit in a lounge bar and have a drink.

If you are so concerned about being moralistic, is this how you treat women? Are they meant to be beaten, pulled by their hair and called a whore? Since when did this become right?

And you might think, have a little hope that the moral brigade (who assume they have a right to molest and traumatize women - being a democratic country and all) might be brought to books for this dastard act. You are wrong. Democracy in India, it seems, doesn't work both ways. It only works for political elites. Pramod Muthalik, who by the way got arrested for 'inticing communal violence', a case pending from years ago, had this gem to add - "It's a small incident and we were only working against obscenity in public." Yeah right.

I rest my case.

All the little bits... II

January is almost coming to an end and for the first time I have loathed the month so much. It just doesn't seem to end, while I meander away time sleeping, sleeping and more sleeping while strains of western classical music fill up my room. And it's not just the sleeping - I sleep at 5 every morning, waking up sometime in the afternoon. Everyday. People tell me its the English-weather-post-holiday-season-depression. Whatever it is, I am so glad that classes start soon!

On to more cheerful things, here are some holiday season pics. We went to the German Christmas market in our city, complete with German beer, mulled wine, sausages, knick-knacks, curios and a proper fair.

      

A couple of days later I woke up as I heard my flatmate squeal, "Look out of the window" and heard another one jump and that's when I got out of my bed and was greeted with snow, which apparantly brought everything to a stand still in this part of England, except of course me who was busy clicking photos!

           

And it was end of December soon as my friends and I headed over to London to celebrate the New Year. The city, throbbing, illuminated with christmas lights and hoardes of tourists. We discovered a bar made completely of ice and by far, is the coolest (or coldest!) place I have visited in the city. We then went ice skating and then it was time for the fireworks by the Thames as 700,000 people gathered togther to usher in the New Year.

         

         

          

While one evenful year came to an end, another one began. And now I am wondering what to make of the 'The curious case of missing post'. Because as I hopped over to God's to claim my award, that post has disappeared!

All the little bits...

Warning: Long-ish post :D

Heylo dear blogger friends. Sorry for disappearing on you all. I am fine and alive! Here's wishing you a super duper Happy New Year :)

A lot has happened the last month - from laptop crashing, to it getting repired in a month and I becoming laptop-junkie-to-laptop-deadddict, to a second wave of this and crazy deadline in mid-december and then partying-like-there's no-tomorrow to coming back to a cold-grey-damp-gloomy-and-depressing winter and finding a deadline staring in my face middle of this month and me completing my first semester here. Phew!

Now that we are done with the headlines, the news in detail

As promised before, I am doing this blog post about a holiday I managed to squeeze in while I had assignments hanging down at me like a nooze. I went for a day trip to this beautiful, quaint town called York. As we walked out of the train station and walked towards the city, we saw the River Ouse.

We then went to York Minsiter which is supposed to be the largest catherdal in North of Europe. The Christmas midnight mass conducted here is broadcast on BBC radio throughout England!

Then we wandered around in The Shambles and other small, narrow lanes with cobbled footpaths where buskers at each corner would fill up the streets with music as tudor style buildings would loom upon us. And there was a road called 'Swinegate'!

The town is famous for its tea rooms and cafes.

What is a British town without pubs? We went to 'Kings Arms', a pub which floods when the water level of the river rises!

We went to Clifford's Tower which was our last pit stop for the day.

And with this our trip came to an end and we trooped back home.

Next blog post: Snow, Christmas and a New Year spent in London with a dozen of my uni
friends!