Today morning as I was leafing through the newspaper I found first four pages about Michael Phelps’s new girlfriend, his likes and dislikes along with eloquent paens in Rajiv Gandhi’s name. Towards the bottom of the fifth or sixth page, relegated to one corner, is a 4 liner regarding a child in West Bengal killing his classmate’s sister to acquire an ipod. No, this news is not sensational enough to make it to the front page headlines. We are more interested in Jade Goody leaving Big Boss and Shilpa Shetty raking in millions for the new TV reality show. I am really scared now. Scared because my son is eight and half. Scared because he is not a gadget freak, but like most kids of his age nowadays, he is well aware of Ipods and computers. He loves to download songs on my Ipod, and occasionally gives me intelligent inputs on the latest trends. As a mother, sometimes I feel secretly proud of my son’s feat. But now I have a nagging fear...how will I know when this might turn into an obsessive compulsive disorder? Are we wrong in trying to give the best possible exposure to our kids regarding the latest gizmos and gadgets to hit the market?

The child, who has murdered I read, was calm and composed throughout his interrogation at the police station. He had previously been caught many times by neighbours for stealing cell phones, but nobody had paid heed to this. And to top it all, this has happened not in any metro, but a so called sleepy town in Birbhum district of West Bengal. Where are we heading then? I know people will say I am over reacting. This is only a stray incident, unlikely to happen again. But, I am appalled at the way the child has reacted. What do you call this...apocalyptic boon of technology?

Yesterday I went to watch the movie “Singh is Kinng” with my 8 year old son. He is a big Akshay Kumar fan, and loves the daring stunts which Akshay performs on his own! I went to watch the movie with a lot of apprehensions; for I thought the movie will be a complete no brainer with silly spoofs on the Punjabi community, for which you have to really strive hard to bring out a genuine chuckle or a hearty laugh. But it was a pleasant surprise to watch a movie, which though was a typical Bollywood masala comedy, could tickle your funny bone without being overtly burlesque or garish.

The movie is about Happy Singh, a rustic simpleton, from Pindh De Punjab, whose sole aim in life is to see others happy, and for this he can go to any extent; even if it requires to make a life threatening voyage to a foreign shore, that to faraway Australia. He has to somehow convince Lucky Singh, who has become a notorious Don there, and make the son of soil come back home to his aged parents and remember the simple truths of Guru Govind Singh’s words of leading an honest and simple life. The voyage almost makes one remember the journey of Don Quixote and his inseparable partner Sancho Panza with their countless hilarious mischiefs and various incidents throughout their expedition.

Akshay has given a riveting performance with excellent comic timings, and funny dialogues that have left the audience in splits and asking for more. Om Puri as Rangeela, Akshay’s friend, has also given a scintillating performance with brilliant dialogues and hilarious postures. Akshay’s lady love in the movie Katrina Kaif also looks ravishing, and carries herself with élan as the quintessential Punjabi kudi. She can not only look strikingly beautiful, sing and dance; but can even take care of herself in a distant land! Bollywood has come of age I guess! Whatever maybe, the movie is a must watch for those who just wants to pass three hours in absolute fun and frolic, without taxing their grey cells at all.

Last year with four successive hits Akshay Kumar laughed all his way to the bank. With this release Bollywood’s current king seems set to continue his reign. Whatever maybe, it’s a welcome change from the lampoon kind of comedy that had become associated with masala Hindi movies of the recent past. At the end, it leaves you smiling…grudgingly acknowledging the fact that people are just loving Akki “Happy” Singh.

Yesterday when the incident took place I was at my son’s school, waiting to pick him up after his school gets over. Many parents like me were standing there, blissfully unaware of the disastrous scenario that had already happened in some other parts of the city. As soon as the news reached me, I immediately panicked for my husband. The moment I heard he is fine; my next intention was to know whether all my known friends and acquaintances were safe. Not for a moment I bothered to know about the elderly couple who were standing at the bus stop to go home, whose body was ripped apart by the blast. The wounded people shown on the television channels were just faces for me.

Today, like many others, I have conveniently forgotten about them also. It’s just a matter of discussion at the beauty parlor which I frequented in the morning for my son’s hair cut. Cultured, educated and so called sympathetic ladies were making caustic remarks about how the “crude bomb” was able to disturb the refugee settlement in Bangalore. Someone even said “Bangalore was going the way of Dharavi of Mumbai”; good that these refugees will now think twice before making Bangalore their home”!I was appalled, disturbed and mentally shuddered thinking of this macabre twist to the whole incident. Have we become so mechanical that a person’s death no longer affects us as long as he or she does not belong to the upper echelons of the society? Are we more bothered about a city’s cleanliness and its physical appearance than the inhabitants of the same? Is this general apathy and clinical detachment become an inherent part of us urban Indians? Who is accountable for social security of the citizens? What do you feel?