Listen up if you live on the third planet

[Absolutely had to help in spreading the word that 350 bloggers are working on. Please read the whole of the article! They sent this mail to me, and I re-post their mail for you]

Dear 350 Challenge Bloggers,

This December, world leaders are meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark
to draft a new global climate treaty -- one that has the
potential to turn the tide on global warming and get our planet
back on a brighter path. The problem is, most world leaders and
their negotiators aren't getting it. They're not planning to do
enough to to avert the climate crisis. But we can change that --
with one number, and one day. Sound implausible? Take a minute
to hear us out.

The number is 350, and it's now the most important number on the
planet. 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the
safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, measured
in parts per million. Since we're at 390 ppm now, it's a tough
number, and getting back to it will require remarkable efforts.
The good news is that people all around the world are mobilizing
around 350 in a unique and beautiful movement to solve the
climate crisis.

On Oct. 24th, the International Day of Climate Action, people
from over 150 nations will come together in creative climate
actions to take a stand for 350 and a safe climate future. There
will be 1000s of creative on-the-ground actions everywhere from
the slopes of Mt. Everest to the underwater reefs of the Maldive
Islands to the streets of our biggest cities. All designed to
drive the 350 message into the human imagination -- and help our
leaders realize we need a real solution that pays attention to
the science.

With 10 days to go until Oct. 24th, we need to take action now
to make this day truly count.

Below are two crucial tasks you can take (and they're coming up
fast!):

1) Participate in Blog Action Day tomorrow, October 15th -- this
year's theme is climate change. On that day thousands of
bloggers will be doing what they do best; spreading vital
information to every corner of the planet, efficiently and
passionately. You don't have to be a green blogger or climate
blogger to take part. Everyone from the celebrity watchers at
TMZ.com to the techies at Google Blog to individuals like you
will be participating. Since you've taken part in Brighter
Planet's global warming work in the past, we know you understand
the issue and the urgency. Register your site for Blog Action
Day here.

2) Use your posts to help build the viral wave behind 350.org's
October 24th Global Day of Action. This looks as if it will be
the most widespread day of climate action ever; there will be
thousands of creative climate actions in more than 150 nations,
all designed to take the most important number in the world and
make it the most well-known. (Watch our animation) Sign up to
participate in an event near you and encourage your readers to
do the same. If you want to start an event yourself we have a
quick and easy guide.

It's the combination of in-the-flesh activism and online
organizing that will carry the day here. On Oct. 24, activists
will be uploading images of their events in real-time and we'll
be displaying them on 350.org and on the giant screens of Times
Square. By day's end, we'll have an unprecedented global gallery
of images and stories, enough to make both old media and new
ring out with this crucial number.

We need to make this viral movement go double viral (think Panda
sneezing) -- and so we need your help. In the last 18 months,
350 has moved from the pages of a scientific paper to the center
of a global movement. Now it's time to make that number...
count. We have a whole series of tools at http://350.org and
http://350.org/bloggers that you can use to spread the word, and
we're enormously grateful to you for doing so!

Onward,

Bill McKibben, co-founder, 350.org

***

Get started with 350 and the Oct 24th Day of Action at
http://350.org

Blogger resource hub: http://350.org/bloggers

350.org is the first large-scale grassroots global campaign
against climate change. Its supporters include leading
scientists, the governments of 92 countries, and a huge variety
of environmental, health, development and religious NGOs. All
agree that current atmospheric levels of CO2 -- 390 parts per
million -- are causing damage to the planet and to its most
vulnerable people, and that government action at the United
Nations Copenhagen climate conference is required to bring the
earth's carbon level swiftly down to 350 ppm.

What is 350? 350 is the number that leading scientists say is
the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm),
so 350 ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as
possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need
a different kind of PPM -- a "people powered movement" that is
made of of people like you in every corner of the planet

Posted-only-to-confess-my never-dying love-for-the-movie

There was music,
There was Magik,
and there was you...

One year and more of loving this amazing celluloid phenomenon. Probably the only movie that I fell in love with from the day its first promo rocked my tv screen.I loved everything about it,the cast, the story, the friendship, the music and the conversations it triggered among my friends and the way it entered relationships. Both on-screen and off-screen..

Loved it, still loves it, and always will love it!

Rock On for.ever!!!

Gandhiji has left the building

I had wanted to talk about yesterday actually;my birthday. That was my plan until I watched "Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Maara" today. [pure coincidence, in fact I didn't notice that we were happening to watch a movie related with Gandhiji until it kinda struck me in the face]
{by the way, Vaikhari is reading Tushar Gandhi's "Let's kill Gandhi", though I don't know if that's a coincidental occurring like my watching Jahnu Barua's amazing movie today itself without even realizing it}



On the surface, and for a huge part of the movie, the focus is on how dementia affects people, no matter how intelligent and even brilliant they used to be. And how Anupam Kher [OMG, what a talented actor he is! actually, everyone from a theater background is a natural at acting. anyways...] keeps insisting he didn't kill Gandhi. This guilt of his that he killed Gandhi has its roots from a childhood incident that subconsciously still was on his mind,after all these years.

But honestly, this movie is about how each of us have a share in the daily murdering of Gandhi. Almost everything we do is yet another knife into his ideas, his visions, him.
Like Anupam Kher's character says,

" Did he fight for freedom to see this? This situation of our country where he is remembered only on two situations. The day he was born, and the day he died."


That's exactly why I am not too high on celebrating any sort of special day. Even Independence day has a ring of hypocrisy and phony-ness to it. Everyone is all smiles and waving flags one day, and go back to India-bashing the next. Gandhi wasn't celebrating on August 14th,1947. Nay, he was trying to find a solution to the murderous communal riots and the problem of hunger in his country. What a man. Such honesty, sincerity and courage in such a simple man, the Father of the nation.

Like Einstein said,

"Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth"


True.

Here's to the endearing memory of Gandhi and to those who still follow his chosen path of life. May they increase in number. May we have the strength to be one of them.

I'm proud of what my country has come through,

ashamed of what it has come to.

[music coming to mind right now is- "Waiting on the world to change"-John Mayer. striking lyrics]