Mr. Thakeray you should start a PR agency! lolz....

Today morning I'd been to the Kalaghoda festival to enjoy and relax. It was refreshing indeed!

While I was planning how to spend the rest of the day... I caught up with my friends and they suggested we all go for MNIK (My Name Is Khan). For a moment I was taken aback since the threats from Shiv Sena (Mr. Thakeray) seemed serious... My friends started pepping me up with some lecture on standing- up- for- your- rights kinda thing... and I gave in.

So Regal being the nearest theatre from Kalaghoda screening the show... we proceeded in that direction. The moment we reached there the scene was something I saw for the first time in my life... Heavy police protection, the whole area outside the theatre was barricaded, and no advance bookings were given away!

 The owners of the theatre had not changed the previous movie name and timing to MNIK's... but who cares, everyone knew what they were there for :P
Since we reached there at 3 pm, and the first show was scheduled for 3.30 pm we decided to stand in the queue! And believe me, there was a huge line outside the theatre, and the police was allowing just a few people at a time to the box office to book tickets for the 3.30 pm show. (Check out the pic below....)

We finally managed to bag 4 tickets in the upper stalls (yeah, even that was great considering the amount of crowd gathered to watch the movie!).... and the show was rescheduled for 4 pm! We waited patiently for the barricades to be opened to let us in the theatre and show our support, and of course enjoy the movie :)

At last, around 4.15 pm we got to go inside the theatre... women were sent in first, and then men! We all settled into our seats, and I was surprised to see nearly 30-40 police officers seated in the lower stalls... the whole of the lower stalls (rows closer to the screen) were blocked! (This was done so that no anti-social element does anything to the screen)

The show started around 4.45 pm... and believe me it ran house-full!

Never in my life till now was I surrounded with so many police officers... and nor had I ever gone to watch a movie in such a tense situation! Although I was a bit worried, but it was all in all a thrilling experience! And the movie is superb!!! Loved it :D SRK rocks!

Really, with all this opposition towards screening the movie and such a hulla-boo towards SRK's statement (which was his opinion, and being a citizen of a democratic nation its his right)... Mr. Thakeray increased the curiosity and thrill for the public to go and throng the theatres to watch MNIK!

My suggestion to Shiv Sena and especially Mr. Thakeray.... stop this dirty communal politics (coz they are anyways making it more murkier!) and start a Public Relations (PR) Agency! Coz what they did for MNIK is really what the PR guys get paid for!!! lolz.....

... Is this what we'll leave for our children?!

                                                       pic: http://www.projectbiwan.com/

When I was a kid, I loved visiting zoos and sanctuary. I used to spend the longest time watching tigers play, sleep, walk, jump around. All that I am left with now are memories...

Tigers have always been endangered species... but since ages they have been hunted, poached for adorning walls, floors and bodies of royal families. Even after the government declaring hunting and poaching illegal... our hunger for 'dead tiger' is not satiated.

Read the following Tiger facts:-

• From 40,000 Tigers at the turn of the last century, there are just 1411 Tigers left in India!
• 2009 was the worst year for Tigers in India, with 86 deaths reported.
• There are 37 tiger sanctuaries in India. However, 17 sanctuaries are on the verge of losing their Tiger population.
• Corbett National Park is the oldest tiger park in India. It was created in 1936 as 'Hailey National Park'
• The Kanha National Park's lush sal and bamboo forests, grassy meadows and ravines provided inspiration to Rudyard Kipling for his famous novel, 'The Jungle Book' (source: www.saveourtigers.com)

There are various reasons for the death of Tigers:-

• Illegal trade of Tiger body parts. There is a huge demand for tiger body parts across the world. Skin for fashion, other body parts for oriental medicines and food! (how inhuman!)
• It is estimated that quantum of trade in wildlife products is just next to narcotics, valued at nearly 20 billion dollars in the global market, of this more than one third is illegal.
• Illicit trans boundary trade in tiger body parts has increased due to lucrative prices offered for Tiger bones in particular.
• As per one estimate (1999) 10 gms. of tiger bones fetch a price of US$ 24.25 at the China-Vietnam border, i.e. above Rs. 1 lakhs per kg. In Japan, trade in Tiger parts and products was permitted till April, 2000.
• Depleting wildlife quantity and quality, and prey base is making the tigers walk into human occupied areas.
• Human invasion into wildlife occupied areas, thereby disturbing the eco-system. (source: www.projecttiger.nic.in)

Looking at the above facts and statistics of undying human hunger for Tigers... If it doesn't stop here... I guess I may end up showing photographs of Tigers to my children just beside Dinosaurs and other extinct species... Such a pity, they will never be mesmerised by Tigers the way I was when a kid!!!

Lets join in the cause and raise our voice... Save the Tigers!!!