Perseverance is this guy’s middle name.

Most probably.

Or else he wouldn’t have had this sparkling success: from a rickety old push cart chinese fast food joint to a brand new fully furnished mobile chinese fast food join.

Check out more details about Chandu, on of the budding entrepreneurs in Mangalore. This is written by Harsha Raj Gatty, a 1st student MCMS student at St. Aloysius College, where I serve as a guest lecturer.

Ok,  so this is a blog about Mangalore so what am I doing with a post that seemingly has nothing to do with Mangalore?

Well, the answer is simple. A great part of me was shaped in Mangalore and while I’m on the topic of shaping I also have to mention one man who has had a profound influence on my life.

That man is: Stone Cold Steve Austin!

And this year, Stone Cold is going to take his rightful place in pro wrestling history by being inducted into the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame.

For the uninitiated Stone Cold is a professional wrestler who was active during the period of 1996-2003 in WWF (I still refuse to call it WWE).

And ironically those 7 years were my most definitive years as in ‘96 I had just finished SSLC and was looking forward to joining college. And at the same time Stone Cold burst into the scene and captured all our imagination like nothing else.

1996 saw Stone Cold win the King of the Ring and with his acceptance speech began the Austin 3:16 era. Frankly speaking, I missed this year for various reasons.

I caught up next year with Austin feuding with Bret “The Hitman” Hart and losing a match that catapulted him to stardom. By next year he was locking horns with none other than his boss, the vindictive Vince McMahon, who resolved to make Stone Cold’s life a hell and screw him out of WWF championship.

McMahon’s reasoning was he did not want a rebellious anti-authority figure like Stone Cold to be the champion and represent his company.

But Stone Cold would not have it that way. He became a multiple times champion and usually at the expense of McMahon.

Although pro wrestling is a work, I admit I was (and am still) a major Stone Cold Steve Austin mark!

And this one guy provided me, and us, the confidence (and the stupidity) to take on the authority. Many of my suspensions in college have had direct relation to one Mr. Stone Cold’s professed attitude.

I have moved on, by the way

But even today, Stone Cold’s appearance in the now crappy WWE ring is a treat and brings back good old memories.

And I also admit, I have not completely abandoned Stone Cold as my all-time greatest hero and I don’t think I ever can.

That is because a little of Stone Cold is still left within me that makes me rebellious and anti-convention, like he professed, and it is likely that this will be the case all my life!

Nonetheless, I wish my hero a great future and no one could have been more happy that Stone Cold is getting inducted in the WWF HOF next month than I.

While on the HOF topic, there is a great speculation about who is going to induct good old Stone Cold into the HOF. Vince is keeping this bit as a secret as much as possible and I can bet my last rupee that Stone Cold is also enjoying the situation, playing along with Vince.

Personally I have very few people who I would want to indust Stone Cold into the HOF. Chief among them is none other than Vince McMahon as he is the one who was a big part in building the immortal Stone Cold persona. I know Vince does not involve himself in HOF ceremony directly but I guess he can make an exception this time.

Other candidates are Undertaker and Bret Hart. These 2 have had as much share in building the Stone Cold persona as Vince. Stone Cold’s legendary match with Bret Hart catapulted him to stardom and his matches with Undertaker shoved him to super-stardom. These 3 make my ideal candidates.

Certain people I would NOT like to see induct Stone Cold into HOF: The Rock, Triple H, Ric Flair, Good Ol’ JR, and Shawn Michaels.

Rest is upto WWF!

I must admit that that this has been a very memorable St. Valentine’s day for me.

For starters, it’s after 4 years I have been without a date or a person to think of seriously on V-day.

But my love life apart, this V-day has been most memorable for various reasons.

Chief of them being the fact that all roving eyes were on Mangalore for the next incident-to-talk-about that comes from my city.

Sorry folks, that’s not to be.

Mangalore was peaceful, thanks largely to the excellent police force who do rise to the occasion when the need arises. And today was one of those days in Mangalore where you’d be on the streets and couldn’t avoid seeing a cop at every nook and corner.

Hats of to our city police!

That apart, it was also a memorable v-day because of the fear and loathing that beloved Ram Sena people had created amongst the youngsters in the city.

I went out in the afternoon and, you won’t believe, in a city crawling with couples there wasn’t a single couple out in public today.

I hardly saw one or two in the whole day. And trust me, in an average day I see at least a dozen couples openly displaying their love. Today was a day when I dint see any couple. And by that I mean a guy and girl together.

I seriously felt that all the girls in the city had united under umbrella and decided they’ll not provide the so called moral brigade absolutely any reason to create havoc. So along with the police force I also credit the girls to have taken such a wonderful and thoughtful decision.

I stationed myself at a friend’s shop today for an hour at the busiest junction in the city to see how many people come out – absolutely no one! The businesses have been hit badly – not only fourists and card shops but general business also were hit pretty badly. If there is no crowd on the streets where will the business be?

I hope the moral brigade have made their point and are satisfied by the havoc they have created.

By the way, I had been to a pub and was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of girls in the crowd. That’s daring! My respect goes out for those girls. They rock!

History will always remember the media and the pink chaddi brigade helped turn a little known Muthalik into a national celebrity.

Now before anyone of you get an idea that I’m anti-this or anti-that let me clarify – I don’t care.

As far as I know, the attack on pubs was a deplorable incident and the whole idea of culture police is just insane.

But I’m not impressed with the new pink chaddi campaign – a non violent way of protesting Ram Sene, as the founders call it.

The reason being I’m of the opinion that history teaches us something and those who ignore it are bound to repeat it.

We don’t have to go very far in history – the publicity given to Babri Masjid, Mumbai Riots, Khalistan, Terrorism and many other deplorable incidents have turned unknown people into mass celebrities. And that is what will happen with this initiative.

Look at the havoc already – a relatively unknown person, somewhere in in an obscure part of Karnataka, is now on the top of the minds of people – thanks to the pink chaddi brigade and the media.

I have nothing to say about our media who are so hungry for anything within 50 km radius of ‘controversy’.  They’re doing their job – however skewed be their definition of their job.

But I disapprove of this whole pink chaddi campaign. This man Muthalik thrives on publicity. And these pink chaddi people are handing it to him on a silver platter. In a few days this man is a household name. Imagine what would be the state in a few months.

It’ll be the responsibilty of the media and the pink chaddi brigade if Muthalik and his bunch of miscreants turn into a strong party capable of hijacking cities and holding public life to ransom.

In addition, they had their basics wrong initially. Their blog had a picture of RSS baitthak with a heart sign. The RSS does not support Ram Sene and in fact condemns the attack. Thankfully they have removed the picture now.

I must also admit that I’m impressed by the PUB BHARO part of the campaign. Now that is something to cheer about and support. I think every woman who is seen in a pub on valentine’s day deserves a huge bouquet — just for having the guts to venture out in the face of threats.

I’ll be heading to a pub in Mangalore and if I find any woman I’m going to toast for her. This way I’m celebrating the triumph of womanhood and not providing free publicity to anyone.

On a different note, I think the pink chaddi campaign is a study for social media and viral marketing professionals. It has been a successful campaign in terms of response. More on that on my website.

And happy valentine’s day to everyone in advance!

The first post of this year and sadly, it’s not on a very good news that has happened in Mangalore.

Anybody who is anybody (and has a TV set) would have seen the ghastly act by the right wing outfit Sri Rama Sene on Saturday, Jan 24. These hooligans barged into a pub and beat the girl customers like animals.

The incident itself is curious and steeped in intrigue.

For instance, this is probably the first time I’m seeing a planned attack with media coverage. Assaults of this nature are generally done without warning. These hooligans seem to have mediapersons along with them right from the beginning.

Which takes us to the possibility that these hooligans might have had a more than impulsive reason to attack the place. But the accounts of the “reason” have been varying: from ‘Hindu girls hanging out with Muslim boys’ to ‘a girl pulling off her top and performing striptease’ have been doing rounds.

But irrespective of the reason, Sri Rama Sene activists do not have any right to assault anybody, much less women. They must remember that they call themselves “moral police” and going by that logic they are not employees of the police force, which means they do not have the rights to assault anyone.

Talking of police, where were our cops when this incident took place? The media were informed but the cops didn’t get a sniff of an attack? That’s very strange, given the fact that our cops have proved in the past that they are not intellectually challenged.

To give them credit, they have been doing a decent job. The murder in the highly sensitive Suratkal area few days ago had all the elements to turn into a full-fledged communal riot. There was murder, revenge, politics and religion. But the cops did a great job of handling the situation and checked the spread of violence before it turned ugly.

This assault incident has again put a question mark on the integrity of our city cops. Why were they not there when media people managed to arrive in time and film it? Why the delay in filing the FIR? And why, such lax retaliation against the perpetrators?

I have not been to the pub in question till now but I do visit certain other pubs occasionally and from what I have observed the general situation concerning girls, partying and indecency is not at all bad, much less warrant such an incident.

But my other observation is that the right wingers do not need a strong reason for questioning, assaulting and bullying in general. Just like any other bully, these guys have no clue what they are or what they think they are. These guys feel that if they see a guy and girl together they have the rights to question their credentials (and they do it).

This behaviour reminds me of a certain Islamic outfit that has been doing the same kind of activities in a place called Afghanistan. I think the outfit is called Taliban.

And just like Taliban’s disgusting behaviour and principles have made Afghanistan synonymous with Taliban, there will come a time in future when our beloved Mangalore will be synonymous with Hindutva elements and their principles.

And just like Taliban and Afghanistan, Mangalore will also be shunned.

Unless these self-styled moral police are not controlled!