History through stories

William Dalrymple is a master travel writer. His narration delves on putting historical facts that sound like a story. His book "from the holy mountain" tells the fate of Christianity in its eastern homeland. To achive this narration, he takes the help of a previous travel through eastern holyland and the commentary of those experience. He.retraced the old route and builds the present picture with a short history. Pretty same theme like his first book where he retraced the silk route.
This book however is based on eastern Christianity, starts from Greece, goes to turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and winds up in Egypt....
I pretty much thought that Islamic fundamentalism would be the main reason for the decline of Christianity in middle east..but except in Egypt, this is not true. Also learnt what Syrian Christianity is all about. Knew that some Syriacs are in Kerala but never knew a thing beyond that.
Learnt how Syrian xtians are on the edge and why might happen of Asad goes.
Learnt how Lebanon was born and how the maronite xtians pressed self destruct button.
Got to know that Arab does not mean Muslim by default.
Could sense the pain of Palestinian xtians in Israel feeling the same brunt as the Muslims under the Jewish state
Felt how the Egyptian copts would go through as Egypt is under an Islamic resurgence and future is uncertain.
Also noticed one more thing.... Egypt under Mubarak though did not persecute minority, it wasn't openly appeasing as well. Minority is discriminated.. whereas , in India there's no explicit discrimination and yet the govt is extremely appeasing to the level of granting sub quotas... Hmmmm Overall a very poignant picture about the story of Christianity in its homeland that ends with a question about its expiry date... Though written on the 1990s its still very relevant

Hyperbole

We are a nation of hyperboles.. we react strongly to everything... we were asking the greatest cricketer ever to call it quits just because he couldn't score 100th 100.. now that he scored 99 tons didn't matter to us... Now that he has scored many say go for more against minnows... Bangladesh showed that they are no pushovers by defeating us.. still we are angry that we lost... When India as minnows can show fight and turn a giant killer by defeating WI 29 yrs ago, why don't we think that some other minnow can't defeat us.. thats the glorious uncertainty of cricket... Some ppl blame Sachin again for this loss saying his slow batting cost us the match..does it mean that our bowlers will defend totals above 300 only? what sort of bowlers are they then? we can't cover up our failure by just blaming one person.. he will continue to do his duty... We hailed MS dDoni when he won world cup.. he could never be wrong.. just two white washes abroad and is he still a man with midas touch.... does it mean he should go? if he goes then who's next viral kohli? are we sure he's mature enough to lead... Yes we win the world cup but we can't just keep winning.. what matters most is the fight we put up.. we did not show any fight in the 2 white washes and we have every right to be angry about it.. but the fact is this too shall pass.. We came from the darkest hours of Mohd. Azharuddin captaincy where he and nayan mongia took wickets while batting..we saw azhar deliberately getting out by giving catch practices...Azhar's team lost just about every other match in a dubious manner we still cheered.. Then came Ganguly who gave us some fighting spirit and backed the right youngsters.. We then saw the forgettable dravid captaincy where we were knocked out by Banglas in Wc first round... We bounced back the very next year with a WC win under dhoni.. so what willa few losses do to us.. we will win as long as there is talent..And by God there is talent in India.. Jai Hind...

rashtrapathi mahoday/mahodaya???

who's going to be president? Well the congress does not have the majority in the electoral college and hence cannot push any sycophant!!! no other opposition has that majority too.. so as per indian secular traditions, it will be a dalit or muslim or some other minority .. Like last time when it tried to project a maharshtrian and broke the Shiv Sena's vote from NDA, the congress might try to do something similar .. There was a similar situation in circa 2002... NDA in power, wanted to push its candidate but could not muster the support in electoral college... it chose Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.... whom everyone supported not because he was muslim minority or a tamilian but because he served the nation with merit... And I still respect AB Vajpayee for that.. there was no winner or loser at that time.. the nation won... Kalam gave a tough time to both DNA & later on the UPA... made some sense to the largely ceremonial post... Can the ruling class show some Classy act this time and elect someone untainted and out of the political spectrum.. and yes please don't make the caste or religion or both as criteria.. and may be the right choice for president could very well earn the govt brownie points... This is another issue that I'm keen about

political situation..

Just wondering about the current political situation, whether mid term polls or not, what happens to a third fourth fifth front etc... I have a firm belief that the third front of regional parties will never work at the central government.. It will be a harakiri.. We need to main national parties, ably supported by the regional ones... Currently, Congress and BJP play the roles of 2 contenders.. it might change if any one of the regional parties honestly attempt to play a constructive role instead of the gimmick of third front and make a difference to the people... Congress was needed after independence and some of its ways were fine during the first 10-20 years of the country ... But the main problem is it has not been quick on its toes and continued with Nehruvian policies for long until a survival threat loomed which opened the country to liberalization ... It just does not nurture a national leadership beyond one family.. all other leaders are reduced to mere sycophants .. Its brand of secularism is questionable as it tries to over appease minorities to win over votes.. and even after winning does not do much to improve their social status.. It was also responsible for one of the worst riots in the country (1984) .. That makes it no different from the BJP.. With all these, its has not done much during the send term of the current govt.. ppl voted for ups even after some shortcomings in UPA 1. That faith has not been kept.. On the other hand, BJP with many of its shortcomings has been better in delivering good governance in many of the states it rules ( some are bad but the % of good is more ) Currently, in Goa, it has won such a huge mandate so definitely its not anti minority... As a party, if you look at BJP it has more discipline than many other parties.. it does not look up to one family, the party president keeps changing.. The current set of national leaders seem more prepared in their debates in parliament.. So i guess the next time an election happens, BJP does deserve a chance and to make it happen, it should balance the coalition with the correct regional partners...

Not even 5 senses

There are people who work in their area of expertise and produce watchable movies.. there are people who explore areas unexplored hitherto and deliver different movies that may or may not be commercially viable... Usually Kamalhassan falls into this category... there are people who want to show off that their area is different and end up making a horrible cocktail of different theme and commercial masala.. its like mixing chinese food and chettinad spices.. & am Arivu is one such product. Utterly deplorable and a colossal disappointment.. In summary, the attempt is not that novel... both elements of the plot, indian influence in martial arts and epidemic virus have been dealt separately in two movies, Indian & Dasavatharam The vocally marketed element and the reason for the movie's hype is that it tells the tale of Bodhidharma.. Sadly, Bodhidharma is used only in the first half an hour to set the context and after that all we see is constant references to him by the characters ... Even the first 30 minutes sounds like a documentary ... Very superficial research. Tamil movies Vamsam, & Adukalam have much better research element than the overhyped 7th Sense... Google and Wikipedia also play a prominent role in the movie The screenplay and the style of narration is overly simple, the plot has very predictable twists and turns. Especially the way the chinese have been depicted is comically ridiculous. The director wants to make a world class movie dedicated to world tamils.. however with songs inserted forcefully in the flow, the movie turns out to be a third class one. Who on earth would believe that hypnotism is such child's play? the villain hypnotizes people at will :-) Taling of acting, I feel Shruti Hassan has the same expectations that northies have from Abhishek... Only difference is Abhishek is an good actor who is unlucky.. Shruti has inherited a lot of talents from her father but acting is definitely not on that list. The sad part is her tamil diction is not worthy of the Hassan surname... Surya flexes his muscles a lot, tires to act sensibly but somehow i feel that by choosing this movie he has given hope to Vijay .... The villain bloke is good but sad to see his talents wasted like this.. The sequences where the health officials responds to a reported epidemic is a gross insult to our medic folks... The climax fight somehow reminds of Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle... Not only that, the main element that the talent of an ancient hero lies in some nondescript circus artist seems also inspired from Chow's shoaling soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.. In the name of telling the glory of past tamils, the director tends to give way to jingoistic feelings.. We feel Raj thackeray is bad.. I have a genuine question, what about these people, who in the name of glorifying tamil and tamil fervor end up making heroes out of criminals.. There is a dialogue which says in a neighboring country one tamilian was hunted down by 9 countries with obvious references to LTTE & V Prabhakaran. The director who also happens to be a dialogue writer should be ashamed of such thoughts... LTTE was by all means a terrorist organisation which used child soldiers, trafficked drugs, arms etc. Moreover Prabhakaran had the audacity to dismiss Rajiv's killing as a "Tragic Incident". Supporting such people is dangerous. Though the Sinhalese treatment of tamils is bad, there are ways and means to protest against that. And taking of tamil valor and bravery, LTTE is not definitely an example. This is the main curse of India.. still no unity. Someone kills our leader and we still support them in the name of language... In the end, the director gives a pompous message .. He says teach tradition not the name of religion or God but in the name of science.. WHy sir,... if we have a realization of what a tradition means whats wrong in revering it? you people think you are rationalists, very intelligent and revering certain things hurts your ego is it? The true realization of our own self leads to spiritual well being.. This is what the Indian traditions reveal... I need ample doses of aspirin to recover from this and will catch up with Vijay flick to reverse the effects :-)

AArakshan

Two state governments in India have banned the mentioned movie.. Reason they perceive it as anti Dalit and anti reservation based on 3 scenes.. Now I am not surprised.. Politicians and brains are far apart. in a full length movie they can't tolerate just 3 scenes .. not more than 30-40 minutes footage.... Countless movies like dabang which are full crap gets approved by these so called governments...

Aarakashan is a nice movie.. the first half is very realistic.. second half is filmy.. but aren't we all a bit filmy..
we all have a hope.. As summarized by the movie Om Shanti Om.. hamari filmon ki tarah hamari zindagi mein bhi end tak sab theek ho jata hay.. nahi to wo The end nahi hay.. picture abhie baki hay mere dost....

Bofors, near bankruptcy... then reforms and towering growth.. now 2g land grabbing from farmers.. still we have a hope... Aarakshan summarizes this hope...

when would reservation loose its sheen.. when u have competition in the real sense... there is whole step process to active that.. in the interim lets go on with what we have.. not target any one.. after all .. the three scenes in the movie just depicts various states of mind and frustration..
The movie invictus is a great one.. why because.. in order to rebuild a nation, Mandela wanted to forgive centuries of discrimination against his people and treated ex tormentors with respect as fellow country men.. diet MKG (Bapu ) tell the same?
lets all forgive these petty squabbles.. Aarakshan represents that reconciliation and path to the future...

I love this filmy second half and I still hope India will grow above all these...
After all we were knocked out of 2007 WC champions in 2011.. now we are getting battered in england.. so its we know they will win next time.. hope.. hope is everything... We hope anna hazard can change things.. HOPE zindabad... Jai hind...

Let the supreme court place some sense in the madness and let this movie been seen every one....

History repeats itself

This adage cannot be more relevant to the neeraj grover murder case than anything else.
Naval officer Jerome murdering TV guy Neeraj as he was involved with his fiance maria.
In 1959 an exactly similar incident happend. Naval officer Nanavati murdered Prem Ahuja as he had relnship with Sylvia, the wife of nanavati.
However, the similarities end thr. Nanavati, officially surrendered to navy provost police and then to the mumbai (bombay then) police. A jury trial acquitted him considering wht he did was socially right in 1959. The govt took offence, abolished trial by jury once for all and retried nanavati handing him a jail term.
2008 and 2011 are diff from 59. Jerome does not surrender. He and Maria cut the body to pieces and burn. After getting trapped Maria says she just was acting under pressure and confesses.
Jerome said he was angry n the killing was not premeditated hence not murder.
Court agrees ... If the killing was not premeditated why the heck did he hack the body to pieces postkilling? Is that not murder? And Maria is free....

God save our judicial system

My Take on Samacheer Kalvi

The samacheer kalvi has kicked off an interesting debate.. last DMK govt wanted to standardize the different streams of education in the state under one umbrella. As usual a lot of pros and cons r there.. Tamil nadu is probably one of the weirdest states in India as it has so many different streams.. As such in India,we have CBSE & ICSE at an all India level.. Add to that the Cambridge IGSE of the hi fi public schools.. each state ahs its own state board.. In TN ladies & gentlemen, we have TN State board, Matric, Anglo Indian & OSLC.. Fortunately after 10th its just the one single state board.. TN is known for its cram carzy pattern and add to this this crazy combination of syllabi its hell for parents and students.. A such in TN, state board syllabus was considered ( may be still) a touch inferior.. Matric & Anglo Indian were considered tougher and even on par with CBSe at one time.. I had studied in Matric board from my 8th until 10th and it was crazy.. 11 subjects and total of 1100 marks... i did find Matric decent enuf as i could clear one level of NTSE during my 10th grade.. But as always its debatable.. As far as i have experienced CBSE is the best syllabus .. ICSE is crazy and IGSE is not that great.. We should aim to standardize and roll up all state syllabi to CBSE and do away with individual state boards.. we can localize the second language to the state concerned.. This will be useful as we prepare our students for higher education...this enables easy monitoring and updates to syllabus as per changing needs.. now a days an update to syllabus is like hell...

JJ is hell bent on reversing the trend started under last govt.. lets give politics a break and ensure that we bringin some standardization in education..
Samacheer Kalvi will ensure that private schools cant swindle more in the name of syllabus..

Gurubhyo namah

Matha pitha guru deivam.... Guru or teacher is given such a high position in indian mythology...
A minister says IIT teachers are not world class and IITs are world famous just because of the students.. Oh why so jst bcos the dumb min was an IITian ... If the students are so brilliant then why kota and hyd r booming wth iit classes... Before blaming the quality  of research  did the govt do the right type of funding? Has the min himself done anything to improve the situation ? How many of the world class students have not gone  behind money in developed countries... The reason given by them is thr r no adequate funding or facility for research in india... has the govt done anything? A lot of netizens even supported the min... Fortunately the HRD min was sensible enuf to bash his colleague's immature comment. Now the min in question has backtracked. If he was so right why did he eat his own words... Our teachers deserve some respect.. We need not praise them always but lets not criticize them either for no reason.. That too not by such generic statements in public...

Bihar Polls

Two phases of bihar polls over and most people predict a second term for Nitish Kumar...

Some facts that i found interesting...

The quitest assembly elections it seems media have not covered the usual stuff like "in the campaign trail wit so n so" etc..
Lalu has run out of steam and all his so called charm is not to be seen
The brother in laws have deserted him
Rabri is contesting from two seats as there is a real chance that she might lose from the one tome bastion Raghopur
Polling percentage over 50 pc inspite of naxal boycott plan... Alas Metro citizens will talk a lot but only 36 pc vote...

Only thing that still stands put is the 4 phase month long festival.... I think we can conduct the same in 15 days as well...

Raktha charitra.....

We have a habit in India... All so called educated people will give Bihar as example for something bad....criminals in politics,bihar;bad transport, bihar; violence, bihar; etc etc... But many people hardly realise that there are far worse places than bihar. But we dont quote them because those places are in so called developed states...let me quote some examples...the state election commissioner of TN remarked during one of the by-elections in a Madurai constituency that conducting elections in bihar is easy than conducting one in Madurai due to the level of irregularities and violence....but Chennai overshadows whatever that happens elsewhere in the state..
Similar is the story of Andhra... Cyberabad aka Hyderabad overshadows the violent power struggle that happen in the once naxal dominated hinterland of Rayalaseema.... Andhra is often referred to as Vishala Andhra and has three sectors, telengana that comprises of the erstwhile nizam territory, Rayalaseema and coastal andhra... Rayalaseema is said to be a Reddy landlord dominated area. Most people rarely know that the violence that region has seen is far greater than what the media reports show as happening in bihar UP...
RGV has come with a gory story from the rayalaseema land... Before saying that tjis movie is too violent let us make a note that the director has attempted to show a two decade story in 2 hours and all the dedcade long violence has to be compressed:-)
the movie tells the meteroic rise and the eventual fall of Paritala Ravindra, a naxalite turned politician. The story is straigjt from the masala potboilers of yesteryear Tamil and Telugu films that south indians are used too.. A lower rung mass leaderr is murdered by all mighty political rivals. The eldest son seeks revenge and is killed too, then rises the younger son who avenges the deaths of father and brother, then goes on to become the saviour for many, eventually teaming up with a matinee icon turned political boss and reaching the upper echelons of power.... The movie has portrayed the rise in part one and the eventual death would be portrayed in the yet to be released se ond version...
Part 1 is excellent in terms of narration... The lead actors vovek oberoi who portrays paritala ravi, shatrugan sinha who portrays NTR garu and the main villain Abhimanyu Singh have thrown in stellar performances... The only dampener is that a whole bunch of decent actors have been reduced to nondescript cameo roles....the background score though loud adds a lot of power to the storyline... One of the main features is the dialogue... There are very few of them and all of them are very powerful... The movie shows the real democracy as it happens....
The movie showcases the hyper emotions that are common place in south india and at times rare to see in the north....
I would say that the movie would look even better in Telugu..... Overall one of the best from RGV.... 4 stars out of 5 from me....

Party Leadership

In my last post, I just said that we should focus on improving ourselves and not succumb to :"Learn from X" syndrome...
Well I am actually trying to think on how can we do it by just observing others and not try to copy.

In the meantime, i was following the UK Labour Party Leadership election in which Ed Miliband pipped his much known sibling David..

Well David was UK secretary of State under Gordon Brown and a protege of Tony Blair.. He is the same man who went on poverty tourism with Rahul baba and had his foot in mouth when he offered an unsolicited advice on kashmir, which had drawn flak from all quarters and Brown had to refute it as the minister's personal opinion..

Well the election to party leadership in UK is an interesting one.. while the tories elect from MPs and the party members, Labour have an extended electoral college comprising of even trade unions as well..

As with other elections, every candidate is expected to set out policies and win votes... Seems interesting ...
In the UK the leader of the party is the leader of the government/opposition as well..

In the US of A, both the parties are run by National committees, the DNC and RNC respectively for the democrats and republicans...
The chairperson of the committee is the party head... and that person is responsible for the party alone... The government / opposition is run by senators/representatives and the head of the government is the president. The nomination for president is a separate race at the time of elections.. i would say that this is a bit complicated.. Well what else can you expect from US..

COming back to India, well talking about the two major parties.. lets take BJP first.. The BJP is a mixture of both US and UK as per my view.. The party president is elected for a fixed term of 3 years and the term is considered religiously.. Much like US the party president is responsible for party only and the government / opposition head is elected by the parliamentary party..
Much like labour party, the root organization (RSS) has a say in the party leadership.. I feel that this is a good system.. If only the BJP could win more hearts to form a government... The party seems more disciplined than any other in the country...

Another party which follows a set system is the commie group.. both CPI and CPM have politburos and religiously( or rather atheistically ;) ) elect general secretaries and so on...

Congress was a disciplined organization with a party leadership different from government before madam G.. but after madam G, the party leadership is the same as government or usually a puppet heads the party dancing to the tune of the dynasty... Off late the leadership has turned powerful after 2004.. and the government dances to the tune of the party now.. But there is no leadership contest .. only one person is nominated and elected unanimously without even alternate opinion.. well how democratic is that? People can predict who the next party president is going to be.. hmm

Same is the case with most regional parties... all being run as fiefdoms..

I dont want us to emulate anyone but atleast have some system in place and make the leadership selection more visible...

China China

I think we are badly obsessed with emulating China in whatever we do.
In Military, in industry, in conducting events so on and so forth...
But lets really give a thought for a second... Is china really that great and worth emulating? I have no doubt that China has grown tremendously and is a major power an hats off to her for the achievement. But that doesnt make me a fan of china..

Some of her policies make me nauseatic. The brutality in which lands were cleared and people oppressed to stage 2008 Beijing olympics is well known.. There were reports of how child gymnasts were trained under inhuman conditions to win medals. There were even reports of some malpractcies in other events as well.. Lets answer one question .. Does not conducting an olympics mean that a country is not great?

We tried to copy china by conducting CWG, planning for an Asiad bid and so on..
Though the intent was right in conducting an event, was it necessary to allot Rs 70K Crores?Did we at all think that the same money could be used elsewhere?

Did we monitor the progress throughout? Our media just kept mum for almost 4 years and suddenly started raking up the issue just 3 months prior the games.. Now after a whole lot of fuss suddenly everyone seems happy. Thats because everyone wants to make India happy just because they want Indian money.. What did we achieve as a country in trying to emulate china here? Loads of bad publicity and hell a lot of money that could have been channeled elsewhere..

Another of China's policies that I am not a fan of is the one child norm and the brutality in implementing that. Though one can argue about the stress that a huge population puts on a nation's resources, one cannot go on controlling births with a stick in a hand.. Lets not assume a statistical trend of growth, we should also think about the declining fertility rates before implementing a program like this.

Thank God we are not yet trying to follow China in this...
Another of China's biggest problems is that She's trying to be a US in this part of the globe or who knows she might want to see itself as the next US.. Hence all that plans to build bases in Lanka , trying to intimidate India, the main perceived rival... Lets not again emulate china in this aspect. In the pretext of trying to strengthen ourselves, lets not increase our defence budgets further...

Our biggest flaw as a nation is that we always ant to learn from others. Be its US, CHina or whoever. Why not we focus on things and make them better in our own way rather that "Learn From X" phenomenon?

I want India to be better but lets focus on the basics like agriculture, proper food distribution.. lets try to bridge the economic gap before we proclaim ourselves a superpower and show off our ability in many non essential things..

Jai Hind....

Latest on nivas

Finally the man had made it to the civil slervices, hes 45 on the all india merit list.... Way to go man.....

Hey Ram – Part 2

I was never a fan or an ardent critic of Rahul Gandhi. Till about a few hours ago I didn't really know much details about his education and so on. I happened to see his wikipedia page and browse some other links in the net just out of curiosity.

There has been a deluge of links, blogs videos which make claims and counter claims about his qualifications, original citizenship details etc. It is not obviously possible to discuss everything here. But yes, it is disturbing trend that more the number of hits to a video, the sooner it disappears with the website citing usage violation. Ignoring everything that his being said regarding credentials,I just could not help laughing at a certain video(The Video). Naah the video isn’t about someone making a ridiculous claim about him. The video has the congress general secretary speaking on the geographical size of Gujarat and then India. He says Gujarat is bigger than UK. Well we can excuse him for that faux pas as it might have just come in the moment. The next thing is just off the roof… He says India is bigger than the US and Europe put together.. Now this is the best that one can come up with. It would have been easier to accept had it come from some son of some politician. But from the Gandhi scion !!!!! That too he has been educated in the UK @Cambridge and seems has worked in Michael Porter’s firm. Such a gaffe from him… hey raam our PM in waiting is worse than George Bush…

Secular or Appeasing?

Well, I have always had a doubt when the media, some so called intellectuals, social workers all cry secularism and denounce fundamentalism… I have had a feeling that most of the times only the hindu right wingers are being targeted for being fundamentalist. In our country, we somehow ignore certain things if its done by certain people… I have a few instances to point out as to what I am coming at.

1) Instance No 1 IPS Officer testifies against Advani; Modi’s appearance at SIT

All the media was gung ho about the IPS officer testifying against Advani. What did she say? Did she say that she heard Advani ordered the demolition. NO she just said he was in an upbeat mood etc etc.

So She becomes a heroine and we now need to prove secular credentials…. Eh… some say the darkest day of India is Dec 6 1992.. Oh is it really…

For the starters, the worst riot that India has ever seen was at Delhi in 1984 which was supposedly orchestrated by some congressmen to avenge the death of Indira… well what the hell did all sikhs do to face such a wrath?.. And Rajiv’s comments on that riot, far from sympathizing actually hurt even more…  The quote attributed to him is “When a giant tree falls, the earth below shakes”… Is this attitude any different from what Anju has testified about Advani?

Well I dont think so… then why are we behind just BJP & Advani folks?

Same goes with with social worker teesta setalvad.. who just believes that 2002 Gujrat was the first ever riot in this country and that Modi is equivalent to Hitler… Well go get a life lady. He has done fairly well in the last 8 years and the state has been not only peaceful but developing.. If you can ignore Rajiv’s comments and ignore the perpetrators of 1984 why go after modi alone… If he is guilty let the law punish him.. why a media trial?
And the parliament attacker Afzal Guru gets support from some human rights groups ... he is still not hanged... then why do u want a speedy justice for dec 6 and 2002 gujrat only

2) Recent drama in TN regarding a sleaze video of a Swami

Well here in the case of godmen we again apply different rules…

A channel close to the ruling party in TN showed the video on prime time and denounced the fake godmen, superstitions etc etc …

I have a question for them. If showing the truth was their only intention, it could have been done in a decent way.Couldn’t it?

And there is a case of a paedophile catholic priest which the Tamil media has ignored altogether? why this  oversight? Didn’t you guys find this news worth reporting at a large scale?

3) The phone nikah controversy involving shoaib malik

Well in this case, a leading newspaper in India has published an article that seem to say phone nikahs are not valid and so on and so forth (http://www.thehindu.com/2010/04/07/stories/2010040766082200.htm)

BBC on the other hand has done a thorough research and has come up with a more concrete article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/south_asia/8608878.stm)

Why are we so much defensive when it comes to a so called minority community and why are so so aggressive about taking on hindu fundamentalism? Why are we sol guilty about hinduism?

numero uno

India becomes no 1 team in tests ??? i dunno how can we become number one in tests without having ever won in Aus in recent times. SA beat Aus black and blue after we handed the arrogant ozs a perth trouncing.. but poor proteas hav just lost their crown to us... may be we stopped oz twice from a record 17th win may well make us the true numero uno.... we may not be world beaters but yeah we give a team a run for their money .....as dhoni said we may find it very very tough to hold on to numero uno.. As
he also said, lets just play good cricket and let the ratings take care of themselves.... foreign media have already started questioning how deserving india is for the numero uno spot? well guys get a break.. brown men also can be numero uno... anyways now that cricket is conquered, let us as well concentrate on gaining lost glory in hockey... Football is another area where we can be numero uno (!!!!!) beleive me it wont take 77 years as in case of cricket if we put the energy in right places.. We can aim for numero uno in 25 years atleast....

Dynasty globally

Yesterday I happened to read a feature in the BBC website about dynasties taking over in northern africa. Well Many of us may ask whats new about it. The article in BBC talks about Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and algeria. Consider Kuwait, saudi arabia, syria. The dynasties are everywhere. India, Philippines, Indonesia and some other far eastern countries have democratic dynasties... Why does all this happen?

Indifference of the people. In some cases like in oppressive regimes, any opposition is either silenced brutally or given economic privileges. In a democratic setup, the people themselves are so frustrated that they do not care about the credentials of their candidates... Well even in the UK and US to lobby for a post of governor or PM or President, a person needs to have sufficient clout in terms of men or money to win elections... Its known that hillary put up with bill's infidelity in return for his clout in the democratic party that gave her a realistic chance of running for president. In our own country, Rthe prince is back from foreign and is now staying in huts to feel the real india. In India's richest state Maharashtra, in the recently concluded assembly polls more than a dozen leader kids have been "elected" MLAs.
Even in the remotest states of North Eastern India dynasties have started growing.
America which wanted to bring democracy to Iraq has long been silent about Saudi ....

What really is democracy all about? is there any real democracy in existence where over 80% of people cast their franchise genuinely. I doubt so.

There wont be long before we go back to monarchy but in a different form....

its in the family

yesterday, due to some pressing need i happened to visit the office library. There, i chanced upon a copy of business today. The cover story of the latest issue has a profile of Noel Naval Tata, the half brother of Ratan N Tata. Noel has been running the group's retail arm Trent Ltd for over a decade now and yet a few have heard much about him in the media. Everytime i visit a Westside outlet, i am sure to find a surprise. I have taken many of my relatives/friends to westside outlets and they all have been impressed by it. More than the flashy big outlets, westside's subtle ambience has captured senses of many. In the last deacade, apart from westside we have seen Trent foray into books and music by acquiring a stake in landmark, partenring with Tesco for Star India Bazaar ( more importantly going slow on it after the retail bust during sub prime crisis where many retail biggies bit the dust), launching electronic retail chain of croma. One point to note here Ladies n Gentlemen is, Trent is 14th in terms of market cap in the tata group ( my company is the first ) . Trent is also not supposed to explicitly use the omnipresent TATA logo as they have to still reach a few goals as per the in-house business excellence model of the group to be able to use it. Until then all it can do is to just display "A TATA Enterprise" in its brands.The man has led the company ably as his elder bro did Nelco more than 2 decades ago. Yet the man hasnt had a stint in Tata Steel or Tata motors , the flagship companies of the group. Noel is the likely successor to the septuagenarian chairman who is set to retire soon and may become chairman emeritus like his mentor JRD. Iam awestruck by the steady growth of Trent that has lived up to the Tata values. I say this not just because I am a Tata employee. I hope the group gets to greater heights once Noel takes over the mantle. With a team of CEOs in their 40s Noel whos in his 50s will have a brighter chance for taking the group to new heights.

pseudo-moral

In India nothing creates controversy more than books that talk history...Nah this is not about the furore caused by Jaswant who was hailing Jinnah... Jinnah and secular.. well its true he was not at all a pious Muslim, his wife was called Ruttie petit ( yup a parsi).. but suddenly he found his religion and became the quaid e azam.. lets leave him apart for a while.. this is about Jinnah's arch rival for premiership, had India been not partitioned; the man in question is Pt Nehru.. a lot has been said , written and seen about his relationships et all... About 2 yrs before an oxford scholar named Alex von Tunzelmann reignited the flame with her book "Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire" . I have read that book and say that there is nothing extremely controversial.. It talks about Gandh, Nehru, Lord Mountbatten, Edwina, very less about Jinnah.. more importantly,it talks about the Nehru-Edwina link. The author has done her bit of research at the Royal Archives.. The book actually talks about the lives of Gandhi, Nehru and the mountbattens before narrating the events of 1947.. Well the Brits are never afraid of writing history and the lady has minced no words in mentioning that the marital link between Lord n Lady Mountbatten was an open marriage and that the Lord was openly bisexual... She has also clearly stated that the Nehru-Edwina link was more than platonic.. It seems some people here have taken their own sweet time to read the book.. after 26 months when some hollywood guy is tryin to film the book, people have come out shouting that this is defamatory to our beloved leader... Well whether or not Nehru had a relation ship with Edwina, the fact remains that he is the architect of modern India and is a statesman par excellence ( yes "IS" is what i use) .. thats how I see it...But with their new found popularity, the congress party doesnt want to take its chances.. It cried foul and a host of Nehru family/extended family members have said that the relationship was just platonic( IJ IT??)....
There has also been an attempt to influence the director to come out n say that he has shown nothing controversial in the movie.. well clear breach of creative freedom.. We are a secular bear all bunch.. aint it friends?.. Well as a matter of fact, the book there are some facts about Gandhiji, which some might feel offensive... But none from Gandhi's family has even made a whimper..
We as a nation are so much obsessed with hero worship that even a small criticism against our beloved leaders is a matter of pride for us....Whatever be the relationship reality is, the fact is Nehru is still a hero... Let us all realise that and not make a hue n cry...