Whatever be the verdict, India is the victim

So we have the Babri masjid title suit verdict coming this friday.

Let us not confuse things. This is not related to the demolition of the mosque. The demolition is a criminal case and has been around for just 20 years. Of course now there are hardly any accused left. No conspiracy, just 11 or 12 accused and it seems that a 400 year old mosque simply collapsed all by itself despite all efforts to protect it.

What we have on friday is the verdict of the nearly 60 year old suit asking who holds the title of the land. The Muslim community by virtue of a mosque being there or the Hindu community as a temple existed there earlier. The title suit is also linked to the Babri Masjid demolition by virtue of events of the last 20 years. Just to give some background info, Babri masjid was a bone of contention since pretty long but this suit is linked to 1949 when miscreants broke into the mosque and installed idols in the center(the alternative version is that the idols magically appeared). The mosque was sealed and the case went to court. In 1988, Rajiv Gandhi ordered the mosque opened and worship allowed in the temple now formed in what many say as a measure to please the majority committee after the government had bent against pressure from orthodox Muslim clerics and invalidated the Shah Bano ruling with a new law.

The pandoras box had been opened. A party called the BJP, a successor of the Hindu Mahasabha took up the issue. Over a period of the next 3-4 years the mass public mobilizations culminated in the destruction of the mosque. Prior to this event and especially after the demolition, riots would break out in many parts of India. The Bombay riots among them were especially destructive. Hundred and maybe thousands died. But the greater damage was to the fabric of India.

So who owns the land. That is the vexing question? Because there are a lot of principles of law at stake here. Assuming a temple existed there, can an act however reprehensible be undone 350 years old. I am really not sure. By the same standard, the American Indians could claim back large tracts of America and so could indigenous people in many parts of the world.

However since I really have no memories of 1992 , I will involve other people who knew.

One incident I know is a person who said the issue has been used for political mileage. He went to Ayodhya with a group in early 1980's. They went to nealry 12 temples and out of them half claimed to be the birthplace of Lord Ram. The BJP needed an event to propel it to the national stage and Ayodhya was it. There were nearly 20000 temples in Ayodhya and only 5 mosques. Now there are only 3.

Another relative, a very learned scholar mused recently that Muslim community lost a great oppurtunity. The mosque had not been used since 1949. Many muslims also beleive also that it ceased to be a mosque once idols were installed. So if the Muslim community as a whole had gone to the negotiating table and offered to shift the mosque to another plot they could have probably benefited greatly. Among the conditions he mused should have been proportional representation in the goverenment especially the police and constabulary. Another thing would be a new amendment in the constitution declaring 1990 as the status quo date and a law that no further mosque can be demolished for any reason whatsoever. However it did not happen and now we can only wonder how it would have sounded.

Now we have the verdict on the title suit. I don't know what the court will say. There is communal tension in the air because of the verdict. This is especially true for UP because of the political potential. If Muslims win , some fools will take out celebratory processions and if we loose idiots will take out a protest march. I am very much sure the same will stand true for some Hindus in either case. While there have been enough calls for peace and requests for no response of any kind to the verdict, there will always be fools and cynical manipulative leaders somewhere. A riot guarantees a vote bank.

If I could wish I would wish for a neutral verdict. Let that land be declared neutral area. I don't want a mosque which stands on so much of bloodshed of both communities.

I have always said the idea of a nation is weakened when we are so divided that we cant live together. Or stand each other. A nation held together only by force is one step away from imploding. India is a nation of many hues and shades. Unity in diversity. That we must never forget

Whoever wins, the final looser will be India..... Only India.

The season started-- Last sunday

CAT 2009, I am coming. So beware all you competitors, for from the ashes rises a phoenix.

:) So my CAT prep starts. nearly five months. Enough time, I think.

Anyway I gave my first mock cat after nearly 8 months and as expected got bashed to a pulp. In the free AIMCAT got 13 marks in DI, 71 in verbal and 15 in quant. Did not clear two cut-offs. The good part was verbal. My blade is still not broken. According to time coaching out of the the 34053 people all India who took the test my rank was 40th. :) I am inconsistently consistent .

The same was 13000 and 15000 in the other two.

Its a long way to the top. But I have tasted blood and I am coming

Salsa with the devil

You reap what you sow. The demons that one creates for others will one day come back and haunt you too.

So Pakistan has made peace with elements of the Taliban in SWAT valley in exchange of enforcing Shariah law. As a neighbouring country whose existence appears rooted many times in anti-India rheoteric and also a country which has the nuclear bomb, this signals a dengerous development. Is Pakistan a failing state?

The shariah law in SWAT is atavistic in many aspects. Women testimony will not be equivalent to men, no more girl eductaion(over 500 girl schools have been destroyed by the Taliban in the region),compulsory purdah and a general repression of freedom.

There were about 3000 taliban fighters in SWAT. Why is it the Pakistani army could not defeat them. Or was it just that the generals dont want to.

I end with this quote of Winston Chuchill,"If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

It would be well if the Pakistani establishment was to remember this. Because one can't win in a negotiation with the devil. Pakistan created the Afghanistan Taliban and all the offshoots of the same in their country com from there only.

"
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety--Benjamin Franklin
"
The above quote remains as true today as anyday in the past.

The Chauvinism of Culture

So we had the most shameful incident happening on India's republic eve when members of a right wing Hindu group called the 'Shri Ram Sena' brutally attacking and molesting girls in a pub in the city of Mangalore. Because the attack got filmed by the media a huge outrage has occurred with most people condemming it. However members of the Ram Sena especially the president of the organization remain unapologetic calling themselves "custodians of the Indian culture".

As someone who sees himself as a male feminist(actually) I am outraged that such a thing could happen, as an Indian I am ashamed that organization like these even exist and we allow them to rule our cities.

If one read tuesday’s newspapers the chief of the organization responsible for attacks openly owes responsibility saying “women should not enter pubs and mix with youths as its against our culture”. There are no regrets.

What this attack will do is terrorize people especially women from going to pubs. The images of women running away in terror and being mishandled will scar so many women. They will be afraid not knowing when they can be attacked. Men can enjoy. For them our Indian culture allows them to drink whether in a bar or in a pub.

On the other hand while the media has played a very negative role in the entire affair, we should not shoot the messenger. The video of the attack ensured that there is such a huge outrage against the attack.

The sad thing is this is just another of a series of incidents showing how intolerant sociey and how willing people in power are to justify violence. We had the sacking of the Bhandarkar Oriental institute, the violence in protests against Taslima Nasreen by an unknown Muslim group, the attacks on North Indians by MNS, the MF Hussain controversy which has ensured India's most famous painter will spend his last days in exile, numerous riots, a painter being jailed in Gujrat(Vadodra) for painting nudes, the protest by the Shiv Sena against Valentines day. The list just goes on. In India its a fashion to get ur will done through violence.

I think we as a nation must stand up and say the mob mentality and vigilantism of any form must not be accepted.

The constitution allows us a right to freedom of expression. The freedom of expression does not allow us to indulge in hate speech or violence of any kind. If the so called ‘moral police’ were so upright they could have peacefully protested outside the pub. The Delhi high court has upheld the right of women to work as bartenders so what is the big deal with women in a pub.

As for the attackers in Mangalore , I suggest hang the basta*** and make an example out of them. On a more serious note, sentence all to minimum ten years of jail and give no bail. There wont be another attack on defenceless girls having their lunch and a drink in a pub.

Else it will continue.

Update-the embedded videos from indiatimes have been removed. Find them if you want to.

Obama is the president

So I ended up watching the inaugration on internet live. Lovely speech though I liked his pre inaugral speech of a day before better.

Barack Obama is looking at the bigger picture and his call to be united to instill a spirit of service was just that. Here are the best lines from his speech according to me.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned.

As for our common defence, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

Hurray!! Bush will be gone today and we will have Obama

I feel so releived Bush is gone and we have Obama coming in.

In place of the neo-cons we have a leader elected by overwhelming majority who ran on a broadly liberal agenda, whose message was always of understanding.

Its a powerful message of what humans can achieve. That even in the darkest of times we can hope to overcome hate and blind ignorance.

I can't help but be optimistic about Barack Hussein Obama. I will reserve doubt for another time. Today is just not the day.

He brings hope.

Cheers!! Hic

Warner Brothers ki aisi taisi

So I saw a movie that set a new benchmark for hindi movies. The tragedy is its not new heights but new lows.

So I saw Chandni Chowk to China yesterday. And I can definitely say its one of the worst ER saw. It was a movie where when we finally had the break, people actually wished it was the ending and felt pity for themselves that there was another hour plus of the movie left.

The story is quite senseless. It withers, walllows and meanders.

The biggest issue is the movie director could not figure out which genre he was creating.
Its like a senseless comedy and a major tragedy all combined and rapid changes between the two formats. It appears to be a film for kids, yet a kid sitting in the row front literally begged his mom to take him back home. The so called Hollywood special effects are quite pathetic excuses for stunts. The good and bad guardian angels on a persons shoulders went out of fashion after JFK's time.

I wonder which idiot critic gave it it 4.5 stars. For me,I would demand compensation for the time wasted watching the senseless crap.

Avoid it. Unless you have nothing to do.

Hell! Avoid it even then.

SATYAMgate

Q.) How do you blow all your money in a day?

A.) Invest in a company called Satyam.

Over the last few weeks we had the Satyam saga unfolding in front of us.

A company which was the recepient of the prestigious "Golden Peacock" award for corporate world with over 2 billion dollars in the bank as reserves decided to buy Maytas infrastructure in a surprise move which smack of the promoter misusing company funds.

But the investors and market baulked, tanking down the share price. The management reneged on the deal but the damage had been done. The share prices were so low that a takeover seem imminent. A large number of shares were being bought by two or three companies.

Then one morning the promoter writes a letter saying all the cash reserves were imaginary and the books had been cooked for decades.
.
It was over.

The prices went below the face value. In one mement all the talk of the IT sector as a shining example of corporate governance was over.

So now as the investigators pick through the debris, I wonder how will SATYAMgate affect the Indian IT outsourcing industry.

Now some people beleive it will scare companies away from India and its all doomed.

I beg to differ.

Satyamgate is nothing more than Enron for India. Or maybe a Madoff.
Its a bad scandal but it just shows mighty are greedy and weak.

Unlike what Heena says on her blog, call-centers are just a small part of the out sourcing story. The bigger picture is in IT where new development, testing and more importantly maintenance projects are being handled by big IT companies like Infosys, Wipro, etc.

Maintenace especially cannot be stopped or easily shifted to others. So the thing is projects will stay. We save a lot of money for the companies which as Bank of America's chairman said allows them to expand around the world.

And today the indian IT industry has built up an expertise which cannot be easily matched.
Also SATYAMs demise is other IT companies gain as client will shift. I can tell you some have been gained even when there is no active poaching
The situation is bad because of recession but its not apocalyptic.

On a random note


Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

The story ends for 2008 but November 2009 is the final date.

So my CAT 08 result finally arrived and I had not made the cut as last year. And the overall percentile was lower than last year by about 1.5. Not bad but not good enough for me or for the IIMs.

Whil I always held out hope but I knew getting a call this year would have been too much about luck. Because I had training in my job during Aug-Oct, I just did not prepare. So its all in a days work.

But CAT 09 to be held in November 09 is my final attempt. By that time I would have sufficient work experience. The stage would be set.

The work would start soon. Hard work has to meet luck to end up at the right place. And I cannot depend upon english section. I need to get data interpretation and quant solid. I might also give GMAT but that is another post. another day bye

Foot in the mouth

It appears Indian politicians lose every bit of honour they ever had, once they are elected. To get the votes there appears no depths to which they will not stoop. Indian politicians as a rule live on rhetoric and invalid arguments only.

So we had A R Antulay, the minister for minorities welfare who in his entire tenure has not really done anything useful asking out loud whether the death of the top Maharashtra ATS officers who were probing the Malegaon bomb blasts case was actually part of some conspiracy to eliminate upright officers investigating the case.

Predictably this has caused a furore in political circles with opposition parties baying for his blood. For now however A R Antulay has been labelled by the PM and Congress as misunderstood and represented by everyone.

However Muslims have a reason to be furious with Antulay. By questioning the facts in a case that played out before the entire nation, he is eroding the Muslims case for equality and fairness. As a minister of Cabinet rank Antulay could contribute constructively elsewhere.

Malegaon bomb blasts investigation is a vindication of the voices who said there is likely to be involvement of the Hindu right in bomb blast cases too. The evidence was right there(Nanded explosions) but it took nearly three years for someone to investigate it. The question should be "Why did the CBI dilute the cases against the accused initially " and were there lapses in the investigation initially.

By giving credence to childish conspiracy theories, A R Antulays makes a mockery of the entire Muslim community. Because lets face it that while bomb blasts could be done by anyone, in India it would a very surprising thing if even now anyone else than Islamic extremist groups s could brainwash youth for suicide missions except perhaps the LTTE(even Maoist and the Bodos have more sense). Muslims have done a lot to dissociate themselves as a community from terror through peace marches , edicts and have even gone to the level of denying burials in graveyards for the terrorists. And a little known fact is that a lot of Muslims have died in the terror attacks, indistinguishable from the other victims.

Muslims are not the perpetrators. The perpetrators are terrorists. We are the victims. Just read the names of people who died at CST and Leopold Cafe.

What Antulay remarks do, is shake the foundation that Muslims are trying to create. There should be inquiries into everything about the Mumbai attacks especially how three such senior police officers got killed but the minister should have kept his words to himself. As the minorities minister he implies a link to the minorities.

Moving on however I believe that while the minister was wrong in stating the conspiracy theory, the opposition parties especially the BJP have no locus standi to raise a voice. It is the same party that so vehemently defended "Hindu terror" as just a response to Muslim terror. As an Indian I am offended by the entire act and the silly justifications. Because if the BJP is willing to see even one terrorist acts as a reaction to previous acts, they should then accept most Islamic terror acts in India nothing more than responses to acts that the party and its constituents themselves are responsible for.

I will not accept violence as a means to anything. I will also reject all opinions that belittle one murder as compared to another. An innocent is an innocent,one life is as precious as another.I am a MUslim, I am an Indian, I am also human.(borrowed from Heena's blog)

Anyway read this article. While I do not agree with everything the author says, still he is talking about the right things.

http://www.countercurrents.org/rabbkhan241208.htm

Adios for now

Home, thats where I am

So I am finally at home after six months. The good news is that the project I was working on, got over withh all targets being met. Infact the customer actualy appreciated our efforts. The funny thing is whenever we failed to meet weekly targets we(the state team, ME in my case) got the blasted the next day for sure but when we got apprciated ,the appreciation took a week to reach us. We were in the midst of another meeting where we were being blasted by the manager and the team lead, "Why did you not meet yesterdays target??, this is high risk project ,etc Why do some of you leave by eleven(gosh you leave after 13 hours and they are still glum)", when the manager suddenly goes like,"Last week you met the test pass percentage and the client was genuinely happy with us and appreciated your efforts". And we are all like "Gosh, is it true?". So I wonder why does this appreciation news take so long to filter down to us while al the acidic mails are immediately shown to us.

Maybe they reallly put efforts to ensure our morale is low and we are always feeling sorry about ourselves. SAD EMPLOYEE'S a study found made less mistakes.

Anyway the project is now over and for the time-being I have the bench status but its unlikely to last long. I am expecting to be put on another project soon.

The reason I took leave now is tha it is christmas time and normally its a lean period in the IT industry especially the services sector as all the contracts are being renewed etc, so there is less of work. Also with the present economic situation, its very unsure where I will end up some time down the line.

Thus I decided to club two days of holidays during christmas with the meagre(its actually very less) amount of earned leave I have managed to save( imagine showing up for work for six months each day and ending up with just 7-8 days od earned leave). Anyway I initially planned to be save some of the earned leave for later and take only about a week or max 10 days off. But then my hopes got raised that I would be given compensatory leaves as promised for two saturdays that I had worked beyond the fourteen hours I had put on week-days.

My manager or my ex manager(he ceased to be my manager when the project got over on tuesday) agreed to grant me compensatory leave by using a lacuna in the rules to sort of give me on duty leave. FOr a day I was on cloud nine. But alas some things are not meant. In comes my bench manager who refuses to let me use the facility saying there is no policy of compensatory offs.

But now my imagination had been aroused and the one week that earlier seemed sufficient suddenly seemed so less. So I decided to empty all my earned leaves quota and simply party at home.

So I am now at Allahabad after a twenty four hour plus journey which included two bus journeys, a flight from Bangalore to Delhi and a train journey to add to it.

I sometimes wish that I was closer to home, that it was not so difficult to get home. But then I console my heart and say that some things are probably not meant to be.
"We alwys wonder about the tales that are never written"

Mumbai Assaulted

Mumbai , the city of a million dreams, the financial capital of our country , the city of bollywood and celluloid dreams was assaulted again by agroup of terrorists.

I look at the news and I feel outrage. How did this happen and how long will this continue? Will those responsible for the murder of so many be ever brought to justice. The terrorists are all dead but this attack speaks of a military precision. This operation was planned for months and the planners deserve to be pursued to the end of the earth , if the need be.

Mumbai will recover. Life never stops in the cities. But the memories of these attacks will remain. So many people died. 14 policemen including two high ranking IPS officers. Fighting an enemy who had come with an intention to murder.

This must stop. This attack signifies a change of tactics. There was a specific targetting of high profile places and western citizens. In these jittery times it could dive away investos from India. 9/11 for US put them into a recession from a downturn.

Also this is no sucide bombing but a sophisticated assault. The problem is police is grossly inadequate to deal with such contingencies. A .306 pistol does not match an AK rifle. Its time to equip the police force and strengthen intelligence.

And lets step up the pressure on Pakistan. Even if their official involvement is nill as they claim the fact is Pakistan is only too happy to allow the militants to flourish in their territory.

Ending with a prayer for all those affected by the tragic incident.

Would you die for love????

If the kind of movies watched had any effect on what people turn out to be and believe in, Indians would be the ideal people. Honest, good humoured and very tolerant. Because the average Bollywood movie plot is girl meets guy ,they fall in love, a villain opposes but he fails and they live happily ever after. Never does evil win and murder go unpunished except when they are the viilain's goons.

But sadly that is not true. India is a harsh harsh place divided along casteist and religious lines . While we may like on screen social barrier breaking love stories no one wants to tolerate one in their background.

As an idealist, I believe in the supremacy of love. I believe in the romanticism of the idea of love as the purest emotion.


Maybe I am living in the wrong place. In fact maybe I should migrate to some idyllic liberal country where no one gives a damm what anyone else is doing!

Because to break barriers in India can be dangerous. Because this is India. A place where village panchayats sentence young lovers to death. Where parents murder their daughters and even sons in the name of family honour. Where women are seen as inherently weak who need to be protected and guarded by fathers, brothers and other male relatives. Where marrying outside the caste or community gaurantees social boycott.

And the toll only climbs higher every year. And mostly these murders go unreported , justice is never served and a travesty is called a suicide or a mystery death.

While the metros have become swanky , cosmopolitan places India for most of its part remains heart - brutal. Like an illiterate clothed in a three piece suit, appearance does not matter, the devil is always just below the surface.

Every time I hear about a love for murder I feel anguished. It is the ultimate price to pay for love, the ultimate sacrifice. And I see it daily. My morning dose of newspaper is like a dose of bitter milk. After having read it all, I wish I had not read it just to avoid the senseless pain and disillusionment.

Recently the case of the murder of Nitish Katara got over and thankfully justice was served.

Nitish Katara was a 24 year old business executive in Delhi who was murdered in the early hours of February 17, 2002, by the son of an influential Indian politician. The son of an IAS officer in the Ministry of Shipping, Nitish had recently graduated from the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad. There, he had fallen in love with his classmate, Bharti Yadav, who comes from a criminal-politician family.A trial court on Wednesday found Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav guilty of killing Nitish.

In their own words in a recorded confession which was leaked to the media but could not be used as evidence due to a legality.
"The affair was damaging my family's reputation. I never approved of their relationship. ... Using all my strength, I hit Nitish's head with a hammer. He fainted and after a while he died. We drove one kilometre and then we threw his body onto the road.
Then we took the diesel from our car's tank, poured it on Nitish's body and we set it on fire. Then we drove to Delhi."

Such a tragic waste of life. Tragically the girl retracted her initial statement during the trial and denied being ever involved with Nitish. He died for her but in his death the idea for which he died itself became questionable.

The Yadav family never liked Bharti's liaison, and Nitish had received threats several times. However, he was an idealist, and believed in "standing up to injustice"

But lets not demonise a girl who lost the love of her life. She must have been under immense pressure. It was family after all. Still I wish instead of a life sentence, the brothers had been given the noose. And maybe as a revenge for the act inflicted on her by her family she should have snapped all ties and instead herself asked for the noose for her guilty family.

But why is it that India still cannot accept love marriages. Because love has to be celebrated. We celebrate the love of a mother for a child,love between two siblings, love between friends and so many other places. So what is so wrong about love between a guy and a girl when its not 'arranged'. Cannot society accept them.

"Agar dil mein ho zor to duniya se dushmani kar lo,
Warna jahaan maa-baap kahen wahin shaadi kar lo"

And the above line is true. To marry for love breaking across the hypocritical social lines can be fatal. Nitish Katara could have been any of us. Bright and well educated, his relationship with Bharti was nothing out of ordinary.

No one deserves to die like he did-"hit by a hammer and burnt by the roadside."

In India there is an emphasis on arranged marriages. They worked for our parents and even at 22 or however old I may be it seems I am incompetent to choose a partner. I say this. Love is finally the pursuit of happiness. As parents if the child decides to pursue happiness himself it should not be an issue. They should be happy. But parents seldom are, forever warning boys of morally loose girls and girls of being fooled by guys. Also only an idiot would deny inter-caste marriages face a lot of pressure and lets not talk about inter-religious marriages where I think all couples should be given a gold medal for bravery. They after all crossed the final lines.

So I ask my musing "Was it worth it?" Is love worth the ultimate sacrifice? Or can we simply move on throwing love in the closest dust bin when the going gets hard.

And maybe the question we all have to ask ourselves. How far can we go for love.

Trip to Haji Ali

{The pics are not mine. They are sourced from wikipedia}

Some months back I ended up at Haji Ali , a dargah in Mubai when I went there for a b-school interview.

Haji Ali is a dargah about 500 meters off shore. I had hoped to visit it and I was lucky that my interview venue was just off Haji Ali street. However I did not know this and after my interview was over I tried in vain to get a taxi to take me to the venue. Only after a helpful taximan gave me directions did I realize that the dargah was only walking distance.

Anyway I start walking and only when I reach the end of the street do I see the Arabian Sea and the Haji Ali Dargah glistening in the sun. It was a rather hot day and I had wore a blazer to the b-school interview which of course I had in my arms but I was still sweating from all the walking.

As soon as I got onto the pathway leading to the Dargah I could feel the atmosphere change. It became pleasantly cool. I then walked to the dargah , entered , took off my shoes, paid my obeisances at the dargah and basically stood around savouring the environment. There was something spiritual about the place. Since it was near a time, I also did vazu and offered prayers.

However the dargah held in esteem by millions is in a dillpated state. That is simply unacceptable. Reading up on the web I realized that the management of trustees are suspected of embezzling money that comes in daily. Also there are some permissions which need to be sought.

Its sad though how the protectees become the exploiters. Great power involves great responsibility. It would be nice if people were to believe in it too.

I think its sad how trustees misuse funds meant for charity. There must be more accountability and stricter punishments.

Anyway hoping renovation on the Dargah is done soon.

Ameen

Bomb Blasts in Jaipur

Breaking news has it that Jaipur or the pink city as it is sometimes called has been hit by serial bomb blasts. The estimates that I just read point to 15 dead and over a hundred dead.

This would be the another of a series of bomb blasts that have rocked India in the last couple of years. While some have been solved, most of the bomb-blasts cases remain unsolved. Unknown and outside forces cannot be forever blamed. It has to stop.

Bomb blasts are one of the most dastardly acts of terror possible because unsuspecting innocents are its victims. The condemnation has to be strong. However when the political bitching starts tomorrow, let instead of pointing fingers the emphasis be on cracking these cases. And as I have so recently pointed out let there be sensitivity while doing so.

Anyway the point is there are too many terrorist attacks in the recent past which have simply been lost from memory. No trial, no one to blame , nothing.

This has to stop. The life of the innocent is as precious as that of the VVIP.

Hoping that the dead find peace, the injured heal and the terror attacks cease.

Signing off or now.

OpenID at work in blogger और टाइपिंग इन हिन्दी

I must say that the blogger team is innovating at the speed of light. Just days after they rolled out support for Hindi and other languages, now people can use accounts of other sites to post comments.

The interoperability is a really good thing as while the popularity of blogs continue to rise there is great competition among the different to both retain and attract customers. However few serious bloggers continually blog at more than one site so it becomes inconvenient for them to comment on other site blogs without registering for the site.

Anyway four sites are available now, the most imp of which has to be wordpress. But missing is technocrati.

It is listed under open id and is a good option for people who hate posting anonymously.

I also like the hind option और अब मैं हिन्दी में लिखना की कोशिश करोंगा ।

इंग्लिश से hindi transliteration is good, perhaps inspired by the the SMS lingo where all languages use the english alphabet.

The only trouble is that the मत्रिये i.e. the vowel sounds are not correct. The funny thing is hindi हिन्दी is itself spelt wrong.

That or my hindi has gone to the dogs.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

I have never been able to survive a musical but this is the first time I actually enjoyed one.

Yes Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a rather enjoyable movie. It deals with the dark side of human emotion. Its a dark dark movie but its that kind of movie which makes one deeply think. Sweeney Todd has been wronged but can one find sympathy for a mass murderer/

After being sent away by the corrupt Judge Turpin, Sweeney Todd or Benjamin Barker as he was earlier known returns to London with the help of a sailor, Anthony Hope. He returns only to find his wife dead and his daughter in the hands of the evil Judge Turpin. He opens a barber shop above Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pie Shop, where she sells "the worst pies in London." With the help of Mrs. Lovett, Todd means to rid London of the corrupt aristocracy, and also get his revenge on judge Turpin. There is an evil evil twist as to how the bodies of the victims are disposed of.

Watson, they got it all wrong

The Archbishop of Cantebury, Dr. Rowan William's has recently released a statement supporting the introduction of Sharia courts for muslims in UK, saying they should not have to choose between cultural and state loyalty.

I have great respect for the Archbishop but I believe in this case he has managed to misread the whole situation. Muslims dont want Sharia courts, they don't yearn for an Islamic state in their deams; they only desire to be treated as normals , to merge in the crowd and live on.


Courts on the basis of religion are not the solution. What about the doubters and people whose faiths are shaky?

Steps like these will only add to the sense of alarm and straight-jacket people into stereotypes.

Thats a fact.

Emphasize on secular education, mutual respect rather than religion. Moves like these will only strengthen the far right and the Islamaphobic tendencies prevalent in many people.

The full report
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7233337.stm

And Presto I am BACK

After a record 14 posts in december I took an unintended hiatus in January where it must have appeared to all that I must have died and gone to heaven(or hell if u wanna see it that way).

Anyway the thing is I normally access the net from my college room where I share a nearly 24 hour net connection and accessing net costs a pittance. And after my exams ended on 31st december I went a month long vacation home. The actual college break was only two weeks but I decided to join back late.

So at home I had to go to a cybercafe to access net. More than the cost convenience was an issue and in the whole of january I was online for only two hours.

Therefore I got little time to blog.

Also somehow my spam filters decided to go crazy at the same moment and the notification for all comments was put in the spam folder. So for the briefest moments that I was online, I was lulled into accepting that no one had wandered around to my blog.

I am back now. Had a great time at home. Also made a trip with my family to the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Had a great time there.

Some great pics.

But that is a new post.

A New Year

And ye, who have met with Adversity's blast,
And been bow'd to the earth by its fury;
To whom the Twelve Months, that have recently pass'd
Were as harsh as a prejudiced jury -
Still, fill to the Future! and join in our chime,
The regrets of remembrance to cozen,
And having obtained a New Trial of Time,
Shout in hopes of a kindlier dozen.

In short wishing you a happy new year

Have a great year