youth are not useless they are used less

AFAIK , the title is a quote from Swami Chinmayananda . Thanks to "mod" for sending this

Click on the picture to enlarge.

om sweet home

missing my home :-( ...... pics, thanks to my amma for maintaining the garden , and thanks to my cousin for the snaps ! click on the pics to see them enlarged

On the lighter side

Thanks "M" for sending me this funny video....

Talking about videos, thanks to reader "GS" for sending me this link to Modi's Chennai (English) speech videos - http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4F48C269FAE491D3

He raises some very interesting points - especially about the defeatist attitude.... and though he may not be the best in English, he has over all managed a good job..

But indeed, his Hindi speeches continue to be a class apart .. see the one's where he addresses the NRI crowd via satellite http://youtube.com/watch?v=ylx7m59N454&feature=related .. Only thing I did not like abt the video is the background studio setting !! :)

akbar jo thaa

अक्बर् जो था !!

At the outset, let me clarify that this is more about Akbar "the great" than the good or bads of the recent bollywood movie starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai

In my school history texts, just like any other kid in India would have, I too studied about "Akbar-the-great", the proponent of Hindu-Muslim-bhai-bhai ( spoofed as goat-butcher-bhai-bhai in "Hey Ram" movie - a freudian slip from Kamala Haasan ?) .... and as example of his "reaching out to the Hindus" was given the example of his marrying Rajput women ....

Interestingly as I used to read my text books at home, my mother - by no means a hindutva person, and who used to vote for Muslim League candidate simply because they had an alliance with Kaaangress - used to say .. " Oh well, Akbar, all he did in the name of Hindu-Muslim alliance was enjoy marrying Hindu women "

That was one of those incidents where I have to admit that "knowledge from ancestors" or even intuitions are sometimes more factual than bookish knowledge.. for indeed, contrary to what the pseudo secularists may want us to believe , Akbar DID NOT allow his formerly Hindu - wife to remain a "kaafir".....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariam-uz-Zamani

Mariam-uz-Zamani née Hira Kunwari (born October 1, 1542), was a Rajput princess and was the eldest daughter of Raja BharMal, Raja of Amber, India. She was the wife of the Mughal emperor Akbar, and the mother of emperor Jahangir.

.......For the purpose of marrying Akbar she was converted to Islam and was rechristened Mariam-uz-Zamani after marriage. The Mosque of Mariyam Zamani Begum in Lahore, Pakistan was built in her honour. She has been also referred to as "Jodha Bai" or "Jodhabai" in modern times, although she was never actually known as Jodha Bai during her lifetime.

So is Jodhaa Akbar or Mariam Akbar more apt ? Indeed, the latter name does not play well with the pseudo secularists nor with the Islamic underworld that funds bollywood.. So there you go.....

Also, the same wikipedia article mentions

a similar sounding name "Jodh Bai" is addressed to Princess Manmati of Jodhpur, the wife of Jahangir and mother of emperor Shahjahan

Its clear that yet another Hindu Princess was married into the Moghul family and her son too continued to be a slave warrior of Allah rather than being a Hindu .. How about the lady herself - i.e "Jodh Bai" ? was she converted ? well, I could not find an explicit mention of that ( I did not search much, may be readers can help) , but the wikipedia entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Manmati

gives her name as Princess Manmati, Taj Bibi Bilqis Makani Begum Sahiba Jodh Bai

So leave it to ur imagination ..... I guess at that time the Quranic injunction that a Muslim HAS to convert the non-Muslim into an Allah's slave warrior before marrying him/her was kept more faithfully.. Only recently has that rule been relaxed to a perhaps modified form of Al-Taqiyya
( read- compromise if it helps in the long term) by which its okay if the non-Muslim converts after marriage to the Muslim or in the worst case if he/she refuses to, atleast as long the kids remain slave warriors of Allah

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post script: whenever I used "wife of Moghul emperor" , I assumed that readers have the maturity and knowledge to understand that I mean "one of the wives" !! Some estimates say Akbar had 300 wives.. many of whom were Hindus... errrrrr formerly Hindus

how shall I title this ?

Down the valley and along the creek
Found a bird that could sing and speak
"About life I sing in my favorite tunes
And at times I even bring fortunes"

"Lovely that would be, O li'l bird,
Lonely I have been, away from the herd
Give me a line or two on dreams
Save me a thought on what it means"

"Dreams are wings and at times when one
Feels all day that life has no fun
Hold fast to them for if they die
Life is a bird that cannot fly"

"Words so wise my dear friend
Seems to me you are timely sent
What do you do if it moves farther,
That which you hoped is almost there ?"

"Get you will" said the bird with a smile
"It may take you still a little while
Till then with will and imagination

You can be close enough even in separation"

he, we and they

photo from islammonitor.org


http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jan/24marriage.htm

Opposing the recent Supreme Court order making marriage registration certificates mandatory, the New All-India Muslim Personal Law Board on Wednesday said the community would not accept the directive, as it was an infringement of the Muslim personal law.

Muslims are governed by their own rules which are different from the rules of other communities," said Mr Hashmi.

He stated that according to Shariat law, a girl can marry once she attains the age of 16 years, whereas the Constitution allows marriage only after the girl reaches the age of 18.

Is that an open admission ( or threat ?) that "we" will marry off our girls at 16 itself ? ( partly also making sure that the girl does not fall in love with a kafir by any chance.. oh even if she does, there are people ready to kill the kafir). As a matter of fact some of my classmates got married when they were in 9th ( even factoring in 1 or 2 yrs of failed classes, that would be max 16 !) and stopped schooling... and mind you I studied in an "English medium" Christian run school .. so imagine the situation in those aided Muslims schools ( my mom who teaches in one such tells me cases of Muslim girls getting married after 7th class itself) or government schools

By the way, so as per Shariat its 16 years... but what about "prophet" Mohammed ?

http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/sina/ayesha.htm

The thought of an old man becoming aroused by a child is one of the most disturbing thoughts that makes us cringe as it reminds us of pedophilia and the most despicable people. It is difficult to accept that the Holy Prophet married Aisha when she was 6-years-old and consummated his marriage with her when she was 9. He was then, 54 years old.

There comes the he-we-they classification of Islam ! Its one law for Mohammed, another for Islamists ( i.e those who stick to QHS - Quran, Hadith and Sunnah ) and third for non-believers
( of course within the "they" the grade of punishment differs for Jews/Christians/Hindus..)

Here is another example
Marry women of your choice, two, or three, or four says Quran 4:3

And they say 4 is the limit... but what about the PPP ( the first P for "Piece-loving", the third P for "Prophet" and the middle P, you make your own guess based on the paragraph in red above ) ... Our man conveniently marries 9 or more ... ( the following link has a list of his wives)
http://www.wikiislam.com/wiki/The_Marriages_of_Muhammad:_A_violation_of_the_Quran

Whenever I think about this I am reminded of Lalu Yadav.... Apparently at one time our man was giving a speech on the importance of family planning .. and some one asked him, "how can you advocate family planning when you yourself have 2 sons and 7 daughters ? " and Lalu is said to have replied " I have the experience and thats why I am telling you " ....... so may the PPP was also smart as Laloooo

justice denied or cat cornered ?

So was it indeed the injustice of the second test "defeat" that ensured the victory at Perth ?

Or did India deserve a victory in the second test itself ?

justice denied or cat cornered ? or both ? Does that say anything about our National character of being "reactive" than proactive to attacks on us ?

Whats with India repeating its 2001-Kolkata "achievement" of stopping the Kangaroos exactly at 16-in-a-row test victories ?

just some random thoughts

The "modi"fication of Indian politics - which way ?

One is the former chief minister of the Southermost state of India. The other the same of the northern most state. Both "former" NDA allies ... and both unusual in their own respects ..

Unusual ? yeah read about Farooq Abdullah - and his family - Among other interesting stuff, he himself is married to a lady of British origin, his Muslim son has married a Sikh girl and one each of his daughters married to a Muslim, an African based black Christian and a Hindu ( son of Rajesh pilot who got ( or was ?) killed in a road accident ) .... Well, not even the Nehru family can beat that "diversity" I guess

and read about the "Amma" of politics - remember the initial period of the 13-month Vajpayee government or the tea-party with MMS ( Madam Maino Sonia ) or the Kanchi Acharya incident ? what defines her more than anything else, when it comes to National politics, is unpredictability ..

At yet, these two were recently in news, in connection with none other that Narendra Modi.... Jayalalitha with a "45- course Pongal lunch" and Farooq for being in the firing line for having praised Modi's victory .. Indeed the media was quick to call both the moves as an attempt to revamp old alliances, and indeed as yet another sign that Modi is planning on entering the National political scene sooner that later.

May be they are right, but to me the more pertinent question is, how far is this going to help the BJP ? True both these parties ( AIADMK and NC ) belong to states where BJP does not have strong allies, and simply cannot hope to win any seat if went alone.. Also true that in 3 big states - MP , Rajasthan ( both due to anti-incumbancy against present state govts) and UP , BJP may not stand to get too many seats, making the "alliance" states all the more important for NDA

But amongst its core voters, would it damage the BJP pre-poll ? allying with some one in the south accused of so many corruption cases, and with some one in the North who was a former JKLF activist ( sure, one can give them some benefit of doubt that they have impoved , but still ....) ! And also, how much of a "headache" they will be post-poll, assuming NDA does win ( which in my opinion is still a 50-50 ) .....

So many assumptions - that the BJP will ally with these, ... that the NDA will win in 2009... and let me add the third assumption , that Modi will indeed enter into National politics.... in such a case perhaps the answer to these questions, the answer to where India would be heading in the next decade, lies in whether the allies will modify the "CM" or the "CM" will "modi"fy them ....
Time alone can tell

India Today, yesterday and tomorrow

As a small child, around my first-second standards I guess, I used to eagerly watch out for the Amarchitrakatha-Mahabharata .... I would know exactly the day it would come out, and as my Father or Mother gets back from work ( I used to get back first from school and wait for them) would be looking into their hands from a distance, if they were indeed carrying the precious possession that I am looking for .....

By the time I was in 5th or 6th and of course by highschool, I could ask for money and buy whatever I wanted .. and by then, what I would look for is "India Today" ! I believe the magazine started becoming popular when they started the regional editions including Malayalam .. and inspite of being an voracious newspaper reader, I would look fwd to the biweekly ( if I remember correctly, at that time biweekly and later it became weekly) magazine

So what was it that may have caught my attention so much ? First may be the magazine had a much more National perspective than any other print media available in Malayalam at that time ( and no, up until my highschool I hardly read English newspapers or not even many childrens books, comics etc) . Secondly, the magazine always had a very "graphic" oriented reporting style... Their pictures, their maps, charts,....... had a quick impression. And finally the reporting style ... it always had an undercurrent of excitement ( I am not calling it sensationalism as I did not feel it was the "cheap" variety ) .. and unlike many media even at that time, I believe not have that much of an anti-right bias

During my undergrad at IIT Chennai, the hostel commonroom would get the English edition, along with many other newspapers and magazines including its rival - The Outlook ( I felt that it was more or less a Congress party mouthpiece from the very first issue that I ever saw ). Somwhere along the line, especially after it was made weekly, and thinner ( but with may be the same amount of ads) , I felt it was perhaps slipping in its quality, but continued to be my favourite among weekly magazines. The Mallu-Christian-Manorama-Congress run "The Week" , the commie run "Frontline" , "Outlook" , where the other major ones thand at I used to browse through

Once in US, I started looking for the online editions, and to my dismay all but India Today were free. Initially I could get around, as I tried some random 4 digit code, and it worked !! I could read India Today online, but not for too long... and slowly, reluctantly, I started reading Outlook more often, or sometimes even frontline !

Looks like the long wait is finally over :-) ... http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/ ( I donno from when on it is online, but I saw this only recently) . Now,I am not quite sure in the past 3-4 years how their political bias has changed, if any. Except for "Daily Pioneer" all English Language Media ( E L M) can more or less be classified as pro-left / pro- Congress .... ( see my post on Modi, below) but I am guessing ( or is it just a hope) , atleast not so much "India Today" .. A friend of mine used to say "Smart journalism is if you can write about some one whom you like, in such a way that on the surface it appears a citicism, but is actually a either a positive criticism or even a positive aspect given a negative spin" ... and a BJP supporter that he was, used to say that he used to actually get thrilled reading some of the magazines "criticism" of the party !!

really ? Something like saying "The biggest problem with the show was that it was overbooked and people could not get tickets " ?

Well, may be you can look at the issue before the Gujarat election (dec 17, 2007) on Modi, and decide for yourself http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?latn=1&issueid=31&page=archieve

For now, I am just happy catching up with an old friend of mine :-)

The myth of a "pro-India" Benazir

I do feel sad at the way she was assassinated, however, for all those who continue to believe that Benazir Bhutto was a "friend of India", watch 02:00 to 04:00 minutes of this video ( "The world remained silent" )

At best, she was a friend of Rajiv Gandhi ( well, "at best", I mean for Pakistan)

Really speaking, politically, are there any friends of India at all in Pakistan ? its just a matter of degree in how much they hate India and want Her destroyed .. the so called moderates are also simply terrorists, who have been just a little bit less ruthless than many others .....

"Lesser amongst the evils" is not an option.... we have learned it ( or have we) the hard way ...

Neighbours envy, Owners pride !

It was 11 pm US eastern time. I was checking online the Gujarat election result lead trends... As expected, my friend, a 20 or so years old Ameican born girl of Gujarati origin was online too.. She was the one who posted the article written by B P Singhal in many a group on orkut, including an "anti-modi" group, much to the surprise of her psec-indian counterparts, who repeatedly asked in the group, something like " Are you really an American born girl ? Are you really only 20 years old ?" After seeing a clear margin for BJP, in addition to multiple smileys on the gmail chat box, she send a little note - "Both me and my younger brother are glued to the computer"


That in many ways summed up to me the "how"of Modi's victory.. It is to me, once more a victory of Gujaratis (and I would even dare to say Gujarati women) and victory of youth in addition to vistory for develoment and able leadership and needless to say defeat of insincerity and lies.

So why did I say Gujarati women ? ... For, I many times felt the "ordinary Gujarati lady" - young or old- have been more vocal about their support for BJP that even the men folk ! The other day, I was watching a panel discussion on CNN IBN, and Mallika Sarabhai in her usual nonsense talk, blabbered " This is about a man who defies Indian constituition blah blah... Gujarat has become very unsafe under his rule" When it came to the turn of the audience, a young woman in her twenties countered "I totally disagree. Look at Delhi, look at any other city in India, parents will be concerned if you are out of home after 7 pm. But look at Ahmedabad.. even 10 pm is fine. I feel more safe than ever before". Shall I say more ?

So, what all contributed to the victory ? Oh well, I am not a political analyst, atleast not of the type that I will be talking about soon, but still, I have to point out atleast two factors, that were interesting. One , Congress playing into Modis genius trap. Modi started off on the development plank... Well, the Congress thought, he doesn't want to talk about Hindutva, may be he is scared, so lets rake up the old issue, our pet issue which we have been mouthing like parrots for 6 years now - and there, that gave Modi the clear opening.. "I want to talk develpment... If the Congress doesn't want to take me on that, that shows the BJP upperhand on the issue of development. They forced me to talk about hindutva.. so be it" . Even the most anti-modi fellow can't deny that a poll based on hindutva will anyway help the BJP !

And two, indeed the "help" from ELM - english language media. Oh my God, rajdeep congress-desai, Shekhar Power Theft Gupta, .... and "political analysts" . My favorite of course was "Achyut Yagnik" .... such an idiot, I wonder why the media, especially rediff ( read "Sheela Bhatt") gives him such importance. In 2002, days before the election he wrote -" i don't see any hindutva wave" and we know what happened. In 2007 he said " In 2002 there was a wave. In 2007 there is no such. So there are chances that Modi will lose". Joker - I shall call you Achyut duality Yagnik.. buddy even Physicists are in a better position when it comes to wave-nowave of electrons

The dirty tricks of the ELM - including quoting the fake rascal and criminal who claims to be Puri Shankaracharya with a big heading "Puri shankaracharya wants Modi removed" - has backfired once more... Oh by the way, when was the last time you can remember the "opinion polls" and "exit polls" from these experts were anywhere close ?I remember, as a 10 or 11 year old, when my family first owned a TV, I used to watch Prannoy Roy on Doordarshan , and I still remember him predicting a number, which turned out to be almost exactly the number that the BJP coalition won -- that was the late 80s.... from that what a fall ? The media now is either catering to its editors political agenda, or dancing to the tunes of some body who sponsors them, or simply has lost its mind and don't know what to say. Quite likely the third, as most of the opinion polls predicted something like 90-105 for BJP and 80-95 for Congress, so that even if by chance Congress wins, they can always come back and claim " see we told you there is a chance congress may cross the may 91" ... JOKERS

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As a Malayalee, having seen the devil and deep sea alternately ruin such a beautiful state, I have to admit.... I envy Gujaratis, I envy Modi. I have seen most youth complain about their state's government - and rightly so many times. But a majority of my Gujarati friends, seem so proud of their government. They put youtube videos showcasing Gujarats rapid development on their orkut..... I am sure, some of them, if not most, also hope that what Sardar Patel was denied will be made up by Modi - if not immediately, some day, may be after Advani !

quote of the day

"In your country the system may be corrupt. But in mine there is no system itself"

-Overheard a Pakistani gentleman telling his Indian counter part while both are waiting for a masala dosa in an Indian restaurant nearby

forty percent

counting the number of US states that I have been to ...

NY, NJ, PA, WV, DE, MD,DC, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL,TX,CA,AZ, NV, OH, MI, IN, IL

thats 20 isn't it ? Chetak has been to 11 (with me, donno b4 that )