I wish my neighbour's son were a Bhagat Singh

I would not call it a "scientfic poll" yet, this recent survey by India Today throws up some interesting results... The top two choices have a strong military way of working .... The champion of non-violence is pushed to a third place with just 13% !

See complete poll at http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6964&issueid=49&Itemid=1

The poll may also be reflective of the "Young India" .... more than 50% of population being under 25.

Its a different question how many of the people who really voted a Bhagat Singh or a Subash Chandra Bose are really willing to stand up and sacrifice for the Nation, when really put to test ? Or is it the same old "I wish a Bhagat Singh were born in my neighbour's house " ? .. Well atleast I am glad that the top two choices are men with such love for the Nation... India can look forward to its youth power in future

And what about their "political ideologies" .. Yes Bhagat Singh was a self-declared atheist and influenced by Marxism - but if he were to see what the Indian Marxists of today are upto, he would have perhaps waged a war against them. Interestingly more than the Marxists its perhaps the RSS that considers Bhagat singh a hero - to the extend that it demanded a Bharat Ratna for Bhagat Singh - http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jan/21bharat.htm .

What about Bose ? I believe he is a leader whose legacy unfortunately continues in perhaps not the best of the reasons.. One - theories about his death, which has become almost an obsession for many, especially Bengalis ! Two - The party that he found, "The Forward Bloc" , has removed the last word from its guiding principle of "Left Wing Nationalism" ...

Interestingly Bose's open connection with Hitler has been much less criticised, say as oppossed to Golwalker's alleged "drawing inspiration" from the Nazis ( By the way, here is a detailed article by Koenraad Elst on " Was Guru Golwalker a Nazi" ? - http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jan/21bharat.htm ) .....

And here are some interesting quotes from Bose ( I am not sure in what context he wrote this, except that this was during his college days)

Vivekananda’s teachings had been neglected by his own followers-even by the Ramakrishna Mission which he had founded. We were going to give effect to them. We could, therefore, be called the neo-Vivekananda group, and our main object was to bring about a synthesis between religion and nationalism, not merely in the theoretical sphere, but in practical life as well. For the emphasis on nationalism was inevitable in the political atmosphere of Calcutta of those days. ( from his unfinished utobiography "An Indian Pilgrim")

revisiting the question of dowry

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/825415.cms - that is news about a survey conducted by a pro-left group in Kerala ( which has 55% Hindus) , a couple of years ago.. some relevant quotes

While a privileged Hindu family owns only an average of 0.69 acres, a Muslim family owns 0.77 acre and a Christian family, 1.264 acre.

The report published in September this year says only 80.1% of Hindu houses are in a livable condition, less than that of Muslims (89.7%) and Christians (83.6%).

Even in matter of dowry, Christians lead the tally with 80% families following it. Muslims tag along at 76%. Though less, Hindus too are yet to rid themselves of the social evil with 52% still under its grip.

Haaaa .... there goes the story of what the media and the academia and the intelligentsia and the westia has often termed as a "Hindu socal evil" !

Having grown up for almost 18 years in Kerala - I am least surprised... for I grew up hearing stories of how my Mulsim neighbour's daughter was tortured and finally divorced for dowry deficit..... how my Christian neighbours daughter's marriage did not happen for a long time for they could not agree to the "rates" that the groom's families asked for...... I had chanced upon matrimonial advertisement-files on the desktop of the computers in the browsing center in my home town in Kerala of a Muslim girl which clearly mentioned "ready to pay xyz lakhs in cash and abc amount of gold".......

and much less such stories and incidents when it comes to Hindus....... and yet as Mark Anthony would say "Dowry is a Hindu social evil" .......

No, I am not denying dowry related crimes and the evil itself in Hindu families in Kerala or elsewhere, but just as the harijan-converts-to-christian-dalits and fast realizing in their new found religion that "dalithood" is not a Hindu something, the Hinduness of dowry is another myth that will be shattered inspite of all the **ias

Well, I should not do a blanket blaming, for there has been such works as Veena Oldenburghs book - http://books.google.com/books?id=BSjVgCpc5p4C - Dowry Murder: The Imperial Origins of a Cultural Crime

To quote: In this highly provocative book, Veena Oldenburg argues that these killings are neither about dowry nor reflective of an Indian culture or caste system that encourages violence against women.Rather, such killings can be traced directly to the influences of the British colonial era. In the precolonial period, dowry was an institution managed by women, for women, to enable them to establish their status and have recourse in an emergency

Interestingly I chanced upon this Chapter in Kautilya's ( Chanakya) arthashastra

Book III , Chapter 2 , lines 11 - 13 can be roughly transated as ...

for it is they that receive the money paid by the bridegroom for their daughter. In case of the absence by death of either the father or the mother, the survivor will receive the money-payment. If both of them are dead, the virgin herself shall receive it. Any kind of marriage is approvable, provided it pleases all those that are concerned in it.

So the boys family pays the girls family !! ( a custom I believe, still in existence in parts of India's North-east) ......

also goes

"vrittiraabandhyam vaa striidhanam" - Means of subsistence or jewelry constitutes what is called the property of a woman. ( 14)

"tadaatmaputrasnuShaabharmaNi pravaasaapratividhaanE cha bhaaryaayaa bhOktum adOShaH" - It is no guilt for the wife to make use of this property in maintaining her son, her daughter-in-law, or herself, whenever her absent husband has made no provision for her maintenance. ( 16)

So thats the real meaning of "striidhanam" which currently is used in the sense of dowry ( oh.. talk about blindly taking english terms into Indian context.... varna being equated to caste is another such blunder) ....

Arthashaastra goes on....

On the death of her husband a woman, desirous to lead a pious life, shall at once receive not only her endowment and jewelry, but also the balance of the marriage-price due her. If after obtaining these two things she remarries another, she shall be caused to pay them back together with interest on their value. . . If a widow marries any man other than of her father-in-law's selection, she shall forfeit whatever had been given to her by her father-in-law and her deceased husband. . . .No woman shall succeed in her attempt to establish her title to the property of her deceased husband, after she remarries. If she lives a pious life, she may enjoy it. No woman with a son or sons shall after remarriage be at liberty to make free use of her property; for that property of hers, her sons shall receive.

All along it talks about the property originally that of the guy or the guy's father, but given to the girl or the girl's parents during marriage... and about the girls right to her husband's property....
not the other way around !!

The whole chapter ends with - If a husband either is of bad character, or is long gone abroad, or has become a traitor to his king, or is likely to endanger the life of his wife, or has fallen from his status, or has lost virility, he may be abandoned by his wife.

Traitor to the King... or Nation in this case.. God, atleast half the politicians should have been divorced by their wives now as per Arthashaastra standards !!

what is common to these ?

I got these in email... looks like they were all taken from some website - whichever that website is, acknowledgements are due ...

equality of mass .... err mess

There used to be a time when SSLC ( Std 10) exams were a pride of the Kerala govt... Conducted meticulously the exam system had high reputation. While most other exams - especially conducted by Universities where a totall mess, SSLC (and the model exam that happens a month before) continued to enjoy the trust of the people..

Not any more .. the commie govt of Kerala is steadily ensuring that SSLC exam too is as messed up as other exams.. no one exam shud be more equal than the others !! Last year ( or was it the year before ?) was the leak of question paper .. and now this year , the govt decided to be the champion of secularism by postponing the friday exam to saturday, to appease Muslims ( as far as I know, surprisingly no demand came from the Muslim side as such, but the govt itself wanted to score some points)

And the moment it ws shifted to Saturday, 7th day advetists christians were up in arms ... and finally High Court had to intervene ... read http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=India&month=March2008&file=World_News2008031583315.xml

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Meanwhile, a recent US human rights accused Kerala and West Bengal as states with maximum human rights violations ... WB for Nandigram , Kerala for custody deaths and human trafficking..

The same buffoons who quoted US human rights report on Gujarat, are now suddenly up in arms against it ...

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Left_ticks_off_US_over_comments_on_Nandigram/articleshow/2867351.cms

and among other reasons ..

CPM MP Mohammad Salim said the US had earlier dubbed China as the biggest violator of human rights. “We do not think the US is a champion of human rights"

True to their Nationalistic spirit , these Chinese Nationalists are more hurt at US report on China.....

BORI incident- some facts

Preamble: Any resemblance to any real life characters is intentional

They say, drop a cat whichever way, it will land on four legs.... Argue with a psec, whichever way, the psec will repeat the same fantasy

A month or so I happened to talk to one Mr X , on you know, issues which usually fill up my blog.. Knowing fully well that many times such "talks" are waste of time, especially if the person on the other end lives in his/her own fantasy world - I somehow still went for it ... may be 1 hour on the phone...

I noticed that whatever I say about Islmic attrocities, and whatever I say about Quranic calls for violence, this person would say something like "But you see Hindus attacked the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute .... Hindus are equally bad as the Islamists " ....

Some recent comments on this blog has prompted me to think that the attack on BORI seems to be an obsession with this person ... you see there is this old story .... The guy and girl are in love.. but families don't agree.. they decide to both comitt suicide .. in front of the train... girl jumps, guy can't in time.. girl dies, guy goes mad ... and there after he keeps on repeating "train cam , she jumped " .... "train came, she jumped" , ........ poor him .. and her ...

Likewise, God knows who hit him on the head, but Mr X seems to be determined to keep on quoting BORI attack incident as proof that Hindus are as intolerant as the Islamists... even though Mr X as such does not seem to accept facts ( and wikipedia) and is never willing to have his facts checked or corrected, or get out of his world of imaginations, this post is for the unsuspecting readers lest, they be mislead to believe "Hindus - as a religious entity - attacked BORI"

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So here are some facts .....

1) Yes, wikipedia, Mr X is free to not accept this -

The group that attacked BORI .. sambhaji Brigade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambhaji_Brigade

The outfit distances itself from the Hindutva organisations and considers itself as the ideological descendant of the Maratha Empire. The outfit's members consists of mostly Maratha youths from the rural interiors of Maharashtra. The organisation's ideology is directed against the Brahmins of Marathi society. The parent organisation MSS's founder Khedekar is alleged to have close ties with many Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders, although the NCP denies it.

This group attacked some portions of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, to protest against the allegedly slanderous remarks about Maratha Empire founder Shivaji and Rajmata Jijau by American academic James Laine.

The group's activists were also in the news for attacking Hindutva leader K. S. Sudarshan with footwear by Mahesh Chavan, when he was in Solapur, to protest against the policies of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

May be Mr X will now quote a non-Indian non-British , but of his choice history book to still prove that "Hindus/Hindutva people attacked BORI" ... he he .. what can I do !

2) Let us hear from the horses mouth .. the BORI website itself as to what happened ...

http://www.bori.ac.in/news%20&%20events%201.htm


News & Events

“The Controversial Book by James Laine should be banned” - Appeals the BORI

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Rashtramata Jijabai and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj are the pride and inspiration of not only Maharashtra, but the whole nation. American author James Laine has made some highly objectionable and inflammatory statements about our revered deities in his book titled “Shivaji: A Hindu King in Islamic India”.

The ban on the book is recently recalled by the Mumbai High Court. However, the Honorable Supreme Court, dealing with a case involving a different book, has recently given a Verdict to the effect - “In the case of foreseen threat to public harmony, the Governments of States are authorized to ban any book”. In the light of the same, the Regulating Council (RC) of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) has unanimously passed a resolution with an appeal to the Government of Maharashtra to ban the said book.After the book was released in September 2003, Dr. M. K. Dhavalikar, a Trustee of the BORI had brought the objectionable matter to the notice of the then RC of the BORI.

The RC had passed a unanimous resolution of condemnation and an appeal to the Government of Maharashtra to ban the book in a meeting conducted on December 4, 2003. A similar resolution was passed by the current RC on December 2, 2005 under the chairmanship of Dr. Vijay Bhatkar.The honorable High Court had recalled the ban on the book on April 26, 2007. Dr. M. G. Dhadphale, the Honorary Secretary, BORI, had put an appeal to retain the ban on the said book to release in the Marathi daily ‘Sakal’ (April 18, 2007) and the English daily ‘The Maharashtra Herald’ (April 28, 2007) on behalf of the Institute.With a view to introduce the world to the contribution of the BORI to Oriental Academia, it had launched a website in 2003. In the vandalistic attack on January 05, 2004, severe affliction was caused to the rare books and manuscripts, etc.

Numerous newspapers and journals had covered the event in the form of information and reactions. It has been found that some such coverage was mentioned in some links on the website. Unfortunately, the website was not edited thereafter. We wish to clarify that the links are not directly related to the BORI, and the BORI is not directly responsible for the matter in them. However, we are much thankful to the Shivabhakta Loka-andolan Samiti for bringing it to our notice that some of the links on the website mention some matter from the objectionable book. Immediately after the incidence was brought to our notice, Dr. Vijay Bhatkar, the Chairman of the Regulating Council, issued orders to close down the related webpage. This order has already been put to action.The Institute deeply regrets the confusion arisen due to this mere error of negligence. The BORI now plans to close the website down and launch a new one that would highlight our goals for the time to come. We are also pleased to announce that we wish to republish with English and Marathi translations, the Budhabhuushana, a work by Chhatrapati Sambhaji, published by us in 1926.

The Institute also announces that the Institute will always be proud party to any righteous and peaceful undertaking to uphold the honour of the revered and legendary personalities like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj and Raashtramaataa Jijabai, who have truly maintained the glory of religious, cultural and historical legacy of the nation.

Vijay Bhatkar,
ChairmanRegulating Council

10000

Nov 11, 2006 is when I put a counter on this blog, and it now reads 10,000+ .. It took ... ummm lemme see

19+31+365+31+29+5 = 480 days .... to get there

Thats an overall average of 20+ per day ... I think the peak hit on a single day was some 300 or something recently ... after the akbar-jo-thaa post , which incidentally also has the highest number of comments on it

Interestingly, the search term that seems to get more people to this blog than anything else seems to be " meera jasmine family " or "shaji kailas annie" after the " mallu christian actresses " post .. thats funny .. considering that movie related posts are sub-ten percentae of this blog

Well... things in life that matter to most, I guess

And this, is the 190th post on the blog.. so soon, hope to hit the double century :-)... At this juncture would like to thank all those who have encouraged, commented and criticised this blog, directly or indirectly... including the many personal emails I got... from the very first post on May 18, 2005 , till now and in future as well.....

dhanyavaadaaH

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