RS

Priceless

2006-11-21T13:40:00.000-08:00

Rediff Headline - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai delivers his address after recieving the Indira Gandhi Peace Award from President A P J Abdul Kalam in Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on Sunday.

Am I the only one who thinks this is in bad taste? Indira Gandhi Peace award? Peace and Indira in the same breadth. Nauseous? Or rolling on the floor laughing?

Does anybody get it?

Who am I?

2006-10-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

In a way, I admire all the Muslim associations in and around US for their attitude in promoting their religion the past few years. They have conducted seminars, open forums, open house and many other such activities that show that their religion is not about hatred and killing.

It takes something more than belief to be proud of who you are and what makes you, you. Sadly, the pride in ourselves is quite lost in many. There are so many attributes to be proud of, but I find that many take more effort to disassociate themselves from who they are!

Today, there is a whole generation of Indians who identify themselves more with other countries than with India. We talk better English than an Englishman and have no idea how to converse/read/write our mother tongue. When asked about creation, most say Adam & Eve and forget Brahma, Siva & Vishnu.

But, why is that Muslim women around the world are adopting wearing a hijab (even) in countries where they are not forced?

Slaughter India

2006-10-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

Hurriyat leaders Sajjad Lone said Afzal's execution will have a spillover effect in the Valley and claimed that he did not get a 'fair trial' to prove his innocence in the high-profile case - "If he was not guilty and still his son becomes an orphan because he did not have a defense, who will take the responsibility?"

Afzal's family, which met him, has said that he was not willing to submit any clemency petition and the family members could do as their own initiative.

Where is your pride, India? He attacked the highest representative of our democracy, and “hanging him will be a stigma on Indian democracy”?

Ms. Roy, if somebody rapes you, will you invite him home for dinner?

Irresponsible Dreams

2006-09-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

How easy it is to blame others for who I am today! I am who I am because my parents, teachers, friends, relatives, neighbors, trees, plants made me this way.

There, I have said it. I have put it down in writing. Now whatever I say or do will not reflect up on me, the person I am, for I am who I am because of every single person I have met, seen, read about or known. It is so easy. I am blameless. I am carefree. And I go on living happily.

Dream on…

Irony, indeed!

2006-04-02T19:40:00.000-07:00

'Saint' Sonia - A saint because she is responsible for spending our hard earned tax payers' money on her 'reelection'!

Outlook India - How is that the same magazine which wrote pages and pages on how India was actually in the dumps, when BJP came up with the 'India Shining' has had a complete turn around in a matter of two years, to have a cover page edition of 'India Smiling'?

And sure my dear brothers and sisters, India is surely smiling, when over 400 farmers have committed suicide at Vidarbha, Maharashtra.

But then, with the Lakme fashion week and Saint Sonia, who needs to think about farmers and their misery! Summer = farmers suicide. Monsoons = flood deaths. Year after year after year! Just like cricket matches. It's always happening at some place!

Indeed Protest!

2006-02-21T18:31:00.000-08:00

I have just one question for all those who took to the streets in

India

to protest over the cartoon – Name the cartoonist and show me the country he came from on the world map?

Before our government decided to send a note placating the Imams and Mullahs in the world, I wonder, if they had taken a minute to see to the hundreds of civil problems that every single city and village in India faces – Who is going to fix the street lamps that miscreants decided to break during their last unrest? Or fix the glass windows that they decided to stone because it had the audacity to be in their chosen path, that day? Or jail the man who decided to shoot a ‘pretty young thing’ of a bartender because she decided to follow the bar and shut it down at the ‘government regulated time’(!!)?

O how about protesting against men peeing by the road sides? Or for the government to set up/maintain public restrooms! Of course, that way, we can give the ‘protestors’ more targets for destruction the next time something happens to raise their ire.

The list can go on to include the raped women, maimed children, affected families of the countless ‘wars’ that we can see on out streets everyday in any city/village, India.

But then, consider our poor policemen…how many places can they be at any given time? How can they protect innocent citizens, when they have their hands full in protecting our glitzy brothers and sisters of our cine industry? They have to protect Salman from the fans who want to prevent him going to jail for killing the endangered buck. Who cares about those four-legged animals anyway!! Protect Sonia & her family because they are our ‘first family’. And of course protect Manisha because some foolish journalist decided to publish that she had named her dog Mustaffa! So what if she did…how many dogs are named Mani after all. Neither the dog nor anybody else protests or takes the time to protest.

Maybe, just maybe that’s the reason why the UPA is being so suculur…so that they can take all these jobless muslims who have the time and energy to protest and create such unrests away from the streets and provide them with education or jobs so that, like the Hindu’s, they will also become self-absorbed and self-centered!

So my dear fellow country men and women; sit back and enjoy everyday with your friends and family. As long as the rioters don’t target your house, rape your daughter, slaughter your son or burn you, you are safe. Who cares if it’s a cartoon or nude Saraswathi, you are doing just fine.

Earn £10,000...

2005-12-30T09:29:00.000-08:00

Want to earn £10,000?

http://www.hinduunity.org/bewaregirls.htm

Fate or Force?

2005-12-28T18:06:00.000-08:00

Everybody, at least most, by now might have read the news about the ‘forced’ conversion of three Hindu sisters in Pakistan. Ironically, in the Middle East, Christian women are being sexually harassed or raped and forcibly converted to Islam. Christian men are tortured and jailed, just because of their religion.

In India today, we have more of the sucular (sic) people, who are forever proclaiming how the ‘minorities’ are affected and need more reservations, now even in private schools!! For all those people – take note. Few years down the line (it’s not that far away, you know!!), Hindus in India are going to be in for the same treatment.

It’s happening even today, but with more funding being provided to the 'Indian' Madrassas, by stealing from the temples, we are all contributing to this forced conversion. Add to this the decrease in the number of Hindus, infiltration through India’s porous borders & the willing conversions for love, the day when Hindus are going to become a rarity seems quite inevitable!!

In case, you need more proof, have you heard of Kashmiri Pandits?

Team India!!!

2005-12-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

Ganguly making it back to the Indian teams tells us how 'strong' the left is and how much influence politics has in India!

Says a lot about how much competence of a player is important for him to stay on the team! This reinstates the reason why I think just watching and investing time in the Indian cricket team is totally worthless and waste of our precious time.

Clothes make a man?

2005-10-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

I can’t begin to count the number of times I have been asked the question – “Why is that Indian men are never seen in Indian clothes, but we can see Indian women wearing salwars and sarees quite commonly all over the world?”

I wonder about the same too…Why is that in any Indian event/function, its common to see women in Indian clothes, but rarely do we see Indian men wearing the traditional dhoti?

Why have we adopted the western clothes so casually for the male? Why are men wearing Indian clothes ridiculed? Maybe answering these questions will help us find answers for why women wearing jeans are ridiculed!!

'Love' Marriage?

2005-10-01T20:47:00.000-07:00

“Ours is a love marriage, but his parents wanted me to convert. They said that I will have to give up Hinduism and become a Christian/Muslim.”

How many times have we heard the above argument? When he fell in love with her, he did not give importance to her religion or caste, but to marry and get his parents approval, he wanted her to change and adapt to his religious ways! Is that love?

“I was a Hindu by birth, but converted to Islam because my husband is one. I changed my name and started wearing burqua and saying the namaz five times a day.”

Two things that I wish to address with respect to this:

Does love require giving up your identity for it to succeed? If yes, then are you the same person he/she fell in love with?

Why is it more common to see Hindus giving up their religion for others? Is this a ‘fault’ of our practice of Sanatan Dharma that allows us to accept all religions as one, to actually make us so accepting of others? By being so liberal as to go to a church and still see one God push us to the extreme of converting to another religion and accepting Christ as lord above all else?

(Wo)Men

2005-09-23T12:25:00.000-07:00

Aren't most men stupid, arrogant, boorish, selfish, immoral, self-righteous? But being women, don't 'we' always forgive them and let them redeem themselves?

Aren't most women silly, unreasonable, stuck up, demanding and hypocritical? But being a man, don't we always let them get way with it and still love being with them?

Can you?

2005-08-30T15:40:00.000-07:00

Can you make an unhappy person happy? Can you really try and cheer a person who does not want to budge from their own world of misery?

Woman & her Man

2005-08-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

When a man is devoted to his wife, he is ridiculed, called names and generally frowned upon. But, the same behavior in a woman is taken in stride without batting an eyelid. A woman's place is besides her husband, they say. She can work, have her friends but she has to be devoted to his needs, they say.

So why can't we accept the same behavior in a man. Why is that when a man cares 'too much' for his wife's needs, he is ridiculed? Is this because of the hunter-nurturer legacy left for us by our cave-dwelling ancestors?

Animal kingdom has many examples where nurturing is done by the male and the female is the provider. But as human beings, the supposedly intelligent beings that we are (!!?), we cannot accept what is termed as role-reversals.

A man just might like to don the apron to whip up a nice hot meal for his wife, after setting up the house the way she likes it, so that when she walks in, she will walk in to a home smelling of delicious food and looking the way she just likes.

As far as I am concerned, there is nothing wrong in the above scenario, as long as both the woman and her man are happy!

Dawn

2005-08-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

Rays of light filtering through the clouds, lighting up the world slowly and surely, beginning a new day, a new chapter every morning, every day, for all of us. Can we ask for any other blessing than waking up and realizing the new experiences waiting to be explored by us everyday?

Begin each day as a new slate, filling it up as the sun wanders from one end to another, refreshed and energized by sleep. What we have today might not last until tomorrow and let the lingering after taste of yesterday be washed away by the light of the new day.

Yesterday has gone away and tomorrow is too far away. Today is all we have, so let’s make the most of it.

Hero

2005-08-14T00:25:00.000-07:00

"I stand by my hero because the person is my hero and thus can do no wrong!"

How often have we heard the above statement being made, especially when its known that the person was infact in the wrong and the hero had enough substance put a 'zero' to shame! Guess the definition for a hero should be redefined to "a person I like because I like" and hence can do no wrong!

Fifteen

2005-08-03T15:49:00.000-07:00

Too young to vote
Too young to stay out late
Too young to date
Too young to know the rights & wrongs
Too young to sit and talk with the 'adults'

But old enough to choose the subjects that decide what we want to do with the rest of our lives!

Quote

2005-07-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."

- EB White

Remedy For Rape!

2005-07-26T17:38:00.000-07:00

Any man who dares to abuse a woman should be hung upside down, repeatedly whipped and beaten with wooden clubs, burned with cigarette butts, branded with soldering irons, and have his genitals ripped off.

Courtesy: Chinese torture

Soaps

2005-07-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

Ringing doorbells, shrilling telephones, screaming kids – nothing seems to move the current day Indian family away from the television, when their favorite serial is on! In an age where every morsel of food that enters our system is accounted for in our calorie chart, how is that we do not catalog what we subject our minds to?

Sparing households, cheating spouses, unnecessary emotional battles and unending tears seem to be the link which holds the viewers glued to the soaps, which seems to play incessantly from morning till late night! In-between all the upheavals in these fictional families, who has time for one’s own?

Wanna watch a movie?

2005-07-17T07:45:00.000-07:00

Drug-runners, wife-beaters, pedophiles, gun-toting-coke heads in real lives, but heroes for the masses because of their screen persona! Wait, I left out animal killers and mass-murderers from the list!

Short of screaming from roof tops, our 'esteemed' Bollywood brigade has done everything to proclaim their alliance to the mafia or gangsters or terrorists or whatever it is that people or media want to call them! And we are small-minded enough to still flock to the theaters to watch their movies, clap at their antics, throw our hard-earned money to the same goons who come back and kill our kin! Hey, that's like contributing or having a hand in the murder of our own. Inteeresting!

It’s been common knowledge that most movies are produced by the underworld, but that does not stop the millions who watch them, sometimes not just once, but 5-6 times! Most of the shows that are produced abroad have been financed by these gangsters and they are oversold!

Next time when there is a bomb blast in India, I hope you realise that you had as much part in that as Dawood or Shakeel or Rajan or whoever!

Analogy

2005-07-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

Isn't life like a puzzle which we put together one piece at a time! Generally, we start solving the puzzle from the border working inwards. Once the border is defined, we are left with filling in the rest of the picture.

Sometimes, we have all the pieces for the border, but it’s still hard to put them together without trying to mate each and every one of them, or just wait until we can get a better idea of the picture. Biggest difference between puzzle and life - we have a picture to begin with in the puzzle!

Initially our lives are defined by our parents. Then we slowly start building ourselves looking at our friends, teachers and classmates. But, until we leave home and start out on our own, we are just extensions of our parents and home environment.

When stepping out for the first time from the folds of our childhood, most of us try to stick to the ideals upheld and taught at home, until we realise that, everything can also be worked out differently and there is a lot of grey area in between the black and the white! Everything that we learn and absorb helps us define ourselves and brings out our individuality. Circumstances also play a part in this process. Aided by our foundation and our new thinking capacity, we start ‘forming’ ourselves for the best fit.

This is when cracks start forming in the ‘perfect’ relationship that we have with our parents, when we strain to step away from their mold. This looms large especially if this growing up process happens in a far-away land and when we go home after an extended time away!

But, for all this new-found freedom and development, a few years later, finds us going back to the same pattern or mold that was set by our background and parents, especially when it comes to all the major decisions in our lives!

So maybe, just maybe, life too has a picture for us to identify with, just like the puzzle!!

Are you real?

2005-07-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

Every day we play a multitude of roles - sister, daughter, friend, co-worker, neighbor. In all this, who is the real person? Hardly do we show the real self to most of these people. In fact we do not dare to show our real feelings even to the person we are closest to!

Do you dare to show the real self to yourself?

Jolly good fun

2005-07-12T20:26:00.000-07:00

Isn't it interesting to hop from one blog to another, getting into the heads of various bloggers, reading their innermost thinking, without having to meet or talk to them in-person? Better still, virtually meeting all these new people, spread out all over, spilling their day-to-day activities, which we (complete strangers) pick up and hold dear.

Waiting for comments from people whom you might pass on the street without second glance, lapping up their personal view-point with rapt attention, holding your breath to see what the other person thinks of the movie that you loved or the book that you are currently reading!

Oh Boy, what a thrill!

Come on my fellow bloggers, let's go around opening doors that lead us into the myriad minds...

Where is the pride?

2005-07-12T20:08:00.001-07:00

Within hours of the suicide bombing killing three people, government of Israel has committed itself to getting back at Palestine and treating the matter very seriously.

Compare that with the scenario that plays out in India, during last weeks attacks! We are in complete denial of things that stares at us in the eye. Why do we not see what is so obvious? Why is that India is so sure that Pakistan will meet us half way and are interested in the 'peace' (??) talks? What indication has Pakistan ever given to indicate their interest in long-term peace in the valley and the rest of the subcontinent?

Last time he came, India showered him with praise and laid down its bats to salute him, and he said - "Think out of the box". He flips-flops and Indian government jumps the rope even before he blinks!!

Wake up and smell the rot - we are talking about the engineer of Kargil war. Not some lame duck that needs cuddling!

3+ kids anybody?

2005-07-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

Does it make sense for India to limit on the number of kids that Indians can have? Why did we come up with "We two, ours two", when there are particular communities that are bent upon breeding like rabbits?

And why is that family's which can very well afford to have more than one, don't? Especially with the amount of growth that Muslims seems to be having in their numbers (illegal immigrations contributes too), why is that only the Hindu families limit the number of their off-springs?

Some of the reasons that I can come up with at the drop off a hat -

Loss of career for the women
Affordability
Time - Early marriage becomes a requirement
Health concerns (for women)

Of course most of these are concerns for women and women alone. Especially with the ratio of women to men so reduced today, taking the number of women who do not want to get married and the number that marry 'out of religion' (Food for thought: Hindu women marry Muslim men; vice versa spells doom for the whole Hindu community), it is very pertinent that Hindu women, especially who are concerned about such things, should maybe start to give it some thought!

Get out!

2005-07-01T07:36:00.000-07:00

Good riddance to bad garbage! India must have spent crores of Rupees and lost thousands of lives, not to mention the misery and heart-break of countless families, for the cause of a people who don’t need it in the first place! Why? To pander to the whims and fancies of 'Mahatma' Gandhi and Mr. Skirt Chaser Nehru, who have taught us to bend down our heads and get whipped as much as we can take it standing, before bending down and licking the boots of our esteemed neighbors and our Muslim brethren of Kashmir!

Mr. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the leader of the Hurriyat, told during the Sri Sri Ravi Shankar' s gathering at Kashmir that peace in Kashmir will happen when India removes its 10 lakh security personnel.

Let's just do that. Let's stop providing them with all the funds that allow them to make a statement like that. Why should we put up with these ungrateful, discontented usurpers, when there are countless others who require our attention and care?

Madam & her 'Blessings'

2005-06-25T20:44:00.000-07:00

Have to really applaud Madam Sonia for her humanitarian efforts to clean her blooddied hands of the slaughter of thousands of Sikhs during the riots of '84, by just being there for the Rajasthan farmers in the time of their 'need'. She is truly trying her best to be anointed as a Saint by being so selfless in 'her magnanimity' in providing relief to the needy. And she surely seems to be raking in a lot more popularity votes than our esteemed Good Doctor, who seems to having a tough time just holding on to his PM crown!

Just wondering where she was when our Jawans died in Bangladesh, or when farmers commit suicide due to drought or families are lost during flooding? One of the first agenda on the UPA government was to stop the river linking project, followed closely by the toxication of our History! Shouldn't be too surprised if our kids soon start learning that the reason for our existence is to serve the goras, the Muslims and missionaries, who save our souls!!!

My Stand

2005-06-22T13:24:00.000-07:00

I have been having a quiet site so far, where I was airing all my 'articles' which wouldn't have seen the light of the day otherwise...and I can see that my last blog on the techies seem to have rustled up some attention.

Feminism is supposed to mean equality of the sexes and has a very unfortunate tag attached to it because of the actions of few who have taken it to a level where they have forgotten what it is to be feminine at all. But, I can also see why it had gotten to a point, where it had to rear its ugly head.

India is a predominantly male dominated society, where the biggest MC's (Male Chauvinists) are women themselves. After years of being ill-treated and abused for various reasons, we are supposed to have laws which protect women from their abusers! And I would still term 498a as one, which was drafted for such a purpose. And, like our other laws that have been raped and misused due to avarice, this has 'deteriorated' today.

Unfortunately, all laws seem to 'help' only the people who want it to be misused. We live in a country where the law enforcement is called only when we are in dire straits, for in most cases, they are the perpetuators for most crimes.

The section 498a provides an explanation that elaborates the meaning of cruelty as follows:

a) any willful conduct which is of a nature as is likely to drive the woman to commit suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to her life, limb, or health (whether physical or mental) of the woman; or

b) harassment of the woman where such harassment is with a view to coercing her or any person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security or is on account of failure by her or any person related to her to meet such demand.

PS: I am not a 'feminist'. But, I am an independent, thinking woman who believes in standing up for what I believe in and consider both sexes equal, with their own appealing factors and natures.

Techies in Bangalore Attack Feminism

2005-06-12T11:28:00.000-07:00

As much as I can 'understand' why there is an animosity towards feminism in India, I will not support this move of the techies because of the far more atrocities that are being done against women in our country. Especially

when a teenager was raped by a cop in Mumbai,
when a rapist is allowed to 'propose' marriage to the lady he raped in order to avoid punishment (I felt that he should have been given a second sentence just for making that proposal),
when literate women are still being abused for dowry (what then to say abt illiterates),
when a lady (not sure if she was a social worker or MLA or something like that) had her arm cut off for protesting against child marriage in MP,

and the list goes on. In the midst of all this, if men don't know, let me rephrase that, if educated men do not know how to 'handle' ;-), or shall we say settle their differences with their spouses, then they (I want to say) 'kind of deserve what they get'. *kidding*

How is that these same techies were so quiet when their mothers and aunts were being abused a few years ago, and have suddenly grown voices to protest against - of all things - feminism?

Insensitivity

2005-06-08T20:07:00.000-07:00

Today on the National Public Radio (NPR, USA) I heard a report on the death of a 22 year old Marine from Washington was killed on Memorial Day (30^th May). It was a very emotional piece, complete with a reading of a letter written by a 12 year old, for whom the Marine used to baby-sit. It almost moved me to tears and also got me thinking about what an insensitive country I come from.

Insensitive because many many of our country men and women lose their lives everyday – either safe-guarding us or maintaining law and order for us; lose their lives mainly because of our government and none of us, supposedly their brothers and sisters, don’t mourn for them. We don’t even spare them a moment, for their supreme sacrifice. Is it because our media does not care to inform us, or we just don’t care and hence our media doesn’t care either, meaning are we so immune because of our large population that loss of a few lives everyday does not matter to anyone but the immediate family?

Insensitive towards the thousands of Kashmiri Pandits treated as refugees in their own homeland, rendered homeless and helpless due to senseless acts of terror. They have been treated as second class citizens, prosecuted and pushed out of their homeland because of the love-affair with Pakistan and affinity towards vote-bank politics.

Insensitive towards thousands of our Jawans who have lost their lives for an almost senseless cause! Senseless because of the subservient attitude of our politicians towards the same people who are responsible for their deaths – our enemies! For every soldier who lays down his live, we have ten so-called leaders licking the soles of the enemy generals.

The marine who lost his life two weeks ago fought for something he believed in, for something that his country believes in today. And he is aptly grieved for by his parents, his friends, city, state and country. Will such a day dawn for India, a day when every Indian realizes the worth of human lives of our own country men and women? A day dawn, when all of us raise ourselves as one to fight against our common enemy who is back-stabbing us and marring our path to peace and happiness? A day dawn when we stand united for our religion and take pride in our culture without bending down to please others and follow their ways just to gain popularity?

Rituals & Marriage

2005-05-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

Marriage symbolizes the legal union of two people and does not require a purohit (priest) to sanctify it. The only reason that such marriages are common in India and all over the world is because of our faith and belief that this method symbolizes the blessings of our forefathers, the Devas and all the deities who preside over the function.

The current request by the DMK chief to the speaker of the parliament to let Hindus wed with no rituals will work best for people who do not believe in the above system. Definitely not a bad idea but I feel the necessity to question the move, especially because it has been raised by Dr. M. Karunanidhi, who is known more for his subverting of tradition than for his promoting healthy opposition.

It would be more pertinent at this stage and age to ensure that crimes against women are controlled and various laws pertaining to dowry, child-marriages, abuse, are ensured. It would be a waste to create a new law for marriages without rituals, when we have been proven time and again that laws are meant to be broken and are done so more by the people who are entrusted to guard the same – Prime examples are our politicians (law-makers) and our police (law-enforcement) personnel.

Butchery of Gayathri

2005-05-07T17:11:00.000-07:00

Ms. Anu Srivastav, the organizer of a fashion show at iFest - an international festival held at Houston, TX, is completely miffed by the outrageous behavior, no, let me reproduce her exact words – “completely uncivilized behavior. These are grown men who are jumping around. There's a proper way to handle conflicts. You can speak about it in a calm manner. There were six to eight men, all older than I am, who kind of came after me. They were yelling and speaking disrespectfully,” said Ms. Srivastav.

The organizers did change the music for the all-important-highly-priced Mayor’s gala. But according to Ms. Srivastav, "We did not remove that song because we accepted that it was wrong. There's only one reason, and that is we're here to help the festival showcase India to an audience made of much more than just Indians. The Mayor's Gala was a fundraiser for a good cause. There are people who had spent large amounts of money to support that cause, and I did not want any of them to think they had wasted their money. I was concerned that this group of people would misbehave in a public setting and once again cause embarrassment for the Indian community."

The song which Ms. Srivastav so casually dismisses is the Gayathri mantra - considered as the mother of all Vedas. Millions chant it everyday believing that it protects and fosters all forms of life. There are people who believe that only a person who is initiated into the mantra has the right to chant it and when they do, they chant it for every life form. The older gentlemen who were “yelling and speaking disrespectfully” to Ms. Srivastav did so because they were appalled at the temerity of the organizers to use the most sacred of all chants during a fashion show and not to discredit India in the eyes of a gora-sahib or “once again cause embarrassment for the Indian community”.

Does she realize who caused embarrassment to whom? Believe you me; I am mighty embarrassed by Ms. Srivastav’s irresponsible behavior in using the holy mantra as a background score for a fashion show. I am mortally embarrassed that she does not realize the seriousness of her actions still and has the audacity to actually ‘blame’ the VHP for protesting and trying to ‘misbehave’. According to her, the protesters were harassing her. But, does she realize that she is harassing Indian culture, heritage and our religion?

Ms. Srivastav, it is not how the models were dressed, whether the men who were whistling were husbands and associates, or that it has been used before for the same purpose at Mumbai and NY by other organizers. It is appalling to note that sacred chants from our Vedas are being misused in the name of fashion! Were this a different country or religion in question, you might have never been given a chance to justify your actions before you were flogged in public.

Mutilate, rape = marraige?

2005-05-04T17:30:00.000-07:00

What a gall! He butchers her and then proposes to her from the stands. Jail tolls for rapist, not wedding bells In his words, he offers to marry her “because no one else would”.

A ward boy, Bhura, tried to force himself on a 19 year old nurse. When she struggled, he plunged his fingers into her eyes, gouging out her right eye and wounding the left. He then dragged her to an adjacent bathroom, raped her and locked her in. She lay unconscious and bled through the night.

Unfortunately, her misfortune did not end there - When she was found, Shanti Mukund Hospital did not treat her and referred her instead to Guru Tegh Bahadur hospital, where doctors did not attend to her for three days. As a result of the delay, the victim lost sight in her right eye. She had to undergo four major facial operations and psychiatric treatment for depression.

We

2005-04-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

How shameful it is to read that the same police who are there to protect are the ones whom we should be fearing from? It shows the amount of lawlessness that prevails in India, a country which we want to be a developed nation as soon as we can get there.

Its so easy to go to the other end of the spectrum and say - Hmm India is never going to develop, never will improve, we are all doomed. The task of 'saving' India, so to speak, seems humongous. But it need not be so. It is in each one of us Indians to change something small around us that will help our country in the long run.

Lets start at home and move onwards. We Indians, know exactly how to care take of ours and our own. Start thinking of your street that way. You live there, it's as much yours as your home/flat. Stand up against the injustice that prevails in our society. Each of our voice can be heard if we can join together.

Lalu, Modi and Me

2005-04-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

We had a train crash. As many as 20 people lost their lives. And what makes news - Lalu’s car stoned; blames Modi, Lalu stoned after 16 die in Gujarat crash.

Unfortunately, I am very slow and dense; who should I be feeling sorry for here - our Honorable Railway Minister, who has single-handedly destroyed Bihar or the poor passengers whose biggest mistake was to purchase tickets on the trains run by our government?

Or Modi whose name gets dragged into cos he is the easiest we can blame - Hey, I forgot to have breakfast this morning, because I was up late last night reading a news report on Modi, hence I woke up late and din't have time for breakfast before work! All Modi's fault.

Media

2004-12-14T09:16:00.000-08:00

When media gripes about how people are not treated the same by law, I can't but see the irony staring right back at the face of the journalists - Does the media treat all persons the same? The murder of innocent sleeping street dwellers in Bombay is brushed under the carpet because the killer happens to be a famour movie star. The murder of a poetess has been allowed to disappear from the memory of the public because the accused belong to a ruling party. The slaying of the black bucks has been burried under the gushings of the stars latest media antics at one of the countless bashful ceremonies. And then the media has the gall to complain that the Seer has been treated more than what is right and fair than a common criminal because he is attended to by a team of highly trained doctors everyday. Mind you, nobody has shown as of now any evidence of his criminal activities.

In almost all the high socirty cases that have been brought to the attention of the public, it has been amptly clear that the law and the media does not mete the same treatment to one and all.

Proud...

2004-12-12T02:16:00.000-08:00

I am so glad that India is a secular country and Hinduism is broad that all of us can safely continue on in our small 'worlds' without being affected in anyway by the vulgar happenings in Kanchipuram. We have all been blessed that none of our families have been affected in anyway and most importantly, although all of us have visited and prostrated before JS at one time or the other, we are able continue on in our day to day things without the least care to what happens to him, the mutt, our temples, our priests and our tradition and culture , after all as one of the esteemed persons told me...he is not my guru!!

I am in fact very happy that something like this has happened at Kanchipuram, because it has proved (to me atleast!) that we Brahmins are a selfish and indolent lot. We will flock to JS for advice, get married if and only if he blesses us, but will not stand behind him at a trying time. It has been proved time and again that we (Brahmins) will not raise up for anything come what may.

Bravo! Lets maintain this tradition and chant another 100 Vishnu Sahasranamams for our continued well being.

Do we care?

2004-08-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

From rejecting the mercy plea to Nafisa’s suicide, from is Mallika posing in playboy to should Lalu be given so much print space, from who the ‘real’ PM of India is to are the techies of today having a life, everything is being debated by all and sun-dry, for and against, whether it makes sense or is a bag of garbage. Some of the pieces which are being hashed and re-hashed by the media leaves ones head spinning, for they make no sense whatsoever to what it has to done with you and me in our day-today existence.

A man rapes and snuffs the life out of a 14 year old girl deserves something more than just hanging. Maybe there is a sense of justice in the public-flogging which criminals where subjected to before they were hanged in medieval times. Instead we have famous personalities using their fame to cry for the ‘unfairness’ done to a human life. My first question to them is how can you call him ‘human’ and then use the same word to describe yourself too? What is more disgusting is that police protection is being given to the family of Chatterjee so that they do not commit suicide as a protest against the injustice!! Wonder where their sense of justice was when their son was abusing an innocent life.

Miss. India 19** committed suicide. She was depressed. I am sure there that there are none who have not heard of this news yet. By the way do you know how many farmers have done the same act this year? And what the response from the government has been regarding this sad fact. But who cares about the farmers when there is interesting debates like – Was she epileptic? Was her fiancé divorced or not yet? What was the color of the dupatta she used to hang herself?

It is shameful that an educated woman doing something so cowardly makes front page news but not the situation of crores of people who are struggling for survival. When we have thousands of unmanned, non-gated railway tracks which kill hundreds of people every year, we have a railway minister who questions the presence of pictures of worship in the stationmasters’ chambers! There are villages where there is no rail service but we are more worried about how tea is being served in the canteen and on the trains!! Has anybody asked him if every passenger who has a valid confirmed ticket gets his promised berth/seat?

Why are we more curious to know about the silly antics of our illiterate members of the parliament than to find out about why the black hole theory proposed by one of our scientist was not given recognition? Why does public linen washing by the so called stars of the film industry get more ink then the soldiers who fight for us in the in-human terrain in the valley? Why is that people can spend a whole week mourning for the death of a silly chit of a model and not for lives of innocent men, women and children killed by anti-social elements, terrorists?

We have more pressing problems in

India

, which could use the attention of the media and others. Like we either have droughts or floods, both extremes. Until last week, we were complaining on the lack of monsoon and now we have people dying due to rains. As of today the count on the loss of lives only in North India is 11. Isn’t this more worthy of our thought process then wondering whether Mallika Sherawat will pose for the playboy or not?

The Good Doctor

2004-07-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

The “good doctor” is in the news again. His being in the news should not be a big thing, but it is because the “good” doctor generally is a very quiet person. So quiet that most people forget who the actual PM is.

Let me take my stand here. I am so tired of our PM (for my clarification Dr. Manmohan Singh) being referred to as "the good Doctor". Tired because I don’t understand the meaning of good in this context. Is he a good doctor because he is so quiet and unassuming? Or is it because he lets everybody else do the job he is supposed to.

So let us come to why he is in the news now. He is in the news because he was duped by the coalition and the inner voice for appointing tainted ministers. I thought that the “good” doctor was for once taking a stand when he said “The ministers will stay”. But apparently, he was only voicing the inner voice. And thereby he is still the “good” doctor and blameless.

Ohh, by the way, the "good" doctor has his hands so full with juggling the coalition that only the inner voice was heard announcing the funds for the victims of the fire from the Prime Ministers funds and nothing from the PM.

And the list goes on and on. So, tell me again why is he the “good” doctor? Is there something here that I do not understand or are 'we' all so taken in with the "good" doctor that we just fail to see what is so obvious?

He might be a "good" doctor but according to me, he is spineless. Take a stand, Sir.

Irresponsibility

2004-07-16T09:34:00.000-07:00

What happened today at Kumbakonam was a really sad incident, which should have never happened in the first place. We have seen time and again how much we need to improve on the basic facilities in India. For the amount of population we have, the infrastructure is sadly lacking. Laws are not enforced and safety is lost in translation.

When one begins to think of solutions, it is hard not to get lost in the maze that is our system. It is easy to play the role of a bystander, a finger pointer and solution provider. But implementation, which is the key, is sadly not so easy.

So why did the fire start? Electrical wiring, they say. So why faulty wiring, most probably because the owner did not want to spend too much money on it. But how did the guy get his approvals, because he greased the hands of the officer. But, didn’t they realize that it’s for a school, well they do, but nothing will happen don’t worry would have been the answer. Or, the owner might have had good intentions, but the engineer and the contractor who built it might have taken a pay check on the side.

Why is that we compromise on these important issues? It was a primary school. The age group of the children who perished today was 4-9. Innocents burnt by the sins of corrupt individuals.

Look at the range of the problem we have – we have villages which don’t have even a semblance of a school building and here we have a town which has loads of schools, of which one was burnt to the ground. People are doing everything they can to build schools and the ones already built are disasters waiting to happen.

Schools, hospitals, police departments, telecommunications, electricity board, all these should be above corruption. All these should be easily accessible to people from all stages of lives. But what do we find, if you want a basic phone today from the DOT, you have to run from pillar to post, meet 50 individuals grease 38 of them and you still have to wait for 5 months before you can get a line. As of the police, people would call them if and only if somebody has been murdered and even that murder has to be a horrific crime before it gets reported. I seriously wonder about how many actual crimes get reported in India.

Why do we have this situation? Why is that whatever steps that we take seem to push us down than take us up anywhere? We have money today more than what our grandparents ever had. But why is that the society still has the same or if not worse conditions than what prevailed that day? Why are we still suffering for the same basics that they suffered 35 years ago?

Why do we have corrupt individuals? Because they are greedy! So why greed, because of desires! And we definitely can’t say don’t be greedy, when they don’t have means to have 3 meals a day and provide their family with its basic wants. As much as I hate to say this, there is no way to eradicate corruption but it can be reduced. Especially when it concerns human lives. People should be made to realize that the position they hold affects other lives in many a ways. They should be aware that the consequences of their mistakes might cause damage and loss which are irreplaceable.

Education is generally considered to be the one which will make people aware of their responsibility. Not only in school, but also the practices at home by parents and close relatives’ plays a role in the molding of an individual’s mental make-up.