The times we live in

Here's an article from The Hindu on Talaaq. The Darul Uloom Deoband has apparently passed a decree that says that saying 'talaaq' thrice over cellphones, internet chats etc. is valid for divorce. 

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article888417.ece

The sad state of mainstream Indian Media

I think I can say with certainty that Rajdeep Sardesai is the worst TV journalist in India. For a long time I could not decide between Arnab Goswami of Times Now and Rajdeep. If this is the level of public discourse in our media, I am concerned about our future. I must add that NDTV is only marginally better if at all. If anyone knows of any good "news TV show" in India, I'd be happy to know. Please leave a comment below. For now here is a discussion about "Kashmir" on IBN Live.

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/133499/should-proazadi-voices-be-allowed-to-speak.html

Huckabee for President!

"I know the pundits, and I know what they say: The math doesn't work out," Huckabee said Saturday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. "Well, I didn't major in math, I majored in miracles. And I still believe in those, too."

Rationality and Religion

It is no secret that heads of religious organisations across the world possess an exceptional sense of rationality, however these comments by Praveen Togadia have some new humour to offer. The following text is an extract from the Indian Express artilce found here.

“If Ram is imaginary, then Lord Buddha, after whom the CM is named, also did not exist and hence he should have his first name changed,” Togadia said. The VHP leader also took potshots at CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury and DMK chief M Karunanidhi, saying that they must change their names which clearly illustrate the belief of their forefathers in Ram.

Togadia said that even the Muslim rulers and the British did not question the faith of the Hindus and the CPI(M) leaders and Union Government were trying to deny the existence of Ram.

“The Sethu Samudram project is not for development but for destruction,” Togadia said.

The State of Gujarat

Gujarat will vote a week from now. Five years back, Narendra Modi won by a huge margin due to a highly communally divided society. It was greatly disappointing that Gujarat chose to elect a man who carried out a massacre. The Sohrabuddin case is the latest incident in which he seems to have publicly admitted resorting to unlawful and unconstitutional measures, as a chief minister. A civil society should insist that Modi be tried for all these crimes in a court of law, let alone elect him yet again to office. As chief minister of Gujarat, he has only brought shame upon Indian people. I strongly urge the people of Gujarat to vote against the Modi and his BJP.

This editorial from Indian express is definitely worth a read.

Don't they yet know, that "God is dead?"

"America's Shame is Gay Pride", "Homo sex is sin","God hates homo sex", and some more innovative phrases such as "Homo sex is a threat to national security" (LOL!) were the banners


brought by some conservative Christian group to Georgia Tech campus a couple of days back.

I was relieved to see that at least on university campuses like GT, these extremists found no supporters, in a country otherwise threatened by a large group of conservative Christians striving to

make America a kingdom under God. The responses that students came up with were pretty innovative, like "LOL", "Logic Free Zone", "But Lesbians are hot!" and many more. The highlight of the session which I saw was some student, getting up and starting to read out loudly about free body diagrams from his calculus book, and another one thought that the occasion demanded some music and


mysteriously he happened to have a bagpipe, which he played really well. I also missed the event captured in the video below ..

Judiciary vs Legislature

A few weeks back this was a column in IE: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/25375.html. May be a worthwhile read after the recent decision of the supreme court to stay the OBC reservation implementation.