Sigh!

The times we live in

2010-11-15T16:10:00.000-08:00

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

2010-10-21T18:50:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-02-11T05:57:00.000-08:00

"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

2007-12-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-06T12:59:00.000-08:00

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?"

2007-09-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

"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

2007-04-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

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.

New York City

2007-03-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

Quite a while back in November, after my first visit to NYC I meant to write about the city. Even before I visited the city, I knew it was to be the first thing that I was going to like in America. By then I had been a bit disillusioned by the USA, but my first step into NY out of Penn Station, made me realise that NYC was one thing they had certainly got right.
The four days of thanksgiving weekend we lived in NY and did nothing touristy. Well except for going up the Empire State building, but the fascination for going to the topmost point of the city and view it will never go away!
Just two days back I drove through the city again. It was a depressing time on Long Island, but the sight of New York city at night was stunning. It is perhaps the association with Bombay that makes me love the city which I barely know so much. Next time I'm sure I would choose a visit to the city than to anybody around it. The city I'm sure will never disappoint or betray, of people one can never be sure.

Mumbai - A walk along the west coast

2006-06-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

A few days back I was dying of inactivity. Most people around had work to do or had gone away. Thus, I decided to go for a walk in south Mumbai. It had long been in my mind to do something like this.

I got off at Dadar station, walked through the crowded market street and made way to chowpaty. From there I headed southwards trying to keep as close to the coast as possible at all times. The map below shows the path I traced eventually.

Dadar chowpaty is quite long and dirty. It extends all the way from Shivaji park to Prabhadevi. A very narrow strip of sand and too many people, mostly couples trying to find some privacy but end up sitting less than 5 metres from some other couple.

I soon realised that not all of South Mumbai was fancy and pretty as I thought. The walk from Prabhavdevi to Worli was mainly through small crowded market streets with lots of shanties on both sides. In the pursual of the coast, I ended up walking into Worli Koliwada, which is a fisherman colony. It is a very narrow strip of land heavily crowded with hutments, hardly 100 metres away from the famous Worli sea face ! I reached the end of land, and had to turn back to make my way to Worli sea face. For a few minutes I was scared, when the road was becoming narrower and narrower. This was the kind of Mumbai that I had only known exists, but never been to. Here I also ate kharavas. It was the tastiest I had eaten in quite some time.

Worli sea face was a nice pleasant walk. Passed through the construction site for the Bandra Worli sea link. I am waiting desperately for that drive. Then walked along the sea to Haji Ali. Crossed Haji Ali and went towards Breach Candy hospital, making sure that the sea remained visible on the right throughout. This turned out to be an endless walk in Malabar Hill. Went right upto Walkeshwar. This again turned out to be a not-very-fancy area. And by this time, it was 11:00 pm, so I quickly hurried out of the place and kept walking towards Marine Drive. It was 11:40 when I finally got a view of the Queen's necklace. It was a very pretty sight from the hill. Then walked down the road for some time towards Marine Drive. But by then I was too exhausted to walk further. So thus, I caught a cab and ended my walk.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera then. But in the next few days, I will try to find time and get pictures and write more blogs about Mumbai.

Anti Reservation (Hike) Protests

2006-05-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

It has been 3-4 days now since a fairly active protest against the new reservation policy of the government has been going on in IIT. And although I was not indifferent about the protests so far, I had not been closely following them.

Seeing some of the people around me actively engage themselves in the protests set me thinking about the movement. No one can deny the necessity for an affirmative action to bring up the backward classes. The main objection is the so called vote-bank based policies of the government. Also the fact that in most cases it is likely that the reservation does not reach the very people for whom it is meant, but is used up by socially and economically affluent amongst the backward classes.

The lack of universal free and quality primary and secondary education is of course the root of the problem. The government over the years have failed miserably to tackle this problem. So the current move by the government can clearly be seen as a way to get away with this shortcoming by providing some easy relief to the backward classes.

This however led me to question myself. Is social upliftment a responsibility of the government alone ? Is it not a responsibility of the educated class as well ? What has been my contribution towards this cause ? How many of us against the reservations right now, have worked or even thought of working for the plight of the truly backward classes of India ?

Whether the protest succeed or not, I believe that the wide level of debate witnessed over the issue is a positive sign. It has also made the urban middle class Indian realize that he cannot afford to be outside the political mainstream. If this continues, it would be an achievement in itself.