Steps to solving the Gujarat blasts case

Last updated on: August 17, 2008 at 4:08 pm By Desh Kapoor

Here is a very informative graphic from HT on how the Gujarat blasts case was cracked. I had brought more details earlier. When I had first reported about the blasts, one dude had started blaming Bajrang Dal for all this - and that shows how obfuscation and conspiracies can be used to completely side-track the minds of a large group of people. The best exponents of this "art" is the Pakistan's administrative and Government machinery. Talk to any Pakistani and you will hear all sorts of conspiracy theories. Even the exit of Musharraf is the success of so many conspiracy theories. Read more

Bachna Ae Hasino is a blast from the past

Last updated on: August 17, 2008 at 9:43 am By Desh Kapoor

I am a romantic. And not the one who believs or likes those chic-flicks but the surreal love that is rarely seen in this fast life and quick relationship turnarounds.:-) Raj Kapoor was a master of that love. Love, to him was, like that first dew drop on the grass in the morning - fresh, delicate, yet beautiful.. and that is what he showed. Somehow that definition of love has not been seen on screen ever before or after. In my eyes, coming of Ranbir brought that back for me. He has in him something that is different. His eyes tell a tale that has Raj Kapoor-ish style and soul. When he loves despite unrequited love or repents and works to ask for forgiveness after he realizes his mistake regarding all the pain he gave to others - he looks believable. More importantly he seems honest. Most of the love stories have been about a very uncomplicated and straight forward "love". Raj Kapoor introduced the complexities of love. That Bulleh Shah's poem whih Chanchal sang in Bobby expressed that complexity so well. Chahe Mandir Masjid todo, pyaar bhara dil kabhi na todo; is dil mein dilbar rehta; Jis palde mein tule mohabbat; us mein chandi nahin tolna. Love was taken to the Ruhani or the spiritual level for the first time. Read more

Usain Bolts to a world record in 100 mtrs!

Last updated on: August 17, 2008 at 2:47 am By Desh Kapoor

He just started off somewhere mid way. After that it was not a race anywhere! Certainly not something that you see in the Olympics. And absolutely NOT in the 100m races! But Usain Bolt (from Jamaica).. well.. just bolted to finish from mid-way in a world record of 9.69 secs. The second guy (Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago) clocked 9.89 sec, which means 0.20 secs behind - which is a BIG time difference in 100m! Look at how amazing the difference was in this illustration. The third place was won by American Walter Dix at 9.91. With this the top two spots went to West Indians. What gave him such a big win? YAM! Yes, according to his Dad, Usain likes the local variety of yam a lot and that is what makes him so powerful. I have seen many other West Indians as well - who have grown up eating yam while on their way to school after pulling it out of the ground. 🙂 Wellesley Bolt said his son was partial to the vegetable grown in the north-western area of Jamaica where the sprinter was born. Read more

Sa re ga ma pa and the political mess on the Independence Day special

Last updated on: August 17, 2008 at 1:05 am By Desh Kapoor

Sa re ga ma pa - is my favorite TV show. Period. Its the original musical reality show and has become better and better over the years. From last year, even singers from Pakistan were included. This year they went further and brought in singers from outside India and Pakistan. Even Asma, an Arab girl from Oman came and sang in Hindi. She was eliminated very soon, but she will remain in everyone's heart! Yesterday was the independence special. And in this episode two Pakistani singers were also there. Now, both India and Pakistan have their indepedence at the same time and now both are different countries. I know many in India dream of an Akhand Bharat, just as many in Pakistan talk about the Islamic India. Now, I can't speak for those in Pakistan, but as an Indian, I totally abhor the idea of partition and after enough reading of independence history, I am certainly convinced that the mindless and insane violence was the mastermind of Jinnah and his followers following his call for Direct Action Day (DA day and its aftermath) - whose very concept was blackmailing Congress to his demands. After that what happened is a blot on mankind's history. And it is also my conviction and firm belief that the genesis of Pakistan's idea itself has haunted it and will eventually prove its undoing! Now, what happened in Sa re ga ma pa - was this: Read more

Jan Gan Man – beautiful rendering

Last updated on: August 17, 2008 at 12:06 am By Desh Kapoor

I know I am late by a day but it is still worth it. This is the rendering of the National Anthem of India "Jan Gan Man" by some of India's top musicians and singers. Read more

India's moon and space ambitions

Last updated on: August 16, 2008 at 10:32 pm By Desh Kapoor

Just a sidenote: Any country that has a real space program and can send satellites in space - is also the one which has an "indigenous" missile program, because both the technologies are the same! And any country which has missiles - like North Korea, Pakistan, and Iran and cannot even send a small ball into space on a rocket - then it stands to logic that they are basically the beneficiaries of Missile Proliferation attempts!!India plans to launch its first mission to moon this year. Indian Prime Minister has announced that this year, by October, India will send its moon mission on Chandrayan-I to moon. It will be an unmanned mission and will orbit the moon for two years. It will carry some investigative instruments from US as well. In all 11 instruments have been integrated - 6 indigenous and five under international cooperation - on the spacecraft. PSLV - or Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle - will be used for the purpose. Currently the spacecraft is being thoroughly tested as the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has already completed it. It is the size of an office cubicle. The next flight to moon will land a rover on the moon itself to collect samples of rock and soil on moon for testing. This will be done in a JV with Russia. Read more

Gujarat blast case solved – a village Mufti and Software professional were Masterminds

Last updated on: August 16, 2008 at 10:07 pm By Desh Kapoor

Gujarat blasts case has been solved. In all 10 men were arrested. One person is on the run. This is the first case in the last 2 years where the masterminds have been finally caught! That is strange and also amazing that Gujarat met with such success that even the Central team did not! After no breakthroughs until five days into the investigation, the officers saw strange cell records - they received calls, but none went out and all of these phone number got discontinued after July 26, 2008. The phone records led the team to a mufti (Abu Bashir) from a small village madrasa in Uttar Pradesh. He was working with a software expert working with a Multi-national company in Mumbai! He has been on a run ever since. The other accused are youths from Ahmedabad and Vadodara — Jahid Sheikh, Sajid Mansuri, Yunus Mansuri, Samsuddin Sheikh, Arif Kadri, Gyasuddin, Imran, Usman Agarbattiwala, Iqbal Sheikh and Asif Kagzi. Read more

Independence Day gift of life from Indian docs to Pakistani student

Last updated on: August 16, 2008 at 9:39 pm By Desh Kapoor

Tayyab Niaz is a 20 year old Mechanical Engineering student in Multan. He had developed a faster than normal heart beat. He went through a procedure in Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Karachi for radio frequency ablation - which further damaged his heart further as a catheter (small tube) had got stuck inside the heart during the radio frequency ablation and at the time of extraction of this catheter his mitral valve (that controls the blood flow between the upper and lower chamber of the heart) got severely damaged. He had two options - get his valve repaired or get it replaced. The doctors in Pakistan could have done the latter but not the former. Moreover, a change of valve would have been very expensive and would have meant no sports for life and also medication as long as he lived! He was then referred to India's Ganga Ram Hospital - a stone throws distance from my house. Read more

Jivanmukta: Where Jivan (life) ends… Chetna starts

Last updated on: August 16, 2008 at 4:35 pm By Desh Kapoor

Nirvana and Moksha and the related paraphernalia of Atma, Brahman and Prakriti (the combinations of them) have been a popular pass time of many Saints and Rishis. Many times people indulge in this because they cannot or will not be honest to the very basics. If you ask the proponents of Samkhya - theistic and atheistic - then you know that they talk of Prakriti as gross and Atma as the "engine" of this gross... such that the Prakriti or gross gets its "Life" because of the Chetna (or consciousness). Jeevan or life has been confused with Chetna or consciousness. And nothing could be further from truth! In Vedic literature, there is an interesting word - Jivanmukta. Jivanmukta is the word for a person who has reached the Chetna stage or is free but in the body. Hence Chetna starts when Jivan "ends". But living as in breathing does NOT end when Jivan ends. Jivan, the way it has been perceived or defined is VERY different from both, Chetna and breathing. In fact if one looks at the Karma categories, and then look at the definition of Jivanmukta - one would find that Jivan is a sub-set of all Karmas, but currency of all the Karmas do not stop one from freedom. Only the effects of some categories do. Again, looking at above, to me two questions arise: 1. If one who is Jivanmukta (free of Jivan or life), is still in the body (by definition), then what is "Jivan"? Is it breathing, heart beating or something totally different?? 2. If one is indeed Chetan (or conscious and free), then why is s/he still in the body! These are important questions and to completely understand these one needs to ponder on the Law of Karma properly - specially the baggage of Sanchit karmas and prarabdha karmas - and how it differs. There is no difference between Life/Jivan, Karmas, Thoughts, Atma (Soul) - they are just semantics. Vasistha says so in Yoga Vasistha - and it cannot be said better! Below I have reproduced the Nirvanopanishad - which is part of Rig Veda and describes what a Jivanmukta is. The discussion and the definition is very interesting. Also, as I had discussed earlier, one of the aphorisms here in this small part of Rig Veda, you finally do see Vivek (or discrimination/differentiation) being correctly defined! Read more

Thinker and the Thought

Last updated on: August 16, 2008 at 3:29 pm By Desh Kapoor

As you watch anything - a tree, your wife, your children, your neighbor, the stars of a night, the light on the water, the bird in the sky, anything - there is always the observer - the censor, the thinker the experiencer, the seeker - and the thing he is observing; the observer and the observed; the thinker and the thought. So, there is always a division. It is this division that is time. That division is the very essence of conflict. And when there is conflict, there is contradiction. There is 'the observer and the observed' - that is a contradiction; there is a separation. Read more