Even God cannot save India – Supreme Court of India

Last updated on: August 5, 2008 at 9:10 pm By Desh Kapoor

I have long maintained that India's democracy and the little respect that we have left in ourselves is largely the work of Supreme Court. The Apex Court of India has done amazing service in maintaining the integrity of the country. Otherwise, the politicians had left no stone unturned to completely mess the country up! Many of these idiots have been occupying the top properties in Delhi even though they are no longer MPs or in the Government. But the Government of today has not done anything to vacate those properties. Just as any one who doesn't vacate someone else's house is tried with CRIMINAL charges - these TRESSPASSERS (which is what they are) should be tried with criminal charges. Be clear that this property is NOT the property of the person who stays in it.. or even the Government.. but it belongs to every citizen.. its upkeep is paid for by the tax-payers of the country! But the present law is not good enough to do that. And so many messages from the top court has fallen on deaf ears! Frustrated with the refusal of the Government - to even put up a pretense of work it is supposed to do in the first place i.e.; to bring GOVERN the country; the Supreme Court of India has been forced to say that "Even God cannot save this country"! "We are fed up with this government," the apex court said, adding "They don't have the guts to differ with the opinion of the clerks." Read more

Now, we find World's Smallest Snake

Last updated on: August 4, 2008 at 8:05 pm By Desh Kapoor

One would have thought that with the way man has proliferated the planet and the instruments that we have - we would have identified and documented every species on earth. Apparently not. Scientists have found now - what they call is the World's smallest snake. A U.S. scientist said Sunday he has discovered the globe's tiniest species of snake in the easternmost Caribbean island of Barbados, with full-grown adults typically stretching less than 4 inches (10 centimeters) long. S. Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State University whose research teams also have discovered the world's tiniest lizard in the Dominican Republic and the smallest frog in Cuba, said the snake was found slithering beneath a rock near a patch of Barbadian forest. Read more

When Gurus are no more than Prostitutes

Last updated on: August 4, 2008 at 6:58 pm By Desh Kapoor

Satsang is said to be an important part of the spiritual journey in Hinduism. It is so important that its praise is sung all over the place. But if one looks carefully, one would find that the religious could not have come up with a greater oxymoron that this. It is said that when all attachments are broken - you are one with the "Truth" or Sat. In Gita, that is what Krishna says. So, clearly, attachment to all - even the notion of "Truth" will be gone when you are in communion with the Truth. Until that time, however, you are just using words or concepts that you feel like calling Truth or God, but its just mind-stuff (something conjured up by mind). And whatever this mind can think of or understand - that is certainly not the Truth as in the spiritual sense. "Truth" is infinite and beyond the mind. So, what does "Satsang" really stand for? Sat means Truth, and Sang means company or association. Surely, the person who came up with this word had not really appreciated the issues that this word - shallow as it is - could create! Its only when all association has subsided that the "Sat" can be witnessed! Satsang for most of the initiated has become an exercise into satisfaction of, what I call, their "Lust for God". Seekers are not seeking freedom or the Truth.. they are seeking to be satisfied every time they enter a Satsang. They do want to face the harsh reality that they are responsible for their own Nirvana but they want a pill a week to give them that shot of satisfaction! Read more

Insurance sector of India – a very informative report

Last updated on: August 3, 2008 at 9:35 pm By Desh Kapoor

Insurance is a rising sector in India. In fact it is one of the hottest in the country right now. Not many really do understand the intracacies of all the components of the industry. This document - "Lloyd's Report on General Insurance in India" - does a very good job of summarizing the insurance industry (Non-Life side of the sector). You can read the doc and also down it from Scribd. Read more

Now, flipping web sites

Last updated on: August 3, 2008 at 4:52 pm By Desh Kapoor

Real estate property flipping has been common. But now, since the real estate has moved virtual - there are enough people flipping web sites! The modus operandi is pretty simple. Find a web site that shows good potential - content, niche, audience - but lacks good design/style/platform. Take the site and upgrade the design or do other changes and get the traffic up and visits higher and then just sell. And guys it can be very profitable as well! Dave Hermansen did not own a bird or a cage when he bought bird-cage.com, an online store, for $1,800 three years ago. He simply saw a Web site that was “very, very poorly done,” and begged the owners to sell it to him. He then redesigned the site, added advertising and drove up traffic. Last December, he sold it for $173,000. I believe it.. as I can see a lot of sites that could have done better with a different design or on a different platform that the one they are on! Btw, have any one of you done such a thing - i.e.; flipped a web site? If you have, can you share your experience? Read more

Budlight and the elevator

Last updated on: August 3, 2008 at 4:33 pm By Desh Kapoor

This is a rather interesting ad! Check it out.. Read more

Miss Pakistan World Pageant – crossing the line for Pakistani women..

Last updated on: August 2, 2008 at 8:03 pm By Desh Kapoor

Pakistanis in Canada and US also have beauty pageants. They raise hackles back home, but the Miss Pakistan World pageant is a regular thing. There have been many winners who have kind of transcended the line that had been set in the society. It is not my business to comment on "good" or "bad" of it. I think it is upto the individual to define his/her world and most behave within that boundary. This year's winner was Natasha Paracha and last year's was Mahleej Sarkari. Here is the official site for the Miss Pakistan World organization. Some photographs of Mahleej Sarkari and other winners. Read more

Smartest Subziwaala in the country!

Last updated on: August 2, 2008 at 9:25 am By Desh Kapoor

He is arguably the most educated and well qualified subzi-waala that India may have produced. He is an IIM-A graduate and has taken to selling subzi using special carts. His light pushcart is made of fibre, can carry 200kg and keeps vegetables fresh for six days, for it is ice cool. It has computerised weighing machine that "guarantees a proper calculation." Even the customers are impressed. "Computerwaala taraaju dandi nahin mar sakta (A computerised machine is not exposed to manipulation) ," a woman told this reporter. He has a dream - worth a lot.. that pushes him forward on a track not taken by many from that MBA school: I have a dream to build Bihar into the vegetable hub of the country. I want vegetables grown in Bihar on dining tables everywhere -- from Srinagar to Salem and from Shillong to Surat, says Kaushalendra. The going seems to have been good so far as he has grown from 1 to 50 carts within a year. That's quite a growth! The private-public partnership venture, launched about a couple of months ago with assistance from Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) with just one pushcart, has now placed an order for 50 more carts, thanks to a collateral-free loan of Rs 50 lakh from Punjab National Bank. Nearly 300 farmers have associated themselves with Samriddhi. ATMA, a government undertaking, is training these farmers in matters relating to high-yield seeds and crop protection. But he is not the only guy to have taken this route. R. Subramanian, another IIM-A grad was hired by Citibank, but left that job within 15 days because he was itching to do "something more". Well, most in India know that something as "Subhiksha". "I plan to buy more (carts) to spread the business. This is just the beginning. My venture will spread in the entire country in the years to follow," Kaushalendra said with enthusiasm so infectious that one would want to believe him. Read more

Harkishan Singh Surjeet finally leaves the stage: Thank God for small mercies!

Last updated on: August 2, 2008 at 2:08 am By Desh Kapoor

Image via WikipediaThe Indo-China War of 1962 remains a watershed in Indian politics - internally. It was again, in modern India, that its own leaders - and traitors - openly betrayed the fighting jawan on the front. The very guy who was responsible for their well-being while he gave up his life was betrayed open and unashamedly. During the war, a faction of the Indian communists backed the position of the Indian government, while other sections of the party claimed that it was a conflict between a socialist and a capitalist state, and thus took a pro-Chinese position. There were two factions in the party - leftists and nationalists. Leftists supported the Chinese stand where as the Nationalists backed India. China Supporters included: B. T. Ranadive, P. Sundarayya, P. C. Joshi, Basavapunnaiah, Jyoti Basu, and Harkishan Singh Surjeet. The perfidy of the Indian Communists and their non-chalance was un-paralleled ever in the history of India's betrayal! Mind you this meeting below - where the rift of the Communists widened and 32 "prominent" communists walked out - was in APRIL 1964. India was still reeling under the after effects of defeat by China in the 1962 War (October 10 - November 21, 1962). That was the backdrop of this convention. At a CPI National Council meeting held on April 11, 1964, 32 Council members walked out in protest, accusing Dange and his followers of "anti-unity and anti-Communist policies". The leftist section, to which the 32 National Council members* belonged, organised a convention in Tenali, Andhra Pradesh July 7 to 11. In this convention the issues of the internal disputes in the party were discussed. 146 delegates, claiming to represent 100,000 CPI members, took part in the proceedings. The convention decided to convene the 7th Party Congress of CPI in Calcutta later the same year. Marking a difference from the Dangeite sector of CPI, the Tenali convention was marked by the display of a large portrait of the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong. Read more

Trashing of History – CPI ishtyle – and our collective amnesia

Last updated on: August 1, 2008 at 10:59 pm By Desh Kapoor

Quisling . Tojo's dog . agent of imperialists . Imperialist Dog. Who do you think these choicest words were used to describe? Anybody we know in India? Now, Cut to the thundering response to Advani's suggestion that Savarkar and Bose have met with the same treatment at the hands of subsequent Indian generations - that of apathy and total ingratitude: How dare you compare Veer Savarkar with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose? This is an insult to Netaji." A communist - Basudeb Acharia of the CPI(M) - had once argued in the Lok Sabha. So, of course, these adjectives may have been about Veer Savarkar. And it seems in order - right? Well, in this day and age - when old actions do sometimes catch up with you - its not easy to keep fooling the people. Then, was it Savarkar? Well.. no! Those adjectives were for Netaji Bose in People's War - the publication of Communist Party of India. People's War, the weekly of the Communist Party, published cartoons showing Netaji as a cur held up by Goebbels (September 13, 1942), a mere mask for the Japanese imperial ogre (August 8, 1942), descending as the Japanese bomb to destroy India (November 21, 1942), a midget being led by Japanese imperialists (September 26, 1943). Now, cut to June 25, 1944 for a message by Netaji Subhash Bose on Azad Hind Radio: Read more