China and Pakistan have carefully cultivated Nepal as their territory for last 10 years. And it has been a complete failure of India to not have anything to stop it! At the very least I would have expected the BJP government to have done something about it but even they did not do anything! Read more
Image via WikipediaIndia is an extreme democracy. There is an area of tacit principles and an area of formalized rules in a democracy. India's governance structure has allowed the former to be disregarded and the latter to be violated without repurcussions! The Nuclear deal is decidedly a very touchy issue. I believe only a few organizations and individuals should have the right to comment on it. One, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India - because it is the foremost in line of folks whose daily life will get affected. Two, the Indian Defense Forces - so India's Chief of Staff along with the other Chiefs should have the most important say. Third, a Chief Justice and Attorney General - with help from whoever they prefer - in order to decipher the fine print of the deal. Fourth and the last, the Prime Minister with his cabinet. No other person or organization should have ANY right nor the authority to make a hue and cry about this. Period. Yeah yeah... we live in a democracy. But the democractic right of making your voice heard should be exercised at the poll booth not on the streets etc. Democracy means that the Government represent the majority vote.. and NOT that the Government elected should run the country by consensus! If the elected Government has to run the country by constantly asking the losers at the poll to get validated.. then why bother about the elections?? Just have the entire jing-bang of everyone and his brother sit in the parliament and muse on the next action. In any case we dont get much done in the parliament anyways! Read more
I know many in Pakistan have been trying to speak negative about India.. but I came across this interview with the Afghan Ambassador to India where he talks about the Indo-Afghan relations. I think the facts are self evident. Also read the thoughts of Astad Deboo on his visit to Afghanistan where he talks about his performances and the general life in Kabut and Herat. He mentions how the Indian soaps (Kyunki Saas etc) have influenced the women there.. as many have named their daughters Tulsi. Astad Deboo has been awarded Padma Shree and is a top ranking innovative modern dancer of India. As an ambassador to India for the last nine-and-a-half years, through the different ups and downs of my country, India has played a great positive role The Afghan people and Indian people should know this. It should be recorded in the history of the two nations. Whether it was the government of I K Gujral, H D Deve Gowda or Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Manmohan Singh. All the institutions of your country, Parliament and others, were indeed keen to help Afghanistan -- not because of their problem with Pakistan. Independently. When I became ambassador here, Commander Masood was in Kabul and Mr (Burhanuddin) Rabbani was the president, I found that they (the Indian government) were cooperative. When the Taliban captured Kabul, (then external affairs minister) I K Gujral announced at the United Nations that India recognised President Rabbani and Commander Masood, though they were not in Kabul then. Read more
This is my all time favorite song from Pyaasa. Guru Dutt, the legendary Indian movie director, if he had been alive would have been 83 today (July 9). Just for the record, he is my top of the favorites list of Film Directors. Raj Kapoor follows him close. He has many movies to his credit, but three - Pyaasa, Kaagaz ke Phool, and Sahib, Bibi, aur Gulam are my three top favorites. I loved his sense of humor (YES! he had it despite the pathos of his movies and the ability to bring out pathos without sounding help-less and needy). Lets see something about his life: Early life Guru Dutt was born Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone in Bangalore to Shivashankar Rao Padukone and Vasanthi Padukone. His parents were Chitrapur Saraswats, originally settled at Panambur, a village in South Kanara district of Karnataka. His father was initially a headmaster, and then a bank employee. His mother Vasanthi, while initially a housewife, later taught in a school, gave private tuition and also wrote short stories and translated Bengali novels into Kannada. Vasanthi was only 16 when Guru Dutt was born. Guru Dutt had a tough childhood with financial difficulties, and a strained relationship between his parents. As a child he had some bad experiences; the hostility from his maternal uncle's family, a frightening encounter with his insane maternal adopted uncle, and the death of his seven-month old brother (Shashidhar). Guru Dutt was initially named Vasanth Kumar at birth at the suggestion of his mother's elder brother, but after a childhood accident, he was renamed Guru Dutt, which was felt to be a more auspicious name. He was joined by three younger brothers, Atmaram, Devidas and Vijay and a younger sister, Lalitha. The Indian film director, Kalpana Lajmi, is his sister's daughter. He spent a great deal of time with his mother's cousin, Balakrishna B. Benegal (known to the family as Bakutmama) who was a painter of cinema posters. The Indian film director, Shyam Benegal, is the son of Sridhar B. Benegal, Balakrishna's younger brother. Read more
This is as shocking a comment as can be from a US presidential candidate. John McCain is known to shoot from his hip... but this is nonsensical. What he is implying is that he will be happy to see Iranians killed or dead! Is he equating the Iranians with the Government of Iran?!! Do you think he will have any purchase or even moral right if tomorrow he goes to the Iranians to say how his heart beats for them... but he wants to flush out Ahmedinejad - a la Saddam? This is just unbelievably naive and stupid! Worse, he was joking about it! McCain, known for acerbic comments and for sometimes firing verbally from the hip, was responding to a report that U.S. exports to Iran rose tenfold during President George W. Bush's term in office despite hostility between the two states. A rise in cigarette sales was a big part of that, according to an Associated Press analysis of seven years of U.S. trade figures. "Maybe that's a way of killing 'em," McCain said to reporters during a campaign stop in Pittsburgh. "I meant that as a joke, as a person who hasn't had a cigarette in 28 years, 29 years," he added, laughing. Read more
This is from Wikipedia. If you have any other source and evidence that this is not correct, please let me know. But for me, it is not at all surprising that the Kashmiri separatist Muslims and their secular friends in India are creating use-less myths about Amarnath Shrine. It is not important if you do or do not believe in idol worship (whatever the logic of such anti-idol belief and its weakness may be - blind-man painting . idol worship ), what is important is that for someone its a way of life and their faith. There is no reason to paint a bad picture of it. If it had been 1940s and 50s the seculars and the Kashmiri separatist Muslims would have gotten away with it.. but this is the age of blogs.. so there is no way someone can try to put out false-hoods and succeed! So here goes.. ************ The separatists in Kashmir and their "secular" supporters are trying to spread the myth that the Amaranth Yatra is of a recent origin. They claim that it started only after a Muslim shepherd of Batakot, a certain Buta Malik, originally"discovered" the Amarnath cave when he lost his flock and found that it had strayed into the sacred spot some 150 years ago. There is no documentary proof of this so-called discovery, the story having probably been concocted to give credit to Muslims for having started the most popular Hindu pilgrimage of Kashmir. Read more
The entire Persian belt (Iran and Iraq) is a big mess! Iran had been getting its nuke technology from AQ Khan and the North Korea (well to be precise - from CHINA).. while the US and others in the West had ostensibly no freaking idea. And then when Bush came in to power, he wanted to avenge for his father and so wanted to hit Saddam Hussain. He did. But with that he took down so much - for starters over 4000 American soldiers. The war gave nothing except mess and more terrorists. For past sometime, Iran has seen a light in that area as they can push up the Shias and control most of the area. It is their backyard for God's sake! So it finances and helps those Shias. If the US had let Iran remain doing that and leave the place slowly, it would have been fine. But the current generation of US politicians brought up on a staple of Viagara have tried to muddy their hands in Iran as well by threatening it. For a force that cannot handle Iraq, to threaten others in the neighborhood is stupidity! And the funny thing is that Iran is not even close to being the fountain-head of terrorism. That's Pakistan! So, another sojourn is in the offing for the US soldiers - to a country that has been made to become an enemy! Israel - correctly so - is worried for its existence as Ahmedinejad is busy issuing threats to that country. Read more
Saw this dance on Intentblog on Mallika Chopra's blog.. really interesting. Worth a watch. Read more
Toyota is planning to make Prius even more energy efficient and green. By next Spring, Toyota will come out with a Prius powered with solar panels. It will help power the AC. Read more
US is supposed to be very liberal in men and women relations. But if one were to go strictly by the letter of law then a lot of laws will make you amazed! Its not just about homosexual relations that the conservatives in the US are touchy about. These laws show how paranoid the founding fathers in these states were. These are crazy still because who knows how someone is behaving in their bed room? 1. Oral sex is illegal in 18 states, including Arizona.2. In Virginia, it is illegal to have sex with the lights on.3. It is illegal for husbands in Willowdale, Oregon, to talk dirty during intercourse.4. Sexual intercourse between unmarried couples is illegal in Georgia.5. Engaging in any sexual position other than missionary is illegal in Washington, DC.6. In Connorsville, Wisconsin, it is illegal for a man to shoot off a gun when his female partner is having an orgasm. Sure, that makes complete sense...there is no use celebrating Taliban style when once in your life you actually turn on your female partner. Not a very positive commentary on the prowess of those founding fathers 😉 Read more
Drishtikone
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