Who gets to keep the "Cream" in China?

Last updated on: April 28, 2008 at 4:38 am By Desh Kapoor

A decade from now, which country will boast of the maximum billionaires in the world? Forbes readers voted like this: India: 53% China: 20% US: 17% Now, this is a very strange statistic as is the number of current billionaires from India. Now, billionaires is never a good statistic to go by for assessing the prosperity of a country - indeed it shows the disparities more than distribution of wealth! Yet, the RATE of GROWTH does shows a certain element of Freedom that is available to Private Enterprise. That the system provides an opportunity to even the poorest and the common people to aim for the top. In India this has happened in many cases. Reliance is a legend, then Infosys, T-series etc. All were first generation not terribly rich people and all with completely different backgrounds! It is understandable that Chinese economy will beat the Indian economy on the whole. But why should it produce less spectacular successes than India? Its not as if Chinese economy has any lesser disparities than India has.. its equal or more. Then where is the DELTA?? Who gets to eat the "CREAM" in the Chinese Economic Churning? I feel, ONE, there is very little cream being created! Second, most of it is virtual anyways as someone with the official wand decides who produces what and where the surplus goes to. So does such an economy lend itself to longer term success? I am positive NO! What do you think? Read more

Sarabjit Controversy: this Spitting in the Shoes and Pissing in the Cokes has to STOP!

Last updated on: April 28, 2008 at 12:27 am By Desh Kapoor

I had read this joke long back in an email forward. It is immaterial who sits on the aisle seat and who was in the window seat, the last line is most material. Two Pakistanis boarded a flight out of London. One took a window seat and the other sat next to him in the middle seat. Just before take-off, an Indian sat down in the aisle seat. After take-off, the Indian kicked off his shoes, wiggled his toes and was settling in when the Pakistani in the window seat said, "I need to get up and get a Coke." "Don't get up," said the Indian. "I'm in the aisle seat. I'll get it for you." As soon as he left, one of the Pakistani picked up the Indian's right shoe and spat in it. When the Indian returned with a Coke, the other Pakistani said, "That looks good. I'd really like one, too." Again, the Indian obligingly went to fetch it. While he was gone, the other Pakistani picked up the Indian's left shoe and spat in it. When the Indian returned, they all sat back and enjoyed the flight. As the plane was landing, the Indian slipped his feet into his shoes and knew immediately what had happened. "Why does it have to be this way?" he asked. "How long must this go on? This fighting between our nations? This hatred? This animosity? This spitting in shoes and pissing in Cokes?" Sarabjit Singh - a supposed "spy" who was named as the one who was instrumental in a bombing in Pakistan - is at the center of a great controversy. He has been given Death Sentence and there are doubts that he is guilty. The kith and kin of the victims of the blast have demanded that he be executed rigth away and have gone on hunger strike. Meanwhile in an interesting turn of events, the key witness Shaukat Salim has retracted his earlier damning statement and has said that he was made to "pronounce" Sarabjit as the culprit under duress. He had never seen or met him. Police simply brought him in and made Shaukat put that statement out. Read more

When THE Shiv Kumar Batalvi sang his own poem!

Last updated on: April 27, 2008 at 9:59 am By Desh Kapoor

This is the night for me of Punjabi Poetry. I stumbled on an interview with probably one of the greatest Punjabi poet of the modern era - Shiv Kumar Batalvi - who died at the age of 36 AFTER he had gotten the Sahitya Akademi Award from Govt. of India. Before the interview starts, a TV guy from London gives an introduction with lots of interesting information on the poet. THEN the interview starts. You HAVE to consider yourself lucky to first, SEE for yourself Shiv Kumar himself speaking, and then listen to his rendering of his own poem! I couldn't help but hating the interviewer who stopped him short to ask him another question! A truly historical moment cut short by the bane of Indian interviewers - SELF PROMOTION! ALL the Indian media interviewers LOVE to speak more than their guests from this guy to Karan Thappar. Interviewing greats like Larry King are the EXACT opposite! Anyway, listen to Batalvi's extremely thoughtful answers and feel an undercurrent of a pathos in them. If Guru Dutt was ever interviewed, I am pretty sure his answers would have matched this guy's. Read more

An unforgettable rendering of Heer!

Last updated on: April 27, 2008 at 8:49 am By Desh Kapoor

Ok, I know this is the second video posting in quick succession and that too of Punjabi folk type after Gurdas Mann's fantastic voice. But this is the most compelling piece of music I have heard in a LOOOONG TIME! Heer is my favorite folk in Punjabi.. I go to great lengths to listen to a Heer by various singers. I bought a complete cassette of nothing but Heer on both sides by Shaukat Ali, the other singer I love apart from Gurdas Mann. I have also listened to Heer by Mohd. Rafi, another Punjabi who was probably the greatest singer in our times. This one, however, is the best rendering for its circumstance and the situation and the SHEER melody of this guy's voice. According the description next to the video: A Sain sings Heer at Pir Waris Shah's darbar, Jandiala Sher Khan, Shaikhupura, Pakistan. This was videotaped on March 6, 2007. Two points: (1) The singer seems under the influence of either alcohol or some other product like maybe opium. But his voice quality does not suffer at all. It is the boldest rendering I have yet heard of a Heer. (2) It is at mausoleum of the "Man" himself - Warris Shah - the father of Heer folk songs and music. Also, this is the same district where my mother was born - Sheikhupura, near Lahore. Update: Also see the rendering by Taimur Afghani below this! Read more

Gurdas Mann's Boot Polishan

Last updated on: April 27, 2008 at 8:25 am By Desh Kapoor

Gurdas Mann is by far my favorite Punjabi singer! He is as great - I reckon him greater for he's better in most areas - as Kishore Kumar in the popular Indian art in terms of sheer versatilty. No one even comes close to him. He writes his songs, dances and sings them. He has acted in many Punjabi movies, but one I saw that was truly very amazing was "Shaheed-E-Mohabbat". His acting surpassed that of MANY actors who are hailed as stalwarts. You have to watch that movie (and also Warris Shah) to know Gurdas Mann's acting genius. I personally saw him live twice when I studied in Delhi University. I still remember how the "oh-so-hep" females of SRCC would squeal with delight at seeing him perform at their college - so handsome he is. As Greek God-ish look as Dharmendra is possessed with! He has come out with his latest album "Boot Polishan" - in which, in keeping with his style, he has given a message in every song. Here in this video, he discusses all the songs and his thoughts around them. Worth listening. Also included is the video of his title song "Boot Polishan". This album is one of the fastest selling album in recent times brought out by Sony-BMG. Read more

Now a Chinese train link to Nepal!?

Last updated on: April 27, 2008 at 8:07 am By Desh Kapoor

Something that is of SUCH a huge ramification finds mention in this article somewhere deep inside Times of India! One day we will rue our apathy to these advancements of Chinese to encircle India. After creating a Vassal state out of Pakistan (which raises hell for Muslims in Kashmir and elsewhere but finds nothing wrong with ill-treatment in China's troubled province) and forging ties with Myanmar, and annexing Tibet while also building a road to completely annihilate its culture and religion, it has now moved into Nepal by proxy - as the Maoists take over! Worse, it is extending the same train line that it built to Tibet .. all the way to Nepal!! The rail link with China could help Nepal reduce its heavy dependence on its giant southern neighbour India for everything from oil to motor parts and medicines. Ai Ping, director general of China's international department, met Nepali Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Friday and told him that the rail link would bolster their diplomatic and trade ties, officials said. "They discussed the benefits of the project," Basanta Gautam, special secretary in Koirala's office, said. "The railway link should be complete in five years." Read more

Inebriated Hallucination of jagadguru.in – and my ONLY reply to such nonsense

Last updated on: April 27, 2008 at 7:28 am By Desh Kapoor

There is this guy I ran into once at Intentblog. He was so full of himself and his manner so abrasive that after initial discussions, I was convinced that he was as hardened in his superstitious belief as Osama Bin Laden is. He sees the world in one dimension and wants to fit everything in that ONE dimension. Bring up any other dimension of living and he froths from his mouth... seriously. He has been writing on his blog and spewing venom against what he calls are "right wingers". Well, as is the case with most Jehadis, he was not satisfied... so now he starts this blog called "Jagadguru" - quite obviously as a pun and starts doing the same stuff. I came to know of this, because I got some traffic coming in from there. So I went to see the post - not knowing it was this same old guy I had ignored despite his unnecessary belligerance. When I went to his post, I burst out laughing at the analysis he did and the way he twisted my once-had debate with him on Intentblog. This is what he writes: If you remember correctly, I wrote a blog about my discussion with a spiritually confused Indian Desh, who justified violence using Gita. In one of his comments he did indirectly try to argue that the role of Tilak in Indian independence overshadows Gandhi. The following quote shows what influenced men like Desh to such confusion. The answer is Tilak. He is the culprit. The best part about my discussion with Desh is that he gets pissed off when I call him Hindu fundamentalist. However his ideas and ideals are always from Hindu fundamentalism. He is not alone. There are so many qualified Indians who are as confused as him (I wouldn’t use the word educated for such people). Just see Desh’s article above and compare with the quote below. You will understand what I am talking about. This is the post he is referring to. Now nowhere do I mention in that about Tilak. The ONLY post on my blog where I have mentioned Tilak is when I talked of the historical chronology betweeen Dadabhai Naoroji, Tilak and Gandhi. What I said was very simple: Tilak died on July 30, 1920 and Gandhi started his Non-Cooperation Movement on August 1, 1920. This "strange" coincidence is because Gandhi was stopped by Tilak from starting this movement because Tilak considered Non-Cooperation Movement to be too "radical"! Now, to say that Tilak would inspire ME to a violent thinking based on such a passage is quite simply a product of a predisposed hallucinating mind. Read more

Rituals start with Identity

Last updated on: April 26, 2008 at 7:24 am By Desh Kapoor

So many religious reformers have talked about rituals and frowned upon the existing ones..... only to create new ones! Why are rituals part and parcel of any religion? Why is it so difficult to escape the trap of rituals in every walk of life? To understand this, one has to go to origin of a ritual. What creates a ritual? Isn't the genesis of a ritual in the creation of an "Identity"? "I am this", one asserts. And from then on, to save this "This-ness" one creates an entire process of sustaining it. Soon it becomes - All who refer to or believe in "This-ness" DO THIS! Attributes of an Identity no longer remain analytical (as in result of an analysis) but become prescriptive [it is no longer "Only 4 types of jobs are prevalent in any society - Brahman, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras" - it now becomes "Only 4 types of castes can be there - ...."] The prescriptive avatar of an identity similarly creates a self sustaining mechanism. Read more

Truth is Unknown

Last updated on: April 24, 2008 at 4:21 pm By Desh Kapoor

To find out what is real, the mind must cease to demand any experience. So long as you are craving experience, you will have it, but it will not be real—real in the sense of the timeless, the immeasurable; it will not have the perfume of reality. It will all be an illusion, the product of a mind that is frustrated, that is seeking a thrill, an emotion, a feeling of vitality. That is why you follow leaders. They are always promising something new, a utopia, always sacrificing the present for the future, and you foolishly follow them because it is exciting. Read more

The Vicious Circle of Poverty and Speculation

Last updated on: April 24, 2008 at 7:21 am By Desh Kapoor

Was just watching a program where the host gave this connections. He is so right! The speculation is creating havoc with the agriculture of the world and basically making a mess of the poor in the world. The poorest in the poorest countries can't even eat now! Read more