Hair vs Inzamam is a Christian vs Muslim fight??

Last updated on: August 24, 2006 at 1:50 am By Desh Kapoor

Thanks to Atanu of Deeshaa.org about the hat tip. Here is an article where the author reproduces the comment from Pakistan's Manager. While there is little doubt that Hair has had decisions and behavior that does show his racist leanings, but this remark from Shahriyar is about as stupid as it could possibly get!! Pakistan Cricket Board is now looking towards the BCCI (Indian Cricket Board) for help.. but I think BCCI folks remember too well the incident of Sachin Tendulkar, the giant of modern cricket, being hauled up for ball tampering. He is one guy who would never indulge in such a thing.. but he was called up for that and India was furious.. of course, we never walked out of the match or made it as HIndu vs Christian fight.. but its doubtful that BCCI will forget that in a hurry.... lets see how this drama unfolds.. the signs are not so good! Read more

Hitler's Cross and the Hypocrisy of Indian Politics!

Last updated on: August 23, 2006 at 10:25 pm By Desh Kapoor

A lot of what goes on in the world has a strange and different reverbration in India.. I think we in India view the world polity at times with a sense of detachment.. as I am sure many do! This incident underscores a major point - that only loud voices and vote banks everywhere get themselves heard and someone to take note of their hurt. While India was quick to ban Da Vinci code on the protest of the Church and also have its politicians' heart beat for the Muslim community over the cartoon controversy.. it doesn't hurt anyone if Jews' pride and mind is messed with! If it wasnt for the militant Hindus, the same treatment, strangely is meted out to the Hindus as well.. by Hindus themselves!! Foreign hand in Indian polity has an upper hand! Read more

Bangladesh: Bengali Culture vs Islamic Jehadists.. who will survive?

Last updated on: August 23, 2006 at 9:05 pm By Desh Kapoor

This is an interesting article by Delwar Hussain - who is based out of UK and is a researcher of Bangladeshi politics and its diaspora. Here he outlines the dichotomies that exist in the Bangladeshi politics - where AWL (Awami League) and Bangladeshi National Party (BNP) are at loggerheads! Between the success or failure between them lies the fate of Bangladesh's youths' future - whether they will live in a secular society steeped in Bengali culture or they will live in an Islamic country with little regard for Bengali culture! Read more

How the World changed in the last Century

Last updated on: August 23, 2006 at 6:24 am By Desh Kapoor

Sometimes you have to read old books to know and appreciate how the world of today has changed in many areas! Interesting article on author's reading of the 1911 Brittanica Encyclopedia.. since then a lot has changed in this world. For example in the topic on Solar System, there was no mention of Pluto.. which was discovered in 1930. Similarly women and Blacks were given rough treatment that today will be considered downright offensive!! Back in the living room that evening, I find that the article has two authors. Thomas Athol Joyce, assistant in the department of ethnography at the British Museum, astonishes by saying not only that "Mentally, the negro is inferior to the white," but also that "the arrest or even deterioration in mental development is no doubt very largely due to the fact that after puberty sexual matters take the first place in the negro's life and thoughts." A more nuanced section on "The Negro in the United States" was composed by Walter Francis Willcox, chief statistician of the United States Census Bureau. "The negroes in the United States have played and are playing an important and necessary part in the industrial and economic life of the southern states," he wrote. But those states were "changing with marvellous rapidity," he said, and it was impossible to say "whether the negroes would be given an equal or a fair opportunity to show that they could be as serviceable or more serviceable" as they had been in the past. Read more

Bulleh! ki Jaana main kaun?

Last updated on: August 22, 2006 at 3:26 am By Desh Kapoor

Close on the heels of the other Sufi Qawwali here are lyrics of another one sung by an Indian singer going by Rabbi. Got it from this page. Na maen momin vich maseet aanNa maen vich kufar diyan reet aanNa maen paakaan vich paleet aanNa maen moosa na pharaun.Bulleh! ki jaana maen kaun Read more

Consulting: What is it?

Last updated on: August 22, 2006 at 3:11 am By Desh Kapoor

After so many serious posts, I thought of having some humor on this blog. I found this interesting poster. It apparently is from despair.com Read more

Darrell Caught in Pakistan's Hair!

Last updated on: August 22, 2006 at 2:28 am By Desh Kapoor

An unprecendented thing happened at Oval when the umpire Darrell Hair changed the ball in a Pakistan-England match on charges of ball tampering and without any answers or replies. And Inzamam Ul Haq, Pakistani Captain, simply didnt come back on ground after tea protesting against the decision. There was some drama but in the end the match was awarded to England. There are some observations I have: 1. Some of the England and Australian umpires are downright racist!! And it has more than obvious in the matches against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India. That the fulcrum of entire cricketing world has moved to South Asia doesnt help their ego management any bit! More than 50% of the revenues in the world cricket are due to sponsorship from the companies in India!! Read more

Flickr Pic of the Day

Last updated on: August 21, 2006 at 9:13 pm By Desh Kapoor

Bose Building Originally uploaded by deshkapoor. This is my picture. Again one that I have loved a lot. It was evening and I was coming out of this building of Bose Acoustics. The frame from this side of the parking lot was just fantastic.. with the clouds.. and evening sky. .. but I was unmindful of that.. what I really wanted to get was the really very nicely done building design! I think i really got it right here!! Read more

Imam Bukhari at his anarchist best

Last updated on: August 21, 2006 at 5:00 pm By Desh Kapoor

This guy is a classic anarchist in India. First of all, he or these other Islamists do not even begin to comprehend God and worship in its true sense... and then they go about creating an entire population of sub-optimal citizens who can't contribute economically or socially to the society they live in! National song Vande Mataram is 'against Islamic beliefs' and asking Muslims to sing it would amount to 'suppression' of the community, Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari said on Sunday.Addressing a press meet in Allahabad, Bukhari, who is also patron of the United Democratic Front, said according to the tenets of Islam, one could love one's country and even lay down one's life for it if the circumstances so demand."But when it comes to worship only Allah is given that honour. A Muslim cannot worship his or her parents, motherland and even the Prophet though they are held in high esteem," he said, reacting to a Central directive to states for recitation of Vande Mataram in educational institutions during a celebration on September 7 to mark the national song's centenary. Read more

Dependency ratio: Explaining the Economic Miracles of Ireland, China and India

Last updated on: August 21, 2006 at 4:49 pm By Desh Kapoor

This is an interesting article about how not the total population itself.. but the structure of population as captured by the Dependency Ratio is the best indicator of a country's potential!! I was intrigued by a line in the article that I have emphasized below in bold. In a way that line brings out the fragile nature of China's economic miracle! This relation between the number of people who aren't of working age and the number of people who are is captured in the dependency ratio. In Ireland during the sixties, when contraception was illegal, there were ten people who were too old or too young to work for every fourteen people in a position to earn a paycheck. That meant that the country was spending a large percentage of its resources on caring for the young and the old. Last year, Ireland's dependency ratio hit an all-time low: for every ten dependents, it had twenty-two people of working age. That change coincides precisely with the country's extraordinary economic surge. Read more

Who was Samson's mother?