Govt's Lokpal

A nice brief summary of what's there in Govt's version of the Lokpal bill.
A Guide to India's Lokpal Bill.

Seems that the govt wants to make the institution a very beauracratic one (no surprises). But I can understand some of the criticism of the Jan Lok Pal Bill and of the "civil" society members.

I still think that both sides have some good points.

Two lessons re-learnt

Two lesson that I have re-learnt after returning to India

- Always look both sides even when crossing a one-way street.
- Most roads are meant for the pedestrians, and the automobiles have to learn to drive around them.

Tatvamasi

Came across this insightful article on Scribd when i was searching for the Tatvamasi of Prof. Sukumar Azhikode.


TATVAMASI

Prof. C N R Rao

http://vega.org.uk/video/programme/24

How the Greek caused their own Economic collapse; possible lessons for India.

In this Vanity Affair piece, Michael Lewis explores the origins of the crisis in Greek economy and the role of group of extremely holy monks based out of the Vatopaidi monastery in Mount Athos. It has tremendous lesson for India as the culture and economy are remarkably similar.

Solar Energy for Rural India

Harsh Hande, is the CEO of Selco a solar energy company trying to work on spreading light across swathes of rural india through solar batter. The profile of the company's work in NYT is impressive. Great to hear of such a positive effort being highlighted.

Was that a snub?

Is this because of the Queen not coming for the Commonwealth Games?

If so, it would be appropriate!

Pakistani student visit in Lucknow

Iss baar nahi...by Prasun Joshi

Why do we go to war?

A Victim's story here

Other heroes of Taj

From here

"This too shal not pass"

From Suhasini Haider's blog post

Heads have now begun to roll in the government over the attacks- but I fear that our leaders just want to be able to say "this too shall pass. The public's questions will blow over." We can't let that happen. Terror groups are learning new techniques to take us on everyday. We need to be ahead of the curve- to build on worldwide anger and the fact that their victims came from so many other countries to bring the world together to our aid and intelligence.

This too Shall Not pass.

Also a muslim cleric says what seems obvious but not said. 

Lucknow's Naib Imam Maulana Khalid Rasheed, who also heads the Firangi Mahal seminary said-

"It is quite clear now that Indian politicians of all shades were somehow living under an illusion that if they were to turn harsh against acts of terror, they would alienate the Muslims of this country," Maulana Rasheed told IANS in an interview.

"They ought to realise that the perpetrators of terror do not segregate their targets in terms of religion, and the victims of terror too cut across religious lines. When you count dead bodies, the first thing that hits you is the horror, not the religion of those killed."

Interview on Mumbai crisis of Sumit Ganguly-BhTV

Obama on Pakistan

Obama said many sensible things during the presidential debate. This was one more of them, where he says that US should fight in places which makes sense. It should get out of Iraq and if it has credible intelligence, then take the attack on to the hills between Pak and Afghanistan.

However, Obama has given indications that many of these postures were meant to get him elected and perhaps we will get the same results on the issue of rooting out or atleast making an honest attempt to tackle terrorism in South Asia.

In Memory

NSG Gajendra Singh

NSG Sandeep Unnikrishnan

Mumbai Anti-Terror Chief Shri Hemant Karkare

and many more....

The police band playing 'Aye Mere Watan ke Logon..." at Shri Karkare's cremation

Pictures: Rediff

Salaam Mumbai

Terror!

From here

This is Mumbai or India's 9/11!

As shown in this story, anti-terror experts are divided over the provenance of this attacker with some claiming Al-Qaida links while other implicitly laying the blame back on India by insisting that this is a result of India's treatment of it's muslim minority.
For instance,Christine Fair, senior political scientist and a South Asia expert at the RAND Corporation, says

Fair said one incident - "a watershed event" - that continues to anger Muslims were the riots that swept Gujarat State near Mumbai in 2002. The violence killed between 1,000 and 2,000 people, most of them Muslims.

"There are a lot of very, very angry Muslims in India," she said, "The economic disparities are startling and India has been very slow to publicly embrace its rising Muslim problem. You cannot put lipstick on this pig. This is a major domestic political challenge for India."

I agree that the incident was a tragedy, but if you look at India's history, you will find riots of same magnitude occuring alarmingly frequently.

So these events are connected to the original 9/11 by giving inspiration to domestic terrorist to plan in such coordinated scale and also by, perhaps, making them contact international terrorist groups.

So while, I do believe that the Indian government and the public has to fight terror by rational and empathetic and yet firm policies, it will only succeed if the international community (a stupid code word for the west) also takes a similar approach.

I hope that under Obama's rule we get exactly that.

This is how we do it!

A Pakistani player (left) traps an Indian player during a friendly match of the traditional South Asian sport, Kabbadi.

If only most of the battles in the world's nuclear flashpoint were like this....

From here

Preservation is better than nostalgia

Prevention is better than nostalgia seems to be the theme behind the work of Ganesh Devy profiled in this piece by Anand Giridhardas.

He is trying to make the adivasis living in hills and forests of India to appreciate and hence preserve their own dying culture instead of waiting for the government and other agencies to erect museum after they are dead.

There are certain inevitabilities to the arc of development: Villagers emigrate. Life's pace quickens. Languages sputter and die. Years later, a foundation raises money, curators are retained and visitors explore a museum wondering what life then was like.

But what, Devy wondered, if there were a pre-emption doctrine for cultural preservation? His Adivasi Academy, where the dictionary-making was unfolding on a recent afternoon, is based on such a doctrine.

Its a simple but radical idea and also seems to have the potential of making the adivasi life better and removing the unnecessary pressure to adopt to the 'modern' lifestyle to survive.

In the academy's museum, adivasi culture is depicted as if it no longer existed. The exhibits feature kitchen implements, jars of adivasi foods, hand-tossed pottery, jugs for homemade liquor. If the idea were to explain adivasis to outsiders, New Delhi would be a better place. The goal is, instead, to impress upon adivasis that their culture is worthy of a museum, worthy of protection.

"If a community has a strong sense of identity and a sense of pride in that identity, it wants to survive and thrive," Devy said. "The new economy is important. The old culture is equally important. We should not throw the baby with the bath water."

Seems like a jolly good work!

Another interesting work from the same author: modernity Indian style

To the Moon!-II

India's unmanned moon explorer Chandrayaan is now orbitting around the moon. This seems to have been the most tricky part of the operation though ofcourse most of the non-technical people had no clue.

A relieved  Nair said today's operation was the "most crucial moment" in the mission."We have done it," he declared.
"For the last 20 minutes, almost all our hearts were at a standstill," Nair said immediately after the the challenging manoeuvre was carried out. 

Related post : To the moon!