Overview:
The first major financial scandal of independent India was what is popularly known as the Mundhra scandal. The government owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) had bypassed its investment committee and, under pressure from the government, had purchased Rs 124 lakh worth of shares in six companies belonging to the Calcutta-based industrialist Haridas Mundhra in order to bail him out. LIC’s investment committee was informed of this decision only after the deal had been struck.
Introduction:
Haridas Mundhra was a Calcutta-based industrialist and stock speculator. Mundhra started life as a light-bulb salesman, and pyramided his holdings by "fast deals and stock juggling" into a Rs. 4 crore (USD 10 million) empire. However, by the mid-50s, his business empire was unraveling, and he came to be known for his somewhat questionable ethics. In 1956, he was indicted by the Bombay Stock Exchange for selling forged shares. In 1957, Mundhra got the government-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) to invest Rs. 1.24 crores (about USD 3.2 million at the time) in the shares of six troubled companies belonging to Mundhra: Richardson Cruddas, Jessops & Company, Smith Stanistreet, Osler Lamps, Agnelo Brothers and British India Corporation.
The Scandal:
The irregularity was highlighted in 1958 by Feroze Gandhi of the Indian National Congress party, who represented the Rae Bareli seat in the Parliament of India. Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister at the time, and Feroze was married to his daughter Indira Gandhi. Nehru, as the leader of the ruling Congress party, wished to have the LIC matter handled quietly since it might show the government in a poor light.
The parliament had passed the Life Insurance of India Act on June 19, 1956, under which 245 firms were nationalized and consolidated under the Life Insurance Corporation. Hence, he looked upon the LIC as a "child of Parliament". He would have no soft-pedaling on the matter, and took the case directly to parliament:
"Parliament must exercise vigilance and control over the biggest and most powerful financial institution it has created, the Life Insurance Corporation of India, whose misapplication of public funds we shall scrutinise today." Feroze Gandhi, Speech in Parliament, 1957-12-16.
Commission of Enquiry:
Given the public spotlight, the government was forced to appoint a committee to examine the matter. The retired Bombay High court Justice M. C. Chagla was appointed as a one-man committee. Chagla held that a transparent and public enquiry was a "very important safeguard for ensuring that the decision will be fair and impartial. The public is entitled to know on what evidence the decision is based." It was also meant to encourage the public to come forward and offer additional information to the committee.
The result was that huge crowds thronged the public hearings and the proceedings had to be amplified using loudspeakers so that people who failed to find seats in the court-room could hear what was going on.
Seven Principles of Enquiry:
1. That the government should not interfere with the working of autonomous statutory corporations and if it does, it should not shirk responsibility for directions given.
2. That chairmen of organizations such as LIC, which deal with investments in a large way, should be appointed from among persons who have business and financial experience and are familiar with stock exchanges.
3. That executive officers of the corporation owe their first responsibility to the corporation and should not surrender their judgment to the influence of government officials.
4. Funds of LIC should only be used for the benefit of policy holders and not for any extraneous purpose other than the larger good of the country.
5. In a parliamentary form of government, Parliament should be taken into confidence at the earliest stage to avoid embarrassment from other sources of information.
6. The Minister must take full responsibility for the actions of his subordinates and cannot be permitted to say that they did not reflect his policy or acted contrary to his directions.
7. The government should immediately apply to the corporation Sec 27-A of the LIC Act of 1938, modified as required to carry out the solemn assurance given in the LIC Act.
Aftermath:
Justice Chagla determined that the Finance Secretary, H. M. Patel, along with two LIC officials, L S Vaidyanathan, may have colluded on the payment, and should be tried. The Finance Minister T. T. Krishnamachari, in his testimony tried to distance himself from the LIC decision, implying that it may have been taken by the Finance Secretary, but Justice Chagla held that the Minister is constitutionally responsible for the action taken by his secretary and he disown his actions. Eventually, Krishanamachari had to resign. The Nehru government suffered considerable loss of prestige in the incident.
Haridas Mundhra was arrested from his luxury suite at the Claridge's Hotel in Delhi, and sent to prison.
It turned out that Mundhra’s manipulations were not restricted to LIC. The income tax department had curiously withdrawn certain notices pending against him having entered into "some understanding" about the payment of arrears.
Conclusion:
The Judge said: "The inquiry has been an education for the public. It should also act as a corrective to administrators all over the country because in future they will act with the consciousness that their actions may be subjected to public scrutiny". In fact, the opposite happened. The securities scandal of 1992 saw public representatives joining forces to ensure that the Joint Parliamentary Committee did not conduct a public hearing. This led to selective press briefings, horse-trading and a witch-hunt and failed entirely in its basic task of tracing the money or suggesting systemic improvements.
2009-09-24
Ratan Tata's Net Worth
So many people around the world want to know that "What is the Net Worth of Ratan Tata"?
TATA Group is running 96 businesses and out of which 28 Companies are publically listed on the various stock exchanges.
Tata Group is world's top 50 Group according to Market capitalization and Reputation.
The total revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was $70.8 billion (around Rs325,334 crore) in 2008-09, with 64.7 per cent of this coming from business outside India, and they employ around 357,000 people worldwide.
Have you ever thought why Ratan tata's name is not in the list of billionaire's club? why Ratan Tata is not a billionaire on the Forbes magazine list of billionaire people of the world?
The reason is that, TATA Group's 96 companies are held by its main Company "TATA Sons" and the main owner of this TATA Sons is not Ratan Tata but various charitable organizations developed and run by TATA Group.
Out of which JRD TATA Trust & Sir Ratan Tata Trust are the main. 65% ownership of TATA Sons which is the key holding company of the other 96 TATA Group Company is held by various charitable organizations.
So this 65% ownership of Tatasons Limited is not reflected on Ratan Tata's personal Financial Statement but on the various charitable organizations. and this is the reason why Ratan Tata is not in the list of Billionaire club.
If we put this 65% ownership of Tata Sons in Ratan TATA's own personal financial statement then Ratan Tata's Net worth can become more than $70 billion. and that's much more than the Warren Buffet's Current Net Worth of $ 62 billion, the world's richest person according to Forbes magazine 2008.
However, it doesn't mean that Ratan Tata is poor. In one interviews he had told the reporter that, "I have my own Capital". He is the chairman of Tata Group so obviously he earns lots of money every year as a bonus, remuneration and salary. However, Ratan Tata's Net worth is not $ 1 Billion.
He is not a billionaire on paper. but in reality he is the richest person of the world. His net worth in reality is more than Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. SO the good thing about Tata Group is that, They do Charity out of their Money...
And that is the reason TATA Group has generated so much of Goodwill over last 5 generations.
TATA Group is running 96 businesses and out of which 28 Companies are publically listed on the various stock exchanges.
Tata Group is world's top 50 Group according to Market capitalization and Reputation.
The total revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was $70.8 billion (around Rs325,334 crore) in 2008-09, with 64.7 per cent of this coming from business outside India, and they employ around 357,000 people worldwide.
Have you ever thought why Ratan tata's name is not in the list of billionaire's club? why Ratan Tata is not a billionaire on the Forbes magazine list of billionaire people of the world?
The reason is that, TATA Group's 96 companies are held by its main Company "TATA Sons" and the main owner of this TATA Sons is not Ratan Tata but various charitable organizations developed and run by TATA Group.
Out of which JRD TATA Trust & Sir Ratan Tata Trust are the main. 65% ownership of TATA Sons which is the key holding company of the other 96 TATA Group Company is held by various charitable organizations.
So this 65% ownership of Tatasons Limited is not reflected on Ratan Tata's personal Financial Statement but on the various charitable organizations. and this is the reason why Ratan Tata is not in the list of Billionaire club.
If we put this 65% ownership of Tata Sons in Ratan TATA's own personal financial statement then Ratan Tata's Net worth can become more than $70 billion. and that's much more than the Warren Buffet's Current Net Worth of $ 62 billion, the world's richest person according to Forbes magazine 2008.
However, it doesn't mean that Ratan Tata is poor. In one interviews he had told the reporter that, "I have my own Capital". He is the chairman of Tata Group so obviously he earns lots of money every year as a bonus, remuneration and salary. However, Ratan Tata's Net worth is not $ 1 Billion.
He is not a billionaire on paper. but in reality he is the richest person of the world. His net worth in reality is more than Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. SO the good thing about Tata Group is that, They do Charity out of their Money...
And that is the reason TATA Group has generated so much of Goodwill over last 5 generations.
Better know, before talking
I have come through an article by Mr. Gurumurthy about Indian Government and its ignorance about Indian philanthropy.
We have in our country a long but uneven tradition of philanthropy’. Thus lamented Sonia Gandhi at the function in Delhi to give the Indira Gandhi Prize to the American philanthropist Bill Gates. That was on July 25. Two days later, the Wall Street Journal printed, unusually, her whole speech. On July 29, Paul Beckett, a WSJ columnist, taking his cue from Sonia, mocked Indian businessmen for not being even remotely close to matching Gates. He pontificated: “India’s rich, open your wallets”.
Beckett used corporate India to dent the image of India itself, courtesy Sonia. Had she not spoken the way she did, he would not have written the way he did. What Sonia did not know — therefore, Beckett, who borrowed from her, could not — is what differentiates India from the US. American corporates, which almost exhaust America, are co-extensive with it; they account for over 80 per cent of its GDP. Bill Clinton had nicknamed the US ‘America Inc’, namely, the US as the aggregate of its corporates.
US corporate endowments aggregated are highly visible, like their brands. This is to emphasise their nature; not undermine their worth. The US market cap is some 40 times the Indian. Corporate India is insignificant in contrast. Some 400 top private Indian companies account for under six per cent of India’s GDP. This includes all Sensex members.
Sonia is understandably unfamiliar with the practices of traditional India. Indian charity, widely practised at the lowest unit levels down to every home, is socio-religious, not secular, in construct. Traditional India has high charitable propensities and deep philanthropic impulses. Indian religions do not convert others; their charity is therefore less known. Here are some examples of charity where the religious power is manifest.
Look at the charity run by Bhagwan Sathya Sai of Puttaparthi. His work for the poor is unmatched; yet equally unknown. Here are just two illustrations of his work. Anantapur district in Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh was known for water scarcity and water salinity and high fluoride levels in drinking water. Moved by the suffering of the poor, Sai Baba decided to do what the government could not for 50 long years; provide potable drinking water to the whole of Anantapur — yes, for the whole district.
He declared in November 1995, “Today it is ‘Raatlaseema’ (rocky region); it must be transformed into ‘Ratnala Seema’ (land that glitters like diamond)”. It took just 18 months. The work involved laying some 2,000 kilometres — yes 2,000 km — of water pipeline; building 43 sumps of 1.5 lakh to 25 lakh litres capacity; constructing 18 balancing reservoirs of three to 10 lakh litres capacity — where? — on top of hillocks; erecting 270 overhead reservoirs holding 40,000 to three lakh litres; installing 1,500-plus concrete pre-cast cisterns of 2,500 litres capacity, each attached with four taps for people to draw water.
This is how the 9th Planning Commission document describes the initiative. The Sathya Sai charity ‘has set an unparalleled initiative of implementing on their own, without any state budgetary support, a massive water supply project with an expenditure of Rs 3,000 million to benefit 731 scarcity and fluoride/salinity affected villages and a few towns in Anantapur district in 18 months’. Baba’s trusts repeated this feat in fluoride-affected Medak and Mehboobnagar districts. They provided water to some 4.5 lakh poor in 179 villages in Medak, and to some 3.5 lakh poor in 141 villages in the next. The drinking water projects in these districts covered more than 1,000 villages with some 20 lakh people.
Then, he saw the poor in Chennai struggling for water. He declared on January 19, 2002, “Today I have made a new resolve. Madras is suffering from acute shortage of drinking water. The rich can buy water. What will the poor do? I have decided to work towards bringing drinking water to Madras, no matter how difficult and how costly the task”. His central trust took up the construction of a 63-km stretch of the 150 km canal in the Telugu Ganga scheme, left incomplete for want of funds, thus denying water to Chennai. Thanks to Baba, Krishna water reached Chennai, irrigating some three lakh hectares of agricultural land on the way. These projects cost over Rs 600 crore.
The Sathya Sai trusts in Puttaparthi and Bengaluru run world-class speciality hospitals. They have performed some 24,000 cardiac surgeries, 34,000 cardiac cathertisations, 7,000 neuro surgeries, 40,000 eye surgeries, and 600 orthopaedic surgeries and treated millions more — all free. What is absent in these two hospitals is a billing department. The bill for these services might exceed Rs 1,000 crore. Baba’s trusts also run free educational institutions, cultural centres and music colleges. Secular India generously released a stamp to note the charity in Anantapur. Compare it with the Indira Gandhi award to Gates and the encomiums at the cost of India.
Take another religious charity, the Ramakrishna Mission. It runs 197 hospitals and its health-related work serves 85 lakh people annually, including 25 lakh in rural areas; 1,186 educational institutions serve 3.4 lakh students including 1.24 lakh in rural areas.
Take the Swaminarayan movement. Its 14 hospitals serve over six lakh patients annually; it runs 10 schools, eight colleges, 14 hostels; it has built 55 schools in disaster-hit areas; it aids 20 schools financially; gives 5000 scholarships annually. In Punjab, not a single man, woman or child would have gone hungry in the last three centuries, thanks to the langar in Gurudwaras feeding millions every day. Jains run huge charities all over the country. So do religious Muslims and Christians. Even the freedom movement was sustained by philanthropy. Lala Lajpat Rai gave all his properties to the movement; Chittaranjan Das and many others went bankrupt funding the movement. They never expected any Indira Gandhi Award. That is real philanthropy.
Traditional Indian business communities allocate a fixed share of their turnover for charity. The mahamai, an informal charity tax among the Nadars in Tamil Nadu has funded hundreds of the community’s educational institutions. The Nagarathars in Tamil Nadu too, through their mahamai, run huge charities. The Marwaris and others do so through the dharmada. Even today this informal system prevails in non-corporate business in India. So charity is by the community as a whole, not by individuals. But corporate India is unfortunately neither Indian nor American.
This is India, about which Sonia is singularly ignorant even after 40 years of domicile. When she said India has an uneven tradition of philanthropy it only exposed her ignorance, besides exporting it to the WSJ. The result? The WSJ is preaching to Indians about charity; the Indian media reports this nonsense without challenging it.
QED: To talk about Indian traditions, she first needs to know about them.
We have in our country a long but uneven tradition of philanthropy’. Thus lamented Sonia Gandhi at the function in Delhi to give the Indira Gandhi Prize to the American philanthropist Bill Gates. That was on July 25. Two days later, the Wall Street Journal printed, unusually, her whole speech. On July 29, Paul Beckett, a WSJ columnist, taking his cue from Sonia, mocked Indian businessmen for not being even remotely close to matching Gates. He pontificated: “India’s rich, open your wallets”.
Beckett used corporate India to dent the image of India itself, courtesy Sonia. Had she not spoken the way she did, he would not have written the way he did. What Sonia did not know — therefore, Beckett, who borrowed from her, could not — is what differentiates India from the US. American corporates, which almost exhaust America, are co-extensive with it; they account for over 80 per cent of its GDP. Bill Clinton had nicknamed the US ‘America Inc’, namely, the US as the aggregate of its corporates.
US corporate endowments aggregated are highly visible, like their brands. This is to emphasise their nature; not undermine their worth. The US market cap is some 40 times the Indian. Corporate India is insignificant in contrast. Some 400 top private Indian companies account for under six per cent of India’s GDP. This includes all Sensex members.
Sonia is understandably unfamiliar with the practices of traditional India. Indian charity, widely practised at the lowest unit levels down to every home, is socio-religious, not secular, in construct. Traditional India has high charitable propensities and deep philanthropic impulses. Indian religions do not convert others; their charity is therefore less known. Here are some examples of charity where the religious power is manifest.
Look at the charity run by Bhagwan Sathya Sai of Puttaparthi. His work for the poor is unmatched; yet equally unknown. Here are just two illustrations of his work. Anantapur district in Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh was known for water scarcity and water salinity and high fluoride levels in drinking water. Moved by the suffering of the poor, Sai Baba decided to do what the government could not for 50 long years; provide potable drinking water to the whole of Anantapur — yes, for the whole district.
He declared in November 1995, “Today it is ‘Raatlaseema’ (rocky region); it must be transformed into ‘Ratnala Seema’ (land that glitters like diamond)”. It took just 18 months. The work involved laying some 2,000 kilometres — yes 2,000 km — of water pipeline; building 43 sumps of 1.5 lakh to 25 lakh litres capacity; constructing 18 balancing reservoirs of three to 10 lakh litres capacity — where? — on top of hillocks; erecting 270 overhead reservoirs holding 40,000 to three lakh litres; installing 1,500-plus concrete pre-cast cisterns of 2,500 litres capacity, each attached with four taps for people to draw water.
This is how the 9th Planning Commission document describes the initiative. The Sathya Sai charity ‘has set an unparalleled initiative of implementing on their own, without any state budgetary support, a massive water supply project with an expenditure of Rs 3,000 million to benefit 731 scarcity and fluoride/salinity affected villages and a few towns in Anantapur district in 18 months’. Baba’s trusts repeated this feat in fluoride-affected Medak and Mehboobnagar districts. They provided water to some 4.5 lakh poor in 179 villages in Medak, and to some 3.5 lakh poor in 141 villages in the next. The drinking water projects in these districts covered more than 1,000 villages with some 20 lakh people.
Then, he saw the poor in Chennai struggling for water. He declared on January 19, 2002, “Today I have made a new resolve. Madras is suffering from acute shortage of drinking water. The rich can buy water. What will the poor do? I have decided to work towards bringing drinking water to Madras, no matter how difficult and how costly the task”. His central trust took up the construction of a 63-km stretch of the 150 km canal in the Telugu Ganga scheme, left incomplete for want of funds, thus denying water to Chennai. Thanks to Baba, Krishna water reached Chennai, irrigating some three lakh hectares of agricultural land on the way. These projects cost over Rs 600 crore.
The Sathya Sai trusts in Puttaparthi and Bengaluru run world-class speciality hospitals. They have performed some 24,000 cardiac surgeries, 34,000 cardiac cathertisations, 7,000 neuro surgeries, 40,000 eye surgeries, and 600 orthopaedic surgeries and treated millions more — all free. What is absent in these two hospitals is a billing department. The bill for these services might exceed Rs 1,000 crore. Baba’s trusts also run free educational institutions, cultural centres and music colleges. Secular India generously released a stamp to note the charity in Anantapur. Compare it with the Indira Gandhi award to Gates and the encomiums at the cost of India.
Take another religious charity, the Ramakrishna Mission. It runs 197 hospitals and its health-related work serves 85 lakh people annually, including 25 lakh in rural areas; 1,186 educational institutions serve 3.4 lakh students including 1.24 lakh in rural areas.
Take the Swaminarayan movement. Its 14 hospitals serve over six lakh patients annually; it runs 10 schools, eight colleges, 14 hostels; it has built 55 schools in disaster-hit areas; it aids 20 schools financially; gives 5000 scholarships annually. In Punjab, not a single man, woman or child would have gone hungry in the last three centuries, thanks to the langar in Gurudwaras feeding millions every day. Jains run huge charities all over the country. So do religious Muslims and Christians. Even the freedom movement was sustained by philanthropy. Lala Lajpat Rai gave all his properties to the movement; Chittaranjan Das and many others went bankrupt funding the movement. They never expected any Indira Gandhi Award. That is real philanthropy.
Traditional Indian business communities allocate a fixed share of their turnover for charity. The mahamai, an informal charity tax among the Nadars in Tamil Nadu has funded hundreds of the community’s educational institutions. The Nagarathars in Tamil Nadu too, through their mahamai, run huge charities. The Marwaris and others do so through the dharmada. Even today this informal system prevails in non-corporate business in India. So charity is by the community as a whole, not by individuals. But corporate India is unfortunately neither Indian nor American.
This is India, about which Sonia is singularly ignorant even after 40 years of domicile. When she said India has an uneven tradition of philanthropy it only exposed her ignorance, besides exporting it to the WSJ. The result? The WSJ is preaching to Indians about charity; the Indian media reports this nonsense without challenging it.
QED: To talk about Indian traditions, she first needs to know about them.
2009-09-23
Appraisal Letter
There was a contest in TCS to write a fictional story for 500 words max which would start with the line "On a dark and foggy night, a small figure lay huddled on the railway tracks leading to the Mumbai station "
This is what a guy wrote for the contest....... and surprisingly, it was adjudged the best short story :) )
On a dark and foggy night, a small figure lay huddled on the railway tracks leading to the Mumbai station. At once I was held back to see someone in that position during midnight with no one around. With curiosity taking the front seat, I went near the body and tried to investigate it. There was blood all over the body which was lying face down. It seemed that a ruthless blow by the last train could have caused the end of this body which seemed to be that of a guy of around my age. Amidst the gory blood flow, I could see a folded white envelope which was fluttering in the midnight wind. Carefully I took the blood stained envelope and was surprised to see the phrase "appraisal letter" on it. With curiosity rising every moment, I wasted no time in opening the envelope to see if I can find some details about the dead guy. The tag around the body's neck and the jazzy appraisal cover gave me the hint that he might be a software engineer. I opened the envelope to find a shining paper on which the appraisal details where typed in flying colors. Thunders broke into my ears and lightening struck my heart when I saw the appraisal amount of the dead guy!!!!! My God, it was not even, as much as the cost of the letter on which the appraisal details were printed.... My heart poured out for the guy and huge calls were heard inside my mind saying "no wonder, this guy died such a miserable death"... As a fellow worker in the same industry, I thought I should mourn for him for the sake of respect and stood there with a heavy heart thinking of the shock that he would have experienced when his manager had placed the appraisal letter in his hand. I am sure his heart would have stopped and eyes would have gone blank for few seconds looking at the near to nothing increment in his salary.
While I mourned for him, for a second my hands froze to see t he employee's name in the appraisal letter... hey, what a strange co-incidence, this guy's name is same as mine, including the initials. This was interesting. With some mental strength, I turned the body upside down and found myself fainted for a second. The guy not only had my name, but also looked exactly like me. Same looks, same built, same name.... it was me who was dead there!!!!!!!! While I was lost in that shock, I felt someone patting on my shoulders. My heart stopped completely, I could not breathe and sprung in fear to see who was behind......... splash!!! Went the glass of water on my laptop screen as I came out of my wild dream to see my manager standing behind my chair patting on my shoulder saying, "wake up man? Come to meeting room number two. I have your appraisal letter ready".
This is what a guy wrote for the contest....... and surprisingly, it was adjudged the best short story :) )
On a dark and foggy night, a small figure lay huddled on the railway tracks leading to the Mumbai station. At once I was held back to see someone in that position during midnight with no one around. With curiosity taking the front seat, I went near the body and tried to investigate it. There was blood all over the body which was lying face down. It seemed that a ruthless blow by the last train could have caused the end of this body which seemed to be that of a guy of around my age. Amidst the gory blood flow, I could see a folded white envelope which was fluttering in the midnight wind. Carefully I took the blood stained envelope and was surprised to see the phrase "appraisal letter" on it. With curiosity rising every moment, I wasted no time in opening the envelope to see if I can find some details about the dead guy. The tag around the body's neck and the jazzy appraisal cover gave me the hint that he might be a software engineer. I opened the envelope to find a shining paper on which the appraisal details where typed in flying colors. Thunders broke into my ears and lightening struck my heart when I saw the appraisal amount of the dead guy!!!!! My God, it was not even, as much as the cost of the letter on which the appraisal details were printed.... My heart poured out for the guy and huge calls were heard inside my mind saying "no wonder, this guy died such a miserable death"... As a fellow worker in the same industry, I thought I should mourn for him for the sake of respect and stood there with a heavy heart thinking of the shock that he would have experienced when his manager had placed the appraisal letter in his hand. I am sure his heart would have stopped and eyes would have gone blank for few seconds looking at the near to nothing increment in his salary.
While I mourned for him, for a second my hands froze to see t he employee's name in the appraisal letter... hey, what a strange co-incidence, this guy's name is same as mine, including the initials. This was interesting. With some mental strength, I turned the body upside down and found myself fainted for a second. The guy not only had my name, but also looked exactly like me. Same looks, same built, same name.... it was me who was dead there!!!!!!!! While I was lost in that shock, I felt someone patting on my shoulders. My heart stopped completely, I could not breathe and sprung in fear to see who was behind......... splash!!! Went the glass of water on my laptop screen as I came out of my wild dream to see my manager standing behind my chair patting on my shoulder saying, "wake up man? Come to meeting room number two. I have your appraisal letter ready".
India Unbound - Gurucharan Das
“When individuals err, it is unfortunate and their families go down. When rulers fail, it is a national tragedy.”
This is the main theme of this book written by “Gurucharan das”. The author is graduate in philosophy from Harvard. He started his career as trainees in Vicks, several of his pages in book deals with the hardship he faces while his trainees period, he afterward rises in his company to become CEO of Proctor and Gamble (India). He has taken writing books as full time.
Author through his book portrays the three different economic eras India has had to encounter: pre-independence, post-independence till 1991, and from 1991 till present.
Pre-independence Era:
Author began by revisiting some themes from the past. Was India fabulously rich in the past? Yes, he says, Columbus was right when he said he set out to look for the wealthiest land in the world (and hit America instead). It was left to Vasco da Gama the Portuguese explorer who 5 years later reached India and discovered a land of untold wealth. Historians estimate that the emperor of India, Aurangzeb was ten times richer than Louis IVth who was then the richest monarch in the West. In fact in 1700, India had 22.6% of the world’s GDP and 25% of the global textile market which was then the major industry.
Post-independence till 1991:
After Independence Nehru took mixed economy policy which is carried by Indira and her successor was the major reason why India lacks in Industrial revolution. The state agency denied the role of Private entrepreneurs in the growth of India through “License raj” and Red tape. Nehru’s abysmal decidion can be understood as because socialism was very much the thought of the day, applauded by most major economists. But during Indira’s time, the early 1970’s, the world knew better. Russia was on a decline and Japan, Korea and Taiwan were demonstrating that there were better alternatives to socialism. For India to persist with socialism was Indira’s big fault and deprived a generation of a better life.
License Raj wouldn’t let companies expand or produce over a government-specified limit. Pricing was controlled. MRTP and FERA made business houses bleed. With no foreign competition, Indian companies cared minimally for the quality of their products or services. PSUs enjoyed monopoly in their sectors. Author pictures this era very intensely; perhaps he experienced it most intimately as the head of P&G in India. Some instances of this control cited were:
1. Some 17 Important private industries were never allowed to take off till 1991 reforms.
2. The Tatas made 119 proposals between 1960 and 1989 and all them were ended in trash cans.
3. Aditya Birla dynamic inheritor of Birla empire decided to expand outside India setting up companies in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
4. According to law nobody could fire a worker for not working resulting in work ethic being declined and productivity plummeted.
5. Scooters India Limited had paid 3000 workers upto 1992 though they never built a scooter for preceding ten years.
Although during this period some exception were done in field of agriculture by Nehru Successor Lal Bahadur Shastri who inherited the food crisis, but Food and Agriculture Minister C. Subramanium’s new wheat seed and 15 percent price increase jacked up the wheat production making India sit on a mountain of grains.
Some positive was done by Sam Patroda who got a foot hold in India during Mrs. Gandhi regime and revolutionized the telecom industry to some extent. He carried on further during Rajiv Gandhi tenor which ended in 1989. Thereafter, he had to leave the Country.
From 1991 to Present:
By July, 1991, India reached bankruptcy which lead to the beginning of economic freedom. While in August 1947, India won political freedom, it was only in 1991 that India won economic freedom. In that year, Narasimha Rao’s government along with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Manmohan Singh as the finance minister, Commerce Minister P. Chambaram and Commerce Secretary Montek Singh Ahluwaliaya made far-reaching changes to India’s industrial framework that set the country down an irreversible path of economic reform. They took step:
1. They decided to do away with the import licensing.
2. Part of the nations gold reserves were flown to London to provide collateral for 2.2 billion dollar emergency loan from the IMF.
3. Indian rupee was devalued by 20 percent.
Many policies carried by this team clearly showed its positive signs:
1. After the reforms of 1991, exports jumped 20%.
2. The average growth rate leapt to 7.5% a year for the next 3 years.
3. Foreign investment increased by a factor of 30 and foreign exchange reserves which were perilously low have rocketed to close to $40 billion.
4. Literacy has improved to 62% in 1996-97 from 52% just 5 years before that.
This economic revolution also helped the private players in great deal:
1. Economic Times were sold only 100,000 in 1989 but by March 1994 it touched 500,000 mark.
2. Palapuri Jains have captured half the world market share of uncut diamonds.
3. Aditya Birla Group is the world's largest producer of rayon.
4. Steel Giant Laxmi Mittal is richer than the Queen of England.
5. Taj and Oberoi have created world class hotel chains.
6. India's software companies have the best software Engineers in the world and Indian entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are at the heart of Internet revolution. Of the 19 top global software companies that has achieved highest certification for quality, as many as 12 were Indian Chains.
This book is a must-read for every Indian, and for anyone who wants to understand the factors that have and are shaping the contemporary Indian psyche, which, unlike the past, is now progressive, assertive, confident, and vibrant. And also because we should understand this age, the age in which India will be ushered towards awaiting glory.
India and the US are the only two countries in the world that adopted democracy first and capitalism later. This inversion results in a more peaceful and negotiated transition to a market economy and avoids the harmful effects evidenced in countries such as Russia.
It does not matter who rules the country, Congress/BJP/Third Front. The last decade has liberated India from state control. India unbound unshackles the energies of private individuals. This freedom is translating into prosperity. There is still a role for government though but it is not in running hotels and airlines; it is in ensuring primary education and healthcare for which are the most powerful ways to eradicate poverty.
This is the main theme of this book written by “Gurucharan das”. The author is graduate in philosophy from Harvard. He started his career as trainees in Vicks, several of his pages in book deals with the hardship he faces while his trainees period, he afterward rises in his company to become CEO of Proctor and Gamble (India). He has taken writing books as full time.
Author through his book portrays the three different economic eras India has had to encounter: pre-independence, post-independence till 1991, and from 1991 till present.
Pre-independence Era:
Author began by revisiting some themes from the past. Was India fabulously rich in the past? Yes, he says, Columbus was right when he said he set out to look for the wealthiest land in the world (and hit America instead). It was left to Vasco da Gama the Portuguese explorer who 5 years later reached India and discovered a land of untold wealth. Historians estimate that the emperor of India, Aurangzeb was ten times richer than Louis IVth who was then the richest monarch in the West. In fact in 1700, India had 22.6% of the world’s GDP and 25% of the global textile market which was then the major industry.
Post-independence till 1991:
After Independence Nehru took mixed economy policy which is carried by Indira and her successor was the major reason why India lacks in Industrial revolution. The state agency denied the role of Private entrepreneurs in the growth of India through “License raj” and Red tape. Nehru’s abysmal decidion can be understood as because socialism was very much the thought of the day, applauded by most major economists. But during Indira’s time, the early 1970’s, the world knew better. Russia was on a decline and Japan, Korea and Taiwan were demonstrating that there were better alternatives to socialism. For India to persist with socialism was Indira’s big fault and deprived a generation of a better life.
License Raj wouldn’t let companies expand or produce over a government-specified limit. Pricing was controlled. MRTP and FERA made business houses bleed. With no foreign competition, Indian companies cared minimally for the quality of their products or services. PSUs enjoyed monopoly in their sectors. Author pictures this era very intensely; perhaps he experienced it most intimately as the head of P&G in India. Some instances of this control cited were:
1. Some 17 Important private industries were never allowed to take off till 1991 reforms.
2. The Tatas made 119 proposals between 1960 and 1989 and all them were ended in trash cans.
3. Aditya Birla dynamic inheritor of Birla empire decided to expand outside India setting up companies in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
4. According to law nobody could fire a worker for not working resulting in work ethic being declined and productivity plummeted.
5. Scooters India Limited had paid 3000 workers upto 1992 though they never built a scooter for preceding ten years.
Although during this period some exception were done in field of agriculture by Nehru Successor Lal Bahadur Shastri who inherited the food crisis, but Food and Agriculture Minister C. Subramanium’s new wheat seed and 15 percent price increase jacked up the wheat production making India sit on a mountain of grains.
Some positive was done by Sam Patroda who got a foot hold in India during Mrs. Gandhi regime and revolutionized the telecom industry to some extent. He carried on further during Rajiv Gandhi tenor which ended in 1989. Thereafter, he had to leave the Country.
From 1991 to Present:
By July, 1991, India reached bankruptcy which lead to the beginning of economic freedom. While in August 1947, India won political freedom, it was only in 1991 that India won economic freedom. In that year, Narasimha Rao’s government along with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Manmohan Singh as the finance minister, Commerce Minister P. Chambaram and Commerce Secretary Montek Singh Ahluwaliaya made far-reaching changes to India’s industrial framework that set the country down an irreversible path of economic reform. They took step:
1. They decided to do away with the import licensing.
2. Part of the nations gold reserves were flown to London to provide collateral for 2.2 billion dollar emergency loan from the IMF.
3. Indian rupee was devalued by 20 percent.
Many policies carried by this team clearly showed its positive signs:
1. After the reforms of 1991, exports jumped 20%.
2. The average growth rate leapt to 7.5% a year for the next 3 years.
3. Foreign investment increased by a factor of 30 and foreign exchange reserves which were perilously low have rocketed to close to $40 billion.
4. Literacy has improved to 62% in 1996-97 from 52% just 5 years before that.
This economic revolution also helped the private players in great deal:
1. Economic Times were sold only 100,000 in 1989 but by March 1994 it touched 500,000 mark.
2. Palapuri Jains have captured half the world market share of uncut diamonds.
3. Aditya Birla Group is the world's largest producer of rayon.
4. Steel Giant Laxmi Mittal is richer than the Queen of England.
5. Taj and Oberoi have created world class hotel chains.
6. India's software companies have the best software Engineers in the world and Indian entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are at the heart of Internet revolution. Of the 19 top global software companies that has achieved highest certification for quality, as many as 12 were Indian Chains.
This book is a must-read for every Indian, and for anyone who wants to understand the factors that have and are shaping the contemporary Indian psyche, which, unlike the past, is now progressive, assertive, confident, and vibrant. And also because we should understand this age, the age in which India will be ushered towards awaiting glory.
India and the US are the only two countries in the world that adopted democracy first and capitalism later. This inversion results in a more peaceful and negotiated transition to a market economy and avoids the harmful effects evidenced in countries such as Russia.
It does not matter who rules the country, Congress/BJP/Third Front. The last decade has liberated India from state control. India unbound unshackles the energies of private individuals. This freedom is translating into prosperity. There is still a role for government though but it is not in running hotels and airlines; it is in ensuring primary education and healthcare for which are the most powerful ways to eradicate poverty.
2009-09-22
The Red Sun - Sudeep Chakravarti
“Terrorist are against the nation, Naxalites are against the system”
Naxalism is recognized today as one of the most serious internal threats to the Indian state. Naxal influence is discernible in at least 165 districts, at levels ranging from “Highly Affected” to “Targeted”, and is growing rapidly, with the Red Corridor stretching from Bihar to Kerala.
Naxalism takes its name from Naxalbari, a West Bengal village where, in May 1967, a group of farmers protested against their landlords. The police retaliated viciously, killing 11 people; two years later, in the same village, the first Maoist party was born. Though short lived, and limited in terms of geographic spread, the ideas and ideology of Naxalism continue to resonate in large pockets of the country, and influence the current phase of Naxalism. The Communist Party of India (Maoist) today has been designated a terrorist organization by the Indian government. It has been beaten down in some states, such as Andhra Pradesh, but in other poverty-stricken states such as Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, Naxalism’s roots are growing deeper into the soil.
On his travels, Author runs into horrific poverty scenes:
1. In Kalahandi in Orissa, tribals survived for “months together on mango kernel and wild roots.”
2. Near Kolkata, bonded labor drives brick kilns.
3. In Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, farmers commit suicide to escape the cycle of backbreaking debt.
The author’s descriptions of his discussions with bureaucrats, police officers, Naxal leaders and cadres, SJ leaders and cadres, as also with iconic leaders like Kanu Sanyal, provide the details about how the government has failed:
1. There is no unified blueprint to guide the various civil and police organizations in their daily fight with Naxalites.
2. There is no guiding principle.
3. There is no coordinated action.
4. The disastrous Salwa Judum movement in Chattisgarh, openly funded and supported by the state Govt, ends up arming children and civilians, to fight the Naxals.
5. The huge failure of the state in meeting any reasonable set of obligations to its citizens.
6. The massive rip off of all manner of sarkari funds by babus, netas, organized criminal outfits and contractors.
7. The result of the ongoing scams in all public projects, means that large groups of intended beneficiaries continue to undergo severe levels of deprivation.
As the sophistication of Maoist weaponry has grown, the government has sent violence chasing after violence, with varying degrees of success. The Salwa Judum has been widely criticized by human-rights groups for browbeating uncooperative villagers and destroying their property, in league with district police and paramilitary outfits in Chhattisgarh. On the other hand, in Andhra Pradesh, an elite police force known as the Greyhounds has quietly and efficiently hunted down known Maoists.
State-sponsored violence may take out the Naxal leadership, but it can never remove the reasons for their appeal, and that powder keg is no mere caveat; it can be the most formidable danger to Indian prosperity. However much economists and governments may argue for patience and for trickle-down time, time may be the one commodity in increasingly short supply.
Naxalism is recognized today as one of the most serious internal threats to the Indian state. Naxal influence is discernible in at least 165 districts, at levels ranging from “Highly Affected” to “Targeted”, and is growing rapidly, with the Red Corridor stretching from Bihar to Kerala.
Naxalism takes its name from Naxalbari, a West Bengal village where, in May 1967, a group of farmers protested against their landlords. The police retaliated viciously, killing 11 people; two years later, in the same village, the first Maoist party was born. Though short lived, and limited in terms of geographic spread, the ideas and ideology of Naxalism continue to resonate in large pockets of the country, and influence the current phase of Naxalism. The Communist Party of India (Maoist) today has been designated a terrorist organization by the Indian government. It has been beaten down in some states, such as Andhra Pradesh, but in other poverty-stricken states such as Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, Naxalism’s roots are growing deeper into the soil.
On his travels, Author runs into horrific poverty scenes:
1. In Kalahandi in Orissa, tribals survived for “months together on mango kernel and wild roots.”
2. Near Kolkata, bonded labor drives brick kilns.
3. In Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, farmers commit suicide to escape the cycle of backbreaking debt.
The author’s descriptions of his discussions with bureaucrats, police officers, Naxal leaders and cadres, SJ leaders and cadres, as also with iconic leaders like Kanu Sanyal, provide the details about how the government has failed:
1. There is no unified blueprint to guide the various civil and police organizations in their daily fight with Naxalites.
2. There is no guiding principle.
3. There is no coordinated action.
4. The disastrous Salwa Judum movement in Chattisgarh, openly funded and supported by the state Govt, ends up arming children and civilians, to fight the Naxals.
5. The huge failure of the state in meeting any reasonable set of obligations to its citizens.
6. The massive rip off of all manner of sarkari funds by babus, netas, organized criminal outfits and contractors.
7. The result of the ongoing scams in all public projects, means that large groups of intended beneficiaries continue to undergo severe levels of deprivation.
As the sophistication of Maoist weaponry has grown, the government has sent violence chasing after violence, with varying degrees of success. The Salwa Judum has been widely criticized by human-rights groups for browbeating uncooperative villagers and destroying their property, in league with district police and paramilitary outfits in Chhattisgarh. On the other hand, in Andhra Pradesh, an elite police force known as the Greyhounds has quietly and efficiently hunted down known Maoists.
State-sponsored violence may take out the Naxal leadership, but it can never remove the reasons for their appeal, and that powder keg is no mere caveat; it can be the most formidable danger to Indian prosperity. However much economists and governments may argue for patience and for trickle-down time, time may be the one commodity in increasingly short supply.
Rangila Rasul - Pt. M. A. Chamupati
Rangila Rasul was a book published during the time of Arya Samaj and Muslim confrontation in Punjab during the 1920s.
It was not clear who was the author of this book, nor anyone did any sustained inquiry when on the basis of Muslim complaints, Rajpal was arrested but acquitted in April 1929 after 5 years of trial case was presented before the session court. In spite of the fact that “Rajpal” was illiterate and hardly knows the content of the book he was publishing. It was commonly assumed that he was the author of book. Only after the year Arya Samaj Historians openly admitted that book was written by Pt. Chamupati, who was high ranking official at Swami Vivekanand’s School at “Gurukul Kangri”. After several unsuccessful attempts to kill Rajpal, he was stabbed to death by a young man named Ilam Din on April 6, 1929. The killer was hanged but was hailed as a martyr, and is now accorded the title of "Ghazi".
The book deals with personal life and character of Muhammed, especially his intimate relationships with women. According to the author, Muhammed embodied the type of a widely “experienced” person and would be best symbolized by his wives. The book puts a crude content in a witty and fluffy manner. The book gives an account of various wives of Prophet and its circumstances surrounding his marriage to each of them.
The author included in his account subtle but direct criticisms of the Prophet and of Islam while continuing to maintain his persons as an admirer of them.
Originally written in Urdu, it has been translated in Hindi and English. It remains banned in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Its a short book with 64 pages and takes his admiration from the "Sunni" writings.
It was not clear who was the author of this book, nor anyone did any sustained inquiry when on the basis of Muslim complaints, Rajpal was arrested but acquitted in April 1929 after 5 years of trial case was presented before the session court. In spite of the fact that “Rajpal” was illiterate and hardly knows the content of the book he was publishing. It was commonly assumed that he was the author of book. Only after the year Arya Samaj Historians openly admitted that book was written by Pt. Chamupati, who was high ranking official at Swami Vivekanand’s School at “Gurukul Kangri”. After several unsuccessful attempts to kill Rajpal, he was stabbed to death by a young man named Ilam Din on April 6, 1929. The killer was hanged but was hailed as a martyr, and is now accorded the title of "Ghazi".
The book deals with personal life and character of Muhammed, especially his intimate relationships with women. According to the author, Muhammed embodied the type of a widely “experienced” person and would be best symbolized by his wives. The book puts a crude content in a witty and fluffy manner. The book gives an account of various wives of Prophet and its circumstances surrounding his marriage to each of them.
The author included in his account subtle but direct criticisms of the Prophet and of Islam while continuing to maintain his persons as an admirer of them.
Originally written in Urdu, it has been translated in Hindi and English. It remains banned in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Its a short book with 64 pages and takes his admiration from the "Sunni" writings.
2009-09-21
Shame on Indian Media
I consider Indian Media as the most "Bakwaas" of all , they show anything which can entertain us. The quality of news is shit and there is no study from the anchor or news reporter about the subject they are talking. Pick any time of day and you can feel that what news they are showing. God knows when we will have a news which would be relevant , thought provoking and sensible and above all "Real unbiased one". here is simple example of the news they are showing , i got this one from my mail box !
Dear Editors of HT, TOI, IndianExpress and TheHindu,NDTV, CNN-IBN, I got the mail below from a friend of mine and following the unwritten code of conduct, I am forwarding it to my friends but all efforts of people who have been forwarding this mail would go waste if this mail doesn't reach YOU......
Something to think about..!!
Shame on Indian Media??? Really what a shame...
By the time u guys read this news, the body of Major Manish Pitambare, who was shot dead at Anantnag, would have been cremated with full military honors.
On Tuesday, this news swept across all the news channels 'Sanjay Dutt relieved by court'. 'Sirf Munna not a bhai' '13 saal ka vanvaas khatam' 'although found guilty for possession of armory, Sanjay can breath sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are withdrawn' Then many personalities like Salman Khan said 'He is a good person. We knew he will come out clean'. Mr Big B said "Dutt's family and our family have relations for years he's a good kid. He is like elder brother to Abhishek". His sister Priya Dutt said "we can sleep well tonight. It's a great relief"
In other news, Parliament was mad at Indian team for performing bad; Greg Chappell said something; Shah Rukh Khan replaces Amitabh in KBC and other such stuff. But most of the emphasis was given on Sanjay Dutt's "phoenix like" comeback from the ashes of terrorist charges.
Surfing through the channels, one news on BBC startled me. It read "Hisbul Mujahidin's most wanted terrorist 'Sohel Faisal' killed in Anantnag , India .. Indian Major leading the operation lost his life in the process. Four others are injured.
It was past midnight , I started visiting the stupid Indian channels, but Sanjay Dutt was still ruling. They were telling how Sanjay pleaded to the court saying 'I'm the sole bread earner for my family', 'I have a daughter who is studying in US' and so on. Then they showed how Sanjay was not wearing his lucky blue shirt while he was hearing the verdict and also how he went to every temple and prayed for the last few months. A suspect in Mumbai bomb blasts, convicted under armory act...was being transformed into a hero.
Sure Sanjay Dutt has a daughter; Sure he did not do any terrorist activity. Possessing an AK47 is considered too elementary in terrorist community and also one who possesses an AK47 has a right to possess a pistol so that again is not such a big crime; Sure Sanjay Dutt went to all the temples;
Sure he did a lot of Gandhigiri but then.......... ..
Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about the terrorists' whereabouts. Wasting no time he attacked the camp, killed Hisbul Mujahidin's supremo and in the process lost his life to the bullets fired from an AK47. He is survived by a wife and daughter (just like Sanjay Dutt) who's only 18 months old.
Major Manish never said 'I have a daughter' before he took the decision to attack the terrorists in the darkest of nights. He never thought about having a family and he being the bread earner.
No news channel covered this since they were too busy hyping a former drug addict, a suspect who's linked to bomb blasts which killed hundreds. Their aim was to show how he defied the TADA charges and they were so successful that his conviction in possession of armory had no meaning. They also concluded that his parents in heaven must be happy and proud of him.
Parents of Major Manish are still living and they have to live rest of their lives without their beloved son. His daughter won't ever see her daddy again.
Dear Editors of HT, TOI, IndianExpress and TheHindu,NDTV, CNN-IBN, I got the mail below from a friend of mine and following the unwritten code of conduct, I am forwarding it to my friends but all efforts of people who have been forwarding this mail would go waste if this mail doesn't reach YOU......
Something to think about..!!
Shame on Indian Media??? Really what a shame...
By the time u guys read this news, the body of Major Manish Pitambare, who was shot dead at Anantnag, would have been cremated with full military honors.
On Tuesday, this news swept across all the news channels 'Sanjay Dutt relieved by court'. 'Sirf Munna not a bhai' '13 saal ka vanvaas khatam' 'although found guilty for possession of armory, Sanjay can breath sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are withdrawn' Then many personalities like Salman Khan said 'He is a good person. We knew he will come out clean'. Mr Big B said "Dutt's family and our family have relations for years he's a good kid. He is like elder brother to Abhishek". His sister Priya Dutt said "we can sleep well tonight. It's a great relief"
In other news, Parliament was mad at Indian team for performing bad; Greg Chappell said something; Shah Rukh Khan replaces Amitabh in KBC and other such stuff. But most of the emphasis was given on Sanjay Dutt's "phoenix like" comeback from the ashes of terrorist charges.
Surfing through the channels, one news on BBC startled me. It read "Hisbul Mujahidin's most wanted terrorist 'Sohel Faisal' killed in Anantnag , India .. Indian Major leading the operation lost his life in the process. Four others are injured.
It was past midnight , I started visiting the stupid Indian channels, but Sanjay Dutt was still ruling. They were telling how Sanjay pleaded to the court saying 'I'm the sole bread earner for my family', 'I have a daughter who is studying in US' and so on. Then they showed how Sanjay was not wearing his lucky blue shirt while he was hearing the verdict and also how he went to every temple and prayed for the last few months. A suspect in Mumbai bomb blasts, convicted under armory act...was being transformed into a hero.
Sure Sanjay Dutt has a daughter; Sure he did not do any terrorist activity. Possessing an AK47 is considered too elementary in terrorist community and also one who possesses an AK47 has a right to possess a pistol so that again is not such a big crime; Sure Sanjay Dutt went to all the temples;
Sure he did a lot of Gandhigiri but then.......... ..
Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about the terrorists' whereabouts. Wasting no time he attacked the camp, killed Hisbul Mujahidin's supremo and in the process lost his life to the bullets fired from an AK47. He is survived by a wife and daughter (just like Sanjay Dutt) who's only 18 months old.
Major Manish never said 'I have a daughter' before he took the decision to attack the terrorists in the darkest of nights. He never thought about having a family and he being the bread earner.
No news channel covered this since they were too busy hyping a former drug addict, a suspect who's linked to bomb blasts which killed hundreds. Their aim was to show how he defied the TADA charges and they were so successful that his conviction in possession of armory had no meaning. They also concluded that his parents in heaven must be happy and proud of him.
Parents of Major Manish are still living and they have to live rest of their lives without their beloved son. His daughter won't ever see her daddy again.
Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from India's Poorest Districts - P. Sainath
Written In and around 1992 , The book shows the best picture of Indian Villages and the Policy of Indian Government which is hardly meaningful and project to development.
Author was on Times of India fellowship while touring for India’s poorest districts, to know how people in these villages live.
The book is a collection of reports that the author filed during his tours. Some of the reports kicked up controversies and in a few cases even led to some action on the part of the authorities
Author’s main findings can be summarized in one word- apathy. Apathy towards the victims of rural poverty in the country. Around this core, he weaves the stories about real people who generally lie hidden in the great piles of statistical data. In a way, he has given names to poverty. His stories are provocative, jarring and shocking to the point of being macabre.
The selection of the districts which the author chose to study were the 2 poorest districts each in the 5 poorest states of the country- Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Godda in Bihar, loans have been given to members of a tribe to purchase cows, in some cases two cows per family, little realizing that the tribe does not consume milk products at all, and instead consumes beef in large quantity. At the end of the benign exercise, the cows ended up in the dinner plates of the lucky recipients, and the latter in a lifelong debt trap. The Authorities involved doesn’t do the ground work of studying the village and what they mainly do for living, they were just showing that they are kind enough to provide such a lucrative living to villagers.
Author discovers that while there are schools without buildings and teachers, there are schools with buildings and teachers too. Except that while the ‘buildings’ are used for storing fodder and Tendu leaves(used for making “bidis”) and the teachers teach non- existent students. There is a teacher who has not visited the school where he is ‘teaching’ for years, while drawing his salary all the time. This happens today also!
Then there is the case of the residents of a village called Chikpaar. The village was first acquired in 1968 for the MiG jet fighter project for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the 400- 500 families were evicted on an “angry monsoon night”. They moved to another location (on the land they owned themselves) and resettled there. Nostalgically, they named the new village as Chikpaar. In 1987, the families were evicted again for the Kolab multi- purpose project. The villagers again resettled at another place.
However, ‘development’ has chased them to their new place of residence and the residents have received eviction notices for the third time. Needless to say, the displaced persons were either paid a pittance as compensation and in many cases, the money took years to come by. This typical example shows the displacement by development, which exists today also. Since, they are illiterate can’t fight for themselves, they are not a part of vote bank politics so have to suffer.
The book can be seen to be operating at a number of levels.
First and foremost is the actual state of affairs in which the poorest in India survive. These are tales of poignant misery, and at the same time of admirable courage.
At another level, it is about the needs and aspirations of the “insulted and the humiliated”. It is about policies, schemes and programs launched with great fanfare and soon left to take their own wayward course, making a mockery of the intended aims.
There are stories about the audacity of what has been termed as development. There are dams that have displaced people who will never benefits from the dams anyway. There are dams that are under perpetual construction, with the contractors assured of a perpetual source of income. There are missile ranges which displace village after village like Chikpaar, with the villagers and adivasis losing not only their land but also the very world they belong to. They form the multitudes migrating to big cities, ending up as virtual slaves of contractors in an alien world.
There are numerous other stories and incidents which can’t be described in own words, its better for people to read the book and experience themselves the apathy of people around them
Author was on Times of India fellowship while touring for India’s poorest districts, to know how people in these villages live.
The book is a collection of reports that the author filed during his tours. Some of the reports kicked up controversies and in a few cases even led to some action on the part of the authorities
Author’s main findings can be summarized in one word- apathy. Apathy towards the victims of rural poverty in the country. Around this core, he weaves the stories about real people who generally lie hidden in the great piles of statistical data. In a way, he has given names to poverty. His stories are provocative, jarring and shocking to the point of being macabre.
The selection of the districts which the author chose to study were the 2 poorest districts each in the 5 poorest states of the country- Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Godda in Bihar, loans have been given to members of a tribe to purchase cows, in some cases two cows per family, little realizing that the tribe does not consume milk products at all, and instead consumes beef in large quantity. At the end of the benign exercise, the cows ended up in the dinner plates of the lucky recipients, and the latter in a lifelong debt trap. The Authorities involved doesn’t do the ground work of studying the village and what they mainly do for living, they were just showing that they are kind enough to provide such a lucrative living to villagers.
Author discovers that while there are schools without buildings and teachers, there are schools with buildings and teachers too. Except that while the ‘buildings’ are used for storing fodder and Tendu leaves(used for making “bidis”) and the teachers teach non- existent students. There is a teacher who has not visited the school where he is ‘teaching’ for years, while drawing his salary all the time. This happens today also!
Then there is the case of the residents of a village called Chikpaar. The village was first acquired in 1968 for the MiG jet fighter project for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the 400- 500 families were evicted on an “angry monsoon night”. They moved to another location (on the land they owned themselves) and resettled there. Nostalgically, they named the new village as Chikpaar. In 1987, the families were evicted again for the Kolab multi- purpose project. The villagers again resettled at another place.
However, ‘development’ has chased them to their new place of residence and the residents have received eviction notices for the third time. Needless to say, the displaced persons were either paid a pittance as compensation and in many cases, the money took years to come by. This typical example shows the displacement by development, which exists today also. Since, they are illiterate can’t fight for themselves, they are not a part of vote bank politics so have to suffer.
The book can be seen to be operating at a number of levels.
First and foremost is the actual state of affairs in which the poorest in India survive. These are tales of poignant misery, and at the same time of admirable courage.
At another level, it is about the needs and aspirations of the “insulted and the humiliated”. It is about policies, schemes and programs launched with great fanfare and soon left to take their own wayward course, making a mockery of the intended aims.
There are stories about the audacity of what has been termed as development. There are dams that have displaced people who will never benefits from the dams anyway. There are dams that are under perpetual construction, with the contractors assured of a perpetual source of income. There are missile ranges which displace village after village like Chikpaar, with the villagers and adivasis losing not only their land but also the very world they belong to. They form the multitudes migrating to big cities, ending up as virtual slaves of contractors in an alien world.
There are numerous other stories and incidents which can’t be described in own words, its better for people to read the book and experience themselves the apathy of people around them
I Am an Indian
AN AMERICAN VISITED INDIA AND WENT BACK TO AMERICA WHERE HE MET HIS INDIAN FRIEND WHO ASKED HIM HOW DID U FIND MY COUNTRY
THE AMERICAN SAID IT IS A GREAT COUNTRY WITH SOLID ANCIENT HISTORY AND IMMENSELY RICH WITH NATURAL RESOURCES.
THE INDIAN FRIEND THEN ASKED HOW DID U FIND INDIANS ……...??
INDIANS?? WHO INDIANS?? I DIDNT FIND OR MEET A SINGLE INDIAN THERE IN INDIA.
WHAT NONSENSE?? WHO ELSE CAN U MEET IN INDIA THEN……??
THE AMERICAN SAID IN KASHMIR I MET A KASHMIRI, IN PUNJAB A PANJABI, IN BIHAR, MAHARASTRA, RAJASTHAN, BENGAL, TAMILNADU
BIHARI,MARATHI, MARWADI, BENGALI,TAMILIAN, MALAYALI
THEN I MET A MUSLIM, A HINDU, A CHRISTIAN, A JAIN, A BUDDHIST AND MANY MANY MORE
BUT NOT A SINGLE INDIAN DID I MEET.
THINK HOW SERIOUS THIS JOKE IS. THE DAY WOULD NOT BE FAR OFF WHEN INDEED WE WOULD
BECOME A COLLECTION OF NATION STATES AS SOME REGIONAL ANTI-NATIONAL POLITICIANS WANT.
FIGHT BACK -
ALWAYS SAY I AM INDIAN
JAI HIND
THE AMERICAN SAID IT IS A GREAT COUNTRY WITH SOLID ANCIENT HISTORY AND IMMENSELY RICH WITH NATURAL RESOURCES.
THE INDIAN FRIEND THEN ASKED HOW DID U FIND INDIANS ……...??
INDIANS?? WHO INDIANS?? I DIDNT FIND OR MEET A SINGLE INDIAN THERE IN INDIA.
WHAT NONSENSE?? WHO ELSE CAN U MEET IN INDIA THEN……??
THE AMERICAN SAID IN KASHMIR I MET A KASHMIRI, IN PUNJAB A PANJABI, IN BIHAR, MAHARASTRA, RAJASTHAN, BENGAL, TAMILNADU
BIHARI,MARATHI, MARWADI, BENGALI,TAMILIAN, MALAYALI
THEN I MET A MUSLIM, A HINDU, A CHRISTIAN, A JAIN, A BUDDHIST AND MANY MANY MORE
BUT NOT A SINGLE INDIAN DID I MEET.
THINK HOW SERIOUS THIS JOKE IS. THE DAY WOULD NOT BE FAR OFF WHEN INDEED WE WOULD
BECOME A COLLECTION OF NATION STATES AS SOME REGIONAL ANTI-NATIONAL POLITICIANS WANT.
FIGHT BACK -
ALWAYS SAY I AM INDIAN
JAI HIND
2009-09-18
The Age of Kali: Indian Travels and Encounters - William Dalrymple
The Age of Kali, an epoch in ancient Hindu cosmology of strife, corruption, darkness and disintegration. Strife and corruption exist without doubt across a wide spectrum but as William Dalrymple, an accomplished, award-winning travel writer notes, India has, throughout history, consistently defied the prophets of doom and their predictions of imminent apocalypse. The book is his account of experience while travelling through length and breadth of India , it also includes chapter on Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
There are some good essays and I will talk about them one by one:
1. The age of kali: This chapter is about caste warfare and lawlessness in Bihar. It describes a massacre of a high-caste village in revenge of burning and torture that lower caste village was undergoing. The villagers blame a politician CM Laloo Prasad Yadav who believes that he is the “messiah” for lower caste people, for inciting the violence. Laloo was one of the first low-caste politicians to become an CM. He is very corrupt, but on the other hand he does represent the lower castes who hadn't had representation before. Violence and lawlessness is spreading out from Bihar to Bengal and UP.
2. In the kingdom of Avadh: Lucknow had been a great city, but went into decline after the British put down the Mutiny there. After the partition lots of Muslim migrated to Pakistan and Punjabis take over the large part of Lucknow which created havoc.Author visits a Rajah who was highly respected as symbolizing the old Lucknow. He had been in politics, but found it too corrupting, and is watching the decline.
3. The city of widows: Vrindavan, in UP, is a city full of widows, who have usually been forced from their Home after their husbands died. They chant for hours every day getting 2 Rs for every 4 hours they chant at local temples, this nomination wage force them to beg. The temples are also often used for money-laundering as there is no accountability both on the part of temple or government.
4. The rajmata of qwalior: She is a (very wealthy) leader of the BJP. Author is surprised to find that in person she is very kind, like a grandmother, and very religious. She led the mob to demolish the “Babri Masjid” which led to wide spread violence in 90’s. Her differences with son Madhav Roa is well know, it rises during the emergency period when Madhav abounded his mother who lands up in Jail , while he escapes to Nepal as pre agreement with Indira government. He later dies in Airplane crash.
5. East of Eeton: This chapter is extension of Authors visit to Lucknow and it starts with a story about a murder of a teacher at La Martiniere, an old British school outside Lucknow that, like most of the old schools, had retained its Britishness almost entirely. (For example, it taught the Mutiny from the British perspective. Students studied English literature, but not anything from India.) The suspect is a pupil of the school. Author moves on to a story at Lucknow University where different student unions have been fighting each other. Several students on both sides have been murdered, after numbers of gunfights. It seems entirely lawless.
6. The sad tale of Bahveri Devi: A lower-caste woman works as a "sathin" in her village. She is supposed to advise local woman on health, hygiene, birth control, etc. Now, there is a common practice of marrying child female children off all at once in some parts of India. Saving money in single ceremony. The government orders the "sathins" to report underage marriages. A leader of the village is marrying off his two- and fourteen-year-old daughters. She reports it to the police, who show up, but allow the marriages to continue. Nonetheless, the village leader is dishonored. He and family members rape the Bahveri Devi. The police, though, do not take her seriously, and accuse her of being a whore; the village shuns her. Finally, though, enough pressure mounts to force them to consider the case, and the family of the village leader is all arrested. Its most controversial case of Rajasthan and it involves some high profile people.
7. Caste wars: This chapter discusses massacres of low-caste villagers in Rajasthan who were attending a school. The caste system is still entrenched in rural India. Government jobs quotas for lower castes by V.P Singh government led to increased resentment from higher castes.
8. Sati Mata: Another story from the heartland of Rajasthan, it discusses a modern instance of "sati," where the widow burns herself alive on her husband's pyre after his death practiced mainly during Rajput Rulers fighting with Muslims Invaders in order to save themselves to fall in hand of Winner Muslim Rulers they burn themselves thus considered as an greatest Sacrifice for a widow. Sati is revered by villagers, and the site of the sati is visited by many pilgrims. A young widow committed sati voluntarily. However, sati has been banned for many years. The government, journalists, and women's organizations can't believe that the sati was voluntary, and charge dozens of villagers with murder, for supposedly forcing her onto the pyre.
9. Two Bombay portraits: The first portrait is a light story about Baba Sehgal, the first Hindi rap star. He is a devout Sikh who is also a cross-dresser. His music is derivative. After anti-Sikh riots following Mrs Gandhi's assassination in 1984, he cut his hair and beard not exactly something that a faithful Sikh would do.
The second part is a portrait of Shobha Dé. She started as a gossip columnist. Then she moved on to write raunchy romance novels. The novels are universally panned by reviewers (and she herself acknowledges that they lack literary merit), but they are extremely popular in sexually repressed India (and in Romania!). (E.g., "For India, once the land of the Kama Sutra, is now one of the world's most buttoned-up and prudish places. Despite a dazzling variety of Sanskrit terms for every shade of sexual arousal, no modern Indian language has a word for orgasm." It also makes the point that this point of view was largely adopted from the Victorian British.) She also has a flamboyant lifestyle, divorcing two men taking a French boyfriend, marrying a rich industrialist, going to parties, etc.
10. Finger-licking' bad, Bangalore and the fast-food invaders: Describes protests of the Miss World competition and fast food restaurants in Bangalore. The arguments against Miss World are full of holes---Hinduism has long celebrated erotica, so can hardly be said to be at risk. However, D.W. argues that the protests are valid emotionally and signs of the growing gulf of wealth in India, between those who live like Westerners (and in Bangalore there are many software companies that have attracted back expatriate Indians) and everyone else.
11. At the court of the fish-eyed goddess: This chapter describes a very popular fertility temple at Madurai. One point Author makes is that Hinduism is a very ancient religion that has not changed much in thousands of years due to solid belief in Indians about their religion. This temple was contemporary to temples in ancient Greece and Egypt. This constancy in religion stands in stark contrast to the huge changes in the cities, and for the loss of old culture and arts. It also describes how Rich successful people are attracted to the faith and cutoms.
12. Under the Charminar: This chapter includes some fantastic stories about Hyderabad. The city had been full of palaces. The Nizam was said to be the richest man in the world, with 11,000 servants, the wealth coming from the Golconda diamond mines (source of the Koh-i-Noor). In 1947, the Nizam declared independence from India. The Indian army invaded in the "Police Action" and it and Hindus slaughtered probably 200,000 Muslims. Many of the leaders had to flee to Pakistan. The nobles lost their status and now the palaces have almost all been sold and torn down.
13. Parashakti: This chapter describes a temple to Kali (Parashakti). In the innermost part of the temple, the Mother goddess takes on her most powerful form. There they carry out exorcisms. In the 19th century, human sacrifices were required, but now they use fake blood. People are brought in and healed of their epileptic symptoms. There is a pole full of nails that they pound in with the sufferers heads. Evil spirits are said to enter people because they can't make it to heaven, but these rites allow them to get there.
14. At donna georgina's: This story is about Goa, in southwestern India. Goa was ruled by the Portuguese since the 1500s and still is very European in some ways. It sounds like an interesting place, the great wealth there softened the rulers into dandies. India invaded in 1961. Author visits a lady who still maintains her house traditionally. She says there is much more crime, Portuguese is no longer taught. In the late 1960s the beaches were very popular for hippies from around the world, and some drug dealers stay on.
15. Up the tiger path: This is a very interesting story on the Tamil Tigers. Sri Lanka is divided between the Tamils (Hindu minority in the northeast) and the Singhalese (Buddhist majority). The Tigers are a fanatical and extremely violent resistance terrorist group. The majority repressed the Tamils, leading to the formation of the Tigers to try to set up their own state. Author visits the scenes of some terrorist attacks before entering the territory of the Tigers. The Indian army moved in supposedly as peacekeepers, but were attacked by the Tigers after trying to disarm them. They were forced to retreat eventually, after the guerrillas effectively countered their more advanced weapons.
The Freedom Birds are the women guerrillas, very young and very beautiful. However, Author finds them incredibly severe when he arranges an interview.
Author gains authorization to visit one of the large jungle camps of the Tigers. It has thousands of people in a heavily camouflaged settlement. Most guerrillas are in their teens. The most remarkable observation he makes when visiting a commander is that the attacks are often modeled after Hollywood movies (Rambo, Predator, different Vietnam movies, etc.). The commander admits this, and shows them the camp's extensive video library.
Pakistan
17. Imran Khan, out for a duck: This two-part chapter is about the playboy-cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, very famous in Pakistan. He is the patron of a Pir, or soothsayer, whom Author meets. He is also proud of his tribal background as a Pathan. The story of his political campaign is a good occasion for learning about the corruption in Pakistani politics. Imran, though, is an idealist who doesn't have enough force behind his young party to reassure them, and who doesn't believe in bribing clan chiefs and landowners to purchase votes. "Landowning and Feudalism is still almost the only social base from which Pakistani politicians can emerge," and the middle class is excluded.
The book is nine years old now, Now much things are now changed in India. Laloo is being replaced by Nitish Kumar who against all odds is trying its best to govern good in Distressed state. Sri Lankans won the war against Tamil Tigers and finally pushed them out of country, his head Prabhkaran is being killed. Andhra Pradesh the state for Hyderabad is booming largely due to Software Firms and Outsourcing.
Book is good for some knowledge gain about Srilankans Issue the Distress health of UP and Bihar.
There are some good essays and I will talk about them one by one:
1. The age of kali: This chapter is about caste warfare and lawlessness in Bihar. It describes a massacre of a high-caste village in revenge of burning and torture that lower caste village was undergoing. The villagers blame a politician CM Laloo Prasad Yadav who believes that he is the “messiah” for lower caste people, for inciting the violence. Laloo was one of the first low-caste politicians to become an CM. He is very corrupt, but on the other hand he does represent the lower castes who hadn't had representation before. Violence and lawlessness is spreading out from Bihar to Bengal and UP.
2. In the kingdom of Avadh: Lucknow had been a great city, but went into decline after the British put down the Mutiny there. After the partition lots of Muslim migrated to Pakistan and Punjabis take over the large part of Lucknow which created havoc.Author visits a Rajah who was highly respected as symbolizing the old Lucknow. He had been in politics, but found it too corrupting, and is watching the decline.
3. The city of widows: Vrindavan, in UP, is a city full of widows, who have usually been forced from their Home after their husbands died. They chant for hours every day getting 2 Rs for every 4 hours they chant at local temples, this nomination wage force them to beg. The temples are also often used for money-laundering as there is no accountability both on the part of temple or government.
4. The rajmata of qwalior: She is a (very wealthy) leader of the BJP. Author is surprised to find that in person she is very kind, like a grandmother, and very religious. She led the mob to demolish the “Babri Masjid” which led to wide spread violence in 90’s. Her differences with son Madhav Roa is well know, it rises during the emergency period when Madhav abounded his mother who lands up in Jail , while he escapes to Nepal as pre agreement with Indira government. He later dies in Airplane crash.
5. East of Eeton: This chapter is extension of Authors visit to Lucknow and it starts with a story about a murder of a teacher at La Martiniere, an old British school outside Lucknow that, like most of the old schools, had retained its Britishness almost entirely. (For example, it taught the Mutiny from the British perspective. Students studied English literature, but not anything from India.) The suspect is a pupil of the school. Author moves on to a story at Lucknow University where different student unions have been fighting each other. Several students on both sides have been murdered, after numbers of gunfights. It seems entirely lawless.
6. The sad tale of Bahveri Devi: A lower-caste woman works as a "sathin" in her village. She is supposed to advise local woman on health, hygiene, birth control, etc. Now, there is a common practice of marrying child female children off all at once in some parts of India. Saving money in single ceremony. The government orders the "sathins" to report underage marriages. A leader of the village is marrying off his two- and fourteen-year-old daughters. She reports it to the police, who show up, but allow the marriages to continue. Nonetheless, the village leader is dishonored. He and family members rape the Bahveri Devi. The police, though, do not take her seriously, and accuse her of being a whore; the village shuns her. Finally, though, enough pressure mounts to force them to consider the case, and the family of the village leader is all arrested. Its most controversial case of Rajasthan and it involves some high profile people.
7. Caste wars: This chapter discusses massacres of low-caste villagers in Rajasthan who were attending a school. The caste system is still entrenched in rural India. Government jobs quotas for lower castes by V.P Singh government led to increased resentment from higher castes.
8. Sati Mata: Another story from the heartland of Rajasthan, it discusses a modern instance of "sati," where the widow burns herself alive on her husband's pyre after his death practiced mainly during Rajput Rulers fighting with Muslims Invaders in order to save themselves to fall in hand of Winner Muslim Rulers they burn themselves thus considered as an greatest Sacrifice for a widow. Sati is revered by villagers, and the site of the sati is visited by many pilgrims. A young widow committed sati voluntarily. However, sati has been banned for many years. The government, journalists, and women's organizations can't believe that the sati was voluntary, and charge dozens of villagers with murder, for supposedly forcing her onto the pyre.
9. Two Bombay portraits: The first portrait is a light story about Baba Sehgal, the first Hindi rap star. He is a devout Sikh who is also a cross-dresser. His music is derivative. After anti-Sikh riots following Mrs Gandhi's assassination in 1984, he cut his hair and beard not exactly something that a faithful Sikh would do.
The second part is a portrait of Shobha Dé. She started as a gossip columnist. Then she moved on to write raunchy romance novels. The novels are universally panned by reviewers (and she herself acknowledges that they lack literary merit), but they are extremely popular in sexually repressed India (and in Romania!). (E.g., "For India, once the land of the Kama Sutra, is now one of the world's most buttoned-up and prudish places. Despite a dazzling variety of Sanskrit terms for every shade of sexual arousal, no modern Indian language has a word for orgasm." It also makes the point that this point of view was largely adopted from the Victorian British.) She also has a flamboyant lifestyle, divorcing two men taking a French boyfriend, marrying a rich industrialist, going to parties, etc.
10. Finger-licking' bad, Bangalore and the fast-food invaders: Describes protests of the Miss World competition and fast food restaurants in Bangalore. The arguments against Miss World are full of holes---Hinduism has long celebrated erotica, so can hardly be said to be at risk. However, D.W. argues that the protests are valid emotionally and signs of the growing gulf of wealth in India, between those who live like Westerners (and in Bangalore there are many software companies that have attracted back expatriate Indians) and everyone else.
11. At the court of the fish-eyed goddess: This chapter describes a very popular fertility temple at Madurai. One point Author makes is that Hinduism is a very ancient religion that has not changed much in thousands of years due to solid belief in Indians about their religion. This temple was contemporary to temples in ancient Greece and Egypt. This constancy in religion stands in stark contrast to the huge changes in the cities, and for the loss of old culture and arts. It also describes how Rich successful people are attracted to the faith and cutoms.
12. Under the Charminar: This chapter includes some fantastic stories about Hyderabad. The city had been full of palaces. The Nizam was said to be the richest man in the world, with 11,000 servants, the wealth coming from the Golconda diamond mines (source of the Koh-i-Noor). In 1947, the Nizam declared independence from India. The Indian army invaded in the "Police Action" and it and Hindus slaughtered probably 200,000 Muslims. Many of the leaders had to flee to Pakistan. The nobles lost their status and now the palaces have almost all been sold and torn down.
13. Parashakti: This chapter describes a temple to Kali (Parashakti). In the innermost part of the temple, the Mother goddess takes on her most powerful form. There they carry out exorcisms. In the 19th century, human sacrifices were required, but now they use fake blood. People are brought in and healed of their epileptic symptoms. There is a pole full of nails that they pound in with the sufferers heads. Evil spirits are said to enter people because they can't make it to heaven, but these rites allow them to get there.
14. At donna georgina's: This story is about Goa, in southwestern India. Goa was ruled by the Portuguese since the 1500s and still is very European in some ways. It sounds like an interesting place, the great wealth there softened the rulers into dandies. India invaded in 1961. Author visits a lady who still maintains her house traditionally. She says there is much more crime, Portuguese is no longer taught. In the late 1960s the beaches were very popular for hippies from around the world, and some drug dealers stay on.
15. Up the tiger path: This is a very interesting story on the Tamil Tigers. Sri Lanka is divided between the Tamils (Hindu minority in the northeast) and the Singhalese (Buddhist majority). The Tigers are a fanatical and extremely violent resistance terrorist group. The majority repressed the Tamils, leading to the formation of the Tigers to try to set up their own state. Author visits the scenes of some terrorist attacks before entering the territory of the Tigers. The Indian army moved in supposedly as peacekeepers, but were attacked by the Tigers after trying to disarm them. They were forced to retreat eventually, after the guerrillas effectively countered their more advanced weapons.
The Freedom Birds are the women guerrillas, very young and very beautiful. However, Author finds them incredibly severe when he arranges an interview.
Author gains authorization to visit one of the large jungle camps of the Tigers. It has thousands of people in a heavily camouflaged settlement. Most guerrillas are in their teens. The most remarkable observation he makes when visiting a commander is that the attacks are often modeled after Hollywood movies (Rambo, Predator, different Vietnam movies, etc.). The commander admits this, and shows them the camp's extensive video library.
Pakistan
17. Imran Khan, out for a duck: This two-part chapter is about the playboy-cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, very famous in Pakistan. He is the patron of a Pir, or soothsayer, whom Author meets. He is also proud of his tribal background as a Pathan. The story of his political campaign is a good occasion for learning about the corruption in Pakistani politics. Imran, though, is an idealist who doesn't have enough force behind his young party to reassure them, and who doesn't believe in bribing clan chiefs and landowners to purchase votes. "Landowning and Feudalism is still almost the only social base from which Pakistani politicians can emerge," and the middle class is excluded.
The book is nine years old now, Now much things are now changed in India. Laloo is being replaced by Nitish Kumar who against all odds is trying its best to govern good in Distressed state. Sri Lankans won the war against Tamil Tigers and finally pushed them out of country, his head Prabhkaran is being killed. Andhra Pradesh the state for Hyderabad is booming largely due to Software Firms and Outsourcing.
Book is good for some knowledge gain about Srilankans Issue the Distress health of UP and Bihar.
Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud - Arun Shourie
Another book by Arun Shourie, A brilliant piece of work and must read for everyone. I sometimes wonder why people try to misguide us by writing history that’s distorted and far from truth after reading few books I know what they want! They just want us to get destroyed while reading this history and sow the seed of hatred among a common community called “HINDUS”.
In this book Arun Shourie writes about Marxist historians that have long controlled and misused institutions like the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), the National Council of Educational Research Training (NCERT) and a large part of the Indian academia and media. By doing so they have misused their control over the content of school books. The book criticizes well-known historians like Romila Thapar, Satish Chandra, K.M. Shrimali, K.M.Pannikar, R.S. Sharma, D. N. Jha, Gyanendra Pandey, and Irfan Habib. These "eminent historians" have striven hard to continually denigrate Hindu cultural history, the oldest surviving civilization in the world, by "blackening the Hindu period and whitewashing the Islamic period”. They on several occasions promised to write and publish historical books, were paid for it by the government but never actually wrote the books they promised. By promoting each other's publications and puffing up their reputations, this group has long been "determining what is politically correct."
The book also describes how school books were rewritten in West Bengal, Kerala and other Indian states some of them strong Marxists Forts and some are congress ruled state for long time. One of his readers sent him a copy of a circular sent by the West Bengal Government Secondary Board ordering revisions of History textbooks to conform to the views of Indian Marxist “eminent historians." The accompanying pages contained two columns: Aushuddho (errors) and Shuddho (Corrections). Some are:
In Bharuter Itihash by Shobhankar Chattopadhyaya, published by Narmada Publishers, page 181:
Aushuddho - - "To prevent Hindu women from being seen by Muslims, they were directed to remain indoors."
Shuddho - -Delete.
In Bharater Itihash by P. Maiti, published by Sreedhar Prakashini, page 139:
Aushuddho - - "There was a sense of aristocratic superiority in the purdah system. That is why upper-class Hindus adopted this system from upper-class Muslims. Another opinion is that purdah came into practice to save Hindu women from Muslims. Most probably, purdah came into vogue because of both factors."
Shuddho - - Delete.
In Swadesho Shobhyota by Dr. P.K. Basu and S.B.Ghatak, published by Abhinav Prakashan, page 145:
Aushuddho - - "Because Islam used extreme inhuman means to establish itself in India, it became an obstacle for the coming together of Indian and Islamic cultures."
Shuddho - - Delete.
In Bharatvarsher Itishash by Dr. Narendranath Bhattacharya, published by Chakravarty and Son, page 89:
Aushuddho --"Sultan Mahmud looted valuables worth 2 crore dirham from Somnath temple and used the Shivling as a step leading up to the masjid in Ghazni."
Shuddho-- Delete 'and used the Shivling as a step leading up to the masjid in Ghazni.'
Book provides numerous examples from these pages. For Shourie, the rewriting of the history books is in stark contrast to the historical realities. And today if anyone seeks to restore truth to these textbooks, the shout, "Communal rewriting of history."
Shourie writes that this all “whitewashing” is in contrast to foreign books and articles. Some are:
A standard Soviet work A History of India by K. Antonova, G. Bongard-Levin, G. Kotovsky (Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1979):
"Aurangzeb was a cold, calculating politician, and a fanatical Moslem, who stripped Hindus of their rights. Between 1665 and 1669, he gave orders for Hindu temples to be destroyed and for mosques to be erected from their debris."
American historian Will Durant's assertion in his The Story of Civilization:
"The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex and freedom can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without and multiplying from within."
French historian Alain Danielou's statement, in his Histoire de l' Inde:
"From the time Muslims started arriving, around 632 AD, the history of India becomes a long, monotonous series of murders, massacres, spoliations, destructions. It is, as usual, in the name of 'a holy war' of their faith, of their sole God, that the barbarians have destroyed civilizations, wiped out entire races."
There are few Interesting Pages in book which shows the working, knowledge and writing of these “eminent historians” copied word to word from his book:
One Historian Tasneem Ahmad obtained a Ph.D. and published a book in his name that was only a copy of an earlier work by Dr. Parmatma Saran. The entire manuscript has been lifted word for word from the work of Dr. Parmatma Saran. The foreword to this plagiarized book was written by the "very eminent" Irfan Habib, who according to Tasneem Ahmad "encouraged and guided me at every stage of the work" and examined "with care every intricate problem, arising out during the course of work."
In July 1998, Manoj Raghuvanshi, host of a popular ZEE TV program called Aap ki Adalat, Aap ka Faisla invited Arun Shourie and one of the "eminent historian" K. L. Shrimali. Raghuvanshi posed the question first to Shrimali whether Aurangzeb was a religious bigot. Despite Raghuvanshi's repeating the question, Shrimali gave no clear answer, only asserting that Aurangzeb's court had many Hindu nobles. Shourie countered this by pointing out that there were many Indians among the persons honored by the British with titles and both for the same reason. In Shourie's words: "How does this wipe away the destruction of Hindu temples by Aurangzeb? Aurangzeb had entertained no doubt about the fact that his primary impulse was the religious one. And that he faithfully implemented an essential element of his religion, Islam that is to destroy the places of worship of other religions." As evidence, Shourie read out several passages from Sita Ram Goel's book Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them, The Islamic Evidence. All Shrimali could mumble was that it was a "questionable source." When Shourie pressed the point that the source was the Akhbarat (Newsletter) of the Court of Aurangzeb himself written on the very day the news reached the court, the "eminent" historian merely repeated "questionable source." Shourie comments: "So, when an 'eminent' historian says that the sources were questionable, they must be questionable" - - this is their technology when cornered."
Recently, Sita Ram Goel(writer of many history books) challenged the dean of the "eminent historians," Romila Thapar, to produce evidence to substantiate her assertion about the violence Hindus perpetrated on the Buddhists, supposedly destroying Buddhist viharas and constructing Hindu temples on the ruins. Answer and evidence None.
During the past fifty years, this bunch “eminent historians” have been suppressing facts, inventing lies, perverting discourse, and derailing public policy.
For anyone interested in contemporary India, this is a must-read book.
In this book Arun Shourie writes about Marxist historians that have long controlled and misused institutions like the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), the National Council of Educational Research Training (NCERT) and a large part of the Indian academia and media. By doing so they have misused their control over the content of school books. The book criticizes well-known historians like Romila Thapar, Satish Chandra, K.M. Shrimali, K.M.Pannikar, R.S. Sharma, D. N. Jha, Gyanendra Pandey, and Irfan Habib. These "eminent historians" have striven hard to continually denigrate Hindu cultural history, the oldest surviving civilization in the world, by "blackening the Hindu period and whitewashing the Islamic period”. They on several occasions promised to write and publish historical books, were paid for it by the government but never actually wrote the books they promised. By promoting each other's publications and puffing up their reputations, this group has long been "determining what is politically correct."
The book also describes how school books were rewritten in West Bengal, Kerala and other Indian states some of them strong Marxists Forts and some are congress ruled state for long time. One of his readers sent him a copy of a circular sent by the West Bengal Government Secondary Board ordering revisions of History textbooks to conform to the views of Indian Marxist “eminent historians." The accompanying pages contained two columns: Aushuddho (errors) and Shuddho (Corrections). Some are:
In Bharuter Itihash by Shobhankar Chattopadhyaya, published by Narmada Publishers, page 181:
Aushuddho - - "To prevent Hindu women from being seen by Muslims, they were directed to remain indoors."
Shuddho - -Delete.
In Bharater Itihash by P. Maiti, published by Sreedhar Prakashini, page 139:
Aushuddho - - "There was a sense of aristocratic superiority in the purdah system. That is why upper-class Hindus adopted this system from upper-class Muslims. Another opinion is that purdah came into practice to save Hindu women from Muslims. Most probably, purdah came into vogue because of both factors."
Shuddho - - Delete.
In Swadesho Shobhyota by Dr. P.K. Basu and S.B.Ghatak, published by Abhinav Prakashan, page 145:
Aushuddho - - "Because Islam used extreme inhuman means to establish itself in India, it became an obstacle for the coming together of Indian and Islamic cultures."
Shuddho - - Delete.
In Bharatvarsher Itishash by Dr. Narendranath Bhattacharya, published by Chakravarty and Son, page 89:
Aushuddho --"Sultan Mahmud looted valuables worth 2 crore dirham from Somnath temple and used the Shivling as a step leading up to the masjid in Ghazni."
Shuddho-- Delete 'and used the Shivling as a step leading up to the masjid in Ghazni.'
Book provides numerous examples from these pages. For Shourie, the rewriting of the history books is in stark contrast to the historical realities. And today if anyone seeks to restore truth to these textbooks, the shout, "Communal rewriting of history."
Shourie writes that this all “whitewashing” is in contrast to foreign books and articles. Some are:
A standard Soviet work A History of India by K. Antonova, G. Bongard-Levin, G. Kotovsky (Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1979):
"Aurangzeb was a cold, calculating politician, and a fanatical Moslem, who stripped Hindus of their rights. Between 1665 and 1669, he gave orders for Hindu temples to be destroyed and for mosques to be erected from their debris."
American historian Will Durant's assertion in his The Story of Civilization:
"The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex and freedom can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without and multiplying from within."
French historian Alain Danielou's statement, in his Histoire de l' Inde:
"From the time Muslims started arriving, around 632 AD, the history of India becomes a long, monotonous series of murders, massacres, spoliations, destructions. It is, as usual, in the name of 'a holy war' of their faith, of their sole God, that the barbarians have destroyed civilizations, wiped out entire races."
There are few Interesting Pages in book which shows the working, knowledge and writing of these “eminent historians” copied word to word from his book:
One Historian Tasneem Ahmad obtained a Ph.D. and published a book in his name that was only a copy of an earlier work by Dr. Parmatma Saran. The entire manuscript has been lifted word for word from the work of Dr. Parmatma Saran. The foreword to this plagiarized book was written by the "very eminent" Irfan Habib, who according to Tasneem Ahmad "encouraged and guided me at every stage of the work" and examined "with care every intricate problem, arising out during the course of work."
In July 1998, Manoj Raghuvanshi, host of a popular ZEE TV program called Aap ki Adalat, Aap ka Faisla invited Arun Shourie and one of the "eminent historian" K. L. Shrimali. Raghuvanshi posed the question first to Shrimali whether Aurangzeb was a religious bigot. Despite Raghuvanshi's repeating the question, Shrimali gave no clear answer, only asserting that Aurangzeb's court had many Hindu nobles. Shourie countered this by pointing out that there were many Indians among the persons honored by the British with titles and both for the same reason. In Shourie's words: "How does this wipe away the destruction of Hindu temples by Aurangzeb? Aurangzeb had entertained no doubt about the fact that his primary impulse was the religious one. And that he faithfully implemented an essential element of his religion, Islam that is to destroy the places of worship of other religions." As evidence, Shourie read out several passages from Sita Ram Goel's book Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them, The Islamic Evidence. All Shrimali could mumble was that it was a "questionable source." When Shourie pressed the point that the source was the Akhbarat (Newsletter) of the Court of Aurangzeb himself written on the very day the news reached the court, the "eminent" historian merely repeated "questionable source." Shourie comments: "So, when an 'eminent' historian says that the sources were questionable, they must be questionable" - - this is their technology when cornered."
Recently, Sita Ram Goel(writer of many history books) challenged the dean of the "eminent historians," Romila Thapar, to produce evidence to substantiate her assertion about the violence Hindus perpetrated on the Buddhists, supposedly destroying Buddhist viharas and constructing Hindu temples on the ruins. Answer and evidence None.
During the past fifty years, this bunch “eminent historians” have been suppressing facts, inventing lies, perverting discourse, and derailing public policy.
For anyone interested in contemporary India, this is a must-read book.
2009-09-17
The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century - Steve Coll
I started this book to gain some knowledge about the origin of world's most wanted terrorist "Osama Bin laden" , Steve coll doesn't disappoint me in explaining Bin ladens family tree and there rise in wealth due to sudden discovery of oil in Saudi.
Muhammad bin Laden (father of Osama Bin laden) began his rise by working as a bricklayer and mason for Aramco(Arabian American Oil Company) along with his brother Abdullah who later retires from the family business giving all the control to Muhammad Aramco had been formed to manage the oil rights of the Standard Oil Company of California, and that the huge international company that the bin Ladens built would come to do business with well-known American firms like General Electric, and draw on advice from the law firm Baker Botts, headed by James A. Baker, the former secretary of state and Bush family adviser.Through a combination of skill, acumen and the assiduous cultivation of the royal family, Muhammed became the king’s principal builder, overseeing renovations of sacred sites in Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. He would bequeath to his children not just a fortune, but also a vision of ambition and religious faith in a borderless world. His Eldest British-educated son, Salem, who took over the company after his death, expanded international reach, and also embrace a Westernized, jet-set existence that allowed him to indulge his eccentricities to the fullest.
Book tells how Osama, who was still a boy when his father, Muhammad, was killed in an airplane accident in 1967, incidentally his eldest half-brother(54 borthers and sisters) will also die in airplane accident, found a succession of father figures in a series of radical mentors, including a high school gym teacher who involved him in an after-school Islamic study group and Abdullah Azzam, a charismatic scholar who introduced the young Osama to “the concept of transnational jihad.”
Osama was born to Muhammed , but his Mother after getting divorced from Muhammed married a man working under Muhammed although Osama inherited a large portion of money and shares from Muhammed Empire. Saleh looked after all the needs of his borthers and sisters for them Saleh was Like Father.
Increasingly at odds with the Saudi royal family (Osama thinks they are Just a puppet for US and don't take Isalmization of saudi seriously), Osama left the kingdom in 1991 for the Sudan, where he bought a farm and raised horses and sunflowers while training jihadis (whom he sent to places like Bosnia).
In June 1993, the family, most likely under pressure from the Saudi government, expeled Osama as a shareholder of the Muhammad bin Laden Company and the Saudi bin Laden Group. The following year the family publicly repudiated him, the Ministry of Interior announced that he had been formally stripped of his Saudi citizenship, his trouble took a peak when he was out of money, one of his wives had divorced him, and his eldest son had left him to return to Saudi Arabia. His wrath increasingly focused on the United States, particularly after Washington put pressure on Sudan’s government to expel him from Khartoum, leading to his exile in 1996 back to the harsh lands of Afghanistan.
While Osama careered toward violence, other members of his family moved to strengthen their ties with the West. There were family investments in enterprises ranging from Iridium(a satellite communications network), to the Hard Rock Cafe franchise in the Middle East.
In the days after 9/11 Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador in Washington who met with President Bush on the evening of September 13 helped arrange (with FBI permission) a special chartered plane flight to carry more than a dozen bin Ladens, some of whom had been living in the United States for years, back home to Saudi Arabia.
This book appeals the audience which are interested in learning the Bin Laden family and there ups and downs with West Relation , Saudi Kings and within there family. Book is well researched and Good to read !
Muhammad bin Laden (father of Osama Bin laden) began his rise by working as a bricklayer and mason for Aramco(Arabian American Oil Company) along with his brother Abdullah who later retires from the family business giving all the control to Muhammad Aramco had been formed to manage the oil rights of the Standard Oil Company of California, and that the huge international company that the bin Ladens built would come to do business with well-known American firms like General Electric, and draw on advice from the law firm Baker Botts, headed by James A. Baker, the former secretary of state and Bush family adviser.Through a combination of skill, acumen and the assiduous cultivation of the royal family, Muhammed became the king’s principal builder, overseeing renovations of sacred sites in Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. He would bequeath to his children not just a fortune, but also a vision of ambition and religious faith in a borderless world. His Eldest British-educated son, Salem, who took over the company after his death, expanded international reach, and also embrace a Westernized, jet-set existence that allowed him to indulge his eccentricities to the fullest.
Book tells how Osama, who was still a boy when his father, Muhammad, was killed in an airplane accident in 1967, incidentally his eldest half-brother(54 borthers and sisters) will also die in airplane accident, found a succession of father figures in a series of radical mentors, including a high school gym teacher who involved him in an after-school Islamic study group and Abdullah Azzam, a charismatic scholar who introduced the young Osama to “the concept of transnational jihad.”
Osama was born to Muhammed , but his Mother after getting divorced from Muhammed married a man working under Muhammed although Osama inherited a large portion of money and shares from Muhammed Empire. Saleh looked after all the needs of his borthers and sisters for them Saleh was Like Father.
Increasingly at odds with the Saudi royal family (Osama thinks they are Just a puppet for US and don't take Isalmization of saudi seriously), Osama left the kingdom in 1991 for the Sudan, where he bought a farm and raised horses and sunflowers while training jihadis (whom he sent to places like Bosnia).
In June 1993, the family, most likely under pressure from the Saudi government, expeled Osama as a shareholder of the Muhammad bin Laden Company and the Saudi bin Laden Group. The following year the family publicly repudiated him, the Ministry of Interior announced that he had been formally stripped of his Saudi citizenship, his trouble took a peak when he was out of money, one of his wives had divorced him, and his eldest son had left him to return to Saudi Arabia. His wrath increasingly focused on the United States, particularly after Washington put pressure on Sudan’s government to expel him from Khartoum, leading to his exile in 1996 back to the harsh lands of Afghanistan.
While Osama careered toward violence, other members of his family moved to strengthen their ties with the West. There were family investments in enterprises ranging from Iridium(a satellite communications network), to the Hard Rock Cafe franchise in the Middle East.
In the days after 9/11 Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador in Washington who met with President Bush on the evening of September 13 helped arrange (with FBI permission) a special chartered plane flight to carry more than a dozen bin Ladens, some of whom had been living in the United States for years, back home to Saudi Arabia.
This book appeals the audience which are interested in learning the Bin Laden family and there ups and downs with West Relation , Saudi Kings and within there family. Book is well researched and Good to read !
2009-09-16
The Polyester Prince: The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani - Hamish McDonald
Read this banned book after so much struggle in finding it in bookstores, I got that on internet. Ambani's can control publisher, author or distributor of book but they failed in controlling the Internet, Sorry dudes :)
Hamish McDonald has tried its best to give it a shot to make it a authorized biography , he even want on sending birthday greetings to the Ambanis and even tried to soften Kokilaben Ambani (Dhirubhai's wife) by presenting her with a copy of a rare art book, which he thought would interest her. There was neither a reply nor acknowledgement.
Hamish McDonald has tried its best to give it a shot to make it a authorized biography , he even want on sending birthday greetings to the Ambanis and even tried to soften Kokilaben Ambani (Dhirubhai's wife) by presenting her with a copy of a rare art book, which he thought would interest her. There was neither a reply nor acknowledgement.
The Polyester Prince is an accurate portrait of one of the most controversial and brilliant of Indian businessmen, who converted into an art; the bending and twisting of the stifling license-permit system to his advantage. That time “License Raj” was the buzz word in Indian business house and political circle, Politicians use it in name of socialistic economy to server their own interest and thus making India into darkness of all evils and corruption.
To sum up the books here are key points:
- There is the fight-to-the-finish battle with Ramnath Goenka -- the fiery and fearless proprietor of the Indian Express. He was helped by one “Mr. Gurumurthy” who made a single point of just destroying the empire which Ambani’s has built on the ground of corruption.
- How the relation between Muril Deora and Dhirubhai Ambani has helped Murli to climb the ladder of congress hierarchy. Deora, a fellow yarn trader later becomes one of the power house and a negotiator between Dhirubhai and congress.
- Failure of Janta Government, rise of Charan singh and then ultimately the winning of Indira Gandhi congress all is done with the cash flow from Ambani.
- The war with industrialist Nusli Wadia of Bombay Dyeing; the much publicized allegations against some Ambani staffers over a plot to murder Wadia.
- VP singh government trying its best to ruin the ambani business with allegations like licensed capacities, export manipulation and share switching.
- Handling the cases by CBI both against the Ambani’s and Wadia’s , with former being favored a lot.
- There are lot of small paragraphs about the fraud which is being committed by government and financial institution thus favoring Reliance Industries.
All in all, the book is nice collection of various events which marked the rise of Dhirubhai Ambani and Relaince Industries. But I guess it would have been good if Hamish citied some papers or police records or personal interviews to authenticate his findings , maybe I have an Internet download and original book have that.
This book just depicts the sad condition that India is undergoing because of the failed policy developed and implemented by our politicians and civil servants.
Recession - Money
Was looking into the comment section of rediff about the recession and its affect on Indian Economy and how the things are improving , well may be things are improving but for an average IT industry person (Average means person with 2-3 years experience) its just not rolling its crawling. My idea of improvement is when Industry starts giving the dues of its employees.
I am waiting for the time when IT people are into Industrial Act of India , then there would be some good relief for us. talking about the comment on rediff , some guy posted this story :
It is April. In a small town on the South Coast of France, holiday season is in full swing, but it is raining so there is not too much business happening. Everyone is heavily in debt. Luckily, a rich Russian tourist arrives in the foyer of the small local hotel. He asks for a room and puts a Euro 100 note on the reception counter, takes a key and goes to inspect the room located up the stairs on the
third floor.
The hotel owner takes the banknote in hurry and rushes to his meat supplier to whom he owes Euro 100.
The butcher takes the money and races to his wholesale supplier to pay his debt.
The wholesaler rushes to the farmer to pay Euro 100 for animals he purchased some time ago.
The farmer triumphantly gives the 100 note to a local prostitute who gave him her services on credit.
The prostitute goes quickly to the hotel, as she owed the hotel for her hourly room use to entertain clients.
At that moment, the rich Russian is coming down to reception and informs the hotel owner that the proposed room is unsatisfactory and takes his Euro 100 back and departs.
There was no profit or income. But everyone no longer has any debt and the small town people look optimistically towards their future.
COULD THIS BE THE SOLUTION TO THE Global Financial Crisis ? Or, is there a catch?
Nice one yaar , people do think a lot !!
I am waiting for the time when IT people are into Industrial Act of India , then there would be some good relief for us. talking about the comment on rediff , some guy posted this story :
It is April. In a small town on the South Coast of France, holiday season is in full swing, but it is raining so there is not too much business happening. Everyone is heavily in debt. Luckily, a rich Russian tourist arrives in the foyer of the small local hotel. He asks for a room and puts a Euro 100 note on the reception counter, takes a key and goes to inspect the room located up the stairs on the
third floor.
The hotel owner takes the banknote in hurry and rushes to his meat supplier to whom he owes Euro 100.
The butcher takes the money and races to his wholesale supplier to pay his debt.
The wholesaler rushes to the farmer to pay Euro 100 for animals he purchased some time ago.
The farmer triumphantly gives the 100 note to a local prostitute who gave him her services on credit.
The prostitute goes quickly to the hotel, as she owed the hotel for her hourly room use to entertain clients.
At that moment, the rich Russian is coming down to reception and informs the hotel owner that the proposed room is unsatisfactory and takes his Euro 100 back and departs.
There was no profit or income. But everyone no longer has any debt and the small town people look optimistically towards their future.
COULD THIS BE THE SOLUTION TO THE Global Financial Crisis ? Or, is there a catch?
Nice one yaar , people do think a lot !!
2009-09-15
The Christ Conspiracy: the Greatest Story Ever Sold - Acharya S
As usual I am after something unique this lead me to a documentary "Religulous" its been written by "Bill Maher" after seeing this you want you means by saying freedom of speech and US is the perfect example of that Indians need to learn from them. A good film and it talks about Islam, Christianity and Judaism . The main focus is to reason anything that these religions teach us .
After watching this documentary my zeal to search more of the question landed me on several links and a book "The Christ Conspiracy: the Greatest Story Ever Sold - Acharya S"... The book is great for the readers who seek logic in everything and loves to reason why, when and where.Book tell me the similarity between some gods and Jesus, these so called gods are born much before the Jesus but they share common roots with Jesus, While most are unaware of these god-men, others will deny their existence :
Attis of Phrygia
Horus/Osiris of Egypt
From first to last, Osiris was to the Egyptians the god-man who suffered, and died, and rose again, and reigned eternally in heaven.They believed that they would inherit eternal life, just as he had done .
Osiris’s coming was announced by Three Wise Men: the three stars Mintaka, Anilam, and Alnitak in the belt of Orion, which point directly to Osiris’s star in the east, Sirius (Sothis),significator of his birth.
The Lord’s Prayer was prefigured by an Egyptian hymn to Osiris-Amen beginning, “O Amen, O Amen, who are in heaven.” Amen was also invoked at the end of every prayer.
The teachings of Osiris and Jesus are wonderfully alike. Many passages are identically the same, word for word.
Horus, shares the following in common with Jesus:
Virtually all of the elements of the Catholic ritual, from miter to wafer to altar to doxology, are directly taken from earlier Pagan mystery religions.
Zoroaster/Zarathustra
All this information is available on net and in book anyone can check its authenticity, But the question is "WHY WE FEAR THE TRUTH" ? I think that anyone upholding a faith needs to understand the facts of their religion. If faith alone is enough for you, then great. If not, you will be shattered.
Obviously, this subject is controversial, but the book is also well-researched and well-written by an author with impeccable credentials. Read it and decide for yourself.
After watching this documentary my zeal to search more of the question landed me on several links and a book "The Christ Conspiracy: the Greatest Story Ever Sold - Acharya S"... The book is great for the readers who seek logic in everything and loves to reason why, when and where.Book tell me the similarity between some gods and Jesus, these so called gods are born much before the Jesus but they share common roots with Jesus, While most are unaware of these god-men, others will deny their existence :
Attis of Phrygia
- Attis was born on December 25 of the Virgin Nana.
- He was considered the savior who was slain for the salvation of mankind.
- His body as bread was eaten by his worshipers
- His priests were “eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven.”
- He was both the Divine Son and the Father.
- On “Black Friday,” he was crucified on a tree, from which his holy blood ran down to redeem the earth.
- He descended into the underworld.
- After three days, Attis was resurrected on March 25 (as tradition held of Jesus) as the “Most High God
- Dionysus was born of a virgin on December 25 and, as the Holy Child, was placed in a manger.
- He was a traveling teacher who performed miracles.
- He “rode in a triumphal procession on an ass.”
- He was a sacred king killed and eaten in an eucharistic ritual for fecundity and purification.
- Dionysus rose from the dead on March 25.
- He was the God of the Vine, and turned water into wine.
- He was called “King of Kings” and “God of Gods.”
- He was considered the “Only Begotten Son,” Savior,” “Redeemer,” “Sin Bearer,” Anointed One,” and the “Alpha and Omega.”
- He was identified with the Ram or Lamb.
- His sacrificial title of “Dendrites” or “Young Man of the Tree” intimates he was hung on a tree or crucified.
Horus/Osiris of Egypt
From first to last, Osiris was to the Egyptians the god-man who suffered, and died, and rose again, and reigned eternally in heaven.They believed that they would inherit eternal life, just as he had done .
Osiris’s coming was announced by Three Wise Men: the three stars Mintaka, Anilam, and Alnitak in the belt of Orion, which point directly to Osiris’s star in the east, Sirius (Sothis),significator of his birth.
The Lord’s Prayer was prefigured by an Egyptian hymn to Osiris-Amen beginning, “O Amen, O Amen, who are in heaven.” Amen was also invoked at the end of every prayer.
The teachings of Osiris and Jesus are wonderfully alike. Many passages are identically the same, word for word.
Horus, shares the following in common with Jesus:
- Horus was born of the virgin Isis-Merion December 25 in a cave/manger with his birth being announced by a star in the East and attended by three wise men.
- His earthly father was named “Seb” (“Joseph”).
- He was of royal descent.
- At at 12, he was a child teacher in the Temple, and at 30, he was baptized having disappeared for 18 years.
- Horus was baptized in the river Eridanus or Iarutana (Jordan) by “Anup the Baptizer” (“John the Baptist”), who was decapitated.
- He had 12 desciples, two of who were his “witnesses” and were named “Anup” and “Aan” (the two “Johns”).
- He performed miracles, exorcised demons and raised El-Azarus (“El-Osiris”), from the dead.
- Horus walked on water.
- His personal epithet was “Iusa,” the “ever-becoming son” of “Ptah,” the “Father.” He was thus called “Holy Child.”
- He delivered a “Sermon on the Mount” and his followers recounted the “Sayings of Iusa.”
- Horus was transfigured on the Mount.
- He was crucified between two thieves, buried for three days in a tomb, and resurrected.
- He was also the “Way, the Truth, the Light,” “Messiah,” “God’s Anointed Son,” “the “Son of Man,” the “Good Shepherd,” the “Lamb of God,” the “Word made flesh,” the “Word of Truth,” etc.
- He was “the Fisher” and was associated with the Fish (“Ichthys”), Lamb and Lion.
- He came to fulfill the Law.
- Horus was called “the KRST,” or “Anointed One.”
- Like Jesus, “Horus was supposed to reign one thousand years.”
- Mithra was born of a virgin on December 25 in a cave, and his birth was attended by shepherds bearing gifts.
- He was considered a great traveling teacher and master.
- He had 12 companions or disciples.
- Mithra’s followers were promised immortality.
- He performed miracles.
- As the “great bull of the Sun,” Mithra sacrificed himself for world peace.
- He was buried in atomb and after three days rose again.
- His resurrection was celebrated every year.
- He was called “the Good Shepherd” and identified with both the Lamb and the Lion.
- He was considered the “Way, the Truth and the Light,” and the “Logos,” [Word] “Redeemer,” “Savior” and “Messiah.”
- His sacred day was Sunday, the “Lord’s Day,” hundreds of years before the appearance of Christ.
- Mithra had his principal festival on what was later to become Easter.
- His religion had a eucharist or “Lord’s Supper,” at which Mithra said, “He who shall nto eat of my body nor drink of my blood so that he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved.”
- “His annual sacrifice is the Passover of the Magi, a symbolical atonement of pledge of moral and physical regeneration.”
Virtually all of the elements of the Catholic ritual, from miter to wafer to altar to doxology, are directly taken from earlier Pagan mystery religions.
Zoroaster/Zarathustra
- Zoroaster was born of a virgin and “immaculate conception by a ray of divine reason.”
- He was baptized in a river.
- In his youth he astounded wise men with his wisdom.
- He was tempted in the wilderness by the devil.
- He began his ministry at age 30.
- Zoroaster baptized with water, fire and “holy wind.”
- He cast out demons and restored the sight to a blind man.
- He taught about heaven and hell, and revealed mysteries, including resurrection, judgment, salvation and the apocalypse.
- He had a sacred cup or grail.
- He was slain.
- His religion had a eucharist.
- He was the “Word made flesh.”
- Zoroaster’s followers expected a “second coming” in the virgin-born Saoshynt or Savior, who is to come in 2341 CE and begin his ministry at age 30, ushering in a golden age.
All this information is available on net and in book anyone can check its authenticity, But the question is "WHY WE FEAR THE TRUTH" ? I think that anyone upholding a faith needs to understand the facts of their religion. If faith alone is enough for you, then great. If not, you will be shattered.
Obviously, this subject is controversial, but the book is also well-researched and well-written by an author with impeccable credentials. Read it and decide for yourself.
Compaq Cup Final - Sachin Tendulkar
Yesterday India won the Compaq cup , some brilliant performance by bowler (Harbhajan Singh) and some very good by fielders (Virat Kohli and Yusuf Pathan) and even Mahendra singh dhoni missing one stumping and one run out chance...but all this and above all near perfect performance by SACHIN TENDULKAR , I am a great fan of him ...for the past 20 years he has been entertainig us and millions of his fan , yesterday was his 44th century , 54th man of the match and 14th man of the series all world record !!!
When he plays his ining bolwers , fielders and everyone just watch his playing ..His soem special shots which he can only play are perfect picture to follow .
Poeple like him are greatest asset to India , India is so lucky to have him ...players like him are born and bring simplicity to the sports and humbleness !!
Salute to you Sachin !
When he plays his ining bolwers , fielders and everyone just watch his playing ..His soem special shots which he can only play are perfect picture to follow .
Poeple like him are greatest asset to India , India is so lucky to have him ...players like him are born and bring simplicity to the sports and humbleness !!
Salute to you Sachin !
2009-09-14
Taj Mahal - A True Story "P.N Oak"
Finally completed the book , reading on computer is hell but its worth reading a book which is an eye opener. I love people and there books when written with facts and pictures. P.N Oak has risen some serious questions about the Taj Mahal and I believe him after reading his book.
Some time I fell why the hell we are doing this to your culture and history , its been distorted and presented to us in different format . I really believe that history should be presented or studied in the books that were present at that period of time. Why people fear from history and avoid some truth?
The book mainly asks or presents some facts which i would like people to read and comment:
* He claims that the Taj Mahal is not Queen Mumtaz Mahal's tomb, but an ancient Hindu temple palace of Lord Shiva (then known as Tejo Mahalaya), worshipped by the Rajputs of Agra city.
* Oak discovered that the Shiva temple palace had been usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. Shah Jahan then remodeled the palace into his wife's memorial.
* Badshahnama, Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai Singh for Mumtaz's burial. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur is said to retain in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for the surrender of the Taj building.
* Oak's inquiries begin with the name Taj Mahal. He says this term does not occur in any Moghul court papers or chronicles, even after Shah Jahan's time. The term 'Mahal' has never been used for a building in any of the Muslim countries, from Afghanistan to Algeria.
* Oak also says that the love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan is a fairy tale created by court sycophants, blundering historians and sloppy archaeologists. Not a single royal chronicle of Shah Jahan's time corroborates the love story.
* Mulla Abdul Hamid Lahori, the court chronicler, mentions no architect, and estimates the cost of the work done to be only Rs. 40,00,000 which clearly shows that no new building was erected.
* Shahjahan, whose reign was supposed to be a golden period of history, has not left even a scrap of authentic paper about the construction of the Taj Mahal. There are no authentic orders commissioning the Taj, no correspondence for the purchase or acquisition of the so-called site, no design drawings, no bills or receipts and no expense account sheets. Some of those usually produced or referred to have already been proved to be forgeries.
* Had Shahjahan really been the conceiver of the Taj Mahal, he need not have specially instructed Mulla Abdul Hamid Lahori not to forget mentioning or describing its 'construction' in the official chronicles, because the grandeur and majesty of the Taj as the finest achievement of a ruling monarch could never be lost sight of by a paid court chronicler.
* The existence of the landing ghat at the rear suggests a temple-palace, not a tomb.
* The plan tallies with ancient Hindu architectural design and specifications.
* The Taj building complex also contains a cowpen which used to be part of all Hindu royal and temple premises.
* The galleries, arches, supporting brackets and cupolas are entirely in the Hindu style such as can been seen all over Rajasthan.
* The Taj Mahal entrance faces south. Had it been a Muslim building it should have faced west.
* Its decorative and marble work tallies exactly with that in the Amer (Jaipur) palace built circa 967.
Oak cites several documents suggesting that the Taj Mahal predates Shah Jahan's era:
* Professor Marvin Miller of New York took samples from the riverside doorway of the Taj. Carbon dating tests revealed that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan.
* European traveller Johan Albert Mandelslo, who visited Agra in 1638 (only seven years after Mumtaz's death), describes the life of the city in his memoirs, but makes no reference to the Taj Mahal being built.
* The writings of Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz's death, also suggest that the Taj was a noteworthy building long well before Shah Jahan's time.
These points are all explained brief in this book chapter by chapter . In last Chapter pics further enhance our version of Taj being a Temple palace.
Well its difficult to say anything about the Taj as i was not there but a huge doubt raises inside me !
Mr P.N. Oak died on Dec 4, 2007 and i think with his death all things are now gone , Indian Government doesn't have any courage and people are least bothered.
Some time I fell why the hell we are doing this to your culture and history , its been distorted and presented to us in different format . I really believe that history should be presented or studied in the books that were present at that period of time. Why people fear from history and avoid some truth?
The book mainly asks or presents some facts which i would like people to read and comment:
* He claims that the Taj Mahal is not Queen Mumtaz Mahal's tomb, but an ancient Hindu temple palace of Lord Shiva (then known as Tejo Mahalaya), worshipped by the Rajputs of Agra city.
* Oak discovered that the Shiva temple palace had been usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. Shah Jahan then remodeled the palace into his wife's memorial.
* Badshahnama, Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai Singh for Mumtaz's burial. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur is said to retain in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for the surrender of the Taj building.
* Oak's inquiries begin with the name Taj Mahal. He says this term does not occur in any Moghul court papers or chronicles, even after Shah Jahan's time. The term 'Mahal' has never been used for a building in any of the Muslim countries, from Afghanistan to Algeria.
* Oak also says that the love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan is a fairy tale created by court sycophants, blundering historians and sloppy archaeologists. Not a single royal chronicle of Shah Jahan's time corroborates the love story.
* Mulla Abdul Hamid Lahori, the court chronicler, mentions no architect, and estimates the cost of the work done to be only Rs. 40,00,000 which clearly shows that no new building was erected.
* Shahjahan, whose reign was supposed to be a golden period of history, has not left even a scrap of authentic paper about the construction of the Taj Mahal. There are no authentic orders commissioning the Taj, no correspondence for the purchase or acquisition of the so-called site, no design drawings, no bills or receipts and no expense account sheets. Some of those usually produced or referred to have already been proved to be forgeries.
* Had Shahjahan really been the conceiver of the Taj Mahal, he need not have specially instructed Mulla Abdul Hamid Lahori not to forget mentioning or describing its 'construction' in the official chronicles, because the grandeur and majesty of the Taj as the finest achievement of a ruling monarch could never be lost sight of by a paid court chronicler.
* The existence of the landing ghat at the rear suggests a temple-palace, not a tomb.
* The plan tallies with ancient Hindu architectural design and specifications.
* The Taj building complex also contains a cowpen which used to be part of all Hindu royal and temple premises.
* The galleries, arches, supporting brackets and cupolas are entirely in the Hindu style such as can been seen all over Rajasthan.
* The Taj Mahal entrance faces south. Had it been a Muslim building it should have faced west.
* Its decorative and marble work tallies exactly with that in the Amer (Jaipur) palace built circa 967.
Oak cites several documents suggesting that the Taj Mahal predates Shah Jahan's era:
* Professor Marvin Miller of New York took samples from the riverside doorway of the Taj. Carbon dating tests revealed that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan.
* European traveller Johan Albert Mandelslo, who visited Agra in 1638 (only seven years after Mumtaz's death), describes the life of the city in his memoirs, but makes no reference to the Taj Mahal being built.
* The writings of Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz's death, also suggest that the Taj was a noteworthy building long well before Shah Jahan's time.
These points are all explained brief in this book chapter by chapter . In last Chapter pics further enhance our version of Taj being a Temple palace.
Well its difficult to say anything about the Taj as i was not there but a huge doubt raises inside me !
Mr P.N. Oak died on Dec 4, 2007 and i think with his death all things are now gone , Indian Government doesn't have any courage and people are least bothered.
Five Past Midnight in Bhopal - Dominique Lapierre
Yesterday was sunday and I have nothing to do "Poonam" is not in town so bit of lonely for me. Was reading "Descent with Chaos - Ahmed Rashid" brilliant book , gave a clear picture of whats happening in Afghanistan, will talk about this book later. In evening i thought lets go to Reader's Paradise (Only one good book shop in indore) , first i was adamant to but any book , still reading two side by side . But then it all changed , I saw "Five Past Midnight in Bhopal - Dominique Lapierre" was not able to control myself and finally bought this book.
Started reading as sson as i reached home, was on 4th chapter and this writer is really good one , I have read "Freedom at Midnight" by same auhtor and this book is classic example of a good writing. First chapter illustrates what happnes in rural India most of the time ,you can get a clear picture of that in "Everybody loves a good drought - P.Sainath". Second chapter is all about the insectisides , parasties that kill crops all over the world and some funny paragraph about how the farmers control them.
subsequent paragraphs are dealing with union carbide begin its Sevin development and how Indian Government is getting interested in that. Some pages are devoted to Indian railways and people living near them in slums .
So next chapters are all about Union Carbide company its safty standards and how they are involved in Indian context , there setting of Plant at Bhopal manufacturing MIC (Methyl iso cynate) the most deadly of all ... to the surprise no one knows about this in India not even the government forget about the workers working there (Low level one). Governmet is busy with the emergency part then after that Arjun Singh the CM of Madhya Pradesh that time is busy with the state election , for this he makes the 3 slums chola bustee , orya bustee and jai prakash bustee the legal one by providing the "Paattas" making sure that Bhopal gas tragedy takes there life for sure !
There are some safety breaches also , 54 of them but not that leathel except to take one life ....
I wonder why this book was banned in india , may be coz it shows the clear negligence from government and local authority who can handle this deadly tragedy . or may be due the reference of sikh killing by congress militant. whatever the reason are this book is well researched by the authors and depicts the sad state of Indian politicians who are just into vote banks and nothing else.
Last few chapters are real heart breaking when the gas leaks out and the chaos that was created can b...more I wonder why this book was banned in india , may be coz it shows the clear negligence from government and local authority who can handle this deadly tragedy . or may be due the reference of sikh killing by congress militant. whatever the reason are this book is well researched by the authors and depicts the sad state of Indian politicians who are just into vote banks and nothing else.
Last few chapters are real heart breaking when the gas leaks out and the chaos that was created can bring tears to anybody eyes. I can't even imagine the agony which the people would have suffered, more then 5lakhs people are affected in this tragedy . It was like chemical weapon used there !
The escape of anderson and the vicitms still not getting there compensation , carbide provided $470million for that, Politicians must be enjoying on that money thats for sure !!!
Todays generation should read this book to get the clear picture of the sad state we are in it !
Started reading as sson as i reached home, was on 4th chapter and this writer is really good one , I have read "Freedom at Midnight" by same auhtor and this book is classic example of a good writing. First chapter illustrates what happnes in rural India most of the time ,you can get a clear picture of that in "Everybody loves a good drought - P.Sainath". Second chapter is all about the insectisides , parasties that kill crops all over the world and some funny paragraph about how the farmers control them.
subsequent paragraphs are dealing with union carbide begin its Sevin development and how Indian Government is getting interested in that. Some pages are devoted to Indian railways and people living near them in slums .
So next chapters are all about Union Carbide company its safty standards and how they are involved in Indian context , there setting of Plant at Bhopal manufacturing MIC (Methyl iso cynate) the most deadly of all ... to the surprise no one knows about this in India not even the government forget about the workers working there (Low level one). Governmet is busy with the emergency part then after that Arjun Singh the CM of Madhya Pradesh that time is busy with the state election , for this he makes the 3 slums chola bustee , orya bustee and jai prakash bustee the legal one by providing the "Paattas" making sure that Bhopal gas tragedy takes there life for sure !
There are some safety breaches also , 54 of them but not that leathel except to take one life ....
I wonder why this book was banned in india , may be coz it shows the clear negligence from government and local authority who can handle this deadly tragedy . or may be due the reference of sikh killing by congress militant. whatever the reason are this book is well researched by the authors and depicts the sad state of Indian politicians who are just into vote banks and nothing else.
Last few chapters are real heart breaking when the gas leaks out and the chaos that was created can b...more I wonder why this book was banned in india , may be coz it shows the clear negligence from government and local authority who can handle this deadly tragedy . or may be due the reference of sikh killing by congress militant. whatever the reason are this book is well researched by the authors and depicts the sad state of Indian politicians who are just into vote banks and nothing else.
Last few chapters are real heart breaking when the gas leaks out and the chaos that was created can bring tears to anybody eyes. I can't even imagine the agony which the people would have suffered, more then 5lakhs people are affected in this tragedy . It was like chemical weapon used there !
The escape of anderson and the vicitms still not getting there compensation , carbide provided $470million for that, Politicians must be enjoying on that money thats for sure !!!
Todays generation should read this book to get the clear picture of the sad state we are in it !
2009-09-11
Something to tell
Finally I am starting with blogging , use to write something earlier but not that frequently and to tell the truth my english is not that great and i really can't express my self both in writing or speaking .
But still I fell myself some lucky people who are into reading books , I love reading books although it all started during my college days , when my room mate and a very good friend "Abhishek Achal" told me to read some books. First the idea was like vague "Me reading a book ??? Come on yaar , i don't even read my course books also !!" but then his influence started to cover up my ego and I picked up my first book "Love Story - Eric Seagel" .
Today after 7 years and all up and downs (up is singular and downs are plural, nice writing Anant :) ) I again started with books and today the count is about 32 Read books I joined www.goodreads.com just to keep myself updated. I am into lot of non-fiction books , books that give me true picture of events based on facts and figures.
During this period "Arun Shourie" and his books are on deeper impact on me . Just a brilliant writer , he really works hard for his writing and i respect that !
All my subsequent blogs will deal with my experiences while reading books and what I felt about that.
But still I fell myself some lucky people who are into reading books , I love reading books although it all started during my college days , when my room mate and a very good friend "Abhishek Achal" told me to read some books. First the idea was like vague "Me reading a book ??? Come on yaar , i don't even read my course books also !!" but then his influence started to cover up my ego and I picked up my first book "Love Story - Eric Seagel" .
Today after 7 years and all up and downs (up is singular and downs are plural, nice writing Anant :) ) I again started with books and today the count is about 32 Read books I joined www.goodreads.com just to keep myself updated. I am into lot of non-fiction books , books that give me true picture of events based on facts and figures.
During this period "Arun Shourie" and his books are on deeper impact on me . Just a brilliant writer , he really works hard for his writing and i respect that !
All my subsequent blogs will deal with my experiences while reading books and what I felt about that.
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