When you are extraordinary and you still do the simplest things with great care.

Jul 31, 2005

Jul 30, 2005

quotes

By 11:58 PM No comments
All generalizations are false, including this one.
-- Mark Twain

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
-- Mark Twain

Jul 29, 2005

quotes

By 9:35 PM No comments
Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

can anyone prevent such laws from being passed in the name of religion?

By 8:43 PM No comments
Eroding women's rights Guardian

"Tony Blair, who continues to justify the invasion of the country as the only means of toppling a brutal dictatorship and helping establish democracy, now has an obligation to use all his powers to avert a new dictatorship in Iraq — that of the mullahs over women. "
...
"This particular interpretation of the Quran would legalise polygamy; divorce by talaq; honour killings; stoning and public beheadings of women for alleged adultery. But now rule 137's provisions are back in the new draft constitution. "
...
"These developments have caused deep dismay among women's organisations across Iraq, whether Kurds, Sunnis or Shias. Iraqi women have campaigned and lobbied hard over the past few months, often risking great personal danger — several politically active women have been assassinated, abducted, raped or threatened — for the new constitution to guarantee women's rights and abide by international treaties. "

is democracy only giving men freedom?

what's happening???

By 8:29 PM 1 comment
Colleges too go for dress code from hindu

"Insisting that students dress "simply, decently and modestly," many colleges have banned sleeveless, short, tight-fitting, transparent outfits and, in some cases, even jeans and t-shirts."
...
""Indecent attire" invites adverse public reactions and incites sexual harassment of students,"


i don't know what the purpose of this system is... because i don't think the values of a 20 something years old can be changes by inflicting him/her with rules. at that age each of us are 'adults' and should be granted the freedom to decide what is moral/decent/appropriate. and please don't use sexual harassement as a reason. because thoes who harras are messed up anyway, so they should be corrected not the one being harrased.

Jul 28, 2005

Slow Dance

By 2:32 AM 1 comment
Slow Dance (by Anonymous)

Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly's
Erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into
The fading night?

You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?

You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say,"hi"

You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

When you run so fast
To get somewhere
You miss half the fun of
Getting there.

When you worry and hurry
Through your day,
It is like an unopened gift
Thrown away.

Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

i have recieved this poem so many time in my mail but i love it none the less because it rings so true. we all are in a hurry to get to some place, do something and in all this we forget the importance of relationships and peoeple who have touched our lives and whoes lives we have touched. the little treasures that life gives us each day, the ones we just throw away, expecting to recieve it again tomorrow. but when tomorrow comes we see none.

Jul 27, 2005

quotes

By 9:06 PM No comments
We have been taught to believe that negative equals realistic and positive equals unrealistic.
-- Susan Jeffers

Silence is a text easy to misread.
-- A. A. Attanasio

Jul 26, 2005

microsoft n money

By 8:12 PM 1 comment
Microsoft steps up piracy fight from bbc

"Anyone downloading updates for Windows XP will be required to check that their operating system is genuine.
Security updates are exempt from this in order to prevent people spreading viruses across the internet."
...
"Customers who discover that their copy of Windows is pirated have two options.
They can get a free version of Windows if they fill out a counterfeit report identifying the source of the software, providing proof of purchase and returning the counterfeit CD.
If they are unable to provide all the information, filling out a report will entitle them to receive a copy of Windows XP Home Edition for the reduced price of £56 or Windows XP Professional Edition for £86."

Science & superstition

By 5:16 PM No comments
Science & superstition from hindu

"A group of space scientists had sought divine boost to a space vehicle by placing a replica of the rocket at the feet of a popular deity prior to its launch."

hmmm i do not think that trying to get 'blessing' is a problem, as long as they do not expect god to come down and fix the problems that exist in the space vechicle.
how can they forget that the karm that they do, will be the one's that give the results.

Jul 25, 2005

quotes

By 4:56 PM No comments
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.
-- James Russell Lowell

The greatest conflicts are not between two people but between one person and himself.
-- Garth Brooks

I knew looking back on the tears would make me laugh, but I never knew looking back on the laughs would make me cry.
-- Unknown

Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

is it a good question?

By 2:52 PM No comments
'Islamic' terrorism: media's role from hindu

"Every community has its share of radicals who indulge in violence for a cause, imagined or real, that they believe in. However the terror attacks of the Irish Republican Army were never called Catholic or Christian terrorism; the sarin gas attack of Aum Shinrikyo, which derives inspiration from Hinduism and Buddhism, was never associated with its mother religion. Why is not the mindless violence unleashed by supporters of the Sangh Parivar in Gujarat called Hindu terrorism?
Violence by the Palestinian Hamas is called Islamic terrorism. By the same logic, the bombings of Gaza by the Israeli army that kills and maims innocents everyday should be called Jewish terrorism. Together these groups have been responsible for the killing of thousands of innocent people. Why then has only Islam been singled out for this indignity? Everyone talks of the 'Islamic bomb.' Ever heard of a 'Christian bomb,' 'Hindu bomb' or a 'Buddhist/Shinto bomb'? "

Jul 22, 2005

quote

By 11:25 PM No comments
It is only necessary to make war with five things; with the maladies of the body, with the ignorances of the mind, with the passions of the body, with the seditions of the city and with the discords of families.
--Pythagoras

state and religion

By 10:15 PM No comments
Banish religion from public life from hindu

"All religions are prone to it, given the right circumstances. Intense belief, incantations, secrecy and all-male rituals breed perversions and danger, abusing women and children and infecting young men with frenzy, no matter what the name of the faith.
Enlightenment values are in peril not because these mad beliefs are really growing but because too many rational people seek to appease and understand unreason. Extreme superstition breeds extreme action. Those who believe they alone know the only way, truth and life will always feel justified in doing anything in its name. "
...
"It is time now to get serious about religion - all religion - and draw a firm line between the real world and the world of dreams. Tony Blair has taken entirely the wrong path. He has appeased, prevaricated and pretended, maybe because he is a man of faith himself, with a Catholic wife who consorts with crystals. But never was it more important to separate the state from all faiths and relegate all religion to the private - but well-regulated - sphere."
...
"All the state can do is hold on to secular values. It can encourage the moderate but it must not appease religion.
The constitutional absurdity of an established church once seemed an irrelevance, but now it obliges similar privileges to all other faiths. There is still time - it may take a non-religious leader - to stop this madness and separate the state and its schools from all religion. It won't stop the bombing now but at least it would not encourage continued school segregation for generations to come. And it might clear the air of the clouds of hypocrisy, twisted thinking and circumlocution whenever a politician mentions religion."

delhi safe?!??!

By 10:07 PM No comments
Squarely blaming the Central Government, led by her own Congress Party, for the deteriorating law and order situation in the Capital, especially when it comes to crimes against women, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Friday complained of lack of power to deal with such crimes. "I know that the citizens, especially women and the elderly, are feeling unsafe. I cannot do anything about it as the police is under the direct control of the Central Government,'' she said.


my question when was the last time anyone referd to delhi as a safe place?

where else can we create trouble because of religion....

By 9:41 PM 1 comment
U-turn at JNU over madrassa admissions from hindu

"Coming from a different educational "experience", students from madrassa background are for the first time feeling "unwelcome" on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus here. With the University taking the drastic step of not just introducing an Equivalence Committee this year to assess the Alimiyat Fazeelat certificates of students but also refusing admission on the plea that these certificates were not equivalent to Class XII, strong resentment and dissent is brewing on the campus.
Describing the move as unacceptable, the JNU Students' Union has already written to the Vice-Chancellor demanding that the new system be withdrawn as it was in complete contradiction to the policy followed by the University in the past.
Though the problem is not new for madrassa students, JNU has always had a far more friendly admission process for them, with the University enrolling at least 100 such students every year in Arabic, Persian and other languages. "

what now, we are going to have a fight over common education system???? what is meant by different educational experience? do they mean that they only study the religious text? or is it accompanied with what regular education should consist of?
as far as my knowledge goes to get into an educational institute you needed to know math, science, art, language or things of the sort. not how many heads raven had (i am using this example because even if it was a hindu religious experience education i will be reacting the same way). i am hoping that they do not evaluate this in religious terms. they should check what courses are taught in these madrassa, and if it meets the education standard of the country. there should be no rule like madarssas are qualified or unqualified as education institute. it is there curriculum that is to be checked.

but i would really like to know what they mean by different educational experience???????

Jul 20, 2005

quotes

By 5:37 PM No comments
Search others for their virtue, and yourself for your vices.
--R. Buckminster Fuller

We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.
--R. Buckminster Fuller

God and Country are an unbeatable team; they break all records for oppression and bloodshed.
--Luis Bunuel

Jul 19, 2005

97 per cent certain !!!!!!!!?????

By 3:46 PM 3 comments
Christ's resurrection by God proved by maths, logic from HT

"Swinburne, while giving a public lecture at the Australian Catholic University said that probability calculus showed a probability of 97 per cent that Christ was resurrected. He said that the conclusion was arrived at after a series of complex calculations, which began with the probability of God's existence as one in two, that is either God existed or did not, adding that it was also one in two that God became incarnate.
Arguing that the evidence for God's existence was an argument for the resurrection, and any evidence against God's existence was an argument against the resurrection, he said that the chance of Christ's resurrection not being reported by the gospels had the probability of one in 10. These factors, all coming together, if the resurrection was not true, were one in 1000, he said."

Jul 16, 2005

Imagine

By 11:28 PM 2 comments
Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries,
It isn’t hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

Imagine no possessions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I’m a dreamer,
But I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

--John Lennon
[via Manjusha]

taj belongs to gov of india

By 7:46 PM 1 comment
Muslim Taj Mahal claim rejected from bbc

update on "making another mess" i just posted :P

"Calling the board's claim baseless, Law Minister H R Bharadwaj said the monument was Indian national property."

so it is money matters not religious after all!!!!!!

"It has been governed, managed and maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) since 1920.
The Waqf Board had claimed that the building was being neglected, a charge the government rejects.
"There is no need for any other body to look after the monument as the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is taking care of it quite well," Mr Bharadwaj said.
If the Sunni Waqf Board were to succeed in its bid to become the owner of the monument, it would get 7% of the income from the building by law. "

making another mess

By 7:11 PM No comments
Taj not a teardrop, but a 'grave' from telegraph [via indiauncut]

"The Taj Mahal was today declared Sunni Wakf property on the ground that it is the grave of a woman whose emperor husband was a Sunni."
...
"With the BJP protesting the judgment and asking the Centre to step in, the issue has the potential to stoke controversy at a time when the Imrana row was dying down."

Jul 15, 2005

anonymuncule

By 4:15 PM No comments
kushi

ek muskan,
kayi kaliya,
shant chintna,
culbuli upeksha,
ujagar savera,
dhumli shyam,
apar vishwas,
thodisi takrar,
ekpal intezar,
jivanbhar pyar,
dharsi batien,
zarasi khamoshi,
achanak milna,
hamesha saath,
madhur sangeet,
besura meet,
rimjhim barsat,

jaane jivan mai kitni aise kushiya beshumar........

(incomplete)

Jul 12, 2005

very nice and very true

By 8:19 PM 1 comment
As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

-- from pat

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By 7:29 PM No comments
Pakistan 'moral laws' spark row from bbc

"According to a draft of the bill, the mohtasib will be required to ensure people pay adequate respect to azan (call to prayers), pray on time and do not engage in commerce at the time of Friday prayers.
The mohtasib will also stop unrelated men and women from appearing in public places together and discourage singing and dancing. "

quotes

By 4:54 PM No comments
First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe.
--Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Write down the advice of him who loves you, though you like it not at present.
--English Proverb

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
--Soren Kierkegaard

Wisdom is know what to do next; virtue is doing it.
--David Starr Jordan

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
--Anne Frank

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.
--Mark Twain

medical issues

By 4:01 PM No comments
'Haldi' may hold the cure for cancer from HT

"Curcumin, the pungent yellow spice found in both turmeric and curry powders, blocks a key biological pathway needed for development of melanoma and other cancers, say researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre."

Pure oxygen, is a pure killer from HT

""Pure oxygen can reduce blood flow to organs and tissues by increasing ventilation," Dr Iscoe explains. "The increase in ventilation, which is almost never considered, 'blows off' carbon dioxide, and this fall constricts blood vessels. When carbon dioxide is added, however, the blood vessels dilate, increasing blood flow and causing more oxygen to reach tissues in key areas like the brain and heart.""

Jul 11, 2005

Jul 10, 2005

thought

By 6:36 AM No comments
sometimes we do not see things coming, for somethings in life we can never be prepared.
no matter how much we prepare ourselfves for some things we will never be ready when it actually hits us.

namesake

By 3:09 AM No comments
has almost left me speachless. fantastic book, must read.
how u can build a world, a home for urself in places that u never thought was possible. how the longing of going back seems to strong yet what u build with the people u love can be so much more precious. how u fight to be different or simlar to people around u. how difficult it is to understand things unless u have to go through them. how eventually u discover wht is important to u.
and in the end u only belong with the people that u love and thoes who love u.

Jul 9, 2005

passage from namesake

By 6:54 PM No comments
"As their lives in New England swell with fellow Bengali friends, the members of that other, former life, thoes who know Ahima and Ashoke not by their good names but as Monu and Mithu, slowly dwindle"

stirkes a cord.......................................

i do not understand

By 6:13 PM No comments
Harry Potter in the classroom from cnn

i started reading this article becuase it had harry potter in the heading and i would have happily dismissed it after reading it but
"Parents Against Bad Books in School, which is based in Fairfax County, ranks the Harry Potter series 48th on its list of the 100 books that have sparked the most complaints. But it's far behind such classics as Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye.""

thought

By 5:08 PM No comments
what do u do when u make a decision, that is, if not horribly wrong, it is certainly not right. but then u still have to go ahead with it.

and the point of this research is?

By 5:14 AM No comments
Do pretty people earn more? from cnn

""Good-looking men and women are generally judged to be more talented, kind, honest and intelligent than their less attractive counterparts," Patzer says. "Controlled studies show people go out of their way to help attractive people -- of the same and opposite sex -- because they want to be liked and accepted by good-looking people.""
...
"Despite what the research says, some of the world's most successful people have been ordinary looking at best, and you would never mistake the faces in Fortune for those in Esquire or Entertainment Weekly."

i always find it difficult to decide if a person is 'beautiful'(or not) by just looking at them. the personality of a person is so entwined with 'looking good' that i can't separate it. and to tell the truth i do not want to seperate it.

Jul 8, 2005

quote

By 7:11 PM No comments
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
--Oscar Wilde

you can sell anything in Mumbai

By 5:45 PM No comments
Sold for Rs 12,000 via indiauncut (an excellent blog)

"Baby was bought in 3 hrs
1.We got to Hotel Almas for some refreshments and also to hand over the promised Rs 12,000 to the two women
2.Mehjabeen, the daughter of one of the touts is delighted with her booty and loses no time in counting the paisa.
3.We all pose happily for keepsake photos. The touts show no remorse handing over the baby to us
4.Ok bye, says Anjum, one of the touts shaking Naveeta’s hand. Further she insists that Naveeta not forget her!
5.Naveeta seems a bit flustered left holding the baby but he is exceptionally well-behaved and gives no trouble
6.One of the workers at Bal Anand the orphanage where handed over the child
7.Little Asif looks only too happy to be snug in a blanket after a bath. It’s been quite an ordeal for him. "

crime against women

By 4:11 PM 2 comments
India wakes up to its battered women from indianexpress
"Swati suffered nine years of terror and beatings at the hands of her husband and in-laws for not paying an ample enough dowry, before they eventually tried to kill her by burning her alive."

Another Imrana: Father-in-law rapes Assam girl from indianexpress
"The family, who are Bangladeshi immigrants, did not inform the police about the rape, but went to local religious elders who gave the decree that she divorce her husband, he said"

i wonder has the crime against women gone up, or is it that media is publishing more abt such crimes, or maybe the mukhtaran mai's case has made indian media bold to be able to report such cases.

Bombay Univ says mini skirt ban helps stop rape from indianexpress again
"Bombay University plans to ban women from wearing mini skirts, tight tops and shorts, saying this will help prevent rape.
Officials at the university say they would prefer to see women students in a traditional salwar-kameez with no deep neckline"

next step if this does not solve the crime... all wear burkhas(no religious context intended), stay at home(y even go to college) and never peak in the outside world. perfect soln isn't it. IDIOTS.
they better go and get there brains checked if they really think that the salwar-kameez clad women are not victims of such crimes.

the following article is an old one but it is a must read. i do not know which part of the article to quote and which to leave out.
Women fight back against rape epidemic from IE

Jul 7, 2005

quotes

By 5:21 PM No comments
A smile is a light in the window of the soul indicating that the heart is home.
--Anonymous

A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success.
--Anonymous

To love is to place our happiness in the happiness of another.
--Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz

dance- a form of art not sport.

By 4:45 PM No comments
Budding Dancers Compete, Seriously from nytimes.

"But as dance competitions have become big business, questions about the appropriateness of having young children compete, especially in midriff-baring outfits, and about the virtues of forcing an art into a competitive framework in the first place have also grown."
...
""I played sports all my life, and I've never seen anyone work as hard as they do," said Dennis Spitzer, a physical therapist from Fresno, Calif., who had come with his wife to watch their 10-year-old daughter, Lindsay, compete at the Waldorf with the Dance Studio of Fresno. "They are going out there to win. If they don't win, they feel as badly as we do when we lose. It's not dance. It's a sport."
Those words are anathema to many in the dance world. "Dance is not a sport, it's an art," said Elsa Posey, a past president of the National Dance Education Organization, who has run a studio in Northport, N.Y., since 1953. "In art, the competition is within oneself." "
...
"Such agonies of defeat - the exception, not the rule - come with the territory of competition, and they raise the issue of judging, which, in dance, is an inherently subjective process."

anonymuncule

By 1:42 AM 2 comments
Be everything you are not!!!

Sometimes you can be happy for someone, even if they don't care.
Soemtimes you can be sad, because they don't care.
Sometimes you want not to care and move away.
Sometimes when you move away, you wish you had tried once more.
Sometimes when you think of all the times that you tried, you wonder why it didn't work.
Sometimes when it doesn't, it hurts and you try to reason why.
Sometimes when you try to reason why, you do not have all the answers.
Sometimes when you do not have answers, you want to ask questions.
Sometimes when you ask questions, you do not get the answers.

And then you realise...

...that you can decide to be happy,
but you cannot decide not to be sad.

...that you can't not care,
but not have the strength to try.

...that no matter how far away you go,
it will hurt no less.

...that no matter how you reason it,
you will not have the answers.

So let the tears flow, give up, stay put, and don't think...
that is, be everything you are not!!!!

--shob

Jul 6, 2005

:)

By 10:52 PM No comments
Words of Wisdom
Every program has at least one bug and can be shortened by at least one instruction - from which, by induction, one can deduce that every program can be reduced to one instruction which doesn't work.

Murphy's Law of Research:
Enough research will tend to support your theory.

bill gates picks his own hell

By 10:20 PM No comments
Bill Gates picks his own punishment

Satan greets him: "Welcome Mr. Gates, we've been waiting for you. This will be your home for all eternity. You've been selfish, greedy and a big liar all your life. Now, since you've got me in a good mood, I'll be generous and give you a choice of three places in which you'll be locked up forever.

Satan takes Bill to a huge lake of fire in which millions of poor souls are tormented and tortured. He then takes him to a massive coliseum where thousands of people are chased about and devoured by starving lions. Finally, he takes Bill to a tiny room in which there is a bottle of the finest wine sitting on a table. To Bill's delight, he sees a PC in the corner. Without hesitation, Bill says "I'll take this option."

"Fine," says Satan, allowing Bill to enter the room. Satan locks the room after Bill.
As he turns around, he bumps into Lucifer. "That was Bill Gates!" cried Lucifer. "Why did you give him the best place of all!"

"That's what everyone thinks" snickered Satan.

"The bottle has a hole in it!"

"What about the PC?"

"It's got Windows 95!" laughed Satan.

"And it's missing three keys,"

"Which three?"

"Control, Alt and Delete."

quote

By 5:52 PM No comments
actions speak louder than words.

The best proof of love is trust.
--Joyce Brothers

When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.
-- Charles Evans Hughes

Information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, wisdom is not truth, truth is not beauty, beauty is not love.
--Unknown

Jul 5, 2005

Jul 2, 2005

quote

By 8:07 PM No comments
I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.
--John Burroughs

fatwa, two more articles

By 5:15 PM No comments
A reprehensible "verdict" from hindu

"The fatwa of the Islamic seminary, Darul Uloom Deoband, asking a Muslim woman, who was allegedly raped by her father-in-law, not to live with her husband calls into question the fundamental principles of human dignity and freedom enshrined in the Constitution. By invoking antiquated religious codes, the fatwa in effect punishes the victim, Imrana of Muzaffarnagar, and provides an escape route to the alleged offender, Ali Mohammed, who is currently in police custody. Quite astonishingly, the religious edict allowed rape, one of the most heinous crimes, to annul a legally valid 10-year-old marriage. Actually, the muftis of Deoband asked Imrana to live with her father-in-law, citing the Shariat in support of their decree. Imrana's husband, Noor Ilahi, wants to continue to live with her, but the muftis of the religious seminary have thrown the Shariat at them. The societal pressures on her are such that she has stated she would abide by the "religious laws" even if the fatwa has no force in law. Indeed, Imrana is now being prodded to withdraw the rape complaint and to dilute the charge to "molestation" so that she does not have to separate from her husband and their five children."

Imrana and fatwa: This cruelty must stop from indian express(this one is really well written)

"the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has stated that the woman’s life could be in danger if she continues to live with her husband in defiance of the fatwa. One wonders whether the Taliban has taken over our country.
Let us be clear that the real issue in Imrana’s case is not about the enactment of an Uniform Civil Code."
...
"Suppose a law were passed in our country on the lines of the fatwa — namely that a woman who is raped by her father-in-law cannot upon pain of sanction be permitted to live with her husband even though the couple are keen to continue the marriage. Such a law would be struck down within minutes as unconstitutional. Can it make any difference if this kind of law is characterised as the personal law of a religion?"
...
"Take the case of Sati. This pernicious practice of burning or burying alive the widow along with the body of her deceased husband was justified by some on the ground that it formed an important part of Hindu religious traditions and was an ancient practice hallowed by time. Nonetheless, Parliament passed the Commission of Sati (Prevention Act) 1987 which prohibits and criminalises the practice of Sati and its glorification. The constitutionality of the Act was challenged and was rejected by the Supreme Court."
...
"The fatwa should not provide a pretext for the defamation of Islam. Nor should criticism of the fatwa be mischievously construed as an attack on that enlightened religion, any more than condemnation of Sati could be regarded as an attack on Hinduism. Religion as such has nothing to do with the crucial issue in Imrana’s case which is the horrendous violation of her basic human rights."

quotes

By 5:02 AM No comments
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
--Mahatma Gandhi

The human mind treats a new idea the same way the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it.
--P. B. Medawar

is science overstepping its boundaries???!!!!

By 4:31 AM 2 comments
started writing on 6/17/05
i have been trying to write abt this for some time but it never seems to finish or does not sound rite or i happens that i am contradicting myself...
but here it is just as a stream of thoughts, sometimes jumping from one topic to other.

Boffins create zombie dogs via slashdot

""The results are stunning. I think in 10 years we will be able to prevent death in a certain segment of those using this technology," said one US battlefield doctor."

i don't know if the prime aim of human life to prolong it for as long as possible... without any worth in living it. what is the use of having a life that long?

also it says in the article somewhere... that they will put people people to 'sleep' for few hours!!!!!!!!

"However rather than sending people to sleep for years, then bringing them back to life to benefit from medical advances, the boffins would be happy to keep people in this state for just a few hours,
But even this should be enough to save lives such as battlefield casualties and victims of stabbings or gunshot wounds, who have suffered huge blood loss."

damn it. spend this much time, energy and money to stop the wars....
it will have its benefits, but somehow it does not sound rite, it seems to have more potential of being misused than being used, like nuclear energy. but does that mean that we should stop trying to understand life, and how it functions?

here are some more links that r in the same direction
http://www.island.net/~chrisbo/cyborg.htm
http://www.extropy.org/
http://www.alcor.org/index.html

it just makes the bottom of my stomach fall.

there are so many things that we r all bought up to believe... one of them is that death is inevitable. my reaction to these could be due to the acceptance of death as a part of life. and the others are just listening to the gene as that tries to prolong its survival. but then the initial assumption that the gene did try or is trying to prolong its existence is baseless. and even if it is true at the rate at which at which it is being mutilated does not make sense to save these mutilated being. (btw i do believe in evolution) and then if is trying to survive is human the best medium? doesn't seem so, cause we r going towards our own destruction. but then r we?
i think fiction is never very far away from reality. it is what the human mind can imagine and one day we will try to make it true. lets look at the current literature, sic-fi esp, the future does not look very pretty, does it?
actually there is something i have always wondered. y is it easier for people to heal physically, not spiritually. then the question arises does spirituality actually exist? is morality subjective? Something that has popped out of human brain? human brain... is it a preprogrammed hardware custom designed for each individual? do we actually need to know the ans? and if we do know it will be used or misused? r we smart enf to understand this 'creation'? if we r smart enf understand then r we smart enf to harness the good out of it? and then the giant question what is "good"?
there r many more in this series of questions, but i let me stop now.

Jul 1, 2005

better perspective...

By 6:29 PM No comments
If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following.
There would be:

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere (both North and South)
8 Africans

52 would be female
48 would be male

70 would be nonwhite
30 would be white

70 would be non-Christian (not the same 70)
30 would be Christian (not the same 30)

89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual

6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth
All 6 would be from the United States

80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer

When one considers the world from such a compressed perspective, the need for both acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.

The following are provided as additional thoughts to ponder....
If you woke this morning with more health than illness... you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation... you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a temple, church, or other religious meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death... you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep... you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If your parents are still alive and married... you are very rare, even in the United States and Canada.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful... you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can hold someone's hand, hug them, or even touch them on the shoulder... you are blessed because you can offer healing touch.

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

- courtesy of Paul Dzing

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