quote

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

what the hell???

Joint Commissioner of Police K Kumaraswamy is carried by a constable in Vadodara - Express photo by Bhupendra Rana

fatwa, two more articles

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."

dictionary- hindi, urdu, marathi, bengali, tamil, telgu...

so far this is the best dictionary that i have come across for hindi to english or vise-versa. the best part is that it even gives urdu words while translation, which so rite since hindi n urdu r so intertwined.

use Platts for hindi eng urdu.

quotes

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???!!!!

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.

better perspective...

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

Italian with Grammar by Mark Twain

the entire short story is here

but this is my fav part just try reading it :)

"If I have had a had, or have wanted to have had a had, or was in a position right then and there to have had a had that hadn't had any chance to go out hadding on account of this foolish discrimination which lets one Had go hadding in any kind of indefinite grammatical weather but restricts the other one to definite and datable meteoric convulsions, and keeps it pining around and watching the barometer all the time, and liable to get sick through confinement and lack of exercise, and all that sort of thing, why--why, the inhumanity of it is enough, let alone the wanton superfluity and uselessness of any such a loafing consumptive hospital-bird of a Had taking up room and cumbering the place for nothing."

intresting stories from bbc

Women gear up for gaming invasion

Maths 'stuck in downward spiral'
"There were far too few numerically trained workers to teach their successors, while A-level entries had declined sharply since the 1980s."

In pictures: How the world is changing
the first one photo is amazing. reminds me of the quote "it is nice to go to a place which has not changed; to find out how much we have changed" (it is something like that)

it is all in the mind

Life begins at 90 from bbc

"Fauja's jogging skills were developed on an Indian farm in Punjab, and then at the magical age of 81, when he moved to the UK, his love for the sport became more "serious"."
...
"So any secrets to fitness? Fauja's training regime includes a daily eight-mile walk and run, no smoking or drinking, plenty of smiling and lashings of ginger curry. "
...
"So, having only run seriously for the last 13 years, when does Fauja think he'll trade in his spikes for a zimmer frame?
"When I die!" he laughs. "

it is never too late to start doing what you want :)

quote

To realize The value of ten years:
Ask a newly Divorced couple.
To realize The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.
To realize The value of one year:
Ask a student who Has failed a final exam.
To realizeThe value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a still born.
To realizeThe value of one month:
Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.
To realizeThe value of one hour:
Ask the lovers who are waiting to Meet.
To realizeThe value of one minute:
Ask a personWho has missed the train, bus or plane.
To realizeThe value of one-second:
Ask a personWho has survived an accident.
To realizeThe value of one millisecond:
Ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.
To realize the value of a friend:
Lose one.

Time waits For no one.
Treasure every moment you have.
You will treasure it even more whenyou can share it with someone special.

thought

dreams... they sometimes give us a different perspective on reality.

quote

Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye.
-H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

After a while you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul,
And you learn that
Love doesn't mean Leaning
And Company doesn't mean security.

And you begin to accept that
kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't promises --
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes open
And with the grace of an adult,
not the grief of a child.

And you learn to
Build all your Roads on today
Because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain
For your plans.

After awhile you learn that even sunshine
Burns if you get too much.
So plant your own garden and decorate
Your own soul -- instead of waiting for
Someone to bring you flowers.

And you will learn that you really can endure,
That you really are special
And that you really do have worth.
So live to learn and know yourself.
In doing so, you will learn to live

- Veronica A Shoffstall

to india, with love us. since 1971 :)

Nixon's dislike of 'witch' Indira from bbc. but it there on almost all major news site

don't want to quote nething from there. it does sound funny :P

fatwa...

'Maulana' Mulayam defends Imrana's fatwa from indian express

wonder what will happed to the country where desire to be 'secular' and woo the voter is above all else.

“The decision of the Muslim religious leaders in the Imrana case must have been taken after a lot of thought,” Yadav said.