The Argumentative Indian

this is a book by Amartya Sen. and i want to get a hold of it. actually i was reading U S visit instilled a deep sense of pride in me: PM from the hindu where there is a reference to this book. so i went and checked the reviews for it and it seems to be really interesting :)
some of the essays from the book r online:

Tagore and His India
History and the enterprise of knowledge
India through its calendars

[via The Middle Stage and saMvaad ]

what!!!

State mourning in AP in honour of Saudi ruler from hindu

i find this kind of strange...

"During the state mourning, the national flag will be flown at half mast and there will be no official entertainment, official sources said here."

to have the flag at half mast is something!!! do we have this when one of our leaders die?

on a click

some time back one of my friends forwarded me this site:
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com

to feed an animal by a click. adn today i came accross the hunger site for human:
http://www.thehungersite.com/

don't know if they work or not but it is just a matter of a click to feed someone. really good projects if tehy actually work. i will continue to click n hope that they do :)

follow up on Dr. Shazia Khalid's case

Another Face of Terror from NYtimes


but what shocks me is this

""When I treat rape victims, I tell the girls not to go to the police," Dr. Shershah Syed, a prominent gynecologist in Karachi, told me. "Because if she goes to the police, the police will rape her." "

:((((((

india lost.

quotes

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

quotes

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?

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???

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.

A Tear Fell

A Tear Fell

I shed a tear today
Silently, I felt it fall
You caught it
shared it
held it
felt it
then
suddenlyit wasn't
so big
after all

--Marge Tindal
[via memory keeper]

higher education in india

Reconstruction of higher education in India
this is an old article from hindu, which is a follow up on an even older (higher education in india) article in hindu :)

Slow Dance

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.

online collection of books

http://www.classicreader.com/
this is a very good collection...

and i am sure everyone knows http://www.gutenberg.org/

and i like this one because this has a short list of authors whom i have read before http://www.literature.org/authors/
infact it also has some of charles darwins works that i wanted to read


i guess it is time to revisit some of these books :)

water and fire in mumbai

after the floods there is fire at ONGC platform near mumbai...

quotes

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