Will be back on tack

I think some time after 6th of April this blog should be back on almost its normal frequency(I hope). Till then do keep droping by :)

Continue

The Argumentative Indian

I finally got hold of this book and have just completed the first chapter it is worth a read.

Continue

some tit-bits

I have not abandoned this blog I will be back soon.
till then...
The most shocking tag on the back of autos in Munmbai is "Women Enpowerment"(more on tags on the back of autos later :))
There are two parts of mumbai one that is underconstrutcion and the other that is not.
Keep smiling!!!

Continue

Home -- I am going to miss

Yesterday I went to place that I have called HOME for the maximum duration in my life. Everything looked the same, same set of decoration, same set of photos of family n friends hanging on the wall. But everything had a thick layer of dust... two thoughts struck me. One was that even though not a lot of time has passed but life is not the same and second it felt that even after so much has changed once u "dust it cean" it will be home again. But this time when I dust it clean it will be to pack up things n set of to a new journey.
I met friends who asked me y don't I work here... why am I going back to India. All I tell them is that I want to-- how else do I explain. At this point after I leave Thailand I will not have a place that I will call home. I will have to make a home and strat over again.

I will miss Bankgok. I will miss my friends here.

Continue

Wonder how this will work out...

Two-way channel for The Hindu's readers from The Hindu

THE READERS' Editor of The Hindu will be functional from March 1, 2006. The key
objectives of this appointment are to institutionalise the practice of
self-regulation, accountability, and transparency; to create a new visible
framework to improve accuracy, verification, and standards in the newspaper; and
to strengthen bonds between the newspaper and its millions of print platform and
online readers.
The Readers' Editor will be a two-way channel for readers'
suggestions and grievances relating to accuracy, fairness, standards, good
taste, and the highest values of journalism in whatever is published in The
Hindu . Complaints will be enquired into and follow-up action taken by
publishing corrections or clarifications; by replying to the complainant; and by
enabling corrective action to be taken, as needed.

This experiment will depend on how responsible readers are.

Continue

Time to leave

Few hrs from now I will set on to something new. I don't know what awaits me but I do know that I am leaving some precious friends... and as sad as that makes me I am sure that we will manage to keep in touch.

To meet and to part is the story of life,
To part and to meet is the glory of life.

Continue

thank god!

India bird flu tests 'negative' from BBC

Indian health officials say 94 out of 95 samples collected from people with flu-like symptoms have tested negative for bird flu.

Results from one final sample are expected on Saturday.

Hundreds of thousands of birds have been slaughtered after the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain was found in Navapur town in Maharashtra state last week.

The authorities have now completely sealed the town, which has a population of 30,000, and 19 nearby villages.

Continue

Holly-Bolly

Smith builds links with Bollywood from BBC

Actor Will Smith has called for closer links between Hollywood and Bollywood during a visit to India.

I, Robot star Smith said Hollywood could find a winning combination by joining up with the "beauty, colour and depth of Indian cinema".

He said he hoped to work with India's top producers and actors, adding: "I really feel there is a marriage to be made between Hollywood and Bollywood."

Indian cinema has one of the world's largest audiences and output of films.

Mr Smith met with Bollywood producers, directors and actors and visited film studios.

'Blown away'

He said: "I am meeting with these people to make artistic connections and come up with a new thing."

The actor said he had been "blown away" by the performance of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan - also known as Big B - in the film Sarkar.

He said: "I was very impressed with his acting and have decided that from today onwards, I will be known as Big W."

Continue

I bow to thy

India's feisty untouchable woman from BBC

After leading a spirited drive to root out alcoholism and get the government to work for her community in the troubled state of Bihar, she has become the first woman from her community of rat-eaters to address a United Nations convention.

Musahars are so poor that their staple diet often comprises mice.

On 27 February, the unlettered Girija Devi will lead five women from India at the international meeting to talk about the status of women. She will speak in her local Bhojpuri dialect.

This is simply marvelous. She has helped make 125 villages alcohol free WOW!

Continue

Finally

I am moving back to India :) So this blog is going to be not as regular for the next few days. Once I get settled I am sure I will have tons to say.

But for right now I am really looking forward to going back. All this while when I had not made the decision I was wondering if going back to India is the right thing. But now that I have decided I think I was stupid not take this step before espically since that is what I wanted to do all this while. What will I leave behind. For the last few days days my mind has been bubbling with thoughts I will put it down once I am done with packing. PACKING I better finish it before I leave :)

Continue

Bird Flu in India

Bird flu hits India from The Hindu

NEW DELHI: The dreaded pathogenic H5N1 bird flu has hit the country — about 50,000 birds are suspected to have been infected in the tribal Nandurbar district of Maharashtra. As a precaution, two lakh birds being reared in 16 commercial farms within 3 km radius of the affected area would be culled (killed), the Secretary, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, P.M.A. Hakeem, told The Hindu .

A red alert has been sounded in the adjoining Surat district in Gujarat, which has many commercial farms. India has about 490 million poultry of which 60 per cent is in the commercial sector. The rest is backyard poultry.

Continue

One more country adding on the madness

Parties demand action against UP minister from NDTV

Political parties have criticised Uttar Pradesh Haj and Minority Welfare Minster Haji Yaqoob Quereshi after he announced a reward for the beheading of the Danish cartoonist who made caricatures of Prophet Mohammed.

While they are demanding action against Quereshi, government sources told NDTV that they are asking for legal advice on the issue.

Sharp criticism

Several prominent leaders from the Muslim community have already distanced themselves from the minister's remark.

These included members of the Muslim Personal Law Board and the Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind, the largest political organisation of Muslims in the country.

"The minister has no right to take the law in his hands as it will lead to chaos," said Abdul Hamid Nomani, Spokesperson, Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind.

I am amazed how can a minister make a statment like that. We are not a barbaric state??? VOTE BANK POLITICS.........

Continue

Lifes lesson

Waiting is something that I have never been good at, and the other thing that I have never been good at dealing with is uncertainity. I like decisions and I can live with them. But when life decides to teach you lessons it does it the hard way.
These days it always feels like the moment I am ready to take the next step there is something coming up to delay it or prevent it.

Continue

light hearted ...

Someday the Sun Will Go Out and the World Will End (but Don't Tell Anyone) from NYTimes

I've always been proud of my irrelevance.

When I raised my hand to speak at our weekly meetings here in the science department, my colleagues could be sure they would hear something weird about time travel or adventures in the fifth dimension. Something to take them far from the daily grind. Enough to taunt the mind, but not enough to attract the attention of bloggers, editors, politicians and others who keep track of important world affairs.

So imagine my surprise to find the origin of the universe suddenly at the white hot center of national politics. Last week my colleague Andrew Revkin reported that a 24-year-old NASA political appointee with no scientific background, George C. Deutsch, had told a designer working on a NASA Web project that the Big Bang was "not proven fact; it is opinion," and thus the word "theory" should be used with every mention of Big Bang.

...

The recent peek behind the curtains of this bureaucracy has been both depressing and exciting. So they are paying attention after all.

They should be paying attention, but I'm not looking forward to having to include more politicians and bureaucrats in my rounds of the ever-expanding, multi-dimensional universe (or universes).

I'll do it, but, lacking the gene for street smarts, I fear being played like a two-bit banjo. I'm even happy to go star-gazing with Dick Cheney, if duty so calls, but only if he agrees to disarm and I can wear a helmet.

Continue

Not a bad idea

India 'to register all marriages' from BBC

India's Supreme Court has given the federal and state governments three months to enact legislation making it compulsory to register all marriages.

The court said the public's views would be invited on the new legislation.

Under the proposed changes, proof of a traditional religious marriage ceremony would not be sufficient.

Supporters of the move say it will curb crimes such as bigamy and marriage without consent. Critics say the state is interfering and the law unnecessary.

Continue