The Great Indian Mutiny

Terrorism is fought and won in the minds of those who engage in it. It takes courage to lay down your arms and work for peace. As security forces stepped up anti-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir, 12 militants from four different outfits, laid down arms in Baramulla district on monday.

Disillusionment, frustration and a strong desire to return to their homes to rejoin the mainstream led them to surrender. With their faces covered due to security reasons, the militants gave mediapersons details of how they were lured to cross the Line of Control, given training in handling of weapons and explosives and indoctrinated for jihad (holy war).

They also highlighted the role of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence’s activities in the valley. A number of Kashmiri youths in ISI’s training camps had committed suicide while others were doing menial jobs to earn a living, they said.

If ever Michael Schumacher decide to take on Indian roads, he better not listen to Bernoulli.

Whether to take a U-turn without stopping in the middle of a busy junction with utter disregard for signboards, or to sneak between a over priced BMW and a grumbling Ford Ikon in the middle of a traffic stalemate, nothing comes close to the Great Indian Autorickshaw. Found in various shapes, sizes and colours, this indigenous engineering marvel’s possibility of getting past a safety test in a Mercedes Lab is remote. Especially, the special edition which I found in Chennai, in which deceleration and subsequent braking of the vehicle was achieved by extending your feet on to the front tyre.

Regardless, an autorickshaw ride is seldom uneventful, the drivers friendly, the ride relentlessly bumpy, but you dont worry about your head hitting the resin roof while admiring the art that can inspire a string of desi Andy Warhols(the noise having already inspired a band). If you are a tourist, they may take you around the Vidhan Soudha 3 times only to convince that there are 3 such buildings in Bangalore before you reach the destination. Or you start wondering if it is the ‘heat’ that made you fall victim of the Great Indian Rick Trick.

Now the humble Indian Autorickshaw has finally hit big time. Tuc Tuc Limited, a London based private company has taken them to Brighton, one of the most famous seaside resorts in England. Adorning trendy thematic designs and pollution free zero-emission modes, Tuc Tucs as they like to call it, seems to be attaining a cult status worldwide.

Meanwhile, Schumacher can test his skills at the Great Indian Autorickshaw Challenge to qualify.

This column is my attempt to (in addition to doing something other than programing, eating and HBO’ing) tell (Indians and) the world about some of the wonderful writers of India known for their incomparable style.

In this week, we take a look at a person whose lines “Some of my best friends are people” made him a common mans’ favourite in Bombay (use of Bombay is more appropriate for the rest of this article). When he passed away, Afternoon Despatch & Courier, the newspaper he edited, had to discontinue its regular Letter page for upto six months just to accommodate the tributes that flowed in from his legion of readers around the world.

He began his career in the Free Press Journal in 1955, then went on to join the Times of India where he introduced Busybee to Bombay in 1985 through the Evening News of India. Behram Contractor continued to be a reporter with the Time until 1979, when he started Mid-Day as Chief Reporter. In 1985, when he quit Mid-Day as executive editor, to start his own newspaper, thhe Afternoon Despatch & Courier, Behram Contractor was already Bombay’s most popular editor.

As Busybee he wrote the “eating out ” section that still continues to be one of the best guides to eating out in Bombay. Funny with so many blogs around, very few talk about eating places of our country! I can almost imagine myself commuting for a couple of hours daily, reading his enormously humourous accounts of Bombay and its citizens and his wife whom he called “the wife”. Some of his works can be read here and here . Nothing like returning home from work and reading stuff that makes you feel that someone somewhere had a day as bad as you and when you read it you feel it was funny!!..energises you, at least enough to face your wife and children! I can only imagine how much fun it would be to discuss his latest “round about”s with friends.

I would like to thank Oriana Communications for providing Busybees work online.

That was the title of CNN IBN’s latest under cover operation. Very few things make me upset but see a doctor charge for cutting of limbs of poor people is just make you sick. Can you image this happens in our country?

Dr Agarwal put the fake beggar through a series of medical tests at his nursing home.

The surgeon pocketed Rs 4,000 as advance for the operation from the team while also giving advice on how the amputation could be made to look legal.

When CNN-IBN reached Dr Ajay Agarwal at the Noida Civil Hospital, the cameraperson was pushed and abused.

It was in fact Dr Ajay Agarwal who had referred Dr P K Bansal to the investigative team as part of amputation nexus.

Dr Ajay Agarwal is absconding and the police are trying to track him down.

Dr Agarwal, who is also the Secretary of the Orthopaedic Association of Bareilly is now absconding.

Watch the Video here.

I don’t have a tattoo. I always wanted to get one but never took the plunge. If I did take the plunge, I wanted my name tattooed in Hebrew on my shoulder.

That was until I saw this on Esha Deol. Sanskrit looks cool too

Straight spirituality, just alternative expression. So far, Esha has just been chanting her way to inner peace, now it’s a permanent item in her wardrobe. Peer over her right shoulder and there in all its glory is the gayatri mantra tattoo. And to balance the spirituality, there’s an Om sign on the left.

I think I will get “Satyamé Vijayathé” in Sanskrit on my shoulder.

Got any better ideas?

I’m all for making Pakistan pay for its support of terrorists.
But should we do this at the expense of ordinary Pakistanis?

The Pakistan gymnastic team has been denied visas for the Asian Championship in Surat. A seven-member Pakistani contingent including two officials and five players were to visit Surat for the event starting on Saturday at Pandit Deendayal Upadhaya Indoor Stadium.

The invitation was sent to Pakistan after receiving clearance from government of India.
The Asian Gymnastic Championship is being held for the first time in India and the other 18 teams have arrived in Surat for the event. Earlier, a bilateral Kabaddi and Snooker tournament was deferred indefinitely.

After the serial blasts in suburban trains of Mumbai on July 11 the central government has toughened its stance on Pakistan.

I’m not sure, I think we should make the Pakistani estabishment pay, let’s spare ordinary citizens.

There are certain things you should try NOT do under the influence alcohol, here are a few,

1. Say “I love you”
2. Try to do “it”
3. Drive up to the Prime Minister’s house and try to meet him

Imran and two of his lady friends, Yogita and Veena, tried option three on Thursday night.  They were booked on Friday by Delhi police for breaching the prime minister’s security cordon at his official residence. They have been granted bail. They were let out this afternoon on a surety of Rs 25,000 each ($500).

The Prime Minister’s Office had stated that there was no security breach as people can come up to the reception area of the complex and are turned away if they have no appointment.
(more…)

We always read about Indian women being mistreated for dowry .

This incident should be publicised so that women who are having a tough time get some inspiration…..

PATNA: It could have been bachelor party bingeing, but for two spunky brides in Bihar the drunkenness was not to be tolerated even if it meant calling off the wedding right at the altar itself.

In two separate incidents in Bihar this week, women refused to marry their drunk grooms who had to return home humiliated and crestfallen.

According to reports reaching, Rajesh Kumar from Begusarai was ditched at the last moment when he landed up sozzled. His bride to be simply walked away from the sacred fire.

“What hurt the bride was that he suddenly got up during the marriage rituals and started misbehaving with the women,” said a relative Ramavtar Mahto.

In the second case, Kunal Paswan in Rajwara village in Begusarai district was faced with a similarly embarrassing position when he appeared in an inebriated condition.

According to reports, the grooms’ families were also asked to return the dowry amounts.

War is never good. Only an evil person would welcome it. In an ideal world disputes between nations should be solved through dialogue. Is there any dispute greater than the value of human life itself? Hold this thought.

In the face of aggression, we have a right to defend ourselves. The Kargil war ‘99 was imposed upon us. Earlier in the year, our Prime Minister went over to Pakistan and signed the Lahore Declaration calling on both sides to resolve everything through dialogue.

How naive we were. At the very same time Musharraf and gang where arming the Pakistani infantry and terrorists to invade Kashmir. Cowards. They didn’t even have the guts to wear their uniform.

Caught by surprise, our Jawans fought back. From Kerala to Kohima to Kuch, each and every one of them fought on the hills of Kashmir and Ladakh as one. Many laid down their lives. Young officers, just out of the IMA lead from the front.

I was in my final year of college, I felt so useless listening to macroeconomics lectures when young boys my age where engaged in hand to hand combat at 17,000 ft. On that day I swore, come what may, I will make my life worth what they fought and died for.

They’d promised their families they’d come back soon. They more than kept their word. Went as mere men. Came back as heroes. In coffins. Over a 530 of them at last count. Median age 19 to 35.The grim-faced army officers receiving the coffins, draped in the tricolour, the carriage to the army parade ground, the set-jawed shok shastra farewell salute by steely soldiers.

The silent sorrow of upraised guns, slowly brought, barrel downward, to the ground, left arm tautly extended to the right before retracking, the holding of palm to chest, the sudden dropping of head, the 30-second hushed silence, then the regulation rajnigandha and marigold wreaths from the army and air chiefs, the general officer commanding, fellow officers, the battalion, before the body escorted by a comrade begins its last journey home. Wreathed in white, the colour of the pure; kesariya, the colour and insignia of the brave. Now across mountains, now across rivers, plains. The lines of pain criss-cross the entire nation.

Today, is Kargil Vijay Diwas. A day to honour the brave men, fortunate enough to give their lives for India. Jai Hind!

India on last Wednesday test-fired for a sixth time the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, which it has developed jointly with Russia, defence officials said.

“The BrahMos missile was launched at 11.18 am (0548 GMT) from the Indian destroyer INS Rajput off the Bay of Bengal and it successfully hit a target at sea,” said the defence official.

The Indian Army will become the first force in the world to field supersonic cruise missiles by operationalising the Indo-Russian 290-km range BrahMos surface-to-surface missile by September 2007.

The BrahMos (named after the Brahmaputra river in India and the Moskva river in Russia) supersonic missile is the product of an Indo-Russian joint venture

Though Islamabad claims to have tested its own version of cruise missiles, defence experts say both China and Pakistan have access only to subsonic version of the missile.

This will definitely tilt the balance of power in the arms race between India and Pakistan in India’s favor !