"The contribution of a teachers in these cases is only 5 to 10 per cent"

Patna: Shyam Ratan is very happy. He's been able to turn his mother's dream into reality. He has just cracked the IIT entrance exams.

"Bas mummy ka hope ka hai. Ussi ko maintain karna hai. Aur age badhate chalna hai. Jiwan hai, dekhate hai kya hota hai, (It was my mother's dream, I am just trying to fulfill it. Let's see what happens from now on. It's life after all)," Shyam says.

Shyam Ratan is the son of a private nurse.

Bright young students of Bihar have shown that nothing is impossible. They have broken set rules and proven people wrong. It doesn't matter where they came from or who their parents were. They are the power performers determined to move ahead come what may.

Like Shyam, Mani has also cracked IIT-JEE in spite of his financial constraints. Mani's father is a housekeeping staff in a hotel.

"We can't make gold out of brass. It has to be gold in the first place. We can only convert gold into ornaments. The contribution of a teachers in these cases is only 5 to 10 per cent," Anil Parmar, Shyam's chemistry teacher, says.

Source:

CNN-IBN

Note: There goes the theory of extreme influence of coaching centers.

Answer to Guess the OBC Game II

Sorry for the delay folks. No one gave the correct answer, although movie fan got the bonus question right. They were all leading ladies opposite Amitabh Bachchan. Come to think of it, who wasn't, in the 70s?

Correct answer is Smita Patil, highly celebrated actress of the 70s and 80s. According to this wikipedia article, she belongs to the Gujjar community, which places her firmly into the OBC list. If Gujjars have their way, she will make the ST list, posthumously of course. She is one of the two among the four actresses in the quiz, who are sadly no longer with us.

Remember this: Shivam Vij is upper class

You middle class people won't understand his line of thinking anyway.

Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai, if you are done fawning over Rahul Gandhi

Apparently CNN-IBN is the best website aur kya kya. But their spinning remains pretty amateurish and their proof-reading dismal.

This morning they ran another sob story, a Dalit boy mercilessly beaten up by lawyers. Not only that, he was tied up to a tree and his head tonsured in full public view. Well, guess what? the perp turned out to be the boy's own relative, hence another Dalit. Not only that, the "boy" is apparently 22-year old. I guess someone must have pointed it out, because a few hours later the story was edited to take out Dalit from the headline and body of the story. The URL still says Dalit though. Caught with their pants down, they are now running a 360-story on the lawlessness of UP lawyers!

I have some tips for Mr. Sardesai for improving the quality of his newspaper. He is most welcome to read them up when he is done fawning over Rahul Gandhi:

1. Usually the caste groups collectively referred to as OBCs are responsible for the most cases of violent attacks against Dalits. This is merely incidental and related to the composition of most rural areas.
2. Everytime there is a story that involves Dalits, do a quick check to see if it fits the social justice framework.
3. We all mess up every once in a while, so be a man and say sorry. Assuming of course you are a man by now and not a 45-year old boy.

[Update] According to this video on CNN-IBN, the boy is now 28-year old (at around 2:25).

Miss Anti-Reservation

Our tribute to these beautiful and brave young women who fought for their rights.

Guess the OBC Game II

Who among the four actresses above is an OBC? Bonus question: what is common between them?

Answers tomorrow.

Funny

"You are my bitch. Now quickly wear this Sari and bend over."

How to shout fire in a crowded theatre and get away with it?

Which part of this notice don't you understand? Asks baffled Hindus. Do you want us to write it in Arabic or something?

Meanwhile, the priests didn't turn out to be such jerks after all. The head priest says if popular opinion wants the temple to be opened to everyone, he is ok with it. Except Dilip D'Souza. Ok, I made that one up.



So let's see how things are working out.

• Number of temples in India: Several hundreds of thousands
• Number of important temples in India: Several thousands
  
• Number of temples considered specially sacred: Perhaps a few hundred.
• Number of temples in India restricting entry to Non-Hindus: A few dozen?
• Number of recreation options available in India: No idea. A lot.

So, one fine morning, you (meaning Mr. Non-Hindu) want to have some recreation. For some reason you must enter a Hindu place of worship. Meanwhile religion in general and Hindu religion in particular is supposed to be evil. But you pick a temple anyway for your recreational needs. You skip millions and pick one that is particularly sacred. One that also has the above notice in front of it. You are now mighty upset. You are upset, the priests are upset, some Hindus are upset. Liberals are particularly upset. See, how your stupid idea made so many people upset?

Meanwhile, the most important duty of the state Government is to remedy the situation. They are mulling a law. A law so that a non-Hindu nut, who for some reason picks a specific Hindu temple for his entertainment needs and must enter it, gets to enter it.

Another Med student, from another world

Kellie Lim, who became a triple amputee at age 8 because of bacterial meningitis, is to graduate from UCLA's medical school on Friday, and she plans to focus on childhood allergies and infections disease. [..] Lim recently saw her childhood medical file, and learned that doctors had given her an 85 percent chance of dying of the meningitis. Just five months after the amputations, Lim returned to a normal school. Born right-handed, she learned to write and work with her left.



Lim carried out her medical training with a determination that awed her professors and fellow students and won her the school's top prize for excellence in pediatrics.

Opting not to use a prosthetic arm, she showed that she can perform most medical procedures with one hand, including taking blood and administering injections. She lives on her own in a Westwood apartment with no special features for the handicapped and drives a car with only one adaptation: a turning knob on the steering wheel. She is learning to swim, is trying horseback riding and even went tandem skydiving recently.

"I hate failing," she said. "It's one of those things that's so ingrained in me." That view was intensified by another disability in the family. Her mother, Sandy, went blind in her 20s [..]

Sources:

Yahoo
LA Times (with slideshow)

The sordid saga of Dr. Ajay Kumar Singh

Apparently all BJP supporters are casteists and Brahminical supremacists, they discriminate against Dalits whenever they can. They are the ones who are denying OBCs their due free seats in educational institutes. Meanwhile, Congress supporters are liberal athiests who believe in equality, freedom and fairness. This is the standard thesis being offered by the socialist lobby.

Crude empirical evidence including upper-caste distribution in the blogosphere, Congress party top brass and media and newspapers indicate that at least half of all upper-castes, if not much more, are Congress supporters. Extending this further, we would expect a fairly even split in academic institutes as well.

This is where the sob story of Dr. Ajay Kumar Singh, "category" MBBS student of AIIMS and the latest poster child of casteist discrimination in elite institutes runs into serious credibility problems. Now, let's forget the strange coincidence of these allegations surfacing exactly when there is a raging debate about OBC reservations. Let's also ignore Dr. Ramadoss, whose antics were covered by even the most liberal media.

Until last year, there were no serious known reports of casteist bias in examination evaluation. Thank God for our purely examination based entrance systems, allegations could not be leveled against them. No known allegations have surfaced from the IITs and IIMs either. It is very hard to prove biases when answer scripts are available for later scrutiny. In this regard, medical schools are particularly vulnerable. Most exams are orally conducted.

A quick sanity check reveals that the lone student, on whose sole allegations an entire social group is being branded casteists, is a serial flunker. It took him three attempts to pass MBBS. Being an academic dud he did what most rational people do, allege casteism.

Meanwhile, as expected, AIIMS is doing the most logical thing under the circumstances. You guessed it right, they are video-taping all viva exams.

Casteist allegations are very serious in nature. As always the socialist lynch mob went to town with this story (here, here, here and here). The ultimate victim of course is academic standards and the future of the nation.

Freedom of expression and Osama posters

May 25.

TOI:

Furore over sketches depicting Prophet Mohammed in the nude found in M S University campus on Wednesday night spilled over on the streets here on Friday afternoon. Mob belonging to the Muslim community pelted stones on the police and media persons to vent ire against the sketches. Later in the night, fresh violence broke out again at 9.30.

CNN-IBN:

Who wants to be President? Let's take a poll, yippie!

May 27:

CNN-IBN:

Fifteen people, including three police personnel, were injured when members of a community clashed with the police after midnight on the issue of displaying posters of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, on Friday near a place of worship here.

Police said at around 0200 hours IST, a mob attacked a policeman in Gajradi area with soda bottles and stones.

TOI:

"There were stray incidents where posters of former Iraq president Saddam Hussain were displayed in communally sensitive areas such as Dariapur and Kalupur in Ahmedabad. I do not remember any incident of Laden's posters being displayed in the state,"said state IB chief, additional DGP Sudhir Sinha.

Several Muslim leaders too are not happy with the flashing of the Bin Laden's posters. "We want to tell these insane people that they should learn lessons from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan where fundamentalists hold siege over the liberty of people and judiciary.

The kid becomes a man

Remember this dude? The misty eyed idealistic kid who wanted to become a journalist one day. Well, he has made it. The kid that fought valiantly against bureaucracy and media censorship has grown up now. Meet Mr. Shivam Vij, the big assed columnist. One who supports media freedom but won't publish your comments, unless they reflect his own views.

Who killed Nun Abhaya?

It's a quest for justice that has spanned 15 long years and five indifferent investigations. [..] The nun's body was found in a well at the St. Pius 10th Convent in Kerala’s Kottayam in 1992.
[..] A report prepared 15 years at the chemical lab at Thiruvananthapuram ago that could hold the key. The report clearly indicates over-writing in key areas. [..] A negative over positive and a 'No' added before 'semen' indicates tampering and this has now been proved by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory.

Young women from humble families are lured into institutions. But sometimes they don't get what they are promised. These institutions remain sealed to the arms of the law. Some of them are more zealously reported than the others.

Is this freedom of speech or freedom of religion? What about freedom of the individual? Does freedom of speech protect baseless insinuations? What about lies and conspiracy theories? What about partisan journalism?

Our typist is asking many questions on his blog lately. No, not the ones I mentioned above. See if you can help him.

Scorpion stings and snake bites

Chances are, you have come across CNN-IBN Cobrapost investigation reports. They started out innocuously enough, by running an investigation that showed how easy it is to smuggle arms into Bombay using small boats.

I read those reports with mild curiosity. Recently they ran a huge expose involving Hindu Godmen who are supposedly on the take for converting black money. There were even tape recorded conversations on their website. A few days later, they ran another investigation on NGOs. This report is now nowhere to be found from their main website. Not only that, there seemed to have been no follow up on the expose on the Godmen. A review of the NGO Report explains why the sudden lack of enthusiasm in following up the Godman expose. Surely the secularists would be more than happy to expose Hindu Godmen?

In any case, I investigated Cobrapost and guess what I found? Cobrapost is merely a bastard child of Tehelka.

I won't hazard a guess as to whether Cobrapost was launched because of an internal dispute or is it merely a smoke and mirrors tactic to make us believe that they are really non-partisan. About their first report, well, it's not that innocent. The terrorists who plotted the whole attack are not really to be blamed - incompetent and corrupt Hindu officials were really responsible for the Bombay bombings.

How strong is the Rahul Gandhi brand?

[Update] If you are a Bombay based blogger, Melody would like to invite you to a blog party.

Perhaps this question is haunting the socialists more than anything else these days. Here is a cute pic for your viewing pleasure, from the website of a young Christian woman called Melody. She fantasizes herself to be wedded into the Gandhi dynasty.

Sikhs punished for abandoning Congress

May 23. In the recent assembly elections in the State of Punjab, India, the Congress party (which also leads the central Government of the country with a motley coalition of parties with various nefarious agendas) got a jolt when the electorate chose to elect BJP ally Akali Dal.

Senior Congress leaders were mighty upset at this defeat. This was merely one in a series of assembly level electoral upsets for the party.

However, senior party stategists were quick to react. They capitalized on the recent controversy over freedom of art and attacked the Sikhs, a religious minority in India (also the ethnic majority in the state of Punjab). Realizing that Sikhs as a potential vote bank are perhaps lost for the near future, they strongly condemned an internal religious dispute within the Sikh community. Eminent journalist and ardent Congress supporter Dilip D'Souza called for strict legal actions against a top religious leader (jathedar).

Our analysts say that this is a move to fine tune the vote bank. Sometimes the carrot alone does not work, one needs to wield the stick also. Mr. D'Souza did not return our calls when requested to comment on a few other incidents of religious intolerance in the country in the recent past.

Our local correspondent added: could we say the hand is mightier than the sword?

- Staff Reporter

Ramkinkar

An artist from truly humble backgrounds, Ramkinkar Baij often drew his inspirations from the Santhal tribal folks.

Blind spots

Hallelujah! Yet another pithy editorial post from the Head Stinger.

Mr. Tejpal's peripheral vision is now so weak that he can barely see anything even slightly off to the side. We recommend a visit to the oculist.

So, let's take a deeper look at his latest column. He has lost none of his journalistic flair, although while covering an art related incident, he appears to have been afflicted by the same sort of liberties that artists and poets are known to take from time to time.


For instance this paragraph:

In Vadodara, in one of the finest art schools in India, a gifted boy (1) from humble origins (2) has been humiliated and arraigned for artistic expression that would not raise an antagonistic eyebrow (3) in most of (4) the world’s liberal (5) democracies.

Contrast this with the following description from a TOI article:

Who is Chandramohan Srilamantula? Is he such a famous artist that the entire art community is staging protests against his arrest? Actually, Chandramohan is only 23 and still a student, and it is his project work that’s made an impact far beyond his wildest imagination.

To summarize our analysis of just that one paragraph:

1. Presumptuous. He is a student, no one said anything about him being gifted. Unless Tehelka Art Foundation gives him a scholarship, he will likely drop out and join a BPO.
   
2. Sounds suspiciously like an attempt to give an inclusive growth type angle to it. Also, his humble origins remain unverified. Humble compared to who, Dilip D'Souza?
   
3. Too far fetched. There are potentially 12 billion eyebrows in the world.
4. A count would definitely help. Let's see: US, UK, France, Denmark, ... wait!
5. A new word imported by none other than our typist friend. Blogosphere buzz indicates this is going to stick. I guess the secular catch phrase is going out of style.
   

Moving on from here:

As for India, it is full of idle troublemakers. It’s the State’s job to tell them where to draw the line.

The first part of the above sentence definitely has a grain of truth in it, the so called liberal democracies where eyebrows are not raised tend to be rich nations. But look how he queers his own pitch in the very next sentence. Perhaps the Stinger does not realize that it is the very state that arrested Chandramohan. The same state that banned Rushdie, the same state that sued Khushboo and the same state that has an arrest warrant out against M.F. Hussain and the Dera chief. Let's not even talk about how a TV channel got banned because it was considering airing an obscene show during daytime.

We are not a theocracy, a dictatorship, or an autocracy. We were born out of the pyre of colonialism as a liberal democracy, and we have to bear its pride and price.

Whatever definition floats your boat dude. As far as we are concerned, India became a theocracy the day it adopted differential civil code. It's fate was sealed with the Shah Bano judgement. Also, do we really want split hairs about autocracy? Any comments on the latest cabinet restructuring?

Artistic endeavour, free expression, the pushing of boundaries are all unique attributes of a free society. The dominance of the West - science, tech, medicine - has often ensued from the creative energies that are sparked in a free environment.

Actually free is perhaps a necessary condition but not a sufficient one. Empty stomach can create We shall overcome, just about that. If you want to spark true creativity, nothing works better than the sound of a loudly ringing cash register. Sad but true, it's human nature and artists are humans too.

But what is it about Gujarat that allows these intolerances to flourish? Why has a community long known for its gentle, pacifist ways - with or without Mohandas - become so violent? Why has a community known for its mercantile skills become so rabidly religious?

Like we said, a visit to the oculist will clear this confusion. Alternately you can read the previous post (and the comments) of this humble blogger.

Actually, we are worried about the future of our democratic republic too. If all our intellectuals remain obsessed with Modi and Gujarat and electioneering, what will happen to the promise of India? Will our 200 million destitute and 500 million under $2 a day citizens forever languish in the blind spot of our myopic leaders and opinion makers?

Want to protect freedom of expression?

Apprently a lot of people are in great agony about the art school incident in Gujarat and the alleged lack of freedom of art. It is feared that India is regressing back to the dark ages. I think we can all agree that to be able to take corrective measures we need to collect data first. So, why don't we start?

I have prepared a sample table, let's call this the "incident report". As you can see, it is easy to keep records. I wrote this from memory so please no flames for not remembering a lot of these incidents. We should also include media harassment and censorship cases.

So, those of you concerned about media freedom, let's see some action. Email me(*) with incidents from now on that you think should go in the spreadsheet and I will keep it updated. Will take you only a little time. For controversial items, I will collect opinions from the blogosphere.

Wonder if we can add the TV show bans in here too. Opinions welcome.


(*) Just kidding.

Astounding profundity for such a young man

Shivam Vij May 12th, 2007 at 1:25 pm

Kanch is indeed OBC but is also Dalit in a political sense to the extent that he talks of 'Dalitisation of society'. of OBCs following Dalits in the AMbedkarite path. He has been described, therefore, as a "Dalit-Bhaujan scholar". I implied that he is Dalit, at the very least, in the sense that the media does.

This post from our socialist friend explains why Dalits are screwed. Their leadership is completely hijacked by fake Dalits like Kancha Ilaiah, Dalit Freedom Network (and its various Christian sister organizations), Udit Raj, Meira Kumar (the latter two from very privileged backgrounds and married to upper caste spouses). Meanwhile bonafide Dalits such as Chandrabhan Prasad are marginalized (relegated from most favored Dalit intellectual to just another Dalit journalist status).

Note that even in the short post he spells "Ilaiah" wrong. Strange for such a stickler for facts.

Recruitment Scam

The Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Sunday arrested former a local Congress MP and an MLA along with 10 others for their alleged involvement in the irregularities in the recruitment to Aurangabad District Central Co-operative Bank (ADCCB) and Zilla Dekhrekh Sahkari Sanstha (ZDSS).



Gives you a warm fuzzy feeling about how well the NREG scam might be working.

Moral Hazard: A classic example if there was ever one

Tehelka: Sponsored By Government of India

Tehelka Critical Futures

This is how taxpayers are subsidizing a political campaign. The various Tehelka ventures get monies from Government agencies such as Air India. They enjoy patronage of Union Ministers to push a particular agenda.

Tehelka Education Summit: Chief Guest - Shri Arjun Singh

Their modus operandi is pretty much the same as The Other Idiot bloggers. First they launched one site. Now those bloggers are operating as many as 15 different group blogs and sites. They lure other bloggers with promises of media assignments etc.

Here, the relationships are more complex. Money is siphoned off through various NGOs. I guess they can afford to drop the facade now since Government owned companies like The Air India are openly supporting their cause.

Hmmm, Foreign Hand

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S R Reddy suspects a "foreign hand" for the blast at Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid mosque on Friday.

"As the things stand today, the finger of suspicion is towards a foreign hand," said Reddy in Hyderabad. He announced that 11 people died in the blast and five were killed in police firing later.

Foreign hand? Is that a good thing or bad thing? Refresh my memory please. I thought Governments claim "foreign hand" when they are war mongers and inefficient administrators. So that they can wage meaningless wars and buy weaponry and pocket the commission.

Our Union Home Minister is not so sure:

"We should not keep blaming... we cannot say anything unless final conclusion is given," Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said when asked whether the government suspected involvement of any foreign agency in the explosion.

Declining to name the suspects in the terror attack, he said, "We should not jump to conclusions. We do have some information but premature disclosure does not help in investigation."

This prudence is seldom exercised when UPA leaders and Tehelka journalists prematurely ejaculate Modi's hand behind almost anything that happens. Perhaps the "hand" in this case belonged to inconvenient domestic elements? Too fantastic? Can we have a full CBI inquiry please?

Meanwhile:

UPA Ratings take a dip

Strange!

[UPDATE] Access to the relevant sites has been restored. Perhaps it was just a routine site maintenance after all.

I ran an expose on the Tehelka cult a few days ago. Till last night there were no issues, but since this morning, the entire Tehelka Foundation and Tehelka Critical Futures sites have become password protected. You must have noticed the authorization box that gets thrown up when you read this blog. That is because some images were linked directly from those sites.

The same thing happened long ago when I ran a few articles about The Other Idiots. They reorged their site in such a way that the links in my posts became invalid.


This looks highly suspicious, these links are on their home page and rather conscpicuously displayed. Why would they want to link password protected sites from prominent places on their home page?

Any tips, info, images, ways to retrieve stuff from the above sites is most welcome.

So, you wanna feel good?

May 18. Did you have an exhausting week? Do you have a regular day job where you collude with capitalists to increase the divide between the rich and the poor? Do you feel tired and exhausted? Unsure what to do?

Well, despair no more. India's most famous typist has shown a surefire way to make you feel real good about yourself.

"I was quite uninterested in labels", says Dilip D'Souza. "But I knew the power of labels, I always knew."

The all pervasive internet is starting to affect our lives in so many new ways that it no longer surprises us. In the old days it used to take a lot of work and effort to build an image. For instance, to be called honest, you needed to really prove you were honest. Well, not anymore. With this powerful new labeling technology you can print out labels of your choice. What you do with your labels is up to you. You can use it as a decal on your car windshield.

"Some people just crumple the printouts and shove it up their arses," said a grinning Dilip D'Souza, "that feels good too." He didn't respond when our correspondent asked him if he used labels that way.

Labels are as ephemeral as fashion, we learned from Dilip. Labels like honest, hardworking, intelligent etc. no longer work. Derivative labels fly off the shelves like there is no tomorrow. The trend is towards fuzzy, definitely fuzzy.

We asked him what he chose for himself. "Liberal of course," he said, "it is so cool, it can mean almost anything but the dictionary throws up some good stuff about it. For instance open to new ideas, now, that sounds cool man, that's gotta be a good thing."

"So, are you open to new ideas? Like a new Government perhaps?" Dilip got really angry and upset at this question. Needless to say our correspondent had to hastily conclude the interview.

- Staff Reporter

---

DCubed Personal LabelMaker^TM is available by mail order. For a limited time only a free subscription of Tehelka Magazine will be included. To get a special discount, tell them Barbarindian sent you.

For a heartwarming story on the genesis of this great new revolutionary idea, read the man himself on his blog, here.

Art?

This is art:


This is NOT. (WARNING! graphic picture highly insensitive to our Christian brothers)

This is a good poem:

smara-garala-khaNDanaM mama shirasi maNDanaM
dehi pada-pallavam udAram |
jvalati mayi dAruNo madana-kadanAruNo
haratu tad-upAhita-vikAram ||8||

This is NOT.

A large cross depicting Christ with his penis hanging out, semen dripping from it into a commode.

A nude woman with a baby attempting to push its way out of her vagina. The caption below the painting reads: "Durga Mata".

These were two of the "works of art" made by Chandra Mohan, a student of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, who was arrested this past week on charges of hurting religious sentiments and posing a threat to public order.

So, let's see how much artistic freedom is restricted in India.

What you can draw:

Trees, meadows, official portraits of political leaders, Shah Rukh Khan, Kimi Katkar, Hindu religious figures in their accepted representation, Mary and Jesus, Sikh Gurus withing certain limitations, birds, bees, nudes, flowers, houses, villages, clouds, cities, coal mines, wild animals, cartoons of Hindutva fascists etc.

What you CAN NOT draw:

Any nude or otherwise insulting representation of established Gods and Gurus, any representation of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), caricatures or insulting pictures of any Congress or DMK politicians, cartoons of Dr. Ambedkar, graphic scenes of rape and violence, gross pictures of defecation or other such bodily activities etc.

This more or less conforms to our legal provisions per Government of India Act. Don't like the act? Please write to your local MP or MLA and he/she will take up the issue in the next parliament session.

Orwell still rings true

Read more here, from the cheap dispensers of "truth".

Karunanidhi's new game?

What new game is Karunanidhi up to?

Why "The Hindu" should be banned

Thought experiment time again. Suppose I start a magazine in India called The Muslim. I also recruit VHP and RSS volunteers to write articles in it, many of them full of glowing praises of Advani and Modi or full of innuendoes about "evils" of Islam.

What do you think will be a possible outcome? Will the liberal brigade come to my rescue when the sword comes down on my head?

Anyway.

As a Hindu, I find the Hindu newspaper highly offensive. You can't just go ahead and trademark the name of a religion (or for that matter generic stuff). Suppose I trademark "Mohammed" or "Guru Govind Singh"? How about a magazine called "Gay Christ"? Besides, this newspaper is run by non-Hindus (atheists, they call themselves).

Of course I will do no such thing, being sensitive to other people's religious beliefs. Then why is this sham being allowed to continue? Does Tamil Nadu consider itself part of the union?

Take for example this article:

Hardly a month after the elections, P. Jaggaiyan, a poor agricultural worker who belonged to the Arunthathiyar sub-sect of Dalits and was the president of Nakkalamuthanpatti village panchayat in Tirunelveli district, was done to death for the simple reason that he refused to oblige his own deputy, the "upper-caste" vice-president, by being the president "only on paper".

Then in small print:

... who included many elders from the predominant caste Hindu community of Vanniyars, were of no avail.

It may be noted that the Vanniyars are one of the dominant OBC castes in TN and the main support base behind our illustrious Hon'ble Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Shri Ramadoss. They want reservations.

I think The Hindu is involved in a systematic conspiracy to malign the good Hindus in India who want to live in peace and harmony with others. Moreover, they are in violation of trademark laws (as understood by our lawmakers with overwhelming consensus) by default. As far as I am concerned they could use any other name, Chinna Veedu, for instance.

Hope the concerned authorities take up this issue as soon as possible.

Give him a Pulitzer already!

Here is a hypotheses: encounter killings happen because of societal imbalances. True or false?

Well, India's most well known typist certainly thinks there is a connection. I thought encounter killings happen because of Modi.

Someone alleged (maliciously I am sure) that Dilip only writes about Gujarat. I was not so sure. Sifting through a huge blog is not my idea of a nice Sunday morning. So, our friendly Googleguys come to the rescue.

I searched on posts containing the word "Gujarat".
I searched on posts NOT containing the word "Gujarat".

The results are summarized in the above chart. Slice of pepperoni anyone?

RIP 3

This morning I was casually browsing the various socialist blogs. I clicked on ShivamVij.com, and voila! Is that a Mother's Day message?

LOL!

More.

No Child Left Behind: Tehelka Style

Textbook revisions remain a contentious issue in most "free" cultures. People realize that school students are a captive audience. Catch 'em young, you got a vote bank. Costs much less than an election campaign. Much better when the Government foots the bill.

In the United States, there is a procedure for requesting changes to textbooks. Since this is the richest and most powerful nation on the earth, you would expect that phonies and ideologues have no chance of getting malicious changes approved. It so happened that some Hindus (citizens of United States) wanted some changes made to California textbooks. Most of the changes were denied, certain stuff like "monkey God" etc. were removed. Minor issue, right?

Well, our folks at Tehelka had their panties in a bunch over this matter. A matter of another sovereign country (a much better Governed one at that), and these idiots were acting like Christ was being crucified again.

Fast forward a few years. Now the people friendly Government is in power. Naturally all textbook revisions are suitably rolled back and then some. Please check out the current NCERT texts which describe Indira Gandhi as the benevolent charismatic leader who worked hard to alleviate poverty and bravely fought to liberate Bangladesh. The less said about the Economics and Social Sciences texts, the better.

So, what are our friendly enlightened secular guys up to these days? Check out a sample paragraph from the Tehelka Foundation:

With one’s defenses down, we begin to play….we laugh together, fight one another, challenge everything….as we learn…..about the concept of “Be-ing” versus “Acting”, about visualization as a Tool of receiving energies – of a character, a script, a space….And as we drop our masks for the group to see our vulnerability, we venture into territory we had never explored before…..We discover the Power of Choice – My choice.

If this does not sound cultist to you, I don't know what will.

Meditation for us, is a State of Being – a state of Relaxed Alertness.It is not an activity about concentration, or about denial of the outside world.Its about Letting Go..

The above is for the consumption of 12-year old kids. Their young vulnerable minds are subjected to various hypnosis techniques to enliven them to receive a specific message.

I made a graphics of the site's "mission" statement. This is an edited version, the real one is here.


You can imagine the furor if BJP or RSS made a move like this to recruit cadets from the grassroots level.

After the highly successful Tehelka Education Summit, which featured Shri Arjun Singh, Hon'ble Minister of Human Resource Development as chief guest and which was endorsed by UNESCO, Tehelka has now set its eyes on bigger things.

Tehelka Foundation is joined by an assorted list of NGOs, all tax exempt and feature high society people as their promoters. They will inflitrate all schools in the country. Kids who do not join their network will be marginalized. Those who join this scheme will get strong experience letters for social work such as this. Letters that will prove to be critical for admission to foreign schools. Note the point under strategy: The network becomes larger and stronger each year. This is not a strategy and looks out of place. This is what their vision is.

Before you know it, Tehelka will become the official spokesperson of the Government - India's one stop window to the world.

Hope they had a Prenup

It didn't take Congress anytime at all before jumping into the bed with the Commies. After the reservation gambit and initial signs of public support, they perhaps thought they could say triple talaq and get rid of the lefties. They are the ones who pushed for SEZs, but as soon as things started to get hot, they tried pulling the rug from under the Left.

Well, I guess only time will tell but hope they are not left high and dry like J.K. Rowling's husband.

Do you like Tandoori Chicken?

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the death sentence on former Congress leader Sushil Sharma, who was convicted in the sensational tandoor murder case.

A Bench of Justices S B Sinha and Markandey Katju, while admitting the appeal filed by Sharma, who killed his wife Naina Sahni in 1995, referred the matter to a three-judge Bench for further hearing.

I urge you to forego Tandoori chicken for at least a week, in protest against these political figures getting off too easy even after committing gruesome crimes.


I kinda lost my appetite.

A sliver of hope - from France

In his well-researched book America Alone: The End of The World As We know it, Mark Steyn presents a very stark future for Europe. Stark indeed, since for the last few years, the most popular baby name in all major European cities was Mohammed.

India or China will not face this problem anytime soon since we have a pretty healthy birth rate in non-Muslim population. But if the current status quo continues, Many Western European countries will have a majority Muslim population within the next few decades, even sooner.

You can try this thought experiment: suppose India's Muslim and Hindu population gets switched (i.e. 13.6% Hindu and 80% Muslim etc.). What do you think is going to happen? Will we remain a democracy? Will we survive as a one big happy family? Will we remain a "secular" nation?

Among the Euro countries, the problem in France was particularly acute. A combination of socialism and Muslim appeasement led them to the current jam they are in. Unemployment soared to 8.7%, highest among Euro nations. The Muslim immigrants, mainly from Algeria and other assorted problem countries bring with them a host of social problems. The veil happened to be the most garden variety controversy, there were issues of honor killing and "tournante".

Then, there were the riots and car burnings. The issue was mostly played down by the socialist apologist Government. But Paris was burning.

Fortunately, France got a new leader, a conservative who can finally show some light. While he may not be able to avert the imminent demographic doom that Europe faces as a whole, he can at least slow it down and do the right thing when necessary.

So, how did the socialists in France embrace a democratic verdict?

Right after his victory, angry youths burned cars and clashed with police in several cities. Police reported Monday that 730 cars were burned and at least 592 people detained overnight across the country, while some 78 officers were injured.

On Monday night, several hundred people massed for a second night at the Place de la Bastille in Paris, breaking windows in shops and starting street fires. Riot police dispersed them.

We face such huge problems with a mere 13.6% of population, just imagine what those Europeans will have to face with a mother load of Muslims. This is a problem we can not ignore. With Islam gaining super power status, the whole power equation of the world will change. It will affect our lives in ways we can not even begin to imagine.

Are they blogging or working?

Recently there has been a huge uproar over encounter killings by cops. The case gets murkier and murkier. This is nothing new, except that depending on the political flavor of the day some of them are hailed as heroes (and sometimes even made protagonists of Bollywood movies) while the others derided as the scum of the earth. The truth remains that too many cops are on the take.

Some people suggest that poor pay and benefits lead cops into the arms of evil elements of the society. In any case, the common consensus appears to be that no matter what, if you are a Government employee, poor pay can not be an excuse for taking the law into your hands.

While it is quite easy to look down upon the acts (which are by definition heinous) of these cops , very few questions are raised about the extra-curricular activities of other Government officers.

A professor from a national institute blogs away in fury, on subjects that has nothing to do with what he teaches. He appears to make strong political statements. Nothing wrong with that. Except that he has more than one blog. And he also collaborates on several group blogs. And he also writes for national newspapers. And he blogs way more than some well-known career journalists in terms of both volume and frequency. And a lot of his blog posts appear at times when he should have been at work (for instance on Friday, May 4th, he posted at 9:12 AM, 1:33 PM, 1:42 PM and 6:06 PM).

One must wonder if all this blogging-shogging is being done on the professor's personal time. Are these blogs being created on computers that are public property? Are the TAs and doctoral students being used to do his political research? Do we have an ethical standard on these issues?

There is nothing wrong when professors take up assignments outside their academic life. For instance, IIM professors are allowed to take up consultancy assignments on the side. But when they actively participate in partisan politics, they are treading a very thin line and dangerously straddling their public and private lives. This is a sensitive matter, they have a captive audience of students who must keep the professor happy to get good grades. We feel that the HRD ministry should come up with a comprehensive and objective guideline to clear these issues.

The same thing used to apply to a certain female IAS officer. Her now defunct old blog often grew by several dozen entries per day. Her blog was testimony to the dozens of books, magazines and movies she consumed every week. She also wrote movie reviews and articles for several magazines. Yours truly made a ballpark estimate, unless the said IAS officer had no life then, her blogging must have penetrated deep into her public life and time, spent on taxpayers' money. Fortunately, she seems to have shifted gears now. A few entries every other day. Reasonable enough for someone who has an important day job.

As our country moves towards modernity and gradually destroys all the ills of religious fundamentalism, such as Hindutva, we must be ready to embrace the new ethical dilemmas. Web 2.0 is a great opportunity, a great leveler for the rich and the poor alike, but we mustn't allow Politics 2.0 hold it in ransom.

Are you feeling delusional?

A 16 year old girl.
Brutally raped.
For over three months.
By a cop.
By a Muslim (minority) cop. Assistant sub-inspector Mohammad Aalam
Who uses his service revolver to terrorize the family.
He fires in the air to drive away the family members.
All this in the people friendly state of Jharkhand.
Run by tribal leaders.
In a nation called India.
Jharkhand police chief J B Mahapatra has "sought details" of the case.
(Socialist Response: clap clap clap)

All Hindutva's fault? Modi to blame again? Oh, I get it, we must be sensitive to them and allow them to reform themselves. Till how long? After how many Hindu women are raped? After how many OBCs avail reservations?

Why is this not even reported by socialists? Why is a monster being allowed to destroy the AIIMS while our greatest self-styled Education expert remains silent? Meanwhile take a look at what the Monster's greatest fan says:

ALL MULTIPLE Choice Exams are biased against women in the same way all memory based exams (where marks depend also on the "presentation" of answers) are biased against men.

What? While the same self-styled Educationist makes a salvo of posts on IIT-JEE's alleged gender bias?

Then, get this, read this very slowly:

If more than one student had obtained the same marks, the following aspects will be taken into account to determine their seniority: percentage of marks in Mathematics; percentage of marks in Physics; percentage of marks in the elective subject; date of birth and random allotment of numbers.

Yeah, I am delusional, just not delusional enough to open the door to a socialist or a Muslim or an OBC or a Dalit without a gun in my hand, and no, I am not talking about the God given one.

Look who's writing your kid's textbooks

Here is a theme music to go with the Pic. Yeah, that's the creepy looking dude in the background.

It is a great tribute to the indefatigable Bezawada Wilson, and a small ego massage for me, that my short article about him in Tehelka has been reprinted by Oxford University Press (India) in a class VIII textbook on "Social and Political Life".

Sure you want your kids to read that book?

Flashback:

No Mr Confused, you are living under my dictatorship. My name is Adolf Hitler II. You are a Jew who will soon be exterminated. Don't Panic.

Want some candy?

Flashback:

Shoummo, while you're right that there's probably not enough news about rural India in our papers, I'm not so sure it requires the papers to actually have "rural reporters" on their staff. That Cal daily you're talking about, last time I checked some years ago (I used to get it at home here in Bom) did make an attempt to have some serious news, often about rural India. (And I promise you -- saying so has nothing to do with the fact that I won one of those rural reporting award a few years ago).

Who said this and where?

Single celled animals that were created by accidents of nature gradually evolved into the complex animals that we see today. For instance cows, donkeys etc. What caused this? Darwin explained it quite satisfactorily.

The biggest, baddest and meanest of 'em all outran dangers, outfought one another when food became scarce, mounted the most females and thus came to dominate the others. Something like that. Of course it is not so simple, it never is.

Human beings still remain a mystery. Especially our highly evolved social, emotional attributes and intelligence. We send rockets to the moon and write complex passages like the one quoted above while our next best cousin from the animal kingdom can merely do cutesy acts in a circus. What can explain this anomaly?

Richard Alexander provides a solution which is outlined in this paper. Pages 8 through 12 is just about what you need. These few pages allows a highly evolved specimen of the human species to invoke Machiavelli, Gujarat and Darfur in the same essay and get cheers from the socialist crowd. He gets his headline and a fair amount of content. Why bother with the rest?

The proposition is clear. We can be better human beings. We can stop competing so fiercely and be kind to one another. Everybody happy. The question is, if I play ball, who will guarantee that others will play ball too? I will drop my gun. Its just that I prefer you to drop yours first.

Update: It appears that we learned quite a few tricks hundreds of thousands of years before Machiavelli.

Nah, I'd rather be human

Read more here.

Johny mera naam

Why do I have a Déjà vu?

Mumbai municipal commissioner Johny Joseph was appointed as state chief secretary yesterday, superseding Jadhav and few other IAS officers who were senior to Joseph.

Gadkari admitted that seniority is not the sole criterion in chief secretary's selection, but lamented that Jadhav, "the seniormost, most performing" officer was sidelined in the process.

He also pointed out that Jadhav, apart from being a woman, also belonged to Scheduled Caste.

Not appointing Jadhav as Chief Secretary had exposed the "hypocrisy" of the Congress-NCP regime which claimed to be progressive, Gadkari said at a press conference here.

I suppose only a Christian Chief Secy can keep the recalcitrant Hindoos of Bombay in check. Just like another one did, decades ago. His son continues the crusade.

I don't have tags enabled on my blog, but here are a few possibilites:

Social Justice, Biases against women, Dalit and woman - double whammy, Hindutva, Minorities, feminists etc. etc.

Now in theatres

But the movie about the Dravidian icon, who preached rationalism, had to endure irrational objections from today's political parties.

The PMK started it all when they objected to actress Khushboo playing the role of Periyar's wife Maniyammai, a hangover from the PMK's agitation against her regarding her comments on pre-marital sex.

But despite all the troubles, the movie funded by the Tamil Nadu government has finally released, perhaps an effort to immortalise a man whose followers are today's decision makers.

Such a great leader that no producer was to be found and the Government had to foot the bill (will the TamBrahms get a tax break on this?). I guess sex is verboten for the rationalists too, just like it is for us Religious fundamentalists. Hmmmm.

Update: D'Souza & Co. goes totally biblical in a really weird post. Just replace the biblical references with Hindu scriptures and publish it on your blog. This dude will be sure to respond with just about the only word he knows, which is bullshit. Also take a very close look at this video. Then drink a glass cold water and reflect for a moment.