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Who can bear a 4 yr. old kid crying in the adjacent house in various styles at small intervals of 15 or so minutes continuously for 16 hours for the most trivial reasons everyday?

I CAN!

So, watch out for the headline “22 yr. old psycho scratches himself to death” in the newspaper one of these days. I’m giving up. The kid wins.

Each time a BJP government announces a rewriting of school history books, self acclaimed intellectuals wail and rant about the “demise of secularism” in India. But hey, this is the “secular” CPI(M). So what if they too are a political party rewriting history, which is a job of scholars and not politicians inebriated by an ancient and obsolete ideology? After all, the CPI(M) isnt the BJP representing those ancient, superstitious, irrational idolators called Hindus, are they? If BJP rewriting history is “saffronisation of history”, CPI(M) rewriting history is “rationalisation of history.” The supreme intellects and impeccable rationality of the Communists are well known. Wasnt it Karl Marx who introduced rationality to human beings?

Rediff reports:

To counter the official version of history, the Communist Party of India-Marxist has decided to trace the events from the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny to India’s independence through party organs like People’s Democracy.

The party, supporting the United Progressive Alliance coalition from outside, also asked the government on Sunday to take “corrective measures” to portray the people’s participation in the freedom struggle — ranging from the Battle of Plassey 250 years ago, the major peasant and tribal uprisings, the Indian National Army and the 1946 naval mutiny, senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters in New Delhi.

Launching the first special issue of People’s Democracy, its editor Yechury said the history of India’s freedom struggle was more relevant today than ever before.

“Like the British killed the two sons of the last emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and sent him to Burma to die, we now see US imperialism first killing the two sons and then president Saddam Hussein of Iraq. The manner in which these two incidents happened shows that the ruthless functioning of imperialism has not changed since then,” he said.

May I remind you, my good sir, that there is this country to our northeast called China which has illegally occupied Tibet? Why isnt your ire directed against this illegal occupation and the resulting genocide of the Tibetans? Because of that illegal and brutal occupation, an entire ethnic group had to abandon their homeland for millenia and flee to India. Why isnt your ire directed against China’s claims that Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin are all (and always have been) Chinese territory?

Referring to the 1857 revolt that was sparked by a struggle of the sepoys, he said even former British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli had accepted it to be a “national revolt and not merely a sepoy mutiny.”

Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party-Sangh Parivar for carrying out a “communal campaign against ‘Babar ke aulad’ (sons of Emperor Babar),” Yechury said Bahadur Shah Zafar belonged to Babar’s dynasty and claimed he was annointed the ruler of ‘Independent India’ at that time by none other than Jhansi’s queen Lakshmibai to fight the British.

From those last lines, I can already get an idea of the quality of history that they are going to deliver. So, it’s Jhansi Laxmibai who annointed Bahadur Shah Zafar as the “ruler of Independant India.” Cool. I hope they dont go on and say it was the Nizam of Hyderabad who annointed the British as the rulers of India. It is too rational.

Some idiot is killed thousands of miles away in West Asia and mobs of idiots go berserk in Bangalore, a place which has no relation whatsoever to what happened to that idiot. The Hindu reports:

Several people were injured, vehicles damaged, houses and shops ransacked during the violence that rocked Bharatinagar and surrounding areas in the city on Friday.

The police said the trouble erupted when a group of people marching towards Shivajinagar Stadium from K.G. Halli to attend a rally organised by the newly formed People’s Front to protest the execution of Saddam Hussein and “U.S. imperialism.” The processionists set on fire some banners on Seppings Road in Bharatinagar.

A group of people took objection to this which led to a clash. Those who were part of the procession started attacking houses, vehicles and shops with stones, the police said. The mob started burning vehicles parked on the road and throwing stones on Thimmaiah Road. Arsonists barged into a web-designing centre, damaged computers and set them on fire. The mob barged into several houses and shops, ransacked them and looted valuables.

Yes, of course, living in Bangalore, these people were also suffering the Satanic influence of U. S. imperialism somehow and the death of a mass murderer and brutal dictator bothered them so much that they had no choice but to attack houses, vehicles, shops, throw stones, burn computers (what kind of protest is burning computers?!)

“I opened the door when a woman who was being chased asked for help. The mob came inside my house, hit me and my two sons with sticks,” said a 55-year-old man, who is nursing a head injury in Lakeside Hospital. One of his sons received stitches on his head. A Central Government employee said he was chased and beaten with sticks.

Of course, that 55-year old man and his children also went to Iraq and collaborated with US forces in the invasion of Iraq. How dare they? Let’s break their goddamn heads!

“In order to quell the mob, a head constable fired three rounds in the air. Later, I used my service revolver and fired four rounds in the air. This did not control the situation and people started throwing stones at me and my men,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police (Fraser Town) Puttathimme Gowda.

Mr. Gowda, sub-inspector M. Malalingaiah, police constables Ratnakar and Siddaramaiah were injured in stone-throwing. V. Anand, another constable, was stabbed. In all, 20 persons who were injured have been admitted to a private hospital.

The police resorted to lathi-charge and burst teargas shells to disperse the mob. Later they opened fire in the air. According to Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Bipin Gopalakrishna several policemen were injured in the stone-throwing. Around 30 platoons of KSRP have been deployed in the area and senior officers are camping there.

According to the police, around 50 vehicles, including cars and police vehicles, were set on fire. The police rushed additional forces to the area. The situation was tense but under control.

Similar incidents were also reported from Thimmaiah Road, Narayana Pillai Street, Seppings Road.

The whole area was strewn with glass pieces, mangled vehicles and burnt tyres. The injured have been admitted to various hospitals.

[...]

So who is going to pay for the loss of private property? Why should we suffer if some mass murderer and brutal dictator is hanged to death somewhere thousands of miles away in West Asia? If you are so concerned about it and if it has lit a flame inside your butt, why dont you fuck off to Iraq and do your suicide bombing crap there?

I still dont understand why this isnt breaking news, if Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai getting engaged can be breaking news.

Ok. So America wants to fight terrorism. Its “friend and ally” in the East is Pakistan. It has supplied Pakistan with lots of weaponry in the last 6 years (it did before that too.) The reason often cited? To enable Pakistan fight terrorism. Like giving drugs to a drug addict to help overcome drug abuse.

My dear lay reader, here are some questions you should ponder about. Just use your common sense. That’s your greatest strength.

1. From when did terrorists begin using fighter jets?

2. Why is Pakistan supplied with advanced medium range air-to-air missiles and Sidewinder missiles when there are no aerial terrorist targets?

3. Which other enemy of Pakistan has an aerial attack capability, in other words, an Air Force?

Yes, I know you got the answer. There is a country towards Pakistan’s east, a country for which it has immense hatred. It is called India. The wily Americans know that.

So, the next time a terrorist attack or Kargil occurs in India, my dear lay reader, you’d do well to divert some blame towards the Americans besides Pakistan. It further confirms my theory that the world works upside down. Enemies become allies and friends. Pakistan, a supporter of and the global nerve centre of jihadi terrorism, becomes an ally and friend of the United States of America, who supposedly have a desire to end terrorism. And this ally wages a perpetual assymetrical war, which includes terrorism, against another US ally called India. Wah wah! Wah wah! That’s logical and straight aint it!

I’m baffled at how the issue has become an international one, with even the British Prime Minister and the Indian Finance Minister reacting and giving their comments. There are scores of articles on the Internet too.The Indian media (to their credit) were quite mature in their treatment of the issue, though some did sensationalize it. But some like Sagarika Ghose, Managing Editor of CNN-IBN (which repeatedly pats itself on the back saying it’s India’s best TV news channel), have managed to screw things up yet again.

She was hosting the show Face The Nation, with a very mature panel, including Lord Megnath Desai. The screwup begain with the question itself.

The question was “Are western and eastern cultures on a collision course?” Make your own conclusions. It’s like asking “Are South African and Indian cultures on a collision course?” on what Andre Nel did to Indian batsmen on their recent tour of South Africa. It’s absurd.

She asked if, after 9/11, cultural identity has become more important. One of the panelists answered well that these things did not start off with 9/11. The years before 2001 were not a time of great peace and harmony. Even before 9/11, relations between Muslims and the Western world were bitter. 9/11 was only one of the signs, though one which stands out, of the friction between these two cultures.

She also mentioned a childish, birdbrained, absurd comment made by Booker prize winner Kiran Desai that it was the “same kind of racist attitude that led to the invasion of Iraq.” That was an immensely silly comment which was not worthy of even a “Briefly” column article in a newspaper. (Maybe she’s following the Arundhati Roy creed. People belonging to this creed, once they get a Booker prize, brand themselves “intellectual.” Us ordinary mortals are supposed to revere them for their “enlightened thought.”)

The only sane question that was asked was if Indians have become oversensitive to such issues. Every comment that remotely insinuates to nationality is branded as racism and the issue is blown out of proportion. I feel people like the British Prime Minister make statements not because they’re really concerned but because they’ll create suspicion in the peoples’ minds if they dont make a statement.

As I said earlier, we should stop behaving like sissies when racism comes up. Instead of sitting and crying “racism mummy racism!”, we should give it back. Shilpa Shetty handled it reasonably well. She radiated strength but she could’ve added more venom. She’s not from a banana republic. She’s from an emerging economic and military superpower. She could’ve asked her to shut the fuck up. She could’ve asked her to have a look at her face in the mirror once and compare it with Shilpa’s. Shilpa could’ve reminded her that she’s just an ordinary woman belonging to the lower classes in the UK who has come to the show for her 15 seconds of fame and some money, and that Shilpa herself is a superstar with tens of millions of followers worldwide.

BBC reports:

E-mails claiming to contain details of the storms that battered Europe contain a malicious virus, security firms warn.

The e-mails with the subject line “230 dead as storm batters Europe”, can leave computers vulnerable to attack.

This happened during Katrina too in 2005. What is it that makes humans so inhuman?

Evadu kodithe dimma thirigi mind block aipothundo vaade SAP consultant!

Such joy!

Readers/bloggers Vigbert, Sharag Ragas, Ravi Kalaga and nonreaders/nonbloggers Gundreddy Praneeth Chandra Reddy, Boinepally Krishna Shravanth and Vishal Sagar are hereby urged to take special note of this movie so as to pick up techniques that can aid us in our future Sony Handycam moviemaking missions.

Found the video at Creative Shocker’s blog.

Advitiya has written an article, Homosexuality – a curse in India, in which she argues that homosexuality was prevalent in ancient India and society then was far more tolerant of it. In today’s India, that tolerance is rather hard to find and she discusses some excuses that Indians, who hold homosexuality in negative light, make and uses quotes from academics to buttress her arguments. It is a good article. It is true that homosexuality was prevalent during ancient times and that it is not something which has origins in the West alone. I started commenting on that article on her blog but I soon digressed and realized that it would make an article in itself. This article contains my views on homosexuality vis-a-vis India and how I feel this “crisis” (if it is one) should be solved.

Is homosexuality a curse in India? It has little to do with India, Indian society or Indian religion. Nor does it have much to do with Abrahamic religion, though certain quotes from religious books are used to persecute homosexuals. It is something that is taboo all over the world. It has more to do with human nature. Human beings naturally tend to be fearful of things that dont fit their definition of reality or nature. This is true of both heterosexuals and homosexuals. Some heterosexuals do discriminate against homosexuals but heterosexuals discriminating against homosexuals is not the end of the story. By accident, I sometimes stumble upon some Orkut profiles of girls (whose sexual orientation is displayed as “lesbian”) which specifically and bluntly ask boys to stay away. I guess it’s the same for homosexuals who are male. Homosexuals have relatively lower tolerance levels for heterosexuals.

Unfair

Therefore, I think routinely portraying heterosexuals as a bunch of intolerant demons bent on persecuting homosexuals and obliterating them from the planet is rather unfair. If that’s the reasoning, then it applies to homosexuals as well, I mean those who discriminate against heterosexuals. Some constantly make victims out of themselves and go about holding the heterosexual majority responsible for their problems. Most of the time, you see them talking in a disparaging manner against the heterosexual majority. Words like “intolerance”, “illiberalism”, “hypocrites”, “uncivilized” etc. are constantly thrown in to make it look more high funda and to give some “intellectual” touch to it.

The law

One of the grievances of the homosexual side is quite genuine. The law that makes homosexuality a punishable offence should be repealed or modified. It is too old and leaves too much power of interpretation in the hands of the police officer concerned. We know what that results in. One of the routine complaints from homosexual couples is that they are harassed by the police. We need to remove or modify the law that gives the police the power to do so. (We should note, however, that heterosexual couples are also harassed by the police and it’s not something that is limited to homosexuals or homosexuality.)

But I dont think we should legalize homosexuality. It doesnt make sense. We dont have specific laws that legalize heterosexuality, going to school and driving cars. Fair game, I mean :) We can have a law on the lines of Prevention of Atrocities Against SC/STs to prevent discrimination of homosexuals in society, at the work place etc. but I dont think we should go beyond it and have a proactive law which says “Homosexuality is hereby legalized. So, you may go ahead and be a homosexual.” Homosexuality is, after all, a sexual orientation and not a profession, like prostitution or bar dancing, to be legalized.

Debate alone is the solution

The only way to a solution is open debate. One cannot come to a debate with an agenda, which has more to do with vilification of the heterosexual majority which is in turn aimed at an increase in popularity in the Page 3 cult, and less to do with debate. In a debate, the two parties debate and then conclude but unfortunately what we find often is that those who support homosexuality (and this is true of some of those on the other side as well) come to the debate with their minds already concluded. The media (selfrighteous hosts like Burkha Dutt and Sagarika Ghose) join in the slugfest with their own prejudices and desire to be seen as part of the “intellectual elite”, and the debate quickly denerates into a defence of opinions rather than the evolution of the same leading to a conclusion. Instead of the two armies coming out onto the battlefield and settling it out, they stay in their respective forts and go about building stronger and taller walls, competing with each other in the height and strength of those walls. This doesnt solve problems but only increases the distance between the two sides. The only people who make profit out of this are TV news channels.

A change in attitudes is necessary. The heterosexual side needs to realize that homosexuality is not entirely lust, that it exists, that they cannot just wish it away, that they need to live with it and the homosexual side needs to accept that there is something called human nature, be more openminded, understanding, less rebellious and peevish.

Once, we thought making profit is immoral. That perception was demolished (minimized, atleast) through debate. We need more debate on homosexuality in India.

That’s what Herscelle Gibbs of South Africa uttered on the field and he’s in a lot of trouble for it. He already got banned for two Tests. But all those Pakis in the crowd who got at the South Africans should also be punsihed.

Video:

Instead of sitting and crying “racism mummy racism!” like kids everytime someone says anything derogatory about Pakis or Indians, we should give it back, in the same tone, and preferably spiced up with some good ol’ desi masala. Remember what Sreesanth did? That’s the way to go. Fire with a big demoralising sixer straight over the bowler and then rub it in with some tribal dance. Sachin, Rahul handle it very well, with their bats. Laxman handles it with that win-all smile. The best person who can handle these guys is Dada and he’s way ahead of everybody else!

When someone fires at you, you just fire back. You dont sit and think about decency, Bharatiya Samskriti, nonviolence and peace, do you?

Fire back!

An undercover reporter from British TV channel, Channel 4, has done a daring covert operation “Undercover Mosque” bringing to light what is being taught in some British mosques.

A Dispatches reporter attends mosques run by organisations whose public faces are presented as moderate and finds preachers condemning integration into British society, condemning democracy and praising the Taliban for killing British soldiers.

The disturbing footage was aired yesterday. Video clips of it are already out on YouTube. I’m posting them here. People need to watch them. There was one line saying “We should blow up the Indian businesses”; so it is important for Indians as well. I think this is the first of its kind. We only hear and read of ignorance and bigotry being taught in some mosques and madrassas with links to the Wahhabi sect but this must be the first time we’re getting a peek inside literally.

Some spicy picks:

“Allah has created the woman, even if she gets a Ph. D., deficient. Her intellect is incomplete, deficient, she may be suffering from hormones that will make her emotional. It takes two witnesses of a woman to equal the one witness of the man.”

“By the age of 10, it becomes an obligation on us to force her to wear hijab and if she doesnt wear hijab, we hit her.”

“The Prophet Muhammad, practically outlined the rules regarding marriage prior to puberty. With this practice, he clarified what is permissible and that is why we shouldnt have any issues about an older man marrying a younger woman, which is looked down upon by this society today. But we know that the Prophet Muhammad practised it. It wasnt abuse or exploitation. It was marriage.”

“Do you practice homosexuality with men? Take that homosexual man and throw him off the mountain!”

“The peak, the pinnacle, the crest, the highest point, the pivot, the summit… of Islam… is jihad.”

“Put in their (childrens’) soft tender hearts the zeal of jihad and the love of martyrdom.”

“I dont believe them because they are kuffar and lying is part of their religion.”

“You must live like a state within a state. Until you take over.”

“No one loves the kuffar. No one loves the kuffar! Not a single person here from Muslims loves the kuffar.”

“Muslims shouldnt be satisfied with living in other than an Islamic state.”

“Whoever changes his religion from Islam to anything else… kill him in the Islamic state… if the Imam wants to crucify him, he should crucify him… the person is put up on the wood and he’s left there to bleed to death for three days.”

“Verily Allah is going to bring a group of people that he loves and they love him. These people will be soft and kind to the believers and they will be rough and tough against the kuffar. They will fight in the cause of Allah. I encourage all of you to be amongst them, to begin to cultivate ourselves for the time that is fastly approaching where the tables are going to turn. And the Muslims are going to be in a position of being uppermost in strength and when that happens, people wont get killed, unjustly.”

“What is sad to see is that, for many parents, they send their children to the kuffar school. They allow them to mix with the kuffar so that the lifestyle and the beliefs of the kuffar become deep rooted in the hearts of the kids.”

All this is plain ignorance, hatred and intolerance. Look at the stuff – “Allah has created the woman deficient”; “No one loves the kuffar”; “Lying is part of their (kuffars’) religion.” All ignorant nonsense intended to brainwash the gullible into joining the global Islamist terrorist movement. One thing common to all these words is – hatred against the non-Muslim (kuffar.)

This should ring alarm bells in any society. Children also visit these mosques and hating kuffars is not what they should be taught at their age. The reporter has also found CDs and DVDs containing extremist speech being sold all over the UK. I wonder what the response of the British Government will be or will there any response at all. Will they decree that all mosques should be open to scrutiny (in other words, within the reach of law) or will the mosques continue to allow hate speech against non-Muslims that will ultimately lead towards acts such as the July 7 London Bombings?

Part-I:

Part-II:

Part-III:

Update:

Youtube seems to have screwed around with the original links. The above videos dont work anymore.

The videos are still available. Here:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Watch videos at Vodpod and other videos from this collection.

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