Pashupatinath

Interesting piece of news. The new Nepal government has decreed that the diety in the Pashupatinath temple would be worshipped by Nepali priests thus ending an era of Indian priests officiating.

One of my Sanskrit teachers in school, Mr. Rama Kantha Prakash (called RKP) used to be a priest there. Wonder if hes part of the evicted regime!!! Hope he's doing well

The worst energy drink ever

This company called Goldwin Healthcare Pvt Ltd manufactures this energy drink called Cloud 9 whose attributes are described in this landing page. 

If this is an energy drink, I only have to say as Eric Cartman says, "Piss in my arse"

And Cloud 9, no way you can be a competitor to dear old Red Bull. You taste YUCKKKKKKK!!!!!!

Dravid and Dhoni in the same spot

Read this article in the Times of India, when Dravid went for safety first against England at the Oval and hence secured the series 1-0. Newspapers like ToI and vulgar, crap channels like India TV, Aaj Tak went overboard denouncing him as a coward/gutless chap who was an old timer etc. 

I am eagerly awaiting Times of India's edition tomorrow to see whether they castigate their darling Dhoni after today's safety-first approach against England.

My take on the incidents is this - winning the series in terms of cold hard statistics is much more valued than having adrenalin rushes and trying to impress "Gen Next" reporters who have a fetish for 20-20 and can't appreciate nuanced, strategic games. Of course, everyone would welcome a result, but if your gut does not give you the good vibes you better not take the risk.

Proud to be an "old-timer"!!! :D

Historical Arguments

I found this article dripping with sarcasm. Courtesy for the article goes to Churumuri.

I see it as a classic historian vs economist battle. One that should be part of studies such as religion vs science; atheist vs believer; rationalism vs superstition etc.

Ashok Desai relies on facts penned down in historical classics such as Ab'ul Fazl's Ain-I-Akbari to make some sort of comparison between the wages of Mughal times versus the wages of the 1960s. (Turns out the Mughal wages were higher)

In response, Irfan Habib and his research scholar Shireen Moosvi provide a historical rebuttal to Mr. Desai's analysis with a Marxist backdrop that exploitation was the tendency of the rulers and hence wages had to be lower in the Mughal times. Now, that the Marxist revolution has come and gone, people are being paid better.

Its a fascinating argument - the manner in which metals are compared to modern day currency; how interpretations are made about the manner of life in the past etc

More of these please!!!

Comments on candle light vigils/government bashing/sloganeering

The past week has gone by in a haze. Mumbai was brutally attacked by armed terrorists and it took the combined might of the Mumbai police, the Navy commandos called 'Marcos' and the NSG more than 48 hours to quell the troublemakers and sanitize the occupied areas. 

The incident has claimed the posts of the Union and the Maharashtra home ministers with the Maharashtra CM too expected to be shown the door in a few days time at the most. Civil society has been outraged and important people have spoken out in anger.

If one were to make a few observations about the incident they would be as follows:

1. This should have been a problem handled by the Mumbai police themselves. This is a recurring problem - that of depending on central forces to bail out the situation everytime. Even the Konanakunte incident (that of the Sivarasan vs Karnataka police) fame needed the arrival of an STF team from Nagpur.

2. OK, the central forces were called in, but the time that the NSG took to step in was inordinately long. 

3. The media clearly went overboard in reporting even details which should have been kept confidential. The media should be cordoned off in a separate enclosure to prevent sensationalism.

4. The citizens voiced their anger, held candle light protests, wrote blogs etc. All fine, but practically speaking, what can we do?

1. Can we ask for information about security apparatus through RTI? It is most certainly going to be turned down with security concerns being voiced... and rightly so.. if we can glean info, so can the sensational media and terrorists
2. Can we get trained for dealing with such scenarios? Thats a possibility... We should look at establishing some sort of training to be given to citizens to deal with emergencies.. not to panic/ try to take out the offender if the chance arises etc. Some sort of a semi-defense training which is compulsory for all.
3. To do (2) we would need a national database complete with social security numbers. How about preparing one?
4. Please equip our forces, right from the beat cop. Else we would be running around in circles!!!
5. Vote in elections and make sure you vote based on rational and logical thought process.
   

Small steps, but need to be taken :-)