varnam

Imagine you are driving peacefully on your Ford on Highway 101. There is the mandatory accident at Marsh Road exit and someone driving a Chevy Tahoe at 55 miles/hr on the left lane blocking your view of not just the road ahead, but also of the sun. Then there is that someone driving a 1900 Toyota Corolla thinking it is a Ferrari weaving across lanes, you know, the usual stuff. Your car halts abruptly, brings a window on the display and informs you that it has downloaded the latest updates and the machine needs a reboot to proceed. Of course, this is an exaggeration, but some version of this is soon possible as Ford is planning to install an in-vehicle operating system developed by Microsoft in Focus and Five Hundred sedans.

The Dearborn, Mich., auto maker will unveil next month a hands-free Bluetooth wireless system and in-vehicle operating system developed by Microsoft that will eventually be an option for its entire Ford brand lineup, according to people familiar with the matter. The new system, to be dubbed Sync, will allow for hands-free cellphone communication and other wireless information transfers inside the car, including the ability to receive email and download music, these people said.

Sync is based on Microsoft's automotive operating system that has been under development in recent years by the company's Windows Automotive division, which in 2004 struck a broad development deal with Fiat related to in-car computing. A person close to Microsoft said the company has turned in a spotty performance when it comes to Bluetooth technologies and that the Ford deal could help spur Microsoft's efforts. [Ford Aims to Jazz Up Its Fleet With Microsoft Pact (subscription reqd.)]

From now, to comment on varnam you will need an Open ID (thanks Saravanan). Here is a screencast which explains what it is and the benefits of having one.

Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Robert D. Kaplan, Vintage edition (November 27, 2001), 304 pages

Most people think that the decline of Afghanistan started with the Soviet invasion in December 1979, but it was not the case. On April 27, 1978, Nur Mohammed Taraki, a self-declared Marxist came to power in a coup. Following examples showed by illustrious Communists like Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot, they executed 27,000 political prisoners in the Pul-i-Charki prison located six miles east of Kabul. They enforced land reforms and extended secular education to the villages, but the way it was done was so brutal that even the Soviets were alarmed. The mujahidin revolt  and the refugee exodus to Pakistan was triggered  by this Communist land reform and was the first instance of organized repression in Afghanistan's history according to Robert Kaplan.

Kaplan, who is currently the editor of Atlantic Monthly wrote the book by traveling with the Mujahidin into Afghanistan in the 1980s while they were fighting against the Soviet Army. This war largely went unreported according to him. None of the American TV networks had a bureau for the war in which the Communists killed 1.3 million people which is more than the deaths in the Iran-Iraq war and ten times the number killed in Lebanon in all years of civil conflict there. Kaplan quotes a Swedish nurse who lived through some fierce fighting in north Afghanistan saying that every day in her short-wave radio she would hear about people killed in South Africa, Lebanon and Sri Lanka, but there was no mention of Afghanistan.

It was not easy for Kaplan to cover this war as well. While on jeep between Quetta and Khandahar driving in a desert  he hears the drone of a Soviet aircraft. Kaplan panics and asks his driver about it. The driver without any signs of nervousness says that the plane is an Antonov transporting troops and they don't bomb. As they reach the Arghandab River Valley, he meets Ismael Gailani, a commander while mortars are raining all around. One of the mortars land about a hundred feet away throwing dust into his tea. All this time the Mujahidin sat around him relaxed, smiling and impassive.

The Wall Street Journal writes on the new comic books created by Richard Branson's Virgin Group, Deepak Chopra, and Shekhar Kapur

It's a key scene in "Devi," a new comic book that's part of an ambitious effort by a unit of Richard Branson's Virgin Group Ltd. to develop story lines based on Indian religion and mythology. Others take inspiration from the Sanskrit epic poem Ramayana and traditional legends such as one involving snakes that can take human form.

The company, Virgin Comics LLC, has also teamed to develop other story lines with a broad range of individuals, including John Woo, director of "Mission: Impossible 2," and Guy Ritchie, the film director. In November actor Nicolas Cage agreed to star in a movie based on one of the new comics, "The Sadhu" -- which describes the adventures of a British man who discovers he was a sadhu (Hindu holy man) in a previous life. Deepak Chopra, the author of self-help books, will write the screenplay.

The goal: Capitalize on the current vogue for all things Indian as well as the success of Asian comics in the West in recent years.[Holy Heroes of Indian Lore, Batman!]

According to the Aryan Invasion/Migration theory folks, Aryans came to India sometime between 1500 - 1200 BCE and then composed the Vedas. In the book In Search of the Cradle of Civilization, Georg Fuerstein, Subhash Kak and David Frawley demolish this theory and suggest that the Vedic people were residents of the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.

The authors argue that the people of Harappa were Vedic Aryans who had reached India a long time back. Indo-European speakers are now thought to have been present in Anatolia at the beginning of the Neolithic age. Migrations would have happened during the Harappan times as well, but the new immigrants would have found a prominent Sanskrit speaking Vedic people in Harappa. It is possible that the Vedic people walked on the streets of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa and even possibly Mehrgarh and they did not come as conquerors or destroyers from outside India, but lived and even built the cities in the Land of Seven Rivers.[Book Review: In Search of the Cradle of Civilization]

Kenoyer said modern archaeological findings do not support the idea of an Aryan 'invasion,' but show that Vedic people were among those who lived in cities such as Mohenjo Daro in Sindh and Harappa in Punjab towards the end of the Indus civilization, which stretched between 7,000 BC and 1,900 BC. "These were sophisticated cities with wide roads, gates designed to keep intruders out and where those coming in or going out of the city with goods could be taxed. There was a water supply and proper drains. It was only when the Saraswati dried up and Mohenjo Daro and Harappa became overpopulated because other cities lost their water supply that the cities declined,'' said Kenoyer, comparing that period with the fate of cities such as Amritsar and Lahore at the time of Partition. As many as 50,000 people may have lived in Harappa at certain periods and the people of the Indus civilisation formed ethnic groups, said Kenoyer, citing figurines showing seals with symbols such as the buffalo or unicorn to represent different ethnic groups. The unicorn symbol was invented by the Indus people, and spread to Europe centuries later via Mesopotamia and Near East, he said.

There was no single ruler in these cities. We've found no palace. Instead, there seems to have been a republic in which a group of elders ruled," said Kenoyer.

What was earlier believed by archaeologists to be a grain store in Harappa now seems likely to have been a textile weaving centre, and fine cloth from the area was exported far away, he said.[Harappa was like any other metro: US prof]

In 2003, during the Kumbh Mela in Nasik 39 pilgrims were killed and 59 injured. In 2005 there was a stampede among a large number of Hindu worshippers on their way to to the Mandhara Devi shrine near Mumbai and 258 people were killed. This stampede is a big problem in Saudi Arabia too and in Janurary last year 345 pilgrims were killed as pilgrims rushed to complete the stoning ritual. To prevent this from happening again, the Saudis have enforced certain rules for crowd control which can be used by us as well.

A Saudi team recently returned from a crowd management workshop in Munich where they learned how to apply German experience in managing the tens of thousands of soccer fans during the last World Cup to the crowds of pilgrims at Jamrat. “We’ll apply what we have learned from Germany at Jamarat during this Haj season,” said Dr. Fadhil Othman of the Haj Research Institute, who participated in the workshop. The Saudi team watched how the Germans controlled large crowds of soccer fans rushing to an area of television screens to watch World Cup matches.

Police stopped people going to the area when 75 percent capacity was reached. They also made sure that there was adequate space in between people to move around freely without any pushing or pulling. “Another important thing we learned is that pilgrims should move in one direction and nobody should be allowed to move in the opposite direction,” he said while speaking about Jamrat crowd control strategy. [Advanced Strategy Adopted for Jamarat Crowd Control]

From nytimes.com:  An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists

They said their findings showed that the inscriptions related to lunar-solar motions and the gears were a mechanical representation of the irregularities of the Moon’s orbital course across the sky, as theorized by the astronomer Hipparchos. They established the date of the mechanism at 150-100 B.C.

The Roman ship carrying the artifacts sank off the island of Antikythera around 65 B.C. Some evidence suggests that the ship had sailed from Rhodes. The researchers speculated that Hipparchos, who lived on Rhodes, might have had a hand in designing the device.

The mechanism, presumably used in preparing calendars for seasons of planting and harvesting and fixing religious festivals, had at least 30, possibly 37, hand-cut bronze gear-wheels, the researchers reported. An ingenious pin-and-slot device connecting two gear-wheels induced variations in the representation of lunar motions according to the Hipparchos model of the Moon’s elliptical orbit around Earth.

The functions of the mechanism were determined by the numbers of teeth in the gears. The 53-tooth count of certain gears, the researchers said, was “powerful confirmation of our proposed model of Hipparchos’ lunar theory.”

The detailed imaging revealed more than twice as many inscriptions as had been recognized from earlier examinations. Some of these appeared to relate to planetary as well as lunar motions. Perhaps, the researchers said, the mechanism also had gearings to predict the positions of known planets.

A photo of this device can be seen here

The Places In Between by Rory Stewart, Harvest Books (May 8, 2006), 320 pages

Travelogues are  interesting when they have an angle to it. For example Bruce Feiler's Walking the Bible is a journey from Egypt to Jerusalem along the path followed by Moses. Chasing Che is a motorcycle trip along the route that Che Guevera took. Jaya Ganga: In Search of the River Goddess is travel from the origins to the end of river Ganga, Chasing the monsoon is a journey of a man following the path of monsoons in India and Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud by Shuyun Sun  follows the path taken by Huen Tsang, the Chinese pilgrim who toured India during in the 7th century.

All those writers had a peaceful journey and most of their interesting narrative comes when they meet very interesting people on the road. Compared to them, Rory Stewart did not have it easy. For one he decided to walk from Herat to Kabul in January when it was still snowing in the mountains and second it was the January of 2002 when it was still not safe for anyone to walk through Afghanistan. With his knowledge of the language, customs, and sometimes pure luck, he survives and writes one of the best travelogues I have read.

He decided to take the central route through Afghanistan because it was shorter and the Taliban were still fighting in the southern route, not because he wanted to follow the path of any historical person. As he finalized the trip, he discovered that Zāhir ud-Dīn Mohammad aka Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire had also walked along the same route in January, five hundred year back, and had recorded his journey in his diary. Armed with Babur's diary, Stewart sets of on foot ignoring warnings by Afghanis themselves.

After warning him that he is guaranteed to be killed during this trip, the security service in Herat  gives him two armed body guards Qasim and Abdul Haq who walk with him for many days before turning back. From that point Stewart makes use of the Afghan hospitality in which the village chief or the tribal leader sends his son along with him to see him safely to the next village. Sometimes he walks alone, and for quite some part of the journey he walk along with Babur, a dog which was gifted to him in one of the villages.

Then as Stewart writes, "..never in my twenty-one months of travel did they attempt to kidnap or kill me. I was alone and a stranger, walking in very remote areas; I represented a culture that many of them hated and I was carrying enough money to save or at least transform their lives. I was indulged, fed, nursed and protected by people poorer, hungrier, sicker and more vulnerable than me". While he gets food and shelter in most villages, he finds that in some villages people are reluctant. Then he has to remind them of Afghan hospitality and that he is a guest in their country and most of the time it worked.

Just before he enters the Darai-e-Takht village located in a gorge of the Hari Rud River, he gets shot at. When he is resting in an inn, he is joined by a thirty year old commandant of Obey, Mustafa, who had shot at him a while back.  Mustafa it seems had shot at Stewart because Mustafa's cousin had bet that he couldn't hit Stewart. After listening to Stewart's story, Mustafa agrees to give him a letter of introduction and provide him with five armed men as honor guard.

Most of the people he meets have fought in some war, either against the Russians or for the Taliban or against the Taliban. An excellent anecdote comes in the chapter where he meets Seyyed Umar Khan in the village of Garmao and asks him why he became a Mujahid. "Because the Russian government stopped my women from wearing head scarves and confiscated my donkeys", he says. When asked why he fought against the Taliban he says, "Because they forced my women to wear burqas, not head scarves and stole my donkeys". As Kaplan mentioned in Soldiers of God, the Afghans want to be left alone.

He also meets quite a number of people, like members of the Hazara tribe who hate the Taliban for the the killings they did. In village of Gorak he meets the headman's son who shows him a copy of Koran which was burned when the Taliban burned their house. When asked to recollect the names and number of people who were murdered by the Taliban, they are not able to for the only thing they cared about was the Koran. As he walks through the Shaidan pass he realizes that it is a ghost town where the Taliban had killed about eighty men in the bazaar. Stewart also meets a Taliban commander in Wardak who asks him if Stewart thinks Usama bin Laden or George Bush is better and if he is a Muslim. Using his wits, he survives the interrogation.

In Bamiyan he climbs up the destroyed statues of the Buddha and sees that the Taliban had torched the interior of rooms to destroy some frescoes and had boot stamps on ceilings which were twenty feet high. Stewart notes that Buddhism was weakened by the Hindu revival in the first millennium and was extinguished by Islam. Then the Taliban destroyed even traces of it.

Even though Stewart sees pictures of Hritik Roshan in Herat  and buxom Bollywood actresses in Kabul, there is one thing in which the Afghans will disagree with the Indians. The question is who owns the Koh-i-Noor? In the village of Dideros, a fat old man asks Stewart when the English are going to return the diamond to them. After Babur acquired it in Delhi, it passed hands from Humayun to Shah Jahan. In 1739 Nadir Shah, the ruler of Iran got it from Shah Jahan's heir and took it to Iran across Afghanistan. Nadir's son gave it to Ahmed Shah Durrani, the founder of modern Afghanistan who kept it in his capital in Khandahar and hence the Afghans think that the diamond is theirs.

Most of the people whom he met were illiterate villagers who did not have electricity or television. They knew very little about the outside world and the only thing that connected them to rest of the world was Islam. Even the rights of women varied from region to region. In some villages he never gets to see any women publicly whereas in some villages women talk to him. Even political power mean different things in different regions. Some people wanted a feudal lord and some hated a centralized government. In some places violence had been inflicted by the Taliban and in some places the villagers had inflicted it on themselves.

Filled with anecdotes, excellent footnotes and drawings Stewart did on his journey, this book is a wonderful read. Once you read Kaplan's book followed by Stewart's, you will get a good idea about the politics and people of Afghanistan.

Indian Express: To bring to surface Dwarka’s past, ASI to dig in deep & in the deeps

IT has long beckoned pilgrims and researchers alike, and is believed to have been a thriving port once. Now, to bring submerged Dwarka’s past to the surface, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and an Indian Navy team are planning to not only go down into the ocean’s deeps, but also dig along the shore and land. The excavation operations, which were launched at a site opposite Dwarkadheesh Temple on Monday, are the first on such magnitude undertaken by the ASI at the site.

‘We have begun excavations in a small area, measuring 5x5 opposite Dwarkadheesh temple. This was the only open site available adjacent to the main temple. The excavations near Dwarkadheesh will be followed by similar operations at Gomti Ghat and along the sea shore. Undersea excavation, to be undertaken by the team from Indian Navy, will begin on January 7,’’ said Tripathi. ‘‘The site earmarked for undersea excavation is some 500 km from the ashore. The excavation will be conducted at a depth of 3-15 m. This will be a time-consuming process. Initial results will dictate how much time will be requires for conclusive research,’’ he added.

‘‘The ASI plans to take up research with a different perspective, while keeping in mind earlier findings. Post-excavation, we will involve a range of experts to analyse the findings of our 20-member team,’’ said Tripathi.

See Also: Where is Krishna's Dwaraka?, More on Dwaraka

A part of a Buddhism sutra was found inside one of the two giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, providing a hint for unveiling the mystery surrounding the creation of the statues, a Japanese news agency reported Sunday.

The fragment of the scripture was believed to be the original Sanskrit document, written with the letters often used in the 6th and 7th century, according to a Kyodo news dispatch from Kabul.

Although various scripts have been found inside Buddha statues in Japan, it was the first time a sutra was found inside an Afghan Buddha statue, Kyodo said. The script was written in "Gilgit/Bamiyan type one characters," which were used in a region that spread over what is now northern India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, Kyodo said.

The document was the beginning section of a sutra that spelled out the basic belief of Buddhism and said all things were mortal, Kyodo said. It was written on pieces of birch bark and wrapped in a piece of cloth with mud balls, which could have been symbols of Buddha bones, according to the researching team, Kyodo reported. [Secret sutra found in rubble of Bamiyan Buddha]

Last year a Buddhist residence was discovered by a Japanese team in Bamiyan and at that time I wrote

Archaeology has returned to Afghanistan in a big way. First there was the announcement regarding the Bactrian Gold.. Then there was constant news about the search for a third reclining Buddha in Bamiyan by Zemaryali Tarzi based on a note written by Huen Tsang. Now a Japanese archaeologist team has found some new structures in Bamiyan.

Besides this, the Japanese team also discovered Buddhist caves dating back to the eighth century about 120 KM west of Bamiyan, but when it comes discovering documents, this is not the first discovery in that region. Last year ancient documents, which for some reason is called Buddhism's Dead Sea Scrolls were found in Bamiyan. Actually there were found in 1996 and was smuggled out to Pakistan. Some of these manuscripts, the earliest of which were dated to 1st century AD were some of the oldest Buddhist manuscripts ever written. While the recently discovered sutra was written in Sanskrit, more earlier ones were written in a language called Gāndhārī.

"Before the discovery of these manuscripts, Gandhari was primarily known through coin legends and inscriptions which are highly formulaic and have a limited vocabulary," he said. "These manuscripts therefore substantially increase the corpus of documents in this language."

The Gandhari manuscripts are constructed of birch bark which becomes brittle with age, or palm leaf. A large number are damaged or fragmentary, and they are exceptionally difficult to read: there are no spaces between words and the spelling was never standardized. For example, the Sanskrit word dharma, meaning 'law' or 'teaching' may appear in Gandhari as dharma, darma, dhama, dhrama, or dhrarma. [Master of Gandhari sheds light on Buddhism]

Hindustan Times: ASI to carry out major excavations in Nalanda

According to Director (Exploration and Excavation) RS Fonia of ASI, "The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) gave us detailed satellite imagery of about 16 square kilometre area around the ancient site of Nalanda. Till date excavations have been carried out only in 1.5 sq km area."

"The satellite data helped us to understand the topography and structural remains around Nalanda and this year during August-September ASI carried out initial explorations leading to the discovery of a number of mounds in villages of Baragaon, Begampur, Machhardiha, Juafardih, Rukministhan,

Paparnausa, Jagdishpur, Sarichak, Kul, Bhadari, Nanana, as also remains of ancient sculptures, gates, pillars, potsherds of Red ware of medieval period," he said.

Fonia said, "Baragaon used to be part of the trade route to Nepal and Lhasa from eastern India to reach China and Central Asia."

History of Nalanda goes back to the days of Mahavira and Buddha in the sixth century BC. It was the place of birth and nirvana of Sariputra,one of the most famous disciples of Buddha.

See Also: Reconstructing Nalanda,  Along Huen Tsang's path, again

A 2000-year-old aesthetically carved sculpture of dancing Yakshas has been excavated from a famous Buddhist site in the State's Krishna district close to a National Highway that runs between Vijayawada and Hyderabad.
The fragmented sculpture on a stone slab measuring 15 x10 x5 cm had once adorned the roof of the Maha Stupa at Gummadi Durru in the district.
Giving details of the recent exploration at the site, he said that the sculpture depicts the Yakshas playing instruments and dancing.
"The garments and facial expressions of the Yakshas in the sculpture are akin to the Amaravathi school of Buddhist art," he said.
The site was first discovered during the excavation made by East India Company during British Raj and has been unapproachable till recently as it was covered with thick bushes and shrubs.
After cutting the thick forest strip embracing a hillock at the site, ASI has taken up the excavation work for the conservation of the antiques, Das said.[Sculpture of dancing Yakshas excavated in Hyderabad]

In Hinduism besides the pantheon of main Gods, there are a large number of lesser ones like the snake-spirits (Nagas) and earth-spirits (yakshas). Of these the Yakshas associated with Kubera and are considered friendly, but those of the female gender, the Yakshis, would sometimes have you for dinner. Some Yakshas are romantic, like the one who convinces a cloud to take a message to his wife in Kalidasas's Meghadūta, while some are quiz masters, like the one Yudhistira encountered near a lake.

From Hinduism, Buddhism too inherited the yakshas and they are the attendants of Vaiśravaṇa, a chief modeled like Kubera. One famous sculpture from the Mauryan era is that of the Didarganj Yaksi (pic). The stupa railings in Bharhut in Madhya Pradesh are carved with both yakshas and yakshis besides scenes from the Jataka tales.

See Also: Buddhist Art at Amaravati

The other day, Kerala High Court struck down certain provisions of Self Financing Professional Colleges Act enacted by the Communists. According to the court some of the provisions of the act were unconstitutional and would violate the fundamental rights of the petitioners.

The sections declared null and void include admission to professional self-financing colleges through a single entrance exam.

The government's power to decide the minority status of institutions providing reservation to SCs and STs and deciding fee structure have also been struck down.

This is a setback for the CPM led government, which had taken on the private professional college[Kerala HC slams private college's rule]

Delivering the verdict the court gave a lecture and said that such private colleges should be encouraged and the Government should stop interfering in their business. I though the court would send copies of Lexus and the Olive Tree to the Honorable Ministers, but it did not.

One man, Kerala School Teachers' Association (KSTA) general secretary A.K. Chandran went so far as to tell the High Court of Kerala that this was against the "spirit" of the constitution. Since the judiciary has turned down something you would think the natural course would be to appeal the decision till all options are exhausted. Then that would be very un-commie.  Public life has to be disrupted and some agitation has to be planned.

Terming the High Court Division Bench's judgment revoking certain key sections in the Kerala Professional Colleges Act "a verdict against the collective will of the people in the State," the Students Federation of India (SFI) State leaders have warned of an intense agitation on the issue.

SFI State secretary M. Swaraj and president P. Sindhu Joy said at a press conference here on Thursday that the SFI would organise student marches to the High Court and 13 district courts on January 15 to protest against the judgment, which, they alleged, favoured commercial interests in the education sector. [SFI plans agitation]

The idea of private businesses free from Government control must be more shocking to the Communists than Saddam's hanging. If this were China, then all this court business could have been avoided, but thankfully we live in a country where there is a sensible judiciary.

Sometimes civilizations die due to climate change. Sometimes civilizations arise due to climate change. According to research by Geologist Anil Gupta of IIT Kharagpur declining monsoons could have caused the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization and now it turns out that the Tang dynasty of China and the Mayans were also bought down by shifts in monsoon cycle.

The records show that around the time that these civilizations went into decline, they experienced stronger than average winds in the winter and weaker summer monsoon rains. These weak rains would have reduced crop yields.

The Mayan civilisation and Tang dynasty were contemporary and there is a striking similarity between the Chinese and Latin American climate data. These include a general shift towards a drier climate around AD 750 and three very dry periods between then and AD 910, the last of which coincides with both the Maya and the Tang collapse. [Collapse of civilisations linked to monsoon changes]

The Acorn recently had a post on the divergence of Persian and Indian cultures over values suggesting that Persians went for morals while Indians went for might. He quotes Rajesh Kochhar's observations on the similarities between Avesta,  the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism and Rig Veda. In this context it will be useful to see the relation between Avesta, Avestan, Rig-Veda, and dates of all of them.

The Backstory

In 1786, Sir William Jones, a British judge in Calcutta noticed that there were striking similarities in the vocabulary  and grammar of Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic and Gothic. This discovery resulted in the creation of a new field called comparative linguistics which led scholars to believe that all these languages were derived from a pre-Indo-European language which had its origins somewhere in Northern Europe, Central Asia, Southern Russia or basically anywhere-but-India.

According to Romila Thapar, Indo-European speakers had central Asia as their habitat and gradually over many centuries they branched out in search of fresh pastures. According to her, it is these central Asian migrants who wrote the  Avesta in Iran and Rig-Veda in India. According to Thapar there is an argument that people who migrated to India were dissidents of the Old Iranian, hence you find a significant reversal of meaning in concepts common to both Avesta and Rig-Veda.

When the Islamic Courts Union took control of Somalia it was like a repeat of the Taliban taking over Afghanistan.  They did the usual things, like banning football and enforcing Sharia, but soon it became obvious that Somalia was becoming a terrorist state.

These men have seized power in a country that contains 17 operational terrorist training camps, as described in a confidential report prepared by the nongovernmental group Partners International Foundation in 2002. The claim in this report has been confirmed by a military intelligence source. Today, hundreds of terrorists from Afghan istan, Chechnya, Iraq, Pakistan, and the Arabian peninsula are said to be flocking to Somalia to train in or staff these camps. According to a military intelligence source, the camps provide training in the use of improvised explosive devices to counter Ethiopian vehicles.[A New Terrorist Haven]

Also came reports that al Qaeda was operating in Somalia and unlike 1993 the United States did not run away from fighting. In 1993 the American forces were sent into Mogadishu to capture two lieutenants of a Somali warlord. The raid was successful, but two Black Hawks were downed by the Somali militia and a battle at close range between the Americans and the Somali militia erupted.

Apparently in Quetta protected by the ISI according to a captured Taliban soldier.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has made similar allegations in the past.

However, Pakistan's interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, rejected the claim, saying "this is totally baseless".

"We have no information on the whereabouts of Mullah Omar. He is not living in Pakistan," he said, adding that the Afghan intelligence service had "made contradictory statements since the arrest of this so-called spokesman of Taliban".[Mullah Omar 'hiding in Pakistan']

Turns out this information is the same as that found in some secret U.S Military documents found by ABC News.

There was a study done some three years back on the effect of meditation on the brain and it was observed that during meditation the brains of monks showed increase in brain waves called gamma waves during compassion meditation. There is a new book called Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain by Sharon Begley which has more details on the research in this area.

The question asked by the Dalai Lama was "Can mind shape brain matter" and the answer provided by neuroscientists was that physical states give rise to mental states and not the other way around. Now there is evidence that it can happen the other way as well.

Prof. Davidson then used fMRI imaging to detect which regions of the monks' and novices' brains became active during compassion meditation. The brains of all the subjects showed activity in regions that monitor one's emotions, plan movements, and generate positive feelings such as happiness. Regions that keep track of what is self and what is other became quieter, as if during compassion meditation the subjects opened their minds and hearts to others.

More interesting were the differences between the monks and the novices. The monks had much greater activation in brain regions called the right insula and caudate, a network that underlies empathy and maternal love. They also had stronger connections from the frontal regions to the emotion regions, which is the pathway by which higher thought can control emotions.

In each case, monks with the most hours of meditation showed the most dramatic brain changes. That was a strong hint that mental training makes it easier for the brain to turn on circuits that underlie compassion and empathy.

"This positive state is a skill that can be trained," Prof. Davidson says. "Our findings clearly indicate that meditation can change the function of the brain in an enduring way."[How Thinking Can Change the Brain]

State of Denial by Bob Woodward, Simon & Schuster (September 30, 2006), 576 pages

Rumsfeld is a dick

Won't flow the forces we need

We will be too light

This was a haiku written by Steve Rotkoff, a senior military intelligence officer with 25 years in the Army very early after he was drafted for the Iraq war planning. Rotkoff was not alone with such assessment about the Defense Secretary. When asked about Rumsfeld, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Richard B. Meyers put both his hands on a small table and laid his head on it to express his frustration. At one point Rumsfeld stopped talking to National Security Advisor Condi Rice that the President has to step in.

Bob Woodward's third book in the Bush at War series talks about the arrogance of Rumsfeld, clueless nature of the the folks who managed the war and ends with the constant denial of facts by the President and Vice-President. The book was written based on interviews with Bush's national security team, key players in the administration responsible for military, diplomacy and intelligence. He talked to people in Defense, State and CIA including the Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld.

One thing I have always wondered is how the reaction against Sept 11 attacks transformed into a war against Iraq and who was responsible for it. Once again it turns out to be Rumsfeld. The day after the attacks, it was Rumsfeld who asked Bush on why they shouldn't go against Iraq as well. Rumsfeld was one person who thought that George H.W. Bush had screwed up badly by not going against Saddam in 1991. Initially George W. Bush puts him off, but later decides to go with the plan, 71 days after the 9/11 attacks.

A think tank consisting of Bernard Lewis,  Mark Palmer, Fareed Zakaria, Fouad Ajami and the likes were gathered secretly and they analyzed the middle east problem and concluded that a confrontation with Saddam was inevitable. The question then was on what pretext would the war be started and WMD looked like a natural choice. The top intelligence officer for the invading forces, James "Spider" Marks was given a list of 946 sites where intelligence had indicated there were production plants or storage facilities.

The only problem was that the list was outdated. David Kay, who went to Iraq as the inspector after the first Gulf war was sent this time as well and he found that there was no new information on this. Still this did not prevent the President and Vice-President from repeating again and again about the WMD threats to America and its allies. The search teams did not find any WMD and in one instance the "Scooter" Libby calls David Kay in Baghdad and gives him the co-ordinates to search.

Besides talking to a large number of people, Woodward has also reviewed secret documents and secure communication between the leadership in Washington and Baghdad. After analyzing all this information the book is written in such a way that it is a page turner and you get to know a lot about the personality clashes that happened.

George Tenet at the CIA was against the White House. Rumsfeld was against Jay Garner. Condi Rice could not stand Rumsfeld. Then there is a president who doesn't want to know any details and keeps on repeating that we will prevail. As you read those chapters, you are shocked to see the callousness with which this war was done.

When Jay Garner was replaced with Paul Bremmer and one of the first things he performed was de-Baathification. When he was dissolving the Ministry of Interior, Bremmer did not know that Police reported to ministry. Once that happened, the number of insurgent attacks increased exponentially. Then in a scene which seems inspired from Wag the Dog, President Bush asks Secretary Rice if they should approach Hollywood to prepare a propaganda campaign.

The number of people who grew frustrated with Rumsfeld were not just Condi Rice or the Generals. By Spring 2004, Paul Wolfowitz was frustrated  as he had been trying to get Rumsfeld to take on the training of Iraqi security forces and Rumsfeld was resisting it strongly. Even Laura Bush tells that she thought Rumsfeld was hurting the President.

There are some funny moments when Woodward reveals some secret conversation. After David Kay testifies before Congress blaming the NSC and Rice for the intelligence lapses, he gets a call from Robert Joseph, an NSC Staffer. "This conversation never took place", Joseph says when he meets Kay, but the whole thing is there in the book.

Reading the book you get the feel that two people could have stopped the war. One of them was Colin Powell, who was at his peak of influence when the war started. According to Senator Carl Levin of Michigan Powell could have told the President that this the wrong course. The other person was President George H.W.Bush. He and Barbara Bush knew this was wrong, but did not influence the President because they thought that it was not ethical and W should make his own decisions.

The last line reads, "With all Bush's upbeat talk and optimism, he had not told the American public the truth about what Iraq had become". Even though everything was going wrong in Iraq, the President and Vice-President  and Rumsfeld were in denial. The final chapter of the book is an eye opener when Rumsfeld claims that he is not directly responsible for the deaths in Iraq though he was a micromanager of this war. President Bush was not even willing to acknowledge the fact that no WMD was found.

This scathing critique of Bush and Co. is a must read.

The Hindu: Tallest Buddha statue coming up in Sarnath

``At least 20- 25 artisans are working on this statue for over three years.... it will take three to four more years to complete. Right now, we are through with the stomach, feet and the face. Two or three months will be taken for the finishing work,'' said Jyoti Singh Khushwaha, the contactor undertaking the construction of the statue.

Workers at the site said the statue would use over 635 blocks of sandstone and would be made in the Gandharva style, which laid great significance to it. The Buddha attained enlightenment at the age of 35 in Bodh Gaya in Bihar and finally departed from the world at the age of 80 in Kushinagar. Situated 10 kilometres away from Varanasi, Sarnath is the place where the Buddha is believed to have delivered his first sermon in 500 B.C. The place has a number of stupas (hemispherical domes) and monasteries. In the early days of Buddhism, stupas were built to honour important events including Buddha's enlightenment

I hope he meant Gandhara style.

It was on  March 3rd, 1924 that Kemal Ataturk abolished the Caliphate and transferred the power to to the Turkish Grand National Assembly. But sometime in 1921, rumors spread in India that the Caliphate was abolished  and violence erupted in Kerala.

Arsonists took to the street, burning and destroying government property. The initial focus was on the British, but when the limited presence of the British was eliminated, Moplahs turned their full attention on the Hindus. One Mohommed Haji was proclaimed the Caliph of the Moplah Khilafat and flags of Islamic Caliphate were flown. Ernad and Walluvanad were declared Khilafat kingdoms.[Moplah rebellion]

Following that there was a large scale murder of Hindus for something which happened in some other part of the world. This 1921 model is now being followed again to destroy lives and trigger communal trouble.

Saddam Hussein, the butcher of Iraq was captured and hanged and immediately there were protests in Kerala. That is nothing new for the goal in Kerala is to have a hartal every day and any reason including Britney Spears' divorce is acceptable.

In Bangalore, it has taken a communal turn. Three weeks after the hanging, a protest was organized, deliberately to coincide with with a Hindu Samajotsav planned four months in advance. Then the predictable happened followed by the spin. All the usual suspects were blamed without any analysis of the intention of the Saddam fans.

Another "great" leader, Fidel Castro is either dead or is in the process of dying and it is time to wonder how many Indians will be killed for it.

• When you buy a Canon SD800 why do they give only a 16MB card along with it when you can buy a 2GB Secure Digital Card for $20 in the market?
• When you buy a HP Deskjet 5940 why can't they give a USB cable along with it when it costs just $9.99 in the market?

No more need for vipassana. Just focusing on these koans will give you nirvana.

Legacy of Harappan tech all pervasive even today

THE RECENT findings of glass beads proved that people of Harappan civilization had knowledge of glass. And, recent findings of Mesolithic tools in the excavation of Harappa also showed that the civilization had existed there before 10,000 BC, said Prof Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, from University of Wisconsin, Madison USA.

Delivering his lecture on ‘Harappan Technology and Its Legacy’, Dr DP Agrawal, director of Lok Vigyan Kendra Almora, said the legacy of the Harappan technology was all pervasive even today, for example the house plans, the technology of making carts, modern boats in Sindh, hydraulics, various motifs, the shapes of pots and platters and even ornaments seem to continue to this day.

Dr RS Bisht, former joint director general, Archaeological Survey of India, delivered his lecture on ‘Application of Science and Technology For Urban Planning, Architecture and Water Structures and their Management by the Harappans at Dholavira’. “Dholavira made a tremendous contribution towards the better understanding of the Indus civilization and the status of science and technology by its builders,” he said.

See Also: Parallel rural civilization to Harappa,  Were Harappans the Vedic people?, Earliest example of Vaastu,  Harappans = Vedic People ?

Prof Anatharaman, also former director of Institute of Technology (IT-BHU) and presently Chancellor of Ashram Atmadeep (Gurgaon) said that recent historical studies and scientific researches have thrown considerable new light on the status of metal extraction and working in Indian sub-continent during the ancient period (1700BC to 1000 AD). 

He said that the world-famous ancient Damascus Swords had its origin in India.

“The Damascus Swords were fabricated from Ultra-high Carbon Steel, known commercially as Wootz, was produced in South India particularly in the state of Andhra Pradesh around 400 BC,” he said.

“Fabrication of the Iron Pillar, seven-ton heavy and seven meter tall at Delhi known for its amazing corrosion resistance despite exposure to the Sun, wind, dust and rain in the open for more than 16 centuries is another metallurgical marvel of ancient India,” he added.

Dr K Krishnan of Archaeology and Ancient History Department at The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (Vadodara) delivered a lecture on ‘Ceramic Technology: Its Beginning and Advancements in The Indian Sub-Continent.’ He said that ceramic technology develops with the emergence of the first agricultural communities, designated by the cultural phase ‘Neolithic’, which had a wide distribution in the sub-continent in space and time.”

See Also: Wootz

Tags: Wootz Damascus Swords Ancient India Iron Pillar Neolithic

The most difficult task while sitting for meditation is to bring the wandering mind to focus on a single thing, like the breath or a mantra. Usually when you attempt these things the mind will go back into the past or future and start pondering various useless questions. Scientists have now found the neural mechanism which causes the mind to wander.

But now psychologists and neuroscientists in Aberdeen and America have revealed that a collection of areas in the brain termed the default network, supports what is known as mind wandering.

The findings are published today in top journal Science.

The scientists carried out their research with the help of volunteers whose brains were scanned as they performed simple memory tasks.

The results revealed that when participants performed practised tasks with which they were familiar, activity in regions of the default network was associated with episodes of mind wandering, a finding that underscores the importance of this system in guiding the stream of consciousness.

The paper in Science entitled Wandering Minds: The Default Network and Stimulus-Independent Thought was a collaboration involving the University of Aberdeen; Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA and Harvard University, USA. [What happens when the mind wanders?]

The default network are those parts of the brain that is active when you don't need to concentrate and this day dreaming is the brain's default setting.

He says that the new work suggests that activity in the default network is necessary to generate spontaneous thoughts and adds to evidence that it makes an important contribution to our inner life. In one published case study, Raichle notes, a woman who suffered damage to part of the default network initiated almost no spontaneous thoughts. "Her mind was empty," Raichle says.

The study leaves open the question of why minds wander, says Jonathan Schooler, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Schooler suspects that mental rambling is generally beneficial. "A lot of the time, people are thinking about worries or problems that they need to work out," Schooler says, adding that creative insights often happen during these episodes. The new study could be a big help to researchers if it leads to a way to use fMRI to detect mind wandering without interrupting an experimental subject, Schooler says.[Peering Inside the Wandering Mind]

Recently on a visit to Myanmar, India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in diplomatic language that we don't care if the people of Myanmar are suffering under dictatorship. India would not talk about democracy since it is not one of our exports. Mr. Mukherjee also comically said that democracy is something each country has to decide as if one fine day, the junta would decide to hand over power and fade away into oblivion.

Indian Govt. has also agreed to sell arms to the military rulers without uttering a word about the state of the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi who celebrated her 60th birthday under house arrest. In fact our support of the dictators are  worse that when Senior General Than Shwe of Myanmar visited India, visas were refused to a number of speakers who wanted to speak about democracy.

In the most recent State of the Union Speech, President Bush mentioned that United States would continue to speak for the cause of freedom in places like Burma (The US refuses to call it Myanmar). The President also said that he would "continue to awaken the conscience of the world to save the people of Darfur".

After maintaining silence about Darfur, the word finally appeared in the State of