Few days back, there was an interview (click on Listen) with Amartya Sen on National Public Radio about his new book, The Argumentative Indian
The other examples he cites are from the Rig Veda, supposed to be a classical Hindu text, but one which has debate on if God exists and if he created the world. The Buddhist council held during various times argued about the Buddhist teachings and Emperor Asoka set forth rules for conducting debates. Amartya Sen’s reasons that, it was this historical track record that helped democracy succeed in India while it failed in many other colonies that got freedom from the British.
Last month, actress Khusboo expressed an opinion about pre-martial sex and said that people should take safe measures to prevent AIDS and pregnancy. Immediately members of the Dalit Panthers of India went to the office of the Film Artistes’ association in Chennai carrying brooms and slippers and demanded an apology. Pattali Makkal Katchi said it will protest outside the house of the actress. Khusboo was forced to apologize.
The Govt. of India is currently following the path of liberalizing the economy so that more people can increase their standard of living and naturally the Communists are against it. The path they chose to express their dissent was to shutdown the whole country. Communists are members of the Parliament, the body established to debate such issues, but they seem to have scant respect for the Parliament and the process etablished there.
An Oriya writer, Bibhudha Ranjan has a new book on Mahatma Gandhi called Michha Mahatma which contains some objectionable content according to some. The book has not been released yet, and hence this information comes from reviews. But that did not prevent people from demanding a ban on the book and burning the effigy of the writer. The author of the book claims that he has used only previously published material, but then who has time to read, think independently and engage in debate.
I have not read Amarya Sen’s book and hence don’t know if he claims that the Argumentative Indian still exists in India. If you look around you will see such species only in some pockets and soon they have to be added to the endangered species list. We as a society seem to have undergone reverse evolution to become The Coercive Indian.
Earthquake-proofing techniques
It is said that earthquakes don’t kill people, but buildings constructed not to withstand them do. There are many factors which contributed to the deadliness of the Kashmir quake and poorly constructed buildings are just one of them. There is little we can do about the terrain and the density of population hence it would seem logical to make sure that the new buildings that are constructed will be able to withstand future quakes.
Key buildings in need of better earthquake-proofing have been identified in Delhi, and work is under way. Similar plans elsewhere have come too late to help the hospitals in Indian Kashmir. Though it is impossible to make buildings completely resistant to earthquakes, they can be made much safer. In both India and Pakistan, building codes exist; in both countries, they have been poorly enforced, with masses of unprotected housing stock in areas of great danger.[Preparing for the unknowable]
As a person who has survived multiple earthquakes, I can say that since I was inside buildings built to code, I am still alive. But it seems Kashmirs have a way of construction called bajji-diwari system which is capable of withstanding quakes.
The system, with wooden frame and special nogging (placement of bricks), ‘‘proved to be quake-resistant’’, Arya said. The team includes seismologists and engineers. ‘‘Though Uri is in ruins (because of indiscriminate and excessive use of stone and mortar for walls), in Baramulla we found that buildings constructed in the bajji-diwari style had suffered the least damage. Some of them, even very old ones, developed only a few cracks,’’ he added.[Wood and brick homes withstood Saturday Shiver]
Even the folks who built Qutub Minar had ideas on how to withstand earthquakes.
‘‘Saturday’s recordings show that while Delhi shook, Qutub stood still. There has been no damage and no noticeable vibration was recorded. Though the data is being closely analysed, we can say that certain architectural facets of the Minar and its design patterns helped Qutab withstand the tremors. Materials used in construction, wall thickness and proportionate base weight and the corresponding height besides stones used for construction helped Qutub withstand the shocks.’[When Delhi shook, Qutub stood still]’
There is a lot to be learned from both local and ancient construction techniques.
No experience required
The K. Madhu-SN Swamy-Mammootty team has done it for the fourth time. Nerariyan CBI, the fourth in the CBI sequel, is a unique film because nowhere else in the world of cinema has a film had a fourth sequel. That way, the Nerariyan CBI team is eminently qualified to enter the Guinness Book of World Records. [‘Nerariyan CBI’ A Whodunit!]
P Sreekumaran, Film Critic for ApunKaChoice.Com apparently has not heard of the Rocky Series. What about the Star Wars series with six episodes? Maybe prequels don’t qualify.
How do people who don’t know facts about cinema get employment as film critics? Looks like the United States Supreme Court, Rediff, and Apun Ka Choice don’t need people with experience.
Our Friends, the Saudis
“Fish are friends, not food”. That’s what Chum tells Bruce the Shark in Finding Nemo. Similarly the establishment in India keeps on repeating that Arab countries are our friends. Recently Natwar Singh suggested that it was the relationship with Arab countries that guided India’s foreign relations. Nutwar, did not produce this logic out of the blue for it has been used before by the Indian Blogosphere’s favourite football, Jawaharlal Nehru. Once when Albert Einstein asked for Nehru’s support for the creation of Israel, he produced some kind of warped logic involving Muslims not to support it.
For all this obeisance, countries like Saudi Arabia reciprocate by funding more madrassas and not supporting India’s position on Kashmir. On top of it, they are allowing the country to be used as a venue for planning terrorist activities against India. Syed Salahuddin is visiting the holy land for haj and “other” reasons.
Salahuddin has been living in Pakistan ever since he crossed the border from Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir 18 years ago, leaving behind his wife and children behind there, The Times of India said. He has invited like-minded people to come to Saudi Arabia where they can then together find ways to revive the ebbing momentum of terrorism in the Valley of Kashmir.[Kashmir terror chief heads for Mecca]
At this point do you think Nutwar Singh will call King Abdullah, sing songs of friendship and ask him not to let this happen?
Salman Khan explains Bollywood acting secrets
Q: Since your character in Kyon Ki… is not one of those ‘seen-him-before’ characters, was there any method to your acting?
A: What method? No method, I play it from my heart. If I can understand and relate to the character, then I take it on and that is how I play a character.[Interview with Salman Khan]
It is probably due to this “play by heart” methodology that Bobby Deol has a constant constipated look, Suneil Shetty looks like a water buffalo wearing Rayban, and Shah Rukh Khan is jumping like Tom Cruise on Oprah’s couch, independent of the character they are playing. As I am growing older, the tolerance for this methodology of acting is declining. But thanks Salman, for explaining this technique to us.
Rashomon Effect – Episode 2
Col Hemant Joneja of Indian Army’s 15 Corps says
Today, a group of 10 Pak soldiers appeared on the curve, where once the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road took a left turn towards Chakoti, and asked for help. ‘‘Then our jawans crossed over (the LoC) and helped them reconstruct their bunker,’’
Pakistan’s defence ministry spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan says
Soldiers of two armies got together on humanitarian grounds in the hour of crisis,” he said. Shaukat Sultan, however, said, “There is no question of Indian army crossing LoC to help rebuild bunkers. All our bunkers are safe and can withstand artillery shells.”
Indian Army Spokesman says
“Indian soldiers did not reconstruct any Pakistani army bunkers,” an army spokesman said in New Delhi, clarifying that the soldiers had gone across unarmed to give Pakistani soldiers picks and shovels to clear debris of some pillars of the Aman Setu bridge on the Pakistani side.
Related Links: Rashomon Effect – Episode 1
They prefer people to die
“We have enough helicopters. The United States brought in their helicopters and more will come. We are well-equipped now. Helicopters are crucial in first three and four days. Even now they are crucial. But we have enough now,” Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told a press conference in Islamabad.[No need for Indian helicopters: Pak PM]
That was the Prime Minister turning down an Indian offer to send helicopters. But the truth is that they don’t have enough helicopters and that has prevented rescuers from reaching many villages. Eight American helicopters have joined the search and 40 more were promised. 34 Pakistani military and civilian helicopters are also involved, but that is not enough according to the Army Spokesman. The UN says that Pakistan needs 50 more helicopters.
There are obvious risks for letting Indian helicopters into Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. What if they find out all the militant camp sites and decide to “help” people there.
Muzaffarabad and the Manshera district of NWFP, which were at the epicentre of the quake, have also been for many years the epicentre for international jihadi terrorism. The Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, both members of Osama bin Laden’s International Islamic Front, had their jihadi training infrastructure in Manshera district, particularly in Balakot, which is reported to have been totally destroyed by the quake. In the beginning of this year, the Al Qaeda too had shifted one of its training camps from the Waziristan area of the Federally-administered Tribal Areas to Manshera. There were also unconfirmed reports that bin Laden had taken up residence in Manshera district. The LET and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, which are also members of the IIF, had their training infrastructure in Muzaffarabad. The United Jihad Council headed by Syed Salahuddin of the Hizbul Mujahideen, an indigenous Kashmiri terrorist organisation with no known links to the Al Qaeda or the IIF, was also operating from Muzaffarabad.[Quake in Pakistan: The sequel]
The Pakistani Govt. would let those Kashmiris, the same people for whom they are fighting the proxy war, die than help them.
Update: As soon as the earthquake struck, I was wondering, who would be the first to blame America for this natural disaster. Seems like Arundhathi Roy has competition. Hugo Chavez, entertaining as always proposed his theory of natural disasters which put the blame on “world global capitalist model”, whatever that means. Tariq Ali is more down to earth. He blamed America for not sending more helicopters from Afghanistan. At the same time Tariq Ali does not wonder why the offer from India was not taken up by Pakistani authorities? Did the victims insist that they be rescued only in American helicopters?
Pak High Commission in Nuclear Trade
After all Pakistani proliferation activity was reduced to a singularity called A Q Khan, the Govt. (read Musharraf) said he had no knowledge of Khan’s activities. Apparently Khan flew planes loaded with supplies to various countries all by himself. Atleast that is what Musharraf wants the world to believe and his annadatas seem to have trusted this version.
But once the nuclear agreement between India and US was reached, Musharraf wanted a piece of that pie too. If he was not part of the action, he would be forced to look elsewhere and it would threaten stability in the region, he warned. Now we know he was serious.
Pakistan High Commission in London is on a British intelligence list of 360 companies, universities and government organisations seeking to procure nuclear and other weapons related technology.
The 17-page document identifies 95 Pakistani organisations and government bodies, including Pakistan High Commission in London, as having assisted in the country’s nuclear programme. The list was compiled two years ago shortly after the security service mounted a surveillance operation at the Pakistani high commission, which is the only diplomatic institution on the list. Abdul Basit, Pakistan’s deputy high commissioner, said: “It is absolute rubbish and we take strong exception to these allegations.”[Pakistan’s government implicated in nuclear trade]
Subhash Bose: Was not in Russia
Justice Mukherjee commission that went to Russia has returned without finding anything. Some people had suggested that after faking a plane crash in Taiwan, Subhash Bose had reached Russia and the Commission had gone there to find the truth about it. Some of the leads were fake and some were just accounts published in books of which the Commission requested an English Translation.
The truth, according to some is in the KGB archives. So Justice Mukherjee called up KGB and asked if they had any documents about Bose and they said no. So he just walked away.
Authorities of the Central Archive of the KGB, Central State Archive of Russian Federation Defence, Russian State Library, State Archive of Russian Federation, Russian State Military Archive and the Russian State Historical Archives for the Far East have informed the Commission that they had no documents relevant to its terms of enquiry, Mukherjee said.[Mukherjee Commission returns sans Netaji documents]
If Justice Mukherjee had watched even a single James Bond movie he would have known that this is not the way to get information out from such places. I am not suggesting that the Honorable Justice drown a Martini, shaken, but not stirred and crash into the archives in a Tank, but instead rely on some investigative reporters who know to get information out. Even if someone asked for chai-paani money for providing the information, the Justice will have to send a written note to the Ministry of Home Affairs, who will forward the note to a financial desk, who will then forward it to the senior most officer who is on a five year vacation. Well, you get the picture. A Govt. appointed commission operating in an honest straightforward way will only be able to collect limited information.
So far from all the information available, it seems like Subhash Bose was not in Russia and that story too was planted like the plane crash.
Previous Links: Subhash Bose: The Investigations – II, Subhash Bose: The investigations, How did Subhash Bose die?
Where is Krishna's Dwaraka?
During the time of the Harappan Civilization, a major enterprise was the shell industry located in Bet Dwaraka, an island located 30 km north of Dwaraka. This artefact making industry was more popular than both ivory and bone and recent excavations have revealed that the industry was bigger than previously assumed.
“The presence of cut and unfinished pieces and waste pieces on the island tells us that this was an industry site,” Gaur said. The NIO team found fragments of bangles, beads, a seal and unfinished ladles from the Bet Dwaraka site.
While archaeologists have suspected that the shell artefacts for the Indus people came from the Gulf of Kutch, only one site for an ancient shell industry had been identified 15 years ago — Nageshwar, a Harappan site on the Gujarat coast. The studies by the NIO scientists on Bet Dwarka, conducted during 2000-01, show that the island’s shell-industry might have been one of the largest enterprises of its time.
In a report in the latest issue of the journal Current Science, scientists have documented similarities between the shells at Bet Dwarka and artefacts recovered from Harappan sites. A unique late Harappan seal constructed out of a conch shell with a short-horned bull, a unicorn and goat engraved on it found during underwater excavation near the island is similar to a seal recovered from Mohenjodaro.[Hint of Harappa shell industry]
When we mention Dwaraka, we have to talk about Krishna. Marine Archaeologist S R Rao found evidence of a city under the sea in Dwaraka and since some of the specifications matched the description of Dwaraka mentioned in Harivamsha, a prologue of Mahabharata, some people concluded that it was Krishna’s Dwaraka.
Not so fast, says a scientist at ISRO. Krishna’s Dwaraka was not in Jamnagar, but in Junagad according to Dr P S Thakker and also there nine sites in Gujarat which claim to be Krishna’s Dwaraka.
A senior scientist with the ISRO’s space application centre, Dr P S Thakker, who has worked on this project, said, What is interesting is that ISRO’s findings corroborate what is mentioned in the vedas and other ancient Hindu scriptures about the geographical location of Dwaraka but contradicts what the archaeologists and modern historians say about the present Dwarka which they claim is in Jamnagar district of Gujarat.
Though the study was done by the ISRO four years back it was confined to abstract papers on a dusty shelf.
Satellite images can pinpoint things that are not visible to the naked eye. For example, it can indicate the presence of ruins of a city which has been long buried under the soil.[Lord Krishna’s Dwarka not in Jamnagar but in Junagadh: ISRO]
But then what about the city which S R Rao discovered?
However, Mr Thakker claims this unknown feature of a city discovered by Dr Rao could be any other city settled after he said that the study of the satellite data perfectly matches with the description given in Tri Shasthi Shlaka Purush Charta (history of 63 outstanding personalities) written by Hemchandrachary, a distinguished Jain muni of the 11th century who has given a geographical description of Lord Krishna’s Dwarka built by kuber at Lord Indra’s behest.
Mr Thakker said the presence of Navda village in the vicinity (which means boat) and milollite limestone found in the vicinity of Girnar in Junagadh suggested the presence of a sea in this area.
Thus it seems that Lord Vasudev’s dwarka which was submerged in the sea as well and the Dwarka of Lord Krishna were located in Junagadh district near Prabhash Kshetra. Excavation and further study is required to get more scientific information on Dwarka, he added.[Lord Krishna’s Dwarka not in Jamnagar but in Junagadh: ISRO]
Here is the connection from the two stories. The sea shell sites excavated in Bet Dwaraka are 3800 years taking it back to around 1800 B.C which was the declining phase of the Harappan Civilization. According to Dr. Takker, Lord Vasudeva’s Dwaraka submerged in the Arabian Sea about 3500 years back, i.e 1500 B.C. Interesting times in Gujarat, it must have been.