Jun

30

Wanted: a brand ambassador for condoms

June 30, 2007 posted by indiatime | 3 Comments

India is looking for a promotional ambassador for condom use. Sujatha Rao, the chief of India’s National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), told the press that India, too, is looking for its own condom man, someone just like Mechai Viravaidya, Thailand’s condom man. Viravaidya is credited with the sharp increase in condom use in Thailand that has led to sharp declines in the number of new HIV infections.

Sujatha Rao’s organisation is looking for an Indian celebrity, who feels passionately about the cause, and has a dynamic personality to change both government policy and public perceptions about HIV/AIDS, sex and condoms.

Most of India’s brand ambassadors come from the world of Bollywood or cricket. I cannot imagine Bollywood’s famous world class actresses agreeing for this, so that leaves a few cricketers and a few Bollywood actors. Amongst the Bollywood actors, the usual brand ambassadors are over 40, one of them almost 70. It’s even tougher for cricketers. Amongst the cricketers, the usual brand ambassadors are touching 40. And those who are younger, may not remain worthy of ambassadorship for long as their bubbles might burst anytime soon.

One can always think of someone from politics taking this social cause up, and agreeing to become India’s condom ambassador. The most loved politician is about to retire from his job and may have free time on his hands. But he, too, is touching 80. His soon-to-come replacement will probably be a she, and that’s not what Sujatha Rao’s organisation is looking for. The most powerful politician, again, is a she, so is out of contention.

Somehow, there are two names, that keep coming back.

The first one has the name recognition, the rural appeal, the urban respect, the management savvy, a free pass to travel throughout the country, and the overall charisma that can touch the hearts of everyone from Bihar to Kerala.

The second name has the name recognition, the nasal twang, Bollywood’s support, a newfound appeal as an actor, ability to cross-dress and a gender-bending mind-blowing capacity to attract the youth of the country.

What do you think? Any nominations for India’s condom man?

Jun

30

Burping faster than the speed of sound

June 30, 2007 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

India will have its own hypersonic jet ready by the end of 2008, a senior official at the Defense Research and Developement Organisation (DRDO) said yesterday. Named AVATAR (Aerobic Vehicle for Hypersonic Aerospace Transportation), the hypersonic jet will travel at the speeds of about 6-14 times that of the speed of sound.

The AVATAR will be powered by a Supersonic Combustion ramjet (SCRamjet) engine which sucks oxygen from the atmosphere instead of liquid oxygen tanks stored on the plane itself. This allows the jet to be lighter and faster than the conventional jets. India has already demonstrated its expertise with the ramjet technology when it developed the supersonic cruise missile Brahmos.

But the development of Avatar has apparently lagged behind a bit. The original Avatar announcements came almost three and a half to four years ago. So, back in January of 2004, the director of defense research was telling the press that Avatar will be ready in 2007. This was when India still hadn’t mastered the supersonic speeds at Mach 7 speeds (seven times the speed of sound in the same medium).

At the end of 2004, NASA’s experimental spy plane X-43A broke all previous speed records and touched Mach 10, about 7000 miles (112,000 km) per hour.

So I’m a little worried about our experts speaking prematurely and bragging about stuff that is still under development. Take a look at these two news items, one from yesterday and this other one from three and a half years ago. In both these news items, India’s defense research officials are seen bragging about India’s progress with the ramjet technology. If you read carefully, you will notice that the details are exactly the same in 2004 as they are in 2007. The only change that I found was that the 2004 announcement came from DRDL, the premier missile research lab of the DRDO (the government agency). In 2007, the announcement has come directly from the DRDO.

What we have here, is yet another example of Indian officials speaking prematurely and without really thinking through. We cannot win the space race by speaking faster or prematurely. The right time to make these announcements is when you can point your finger to the sky and have the world watch in fascination as India’s Avatar slices the space with its Mach 14 flight. That would better any premature post-lunch press conferences followed by burpings at the speed of sound.

Jun

29

The hypocrisy of India’s communist parties

June 29, 2007 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

India’s left (CPI-M) parties today launched a fresh attack against the incumbent president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. The motive behind the new attack seems to be clear. With allegations flying around, about the aptitude and integrity about the ruling party’s candidate, the left parties seemed to be opening up the faces of their bats, by targeting President Kalam’s stand on his re-election for the presidency.

A week ago, the president had mentioned that he would probably think about staying in the race, if there were a certainty factor about the election. The leftist parties have brought up the issue of the president not being able to resist the temptation to seek a second term.

In another news, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has now implicated Suhrid Dutta, a top-ranking leader of the same CPI-M, in the rape and murder of a young girl, Tapasi Malik, at Singur. Tapasi Malik was a farmland activist from Singur, part of a movement against the newly proposed Tata Motors’ small car project. Tapasi’s charred body was found on December 18, 2006 in a field next to the proposed site.

So here we are with two different news items from the left. One that involves a well-respected, well-loved president of this country whose ‘not being able to resist a temptation’ is the issue at hand. On the other hand, we have a powerful CPI-M leader who was not able to resist the temptation to rape and murder an innocent farm activist. The two-faced leftist parties have so far ridiculed this nation’s president in the first case, and protected the rapist and murderer in the second case.

I rest my case, but cannot resist the temptation to say this one last thing: With the communist ideology fast becoming less than a minor footnote in world history, it is such a shame that India’s communists are still clinging to their fake ideals. India could really do without these idiots.

Jun

29

Injecting accountability in India’s healthcare

June 29, 2007 posted by indiatime | 7 Comments

The government of India is finally taking a step in the right direction in the field of clinical care. Yesterday, India’s cabinet approved the introduction of a new law - the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Bill, to come into effect as soon as this fall.

The new act will mandate registration and regulation of all of India’s medical care facilities including diagnostic centers. This, it is hoped, will set much needed minimum standards and accountability for healthcare services.

With the prospects of medical tourism luring the medical centers in India, the new mandate is expected to allay the concerns about the quality of healthcare provided by India’s hospitals, private medical offices, and allied healthcare services. Within the next 5 years, India is expected to rope in close to $2.5 billion (more than Rs 10,000 crore) in medical tourism.

But it may not be all good news about the the new act, though. It remains to be seen how the new act affects the cost of medical care, as well as the medical insurance industry, a business still in its infancy in India. Also, passing new acts for accountability is far from actually implementing and executing the best healthcare practices. The intentions may be good and great, but in a country like India, it doesn’t take long for good laws to get bogged down in the bureaucratic maze, opening up novel avenues of corruption and malpractice.

Jun

28

Amarnath ice formation - ice lingamThe ice stalagmite (ice lingam) in the famous Amarnath caves (located in Jammu and Kashmir) has shrunk to one-tenth its usual size during the last 3 weeks. The rising temperatures have made it very hard for the ice formation to stay intact. The Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) has however, gotten into a game of semantics, saying that the ice lingam has thinned, but not reduced or shrunk in size.

Each year, more than half a million hindu pilgrims visit the 5000-year old Amarnath cave complex during the annual pilgrimage around this time of the year (this year’s begins on June 30th and will last until August, the 28th).

Lord Shiva, part of Hinduism’s famous trinity, is said to have disclosed the secrets of immortality and the creation of the universe, to his wife Parvati, within this cave. The major attraction of the Amarnath shrine is the huge ice stalagmite formation in the shape of a lingam, the phallic symbol of Shiva.

Over the last few years, global warming has been playing havoc with the ice lingam, threatening to destory one of the age-old myths that is so dear to the hearts of the believers who flock to the caves every summer.

Last year, there were allegations that the phallic symbol was tampered with by the shrine board. The board even admitted to helping the ice formation by putting snow on top of the natural ice formation which had been shrinking in size due to the climate changes. That matter is still under investigation, but the controversy continues this year, with many tourists noticing that the size of the phallic symbol (ice stalagmite) has reduced to one-tenth its size within the last 3 weeks alone.

Seems, that the caves that hold the secrets of the creation of the universe by the Gods, probably also hold the secrets of the destruction of the universe by the humans. And it is not Shiva’s lingam that needs extra snow topping to temporarily solve the pilgrim’s issue. This whole nation needs a cold shower to stop the bursting population that is making things so damn hot around here.

Jun

28

Crouching tigers and hidden crocodiles

June 28, 2007 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

The tigers in the Sunderban tiger reserve are finding a true friend in the crocodiles which were brought from outside several years ago, but have now become a protective force for the reserve wildlife.

Several dozen tigers have recently lost their lives to poaching, but the forest officers have observed that the crocodiles have been acting as a natural deterrent to poaching and have managed to scare the poachers away in several instances. The crocodiles originally brought from other sanctuaries like Orissa’s Bhitarkanika, have been found to be better than ordinary guard dogs, at protecting the endangered tigers. This is because unlike the dogs, the crocodiles cannot be tamed by the professional poachers, and are able to attack any poachers coming in ferries or boats.

In the early 1970s, the crocodile numbers in eastern India were found to be dwindling because of habitat destruction, and illegal fishing in the mangrove forests. But the wildlife officials were able to breed the animals in captivity and their numbers increased in the next 20 years or so. In the 1990s, many of those crocodiles were released into the Sunderban tiger reserve to help thwart the poachers. That strategy seems to be paying off.

But tigers and crocodiles don’t necessarily get along. Tigers and crocodiles can get into a fight sometimes. The tiger will come out alright if it can get around the crocodile and crush its skull from the back. In water, however, crocodile has the ultimate advantage and can easily take the tiger. Here’s a video from Youtube where a tiger is seen attacking and killing the croc.

Jun

27

Reshammiya’s veil is lifted!

June 27, 2007 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

Singer-composer-actor Himesh Reshammiya has landed himself into a new controversy. Visiting Ajmer Sharif last night, Reshmmiya cross-dressed, covering himself in a burqa to avoid being harassed by the crowd, the fans, and the paparazzi. But somehow, the word got out, and seeing his trousers under the burqa, several fans followed him with some pulling at his burqa, and he was eventually forced to reveal his real identity.

Ajmer’s Dargah Shrief, is believed to be a place where wishes and desires come true. It is one of Sufism’s most sacred shrines (Hazrat Khawaja Muinuddin Chisty of Ajmer was the founder of Sufism in India). Reshammiya, a practitioner of Sufi school of music, came to the Dargah last night to pray for the success of his first feature film - ‘Aapka Suroor’. It is reported that he was asked by one of the trustees of the shrine to come disguised in a veil so as to avoid being recognised, a piece of advice Reshamiya has already expressed regrets about.

For a disciple of Sufism, the three stages of mysticism are intention (niyyat), probation of striving (Mujaheda), and the uplifting of veil (Mukashfa). Himesh Reshammiya can safely brag to have conquered the last and final stage of Sufism, now that his veil has been uplifted.

Jun

27

The Purification of the Temple

June 27, 2007 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

The Ramanathaswamy temple in the state of Tamilnadu has now proved that God has walked out of that temple long, long ago. The temple recently performed an atonement ceremony (purification pooja) after the local muslim legislator paid a visit to the temple.

Hasan Ali, the local member of Tamilnadu’s legislative assembly (MLA), visited the temple to report on some construction issues in one of the towers. The visit prompted angry responses from the local Hindu extremist groups, and the temple responded by performing the cleansing ceremony.

Years ago, another politician, the then chief minister of Pondicherry (renamed Puducherry since November of last year) M.O.H. Farook had visited the same temple. He ended up apologising for that, and an cleansing ceremony eventually cleansed the temple of him dirtying the temple by his presence.

Just last month, Ravikrishna, the son of union minister Vayalar Ravi, had his visit followed by a performed an atonement ceremony (purification pooja) after the local muslim legislator paid a visit to the temple.

Hasan Ali, the local member of Tamilnadu’s legislative assembly (MLA), visited the temple to report on some construction issues in one of the towers. The visit prompted angry responses from the local Hindu extremist groups, and the temple responded by performing the cleansing ceremony.

Years ago, another politician, the then chief minister of Pondicherry (renamed Puducherry since November of last year) M.O.H. Farook had visited the same temple. He ended up apologising for that, and an cleansing ceremony eventually cleansed the temple of him dirtying the temple by his presence.

Just last month, Ravikrishna, a son of the union minister Vayalar Ravi, had his visit to the famous Guruvayur temple in Kerala, followed by a cleansing ceremony. The temple authorities didn’t appreciate the fact that his mother is a christian.

The Christian gospels mention a story of Jesus Christ driving money-changers and traders out of the temple of Jerusalem. “…My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations…But you have made it a robbers’ cave…”, he said as he drove the corrupt traders out of the temple (Mark 11:15-17).

It is a shame that some of India’s most famous and ancoent temples are now inhabited by such robbers who corrupt and malign their own religion. Any temple should be an abode of peace, a place that welcomes every human being, irrespective of cast, religion, gender or bank balances. If God ever did exist in the temples of Ramanathaswamy or Guruvayur, he has walked out of those places a long time ago. Nothing, nothing at all, can cleanse or purify places of prayers that are already trashed by abhorrent descriminatory practices by hypocrites pretending to be their religion’s keepers.

Jun

26

In a recent interview, ‘Big Brother’ winner Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty complained about her harassment at the airports, questioning the audacity of the immigration officers who dared to question celebrities like her. In the same interview, Shilpa also complained that Bollywood has never treated her fairly, as she had never won any awards until she won the recent IIFA award.

In order to show gratitude to celebrities like Ms. Shilpa, and to prevent such celebrities from abandoning the poor masses of India to go live in a foreign country, I’ve come up with a 10-point program. Here are my top 10 suggestions to show the celebrities, that we do care for them.

1. Like diplomatic passports, people classified as celebrities should have celebrity passports. The identity pictures on these VIP passports, need not be replaced, ever. The celebrities can keep their pictures from when they were 16 years old. Also, instead of the usual passport picture that shows only the face, nose and two ears, celebrities, especially those of the Bollywood variety, should be allowed to show anything of their choice.

2. Celebrities should never be stopped at the immigration counters, customs, or any police check points. The only place they can be legally stopped at is if there is a red carpet under their feet. While on the red carpet, not stopping a celebrity or not interviewing them, should be held as criminal acts punishable under the law.

3. Celebrities should be allowed to buy land at the places of their choice without paying any money. They should also be allowed to represent themselves as farmers, beggars, theives, whichever professions they want to be classifed under. In fact, government should reserve and assign special celebrity zones (SCZs) in the best locations so our VIPs could enjoy the fruits of their fame.

4. The sons and daughters of celebrities need not go to schools. This privileged lot should directly be allowed to take up the same professions as their parents.

5. The government should pay an annual salary to the celebrities to maintain their lifestyles. Such an honorarium is already given to some (e.g. cricket celebrities), but Bollywood celebrities deserve the same respect, too.

6. The celebrities should be exempt from the laws related to marriage, divorce, bigamy, polygamy, etc. This should allow them to free their time of legal hassles and focus on social activities.

7. A new reservation category should be created for the celebrities. It can be called as CTs (celebrity tribes) or CCs (celebrity caste). Second class celebrities can be labeled as other backward celebrities (OBCs).

8. India’s highest civilian honors (Padmashree, Padmabhushan, or Padmavibhushan) should only be given to people belonging to CT/CC/OBC categories.

9. Celebrities should be allowed to hunt and poach India’s wildlife as they wish. In fact, they should be allowed to hunt and poach any moving objects including human beings and politicians if they wish to.

10. Gradually, India should be allowed to be inhabited only by celebrities. Anybody else who doesn’t fit the description should be thrown out, cast away, or just plain eliminated.

Jun

26

A busy week for the Pandya family

June 26, 2007 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

Sonia Gokani, the POTA court judge in Ahmedabad, yesterday sentenced 9 Muslim youths to life imprisonment, for the murder of Hindu nationalist leader and former home minister of the state of Gujarat, Mr. Haren Pandya. The police had also accused the nine of undergoing terrorism training at the training camps run by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Laskar-e-Toiba (LeT).

Mr. Haren Pandya was shot dead on the morning of March 26, 2003. He was found sitting in the front seat of his car, his body riddled with bullets that were shot from a close range. As his body was taken to the hospital, his supporters shouted slogans against the chief minister Narendra Modi, and his family accused the chief minister of skimping on providing adequate security to the ex-home minister. In fact, his father Vithalbhai Pandya consistently accused the chief minister of having a hand in the murder of his son.

Within hours of the Hindu leader’s murder, the leaders of the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), one-time friends and colleagues of the murder victim, a recent dissident of their party, had already spoken of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Karachi-based don Dawood Ibrahim as being the perpetrating parties. In fact, the victim’s own father kept speaking of the police rushing to arrest other parties, leaving the main culprits free.

For now, the Haren Pandya murder mystery has been officially solved and the chapter is now closed. Did the 9 muslim boys really kill the Hindu nationalist leader? Or was this a bigger political conspiracy against a dissident who had started becoming a nuisance? We may never know.

A busy week for the Pandya family. Vithalbhai Pandya’s son Haren is about to fade away from the news cycle, now that his murder investigation is officially over and done with. Haren Pandya first cousin, his maternal sister Sunita Pandya Williams will however, continue to be in the news as she starts a second life on planet earth after her record-breaking stay in space.

Jun

25

Karachi battles nature’s fury

June 25, 2007 posted by indiatime | 3 Comments

Rains, thunderstorms, and the aftermath have now claimed the lives of 228 people in Karachi, Pakistan. The city that has been battling power cuts for several hours, is said to be facing some of the strongest winds its residents have ever seen in their lives.

Residents said that within minutes of the storm, the main transportaion artery was blocked causing accidents and traffic jams. People were killed by electrocution from the broken power lines, falling trees, flying signboards, or roofs and walls collapsing.

The weather forecast still looked bleak for the next few days, as the low-pressure system in the Arabain Sea is predicted to move near the Karachi coast.

Jun

25

This Friday, prime minister Man Mohan Singh announced in Mumbai, that India plans to establish 30 world-class universities across the country, an expansion that would be a landmark in the area of graduate-level education. He further stated, that, the University Grants Commission and the Planning Commission were working to make this concept operational within the next 2-3 months.

The new universities, 30 in number, will be managed centrally and not be state-controlled as most of India’s universities are. India currently has 18 so-called central universities including the famous Vishwa Bharati (Shanti Niketan), founded by Ravindranath Tagore.

Though he admitted that two-thirds of India’s universities are below par and more than 90% of India’s colleges were substandard, the prime minister seemed to offer rather simplistic explanations of the real issues facing the university system. He also did not elaborate how centralisation of the new universities would prevent them from deteriorating into the substandard college systems that plague India’s education system.

India does not have a single world class university that can attract students from the rest of the world away from universities in the west. The handful of assumed exceptions in the health sciences, technical or management field, have more to do with myths than reality. India’s advantage has always been the cheap cost of good-level education in these areas, that has allowed us to mass-produce a crop of reasonably good technicians, health care workers, and managers. Beyond that, India cannot truly boast of universities that can outclass universities in the west or even the east. Most of India’s universities fare poorly at best, in research and inventions, the admission criteria are corrupt with political overtones, the evaluation systems are misguided if at all honest, and the faculty can hardly be considered at the top of their fields.

Let’s admit it. We are good copycats, smart implementors of technologies produced by other nations, and shrewd marketeers who have managed to somehow convince the world that we should be considered the new superpower. Yes, we will build 30 world-class universities in 3 months, send Indians to the moon in 3 years, cure AIDS with ancient yoga techniques in 3 days, and have teenagers performing critical surgeries in 3 minutes. Whatever, man!

Jun

24

Mumbai, New Orleans, and accountability

June 24, 2007 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

Exactly two years ago, in a span of exactly 30 days, two coastal cities in the two largest democracies faced flooding disasters of unimaginable proportions that changed the face of one of those cities, and left the other intact. New Orleans, Lousiana, ceased to exist as people knew it. Mumbai, however, continued to exist as it always has.

There are differing opinions whether the people in Mumbai showed a better face of humanity than their counterparts in New Orleans, or if the Mumbai deluge was a disaster of lesser proportions to begin with.

No matter how differently the communities reacted in New Orleans and Mumbai, there was, however, an eerie similarity in the way the governmental agencies reacted to those two disasters. For argument’s sake, even if it is assumed that the people in Mumbai may have displayed more warmth and humanity in the summer of 2005 than the people in New Orleans, what is clear after a gap of two years, is that the governments in both the instances showed similar callousness and indifference.

As the monsoons of 2007 create fresh fears of a flood that could turn into a disaster, the local and state governmental agencies in Mumbai seem to have done little to allay those fears or to take any countermeasures to prevent the disasters.

Mumbai, so far, has been lucky. But that may not last for ever. The infrastructure and the resources of the city now face a lot more stress today that what they did 2 years ago. Mumbai’s population has gone up a lot more in 2 years. The climate changes over the 2 years can hardly be said to favor the situation. There has been a lot more construction during the last 2 years. The only consistency over these two years is the feeble response and the careless minds of the bureaucrats and the politicians who have wasted last two years without giving back much to the city of Mumbai.

God forbid if a disaster the size of New Orleans were to strike Mumbai this year, it is quite likely that Mumbai, as did New Orleans, will cease to exist as we know it today. Let us all be clear on who needs to be held accountable if that happens. My list starts with the state government, the chief minister, all his ministers, secretaries, the city government, the commissioner, the mayor, the corporators, everybody. These are the people we elected to keep us safe and manage our issues. These are the people we entrust the people’s money with. These are our public servants who would have failed us if this city turns into New Orleans.

Jun

24

History, as was where was

June 24, 2007 posted by indiatime | 3 Comments

A recent article in the Times discusses a few myths in Indian history.

Here’s what the Times is saying:

1. Islam was brought to India by Muslim invaders:

India’s introduction to Islam was through Arab traders and not Muslim invaders, as is generally believed…the first mosque in the county was built by an Arab trader at Kodungallur, in what is now Kerala, in 629 AD. Interestingly, Prophet Mohammed was alive at that time….

Here’s what the Times writer is confused about, I think. Islam may have originally come to India with Arab traders, between 610-629 AD, but Islam really came to India with the Muslim invaders a few centuries later. Now, both these sentences are correct. Consider this. Indians first came to the United States in the late 1700s. But Indian really arrived in the USA in the 1960s. There is a difference in the Islam that came in the 600s, and the Islam that came in say, 1100s, or 1200s. Those were two entirely different versions of Islam, one that came for business, and the other that came to aggress.

I don’t understand what the point is in denying that India of the early second millenium was invaded against its will by muslim invaders who left behind a path of destruction and devastation as they barged into the Indian territories. Over the next several centuries, religious conversions to Islam were commonplace during the Mughal kingdom, and the ancestors of the majority of today’s muslim population of India, were at one time or another Hindus. It is a historic fact, and so be it. Muslims are as much a part of today’s India as Hindus and Christians and Sikhs and Biddhists and Jains and Jews are.

Having said that, for some reason, some historians seem to be on a quest for political correctness that is totally unnecessary, pointless, and counterproductive. Even outsiders like James Laine feel empowered to pursue their crusade of rewriting Indian history with little more than hearsay to support their claims. But history needs to be told as was where was. Even if it is not a pleasant and a happy version of history, sometimes.

Jun

23

Death toll rising in Andhra floods

June 23, 2007 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

The Andhra Pradesh flood toll has now gone up to 41, and is sure to keep increasing, as there situation in several towns seems to be worsening. Several thousand people have been evacuated, several dozens are still missing, and several villages are unreachable with no current updates available.

India is a vast country, and we always seem to be having a more than fair share of troubles with nature. A flood situation in one state, a drought situation in the other, heat strokes in one state, a cold spell somewhere else. I wonder if here isn’t anything that can be done at the planning stage that can address these seemingly isolated incidences of natural havocs.

We have areas in this country, that repeatedly face the same type of natural catastrophes, year after year after year. Every citizen living in these areas knows what to expect when the whether turns ugly. How is it then, that the governmental agencies always seem to be surprised and shocked when heavy rains wreak havoc? And we’re not just talking about small villages or towns as with today’s floods. Our biggest metros have the same issues year after year as well. Monsoons have barely started in Mumbai, but the day-to-day life is already affected and the red alert can go off literally any minute if the water levels rise a tad higher.

Isn’t there anything this country’s elite crop of civil engineers can come up with? Does India not have any Vishveshwarayyas any more who can think big, plan right, solve a few giant civil engineering riddles and save a few thousand lives every month? Can we not identify the perpetual hot spots for natural fury and design a solution that can lift the curse of the weather gods? With the world’s largest gathering of brilliant engineering minds on our soil, should this still be an issue every year?

keep looking »

Search

 


Translations




Most visited

Hollywood’s first Indian star
Meeting Raj Kapoor at the barbershop
Madhubala on a postal stamp
Why I’m happier than Mukesh Ambani
An inconvenient truth about India’s intellectual property
UFOs may be ‘idlis’ but time travels only in ‘medu-wadas’
Dr Singh is no Dr King
Lesser Known Indians
The Most ‘Nobel’ Teacher of Them All
The third Indian revered in China
A little Poland in India
The vanishing of Indian languages
The looting of Chandigarh’s treasures
Bharat, Pakistan and Hindustan, Indiana
Welcome to India, Steve!
Top 5 explanations for the president’s gesture
An IIT on every street, an IIM on every block
Pakistan, Jinnah, Wadias and the American anthem
An IAS officer’s nightmare of lustful, lascivious stares comes true