May

31

A few days ago, a famous 42-year old Indian-American classical musician was charged with multiple counts of molestation and indecent advances towards a minor. Shafaatullah Khan, nephew of famous sitar maestro Vilayat Khan, and son of another famous sitarist maestro Imrat Khan, was charged in Bridgeport on Wednesday, after a 16-year old former student accused him of repeatedly molesting him.

Claiming a 400-year lineage of extraordinary musicians, Shafaatullah Khan has made a quite a name in the eastern United States, especially in the tri-state area as well as the state of Pennsylvania, where he resides. Music critics have praised the prowess of his marvelous fingers as they expore the rhythmic complexities of the Indian drums, and they have marveled at the way he steals anyone’s attention whenever he desires so.

But it seems the great maestro’s carpal prowess has been overflowing with his carnal rhythms as well. Under the pretext of teaching keyboard to the 14-year old girl, Shafaatullah gave her back massages, touched her breasts, got on top of her and made hip-thrusting movements, all in the name of teaching a young girl the complexities of Indian rhythms!

The great maestro has surely been trying his amorous teaching skills with many of his students. And this is surely not the first time he has thought of massaging someone’;s back and breasts toimprove their posture and keyboarding or Sitar skills. It’s just that someone finally has had the courage to go to the authorities and expose this lusty idiot who has been abusing Indian classical music to satisfy his sexual appetite.

But then again, he is not the only maestro who has been using music to get sex. There have been several other incidences of famous maestros, from some of India’s most well-known sarod players to some of our most famous flute maestros. Some of them have been known to lock themselves in a room with young American female students overnight, intermittently asking their Indian assistants sleeping outside to fetch more wine.

More than a year ago, a guest blogger wrote on this same site citing a female student who had been learning from another maestro :

“….I started taking lessons with this maestro- he offered personal lessons and well, the lessons became too personal….”

The tradition of Indian classical music is said to be rooted in a student’s faith for the teacher, the Guru. It is said to be more of a spiritual bond, a divine connection of faith and trust and subservience and submission. But there are foul-minded Gurus who see no issue with breaching that divine trust, exploiting their disciples for their illicit means, trampling the faith of innocent ones. Just a month ago, a famous Indian Guru in Texas was charged with molesting two minor girls. Last year, that Guru’s Guru barely beat a rape and molestation charge in the Carribean Isles.

But just like the phony Gurus who inhabit the temple complexes, there are numerous phonies in Indian classical music, maestros who speak of union with God and Goddesses, chanting sacred mantras and devotional music, and seemingly honoring the greatest traditions of Hinduism. Barring a few notable exceptions, many of these maestros are common criminals who shame Indian traditions and culture, getting away only because their victims are often minor, innocent, and helpess and the victims’ families are too ashamed to bring any charges.

For now, authorities have just confiscated Shafaatullah Khan’s American passport, and instructed the sex predator Guru not to teach minors. Stay tuned.

May

30

Musharraf’s end game

May 30, 2008 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

There are reports from Pakistan that the long-time president-dictator Pervez Musharraf may be contemplating an exit strategy. Several events over the last few days, point to developments on Pakistan’s presidential front. Here are ten important happenings that point to a rapidly deteriorating scenario for Musharraf.

1. This Wednesday night, Musharraf had his longest ever (3 and a half hours) meeting with Pakistan’s new Army chief Kayani

2. Key Musharraf loyalist in the army have been transferred during the last few hours

3. A. Q. Khan, Pakistan’s infamous nuclear scientist, openly blames Musharraf for nuclear proliferation

4. Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister, calls Musharraf a traitor, demanding the president be tried for treason.

5. Karachi Stock Exchange index slips, indicating the Pakistani market is jittery about impending political events

6. There are reports that Musharraf has decided to move from the Army house to the Presidential house.

7. Musharraf’s long meeting with the army chief happened on Wednesday night, after an entire day of hectic meetings with army commanders and loyalists.

8. So far, Musharraf has enjoyed steady support from the Americans, but the changing political winds in North America leave Musharraf with a very short window to plan a safe exit strategy without any worries about being charged with high crimes. A lot of Musharraf’s supporters in the current US administration are already planning their own exit strategies, and Musharraf’s list of friends may be dwindling fast.

9. Today, Pakistan’s naval chief starts a week-long trip to the United Kingdom

10. Also today, a tribunal in Lahore, will decide the fate and the validity of former PM Nawaz Sharif’s candidacy for by-elections. A clearance to a Sharif candidacy by that tribubal, puts Musharraf’s chances at further risk, since any good news for Sharif must now be considered bad news for Musharraf.

May

29

Statistical error

May 29, 2008 posted by indiatime | 4 Comments

ISI delhi hostel at nightSarat Das has an interesting article in today’s Hindustan Times, reminding readers of a haunting story from 4 years ago, a ghost saga that almost closed the New Delhi chapter of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) - one of India’s most prestigious schools.

After the sudden and mysterious death of a first-year student of the graduate program in Statistics, there were numerous claims about other students feeling his presence, sometimes the scene of his strong cologne, other times the cigarette smoke, doors closing and shadows moving in the corridors. The unexpected burst of paranormal activities forced the administration to close the school for a week. Some students left home for a break, some visited temples and churches, some brought in priests. Sharma mentions that 4 years later, the students using the stairways still walk with caution knowing that a shadow might just push or shove them off the stairway.

Statistics, in Sanskrit, is ‘Sankhya Shastra’. Sankhya is also one of the major schools of Indian philosophy, a school founded by Kapila, a famous sage from Indian scriptures. According to the ‘Sankhya’ school, there are 3 ways of gaining knowledge:

1. Pratyaksha - direct sense perception or impression

2. Anumana - logical inference

3. Shabda - verbal testimony

It seems that, 4 years ago, the students of the Indian Statistical Institute really focused on the first and the last ways. They perceived the ghost directly through smell, touch, sound, etc. and also believed the verbal testimonies of those who experienced the paranormal behaviors around the institute. Surprizingly, they ignored the most important of the 3 Sankhya ways - the way of logic. At its heart, Sankhya or statistics is supposed to be a philosophy of analysis, a way to analyze things through a rigorous and detailed study that takes in verbal as well as perceived evidences, and then submits them to an undiscriminatory and a tough grind to churn out the truth of any matter.

India’s most prestigious statistical institute, thus had a chance to teach its students the very fundas and the very basics of that Sankhya philosophy. The ghost saga was their chance to put the statistical discourse to a real-life test. Instead, the institute, its administrators and the students helped themselves to a week’s break, and ignored the basic tenets of the science they thought they were learning.

May

28

Other Blackmailing Classes

May 28, 2008 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

The hallmark of a democracy is the ability of the people to bring about a change in a peaceful way. The hallmark of a compromised democracy is the ability of a few of those people to bring about a change, no matter which way they can. For over a year now, the Gujjar community in the western state of Rajasthan, has been fanning the flames of a revolutionistic agitation, almost blackmailing the local and the central government to agree to the demand of granting a special reservation and quotas to the members of the Gujjar community.

The news today is that the Gujjar protests may have yielded the result the violent agitators have been seeking. There is talk of special quotas and special reservations, outside of what the current pro-quota, pro-reservation law allows. If there’s no solution son, the agitators, have threatened and planned to put a stranglehold on New Delhi’s supply arteries, something that hasn’t been tried or achieved since the 1857 war of independence.

In the meantime, thieves and dacoits who bvelong to the Gujjar community have now thrown their support behind their community by delaring that they might end up resorting to blowing up the chief minister’s residence if the community’s demands are not met. Jagan Gujjar, one of India’s most dreaded dacoits, who was about to be caught by the police, managed to slip away by camouflaging his gang in a political rally, a scene that would make it to some Bollywood movie one of these days.

Kiron Bhainsla, the leader of this week’s agitation, is now contemplating forming his own political party, thanks to the hotbed of crazy agitators support he has managed to garner over the past week. Meanwhile, he has also managed to ridicule the highest court’s order to present himself before the court, saying, “…If the notice has been issued to me, I will try and present myself before the honourable high court. If I am busy then again I will humbly ask the High Court to extend the date of the hearing…..”.

Can the Gujjars be blamed for doing what they are? Probably not. During the last 60 years, many other communities and many other ethnic groups have managed to get the bonus of reservations and quotas by threatening to agitate or by playing the election-year vote-bank blackmail. The Gujjars didn’t create the rules of the reservation game, a ridiculously naive idea that divides and labels people by caste under the pretext of equal rights and equal opportunities. The success of the Gujjar agitation so far proves that the reservation strategy is a political cover-up and an appeasement agenda, that continually promises to reward ethnic differences and divisions in exchange for votes. It is not just a pander to the backwards amongst us who are only too happy as long as their individual agendas are catered to, but it is also a cave-in to the blackmailers who hold us hostage for whatever political gains canbe achieved through such ransoms. The real blackmailers, of course, are those politicians who have taught these communities that such harmful ways will advance their cause.

May

27

In one of the recent exchanges in the parliament, a member asked the minister of Science and Technology, about India’s plans to generate energy from the ocean waters.

Here’s the background. The earth’s oceans act as solar collectors, and absorb solar energy that, on a given day, can theoretically equal almost 4000 times the energy consumed by humans. A technology known as OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) can utilize the energy differential between the surface and deep sea waters. It offers tremendous advantages such as

1. is an always ‘on’ energy source

2. is said to be an environmentally neutral energy source

3. can produce huge amounts of drinking water as a by-product

Almost ten years ago, India’s National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) undertook a 1MW floating OTEC program under the ‘Jai Vigyan’ mission, to demonstrate the feasibility of energy production from ocean waters. The 2-year initial project was funded for about Rs. 35 crores. The ocean-floating plant used a reverse refrigeration process that also used 1-meter diameter, 1-kilometer long tubes for transferring water from surface to deep seas. Those tubes needed to be suspended vertically using solid ballasts and morring buoys. That was the point where the project stalled.

A few years later, in the beginning of 2002, an additional Rs 35 crores was allocated and the project deadling extended to the end of 2002. Once again, the intake tube collapsed, and the project stalled, mainly due to lack of technical expertise, and partially due to rough weather conditions. In fact, the only piece of the machinery that needs to stand rough weather is those tubes, and that hurdle proved too much to overcome for the Indian engineers.

This time, yet again, the project went back to the finance ministry for reconsideration. And this time, the project got the boot.

Since then, several new techniques have been invented, techniques that can perhaps address the problems faced by the Indian engineers a few years ago. From the financial point, the earlier OTEC project may have looked like a loss, but in reality, it probably provided enormous practical experience and helped develop a team of scientists that can help put India at the forefront of energy frontiers.

One of the differences between India and the other superpower is the ability of the other superpower to take the financial hits in the fields of research and development. The US can more easily afford to make mistakes and take the losses of the financial kind than can India. But Indians need to keep supporting their scientists, especially those who are at the frontiers of technology, struggling with unknown issues, going where no Indian has gone before. For a project of this nature, even the oridinary citizen would gladly contribute some pocket change.

It would be easy to blame and blast a project-fiasco like this pointing to the mistakes of the planners and the engineers. But I think India needs to take another look at this, and keep doing what the scientists had been doing. Send them back to their drawing boards, let them come back with better solutions and give them a few more deadlines. Building an alternative energy source is no cakewalk, and we need to give our scientists all the time and encouragement they need to help put the planet’s energy worries behind.

May

26

Rajesh Talwar, so far a Prometheus Bound

May 26, 2008 posted by indiatime | 3 Comments

Every day I read about the latest progress in the 14-year Noida teen Arushi Talwar’s murder, it seems to me that her assassins have pulled off a perfect murder. Then again, it probably doesn’t take much to pull off a perfect murder, when the investigative agencies are a bunch of idiots who just do not seem to get their act right.

Before I make you feel that I am a biased idiot myself, I will give 3 examples of today’s new stupidities:

1. The police today confiscated the personal computer of the murder victim in an attempt to put together some of the hitherto unlinked pieces of the puzzle.

2. The police is still looking for the murder weapon, a sharp-edged knife not more than a few inches in length, and also the cell phones of the murder victims (the 14-yr old teen and her domestic help).

3. The day after the murder, the parents of the murder victim visited Haridwar fr their daughter’s funeral rites. One of the forms they had to fill (as paperwork for the funeral) had an item that asked about the time of death. The parents put in a time of death , but the actual post-mortem report had not come out yet.

It’s been over a week that the Noida teen was murdered in her bedroom. It is hard to understand why the police did not seize the computer a week ago, knowing fully well that there would be important clues hidden on the hard disk. With dozens of friends and family walking into the Talwar household every day, it is entirely conceivable that someone with a little bit of computer expertise and access to internet, could easily have wiped the hard disk clean of any critical clue.

After the day of the murder, the police not only has been allowing easy access of friends and family into the crime scene, but has also been allowing easy access of the Talwar family themselves in and out their home at will. That brings us to the second point of missing weapons and missing cellphones. It’s easy enough to throw such small-sized items anywhere outdoors, and it’s easy enough to hide them, inside the house, which we now know the police never searched well.

There is a famous saying that the murderer always leaves behind some clues. The problem with that saying is in the Noida case, the police may not be looking for those clues. In fact, the police is probably not looking for anything. Since the day the idiotic local police told the press the murder was committed by a doctor or a butcher to the day the police are now relying on temple records to pin the time of death, the entire saga of investigation could otherwise be seen as a comic effort by a bunch of clumsy clueless cops, had it not been the second act of a grisly murder of a 14-year old.

But I can’t stop being amused when I read reports that the murder suspect, the father of the victim, is now reading ‘Ramayana’ in his prison. And the reports that he has now asked for an anthology of P. B. Shelley’s poems to read. I’m sure the Noida police is scratching their heads to figure out what this means.

One of P. B. Shelley’s famous works was ‘Prometheus Unbound’, based on the story of Prometheus, the Greek hero, who tricked the God Zeus by hiding an Ox meat offering inside an an ugly container and hiding pieces of bones in an attractive container. Zeus chose the bones (looking at the attractive container), got upset with the human race for their cheap trick, and decided to hide fire from the humans. But Prometheus stole that fire and gave it to the humans, upsetting God Zeus even further. Then, Zeus played his ultimate trick, sending Pandora, of the infamous box, to the humans.

Can the police choose correctly amongst all the clues suspect Talwar kept for them in his house (before getting arrested)? Will suspect Talwar still be able to steal freedom from the police? And will we finally see the Pandora’s box opened in this sordid saga of sex, murder and lies? Stay tuned.

May

25

The smokey and the pundit

May 25, 2008 posted by indiatime | 4 Comments

A 30-plus year study of smokers and non-smokers by researchers at Harvard, has now positively concluded that society plays a much larger role in quitting the habit of smoking. The study found that, during the years from 1971 to 2003,

1. there was a precipitous drop in the percentage of adult smokers in the US (45% in 1971 to 21% in 2003. The smokers who once were the life of the parties became social outcasts, meaning - smoking was not just bad for physical health, but also for social health)

2. Smoking behavior tends to spread through close and distant social ties, groups of interconnected people stop smoking in concert

The trend in India, however, is hardly encouraging and the current figures in India have made many to conclude that India is in a catastrophic epidemic of smoking. The Indian study, comparable in size and sample to the US one, has shown that

1. India’s smokers lose ten years of life to the habit of smoking

2. The prevalence was almost equal in urban and rural, educated and uneducated

3. By next year, India will be losing 1 million per year, their deaths attributable solely to the habit of smoking

Just last week, I read somewhere that most of Bollywood’s big stars have now become bloggers. The focus of the celebrity bloggers has hardly been about creating awareness on big issues, or speak on the matters of critical issues that would be causing a million Indians to die. Bollywood’s celebs have instead chosen to bash and thrash the messengers who have urging them to help out a bit. They have, surprizingly, chosen to focus on petty things. Amir Khan has been telling us that his dog is named after his Bollywood rival. Amitabh bachchan, has been busy putting down stars half his age, while Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan have been busy promoting their new TV ventures.

One of Bollywood’s most famous musical numbers last year was a song in which a dancing damsel croons and moans to lover to lit his cigarette with the heat in her lusty heart. I wonder why India’s health ministry isn’t coming out with a short commercial showing the same lusty damsel angry and frustrated with her cigarette-toting romeo for his pathetic performance during their lover’s romp afterwards. Maybe we just have to wait until Bollywood’s wives start spilling the beans on their smoky pundit bedfellows.

May

24

The rising trend of dysfunctional families

May 24, 2008 posted by indiatime | 3 Comments

Gurinder Kaur, a girl from Sialba Manjri village near Chandigarh, was arrested yesterday after she confessed to killing her own mother for opposing her affair with a Muslim boy.

Also yesterday, Rajesh Talwar, the dentist from Noida whose murdered daughter’s tragic case has blanketed the Indian television, was picked up by police fr his involvement in his own daughter’s murder. Talwar is said to have cut his daughter’s throat to defend the family honor as he suspected illicit relations between her and the domestic servant who he killed as well.

Two separate news items - a daughter murdering her mom and a father murdering his daughter, both killings related to matters of love and lust, both killings either planned or results of spontaneous impulses of rage. It is a measure of how far we have come as a nation that we can talk so calmly about matters so horrific and tragic. It is also a measure of how angry some of us are, caught in the circumstances they’re in, feeling helpless and hapless, their desperation reaching depths of darkness seldom appreciated by the friends and family surrounding them.

A few months ago, we all witnessed another variation of the muslim boy-non muslim girl theme, where the Hindu girl’s family ended up being the main suspects in the murder of her newly wedded Muslim husband in the city of Kolkata. In the Chandigarh case, the girl turned the tables on her family - her mother, and the victim in this case is the Sikh mother instead of the Muslim boy. In the Noida case, it is the Hindu girl - Nepalese servant connection, and the twist from the Kolkata case is that it’s not just the boy who is found murdered, but the girl as well.

So we seem to be coming a full circle where honor killings seem to have taken a new meaning. Sometimes it is the families defending their honor against illicit love, sometimes it is the lovers defending the honor of their love against the family’s opposition.

Are we, as a society, too hard and too unforgiving, on the aberrant or unexpected behaviors around us? Did the family members in each of those cases feel compelled to do what they did, fearing a reprisal or rejection by their community? Whose honor were they defending anyways? Is their any honor in these so-called honor killings?

May

23

“…We hate toy guns, We love football…”
- children’s protest in India’s Keinou village

Hundreds of young village children from India’s northeast, burned their toy guns yesterday, and chanted slogans against the violence and terrorism that has wrecked the lives of Indian citizens in the northeastern state of Manipur. As the guns went up in flames, the children clapped and rejoiced.

Manipur is one of India’s several states that have been battling insurgency and separatism for years. More than 5000 locals have died at the hands of insurgents, and the there is growing discontent about the apathetic attitude sometimes shown by New Delhi. But the people of Manipur are increasingly getting tired of the insurgent ways that have brought unstability, ill-will, and destruction. That rising demand for peace is generally seen as a positive sign for a proud region whose children have given a signal to those who have asked the locals to live and die by the gun.

May

22

Police stories

May 22, 2008 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

Barely a few months ater Goa police’s inept handling of a 15-year old British teenager’s murder case, police in Noida, a suburb of India’s capital, is now under scanner for sloppy handling of the murder of a 14-year old schoolgirl.

1. After the initial report of the 14-year old’s murder, the cops came to the scene of the crime, and within hours, declared the main suspect in the murder - a missing servant - whose lifeless body was actually on the terrace of the same building. In fact, it was later revealed that there were visible blood stains from the bathroom of the victim’s apartment, leading all the way to the terrace.

2. On the same terrace was also found a bloody mattress, which was what the murdered 14-year old was sleeping on. So someone had apparently moved the mattress upstairs to the terrace.

3. The terrace had been locked by whoever moved the servant’s body and the 14-year old’s mattress upstairs. Since the police failed to notice anything on the upper floor, they missed some vital clues.

4. The 14-year old’s parents have a dental clinic in the garage of the same building. But the police did not know about that for 3 days. The clinic, though not used on a daily basis by the parents, still housed sharp surgical instruments, etc. But since the police failed to notice anything on the lower floors, they once again missed some vital clues.

5. The scene of the crime, and the apartment building as a whole seems to be swarming with media people as well as onlookers. When the family’s garage was finally opened after 3 days, the police was almost prevented from geting in because the crowd almost surged inside the garage before the police did.

6. Various senior members of the city police seemed to want to be the first one to make some sensational statement to the police. A senior police officer told the press yesterday that the murder was committed by a doctor or a butcher. Now, since the girl’s own parents are both doctors, the police statements have already cast the needle of suspicion on them. Which would be expected in a case like this, but then the same parents seemed to be allowed to leave the place at will, go back in at will, and manipulate evidence at will (if they are assumed to be suspects in this case).

7. Late yesterday, some senior police officers told the press that the police was waiting for clearance from the government before revealing the name of the murderer. Which basically meant that some politicians had already interfered, asking to be informed about the investigation, and may still ask to hold back any critical pieces of evidence.

8. Just to restate the context, Noida is a suburb of New Delhi, India’s capital.

9. An interesting facet of this case are the braggings by the police officers about when they will solve the murder. Initially, a very senior cop told the media that the case would be cracked in 48 hours. By that time, the police had found their suspect, himself murdered by the perpetrators. Since then, the police has been promising to reveal the identity of the murderer within 24 hours or 48 hours etc. It seems as the entire investigation is a reaction to what’s being played out in the media instead of being a serious investigative effort that would appropriately gather evidence and piece the murder mystery together.

Coming back to Goa and its surroundings, the police near Belgaum in Karnataka are in the news, as Smriti Irani, one of India’s most famous TV personalities, yesterday accused the Belgaum police of manhandling her and frisking her in the absence of any female cops. In an incident that would remind one of the Oscar-winning movie ‘Crash’, Irani’s vehicle was stopped and searched on a whim. And the police then decided to take her to the police station for further questioning. Asked later, why the police wanted to question a lone lady passenger in a ar, the police officers told the press that they had found some political brochures in the trunk of Ms. Irani’s car.

May

21

The man who made millions selling bun and thigh roller on TV, yestedray put up $10 million to save the buns of Prakashanand Saraswati, a Texas Guru, who, a few weeks ago, was arrested and charged for 20 counts of indecency towards 2 minors, offenses that he is said to have committed several years ago. A court in Texas yesterday allowed the indicted Swami to visit India on a huge 10 million dollar bond. The district attorney opposed the bond, arguing that the felony offense was too serious to allow the indicted Swami to leave the United States and visit abroad.

Peter Spiegel, the millionaire who agreed to post the huge bond, is a member of the managing board of the Temple complex founded by Prakashanand Saraswati, and is also a successful enterpreneur with a history of successful infomercial campaigns, including the miracle blade, the bun and thigh roller, and the Ultimate Chopper. Spiegel is also an avid follower and student of Hinduism, and studied meditation in Europe as far back as in early 1970s.

What happens now that the 79-year old Swami travels to India? Swami Prakashanand has said that he wants to visit India to oversee some social and religious projects that his organization is involved in. How long will the Swami stay in India? Will he ever return to the United States? Will his disciples someday tell the US court that the Swami, due to some health troubles, is unable to travel back to the US to face prosecution? Will the Swami decide to make his stay in India permanent? We will soon know.

May

20

Ten reasons Rahul Vaid needs to be a free man

May 20, 2008 posted by indiatime | 6 Comments

A 22-year old techie has found himself behind bars for writing derogatory comments about India’s most powerful person Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the ruling Congress party. This last Saturday, the police in Pune presented Rahul Vaid, a native of Gurgaon in Haryana, before the judge, charging him with violations under section 292 IPC (Indian penal Code) and section 67 of the IT act.

Here are my ten reasons why Vaid’s arrest is unfair and perhaps even wrong.

1. Vaid was arrested for posting a derogatory comment in an Orkut.com hate forum dedicated to Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. The owner and creator of the forum however, was not arrested since his right of free speech could not be violated (Section 79 of India’s IT act absolves any intermediary who may otherwise be held liable for electronic transmission of obscene or vulgar materials). So for the law, hate-mongering is actually less of an issue than using disrespectful language. Since the purpose of creating a hate site can be safely said to be spewing and distribution of hatred, how then is the site creator innocent and a mere comment-poster guilty?

2. Just a few days ago, it was reported that NRI filmmaker Jagmohan Mundhra had received approval from Mrs. Gandhi herself, to make a movie based on her life. Here are some of the recent movies made by Mr. Mundhra - Private moments, Kama Sutra, Tales of the Kama Sutra 2, Kama Sutra 3, Sexual Malice, Twisted Passion. Now how did one of the most prolific porno-film producers on the planet get the permission to make a movie based on someone with the stature of Mrs. Gandhi? Why is that person not behind bars yet? And which actress was slated to play Mrs. Gandhi? The Italian model Monica Belucci. Her recent films? Wild Blood, and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.

3. Only a few days ago, the Delhi high Court blasted India’s puritans, saying that India’s artists were free to explore erotica as it was an ancient Indian tradition. Now, if the law can be so liberal and magnanimous about the concept of obscenity and erotica, why even bother to unnecessarily publicize a stupid post by a stupid techie, elevating it instead of ignoring as it was hardly making any impression on anybody?

4. If similar vulgar language is used against an ordinary Indian citizen, would the police move just as quickly and as efficiently as in this case? The scales of justice should tip as much for India’s common folks as they do for the nation’s most important woman. It is common knowledge that many a time, ordinary Indian citizens find it incredibly difficult to register or file legitimate complaints. Is it worth it to move the mighty law enforcement and waste public money to have a party of cops fly across the nation to arrest an idiot over an act of posting a vulgar comment?

5. Only recently, Mrs. Gandhi’s own daughter privately met with one of the convicted murderers of Mrs. Gandhi’s husband, India’s ex-Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. And years ago, India’s police did not move half as efficiently to look for Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins than it moved for an ordinary blog’s even more ordinary comment this weekend.

6. When Mrs. Gandhi’s party won the national elections last time, a large section of India’s population, including some of the cabiner ministers today, cried foul and prevented Mrs. Gandhi from assuming what was rightfully her position to take - the prime ministership of a free nation. Some of India’s politicians labled her as a foreign agent and an outsider. That was okay because it was free speech. In fact, it too, was hateful and obscene speech spewed against a person who had held her own aginst some of India’s political giants, faced incredible heart-wrenching odds, mastered the national language that half of India’s politicians still can’t speak, and maintained solemn dignity in a way that would make her adopted nation proud. Why was that okay then? Because the law couldn’t prosecute political bigwigs?

7. Any time of anyday that one turns the Indian TV on, there is stuff that goes beyond resonable definitions of obscenity and vulgarity. Just yesterday, a famous Indian director and a famous comedian were seen in an award function, commenting how ‘big’ the trophy was, especially punning the hindi word for big, insinuating, yes, the male organ. There are TV channels that greet Indian viewers in the mornings, with touching discourses by Gurus previously charged with child molestation and rapes of minors. Why is all that okay? Because the law cannot prosecute media bigwigs?

8. A few months ago, military authorities in the neighboring Myanmar murdered thousands of their own citizens. We kept silent. Just a few days ago, hundreds of thousands of people in that country died in a cyclone disaster, and India pretty much kept silent. Last month, another neighbor cracked down on a peaceful protest by Tibetans, people who follow our own Buddha, people we share so much of our culture and history with. We kept silent. A stupid blogger posts a stupid comment on a stupid site, and our law enforcement, military, commandos, border security, everything gets energized. Ha!

9. Had the law enforcement talked to Mr. Rahul Vaid and warned him against such stupidities, we would probably never have heard from him again. But someone somewhere decided to make an example of this idiot. When a nation’s police force focuses its efforts on targetting the most insignificant idiots in the population, that says something about the way we interpret the pearls of wisdom etched in the constitution. Freedom of speech is not always about freedom to speak eloquently. Most Indians can do that with ease. It is also about defending the rights of those who sometimes speak stupidly, though without any real ill-intent and ill-will. If the legal system of a 60-year old democracy cannot discern a hate-mogerer from a village idiot, then we are in for major trouble.

10. Some may still argue that according to the book of the law, a crime has been committed. Who’s disputing that? All I’m saying is for a nation that wants to tout itself as this century’s superpower, even the tiniest scratch on people’s civic liberties can cloud the temple of democracy so many of us have fought so hard to build. Some may still argue that Mr. Vaid’s actions constitute a violation of the IT act. Of course. But come on! Don’t the cops have anything better to do?

May

19

Einstein’s religion

May 19, 2008 posted by indiatime | 3 Comments

“….One of the most fervent hopes of Einstein was to find an overriding law of nature in which all laws of matter and energy would be unified. This is the driving question in some of the ancient Hindu scriptures, too….”
- Eknath Easwaran (Indian spiritualist)

This week, a 1954 letter written by physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) to philosopher Eric Gutkind (1877-1965), was auctioned off by Bloomsbury auctions for close to half a million dollars.

Experts have contended that the Gutkind letter, written at the very end of his life, is a concise and unvarnished expression of Einstein’s views about religion. Says Einstein, writing to Gutkind, the author of ‘Body of God’, and an avid student of the Jewish Kabalas,

“…word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends…For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people….”

The letter also mentions Baruch Spinoza, a 17th century Dutch, whose nondualist ideas on God, Nature and mind are actually very similar to Adwaita Vedanata, the monistic school of Hindu philosophy. In 1930, in a meeting with Rabindranath Tagore, Einstein is said to have had an interesting dispute with Tagore, jokingly saying to Tagore that he (Einstein) was actually more religious than him. People close to both have said that Einstein sometimes referred to Tagore as Rabbi Tagore, a pun on Rabindranath’s name, and also a jab at their mutual differences. The two were not influenced by each other’s opinions, but had tremendous respect and friendship that lasted many years (In the late 1920s, Tagore had rejected an honorary doctorate from Berlin University to protest the treatment given to Einstein by the Nazi regime).

In 1946, Paramahansa Yogananda, the famous Indian yogi, commented on Einstein’s religious odyssey, applauding Einstein for reaching across the ages to the rishis who proclaimed a sole fabric of creation - a protean maya.

That quest, to seek the mysteries of the subtle, the intangible, and the inexplicable, was the only spirituality or religiousness, Einstein ever confessed to. The one Hindu philosopher whom Einstein was almost a contemporary to, and who could probably have had a much more interesting dialog on Hinduism with Einstein, was the man who brought Adwaita Vedanta to the west - Swami Vivekananda. But the two never met, as Swami Vivekananda passed away at the very young age of 39 in 1902 - a couple years before Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis papers of 1905.

May

18

“….How can a minister say that 90 per cent of the saints are not wearing their underwear? How did he know that? …”
- Rahul Easwar (spokesperson, Sabarimala temple)

G. Sudhakaran, a Kerala politician who oversees the state’s Devaswom board (the administrative body overseeing temples), has raised eyebrows by his statement that all Godmen are fake. Mr. Sudhakaran’s statements came in the heels of the unveiling of Santosh Madhavan scandal, when the self-styled Godman Madhavan was exposed to be a porn-film racketeer with overseas mafia connections.

Calling the people to denounce such fake Godmen who dupe people in the name of God, Sudhakaran, in a recent public speech, criticized the Godmen denouncing the half-naked swamis as frauds:-

“…We should make these swamis wear clothes….They should start wearing clothes and we should teach them some decency… I am still saying that 90 per cent of them are all thieves and they are all fit to go to jails…”

The controversy took another twist, when Bhadrananda, another arrested Godman made a scene Saturday, when after his arrest, he called up several media outlets, inviting them to witness him commit suicide at the police station. Some in the media showed up, the police tried to confiscate his gun, but it still went off almost taking his two fingers away.

But Sudhakaran’s lashing out at the Godmen fraternity seems to have angered and upset many in the state. For them, the recent exposes about lusty Swamis and fraudulent Godmen are isolated occurences, not representative of a greater problem. India’s national media is also pretty mute on the issue, with even the foremost TV networks such as Zee TV, giving morning airtime to swamis with questionable character and a history of molestation and rape charges.

May

17

Turban warfare

May 17, 2008 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

“…My view is that at a younger age your optimism is more and you have more imagination etc. You have less bias…”
- Abdul Kalam

A school in Punjab, India, has now made it mandatory for all its students, Sikhs and non-Sikhs, to wear a turban to the school. The Akal Academy, an educational institution with 25000 students and about 25 branches, made its turban ordinance compulsory for all the students above sixth grade. That has sparked protests from families of Hindu students, who have now threatened to take their sons out of the Akal Academy.

In another news, in Hightstown, New Jersey, yesterday, authorities charged 18-year old Garett Green, for setting a Sikh student’s turban on fire. Green has been charged with aggravated assault, bias intimidation, arson and criminal mischief. Green’s victim, a 16-year old Sikh student, was not seriously hurt, but his some of his hair is said to have caught fire.

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