Jul

31

Hashmi can’t own a house ssala

July 31, 2009 posted by indiatime | 6 Comments

It was only a year ago that I commented about Shabana Azmi’s ridiculous sounding claims that muslim actors in Bollywood were finding it difficult to own an apartment of their choice in Mumbai. Fast forward one year. And today there is this news about this ridiculous housing society in Mumbai’s swank suburb of Bandra, a cooperative society that is not cooperating with Emraan Hashmi, Bollywood’s famous kissing king.

One of the residents of the society, one Ms Suvarna, had apparently agreed to sell her apartment to Mr. Hashmi, who put down a good faith retainer of Rs 1 lakhs. At about the time the deal between the seller and the buyer was to close, the cooperative society turned uncooperative and refused to hand over a no-objection certificate needed to transfer the ownership.

Admittedly, the housing cooperative societies have their by-laws and constitutions and are perfectly within their rights to allow or deny any transfer of ownership that is deemed improper or unwelcome for various reasons. The problem in this particular case may be that Mr. Hashmi’s lone disqualification could be his faith. Although the society has so far not given any explanations for its disinterest and dislike in allowing a transfer of ownership, it seems quite likely that Emraan Hashmi’s initial instincts about his inability to find a place of his choice, appear right so far.

If that indeed is the case, then it is a shame, a big shame. I am not a personal fan of Emraan Hashmi. I think he is an averagely talented person with average acting abilities, not unlike most other Bollywood actors, who can barely twitch a facial muscle at will. Still, he has made a name for himself, has become popular, for all we know, is a good and upstanding citizen with no crimes against humanity or anything. Good for him, I say. But to be denied access or ownership rights on the basis of one’s faith is a gross violation and just hugely unfair. So I completely empathize with Hashmi on this one, and do believe he has a right to live wherever he wants.

It shouldn’t matter whether Hashmi is a Muslim a Hindu or a Christian or a Sikh. Shouldn’t matter whether someone is an upper caste or a lower caste. Shouldn’t matter when you buy a house or enter a school or a university or are hired for a job. Anybody who even mentions religion or caste or color should be exiled to some faraway island and kept there until the next stone age returns.

Jul

30

Sanjeev Sharma, a teacher from the state of Madhya Pradesh, is now under investigation for having asked his female students to disrobe so he could take measurements for their uniforms. The incident occurred in the town of Ganj Basoda (in the Madhya Pradesh-Rajasthan border district of Tyonda near Vidisha) on July 24th, at the Nurpur Education Guarantee Scheme School.

8 girl students from the same class complained to their parents that teacher Sharma called them in his office one by one and ordered them to disrobe so he could measure them up for their new uniforms. And since he didn’t have any measuring tape, the teacher is said to have measured the young girls with his fingers. The girls further alleged that the teacher misbehaved with them after measuring them with his fingers.

Later in the day, the parents of the victims marched to the school, but found that the teacher had already left. They then went to the local administrative officer for the district. Kiran Badbade (yes, but he turned out to be a good guy), the officer, immediately found the teacher guilty in his preliminary investigation, and teacher Sharma was immediately dismissed. No word yet on if and when Sharmaji himself will be donning the prison uniform.

Incidentally, Ganj Basoda, the town where the shameful incident occurred, is the birthplace of Yoga. Patanjali, who wrote Yogasutra, the book on Yoga, was born in Ganj Basoda around 150 BC. Patanjali’s Yoga comprised of eight major systems of yoga, the first and foremost of which is called yama or restraint.

So, two thousand years after Patanjali, Ganj Basoda is in the news again for that same yama (restraint). The lack of it, rather.

Further readings:
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali

Jul

29

Ishmeet Singh, a year after

July 29, 2009 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

Within moments of pop star Michael Jackson’s death a month ago, conspiracy theorists debated about the unnatural and suspicious way he had died. Most others dismissed the conspiracies, blaming the star’s own penchant for drug use. Close family members such as Jackson’s own sister alleged murder conspiracies. Now, one month after the star’s death, some of that mystery has unraveled and Jackson’s personal doctor is said to be facing manslaughter charges.

Exactly one year ago, on July 29th 2008, India’s own pop sensation and rising superstar Ishmeet Singh, died a mysterious death far away from home, at a resort in the Maldives. Though he didn’t know how to swim, Singh was said to have gone into the deep end of the resort’s swimming pool, all alone. Minutes later, he had apparently drowned and died, shocking his fans all around the world.

Within days, Singh’s own family members had alleged foul play. Months after his death, his father spoke about the discrepancies in the drowning investigation and highlighted the inconsistencies in the witness statements.

Surprisingly for the death of such a huge star, the people who accompanies Ishmeet Singh to the Maldives resort, have hardly spoken to the media, seldom giving others an insight into what transpired before, during and after the star’s death. It’s obvious that many of the big stars and wannabe singers who were at the resort, were under contract with a huge media company that seems to have censored any reactions from them. Even more surprisingly, the rest of the media also seems to have followed some sort of self-censorship, altogether zipping it up about the drowning incident, choosing not to raise even the most obvious questions, and electing to declare the incident as an unfortunate accident.

An accident it may indeed have been, but then again, all the questions haven’t been answered and all the people who were around haven’t spoken up. Unfortunately for young Ishmeet Singh, the Indian public too, has a short memory. New singing sensations come up every day and last year’s singing great Ishmeet Singh, for most ungrateful fans, is probably a distant memory only a year after his unnatural and sudden death.

Jul

28

A couple of years ago, Yasmeen, a 15-year old teen prostitute in Kashmir, told the police about how she was forced into prostitution by Sabeena, a local madam. Sabeena in turn, opened up her client diary, which consisted the names of VIPs, VVIPs and VVVIPs in and around the state, including the local officials, bureaucrats and principal secretaries, ordinary legislators and top politicians and cabinet-level government ministers, as well as top and mid-level police officials.

That teen prostitution sex story from 3 years ago has now come back and claimed the top pol in the J&K politics. Chief minister Omar Abdullah, the third-generation chief minister of his state (the son of former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah and the grandson of J&K chief minister Sheikh Abdullah), resigned a few hours ago, amidst allegations that his and his father’s name fared in the list of VVIPs from madam Sabeena’s list.

Yasmeen’s story started when while in her 8th grade, she was once invited to madam Sabeena’s house. She was drugged by a state government security guard, and then raped and blackmailed into prostitution after being filmed. Turned out that Yasmeen was not an only or one of the few victims, but was one of the many such victims who were regularly ‘fed’ to the top officials in the Jammu & Kashmir government. Not surprisingly, the police and India’s central investigating authorities initially dragged their feet, reluctant to touch or charge anyone, until the supreme court began slamming the investigation process. Added to the mix were allegations about high-level cover-ups.

Chief minister Abdullah’s resignation came about after recent allegations by People’s Democratic leader Baig who spoke about Abdullah’s famous father - Farooq, being on the sex scandal list as madam Sabeena’s client number 38.

Jul

27

Three more accused have now been convicted in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blast case. Later, the public prosecutor declared the convictions as a blow to Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Pakistan-based militant group.

Although the convicted trio faces death penalty and may indeed get it, this can hardly be called a blow to any Pakistan-based group, let alone Lashkar (That was already proved last year when Lashkar managed to walk a dozen armed people into the streets of Mumbai, wreaking a similar havoc as the one 16 years ago). In a series of slow and lame convictions over last 16 years, the Indian authorities have indeed managed to catch and convict most of the small fish. And many of those small fish may be fried as well. But the biggest ones flew away long long ago.

And that’s why none in the media bothered to follow up with the visiting secretary of state on why her country would not force Pakistan to hand over to India the man who has been the mastermind behind many of the terror attacks against us. Dawood Ibrahim does not live in the border areas and he does not hide in the caves. The extradition of Dawood Ibrahim was the one thing India should have demanded and stuck to. That the Indian prime minister cannot even bring himself to utter such a demand speaks volumes about how far India still has to go and how subservient it still is in the area of international relations. Even Sri Lanka, a much smaller nation, finally got their wish to kill their own public enemy number one. Looks like India will end up giving Kashmir up to Pakistan and giving Arunachal Pradesh up to China and giving Goa back to the Portuguese before it can qualify to demand anything from the world’s real superpowers.

Jul

26

A truth-telling twist for politicians

July 26, 2009 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

The recent controversy over a reality show that exploits people’s lie-telling and technology’s lie-detecting skills, has thrown India’s hypocrite moral police up in disarray. That the show’s producers are exploiting TV ratings under the guise of truth is no secret. The newly imported truth-telling reality show on India’s Star TV guarantees provoking of controversies and raising of eyebrows, at a time when India’s TV viewers seem to be hungry for more and more of something spicier.

So politicians across India have now been clamoring over the immoral TV shows, vowing to ban the new rot on Indian television, ruing the golden old days when immorality was confined to bodily gyrations of Bollywood maidens. Funny thing is, none of those politicians and the moral police will dare to participate in the truth-telling show that seems to be exposing the myth of India’s moral mantle, revealing the hidden devils inside every participant, and making a mockery of those who have long claimed moral and spiritual superiority over the rest of the planet.

The show’s future will most certainly rest in the hands of India’s supreme court, which sooner or later, will ban the darn truth-revealing show. Before that however, the show’s producers should offer to accept the inevitable on a condition to have each of India’s parliamentarians sit in the truth-chair, making them take the lie-detector test. One can start at the top, with the president, then the prime minister, then each of the cabinet ministers, and then the parliament members. Local language TV stations can run the local shows with chief ministers and local legislators. By the time we’re done with politicians, enough secrets will be outed turning everything upside down and charting a new path. And then there should be a law to mandate some lie-detector test for everyone who contests to become a people’s representative.

Once we get to that point, the show can go to hell, meaning where it came from. And the politicians can then go to hell, meaning where they’re headed for, eventually.

Jul

25

Stripped and paraded naked in India - II

July 25, 2009 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

Three recent incidents in India where women were asked or made to strip in public:

1. Farmers in the state of Bihar, in a desperate bid for rain, recently asked their unmarried daughters to embarrass the rain gods by plowing the fields naked. The naked girls were accompanied by the elderly women in the villages, who did not have to take their clothes off. The village council members vowed to continue the naked plow until thr weather Gods showered the village with heavy rains.

2. Women participants in the state-sponsored mass wedding that ocurred in the state of Madhya Pradesh, were asked to take their all of clothes off, it has now been confirmed. No, not everyone who showed up at the wedding, but only those who participated to become the brides. The state authorities have claimed that the brides were stripped to ensure that they were all virgins. There was no plowing in the fields and no reports of whether the incident embarrassed any of the Gods to shower the state with monsoon rains.

3. Also in the state of Bihar, a young woman was recently stripped and paraded naked on a busy street which, for some reason, is already known as Exhibition Street. The Nation Commission of Women was so outraged that it requested the state’s chief minister for assurances that such incidents not recur. Nitish Kumar, the state’s chief minister called the incident condemnable (no, not commendable).

If you thought these were merely isolated incidents that deserved mere condemnation, here are the incidents from the past few years where women in India were made to strip in public.

Jul

24

Countering counterfeit menace

July 24, 2009 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

Pop singer Michael Jackson’s death a few weeks ago, prompted questions about his overdosing on drugs and the extent to which he went doctor-shopping to get those drugs, often spending close to 50 thousand dollars per month. Actually, it would have been so much easier had the pop star moved to India, where he could easily have had access to whatever drugs he needed. And he would most probably still be around, because many of the drugs available on the Indian market, are spurious and fake.

Sources from India’s drug enforcement agency is saying that almost 25% percent of the pharmaceutical trade in India is counterfeit and fake. Meaning one out of four times you are out to get a medicine, you will be buying a fake one. Officially however, the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association as well India’s Asst Drug controller reject the high numbers, claiming that the actual counterfeiting may be close to only 2-3%.

On top of the counterfeit list is viagra, the fake variety of which has now overtaken caterpillar fungus as the most sought after aphrodisiac. And it may even have made it way into the antimalarial drugs. Besides Viagra, many cough and cold medicines and cancer drugs as well, have a demand in the counterfeit market. The cough medicine, for its high volume high demand business. And the caner medicines for their high profitability.

India’s health ministry seems to be aware of the huge fake drugs issue, though. It has now announced big payoffs for those who venture to whistleblow and expose the big fish in the counterfeit drug industry.

On top of India’s own spurious drug industry, Chinese-made fake drugs with ‘Made-in-India’ labels have become an additional headache for Indian officials. Looks like China is really worried about losing its status as the world’s most populous nation.

Yes, Michael Jackson could indeed have saved himself by moving to India. He could have taken all the drugs he needed to take and he would still be little affected if at all. And he would have found out about the various ways sleepless Indians do help themselves to sleep. Watching parliamentary debates on TV, overloading on spicy food, or taking alertness medicines…the list is endless.

Jul

23

News from India’s animal world

July 23, 2009 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

A day in the life of India’s animals:

1. Overhead crows foil man’s escape from prison
Sanajid Middha’s plans to escape from the Alipore jail apparently went perfect until the crows over and around the jail decided against it. Middha escaped from his own cell and survived the overnight search by the prison police. But he ended giving his hiding spot up, when a murder of crows up in the sky noticed him hiding in the bushes and started pecking at him. It was almost early morning by the time the escapee climbed atop the prison roof and a guard preparing to hoist the national flag noticed movement on the roof, ending Middha’s night of freedom.

2. Stray snake adjourns Orissa state parliament
Yesterday, a king cobra scared the parliament members of Orissa state into emptying the assembly house, when a janitor alerted the parliament guards about the snake in the parliament. The poisonous snake was spotted right near chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s chair, prompting adjournment of the ongoing activities, and forcing all the parliament members to sit atop their chairs as the officials from the forest department tried to tackle the terror. It is believed the the snake went away on its own and wa never captured.

3. British company introduces foreign mosquitoes ot tackle Indian mosquitoes
A British company is about to introduce an experimental mosquito program in India. To tackle the mosquito menace in India, the company plans to introduce mosquitoes from Africa that have been genetically altered in the laboratory. The genetic alteration is supposed to have made the African mosquitoes sterile, but the scientists from ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) have expressed fear that random mutations might make the African mosquitoes fertile again, worsening the mosquito menace in the country.

Jul

22

Top 10 Zardari jokes banned by Pakistani

July 22, 2009 posted by indiatime | 105 Comments

Pakistan’s president Zardari has tasked his country’s top investigation agency to go after those who send, receive, or forward funny or derogatory text messages about the country’s president. Anyone sending or receiving jokes about Zardari will now become liable for a 14-year jail sentence.

Temporarily, many Pakistanis who have so far been enjoying sending and reading funny text messages about their president have reverted to sending messages without any mention of Zardari. Bloggers and mainstream Pakistani media have called the new rules ‘draconian’ and many others contended that such laws would actually encourage further ridicule of the Pakistani president who is consistently portrayed in these text messages as a thief, a dog, a traitor or a demon.

Here are some of those text messages that have angered the Pakistani establishment:

1. Scratch & Win
lllllllllllll
lllllllllli
llllllllri
lllllari
lllardari
“Zardari”
Mubarik Ho aapka KUTTA Nikla Hai.
(Congratulations. It’s a dog.)

2. Long lines
A man standing in a long line for food tells the others in the line that he is leaving the line to go to shoot the president. He returns after a few hours and rejoins the line.
“Did you manage to kill him“, everyone asks him.
“No, that line is longer than this one“, he replies.

3. Robber meets Zardari
Robber: “Give me all your money!”
Zardari: “Don’t you know who I am? I am Asif Ali Zardari.”
Robber: “OK. Give me all my money.”

4. TV anchor announcing:
Terrorists have kidnapped our beloved Zardari and are demanding $5,000,000 or they will burn him with petrol. Please donate what you can. I have donated five liters.”

5. Postmaster General announcing
To commemorate the ascension to the Presidency, Pakistan Post has officially launched a new stamp. But the people of Pakistan are confused which side on the stamp to spit on.

6. Announcement In Zardari’s official airplane…

Mr. President , We are about to land.
could you please put Sherry Rehman (former Information minister) in an
upright position. Thank you….

7. Two dogs
Upset with Zardari
His dog jumped into
A dirty sewer
Said it’s not fair
To live under one roof
For dogs two

8. Pakistani meets American
Pakistani to American: What do you guys do with thieves?
American: We treat them humanely and give them nice food, warm clothes and long jury trials
Pakistani: That’s nothing. We give them the presidency.

9. Genie meets Pakistani
Genie to Pakistani: Order me my master. What can I do for you?
Pakistani to Genie: Bring me all the wealth in the Swiss bank.
Genie: My name is Genie, not Zardari.

10. Text message from one Pakistani to another:
Zardari is my favorite personality.
Zardari is so good looking.
Zardari is so cute.
Zardari is such an honest man.
Zardari is such a very responsible person.
I love Zardari.
Zardari is such a great leader.
I am proud of Zardari…

Jul

21

Frisking of a president

July 21, 2009 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

There was an uproar in India’s upper house today about a recent frisking incident involving India’s former president Dr Kalam. The incident occurred a few months ago at Delhi’s international airport, when former president was about to embark on a Continental Airlines flight from New Delhi to Newark, New Jersey.

At the security checkpoint, the security personnel asked Dr. Kalam to remove his footwear and are said to have frisked him as well. It is not known if Dr Kalam was asked to remove his belt.

True to his nature, the former president did not raise any issue with the Indian government at the time of the flight, but the matter has now come to public notice and caused a stir in the parliament where the members expressed outrage over the humiliation meted out to the former president. And the civil aviation ministry is now asking Continental Airlines why action should not be taken on it, for treating the former president as an ordinary passenger.

Here’s what I think.

1. Every former president or prime minister will and should typically have his or her service detail traveling alongwith. One would think it is the duty of those personnel to protect the topmost dignitaries from being touched by others.

2. Every former president’s itinerary is and should be known to the government at all times, so a reasonable aount of protection can be accorded at all times. Once again, the former president’s staff seems to have failed him here.

3. In this day and age, top dignitaries, including diplomatic or white passport holders, should not mind going through a security check just as every other passenger goes through. What if the dignitary’s footwear is bugged and he is not even aware of it? What if the dignitary’s writing pen has a bomb inside? Wouldn’t we want to know why such devices were not interrupted at the security point itself?

4. It is not a question of humiliation, but a routine, a rule. In fact, everyone, no matter how high, should go through a rigorous security check, including domestic and foreign dignitaries. Dr. Kalam’s frisking has actually opened a door to this possibility and is a great opportunity. Imagine some member of parliament or some top bureaucrat is frisked tomorrow and complains about it, one can always tell him or her that even the presidents and the former presidents have to go through it. Meaning, nobody is above the law.

5. That Dr Kalam did not raise a stink over the issue speaks about his class. This is one former dignitary and president who sets examples everywhere he goes or travels. And for all the stink that is now being raised by others, the same politicians disrespected and humiliated him several times more when they refused to extend him another term, because they knew this guy to be a political independent and they also knew that he wouldn’t be their stooge.

Jul

20

Yet another young mother burnt for dowry

July 20, 2009 posted by indiatime | 6 Comments

Barely a month ago, India’s top court spoke about the need to introduce capital punishment as a strong deterrent against bride burning.

Yesterday, yet another ghastly bride burning occurred within a few miles of India’s Supreme court. 28-year old Deepika Bajaj, a customer care manager with Hyundai, became the latest addition to the stunning statistic that has been regularly claiming the lives of women all over India. Deepika’s case is yet another disgrace on the society around her, especially Indian capital’s law enforcement, that failed this young mother of a six-year old.

Married for last seven years, Deepika Bajaj had recently made several attempts to seek help and intervention in her troubled marriage. And her pleas for intervention had reached beyond a few desperate phone call to her parents and friends.

1. Three months ago, Deepika Bajaj sought intervention from the ‘Crime Against Women’ cell of the local police district, complaining that her husband and in-laws were harassing her for dowry.

2. Three days ago, Deepika called the police again, complaining about additional and increasingly violent abuse by her husband.

3. Minutes before her death, she called the police again, pleading them to save her life, and told her that her husband’s family was ‘preparing to set her on fire’.

That Deepika Bajaj was declared dead on arival within hours after that phone call, speaks volumes about the brutality and the extent of abuse she had been facing at the hands of her own family, in front of her own daughter.

And what was the Delhi police’s response to this brutal murder? First, they reached the victim’s house too late to be able to save the victim. Second, they said they were still trying to ascertain the veracity of the dead mother’s claims of abuse. “..She called us and said her husband Aditya Bajaj and her in-laws had set her ablaze…”, said one police officer. “…We cannot say anything concrete as of now as it is too early but we think the in-laws were responsible for her death….”, said his senior.

The next time the Supreme court speak about hanging people for committing these bride burnings, I hope they consider hanging the lazy police officers who sit on their fat asses doing nothing as young mothers burn to their deaths. I bet the police officer on duty was chewing his betel leaves or sipping a hot cup of tea when this poor and desperate mother called for help.

I truly cannot believe that Indians have learnt to look the other way when such things happen. Forget punishing bride burnings by hanging, merely asking for dowry should be punishable by hanging.

Jul

19

Tales from Udaipur

July 19, 2009 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

The Travel and Leisure magazine has come out with its list of the top ten cities to visit in the world. At the top of the list is Udaipur, India, for its rich and real sense of the culture, shopping opportunities and art collections. No other city figured in the magazine’s list, not even when it came to the top ten cities in Asia.

Udaipur is named after king Udai Singh who founded it, making it his capital, after mughal king Akbar captured the Rajput capital city of Chittor. When only six years of age, his elder half-brother raised his hand against a senior Rajput chieftain from Ajmer. The events set in motion a revenge killing, where little Udai Singh’s brother Rana Bikramjit was killed and the killers came after the 6-year old surviving prince.

The story goes that Panna Dai, the nanny who looked after the little prince, herself had a 6-year old son who also doubled as the prince’s playmate. That fateful day, the nanny’s son ended up doubling as the prince himself and was assassinated by the killers who thought he was the real prince. In the meantime, nanny Panna had managed to have the palace barber escort the real prince Udai Singh to safety. The prince resurfaced several years later, after spending his days of anonymity at the house of a jain merchant named Asha Shah, who was also the local governor.

Here’s the thing. The only person who knew who the real prince was, was Panna, the palace nanny. In the days when there was no scientific evidence or anything to back that story up, who is to say the nanny didn’t save her own son and told on the real prince? After all, by making the story up about saving the real prince, she would get best of both the worlds - getting her own son on the throne and getting the honor to have served the royals well.

The closest proof that the surviving prince might indeed have been the royal blood comes from two things. Udai Singh grew up and married 20 different women, something of an indication that his may indeed have been royal blood. The second and the perhaps the more definitive is that one of his sons turned out to be Maharana Pratap, one of the most famous warriors of the Mewar clan, and one of Indian history’s biggest and most revered warrior heroes.

Jul

18

Bank robberies

July 18, 2009 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

Yesterday, the Reserve Bank of India, responding to consumer complaints, has upped the ante on the banks to become accountable for delays in returning the erroneous ATM fees charged in cases of incomplete the particular transactions. Henceforth, the banks will have to re-credit the erroneously charged amounts within less than 12 days, even in cases of third-party ATMs. And those banks that don’t do so, will now end up paying their customers Rs 100 per day.

Almost every Indian who has ever opened account in an Indian bank, has more than a few painful memories and at least some bitter banking experience. Directives like yesterday’s will go a long way towards assuring bank customers that it is okay to deposit money in Indian banks.

Recently, a non-resident Indian (NRI) family that lives in the US but still has multiple bank accounts in Mumbai, allowed me in on their enlightening experience with a major bank in Mumbai. A while ago, this family put a substantial sum of money in a fixed deposit scheme with a famous government-owned bank in Mumbai. An year later, an emergency came up, and the family needed their cash back from the bank. At first, the bank gave them various excuses and told them about the hefty penalties for withdrawing out of the fixed deposit scheme.

‘We understand‘, said the family, ‘just take your darn fees and give us the rest of our money back‘.

‘We could have done that a year ago, but it is now almost impossible after the 26/11‘, said the bank, ‘we cannot be sure who is a terrorist or not and who has money deposited in here‘.

‘But we are not terrorists and this is our hard-earned money that we put into your stupid fixed deposit scheme‘, begged the family.

‘Well, there is one way we can give your money back‘, relented the bank - ‘We will still have to keep your money as collateral, but we will give you a loan based on that fixed deposit‘.

Realizing they weren’t getting their money from this famous bank, the family tried their luck with another major bank where they had money deposited around the same time a while back. So they visited the branch office where they had the account. ‘We cannot locate your papers‘, came back the branch manager, ‘our whole basement got flooded two years ago, and we lost quite a bit of paperwork in that‘.

Realizing they weren’t getting their money back from this second bank, they finally went back to their original neighborhood bank, a famous regional name. And then, to their horror, they found that their account had been making utility payments for their next-door neighbors to their empty apartment in Mumbai. ‘How did this happen‘, they asked the manager. ‘Well, we recently upgraded our computer systems, and looks like your neighbor also lives in the same building, and shares the same building number‘, answered the manager.

‘What are you going to do‘, I asked my friends a few months ago. ‘Well, we have definitely learnt from our mistakes and now have our money in the Bank of America branch across the street from our house‘, said my friend.

Two days ago, I sent them this news article about a Bank of America customer who was charged $23 quadrillion (an amount that is almost 50,000 times the world GDP) for a pack of cigarettes.

Jul

17

Suicide epidemic

July 17, 2009 posted by indiatime | 4 Comments

A much shortened version of a suicide news on the Indian scene, where people frustrated and distraught over stuff, chose to end their lives :

1. Indian-origin stockbroker Anjool Malde is said to have jumped to his death, ending his promising career at the Deutche Bank, allegedly threatened by some ongoing inquiry at his workplace.

2. IIT-Kharagpur, one of India’s leading technology temples, reported its second suicide in about a month, when freshman student Joginder Singh ended his life, distraught over not getting admitted into his school of choice - IIT, Delhi.

3. Newlywed husband Ravinder Gehlaut tried to end his life by eating pesticides, when his community rejected his marriage to his wife who is from the same gotra or sub-caste.

4. Police in Patna reported a suicide by Michael David Osborne, an Australian tourist who is said to have eaten rat poison and killed himself in his hotel room.

5. The state of Uttarakhand was the scene was an attempted mass suicide by 20 hospital employees, who were demanding that their employment be regularized.

6. A week ago, Hyderabad police arrested Mohammad Ashraf , an ardent admirer and a deranged fan, who had been stalking Indian tennis star Sania Mirza. Ashraf had threatened to kill himself if the tennis star didn’t accept his marriage proposal.

7. 2000 farmers from Ranchi have launched a signature suicide campaign, and have threatened to commit mass suicide if their living conditions do not improve. They committed as much in a letter to the Indian president Mrs. Patil.

8. In Kolkata, Subir Basu, a pharmaceutical company accountant, was run over by a bus, a death currently being treated a case of suicide. Basu’s wife has alleged that his company threw him under the bus, literally.

9. India defense minister is reporting that more than 500 Indian soldiers have taken their own lives during last 4 years.

10. Also in Kolkata, police are investigating if Munni Begum, a young wife had driven her husband Mohammad Mushtaq to suicide. The husband had recently lost his job, but his family has alleged that their daughter-in-law tortured him by her constant demands of money.

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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