Aug

29

Politics, promiscuity and polygamy

August 29, 2009 posted by indiatime | 5 Comments

A storm is brewing inside India’s opposition party, and the rumors and talks about political alliances is ripe once again. They say politics makes strange bedfellows, but whoever ‘they’ are, ‘they’ had little idea how promiscuous Indian politics typically is.

But then again, just as art imitates life, so does politics. Tushar Waghmare, a 40-year old airline engineer in Maharashtra, was recently arrested after police found about that he had married 14 women in twice the number of months. Waghmare used matrimonial sites on the internet and his charms to get into the good books of 14 families. Posing as a divorcee, using false documents, and utilizing fake relatives, he pulled off what now seems like an easy internet scam.

Here’s the statistics of Waghmare’s marital venture. Out of the 14 wives, 5 have filed charges so far, 9 have remained silent or hadn’t yet figured out that they’ve been duped. Most of the 14 are housewives, but one is an engineer and another is an architect. All 14 lives in Mumbai except one who lived a few hundred kilometers away. None of the wives had met any of the others until the last one he married. The wife number 14 visited his second apartment and was greeted by wife number 13. They immediately went to the police and managed to stop Waghmare’s marital streak to 14.

In his short but successful stint as a serial husband and polygamist, Waghmare proved himself to be a man of many talents - an incredible manager (managing 14 families in one salary), a savvy netizen (using new media to fullest avantage), a slick charmer (charming 14 different families), a careful forgerer (faked documents to create a few identities). But above all that, Waghmare is a politician, whose ease and expertise in making alliances, may eventually open up a new career for him, once he is out of jail.

On second thoughts, let me take that last sentence back. Waghmare doesn’t need to be out of jail to be successful in Indian politics. He can not only contest a parliamentary election, he can most certainly become a parliament member and probably a lot more. And trust me, he will only be a petty criminal at best if you go ahead and compare his crimes to many other Indian politicians who contested their elections, won and now have bigger & better criminal enterprises in their official capacities.

Aug

26

Where love has always been a way of life

August 26, 2009 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

Hai preet jahanki reet sada (Where love has always been a way of life), says a famous Bollywood song from yesteryears. A youth from Surat proved that love indeed was the way of life (and almost death, too) when he accepted a girl’s challenge to prove his love for her.

About six months ago, one Ms. Palash, whom a local boy named Raju liked very much, dared him to jump off of a building to prove that he truly loved her. So Raju, smitten with love, did jump off the third floor. He was severely injured, but lived. So he went away to his native state of Uttar Pradesh for a long treatment and recovery.

Recently, Raju came back to Surat, all healed up and everything, and proposed to the girl of his dreams. She accepted and they both eloped earlier this month. But the girl was a minor and her father filed a missing person’s report.

So now, having survived a jump from the third floor of a building, Raju’s next venture will be to survive the third degree from the local police. By the time he is through with that, time will be right to elope and not to have to worry about another dare.

Incidentally, eloping just doesn’t seem to be working in the region. Another couple, who recently eloped, announced their marriage in the local newspapers. To their horror, the groom’s mom was attacked by the bride’s father who hit his son-in-law’s mother on the head.

Aug

16

Dowry gazette - August 16, 2009

August 16, 2009 posted by indiatime | 13 Comments

New Delhi (August 5, 2009)
A court in New Delhi ruled that the action of kicking a daughter-in-law and threatening her with divorce, cannot be termed cruel under India’s dowry law.

New Delhi (July 27, 2009)
Sangeeta (27), was found dead under the staircase of her in-laws’ home, and all members of the husband’s family are absconding. Her bruised body was discovered by her parents who had gone to her in-laws’ house to discuss dowry demands.

New Delhi (July 28, 2009)
Preeti Kaur (23) hanged herself to death, to escape dowry demands from her husband and his family. Preeti’s mother told the police that she did not take her daughter’s complaints seriously and kept telling her daughter to adjust to her husband’s family.

New Delhi (August 10, 2009)
A court chided the father of a dowry victim for recording his police statement 4-days after his daughter’s death by poisoning, and acquitted the husband of the murder charges. Sushila, the man’s daughter had died of eating poison-laced pakodas back in late 2003. Sushila’s father, the court alleged, did not accuse the husband for 4 days after her death and went to the district magistrate on the fifth day.

New Delhi (August 10, 2009)
The sessions court decided to prosecute the father of the bride for accepting the other party’s dowry demands, and giving a dowry. The father got in trouble when his daughter complained against her in-laws’ for their dowry demands.

And now, away from the capital:

Ahmedabad, Gujarat (August 4, 2009)
A court in Ahmedabad sentenced a husband and his parents for 14 years and 10 years life sentences, for setting fire to and killing Dipa Shukla, in 2007.

Bhuvaneshwar, Orissa (August 7. 2009)
The local superintendent of police has been charged with cruelty and abuse for torturing his wife and making dowry demands. His wife has alleged that her parents had given him Rs 40 lakhs in dowry, but he has been asking for more money from her parents.

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (August 3, 2009)
A medical doctor is under arrest for harassing his wife for dowry. His wife has alleged that he asked for Rs 5 lakhs and a land lot gift from her parents. The husband’s family has alleged that the relationship turned sour because the doctor found his wife speaking to strangers.

Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (Aug 14, 2009)
G Vijaya Lakshmi (28), a software engineer, committed suicide by hanging herself on the terrace of her parent’s apartment. She was distraught over the dowry negotiations and demands from Chakradhar, her groom from Korea, whose family had been demanding additional cash before marriage.

Gurdaspur, Punjab (August 1, 2009)
Jaswant Kaur (now 32), has complained that Karamjit Singh, her NRI husband of 11 years, who took more than Rs 7 lakhs in dowry 11 years ago, hasn’t returned to take her to Britain where he resides. Her family has recently found out that the Karamjit’s UK address did not exist, and that he was already married and had 2 kids.

Aug

11

New swine in old bottle

August 11, 2009 posted by indiatime | 4 Comments

Most Indian media are today abuzz with swine flu activity in and around the government and public circles. Since yesterday, India’s health minister Azad has been seen busy, coordinating a national health disaster management. Still, it is a matter of great shame and surprise to most, how India has bungled this one up.

It was well over a few months ago that we heard of screening at India’s international airports, and quarantines for suspected swine flu patients. All that precaution, seemed to stem the tide, for a while. For just a little while that is. The government officials and the public health experts in India, imagined that this was a disaster avoided. Hardly. Swine flu seems to have come back with a vengeance and it seems to have adapted itself to the Indian climate, and now has gotten comfortable with India’s hospitality and warmth.

One would think we would have learnt the lessons after seeing a dozen deaths across the country in a matter of a few dozen hours. Ha! India’s Health minister was upto the old Indian politician trick today, telling the Indian press how India has handled it better than USA and UK. “…They’ve had so many deaths, we haven’t…”, he opined. Although statistically and numerically accurate, his statement shows his ignorance and inexperience in handling disasters of this kind, and that is a very scary fact. For the health minister and his team, may have wasted precious time during last several weeks, focusing their attention on other much less important matters than a worldwide pandemic that everyone knew would soon come to India. And whenever he was hard pressed for answers, the minister’s response was that ‘health is a state subject..”.

If health is indeed a state subject, then what is the need to have a health ministry in New Delhi? Why don’t we just shut down the central health ministry and save us some Rupees that are needlessly spent in supporting a department that has no work and no job except to make suggestions about public policies?

But that’s not going to be much comfort, either. The state level health departments are full of even stupider morons who can’t seem to produce an intelligent monosyllable. As of this moment, Maharashtra government’s health department’s website fails to make even a mention of swine flu. And even if they did decide to wake up, what would they do? The health ministry of that state, which is currently the epicenter of the swine flu, declares these to be important objectives :

6 To improve the maintenance of buildings

7 To implement various national health programmes

8 To give health education for improving knowledge, attitude and behaviour of the community.

Look who’s improving whose behavior and attitude?

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

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

20

Yet another young mother burnt for dowry

July 20, 2009 posted by indiatime | 5 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

14

A teacher’s killers walk free

July 14, 2009 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

The Nagpur high court yesterday acquitted all six student activists accused of beating a professor to death. Almost three years ago, Professor Sabharwal of Madhav College, Ujjain, was pummeled to death by the activists of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a student body long aligned with right wing nationalist parties.

The Supreme court had ordered the case to be tried in Nagpur after the victim’s son requested the case be transferred outside of Ujjain. Unfortunately for the victim family, the transfer of the case to Nagpur did not provide much relief, and the eye witnesses to the case turned hostile one after the other, leaving the prosecution’s case looking ridiculous and hopeless.

Although not intended by the victim professor’s family, the transfer of the case to Nagpur may actually have helped the accused who have pretty strong connections in Nagpur, the capital of ABVP’s parent organization. Additionally, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh himself surely did not leave any stone unturned in helping the accused. He is known to have personally met and chatted with the main murder accused on the pretext of paying a surprize visit to that hospital, an astonishing thing to do for a head of a state.

In Nagpur and in Maharashtra yesterday, student activists celebrated the acquittal of their colleagues from the neighboring state, with firecrackers and dances on the streets. “…Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything…” read a message on the local ABVP chapter’s facebook site. Quite an ironical statement coming from an organization some of whose supporters sacrificed a professor in front of a crowd of hundreds and a few TV cameras.

There was a time student organizations like ABVP were known for their volunteerism and dedicated and selfless acts in times of national emergencies like droughts and earthquakes and floods. What a pity, that an organization whose followers once made it credible by some incredible volunteer work, is now willing to put everything on line to save and protect some rogue elements who probably do not care a hoot about the ideals once set by its founders.

Jul

13

Vegetarian village still protecting its past

July 13, 2009 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

Today’s Times has a story about Bannikoppa, a small village in Karnataka state, a place where everybody is a vegetarian, and where the village residents do not own any animals but cows. Attempts to own chickens, goat or sheep have ended in those animals dying of mysterious conditions.

Actually, the villages say they do know the secret behind the mystery. Pandavas, India’s 5 ancient warrior brothers from the epic Mahabharata, supposedly camped here during their 12-year exile. The locals believe that the warrior brothers sustained themselves on fruits and farm produce alone, hated chickens and all other farm animals except cows.

That’s not all. Most males in the village is named after one of the 5 warrior brothers. Luckily, unlike the Pandavas, the villagers do not share a single wife.

They are all strict vegetarians, all the folks in Bannikoppa are. And they are also strict about not letting anyone else live in their village overnight. Those who end up in the village for work-related activities, have to get out of the Bannikoppa village before dark.

And the locals are also supposedly strict about not allowing anyone from other castes to dirty their lakes. The village has a government-appointed watchman who forbids lower castes to draw water from the village lakes.

Jul

3

Slap season

July 3, 2009 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

1. A member of parliament from Hyderabad, yesterday apologized to a local rural bank manager for ‘not’ having slapped him. M Jagannath, of the Congress party, told the media that he was trying to put his hand on the bank manager’s shoulder when his fingers lightly touched and brushed against the bank manager’s cheeks. The ‘friendly’ gesture, was however caught on camera and unfortunately for the genteel parliamentarian, appeared pretty much like a slap on the bank manager’s face.

The MP’s slap will now join the list of memorable slaps in Indian history, like when film star Mammotty slapped a fan and claimed it was a high-five. Or when cricketer Harbhajan slapped his colleague Sreesanth and claimed it was a camaraderie thing.

2. A lady principal of a school near Vadodara, got her share of slaps from her own sons, when she was found romancing with a stranger. The principal’s honeymoon ended when her own sons caught her in a compromised situation on the school premises. And her lover too, got more than his share of slaps from her sons.

(Not to be confused with another Vadodara woman who ran off and was found with a 14-year boy, though).

3. And Bollywood came up with its own share of slaps when actor Farden Khan was allegedly spotted slapping his sister’s boyfriend. But Khan claimed it was a disagreement over television wrestling that him and his sister’s friend tried to resolve in a novel way.

4. But the worst and the most tragic case of a slap came last month, when a father from Dharwad in Karnataka, slapped his own 3-year old daughter to death. 3-year old Sania was used to calling him ‘Anna’ (brother). The father, however, wanted her to call him ‘Appa’ (papa). So he slapped her so hard, she fell unconscious. Now there’s nobody calling the idiot Anna or Appa.

Jun

30

Fake it to the limit…one more time

June 30, 2009 posted by indiatime | 3 Comments

You know I’ve always been a dreamer
(spent my life running ’round)
And it’s so hard to change
(Can’t seem to settle down)…

So put me on a highway
And show me a sign
And take it to the limit one more time

- The Eagles (One of These Nights)

Fake employees, fake degrees and fake car registrations. And that’s just today.

1. 45,000 fake employees in Delhi’s local government
A biometric identification initiative inside Delhi’s local government, has unearthed a novel scam of huge proportions. About 45000 of Delhi’s local government employees may not exist at all. Tens of thousands of government employees in the sanitation and horticulture departments may have been existing on paper alone, it has now been revealed. For a long long time however, someone’s been drawing the salaries for these employees.

2. Nagpur University giving fake degrees
A principal of a local college affiliated with Nagpur University and a few of his accomplices are said to have been the masterminds of a scam, promising the students the easiest route to their degrees. Principal Rajendra Gore and his friends, advertised BPEd (Bachelor of Physical Education) degrees in local and out-of-state newspapers, in exchange of money and without having to take any examinations. Students became angry and upset when they found out that the newspaper advertisements were fake.

3. India’s own Jerry Lundegaard caught in fake car registration scam
Those who have seen the movie Fargo, will remember the character of Jerry Lundegaard, the unscrupulous car dealer who can’t do a thing right. Hyderabad’s Lakshma Reddy turned out to be a real life Lundegaard, and tried to get out of his debts by selling used cars with fake registrations, cheating financial agencies as well as his customers. When stopped by the police, Reddy himself was driving a vehicle with fake registration plates.

Jun

26

Marriages made in hell

June 26, 2009 posted by indiatime | 5 Comments

More than the Swine flu epidemic, the real epidemic that has engulfed India of today is an epidemic of rapes and gangrapes that, on a daily basis, victimizes scores of women across India. Open up any newspaper, tune in to any television station, and you would be reading about or viewing a gangrape story.

But the eastern state of Orissa has a solution for lives that get destroyed and traumatized by the rapes. All across that state, there’s a new wave of marriages - between the rapists and the raped - supported by the government authorities and social welfare agencies, as well as non-governmental agencies.

In what is being called a reform and a rehab measure, mostly purported to be a way to address the social stigma that the rape victims typically face, the novel marriage schemes have now become a part of the judicial scene where the rapists are using this as a ruse to reduce severe punishments for their crimes.

Some have argued that such marriages restore the ‘lost dignity’ of women. Others have proposed that this is a mutual compromise situation in what is perceived as a no-win scenario for either party. Still others advocate marriage as a measure to regain the victims’ self-respect.

Not everyone agrees. And a few rational minds have opposed the marriage schemes labeling them as ‘get out of jail’ cards for rapists and questioning the basis of such marriages.

Incredibly, even these marriage schemes do not have an answer for those women who are raped by their own, like minors raped by fathers and stepfathers and married women raped by fathers-in-law.

And there are cases where either the victim or the perpetrator is a minor.

Or where the victim or the perpetrator is well past 60 and 70.

And then there are rape victims who themselves or their attackers are already married at the time they are violated.

Or where the rapist is the husband himself, already married to the victim, inviting his friends over for a wild dinner party.

Or where the perpetrator is an employer in a domestic help situation.

Marrying victims to their violators. Ha!

Jun

25

Top 10 ways India is battling rain crisis

June 25, 2009 posted by indiatime | 5 Comments

India, this month, is facing a huge water crisis because of the delayed monsoon winds that usually show up in the first week of June, but have failed to arrive this year, throwing all economic predictions to the winds. But India’s government and people are readying for the crisis, handling it in a way only they can. Here are the top 10 things that are being done to address the water crisis.

1. Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (aka YSR), The chief minister of the state of Andhra Pradesh has ordered all temples, mosques and churches to conduct special prayers to attract the monsoon winds.

2. The irrigation officials from the same state of Andhra Pradesh are trying a different route. They have begun a new irrigation scheme named after none other than YSR, the chief minister of the state. If you are wondering if that would make the rain Gods jealous, the farmers from the state have in fact built a temple deitifying the chief minister where people have been offering prayers to the chief minister.

3. The government of the state of Madhya Pradesh is also doing everything it can to bring rains to the state. The chief minister of this state has ordered ancient fire rituals and has brought in expert priests from the neighboring Maharashtra state. The state’s citizens too, are doing their bit by offering milk, curd, sugar, ghee and honey to Lord Shiva.

4. The state of Karnataka may get some relief if the state’s chief minister’s prayers are answered. He was recently seen visiting the neighboring state of Tamilnadu, offering prayers at the Lord Nataraja temple in Tamil Nadu’s Chidambaram and Kumbakonam, and Lord Saneeswarar temple in Puducherry.

5. Goa is doing its bit by offering prayers to St Anthony. Mascarenhas, a local historian, recalled the local tradition where people ascend the hills to the crosses atop, carrying stones on their heads. “The invocations would end with an ejaculation”, he said, “…We have sinned oh Lord and have pity on us and send us rain!”

6. The state of Maharashtra was trying a different approach. Citizens in Nagpur married two frogs to attract the rain gods’ attention. Raja and Rani, two local frogs, were married in a solemn ritual in the ancient vedic tradition.

7. Delhi’s local government too, stepped into action. The state’s newly re-elected chief minister advised the public to use power judiciously. “You do the same too“, replied her voters.

8. Not to be left behind, India’s central government too, was feverishly working to bring an end to the rain crisis. “…The plan as to what is to be done if there is excess monsoon or a deficient monsoon is in place in every department of the government…”, uttered Prithviraj Chavan, the minister of Science and Technology. He also assured the nation that the Prime Minister was personally monitoring the situation and the Cabinet Secretary was meeting all the secretaries.

9. Maybe the rain gods need new glasses or something. As the rest of the country was suffering the lack of the monsoon clouds, the desert state of Rajasthan was said to be gearing up for a record flood situation. No word yet on whether the chief minister had ordered prayers to shoo the rain Gods away from the state.

10. One wonders what the residents of the state of Gujarat have been praying for. The citizens of Vadodara did not get a visit from the rain gods, but instead were shocked to see naked women roaming the streets.

Jun

23

Who exactly doesn’t teach animosity?

June 23, 2009 posted by indiatime | 8 Comments

Six teachers and a teacher’s aide have now been suspended in the state of Kerala, after a textbook was found to include the wrong version of a revered patriotic poem.

The famous poem ‘Sare Jahaan se achcha‘ (aka Tarana-e-Hindi), written by once proudly patriotic Indian poet Allama Iqbal, was originally meant to say this -

Religion doesn’t teach animosity (or ill-will)
We are Indians (Hindi), India (Hindustan) is our homeland…

‘Sare Jahaan se achcha’, the patriotic poem first published in 1904, is one of the most widely known and liked pieces of patriotic poetry in India. Kerala’s board of education was aghast, however, when the Malayalam (local language) version of the famous poem changed the most famous lines in the poem at the most important word. The six teachers and their aide, mistakenly (big mistake, they know now) replaced the word ‘religion’ by the name of prophet Muhammad.

The mistake was exposed by a teacher from the Kozhikode district, and is soon slated to be withdrawn from the textbook. The teachers have now been suspended and an investigation has begun into how the word ‘religion’ was replaced.

Interestingly, only a few years after he wrote the Tarana-e-Hindi (Song of India) however, poet Iqbal changed into a much less secular version of his former self, writing a patriotic song for an Islamic homeland, a song called ‘Tarana-e-Milli’.

Back in 1984, when asked by his prime minister how India appeared from space, Rakesh Sharma, India’s first man in space replied, ‘Sare Jahan se Achcha‘ meaning ‘The best in the world‘. Whenever India decides on the first man/woman to walk on the moon, none of the seven teachers from Kerala will be making the list. Who knows what they will say when Rahul Gandhi asks them that same question in 2015.

Jun

18

Top 10 travel tips to Gujarat

June 18, 2009 posted by indiatime | 4 Comments

Gujarat state tourism has some travel tips for tourists. Here is a summed up list in no particular order:

1. Bear in mind that people are often pleased to see foreigners in local dress -

Foreigners should bring in their collection of Indian dresses including their favorite head scarves ‘that can come in handy’.

2. If you are wearing expensive jewellery, keep it low-key so as not to attract theft

3. Unlike other states in India, walking around in urban and rural areas in this state is safe. It is less safer in less populated areas. But you will probably have the most difficulty in thick crowds at fairs, festivals, and programs. If you do get physically harassed, try and approach the situation as calmly as you can, but don’t hesitate to address it with the person -

Wow. This means foreigners should not venture into areas that are neither urban nor rural. Secondly, it is safer to walk in more populated areas, but totally unsafe to walk in most populated areas. Thirdly, if you are harrassed, you should calmly take out your head scarf that you brought along with you and calmly put it around the troublemakers and should calmly give a tug and pull it tight.

4. There is very little contact physical between men and women in Gujarat.
I’ll be damned. How the heck did the population go up in those more populated areas?

5. Be sure to keep water and snacks with you. Carry puffed rice and a knife to peel fruit. Use ziploc bags to at half-eaten food later.

- Half-eaten food that you yourself ate half. Not to put others’ half-eaten food you dummy.

6. Consider homeopathy if your child falls sick. Many children need a particular blanket to feel secure.

- Who knew Gujarat state was promoting homeopathy? And blanket merchants as well? If only we knew what particular blanket and where to get it.

7. For disabled travelers, Gujarat state is in the process of gathering information about them.

8. Encourage your children to window-shop instead of real shopping, as a cultural learning experience.

9. Before the trip, involve your kid in the itinerary and other travel decisions, if they are old enough for conversation -

Better keep mum about your travel plans if they are younger than old enough.

10. Women visitors, especially those traveling alone, might come across difficulties that men do not. -

We know and care, because our the local women, too, come across those same difficulties that men do not.

And one more:

11. While you will often see men holding hands with each other in friendship, anything more would be considered inappropriate.

In friendship, holding anything more than hands is inappropriate.

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Translations




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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
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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