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

20

Adventures in circumnavigation

August 20, 2009 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

In a couple of days, Lord Ganesh festival, an annual celebration of India’s elephant-headed God, begins in many Indian households. One of the stories about Lord Ganesh is about a circumnavigation contest where Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, the parents of Lord Ganesh and his brother, had their sons compete to navigate the planet. While his brother literally traveled the circumference, Lord Ganesh is said to have navigated his parents, arguing that circumnavigating his parents wasn’t unlike circumnavigating the whole world, since his parents were his world.

Actually, Lord Ganesha’s argument theoretically holds true at two places on the planet - the north pole and the south pole. So, if Lord Shiva and his wife had in fact been sitting at either of the poles, circumnavigating them would have meant circumnavigating the planet.

But Commander Dilip Donde of Indian navy isn’t using any of the tricks that Ganesha used. Donde, an experienced diver for Indian navy, is on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure that will take him around the globe in a 56-feet yacht, over a distance of about 22000 nautical miles. Donde’s 9-month ride includes 4 halts - in Australia, New Zealand, Falkland Islands and South Africa.

The yacht named Mhadei (named after Goa’s river Mandavi) was manufactured in India, but several parts including the board have been imported from abroad. Donde’s circumnavigation has been funded and sponsored by his bosses at India’s defence ministry.

Just a month ago, Donde completed a solo sail from Mauritius to Goa in preparation for this world tour. To qualify for the honor of circumnavigating the planet, a yachtsman has to complete at least 21,600 nautical miles, cross the equator, cross every meridian and end the journey at the starting port. Commander Donde’s Sagar Parikrama (Circumnavigation) begins today and will go on for the next 9 months. Good luck Commander. Lord Ganesh, the God of wisdom is with you. And so will be the Gods of wind and of the oceans.

Aug

19

The origin of the deceptive species

August 19, 2009 posted by indiatime | 7 Comments

A non-resident friend visiting India recently wrote to me about how during his 3-week short trip to his homeland, he felt mugged, stolen from or deceived every step of the way. From the 3-wheeler autos to local vegetable markets to tourist attractions, he said he constantly felt that more money was taken from him, with locals using this or that ruse.

So yesterday I sent my friend this new research on robots where the researchers found their robots learning the art of deception by hiding food from other robots.

Swiss researchers recently programmed robots with some basic thought process and biological communications (artificial neural networks) abilities. They then had these robots compete for food in an enclosed space. The robots had to shine a specific colored light if they were close to a food. The robots went thru several generations (as other species would) where the scientists copied the patterns in the most successful robots to the next generation.

By the 50th generation of these robots, the researchers found that some of the robots were not shining the light when they were close to food (these robots didn’t want the other robots to know where the food was). And after a few hundred generations, most of the robots had completely stopped signalling when they were close to food. Meaning, that they had learnt the art of deception as a survival mechanism when they had to compete with others in a crowded environment.

Since we in India are definitely in some multiple of some thousandth generation, it suddenly seems obvious why many of us, end up learning to cheat or deceive. Actually, I am amazed that there are many who still haven’t taken to corruption and still do try to do the right thing day in and day out. And I’m sure, in some distant universe or some faraway galaxy, a team of God’s researchers must be wondering why.

Aug

18

Is America adopting Hinduism’s ways?

August 18, 2009 posted by indiatime | 9 Comments

This week’s Newsweek has an interesting take on America’s changing religious identity. Although more than three-fourths of the USA still identifies itself as Christian, the article argues that America is slowly adopting Hinduism’s values. Recent trends show that more than 65% Americans (including 37% white evangelicals) now acknowledge the validity of other paths towards God. More than a third Americans now choose cremation instead of burials after death. And one in every four Americans, now believes in reincarnation.

There are more than a million Hindus who currently call the United States their home. But Hinduism came to this country way back, more than a century ago. In his book Hinduism Invades America, Wendell Thomas describes the various ways Hinduism slowly made way into the American psyche. Brought to America by liberal Christians who wanted a world view of various religions, Hinduism came via religious congresses and conventions. Vivekananda in early 1890s, Yogananda in 1920, Shiva Yogaswami in 1940s, Yogi Mahesh in the late 1950s, Abhay Charan De aka Swami Prabhupad in the 1960s (and even the notorious Acharya Rajneesh in the 1980s), established movements, which over several decades, became the backdrop for America’s interest in Hinduism and its various forms like yoga.

Some have attributed the quiet rise of Hinduism to the quiet ways of its practitioners. D. M. Murdock (aka Acharya S.) credits Hinduism’s success in America to “its practitioners (in the US) do not rabblerouse, set up terrorist camps, call for destruction of the US constitution, bilk the American public for millions, establish bogus charities, engage in unethical & seedy televangelism, lobby congress for special favors and considerations, challenge constantly the principle of separation of church and state, abuse the First Amendment and all of the fun stuff (sarcasm) we are used to seeing from fervent religionists in our country and elsewhere“.

Still, nothing works like first impressions, they say, and sure enough, I’m sure America’s romance with Hinduism started with its first glimpse of Vivekananda who had this to say to his American audience in his first meeting with them in Chicago:

“…I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration but accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth…

The present convention, which is one of the most August assemblies ever held, is itself a vindication, a declaration to the world, of the wonderful doctrine preached in The Gita: Whosoever comes to me, through whatsoever form, I reach him. All men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me… ”

Incidentally, two Indian names that the Americans have become most familiar with during the last year, Bobby Jindal and A. R. Rehman, were both born Hindus but adopted other religions - Jindal choosing Christianity and Rehman choosing Islam.

And interestingly, a hundred-plus years after that speech in Chicago, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, recently placed India on a watch list of nations that have failed to prevent increasing communal violence. India has called that report regrettable.

Aug

17

India’s moral compass

August 17, 2009 posted by indiatime | 12 Comments

Epidemics, communal discontent, dirty politics, reality television, bollywood and cricket. That would have been my stock answer to anyone asking me about the current state of the Indian union. But a state of the nation poll by CNN-Hindustan Times, has results that may surprise many. India’s moral compass, the survey concludes, is somewhere in between taboo and modernity, and that there are a lot of ifs and buts in the Indian concept of freedom and personal liberty.

The following results pertain to those who were surveyed, but do show a slice and sample of Indian minds without any supposed survey bias.

1. 73% Indians feel homosexuality should be considered illegal

2. 79% Indians feel that rape and sexual harassment are linked to the way women dress

3. 41% Indians feel there should be a dress code in public

4. 59% Indians believe people should be free to wear what they want

5. 56% Indians believe it is untrue that women cannot undertake tough tasks

6. 67% Indians think women make better bosses at the workplace

7. 60% Indians regard homosexuality as a disease

8. 63% Indian men believe bride’s virginity is not an issue for them

9. 69% Indians support schools banning students from wearing Western clothes

10. 69% Indian men would feel uncomfortable if their wife or sister works till late in office.

The specter of modernity vs morality was best represented by a dramatic exchange between Sambhavana Seth, one of Bollywood’s many vamps and Baba Ramdev, Indian TV’s yoga guru and herbal doctor-general to the nation. Here’s the interesting exchange:

Sambhavna Seth: I don’t find anything wrong with gays. My friend is gay. I will send him to your ashram. It remains to be seen if you can cure him. Let’s hope you don’t become one.

Baba Ramdev: Gays are mentally sick and I do not support them. I can never change. And I have cured all major illnesses, including cancer.

Sambhavna Seth: Why are you always talking about sex and sambhog? Where did you learn all this?

Baba Ramdev: (Stays mum)

Sambhavna Seth: Is your beard and hair natural? Do you colour them?

Baba Ramdev: They are absolutely natural.

Sambhavna Seth: I have immense respect for you but I don’t agree with everything that you say.

Baba Ramdev: Thank you.

Actually, I am not a fan of either of these two. I am not much for Sambhavan’s gyroscope and I don’t believe Baba is the only one who knows where India’s north star is. But I think these two magnetic personalities perfectly embody the two extremes of India’s moral compass. As much as it may appear to be all skewed and screwed, to those on this side of the planet, the current moral state of the union seems to be a topic that is desirably more chewable than manikchand jarda. Cheers to all the corrupt bastards and happy immoralizing until the next moral survey.

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

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

4

Two descendants from royal families, with two entirely different backgrounds, have reason to celebrate, as events within the past week have now changed their lives for better.

In Kolkata, Madhu, the great-great-granddaughter of India’s last emperor has a smile on her face, now that her family’s and wellwishers’ pleas for help have been answered. She is about to be handed a job by Coal India, whose chairman last week told the media that he considers the job offer to be a tribute to India’s last emperor. The job itself is a pretty low-paying job, and Madhu, illiterate that she is said to be, will probably just run errands for her employer.

Madhu’s great-great-grandpa was the commander-in-chief of the Indian mutiny of 1857, a uniting figurehead accepted by soldiers of every ethnicity and religion. He was captured and exiled to the then Burma, what is now Myanmar, which is where he eventually died in 1862. He had 22 sons and 32 daughters many of whom died during the mutiny, although 4 lines of succession survive to this day, including the Kolkara branch represented by Mirza Muhammad Bedar Bakht, Madhu’s father.

India’s last emperor was a poet at heart and penned these sad words during his exile -

I had requested for a long life a life of four days
Two passed by in pining, and two in waiting.
The days of life are over,
It’s evening of death,

Now I can sleep without any stress forever in my tomb
How unlucky is Zafar! For burial
Even two yards of land were not to be had,
in the land (of the) beloved…

Less than two yards of land is exactly the size of the land the emperor’s great-great-grand-daughter has been living in somewhere within Kolkata’s crowded slums. But that may soon change.

Far from Kolkata’s slums to the palaces of Rajpipla in the east, Manvendra Singh Gohil, prince and descendant of the royal family of Rajpipla, grew up in a much bigger and wealthier home than the unlucky princess Madhu. And unlike Madhu who served tea, in broken cups, to her customers; prince Manvendra used silver spoons to stir sugar cubes in tea brought to him in gold trays.

A few years ago, Rajpipla’s prince stirred up a storm bigger than his gold teacups could handle. He came out of the closet, letting his wife and his royal family know that he was gay. Since then, the prince has been an avid gay rights activist since his coming out, and has worked to create awareness about HIV and spreading the word on the issues faced by sexual minorities.

Back in the days of 1857 mutiny, Manvendra’s ancestor Verisalji II joined the mutiny, and enjoyed a few days of freedom from the Marathas as well as the British. A hundred and fifty years later, Rajpipla’s Prince is basking in the new freedom that has come after a different kind of mutiny. His dreams and wishes came true last week, when an Indian court chose declared homosexuality to be legal. “….It’s an incredibly emotional moment. We are now a truly a liberal democracy, a thinking nation….”, he said.

Jun

28

Testosterone and mercury, in a tropical tango

June 28, 2009 posted by indiatime | 5 Comments

A recent study by University of Minnesota scientists has concluded that humans and animals delay reproduction when resources are scarce, living longer as a result. “..Food scarcity is a signal that population is likely to decline, so reproduction is delayed..”, concluded the study. The study also cited fluctuations in testosterone levels as an example of how the environment and organisms interact to guide reproduction.

To me, those conclusions don’t seem to hold water here in India. The natural resources, including food and water have been scarce for a long time in this part of the planet. Starved or satiated, urban or rural, northerners or southerners, hungry or thirsty, literate or illiterate, Indians over last several centuries, seem to have had very high levels of testosterone levels. In fact, scarcer the resources, higher was the reproducing rate, sending the population over a billion, dwarfing the rest of the planet in reproduction rates.

But why just humans, even animal behavior in India pretty much thwarts the Minnesota study. Stray animals and urban pigeons, seemingly fighting for scant resources, seem to be reproducing at astonishing rates all over India, especially in big cities where resources would be expected to be scarcer.

And in those same big cities, the human population, fighting for water that shows up at their taps only a few minutes per day and standing in long lines over pretty much everything else, doesn’t seem to mind that scarcity. No matter what the conditions, people don’t seem to be able to keep it in their pants.

But that’s a fact that scientists from colder regions just can’t understand, I think. Up there in Minnesota, with the outside temperatures dipping close to zero, the scientific imagination seems to shrink a bit, probably because of a brain freeze. Here in the hot and humid tropics, testosterone and mercury seem to be in a perpetual embrace, doing a hot sexy tango. Add a dash of scarcity to the heat and you really can’t tell between humans and animals.

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

21

Ali Akbar Khan, sarod pioneer (1922-2009)

June 21, 2009 posted by indiatime | 3 Comments

“….If you practice for ten years, you may begin to please yourself, after 20 years you may become a performer and please the audience, after 30 years you may please even your guru, but you must practice for many more years before you finally become a true artist — then you may please even God….”
Ali Akbar Khan (Sarod maestro)

Ali Akbar Khan’s death last Thursday, is like an end to an institution that had carried the flag of Indian classical music in the west for over a half century. Ali Akbar Khan and brother-in-law Ravi Shankar were the face and the fingers of Indian music in the west, propelling its ancient system of swars, ragas and talas into the world conscience, and making way for future generations of Indian classical musicians to be all that they could be.

In his book ‘The Dawn of Indian Music in the West’, Peter Lavezzoli writes about the first time the Indian classical music played on American television:

Ali Akbar Khan, Chatur Lal (Tabla virtuoso) and Shanta Rao ( Bharat Natyam dancer) became the first Indian classical artists to appear on television in the United States, when they appeared on Omnibus, a cultural program supported by Ford Foundation that was instrumental in sponsoring Ali AKbar Khan’s visit to the United States. So on the Sunday afternoon of April 10, 1955, Yehudi Menuhin introduced the Indian trio to the American audiences. For the next few minutes, Ali Akbar Khan and Chatur Lal managed to give a very short demo and then Shanta Rao performed the Bharat Natyam for about 5 minutes. The overall Indian demo, titled ‘Dances of India’, lasted barely 10 minutes.

Later that month, Khan and Chatur Lal played in New York, getting these reviews:

“…Clearly this music is meant to be relished both for its patterns and its performance…repeatedly enchanted by rhythms, colors, sonorities and melodic bits…especially impressed by the power of this modest ensemble speaking an exotic tongue to reach out and say something to another world….”

“…have never before encountered quite the degree of virtuosity in this idiom….found their music endlessly fascinating from a technical point of view and curiously hypnotic in its emotional effect….”

Over a period of decades, Khan won 5 grammy nominations, more than 5 honorary doctorate degrees from prestigious universities, trained more than 10,000 American students in Sarod. Here’s a short clip about Ali Akbar, whom Yehudi Menuhin once called the greatest musician in the world.

Jun

6

Interpol plea - hunt these criminals down

June 6, 2009 posted by indiatime | 7 Comments

Crime stoppers international has recently launched a public campaign to hunt down fugitives who have managed to evade the law. There are more than a few with India connections - Indians who are now hiding away or non-Indians who have fled abroad after committing crimes in India. Here’s part of that list:

1. Omana Edadan
omana_edadanWanted by the Tamil Nadu police for crimes against human life and health, Omana is wanted for poisoning her lover to death and then cutting his pieces in small pieces at the Ooty railway station in South India. She then stuffed her lover in a suitcase, but was caught when her smart cabbie alerted the police.

2. Parthasarthie Kapoor
parthasarthie_kapoorCanada has an outstanding warrant against this 35-year old Indian national, who is wanted for sex crimes against children.

3. Neeraj Gulati
neeraj_gulatiGulati, a non-resident software engineer, is said to have fled to the United States to escape rape allegations by his family’s young maid. Months after his escape, a Delhi court fined Gulati one lakh Rupees for his frivolous plea and extortion claim against the maid’s family, and also asked the Delhi police to bring him back to India.

4. Wilhelm & Lilli Marti
marty_coupleThe Marti couple from Switzerland is wanted in India for crimes of kidnapping and sex crimes against children. The couple was arrested in more than 8 years ago, in a 5-star hotel on Mumbai’s Madh island, when the local police found them filming slum children in pornographic acts. But the couple fled India, apparently with the help of local Swiss embassy, who later claimed ignorance about the couple’s whereabouts. Despite strong objections from the local police, a local high court judge let them loose from their prison cell, slapping a fine of $2K per victim, and requesting the couple not to leave India. Needless to say, they left India immediately after their release.

May

19

Ruskin Bond turns 75

May 19, 2009 posted by indiatime | 5 Comments

ruskin bondRuskin Bond, the Indian writer, turns 75 today. A third generation British-Indian, Ruskin Bond has turned his childhood experiences as a British boy growing up in the last years of colonial India, into a lifetime of love for writing. “…I have loved India and it is very fascinating to be a part of its history of the last hundred years…”, he once told his interviewer. Ruskin went to England at the age of 17, but the memories of his father and his friends, and the sights and sounds and smells of India haunted him . So he came home to India, embracing his roots, reconnecting with his childhood memories and charming the readers all over with the fascinating and adventurous tales of a young British-Indian named Rusty.

For almost 50 years, Ruskin Bond has lived in the same place in picturesque Landour, the hometown of many Anglo-Indians and American missionaries (and the birthplace of John Birch). He has written much about Landour and Mussoorie and the Himalayan foothills and the local people -

…Three stray dogs are romping in the middle of the road. It is their road now, and they abandon themselves to a wild chase, almost knocking me down.

A jackal slinks across the road, looking to right and left, he knows his road-drill to make sure the dogs have gone.

Yes. this is an old bazaar. The bakers, tailors, silversmiths and wholesale merchants are the grandsons of those who followed the mad sahibs to this hilltop in the thirties and forties of the last century. Most of them are plainsmen, quite prosperous even though many of their houses are crooked and shaky…

Here’s Ruskin telling a tale about how he once almost became a Himalayan tiger’s breakfast.

Bond’s literary classics - Room On The Roof, Vagrants in the Valley, Rain In The Mountains, The CherryTree, The Blue Umbrella, (and many, many others), and his unforgettable short stories, have earned him more than a few famous awards and recognitions. One of these days, his name may even get the nod for the Nobel prize in literature, his profession’s most coveted prize bagged by Ruskin’s own favorite authors like Kipling and Tagore. For a British boy who made his room on the roof of the world in the Himalayan foothills, it would all suddenly fall in place. And quite deservingly so.

May

4

Katy Buchanan, a journalist from Pittsburgh’s Post Gazette recently traveled to India for the first time in her life and came away with an impression common to every first-timer to India - that it is a land of extraordinary parallel worlds. She describes her culture shock and some of those unique impressions in a series of articles in the Post Gazette. Here are the top 10 impressions that India made on this first-time traveler -

1. Noisy, crowded, dirty

2. Woman riding side-saddled behind her partner on a two-wheeler, reaching to recapture the headscarf fluttering-flying in the wind

3. 21st century wealth next to ageless poverty, beggars and slums

4. Smell of urine and men freely urinating in public

5. Corrupt cops and their palm-greasing by the public

6. Flies, food out in the open, and the hazards of eating such food

7. Jostling, cramming crowds with no regard for privacy or personal space

8. Men, even those not gay, holding hands

9. The left-right head waggle that means ‘whatever’

10. Begging, poverty, people living on sidewalks under tarps

11. People’s fascination with skin color

12. The other-worldly beauty of India’s historic monuments

Ms. Buchanan’s impressions are honest, forthright and of course, very true. She writes without any agenda, lavishes praise and awe where deserved, and doesn’t mince words when necessary. Since her journey was a short one, she missed traveling to many more beautiful parts of India and probably also saved herself from some horrific impressions of India.

The culture shock isn’t new to any first-timer who has traveled to the east. Back in 1894, John J. Pool, a missionary, wrote this in his ‘India - The Land of the Idols -

“…..Everything seems to be turned topsy-turvy (for the first time traveler to India) and it takes new arrivals to the east some time to get used to the remarkable change. The oriental has an odd way of doing everything backwards….Their saw has the teeth set towards the handle, they take off their shoes and keep on their hats….”.

Remains to be seen what a traveler from 2050s would say about India. All that depends on how the orient orients itself in this century.

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Translations




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Madhubala on a postal stamp
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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
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Top 5 explanations for the president’s gesture
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