A Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my all time favourites, a book so rich in both language and characters, that I’d like to read through it at every conceivable opportunity.  The article below contains a very good story on Marquez, and a curious little linkage to dictionaries in Columbia:

http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/the-shadow-the-patriarch?page=0,0

Three months into legislative briefing, and I’m beginning to feel traumatized by the inanity of the everyday routine.  The work’s good, the place is good,  the day is not.  Yesterday I woke up went to office worked half the day and surfed the other half before heading back home in a bus got on to the metro and reached home finding to my immense excitement that my car had come back from the service station, and now reeked of petrol, the interiors having been cleaned by it.  Took it for a drive and had my exciting event of the day when I met friends from college who borrowed my suit. I finished my day off by watching everybody loves raymond.

Uncritical Faith

Sam Harris provides what could be a stand-up routine: “Tell a devout Christian his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen yoghurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence as anybody else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell him the book he keeps by his bed was written by an indivisible deity who will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every incredible claim, and he seems to require no evidence whatsoever.”

Harris fails to mention the downside of being an atheist — you have nobody to cry out to in the throes of an orgasm.

http://myparentsjoinedfacebook.com/ Its this really funny site that lets you know the way out of embarassing yourself because your parents happen to be on Facebook. Time Magazine has done a story on it, and the website has really funny stuff as well (Click here to read).

One of the less known things about our parliament is that it has a fairly functional website (www.loksabha.nic.in) where debates of the current session are posted online as well.  One of the even lesser known things about the website is its Wit and Humour section (http://164.100.47.134/newls/withhumour.htm).

Here is an extract for those too lazy to go to the website:

MEMBER PUT VERY GOOD QUESTION WHEN ANGRY !

During the Question Hour on 17.12.2008 while allowing the Hon’ble MP, Shri Ram Kripal Yadav to put a supplementary on the subject of National Rural Health Mission, the Hon’ble Speaker advised: “You put a brief question and don’t give a long speech.” The Hon’ble Member put a pointed supplementary question to be answered by the Hon’ble Health Minister. On seeing the serious mood of the Member, the Hon’ble Speaker humourously remarked: “Very good question. You become very specific when you are angry.”

MEMBER PUT VERY GOOD QUESTION WHEN ANGRY !

During the Question Hour on 17.12.2008 while allowing the Hon’ble MP, Shri Ram Kripal Yadav to put a supplementary on the subject of National Rural Health Mission, the Hon’ble Speaker advised: “You put a brief question and don’t give a long speech.” The Hon’ble Member put a pointed supplementary question to be answered by the Hon’ble Health Minister. On seeing the serious mood of the Member, the Hon’ble Speaker humourously remarked: “Very good question. You become very specific when you are angry.”

EVERYTHING OVER-AGED IS NOT OUTDATED !

During the Question Hour on 18.12.2008 on the subject of Delay in Flight Operations, Hon’ble MP Shri Varkala Radhakrishnan said: “Fog is one of the reasons for delay. Apart from fog, outdated aircraft are being operated with a view to encourage private airlines; if Air India operates like this, people would prefer private airlines …. “

To this, the Hon’ble Speaker remarked: “Shri Radhakrishnan, for outdated people, they are providing outdated aircraft—like me, you and others! They want us to go along with the outdated aircraft! “

Responding to that, hon. Civil Aviation Minister, Shri Praful Patel said: “Sir, let me assure you – everything over-aged is not outdated!” and the House burst into laughter.”

The Holy Crescent

About a month ago, I finished reading a book by Karen Armstrong titled ‘A Short History of Islam’,  short and succint, but very enlightening history of the growth of the religion.

It made me realize that essentially, the religion is trying to evolve towards a perfect society, that it is far more ‘communal’ in a secular sense than we understand it, and that a number of violent upheaveals in Islamic society have contributed to the violence that we witness in the middle-East today.

So, I read with the greatest pleasure, an interesting article on the Shiite forces holding power in Iran in the context of the recent upheaveals there.  The link is posted on my blog, and those interested are requested to kindly check it out (Or click here).

Glastonbury Festival in Somerset

House of Parliament in London

Bleriot XI Aircraft from 1908

US Marine involved in Operation Khanjar in Afghanistan

Child from a Refugee camp in Pakistan, near islamabad

Portraits of orphaned children painted on to flags by Chinese Artist Yan Pei Ming

The link below directs you to a list of 21 countries where citizens enjoy the least amount of freedom in the world. Some are known, while some that rarely surface in the news or the media. Take a look if you care…

(Click here to go to the article)

Posted below is the first part of the documentary prepared for UK’s Channel 4 on the 26/11 attacks. It claims to be a complete and exhaustive documentary wtih never-before seen footage, and also includes the transcripts of the conversation between the terrorists and their operators based in Pakistan:

Click on the text of this article to go to a blog on Indian Express, where some individual has written a ranting, angry piece on hindu-muslim relations in India. Being a ‘pseudo-secularist’ (whatever that means) I usually tend to dismiss these types of writings. But I think doing so confines these people to the same sort of feeling of hurt that many in the minority community also feel. And though an informed reader could demolish his writings in a minute, giving equally powerful and more nuanced arguments to his angry questions, I felt it would be worthwhile to try and be as partial to him and try and find out if the arguments he’s making could in fact hold good even to the most insecure (but sane) individuals.

I invite everyone who has an opinion to kindly post their replies.

IndiaTV is by far India’s most entertaining news channel. I have never switched it on and have had to change the channel without finding something worth sharing with everyone. This one video shows just how bad the channel actually is. If you have some other interesting links of IndiaTV newscasts, please do post them here.

Somehow this picture has hijacked and summarized all that I could have wanted to express….simply amazing…

This link will direct you to an awesome picture of a photograph taken in Ajmer.  Do take a look.

I recently read my first Bill Bryson book, and have now been converted to an ardent worshipper of the guy. Find below a video on the memoirs he has just finished:

Any one heard of the Central Treasure Trove Act of 1878? Well, it says that if you find any ‘treasure’ exceeding the value of 10 rupees buried in the ground, you have to inform the collector/district magistrate of the area. Whats more, many states such as Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh also have such laws!! (Click here for the Central Treasure Trove Act, 1878)

Unconscious Ethics

A man comes rushing into his psychiatrist’s office, apologizing for being late because he overslept. “But I had an incredible breakthrough in my dream,” the man says breathlessly. “I was talking with my mother and she suddenly turned into you! Thats when I woke up, got dressed, grabbed a coke and a donut, and rushed to your office.”

The Psychatrist says: “A coke and a donut? You call that a breakfast?”

Unconscious Ethics

Even Frued admitted that reducing human behaviour to unconscious drives could sometimes lead one to miss the obvious truth. He famously said, “A cigar is just a cigar.”

Unconscious Ethics

A man is shaving and his staright-edged razor drops out of his hands and lops off his penis. He gathers his penis up, stuffs it in his pocket, rushes outside, and hails a cab, telling the driver to get him to the hospital fast. The surgeon says, “We’ll have to work quickly! Give it to me!” The man reaches into his pocket and deposits its contents into the surgeon’s hand. “But this is a cigar,” says the surgeon, “not a penis!” And the man says, “Oh my God! I must have smoked it in the cab.”

I recently read a news clipping which states that Indian security forces are planning to use chilly powders in hand grenades to control riots, and during insurgency operations. The chili powder is apparently so strong it’ll be able to immobilise a person momentarily, and is also used as a supplement in extreme temperatures to raise body temperature!! (Click here for the article)

I saw this trailer on the website as the previous movie review. Its seems to be an awesome upcoming Russian movie. Great action…

This link is to a blog that is doing a ’special’ on some of the most iconic a.k.a shit-ass movies made in India during the 80s.  I wouldn’t recommend it to read a good review for these films. But you’llenjoy it nonetheless. Do read.

Many of us know Rampur as THE Indian village made legendary by the movie Sholay. In real life, the village/town was one of the much talked about, media-hyped subject of the 2009 general elections. It was Jayaprada’s constituency, where she stood as an SP candidate, and all of us watched her dramatic and slightly funny battle with the general secretary of her own party. In the end she won, overcoming stiff opposition (which also allegedly circulated her nude pictures, btw) from her own party. I read an interesting article today, not so much about the caricatured town/village/constituency, but about the actual values the place identifies with, and how even in real life, it somehow manages to portray the will and the ethos most parts of India stand for.

Most of us have heard of Rampur (Sholay, Rampuri knives, etc.). More recently we have heard about how it symbolizes the brazen uncouthness prevalent in the politics of the north Indian hinterland. Those who know a bit more understand it as an electoral constituency where the bigoted and violent Muslim community has occupied political space in the recent past. Mr. Razak Khan (click the title of this post for the article, EPW, June 20-26, 2009) however points out what Rampur actually symbolizes is to be understood from the issues voiced in the vernacular newpapers, in the tea stalls and paan-shops, and the biryani places in the by-lanes of the area.

Most opinions voiced in these forums, he says, are quite the reverse of the caricatures painted of the town. The vernacular press bemoans the loss of the Ganga-Jamuna Tehzeeb of the local area, mainly due to the intrusion of outsiders. Outsiders here mean more than anyone else, political parties which have tended to polarize communities during electoral times, and given free reign to local lumpen elements (whose numbers are on the rise in the muslim community due to rising poverty and unemployment). Hordes of such elements roam around the streets in motorcycles and jeeps, and like to refer to the sitting MP as a ‘Nachaniya’.

Mr. Khan asserts that such rhetoric has never been used even by the most ‘radical’ maulanas in the area, and was instead ‘fed’ to the political elements by the English press. The local people have instead, viewed her as a Zahin Khatoon (a learned and respectable lady), and she was returned to her seat on the plank of her developmental work done in the area. Jayaprada apparently also has a strong appeal among the female voters of the area, who contrary to popular stereotypes, have a strong voice in the local administration of the area.

Mr. Khan signs off by asserting that the election results voice the preference of the local people for secular issues, rather than the secualr leaders who claim to espouse them. Being an optimist, I would like to believe him.