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I got this mail at the feedback e-mail address (yes, there is a feedback e-mail address at the top of this page — feel free to use it to send in insults, comments, feedback, topless snaps, etc.)
Hey Deepak,
I remember reading your post the other day linking to the piece by Atanu Dey. I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet, but Dey’s blog has moved over to a new site called Asian Correspondent, which just launched; we found 50 Asian bloggers and paid them to move their blogs over to our site, and we’re aggregating their content along with Asian-specific wire copy:
http://asiancorrespondent.com/
Anyway, I thought this was something you and your readers would find interesting.
Take care,
I haven’t spent much time at the website, so I’m not plugging it yet — but I figure anyone who went through the pain of writing back personally atleast deserves a mention, and it seems to be a fine effort though at bringing good Asian blogs together.
So head over and see if it interests you.
A must-read piece by Sauvik :
Mint has come up with an extremely important editorial today, on delays in the judicial system, and their huge economic and social costs. The marginalization of our poor people begins here, they say; this is why the poor take to extremism. All extremist groups operate kangaroo courts. This has increased the costs of policing, and the budget of the police has risen by 25%, they add.
I read an informed article in Manushi once, on the rise of the Shiv Sena in Mumbai, which traced their success precisely to the failure of the justice system. The Shiv Sena delivered justice to ordinary Mumbaikars, which the State courts failed to do.
Do read the entire piece. It’s about private law, the idea being that law need not be a monopoly of the state and justice could be administered by private parties, following a free-market eco-system.
You could agree or disagree, but the guy makes you think — about the origins of society, law and markets. Although Sauvik is a well-known libertarian, he borders on being an anarchist. Not that it should matter as a reader — the farther from the ideologies we are conditioned into thinking, the better.
I still don’t agree with many of his ideas, but I get plenty of intellectual fodder, and that’s the reason I have started to enjoy reading his essays.
I’d strongly recommend reading Sauvik’s blog for a month or two, before giving up, in case you do.
Want a ‘super child’ ?
Visit the Super Child University.
At a time when parents are leaving no stone unturned to give best education to their children to make them achievers, an institute has come up in Gandhinagar that promises to give couples “super child” by birth.
The ‘Super Child University’, established by ‘Vishwa Kalyan Sanstha’ claims to achieve this task on the basis of ancient Indian wisdom and modern science.
“In today’s world, education is given to children after they are born. But, in Super Child University, newly married couple are given training to get super child soon after their marriage,” Prahlad Patel, founder of the organisation said.
I’ve observed that many young couples who have the means to do so, find it incredibly tough to resist shaping their kids’ interests/futures/hobbies/careers. You could argue that it is their kid and they have a right to do whatever they want, but I’ll bat for the kid here.
Every kid deserves to get an unbiased and unforced perspective into everything, be it art, literature or even religion. I think a parents’ role should be limited to acting as a vehicle for the kid into the world, not as a chauffeur.
This is a kid’s right.
**
While on the subject of questionable parenting, Disney recently offered a full refund to customers who bought Baby Einstein DVDs that claimed would help increase the IQ of their kids just by watching the DVDs.
Disney is offering a full refund of $15.99 to anyone who purchased a Baby Einstein DVD between June 5, 2004 and Sept. 4, 2009.
The Baby Einstein product line as an educational tool for children from ages 3 months to 3 years.
I read this at the Fake Steve Jobs blog :
Anyway, I’m on record opposing this refund to idiots who bought Baby Einstein and now are claiming that they thought plopping their kids in front of videos would make them smart. Frankly, if you’re stupid enough to believe that, then you’ve already done your kids irreparable harm by passing your DNA on to them. Whatever harm that video might do is nothing compared to the harm of inheriting your hillbilly genes, trust me.
You can’t beat that logic, can you ?
While at it, I think the guy (Dan Lyons) is hilarious and techies should thoroughly enjoy reading the blog.
I’ve been religiously following the third season of Bigg Boss as my only form of guilty pleasure. Today, I came across this immensely WTF bit where the openly gay inmate Rohit Verma explains the concept of homosexuality. Don’t want to spoil your fun, here it is :
What concerns me is that he might be the first gay person that a majority of the audience might be seeing, the first male who claims to have a boyfriend. Such gibberish coming from him can only be harmful to the issue of homosexuality in India.
Add to that the bit where he says everyone goes through a one-week period between the ages of 5 and 32 where they feel same-sex attraction. If that isn’t a load of rubbish, most readers here (including me) need to be very concerned that we still have a few years to cross !
Atleast one person is sure to vote for him — Baba Ramdev, who agrees that homosexuality is a psychological problem.
After hearing him, I suspect he might not be gay after all, he might be bisexual or metrosexual or just an effeminate dude. Another dudette is Bobby Darling, who has undergone a sex-change operation, is now a female, but calls herself a gay man. How tough is it to log on to Wikipedia and find out what you are ?
I think Rohit Verma deserves to be the Dude of the Week, although I can’t decide between Dude and Dudette, so let’s just put that on hold.
Came across this nice joke :
As the guests lined up to meet the Queen and her hubby Prince Philip, who hosted the evening to celebrate this week’s state visit by India’s President Pratibha Patil, the 88-year-old Royal turned to greet business chief Atul Patel. And, after glancing at Patel’s name badge, he was quoted as saying, “There’s a lot of your family in tonight.”
If it were just the joke, I wouldn’t have cared to post it. You guessed it right, that caused a controversy. For once, it is not an Indian-origin individual whose sentiments were offended.
Or maybe they’re just running on IST and will join in soon.
If anyone is in the mood for conspiracy theories, here‘s one that’ll keep you busy :
Muslim terrorism in India is a figment of imagination, a facade created by the Intelligence Bureau to cover up the real terrorism in the country perpetrated by Brahminists to establish Brahminist hegemony,” says former Inspector General of Police, Maharashtra, S M Mushrif, who has also authored the book, Who killed Karkare?.
And by Brahminists, he means, “Brahmins are not Brahminists. That is why I even appeal to Brahmins to turn Brahminists away. I ask Muslims to give up fundamentalism.”
Continue reading here ..
Interesting stuff, at the very least. It sounds like something a Zaid Hamid would be proud of, but this is from a former IGP of Maharashtra.
Either way, his book seems destined to be a best-seller.
This is supremely bizarre : a list of over 200 Hollywood celebrities who support Roman Polanski. In that, they are against his extradition to the U.S. and continuation of the 32-year old pending case against him for alleged rape of a minor.
I had raised this issue a few days back and still don’t get how people cannot decouple art and life. Why should Roman Polanski be absolved of his crime? Just because he directed an Oscar winning movie ?
I hate to stretch a ridiculous argument further, but I’m curious to know if these supporters would agree to a change in the rape laws – imprisonment or make an Oscar winning movie within 30 years.
The facts are thus – he spiked the drink of a 13-year old girl and is accused of non-consensual sex and sodomy. An entirely different fact is that even if consensual, the age of consent is 16, so that doesn’t count as an effective argument. He further ruined her life beyond repair to the extent that it is spoken about till today.
The victim has gone on record saying that she wishes Polanski isn’t convicted. Although this seems to strengthen the argument of the supporters, I firmly believe a victim should have no say once the law takes over. We can’t help it if a victim does not file a complaint, but once it is a legal case, the victim should have no say in the matter of conviction. Apart from being a right thing to do, it evades the issues of threatening or forcing victims to plead for the accused.
Personally, I think he is a superb filmmaker – but a bad example for society, and he must be punished proportional to the severity of his crime.
No more, no less.
Don’t answer that !
Musicthis wrote in about a recent issue of Siddhi Times, a spiritual Indian magazine. I’m reproducing the content of the mail :
Major WTF-ness in the October 2009 issue of a magazine named Siddhi Times (the kind you pick up walking out of a desi Grocery store). Check out the October 2009 issue, page 6 – 8 “Molethantra”. Special mention, the one about ‘buttocks’ on page 8. There are many more such gems throughout the magazine.
October 2009 issue: http://www.scribd.com/doc/21136675/Siddhi-Times-October-2009-Dr-Commander-Selvam
Google link to the magazine’s website… Dr Commander Selvam: SIDDHI Times a Spiritual News Magazine …
To save you the trouble, the article lists the significance of moles in different parts of the body. The one mentioned above and the one that really cracked me up is this :
Buttocks: Moles on the right buttock represent wisdom and creativity. The person will become an artist.
WTF falls way short at times.
Also, check out the dreams and their interpretation part (pages 16-18). Presenting some gems :
Dead body:
A dead body in the dream represents good fortune and monetary gains.
Naked in dreams:
Seeing your self naked in a dream represents that you are hiding something and you are worried about a secret that may disclose to others. . If you see another naked person, it represents an illicit love affair or loss of honor in the society.
This one’s just superb :
Examination dreams:
If you dream that you could not fnd even a single question that you studied in the question paper, or you are late for the exam, then it indicates that you did not prepare well for the exam or you did not perform well in your job.
Anyway, I need to go change my grocery store. I might be missing out on a bunch of entertainment.
Next up in the series “Stuff the government does that it shouldn’t be doing” :
“It has also been observed that the language used by some participants is vulgar and abusive and the show contains visuals which appear to be obscene and violative of the programme code. Recently, in one of the visuals, a participant has been shown pulling down the shorts of another participant,” the notice said, adding this had offended the sensibilities of many viewers.
Since the programme was being telecast on prime time and was watched by families including children, it could also have a negative impact on young impressionable minds and did not appear to be suitable for unrestricted public exhibition, the notice said.
You know the government has too much time on its hands when it watches Bigg Boss 3, is offended by the content and then slaps a notice to the channel for something it deems obscene.
To add to that, I have no idea what children are doing watching Bigg Boss 3. In fact, the whole idea of the show revolves around bringing together characters that you wouldn’t want your child to emulate.
This is not for those who adore Ms. Arundhati Roy.
As they say, if there’s an issue, Arundhati Roy has an incorrect theory about it. This time it is the Maoists and Naxals. I don’t even have to detail what her opinion on the matter is.
Regardless, watch this episode of Devil’s Advocate with Arundhati Roy (or read the transcript here). I cannot help but immensely respect Karan Thapar after watching it.
Did you see the man’s unfaltering concentration in the face of Ms. Roy’s repeatedly falling pallu ?
On a serious note, there are the usual metaphors (followed by a smug and self-satisfied ah-ha expression .. that only Ms. Roy feels), the usual tirade against free markets, the usual lack of solutions that make sense, the usual stuff.
**
For those interested, read this superb piece by Vir Sanghvi (via Sauvik) on the same issue. This is the part where he takes on the likes of Ms. Roy :
Seven, it does not follow however that just because we understand where we’ve gone wrong, we are obliged to support a Marxist or Maoist view of the world where all free enterprise is terrible, where all elections are a joke and where political power only comes out of the barrel of a gun.
It is entirely possible to sympathise with the victims but to disagree profoundly with the people who claim to represent them.
Do read the entire piece.
