You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2011.
Anna Hazare writes about Prashant Bhushan’s comment that a plebiscite must be held in Kashmir:
Some people talk incoherent things about Kashmir related issues but they are unaware of the fact that when I was in the army I had taken active part in India-Pakistan war as a soldier. All my colleagues attained martyrdom on the border during the war with Pakistan. But I miraculously survived.
It was then I pledged the rest of my life in the service of my country.
Even today you can see the marks on my forehead left behind by Pakistan’s bullet. This is my active conviction that Kashmir is an integral part of India and will remain so. Today once again if I have to, am ready to take part in war against Pakistan. But some people can only speak and don’t do anything on ground (in reality for Kashmir) and this is unfortunate.
Perhaps I’m so far removed from reality that I don’t see why a prior war against Pakistan is relevant in a debate about Kashmiri people. But I can see why he’d think that way — because few Indians think otherwise.
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I’m guessing Israeli soliders feel the same way about Palestine and Chinese soldiers about Tibet. However, they’re wrong but we’re right. That, I’ll take a long time to understand.
It’s okay though; it’s not like any of those issues is disappearing anytime soon.
These days I’m studying astrophysics and wildlife — which means I’m watching those videos on Netflix. It is part of the reason why I want to visit Galapagos Islands. The place helped Charles Darwin shape his theory of evolution. I’ll probably just bring back some photographs.
Every day I learn something staggering. Today’s tidbit: Solar maxima occur every 11 years. The next one is in 2012. During solar maxima, 3 coronal mass ejections occur every day and are dispersed into space like bullets. If any one of them points at earth we face a solar storm, like the one recorded in 1859.
The effect then wasn’t nearly as catastrophic as it can be today. Today’s satellites around the earth and power lines have much more to lose — in terms of communication and power. Not so much in terms of we turning into self-immolating Buddhist monks.
Here’s a website with large fonts and red color to drive home the seriousness of this problem. The only — well, relative — good news is that scientists monitor the sun’s surface for CMEs constantly. It takes 16 hours for the fastest of them to get to the earth. So we will get a warning.
How do you prepare? Aforementioned scary website gives details. Or you could count on Twitter to give you information when it strikes. Before Twitter goes down, that is.
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Another bit: The earth and all life of earth will end around 5 billion years from now. That’s when our sun runs out of fuel. On the bright side, you will die well before it happens. On the earth’s timescale, you’ll die before you finish reading this sentence.
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If I had a kid, I’d be pushing it towards astrophysics and trying to get it into the team that monitors CMEs. I’d love to get a few minutes head-start on the warning to beat traffic.
From the PhotoBlog at MSNBC:
The description says:
Scenes from a marriage: Indian woman cares for aging husband
Kalyani Das, 60, ties her husband Pachugopal, 65, to the metal bars of a train window using a chain and padlocks as they travel from Mallickpur village where they live to Kolkata where she works Sept. 19. Kalyani Das said her husband suffers from a mental disorder; the condition started seven years ago due to family problems, and she chains him to prevent him from abusing her and running away while she works. Kalyani, who earns 50 Indian Rupees a day ($1.05) working at a roadside eatery, said she wishes for his death so that their suffering could end. She was married to Pachugopal at the age of 10 and has been married for 50 years, Kalyani said.
Reality is complex. Life is unfair.
But neither of them promised otherwise.
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I bookmarked this story a month ago and still can’t get it out of my head.
Just as I was wondering why no one’s sentiments were hurt of late:
Entrepreneur-turned-actor Sachin Joshi’s ‘Azaan’ is facing a lawsuit which alleges that the film’s title is against the religious sentiments of muslims.
A local civil judge has issued notices against the film’s producer, director and cinema hall owner here to reply in connection with a civil suit filed against the screening of the film here yesterday.
Judge AK Yadav has directed to reply to the show cause notices on the petition filed by two lawyers Kamran and Mohd Rizwan who have alleged that the naming of a film as ‘Azaan’ is against the religious sentiment of muslims.
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Now how do you like my idea of religious folks, when hurt, killing themselves instead?
About that question I asked: Thank you for your suggestions.
Ecuador it is. More precisely, on Chimborazo and at Galapagos Islands.
Insha’allah, of course.
Someone pointed me to this piece by Tavleen Singh in Indian Express:
Prashant Bhushan got thrashed by thugs last week. Thugs will be thugs, alas, which is a bore. It would have been better if Bhushan and his Leftist fellow travellers were challenged verbally on their preposterous position on Kashmir. How dare they ask for a plebiscite? Do they not see that regular elections have nullified the need for one? Are they suggesting that all the elections held since 1947 were fraudulent?
Her suggestion is that high voter turnout proves Kashmiris are happy. She doesn’t spend any words saying why one implies the other. If she can’t fill this obvious hole in her logic, she is offending readers.
Back to her point about voter turnout and contentment of the population. It’s like saying a person is not gay because he married a woman. (That’s not just a funny analogy; it’s apt in this case.)
To me, unless a plebiscite asks Kashmiris a pointed question with three options: India, Independence, Pakistan, we don’t know the answer to that question. We could continue making policy decisions without this knowledge, but don’t try to trick me into believing we have the answer.
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Before someone runs for the comments: Yes, feel free to bring in all the displaced Pandits for this referendum. The more the merrier.
I don’t want any option in particular — all I want is for Indians to face this test once without fear. It’s only fair.
Eighth monk sets himself on fire in Tibet protesting against China.
Already Mahayana Buddhists seldom bother others. The fact that they’re killing themselves makes them even more endearing.
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I would have more respect for other religions if their followers killed themselves in suffering instead of killing others. I’m not being facetious here. In the greater good too, which option do you reckon is better?
Jilted girl throws acid on boyfriend’s private parts
Bangalore techie sets ex-boyfriend, his fiancee on fire
If I were a certain glib news anchor, I’d be asking: Is this the surge of feminism in India?
But I’m not, so I’ll say the answer is yes.
I respect the need to provide details in a headline but this kind is uncalled for and might scare my parents:
If you had to go on a vacation, where would it be? Or think of it as: If you were given a couple of weeks off job/study right now, where would you go?
I’d prefer the answer to be within 4000 miles of the U.S. but that’s not binding.
Go ..
P.S. That deja vu is not misplaced. I remember those answers; I’m just looking for more options.
