Jessica Lal, a model, was murdered brutally, shot in the eye on 29th April 1999. Judgement has been delivered . All the nine accused, including Manu Sharma, son of Haryana minister Vinod Sharma, and Vikas Yadav, son of Don-turned politician, D.P. Yadav were let off
It is devastating to acknowledge the fact that we live in a country where the killing of a deer is a punishable offence, while the murderer of an innocent girl goes scot free!! It is a (more…)
TIMES OF INDIA NEWSFLASH: For all those who thought kissing was un-Indian and a foreign influence on desi sensibilities, here’s a reality check to make you pucker up and take notice. Research reveals the first recorded kiss in human history can actually be traced back to Indian origins. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Indians were alert and kissing way back in 1500 BC. Forget the simple zero, it seems the sizzling smooch is actually Hindustan’s greatest contribution to the world.
According to Texas A&M University anthropologist Vaughn Bryant,”References to kissing did not appear until 1500 BC when historians found four major texts in Vedic Sanskrit literature of India that suggested an early form of kissing. There are references to the custom of rubbing and pressing noses together. This practice, it is recorded, was a sign of affection, especially between lovers. This is not kissing as we know it today, but we believe it may have been its earliest beginning. About 500 to 1,000 years later, the epic Mahabharata, contained references suggesting that affection between people was expressed by lip kissing. Later, the Kama Sutra, a classic text on erotica, contained many examples of erotic kissing and kissing techniques.
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Hmmm.. No connection, I am sure. But thinking aloud, would our population problem have been non-existent in the absence of the said discovery??.. Naah.. thats silly!
All said and done, our ancestors were hip.. Gotta hand it to them! Won’t be a bad idea for our censor board to learn a thing or two from this report. In light of this, can you imagine the absurdity of the fact that kissing is taboo in our films?
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Hubby’s contribution;
“Emran Hashmi is a true Indian “
A whole page dedicated to a news item “Alert citizen gets cabbies taxi seized for over charging”. It seems an everyday occurence, but what was unique and therefore creditable was the effort the concerned citizen invested in seeing the action through. He had been over charged to the tune of a couple of 100 bucks or so. Not having discovered it at the time of payment, though suspecting foulplay, he went on to locate the cabbie at the airport, from where he had previously hired it. To his good fortune and the cabbies misfortune, the same guy was parked there. On a complaint from the citizen the cabbie was hauled, though he raced to unplug the cables which he had used to enable the meter to run faster. It was too late. His cab was confiscated.
The good news was that this is exemplary and reformative, hopefully. The bad news being that on a conservative estimate, 90% of the cabs and auto rickshaws in India are manipulated. It is not practical and feasible to expose the errant drivers on a daily basis, especially if one is a woman. For one, no cabbie is going to relent getting his meter checked. For another, it is easy to temporarily rectify the manipulated cable, when danger approaches and later revert to the same modus operandi. Frustrating?? Oh yes.. that is putting it mildly. Is there a way out? Most definitely. Stricter rules, easy appraisals, periodic checks, consumer friendly complaint cells, cooperative (meaning also incorruptible.. but that is topic for another blog) Police officers, stringent punishments.
Translate the above incident into almost every area of life in India. Corruption is , to my mind , the most rampant evil, in need of immediate rectification. For the simple reason, the inroads it makes , affects us directly or indirectly , which leads on to serious repurcussions in housing, employment, food, you name it. Inflation has its roots in something as innocuous as a corrupt municipal officer, or even a clerk at the housing board, who sanctions plots to the highest bribe. It is the trickle effect over 57 years, that has impeded our progress at every stage.
I believe that India could have been a power to reckon with. but those in Power, betrayed India.
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