Arundhati Roy’s interview with naxalites in Dantewada

  As always Arundhati Roy writes a really thought provoking narrate of her interview with Naxalites in Dantewada  (yeah, where 70+ security personnel were gunned down by naxals earlier this month). Published in Outlook magazine, March 25th, a great essay about tribal uprisings & suppression of tribal by their own government. Here are some excerpts from the essay:

There are many ways to describe Dantewada. It’s an oxymoron. It’s a border town smack in the heart of India. It’s the epicentre of a war. It’s an upside down, inside out town.

In Dantewara the police wear plain clothes and the rebels wear uniforms. The jail-superintendant is in jail. The prisoners are free (three hundred of them escaped from the old town jail two years ago). Women who have been raped are in police custody. The rapists give speeches in the bazaar.”

Across the Indravati river, in the area controlled by the Maoists, is the place the police call “Pakistan”. There the villages are empty, but the forest is full of people. Children who ought to be in school, run wild.”  Complete article

Pocketless Pants – Casinos, now Airports

I was recently at Goa at a casino and discovered that the dealers in Casino wear pocketless pants so that they are not able to store chips into the pants.

This story at IUC just fascinated me, Nepal govt has ordered custom officials at Airport to wear pocketless pants…. First of all, it should be mandatory in India as well, for sure, custom officials earn 100x than casino dealers in their pants with “pockets”. In fact, not only at airports, but it ought to be done also at police stations, RTOs, Sales tax offices and every other government office.

but no use as IUC points out:

Archana Sinha writes in:

Nepal has ordered its customs officials to wear pocketless pants, with a view to discouraging bribes. You know what’s gonna happen now, don’t you? The sales of underwear with inbuilt pockets will go up! Where there is law, there is jugaad.

Yahoo! Our City – Beta

Yahoo recently announced Yahoo! Our City Beta. I am looking at Delhi, my home town.

It is interesting to note that Our City gets content such as City Description from WikiPedia and Photos from Flickr in a Mashup fashion.

India Celebrates its 58th Republic Day

Today, Jan 26th 2006, India celebrated its 58th Republic Day .

The chief guest of honor was Mr. Vladimir Putin, president of Russia. The two countries signed various landmark agreements including a nuclear agreement where Russia would help India build 4 new nuclear reactors.

Interestingly, just last month, the US Congress passed, an historic agreement that Bush signed during his visit to India last year, reversing decades  of US policy, that would allow seperation of Indian civil & military facilities Indian civilian nuclear facilities to can now receive nuclear fuel from US companies.

It is interesting, how India is, to say the least, still trying to maintain its Non-Aligned position.

Indeed, India is Special, as Putin also mentioned in his address during the parade.

Sapne – Indian Matrimonial Search

I happened to meet the co-founder of Sapne.com yesterday and he explained me about the site he has developed – Sapne.com. It is a Matrimonial aggregator that aggregates Matrimonial listings from various site and allows users to do search at one place.

The site is simple and easy to use, still lacks content for some categories and seems to be highly inspired by SimplyHired.com

Good Girls Don’t but Indian Girls Do

enis wrote about Vijai Nathan, the “Good girls don’t, but Indian Girls do” famed Indian American comedian.

the moment she quit her day job to pursue comedy full time, it became a part of her act:

“… her father was furious: “He said: ‘Vijai, how could you do this to your family? I have struggled in this country for 25 years and you’re going to disgrace me this way?’
I said, “But dad, I just want to make people laugh, you know, be a comedian.’
He said ‘Oh, your mom told me you wanted to be a Canadian…” [Link]

Audiences also have a hard time getting it sometimes, too:

“This guy shouts out: “Woo! Keep it going for the Cherokee. Yeah!”
I said, “Sir, I’m not the kind of Indian with bows and arrows. I’m the kind with unlimited access to nuclear weaponry...” [Link]

She actually started out “really bad Clinton impressions” and much more mainstream jokes before developing some very desi material:

… my parents were always worried that I was becoming too American. My Dad would say: ‘So you want to wear pants, eat cows, have minty fresh breath. That’s it, you’re going back to India.’” [Link]… her mother overheard her singing along with Madonna, and put a stop to it by insisting, “Vijai, you are not like a virgin, you are a virgin!“… [Link]