Indian Friendship Day

A year ago in-front of his eyes his girlfriend was brutally raped by six bastards in a running bus of Delhi.

He fought till the time he was beaten blue with an iron rod. They broke his leg,robbed him, snatched his mobile & left him almost naked..

He fought till the time he could. Then on that chilling cold night he was thrown from the running bus along with his girl friend.

They were naked,drained,exhausted & both were bleeding for different reasons.
He tried to stop passing cars & kept on begging for a piece of shawl to wrap his naked girl friend & finally he got it after 40 minutes.

Then he took her to the hospital,admitted her,called the police,called her parents & did every possible co-operation that a true friend should do in the hour of need.
He could have fled from the bus - he did not. He could have left her on the road - he did not. He could have claimed fame & money ( as the father of Nirbhaya who took Rs 25 lakhs from UP CM,a job for his son & many more from many people in his daughter's name ) - but he did not. He could have claimed his treatment money from Govt - he did not. He could have become the most frequently seen face in the electronic media in exchange of money - he did not.

If this is not friendship then what is friendship??

When the entire country roared for the girl no one thought what this boy had gone through that night.

He is not a film star or a cricketer. He is Awindra Pratap Pandey a boy from Gorakshapur in UP the boy who loved his girl from the core of his heart.

When this boy is there somewhere in anonymity, why we Indians should celebrate friendship day on 3rd August to copy Americans??

We should celebrate friendship day in India  on 16th December to salute the spirit of Awindra who proved what friendship means.

Let 16th Dec be an official friendship day in India.

Am I talking sense??

If yes then please share this & give your opinion here.

Walking out from Pooja.

In the old age, when a person was recognized by his work and not what his father did. There were people who were naturally aggressive and good at fighting, they became kshatriya, they use to protect others from any danger and hence earned respect, wage and their food.

Some were good in business and use to become Vaishyas. They were merchants and use to buy and sell different things and made profits from the trade to earn their place in society.

When one community was attacked by other, Kshatriyas protected everyone. Given their courage to lay down their lives to protect their land and people, they were often made kings.

Then their were those who cleaned others mess, the Shudhra. Shudhra's earning use to come from doing most of the dirty jobs in the society.

The last and important community was that of guide/teachers or advisors, the Bhramin. Bhramin's earn their livelihood by giving their advice on how to live or what to do. They tagged that since Shudhra's do the dirty jobs, they should not touch anyone else others will become dirty as well. Bhramin's layer out the rules and regulations of the society mostly as per their own comfort or interest. They became part of kings ministry as it was easy money. So as most people worked hard to live and earn, bhramin's got the easy way out.

Not much has changed in India even today, yes there is a segment of population which do not follow all that is told to them, but our society is still governed by these bhramin's. Though everyone work to own a place in society, bhramin's still enjoy the superior position.

Shouldn't we value more of our work, choices, thoughts and comfort than follow someone who had hardly experienced what we have gone through. Where does all the money donated in temples go? Why do we spend so much on Pooja which has no direct result. Cant we have a better use for it. Why can't we donate the same for education, medical and development.

Generation next has a lot to change, something which their elders didn't do.

Sanjay Dutt : Pardon Him ???

There has been so much coverage and comment from all and sundry, big and small on this subject these last few days! I have some questions that somebody needs to ask, but nobody is asking, and somebody needs to answer before the authorities take a call on this man!

Q 1.    If this same crime was committed by a common man, would these same people have pleaded for a pardon for the common man or would they have bayed for his blood?

Q 2.   What was the reason for him to acquire the assault rifles? Was it to satisfy his Macho image? What was the motive? Did he immediately approach the authorities for a licence? Would a common man be permitted to get an assault rifle for the reasons he may give?

Q 3.   When he knew the source of the assault rifles, how come he did not question the motives of the people bringing them into this country? and if he did, why did he not inform the authorities that weapons were being brought into our country? As an honest citizen of India, it was his honored duty to inform the authorities that there was some weapons smuggling going on, and these are the people who are involved!!!

Q 4.   Any tears that are being  shed now that the punishment has been given are just crocodile tears, come on, these guys are actors!!! Any talk of his children and wife missing him and needing him, should be ignored, every criminal has that plea!!! Will the authorities accept such pleas from other criminals?

Q 5.   Though he may not have planted any of the bombs, the fact that HE KNEW that the weapons etc were being smuggled in, and yet he did not inform the authorities makes him as much a terrorist as the ones who did smuggle the weapons etc and planted the bombs. Would that not have been the stand taken by the authorities if it was a common man who had committed the offence?

Finally, Just because his father was an MP and his sister is a sitting MP, he is being shown this leniency by all the big wigs. If India is to show its true Democratic colors this is a good opportunity. Otherwise, we are truly just a Banana Republic, or a Mango Republic!!!!

Why I love Mumbai

Well, to begin with, you can’t smoke here, neither a fag nor a joint. Cigarettes are banned most places. Joints, everywhere, barring prison where you can buy them openly. Now you can’t drink as well. Not unless you are 18 with a licence. You can’t go a bar and watch pretty girls dance. That’s banned too, even if they dance the Kathakali. The more exciting dancing girls have long gone. Their kothas have shut down. Sahir’s sorrowful poems have died with them. Bling shops have hijacked the red light district.

Eating out late is not permissible. Last orders are at 11. Even with a licence you can’t drink after 1. Lady Gaga can’t come because concerts shut down at 10 even if you take 342 days to get all 137 permits required. If you marry at 17 you get rapped for rape. If you neck by the sea. Dhoble’s goon squad will beat you with hockey sticks for immoral conduct. (Cops can however pick up college girls on Marine Drive and rape them in the chowky at will.)

Our CMs with a long dhobi list of scams can whoosh into the Taj with a cavalcade. You and I must wait in queue till our chaddis are checked. Wherever we go, our chaddis are checked because every hotel, restaurant, mall and Government office suspects we carry bombs between our testicles. Bombs? Moustache trimming scissors and pickles are banned on flights. As for gun licences, no one’s allowed one ever since Mallika’s duh brother tried to teach Mahesh Bhatt’s son how to fire one and missed his hapless neighbour. The cops won’t help you either, even if your life is threatened. So you sit at home, waiting for some idiot to come and kill you because they can’t find anything worth stealing in your flat.

And why can’t they find anything worth stealing? Because after paying so many taxes, no one has any money left to steal. Never look closely at your bill in a 5 star restaurant. You may get a cardiac arrest seeing the taxes and duties slapped on. And, when you recover, you will get another one seeing the hospital bill. If you enter Mumbai by road, you have to pay octroi on all that you bring in, even if it’s your own. If you are a Muslim, you won’t get a flat to stay in. If you eat meat, Malabar Hill won’t have you. If you are a Hindu, Byculla won’t. And if you are young and unmarried, no one will. If you have a pet, it gets worse.

Muslims have got Satanic Verses banned. Hindus have banned Husain. So no gallery dares to show the art of the city’s greatest son. You can’t show sculptures with genitals, not even Michaelangelo’s David, though you can see any number of genitals on the streets where people openly pee. You can’t watch The Dirty Picture on 9 pm TV. That’s outlawed though it won Vidya the National Award and every kid has loved it. You are lucky Donald Duck ain’t banned because comics and cartoons in text books are banned. My Savita Bhabhi is too. So are, sneakily, many websites.

You can’t call friends home because after they've gone, guys from the local police will come and demand a bribe. You can’t keep 3 whisky bottles at home or carry Rs 20,001 in cash even if your mother’s sick and may need sudden hospitalisation. No hospitals take you in without cash, or allow you out even as a corpse. You can’t fly into Mumbai with an iPad. The Customs demand duty even if it’s your own. If you carry in personal stuff worth Rs 26,000, which is $400 today (and could well be $100 tomorrow) you must pay duty and penalty. They have announced that the punishment will soon be stiffer. Maybe they will hang you for it.

There are no open air street cafes. No dance bars. No nightlife. Even Voodoo’s shut down. A few asphixiated trees gasp for breath. There are no sparrows left. You can’t see stars at night. All we see are vast crowds of people rushing nowhere. Footpaths have vanished. So has free speech and live music. The State eavesdrops on your sex chats, be it on phone, chat, BBM or social networking sites. Try courier pigeons.

`Welcome to Mumbai. I simply love it.

By: Pritish Nandy (http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/extraordinaryissue/entry/why-i-love-mumbai)
 

ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAME INDIA

The name of India is a corruption of the word Sindhu. Neighbouring Arabs, Iranians uttered‘s’ as ‘h’ and called this land Hindu. Greeks pronounced this name as Indus.

Sindhu is the name of the Indus River, mentioned in the Rig-Veda, one of the oldest extant Indo-European texts, composed in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent roughly between 1700-1100 BC. 

There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the Iranian Avesta, often associated with the early culture of 2200-1600 BC.

The English term is from Greek Ἰνδία (Indía), via Latin India. Iindía in Byzantine ethnography denotes the region beyond the Indus (Ἰνδός) River, since Herodotus alluded to "Indian land". Ἰνδός, Indos, "an Indian", from Avestan Hinduš refers to Sindh and is listed as a conquered territory by Persian emperor Darius I (550-486 BC) in the Persepolis terrace inscription.

The name India was known in Old English (between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century AD) and was used in King Alfred's translation of Orosius. The name was, under French influence, replaced by Yndeor Inde. It went into Early Modern English (the latter half of the 15th century to 1650 AD). Thus, Indie appeared the first edition of the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare - both belong to the late phase of Early Modern English. The name India then came back to English usage from the 17th century onwards, may be due to the influence of Latin, or Spanish or Portuguese.

Here is a timeline of the name beginning with the ancient Persian dynasty:

Date	Name	Source	Definition
c. 486 BC	Hidush	Naksh-i-Rustam	"Says Darius the King: By the grace of Ormazd these (are) the countries which I have acquired besides Persia. I have established my power over them. They have brought tribute to me. That which has been said to them by me they have done. They have obeyed my law. Medea... Arachotia (Harauvatish), Sattagydia (Thatagush), Gandaria (Gadára), India (Hidush)...."
c. 440 BC	India	Herodotus	"Eastward of India lies a tract which is entirely sand. Indeed, of all the inhabitants of Asia, concerning whom anything is known, the Indians dwell nearest to the east, and the rising of the Sun."
c. 300 BC	India/Indikē	Megasthenes	"India then being four-sided in plan, the side which looks to the Orient and that to the South, the Great Sea compasseth; that towards the Arctic is divided by the mountain chain of Hēmōdus from Scythia, inhabited by that tribe of Scythians who are called Sakai; and on the fourth side, turned towards the West, the Indus marks the boundary, the biggest or nearly so of all rivers after the Nile."
c. 140 AD	Indoi, Indou	Arrian	"The boundary of the land of India towards the north is Mount Taurus. It is not still called Taurus in this land; but Taurus begins from the sea over against Pamphylia and Lycia and Cilicia; and reaches as far as the Eastern Ocean, running right across Asia. But the mountain has different names in different places; in one, Parapamisus, in another Hemodus; elsewhere it is called Imaon, and perhaps has all sorts of other names; but the Macedonians who fought with Alexander called it Caucasus; another Caucasus, that is, not the Scythian; so that the story ran that Alexander came even to the far side of the Caucasus. The western part of India is bounded by the river Indus right down to the ocean, where the river runs out by two mouths, not joined together as are the five mouths of the Ister; but like those of the Nile, by which the Egyptian delta is formed; thus also the Indian delta is formed by the river Indus, not less than the Egyptian; and this in the Indian tongue is called Pattala. Towards the south this ocean bounds the land of India, and eastward the sea itself is the boundary. The southern part near Pattala and the mouths of the Indus were surveyed by Alexander and Macedonians, and many Greeks; as for the eastern part, Alexander did not traverse this beyond the river Hyphasis. A few historians have described the parts which are this side of the Ganges and where are the mouths of the Ganges and the city of Palimbothra, the greatest Indian city on the Ganges. (...) The Indian rivers are greater than any others in Asia; greatest are the Ganges and the Indus, whence the land gets its name; each of these is greater than the Nile of Egypt and the Scythian Ister, even were these put together; my own idea is that even the Acesines is greater than the Ister and the Nile, where the Acesines having taken in the Hydaspes, Hydraotes, and Hyphasis, runs into the Indus, so that its breadth there becomes thirty stades. Possibly also other greater rivers run through the land of India."
c. 590 AD	Hind	Istakhri	"As for the land of the Hind it is bounded on the East by the Persian Sea (i.e. the Indian Ocean), on the W. and S. by the countries of Islām, and on the N. by the Chinese Empire. . . . The length of the land of the Hind from the government of Mokrān, the country of Mansūra and Bodha and the rest of Sind, till thou comest to Kannūj and thence passest on to Tibet, is about 4 months, and its breadth from the Indian Ocean to the country of Kannūj about three months."
c. 650 AD	Five Indies	Xuanzang	"The circumference of 五印 (Modern Chinese: Wǔ Yìn, the Five Indies) is about 90,000 li; on three sides it is bounded by a great sea; on the north it is backed by snowy mountains. It is wide at the north and narrow at the south; its figure is that of a half-moon."
c. 944 AD	Hind, Sind	Masudi	"For the nonce let us confine ourselves to summary notices concerning the kings of Sind and Hind. The language of Sind is different from that of Hind. . . ."
c.1020 AD	Hind	Al-Birūnī	"Hind is surrounded on the East by Chín and Máchín, on the West by Sind and Kábul, and on the South by the Sea."-
1205 AD	Hind	Hasan Nizāmī	"The whole country of Hind, from Peshawar in the north, to the Indian Ocean in the south; from Sehwan (on the west bank of the Indus) to the mountains on the east dividing from China."
1298 AD	India the Greater India the Minor Middle India	Marco Polo	"India the Greater is that which extends from Maabar to Kesmacoran (i.e. from Coromandel to Mekran), and it contains 13 great kingdoms. . . . India the Lesser extends from the Province of Champa to Mutfili (i.e. from Cochin-China to the Kistna Delta), and contains 8 great Kingdoms. . . . Abash (Abyssinia) is a very great province, and you must know that it constitutes the Middle India."
c. 1328 AD	India	Friar Jordanus	"What shall I say? The great- ness of this India is beyond description. But let this much suffice concerning India the Greater and the Less. Of India Tertia I will say this, that I have not indeed seen its many marvels, not having been there. . . ."
1404 AD	India Minor	Clavijo	"And this same Thursday that the said Ambassadors arrived at this great River (the Oxus) they crossed to the other side. And the same day . . . came in the evening to a great city which is called Tenmit (Termez), and this used to belong to India Minor, but now belongs to the empire of Samarkand, having been conquered by Tamurbec."

Writtenby Sanujit, published on 13 January 2011 under the following license: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms.

Bathroom Statistics

Yesterday while driving back home from office, I heard on radio that a government department has done its bathroom renovation for Rs. 35 lakhs. The RJ followed the news with discussion with some contractor and asked him if he fits all world's best bathroom items how much a government office big bathroom can be renovated in. The maximum figure, till I signed off, came Rs. 12 lakhs. 


My elder brother (Nalin Saxena, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1012273344), taking a short break from is IT job and interest in photography, history and flute, has done some interesting calculations which I thought should be blogged and shared. So here it is - 


Now that's called statistics!!!!

Assume a person goes for pissing 4 times a day in office.
In a year of 250 working days he pisses about 1000 times (250*4)
In 5 years (assuming bathroom renovation happens in 5 years), he pisses 5000 times.
Hence 60 people in planning commission would have pissed 60*5000 = 3 lakh times in the office bathroom (that too when you assume that they are coming for 250 days a year to office and are not on any foreign trips)
Now they have spent 35 lakh for renovating the bathrooms. This means it is costing Rs 12 for every piss (35 lakhs for 3 lakh pisses) these guys undertake!

That means it cost Rs 12*4 = Rs 48 per day for pissing 4 times in office alone.....more than the 32/day poverty line...just to satisfy basic pissing needs!

This is INDIA

Two religions, one family, and a court approval

Fourteen-year-old Akbar’s appeal to the judge to let him remain with his Hindu guardian instead of transferring him to his Muslim mother has shot Aiku Lal Sandil to national headlines. However, for the tea vendor from Baradari, Lucknow, taking in Akbar wasn’t something he thought twice about. Having been raised by a Muslim man himself, Sandil couldn’t just look away when he found the six-year-old lost boy in a Lucknow park eight years ago. 

“I am a Hindu brought up by a kind Muslim man. When I found Akbar, it was like God telling me that it is time to return the love and care I got from His people. I was never forced to change my religion and, having got that education from my guardian, it was my duty to take care of the child and bring him up as per his own religion,” Sandil says.

The bond the two share was acknowledged by the Allahabad High Court in January 2008 when it turned down Akbar’s biological mother Shahnaz Begum’s habeas corpus petition. Shahnaz had argued that since Akbar was a Muslim, if Sandil raised him, it would “create dichotomy and disharmony in the social sphere and in their relationship”.

Dismissing her petition, after Akbar said he wanted to live with Sandil rather than his parents, Justice Barkat Ali Zaidi said India is a secular country where the consideration of caste and creed should not be allowed to prevail. “...If there can be inter-caste marriages... there can also be an inter-caste ‘father and son’ relationship and that need not raise eyebrows,” the judge said.

Shahnaz has now moved the Supreme Court, and last week it asked her to file an affidavit on her monthly income, the property she owns and the school where her other two children study.

What the high court found strange was that Shahnaz approached it in 2007, four years after Akbar went missing, and that she had not even filed an FIR in the intervening period.

Akbar’s parents first stepped forward to claim their son after they saw Sandil on TV, recounting his story to mediapersons at a political party’s office in Qaiserbagh where he briefly worked. “They came to me... I did not know them. Later on, the district administration decided that since they had not lodged any FIR, Akbar would live with me,” says Sandil. Later, the parents moved the high court.

A six-year-old at the time he got lost, Akbar had gone to a liquor shop with his father in Allahabad, where they lived. While the father was busy buying liquor, he strayed away and somehow landed up in Lucknow.

It was Sandil’s neighbour Kushmavati Devi who first noticed Akbar on a cold winter evening in 2003, playing with her children in a park next to Baradari. “As the children returned home, he started crying. He said his name was Akbar and that his father had gone to bring food and also that he lived in Pan Dariba. Sandil was also here and I handed over Akbar to him,” remembers Kushmavati.

With five children of her own, Kushmavati has been a foster parent to the boy. It’s at her house that he drops in for most meals.

Sandil says when he found Akbar, he had liver problems, weak limbs and an infected foot which made it difficult for him to walk. “I took him to doctors; I also massaged his limbs with medicated ointments. Once he broke his hand and I carried him as far as Etaunja to get treatment,” say Kushmavati.

Sandil recounts how he himself was brought up by Chaudhary Mujtaba Hussain, who was a member of a governing body that looked after the well-known Baradari moument. “I have seen Aiku living with my father ever since I was a child,” says Chaudhary Hasan Imam, Hussain’s son.

Hussain taught Sandil how to read and write English, Hindi and Urdu, though he never went to school. Despite his meagre income, Sandil has ensure that doesn’t happen to Akbar. “Initially, Akbar was enrolled in Prathamic Vidhyalaya, Qaiser Bagh, Refugee Camp, and two years later, he was enrolled in Queens Inter College. Recently, I shifted him to Mumtaz Inter College, Aminabad, where the classes are more regular,” says Sandil. He also pays Rs 100 a month for a daily, one-hour tuition in a nearby area.

“My income is not much but I am doing all I can to educate Akbar. I hardly save Rs 500 per month,” says Sandil.

Every Friday, Sandil also ensures, Akbar goes to the masjid to offer namaaz. “Abhi namaaz yaad to nahin hai par main jumme ke jumme masjid jata zaroor hoon (Though I do not remember the prayers as of now, I definitely go to the masjid every Friday),” says Akbar.

If the Supreme Court directs that Akbar be given to his parents, Sandil says, he will abide. “But if it is against the will of Akbar, I will not leave the child crying with his mother.” 

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/aiku-&-akbar-two-religions-one-family-and-a-court-approval/831716/0