We turned one today, so happy birthday to us!
Over the past year, our effort has been to highlight voices with as diverse views as possible. These are interesting times for India and as blogging gets more and more popular, there will be more voices on the same issues. And more voices on new issues. We [...]
Archive for October, 2007
Deblina M is a music blogger who has a beautiful voice and her songs are all melodious. Listen to her latest Waadiya mere daaman.
Thaheriye Hosh Mein Aa Lun is a beautiful song composed by Khayyam and sung by Mohd. Rafi and Suman Kalyanpur. Here it comes in the voices of Azam Khan and Dr. Parasmani Acharya. Listen to this beautiful song that will take you on a trip back to the good oldies.
On Kamala Das
Published by October 30th, 2007 in Feminism, India, Literature, Poetry, Women and sexuality. 2 CommentsRajesh discusses the way women writers are seen in India, focusing on the works of Kamala Das.
That her private life being debated threadbare even after she had turned seventy three should give us enough insight into the iron cast template for an Indian writer who happens to be a woman. However if you stick to [...]
On Sensex, FII’s, Reliance and Risk
Published by October 30th, 2007 in Economy and India. 0 CommentsKaushik Gala has an interesting collection of comments from Morgan Stanley, Economic Times and the RBI.
Why should we move on, Mr.Dasgupta?
Published by October 30th, 2007 in Appeal, Culture, Democracy, Development, Government, Human Rights, India, Justice, Language, Media, Politics, Prejudice, Religion, Secularism, Society, Women and public space. 1 CommentWhat do you call someone who says- Clinton has outgrown Lewinsky therefore Gujarat has outgrown the pogrom? A ‘half-crazed killer’ or a ‘braggart’?
In a hardhitting post, Amrit asks all the apologists for the BJP in the media- Why should we move on?
The problem with the right-wing media in India is that it is always trying [...]
Gandhism: The Last Resort of the Hapless
Published by October 29th, 2007 in Activism, Adivasi, Dalit, Development, Environment and Politics. 0 CommentsMajboori ka naam Gandhi, (Gandhi is the last resort of the hapless), so goes popular wisdom. While the Indian government claims that the demands of the 25,000 Gandhian protesters have been “met”, VB Rawat gives the other side of the picture:
Today, India is at war with its own people. Thousands of people have died in [...]
Arun has a great travelogue with beautiful pictures of his weekend at Gokarna - Part 1 and Part 2.
The weak sex
Published by October 29th, 2007 in Feminism, Human Rights, Prejudice, Society and sexuality. 0 CommentsIn response to a DNA news article, Ideasmithy explores the dangers a guy might face in the world. She writes,
What’s most chilling is the thought that these dangers exist without a comparable level of support. If a guy broke up with his girlfriend, citing ‘too much of pressure for sex’ as a reason, how many [...]
And death looks on with a casual eye
Published by October 29th, 2007 in Caste, Culture, Dalit, Democracy, Government, Human Rights, India, Justice, Media, Poetry, Prejudice, Religion, Secularism, Society and Women. 2 CommentsSunny deplores the coverage (or lack of it) in the mainstream media in the U.K., and calls it ‘horrendously lame’:
There’s two points to make here. Firstly, that for progressives in Britain, India’s continual denial of justice to Sikhs and Muslims over politically-motivated riots in 1984 and 2002 should constantly feature in any discussion, to the [...]
Common Tags for all Gujarat posts
Published by October 29th, 2007 in Announcement, Appeal, Blogging and Justice. 0 CommentsDina has a suggestion:
Citizens for Peace, has issued a press statement and written several letters to senior members of different political parties. There are tons of blog posts popping up too where bloggers are expressing strong sentiments against the Gujarat government. I’m also a little shocked at the strange quiet around this on the English [...]
Here an Indian, there an Indian
Published by October 28th, 2007 in Culture, India and Misc. 3 CommentsKetan talks about the whole idea of Being Indian and feeling proud of other ‘Indians’.
We love to laugh at the nouveau riche and the silly way in which they flaunt their baubles: driving up in a flashy red sports car, wiping themselves with branded toilet paper, wearing ice-cubes on their chunky fingers, and most [...]
The Face of the Scoundrel
Published by October 28th, 2007 in Culture, Democracy, Economy, Human Rights, India, Justice, Media, Personal, Prejudice, Religion, Secularism, Society, Women and public space. 1 CommentSeveral bloggers continue to speak for those whose voices were silenced. Some would like to drown even that- silence, what Jo calls in one of the posts I linked to earlier, the louder silence from the graves. Mirza Faisal accuses them of seeking the refuge of the scoundrel. At this moment, as I write this [...]
Modi, The Butcher of Gujarat
Published by October 27th, 2007 in Caste, Human Rights, India, Justice, Media, Politics, Prejudice, Religion, Secularism and Society. 3 CommentsThat seems to be the broad consensus across the Indian blogworld.
Patrix ridicules charges that the Tehelka investigation is politically motivated and hence suspect:
As far as the allegation of why Gujarat and why not <insert any act of terrorism> goes, I don’t think anyone has ever stopped those individuals or any other media outlet from investigating [...]
The other way around. This is a director reviewing reviewers.
I don’t mind taran’s review for he in his seven lives would not have understood why someone would like to make a film like this.. Khalid reviewed me and not the film and from his review all i can say is neither has he read “Quitter’s [...]
What does it say about us
Published by October 27th, 2007 in Government, Human Rights, India, Policy and Secularism. 0 CommentsAmrita fisks the various arguments and excuses post Operation Kalank. For example..
Tehelka is in the pay of the Congress: [..]Are the BJP and VHP “activists” interviewed on camera also Congress toadies? Did they somehow switch parties and neglect to inform anyone? Did Sonia Gandhi or her minions courier a truckload of cash to not one, [...]
Growing economy, stagnant education
Published by October 27th, 2007 in Economy and Education. 2 Comments
India has 93,000 elementary schools with computers; the US has 110,000
19% of primary schools in India have a single teacher (that’s one in five schools!)
25% of schools in India had electricity in 2004, increased from 21% in 2002
87% of schools in India are in rural areas
Education expenditure rose from about 3% of GDP to 4% [...]
Apu hosts the 46th carnival of the feminists.
The music director of the movie It’s Breaking News, is writing about the songs and music that he created for this film. Check it out.
Mythili has some unbelievably beautiful pictures of fall, here and here. What resplendent colours!
Organized Nomad isn’t impressed with Chidambaram’s speech at Harvard:
India’s current Finance Minister visited the Harvard Business School last week and delivered a boring recitation of India’s economic woes and a list of problems the country needs to fix in order to grow even further. There was much criticism of systems - especially the education system [...]
Suyog on why he loves meetings.
- If it doesn’t make any sense, all topics in meetings can be taken “offline”.
- If something make sense, everyone wonders whether its too early to do something about it!
- Everyone is always busy in a meeting. You either keep scribbling everything everyone says on your notepad, or keep trying [...]
A Sting in the Belly of the Beast
Published by October 25th, 2007 in Government, Human Rights, India, Politics and Secularism. 1 CommentIndscribe summarizes the Tehelka sting on Narendra Modi’s role in the pogrom of 2002:
8. Madan Dhanraj Chawal said yes ‘We grabbed him, kicked, cut his hands with swords, then butchered him and burnt him’. ‘Ang ang kaat diya aur jalaa diya’. Said Chaval, the accused of Gulbarg Society attack.
9. Shiv Sena leader Babu Bajrangi says [...]
‘We won the nails..’
Published by October 25th, 2007 in Dalit, Poetry, Prejudice and Women. 0 CommentsIndira Jalli questions the scholarly refusal to allow Dalits to identify themselves:
Your home–the nation–is
Clean and spacious now
Dalits are neither subjects to be retrieved
Nor objects to be analyzed
If we want to claim our subjecthood
We have to revive (?!) ourselves
As chandalas, mletchas
Or at least harijans
If we choose to stand as Dalits
We do not gather the
Surplus value of [...]
An academic in America
Published by October 25th, 2007 in Culture, Theory, Travel and sexuality. 0 CommentsAniruddh Vasudevan is visiting the US and has an interesting account of his experiences as “the quintessentially exotic Other: dancer, Indian, queer”
What I am saying is that, I begin to feel that even when one travels for the first time somewhere, that romantic sense of “happy anonymity” that I used to believe in, is not [...]
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