Attending the graduation ceremony of the University of Texas is quite an experience. This university produces more graduates than any of the other great American public universities. But on graduation day, what is even more striking than the quantity and diversity of the graduates is the obvious connection between the university and the broader community. Three graduates were singled out and given the tremendous honour of rising before their graduating peers and the watching public. Not for perfect GPAs or GRE scores, or for admission to elite graduate schools, but for their outstanding contributions to their community at the young age of 21. One served his country in Iraq and graduated with degrees in history and drama. One came from an underprivileged community in Texas and was already using her Engineering degree to better their lives.

Vikram’s thoughts on  what graduation ceremonies in India are like

Hey Israeli kids! Quick Question: What would happen if you refused to serve the mandatory time in the military that you are all required spend ?? I initially was gonna type a fiery “Free Palestine!” after reading todays headlines, before it struck me that if you’re all forced to serve in the military then maybe you’re not quite free yourself….Thoughts?

To which he received this amazing response from Ulli Rozenshtrom –  Working on my freedom

 “What is really dangerous is these scientists’ ambitions for total and unrestrained control over nature, which many people describe as ‘playing God’.

Posted by Krishnan from  The Telegraph

Having coveted diamonds in the past and an iPhone now, reading this Guardian story on how chemicals involved in the manufacture of the Apple devices makes me wonder about the nature coveting in general. To gratify the impulse of some, many must suffer untold miseries – blood diamonds or n-hexane iPhones, it is not that different in the end

Coveting…  writes  Heartcrossings

Deserts are among nature’s most spectacular spectacles and often neglected or held in fear due to ignorance. Despite the sand a desert landscape is far from monotonous and it is full of life.

You might recall  Aamir Khan and Asin in Namibia Desert along the Skeleton Coast of Atlantic, when you read this from C U on Top – Satyabrata Dam

At banks, there are machines for “cash withdrawing” and “cash recycling.” The menus of local restaurants might present such delectables as “fried enema,” “monolithic tree mushroom stem squid” and a mysterious thirst-quencher known as “The Jew’s Ear Juice.”

For English speakers with subpar Chinese skills, daily life in China offers a confounding array of choices says Andrew jacobs

Maybe I belong to that much dreaded species –the gyaan-spouting intellectual who loves being contrarian for effect! No, it was not that. Nor had it anything to do with the title ‘Avatar’ (to be pronounced as Americans do) or the blue-colored creatures seemed a curious cross between images of Vishnu and Narasimha and Hanuman.

Understanding Sacred stories, myths, rituals and their relevance in modern times

Jai Bhim Network is a group that is working among the Romas (derogatorily referred as Gypsies) in Hungary. In their effort of creating linkages with the Dalit movement of India and draw inspiration the network has been in constant interaction with many of the young Dalit activists in India. The network is also instrumental in inviting young Dalit students and activists to stay with the community in Hungary and exchange their views. Towards this three of us – me, Swati Kamble and Bharat are in Hungary since last fortnight and will be writing for our blog on our experiences.

Pardeep Singh Attri meets the Roma and learns about how they’re  finding inspiration in the thoughts of Dr.Ambedkar in their struggle against deep seated prejudice and their movement for equal rights in European society.

Phase 3: ‘Everything happens for the best’

By now, it has been 3-4 months since your last working day. You have slowly begun to accept the fact that the job market really IS bad. You have also attended some job workshops, including those which have truck driver jobs on offer. By now your resume has undergone 2-3 drastic makeovers, all with the same results.

You put your chin up and decide this is when you will do what you always wanted to do in life, learn yoga, direct a play or fly a kite. People appear to be impressed and they convince you that once you achieve this and put that on your resume, you will be fighting off hiring managers.

But I felt no pride or tears of joy today when I read that Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. There was shock, disbelief and anger. Shock at how much this puts into perspective the fact that what he signifies to me and the world and his country has done little actual, real-time difference, when compared to those who won the Nobel before him. Disbelief that Oslo, one of the world’s few ‘fair’ awards, would spark such a massive international debate, honouring a serving president, one whose country is waging three wars currently, someone who has yet to cross even one major foreign-policy milestone. Anger, because there were far more deserving candidates: peace means and demand much, much more today. Anger, because this award has stinted Obama’s chances of making real change happen – he has been stymied by this medal, which will take his every future effort to the bottom of the diplomatic cess-pool.

Says Aysha Ashmin, an 18-year-old student from Bantwal in Dakshina Kannada district, “Initially, Muslim women were asked to remove their burkas before entering class rooms. A month later, this was extended slightly – no burkas in college campuses they said. So women hurriedly changed out of these either at the gate or in the ladies room as soon as we entered colleges. Now, they are asking us to remove our head scarves before entering classrooms.” This is a stricture that Aysha experienced first hand. Within days of enrolling in the BCom course at the Sri Venkataramana Swamy Degree College in Bantwal, Aysha stopped wearing her burka in classrooms. Her classmates insisted she do so, saying it would only single her out for attention since Muslim students wearing the burka were rare on campus. It didn’t take much persuasion, as she wanted to fit in and make friends in her new college. In any case, she told herself, she had her headscarf on. A few weeks later, the newly elected president of the college student’s union began targeting Aysha for wearing the headscarf. “The president and some other union members would follow me everywhere and ridicule me for wearing a headscarf. They claimed my headscarf was unnecessarily escalating tensions within the college, that if I insisted on wearing it, they would be forced to wear saffron shawls. When the jibes turned into physical attacks, I asked them to hand me the saffron shawl – I would wear that and my scarf,” said Aysha.

Who was Nikitin? He was a merchant of Tver, a principality abutting the Mongol domains in Russia. He set out down the Volga sometime in the 1470s with some merchandise, was robbed by Tartars, and decided that he could not return to Rus without making some money at least. Having heard that there was much demand for horses in India, he took a colt with him over the seas to the Deccan, where he spent much of the next two or three years. He made detailed observations about the peoples he encountered – both the wealthy nobility of Persian origin in the Bahmani Sultanates, and the indigent commoners – often repeating descriptions of their dress and economic conditions, beliefs and legends. He noted that the Bahmanis waged constant war with the neighbouring Hindu kingdom (Vijayanagar), but that its capital was never captured, and the fortunes of war were fickle, with the Muslims sometimes winnning and sometimes losing.

Very interesting.

The veil , however confuses me. I find the basic idea of covering up to prevent others from getting tempted, unadulterated nonsense. But there are those who choose to. I might find that choice stupid, or ill-informed or even regressive. But then so do I find Stay at Home Mothers or Beauty Queens. But their right to remain that way, that I completely agree with. Just as I do not prefer their personal opinions about how I should live my life dictate me, I cannot let my tastes dictate their chices , however poor they seem to me.

It was Khatami’s second term, a time when hopes of rapid social liberalization were fading. Despite that the impression you gained was of a society that assumed change would occur, if only more slowly than many people wanted. That the change could come from within the system which provided the “safety valve” of an elected president. That safety valve provided a degree of legitimacy to the regime in the eyes of the people. It also provided the strongest threat to the survival of the theocratic state as it stands today. The presidency in Iran only has limited power and can put progressive change into only the first or second gears. But slow change is still change and the Iranian regime wouldn’t be the first one to resort to naked theft to prevent pesky reformists from getting their hands on the levers of power. Mousavi is widely described as being a reformist in quotes. No one is sure that he would bring a lot of reform to the system…but he is for example, clearly comfortable with an expanded, more independent role of women, going by the role his wife played in the election campaign.

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I love all things Indian.  I love saris, chapatis, rotis, and Saif Ali Khans.   I can’t say for sure when this began, but I think it was around the time I saw DDLJ on tv.  As I paused to look at the father forbidding his daughter to marry someone who was of the same skin color, the same religion, and spoke the same language, I thought, how awesome.  Here is a culture that is crazier than Russians and Jews combined! Also, they dance.  A lot.   I didn’t know at that time that DDLJ was the classical hit Bollywood movie.