In a recent comment Ashutoshg says:
You might have heard about 7bn$ fraud at Societe Generale in France. As news says, The guy who is responsible didn’t got rich because of the fraud. He just traded badly. Bank lost it and that guy didn’t make it then, where did this money go? Who got rich? Can money just disappear? Please explain.
Indeed, money can simply disappear without a trace. But first, let me tell you a story.
Continue reading “Can Money Simply Disappear?”
Arvind Lavakare in an article titled The Myth of Mahatma Gandhi notes that the Gandhi icon had been losing its sheen for years until the present government began giving it a nice new varnish. Maybe it is an attempt to “to fuse the original Gandhi image with the Italian one” he hints. I am convinced of that, however. Reading the comments on that article is instructive. Many of them are the equivalent of sticking one’s fingers in one’s ears and loudly repeating “I am not listening. nana nana nana.” If people who are literate and supposedly educated are brainwashed enough to not even entertain an argument supported by evidence, what hope is there for the vast majority who have no access to alternative viewpoints to ever recover from the effects of the constant barrage of images promoting Gandhi as the sole savior of India?
If I were an illiterate person, I would be convinced that Gandhi is goodness personified. After all, doesn’t Indian money carry his image? Isn’t he the father of the nation? And should I not vote for Gandhi’s children — Rajiv, Sonia, Rahul, whoever? And should I not vote for the party that Gandhi founded? And should I not believe everything from a person who says he is a Gandhian?
Anyway, I must admit that the Congress party of India has a winning formula and they know it. Gandhi is the biggest brand name in the world — forget Coca Cola and McDonalds. Mera Bharat Mahan!
The following is a review of Francois Gautier’s Rewriting Indian History. (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing 1996). The reviewer is C J S Wallia who writes:
From my own perspective as a secular humanist, I believe that any whitewashing of historical record is counterproductive. No matter how lofty the ideals of a current cause, any whitewash of history tempts the fates. To forget history will always be fateful; to forgive its horrendous facts can be redemptive. Forgive — but never forget — history.
I, like the millions of others of my generation, grew up basically ignorant of Indian history as I had only been taught the Nehruvian pseudo-secular socialist government-sanctioned propaganda “history.” Now it is time that we free ourselves from the government brainwashing by reading alternative viewpoints critically. I bow deep in gratitude to the internet gods for allowing some light to shine through the darkness that Nehru imposed.
The review is continued below the fold.
Continue reading “Rewriting Indian History: Book review by CJS Wallia”
2.5 million MBAs? Really?
Arvind Lavakare’s piece in sify titled “Let us all salute Narendra Modi” includes a quote from a letter that K M Munshi wrote to Jawaharlal Nehru:
In secularism’s name, politicians adopt a strange attitude which, while it condones the susceptibilities, religious and social, of the minorities, it is too ready to brand similar susceptibilities in the majority community as communalistic and reactionary. How secularism sometimes becomes allergic to Hinduism will be apparent from certain episodes relating to the reconstruction of the Somnath Temple…These unfortunate postures have been creating a sense of frustration in the majority community. If, however, the misuse of the term ‘secularism’ continues,…if every time there is an inter-community conflict, the majority is blamed regardless of the merits of the question, the springs of traditional tolerance will dry up. While the majority exercises patience and tolerance, the minorities should adjust themselves to the majority. Otherwise, the future is uncertain and an explosion cannot be avoided.
The Congress’s “divide the country along religious and caste lines and rule” policy will bear very bitter fruits indeed. People are waking up. The springs of traditional tolerance are drying up, as Munshi warned generations ago. Slowly but surely. You see the signs on the internet now and soon it will migrate to the hard copy press.
The Secular Road to Hell by Ramananda Sengupta, chief editor of Sify.
Here’s Shobha Warrier in rediffiland: Modi, a hero.
Just over a month ago, I wrote about Prof C N R Rao’s take on what ails Bangalore. A respected academician and an adviser to the Prime Minister of India, I considered Prof Rao’s opinion to be extremely misguided and wrong. He is at the very least at the top of the heap of educated Indians and should know better, I thought. Worrisome though it is that someone as accomplished as him is so starkly mistaken, what is more distressing is that lower down the pyramid of minds, you find it occupied by minds that are equally if not more confused. A comment from a young lady to a blog post reads:
lol…that was funny wat all mr rao has to say….with leaders like him d country sure is doomed!
its IT whoz saving us!
I don’t know which is more terrible: Dr CNR Rao’s idiotic rant or the response by an “educated” person. She does not even bother to use standard spelling. Perhaps she does not know, or perhaps she does not care.
What matters is that she does not know that IT is not what’s saving the country or what can save the country. If she is the end product of our Indian education system, then it is failing and failing miserably. Not only does she not know the facts or even appears to care for facts, but she is unable to reason.
The country sure is doomed. She better look into the mirror one of these days to understand the real reasons.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
And now for something entirely different.
Well, not really. I mean that in the Monty Pythonesque sense. If you are familiar with Monty Python, you know upon hearing that line that what was going to follow was more of the same absurd insanely humorous ridiculous nonsense that considers nothing sacred. Perhaps nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition but you’d be crazy to expect something entirely different from Monty Python. In much the same way, despite my claim above, you are not likely to find anything entirely different from the usual fare on my blog. Every topic that I touch upon ultimately converges upon the questions of what is development, why is India not developed, and what can be done to make India developed.
[This is a rather long post — consider yourself warned.]
Continue reading “The Problem with Atheism”
My friend Suhit wrote to me pointing out a site by a guy called Gurudev. One of the posts is titled “Speed of Light explained in Rig Veda“. Suhit wondered what I thought of the explanation and so I dutifully went and read that post and replied to Suhit.
First, I think Gurudev and I differ in our understanding of the word ‘explained.’ To explain something means “to account for something, to give reasons for something.” To explain is not the same as baldly stating something. I can simply state that “A is B.” However, to explain “A is B” I have to through a series of statements, state reasons, provide evidence, make arguments why A happens to be B and so on. In the post, Gurudev tells us that the Vedas (indirectly) state — not explain — the speed of light to be something and that something is pretty darn close to the speed of light as known to modern science.
I don’t know what the point of the whole post was. Perhaps it was to argue that the Vedas are scientific. I don’t buy that. Here’s why.
Continue reading “Vedas and the Speed of Light”
Karan Thapar is a columnist at Hindustan Times. In a Dec 29th piece titled “Modification of Politics,” I came across one of the most clever euphemisms for assassination. If you thought his ‘modification’ in the title of his piece was oh-so-clever, wait till you read how he phrases Modi’s murder. He calls it “the sudden removal of Modi”.
The context is that he is concerned about the growth of “moditva” and speculates that regional political parties will be forced to side with “Modi or Sonia, in the saffron camp or the liberal/secular one.” The Acorn asks “Why doesn’t Karan Thapar dare to call anti-Hindutva by its name?” and points out that “neither Sonia Gandhi, nor the Left nor any of the regional parties are truly secular. And they are far from being “liberal”.” The Acorn is right on the money.
The English language media is fairly pathetic. Many of the columnists like Thapar are bhade kay tattoo, eagerly carrying water for the establishment. But there are surprising exceptions. Take Swapan Dasgupta’s column in the Times of India of 30th Dec titled “The Modi Charishma“. A Bong last name like “Dasgupta” to me usually signals extreme prejudice — commies generally. Dasgupta is a welcome exception. He ends his piece with
The Gujarat model is not in conflict with the Bharat model. What has clicked in Gujarat is a leadership style built on innovation, dedication and a resolute defiance of a compromised Establishment. A Modi folklore has been created around an Angry Middle-aged Man with a 56-inch chest.
It has corresponded with subliminal perceptions of good leadership. And the Gujarat voter is no different from the Indian voter.
Modi has aroused great expectations. His political opponents will want him to be confined to Gujarat forever; the Establishment wouldn’t mind him in Race Course Road as long as he removes some of his vital organs surgically.
Let’s hope Modi stays the course. Let’s hope he injects politics with a dose of freshness.
Amen.
Time to take stock. It’s been a good year overall, but I am sure that 2008 is going to be even better. The trends are all good. Except in the US, thanks to George W Bush. No, I take that back. GWB is only the visible sign of decay, the festering pustule on the diseased political body of the US. I don’t see much hope in the inevitable change of administration post the 2008 presidential elections in the US either. It’s stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea.
I see India doing well. Narendra Modi’s win is going to cause some short-term trouble. The UPA led by Antonia Maino aka Sonia Gandhi is weakened sufficiently and therefore will not be able to make any policy changes desperately required to chart a reasonable course for the economy. The foxtrotting commies have the UPA by the short and curlies and will continue to threaten to bring down the government. But the commies are convulsing in their death throes, taking their last gasps as they choke on their stupidity. I believe that in 2008, India will be able to give the commies a decent burial. It is high time. India can only get on with life after the death of the commies and their fellow travelers.
Continue reading “Summing Up”
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 