No matter what people say about Indians being secular, the fact of the matter is that most of us are still quite happily Hindu and majority-ism rules. I mean, look at the picture, I took this picture, (which is actually quite a detailed shot of the front undercarriage of an Airbus aircraft) when Indian (formerly Indian Airlines) got their new Airbus plane from the $2 billion order. Praful Patel, the man I hold personally responsible whenever my flight is delayed, which is almost everytime I fly, came to perform this puja when the plane arrived fresh from Hamburg. Look at it - Tika, garland, coconut, flowers and there was the whole shindig! This plane is quite Hindu I guess now!
These are some of the silly things you notice on the job but never write about, after all who on earth will give you column centimeters for something as silly as this! Oh and before a bunch of ignorant Europeans come in and accuse me of being a 'Nazi' thanks to the swastik, the swastik is an ancient Hindu symbol which was appropriated (in a slightly altered form) by the German Nazi's, and we still use it out here!
EDIT : I guess this will be all over the papers tomorrow, and I've heard of some funny cases of slippage myself, but no wonder Indian men feel so inadequate! But seriously, if 'Regular' rubber is too big for so many men, I've got no clue what will happen to them if they went to certain parts of the world.
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I'm turning in my passport the day some morons manage to grab enough power to make the nation go officially Hindu.
There are many, many like me, including my very devout Hindu mother who are vehemently opposed to any conflation of religion and politics, which is what secularism is all about at the end of the day.
But I'm fairly optimistic that the future trend is towards less and less religion, or at least towards a more benign and passive form of religion like it exists in many European countries.
And IR, a public servant should damn well leave his/her faith back home.
Oh, and that condom study, I call total bullshit. I've never, ever heard of a major slippage problem and I've worked with and had friends work with organizations in reproductive health. You'd think they would have figured out the problem by now and rectified if it was so prevalent.
And the study says nearly 30 per cent of penises are two inches short of specification size. That is a huge deviation given the average is about 6 inches. I think the methodology is totally suspect.
What is definitely prevalent is poor condom use. Unlubricated condoms are also a problem.
Actually, the marigold garlands and the "tikka" and the offering of fire are pretty much the done thing at marriages in Muslim households in Pakistan too. My take - this is like a sub-Continent thing.
And hey, the colour saffron was "adopted" for the Indian tricolour by the Congress in Belgaum and then unfurled along the banks of the Ravi outside Lahore as symbolic of all four major religions then:- Hindu, Buddhist, Islam and Sikh. (Saffron was the colour favoured by Muslim "jogis" before green came into favour post 1947 . . . )
Read up the memoirs of Hakim Ajmal Khan for this bit of forgotten Indian history.
ps: Did you get my photos of the rickshaws at IGI? You may use them here please if you want since I don't know how to upload poto in comments . . .
This is what the now-half-dead Mediamamu.blogspot had to tell the now-defunct Mediamalice.blogspot; comrades in arms!:
"Middle of last week, IE group CEO/editor Shekhar Gupta and senior edior Unni Rajen Shankar landed at the Prime Minister's office in New Delhi. The two fat men were there to meet former FE Editor Sanjaya Baru, who now lords over the PMO. The Express editors carried a memorandum from Sourav Majumdar, stapled with printed copies of your blog. The editors apprised Baru of the goings-on in Bombay, and how one of their senior editors (Sourav) is being harassed in a Bombay blog. Baru, for whom Sourav was the blue-eyed boy during his FE days, took up the complaint and promised all help. Remember that it was Baru who promoted a nincompoop ike Sourav to Dy Executive Editor post in 2003, before his exit from Express group. PMO still shares a good equation with many FEiites, and ex-FEiites. Baru still plugs his PMO stories through Express and FE, and the conduits are Shekhar and Sourav. To create leverage in PMO, Shekhar had let Baru leave FE with just a one-day notice in May 2004, though IE group insists on a 3-month notice for everyone.
After the briefing, Baru called his secretary to discuss ways to help his Express friends. One thing was clear to all: Nobody wanted to get the PMO name involved in the muck. The idea is to put an end to Media Malice. The Baru-secretary duo worked out a plan like this: Google (which owns Blogspot.com) has a million-dollar investment proposal pending before the Ministry of Home Affairs for expanding its Bangalore facility to shift a major chunk of the R&D work to India.Google's India R&D chief Krishna Bharat has been to the MHA several times to push the proposal, but it has been mired in red tape due to the large figures involved. The strategy worked out at the PMO (without the PM's knowledge) is this: Midde of this week, Krishna Bhat will be visiting MHA again. The PMO duo has conveyed to MHA joint secretary to demand that Google reveal the IP address from which Media Malice is updated.
Blogspot rarely reveals the details of its blog owners, including IP numbers to authorities. But it has done so in China six times in last two years, on the Communist Party's request. Since the investment proposal is pending, Baru and his secy are pretty confident that the IP numbers as well as the login details will be made available to push the proposal. Krishna Bhat, who is tasked with pushing the Google investment is expected to make a special request to Google HQ to reveal the Media Malice uploading IP address.
As you know, once the IP numbers are known, it is a matter of a few minutes for security agencies to spot the computer location. All ISPs are more than willing to please the authorities to shut blogs. Remember last year's blog blackout? The same MHA brains are at work now. The strategy is to get the IP number/s and login details as quick as possible, (they fear that Malice may shut down and vanish) which will be transferred to the IB, which comes under MHA. IB chief ESL Narisimhan, who is in line for a promotion to RAW, has already agreed to do Baru's bidding, in anticipation of a favourable PMO reco. In a few hours of IB getting its hands on Malice login details, IB would have traced you.
But neither IB nor MHA want to dirty their hands in what is precisely a private issue - Malice content has nothing to do with national security. So, there will be no case filed and no legal action. The strategy is more devious. The Baru brainwave is to leak the details of Malicebhai to those who have been attacked here, so that the victims will take law into their hands and finish you off. Shekhar & Unni have given go-ahead to Sourav & gang to get Dharavi goons to set on you.
I can't say what they will ask of you. But take my word that they will not spare you. As you know, once your identity is out, there will be no hiding. Media will shun you -- but that is the easy part. All targets of Malice - Gurbir, BNK, Sourav, Manoj, Raghu, Jerry, - will all be on you.
You will wonder how I knew the details. My sources are high up in Shekhar's office, who have regularly leaked me news on the inside media. But I have never written much on Express because I did not want my source in trouble.
From what I know from the Express CEO's office, Sourav and Manoj are seen as necessary evil to run the paper called FE. They will not let them down. For Shekhar & Unni, what attacks Sourav today can hit them tomorrow. And Baru, who has schemed the plot, is all too willing to keep his friends happy.
Once the dust settles, everyone will be a winner except you. Baru would have pleased his conduits, Shekhar and Unni would have defended their organisation, Sourav & Manoj (and perhaps others) would have had pleasure of revenge, Narasimhan would have got the promotion, Krishna Bhatt would have succeeded in pushing investment and the MHA joint secretary would have got a pat from PMO for facilitating the entire hit job.
I cant advise you on what to do - it is up to you. May be you should delete the post about Sourav - it may cool them down. May be you should scrap the blog itself, that may soothe them. May be you should just take out the comments, that would be enough. I have no idea to what extent Sourav and Manoj are out to get you and what will calm their fury. I dont think you have too many options.
I dont have much more to say. My email id is chaloohogayamamoo@gmail.com. MediaMamu is now an undergound blog, open only for invited visitors. The Malice saga is the next cover story. Keep me posted on what you do. I am out of India now. "
Enough dope? Spindianexpress should wake up and expose more. What are you waiting for? You are our only hope after the death of the above blogs and Warfornews.
I dont see the big deal about garlanding a plane. People do pujas around their cars and houses all the time so what makes this so different?
nice man, actually i wrote somehting very similar to this which im trying to get into newsweek, but its so true and the thing is that id rather read stuff like this in the paper most days that ehe garbage that some of them peddle/piddle for the reader...
oh yeah and the condom thing? its funny but that was one of the last posts on my page too cos it was just so damn funny!
Cheers..
Why don't you guys leave India and let us live - jerk @#$# ...You guys cannot make a difference but only one thing CRIBBING..If you cannot change then do not critize ..NAMAKHA$AM's
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