The Buzz & Beyond

Courtesy, film songs and the manner dancers are shown in skimpy & provoking attire, the dance form of Bharatnatyam is wrongly perceived by most of the population who are unaware of the true form of this dance. In the name of attempting to modernize the original dance form is made lost. Bharata-natyam is one of the India’s oldest dance forms. It is not just a dance but a devotional act. Bharata Natyam is a medium of Bhakti to reach the Almighty. Bharata Natyam is music in visual form. This dance originated from the Natya Shastra written by Bharata, a sage who lived long ago (400 BCE - 200 BCE). It is, at times, given an etymology as: Bha for Bhava or abhinaya (expression), Ra for raga (melody), and Ta for tala (rhythm). One would observe the sculptures in Hindu temples resemble the dance postures of Bharata Natyam. In a Hindu temple, the deity is the chief guest. Hence, He has to be offered services named Shodasha Upachara "sixteen hospitalities” that pleases Him. Music & ...

The announcement has come finally. Indeed it is painful. Anil Kumble decided to hang his boots. After an 18-year long spell of bowling for the country, this gentleman had made his announcement when it was not expected. It is agreed that the time has come for the Big Five of the Indian Cricket to announce their retirement; however, this is not too late as the media cries. All of them still have some cricket left in them. India always boasted about its strength of spin bowling and the stories of spin quartet is discussed much even today. We had sensational spinners in between however, very few of them lasted for a decent time if not long. The state of Karnataka earlier produced another leg-spinner Chandra whose success was much attributed to the problems in his wrist, a blessing in disguise. This bespectacled engineer, when made his debut, was literally frowned upon by one and all of the media and cricketing critics. It was true that this lad gained his place in cricketing arena as a me...

Women in Politics – it is not that as if they do not exist. However, the perception is that the representation ratio is not equal. So, they explore the possibilities of increasing by the way Indian politicians knew better – reservation. Even as the women's reservation Bill repeatedly flounders in Parliament, it should be recognized that this process has a long history. In 1917, a delegation of Indian women put up its demand for franchise before secretary of state Ewin Montagu. In the 1920s, the right to vote was granted to propertied women. They were, however, not allowed to participate in legislatures. Courtesy, constant lobbying by the Women's Indian Association, this right to contest was granted in 1930. Muthulakshmi Reddy became the first woman legislator. In the Round Table Conference held in 1930, two women activists, Begum Jahanara Shah Nawaz and Radhabai Subbarayan, pleaded for 5 per cent reservation for women in the legislatures. Other women activists, did not appre...

“Who are they?” my son asked me. “I’ll tell you later!” “Why do they look so different?” he could not wait. “Let them go! I will explain later!” “Why not now? By now that person took the seat that got vacated. As the person sat, the lady sitting next to the vacated seat got up and stood aside. “Kyon uth gayee? Hum achoot hai kya? Mera koi galti hai? (Why you got up? Are we untouchables? Did I commit any mistake?)” the eunuch asked. I could feel that she is crying. “Why did that lady say so? What sin did she do?’ my son perturbed me. I will have a tough time explaining him. However, it kept some bells ringing in my mind. “Whose fault is this?” Transgender communities have existed in most parts of the world with their own identities, customs and rituals. The hijra (Eunuch) community in India, which has a recorded history of more than 4,000 years, was considered to have special powers because of its third-gender status. Mentioning of Hijras can be traced back to Ramayana and the Mahab...

http://ngkjrs69.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/10/one-of-india-s-unsung-heroes.htm There is no dearth of temples in India that you can find many of them even on all Indian highways but to locate a public-toilet is difficult. Unfortunately, this is the importance we give to toilets! We always felt that to defecate in public is nothing wrong! An interesting observation by the Indian Planning commission is as follows: Nearly 80% of the country's population still either defecate in open or use unsanitary bucket latrines or smelly public toilets. This is true even in urban areas where hardly 20 per cent of the population has access to water/flush toilets connected to a sewerage system & only 14% enjoy water-borne toilets connected to septic tanks or leach pits. In rural areas a mere 3% of the population has access to sanitary toilets. This lack of adequate sanitation is responsible for diseases like Cholera, dysentery, typhoid, para-typhoid, infectious hepatitis etc that costs our li...

Disclaimer: All the characters and incidents are ficitious. Any resemblence is a sheer coincidence only! Lt. Gajendra Singh was summoned by Major General. “Your leave is sanctioned and you are proceeding on leave from tomorrow. But be back by 2nd of next month. You have only 20 days. My advance congratulations on your marriage1” Gajendra could not believe it even now. He is standing on the railway platform waiting for his train. 4 days will be lost in train and hardly 15 days. Still, his face was gleaming. Suddenly, he heard a familiar noise that is of shooting. He saw two militants on the over-bridge linking platforms 3, 4, 5 & 6 firing from top onto the platform creating panic among public. “Gajji you need to act!” he told to himself. Gajji climbed the bridge from rear side through the metallic pillars. He held one of the terrorists from behind and strangled his neck literally. The firing from this terrorist went haywire. Seeing this, the first terrorist now shot at Gajendra and ...

I am against any sort of terrorism because that is not the right way of achieving any thing. however, at times, tolerance is taken for granted and things go out of control. This becomes worse when such activities are given a legitimacy by the rulers and media. Any affair pertaining to religion is sensitive and that is too sensitive in India. The only irony is in India, it is selective! The results are suppression of one particular religion for no fault of theirs! so, they are bound to behave like barbarians at time and that is blown out of proportion. The recent Mangalore clashes are like that. The real facts are forgotten or hidden by the media to the public. This blog is all about that. http://greathindu.com/2008/09/denigration-of-hindu-gods-reason-for-christian-attack/ The Indian media has presented a distorted version of Hindu-Christian clashes in Mangalore. Here are the facts 1. The Following are the list of abuses from one such book – Satya Darshini – distributed by the mis...

10th Jan1984: Appa screamed at me that is nothing new. But he did it in front of all in the tenants. Even she was there! “If you keep scoring only this much, you can land up only to clean the tables at a Udipi Hotel.” Is securing 75% too less? I am perplexed. What would have she thought of me? 12th Feb’84: It’s Sunday. I went to Nagraj’s place for watching a movie in TV. “Students do group-study and you went like a beggar to watch a movie at somebody’s house? When will you realize? Don’t come to me if you scored less than 85~90%” I felt the gap widening between me and my father! 20th Feb’84: “You scored only 78% in revision exams. I am worried! My BP is rising! Will you ever realize?” Appa was furious. He started sweating. Signs of caution! “Appa I will score more than 85% please relax” He went to bed with worries in head. 24th Mar’84: Exams are over! Although I don’t know Hindi I watched kunwaara baap in TV because she did. I have to learn Hindi. What will Appa say? “you cannot scor...

The inspiration source for this story is my cousin's pudukavitai: adutta veettukkaranudan odinal legiyakaran manaiviHere the story goes... Everyday is hectic. Unless I got up in the wee hours of morning and run all day to return home at night, I cannot make ends meet. I hope my wife realizes this. I do business. It is tough. I am an illiterate orphan still I do business; business of selling medicinal paste for ever-lasting youth. The market is big, but the competition is bigger. My daily routine starts at 5am. Carrying a sack of medicines in variety of jars (thank PET, no longer the cases break), a public announcement system, an attractive banner, I go from place to place. I don’t have a regular spot. I can’t have one. I locate a corner or a spacious road bank and open up my shop. I scream on top of my voice to sell my products. I prefer crowds as they woo prospects! Pulling crowd is easy but they hardly buy! “What’s it?” “Medicinal Paste for ever-lasting youth” “means…?” “You w...

It has become a routine for us to blame the Government for any thing that happens around the society. Perhaps, all of us are unaware that the Government is working tirelessly to combat terrorism in India. Our Home Minister, Mr. Shivraj Patil is busy working out road-maps on combating terrorism that he could not find time to come out of his office and have a look around. Soniaji, committed to secularism and equality to Muslims all over the world had directed the Prime Minister of India to issue statements against terrorism. To be precise, we should not call it as Islamic terrorism just because some people who claim themselves as Muslims are involved in it. It is an act of cowardice and the Government had repeatedly reiterated it whenever bomb blasts shook our cities. This efficient act of Government is supported by the likes of Laluji, CPM and CPI, of late Mulayamji, Paswanji. Just because some fake emails are sent challenging Indian intelligence and Police agencies, the Government is ...

No longer are we Indians. At the least this is the perception one gets as we scroll through news reports. Taking law into one’s hands is no longer a surprise however; it gets legitimacy if the tag named regionalism is added to it. I am not here to write about the misdeeds of Raj or Bal Thackrey. They do not deserve a space in this blogsite. All of us are aware that these are cheap tactics applied by the goondas dressed as politicians. All I want to do is to record my protest on the Government both State & Central who turned a blind eye to all these happenings. Here is a man, who sets a deadline to all the vendors across the state to change the name-boards to Marathi. He also gives an implicit threat that if they did not oblige they will meet dire consequences created by his army-men! I understand that a common man cannot risk himself to question them on who is he to make such statements. But the common man is let down by the Government, who was elected by him, when they preferred ...

Of late, I have been observing blogs ridiculing the celebrations of Indians for winning medals at Beijing Olympics. When our neighbor China has almost got 50 odd Gold medals silently, we are going over-board for a single Gold medal won. Why can’t India get more medals in such sporting events? Is this something to do with the race? If so, how can Chinese, who do not differ much from our race, can get more Gold medals and display the world that they are the real emerging Super Power? I do agree that we are going overboard in celebrating the wins at Olympics, but we should not forget the efforts put in by our sportsmen in these events. Remember India who ranked second in the 1951 Asian Games, slipped to 4th rank in 1982 Asian Games. This again slipped to 8th slot in the previous 2 Asian Games. It does not mean that Indian sports arena is deteriorating. We remained stagnant while others improved. While we ridicule the celebrations on winning these medals, we should throw light on the foll...

The nuclear deal issue has taken a back seat, courtesy, misrule of our Govt in Jammu and shorter memory of public affairs among us. The signing of deal was supposed to be the shot in the arm of the present government for which they staged a mockery of democracy in nation’s interest. As expected the countries of NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group) board have thrown the spoke on the wheels of progress on waiver draft pertaining to the nuclear deal between India and USA. Already this Govt is charged for having limited India's strategic options through a pact (that makes conducting a nuclear test difficult) and now with the opposition from NSG, India may be forced to accept new multilateral commitments as to empower the deal. The government might find it increasingly difficult to sell such a deal at home. The opposition from NSG was expected by everyone, however, the experts in the Government failed to foresee the fiasco that happened at NSG. This Government had 3 full years to do home work...

Tolerance is the appreciation of diversity and the ability to live & let others live. It is the ability to exercise a fair attitude towards those whose opinions, practices, religion, nationality etc., differ from one's own. Tolerance is not just agreeing with one another or remaining indifferent in the face of injustice, but rather showing respect for the essential humanity in every person. Intolerance is the failure to appreciate & respect the practices, opinions & beliefs of another group. For instance, intolerances over issues could be of identity (caste, religion), self-determination, statehood, return right for refugees, etc. The result is continuing inter-group violence. Violence is the exertion of force so as to injure (physically or mentally) or abuse. The word is used to describe a destructive action, forceful and intentional injury to people, damage to property and verbal & emotional abuse towards others. With the lack of experience, individuals base the...

if you ask me whether we are willing to build a corruption-free society, then my answer is NO! Corruption has been, is and will be the biggest problem of India. People’s will forms democracy. If this is based on corruption, then stigma against corruption goes absent. Under such circumstances, the morale of the people goes down. They condone and develop tolerance. Corruption can be defined as using the public office for private gain. It is anti-poor; anti-national & anti-development. More than the taker, it is the giver who commits a serious crime in corruption. We have accepted corruption as a way of our life. We failed to fight against corruption. Might is right in a corrupted democracy. In our society, amassing wealth through corruption is a way of demonstrating one’s competence. This continues as it is not questioned. Adding insult to injury is, not only it is questioned but such people are respected. This gives legitimacy to amassment of wealth by wrong means. Corruption is ei...

The existing Indian educational system neither parts knowledge nor provides values to the future generation. It is unfortunate that such situation prevails in a land that had Gurukul system of education and had Universities like Takshila, Ujjain and Nalanda centuries ago. The limitations of the present system are: ¨ It produces literates but not educated ones ¨ Intelligence is decided by one’s memory power and not by aptitude or application ¨ Lack of encouragement to creative thinking / research activities ¨ Lack of infrastructural facilities; lack of motivation to faculty ¨ Lack of moral education ¨ Sidelining Meritocracy in the name of Reservation ¨ Considering Educational institutions as business centers The present system produced likes of M. S. Swaminathan, Dr.Varghese Kurien, Dr.Abdul Kalam - but they existed despite this system and not because of the system. Education should inspire, make one free, make one experiment & ask questions. It s...

The ban on SIMI is lifted, courtesy, lethargic approach from the authorities who failed to provide sufficient proof of their anti-national activities. Repeatedly, our police forces confirmed the involvement of SIMI in the recent blasts that ripped our cities. However, they were unable to produce sufficient proof that goes as a surprise. SIMI started as a student wing in 1977 just to liberate India from the impact of western culture, later slowly transformed into a terrorist organization. It perceived RSS as enemy of Muslim & to tackle it, it joined hands with Islamic terrorist groups. The very purpose of founding the organization got deviated with time. SIMI was learnt to be the mother organization for Al-Umma that was behind the serial blasts of Coimbatore to kill L K Advani. SIMI was suspected to be involved in 2003 Mumbai blasts that killed 55 people. After the 9/11 incident, SIMI was banned and a periodical review of the ban was suggested. Many SIMI members were arrested under...

No longer in India, talent has a relevance to the awards gifted. I intentionally use the phrase gifted as awards are nowadays gifted away as token of reciprocating gesture for some favor extended. Political implications are always there. You got it. This blog is about honoring Mahendra Singh Dhoni with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. Please do not ask me what Rajiv Gandhi has to do with Sports in India – I am clueless and all I know is Congress always maintained to name every action of theirs in their leaders’ name so the people would not forget them. Dhoni is second to Sachin Tendulkar who was the only other cricketer to be awarded with this title. By all means, this award to Dhoni is too early. Dhoni has a long way to go and he has to prove himself as a good keeper, good batsman or a good captain. I do agree that media hype is there for him and even if he fails, that has been hailed as a big achievement. Dhoni is yet to prove himself in all aspects. If at all the Government is in...

The reason why the 123 Agreement is important is more than the technical reasons; it is used or abused for political reasons. Whether one knows about it or not, but could not stop from making a comment on it. In 1974 after the Pokhran tests, all foreign assistances stopped immediately, that crippled our indigenous nuclear program. Since then, India pursued its independent nuclear program and refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The US administration had to change its own laws, which barred it from any nuclear cooperation with a country like India, a non-NPT member with an atomic weapons program. The waiver-law to begin nuclear collaboration with India was the Hyde Act. Having got the waiver, Indian & American officials had to negotiate a bilateral agreement; known as the 123 Agreement. It is the section 123 of US Atomic Energy Act 1954 that deals with nuclear co-operation of US with any foreign country. Positive Points: This deal would restore India's rig...

If it was Scarlet and Arushi sometime back, it is the turn of Shinjini Sengupta now. For those who could not figure out, let me give an introduction. Shinjini Sengupta is one of the millions of aspirers who hunt numerous channels of Indian Satellite Television to take part in the so-called reality shows. Unfortunately, Shinjini is not as strong as others to take the comments hurled on her, she fell into coma at this tender age. News channels as usual without getting into details have started blaming the judges and the harsh comments they use! Reality Show is the name coined for “talent” show. However, the fact is neither there is reality nor there is a display of talent in these shows. All of us are aware that the events are stage-managed and a repeat of rehearsals. The irony is, the winners of such shows have no relation to talent. The winners are chosen not by judges but by the common public who lack total knowledge on the subjects. I can’t assure you that the judges are right choic...

Any journey down the memory lane is enjoying. I played only street cricket still, when we won the Prudential Cup in 1983, I felt as if I were a part of the Indian team! Till 1979, no team had won the West Indies in the Prudential Cup. When Sri Lanka scored a point against West Indies, courtesy rain spoilt match, Sri Lankan captain Tenekon joked that Sri Lanka was the first team to score a point against West Indies. June 9, 1983, the World Cup-3 started and produced two great upsets of the cup. Zimbabwe aided by Duncan Fletcher beat Australia. The second upset involved India who had won only one match till then beating East Africa in 1975. The game between India and Windies started late due to rains. Yashpal scored 80+ runs and it was Sandhu’s swing sent Greenidge back home. Earlier, Sandhu dismissed Greenidge in a similar fashion at Trinidad. Then it was Madan and Binny who wrapped the rest of the team on 10th of June (as the play continued for the next day) not before Roberts and Garn...