Thursday, March 31, 2011

aussies knew it was racism, but pretended otherwise. now aussies shoot up temple.

mar 30th, 2011 CE

the wikileaks cable makes it clear what everybody knew: indians were being attacked for being indians; i have always suspected that it was possibly lebanese toughs -- who have made some parts of oz no-go areas for police -- who were behind it, seeing as they had religious prejudices anyway, and also viewed the indians as less likely to hit back. they wouldn't attack chinese, i suspect, because of 'soft power' -- all those kung-fu films have convinced thugs that chinese will do karate or something. and there are chinese triad gangs and vietnamese gangs in australia, so the criminals have a healthy respect for east asian looking people in terms of whether they will hit back. 

but hindus, ah, they know hindus are weak and soft. 

ergo, the answer for all this is for indians to go out and buy some guns. yes, seriously. deterrence. kill a couple of racists, the rest will think twice.

i guess this is also part of the gandhi legacy ('soul force') and the jawaharlal legacy ('chinese beat up on india in 1962) and the sonia legacy ('pak terrorists kill indians at will -- see mumbai 11/26').

so, of course, they decide to shoot up the oldest hindu temple in australia, just days after an 'inter-faith' meeting. i suppose the 'inter-faith' meeting made it clear there were no weapons inside the temple (which may or may not be true for some other 'faiths' that i could name). 

cricket, the game of glorious certainties. one certainty is that is fixed

mar 30th, 2011 CE

miraculous victory.

'miraculous' like mteresa's 'miracles'. 

'victory' like p chidambaram's sivaganga victory in 2009. evm and naveen chawla ki jai. 


 rajeev srinivasan 
I predicted india win over pak to ensure full stadium for final. Now i predict glorious sachin 100th century in final with many lives
 rajeev srinivasan 
cricket is fixed like evm elections. by same folks?|Never got five 'lives' in one innings, admits Sachin Tendulkar

Fruit Fibers Rival Kevlar in Strength

Researchers have used nanocellulose from fruit to make polymer plastics which rival Kevlar in strength.

New Tech Cools Buildings Without Electricity

Adsorption chilling is a means of cooling which doesn't use conventional electrically-driven refrigeration. It could be a future low-energy passive cooling solution.

Girl, 14, Raped Then Flogged to Death for 'Adultery'

A 14-year old Bangladeshi girl was raped, and then later flogged to death after a village court sentenced her for adultery.

Fortunately, we don't have to feel bad about it, because Islam said it was okay.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

On Huffington Post: "How Evangelists Invented 'Dravidian Christianity'" by Rajiv Malhotra

mar 30th, 2011 CE

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rajiv Malhotra


Please read my latest Huffington Post blog, “How Evangelists Invented 'Dravidian Christianity'” posted at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rajiv-malhotra/how-evangelists-are-inven_b_841606.html

I hope you will read this blog and comment on it at HuffPost. It is a brief synopsis of one chapter from my new book described at: www.BreakingIndia.com

Regards,
Rajiv

This message was sent from:
Rajiv Malhotra | Princeton, NJ 08542

paul allen on how bill gates and steve ballmer were really nice to him when he was sick

mar 30th, 2011 CE

i am shocked, shocked, i tell you.

from the san jose merc:

“I had helped start the company and was still an active member of management, though limited by my illness, and now my partner and my colleague were scheming to rip me off. It was mercenary opportunism, plain and simple.”

— In a new book, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen claims that after he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease in 1982, he overheard co-founder Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, now CEO, discussing how they could dilute Allen’s stake in the company. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Idea Man: A Memoir by the Co-founder of Microsoft,” which will go on sale April 17, has created a rift between Gates and Allen, although both camps released statements saying how much they valued the other. Vanity Fair has an excerpt from the book, in which Allen details how he and Gates met as teenagers, how they both eventually realized their limitations, and the early days of Microsoft. The WSJ says “the book gives a revisionist take on some details of Microsoft’s history

jaitapur. hard to believe it is necessary to ruin this picturesque area and turn it into a toxic wasteland

mar 30th, 2011 CE

nuclear waste is forever. the full life-cycle cost is astronomical. 

data from 'the economist' of mar 19th ("nuclear waste: from bombs to $800 handbags")

the hanford facility in washington state is looking to vitrify its waste as (still radioactive) glass and store it (that is of course not a final solution but an 'interim' solution -- there is no way to absolutely get rid of radioactive waste).

anticipated cost? $74 billion, and the activity will go on until 2047

these reacts were shut down in 1987!

this is the scale of the problem of nuclear waste management.

can you see the terrorists licking their chops in anticipation of india's waste that they can use for dirty bombs? hanford has 200 million liters of highly toxic waste. 

and when the jaitapur reactors reach the end of their useful life, let's say generously in 2050, then there will be a 50 year program shut them down, and the cost will be (with inflation) $200 billion!

the place looks so nice. to ruin it forever and turn it into a nuclear wasteland! criminal! (see, i too can talk like the innumerate jounros who simply appeal to emotion.)

austin: Yamunotrii Samskritam residential camp in Austin, TX from Apr 22-24

mar 28th, 2011 CE

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: arun

To: umd_samskritam@yahoogroups.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Harihara Ramakrishnan <harihara_r@hotmail.com>

sarvEbhyO namaH

This is a gentle reminder on the Yamunotrii samskritam residential camp in Austin, TX to be held next month. Please spread the word to all the interested folks and help us in the registration drive! 

dhanyavAdaH,
hariH on behalf of Samskrita Bharati, Texas


Dear Friends,
 
Samskrita Bharati is organizing a Samskritam Residential Camp called Yamunotrii in Barsana Dham, Austin, TX from April 22nd evening till April 24th evening. Please go to the site www.samskritabharatiusa.org for flyer, FAQ and registration.

There will be instructional sessions on spoken Samskritam as well as selected portions from literature and grammar. Apart from that, there will be yoga, meditation, indoor-games, evening informal dinner meetings, variety entertainment programs etc. The above website has TV coverage and participant's experience in a previous camp held in New Jersey. 

Nominal camp fees include lodging, instruction, camp-related activities, food and study materials. Make sure to register before March 31st to catch early bird specials.

 
The FAQ at http://www.samskritabharatiusa.org/index.php/en/announcement/90-yamunotrii-faq addresses lot of questions. Please note the sections on what to bring to the camp etc. Still, let us highlight the important questions.

1. What are the different classes? What am I expected to learn from this camp? What are the differences in class levels (beginner's, intermediate, advanced)?

By the end of the camp, beginner students should be able to speak a few simple sentences in Samskritam and converse in an uninhibited manner with fellow Samskritam students, and feel good about it. Many students have studied Samskrita in their school days, but may have forgotten the splendid heritage that goes with it. This is a chance to reconnect to the school days and our proud cultural heritage.

The beginner-level class introduces Samskritam speaking skills in an interactive environment. Students in this level learn to express themselves in the present, future and past tenses. Students are also exposed to vocabulary, phrases, and idioms useful in every day conversation. This level is recommended for all attendees who have not attended a spoken samskritam workshop before.


The intermediate-level class includes formalized learning of the different vibhaktis, and lakaaras. Svarasandhis may also be introduced. Students in this class will read simple stories, subhaashitams and shlokas. Attendees registering for this level should be comfortable speaking and understanding Samskritam as the medium of instruction is Samskritam.


Students in the advanced class will study advanced topics while reading a selection from a primary text in Samskritam. In previous years, a few of the following topics were studied in each camp: samaasa, chandas, an introduction to Panini grammar, translation skills, essay writing and teacher-training. Reading selections have included portions from Samskritam works such as Bhartrhari’s Vakyapadiyam, Bhasa’s Pratima-natakam, and Banabhatta’s Kadambari. Attendees registering for this level should be comfortable speaking and understanding Samskritam as Samskitam is the medium of instruction.

Please note the actual topic and amount of material covered may be adjusted based on the background of the participants and the available time.

2. What about Kids ?

Kids < 3 years of age will be allowed to stay with their parents.
Kids 3-5 will be provided a day care by an experienced person. They can optionally stay with their parents as long as there is no disturbance.

3. How are the stay facilities?

There are a few 4bed/per room and 5 bed/per room rooms. All rooms are with attached bathrooms and has a twin bed. All rooms are air-conditioned. For just adults, women and men may have to stay in separate rooms to maximize occupancy. For families we will try to provide the best accomodation per room, but please be aware that we will try to maximize the occupancy as we pay per bed in a room, regardless of whether it is being used or not.

4. Schedule of the classes:

Friday:

7:30-8:30 pm - Dinner

8:45-9:30 pm - Orientation

Saturday:

Time            kriyaa        Activity
5:30-6:15 am    jaagaraNaM    Wake-up
6:15-7:15 am    praataHsmaraNaM yogakakshyaa ca     Morning Prayers and Yoga Class
7:15-8:45 am    alpaahaaraH/snaanaarthaM viraamaH    Breakfast and Bath
8:45-9:45 am    prathama-kakshyaa    First Class
9:45-10:00 am    viraamaH    Break
10:00-11:00 am    dvitiiya-kakshyaa    Second Class
11:00-11:15 am    viraamaH    Break
11:15-12:15 pm    tRtiiya-kakshyaa    Third Class
12:15-1:45 pm    bhojanam    Lunch
1:45-2:45 pm    caturtha-kakshyaa    Fourth Class
2:45-3:00 pm    viraamaH    Break
3:00-4:00 pm    pancama-kakshyaa    Fifth Class
4:00-4:30 pm    ashniitapibataa    Break for Tea
4:30-5:30 pm    kriiDaaH    Outdoor Games
5:30-6:00 pm    prakshaalanam    Freshen Up
6:00-7:00 pm    bhajanaM pravacanaM ca    Songs and Lecture
7:00-7:45 pm    bhojanam    Dinner
7:45-9:00 pm    manoranjana-kaaryakramaaH    Entertainment Programs
9:00-9:30 pm    nidraarthaM viraamaH    Disperse for Bed
9:30 pm - 5:30 am    nidraa-samayaH    Quiet time for Sleep


Sunday:

Time    kriyaa    Activity
5:30-6:15 am    jaagaraNaM    Wake-up
6:15-7:15 am    praataHsmaraNaM yogakakshyaa ca     Morning Prayers and Yoga Class
7:15-8:45 am    alpaahaaraH/snaanaarthaM viraamaH    Breakfast and Bath
8:45-9:45 am    prathama-kakshyaa    First Class
9:45-10:00 am    viraamaH    Break
10:00-11:00 am    dvitiiya-kakshyaa    Second Class
11:00-11:15 am    viraamaH    Break
11:15-12:15 pm    tRtiiya-kakshyaa    Third Class
12:15-1:45 pm    bhojanam    Lunch
1:45-2:30 pm    vasatigRhe svacChataa    Clean Up
2:30-3:00 pm    samaaropaNa-kaaryakramaH    Concluding Program


dhanyavAdaH,
Samskrita Bharati, Texas

 
have fun while learning to speak samskrutam!
jayatu samskrutam! vadatu samskrutam!!
http://www.samskritabharatiusa.org 

 

maryland: Invitation to India Week @ UMD (March 29th - April 2nd) [1 Attachment]

mar 29th, 2011 CE

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: arun

Rajeev, please post on your blog.. the eveent line up looks good quite impressive -
http://www.studentorg.umd.edu/desi/Events/India_Week/Indiaweek_Event_Schedule.pdf

 
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ashutosh Gupta <ashutosh_kgp@yahoo.co.in>
Date: Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 1:46 PM
Subject: [umd_samskritam] Invitation to India Week @ UMD (March 29th - April 2nd) [1 Attachment]
To: umd_samskritam@yahoogroups.com
Cc: sb_washington_kk@yahoogroups.com


 
[Attachment(s) from Ashutosh Gupta included below]

Dear Friends,

On behalf of our Indian student group , DESI (or Develop, Empower and Synergize India),  on UMD Campus, it is a pleasure to invite you for a five day extravaganza "India Week".

We are hosting over 70 speakers / guests / performers showcasing India's Art, Culture, Business & Democracy. (March 29th - April 2nd, 2011)

Of particular interest to this group are two events:
1. Talks by Sowmya Joysa, SAFL National Coordinator, Samskrita Bharati
2. 'Pride of India Exhibition' prepared by Samskrita Bharati volunteers

Here is a link for more details about the event:
http://www.studentorg.umd.edu/desi/indiaweek/

Also, a flyer is attached summarizing the event.
Please feel free to pass on this information to family members, friends & coworkers who might be interested. The event is free and open to all.

Regards,
Ashutosh.

__._,_.___

Attachment(s) from Ashutosh Gupta

1 of 1 Photo(s)

Recent Activity:
.


Centre's response to ban on Ramdev Baba's programme sought

mar 30th, 2011 CE

amazing. 'off with his head', said the queen of hearts as in 'alice in wonderland'. 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Third 
Date: Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 6:05 PM
Subject: Centre's response to ban on Ramdev Baba's programme sought
To:


Centre's response to ban on Ramdev Baba's programme sought

HYDERABAD: Justice L Narasimha Reddy of the High Court on Tuesday sought the response of the central government to a petition that charged it with blocking live telecast of programmes being conducted by yoga guru Baba Ramdev. The petitioner contended that apart from teaching yoga, the baba was enlightening people about the ill-effects of black money and money stashed away in foreign banks. 

The judge was responding to a petition filed by B Rammohan Reddy, an advocate, who said he was aggrieved by the sudden cancellation of Ramdev Baba's early morning programmes being regularly telecast by Aastha TV channel. Because the Centre was not happy with the speeches of the baba on black money, it ordered the channel to stop live telecast of his yoga camps with effect from March 21, K Ashok Reddy, the counsel for the petitioner, told the court. 

"By following Baba Ramdev's instructions, I was able to do yoga exercises. Now, that facility is gone. My diabetic problem and other ailments were controlled to a large extent because of my regular exercises and now I fear they may return owing to my inability to do this exercise in the absence of any guidance from the baba," the petitioner said. 

When the judge sought to know the response of the Centre, Ponnam Ashok Goud, assistant solicitor general, assured the court that he would get back soon. 


stanford: 'south asia' Events this Quarter

mar 29th, 2011 CE

true to form, most of these events seem to be 'secular' and 'progressive', in other words, anti-india and specifically anti-hindu.

i once listened to a lecture by aishwary kumar. talk of po-co, po-mo, po-co (politically correct, post-modern, post-colonial). in other words, it was meaningless, and so i walked out after about 20 mins of insufferable boredom. reminded me of the 'dada engine'.

true to form, most of these events seem to be 'secular' and 'progressive', in other words, anti-india and specifically anti-hindu.

there's probably funding coming from the usual suspects: the baptists and the saudis.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sangeeta Mediratta <smedirat@stanford.edu>
Date: 2011/3/30
Subject: Spring is here: CSA Events this Quarter
To: southasia@lists.stanford.edu, southasiafaculty@lists.stanford.edu, southasiastudents@lists.stanford.edu, hs-events-announcements@lists.stanford.edu, risip <risip@stanford.edu>, monica.moore@stanford.edu, Chris Williams <cbwillia@stanford.edu>, Emily Bishop <ebishop1@stanford.edu>, Revathi Krishnaswamy <rkrishna@email.sjsu.edu>


Dear All,  Please see the list of our upcoming events. The flyer for our Spring lecture series is attached and pasted below. Thanks, Sangeeta

                                                   

CSA SPRING 2011

LECTURE SERIES

Wednesday, March 30, Encina Hall West, Room 208, 4 pm

William Elison, (Stanford University), The Fakir's Mask: Public Apparitions of Sai Baba in and around Mumbai

Wednesday, April 6, noon-4 p.m., CCSRE (Building 360) conference room, first floor

Minority as Cultural Form: India's Dalits in the 21st Century

Gopal Guru (Jawaharlal Nehru University) in conversation with Anupama Rao (Barnard College)

The conversation will be followed by a roundtable discussion on B.R. Ambedkar among Gopal Guru, Anupama Rao, Aishwary Kumar (Stanford University), Vinayak Chaturvedi (University of California, Irvine), and Revathi Krishnaswamy (San Jose State University).

Wednesday, April 13, Encina Hall West, Room 208, 4 pm

Sudipta Sen (UC Davis), Lawlessness and the Cinematic Popular in 1970s India: Meditations on Sholay

Wednesday, April 20, Encina Hall West, Room 208, 4 pm

Arvind Rajagopal (New York University), The Life of the Image in the Time of the Nation: Visual Culture from Bazaar Art to Satellite Television

Wednesday, May 4, Stanford Humanities Center Board Room, 11 a.m.

 Daniel Herwitz (University of Michigan), The Framing of the Past in Four Generations of Modern Indian Art

Tuesday, May 10, Encina Hall West, Room 208, 4 pm

Ranjan Kamath, Screening of Tanvir Ka Safarnama (part of "The Agents of Change" Trilogy) followed by discussion with Ranjan Kamath

Wednesday, May 11, Encina Hall West, Room 208, 4 p.m.

William Mazarella (University of Chicago), "A Different Kind of Flesh": Public Obscenity, Globalization, and the Mumbai Dance Bar Ban

Thursday, May 19, Encina Hall West, Room 208, 4 pm

Chandan Gowda (National Law School of India), Kannada Language Activism in Bangalore: Historical Origins, Contemporary Predicament

Tuesday, May 24, Encina Hall West, Room 208, 3 p.m. 

Bulbul Tiwari (Stanford University),  Mahamultipedia: A Sanskrit Epic Vessel on Digital Waters

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KITAAB MANDAL (MEET THE AUTHOR SERIES)

Tuesday, April 19, Building 50, Room 51, 4-6pm
 
 
Ritty Lukose (New York University), Liberalization's Children: Gender, Youth, and Consumer Citizenship in Globalizing India
 
Tuesday, May 16, Building 50, Room 51, 4-6pm 
Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar (Brown University), The Long Partition and the Making of Modern South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries, Histories (Cultures of History)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FILM SERIES

Thursday, April 28, Bechtel International Center, Assembly Room, 5 p.m.
Mr. India, Introduced by Bulbul Tiwari (Stanford University)

Thursday, May 12, 
Bechtel International Center, Assembly Room, 5 p.m.
 Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Introduced by William Elison (Stanford University)

Thursday, May 26, Bechtel International Center, Assembly Room, 5 p.m.
 
 
Black Friday, Introduced by Sangeeta Mediratta (Stanford University)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CO-SPONSORED EVENTS

April 5, Margaret Jacks Hall (460), Terrace Room, 12-2 p.m.
 

 

Krishna Sen (University of Calcutta), Of Panthers, Black and Dalit: Identity Politics and Cultural Nationalism in America and India

(Sponsored by the Program in American Studies)


April 7-8, Room 134A, Lucas Conference Center, Landau Economics Building

Muslim Identities and Imperial Spaces: 
 

Networks, Mobility, and the Geopolitics of Empire and Nation 

 

(1600-2011)

 

(Sponsored by The Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies)


Islamic Studies Workshop Series: "Literature and Identity in South and Southeast Asia" 
All workshops take place  from noon to 1:00 pm in Encina Hall West, Room 208. 
Workshop papers are available to Stanford affiliates upon request by email to 
abbasiprogram@stanford.edu

April 28: Nile Green (Department of History, UCLA), "Bombay Islam: The Religious Economy of the West Indian Ocean"

May 19: Shantanu Phukan (Comparative Religious Studies, San Jose State University), TBA

May 26: Azhar Ibrahim (Abbasi Program Visiting Scholar; National University of Singapore), "Discoursing Social Theology: New Ways of Doing Theology and Knowing Islam in Muslim Southeast Asia"

(Sponsored by The Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies)



Spring'11 events poster.jpg


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australians show respect for hindu temple by shooting it up; curious how this happened just after 'inter-faith' conclave


mar 29th, 2011 CE


food for thought for all the 'all religions are equal' types. inter-faith meeting -> 10 days later, temple attacked. figures. 

cause and effect, ya think? eh? temple had been there for 35 years, now it's getting attacked. 

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

itunes killer? amazon introduces streaming music from the cloud

mar 29th, 2011 CE

apple finally has a challenger in the music space.

amazon's new cloud player may be just the ticket to fend off apple's stranglehold. this service feeds various devices (esp android) directly from the web.

i have been using a streaming music app, google listen, but i have to admit it has a pretty clunky interface. however it does work fine. i can download stuff onto my android phone, or i can listen to the stuff in streaming mode. i listen to a lot of podcasts (not so much streaming music).

cupertino: mar 31. Emerging Security Trends - 2011 and Beyond

mar 28th, 2011 CE

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: SIPA


Emerging Security Trends- 2011 and Beyond


Security of Data and Information is sometimes seen as a bottleneck in large scale adoption of new computing environments. The concerns are alike for enterprises, SMBs and end consumers. The panel would discuss technical and customer adoption trends in areas like Online data storage, cloud computing and data/information leakage.  The panel will discuss the emerging technology and business trends in the security marketplace
 
Location:
  HP Oakroom Auditorium, Hewlett Packard, Bldg 48.
  19447 Pruneridge Ave, Cupertino, CA
 
When: March 31st Thursday 6:30pm- 9:00pm
 
Agenda:
Registration and Networking – 6:00pm-6:30pm
Panel discussion – 6:30-7:30pm
Q&A Session – 7:30-8:15pm
Networking Session – 8:15-8:45pm

Registration URL: https://www.123signup.com/register?id=vphjc
 
Moderator:
Rajesh Srivastava

Senior Technology Leader enabling cloud adoption and focused on resolving and delivering enterprise class solutions for emerging Data-Center needs currently at Symantec (formerly Veritas). Rajesh is also past president of SIPA and is active in many bay area organizations.
 
Panelists:
Ajay Nigam -  Vice President of Services Product Management, Symantec
Mandeep Khera - Chief Marketing Officer, Cenzic
Pradeep Aswani - Founder & Board Member, Securematics

Speaker Bios:
Ajay Nigam: Ajay Nigam is Vice President of Services Product Management in the Symantec Services Group, leading development and management of services IP life cycle, cloud based security intelligence, and Managed Security Services products. Before joining Symantec, Ajay led product management for new products at VeriSign, which included the successful launch of managed services and consulting solutions for mobile security and mobile payments. He was also the founding co-chair of an industry-wide open authentication initiative called OATH, and provided product management leadership for a variety of authentication solutions at VeriSign. Prior to VeriSign, Ajay was VP of Product Management at Mossbeach Technology, a start-up focused on delivering a hosted services platform for enterprise VPNs. Before VeriSign, he was the Vice President and GM of Hughes Software Systems

He has been an evangelist and a frequently featured speaker on Security, Privacy, and Mobile Commerce/ Payments in leading global conferences.

Mandeep Khera: Mandeep Khera is the Chief Marketing Officer for Cenzic, focused on Web Application Security Software and Cloud solutions, responsible for all aspects of marketing from product management to outbound marketing to strategic marketing. In the course of his career in the technology sector, he has held key positions in marketing, business development, sales, engineering, customer services, finance, and general management.

Prior to joining Cenzic, Mandeep led marketing for VeriSign's Managed Security Services product line. Before VeriSign, he held positions as the Vice President of Marketing for Maaya, a Web-Services and e-Support Software company, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for UCMS, an eCRM software and services company, and as the Vice President of Marketing and Engineering for Embarcadero Systems Corporation, a logistics management software company. Previously, Mandeep was with Hewlett-Packard for eleven years in finance, customer care, marketing, and for the last four years as a general manager of a worldwide software and SaaS solutions business unit, HP Asset Management, that he had started from scratch. Mandeep is the Chapter Leader for OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) and a member of its Global Chapter Committee.
Mandeep is a graduate of Harvard Business School's Leading Product Development program and Northwestern University's Executive Development Program. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce with honors from New Delhi University and an MBA, General Management and MIS, from Santa Clara University.

Pradeep Aswani: Pradeep Aswani is the Founder and CEO of High Performance Networks, a startup providing applications and services for extensible network platforms. Pradeep also serves on the board of Securematics a value added distribution company with revenues in excess of $100m, he also built and successfully sold VPN Dynamics a security services provider to Ingram Micro.Pradeep is a business professional with over 20 years of operational experience in driving business success and scaling businesses from ground up. He enjoys helping startups develop sales channel programs and is an active angel investor. Pradeep holds a B.SC in Chemistry from Bombay University




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stanford: 30 March @ 4 pm: William Elison, The Fakir's Mask: Public Apparitions of Sai Baba in and around Mumbai

mar 28th, 2011 CE

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sangeeta Mediratta <smedirat@stanford.edu>
Date: 2011/3/29
Subject: 30 March @ 4 pm: William Elison, The Fakir's Mask: Public Apparitions of Sai Baba in and around Mumbai
To: southasiafaculty@lists.stanford.edu, southasiastudents@lists.stanford.edu, southasia@lists.stanford.edu, hs-events-announcements@lists.stanford.edu


The Fakir's Mask: Public Apparitions of Sai Baba in and around Mumbai

Abstract: This talk about the modern Indian charismatic Sai Baba of Shirdi (1830s–1918) takes up the question of the apparent ubiquity of his likeness in contemporary Mumbai, where it circulates as the emblem of a universalistic religious attitude (with a specific emphasis on Hindu-Muslim comity). The argument builds on ethnographic research on the public streets, where a diverse constituency—-to be identified with shantytown residents who retain ties with their villages—-erects shrines housing images of Hindu deities and other protector figures. Foremost among these figures is Sai Baba. The inquiry encountered a dramatic turn when municipal officials, acting in the name of the public interest, initiated citywide demolitions of "illegal religious structures." The episode may be framed as a clash of rival geographies, with zones marked by Sai Baba to be identified as generically sacred space, ostensibly free of sectarian loyalties. But if the image's address functioned in this way among a religiously diverse subaltern population, the claim proved unrecognizable in the eyes of the state.

Bio: 
William Elison is an IHUM Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford. Trained at Chicago in the History of Religions Program, he specializes in the ethnography of religious life in subaltern India. He is currently working on a study of practices of marking and organizing sacred space in the slums, streets, and film studios of Mumbai. He has authored articles about local cultic practices and their mediation by public-cultural forms in slum-based and tribal communities and, in collaboration with two colleagues, has also begun writing a book about that landmark of 1970s Hindi cinema, Manmohan Desai's Amar Akbar Anthony.
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devils in high places: an expose of christist machinations

mar 28th, 2011 CE

well, it's pretty evident that xtism is an expression of white imperialism. and yank evangelism is an expression specifically of white redneck imperialism.

====== excerpt =====

In his explosive new book The Armies Of God: A Study In Militant Christianity, British-born, Malaysia-based academic Iain Buchanan blows the lid off a subject that most scholars and journalists tend to shy away from: the rise of US evangelism as a force in global affairs.

His book looks at how some of the powerful evangelical outfits operate — often as US government proxies — in countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, and of course, India, and the disastrous effects this has had on the relationship between the Christian West and non-Christian cultures, religious communities and nations. He also unmasks the role played by the seemingly secular 'success motivation' industry, and its leadership gurus such as Zig Ziglar and Ken Blachard, who are not only management experts but also conscious agents of US-style Christian evangelism. Excerpts from an interview:

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among the hagiographers: deconstructing gandhi, wsj slams him in book review

mar 28th, 2011 CE

our good friend radha rajan in her study, "eclipse of the hindu nation", had come upon a lot of these questionable things the mahatma did. of course, since she is an indian, her analysis got no visibility whatsoever. not only indian, but a right-wing indian. but when a white guy says similar things, why, they must be true!

of course there is nothing wrong with iconoclasm. but in india there are only two 'untouchable' sacred cows: gandhi and jawaharlal. they may not be analyzed, or deconstructed. why? because they are so useful in propagating the dynasty? and the well-honed mythology of how independence was personally bestowed on india by them.

i have for long said that gandhi was a marketing genius, but sadly deluded in other ways. he thought he was tolstoy (a vegetarian xtist martyr type), for one thing. and then, he also thought that jawahar had a brain. sadly mistaken on both counts.

it may well have been a good thing for him that godse offed him. i don't know, but can you imagine an old busybody like him trying to direct jawahar, who thought he (jawahar, that is, not gandhi) was god's gift to mankind, not to mention the emperor ashoka reincarnated, bringing 'whirled peas' through his wonderful panchaseela?

interesting thought. just like it is quite possible that it was zardari who was behind the offing of benazir (and perhaps people-whom-we-cannot-mention were behind the offing of indira and rajiv nehru), is it possible that jawahar got gandhi offed? hmmm.... maybe jawahar did have a brain, after all?

why didn't anybody off jawahar? why did he die of natural causes (an unmentionable disease, according to some)? maybe he was worth more to white guys alive than dead. gandhi had perhaps outlived his usefulness to the whites by 1947, but jawahar, oh he did so much to help whites contain and destroy india in the 17 years of his quasi-benevolent dictatorship! 



Monday, March 28, 2011

i just love hinglish. don't you? :-)

mar 23rd, 2011 CE

सौर मीन: १०, अनुराधा नक्षत्र:

this says the exact opposite of what the headline writer meant to say!

the usual confusion between 'till' and 'while' for hindi speakers. culprit: जब तक  

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