71 year old Muslim League Kerala President marries again

oct 26th, 2007

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

I was born and brought up (until 15) in the heartland of Muslims of Kerala- Malappuram. And during my childhood, I remember that most of the Muslim houses in the neighbourhood where I spent my childhood, had girls who had been "Talaq"ed and/or married twice , thrice, and so on (and with 1 or 2 kids in each wedlock)... The only case of a stable marriage of a neighbouring Muslim girl, the last time I met had a 6th kid or so

 

So, I am the least surprised at this news, even though his marriage with the previous wife seems reasobaly stable and less than the average no of kids

 

http://www.keralakaumudi.com/news/102307M/kerala.shtml#13

 

Here is an approximate summary of the news

 

 Muslim League state President (since 1975) and a prominent religious leader of the Muslims Panakkad Sayyid Muhammadali Shihab Thangal (71) married a 45 year old widow . His former wife (with whom he had 4 kids) passed away last year while Thangal was undergoing treatment in USA   

kanchan gupta: India can learn from Israel

oct 26th, 2007

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kanchan

I have just returned from Israel where I spent a week that has proved to be very educative. My first article out of Jerusalem is pasted below. Comments are welcome. Warm regards. K.

 

SUNDAY PIONEER, OCT 21, 2007 / 'COFFEE BREAK'

 

India can learn from Israel

Hidden in the mountains, the stark, grey concrete structure of Yad Vashem looms before you as you approach the Avenue of the Nations dedicated to brave individuals who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Sycamore trees line the avenue, and crowd the rugged space around Yad Vashem, each planted in the memory of men and women who defied Adolph Hitler's 'Final Solution' programme. A gnarled tree recalls memories of Oscar Schindler's valiant efforts to save Jewish men, women and children, using every possible skill, including bribery and lies, often escaping detection by the skin of his teeth. Those who have seen or read Schindler's List would connect easily to the bravery of the few who stood up to the murderous majority in Hitler's Germany and the Third Reich.

It is only fitting that Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, should look like the innards of a soulless concrete jail. Life in ghettoes and concentration camps could not be captured in a different setting. It is equally fitting that a visit to the memorial, which can be at once intensely personal and educative, should begin with an encounter with the first two dark deeds of the Nazis that paved the way for their subsequent brutality. The first was the burning of books which were perceived to be contrary to Hitler's supremacist theory that denied space to intellectual dissent and discounted the non-Aryan's right to flourish (later it would be the right to exist). The burning of books was to result in the burning of bodies -- the pathetic, decrepit remains of millions of Jews gassed to death. The second was the organised attack on Jewish property, business and synagogues on the night of November 9, 1938. The mass vandalism by Hitler's hoodlums was to be later known as Kristal Nacht: By dawn the next day, the streets were littered with shattered glass, charred shops and the burnt remains of any hopes that may have survived Hitler's coming to power.

The story of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews perished, the 'Final Solution' which nearly wiped out Europe's Jewry, is brought alive in the most telling, touching manner in the stone cold chambers of Yad Vashem. The evidence, painstakingly put together, largely stems from the Nazi obsession with documentation. The Nazis would photograph the horrific medical experiments, the wretched degradation, the mass executions, the cattle train rides to concentration camps, the stripping of Jews, the final journey to the gas chambers and the burning of bodies. Each detail would be documented and logged. Children's rag dolls, their shoes and the little things that symbolise life only serve to heighten the scale of the brutality that was perpetrated as the rest of the world slept. Till now, Yad Vashem has documented details, on the basis of testimonies that are bound and filed in alphabetical order, of three million Jews who perished during the Holocaust. These are stored in the last chamber where the only other display is a well which symbolises the dark void of life after the mass murder conducted by Hitler.

The numbing horror is further magnified in the memorial hall dedicated to children who perished in the Holocaust. Inside, in the pitch black darkness, a candle flickers, its image reflected and refracted a million times while a voice chants the names of those whose lives were snuffed out by a mad man and his criminal regime. Shades of that madness are visible in the rant of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his ilk who deny that the Holocaust ever occurred. I am told that a very senior member of the CPI(M), a comrade we often see on prime time television, refused to visit Yad Vashem when he was in Jerusalem this summer to attend a conference of the Israeli Communist Party. He is believed to have told his local guide that he had no intentions of "legitimising Israeli propaganda about the Holocaust" by visiting Yad Vashem. Such concerns did not bother him when, accompanied by his wife, he visited Al Aqsa and Dome of the Rock.

The most amazing thing about Israel is the country's sense of history. Apart from investing huge amounts of resources to restore and preserve antiquities that connect the modern state of Israel with its Biblical past, the Government also ensures that people do not forget their cultural and civilisational identity. At every historical site you can find soldiers and school children: They are taught about their past and encouraged to treasure it. The slogan 'Never Again', which is as much to do with the massacre at Massada as with the mass extermination at Auschwitz, gains significance with the inculcation of a sense of history. Children grow up proud of their heritage; soldiers defend not just Israel's territory but the very idea of a Jewish state. Across the political spectrum, people are resolute about doing whatever it takes to ensure the Jewish nation is not endangered again. No sacrifice is big enough, no contribution too small.

On Thursday night I visited the magnificent home of Frida and Arek Steinberger at a moshev. Frida is a ceramic artist, Arek a gentleman farmer. Their 21-year-old son Itay was killed in last year's war with Lebanon: He was hit by a missile on the battlefield while trying to rescue a fallen fellow soldier. He was among the 119 Israelis who did not return home from a battle that has caused tremendous political upheaval in Israel. What was his first reaction on hearing the news of his son's death, I asked Arek in the sprawling patio of their ranch. "I was stunned, I could not think. Later, I was consumed by anger. Now I have reconciled myself to this fact," he told me. There's a huge poster of Itay in uniform, the last photograph of him with his comrades-in-arms. But tragedy has not deterred either Frida or Arek, nor lessened their passion for Israel. Their daughter has just finished her stint with the Israeli Defence Forces. Their second son is in the Army. Their youngest son, a 16-year-old boy, will follow in the footsteps of his elder siblings.

A nation can be forged by tapping emotion. But for the nation to survive, you need determination and commitment to the national cause. There is more than a lesson here for us Indians.

Kaangress leader: try Narendra Modi at The Hague

This half literate Kaangress leader wants Narendra Modi to be prosecuted at the International Court of Justice, like Slobodan Milosevic. Is he out of his mind? By this token, the seculars will next demand bombing of Gujarat by NATO! This secular progressive nonsense is going too far. The Godhra arsonists are yet to be apprehended leave alone punished........

The 500,000 Hindu victims of real genocide in Kashmir are languishing in sub human conditions similar to concentration camps. Their oppressors are set free by the Kaangress government for some Ramzan ceasefire or the other. Other terrorist ideologues like that Yasin Malik and Syed Geelani escaped scot free and are provided security cover by NSG commandos. Millions of Hindus suffered holocaust during the partition of 1947 and again in East Pakistan. Who was ever brought to justice for that? Was there ever a trial of Muslim League thugs for crimes against humanity? Were there any war reparations paid to the Hindu victims? Neither the Kaangress thugs who slaughtered over 3000 Sikhs in 1984 nor their leader Rajiv Ghandy aka Roberto who justified that pogrom were brought to account.The secular doctrine of a Mohammedan monopoly on human rights is simply unacceptable.

so true! i too love to give up control to gps systems :-)

oct 25th, 2007

yes, i simply the in-car guidance systems and the soothing voice that never tells you, "you dummy, what do you mean you missed that turn? an infant could have done it!" but instead quietly says, "recalculating route".

now if only these were available in india! i believe some new phones are rolling out with gps maps of bangalore and so forth.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/opinion/26brooks.html?th&emc=th

iaea has decided for india that it'll be 26% nuclear powered. did anyone tell manmohan singh?

oct 25th, 2007

rather interesting news. the numbers i had heard so far said that india was planning on a max of 7% of its energy from nuclear sources in the near future. 26%? how many chernobyls and how many pakistani-supported thefts of nuclear material would that be?

http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/news/2007/10/nuclear_report

also interesting perspective by wired: india should go into high-risk nuclear energy so that white countries are not affected so much by global warming.

professor vaidya: Participatory Notes [PN] are Dangerous

oct 25th 2007

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Vaidyanathan R

 

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/10/24/stories/2007102450800800.htm

 

R.Vaidyanathan

 

_____________________________________

R.Vaidyanathan

Professor of Finance & Control

Indian Institute of Management

Bannerghatta Road

Bangalore

Tejas fires its first missile

Our very own Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas fires its first missile. Way to go! Here is the article and the video(do turn on the volume)...

In the video, there is a second plane(sea harrier) which takes off as a chase plane.