Justice finally

Six of the 11 accused in the Khairlanji killings case have been given death sentence and two have been sentenced to life imprisonment sentence by a court in Bhandara on Wednesday. Source

It did take time for the justice to be delivered but indeed a job done. The gruesome incident is probably only one of the many such that take place on a daily basis in the casteist society of India. To one extreme, casteism kills people and to other it wins votes for our so-called leaders. And a large part of the so-called “educated” section of our society is even opposed to marriages between castes. Why does “Inter-caste marriage” need to be a label? Surprisingly, we try to discover aliens when there are so many around us.

One of the greatest ills of the Indian society (and even Mahatma Gandhi said that) is the Caste system that resulted in a completely oppressive system designed to keep a few sections of society in political and economic power at the cost of majority of the people. In the name of Hinduism and a large number of conversions, historically or even now, whether to Islam or Christianity, can be traced to people trying to escape the oppression under this system.

I wonder if its a sadistic pleasure but I am happy at the court’s verdict. Not that it is going to bring back the dead victims but if we live in a society of humans then justice needs to prevail.

Amazing world, amazing people

Sheikh Muhammad Munajid claims that Mickey Mouse is “one of Satan’s soldiers” and makes everything he touches impure. The sheikh said that under Sharia, both household mice and their cartoon counterparts must be killed. The cleric has held off on condemning other Disney characters until he can figure out, “What the hell is Goofy?” (Source)

I thought Mickey Mouse was Ganesha’s best friend 😛

May be the current financial turmoil is because of Batman, no no, it must be Spiderman, because the markets remain shut during the night.

Now one knows how vela are these religious clerics.

The hope

More than 20 people have been killed in the Delhi bomb blasts. A chance of anything like this happening anyday anywhere can’t be completely avoided. It has now become a part of our lives. I dont think the police and the Intelligence have been idling. Many would brand it a failure on their part to prevent what happened this weekend in Delhi. The good part was that 3 bombs were defused even in Delhi, several in Gujarat. Some lives were saved indeed. I congratulate the police for it. You may not like it but its good to be paranoid.

You are delusioned, thinking you are fighting for His will

leaving any mercy for your brothers, you are out there to kill

The games never end this way dear, left only would be anger and fear

The plans for the next one are brewing in your mind,

Do not you know that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind

Yet many would survive, many would live

The walls you’ve build will be broken, your faith will be shaken

hope will reign, peace shall prevail, 

Yes with each blast you make me pause and think

Deep inside, I know He will not approve of your bloody binge

Forget the past the past has gone, But where there’s life hope springs eternal 

And hope helps us to keep going on  

–Sudhanshoo Maroo

Einstein on religion

“Albert Einstein regarded religions as “childish” and “primitive legends”, a private letter he wrote a year before his death has revealed.”

Even then he is a charisma in the religious world. I have been witness to people selling books like the Bhagwad Geeta, Bible, etc. claiming Einstein has read them. Possibly true, but none claims his comments on God and his review of the books!

Some more excerpts from the news:

“The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.”

“Educated at a Catholic primary school but given private tuition in Judaism, Einstein later wrote that the “religious paradise of youth” – when he believed what he was told – was quickly crushed when he started questioning religion at the age of 12.

He wrote: “The consequence was a positively fanatic freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression.”

Yet another (un)Islamic law!!

I have no personal enmity against Islam (or any religion for that matter). But time and again, one can see such hilarious events taking place. Its so difficult; so many constraints one needs to live with!

Loophole in Islamic laws

No pun intended, but the following is an interesting loophole in the Islamic (fundamentalist?) laws that at least will not discourage prostitution.

“there’s a loophole in Islamic law called sigheh, or temporary marriage. According to Shiite interpretation, a man and a woman may enter an impermanent partnership with a preset expiration date. There’s no legally required minimum duration (a day, a week, anything goes) and no need for official witnesses—unless the woman is a virgin, in which case she needs the consent of her legal guardian. An Iranian who’s wary of arrest can simply escort a prostitute to a registry, obtain a temporary contract from a Muslim cleric, and then legally satisfy his sexual needs.”

The complete article could be found here.

Hindu rate of growth

Hopefully I do not hurt anyone’s feelings below just because of my curiosity for something weird.

What I fail to understand is as to why a slow growth rate in economy (1-2%) is being termed as the “Hindu rate of growth“. Was not the engine of the Indian economy, during the pre-liberalisation (before 1991) days maneuvered by myriad classes and sections of the society? Has the religious composition of our leaders, administrators, workers, industry captains, etc. who are responsible for the growth, changed? Will a similar rate of growth in a different country be designated with the same name? Has America (United States of) been under the Hindu rate of growth for the last few years (probably attributable to the strong desi community there:P)? What will a recession be termed as then – Christian rate of growth, Buddhist rate of growth or Sikh rate of growth. I think the “fundamentalists” would love to coin recession as the Atheist rate of growth – Almighty ‘s punishment!!

On another note, the Hindu community has not been slow, at least in adding people to this already crowded country which means they have acted as catalysts to the growth by providing for more human resource (though the Muslim community has outperformed them too – does that mean we are in the 8-9% GDP growth rate, i.e., “Muslim rate of growth” era now?).

My new flat and etcetra

I have recently moved to a new flat along with Aditya (more about him later) in a slightly expensive (as compared to Powai) locality in Mumbai. Obviously, I did not buy it (looks seemingly impossible in the current secular bull run) – its a semi-furnished rented apartment. The construction is new and the space is sufficient for 2 of us. One of the watchmen has been really helpful to us in getting internet and gas connections as well as other routine stuff. Surprisingly, we have managed to keep the place clean as yet:)

The place is surrounded by slums populated mostly by the Muslim community. As a result, there are a few Masjids nearby. It has become a normal routine for me to take a two-course sleep with a short 10-15 min break at around 5:15 AM. I do not understand why a Maulvi (if he is the one who reads the Namaaz) needs to use the loudspeaker and deprive innocent souls of their deeply cherished sleep. Does it serve as an alarm? Or do they want to be like our mai-baap government advising us when to do what (Ab uthne ka samay ho gaya hai and all)? Whatever the reason be, I know that I will never be able to provide “woke up late” as an excuse for being late to work:(

Yesterday, we also got an internet connection at home. It was an amazing chat with the guy who had come to sell the plans to us. He initially asked us to take 2 connections instead of one because we had 2 laptops at home (now we know how these companies make money through consumer ignorance). After a long meaningless debate, we settled for a single user 512 kbps broadband connection (we plan to install a wireless router to serve the multi user purpose). Since the DoT (Department of Telecom) has mandated that only those internet connections which offer speed of 256 kbps or more should be classified as “broadband”, the ISPs have now named the below 256 kbps services as “high speed internet” (I am sure many MBAs work with them). Anyways, when I queried this internet-wallah if he can provide us a Wimax service (apparently Reliance is offering one in Mumbai), he advised us against it saying that the Wimax is specially not good in Mumbai because there are so many FM radio stations and mobile users here. He claims that there take place collisions in the atmosphere between these various waves (FM, mobile and Wimax) due to which we may not get seamless connectivity. Obviously, I was speechless!

We also bought a few utensils for our kitchen and we will soon get to know the price of wheat flour and pulses (Aate daal ka bhaav maloom pad jayega ab). BTW, most of the shops in Dadar market openly defy Big Bazaar’s claim of “isse sasta aur acha kahin nahin”, nevertheless at the cost of convenience.