Cat one time elephant one time…

Ha haaaa..’cat one time elephant one time’ was a famous saying in my college days. Its not bcos of the loosely transliterated tamizh proverb am laughing here..See below:
Forgot to mention about a small hijack plan that came as a news few days back..they were trained terrorists (oh the famous freedom fighters) from Pakistan, ofcourse..and were caught when they failed to ignite the bomb (lucky passengers)..the mastermind is missing..so whats new, u ask..
But did u guess where all this happened?
China! Ha haa..now slowly its leaking out of xinhuas and hindus who the architects were!
So, like US, there shall come a time when China will also chase pak and we can all sit back and preach “restrain” and “internal matters”..
btw remember these words: Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest of China, Pakistan terrorists. Xinhua will use them frequently in the coming days! All times, eh?

Chennai cricket test

NO! I will not go there..
Iam glad there are very few spectators at Chepauk. I really wish the turn out is very less for all these tests..in spite of the mind boggling amounts amassed by BCCI, none of the grounds (may be single exception of Mohali) is anywhere near customer friendly atmosphere. Pathetic facilities esp considering the money BCCI mints..its a shame that the basic toilet & water facilities will be the worst one could imagine and just think of the food (stall) options one gets inside..But they will never learn.. compare that to the hockey ground (& the tennis court too) at Chennai by the prev J govt, as mentioned long back here. Another reason why cricket shud lose spectators is to let the IPL fellas lose and facilitate some sensible correction there.

Caveat: This doesnt mean my love of cricket is lost. I will still relish the sweet wood sound out of a well middled straight drive ..I will still go and play that occassional game with my friends..but thats bcos, as repeated many times here, thats a disease am afflicted with it, but wish the nextgen escapes that.

a request..

u folks were informed about the initiative called "ReStore"..restoring health, livelihoods and nature is the byline- which says it all..\
This initiative was lauched with a millets mela last month as u know..One of the activities of Restore shall be having a shop where all organically raised products and ecofriendly art n craft products shall be sold..this way we shall help the small farmers in selling their products and at fair price..same for artisans & craftsmen..we shall have transparent pricing: price paid to farmer/artisan + transportation cost; the same shall be displayed in the shop..more updates shall come up soon on our site..

We, a set of volunteers involved in this non-profit org, have been looking out for an ideal space of around 300-500 square feet in south madras (esp Mylapore, Mandaiveli, Adyar, Thiruvanmiyur areas)..So good hearted souls like you are requested to look around and check if you or your kith/ kin have some good space in the said locale. It could be a garage or some ground or first floor of one of those old and spacious houses in these areas..It cud be mutually beneficial for some of u NRIs' whose parent(s) could be alone in some big house and such a venture coming up there cud offer the ever wanted security indirectly plus a nice and 'organic' past time if they wud involve too.. win-win folks?
So pl look around and do sound me of any hint..at ananthoo {at}hotmail {dot} com..and BTW shud I mention here that we intend paying nominal rent..thanks in advance folks..

World water day!

on 22nd March..may be its time u read more on water, the need to conserve it and to spread the awareness!
or if u r in Chennai attend this World water Day 2008 seminar organised by Exnora International.
Date & time; Saturday 22nd March 2008 between 10.30 am and 1.30 pm
Venuw: PG Auditorium, SRM university, Ramapuram*, Chennai.
(*yes the same ramavaram of MGR fame)

Hats off Mrs.Sukhpreet Kaur!

Sarabjit singh’s wife shud be commended for her great patriotic reaction..seriously dunno how many of us in that situation wud have done the same! She has told the govt not to trade any paki terrorist for her husband..highly commendable indeed!
Meanwhile the recently released Kashmir Singh put us to shame by publicly crying he was a spy and that the govt let him down..and ofcourse followed that up with a denial..

Sevalaya

I was full with so many activities (diminutive compared to the deeds of all those interesting folks I had met) and so thought I will carry out some small deeds before I tail some more intresting folks..but kismet had other plans..so one more addition to my list..Murali- founder of Sevalaya.. One cannot have any other feeling other than amazement on seeing his achievements. Astonishing accomplishments those..from 5 kids that we knew in early 90s (when he was W’s colleague) to a biiig orphanage housing 150 kids and 60 elders in the oldage home..add to that a 1000 kids that come over to this school from nearby villages..oh, then I forgot- add a mobile library, medical camp, Goshala & organic farm! The first two in this list is for all the villages in the surrounding. Forward integration – did we hear any one say that? Man, this vision in the developmental side that he has bestowed, if it had happened in the corporate world, his wud be a house hold name by now..(It cud still be in his own right, but fewer than it shud actually be)
To think that some one had the gumption to even think of such a project in his teens and to actually start implementing it from 20 and go parallely with a career demanding a big share of his time..and to see where he is today, its just amazing!
So folks, just don’t go away reading this..please participate in that honorable project by sponsoring some wish lists here and also try and donate any of ur (un)used books for their library. That not only helps the inmates but so many villagers bcos of Murali’s audacious value addition like mobile library!

Shame part II

So history repeats itself and we Indians are condemned never to learn and hence will repeat our spineless (re)action! Nehru did that shamelessly then and let down a fantastic ancient civilisation and we are repeating that today..Its not enof just providing asylum to HH Dalai lama! Our responsibility does not end there.
There, Tibet is struggling again and any sane country in our position- considering China’s behavior, attitude & past shud only act one way- support Tibet and embarrass China heavily..if possible drum up support of the west and do all that is possible to restore Tibet, the good old Tibet, that is!
Tibet serves us lotsa good and most importantly, strategically as a buffer between the undependable China..Its also one of the very rare non violent struggles in the world and who else other than India to support that?? Its not right to rebuke this by saying/ thinking it’s a part of china! NO! they have more in common with us like language (more Sanskrit/ brahmi scripts and is written left to right), religion (Buddhism), race (they are not the yellow race like chinese, japans,etc but more closer to us) and more glaringly spirituality!
Whats also ignored and can impact us more is China is committing a big environmental disaster there..add to that the control China will get on most of our rivers of north India!
and here we are shamelessly looking the other side and ignoring a great country’s struggle..we deserve the worst from China and all other neighbours in future just for this betrayal..

another

interesting person!
In my list of interesting persons to meet, this one has been in the pending list for too long..various reasons, nothing that cud justify the delay..but it had to happen..and it did..last week an akasmaath (by chance) meet and then a long scheduled one followed by attending one of his talks(/presentation)..no end to my surprise..what a depth of info..what amount of data and what a collation..
all u need to do is close ur eyes: did u, now just think of anything- historic facts, old philosophies, myth, religion, famous unfounded theories, ancient sciences of Indian civilisation, veda, ayurveda, evolution, big bang ..just about anything..even the now sensitive Rama topic:-)just shoot any question that comes to your mind..ask anything that has been itching u..
now having done that, close ur eyes again..oh, not so fast, before that check where is his next talk/presentation..go there and now close ur eyes..a 1-3 hour presentation wud have encampused you and enlightened you..
the depth of his collation, the factual data is mind boggling..no religious, cultural or belief overtures..plain facts..amazing is the only word..
D.K.Hari of Bharathgyan, folks..its amazing if some one so young (hey, any one of my age is young ain't?) cud have such a biiiiig resourceful data bank..
visit his site, get an overview and attend( or even better, organise) any talk and slowly sink in..meanwhile check with me in the days to come about how u or anyone interested cud be of help in this huge project.

Budget 2008

Oh its that yearly tamasha called budget and lemme not be condemned of not participating in that, of all things, I don’t like to be accused of lacking humor..
Hey, firstly this is budget proposal..we donot know how much of it will pass thru..its a >1000 pages doc and within an hour we have so many “experts” opine on it! What more, have we ever compared the proposals of previous year and checked what happened to the various proposals..A few years back, being employed and hence with much time at my disposal, I had the gumption and patience to check a handful of promises/proposal of prev budget in the next budget..it was laughable..this reasoning by someone like me, who donot have the capacity to run even my home budget successfully for 1 week as per plan or need..and to see the multitude of experts voice so much animatedly is definetly a joke for me..accept, do u?
Except the small sops like tax cut etc esp the extension of limit for the salaried class, bcos I was there once, nothing attracts my attention..
That is till last year..Now if I were to think logically, I should say any one who earns anything more than a lakh shud better pay tax in a poor country like ours..but, a big but, if the govt really shows us the tax is being spent well.
Now there is something else I try and check..
Fertiliser Subsidy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh me god..what a farce and waste and to continue it for so long!
Last year it was 59,284 crores! Or to add to our national hobby of counting zeroes, here u go..count it yourself:
592840000000 rupees!
Who gets that? Or shud it be who enjoys that??
Not the farmers, dont kid me..its the fertilizer manufacturers who get that..for what?? For manufacturing and selling fertilizer at a lower price..
No, don’t fall laughing..there’s more..
So for a product that could cost some 10 they spike it to 100 and then ‘subsidise’ to 50 and get the other 50 from the govt! from the govt means who pays that?? You and me, sitting there happily smiling at that 4000 u benefit from that silly extension of the taxable limit..how nice, eh?
Next thing we shud know is how many of them share this?? Lets forget the politicos involved there and the fact that the ferti lobby will cry that they have not received the said amounts in last couple of years..hey that’s a free money, so who cares about the delay? A small check with our dear google will tell us how many are there.
So around 140 of them eating this big cake!
Coming back to the fertiliser subsidy its Rs.600000000000/- this year.. what a jump from a small 70 crores in 1976! A major part of this since last couple of years goes towards imported urea! Where as the best & natural source of urea, from man and other mammals, go waste. Here we have governments coming to the rescue of the fertiliser industrialists and increasing the subsidy year after yaer. The actual governance shud have been to utilize this urea available naturally which could have benefited the society with sensible sewage handling too. That’s a big topic for another day..
What instead if they stop the subsidy?? That’s showering goodness on us citizens..firstly the indirect bleed from our pocket is reduced (I say reduced bcos u will still pay for all those gimmicks like free TV, loan write offs, parliament running costs, Z+++ security, electricity stolen to enlighten all those huge posters & speaker setss all thru the etc) and the ferti industry will price it like other manufacturers.
So now the farmer will sit back and evaluate the price and if he really needs it..and then may be it may dawn on him that this input cost actually is dispensable and so may be we rid the next generations of some residue..as for now, in the immediate future we can prolly get to eat some farm products with less chemicals (ignoring the organic channel that we already have now)

or even better the govt can raise the buying price and keep the farmers happy and also count on the vote bank created thus.

more on Sujatha

its really tuff to cope..
the more i think the more heavier it is..
as for more on the views of kamal, Raa ki rangarajan, kasturirangan (of kaniyaazhi)et al..pl see here..one of my fav blog stops generally..Desikan is one of those rare guys to invoke jealousy in me bcos he was closely associated with sujatha..