New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) Gujarat is indeed all set to paint the country "saffron", Chief Minister Narendra Modi said here but the Hindutva icon was today referring to his state taking the lead in bringing about an energy revolution.

"The milk (white) revolution began here, the green revolution was from Delhi, and now, we will trigger the energy - saffron- revolution. In this way, the tricolours of Indian flag will be in Gujarat," he said.

The Chief Minister was speaking at a seminar on ''Gujarat-- the hub of excellence for infrastructure and real estate'' organised here by Confederation of Real Estate Developers of India (CREDAI).

Modi said the government''s "modus operandi" when it came to preparing policies was to make a draft and then upload it on the website, invite inputs from industry and common man and then go ahead with a balanced view.

A leading US-based foundation has awarded Gujarat the world''s largest solar plant and 34 solar projects are in the pipeline. The state also houses India''s first tidal energy project and the largest wind energy farm, he pointed out.

Link

The ruling comrades in Bengal are trying to win back Muslim support by organising seminars in the capital, but the CPM-led regime hasn’t shown the same enthusiasm in implementing welfare schemes for minorities in the state.


Bengal has been listed as one of the worst performers in executing poverty alleviation schemes for the minorities under the Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgaar Yojana. The figures have emerged barely months before next year’s Assembly polls and at a time the state’s Left government has been trying desperately to win back Muslim support after a series of electoral reverses.


The recent seminars in Delhi — one for the “intelligentsia” and the other for migrant workers — were part of these efforts and were aimed at spreading the message that no one has cared for the minorities like the Left.


According to the data collected, Bengal, whose 27 per cent minority population is one of the highest in the country, has given assistance to only 11 persons from the minority community to set up micro enterprises against a target of 153.


The state has the lowest ranking in this category, while Andhra Pradesh(Congress), Bihar(BJP-JDU), Madhya Pradesh(BJP), Maharashtra(NCP-Congress) and Orissa(BJD) have exceeded the targets they had been set. The best performer has been Gujarat(BJP).


In skill training, Bengal has been able to help only 40 persons against a target of 1,224, while neighbour Bihar(BJP-JDU) has far exceeded its target.

Link

''If Modi can become the second Gujarati to have his picture on rupee, he will consider his life well spent.''



The unnamed young students of Ahmedabad who had a question or two for Rahul Gandhi this week were pertinent, not pert. They also provided more evidence that students are doing the job that journalists either cannot, or will not, do; which is, ask relevant questions. In this case, media was prevented from reporting the event, so journalists can’t be faulted, and we know what happened thanks only to an enterprising reporter from the ‘Times of India’ who had a source inside the hall.



The essence was simple and the same: students wanted to know why they should vote for the Congress when Narendra Modi had developed Gujarat so much. One answer given by Rahul Gandhi was odd, to say the very least. Mao Zedong, said Rahul Gandhi, also developed China but “he caused destruction to the country, too”. I am not too sure whether Narendra Modi would mind being compared to one of the great figures of the 20th century, warts and all. Rahul Gandhi probably gets his views on history from some briefing by a young and fresh associate, but he could have checked with the Chinese.



They have moved on from Mao, just as India and the Congress have moved on from Mahatma Gandhi, but China still reveres the leader of the Long March as the leader who laid the foundations of China’s economic miracle. Mao’s portrait dominates Tienmien Square as well as the nation’s banknotes. If Modi can become the second Gujarati to have his picture on the Indian rupee, he will consider his life well spent. Chairman Modi has quite a nice ring to it as well, although Modi would be going too far if he published a little red book packed with his quotable quotes and asked millions of young people to wave it in unison during a cultural revolution.


A young girl was sharper in her question. She asked which Congress leaders could measure up to Modi on the development matrix. Rahul Gandhi had four names on the tip of his tongue: Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh and A K Antony. It is interesting that three of the four did not contest the Lok Sabha elections, and the voters in Chidambaram’s own constituency had such a poor view of his development capabilities that he was declared defeated before he was declared elected in the 2009 general elections. It would be interesting if Jairam Ramesh could find a constituency from where he could get elected on a development platform, but his ministry does take its priority cues from Rahul Gandhi’s travel plans.



The Ahmedabad students did not get into a critique of the heir’s remarks, but they did press on about Modi. Why was Rahul denying Modi credit for Gujarat’s development? He had caused ‘some issues’ replied Rahul Gandhi. Did he mean riots? At this point the story takes a curious turn. This was where Rahul Gandhi could have departed from fudge and become forthright. Instead, says the report, “the Congress leader refused to engage further and walked out saying he was getting late”. Perhaps he was only getting restive.



Rahul Gandhi had found out what Barack Obama discovered when he met Mumbai students at St Xavier’s College. It is easier to field questions from journalists than students. But that does not explain why he was evasive at the end. The students were more specific and forthright than him. It must be a recurrence of the old Congress disease, trying to play both sides against the middle.


Those who take the young for granted do not understand the young. They like cosmetics, but they never confuse make-up with the face.



Link

After rising prices of Onion left the govt red faced a steep increase in the price of Tomatoes is sure to increase troubles for the govt. However the govt is trying to downplay the incident and blame the increased cost on the opposition and right wing Hindu organisations. The govt is of the view that rising price of tomato is a new form of saffron terror as the tomato is "saffron" in colour. While people argued that tomato is mostly red in colour and "saffron tomatoes" didnt exist Congress leader Digvijay singh said that he had "proof" about the existence of saffron tomatoes and there is no need for him to lie.


A secret cable accessed by Wikileaks suggest that Rahul Gandhi had told US ambassador that saffron tomatoes were a bigger threat to nation than cross-border terrorism or corruption. He pointed that the tomatoes were a ploy by opposition and right wing Hindu extremist groups to destabilize the economy of the country. He said if given a chance he can bring the prices of tomatoes down in 15 minutes by painting them green and thus foiling opposition's plans. He also urged the youth of the country to take to farming and grow tomatoes so that extremist organisations does not suceed in their plans.


Congress president Sonia gandhi suggested to introduce 25% subsidy in the price of tomatoes for muslims while Mulayam singh yadav and Lalu yadav reacted sharply saying such a move would never be allowed unless separate provisions are made for SC's and OBC's.


Meanwhile BJP the princple opposition party isnt amused by all the hype. The party insist that it has no hand in the increase in price of tomatoes and the govt is trying to play politics over a serious issue. BJP demanded resignation of the PM and said it would take to streets incase the PM fail to do so. A mass rally of BJP is expected in capital on Sunday.



Disclaimer- This post is a work of fiction. There is no intention to hurt feelings of any person or group.

The below post is taken from HERE.

A tweet from @sureshnakhua was twisted according to “Times Now” ‘s whims and fancy and aired to substantiate their stand on their show “News hour Debate”.

Similar incident of flashing tweets from non-existent twitter accounts to substantiate the “news channel’s viewpoint” occured on CNN IBN’s “India at 9″ show,on December 16th 2010. You can check details of that incident HERE.






On October 18th, 2010 a user named Suresh Nakhua tweeted to Times Now-









Suresh’s letter proving the TIMES NOW’s claims wrong:

Many may not know but Wikileaks is facing resistance from all quarters under political pressure. Mastercard, Visa and Paypal have closed Wikileaks' account and thus stopped the flow of donations from people to Wikileaks. Many banks have frozen their accounts. The website is being blocked in various countries and made target by various hacker groups. Most companies arent ready to provide hosting or domain to the website and Wikileaks articles are being taken off from many websites.


When governments are showing their political might and indulging in cyber warfare and blocking Wikileaks and its accounts isnt it time that the actual users of Internet raise protest against it?


Having seen the real face of Media in our own country (India) IT IS TIME to support an organisation like Wikileaks.


A message from the Wikileaks petition

The vicious intimidation campaign against WikiLeaks is a dangerous attack on freedom of expression and the press. Top US politicians have branded WikiLeaks a terrorist organization, and urged corporations to shut it down. Commentators have even suggested assassinating its staff.

Whatever we think of WikiLeaks, legal experts say it has likely broken no laws, and the group works with leading newspapers (NYT, Guardian, Spiegel) to carefully vet what it publishes - so far less than 1% of the cables leaked to it.

We urgently need a massive public outcry to defend our basic democratic freedoms. Sign the petition to stop the crackdown -- let's reach 1 million voices this week!

300,000 reached in first 24 hours! More than 355,000 have signed the petition.

Pandharpur (Maharashtra), Nov 17 (IANS) In a gesture of brotherhood with fellow Hindus, Muslims here deferred the traditional goat sacrifice on Eid-ul-Azha as the Hindu festival of Kartiki Ekadashi also fall Wednesday.

The Muslims of Pandharpur in Solapur district postponed the goat sacrifice till Friday at the behest of their community elders.

Nearly half a million pilgrims from all over Maharashtra and other parts of the country have converged in Pandharpur for Kartiki Ekadashi. Muslim community elders said they did not want to hurt the religious sentiments of Hindu pilgrims during the festival.

LINK

If you had not heard of Narayanan Krishnan, as I had not, it is a collective failure. This is one of the most incredible stories of personal commitment.


Narayanan Krishnan, all of 29 years old now, does what he was professionally trained to do as a chef. Feed people. Only Krishnan does not do this in the swanky confines of a 5-star hotel. Every day, he wakes up at 4 am, cooks a simple hot meal and then, along with his team, loads it in a van and travels about 200 km feeding the homeless in Madurai, Tamil Nadu.


Krishnan feeds, often with his hands, almost 400 destitute people every day. And for those who need it, he provides a free haircut too.


According to CNN, eight years ago, this award-winning chef with a five-star hotel chain was all set to go to Switzerland for a high-profile posting. On a visit to a Madurai temple, he came across a homeless, old man eating his own human waste. That stark sight changed Krishnan's life.


Much to the dismay of his parents, CNN says, Krishnan abandoned his career plans and decided to spend his life and his professional training in looking after those who could not care for themselves. He has provided more than 1.2 million hot meals through his nonprofit organisation Akshaya Trust, and now hopes to extend this to shelter for the homeless too.


Krishnan is the only Indian in a list of 10 heroes that CNN has picked worldwide to honour. One of them will be chosen CNN Hero of the Year, selected by the public through an online poll. If many Indians get together to vote for this inspiring man, he can win by a long mile.


If Krishnan wins he will get $100,000 in addition to the $25,000 that he gets for being shortlisted for the Top 10. Akshaya Trust needs all the monetary support it can get to build on Krishnan's dream. Let's help him get there.

A very good article by another blogger which highlights how Indian media thinks it is above the law and nation and how it has the exclusive right to judge what is correct and what is wrong. Contains exact quotes from some shameless reporters and how their irresponsible and TRP hungry acts have put the nation in danger or have caused embarrassment to people.


READ HERE

New Delhi: The Opposition has cornered the Congress-led UPA Government on not one but three scams, including the controversy over the allocation of 2G spectrum. A CAG report accessed by CNN-IBN clearly indicts Telecom Minister A Raja.

The CAG report on the 2G spectrum scandal has clearly indicted Raja as well as the telecom regulator TRAI. The report says Raja ignored the advice of the Finance Ministry, the Law Ministry and the Telecom Commission while allocating the spectrum, which was done in an arbitrary manner without giving any logic or reasons.

The report states that the eligibility criteria were changes to suit a few operators. The loss to the exchequer is between Rs 90,000 to Rs 1,40,000 crore.

The CAG report also slams TRAI for being a 'helpless spectator'. It also indicts the Department of Telecom for flouting eligibility guidelines and says of the 122 licences issued, 85 were illegal.

The DoT, the report says, sold off precious natural assets cheaply.

"Action has been initiated against the lieutenants of corruption but the raja of corruption has escaped. The Congress has disassociated itself and made a statement that the enquiry against Raja is the prerogative of the Prime Minister. So the onus is on the Prime Minister," says AIADMK leader Dr V Maitreyan.

"The matter of A Raja has been in focus for many months now and matter is now sub judice and is pending in the court. So until the court takes a view on the matter, it will be difficult for us to comment or take any action," says Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan.

The AIADMK is planning to disrupt Parliament over the Raja issue by putting the heat on the Congress. With the exit of Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan over a scam that runs into a few crores, the Congress will be hard pressed to explain why it cannot take action in a scam that is worth at least Rs 1,40,000 crore. The fig leaf of coalition compulsions is something the UPA can no longer hide behind.

LINK

The style of functioning and political leanings of the two young Gandhi cousins may be different but their concern for the Dalits is the same. While one shows concern for this section of society in full media glare, (And still does nothing-

Read-

1.) When Rahul gandhi met Kalavati

2.) Yahan koi Rahul gandhi nahi rehta!!

3.) Gandhi villagers complain of 'betrayal'


the other expresses his sympathies and offers a helping hand in his own way, sans publicity. In one such gesture, the saffron Gandhi -- BJP national secretary Varun Gandhi -- sent drafts of one lakh rupees each to the families of the two Dalit girls who committed suicide after being gang-raped.


The BJP Member of Parliament from Pilibhit recently visited the families of the two Dalit girls who were raped and subsequently committed suicide as they could net bear the trauma. While 15-year-old Vandana, daughter of Ashok Diwakar, committed suicide at Ramabai Nagar in Ghatampur, 20-year-old Kavita Rawat, daughter of Kiran Rawat of Shukla Ganj in Unnao, who also ended her life after being gang-raped.


Varun visited the families of both Dalit girls and mounted pressure on police to nab the rapist who were absconding because of laxity of the local police.


According to BJP's state media in-charge Narendra Singh Rana, Varun Gandhi handed over the drafts to former MP Shyam Bihari Mishra and former Legilsative Council Chairman Manvendra Singh to delive them to the families of the victims.


It may be recalled that some time back, Varun had visited some ailing old timers of the BJP and had promised monetary help to them for better treatment. The BJP national secretary had assigned this task to BJP state secretary Ashutosh Tandon Gopalji, who handed over the drafts to the ailing BJP old timers on Varun's behalf.


LINK

What was mentioned in the blog earlier "In coalition era, has CBI become govt's best ally?" has now been accepted by Supreme court. The UPA government is using CBI as a tool to control its allies.

Read-

CBI slammed by Supreme Court over alleged 2G scam

Many times people may have come across situations where they saw something wrong happening but couldn't do anything because the enemy was too strong or had better weapons. But the incident mentioned below shows that sometimes its intent and inner strength what matters instead of power or weapons. Hats off to Salim Ahmed because what he did many others wouldn't have done!




Rs 25k reward for rickshawpuller

AHMEDABAD: Rahul Gandhi's comment equating the "fanatical" RSS with SIMI, have met strong reactions, significantly, from Muslims supporting the RSS. Rashtrawadi Muslim Manch, which was formed by the RSS in 2002 to include members from the minority community to its fold, has stated in a media brief that Congress leaders have this tendency to propagate falsehood before elections in order to appease Muslims to strengthen its vote bank.


"As elections for Bihar assembly and civic polls in Gujarat are to take place, Gandhi has equated RSS with SIMI to mislead Muslim community. But Muslims have realised these tactics adopted by the Congress," said the Manch's regional coordinator Yasin Ajmerwala.


The Manch has sought an apology from Gandhi.


Times of India link

Sure, the rise of social networking has been good for a lot of people -- in fact, social media can even promote good health. But lately I've been able to identify some new emotional and psychological conditions that can be tied directly to my usage of social media over the past few years:



1) Unrequited Twitter Love (or UTL): The emotional state created by writing a really good Tweet or Facebook status update, but then having it crushed when nobody responds, "likes", replies or retweets your brilliant update. The UTL state is like waiting by the phone on a Friday night hoping that your boyfriend or girlfriend will call you -- but instead you're staring at Tweetdeck, wailing, "Why hasn't anyone retweeted me?" This can only be cured by the opposite of UTL -- the Sally Field-like Twitter Love (or SFTL) state -- "I've been re-tweeted! They like me! They really like me!" Related terms: Twitter Crickets, TwitsEnd, The Agony of Detweet. (thanks to @SteveBrownNI, @DDubie and @CMajor for suggested terms!)



2) Obsessive/Compulsive News Feed Checking: The need to constantly be checking your news feed or Twitter stream to see what everyone else is doing or saying, alongside the need to scroll up or down to the last point in time when you last checked the news feed, to make sure you didn't miss something important. Related condition: The guilt you feel when the cursor has reached the bottom on your TweetDeck app, and you scroll over all of the unread Tweets to get to the latest items.




3) Mayor-hogging: The need to constantly check-in via Foursquare, Gowalla, and/or Facebook Places, not because you want to tell friends where you are, but to protect your mayorship from anyone else who might be gunning for you. Also related to mayor-gunning, the attempt by non-mayors to try and steal such mayorships away from existing mayors. This is followed by depression when you realize you're never going to become mayor of your workplace or coffee shop because you keep forgetting to check in as much as the mayor does.



4) Commentitis: The condition in which you feel obligated to add meaningless comments on status updates, tweets or blog posts (such as "I agree!" or "I LOVE GLEE!!!!!!", just to show the other person that you're either paying attention to them, or that you're looking for attention for yourself. Typical sufferers are teen-aged, but we've seen cases from people who should know better. Can quickly devolve into the stalking-like state of commenting on almost every post that someone does. The worst commentitis sufferers make comments on celebrity or non-human corporate Facebook status updates.



5) Twambivalence (thanks to @Tim_Greene!): The emotional state you feel when you're reading someone's status update or Tweet, and you just don't care enough to like, respond or otherwise register any feeling. Can also be associated with anger, in which you think, "Why on earth should I care that so-and-so has a sunburn?" Hardcore cases of Twambivalence result in sufferers joining groups that state "I WILL DELETE ALL OF YOUR FARMVILLE REQUESTS", informing friends and followers that you have no time in your important life to sit through and suffer through everyone else's updates. Of course, lots of people suffering Twambivalence at the same time can create some Unrequited Twitter Love for their friends and followers.



Taken from PC World

Sep 14 (IANS) Six drunken young men vandalised a Hindu temple in Gosaildanga here, provoking protests by the minority community, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

The incident occurred Saturday when the majority Muslims were observing Eid-ul-Fitr, which coincided with the Ganesh festival celebrated by the Hindus.

Led by Mohammed Masud, resident of the neighbouring Muslim-majority area, the youths stormed into the temple in the port city Saturday night. They smashed several idols, including those of Lord Narayana, and broke utensils there.

Thousands of Hindus of the area took out a procession demanding arrest of those responsible for the vandalism, the New Age newspaper said.

Mihir Das, joint general secretary of Gosaildanga Shwashan Kalibari Temple Committee, told online newspaper bdnews24.com: 'Five to six drunken youths led by gangster Masud of the neighbouring area vandalised the temple.'

Bandar police station officer-in-charge Rejaul Karim and local ward councillor Jahangir Alam Chowdhury rushed to the spot.

Hindus constitute less than ten percent of Bangladesh's predominantly Muslim population of 156 million.

Article link

An American Congressman has slammed the alleged ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan and said that Hindus have been discriminated much more than any other ethnic group in these countries.


Speaking at the Capitol Hill reception hosted by the Hindu American Foundation, California Republican Ed Royce said he had nothing but "feelings of humility and empathy for a people who have been subjected to -- despite the tolerance of their own religion and despite the way in which Hindus have treated and accepted others -- more discrimination than just about any other ethnic group." The influential lawmaker, who was presented with HAF's Friend of the Community Award for his campaign against discrimination and human rights violations of Hindus in Bangladesh, said that "as someone who has been to Bangladesh, Pakistan, to Central Asia, to South Asia and talked with many of the victims," he deplored the kind of human rights abuse they had undergone in these countries.


"There are two million Hindu Americans here in the United States, and many of them have shared their own stories with their neighbours and us in the United States," he said, and noted, "So we have some inkling of what they went through." Royce said one could just fathom the level of ethnic cleansing that had taken place in Pakistan when one considers "the fact that Pakistan was once 25 per cent Hindu." "To think about the loss of life that has occurred and to think about the ethnic cleansing that still goes on," he said was a tragedy of enormous proportions, and added, "To think about the use of intimidation against Hindu women used and still used in those societies where there is a small minority yet of Hindus in Pakistan." Royce said the same kind of blatant human rights against Hindus were occurring in Bangladesh and Bhutan and spoke of his familiarity "of what the Bangladeshi Hindu population has been through." "It cries out for the international community to step in," he said.


"I can share with you that I've made many trips to India, but I've also in these trips gone to Bangladesh and Pakistan and raised these human rights issues with those governments because it is unacceptable -- it's absolutely unacceptable -- the inhumane, intolerant way in which Hindus are treated when they are a minority in these countries in South Asia." Royce lauded the HAF to "trying to galvanise here in the United States, not only the rights of Hindus here in the United States, but also equally importantly, the safety, the security of Hindus throughout South Asia in the face of the kind of intolerance that we see being advanced through Islamist extremism." "And, my fervent hope is that we can learn from the lesson of what has befallen other victims and begin to take the action necessary to cut off the support for the Deobandi schools, for the madrassas, which are turning out the next generation of those who are going to teach hate." Royce said it was also imperative that "we've all got to pressure the government of Pakistan to put an end to those textbooks which teach the concept that hatred should be visited upon the Hindu minority or spread the message that only one religion should be practiced in that country." "And, it's also my hope going forward that we can further our humanitarian efforts to assist those victims of the type of ethnic cleansing that is going on today," he said.


Article link

Few days ago I was browsing the net and came across the headline from the ToI's link-


" If Hindu temple okay at ground zero, why not mosque: Obama"


Naturally I was angry as to why would Obama mention the temple when majority of USA's population is Christian and Hindus were nowhere related to the incident. But since we all know how media tries to sensationalise news I read the whole article. Just read it and find out yourself what Obama said and what ToI actually wrote!

WASHINGTON: On the eve of the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, President Barack Obama on Friday strongly defended the building of a mosque near Ground Zero, saying that if one can build a Hindu temple then why not a mosque.

"With respect to the mosque in New York, I've been pretty clear on my position here," Obama said when asked about the controversy surrounding the construction of a mosque near the Ground Zero in the New York city.

He said the US believes in the inalienable right to allow its citizens to practice their religion freely.

"This country stands for the proposition that all men and women are created equal, that they have certain inalienable rights; one of those inalienable rights is to practice their religion freely," he argued ahead of the ninth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks that killed nearly 300 people.

"And what that means is that if you could build a church on a site, you could build a synagogue on a site, if you could build a Hindu temple on a site, then you should be able to build a mosque on the site," Obama said.

Now Its upto people themselves whether they should still believe the money minded TRP hungry media or decide themselves what is right and what is wrong!



Full Article

Yes you saw it right! It is indeed The Donkey who carried heavy load on his back and contributed immensely in building Chandigarh. Below is an Excerpt from ToI article-

CHANDIGARH: Le Corbusier might have dedicated Sukhna Lake and the Open Hand monument to the citizens of Chandigarh but a similar wish to pay homage to an unlikely figure — the donkey — may have died with him due to the master architect's sudden demise.

"He was so fascinated by donkeys, pressed into action while the city was being built, that he often compared himself to their lot. This was the period when he was extremely busy. He completely shunned social gatherings during his stay here," recalls MN Sharma, first Indian chief architect of Chandigarh and a close aide of Corbusier.

Sharma is, at present, penning his memoirs for the Le Corbusier Foundation. Sharma plans to name his book 'Making of Chandigarh: Le Corbusier and After.'

"At that time, it seemed he would someday build a statue of a donkey at an appropriate place in the city to pay homage to the creature that worked hard in the making of Chandigarh," Sharma told TOI.

Full Article

A heartening photo amidst news of all cases of communal clashes and Religious intolerance.

About 18 months ago, the then UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband accompanied India's star politician Rahul Gandhi on a visit to the remote village of Semra in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

The village is in the heart of Mr Gandhi's Amethi parliamentary constituency and the arrival of the two dignitaries - officially to see rural India in action - was met with much optimism among the villagers.

Mr Miliband even went so far as to spend the night in a small brick hut with only a simple bed and the braying of cattle outside for company.

Now embittered villagers say the arrival of the two men did little to alleviate their poverty and that promises by Mr Gandhi to help them out have not been fulfilled.

'No guaranteed employment'

Shiv Kumari, the poverty-stricken widow who provided accommodation for Mr Miliband in the ramshackle thatched hut - her only asset where she lives with her five little children - says that she feels let down.

While Mr Miliband to her remains just another "gora saheb" (white man), she says that she had many hopes from Mr Gandhi, who promised her a "pukka" house and a job that would enable her to make ends meet.

"Alas, all that I have received after his visit were four brick walls, without doors, windows or even a roof," she said.

"Rahul Gandhi also promised to get me inducted as a mate [supervisor] under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS)."

But she says the only work she has got so far under NREGS was over a period of 12 days and another time for a period of 15 days.

"I am barely able to make 45 to 50 rupees after a day's work in privately-owned fields and that employment is not guaranteed seven days of the week," the 25-year-old widow said.

"There are days when our family of six has to remain content with three rotis [unleavened flat bread] because we have no other option."

Mr Gandhi is a regular visitor to his Amethi constituency, recently showing Microsoft chairman Bill Gates around the area.

But Ms Kumari says she can get close enough to persuade him to carry out his pledge.

Full Article-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10551568#

The following post is taken from Dusht-ka-Drishtikone. To read other posts like this visit http://dusht-ka-drishtikone.blogspot.com/




My name is Chumbhi Kumdaar, and I live in Delhi. I am unique. I say this because of what I feel and do in Delhi traffic. Delhi traffic makes me sick. It disgusts me even when I am not in it. I don't want to go anywhere now!


What if there is traffic on the way?

I have become abusive... people don't drive properly... they have no road sense... in fact, they have no sense at all. I hate them.

Here's how I tackle 'em when something goes wrong (read: when they are at fault... I am never wrong you see):


1. Pedestrians - I stare them like I'm the king and they are my slaves. At times, I steer the car toward them. Truly, I dont care if I frighten them. They dont have any right to be on the road. They are just meant to be scared. Damn, now I remember, they don't even pay road taxes.


2. Cyclists - I have a standard one-liner for them, "Saale andhe... yahi marna hai tujhe?" What good is a cyclist's life? Bloody hundreds of them do a tour-de-France from Khanpur to Okhla and keep increasing the level of frustration they cause every day.


3. Motorcyclist

• (weaker than me) - "Dhang se chala le" - with full confidence and self-strength belief. These skinny motorcyclists are just too easy to handle. They roam around without helmet, licence, RC, Pollution... and without any respect for red lights. They don't deserve any respect.
• (stronger than me... like huge build and broad shoulders) - I just stare. I know it's usual for glitches to happen in heavy traffic. I am a nice person and I don't enjoy staring or figthing others.

4. Carwalla

• (weaker than me) - "Abbey o" should do the trick. If the person did not hear me, I could manoeuvre my car in his way... at certain angles... that tell him I am upset with his misdemeanor.
• (stronger than me) - A polite stare is what I manage. I wish I could do more.... but, you see, the world needs peace.
• (more than two men) - I don't even look at them. They didn't do anything wrong. They are good people.

5. Ladies + any vehicle - "Kyon chalati hai gaadi yeh auratein", is what I think... the typical male that I am. Why are they driving, will someone tell me?


6. Kids - I ask, "Kis bevakoof ne inn ko sadak pe faink diya hai". Ahhh! I don't want anything to do with an accident involving kids who could see but acted blind while checking out the tyres of a car (when they were moving of course).


So, that's my thought process... and that's why I am unique!

This post has been published by me as a team member of Indiana Legends for the SUPER 3 round of Bloggers Premier League (BPL) – The first ever unique, elite team blogging event of blog world. To catch the BPL action and also be part of future editions and other contests, visit and register at Cafe GingerChai.




Raavan is probably the most hyped DUD of this year just like Messi or Ronaldo were in the world cup! I specifically chose this movie for this post because in recent times I haven't seen any other movie which had so much potential and still fell flat on its face or shall I say (10)faces! I went to the theatre with much expectations and the first 5 minutes gave false hope of it coming true. But 45 minutes into the movie when you start looking at your watch you know something went wrong somewhere.



Almost everyone had high expectations from the movie and the stunning trailers raised the bar even higher. But how many times has it happened that the scene in trailers are the only ones to look out for in the movie! Credit should be given to people who made the trailers, stills and posters for the movie because they all look so extra ordinary while the movie itself is quite ordinary.


Raavan is one of those movies where everything could have gone right. One of the best directors, arguably the best music director, nice concept, a grand epic to base it upon, breathtaking locations, powerful star cast and what not. But this is 1 of the few projects where everything went wrong. Its like someone gave a challenge to the makers that " I will give you the best of resources and lets see how you can make a flop out of that!". Sadly it seems the makers accepted the challenge and won it quite convincingly because in the movie direction is poor, music is average, acting is ordinary and it would be a shame to call it an adaptation of Ramayana. It seems like some elements of the epic were desperately inserted into the movie to get some free publicity by promoting it as a modern adaptation of Ramayana. One may argue that it is indeed an adaptation of Ramayana as Raghini (Aishwarya Rai) is kidnapped by Beera (Abhishek Bachchan) and Dev (Vikram) comes to rescue her just like it happened in the epic. Well if a villain kidnapping Hero's wife and hero coming to save her is an adaptation of Ramayana then half of bollywood movies can be said to be adaptations of the epic!


Thankfully all is not bad for the movie. The viewers are in for a visual treat that they rarely see in bollywood movies. Cinematography is top notch, the locations are breathtaking and you have to give it to the cast and crew for filming almost 90% of the film drenched in water. In fact the true worth of this movie can be realised if there is no audio and people just watch the visuals on screen or if it is watched by people who don't understand the language and thus can enjoy the visuals without worrying too much about the story!


The 1st half of the movie is dull and slow. The kidnapping scene raises hope of interesting screenplay ahead but unfortunately the pace of story drops drastically after that. Also character development of various important people in the movie is poor. Things get interesting in the 2nd half though but overall it fails to keep the viewer interested. The story unfolds at such a pace that you don't want to know what will happen next, you just want it to get over. During intermission I was wondering if it was only me who didn't like the movie till I saw one person sitting few seats beside me sleeping peacefully!


Acting specially of the lead cast is ordinary. Abhishek bachchan fails to leave an impact on the viewers. He is given the same license to ham as Shah Rukh was given in 'Raam Jaane'. He seems more like a person with a serious anger management issue and a psychological disorder rather than a nemesis who has the wit and the gut to challenge the hero in something more creative than kidnapping his wife. His actions seem to be forced and overdone and someone was right when he said that it looks like he can't take even 1 head forget about 10! Aishwarya's acting skills are not worth talking but I am sure she could get an Oscar if they include a category "Who can scream the loudest" or "Who can break a glass with just her voice".


Of the remaining cast Vikram does a pretty OK job considering his character is poorly developed and have nothing much to do in the movie. Govinda who could have been a show stopper here shockingly doesn't even have a role to talk about. His entry scene and specially the lines he say at start to Vikram may give viewers goosebumps and raises expectation sky high. But apart from that Govinda doesn't have any significant scene in the movie! Mani Ratnam should really explain to people why he wrote such a poor character for someone who was supposed to play "Hanuman" in the adaptation. Only 2 actors that pulled it off were Ravi kishan and Priyamani. Ravi kishan played his part effortlessly and Priyamani gave one of the strongest performances in just 10 minutes of screen time. Her monologue where she describes the events in jail have made bollywood directors sit up and take notice.


Music surprisingly is strictly average. You don't expect that from a music director of A.R. Rehman's calibre. There are 1-2 songs which can be hummed for a while but nothing like Rehman's earlier works like Taal, Swades or Guru. Also the background music is not convincing. A jungle except for looking should also sound like a jungle. But during the whole movie voice of an animal is not heard even once! Maybe the director also wanted to highlight the serious problem of species getting extinct!



Finally to consider the movie a modern adaptation of Ramayana is just nonsense. What sort of adaption is it where "Ram" is not good, "Raavan" is not bad, "Shrupnakha" is the victim!, "Lakshman" is the culprit and "Hanuman" doesn't have any significance. The main plot is completely different while unimportant stuff is added to movie to portray it as an adaptation. Whether its Raghini being kept for 14 days or Jamuniya (Priyamani) being dragged by nose to the police station. When you resort to such tactics it implies that the director himself isn't sure about the movie.


To conclude Mani ratnam totally messed it up this time. If you missed this one you haven't missed much. To be fair to Mani Ratnam he admitted that during the making he was "lost as a director" . People thought he was joking until they saw the movie.


Rating- 4/10



PS: It seems that the people associated with the project were too influenced by the epic that after the movie a different sort of Ramayana took place! Here Mani Ratnam was Raavan (the evil character), Abhishek was Ram and Amitabh played Hanuman who stood behind Ram with all his might to prove Raavan wrong so that no finger is pointed at Ram! But this was 1 battle where audience decided who was right and who was wrong and no prizes for guessing what they chose!

Mumbai: Many villages in Bihar has literally lifted out of darkness with an uninterrupted, self-sufficient power supply, thanks to Gyanesh Pandey, the promoter of Husk Power Systems that transforms piles of discarded rice husk to light up the villages, reports Manu A B from Rediff Business. Now, around 50,000 villagers in 120 villages across Bihar and 3 villages in Uttar Pradesh have been benefited by these 'green' power plants.


After resigning his job in U.S., Gyanesh returned to his native home state in 2007 and he teamed up with his friends Ratnesh Yadav, Manoj Sinha and Charles W Ransler to set up Husk Power Systems. Their idea was to provide power to villagers who depended on agriculture as their main occupation in a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly manner. After research and experiments, the team decided that the most feasible way would be making electricity from rice husk. Today HPS owns and operates 40 mini-power plants (35-100 kw) across Bihar. Through this unique green technology, villages get uninterrupted power for up to 6-12 hours by setting up a plant, which burns rice husk to generate gas to run generators.


For villagers, this cheap and eco-friendly model of generating electricity is a miracle that has transformed their lives. "After 60 years of independence, we got the real azadi (freedom) now," Rambalak Yadav, an excited school teacher from Tamkuha, said.


"Becoming an entrepreneur was an evolutionary process. I had a good life in America. I did not face any problems there, but I always had the feeling that I must do something for our villages. I do not feel I have made any sacrifice. Today, there is hardly anything I do other than work. It gives me the satisfaction no job can ever give," says Gyanesh, who feels India's acute power crisis must be solved efficiently with renewable resources.


The company is set to make profits by the end of this year and plans to light up villages in other states like Maharastra, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.


Providing electricity to villages across India is just the beginning of Gyanesh's ambitious plan to transform rural India. The company has already taken up the initiative to educate 200 children from Tumkuha.



Link

See the below video to find out what YOU, ME and the COMMON MAN can do for the enivronment. Very simple, very powerful and very Inspirational. Must see!