The issue of the purification ritual conducted by the Guruvayur temple priests is hotting up in Kerala. See the Link here. The Guruvayur temple board seems to be going overboard on this. What right do they have to demand a certificate proving oneself to be a Hindu from someone who openly admits that he is one?It is such thinking that had put India back culturally when the West was going through the renaissance. I remember an instance narrated to me by a Kashmiri friend who told me about ...

I was looking at this particular Link which laments the fact that the christian population in Iraq has fallen by nearly 50% after Saddam's removal from power. Saddam was a tyrant but he did not trouble the christians much as they were a relatively small and more importantly 'politically silent' community The website also documents what seems to be daily occurences of atrocities agains the christians there. All of us know that it is not only the christians of Iraq who suffer there, it is...

Check out this Link Ahmadinejad says "I am against saying two children are enough. Our country has a lot of capacity . It has the capacity for many children to grow in it. It even has the capacity for 120 million people. Westerners have got problems. Because their population growth is negative they are worried and fear that if our population increases, we will triumph over them .'' And there are people in the West and also in India who believe that a nuclear Iran under this man wil...

This article Link caught my attention today morning. It spoke of a military parade where Iran showed off its range of ballistic missiles , with the rockets draped in banners vowing to "crush America" and "wipe Israel off the map". And all this with the talk of the Israelis saying that the Iranians could have at least 5 nuclear warheads by 2007. With the current Iranian decision to continue with uranium enrichment and consequent inspection delaying tactics, this could well be true. Wh...

And Death Shall Have No Dominion by: Dylan Thomas And death shall have no dominion. Dead men naked they shall be one With the man in the wind and the west moon; ...

Here in India we are riding on the high wave of the outsourcing boom. And yes, there certainly does seem to be a boom. I was in Bangalore a year back before relocating to Bombay. I used to pay Indian Rs. 7000 per month ( USD 155) for a 2 bedroom apartment and last month when I visited bangalore the rents for such an apartment was touching IR 9000 (USD 200). When I asked why, the estate agent said that a lot more people in bangalore were making more money because a lot of US( and British...

The Americans are again getting bogged down in Najaf where Moqtada Sadr's men seem to be putting up a stiff fight. We are seeing the repeat of the same story that unfolded in April/May when the Mehdi Army went on a rampage against them. Sadr and his men play it safe by hiding around the safety of Imam Ali's shrine knowing fully well that the Americans will not storm the shrine fearful of world opinion. This is where the US loses out. America must realsi that these fighters whom they fight ...

Think of Palestine and you do not conjure up images of the Holy Land, or of olive trees by shimmering brooks or even of the late Dr. Edward Said....but the images that come to our mind are that of masked men welding submachine guns and veiled women chanting 'Death to USA', 'Death to Israel'.... And this is precisely why the Palestinians will never have a state of their own. They still think that the Jewish people will somehow tire of seeing so many dead men, women and children amongst them an...