About Me

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I feel like I can't always tell people how I feel, what's on my mind. So that's what this is for. It is all honest, all truth, how I really feel. There are no lies here. I feel lost when it comes to things, and it helps to write them down. And honestly, nothing on here is a secret. I've got nothing to hide. I have a secret (now not so secret) fear of ghost's. My favorite color is red. I can be very random at times, but most of the time I am pretty serious. Autumn is my favorite time of the year. The holidays are best when spent with friends. I am not a huge reader, but when I do sit down with a book, it really needs to keep me interested. I love food, and when I say that I mean it. I speak hindi,desi(u.p.) and english, although I am a bit self-conscious of it. I also hate listening to people eat. I am addicted to tea... I am sure there is a lot more you'd like to know, but honestly, I can't give you a life history. If you want to know, just ask!........

Sunday, March 28, 2010

100 % Literacy in India: Not More Than A Dream.................


With Development economics becoming a very important part of study, we have reasons to value many things other than wealth and income which relate to real opportunities to lead the kind of life we would value living. According to Amartya Sen, ‘capability’ refers to the range of options a person has to choose from in deciding the kind of life he values living. Hence, poverty is essentially a situation of capability deprivation and not just the impoverished state a person is living in. It has been emphasized that education and health are two important tools to achieve the target of a developed society. Unfortunately, where the importance laid upon elementary education and health facilities has been increasing in the contemporary world, it has been neglected in India. Maximum illiteracy seems to be in the Sub Sahara African and Asian countries. Even in western ‘market’ economies of USA and Germany, about ½ to ¾ Government expenditure is on health and education. On the contrary, the expenditure on the same in India has been declining over the years.



India fails to recognize and learn about the benefits of education with so many countries playing as important lessons. Countries like China, were able to capture mass markets by just imparting basic education and technical skills. Undoubtedly, involving the mass in economic growth by just manufacturing plastic toys is better than producing highly skilled software but not having able to involve the mass. The goalpost of free and compulsory education to all till the age of 14 has been shifting since 1960. Various policies were adapted to reach the goal, but they all failed to provide the effective path that is required to achieve the goal, and still today India is far from achieving this target. Its commonly heard during every poll that youth are the future, they should be empowered etc yet the Indian government. has failed to show any considerable improvement in the child literacy rates.



Something more important is that India in itself has contrasting states. While Kerala (90%), Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh have been able to do extremely well on literacy indicators, states of Bihar (47%), Uttar Pradesh have done equally poor. Himachal Pradesh saw a schooling revolution on the twin principles of state action and public initiative. The reasons why literacy rates are so poor include the dismal state of the school building, poor teaching aids, demotivated teachers, reluctant parents, and scared children. The rate of torture in the schools is so high that it acts as a detrimental force towards the child attending schools. Even school enrolment does not necessarily translate into school attendance. There is lack of accountability a teacher faces, hence enjoying a soft constraint. There are incentives for inefficiency, as rewards are not result based but based upon the experience.



The importance of education is not hidden. An educated person is better equipped to participate in the modern economy and society. He can overcome the vulnerability and marginalization in modern society and makes the citizen more aware of his rights and duties. Even female education is very important. In a patriarchal society as ours, female education has been neglected for ages. However, the female population of southern states has benefitted from its sisters in the north because of the matriarchal values their culture inherits. Even in Himachal Pradesh, women are given a more liberal status, and girl education is regarded as quite important.



There are two myths relating to education. Firstly that the parents have little interest in education and secondly child labour reduces school enrolment. However studies such as the PROBE survey shows that even amongst the deprived section of the society, the willingness to send their children to school is as high as 98% for boys and 89% for girls. However, this interest has not translated into practical efforts due to various reasons such as lack of opportunities, and various social constraints such as caste barriers. As for second, the result turns out to quite contrary to the presumption. As D.P. Chaudhry calls it, most of the children are ‘nowhere children’ because they don’t attend schools and neither do they work. Instead, It is because of lack of schooling opportunities that children decide to work. If provided proper opportunities, the children would prefer to study.



India seems to be getting caught in a circle, where unaffordability of private schools leaves no option but that of government schools where poor quality of education prevails. As a result, there is a low economic return which in turn fosters low motivation to study. It is important the government learns from its own experiences and improves the literacy scene in India. It can be called the need of the hour as it is important that the country grows and develops by involving the mass.

Education and Rural Women

India dreams of becoming a superpower by 2020, but quite ironical is the fact that the country whose population has crossed one billion mark, has literacy rates quite comparable with the underdeveloped countries (and in some cases even less than these countries). The literacy rates for male and female (according to 2001 census) stands at 75.85 percent and 54.16 percent respectively. Various programs initiated by the state like Total Literacy Campaign, the District Primary Education Program and National Program of Nutritional Support to Primary Education have done little to attain the goal. Further, the gap between the rural and urban areas and that between female and their male counterpart is quite substantial.



While the male literacy rate in urban areas is about 86 percent, rural female literacy rate is just 46 percent (2001 census). Several plausible reasons explain this difference. The first and foremost of course, is the way the parents perceive the female education. Since the very beginning the role of female is confined to domestic work and looking after children. The tradition of settling at husband’s place after marriage, does not offer enough incentive to parents for spending on girls’ education. A boy’s education is far more important as it enhances the chances of his being employed. Another reason is the prevalent trend of early marriage in rural areas. In most villages, girls’ education, rather than being seen as an incentive is seen as a liability. It is difficult to find a groom for an educated girl.


These are not the only reasons responsible for the low level of female education. Though one cannot deny that gender inequality is, by and large, responsible for the situation, but several other factors also work in this direction. Very often, the parents who are willing to educate their daughters are discouraged by the absence of school within the surrounding area and it is not considered safe to send girls to another village to study. However, this is not true for most of the villages now. But even in villages where there are schools, the standard of infrastructure is abysmally low, be it management of classes, student-teacher ratio, availability of text books, or even furniture, these schools lack in every sense. This discourages the parents to get their children enrolled in these schools. There are incidences of under qualified staff being employed in educational institutions. The meager salaries that are offered by the government do not provide enough incentive to attract the talent to these schools for employment. Grimmer is the condition of scheduled caste female education. The recent figures show that the scheduled caste female literacy rate is dismal 19 percent (2001 census). This shows that the age old discrimination based on caste is still prevalent. This is really disheartening and shows that in spite of numerous schemes being launched by the government, the downtrodden classes still face social stigma and there is a lot to be done for the upliftment of these classes.



However, talking of female literacy, one cannot ignore the achievement of southern states in terms of female education. The states’ performance in terms of social indicators is often proportional to economic growth. But in India’s case rich states like Punjab and Haryana have lower literacy rates as compared to Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Kerala has performed really well since 1990s in fields of health and education, mainly due to the matriarchal pattern of their society. Himachal Pradesh has also managed to do significantly better than other states in relatively shorter span of time. Major credit for this goes to the political action in the state. The success of government’s initiatives often depends on the cooperative action of the community. The illiterate people are often unable to put pressure on the state governments and school authorities, and so, they can easily get away with the blame. Huge amount provided in the budget for expenditure on education does not reach to the grass root level due to the endemic corruption. Thus lack of accountability is often responsible for ramshackle infrastructure of government schools.



Education, under nutrition, and gender discrimination are all interrelated. For example, infant’s health depends on the care taken by mother during pregnancy which in turn depends on her education and also the education in the community. Further, an educated mother is better equipped to help her children in studies. So, there is a need for change in the social attitude of rural people towards women. Also, the standard of government schools’ infrastructure needs to be raised. The salaries of staff should also be raised to make them more committed. Other states should learn from Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu so that the goal of achieving universal education does not remain a distant dream.

Our Country Needs You And Me-The Youth of India

Aam Aadmi Khe Badte Kadam, Har Kadam Pe Bharat Bulund ! HAI HIND!!!!!!


Youth is associated with energy, impetuousness, ambition, independence, fresh ideas and enthusiasm. Every field, be it science, education, research, technology, literature, music or filmmaking, the youth plays a significant role in them. Youth forms the future and the hope for progress in right direction.



















But when it comes to the sphere of politics, the youth are seldom seen in the forefront. Especially the urban youth studying in schools and colleges have distaste for politics. Very few youngsters have an ambition of pursuing a career in politics. They cannot be blamed entirely, as many politicians do play a dirty game under the guise of politics. Neither is the system of getting into a political party and transforming its internal dynamics so simple or transparent.






Rural and uneducated youth are more susceptible to the promises and the teachings of hate politics practiced on distinctions of caste and religion. So they end up entering politics for all the wrong reasons and fighting for the wrong causes. The semi-urban or urban youth is wiser to the kind of tactics that politicians employ. Some go as far as calling it a way of increasing the bank balances by sacrificing whatever ideals democracies stand for.






Idealism is important for the proper running of any democracy. The youth are becoming cynical and very few believe that idealism and politics can coexist. The riots roused, the bribery given and taken, empty promises made by mountebanks; are all characteristics of our political system. But our responsibility does not end with stating this as a fact and shrugging it off. Building and maintaining peace and progress of the country is something you can start at your own individual level; by saying no to intolerance and unjustified societal dogmas and saying yes to education and unity.


















Today’s youth icons of India, like Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Omar Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi, show promise. And although the idea may be repulsive, Raj Thackeray is a youth icon to many. When people who claim to lead from front are preaching the wrong philosophy, it becomes difficult for impressionable minds to judge between right and wrong.














Recently, Omar Abdullah was sworn in as the youngest Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. His heartening ‘I am a Muslim and an Indian too’ speech in Parliament has won him approval of the youth. Here is, at last, something that makes sense in the civilized republic of India. This is a far cry from the religion based politics played by most politicians in India. But isn’t it ironical that we are admiring something that should be a fact, not an out of the world declaration?






By 2015, 55% of Indian population will be below 20 years. This shows what kind of prospective power rests in the younger generations. We have to see that they are empowered through the right education and the proper spirit is nurtured. Then there will be no looking back on the communalism, resentments and violence of today. So, it is now time to let go of the ties that are tying us down to hate and intolerance. The dream of our nation can be converted to a reality if the youth join hands and pass on new legacies to the future.




Saturday, March 27, 2010

Poverty in India

Poverty in India is widespread with the nation estimated to have a third of the world's poor. According to a 2005 World Bank estimate, 42% of India's falls below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day (PPP, in nominal terms Rs. 21.6 a day in urban areas and Rs 14.3 in rural areas); having reduced from 60% in 1980. According to the criterion used by the Planning Commission of India 27.5% of the population was living below the poverty line in 2004–2005, down from 51.3% in 1977–1978, and 36% in 1993-1994





Among the causes ascribed for the high level poverty in India are its history under British rule, large population, and low literacy. Also important is India's social structure, including the caste system in India, and the role of women in Indian society. Economic growth has in the past been dampened by a dependence upon agriculture, and the economic policies adopted after its independence.



Since the 1950s, the Indian government and non-governmental organizations have initiated several programs to alleviate poverty, including subsidizing food and other necessities, increased access to loans, improving agricultural techniques and price supports, and promoting education and family planning. These measures have helped eliminate famines, cut absolute poverty levels by more than half, and reduced illiteracy and malnutrition.

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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Idiots and Scum-buckets Lead India to Ruin

Everyone knows that a large percentage of India’s state legislators and members of parliament have criminal cases pending against them. Equally well known are their pervasive corruption and dishonesty. What is unknown is that most of them are ignorant, ill-informed and uninterested in anything except getting rich and getting re-elected by any means.




This has left Indian armed forces unprepared to meet conflicts with hostile neighbors. From the time of partition, Indian leadership has seen the adverse consequences of America’s arming and financing of Pakistan and its tacit tolerance of Pakistan’s nuclear weapon acquisition by theft and clandestine help from China. Even today the US supplies aircraft, missiles, ships, ammunition, free of charge to Pakistan. This upgrade of Pakistan’s arms is one factor that requires India to spend huge sums of money to keep up and prevent the disasters of the 1962 Chinese invasion. The US has reneged on fuel supply to Tarapur nuclear plants and still is unwilling to supply reprocessing technology. It denies any exports of dual use or advanced technology as per India’s DRDO chief. IT is supplying nuclear capable F-16s to Pakistan and pushing sale of its obsolete aircraft to India. It has given a contract to Boeing to modify its older F-16s so that they can be flown unmanned and be used for target practice by its newer F-18s and F-22s. Yet the Indian air-force and defense ministry are considering buying F-16s.



The defense ministry and its various committees have delayed inordinately any decision on the 126 MMRCA proposal for the last three years. They delayed the advanced jet trainer purchase of the British Hawks for years while scores of IAF pilots died in crashes due to inadequate training and faulty spares for the aging MiG-21s. They have done the same with the basic jet trainer despite the complete obsolescence and inadequacy of the Indian Kiran trainer made by the incompetent DRDO, HAL employees, selected by nepotism and quotas. The DRDO has failed to deliver on Astra, Arjun tank and Tejas aircraft, to mention a few. On the other hand the armed forces like the population have a fetish for “phoren” equipment just like the population. They have purchased old T-72 Soviet tanks in the past without adequate equipment like night vision, T-90s with some advanced electronic suites missing, under false hopes and reckless assurances by the DRDO that they would be able to install such equipment of indigenous make.



Even the much delayed and previously deficient Arjun tank and Tejas aircraft have large imported foreign components with the DRDO mainly being assemblers. The DRDO now wins bids without competition excluding private Indian companies by teaming up with Israeli and other foreign companies. One is unsure if any bribery is involved and how secure the software is. It is as idiotic as the armed forces buying Chinese communication equipment. Of course, I realize that the private Indian companies have seen the burgeoning Indian defense expenditure and are merely salivating to gorge at the public trough and not motivated by unselfish patriotism. The navy, DRDO and contracting agency showed their combined incompetence in not taking the advanced equipment for the Scorpene submarines at the initial offer. The delay and the belated modifications cost the nation 500 million dollars each (total-one billion) and the submarines will not be available before 2013, after many of our current submarines are retired for obsolescence.



The idiotic defense ministry has cancelled the purchase of helicopters (attack, utility, transport, reconnaissance and ASW) repeatedly and yet our high officials who should be pedaling their own rickshaws promptly spent 800 million dollars in buying twelve VVIP Agusta helicopters. These copters have three engines, so no VVIP will crash and have electronic warfare suites to combat heat seeking and explosive missiles. Our crooked ministers, presidents, parliamentarians deserve to walk, ride bicycles or pedal their own rickshaws. They are not precious enough to be missed by the people. The armed forces, DRDO, HAL and the defense factories need to co-ordinate to make tanks, armored personnel carriers, howitzers, rocket launchers, mortars, artillery, guns and ammunition indigenously and not fall into the Pentagon idiocy of 200 million dollar aircraft too costly to use or maintain or operate in adequate numbers. If the Arjun works well in hot climates it can be used in Rajasthan and the east only. If it works well in colder climates it should be used in Kashmir and northeast only. It has to be better than a T-72 without night vision or anti-tank missile defense. How can the Tejas be worse than the 40 year old subsonic Jaguar or Harrier (both retired). It should be better for close air support and even dogfights in both the visual and beyond visual range. India is spending nearly two billion dollars to upgrade 50+ Mirage 2000s, which are twenty+ years old. For forty million dollars a piece, is there no new modern alternative? Why is India buying more MiG-29s when Algeria has scrapped them because of defects and Malaysia is complaining about them.



The total foolishness of Sonia’s current puppet Manmohan Singh, led him to skip the SCO meetings and snub Russia. This led to renegotiated price and delay in delivery of the carrier Gorshkov. India keeps crawling towards the feet of the US and receives only kicks. The US needs Pakistan to extricate itself from the mess in Afghanistan by making peace with the Taliban. Yet it wants to retain a military presence in Afghanistan to control Central Asian energy resources and keep an eye on China and Russia and engender insecurity for the latter, so it needs Pakistan.



India and Manmohan Singh were made complete fools at the London conference on Afghanistan. India had to support and welcome the inclusion of the Taliban. India has committed over a billion dollars in aid and suffered multiple bombings at its embassy, and deaths in Kabul. It has gained nothing by toeing the US line. It has alienated Karzai, had to listen to Holbrook’s lies that the attacks were not against India and to put up with General McChrystal saying that India’s role in Afghanistan needs to be curtailed so as to not offend Pakistan. No wonder Putin issued a veiled ultimatum last week in India reminding the foolish prime minister that Russia has avoided arming Pakistan in consideration of its dastardly terrorism against India. The meaning for India’s dumb politicians is that America arms Pakistan for free despite it being a terrorist state and if you keep crawling to America and buying its expensive outdated planes, Russia may decide to change its policy towards India and Pakistan and by the way make sure you attend the next SCO meeting.



Clueless Manmohan Singh crawled to Saudi Arabia whose Wahabism is the main cause of terrorism in India. His crawling to America is why he invited Colombia’s Uribe and Saudi King Abdullah to be the chief guests for India’s Republic Day. The latter insulted India by refusing to visit Rajghat and pay homage to Gandhi. India should stick to Israel, Russia and the EU. They are all worried about rising Islamist terrorism and politics and have common interests and enemies with India, while unfortunately despite our desire, need and some admiration for it, relations with America will remain a dream, hope and recurrent disillusionment, until the US becomes a genuine democracy with enlightened leaders, a possibility less remote than one for India becoming the same.

Random Thoughts

An army marches on its stomach” are words attributed to the great military strategist and general, Napoleon. Yet, intoxicated by his string of victories, he committed his greatest blunder when he invaded Russia and was lured deep into Russia by the Russian army’s strategic retreat and then marooned far from his supply lines to face the punishing Russian winter.



Prior victories give rise to invincibility, which leads to hubris. Waiting unfailingly around the corner to administer defeat, ruin and destruction to every hubris, there is its Nemesis. Hitler, knowing well the above history, but intoxicated by hubris and convinced that he was different, fell into the same trap and suffered similar consequences. Interestingly, bull market bubbles have an identical life cycle despite mass public hysteria that this time it is different.

Afghanistan invasions tell the same sorry tale starting with Alexander. At the end of the first Afghan war, the entire British garrison and retreating Indian army was wiped out except for a single solitary survivor. Britain still fought two more further wars, failed to control and conquer Afghanistan and achieved a peace by bribing various factions to create a neutral buffer between the British and Czarist empires. The Soviet Union was lured into its own Vietnam like quagmire by the Carter administration. After a decade the Soviet Union collapsed and broke up partly due to the misadventure. The US orchestrated the trap and then after 9-11 fell into the same trap itself with the hubris that it was different and immune to the blowback from its folly.



America had failed to win the Korean war, seen France lose in Vietnam, but still plunged into Vietnam and lost despite extending the war into Laos and Cambodia. It ignored the cost in blood and treasure of fighting wars in distant Asian lands, the difficult logistics of supplying its troops and jumped into prolonged wars and occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its objectives of controlling the oil wealth of Iraq and central Asia have come to naught. As Paul Samuelson is supposed to have said about highly leveraged trading in commodities and derivatives, the unspoken thoughts are those of a mouse caught in a trap–Never mind the cheese, just please let me out of the trap.



Obama the candidate, was critical of the Iraq war, but to avoid being labeled as weak on defense by Republicans and his Democratic opponent Hilary acting belligerently (as if on steroids) to dispel being tagged as a woman and hence weak, made loud proclamations about the Afghanistan war being one of necessity and just. Now those words have painted him into a corner and haunt him incessantly. He wants to withdraw, but that would lead to Pakistan making up with the Taliban and Al Qaeda; and over time Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal falling into their hands as the Pakistani state fails.



If the US doubles down or increases its troops in Afghanistan, each extra 10,000 troops will require an additional ten billion dollars a year and increasing casualties. Afghanistan is a landlocked country with the only access to it being from Pakistan via its seaport Karachi and then more than thousand miles overland through hostile territory controlled by Taliban insurgents. The other routes are through Iran and Russia and its former Muslim republics.

At present the US pays 400 dollars per gallon of gasoline to get it to the bases in Afghanistan. This large sum includes the bribes and ransom paid by the Pakistani transport Mafia to the Taliban for safe passage and to free its drivers held hostage. It is very likely that the returning trucks bring in heroin from Afghanistan that is exported illegally to Europe and which the Taliban once again tax. Thus significant percentage of the US war expense goes to support its enemies Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Even US arms, ammunition, uniforms and food rations find their way to the enemies via some recruits of the Afghan police and national army. The US bases have to be supplied from Bagram by helicopter to avoid IED related casualties on unsafe roads for ground transport. The US also pays some of the warlords to protect many of the base perimeters and rare convoys on the roads. The recent killing of British soldiers by an Afghan member of their own team highlights the futility of depending on an Afghan army with uncertain loyalty.



The US is thus unable to increase its troop levels without ruinous extra expenditure and unable to withdraw totally without losing Pakistan and Obama losing face and any chance of re-election. That is why Biden and many Democrats opt for a long stay of lesser visibility and counter-terrorism by drones and bombing and letting the Pakistani army do the fighting to the end of the war, just as the Northern Alliance did during the beginning of the war. There is no hope of winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan population with the corrupt inept Karzai government and its warlords. So Obama’s option is to bide time till some lucky fluke gives an opportunity to exit. Under these circumstances only a mad idiot would extend the war to Iran. But as they say, to keep on committing the same strategic mistake again and again after Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Afghanistan and hoping for a different favorable outcome is the earliest definitive sign of insanity.

Chinese Strategy and Indian Stupidity.

Mao established a communist state after the end of WW2. During his weaker period, he appealed to nationalism to stem the conflict with nationalist Chiang Kai Shek and join forces to evict the Japanese occupying Chinese Manchuria. When the Japanese were devastated by the Americans with conventional and nuclear weapons, Mao turned his sights to the nationalist Chinese and made them retreat to Taiwan. Eisenhower had offered Nehru the Chinese UN permanent seat on the security council, but he idiotically refused and espoused the claim of China. There is some mention that the Nepalese king in 1947 offered to merge his country with India and Nehru in his typically foolish manner turned him down.


Mao, then turned his attention to Tibet in the fifties while the west was preoccupied with Stalin�s designs in Eastern Europe and weary of war. Mao saw a vast territory sparsely populated in Tibet and having a past history of accepting Chinese suzerainty a few centuries ago. His other reason was that the major Chinese rivers (Yang-tse and Yellow), the Mekong and Salween flowing through Southeast Asia, the Indus flowing through India and Pakistan and the Brahmaputra and Irrawaddy flowing through India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, all originate in Tibet. Thus he would hold a trump card for future use. China is facing severe water scarcity in its northern half and so will Pakistan and India in the near future. When China cuts off the waters of the Indus and Brahmaputra in the future for its own use or to force India to give more to Pakistan, India will have little choice but to toe the line.

China has flooded Tibet of the Tibetans and Sinkiang of the Uighurs with Han Chinese, thus remedying the demography in its favor, while India enacted article 370 by which the Kashmiri Muslim majority persists and turned a blind eye to the terrorism used to make the Indian Hindu Pundits abandon Kashmir. China has used economic discrimination to assimilate the Uighurs and Tibetans while India pours larger subsidies into Kashmir to help the Kashmiri Muslims with less integration. Foolish Manmohan Singh wants greater subsidies and preferential goodies to be doled out to minorities to perpetuate separatist tendencies and garner votes.

The Indian electorate is so stupid and unthinkingly anti-incumbent that it voted the Congress into power at the center knowing full well that Sonia, a naturalized foreigner would be the ruler behind the curtain. The other party elected politicians happily joined the UPA, in return for power and opportunity for enrichment by bribes and corruption. Of course the NDA under the BJP was no less incompetent or corrupt. Finally Nehru by conceding to language based states fostered the regional linguistic parties that continue to tear apart the nation.

Nehru offered asylum to the fleeing Dalai Lama and irritated China but foolishly did nothing to strengthen defenses at the Tibetan or Chinese borders despite strong warnings by Vallabhbhai Patel about an aggressive scheming China. He fell for the vague statements of Panchsheel agreement with China, proclaimed Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai and tolerated the corruption of his ministers. Chinese incursions into India were ignored and proclamations were made about the sacrosanct nature of colonial borders like the McMahon line of the British which the Chinese were violating and had reneged on as colonial policies, by blatantly occupying Tibet by force without any real claim to it.

Nehru as usual was clueless and did not even try to establish a border in Aksai Chin because he said, the area is snowbound and unpopulated. China occupied it later in 1962 and made Pakistan cede that portion of Ladakh to give the two countries a land border across the Khunjerab pass in the Karakoram mountains. This also put a sliver of China and a sliver of Pakistan between India and Afghanistan and Tajikistan. This effectively established a Chinese and Pakistani veto over any future pipelines or transit passages between India and Central Asia. Now that future has become the present, China is blocking any pipelines from Central Asia to India through its captured territory.

China was much more discreet in militarily pursuing its claim to Taiwan against the powerful Americans or to Eastern Russia against the equally powerful Soviet Union. The former was illegally held by the nationalist Chinese and the latter had been usurped by the Czars by bullying weak China of the Manchu dynasty. Even today China publicly claims Arunachal Pradesh while making pious statements about peaceful resolution of border disputes. Our foolish Manmohan Singh in the face of the Chinese bold and bald claim of an entire Indian state, publicly replies that China is our best friend. It is reminiscent of the house owner hugging the seducer and calling him his best friend when told by the intruder that he has entered the house to sleep with and claim his wife. Once again like Nehru who failed to see the handwriting on the wall and did not build up his military, Manmohan Singh is hell bent on neutering India�s nuclear capability and will have to go begging to America for help, as Nehru did to Kennedy.

China fought the Americans in Korea unafraid of its nuclear weapons at the cost of huge losses in manpower while Vajpayee rode a bus to Lahore to make peace despite Pakistan instigated terrorism in Kashmir. China had a fallout with the Soviet Union in the sixties and supported the Vietnamese in a war with America, but when the US was desperate in Vietnam, Mao invited the desperate Nixon to Beijing and allowed US spy stations at the Chinese Soviet border and subsequently armed the Afghan Mujahedeen to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. It even attacked its former ally Vietnam at the cost of nearly hundred thousand casualties when Vietnam overthrew the Chinese backed Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.

Deng, the successor of Mao, normalized relations with the US and enticed the greedy Western capitalists to shift their manufacturing to China and is using its trade surpluses and swelling foreign exchange reserves to re-arm itself by buying sophisticated weapons from its friend turned enemy and now again friend, Russia. When the time comes it will not hesitate to turn against Russia to reclaim its part of Siberia. Right now it is doing it by settling more Chinese in eastern Russia just as Bangladesh is doing it in Assam and West Bengal to India. It refuses to back down to bullying by desperate America to revalue its currency upwards and threatens to nuke Los Angeles if the US interferes in Taiwan. India still crawls to make peace with a Pakistan responsible for Kargil and attacks on the Indian parliament, Bangalore, Mumbai, Varanasi, Delhi and Ahmedabad. Clueless Manmohan Singh under US pressure proclaims a partnership with Musharraf at the NAM summit in Cuba to combat terrorism (when Musharraf is the main terrorist himself and the architect of Kargil), postpones the testing of Agni 3 and is willing to sign a nuclear treaty which will destroy India�s independent nuclear deterrent and subjugate its foreign policy forever by turning it into a client state.

Indira Gandhi in her lust for power is responsible for the insurgencies in Kashmir, Punjab and indirectly Assam. She used fraudulent election tactics to create dissatisfaction in Kashmir, promoted Bhindranwale to counter the Akali Dal in Punjab and failed to send the Muslim East Pakistani refugees back to Bangladesh. She had 90,000 Pakistani prisoners and yet in the Simla accord with a defeated Bhutto of Pakistan failed to impose the line of control as the international border in Kashmir. Vietnam established a museum extolling its victory over the US and even offered the visiting Clinton and Bush Jr. an official tour of the museum which they politely declined.

China sells its missiles only to distant countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, not in its own litoral basin. It may have sold planes and ships to Pakistan and Iran, but the first is a staunch ally, a dependent client state and an enemy of India and with whom China has a very small border in high mountains and the second has no continuous or contiguous border with China. For India to sell Brahmos with a range of 300 kms. to Indonesia which is less than 100 kms from India�s Andaman islands is a folly that India may live to regret in the future. China has used its stash of foreign exchange to buy resources and allegiance from African countries and to alienate them from Taiwan, while India is pouring resources into Afghanistan which may still revert to the Taliban and alienating Sri Lanka and Nepal at the behest of America.

Rajiv Gandhi like his mother and grandfather, with the same faults for personal glory and power foolishly interfered in the Sri Lanka civil war without understanding the unjust policy of Sirimavo Bandarnaike, which was its main cause and unfortunately paid for it with his life. The history of India is replete with foolish leaders with a lust for personal glory and power who have sacrificed the nation for their greed. The jeep and coffin scandals of the last fifty years literally and metaphorically put Indian leaders in the category of �Insaanon ki lashon se kafan lootnewale�.

All Indian governments since independence have failed to provide water, sewers, education, health, roads and economic opportunities and instead used caste, language and religion to divide the nation to garner captive vote banks to perpetuate their corruption and power. The Communist Parties while devoid of those prejudices have been blind supporters of China and oblivious to the religious manipulation of Pakistan and Bangladesh to the equal detriment of the nation.





The solution lies in a strong conventional and nuclear deterrence capability based on indigenous production, a modern and efficient infrastructure and a rapidly growing economy that is inclusive of the common man and all religions, classes and castes combined with honest leadership with foresight. Instead India is following the neoliberal Washington consensus which marked increase internal disparity of wealth and perpetuates a two tier nation of few rich and bulk poor. China has sold its poor to slave labor in sweatshops and its leaders are expropriating land illegally and cheaply to enrich themselves. China�s leaders are dishonest but want their nation to become a great power while India�s leaders simply want to sell their mother and motherland just to get rich. China�s leaders give no choice to their people while in India we choose scum-buckets as leaders even though we have a choice. The Chinese can blame their leaders when things go wrong. We, like the Americans, have no one else to blame except ourselves and our stupidity.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

BATTLE OF GODS

India is a Nation of gods and goddesses. And the gods are all invariably armed to the teeth. They are not peace loving, or spreading any message of peace, justice, equality, love and compassion. Any talk of all Religions being equal, and lead to the same goals are just diversionary, and are only meant to misguide the poor people. Hence they are really rubbish. There is no Peace and Justice in the Society. Never was there any in this Nation, except for the brief periods of respect and reverence to Lord Gautama Buddha and his Teachings, and earlier in the pre-historic days of Indus Valley Civilisation. Today there are nearly 30 million gods and goddesses in India.














One rarely finds any building or structure or place of worship, in the remains of Indus Valley Civilisation. There are only a few remains of Pasupathi - proto-Shiva – the protector of the cows and bulls, and also other domestic animals of the People. For, Agrarian Economy was the backbone of the settled life of Indus Valley People. And bulls cows and other domestic animals were essential to the basically Agrarian but advanced and developed Economy of those early days. The Indus Valley People, being native Dravidians, buried their dead with great care, and with meticulous attention. The dead were interned in special burial pots, with their personal belongings, before they were buried in the ground. Thus, the human beings born brought up and living on the earth, finally returned back to earth. The People of the Indus Valley Civilisation, found their final and permanent resting-place in the earth that nourished and sustained them, before they themselves turned into dust, to integrally merge with the dust of the earth. Thus, they returned all the elements in their body that had come from the earth, back to earth.







The Indus Valley Civilisation was run over, and destroyed by the aggressive barbarians and nomadic tribes, who came through the northern and north-western Passes of Bolan and Khyber, and through the Valleys of Hindu Kush. They came with their horses and crude weapons. The most important amongst them, were the aryans of Central Asia. The aryans burnt their dead, worshipped (agni) fire, and their supreme god Brahma, the creator. The aryans despised the native People of the Indus Valley Civilisation, for their short stature, stub noses, curly hairs and dark skins. They were also jealous of the settled lives, good protected settlements, and the highly productive agricultural practices they saw amongst the Indus Valley People. Without thinking, and in their attempts and eagerness to run over the native Indus Valley People, they senselessly destroyed and burnt the Indus Valley Settlements. As a result, the People of the Indus Valley Civilisation were disbursed, towards the south and easterly directions. Thus, the whole of the Indus Valley Civilisation was destroyed. And with that, went to wind, the Indus Valley Scripts, Science, Technology, Knowledge, Settlement, Production Techniques etc, that the Nation never recovered, and went down the drain as a nation of illiterates and backwards. And, mind you, all learning building construction and production activities had come to a stand still in the Country, till Ashoka. Even then, one today sees big ruins or grandeur remains, only in the eastern and southern parts of the sub-continent. That explains lack of literature and practically no remains of the cities and townships of the aryans, their rulers and even big kingdoms.







The aryans maimed killed and slaughtered their captives. The dead, whether it was their own aryan people, or the Indus Valley Civilisation People, were all burnt. The aryans generally killed their captives, and disposed the bodies off by burning. After all, that was what they had been doing with their own dead. The conflict with the natives was long and on going. Indra, the important aryan chieftain, was venerated only because he was a crude warrior who never hesitated to destroy. He was said to be the destroyer of 90 Forts. He was also a cold-blooded killer. Hence, disposal of the killed natives almost became a big show. In fact, it slowly developed to be big entertainments. Even the captives were sacrificed to Agni. Slowly, over the times, sacrifices to Agni became a ritualistic, recreational and even entertainment part of aryan society in the Indus Valley. Thus, fire came to be worshipped, and the fire place (vedi) became important. Arrangements around the fire place (vedi) with special altars pillars and protective railings became a place of worship as vedika. And the rituals and prayers, were passed on from one to the other, by word of mouth. And collection of these prayer songs became the vedas.







The vedis vedikas vedas and sacrifices to fire (agni) became the most important parts of aryan life, and the vedis and vedikas were built in the centre of aryan settlements with great care, and as the most important feature. Hence, the sacrifices continued as important rituals, even after cessation of the aryan-native conflicts. Surrogate sacrificial elements like cows, bulls, buffaloes, goats, other animals and birds, for blood letting and feasting of the remains. At last, on special occasions even horses were brought in as the supreme sacrificial animal. As the sacrifices developed into an important part of the aryan conquest and life, the fire and fireplace were built up with the additions of perambulating paths around the vedika, and pavilions for the people to gather wait or sit around to observe the rituals and pray.







Taken by the increasing importance frenzy and addictive entertainment of the sacrifices to fire and fire worship, the aryans soon forgot their own god – brahma, whom they considered as their creator, and all their leaders and greats like Indra. Since they were not known as builders, all their early temples, fire-places and altars for sacrificial rituals did not survive and vanished. Nor did their settlements and palaces. Since the aryans were basically nomads moving in search of food and fodder, raiding and pillaging, they never stuck to any place, region or land. Hence it is no wonder that hardly one or two places where temples for their original god brahma was built, as at Pushkar near Ajmer in Rajasthan, survived even for rebuilding the temples for brahma.







During the aryan sacrifices, lots of valuable wood – sandal and rosewood were burnt. There were lots of wastages of oil, milk, butter, ghee rice wheat and other cereals, lintels and valuable food materials. As the time passed, the sacrifices became more and more showy complex and wasteful. And, the sacrifices were held at every small excuse, and for unreasonable and illogical reasons. At times, hundreds of animals and birds were killed, and lots of blood was let out. And it was really sheer madness.







The sacrifices and wastages associated with them were resented by the native people. The native rulers and kingdoms, particularly those in the east and south, spoke against these aryan foolishness and stupidity pushed around from the north-west – from indo-jamuna belt. The natives were openly against sacrifices, killings, blood-letting, senseless mass feasting on flesh, wastages and burning. Finally from the northern republics in the east above Pataliputra - that remained untouched away and free from brahmanic poison pollution and superstition – emerged the great compassionate humane thinking personality of Mahavira the Jain. He preached total ban on killings. He advised the people to stop all harms to life – be they animals, birds or insects.







The preachings and prescriptions of Lord Mahavira was a little tough and uncomfortable for the common people to follow, though it suited the big powerful and rich traders. Following Lord Mahavira was difficult, because of the strictness, rigidity, regimentation, and extreme strictness. Hence it did not appeal to the common people. It remained with the aristocrats opposed to the aryan way of life. Then there emerged Siddhartha, who became Lord Gautama Buddha.







Buddha came up with his Middle Path. He was equally opposed to the stupid and foolish stupid wasteful blood-thirsty values of aryan lives. He was against any wasteful killings and was totally opposed to sacrifices and sacrificial worship. At the same time he did not approve of the extreme asceticism of Lord Mahavira.







The Middle Path of Buddha, appealed to one and all, and was readily accepted by the Kings, other Rulers, elites and the common people. Buddha’s Teachings of reason, love and compassion, were easily understood by the people, in every part of the Country. That, from the Rulers to those in the rural areas, from the religious to the lay ranks. Hence, Buddhism spread far and wide, to even lands beyond the borders of the sub-continent. It went north beyond the Himalayas to Tibet, China, Mongolia and beyond, and across the land and seas to Burma, Ceylon and further towards the east and south. Great and mighty rulers like Ashoka, Kanishka and Harsha, embraced Buddhism and actively spread it.







The aryans, by then had long ceased to be a force. But they survived by betrayals, cunningness, deceit, fraud, manipulations, sabotage, subversions and treachery they had adopted sacrifices and fire worship as the convenient tools to keep a hold on the people. These, they had adopted and introduced, with little modifications to suit every occasion, be that birth or death, marriage or prosperity, good or bad times. And they became the priests, and survived on feasting at these sacrifices. They became the priests of the new rulers, new invaders and new waves of conquerors who entered the Indus Valley across Hindu Kush. In the north-west, the plains of the Indus often came under the rule and suzerainty of the Persians, who ruled from across the hills, with the help of their Governors – the Kshatrapas, Persian for Governors. Paying reverence to the new Rulers Governors Chiefs and Representatives, the aryans respectfully referred to all the ruling elites as Kshatrappas. Thus came into existence the ruling classes Kshatriyas, with the aryans referring to themselves as brahmins after their original god brahma. To keep the new rulers and their people – the kshatriyas – away from the native people, a new god of ruling and protection – vishnu was created by the brahmins for the kshatriyas and all new Rulers. Thus, vishnu temples were built in the forts or near the palaces of even the much later Muslim Rulers.







One can see the vishnu temples in many forts and at palaces, like that of Tippu Sultan. Sadly for the brahmins, their earnings from the vishnu temples depended upon the attitudes pre-disposition and prosperity of the rulers. Since the ruling classes and their follower all taken together, like the brahmins themselves were small in numbers, their lives depended exclusively upon the magnanimity or stupidity of the rulers. But the rulers themselves were often had no time for the brahmins. They were busy with state-craft, war, palace-intrigues, family-disputes, and indulgent in small pleasures.







Hence, the spread of Buddhism rattled them. To neutralise the appeal of Buddhism, and escape its reasonable criticisms of killings and live sacrifices, one group went to the extreme of giving up all killings even for food, and gave up meat eating in public as a new policy of survival, unique to the priestly classes. And the second group of brahmins in very small numbers or as individuals, themselves opted for Buddhism. Once in, they turned Buddhism upside down, and inside out, with strange logic and interpretations unique to brahmins. They introduced decadent philosophies and practices within Buddhism, Viharas, Monasteries and Sanghas. They introduced tantricism. They brought in many bad rank evil and immoral practices. Thus they brought disgrace, and lowered the great noble image of Buddhism, and allowed it to degrade in the eyes of the people, and followers. They brought in degeneration decay self-destruction, and anger of the people.







As Buddhism slipped down, they struck the final blows of physical destruction of the Viharas, monasteries, and killings of the nuns and monks, with the help of new rulers under their grip. And many occasions, they even conspired to kill, or otherwise disposed off the rulers and great dynasties, to take over the reins of the administration and the state. That happened with almost regular intervals throughout the history of the Country. Their only aim was to wrest control over the people for a leisurely and parasitic life, without having to do any physical work, straining their backs, bruising their limbs, sweating in the sun, shedding any tears, dirtying their clothes, or soiling their hands. And in short, they were great shirkers, avoiding all work.







The destruction of Buddhism and banning it from the soil of the country, did not bring much relief to the brahmins. They realised that the masses stuck to Shiva, the pre-historic Pasupathi, the protector of Cows and other domestic animals, found in the Indus Valley Settlements. And the native people had great reverence to Shiva’s consort Kali. That, in spite of all brahmanical efforts to wean away the people from Shiva and Kali. Hence the brahmins all possible and imaginable insults, and denigrated both Shiva and Kali. They attributed to Shiva, all bad dirty and evil habits and qualities. Those right from –







a) Resident of burial grounds and crematoriums



b) living at unreachable difficult places, right at the top of big hills and great peaks of mountains



c) being dirty, not taking bath or washing himself, but anointing himself with the ashes of the dead



d) with unkempt and uncombed matted hair in knots



e) frugally dressed with a piece of tiger skin to cover his loins



f) reckless short-tempered killer of his wife, whom he senselessly burnt alive in anger without even thinking, just for not listening to him



g) mad dancer, relishing wild beats of leather drums



h) keeping the company of most dangerous serpent like Cobra



i) partaking country liquor and psychedelic drugs and even poison



j) accepts specially the dangerously poisonous flowers of wild cactuses and succulents



k) being the god of death – the killer and destroyer



l) married to a dirty black blood-thirsty wild jungle woman Kali







Thus Shiva and his consort Kali were turned into Parayas. And they were condemned and denigrated as Paraya Gods and Parayas amongst the Gods. Yet, the native people, believed, revered and in fact even followed faithfully Shiva and Kali, in many respects. Hence, there were always more offerings to Shiva and Kali. Concerned with the offerings, income and earnings, the brahmins first captured and appropriated some famous Shiva and Kali Temples of the natives and Tribals, and converted them as the brahmanic vishnu temples. Later, as priests, they accommodated Shiva and Kali, at the peripherals in the vicinities or proximity of their vishnu temples. And in some cases the brahmins even went to serve as priests in the temples of the Native People, pushing aside the native priests there, and throwing out many of the protesting natives.







Some temples were built, in due course of time, by non-anaryan, non-kshatriya Anaryan Kings, for the bull -the carrier of Shiva – Kali, and to his phallus in union with Kali. Embarrassed at times, about the crude blackness and blood-thirstiness of Kali, the brahmins introduced a sanitised, reformed or modern version – Parvathi, as the consort of Shiva, a metamorphasised decent form of Kali. Thus the aryans or brahmins and their god brahma, and even their most powerful element fire, had lost their Battles many many times. That, over the three and more millenniums since their entry into the Country. So did the god vishnu, they created for the new rulers kshatriyas, who entered after them, loose the battle of gods, in spite all the props and tamashas as in Ayodhya, Mathura and Gujarat.







Now the despised, disgraced, run-down, humiliated and insulted god of the neglected, marginalised, set-aside Natives, Shiva with his Kali or Parvathi emerge victorious as (Maha Dev) the greatest or supreme God and Mother Goddess, or (Shakti) energy or almighty power or the goddess of Fertility and bounty of plentyfullness. The two, as per one school of thought, particularly in the east and north-east, considers him much above the trinity of Shiva-vishnu-and brahma. Shiva as per this school is really great, elder and supreme. He is the true Maha Dev, and is the father-in-law to both vishnu and brahma – Lakshmi the goddess of wealth of the vaishyas or baniyas, and Saraswathi, the goddess of education and learning being the daughters of Shiva and Shakthi. This, in spite of the brahmins paying peins and fighting for a place for vishnu, many-a-time a looser already to Shiva. Therefore, it is no wonder that the brahmins and their gods and goddesses, 30 million in all, lost to the single God of the Conquering Rulers from China, Persia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Mongolia, and that of the Colonising Imperialist Rulers from Europe




Monday, March 22, 2010

"Dog Aggression"



Dogs are a naturally aggressive species. Before domestication, aggression was extremely handy for dogs. Dogs must have aggression to hunt, to defend their food, to mate, etc... 

But, that doesn't mean that we must be unable to help in the aspect of training the dogs we own. There are steps we can take to stop aggression from rearing it's head. 





One particular form of dog aggression is the aggression directed at strangers. The method of accustoming your dog to society and it's strange people is referred to as "socialization". This is a very important segment of training your dog. It means exposing it from a young age to a wide variety of happenings, people, and animals. 

When socializing your dog, you're getting him to understand through experience that unfamiliar sights and sounds can be good, instead of dangerous. To socialize your dog can be more of a general lifestyle instead of a specific method. This involves simply spending more time interacting with your dog around unfamiliar territory. 

Aggression towards family members should be treated in a different way. Aggression towards family members is indicative that the dog is feels the need to defend a imagined threat (you). Or, it isn't comfortable with the treatment it is receiving from it's surroundings. Sometimes this is called "resource guarding". 

Resource guarding is a common trait among dogs. It is in reference to aggressive-possessive behavior shown your dog. Resource guarding is a old form of dominant behavior . If a dog viewed itself as bottom of the pack hierarchy, it would not imagine exhibiting aggressive or dominant behavior directed towards a higher ranked member of the pack. 

The most effective training method for aggressive/dominant dog behavior is consistent, constant obedience practice. That can make clear your authority over the dog. Schedule obedience sessions short and productive . No horse-playing and no foul behavior. 

Dogs display aggression for a reason. It is vital to progress slow with a dog's obedience/aggression training. For complete knowledge on handling aggressive dog behavior, handling disobedient dog behavior, in addition to all other dog behavior, training, and care answers, it is a good idea to obtain a high-quality dog training book to train your dog correctly.

Article Source: http://animalarticles.com

"District Baghpat"

Aam Aadmi Khe Badte Kadam, Har Kadam Pe Bharat Bulund ! 
HAI HIND!!!!!!
District Baghpat is one of the district of  Uttar Pradesh.The city is Located on the banks of river Yamuna at 28O57’ North Latitude and 77O13’ East Longitude.It is 52 KM from Meerut City and is on the main Delhi – Sharanpur Highway around 40 KM from Delhi.In the north of the district  baghpat there is district Muzaffarnagar,in the south district Ghaziabad,in the west river Yamuna and district Rohtak of  Harayana.The shape of the district   Bagpat is rectangular which area is more in north  to south than east to west.It is very closely located to (around 40 Km)  the national capital New Delhi.
   Area :- 1321 Sq Km             Population :- 1163991

Headquarter: Bagpat
Unit
Census 1991
Census 2001
Area
Sq.km.
1321
1321
Population
'000
1030.40
1164.38
Male
'000
560.484
630.484
Female
'000
469.91
533.91
Sex Ratio

838
860
Population Density
Sq.Km.
742
742
SC Population
'000
125
127.81
ST Population
'000
0
-
Height Above Sea Level
Mt.
223
-
Literacy 



Male
%age
51.45
77.00
Female
%age
24.58
49.2
Occupational Distribution



Cultivators
'000
246
123
Agricultural Labours
'000
201
137
Temperature(Max,Min)
42.2,0
Climate
Tropical / Moderate
Languages
Hindi, Urdu, English
Festivals
Dusherra, Holi, Diwali, Kartik Purnima, Rakshbandhan, Navratre
Administrative Setup



Tehsils
Nos.
03

Blocks
Nos.
06

Gram Sabhas
Nos.
237

No. of Inhabited villages
Nos.
290

Uninhabited villages
Nos.
225

Police Stations
Nos.
10

Nyaya Panchayats
Nos.
46

Post Offices
Nos.
143

Telegram
Nos.
6

Bank
Nos.
54

Co-operative Bank
Nos.
15

Share of Major Crops



Wheat
Hect.
52,787
1998-99
Paddy
Hect.
5,300
"
Sugarcane
Hect.
50,293
"
Pulses
Hect.
3,826
"
Oilseeds
Hect.
1,602
"
Potatoes
Hect.
547
"
Maize
Hect.
6,225
"
Convenience DistanceNearest Airport :                    IGI,Delhi-80KM
Nearest Railway Station:        Bagpat Road-Aggarwal Mandi (Tatiri) 2KM
Nearest Bus Stand                Bagpat -Meerut Road

Distance to Nearby Town                                                        Khekra :   11KM
Baraut :    24 KM

 Distance to Other PlacesBaghpat to Delhi  :           40KM
Baghpat to Meerut         52KM
Baghpat to Ghaziabad:   55 KM
Baghpat to Saharanpur: 128KM
Baghpat to Lucknow:    510KM