The road to terror..

David Coleman Headley (until 2006 he was Daood Gilani) caught my eyes yet again this morning and while reading about him, I landed on the Chicago Tribune’s page which gives the Federal Complaint against David and his accomplice Rana. One can check this too which is on David alone.

I could not finish the material since it is very long and I understand how much training one would need to decipher so much from normal conversations and emails. If deciphering is difficult can one imagine how harder it is to mask these activities?

If only one would engage their brains and time in more useful pursuits.

But yet again I wonder how the Indian intelligence agencies missed David. Are their antennae’s up only for certain names?

I hope our agencies are being trained at least now to tackle future such ventures.

But then haven’t we already forgotten 26/11?

Haven’t our governments and babus managed to turn the attention away from it so that they can continue with their own personal pursuits.

If not, why is Kasab still not punished?

Why does Kavitha the wife of Hemant Takare need to file an application for the right to information for her husband’s missing vest? Has the nation forgotten this hero already?

Can we have our revered Judges back?

If there was a news over the last week (heard on TV too) that warmed my heart it was this:

Justice Dinakaran’s name withdrawn from list for SC appointment
By ANI
November 1st, 2009
NEW DELHI - Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan on Sunday said that the Supreme Court Collegium has withdrawn the name of Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran from the list of judges who were to be evaluated for appointment to the apex court.

Not sure if I have rights to point to the following post for further reading: click.. but it gives an extensive account of the case.

I think it is time our judiciary is taken to task.

It was from the movies of yesteryears that I came across “Court martial” and deduced that it was the worst punishment any person serving in the armed forces is given.

Courts martial have the authority to try a wide range of military offences, many of which closely resemble civilian crimes like fraud, theft or perjury.

Indian Army has four kinds of Court Martial - General Court Martial (GCM), District Court Martial (DCM), Summary General Court Martial (SGCM) and Summary Court Martial (SCM). According to the Army act, army courts can try personnel for all kinds of offences except for murder and rape of a civilian, which are primarily tried by a civilian court of law.

Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court-martial

While reading about Court Martial I do read that it has its own problems too. I also stumbled upon a blog detailing those who are facing court martial and other trials for various reasons.

Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Indian Army Courtmartial and Dishonourable discharge: Current List of Officers under a cloud

Anyway, since I am talking about our judiciary I think it is time something similar (or is there one?) is implemented before the entire system collapses. Those in the judiciary themselves are calling for action and hence it is imperative that something is done.

As for declaring assets which I had mentioned in an older post, we do have good news:

Madras HC Judge declares assets

STAFF WRITER 17:15 HRS IST

Chennai, Nov 9 (PTI) Amid a debate over declaration of assets by judges, Justice K Chandru of the Madras High Court declared his assets at the time of being sworn in as a permanent judge today.

Justice Chandru, who was among 14 additional judges to be sworn in as permanent judges, said he was "starting a new convention" of declaring assets at the time of swearing in.

He handed over an envelope, containing details of his assets along with that of his wife and minor daughter, immediately after being sworn in by Chief Justice H L Gokhale.

The court has a strength of 54 judges, including the 14 sworn in today against the sanctioned strength of 60 which includes the Madurai bench.

SC judges declare assets on website
Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN 3 November 2009, 03:20am IST

NEW DELHI: Two months after the Supreme Court, faced with demands and growing pressure from within, resolved to make public the assets and liabilities of its judges, the details were put up on its official website.

The significant step towards transparency was marked by some surprise revelations — one of the judges doesn’t own even a two-wheeler, while another has a Yamaha motorcycle as his sole vehicle. There are details of land, houses, investments in shares and flats as well. ( See Ninan’s cartoon )

SMS and SMS

SMS and win or SMS and make another win.....

For the mobile providers and their partners in business the above was a very brilliant idea which continues to reap harvest after harvest.

I am yet to waste my SMS but yesterday Hubby’s interest was caught by the cricket match (the one that was lost to Aussies) and I got to see yet another such call on TV. I believe it was the Bindaas Khel by the Indiatimes (Times Group) whereby one could win the following prizes by answering a few questions and these answers are to be SMS’d at premium rates.

Daily Prizes: Daily 5- Gold worth Rs. 1,000 each

Bumper Prize: Bumper- Gold worth Rs. 125,000

The site does give enough warnings and disclaimers which take out every kind of responsibility and those who indulge in messaging can do so even if they have closed the contest before a winner is even announced.

TIL expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. Neither does TIL make any warranty that the items / products made available under the contest will meet your requirements, or the delivery of the item / product will be timely, secure, nor is TIL responsible for any damages done in transit.

TIL reserves the rights to terminate / suspend the Contest at any time and/or withdraw, or extend the Contest without any prior notice and no correspondence in this regard shall be entertained.

If the above is in hope of winning a prize for oneself there is yet another by the Reality TV shows where your SMS will decide the winner (so they claim).

The one from Kerala called Idea Star Singer (Asianet Channel along with Idea Cellular Limited) has been very successful and continues to keep millions glued onto their televisions sets and many among them faithfully send their SMS too. This year’s grand prize will be a Rs 1 crore villa.

Is it the love for art or a personal desire to make the contestant win that makes a person part with an SMS?

I am sure there are individuals and groups sending their requests to friends and co-workers (I myself have received emails) for a particular contestant and this may eventually influence the decisions of many.

Whether it is out of selfish interest or selfless interest, it has been proved beyond doubt that enough and more money can be amassed for a cause through SMS.

The below is an excerpt from broadbandindia.com

At the end of Aug-2008, the top 5 GSM Mobile Service Providers in India based on no. of subscribers are,

• Bharti Airtel -74.8 mn
• Vodafone - 52.8 mn
• BSNL - 38.5 mn
• Idea Cellular - 29.3 mn
• Aircell - 13.1 mn

If the following news is to be believed,

By 2010 the Number of Mobile Subscribers is Expected to Increase to 348 Million in India!

This set me thinking as to why our NGO’s or even the mobile providers themselves are not teaming up for special projects.

Or have they already?

If one is ready to part with their SMS without much ado won’t a lot more do if a specific cause or a project is featured.

Right now I can think of Projectwhy which could use a lot of help in this manner. Let those who are conducting the business along with the mobile providers take their share, still there should be enough for any project in our country. (Of course one can have the normal checks and balances too.)

But this excericise would also have involved millions in the process of giving for a good cause.

Can Husain return?

I am no artist and if I see a modern painting I would muster all my intelligence and try to match the name of the painting with the artist’s illustration. Most of the time I fail the test. Guess one needs imagination too. Hence personally my adulation would always be for a picture that is straightforward and which can be seen by my own eyes.

I believe an artist sees the world in many different ways and his/her illustrations may or may not strike a chord with the viewers. One may also see something entirely different from what the artist set out to illustrate.

Anyway this is not about paintings. But because of my ignorance about artists and paintings I never knew that 94 year old M F Husain has been living in exile (in Dubai) for the past few years.

Did India really sent an artist away from his country of birth for his paintings?

Wikipedia gave the following:

One of the most highly rated artists in the world today, his work sells at astonishing prices and are grabbed almost instantly by international art collectors.

According to Forbes magazine, he has been called the "Picasso of India".[1]

At the age of 92 Husain was to be given the prestigious Raja Ravi Varma award by the government of Kerala.[10]

In early 2008, Husain’s Battle of Ganga and Jamuna: Mahabharata 12, a large diptych, from the Hindu epic, fetched $1.6 million, setting a world record at Christie's South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art sale.[3]

Unfortunately the higher in stature he grew, the bigger the controversies too. Every religious / patriotic sensibility seems to have been battered by this frail old man.

In the 1990s some of Husain's works became controversial because of their portrayal of Hindu deities in the nude or in an allegedly sexual manner.[12]. The paintings in question were created in 1970, but did not become an issue until 1996, when they were printed inVichar Mimansa, a Hindi monthly magazine, which published them in an article headlined "M.F. Husain: A Painter or Butcher".

Husain's film Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities[26] was pulled out of movie theatres a day after some Muslim organisations raised objections to one of the songs in it.[27] The All-India Ulema Council complained that the Qawwali song ‘Noor-un-Ala-Noor’ was blasphemous.

And now he wants to return to India as per this report.

Centre plans to pave way for M F Husain's early return

Is the stage set for the next political drama?

2 Americans, Israeli win Nobel chemistry prize

2 Americans, Israeli win Nobel chemistry prize

Trio’s work is ‘directly assisting the saving of lives,’ academy says

STOCKHOLM - Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz and Israeli Ada Yonath won the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for mapping ribosomes, the protein-producing factories within cells, at the atomic level.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their work has been fundamental to the scientific understanding of life and has helped researchers develop antibiotic cures for various diseases.

Crtsy: MSNBC

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As the name suggests...Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is an Indian but it needed America to make him shine....and also to claim his success...

Venki Ramakrishnan

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan wins Nobel for Chemistry

London, Oct 7 (PTI) Tamil Nadu-born Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, a senior scientist at the MRC Laborartory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009 along with two others, the Nobel Committee announced today.

Born in 1952 in Chidambaram, Ramakrishnan shares the Nobel prize with Thomas E Steitz (US) and Ada E Yonath (Israel) for their "studies of the structure and function of the ribosome".

Ramakrishnan earned his B.Sc. in Physics (1971) from Baroda University and his Ph.D. in Physics (1976) from Ohio University.

He moved into biology at the University of California, San Diego, where he took a year of classes, then conducted research with Dr Mauricio Montal, a membrane biochemist.

Indians have the brains, the will and determination but yet the factor for success in India seems to have left its shores..

Thekkady too...

It is just not right... a place frequented by so many tourists cannot be such.

Who lets them be so careless?

After every tragedy, we have shocks & tears and then we have commissions, reports and experts. Yet nothing changes. Precious lives are lost for no reason.

They say that boat capsized since the tourists moved to one side of the boat to watch the wild animals. And experts say that even if every person moves to one side, a boat meant for such trips should not capsize. I heard one survivor say on TV that it was not because the people went on one side, but that the boat turned over while the driver was taking a turn to let the tourists from both sides watch the animals. Whatever be the reason, those who came to a tourist spot to enjoy their holidays, honeymoon, school trips have been let down very badly and Kerala is mourning yet again. Having been on those boat trips many times and twice in Year 2008, I have seldom seen the boats being packed tightly. Only after the lower decks were full would they allow us to enter the upper decks and I read that for every two person in the lower deck, one person is allowed in the upper deck to keep the balance of the boat. Since I grew up in a place not far away and since as children we used to make these trips many times, never in my life time have I heard about an accident at Thekkady. The drivers have always been careful and they know the place well.

I think over the years the number of tourists has grown but sadly the authorities have not grown up in time. There were not enough life jackets and I think this particular boat was not tested right. We heard the current Chairman of KTDC (Kerala Tourism Development Corporation) say that this new boat was built in Chennai and that it had the necessary license but was it right for Thekkady?

As usual, we now read that the Safety Inspectors have not been inspecting right. And now we will have commissions and enquiries and reports. Enough and more money will be spent on these exercises while no concrete steps will be taken to prevent more such accidents.

Sadly Thekkady has now lost its innocence and many like me and my family will not dare make a boat trip in Thekkady.. but does the authorities care?