Lakshmi smiles on Lisa Blue

So, what do we have here?...an Australian spring/summer swimwear collection...
...professional models...cheeky, colourful, glitzy patterns and bold, stylish cuts...

BLKI

Doesn't hurt to throw in the quickest surefire route into headlines worldwide:
Make a garment out of man made images of man's favourite imaginary friend. 

For the record, Lakshmi is smiling.  Don't believe me?
Click the photograph to zoom in on the pretty lady's breasts.

BLKI

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An Alaskan Native American and a Desi Indian talk Ayodhya court case over Twitter

Current News India

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Modi, Aarushi, 2G, CWG: Unresolved Controversies Fatigue Rant [Update]

• 1: SIT submits report on Modi's role during the Gujarat riots
• 2: SC questions CBI over it's U-turn on Aarushi murder
• 3: Kanimozhi, Raja, DMK TV chief got Rs 200 crore bribe from DB: CBI
  
• 4: Kalmadi ends up in jail; accused of favoring Swiss company Omega

The common thread through the headlines today appears to be my own reaction.

I can't say I've read past every single headline on every single twist and turn for the past n number of years on the Gujarat riots or the Aarushi Talwar double murder case or the 2G telecom spectrum scam or the 2010 CWG scam.

But ah sure am gettin' tired'f readin'th headlyines, said PC in her best Scotty McCreery impersonation.

What does one take for unresolved controversies fatigue syndrome anyhow?  The red pill?

Which pill shall I take?
Source:Adam Kalel

Cue Morpheus.  Yes, Morpheus, I know you can only offer me the truth and nothing more. You see, the thing is, that's really all I want.  And don't worry about me so much! I already promised Col Jessop I can handle the truth.

Com'on now.  Can a blogger get some fresh blood around here?  Calling all attention-seeking-hoping-to-get-caught potential criminal minds.  Now's your time.  You serve it up.  I'll read it.

Disclaimer: Really? I need to write a disclaimer because some of you might accuse me of condoning future criminal activity? Really?

Update: Just what I suspected.  Don't expect justice for 13 year old Aarushi anytime soon.  According to an U.K based expert criminologist's opinion on the Aarushi Talwar double murder case, (the) "opportunity to collect crucial unadulterated evidence was missed. Unless fresh evidence comes to light, doubts will linger."  Thank you for taking the time, Deen Najubudeen.

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Did Narendra Modi order the Code Red? I want the truth! [Update]

Police officer Sanjiv Bhatt says he attended a meeting at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's house on February 27, 2002.

During this meeting, Modi allegedly asked the police to go easy on rioting mobs tearing apart Muslim owned shops and residences in revenge for the massacre of 59 Hindu passengers on Sabarmati Express known as the infamous Godhra incident.  Bhatt was Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence (DCP) at the time.

Both Modi and Bhatt's ex boss, former Director General Police (DGP) K. Chakravarti, say Bhatt did not attend this meeting.

Bhatt's ex driver, Tarachand Yadav remembers driving him to and back from this half hour meeting.

Who is lying?  Who is fudging facts?  Is Bhatt credible?  Why did the SIT reject and leak Bhatt's testimony to high ranking Gujarat government officials?

Did Bhatt go to the meeting?  Did Bhatt go to the CM's house but stay outside the room?  Did Bhatt hear Modi give the orders with his own ears or did somebody inside the meeting tell him seconds later?  Same difference?  Not quite. Did that somebody misunderstand Modi's words?  Did that somebody fib?

Colonel Jessop, Did you order the Code Red?
Source: Moviedb

Did Narendra Modi order the Code Red?  I don't want to speak for all Indians, partisan and otherwise, but I want the truth.  And yes, either way, I can handle it.

Update. Days later, a jailed IAS officer backs up Bhatt's claims on Modi's anti-minority stance during the Gujarat riots through his own independent experience.  The plot thickens.

Update. On May 23, Sanjiv Bhatt named Modi and Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah tried to influence him prior to his deposition to the Supreme Court appointed SIT.

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Supreme Court: "No honour in honour killing"

The Supreme Court unequivocally declared the infamous informal village councils of rural India known as "khap panchayats", that order honour killings of men and women who marry outside their caste, religion or community or simply dare to marry against their parents' wishes, "wholly illegal" yesterday.

A two member bench of the Supreme Court said, "There is nothing honourable in honour killing or other atrocities and, in fact, it is nothing but barbaric and shameful murder. Other atrocities in respect of the personal lives of people committed by brutal, feudal-minded persons deserve harsh punishment."

Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra directed state governments to immediately suspend the concerned Superintendent-Police and District Magistrate if they fail to take action to prevent the crime if they received prior intimation of the crime or make prompt arrests after the crime.

The bench directed a copy of the judgement be circulated to the entire nation's police and civil administration from the Chief Secretary and Director General-Police to the level of DM and SSP/SP as well as to all High Court judges.

The Supreme Court has done its part to tackle this heinous crime of warped "morality".  Now it's over to the state governments and judiciary system to continue the top-down attack on foggy feudal mindsets.

Source: Law is greek

It's no news that the twisted practice of honour killing is an act of acute intolerance primarily against women from conservative societies worldwide, even if they no longer live in that conservative society.  The UN Population Fund estimates around 5,000 women die in this way every year worldwide, the vast majority in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

In India, incidents from Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Bihar rock the nighttime news with alarming frequency but in actuality, most cases across the country go unreported or unproven for lack of witnesses and evidence.

If the sarpanch had not informed the police and if the man had not confessed, this would have been the story of the most recent case of the convicted rapist who returned from prison only to kill his aunt and another widow in the name of family honour in Bhiwani district, Haryana just last Sunday night.  Apparently the entire village was "not home" when it happened.

Man. What an ego God gave you in his infinite wisdom.  This proves either God is not a woman or free will and the male ego just don't mix.

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Talking about Anna Hazare, corruption, spirituality, religion, civil society, livelihoods, and democracy; Just how much snark is good for you?

Source: The Hindustan Times

Now that a 72 year old man is not fasting unto death, skeptics feel emboldened to snark at the spiritually slanted and RSS tinged anti-corruption protests initiated by those obnoxiously self righteous civil society types and embraced by those jingoistic roly-poly urban middle class couch potato types.  Other reports point out, through first person interviews, that for the poor, livelihood is a bigger fight than corruption

To the first view, I say, corruption is a bigger common fight than religious or spiritual grounding in this multi-cultural secular nation of ours.  At this point, this particular people's movement does not merit squabbles over tone and the type of public figures lending their support to the cause. 

To take on a duly elected government over a watchdog issue like this, one has to build genuine mass momentum through any and all means possible.  Do you know how difficult it is to create the ideal set of conditions to allow the maximum number of people to join a cause they already believe in?  If you believe in this cause, how can you object to timely endorsements from massively popular spiritual leaders?  Anna Hazare extended an open invitation to anyone and everyone who shared this value to join him in body and spirit at Jantar Mantar.  If we are serious about turning motivation and effort into results this time, how can we criticize the people who answered this call?  Don't forget, government only listens when it can hear you.

To the second view, I say, you've got the wrong goggles on.  How does one expect a 12 year old boy working at a juice shop a kilometre from Jantar Mantar to know anything more than his immediate world?  In India, the poor fight and lose the battle with corruption every day to eke out any sort of livelihood, whether they know it or not.  Everybody lives within the reality of the world with which we are presented.  What Anna Hazare is trying to do, is to change that reality for all of us.  Can't you just do me a favour, and let him do you this favour?

I submit, both of these views are too narrow to adequately capture more than a tentacle or two of the multi-headed multi-armed beast that sucks a billion bloodstreams.  There are many forces that divide us and very few that truly unite us.  If you've read my blog (or the last line of the previous paragraph), you know I love snark. And when it comes to civil society, I'm all for scrutiny and caution and even a certain amount of suspicion. But for the love of all that is constructive and hopeful, please, don't tear down a rare, delicate, national concurrence.  Not on corruption.  Not now.

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Does Narendra Modi know what the letters NGO stand for?

SEWA logo

This one is irksome and unsurprising.

The latest Indian cablegate news is that the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat tried to encroach upon SEWA, the Ahemadabad headquartered globally reputed award winning multi-faceted women's non government organisation, in order to "disseminate communal ideologies" to their six hundred thousand members all across the state.  When the NGO resisted, its grants were held up over "financial irregularities", delaying payment for over five months to 12,000 poor members.

In a September 2005 cable, U.S. Consul General Micheal S. Owen recalls his meeting with SEWA general secretary Reemaben Nanawati.  Nanawati explains that SEWA strongly resisted pressure from the state government because communal harmony is crucial for the work of the trade union and self help group and  characterizes the state government's reaction as "vindictive".

Sigh.  Do you think, in our lifetime, we shall see the day Indian state governments stop treating the poor as their personal territory and start celebrating instead of interfering with the work of large successful NGOs?  I don't.  Why?  Two words: Vote bank.  Do I really need to spell it out to you?  No?  Good.

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Why I detest organized religion

When I first heard this news, I was too sickened to read the article for several hours.  It's a familiar tiny hard knot of rage and frustration mixed with heartbreak and anguish in my gut.  I get it every time I hear an innocent died because of the deep disrespect an idiot showed to another idiot over said idiot's imaginary friend - take your pick on which idiot.

"Islam is of the Devil?" Source: Suite101.com/ Menno weekly review - Scott Camil

Internationally reviled Christian preacher Terry Jones who thinks "Islam is of the Devil" looks good on tee shirts and mugs and caps and book titles, sneaked in a Quran burning in front of a small crowd of less than 30 at a church in Florida on March 20, 2011, six months after he promised to heed six billion people who warned him not to turn September 11, 2010 into Burn the Quran Day.  "We will definitely not burn the Quran, no," he said on NBC's Today Show.  "Not today, not ever."

Predictably, this bait and switch act of incomprehensible and indefensible stupidity was met with a dignified silence from the Muslim community in the United States but angered many others worldwide, including the Pakistan government, arguably the single most important strategic ally of the U.S. government in the "war on terror" for as long as the American people choose to blindly bless duplicitous corruption with tax dollars from their grandchildren.  Sadly, it also provoked armed insurgents in a crowd of protesters in the northern region of Afghanistan to kill 20 U.N. employees, killing eight foreigners and beheading two. 

Terry Jones got what he wanted and what he knew was coming.  Might I suggest, he burn and rot in hell.  Thank you, suspended New York City Christian school teacher.  If I didn't have my own blog, I might be venting this rant on your crazy website.

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India snubs Palin to protest racial profiling at American airports

Well, well, well.  Look who's standing up for her people, even if it took some high profile incidents with celebrities and elite dignitaries to draw attention to the matter. More power to you, Government of India.

Source: Palingates

So, as 99.95% of India's population (which works out to 1.183 billion people going by CIA World Factbook July 2011 estimates, if anybody's interested) does not know, Tea Party darling Sarah Palin came knocking at our door this week.

Indian weekly independent magazine, Tehelka is now reporting the American Embassy in Delhi requested the Ministry of External Affairs to accord her trip to India, to give a paid speech at the behest of a private media group, elevated official status equivalent to a central government minister.  The ministry declined as a mark of protest for racial profiling and unwarranted airport security checks for Hindus and Sikhs dressed in turbans and sarees, some of whom turn out to be top diplomats or anybody with a Muslim name, some of whom turn out to be international film stars or former Presidents.

With India, the second most populated country in the world, hardening her position in support of expatriates and citizens traveling worldwide, it's hard to believe the choke-hold of organized religion will ease up anywhere, anytime soon, no matter what experts say.

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