Reading Between the Lines - 30 - India disappoints yet again

TOI: 26-10-2010: Pakistan world's 34th most corrupt nation

P's C:

After a bribe-fest of a CWG, India still lags way behind Pakistan in the list of most corrupt countries in the world. Pakistan, with almost negligible opportunities of a CWG scale bonanza that allows for all-round embezzlement, still scored way ahead of India, and is proud to be the 34th most corrupt nation on earth.

India came a dismal 84th, and has to beat 83 more countries to become the coveted title-holders of Corruption. However, politicians like Sharad Pawar and Kalmadi have assured the masses that they will do their level best to ensure that we reach the top before they flop.

Reading Between the Lines - 29 - Supreme Scam

Times of India, 26-10-2010: Satyam scam: SC cancels Raju's bail

P's C: Supreme Court of India has condescended to continue the national tradition of offering bails to only politicians and policemen by cancelling bails to Satyam founder Raju and co. While rescinding the AP High Court's order, the Supreme Court clearly chastised the lowly High Court by clarifying that Raju was not criminalized enough for bail. With this, the Court has definitely reinforced the common's main faith in the politicians' judiciary.

Reading Between the Lines - 28 - Arundhati's absurdities

The Hindu 25-10-2010: Kashmir was never integral part of India: Arundhati

P's C: Her eminence, Arundhati Roy, international know-all and mother of Indian geopolitics, has declared that Kashmir was never a part of India. Arundhati who is qualified in architecture to know everything about everything has declared that Kashmir should be free and is part of India's colonial instincts.

The self-declared last arbiter of history, who is Indian by accident, will also announce shortly that India is a part of China. Indians can respond by showing her the door to Pakistan.

Why did we even celebrate the success of this Indian passport holder?

Father Teresa - Vote for him!

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

Narayanan Krishnan, all of 29 years old now, does what he was professionally trained to do as a chef. Feed people. Only Krishnan does not do this in the swanky confines of a 5-star hotel. Every day, he wakes up at 4 am, cooks a simple hot meal and then, along with his team, loads it in a van and travels about 200 km feeding the homeless in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Krishnan feeds, often with his hands, almost 400 destitute people every day. And for those who need it, he provides a free haircut too.

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

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

Krishnan is the only Indian in a list of 10 heroes that CNN has picked worldwide to honour. One of them will be chosen CNN Hero of the Year, selected by the public through an online poll. If many Indians get together to vote for this inspiring man, he can win by a long mile. If Krishnan wins he will get $100,000 in addition to the $25,000 that he gets for being shortlisted for the Top 10. Akshaya Trust needs all the monetary support it can get to build on Krishnan's dream. Let's help him get there.

Vote for Krishnan here. (http://heroes.cnn.com/vote.aspx) The poll continues through November 18 at 6 a.m. ET.

Note: Entire post is reproduced from NDTV. I have blogged on Krishnan before albeit, if I remember correctly.

International insult to China

Nobel Foundation insults China with Peace price for Liu Xiaobo

China is outraged with Norway and the Nobel Foundation for honouring Liu Xiaobo for his crimes against inhumanity with the Nobel Prize for peace. Liu Xiaobo is currently facing criminal charges in his home country for inciting peace, in addition to other inhuman rights violations. Also, Liu's wife is currently under house arrest for being Liu's wife.

Although we are at least a generation behind China, there are some things in India worth shouting about. And imprisonment of speech isn't one of them.

Eating arrogant pie

Indian cricketers have been forced to eat arrogant pie after defeating Australia in this Test series. Already uncomfortable with the status of No. 1 test playing country in the world, India is having to face the humiliation of maintaining the widest margin in points among the top three teams.

Mighty Australia is on top from bottom, the first time in their history they have achieved this feat.

Reading Between the Lines - 27 - Idols represent the appropriate ideology

Xinhuanet, 08-10-2010: Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga named as "World's Most Powerful Women"

P's C: Womankind has asserted herself and her equality with Mankind by including highly influential global socio-political policy makers like Lady Gaga and Beyonce in the list of World's Most Powerful Women for the year 2010. Lady Gaga, well-known for her micro-economic model for social development and her meat-clothing, truly seems to represent the advances made by womankind over the past zillions of years.

Similarly, the powerful physicist Beyonce, who postulated the Bing Bang and near-naked strutting, is also on the list, which Forbes compiled "based less on traditional titles and roles and more on creative influence and entrepreneurship."

Reading Between the Lines - 26 - India fails to impress doomsayers

The Hindu, 08-10-2010: India springs a surprise on Australia

P's C: India springs a surprise on itself.

By successfully managing to retain 50% of volunteers for the CWG, staging a successful inauguration, and even winning a serious number of golds, India has surpassed its own expectations of itself. Negative-sell and over-perform.

Flash news: Pakistan passes 07-10-2010 without single bomb blast

Real News: Pakistan passes 07-10-2010 without single bomb blast

The Ammunition-friendly Republic of Pakistan quite strangely passed 7th October, 2010, without a single bomb-blast on the streets of Karachi or a tanker explosion over the Khyber Pass.

Regretting the incident-free day, both the government and your friendly neighbourhood insurgents have assured that such aberrations will never take place again. True to their word, they have quietly blown up a few moving cars in Peshawar, as of 7.00 AM GMT, 08-10-2010.

Where do we start?

I have of late been trying to review certain procedures in the company, and have realized that the older you get, the less willing you are to toy with something new. We have such deeply entrenched ideas in mind, that nothing new will be worth even thinking about.

Unfortunately, we will never explore new ideas, because we don't like new ideas in the first place. And because we don't like new ideas, we will never explore them. Convenient cycle.

Similar to spirituality probably. Few people are courageous enough to explore a new spiritual path, because 95% of the population thinks it's stupid. And because 95% of the people think it's stupid, we will not explore any new path.