Why I am leaving

Zafar:

Boss you are from Delhi. You should know that Bhajan has a very different connotation in Delhi, such as BH----OD ETC.

Oh yeah, and Pornos are known as ``Dharmik Picture``

As in, at the video store in Defance Cloney (Punjabi accent)

`` Bhai Saab, oye aapkey paas koi Dharmik Picture paddi hai?``

Video Store Guy, `` Nahi ji, woh A Block, #311 mey jo ladki rehti hai, woh ley gayee thee, abhi tak wapas nahi ayee``

Customer (eyes bulging out, tongue salivating) `` Hain, oye, bhe---od, oye yaar aaj kal ladiyan bhi dharmik picture dekhti hai? Kya zamana aa gaya hai?``

Reply RSaxena #361

“Don`t be sure about India`s railways being any better. Last I checked they were marginally better than urinals on wheels. (Madrasis insist on spreading rice and yoghurt all over the place instead of sticking to less messy food, Biharis will spit paan wherever they can, sardars will throw ALL their food around and take up a few extra spaces, and the brahmins will insist on a bath in the toilet which wasn`t meant for a bath!) I don`t mean to offend anyone but this is the truth...hardly anyone in India has civic sense.”

Bhai, you forgot me. I can be found killing chickens on the steps into the carriage. Now the picture is closer to complete.

Reply Stuka #363

“I am Muslim? Arrey yaar, I am not even a contributing member of my own religion, why am I expected to take on a new one?”

You want a reason? Punishment! See, you should have sung more bhajans, but since you were lackadaisical…

stuka:#363

Thank you for a light-hearted humorous reply.

& this despite your INSism status?Despair not,the Boulevard of broken promises also sometimes appear heavenly.

``Zahid e khushk ney uksar mujhey kafir jaana

Aur kafir yeh samajhtaa hai,musalmaan hoon mein``:)

wassalaam.

On this independence day, stop debating and DO

something for your nation

http://www.workanhour.com

On this independence day, spot debating and DO

something for your nation

http://www.workanhour.com

For all those inflicted with INSism - pls check out Consular Processing - I can tell you this much - this is the pill for all your ills ! No thanks ness and may the force ....!

aicha

Stuka

``My religion is called INSism``

Phir to aap bade kaam ke aadmi hain :-).

hamidm #362 Agreeed that in many ways India is moving in the right direction and we are not (democracy having survivied, GNP growing more rapidly). My point simply is - the streets are just as hard and smelly and noisy for folks who use them as bedrooms in Delhi as in Lahore or Dhaka. None of them is going to lose the characteristics of a an overcrowded third world city in the next 30 years. Trust me, I have been to all three. They all have pockets of affluence (I have never seen more smartly dressed ladies, or more sparkling floors and bathrooms, in a Mickey D`s than the one at Lahore where I was last May). But those are a tiny minority. I am talking about the unwashed ``masses`` as they are contemptuosly referred to by their better off brethren in these cities. Now why this comparison should annoy you I dont understand.

``Don`t be sure about India`s railways being any better. Last I checked they were marginally better than urinals on wheels. (Madrasis insist on spreading rice and yoghurt all over the place instead of sticking to less messy food, Biharis will spit paan wherever they can, sardars will throw ALL their food around and take up a few extra spaces, and the brahmins will insist on a bath in the toilet which wasn`t meant for a bath!) I don`t mean to offend anyone but this is the truth...hardly anyone in India has civic sense.``

Yes Yes, and RSaxena sits in a corner, eating with fork and knife ;)

Just kidding, my man Don`t be that harsh on the Indian Railways. I spent my whole life travelling by train. First class/ AC SLEEPER when I was with my family, BUT 2ND CLASS unreserved, all through my student years. Things aren`t that bad. My longest train journey was from Trivandrum to Delhi, and it was great talking to all the faujis of the Madras regiment heading back to Kashmir after their leave.

Farangi Kush / Zafar:

I am Muslim? Arrey yaar, I am not even a contributing member of my own religion, why am I expected to take on a new one?

My religion is called INSism. In this religion I pray 5 times a day by calling the INS hotline and seeing if my case file has moved...Salvation comes in degrees...F1, OPT, H1B, LCA, I-140, I-485 etc etc...

tahmed

``You ignore my point about the cleavage between the fortunate (folks like you and others on chowk) and the less fortunate (those spending their days and nights on the grimy streets of Lahore and Dhaka and Delhi). You ignore my point that this is a more significant cleavage than political boundries. ``

.......... no, i do not ignore your point - it is marginally true ...but, the political gulf, which is growing between india and pakistan, is far more significant than the cleavage between the rich and the poor within the countries .......... what i object to is the comparison between lahore and dhaka and delhi .... delhi has been moving in the right direction; dhaka, if you believe the human development statistics, has started to move in the right direction; lahore, on the other hand has definitely been moving in the opposite direction for the last decade or so ......and it it so much the physical deterioration of the lahore railway station or main street heera mandi that bothers me, it is the deterioration in the culture, the political and business climate and the outlook of the people that is depressing .........the economic gap can be closed very quickly if you are pointed in the right direction, as india is .... it is an impossible task if your head is screwed on backwards or stuck in the sand .............

sadna #354 Thanks for the explanation.

Messiah Musharraf on PID:

``It is a matter of satisfaction (for me) that from August 14 this year, the nation would embark upon a new era where (we/I) can take genuine pride in accomplishing the monumental task of empowering (me and) the people of Pakistan at grassroots level.

`` The devolution of power plan and structural reforms undertaken by the government would do away with the vestiges of colonialism and restore public confidence in the system,``he said, adding: ``Henceforth, the people of Pakistan would be master of their own destiny(and ``I`` will be the MASTER of ALL).

Here is a view what this erratic ``era`` may mean for Pakistan:

New journey or a step backward!

By Fahim Zaman Khan(Dawn)

Excerpts:

People at the helm of affairs in Islamabad seem to forget that Pakistan was created as a federation of four contracting states, previously part of undivided India. Those states became the four provinces, with Balochistan joining the federation late as the fifth province.

In October 1999 when Gen Pervez Musharraf became the chief executive, another National Reconstruction Bureau was set up, headed by Lt-Gen Tanvir Naqvi. The devolution plan of Gen Naqvi has striking similarities with Gen Burki`s Basic Democracy. The original NRB divided Karachi into 94 union committees whereas the city has been divided into 178 union councils under the devolution plan. In the 1960s, chairmen of the union committees formed the KMC house whereas Nazims of the union councils form the district government house, under the devolution plan.

We lost half of the country due to the One-Unit system and Basic Democracy.

The present plan, much wider in scope, sends chill through society. It pounds across the civil institutions, sparing only the ones under military establishment.The bureau also avoids touching properties and assets under the Cantonment Act of 1924.

Everything else, including provincial government, has been ruthlessly amputated and re-arranged, leaving six of the 20 departments previously held.

The 1848 Municipal Act gave a choice to the subjects of the British East India Company for accepting municipal taxes in exchange for municipal services.

The devolution plan allows some administrative independence but without meaningful financial resources for the districts, with heavily taxed residents.

The actual fund transfer has been lower than the promised matching grant in lieu of the abolished octroi and zila tax. Even if the `property tax` is also transferred, in the absence of monies from the octroi and zila tax, survival shall be very difficult for the resource-starved district governments.

Provincial finance commissions have yet to be finalized. Transfer of the two-thirds of provincial establishment cost shall only add to the pains, making the districts eventually dependant on the federal government.

The ultimate financial bankruptcy of the local governments shall culminate in countrywide urban anarchy.

That anarchy may be compounded by the world-shattering changes in the civic and provincial setup.

Record of properties, assets, even liabilities shall vanish in the absence of the homework that was required. On the other hand, the wing-clipped province does not necessarily translate the transfer of any political power at the district level.

Section 127 of SLGO, for example, authorizes a displeased provincial chief executive to instruct the IGP and the DCO for appropriate action against the Nazim-i-Aala. It is yet unclear that under the ever-unfolding devolution plan, the future chief executive in the provinces shall be the governor or the chief minister.

A military elite landing accidentally in the country`s driving seat may hardly be mandated for fiddling with the foundations of the social contract of 140 million people.

Structured district government elections ultimately appear to be a re-run of Ayub Khan`s Basic Democracy, obviously not without a hidden agenda. A weakened parliamentary system and shattered provincial autonomy is hardly the remedy for the socio-economic ills of a traumatized people.

This is no journey forward, it is essentially a U-turn.``(Dawn)

Happy Birthday Pakistan. Good Luck

hamidm #352 It is difficult to have a discussion when you ignore what I write and attribute things to me that I do not write. You ignore my point about the cleavage between the fortunate (folks like you and others on chowk) and the less fortunate (those spending their days and nights on the grimy streets of Lahore and Dhaka and Delhi). You ignore my point that this is a more significant cleavage than political boundries. You then go on to say that ``we pakis take a lot of perverted comfort in thinking that the horrible hindoos are in the same boat as us`` when I have never said anything like this on chowk and indeed have always maintained that prosperity in India is ultimately to everybody`s benefit - including Pakistanis, including the rest of the world.

I can only conclude that you have as closed a mind as the Pakis you routinely stereotype and ridicule.

Re: hamidm

``most of our institutions including the railways, schools and universities, army and brothels are in a state of decline .......``

Don`t be sure about India`s railways being any better. Last I checked they were marginally better than urinals on wheels. (Madrasis insist on spreading rice and yoghurt all over the place instead of sticking to less messy food, Biharis will spit paan wherever they can, sardars will throw ALL their food around and take up a few extra spaces, and the brahmins will insist on a bath in the toilet which wasn`t meant for a bath!) I don`t mean to offend anyone but this is the truth...hardly anyone in India has civic sense.