What it means to be me in Corporate America?

#: 93

shankar

dost-mittar,

{{But as long as we have some common racial, saritorial and cultural traits, people are going to mistake one for the other. Just take it in your stride!}}



Shankar

I have seen hindians frown with disdain on being called PAKI .In U.K. you might know all indo pak are called ``paki`` by the conservatives ``Powells``

Moreover it depends ,if you were repeatedly called by Americans as Muslims & Paki & you have that image of Pakistanis as all Taxi Drivers & Indo -Pak Grocers walla right or wrong ,i dont think you will take any kindlier to Pakistanis.

Pakistan may be an independent sovereign country but to a south indian is just as unseen & unknown as NEFA borders Tripura ,Assam or Kashmir .Its not in Indian patriotic duty to hate Pakistan just b/c India had border skirmishes 4 times.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Hey ARJUN_M

What goes up always comes down ...so relax bud dont get HYPER

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=16900403

India slips further down HDI index





TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2002 12:00:59 AM ]



NEW DELHI: At first glance it seems like a setback for India. Having been ranked 115 on the human development index (HDI) of the UNDP?s annual human development report last year, the country occupies the 124th slot this year.

However, UNDP officials said here Wednesday that the rankings are not comparable because the number of countries included in the index have increased.

Last year, 162 countries had been rated whereas this year, the number has increased to 173 countries. Had the number not gone up, India would have actually moved a notch higher, to 114, said Brenda Gael McSweeney, UNDP resident representative in India, at the release function Wednesday. Even then, as is the case now, India would have remained in the category of countries with ??medium human development??.

The HDI, an integral part of the report each year, ranks countries by a composite measure of life expectancy, literacy and income per person.

Leading the pack of 173 countries this year is Norway, followed by Sweden, Canada, Belgium, Australia, and the US. At the bottom of the list is Sierra Leone. In keeping with the theme of this year?s report, ??Deepening democracy in a fragmented world,?? an attempt has been made to assess countries in terms of governance. Noting the importance of politics and human development, the report says: ??Politics is as important to human development as economics.??

Interestingly, the assessment has been done both on the basis of subjective indicators of governance as also objective indicators. On the subjective indicators scale, while India gets a good rating in the civil liberties and political rights arena, it is ranked ??not so good?? where political stability and lack of violence is concerned. Expectedly, the country gets a ??poor?? rating for corruption.

Recognising the fact that the last two decades of the 20th century saw ??dramatic progress in opening up political systems and expanding political freedoms,?? the report says today 140 of the world?s nearly 200 countries hold multi-party elections.

Hey ARJUN_M

Why not let the AMNESTY do its JOB

Amnesty and Indian diplomats trade blows





RASHMEE Z AHMED

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2002 10:17:19 PM ]



LONDON: Just days after the London-based human rights group Amnesty International went public with criticism of the Indian government for failing to grant visas for its researchers to visit Gujarat, Amnesty has accused India of trying to ``cover up state terrorism`` and covering its tracks by ``making up stories``.

``We can think of no other reason to deny us visas, considering Amnesty always does its own research and we have absolutely no one in India who can do our research,`` Amnesty?s Gulia de Ponte told TNN, rejecting the Indian argument that Amnesty had ``legions of local associates in Gujarat, collecting information on their behalf``.

Earlier, Satyabrata Pal, India?s deputy high commissioner had told this paper, ``We have received a request. It has been considered in Delhi. We have told Amnesty that we understand they have local associates who have been acting there and are collecting information on their behalf. And that we do not see over and above that what a few Amnesty researchers from here could do in Gujarat``.

But De Ponte, one of Amnesty?s two London-based researchers who had applied for visas, claimed that ``Indian officials always knew Amnesty was allowed to set up an office in Delhi only on condition that it engaged in no research``.

She admitted that Amnesty was ``in touch with several anti-communalism groups in Gujarat`` but claimed that ``this was limited to phone calls and emails and Amnesty could not take what they say as true till we see it ourselves``.

De Ponte?s comments come as Amnesty?s Indian staff reportedly said they would publish a Gujarat report anyway, based on information from ``secondary sources``.

The bickering about who said what to whom comes within days of eight MPs of Britain?s governing Labour Party announcing that they would travel to Gujarat in October on ``a fact-finding mission``.

The MPs are yet to apply for Indian visas but sources said that it was unlikely they would list ``fact-finding`` as their purpose in visiting India.

Officials dismissed the MPs` declared intention as bluster meant for ``domestic constituency consumption``, especially in strongly Muslim or Gujarati Muslim areas.

Analysts said the MPs? stated intentions and the new row over visas for Amnesty staff underlined the continuing Western interest in violence-scarred Gujarat.

Sources said that Amnesty?s visa applications appeared to have fallen foul of the authorities? stated determination to prevent the Gujarat issue being raked up again at a ``sensitive time, the worst possible time for Amnesty to be visiting``.

But Amnesty?s de Ponte defended her organisation as ``a respected international human rights group, which knows how to conduct itself in a delicate and sensitive situation such as Gujarat``.

De Ponte insisted that ``For research, we would have to travel from here and we always make our intentions clear to a government when we apply for a visa because we are a transparent organisation``.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/

ADVANI GOES ALL OUT IN MODI DEFENCE



FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT New Delhi, July 24: Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani today was out on a limb in the Upper House of Parliament while defending Narendra Modi?s handling of the riots in Gujarat.

?In the last 50 years, I have seen many riots. No chief minister has controlled the riots so ruthlessly and effectively than Modi,? Advani told an outraged Opposition.

He was replying to a brief discussion on Gujarat that was marked by repeated interruptions by the Opposition.

An annoyed Advani said at one point: ?I feel the Opposition does not want to listen to me, they have already made up their minds.?

It was in a way a pointless debate with the government and the Opposition unwilling to yield even an inch. Advani?s reply to the debate was ? not surprisingly ? devoted to defending the Gujarat government. And despite repeated attempts, the Opposition failed to get answers to most of their questions.

The Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Left parties had insisted that the elections in Gujarat could only be held under President?s rule as no one could trust Modi after the post Godhra carnage.

RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav wanted to know if free and fair polls could be conducted under a chief minister who ?engineered the riots in Gujarat?.

However, Advani made it clear that the Centre was in no mood to either remove the chief minister or impose President?s rule. Ironically, the same NDA government is keen to hold the elections in Jammu and Kashmir under Central rule.

?Yes, the elections will be held under Modi. My friends in the Opposition must also know that during this period, the state government held panchayat elections where the turn out was as high as 78 per cent,? Advani said.

The deputy Prime Minister began his reply saying the Centre had acted in the spirit of the resolution passed by the Rajya Sabha on May 6. The Union government had intervened in Gujarat under Article 355, sending out the army, setting up relief camps and gearing the administration to cope with the violence.

Advani went into the details of Centre-state relations and quoted liberally from the Sarkaria Commission report to make the point under what circumstances federal forces can intervene.

He also quoted selectively from the report to drive home that ?while intervention is legally permissible?, it may not be ?politically proper?.

Kapil Sibal of the Congress, however, interrupted Advani to say that the report also stated that the Union had the right to deploy its forces suo motu. ?The Centre did not think it essential to intervene in Gujarat immediately when the situation was going out of hand. Why did the government wait?? he asked. ?Especially when Modi himself was encouraging the atrocities.?

The deputy Prime Minister argued that the Opposition had always tried to make out that the situation in Gujarat was much worse than what it actually was. Immediately after the Godhra massacre, he said, 103 of the 182 Assembly segments were not affected by violence. But it was made out as if the entire state was in flames.

After April, only 22 or 23 Assembly constituencies continued to be prone to the violence.

The Opposition reacted to Advani?s statements with loud protests. ?If you don?t want to listen, I won?t speak,? Advani said.

The leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Manmohan Singh, said: ?We want specific answers. Our charge is that you have a government in Gujarat which is trying to manage the politics of this country by unleashing terror. It is a government which is capitalising on violence. This is our view and you may not agree with us, but are conditions in Gujarat secure enough for the minorities to come and vote??

Advani, certainly, thought so.

Ref scout #: 95

[zafar bhai #90, ``Hey, Scout! Do they still have the Islamabad Café on a very hairy block of 14th NE in DC? (Somewhere north of P.) It’s right next to a housing project and you practically have to be carrying to get there safely, but the food makes it all worth it.``

i have no idea what you`re talking about. i`m not in DC.

is there anyone in DC who can help zafar bhai?]

People in DC generally stay west of 16th Street NorthWEST. 14th Street NW is where the streetwalkers generally hang out and 14th Street NorthEAST MUST be really hairy. One doesn`t venture into NE or SW portions of DC except after putting their affairs in order and saying goodbye to their near and dear ones.

Urstruly, Mullah321, Krashid, hobbyty and a whole host of others looking for proof that Islam is superior to all other religions:

Now there is another famous convert to Islam!

http://www.islamicgarden.com/article1018.html

In the Name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful

Barbie Converts to Islam

The Barbie Doll has always been a controversial figure since she made her debut on the American scene in 1959. She was designed after Ruth Handler, one of the founders of Mattel Toys, took a trip to Europe and stumbled upon the German ``Lili Doll,`` a busty blonde who wore lingerie and was not intended as a toy for young children but as a trinket to be sold to men in bars and other places of ill repute. Inspired, Handler bought the rights to this doll and eventually came up with the Barbie Doll concept, the all-American girl who would have it all: money, looks, career, a fancy sports car and a handsome boyfriend. In addition, it was also the first children`s toy in the history of the country to have been created with an alluring woman`s figure.

In the years since the sale of the first Barbie Doll, many concerns have been raised about the message it conveys to young girls about their own bodies and sense of self-worth. As the US has become more diverse and more conscious about issues related to gender stereotyping, race and weight, we have seen some attempts by Mattel to turn Barbie into a more realistic representation of the all-American woman. For example, there are now Latina and African-American Barbies as well as Barbies who represent various other ethnic groups. And now the latest change: Barbie will get a more realistic figure which includes a larger stomach and a reduced bust size after harsh criticisms from feminist organizations and others who object to the traditional Barbie`s exaggerated curves.

As a child, I never had a Barbie doll and I have never considered buying one for my daughter who is three years old. In making this decision, I have not taken into account the legacy of Barbie`s pornographic origins (which I did not know about until recently), or even the controversy surrounding her trim figure. It is just something that I have not thought about...until recently, that is, when my parents bought a Barbie as a gift for my daughter: not just any Barbie but a Princess Barbie, complete with a pink sequinned ballroom gown, shiny jewelry and all the trimmings. Needless to say, my daughter loved it.

Within seconds, however, the questions started about the doll`s low-cut, sleeveless dress. Why is her chest showing? Why aren`t her arms covered? As Muslims, we have always taken care to teach our children about modest dress for men and women both and I could see the wheels spinning in my daughter`s head as she began to suspect that this doll did not reflect a proper image of Islamic modesty. She herself does not wear short sleeves so I was not surprised at all to see her concerned about her new doll. Not exactly sure how to react without over-reacting, my son saved me with a question of his own: Where`s this doll`s hijab? (The term hijab refers to the Islamic dress of Muslim women and is often used in reference to the headscarf in paricular. You may read more about it here.)

And that`s what gave me the idea to transform Barbie into a Muslim woman. Within minutes, I found a piece of material which I sewed in order to make a long, free-flowing hijab which served to conceal the doll`s hair as well as her shapely figure. Her chest was no longer exposed and suddenly Barbie had a completely different look. My daughter really loved this and said we should name this new Muslima Fatimah, the name of her best friend. She then took Fatimah and began playing with her, taking care to keep her hijab in place as she introduced her new friend to her other toys and dolls.

I have always thought of Barbie as just another doll and I was not at all offended by this gift from my parents which was a kind gesture on their part. At the same time, I think it is important to make sure that a girl`s dolls reflect the values which are being taught in the home because these dolls are used in intense pretend-play which include role playing: this Barbie doll, for example, is likely to be a mother, a sister and a peer to my daughter as she thinks up different games to play with her and it gives her a sense of security to have a doll which can be all of these things without having to reconcile the unsettling fact that her cleavage is exposed.

Others are ahead of me in the desire to give Muslim girls an Islamic alternative to Barbie: check out the Razanne Doll, a collection of five dolls who wear Islamic dress. Razanne means Islamic beauty and modesty.

This guy PERRY is snooping around sniffing Indias behind after being assaulted threatened & denied Visa ......

Asia

Killing for `Mother` Kali

It was at most a fringe practice, but a spate of ritual killings in India shows that human sacrifice lives on

BY ALEX PERRY ATAPUR

http://a740.g.akamai.net/f/740/606/1d/image.pathfinder.com/time/asia/magazine/2002/0729/human_sacrifice.jpg

PRASHANT PANJIAR/LIVEWIRE IMAGES FOR TIME

For the magic to work, the killing had to be done just right. If the goddess were to grant Khudu Karmakar the awesome powerAsia

Killing for `Mother` Kali

It was at most a fringe practice, but a spate of ritual killings in India shows that human sacrifice lives on

For the magic to work, the killing had to be done just right. If the goddess were to grant Khudu Karmakar the awesome powers he expected from a virgin`s death, the victim had to be willing, had to know what was happening, watch the knife, and not stop it. But even tranquilizers couldn`t lull 15-year-old Manju Kumari to her fate. In his police confession, Karmakar says his wife, daughter and three accomplices had to gag Manju and pin her down on the earthen floor before the shrine. In ritual order, Karmakar wafted incense over her, tore off her blue skirt and pink T shirt, shaved her, sprinkled her with holy water from the Ganges and rubbed her with cooking fat. Then chanting mantras to the ``mother`` goddess Kali, he sawed off Manju`s hands, breasts and left foot, placing the body parts in front of a photograph of a blood-soaked Kali idol. Police say the arcs of blood on the walls suggest Manju bled to death in minutes.

Human sacrifice has always been an anomaly in India. Even 200 years ago, when a boy was killed every day at a Kali temple in Calcutta, blood cults were at odds with a benign Hindu spiritualism that celebrates abstinence and vegetarianism. But Kali is different. A ferocious slayer of evil in Hindu mythology, the goddess is said to have an insatiable appetite for blood. With the law on killing people more strictly enforced today, ersatz substitutes now stand in for humans when sacrifice is required. Most Kali temples have settled on large pumpkins to represent a human body; other followers slit the throats of two-meter-tall human effigies made of flour, or of animals such as goats.

Korea`s Pop Scandal

July 29, 2002/arrow2.gif%20%20 India: Killing for Kali

/arrow2.gif Style: Makeup for Men

arrow2.gif Kicking Back in Nagasaki

lives on. Quite simply, say the faithful?known as tantrics?Kali looks after those who look after her, bringing riches to the poor, revenge to the oppressed and newborn joy to the childless. So far this year, police have recorded at least one case of ritual killing a month. In January, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, a 24-year-old woman hacked her three-year-old son to death after a tantric sorcerer supposedly promised unlimited earthly riches. In February, two men in the eastern state of Tripura beheaded a woman on the instructions of a deity they said appeared in their dreams promising hidden treasures. Karmakar killed Manju in Atapur village in Jharkhand state in April. The following month, police dug up the remains of two sisters, aged 18 and 13, in Bihar, dismembered with a ceremonial sword and offered to Kali by their father. Last week on the outskirts of Bombay, maize seller Anil Lakshmikant Singh, 33, beheaded his neighbor`s nine-year-old son to save his marriage on the advice of a tantric. Said Singh: ``He promised that a human sacrifice would end all my miseries.``

Far from ancient barbarisms that refuse to die, sacrifice and sorcery are making a comeback. Sociologists explain the millions who now throng the two main Kali centers in eastern India, at Kamakhya and Tarapith, as what happens when the rat race that is India`s future meets the superstitions of its past. Sociologist Ashis Nandy says: ``You see your neighbor doing well, above his caste and position, and someone tells you to get a child and do a secret ritual and you can catch up.`` Adds mysticism expert Ipsita Roy Chakaraverti: ``It`s got nothing to do with real mysticism or with spiritualism. It comes down to pure and simple greed.`` Tarapith in particular is a giant building site of new hotels, restaurants and stalls selling plastic swords and postcards of Kali`s severed feet. Judging by the visitors here, Kali appeals to both rich and poor: the rows of SUVs parked outside four-star hotels belong to the ranks of businessmen and politicians lining up with their goats behind penniless pilgrims. (``The blood never dries at Tarapith,`` whispers one villager.)

There are no human sacrifices at the temple these days. But the mystique of ritual killing is so powerful that even those who actually don`t perform it claim to do so. In their camp in the cremation grounds beside the temple, a throng of tantrics tout for business by competing to be as spooky as possible, lining their mud-walled temples with human skulls and telling tall tales of human sacrifice. ``I cut off her head,`` says 64-year-old Baba Swami Vivekanand of a girl he says he raised from birth. ``We buried the body and brought the head back, cooked it and ate it.`` He pauses to demand a $2 donation. ``Good story, no?`` While most of this is innocent, some followers, like Karmakar, are inevitably emboldened to take their quest for power to the extreme. Karmakar, like many others, was caught. But in the dust-bowl villages of India, where superstition reigns and blood has a dark authority, the question is how many other ``holy men`` have found that ultimate power still rests in the murderous magic of a virgin

shankar #92: Your experience as an expert on, ``all things`` continues to amaze me. You have knowledge not only of your own profession, but of military strategy, and now of Pakistani politics. I would like to point you to a comment, I made in a previous reply:

``Unlike many Pakistani journalists who emotionally write about areas in which they have no knowledge (economics, military, constitution, law, etc.), Burki sticks to his areas of expertise.``

Truly knowledgeable people know the limitations of their knowledge, and don`t claim expertise in areas about which they have knowledge. Could I ask you exactly what and how you know anything about the internals of Pakistani politics? Have you been to Gawalmandi, Raja Bazar, Sabzi Mandi, Ghanta Ghar, Tilla Jogian, Kalar Kahar, Landikotal, Gwadar Beach? Have you ever eaten Takht Bai chappal kababs, Benazir Qulfa, PECHS pan, or Kareem`s samosas?

If you have done even one of the above, I will take your comments seriously. Otherwise, you are blowing out of your ear. What you say may turn out to be correct, but that will only be a coincidence.

The second point is in regard to your comments. Could I request you to take the trouble of reading the other person`s reply completely, and controlling your emtion in your own replies. And could you kindly stop assuming that others have some sort of a conspiracy theory behind every reply, and are trying to spin things.

Now to your comments:

``Go ahead, spin this any way you want..it wont change that OBVIOUS fact!!``

I printed an article by Burki. I did not give my own views. Do you even know who Burki is? What would his motivation be for spinning anything. Is he being paid by Musharraf? Could you highlight? Did it ever strike you that he may be honestly giving his own views. You can disagree with him, but why are you accusing him of, ``spinning.`` On what basis?

Also if you feel someone is spinning something, it should be directed at the author of the article. You do not know what my own views are on these amendments, since I have yet to express them. All I have stated is that I find Burki to be quite objective, but that doesn`t mean I agree with everything he states. For example, he does not like the graduation condition, while I support it.

So if you are bent upon accusing me (alongwith Burki, and anyone else who doesn`t see things the way you see them) of, ``spinning,`` at least take the trouble of waiting until I have expressed a view. How can I spin something, when I haven`t even stated a view.

``That; my dear fellow...is done by the Supreme Court of a nation..if the SUPREME COURT of Pakistan can be manipulated by the ever dominant ``saviours of the nation``, the military,...why could`nt the NSC be so manipulated?!``

This is potentially true. I have myself always stated that the Supreme Court should be the upholder of the law in Pakistan. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court hasn`t done that. You have incorrectly pointed out the reason. No one can manipulate the Supreme Court, if it does not allow itself to be manipulated.

Secondly, everyone who has ruled Pakistan has manipulated the Supreme Court, not only the military. The worst incidence being the physical storming of the Supreme Court by Nawaz Sharif`s govt., when the SC was hearing a case against him. I would be interested in your views on this.

The sad part was that the Supreme Court judges, instead of putting Nawaz Sharif in the slammer, itself, conspired against their own Chief Justice and fired him. If the Supreme Court doesn`t respect itself, who else will respect it.

How can democracy work, if the Supreme Court allows itself to be kicked around. Since that has happened, wouldn`t you agree that traditional democracy has seized to exist in Pakistan. You can blame anyone you want, but the fact is true. Without a Supreme Court, there can be no democracy.

Now my own views on the NSC: Some sort of a body is necessary to watch over the BB and NS of the world, when they are elected. The Supreme Court didn`t do it when these guys were in power. Please study BB`s jiyala judges case and NS`s court storming case. Considering the fact that Pakistan was the second most corrupt country in the world in the 90s, one would think the Supreme Court would have prosecuted someone. The Supreme Court was not manipulated by the military in the 90s, ``decade of democracy.`` Was it? Someone else was doing the manipulation, at that time.

So who should watch over the BB and NS, if the Supreme Court is incohoots with every govt. that is in power? (are you familiar with the taped cassettes about the Lahore High Court judges conversations with NS men, regarding BB`s conviction.)

I think there has to be some sort of a NSC. I agree with this. However, I think it should consist of a broader group of people, than currently suggested i.e. President, PM, Chief Ministers, Armed Forces Chiefs, Chief Justice, Privincial Chief Justices, Leader of Opposition, Governers etc. Most of all, it should only be allowed to dismiss the Prime Minister, with a 2/3rd majority, and the whole govt. only by a unanimous vote.

That`s it. It should meet once a month, and that should be its only function.

That should be the only, ``non-democratic`` check on the Prime Minister. Considering the fact that the PM, President, and most of the Chief Ministers will more than likely be from the same party, it would be difficult to get rid of the PM.

Also, I think the President should not have the power to remove the PM, or the Assembly, on his own. He should only be a voting member of the NSC. That is it. He should however have the power to appoint the Chiefs, the Governors, and some other people like the head of NAB, head of State Bank etc. But that too with at least a 50% approval of the members of the NSC.

If you look at Pakistani politics, a member of the ruling party has never (I repeat never) been prosecuted by the Supreme Court for corruption. Primarily because the head of the Ehtesab Beareau is always a puppet of the ruling Prime Minister. Also the first thing the ruling PM does is appoint his own men as the head of Pakistan`s financial institutions. Under such a situation, wouldn`t it make sense to remove the power of appointing the Ehtesab head and financial heads from the PM.

I have stated many times, that the biggest problem with democracy not being established in Pakistan is the cowardly Supreme Court. Unethical and/or cowardly Supreme Court = no democracy (doesn`t matter how many elections you hold). Had the Supreme Court given a decision on NS, when it was stormed, instead of itself firing its own Chief Justice (under the alleged tutelage of Pakistan`s future President and NS friend, Mr. Tarar), Pakistan`s democracy would have progressed by decades.

No one gives power to institutions nor to individuals. They have to stand up and get it. The military, nor anyone else, cannot manipulate institutions, to the degree you are suggesting. They can only do so if the institutions themselves are disorganized, weak, corrupt and fearful.

At the very least, the judges of the Supreme Court can resign, if they are being forced by the military or civilian govt. to do something. No one can stop them from resigning, and they have very good pension plans. Leghari resigned from the Presidentship when NS was trying to influence him. I resigned from the military, as a lowly Captain, when I didn`t agree with something, and I didn`t even have any savings or a pension, or any feudal lands.

India`s Supreme Court, if what you say is correct, has (must have) stood up for its rights, and that is why democracy is established there (I cannot say with certainity, because I do not possess your expertise in the political problems of neighboring countries).

I would like to dig into your reservoir of knowledge on Pakistani politics, and would be interested in your suggestion on how to keep a check on the Prime Ministers of Pakistan, when he/she can and has regularly manipulate the Supreme Court. The only thing I can think of is something like a diluted version of the current NSC.

By the way, the guy who wrote the original Pakistani Consitution of 73 (as a member of Z. Bhutto`s PPP), was on TV, and his ideas were inline with mine, i.e. most of the amendments like joint electorates, more power to provinces, womens` seats etc. are good. The only thing he disagreed with, like me, was that the President is being given more power than necessary. This is the view of Tehrik-i-Insaaf (perhaps the only truly honest political leadership in Pakistan) also, i.e. they feel the President should have some more power, but not too much more, and they support the idea of some sort of an NSC with a sunset clause of ten years.

But, of course, Mr. Shankar, the expert on the problems of Pakistani politics, seems to think it all to be a consipiracy theory and spinning.

Here is a piece of advice. Stick to your expertise, i.e. psychiatry and thong designing :-)

Reply Harimau # 110

“People in DC generally stay west of 16th Street NorthWEST.”

My mistake, the Islamabad café is on 14th NW – three blocks North of my old office building. (Surely some people go East of 16th St?) I lived on 16th St…and Mount Pleasant…(do you know DC well?)

“14th Street NW is where the streetwalkers generally hang out…”

Sigh. All true. My office was also within sight of where Marion Barry got busted for doing coke (the second time).

“…and 14th Street NorthEAST MUST be really hairy. One doesn`t venture into NE or SW portions of DC except after putting their affairs in order and saying goodbye to their near and dear ones.”

:-) Churches are conveniently located in many shop fronts for this very purpose. Tract, anybody?

Actually SW is mostly Govt buildings and is quite small (the bit across the river was reabsorbed into VA on request of its residents many many years ago.) You’re thinking of SE, of Anacostia fame. But here’s a factoid for you – before the 1968 riots following the assassination of MLK Jr, Anacostia was an all white part of town. NO LONGER! Anacostia also has one of the very few Slave Museums in the US, and there is actually a stone platform which used to be part of a slave market there (which is unmarked, and unmemorialised. See Drumz, the Man is too frightened to remind people of what he’s done.).

OH, and SE has (used to have?) Tracks, the best dance club in DC at one time…of course this was back in the Middle Ages…and assumes one isn’t a buzhi prep-head who likes hanging out in Georgetown…

Reply Dost-Mittar # 97

“Tandoori chicken was always theirs; we merely stole their ``intellectual`` copyright rights and made it our own. The tandoori was introduced to Delhi by the Moti Mahal people who were refugees from Peshawar.”

Naturalised by now, surely.

“This is similar to our usurping their Mahenjo-daros, Harrappas, Taxilas, etc. as our own while they are too happy to let us do so. Indeed, they seem to be losing the precious sufi Islam as well, which will soon be usurped by us and all they will be left will be the Wahabis. But we will be generous and give them our Deobandis as a fair trade.”

All that was ours to begin with, but ok, if you insist Deobandis will be sent across. I suggest repatriating Advaniji also, as good will gesture. Why, hamare Bukhari Sahib ko bhi bhej sakthe hain, na? Nothing is too good for our good friends across the bwaaarder. (Are you listening Tahmed?)

[``Unfortunately they tend to get a bit edgy when I tell them I’m from India, but I only do that AFTER eating.``

“That`s because you claim your `muslim discount` from them before you disclose your nationality:-).”]

Why have I never thought of doing this? I will report back.

Discount or Death! (gallops away into the sunset on a white horse…)

Reply Shankar # 93

“Hey..screw you, Miss sarwari,..if you have that kind of attitude, I dont feel particularly proud that a bozo like you is identified with us, either…”

Boss, yeh kya kahtha? Don’t forget, OUR BOZOS ARE BETTER THAN THEIRS!!!!

Nag # 100

Put some grey matter in your head and then read that Article again taken from Dawn. A plain, simple reading without reference shows that it is about Pakistan and not India.

About India also, here are a few facts:-

Sharmila Tagore had to convert to marry Pataudi.

Sangeeta Bijlani had to convert to marry Azharudin.

Achla Sachdev had to convert to marry Sohail Khan.

But then there is bright side. Gauri did not have to convert to marry Shahrukh.

These examples are from that strata who could lead by example but conversion was more important then setting an example of letting other person make his or her choice. And such conversions are almost 100% in the case of partners coming from middle class or lower middle class.

Now. a positive side.

Nargis did not have to convert to marry Sunil Dutt even when her father had to convert to marry her mother.

12 head,

#103

I hate to say this...but I agree with you! JEEZUZ what the fcuk is happening to me?!!