Risky Routes and Rootless People Veeresh, would it be possible for you to send a copy of Freedom at Midnight to Yasser Hamdani?
He quoted stuff from the book from memory but wasn`t able to substantiate `cos he didn`t have the book. As you know, it`s hard to get books in pakistan and I`m sure Yasser would appreciate you kind and generous gesture.

I Could Invent a Religion… #70
What would you know about the brahmins? You`re a warrior after all...
:)

I Could Invent a Religion… Jang, various
Absolutely delightful comments. Christian good deeds by and large is a tradition inherited from the first missionaries to china who found it a bit easier to approach the locals as a doctor or a teacher than as a strict missionary, notwithstanding the parable of the good samaritans. For hindus, religion is strictly a type of a transaction. Good deeds may bring one a good life, hence no need for a organized charity - individual effort is sufficient.

On menses being a taboo, among south indian brahmins, this is still the case. No cooking or household chores or even mixing with the rest of the household during period. True even for working women.

A Challenge to Saudi Culture Kulharee ji, you should stop consorting with bankers. What`s a rate hole? I feel like the money i pay the accountant and lawyer end up in a rate hole.

Looking Back, Thinking Ahead.. Do you think if you had had boy friends and/or had met your husband-to-be in dilli, you`d have missed your parents as much? Sounds like you were just lonely.

South Asian Socialism #131 zeemax
Sounds like a win-win situation for the US.
One of the things that Saddam Hussein was attempting to do was denominate iraqi oil in euros. Of course he was doing this out of spite rather than any serious financial consideration, but what is stopping the reserve and federal banks from trading in euros rather than in dollars?

South Asian Socialism #131 zeemax
Sounds like a win-win situation for the US.
One of the things that Saddam Hussein was attempting to do was denominate iraqi oil in euros. Of course he was doing this out of spite rather than any serious financial consideration, but what is stopping the reserve and federal banks from trading in euros rather than in dollars?

Opal-Gate Here`s an excellent commentary from Kurt Anderson of ``Studio 360``
http://studio360.org/commentary051206.html


Last summer, Kaavya published a New York Times Op-Ed piece, ``Growing Up With a Dose of Magic,`` about coming of age in thrall to Harry Potter. She said loved JK Rowling`s novels, she wrote, because of their ``promise of hope, sustaining the fundamental childhood belief that in the end, good really does triumph over evil, and justice is meted out to those who deserve it.``

A nice thought. A few weeks ago, Kaavya published her own first novel at nineteen. It`s called How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got A Life, and it`s a more or less autobiographical account of a smart, obsessive, hyper-competitive Indian-American girl who reinvents herself to get into Harvard.

Just before publication, a reporter innocently asked if any particular book had inspired her.

``Nothing I read,`` Kaavya replied, ``gave me the inspiration.``

But it turns out she plagiarized from at least four teen-girl-romantic-comedy novels by three different young female authors.

She denied ``consciously`` plagiarizing...she couldn`t imagine how it happened.

[TODAY SHOW CLIP W/ KATIE COURIC]

Such chutzpah! No wonder she got into Harvard.

The publisher cancelled and recalled all 55,000 copies of her book.

[HARRY POTTER CLIP]

As in the Harry Potter world, truth triumphed over falsehood—if not good over evil—and justice is being meted out to those who deserve it.

[HARRY POTTER MUSIC BREAK]

This story is compelling for all the same reasons that an unknown girl was paid several hundred thousand dollars for a very slight novel in the first place—her highly promotable youth, good looks, poise, trendy ethnicity and the Harvard brand.

Also, a fiction writer caught stealing from other fiction is rare.

She obviously went a little crazy under deadline pressure, so desperate to keep impressing all the important adults who had so heavily invested in her. And this girl had already been taught that success was not just a matter of talent and hard work and luck, but of cunning—buying connections and cutting deals for behind-the-scenes assistance. A book packager helped her ``conceptualize and plot the book.``

Just as a $30,000-a-pop college counselor had helped her repackage herself to get into Harvard—a fact that she shamelessly confessed in the press...kind of like a beauty queen bragging about her fake boobs.

How shocked, shocked should we all be by this? We are now a culture of borrowers— musicians sample, painters appropriate, and that`s fine with me. The problem is that at the same time we`ve also forged a society in which misrepresentation is routine, OK, even encouraged. It`s normal now for politicians and executives and celebrities to have ghostwriters concoct their heartfelt speeches and memoirs. Sitcoms and pop music sound strange without digital enhancement of various kinds. On the internet, make-believe names and identities are assumed.

And when you take a look at the list of famous plagiarists of the last couple of decades, what you see are not pariahs so much, but people who get new, better jobs and bigger book deals, whose reputations in some cases remain golden.

So, this reversal of fortune that the Harvard girl, Kaavya, has now suffered may not be such a complete catastrophe given her hopes and dreams. Before her book came out, I read a detail that smelled wrong even at the time. Here she was, a big hot novelist at nineteen, but she didn`t want to be a writer when she got out of college. No, her sights are set on investment banking.

Different Strokes Welcome to lalaland inhabited by harimau. He`s probably even more stressed now that his favorite politician has been thrown out of office.
That said it`s quite understandable that certain folk customs die a natural death when its practitioners either die out or lose interest in it. You don`t need to posit a deliberate move to crush folk arts, altho if you have seen bharatha natyam it seems designed to crush something or somebody.
I have observed oppari and it`s true that it is a litany of sundry complaints rendered in a rhythmic fashion. Nothing there to capture your attention and hold it unless you have a scholarly interest in it.
It`s particularly interesting that Karunanidhi`s daughter is perturbed by the death of workers during Chola times. Her own father is responsible for so many unnecessary deaths and he`s one of the bigtime crooks around.

Opal-Gate Author, I like your style and, as parent of an almost-teenager who likes writing but finds it easier to plagiarize for school essays, I identify with a lot of what you say.
I disagree with you tho that writing novels is so hard that only a few people can do it. There`s tons of pulp fiction trash churned out for various market segments that one wonders if it is the sheer tedium of doing it that`s keeping everyone from trying one`s hands at writing a novel.
It could be that Kaavya sleep-walked into this whole episode. A teenager loves attention and glamor. An eager marketing company and willing parents complete the equation.
I wonder if at least the story line is original. It must be decent enough for dreamworks to buy the option.

Modi’s Men and their Mean Machines unkill ji
i didn`t know they were demolishing temples 200 years ago in gujarat. Did they teach that to you at the local shaka?

Modi’s Men and their Mean Machines samosa, context my dear boy, context!
You were equating the demolition of dargah which probably has been around since before there was traffic as we know it with temples (i`m presuming here) that dot the footpath of any indian city. They are not the same.
If hundred-year old temples were removed forcibly and aggressively, along with hundred-year old dargahs or mosques i`d call that stupid. This one smells malicious and venal.

Modi’s Men and their Mean Machines samosa, what kind of temples are these? Century-old?

Modi’s Men and their Mean Machines Farzana,
This is an excellent article, that is very well argued with none of the usual stereotyping. One doesn`t have to be a muslim to condemn the deliberate insensitivity of the official hooligans. Wealth doesn`t make you forward thinking. It leads to arrogance, if anything.

Saving the Female Fetus Jang, in general I`d agree that if X is forbidden people would find Y, ergo X should be allowed is a weak argument. However, which aspect of gender-selective abortion are you going to forbid? Ultrasound tests? Disclosing to the parents the gender of the foetus? Abortion? Each of these could be done by a different medical technician/physician. If there`s a will, there`s a way.
Bride burning is a crime with a low bar of proof. Yet it continues and grows. You don`t cure the sickness of a society by having strictures against it. Make it shameful, educate the people. Problem with our government is passing laws is the be all and end all. How has that changed anything? Middle-class avarice if anything has increased and bride burning is very much a middle-class phenomenon.

Saving the Female Fetus I meant infanticide, not foeticide in my #84.
It has been known for quite some time, as DMji has alluded to in his article, that gender discrimination takes many forms one of which is preferential treatment of male children when it comes to sharing limited nourishment. Female children in poor communities tend to have shorter life span as a result. Infanticide of course is the most extreme form of discrimination. Gender selective abortion is but a symptom of a larger problem. Banning that will have little consequence at the end (there are always workarounds) except to give a sense of satisfaction to those inclined to moralize.
There is a connected chain of events - caste preservation through arranged marriage which tries to optimize the search through horoscope matching, and upward mobility and financial status of the partner (for the bride through a well-employed groom and for the groom a bride who brings a big dowry) - which gives rise to bride burning, sex selection, and other assorted sordid things.
Hopefully the caste system will wither away with increased urbanization and an all out frontal attack on the dowry system (through education, propaganda, and legal enforcement in the case of forced dowry taking) will begin to change the society where women will be valued as equals.