Yesterday’s Failures are Today’s Successes quiet a nice article.

in my opinion nehru laid the foundation of a strong india. however indra and rajiv did not build on that foundation otherwise india would have been a stronger nation today. credit should be given to Rajiv gandhi for taking the first steps towards IT in india. he was looking much further ahead when he was talking of taking india to 21st century.

regarding english language proficiency in india, credit goes to the missionary schools that were set up all over india. even though student had to say ``Thy kingdon come, thy will be done`` almost everyday, he/she did get good basic education including english language.

The Most Ineffective Ban Ever let me remind the author of the ``american cultural invasion`` that is often bought up by the sangh parivar in india. one might recall the violence against celebration of ``Valentines day`` committed by the shiv sainiks in mumbai. bet if it were up to the BJP they will make every indian woman wear a sari and every man a dhoti.

regarding the Intellectual Rights, majorty of computer software used by indian consumers infringes on copyright laws. guess WTO and WIPO would not be great for india too. imagine paying Rs 12,000 for windows.

``Pakistanis should realise that Islam is not going to be threatened by Indian entertainment.``

honey, islam is a religion and not a film industry that it will be threatened by some B-grade movie industry. india can put together as many bollywood/tollywood as it pleases, it will remain a insignificant industry.

``They feel that the Quran and the Hadith are all it takes to lead a complete life.``

Last thing any muslim needs is a lecture on his/her religion from a cow/monkey/snake worshipping gentleman. so keep your opinions to yourself, nobody gives a rats ass to them.

Driving SAG for a Rockies Rider so basically one get anything published at chowk.com............

Once Upon A Time: When The World Spoke Arabic m_souza,

it appears that as per Rig Veda (one of the holy books of hinduism) all creation originated from a giant called ``Purasa``. Rig Veda describes Purasa as:

``Thousand-headed is Purusa, thousand-eyed, thousand-footed. Having covered the earth on all sides, he stood above it the width of ten fingers.``

Rig Veda further explains creation as such:

``When they divided Purusa, how many ways did they apportion him? What was his mouth? What were his arms? What were his thighs, his feet declared to be?

His mouth was the Brahman [caste], his arms were the Rajanaya [Ksatriya caste], his thighs the Vaisya [caste]; from his feet the Sudra [caste] was born.``

in my opinion, hinduism is the worst thing that could happen to any lower caste, backward caste hindu. hindu theology treats a lower caste person as a second rate human being. this bias is present in Vedas, Gita and Manu`s laws. no wonder hindu society is always divided along the lines of caste.

Orissa: A Gujarat in the making pmishra2,

i had no intention of insulting hinduism whatsoever. as a religion i respect hindusim but i definitely find sangh parivar`s agenda divisive and hateful. so there is a distinction between my attitude towards the religion and towards RSS and company. you started the sarcasm and i replied in kind.

all i asked you was a question ``what would be the caste of a newly converted hindu? can he/she be a brahmin?`` and you assigned me quiet a few labels ``ignorant``, ``illiterate``,``spiteful ignoramus`` and so on. i must have touched a nerve and maybe you dont have a answer.

Orissa: A Gujarat in the making pmishra #40,

thanks for your offer to join the ``santana dharma`` but frankly speaking, monkey and cow gods dont interest me a lot so i think i would rather not convert to hinduism.

however, you did not answer the question i put forwad. ``can a newly coverted hindu be a brahmin?``

it is nice that to your egalitarian mind caste does not matter but to majority of indian hindus it does. wonder how many brahmins in india will be willing to share a meal with a sudra....

Orissa: A Gujarat in the making the sangh parivar needs a dose of reality. what india needs is toilets not temples. problem of india is not lack but excess of religion.

a question is ``when sanghis attain their ultimate goal:converting a individual to hinduism, then what is the caste assigned to the new hindu? can he/she be a brahmin? maybe some of sangh sympathisers on this discussion have a answer...

Why is the West so angry with Dr. Mahathir? tahmed32 and nakhok,

no matter how you twist the story the gist of the matter is that israel is an illegal state that was forcibly created on the land of palestine. israel is a legacy of ninteenth century colonialism. Other nations like india, indonesia were able to evict their european colonisers but palestinains were not and have become the refugees of middle east.

creation of the state of israel was the problem. that is where the mess started and most probably that nation will take the whole world into a big mess.

Why is the West so angry with Dr. Mahathir? the song that sigalph235 is singing is the very same song that western media and leaders have been singing for decades; mahathir is actually not a democratically elected leader and neither is malaysia a democratic country. to europeans and their descendants the only nations having true democracy are european or their settlements, rest all is sham.

if IBM, Microsoft are in malaysia then they are there for a low cost manufacturing nation providing stable economic and political environment. there is no altruism in their action. it is a two way street where both parties are benefitting.

regarding the crocodile tears, i think what mahathir is referring to is the ethnic cleansing of muslims in bosnia, 3000 killed iraqis civilians of gulf war two, 50,000 - 70,000 killed kashmiris in india and the genocide of muslims in gujarat. quiet frankly, any decent human being should have tears for such inhumanity.

by the way, doctor has just entered the building.

Low Intensity Conflict This article does seem to have a pro-military bias. Author is portraying the pakistani army as the sole guardian of pakistan against a world hell-bent on dividing pakistan. There is no doubt that pakistani army is one of the stable and relatively strong part of the country. However it is not fair to blame all internal problems of pakistan on foreign inteliigence agencies. There are deep divisions within the pakistani society and foreigners exploit it. Pakistan as a state was unable to reduce these intra-group differences and to make a more equitable society.

Is Islam Undemocratic? are Parvez sahab, itni bhaari angrezi likhne ki kya zaroorat hai. Maana ki aapko firangi zabaan par badi maharat haasil hai lekin hum gharibon ne aapka kya bigada hai.

quiet frankly, it takes a genius to make a complex thing simple and not vice-versa. one key principle of software development is KISS (keep it simple stupid). i think this principle applies to any field of study.

The Zionist In Me ``Lies, sins and injustices are always (eventually) revealed to the world. God gives temporary respite to sinners, allowing them time to reconsider – that is, time to reform. ``

This is almost a childish remark.

This is not USA bashing but fact of the matter is that during the vietnam war USA did not have precision bombs. So us air force used to carpet bomb huge swathes of lands. It will not be irrational to suggest that at least one million vietnamese civilians would have been killed by americans in vietnam. Well, america is the sole superpower today.

A better example would be the britishers that left their overcrowded island and settled in colonies. Given their humane tendencies they simply killed all the natives, be it america, australia or newzealand. All these countries are some of the best nations in the world.

Going further back, mongols massacared whole populations when they invaded lands, yet they ruled over a massive empire for quiet sometime.

Hence to suggest that wrongdoers are punished in this world is wishful thinking at best.

To Kill the Mockingbird The authors have put in good effort to prepare the article. It is informative and well balanced. It is such objective information that can clear hype from reality. One favourite tool of anti-muslim forces is degrade everything related to islam. All that hype needs to be countered with factual information, like this article.

It should also be realised that some people are so extremely anti-muslim that no rational arguments will make any sense to them. Hatred towards muslims is almost a religion for such folks so it should not be expected that any of their biased opinions will change with objective information.

Justice for Half a Man
urstruly, couple of questions for you.

as you mentioned that islamic laws were practiced until 1924. so we can say there has been a timespan of roughly 80 years since then. isnt it reasonable to say that we need to look at islamic laws in the present context. i mean dont you thinking chopping off a persons arm for theft is too harsh? for there to be four witnesses to actual act of penetration that act has to be carried out in public and that is rarely the case, is this a reasonable requirement?

The Conversion Chiaroscuro farzana,

to put it simply your didi is a nut case who needs to get friendly with a psychiatrist. that`s the gist of the whole mess. dont worry over it, medications should fix her.

Driving back from work on a hot afternoon good one prasad. interesting.........................