A Love Affair with Lahore Thank you very much for an article that makes my coming trip to Pakistan more than merely something to look forward to. My wife`s family came to India from Lahore and my mother`s from Karachi, where, indeed, she was born and where she lived with her parents well after Partition, coming to India only in the late 1950s to join university there and marry my father.

I hope to visit both my mother`s as well as my wife`s ancestral homes and try to locate friends of my maternal grandfather who are still alive - I have received more than a little help from a leading columnist in one of your newspapers in this regard. Hopefully, after I return to the US, I shall be able to post here about my voyage of discovery through a country that my maternal ancestors came from.

Thanks and best wishes!

Greasing Palms -- Surviving Through Corruption in India Whether it involves getting a driver`s license, getting your address verified by the police for a passport, registering a property, getting an income tax PAN card, settling an income or sales tax dispute, getting a ration card, getting a ``migration certificate`` if you join a university in a different state from where you did your schooling, getting cargo cleared through customs (even when you are prepared to pay customs duty) etc, etc, etc in India, nothing happens without paying some bribe or the other. Fortunately, there are NGOs that do some very good work to fight this menace - some years ago before I left India to work outside, one such NGO helped with filing tax returns at the Income Tax office in Chennai. The group had yound lawyers and CAs who stood on the pavement outside the Numgambakkam office in the crazy Chennai weather smilingly helping everyone who went to them. The sad thing is that despite their being there and putting in this hard work for nothing, there were some who chose to go in by themselves, invariably paying baksheesh to the goondas in service inside.

A New Taliban in Tamil Nadu A state where lower level officials in the judiciary allow the filing of sundry lawsuits against someone for expressing their opinion is not a free one. Further, when the lower level judiciary runs a trial where the judge presides inside a court with thugs outside throwing rotten tomatoes and eggs at the defendant`s car when she arrives, is no different from a Talibanist trial. Khushboo may not have been stoned to death but she was humiliated as a woman, several times over, in this entire ordeal. Those responsible for causing it, and, indeed their defenders, are little more than partners in a crime against a woman who spoke out about sexuality, something that she had every right to do. All the talk about conflicts within political associations, film associations etc only detracts from the fact that someone`s right to speak about what was on her mind was infringed upon. Personal differences between political groups and within film associations do not give anyone the authority to muzzle someone for saying something completely unrelated to their differences. Had Khushboo insulted someone personally, there was a law that allowed her to be sued for defamation. The fact that the Indian state became a willing accomplice to her humiliation until sanity prevailed at the level of the higher judiciary shows that India as a nation and Tamilnadu as a state are currently under the jackboot of Talibanist elements who need to be weeded out. Any delay in acting against them would only allow them to grow like the cancer within the state and country that they undoubtedly are.

The American Nightmare: No Exit, No Entry Saima,

There is also the factor of hard boiled arrogance that keeps American companies from getting business. I came to this country looking for some products that I ahd buyers for in India, especially specialised paper and went to one of the largest companies in Wisconsin asking for this. They were doing badly and needed to sell their paper, their rivals in manufacturing this particular type of paper were in India already and they knew the urgency with which I required a quote. For more than a month, with my clients getting increasingly edgy in India I had no quote from them. When I called the Manager Exports at the company, he ahd the cheek to tell me that this was probably the only thing that I ahd to do while he was busy with many other pending jobs. Needless to say, I gave the order to a friend in Sweden who executed the order beautifully and took the bulk of the money.

And it is not an isolated incident - I have had this problem with other companies as well. The only time when companies talk to an Indian is when they know that there is something that they could buy cheap from India, tag on a 900% or higher margin and sell it in the USA. If American industry is dying, it is because of the attitudes of it`s managers here.

Religion In A Clubby Hole Re: # 72

You said: Shall we point out that what made Hitler`s campaign so effected was his use of ...ahem...science and technology? Shall we point out that there are armies of scientists working around the clock working on even better ways to destroy all of mankind?

If you care to look back at the uniforms that the Nazis wore, they carried belt buckles which said ``Gott mit uns`` or God is with us. And Hitler`s connection with religious leaders has been carefully documented by historians. Vladimir Dedijer`s book ``The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican`` and John Cornwell`s ``Hitler`s Pope: The Secret History of Pius Xii`` could be the beginning of an education on the Nazis` religious connectiuon for you. Also try Guenther Lewy`s ``The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany`` and Ronald Phayer`s ``The Catholic Church and the Holocaust 1930-1965.``

Yes, science is a tool that could be used for better understanding. Religion guides murderers like Pius Xii and crooks who brainwash the ignorant like you.

Pipe Dreams? Long before there was any modern civilization there were trade routes through Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent on one side and China beyond it and to Europe on the other side. The pipeline suggestion makes immense sense because it is a source of cheap natural gas which India needs for it`s growing economy. If it helps build good relations with Pakistan then it is all the more neccessary for both countries.

In the long term it is shared economic interests that would help both countries come closer together instead of anything else.

Running Scared I remember a time when in India a person had to wait eleven years before they could take delivery of a Bajaj scooter under the Indira Gandhi government. Things have changed to a great extent over there and there is no reason why this cannot happen in Pakistan. Both countries trade indirectly through middlemen based in Dubai when they could do business directly and make a huge amount of money for their own people without it being parked in an Arab country. The Arabs have enough money of their own anyway...

It is good that good people in Pakistan are questioning the business system. There are bound to be entrepreneurs considering the numbers of well educated Pakistanis whom I see in the US and Canada on a regualr basis. Hopefully, prosperity would come to all as business grows within Pakistan and also outside.

A Wedding in West Mambalam Hello Rajesh,

This piece brings back fond memories. I used to live with my parents until 2000 and travelled through West Mambalam everyday to my workplace in Vadapalani. I still remember the lovely restaurants there and the fantastic food which got even better at weddings - having a vast number of Tamil Brahmin as well as Udupi Brahmin friends gave me invitations to several weddings.

Moving to the USA has taken away this simple but fantastic pleasure, especially the fantastic coffee that only Tamil Brahmins can make in my opinion.

Thanks for bringing back some fantastic memories!

Jayalalitha---The Caped Wonder-Woman Jayalalitha has been a good CM as far as large businesses are concerned and she has brought several positive business proposals to completion. Indeed, so has her arch rival Karunanidhi during his rule. The sad thing is that there is a streak of puritanism in the state that is supported by every political party, indeed, a case of unity of politicians in this near Talibanesque approach to ``morals.`` While Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi have not themselves encouraged this, their silence while minor parties participate in thuggish attacks on silly actresses like Kushbu and Suhasini Maniratnam for stating personal opinions claiming that they have ``disgraced Tamil womanhood`` and judges issue Non Bailable Warrants against actresses for some silly remark on network television, the state seems to be regressing into moral fundamentalism. It would help the Tamil Taliban to remember that when the Taliban were routed, the people of Afghanistan cut out their eyes and stuffed their mouths with currency, leaving their bodies rotting in the streets. Tamils may not be brutal people in the Afghan mould but it is a question of how extreme this could get before the population of the state reacts in a metaphorically similar manner to get rid of the thuggish moral policemen there.

Whether Jayalalitha manages to win next year`s election or not, the positive thing is that Tamilnadu`s economy is doing well and that, most probably, is not going to change no matter who wins the next time round. That said, her career does have a long way to go even if she loses the next election in Tamilnadu`s all or nothing tradition of electing and throwing parties out. She is still young compared to her biggest rivals and politically savvy enough to manage to work her way back even if she is handed a second defeat like she was some years ago after her first controversial term in power.

Flying Spaghetti Monsterism There is an equally hilarious satire on what The Onion calls ``Intelligent Falling`` at:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39512

Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New `Intelligent Falling` Theory
August 17, 2005 | Issue 41•33

KANSAS CITY, KS—As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state. Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held ``theory of gravity`` is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.


Enlarge Image

Rev. Gabriel Burdett (left) explains Intelligent Falling.
``Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, `God` if you will, is pushing them down,`` said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University.

Burdett added: ``Gravity—which is taught to our children as a law—is founded on great gaps in understanding. The laws predict the mutual force between all bodies of mass, but they cannot explain that force. Isaac Newton himself said, `I suspect that my theories may all depend upon a force for which philosophers have searched all of nature in vain.` Of course, he is alluding to a higher power.``

Founded in 1987, the ECFR is the world`s leading institution of evangelical physics, a branch of physics based on literal interpretation of the Bible.

According to the ECFR paper published simultaneously this week in the International Journal Of Science and the adolescent magazine God`s Word For Teens!, there are many phenomena that cannot be explained by secular gravity alone, including such mysteries as how angels fly, how Jesus ascended into Heaven, and how Satan fell when cast out of Paradise.

The ECFR, in conjunction with the Christian Coalition and other Christian conservative action groups, is calling for public-school curriculums to give equal time to the Intelligent Falling theory. They insist they are not asking that the theory of gravity be banned from schools, but only that students be offered both sides of the issue ``so they can make an informed decision.``

``We just want the best possible education for Kansas` kids,`` Burdett said.

Proponents of Intelligent Falling assert that the different theories used by secular physicists to explain gravity are not internally consistent. Even critics of Intelligent Falling admit that Einstein`s ideas about gravity are mathematically irreconcilable with quantum mechanics. This fact, Intelligent Falling proponents say, proves that gravity is a theory in crisis.

``Let`s take a look at the evidence,`` said ECFR senior fellow Gregory Lunsden.``In Matthew 15:14, Jesus says, `And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.` He says nothing about some gravity making them fall—just that they will fall. Then, in Job 5:7, we read, `But mankind is born to trouble, as surely as sparks fly upwards.` If gravity is pulling everything down, why do the sparks fly upwards with great surety? This clearly indicates that a conscious intelligence governs all falling.``

Critics of Intelligent Falling point out that gravity is a provable law based on empirical observations of natural phenomena. Evangelical physicists, however, insist that there is no conflict between Newton`s mathematics and Holy Scripture.

``Closed-minded gravitists cannot find a way to make Einstein`s general relativity match up with the subatomic quantum world,`` said Dr. Ellen Carson, a leading Intelligent Falling expert known for her work with the Kansan Youth Ministry. ``They`ve been trying to do it for the better part of a century now, and despite all their empirical observation and carefully compiled data, they still don`t know how.``

``Traditional scientists admit that they cannot explain how gravitation is supposed to work,`` Carson said. ``What the gravity-agenda scientists need to realize is that `gravity waves` and `gravitons` are just secular words for `God can do whatever He wants.```

Some evangelical physicists propose that Intelligent Falling provides an elegant solution to the central problem of modern physics.

``Anti-falling physicists have been theorizing for decades about the `electromagnetic force,` the `weak nuclear force,` the `strong nuclear force,` and so-called `force of gravity,``` Burdett said. ``And they tilt their findings toward trying to unite them into one force. But readers of the Bible have already known for millennia what this one, unified force is: His name is Jesus.``

Cheers!

Tolerating Sexuality Leave pornography aside - India is becoming a Puritanical/Talibanist farce. In late 2003 in the southern city of Chennai the police arrested more than a hundred couples who were seeing each other in the ccity`s Anna Nagar park. No one did anything obscene - the park is barren for the most part and no privacy is available for anyone to indulge in anything intimate. All of the couples were adults. They were taken to police stations, fingerprinted like criminals and photographed. Some Tamil newspapers even carried pictures of these couples in what was a clear warning to them and their parents that they would be arrested if they were seen at the park again.

In May 2005, in Hyderabad, the police barged into a private birthday party at the residence of a Muslim family claiming that an obscene performance was taking place there. Members of the press who were at the party later said that nothing obscene had taken place. Indeed, it would have been difficult if not impossible to hold an ``obscene`` performance when several hundred guests, mostly whole families were present at a birthday party.

And Tamilnadu again - the Vice Chancellor of the state`s prestigious Anna University recently introduced a dress code for students, something that is ridiculous considering that there is nothing obscene that has ever been seen by me in my many visits to colleges in the state for more than 20 years. What was worse was that a boy was suspended by a Jain college for wearing a ``dark coloured shirt.`` For all the talk about freedom that India`s politicians bandy about, they are hard at work turning the country into a muttawa type tyranny. Indians need to wake up to this madness and get rid of the moral dictators who rule there.

Preparing for Aftershocks to the Pakistan Earthquake There is a building technology that has been tested to withstand earthquakes measuring up to 9.5 on the RIchter scale www.thermasave.us It would be good if the governments of India, Pakistan etc use these technologies in quake prone areas in the future.

Hopefully, the sadness of the devastation would cause people to think with a long term perspective in mind after the initial phase of providing assistance to the victims of this disaster is over.

Amway. Conway? Scamway would be a nice term for these crooks. For those who part with their hard earned money to get into this kind of crap, the old adage about a fool and their money being soon parted is very apt!

Intelligent Design or Accident? Your contention that biologists do not have any ``concrete proof to show that God does not exist and that God did not create the universe`` is nothing more than a religious attempt at confusing an issue. The onus of providing proof is on those who say that something exists and not on those who are skeptical of it`s existence. Biologists do have evidence of the process of evolution. Fundamentalists have little more than mythology from their scriptures.

In all this noise the fact that religion was a very important force in the evolution of human morals and thought is ignored as fundamentalists use inherently devious theories like Intelligent Design to justify their miserable existence. Moderate religionists have no problem with accepting sientific evidence side by side with following rituals and other religious processes.

In Conversation with a Dog Sunil,

Get yourself another dog as soon as you can. I have had a few over the years and at the moment, have a senior citizen who came with me to the US from India. I cannot bear to go to where my dogs are buried and my only hope is that when I die, I would be buried somewhere near where they are.

Of my dogs the one that lived the least was a cocker spaniel called Princess who died at four of kidney failure. I still wake up at night sometimes with tears in my eyes thinking about her. When I took her to the Veterinary College Hospital in Chennai for drips, her arteries grew hard from the frequent IVs and it would be difficult to give her a drip. Normally she would never be muzzled as I would hold her in my arms and she was one of the gentlest and best behaved dogs to come there. On the last day, it must have hurt her terribly and she yelped and caught my hand in her mouth. She then realised that she had done something terribly wrong and then lay back and cried. I knew the end was near.

I went back home and put her on her bed in the afternoon and tried to give her favourite ice cream - I was told that was a good thing to give her during her illness. She licked it twice and went into a sleep never to recover. A few hours later, I heard two short breaths and she was gone.

I now have a canine friend who is nine years old and who loves me every bit as dearly as I love him. He was a gift to me from an animal welfare organisation where a previous ``owner`` ahd left him because he decided that he didn`t want him after keeping him for three years. Some people laugh when they hear that I brought him with me to a different country. I smile because they would never ever know what it means to love a dog and even more, to be loved by one.

Why Am I An Agnostic Muslim? The Riddle of Epicurus

Is god willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

Bertrand Russell joked about what he called ``tea pot agnostics`` who would believe that there was a tea pot that orbited the sun because there was no way of disproving it`s existence. The definition of gods in the world`s religions are all throwbacks to barbarian times, and, if anyone decides to pay even slight attention to these definitions and look at creators who created the universe in six days and rested on the seventh, who created man in his own image and woman out of man`s rib etc in a critical light, they would clearly be visible as little more than fiction.