Back to Books!

Davinci Code - Dawn Brown
The Alchemist - Paul @#$%% ( I cant pronounce this guys' name )
The Wisdom of Rishis - Mr. M
The Indian Philosophy - Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

These are the books I finished reading in the last 4 weeks. The collection seems pretty strange, isn't it?
Davinci code is another mystique bullshit with lot of rhetoric about some unknown Mary Magdalene. The author says that worship of this lady is superior to the worship of Christ, couldnt understand why. But, the main plot is to damn the catholic church and prove that they kill people to maintain the sanctity of the Church. An utter bullshit to increase the sale.

The Alchemist : I couldnt understand why this book has become so famous. It is again some unpractical and utopian thought about everyones' childhood dreams and some legend ( I dont even remember the name ). It is one of those utter nonsensical books which I have read and regreted later that I wasted my time.

The Wisdom of Rishis : Yes, a great book. I really enjoyed reading it. Inspite being a muslim, the author tried to understand the Upanishads and give incites in to various subtlities. He doesnt talk about things which are nihilistic...but speaks about real things and explains why they are real. There is content and the logic is concrete. I suggest this book to people who have some interest in Indian Scriptures.

The Indian Philosophy : Disappointing!!! very disappointing. Dr. Radhakrishanan disappointed me a lot. He wrote a book which will satisfty the Europeans a lot. He presented a European point of view rather than an Indian point of view. He depended on European authors to prove the facts, which are ultimately not facts at all. Especially , he repeats the Aryans' migration from Europe or middle east to India. It really makes me wonder, how much are we conditioned to accept the precepts put forward by Europeans.

If such a great culture existed in so called Mesapatomia or any where else and they migrated to India for various reasons, why dont we see any trace of such civilisation or culture in any part of those countries or continents. Even the latest findings about river Saraswati and other Indus valley civilisations tell us that there was no invasion of India by so called Aryans. This is again another trick of the White Man to belittle India and its ancient civilisation to keep his inferiority or superiority complex intact.

Yeah, nationality matters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a letter from a German national to the editior of TOI.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/875870.cms

Apropos of 'It's time we learnt good manners' (Times Counterview, Oct 5), it seems fashionable for the Indian elite to run down India and all things Indian, including manners. I am a German, and have met many Indians who never tire of praising Germany, but have nothing good to say about India. Frankly, I recoil at such behaviour. There are well-mannered and uncouth people everywhere. Why do Indian intellectuals have to pick on the worst specimens to berate India. As far as I'm concerned, India stands tall among the 40 countries I have travelled to.

Maria Wirth, via e-mail.

Had this letter been from an Indian, it would be in a distbin by this time ( errr...recycle bin).

Ofcoure, whatever Ms. Maria says is true. Indians never had self respect, esp the so called Secularists and Intellectuals. For them , anything White is superior and anything Indian is cheap. Sad that this has to be taught to us by some foreigner. Yeah, our Intellectuals listen to the words of foreigners becase Europeans are wiser than us...they know all...isnt it true my dear Editiors of TOI??

Ofcourse Eurpoeans and Americans do not show any repect towards India, nuthing surprising because we dont have self respect. We equate self respect with Religious Fundamentalism....:-D
When an American is proud of being an American , it is his self respect whereas if an Indian is proud of being Indian either he is an RSS( VHP) follower or someother religious fundamentalist.

Way to go India.........................

Marketing sympathy as a Camouflage!!!!!

It is quite surprising to see how good are Americans at exploiting a tragedy to camouflage thier ulterior motives. Was just going through an article by one of my favourite columnists Rajiv Srinivasana.
http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/sep/28rajeev.htm

When the towers fell, I certainly hoped that the US would finally understand what the rest of the world, particularly India, has undergone for years, facing terror in the streets. But I was a little sceptical even then; and three years later, it is clear that America's 'war on terror' is really not a war on terror as in the dictionary meaning of those words. This alleged 'war' is a different animal, and there are two possibilities as to what it is.
The first possibility is that 'terror' is defined as 'that which hurts American interests.' Note that this does not necessarily mean attacks on American persons except insofar as it affects grand American interests. Note also that 'American interests' are broadly defined, for example as in 'oil that lies under other countries, but that America would like to own.' But it certainly means that attacks on other countries, even on the one that for archaic reasons calls itself 'Great' Britain, do not count as 'terror.'
The other possibility is that there is no 'war' at all, but sleight-of-hand, intended to create the illusion that America is doing something to protect its people. For, it is abundantly clear that the nations most involved in terror are Saudi Arabia (financier), Pakistan (enforcer) and China (proliferator of nuclear weapons and missiles). But all three are staunch American allies. I wonder, which Houdini conjured up a 'war'?

Recently, when many school children were killed in a terrorist attack in Russia,

the Economist magazine, had to say about the matter (Another Siege Ends in Bloodshed, September 4, 2004).
Among other things, it says the following:
The Chechen issue is a local problem, not a global one
The separatist struggle results in part from past cruelty shown by Stalin to Chechens
'Black widows', Chechen women whose relatives were killed by Russian forces, are a major part of this attack
The Russian security forces made a mistake, again, as they are incompetent
Russia should seek a 'political solution' to this problem

I liked the answer Mr. Putin gave

"Why don't you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels or to the White House and engage in talks, ask him what he wants and give it to him so he leaves you in peace? You find it possible to set some limitations in your dealings with these bastards, so why should we talk to people who are child-killers"

Are you listening Mr.Bush?, Ohh...if you listen also you wont understand. This is all too much for your miniscule cerebellem...all you know is Oil and Dollars at the expense of human lives.

"Fan"aticism - Redefined!!!!!

Have been a sports freak right from childhood. Played cricket like more than 6 hrs a day till my 10th standard. When it rained..the obvious choice was Football. Never knew any rules of the game other than penalty and corner kicks. As I grew up, I developed lot of interest in the game and read about many legendary players. Then came ESPN and Star Sports and gave a chance to watch the beautiful game. I used to get a glimpse of my fav player " The Legendary Diego Maradono" only once or twice on DD. But, ESPN and Start sports provided the chance to see some other great talents.

As I started watching European Leagues regularly, I started liking some of the teams because of some great players. Real Madrid, AC Milan, Barcelona, ManUnited and most recently Arsenal.

But, recently I happened to know about some new definitions of "supporters" or " fans".
If you like one team, you should support them irrespective of the way the play. This is normal and acceptable.

With the slew of "f" words and "b" words into India, the "fan"aticisim took new shapes. People started hating any team other than the team they support. They started abusing players who play for other teams. Someone went to the extent of defining a " fan" as an opposition basher rather than supporter of their own team. This reminds me of the incident that happened last year when Figo shifted to Real Madrid from Barcilona.

So, I wonder whether it is the frustration that the team they like is losing or not playing well at that moment. The self proclaimed fans are ending up with only one option " name calling". I still wonder when would I see genuine fans who could appreciate the greatness of the opposition.

Coming back to the weekend football...

What more would I say about Gunners in this season. The 4-0 win against Charlton Athletic says it all. Henry was in fantastic touch.

But, ManU disaapointed ( again, it is not that you should like either Arsenal or ManU. They are not mutually exclusive. :D )
It still beats me what happened to RvN. He missed almost all the brilliant passes of CrN. Boyy, CrN was a class, I see another Figo in the making. Great going for the youngster.

Real Madrid lost once again in the Spanish League , this time to Deportivo. Praying god that they wont lose any game this season. What happened to the fire that was there in the Champions League match against As Roma?