<b>Ed Murphy And Political Ccs</b>

One of Ed Murphy’s witty aphorisms spoofing the lives of corporate citizens says that sometimes the only important things in an inter office memo are the ‘<i>cc</i>s’.

A popular pastime of Secular Feminists and sundry intellectuals is to bash the Hindu scriptures, like the Ramayana. Bashing Hindu scriptures is a safe pastime, as it does not entail in raiding newspaper offices or issuing Fatwas.

Ramayana may be quoted as an example of male chauvinism or as the story of a King who upheld the noblest principles of democracy; a King who valued the word of a lumpen citizen as more estimable than familial ties.

The story of Satyabahma who fought a battle alongside her Consort may be quoted as an example of gender equality.

During a philosophical debate between Adi Sankara and the scholar Mandanamishra, the latter’s wife acted as a referee.

Gargi and Maitreyi were held in as high esteem as sages Vasishta and Viswamitra for the profundity of their philosophical knowledge.

Take your pick.

An axiomatic question that we should ask ourselves is - should we view the scriptures through the prism of twenty-first century values.

If yes, why are not scriptures of all faiths subjected to such tests?

Or should we venerate them as repositories of ancient wisdom and draw such lessons that are congruous to our times.

If the objective of <i>Wonderings </i>is a ‘cc’ to the new Catholic boss…

After all neo-converts are expected to be more loyal than the King (or should we say the Queen)!

<b>A correspondent for the majority…</b>

Traditionally, the media has correspondents specializing in business, finance, sports, science and politics. Did you hear of special correspondents for minorities in Gujarat and the majority in Kashmir – no, not minorities in Kashmir because the Kashmiri Pundits do not deserve human rights let alone minority rights?

But this ultra-secular news channel has both: a correspondent for minorities in Gujarat and a correspondent for the majority in Kashmir.

The correspondent for the majority in Kashmir holds court on Sundays, where a select audience is treated to acceptance of her pet theory about a political process in Kashmir. Her theory, like the Gujral doctrine, all but allows Kashmir to become an independent nation - if Pakistan allows it - that is.

She nimbly leads the captive audience up the garden path, manipulating, filtering and swatting opinions inimical to her theory. Forget the directive principles of state policy enshrined in the Constitution. Ironically, the programme flaunts the frontispiece of the same constitution as its banner.

<b>…And another for the minorities!</b>

The correspondent for the minorities has been busy for over ten months reporting about the atrocities committed by the majority community in Gujarat, in sentences liberally sprinkled with phrases like ‘…in a sense’, ‘…at one level ’ and ‘…at the end of the day’

For him communal riots have suddenly become ‘<i>pogroms</i>’, and ‘<i>genocide</i>’. He and the rest of the secular intelligentsia forbade any allusion to the initial incident that triggered it all Godhra -. They would rather bury the dead of Godhra quietly and praise the Indian citizen for his unwavering commitment to secularism and for not being provoked by such incidents, unfortunate though they were.

The incident would then merit a mention if the channel had time after all the ‘<i>secularism is under threat’ </i>stories.

The aftermath of Godhra was condemnable but to say that the Karsevaks asked for what they got – gruesome death – is secularism, Indian brand.

<b>Objectivity a matter of principle…</b>

Why should we object when the media was just doing its duty, viz. reporting? No, we should not – but should we not know when reporting ends and where comment begins? News formats are cleverly constructed making the dividing line between news and comment as porous as the Indo-Bangladesh border.

Our correspondent for the minorities advances on Mamata Banerjee, thrusts his mike into her face and asks if she would now withdraw support to the central government. The channel built up a frenzy over the VHP march to Ayodhya, and, captured it ‘exclusively’ on camera. VHP’s foolhardy venture caused it to score a self-goal when the Supreme Court reversed its earlier decision about the undisputed site in Ayodhya.

The ultra-secular news channel put out a report about the VHP getting millions of dollars of foreign aid that was used for sectarian purposes. They found a Dr. Matthew; about as credible as the other ‘Doctor’, who saw the Ansal Plaza encounter, who compiled a report about it.

<b>…Or an optical illusion?</b>

While the ultra-secular news channel was showering encomiums on the CEC for the conduct of a peaceful election with a turnout of 42%-43% in Kashmir, the BBC correspondent in Srinagar denounced it as an exaggerated Indian government figure and the voter turnout would not exceed 15%. Do we dismiss this as a difference in perspective between Indian (even if they are <i>ultra-secular </i>) and <i>foreign</i> meida with their biases and <i>pet axes to grind</i>. The <i>Beeb</i>, in the past, did show clips from <i>Chechnya</i> in a programme on <i>Kashmir</i>!

When did these champions of secularism visit the camps outside Jammu or Delhi in which Kashmiri Pundits reside and report about the living conditions there, in the last fourteen years?

<b>Of a Court Martial…</b>

By the by, while the secular parties and the secular media were pillorying Narendra Modi and the BJP for criticizing the august office of the CEC, our secular CEC himself found it necessary to appear on SAB TV and explain his conduct. Calling a senior IAS officer a ‘Joker’, was an <i>Americanism</i>. The admonition to the officer ‘you should be ashamed of yourself’ was not for public consumption, but eavesdropped by the media. Had they, in the secular media, known this, they would not have reported it.

<b>…And Secular Marshals!</b>

One of the panelists that ‘<i>court-martialed’ </i>the CEC in the programme writes two thousand word articles about ‘<i>secularism under seize’</i>. Her first paragraph has an innuendo that becomes suspicion in the second and by the logic of the first two becomes fact in the third. The rest of the article flows from the first three sequentially and logically. The last paragraph of the article leaves the reader in no doubt as to where he should look for, for recruiting demons and other evil spirits when he needed them. They are, according to her, without a doubt, in the membership of the Bhajrang Dal, the RSS and the VHP, a.k.a. the Sangh Parivar, in the lexicon of the secular media. Prosecutor, Judge and Jury all rolled into one and the judgement delivered in a jiffy! Another distinguished columnist wrote a dissertation (no less) in one of the more secular newspapers, about Narendra Modi’s culpability for violation of international human rights laws and his liability for instant arrest if he set foot on Belgian soil. Again, Prosecutor, Judge and Jury all rolled into one and the judgement delivered in a jiffy!

Killings in Kashmir, Amarnadh, Aksharadham, Kaluchuk and other places are merely to be toted on the tickers as statistics. They do not merit dissertations and application of human rights laws.

Thousands of Hindus were killed in the last twelve years. Eight hundred million were killed in five centuries from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries.

‘Shush…’ do not talk about such lore - the secular intellectuals arraign you for invoking the dead past.

The dead did not complain; the living do not object. That is Hindu passivity, the Hindu’s eternal belief in the infallibility of his fate.

The Jews came to India when they were driven out of Palestine in 70 A. D. Hindus welcomed them with open arms.

Jesuit priests came to India in the seventh century to propagate their religion. Hindus did not resist them – they were welcomed!

The Zoroastrians, original inhabitants of Persia, like the Jews, were persecuted. They sought asylum in India and have been living here, in peace and tranquility.

Do the Hindus need lessons in secularism?

<b>This article was written two years ago but has not lost its topicality as bashing <i>Hindu</i> scriptures and meida biases continue.</b>

CABE adopts New Curriculum Framework

Special Correspondent

Recommendation for making Standard X board examination optional

NEW DELHI: The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) on Wednesday adopted the National Curriculum Framework-2005 and work will now begin in right earnest to bring out new textbooks in time for the next academic session. This was the second time CABE deliberated upon the NCF — drawn up by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) — which was revised after the first meeting in June to factor in some of the concerns raised by members.

With reservations being expressed by many a member over some of the recommendations made in the NCF — particularly pertaining to making the Class X board examination optional, stress on local knowledge and the three-language formula — Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh said all the views aired at the CABE meeting would be taken into consideration while drawing up the syllabus and writing the textbooks.

To monitor the exercise of syllabus preparation and textbook writing, the Minister also announced that a monitoring committee.

Such a monitoring committee had been suggested by Mr. Singh on the opening day of the two-day CABE meeting itself as education ministers of BJP-ruled States walked out protesting against NCF being put to discussion without incorporating their suggestions.

India that is Bharat (India is perhaps the only country in the world to have two official names), like the Ganga that symbolises her, meanders on in spite of continuous assaults on her political, cultural and religious institutions. These assaults are by political parties, which subsume national interest to their greed for power, their contrasting approaches towards issues that concern the majority and minority religions and their cultures and traditions and their subjugation of the intellectual community into endorsing their dominant political philosophy - by patronage or ostracism. The dominant philosophy of India’s political class may be summed up as the political equivalent of commercial sex work.

Hidden agenda in Kashmir?

The sequence of events that built up the Kashmir imbroglio makes out for an unmistakable case of ineptitude, political myopia and vanity. First, at the time of partition, the Maharajah of Kashmir affirmed that his state would remain independent and not join either India or Pakistan. When Pakistan tried to annex the state by infiltrating tribal raiders, the Maharajah offered accession of his state to India. The instrument of accession that the Maharajah signed was valid under international law and had no strings attached to it.

India sent her armies to liberate Kashmir from its aggressors. Mahatma Gandhi was reported to have come out of the Birla House in Delhi where he was camping and blessed the Indian airforce planes that were over-flying to liberate Kashmir. Indian army beat Pakistan in the battle and was ready to liberate Kashmir.

Thus far the progression of the story was linear with a simple cause and effect sequence. Then some bizarre things began to happen. India, instead of liberating Kashmir, called a unilateral cease-fire of the winning army. A new article - the now infamous article 370 - though the instrument of accession did not call for it, was added to the Indian constitution. The matter was referred to the UN - again, though not called for by the instrument of accession.

The instinct for self-flagellation of India’s political masters was not only to haunt her for over fifty years but virtually opened a Pandora’s box. First India weakened her case in international fora. Second, she was oblivious to the loss of Baltistan, Gigit and other northern areas, which slipped out of her hand along with Kashmir. And third, article 370 lead to the introduction of slew of cankerous articles that gave the northeastern states the same dubious status as Kashmir. The advent of Jihad culture on the world stage that originated in West Asia engulfed the Kashmiri Hindus and made them refugees in their own country. India winked at the phenomenon in West Asia and winks at the plight of the Kashmiri Hindus - her political institutions culpable and her intellectuals hypocritical.

Did Jawaharlal’s overweening ambition to win a Nobel peace prize script our pernicious Kashmir policy?

Tolerating treason?

Could you imagine, at the height of the Falklands war, the Communist Party of Great Britain supporting Argentina? If it did such an act would have been described as high treason. Strong public opinion chastised even the punctilious BBC in its reporting of the war.

In India that is Bharat, not only could a political party get away with supporting the enemy during the Chinese war of 1962, but forty years into the future usurp an aura of respectability that would give it a stranglehold over many public institutions. Today it is a state within a state that enjoys awesome authority and no responsibility.

Placatory scripts!

The UN mandated the formation of Israel in 1948 but India that is Bharat did not recognise the state for fear of alienating her native minority population. How recognising a state in west Asia for which its constituents fought for over two millennia would go against the interests of India’s minorities boggles imagination. Rather than cultivating a friendship with Israel that has so much to offer, India that is Bharat indulged a club called the Non Aligned Movement comprising mostly banana republics and totalitarian states. India that is Bharat finally got round to recognising Israel after China did.

Would Britain re-write its history eulogising Napoleon to please the French minority? In India that is Bharat, half a century after Sardar Patel ordered the restoration of the Somnath temple a celebrated historian re-writes history amounting to an apologia for Mohamed Ghaznavi who destroyed it.

White-livered fourth estate!

Not a whimper is heard when newspapers routinely publish derogatory critiques on Hindu mythology, films routinely lampoon Gods and other mythological figures and rationalists have a field day lambasting them. Newspapers and intellectuals cry foul when some social organisations protest against such insensitivity. They are dubbed obscurantist and even fascist.

Offices of all four English language newspapers in Bangalore a.k.a. India’s Silicon Valley were vandalised at one time or other for publishing something the principal minority religion considered blasphemous. There were no cries of ‘freedom of expression in peril’. The victims promptly published apologies. After one of those episodes, an eminent columnist went into hiding till the fury subsided.

Who do you think was responsible for Salman Rushidie becoming a fugitive to eternity? A very revered, eminent journalist, champion of freedom of expression and conscience keeper of (India’s version of) secularism.


Reformation abroad and apartheid at home!

There are three kinds of nations in the world. In first world democracies every religion enjoys equal status vis-à-vis the state, probably with a slight but understandable tilt towards the majority religion. Therefore no one would take exception when the president of the US takes oath on the bible when sworn into office or lights a Christmas tree on the eve of Christmas. After the break up of USSR, nations in Eastern Europe abandoned the dead religion called communism and moved into this category. In the theocratic states only the dominant religion is - allowed to be - practised in public.

India that is Bharat belongs to the third category - alone in the world - where there is an undeclared apartheid against the majority religion. Unbelievable? But true! Every child is initiated into school after a prayer to Saraswathi the goddess of learning. Yet Saraswathi Vandana or invocation to the goddess of learning was not allowed in a conference of Education Ministers. The received wisdom was that it would offend the sensibilities of a minority religion. Now look at the contrast. During the holy month of Ramjan every two-bit politician and his uncle - of the majority religion - dons a fez cap and hosts at least one Iftar party.

The Indian State cannot serve a superior court’s summons to a Muslim cleric. But a state government gave Hindus a Diwali gift last year by arresting one of their most revered pontiffs. The state’s law enforcement agencies (literally) stage-managed an Entebbe type commando operation with machine guns helicopters and aeroplanes to arrest a harmless Sanyasin at a cost of twenty million rupees. If only they were as zealous and volunteered their prowess when an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked to Afghanistan!

Demographic Invasion

Berlin wall was dismantled in 1990 so the two Germanies could unite. This year the French rejected a common EU constitution not because they feared losing a few plumbing jobs to the Polish but because they feared their culture and identity might be smothered in the enlarged EU. The Dutch followed suit.

In India that is Bharat, a report about fifteen to twenty million Bangladeshi illegal immigrants swamping all over the land is dismissed as paranoia of a fanatic Hindu fringe. Fifteen to twenty million is more than the population of many European nations. Just to give an idea by contrast, the three Baltic republics Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had a combined population of 2.7 million when they seceded from the erstwhile USSR

These examples demonstrate how cultures seek to consolidate and protect their identity from atrophy.

What is culture? Why should a nation seek to preserve its cultural ancestry? What will happen if power hungry political élites seek to erase a nation’s cultural ancestry to perpetuate themselves in power?

<i>This is not the end of this article but the beginning of a - hopefully - lively debate!</i>

Should we re-write Indian History?

India’s history, for the secular establishment, begins in the tenth century AD after <i>Mohd. Ghaznavi </i>embarked on his <i>pilgrimage</i>. According to celebrated leftist historians his repeated visits to Hindu temples had nothing to do with religion. <i>Mohd. Ghaznavi </i>merely wanted to <i>set right social imbalances </i>because temples in those days were centres of social activity. His second <i>laudable objective </i>was to take away wealth that was hoarded there and <i>not used for the welfare of the masses. </i>

Our commie friends have been doing it - redistribution of wealth - for over seventy years till people in many countries felt that they had had too much of a good thing. That is why their historians feel a kinship with the Mohd. Ghaznavis.

<i>Genghiz Khan </i>and <i>Tamarlene</i> too were social reformers who showed the <i>kafirs </i>the path to direct and hassle-free salvation.

In the first decades after independence, school children had a template answer for questions about the rule of various emperors in their history question papers. All of them had had <i>roads laid</i>, <i>trees planted</i>, <i>ponds dug </i>and <i>rest </i><i>houses constructed </i>for travellers. The child had to fill in the name and the answer was equally applicable to <i>Ashoka, Kanishka </i>or <i>Sri Harsha</i>.

The <i>mogul </i>rulers beginning with Babar <i>reformed administration</i>, <i>established </i><i>benign, people-friendly governance </i>and <i>instituted civic </i><i>amenities</i>. They did not demolish temples. If you say they did, prove it by giving us a ride in time travel and show it happening.

Emperor Aurangazeb in his magnanimity permitted <i>kafirs </i>to practise their religion and live peacefully by paying a small tax. British historians distorted facts by calling it <i>Zaziya </i>to sow dissension and ‘<i>divide et impera’</i>. That is why - for Aurangazeb’s magnanimity in permitting <i>kafirs</i> to practise their religion and live peacefully by paying a small tax, not British historians distorting facts by calling it <i>Zaziya</i> to sow dissension and ‘<i>divide et impera’ </i>- many cities in India commemorate his name.

Leftists can explain away events and - diametrically opposing views - with great felicity through Marxian dialectics. They could teach <i>Goebbels</i> a thing or two about propaganda. The mystery behind modern advertising executives wearing scruffy looks and crumpled clothes might be traced to their Marxist background.

Thus Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1954, Poland in 1962, Czechoslovakia in 1967 and Afghanistan in 1980 were <i>historical necessities</i>. The reason for American intervention in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Iraq was her <i>imperialist </i><i>expansionist</i> designs and <i>vulgarity of greed</i>.

Query our Marxist friends about the purges of political opponents during the regimes of Stalin, Kruschev and Mao they will scorch you with their looks. Ask them why China massacred several thousand of her own civilians in Tiannamen square using not just machine guns but tanks and armoured personnel carriers, they reply that they do not have adequate information on the subject but that it might be capitalist west’s propaganda to malign <i>Marxist</i> progress. But fully informed they are on the exact number of civilians killed in American precision bombing of Iraq’s military targets during the liberation of Kuwait.

<i>George Orwell </i>did not foresee that his native land would in five decades realise his <i>Minitrue</i>, the ministry of truth. For the benefit of those who have not read <i>Orwell</i>’s <i>Nineteen Eighty Four</i>, his fictional communist paradise in the novel, named <i>Oceania</i>, had a <i>Minitrue</i>, the ministry for truth.

<i>Orwell</i> wrote the novel to open the eyes of the English middle class intelligentsia, which was toying with communism, a romantic idea of the time. <i>Orwell</i>’s novel delivered his timely warning with telling effect and put paid to a perilous turn the nation’s history could have taken. <i>George Bernard </i><i>Shaw</i> was reported to have said “<i>If you are not a socialist below forty, something is wrong with your heart; if you remained a socialist after forty, something is wrong with your head.</i>”

<i>Orwell</i>’s other novel <i>Animal Farm </i>also a spoof on communism, too, is a must read for lovers of democracy. <i>Animal Farm </i>begins with an ironical revolt of the animals that usurp the state with the cry ‘<i>All animals are equal’</i>. The animals got wiser and the commandment was amended to ‘<i>Some animals are </i><i>more equal than others’</i>. This statute change created a pyramidal caste system in the ‘<i>All animals are equal’ </i>society. The society’s fat cats at the apex lived in opulence and luxury while the rest of the citizenry had to live on subsistence rations.

<i>Orwell</i>’ disguise was too thin - if the irony was too wry - for us not to miss his target. You can allow your imagination run riot by visualising many contemporary caricatures from the novel’s characters.

Returning to <i>Nineteen Eighty Four</i>, <i>Oceania</i>’s language was <i>Newspeak</i>. The objective of <i>Newspeak </i>was not to extend but diminish the range of thought. For example the word <i>free</i> has a limited meaning: <i>free </i>of lice, <i>free</i> of pests etc. In <i>Newspeak</i>, thinking of <i>freedom</i> other than that was allowed by <i>Engsoc</i> was <i>thoughtcrime</i>, punishable by death. <i>Engsoc</i> or <i>English Socialism </i>was <i>Orwell</i>’s euphemism for communism.

The function of <i>Oceania’</i>s <i>Minitrue</i>, was to constantly re-write history <i>to</i> <i>suit the current philosophy and objectives of the rulers </i>of <i>Oceania</i>. The nation’s history was constantly re-written and - <i>all</i> - copies of the previous versions were destroyed.

While the <i>closet, crypto, pseudo </i>and other <i>species </i>of the <i>genus </i><i>commie </i>and their <i>fellow travellers </i>have been contributing their mite to re-writing India’s history for over fifty years, the government of West Bengal has instituted a <i>Minitrue</i> for sanitising India’s history. For WB’s <i>Minitrue</i> speaking or writing of India’s past, which is contrary to the <i>commie parivar</i>’s worldview, is <i>Saffronising</i> history.

Fifty years after <i>Sardar Patel </i>ordered the restoration of <i>Somnath</i>, the celebrated historian, <i>Romila Thapar </i>felt the need to re-write history, an apologia for <i>Mohd. </i><i>Ghaznavi</i>, who destroyed the temple. Contrast this with <i>A. J. P. Taylor</i>’s attempt to put the <i>Origins of the Second World War </i>in what he considered was the proper perspective, by tracing allied vacillation and turning a Nelson’s eye over German rearmament. The British polity did not avidly lap it up but dismissed it as an overzealous attempt to defend the devil.

The role of the media in shadowing prevailing hypocrisy (<i>euphemistically called </i><i>political correctness</i>) might be the subject matter of another article. But the distinction it accorded <i>Romila</i> <i>Thapar’</i>s <i>de novo </i>history vis-à-vis another chronicle by a Belgian journalist must be mentioned. Most newspapers and periodicals (except <i>India Today</i>, which published an objective review) eulogised the author’s thoroughness in researching facts - probably awed by - and reviewed her eminence rather than the book. In stark contrast, <i>Koenrad Elst</i>’s book on the discovery of a massive temple by the <i>Archaeological Survey of </i><i>India (ASI) </i>under the demolished mosque in <i>Ayodhya</i> was largely ignored (again with the honourable exception of <i>India Today</i>). No honourable publisher would publish <i>Elst</i>’s book for fear of treading a politically incorrect line.

<i>Jawaharlal Nehru </i>leading the pack of leftist historians, in his <i>Glimpses of </i><i>World History</i>, had this to say of an eyewitness account of the grandeur of the <i>Vijayanagar Empire</i>: “What a scandalous waste of riches!” The eyewitness was recounting a royal wedding in which a splendid carpet, six miles long, studded with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires and other precious stones was laid for the marriage procession. Why did <i>Nehru</i> single out the only <i>Hindu Empire </i>in the South for such a derogatory attack when all through his book he lavished praise on <i>China</i>?

In his popular novel, <i>The Prize</i>, <i>Irving Wallace </i>noted that three thousand years ago the <i>Hindu </i>surgeon <i>Shusrutha</i> performed the modern equivalent of plastic surgery by transplanting skin from a girl’s thigh on to her burnt face and reconstructing her nose. Wouldn’t you call that <i>Saffronising</i> history? For how can India claim such advancement before she became secular and acquire what our <i>commie parivar </i>fondly calls the <i>composite</i> <i>culture</i>?

<b>Exploring Religious Conflicts? RAND as New Religious Media (NRM) --Dr. S. Kalyanaraman </b>
-Dr. S. Kalyanaraman

Please list Mosque and other buildings destroyed by Musilms in Saudi Arabia and other part of world.

Kamal, whom Americans call Camel, is a not-so-hapless Hindu friend that lives in the Bible belt. He always looks forward to the opportunity of meeting the next missionary. Camel believes that beauty is in the eyes of beer-holder and enjoys reading Osho. Here is a conversation he had with a Christian missionary:

Missionary: Hi Camel, don’t you want to save yourself?
Camel: Save myself from what?

Missionary: Save yourself from hell. Do you know that if you don’t accept Jesus Christ as your savior and get baptized, you will go to hell forever?
Camel: I see. My parents died Hindus. So did my grandfather, who also occasionally smoked marijuana. Will they go to hell?

Missionary: [Feigning pity] Yes, I am so sorry to say this, but you have the chance to save yourself and your family.
Camel: What about my drinking buddy from the West Coast? He gets drunk and calls God filthy names.

Missionary: [Red in the face] Jesus Christ! He will certainly go to hell.
Camel: My parrot? She enjoys sex with her boy parrot friend?

Missionary: Terrible! She will go to hell with her boy parrot friend. Jesus really, really hated sex. Anyone that enjoys sex will burn in hell forever.
Camel: I see. That brings up the question about me and my wife. We have mastered all but two techniques of Kamasutra. How will Christ judge us?

Missionary: Very bad, very bad. When good Christians have sex even they can’t tell it happened. Really good Christians castrate themselves. Please, please accept Jesus, give up sex and be saved from hell.
Camel: [After a moment of reflection] You know what, I want to go to hell.

Missionary: [Now confused] You want to go to hell? I don’t understand this.
Camel: Yes. What will I do in heaven anyway? You have your Jesus Christ, very moral Christians like yourself and certainly no sex and no calling names in heaven. I will get bored in a day. Now that you have confirmed that everyone I like – my wife, parents, grandfather, drinking buddy and parrot – will go to hell, I want to go to hell and have a nice time with them. I don’t want to go to heaven even by mistake. Can you please tell me how I can ensure that I will go to hell?

The confused missionary promised to come back when Camel gets sober and Camel is still waiting. Can some other Christian missionary please guide Camel to hell?

came via email..
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>We have lost one of our finest and brightest stars. Akhil's murder is a cruel blow to his parents, family and many friends.
May this remarkable young man rest in eternal peace.
- Aum Shantih-</b>

Passer-by finds man dead in park
By MIKE GLENN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

A man was shot to death during an apparent robbery Thursday at a park in southwest Houston, police said.

A passerby spotted the body of Akhil Chopra, 26, about 1 p.m. on a picnic bench at Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza Park, 13500 Ashford Point Drive.

"Somebody held him up at gunpoint and shot him, point blank. It's a senseless crime," said co-worker Ramesh Bhutada, who called Chopra "one of the noblest souls."

Although there were no eyewitnesses to the fatal shooting, robbery is considered the most likely motive because the victim's wallet and a weapon were not found at the scene, police said.

Co-workers said Chopra, who moved to the United States about five years ago to attend graduate school,often walked and meditated at the park after lunch.

"He was a yoga teacher," Bhutada said. "He was always smiling (and) a very positively-natured guy. It's rare to find a fellow like that."

Chopra was single and lived with a roommate. His nearest family members were in India, co-workers said.

The victim's friends said they will contact Houston Crime Stoppers today and offer a $5,000 reward for information leading to the assailant's arrest.

"He's on the loose right now and he's going to hurt somebody else," Bhutada said.

<b>Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Houston Police homicide division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.</b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Our deepest condolences to friends and family of Akhil Chopra.

Through A "Looking Glass" - Affairs of ISI
By Veera Vaishnava

Some excellent compilation by N3 :
http://jitnasa.india-forum.com
http://jitnasa.india-forum.com/Docs/Refere...ies_Circus.html

We did have have thread over a year or so ago listing the shennanigans being pulled by these so called scholars like Courtright, Doniger, etc. For some reason, the thread's disappeared <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> , nevertheless an attempt to revieve this topic cause something intresting I came across.

Some questions:
What does one know about <b>Francis Xavier Clooney </b>(who will now move to the
Harvard Divinity School from Boston College, heading a special chair)
Divine Mother, Blessed Mother , Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary

He's supposedly issued a press note which was reported in The Hindu of August 2 repeating a startling claim, with a potential to disturb the peace in the nation, <b>that five Vaishnava mandirams were originally churches</b>.
Any details on this?