<b>More than 32,000 people sipped their way into a new world record as India hosted the world's largest tea party in Indore.</b>
"From an industrialist to the man on the street, a cup of tea is a major bonding factor in India," said Sanjay Mani, general manager of the Dainik Bhaskar newspaper, which helped arrange the event.
Living up to its reputation of a nation fond of its tea, thousands of tea drinkers queued outside the Nehru Stadium in Indore over the weekend for the record-breaking feat.
An adjudicator from Guinness World Records kept an eye on proceedings.
"We wanted to break and double a record held by Japan and thereby set a target of 30,000 tea drinkers sitting down at the same time sipping their mugs of steaming tea," Mani said.
Nearly 1,000 volunteers served tea to 32,681 participants while an electronic counting machine kept track of the total number of people taking part in the event.
Japan's Nishio city entered the Guinness World Records in 2006 by hosting the largest simultaneous tea party where 14,718 people took part.
The event, a fundraiser for development of Indore, was adjudicated by Francesca D'Asdia, who handed out a certificate to the organisers recognising their attempt as a new world record, Mani said.
"It was unbelievable," said Rupali Dutta, Director Marketing of the Tea Board of India. "The gallery was full, people sat with their mugs waiting for the event to start, the atmosphere was quite festive."
The Tea Board was the co-sponsor for the event along with Hindustan Unilever Ltd, which makes consumer goods.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It is a treasure of the bygone era. The capital's heart was named after it. Shady trees stood by it to protect its sheen. Tribals worshipped it, foreigners used to see with astonishment and locals used to measure it on every full moon and no-moon nights.
The thar pakhna (thar: stone, pakhna: living) might have gone into oblivion, but not its characteristic. Considered as a blessing to the tribal people, the living stone, now sandwiched between the hostel of the Government Girls' Polytechnic and its boundary wall, once enjoyed pride of place at Charan Pahan's garden.
Charan, the Munda headman of the locality in 1860, did not know how the stone increased and decreased every fortnight, but took the trouble to get the fact entered in the District Gazetteer, lest people forget it.
Documentary evidences support the fact that the monolith increased by a foot or so on every full-moon night and again shrunk within the next fortnight. A few books and souvenirs published from Ranchi in the late 19th and early 20th century (some in possession with The Pioneer), have mentioned about the monolith and its interesting characteristic.
According to geologist Nitish Priyadarshi, it is a rock with perforations that soak water during high tide. "It is a tidal occurrence. The rock being porous, it absorbs water during the phase of full moon. By the night of full moon it attains its maximum height. As it gradually exudes water during the no-moon phase, the height decreases and on the no-moon night it has the minimum height," explained Priyadarshi.
He, however, pointed out that Ranchi rocks do not have the similar kind of characteristic. "The rock must have been planted at its place years ago (may be thousand years ago). Other rocks in this region are not porous," he added.
Ironically, very few residents of the city now know the monolith, which remained the talk of the town till 1985. The guards of the Government Girls' Polytechnic do not know about it, neither the students putting up at the hostel. Not even the girls know about the uniqueness of the stone whose room is situated just opposite to it on the hostel premises.
"How do you expect young girls to know about the history of this place? No one has made any effort to popularise it," said the tribal gardener, Mahesh Mahato, of the hostel. "I know because we worship it," he added.
Jalendar, the little cook of the hostel, too knows about it, because he heard about the stone's peculiarity from an old guard of Chhotanagpur Girls High School (opposite the polytechnic). "The stone is more than seven feet, my hands do not reach to measure it on new-moon or no-moon nights. I wish I could measure it," said Jalender.
The teachers of the polytechnic feel that it is a real treasure that should have been protected by the Government, but refuse to talk about it, fearing it would draw unwanted visitors to the girls hostel.
"Had it been protected before construction of the hostel and the polytechnic, we would have had nothing to say. But now the institution is functioning and we do not want any kind of disturbances here," said a teacher.
Nagpur, March 8: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad asked Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena to launch a drive to flush out 'five lakh illegal Bangladeshi migrants living in Mumbai'.
"If these five lakh illegal migrants are driven out of Mumbai, five lakhs Indians will get job opportunities and there will be less threat perception to Mumbai as well," VHP leader Praveen Togadia told a press conference.
If North Indians are pushed out of Maharashtra, the space will be filled by another stream of Bangladeshis, he said.
To a question whether he plans to meet Sena chief Bal Thackeray or MNS president Raj Thackeray over the migrant issue, Togadia replied in negative.
Such controversies, he said, had earlier happened in some states like Punjab but the issue later subsided.
The VHP leader criticised the Congress-led UPA government for âappeasementâ of minorities and making financial allocations on religious grounds.
On Sethusamudram project, he said VHP was against politicising the issue and also against a single political party, be it BJP, taking mileage out of it.
If Prime Minister Manmohan Singh does something to protect Ram Sethu, which was a sentimental issue for crores of Hindus, VHP will support him, Togadia said.
Mumbai, Apr 7 (PTI) Two days after an article in Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Samana' criticised Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, party chief Bal Thackeray today sang a different tune calling Bachchan a "superstar of the entire country". "Amitabh is not just star of one particular state, but the superstar of the whole country.
Hence it is improper to drag him into needless controversy of regionalism," Thackeray said in an editorial today. In a front page article two days back, Samana had praised Tamil superstar Rajnikanth, who had his early life in Karnataka, for his stand on the Hogenakkal issue and said it had "dwarfed" Bachchan when it came to taking a firm position on issues relating to Maharashtra.
Thackeray distanced himself from the remarks the same day saying it was not his views and that the actor was a family friend. In today's editorial, Thackeray made it clear that irrespective of what the Samana article had said, he had high regards for Bachchan.
The editorial also took a swipe at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for "harassing" Bachchan by raking up trivial issues and said this "is worthy of contempt". <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Apr 7, 2008
Mumbai, Apr 7 (ANI): The Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray, in an article which appeared in the party mouthpiece 'Saamna' on Monday, has stated not to drag Amitabh Bachchan into the son of the soil controversy as he did not belong to any particular region.
Thackeray has written that Amitabh would fight for the state where he worked and where he had been living for the past 40 years.
Recently, an editorial in 'Saamna' asked Amitabh to show more loyalty to the place where he was working than where he was born, mentioning that though he was born in Uttar Pradesh, he had achieved stardom in Mumbai.
He was also asked to follow the example of Tamil actor Rajnikanth, who joined the recent Tamil film industry's protest against Karnataka over the Hogenakkal drinking water project, though he hailed from that state and from Maharastra.
"Amitabh Bachchan is our family friend. I have neither said anything against him nor written against him in the editorial. The hue and cry, which has been created by the media regarding the news in 'Saamna', is condemnable. Our relations with him are not so weak that it can be broken by electronic media news," Thackeray said in a statement.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, however, came under attack. In his article, Thackeray writes that Mayawati is troubling Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan for no reason. arlier, the actress-turned-MP of Samajwadi Party, Jaya Bachchan had accused Mayawati of pursuing action against her husband for cheap publicity.
It may be recalled that the Additional District Magistrate (Finance) of Barabanki District Shirish Dubey, had on March 31 issued a notice to Bachchan, accusing him of undervaluing the stamp duty on a plot of land that he had bought in the area.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
New Delhi - The Delhi High court Wednesday issued a notice to Delhi University (DU) following a public interest litigation (PIL) that has alleged objectionable references to the Hindu epic Ramayana in a textbook prescribed for graduate-level history students.
A division bench of Justices Manmohan Sarin and Manmohan issued the notice to the Delhi University vice-chancellor and the academic council to reply by May 19.
'The objectionable references in the book are hurting the feelings of Hindus. It is a violation of fundamental rights,' advocate Monika Arora, who filed the PIL, told IANS.
She was objecting to 'Three Hundred Ramanayas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation ', an essay by A.K. Ramanujan on different folk traditions related to the Ramayana. It is a recommended reading for the students of second-year BA (honours) course in history.
Members of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) youth wing have also opposed the essay in the history book as it mentions many versions of the narrative of Lord Ram's life.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
05-16-2008, 08:50 PM (This post was last modified: 05-16-2008, 09:39 PM by Bharatvarsh.)
As I said, I shifted my questions to this thread, what I want to know is how hard is it to own a registered firearm in Bharat. Are only certain firearms permitted (eg: pistols, rifle, shot gun etc) or anything can be purchased like US (except for sawed off shotgun, which requires a special permit).
I used to be against gun ownership long ago but have changed my mind over the years, every unprovoked brutality of Islamic savages on Hindus convinced me that every able bodied law abiding Hindu should be legally able to arm himself/herself, terrorist attacks like Jaipur cannot be prevented by gun ownership but Islamic savagery witnessed in the usual riots can be prevented very easily, the unarmed Hindus have become easy prey for these rabid feral scum, they attack ordinary Hindus with impunity while the gov't and police do nothing at all.
Remember 10 Hindus died in Sholapur, all because Falwell abused Muhammad in US, if all those Hindus were armed and fired on the fanatical mobs in self defense, some lives would have been saved.
Just last year Muslim fanatics shot dead a Hindu over an arguement over Deepavali in UP.
In the LA riots, I still remember those Korean store owners who saved their stores and lives by firing on the rabid mobs, the police were nowhere to be seen and they had to defend themselves, and remember US is a first world country, if police cant even prevent such savagery there, I can imagine how useless it is to rely on the police to come save you during riots in Bharat where most of the cities are packed with ghettos of the followers of religion of "peace".
So is anyone aware of the gun laws in Bharat?
In places like Chambal there are many illegal firearms I am aware.
I believe that as aware Hindus we should all keep this in mind and be armed, Canada has very strict gun laws but I still plan to get a licensed handgun.
Also its important to note that gun control was actually introduced by the British (especially after 1857) because they did not want the natives to have firearms to rebel, before that most of the Indian society carried arms, and we can glean this from the numerous accounts of foreign travellers from Mughal times, they were the only thing available for Hindus to protect themselves from state savagery under Muslim rule.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->So is anyone aware of the gun laws in Bharat?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Person required reason to have gun, need permit, need some political power to get permit.
My uncle while cleaning is permitted rifle shot himself on his finger, he was doctor. What I recall they have to keep this incidence private, took treatment in his own house as whole family is of doctor. They were worried that Police will make fake case to take away permit from them. Law enforcement and Police makes difficult to have gun permit.
Another cousin of mine used gun to prevent armed robber in his house. He is also Doctor and retired from Army, he had to bribe Police and other people because they were slapping case against him.
One of my cousin bought gun in US and he had lot of problem getting custom clearance in Delhi airport. After bribing custom officer he was able to get clearance this is with permit.
In India, "desi katta" is popular, but after Kashmir terrorism, cheap Made in China pistols are in market. Pretty bad performance. I will suggest stay away from cheap guns, they can blast on you.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I believe that as aware Hindus we should all keep this in mind and be armed, Canada has very strict gun laws but I still plan to get a licensed handgun.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Before getting a gun, take training. They teach you how to handle gun and how to use it. I have taken training and initially practiced in indoor shooting range and later open air clay practice. It is must. Later you can decide whether to have gun near you. You need a mindset to use it also. I can tell you actual shooting is different than what you see in movies. In US having arms is your Right.
05-16-2008, 09:13 PM (This post was last modified: 05-16-2008, 09:19 PM by Husky.)
Should say upfront that I don't know anything about gun laws in India.
<!--QuoteBegin-Bharatvarsh+May 16 2008, 08:50 PM-->QUOTE(Bharatvarsh @ May 16 2008, 08:50 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->I used to be against gun ownership long ago but have changed my mind over the years, every unprovoked brutality of Islamic savages on Hindus convinced me that every able bodied law abiding Hindu should be legally able to arm himself/herself, terrorist attacks like Jaipur cannot be prevented by gun ownership but Islamic savagery witnessed in the usual riots can be prevented very easily, the unarmed Hindus have become easy prey for these rabid feral scum, they attack ordinary Hindus with impunity while the gov't and police do nothing at all.[right][snapback]81689[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->How odd. It was just after I read about the Jaipur blasts that I made a 180 from my anti-gun stance.
You're right that for Hindus it will make the difference between life, and death at the hands of a jihadi. And unlike some other people, Hindus are not trigger-happy people and can be trusted not to use it except when in need. Also, as you said, islamis already have the weapons (not just the bombs, but the swords and guns) in preparation for their pre-meditated attacks.
The invention of the gun brought a hulk down to the level of a frail kid as long as the latter could aim and pull the trigger. So an otherwise helpless Hindu could defend him/herself and family against a trained jihadi terrorist. But even so, learning some type of martial arts must be made compulsory for Dharmics in India. And for the hypothetical situation of when worst comes to worst, Dharmics have to learn the Japanese art of biting one's tongue. (I always wondered how they could have learnt that without practise, because practise would mean you'd end up having killed yourself.)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In US having arms is your Right.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->When they made that ...amendment was it?... for the right of local militia to bear arms, they were in need of it in the US. But their mentality has changed over the time. Offense is now seen as defense in itself (I'm talking of many WASPies' "shoot first, ask questions later" mentality, not referring to the "offense is the best form of defense" war strategy). Mad WASPies with guns is almost as scary as Jihadis with swords.
Ya in US the 2nd amendment guarantees ur right to bear arms:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Plus most of the gun control lobby has the image of being hypocrties like Rosie O'donnell with her big mouth, she is against gun ownership but her bodyguards applied for a pistol carrying permit.
From above link <!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>In Delhi the Police have a tendency of denying licenses if your stated need is "protection of person or property and private security", unless you can "show cause" in terms of a justifiable and real threat to life or property. Their logic is that Delhi is a well policed city and you don't really need a gun for self-defence. You will also be (almost certainly) asked to produce income proof documents in such cases</b>.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
So here comes valid reason for bribe. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--emo&<_<--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='dry.gif' /><!--endemo--> Sex in space is a flailing exercise
6 Jun 2008, 0251 hrs IST,ANI
LONDON: An increasing number of couples expressing their desire to have sex in space have become a cause of concern for scientists, says a report.
The experts do not think that it would be possible to have intercourse in space. "We've had a variety of people inquire about it," Daily Star quoted Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, whose boss Richard Branson hopes to put tourists into space next year, as saying. ( Watch )
"One got in touch about a charter flight so they could be the first to have intercourse in space and get in the Guinness Book of Records. We've also had an approach from people wanting to make a movie," Whitehorn added.
Experts guess that realising sex in space would require spacecraft like the Shuttle to be installed with special "love handles" that would control astronauts floating around.
While two crewmembers on a 1996 Nasa Shuttle are rumoured to have already had an out of this world experience, space medicine expert James Logan insists that lack of gravity would make it difficult for space tourists to have sex.
I am not able to open faithfreedom's website. Does anybody know if Ali took his website down or was it banned in USA or was it hacked? Any news? I tried googling there is nothing on the wire about it.
06-20-2008, 12:32 AM (This post was last modified: 06-20-2008, 12:36 AM by Shambhu.)
It is time for yet another edition of "Words we really need to describe reality" !
Numerqual:
Adj: A numerqual argument is an argument in which the arguer argues that XYZ must be good because lots and lots of people follow XYZ. Many "Hindus" offer numerqual arguments. The word has roots in "number equals quality".
Ummophobe:
Noun: An ummophobe is a person afraid of something happening to him if he/she tells the truth. Many "Hindus" are ummophobes. The word has roots in "Umm..I can't really say what I am afraid of" and the related "Ummah"
Commesp:
Noun: A commesp is a comment passed on a religion without the commenter ever having read anything about that religion. Many Hindus pass commesps on Islam and Christianity, making these religions sound good (when ithey are not); many "Hindus" pass commesps on Dharma, making it sound bad (when it is not). The word has roots in "comment" and "ESP", or extra sensory perception, by which the comment seems to have been arrived at.
Psocial climber:
Noun: A psocial climber is a pseudosecular person who wants to climb the ladder of cluelessness by showing his/her co-pseudoseculars how deeply pseudosecular he is. Many "Hindus" are psocial climbers. The word has roots in "psec" and "social climber".
Tvaccuser:
Noun: A tvaccuser is a person who accuses other people of "becoming Hindutva" just because these other people show signs of being interested in Hindu Dharma. Many "Hindus" are tvaccusers. The word has roots in "hindutva", "accuser", and "TV", which is the source for the tvaccuser's "knowledge" of the world around him/her.
06-20-2008, 07:19 PM (This post was last modified: 06-20-2008, 07:21 PM by Husky.)
<!--QuoteBegin-Shambhu+Jun 20 2008, 12:32 AM-->QUOTE(Shambhu @ Jun 20 2008, 12:32 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Commesp:
Noun: A commesp is a comment passed on a religion without the commenter ever having read anything about that religion. Many Hindus pass commesps on Islam and Christianity, making these religions sound good (when ithey are not); many "Hindus" pass commesps on Dharma, making it sound bad (when it is not). The word has roots in "comment" and "ESP", or extra sensory perception, by which the comment seems to have been arrived at.[right][snapback]83048[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Are we quite sure its etymology is not traced back to "commie-speak"?
Now, how are we simple linguisticals to resolve this. We could debate this like mere civilised people Shambhu, or we can resort to the manner of our betters: WitSSelian put-downs (remember WitSSel's in/famous angry retorts when his "Sanskrit" translations were proven totally wrong? Koenraad Elst summarises The Tumble of WitSSel in the last section "Why, oh why?", 4th para and on)
Yes, you are right, how can HINA people trace back roots of words accurately? <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> "Commie-speak" may have been a root too.
Roots invade and migrate so much, its difficult to trace anything to anything unless you have a qualified blue-eyed blond haired Indologist giving you orders (of course, all out of the goodness of his heart, to civilize you onlee..) <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->