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Nations have their pet events. Ours is the annual budget tamasha conducted in February and culminates in the budget being presented on the last working day of February.


Media orchestrates the build-up.  This, however, grips the nation's imagination and life comes to a standstill on the big day. Only a cricket match or a telecast of Ramayana on a Sunday morning could achieve this.

Essentially, a "Statement of Account" of government finances, it has been converted to a "State of Union" address. It is just an exercise in how the pie will be divided up.

The wily politician, a smart businessman and the shrewd bureaucrat grab mouth watering opportunities. The large middle class laps up a few crumbs they get by way of tax sops. The poor get shown the carrot and actually get a kick on their backsides.

BSP MP Kadir Rana's son wed the daughter of the party's Rajya Sabha MP, Munquad Ali, in Meerut, on Wednesday evening. Of course, elephants were part of the celebrations. As per eyewitnesses, an elephant, Sheru, went berserk "as gunshots were fired", also as part of the celebrations.

Apparently, the elephant was in heat, and when he went out of control at the wedding venue, his mahout promptly disappeared.

There was ultimately a 15 hour chase by 200 personnel drawn from three states, smashed vehicles, a blocked road, and a town in panic.

Finally at 2 PM on Thursday, Dr. Ashraf, an elephant specialist from Delhi, was able to tranquilise the animal, and the elephantine drama ended.

It was very depressing, it was very hurtful.

Yesterday, I watched a short interview with a person who was on a wheel chair and a person on crutches.

It is a shocking state of affairs in the country, generally, but particularly so with the physically disabled.
The physically disabled are asking the govt to please consider waving off duties on wheel chairs and crutches.

What a request and what a need?

What can be more of an example of the Govt’s disconnect with the aam aadmi?
This is an expectation from a govt which itself is on the crutches of coalition partners.
This is an expectation from a Govt which subsidises food in lok sabha canteen for its members but is blind, deaf and dumb when it comes to basic needs of the physically disabled.



let us CHANGE INDIA for INDIA OF TOMORROW.

The bitter-tasting Indian Karela, bitter gourd, has always been known to be highly beneficial against diabetes, high blood pressure, heartburn, cholesterol and ulcers. Scientists from Saint Louis University have now discovered that it is also a giant slayer of breast cancer cells. An extract not only killed human breast cancer cells but also prevented them from multiplying.

Professor Ratan Ray, lead researcher, says she was surprised by the finding. The next step is to test the extract in an animal model and, if results are positive, human trials could follow.

Indian women need not wait for the trial reports. Karela is a commonly available and does not cost much. They should make it an integral part of their diet straightaway.

Karela,the Cancer Killer, is not 'humble' anymore!

Despite the police being the primary law and order keepers , the government drags its feet on providing facilities such as living and working quarters, hygienic amenities on duty, and good quality working weapons. The least that the government can do is to provide premises for a police station to function.

Villagers of Bariyarpur 70 kms from Patna, were allocated a police post. The police functioned from a thatched hut. Ashamed of this, and after waiting for things to change, the villagers collected Rs 3 lakhs by contribution, , and themselves constructed a 2 storey police post from where the police today function. 20 policemen were functioning from the thatched premises.

Bariyarpur falls under the Sakra police station. And there are hundreds of such police stations all over functioning from thatched huts, rented places, and premises in very bad shape.

The humble 'baingan' is sure making waves. Even as the BT Brinjal controversy rages, comes the news that farmers in Gurgaon have found a new way of not only multiplying the yield of ordinary brinjals but also improving their shape!

These farmers have discovered that brinjals, like humans, love alcohol. They sprinkle alcohol in the soil right from the time they sow the seed, and the plants respond by increasing their yield manifold.

Agricultural scientists, however, believe that there is no scientific basis for the claim as alcohol evaporates within 10 minutes of spraying.

Brinjals can't talk. But, as the farmers have discovered, they love their 'chhota' too. And how! The next time you feel a little tipsy after having 'bhartha', know that the brinjals came from Gurgaon.

The 24 policemen killed at West Bengals Silda Camp, sent an SOS at 5:30 pm , on 15-2-2010, to a CRPF camp 14 kms away,when they realized that the Maoists had attacked. Standard procedures prohibiting the CRPF from using vehicles, meant that they walked for 3 hours, by which time the Silda massacre was complete.

What standard procedures ?

Meanwhile , assorted corrupt, hate-mongering people in power, get Z plus security which includes, at all hours, 36 security personnel includes black cat commandos,NSG,CRPF, 2 bullet-proof vehicles, pilot cars and escort vehicles full of security personnel, ability to immobilize remote devices, electronic pulse jammers, even to attend a personal social function.

Is that why we are a practice ground for terrorists ? And we know how to send warnings, but not what to do after that ?

Gunfire has replaced firecrackers at weddings these days, it would seem. 'Celebration' shooting has claimed several lives in the past few years. The most recent incident happened on Thursday.

His newlywed wife waiting for him in the car outside her parents' home in Noida's Sector-10, Pankaj Karotia came back for one last blessing from his father-in-law.

His uncle, Rajkumar Karotia decided to fire a final celebratory shot in the air, and started to load bullets in his pistol. It went off accidentally, and a bullet hit Pankaj in the head, leaving him dead.

What sort of celebration is this, that claims the life of an innocent young man? Are we trying to ban undesirable traditional customs, only to create new even more harmful ones?

In March, 2008, in Jhalawar, Rajasthan, after weeks of intense negotiation with the Kanjars, the police convinced 85 of them to surrender. Subsequently, 200 more surrendered.

Since then, the Jhalawar police have been working hard for the rehabilitation of the people of this denotified nomadic tribe, long associated with crime.

When the Jhalawar police got a reward of Rs. 38,000 for arresting 56 offenders, all of them Kanjars, they gave it to the relatives of those arrested, to be used for bail and lawyers' fees.

The police acted as liaison between the Kanjar and the district administration, to ensure the delivery of welfare schemes in Jhalawar’s Kanjar settlements. They helped them get jobs. They enrolled the Kanjar children in government schools.

Jhalawar SP Gaurav Srivastav says,“Although I will not say nobody has gone back to crime, close to 90 per cent have stayed away.”

If this country was a corporate entity, the shareholders would have fired the management in no uncertain terms.

The centre's advice to the state to ban the Indian Mujahideen , is ignored. Why ? Movies and morally policing couples, things normally left to parents, is taken over by cops, on instructions from the top. Blasts happen. Union Home Minister calls them soft targets. Indo Pak talks continue.

In the communist ruled state of West Bengal, Maoists attack Indian soldiers at will and wage war against them. The Union Home Minister sits in Calcutta confabulating with state home ministers from naxal-infected states, and "urges" the Maoists to stop violence. Their leader makes LTTE type statements.

Why is the army not asked to step in, and handle West Bengal ? Is one eye on the vote bank making the rulers blind ?

Typical story.

We have intelligence alerts from New Delhi. The State government says there are no specifics.

(No terrorist names a date, time and venue)

Whenever the blasts happen, withing 12 hours, the same governments at the state and centre trot out the names of the usual suspects. Lashkar or Indian Mujahideen.

If they are so smart, and are able to immediately find this, what stops them from using this smartness earlier ?

And why do they publicize every step of their investigation ? To give hints to the culprits ? Or are they suckers for publicity ?

In the meanwhile, on the blast day, 600 police from 22 Pune police stations were deployed to save Shahrukh Khan's film, while others were busy morally policing couples leading up to Valentines Day.

Maybe the culprits know this. Our authorities don't ?

There is a programme on Colors entertainment channel---Bingo

Abhishaek Bachchan is the host of the programme.

On the 6th feb, Saturday, Shahrukh was the main participant in the show.
Could it be just a coincidence that majority of the studio guests/participants were Muslims?

I am not biased.

Mine is only an innocent query.

Thus blogs the great enlightener of the masses..

Sometime in the past year, secret talks between India and Pakistan over Kashmir--which made great progress in 2008 before Pakistan's strongman, Pervez Musharraf, was ousted--were restarted, say U.S. and Indian sources. If successful, the negotiations would represent a huge breakthrough for the subcontinent.

Wow!

Nd why in the world should India be obsessed with Pakistan?

Oh yes… they have an answer to that too.. The much coveted seat in the great UN besides the great US.

And hence, US is dangling this carrot and sweet talking to India so as to end its stand with Pakistan since the great citizens in the US thinks and is made to think that all the problems in Pakistan ( Afganisthan , Bin Laden, Islamic terrorism) is only because of Kashmir (India). Literally speaking, every Pakistani wakes up in the morning and was waking up since Pakistan’s independence and thinks and was thinking only about Kashmir and the myriad ways to save the multitude of suffering souls in Kashmir. And now it seems US is also thinking along these lines!

And it is only we stupid Indians who is yet to realize this great truth… but let us not be discouraged since our government has realized it too..

Did anyone say that Bombay.. sorry Mumbai was attacked?

PM called a meeting on the 6th, of the CMs, to discuss price rise situation.

Details of the meeting will be covered separately in another post. But ,three points stood out during and after the meeting
1...A panel is to be formed.
Any surprises? Isn’t the govt panel/committee obsessed?

2...Pranab Mukherjee got angry with Modi and said that this forum should not be used for politics.
Does Congress itself leave any forum for playing politics?

3...Narendra Modi exposed the govt's double speak;
Modi read out a sheet of paper revealing that of the total raids conducted against hoarders in India,87% were of the raids were in non Congress ruled states and only 13% of the raids were in Congress ruled the states. One can draw the one’s own conclusions on the purpose of raids.

Those accused of being mule-headed need no longer take offence.

A mule has done something that will do any master proud. It brought the body of his master, a jaggery seller, to his residence after he was shot dead by some unidentified assailants at Hathwala village of Panipat district in Haryana.

The incident occurred on Wednesday night when the mule cart arrived in the village and stopped outside the residence of the jaggery seller. The animal started whinnying to draw the attention of villagers when no one came near it for a while. Noticing something unusual, people came close to the cart to find the body of juggery seller in a sack. They informed the police, which took the body to hospital for post-mortem. Earlier, the police treated it a road accident. A murder case has now been registered.

In a recent survey by the government of India, of all the states, UP was was found to have the lowest number of children who are fully immunised against diseases like polio, measles, etc.

So the UP state govt. has drawn up a scheme to pay parents for getting their children immunised .

'Under the proposed scheme, the parents will be paid Rs 50 for each dose of BCG, DPT and OPV (oral polio vaccine) and measles their newborn gets. An additional Rs 50 will be paid on full immunisation of the child.'

An estimated Rs. 27 crores will be spent annually on this initiative.

Perhaps an alternate initiative, of using this money to fund schemes to educate parents about the benefits of immunisation, would be more effective. Or perhaps not.

What do you think?

role models...

A recent development in far away Meghalaya seems to have escaped attention and hysterical media hype.

Forget Viagra. All that you need to boost your sex drive is a bit of the Sun, if researchers at the Medical University of Graz in Austria are to be believed.

According to a study done by them, the levels of the male sex hormone testosterone rise accordingly with doses of Vitamin D, and men with more of the vitamin have more of the hormone. Both decrease during winter, starting October and reach the lowest level in March.

An hour of free sunshine can boost a man's testosterone level by as much as 60%!

Something obviously is wrong somewhere. If the findings are correct, Indians males who are forever bathed in the Sun, should barely be able to keep it down. Can anyone spot so many Don Juans around? Imagine the tourism potential!

There is only one primary school, in Pisayta village, which caters to the children of some 25 villages in a remote area in Vadodara District, Gujarat. It is difficult for tribal children from the interior villages to travel there to school every day.

Five years ago, Vechan Bhil, a tribal farmer living in Pisayta, came up with a solution. He decided to share his house with the children, and provide free food and tuitions, too.

Since the teachers at the school are often absent, a graduate from a neighbouring village comes to help the children, presently 55 in number, with schoolwork and homework, for free. Other villagers help too, giving what they can.

Vechan, though illiterate himself, has realised that education is the key to changing the lives of the tribals, and he is trying to ensure that their children get some education.

Brinjal has been grown here for more than 4000 years. The Cartagena Protocol prohibits genetic fiddling with vegetables that originate in a country.

BT-brinjal, is supposed to work, by installing a gene in brinjal, that creates some protein crystals. When an insect tries to feed of the plant, these crystals destroy the insects digestive tract, killing it. The government, prodded by Monsanto, is in a great hurry to introduce it , for the first time in the world. Without long term observations of its effects on humans, ignoring remarks of the Supreme Court appointed scientist, Dr Pushpa Bhargava , a GEAC committee member.

Wouldn't it be great if "money" could be genetically modified, so those who wrongly "imbibed it", would develop malignant digestive tracts? Or malignant brain neurons?

And can you imagine official opposition to it ?

BT-Money ?