Mumbai Rocked by Seven Bomb Blasts When I returned to India in 2004 I was pleasantly surprised to find that at last Mumbai local ticket counters had got rid of the concept of separate queue for women. But they have retained separate queue for first class. So when a burqa clad girl approached counter I told her to join the queue at tail end. She said ``first class``. And I was surprised when she bought first class ticket for Vile Parle from Andheri. She must be really rich. I (and people like me) often debate whether they need first class monthly/quarterly ticket because I use locals only once a week and I have bought quarterly 1st class ticket just to avoid standing in the queue. A single or return ticket is far away too costly but is okay for infrequent commuters. If she was doing this regularly and frequent commuter then she must be wife of somebody really rich. Muslims *do* use first class. Their numbers are proportionate to their numbers in population. Not less. May be they have earned good money working in gulf. I am pretty sure there were many muslims in those who died. I was in a Borivali train which is scheduled to arrive in Malad at 6:20. It was stopped after Kandivali station. Probably the previous train had blast. I let it pass because I thought it was too crowded. I did see a couple of Muslims in my own compartment. They had mullah type appearance. There may be others who did not have mullah type look.

Blowing Up People and Property is Not Islam Sau Baat Kee Ek Baat

Crusades Never Stopped

Islam`s days are numbered. Either they transmute it or it goes.

I said transmute. Not transsex or transvest. Okay if you want plainer English word: Change.

Change Islam. Change or it goes. Okay I just remembered change is not allowed. Okay in that case: Door Hojaa Meri Nazaron Sey. Dafaa Ho Idharsey. Chal Phutt.

This secular confused thinking that all religions must be respected is total bullshit. Then we should tolerate Satee, Human Sacrifice and African Cannibalism. Because those practices can be shown as ``religious``. When conflict arises between rigid and flexible, it is always the flexible which wins. Because they only are capable of thinking about unconventional methods of dealing with problems. Islam is rigid. Muslims are deluding themselves that they can solve their problems by not recognizing the plain fact that the source of their problems is their religion. They think that only weak and imperfect such as Hindus and Christians need to amend their religious beliefs.

Just as Satee was outlawed so will Islam be outlawed. As I said: transsex or disappear. Oops. Not transsex, transmute. Got it?

The Gap: Can the USA and Islam Bridge It? Americans and Muslims are Bhai-Bhai. Except US wanted to bomb Afghanistan back to stone age and it also wanted to get rid of Iraqi dictator on suspicion of having possessed WMDs. Except that there were no WMDs. Crusades never really stopped. No matter what some deluded Muslim might like to think. Either Islam changes or it goes. Sau Baat Kee Ekk Baat.

Modi’s Men and their Mean Machines [He was chased by a mob and burnt alive in his car when he was merely passing through a crossing.]

Is it possible that fire in his car was accidental fire? Is it possible that the 1500 were all muslims?

The Untruth of an Indian Majority [There are many who believe (wrongly, may I add) that Hindi is the national language. ]

How do you define a national language? You cannot define it as the language of native speakers of that language when their number exceeds 50 percent. But it should be properly be defined as the language which would be understood by majority even though many of them are not native speakers of that language. Most of us who have earned a higher degree in any field in India in English medium can speak very good English even though this English may be full of errors. Among educated class English is lingua franka. Among rest, Hindi is lingua franka. Trust me Hindi *is* national language. Locals may be offended if spoken to in Hindi because of their misplaced insistence that every outsider who comes to their region should learn local language. They may feign ignorance of Hindi but most of non-hindi people understand Hindi.

Saviour or Tinpot Dictator? Sau Baat Kee Ek Baat. Jubb Tukk India Mahaan Rahegaa, Pakistan Kau Badee Army maintain Karnee Padegee. Aur Pakistan Mein Democracy Sirf Ek Suahaanaa Khwaab Bunn Key Reh Jayegi. Aur Jubb Tukk Pakistani Army Mein Punjabi Majority Mein Rahenge Naa Tau Bombing of non-punjab areas will stop, Naa Tau non-punjabis Key Saath fairplay Hogaa, Naa Hee Pakistan Mein Koi basic change Aayegaa. First democratize Pakistani army.

Remembering Allama Iqbal Hindus and Muslims of India and their unities and strifes are much like elephant in that children`s story in which five blind men are trying to figure out by groping different body parts of the pachyderm. The accident of which body part they happened to have access informed them and based on which people like Jinnah and Iqbal formed their ideas. These people were not supermen. They had limited lifespan and limited intellectual span. Once they became old they were incapable of revising their views which by that time had become solidified and which had at that time lions share of most recent influence they received.

Evolution will someday let men live more than 200 years and make them less averse to revisions of their views. But that is in future. When that future arrives it would be even more difficult to analyze as to what these people really stood for. If Iqbal was fickle then he would have changed more often in 200 years` lifespan. I guess in such circumstance the people to whom they provided leadership would be forced to discover what they ``really`` stood for from many twists and turns of their evolving ideas. So you we are back to where we were: that you have to think through with your own mind and separate wheat from chaff. Which anyways everyone should do. No matter how much you are in love with a thinker, accepting his ideas requires basic minimum thinking on your part. Noone can do the hard work of your thinking except you.

The Reality of the Looking Glass: Seeing Muhammad In the Michael Hart`s book Mohandas Gandhi finds honorable mention and but the list does contain Hitler. Draw your own conclusions.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806513500/ref=sr_11_1/104-2962536-1359106?%5Fencoding=UTF8

ISBN: 0806513500

The Reality of the Looking Glass: Seeing Muhammad May Islam get many more like the gentle Muhammad to lead their people.

Amen.

Saving the Female Fetus Following data from Indian census website (URL: http://www.censusindia.net/fsex.html):

Female Sex Ratio (Excluding J & K)
Number of Females / Thousand Males
India 927
Rural 939
Urban 894
State with Highest Female Sex Ratio Kerala 1036
State with Lowest Female Sex Ratio Arunachal Pradesh 859
UT with Highest Female Sex Ratio Pondicherry 979
UT with Lowest Female Sex Ratio Chandigarh 790
District with Highest Female Sex Ratio Ratnagiri (Maharashtra) 1205
District with Lowest Female Sex Ratio Dibang Valley (Arunachal Pradesh) 788

Data Source : 1991 Census of India

Saving the Female Fetus If value of female child were to go up with their declining numbers then that should have happened in 1700s and 1800s. But it did not happen. Only way right is British way. When British were here they could just impose their laws on us when religious knowledge engineering etc failed. But what an independent India can do? They have to continue drawing on legal systems of foreigners and their sensibility about what is right and what is not. This realization should silence those who think that mental slavery even after Brits are kicked out is bad.

The idea that because of this national integration is quickening its pace is just laughable. By importing a Jharkhandi as bride by paying money is not integration if husband himself continues to hate Jharkhandis. National integration means respect to other ethinicities. Only real drivers of national integration are education and Indian railway system. Within 24 hours you could be anywhere in world if you could fly. You could be a code coolie despised for taking jobs of locals and respected for your talent. Within 24 hours you could be in a metropolis like Mumbai if you could take rigors of travel by Indian railways and be a worker of anonymous ethnicity who will be respected for his/her skills. And unlike foreign travel you dont need visa to travel within India.

Media Spin and the Hidden Poverty in America From article:

[If we use ``real`` measures of poverty, based upon average incomes in the US and a current basket of goods, including health and childcare, this percentage is actually double that of the official figures (many private studies and models based on them have documented this).]

And what is this ``real`` measure of poverty? Let me make my question clear. Let us first look at another quote from the article:

[Stating that poverty figures in the US under Clinton in 1996 were at 13.7 % of the population while now they are at 12.7%, he concludes that America is looking after its poor by, spending a ``massive amount`` ($368 billion was the number he quoted) even in the midst of a ``war on terror``.]

So was the figure of 13.7% also ``actually`` double if we use the ``real`` measure of poverty? You see my problem? You cannot double 12.7% and then compare it to 13.7% and then argue that it has increased. In fact no discussion is possible unless you reproduce in these pages details about this real measure.

Poverty percent rate in 20s is high. You would need army, dictatorship and censorship just to effectively enforce segregation.

Revenge of the Secularists Re: # 86

It is really not important what I or anyone else thinks about what Pakistanis should do. What is important is what Pakistanis want. In trying to figure out what Pakistanis want it is important to go directly to Pakistani people and not be hung up about what 2 or twenty dead people of yore said. Of course Zeena is right in opining that democracy too needs enlightened leadership. But exclusively banking on presence of a leader presupposes birth of one. Problem of Pakistan is all their good leaders are dead. There is a bankruptcy of original thinking in living leaders of Pakistan. You cannot ask a dead leader what he really meant if on two different times he made contrary statements. Under the circumstance you will be left with your own sense. If anyways you have appeal to your own thinking to separate wheat from chaff, why not do it at beginning? Besides consulting living people you are going to produce better fit of your ideas with their lives in coming decades.

Constitutions of all countries are imposed from above. But if a constitution is too much at variance from what people really want then it would not be any good. My advice to you: take holiday for one year. Go from one small town to another in Pakistan. Talk to people on issues that agitate their and your minds. Get a feel of what people want. What is doable in terms of constitution and law. Institutions and procedures. Checks and balances. Write a draft constitution and try to sell it to people of Pakistan.

I prophesy that Islam as you and I know will disappear from face of earth. It is just a matter of time. Since certain documents are considered too sacrosanct for editing, trick is to limit their jurisdictions. Religions are not disappearing from face of earth any time soon. But their jurisdictions should be limited to allow for existence of different faiths co-living. Pakistan cannot live in isolation. There has got to be a lot of intended and intended interactions with international community. There will be Shiyas, there will be Sunnis. And there will be Christians and there will be Hindus. You cannot wish them away. Limiting the jurisdictions of faith is precisely what Galileo did. Galileo really never stopped being a believing Christian. What you need to do is a Galileo act. Trust me on this. This is what you really want to do. And I am not trying to analyze anyone.

Revenge of the Secularists Re: # 81

The word ``Ramrajya`` is approximate translation of word utopia. Other than that it has little to do with Ram or his mythical story. In Indian languages a good substitute of the word is ``ideal rajya``. In hindi you would say ``adarsha rajya``. Gandhi said that very fact that there are low caste people meant Hindu rashtra would not be such an ideal nation. He called low caste people as People of God (Harijan). Amount of criticism of Hinduism that Gandhi did was harsh and most throughgoing like of which no one had ever done. Average joe Muslims think that it is sign of weakness to be self-critical. Average joe Muslim tries really hard not do same style of self-criticism as Gandhi did of Hinduism. They think that any open criticism of issues that perturbs west about Islam will weaken Islam. Average joe Muslims think that Chistianity is weak because of existence of so many versions and interpretations about their dogma. I think so you should read Galileo: A Very Short Introduction by Stillman Drake. It highlights Galileo`s attitude to religion. I think so modern Muslims need to produce arguments for similar attitudes vis-a-vis Islam.

Revenge of the Secularists I think so what Pakistanis need to do is to give up their obsession of two dead people: Gandhi and Jinnah. They should start thinking about all issues with their independent minds. They should first figure out what they really want. And then fight temptation to look up in historical documents whether Gandhi also wanted to same thing as they want. Pakistanis are very disturbed the moment they discover that Gandhi advocated same thing that they want. Also stop seeking approval in utterances of Jinnah. Don`t be disturbed if Jinnah did not advocate what you think is right. Don`t try to reassure yourself by finding a quote of Jinnah which approximately corroborates your views. Be proud owner of your own views regardless of what Gandhi or Jinnah said on a related issue. By all means read Locke. It is alright if you do not read Thoreau. But first and foremost be owner and architect of your own thinking. And please learn some logic. And also practice self-imposed moratorium on reading Kuran and other related stuff for at least 24 hours before you do some serious thinking on a serious issues. By all means go to cave and eat the stuff the prophet ate. But do your own thinking and problem solving. Do not rely on others.

Revenge of the Secularists [Besides Margaret Bourkwhite was hardly a political analyst... instead more of a wide-eyed Gandhi-lover ... and if anything her account should be noted for the grudging admiration and the points she concedes .... Today ... for a brief period ... Indians are in a positon apparently to spin every thing any which way... good for you. But it doesn`t make it true.]

Margaret Bourke White may not be a political analyst. Nobody claims she was. But she was certainly not a wide-eyed Gandhi-lover. She had seen a lot of world before she was assigned by Life to visit India and Pakistan. She probably hardly knew Gandhi. At any rate she did not seek out India-Pakistan assignment. It was Life magazine which assigned her. She probably wanted to do one more round of Russia when she was assigned.