I thick therefore I am The article is a piece of art. How many of us felt the same way as author? 100%? Apart of some references to cultural specific things (to Paksitani school curricula and textbooks) almost entire article can be understood by virtually all English reading people. That is not a small achivement. And judging from crowd here at chowk either a reader would have gone through same schooling experience or would be interested in finding out more about it. That is dialogue. What more an article is supposed to achieve?

I thick therefore I am Ibrahim M Khalil: good article, I liked it.

Can you elaborate on "Akbari and Asghari" in peniltimate sentence: "We also had writers like Manto, Prem Chand, and Ismat Chugtai etc. but no, I had to read Akbari and Asghari"?

Kolkata on Fire nb:

Cops know because they killed Rizwanur.

My questions about distinguishing were rhetorical. Because stuka said Bengali Muslims are "who are defacto Bangladeshis" should be "kicked in their arse".

Most Bengalis are just too full of themselves. They will feel buddy buddy with French and Chinese but will protest if spoken to in Hindi. They think that they are intellectually superior to rest of India. Bengalis never really forgave move of India's capital from Calcutta to Dilli. They hate rest of India so bad that they do not even think rationally. They think of all non-bengalis as low-caste.

Most communities will think of their self-interest first. But not Bengalis. They think of what other lowly non-bengalis are doing and then do something different just to set themselves apart. Never mind what they do will ultimately harm their interests.

They will bash Modi. But are they any different from Modi? So hypothetically let us assume you want to kick Bengali Muslims' arse, how do you do it? Ask a Bong Muslim males to lower his pants so that we can see if there is circumcision or not? Or ask him to sing Vande Mataram? I would not be surprised if non-muslim Bengalis will also refuse to sing Vande Mataram. Their heads are so screwed up that in their desire to set themselves apart they will do that. So...

So how do we distinguish between Patriotic Bengalis and non-Patriotic Bengalis? By asking them to join army may be. And deploying them at no men's land near Bangladesh border and asking them to shoot at sight of any human coming from other side.

When India was divided many Hindus stayed back in East Pakistan thinking that as long as Gandhiji was alive and his ideology was respected Muslims would not kill Hindus. When Gandhiji was assassinated many Bengalis had to flee. Many of these people are still alive or their children are alive. So why Bengalis are electing election after election a communist government? The answer is: Bengalis think they have to elect a party which rest of India does not even spit on. Never mind it harms them. There aint no marxist reasons. Marxism is hardly understood by those who claim they understand it. It is plain and simple naak-oonchu pompous behaviour of Bengalis who think that they are intellectually superior than other Indians. I have to agree with #1 Posted by mohar11. Bengalis are intellectually lazy. Contrary to the self-image Bengalis have of themselves. To maintain that self-image they can do violence. Physically they may of may not lazy. When provoked by a contrary opinion they will come out on street and do a frightening tandav nritya. In all that there will be no thinking.

Kolkata on Fire Muslims should not be paid back in Indian coins but American dollars. They are already getting paid back. In USD.

Kolkata on Fire How do we distinguish between migrant Muslims from Bangladesh from local variety? For that matter how do we distinguish between Muslim Bengalis and non-Muslim Bengalis?

Kolkata on Fire Rizwan was killed by a bengali and not by a marwari. Proves my point. These people are violent. Violence breeds violence.

Kolkata on Fire Those who claim to undrestand abstruse and obtuse marx theories cannot distinguish between tenant and owner. Okay who wants to believe that?

sou bat ki ek bat. these people are violent and unpatriotic.

Kolkata on Fire Bengalis are violent and unpatriotic people.

The Battle for Pakistan So if USA decides that 'Alqaida and Taliban' are terrorist organizations should we blindly follow them and start war on their behalf by killing our own people?

No, you should just capture terrorists who dare to down two towers in USA. Provided you know how to do a sugical operation which also will not hurt rest of civilian population. Do you know how to do that? If you do not know how to do that then downing of two towers will be characterised as war. And then they will come with their armies and attack Pakistan. Which one do you prefer? Them attacking you or you cleansing evil within you? I think so USA is offering Pakistan here a fair option. You cleans your house of dirt in your house. They will be happy if you do the job right. Nobody is asking for a civil war in Pakistan. But if the task at hand can be done only by civil war then civil war it will be. If it can be done by surgery then it will be surgery. Post-911 scenario is this: USA and India want Paksitan to re-bottle the genie it let out. There is no second and third option. Options are only in how you do it effectively. Clamp down on Madrasa works then do it. Bombing works then do it. Internal intelligence works then do it. Civil war works then do it. Alternative to all these is a consortium of foreign powers doing these on your behalf.

Foreign Factor in our Higher Education There is need to develope courses which will train people in art of technology transfer so that more industry can be started. There are many things which people learn on the job only when they are working to transfer technology. Negotiating fair royalty terms, integrating with local industry, marketing etc.

Technology R&D should be encouraged by offseting tax on any expenses incurred for R&D. India's CSIR played crucial role in technology R&D in an environment where industry was abdicating its crucial role of providing R&D leadership.

R&D and technology transfer are two important areas where even western universities may not have any offerings. Slavishly aping western universities is root cause problems of brain drain. When courses are specially designed for local requirements there is less likelyhood of brain drain.

Patent laws should encourage local inventors and discourage unnecessary technology transfers.

There is no harm in offering courses which specially train for skills in demand in west especially when employment opportunities are lacking. Once local economy takes off you can scale down on such courses.

In India I think technology training is not anymore priority. Two Indias live side by side. One which lives in abject poverty and makes do with primitive technologies and the other which serves west. I think so both help economy. One supplies cheap laboring class, the other takes pressure off from economy by finding work and subsistence from west. Now with outsourcing second class of people donot have to migrate to serve west.

Pakistan at War "The boy tackled the roti by first nibbling at its crisp circumference. He would then presumably make forays into the soft centre to pick up a boorki (morsel)."

What if Roti were inflamable? And got heated up burst into flames? Then boy could burn to death. No?

The Battle for Pakistan sou bat ki ek bat...

Pakistan ki Phatti...

Democracy karo to bhi maro... nahin karo to bhi maro...

isse achchha to US should nuclear bomb now. Now better than later. Pakistan ki Phatti... Big time.

Days of Rage #6 by echoboom

[Their empire was effectively built in coalition with India's Hindu majority and succeeded as much through conciliation as by war.This was particularly true of the Emperor Akbar (1542-1605), who issued an edict of universal religious tolerance, forbade forcible conversion to Islam and married a succession of Hindu wives. At the same time that Jesuits - and those who sheltered them - were being hanged, drawn and quartered in London, when most of Catholic Europe was given over to the Inquisition, and while in Rome Giordano Bruno was being burnt for heresy in the Campo dei Fiori, in India Akbar was summoning Sunnis and Shia Muslims, Hindus of both Shaivite and Vaishnavite persuasions, Jews from Cochin, Parsis from Gujerat and Jesuits from Goa, as well as groups of Indian atheists, to come to his palace and debate their understanding of the metaphysical, declaring that 'no man should be interfered with on account of religion, and anyone is to be allowed to go over to a religion that pleases him'.

All this is important to remember at a time when simplistic and inaccurate notions of Islamic history and theology have wide currency, both inside and outside the Islamic world. For Orientalists such as Samuel Huntingdon and his master, Bernard Lewis, the Ottoman and the Mughal empires are potent symbols of Islam at its most threatening and aggressive. Lewis's books consistently depict two fixed and opposed forces at work: on one hand the West, which he envisages as a vulnerable citadel of pluralistic and open minded Judeo-Christian civilisation; and on the other hand, quite distinct, a hostile Islamic world hell-bent on aggressive conquest and conversion.Yet such simplistic binaries quickly fall apart on any sort of fair-minded examination. Both Akbar and his son Jahangir (1569-1627), for example, were enthusiastic devotees of Jesus and his mother Mary, something they did not see as being in the least at variance with their Muslim faith: over the main gate of the principal mosque at Akbar's capital is an inscription which still bears the legend: 'Jesus, Son of Mary (on whom be peace) said: The World is a Bridge, pass over it, but build no houses upon it. He who hopes for a day, may hope for eternity; but the World endures but an hour. Spend it in prayer, for the rest is unseen.']

If this is true then what is the explanation of the fact that Islamic people are on the run everywhere? What went wrong between now and then? Could it be that Mughal empire was great in spite of and not because of Mughals? Could it be that Baniya logs (and jews) were responsible for India's past glory?

Suo Motu Action Against Corrupt Stock Brokers of KSE You cannot restrict and regulate "wash trades". Bogus financial research should be punished. I fail to understand your line of reasoning in following statements:

"It all started in the beginning of 2005 when a group of stockbrokers manipulated the shares of various companies through rumors , loopholes in KSE trading regulations for future Trading(A Financial Instrument), and illegal practice of “Wash Trade� ; thus artificially inflated the prices of various stocks to unbelievable levels."

How "wash trade" practice might have helped "inflate the prices of various stocks to unbelievable levels"? Rumors yes. Rumors are favorite tool used by "pump and dump" scammers. When you are intent on doing a pump-and-dump scam wash trade will hurt you if you hold on both legs of wash trade. If you had produced more details of what exactly were the "loopholes in KSE trading regulations for futures" which were used to scam investors then may be it will help understanding how exactly "wash trades" was used to scam.

This Is For The Men Who\'ll Roll Their Eyes [#118 by SaimaShah
***
Putting on trousers did change a few things; now women got to do a lot more work for a little more money than before. Fashion over the years has become more and more about creating a feminine version of a man rather than anything else. Femininity is reserved for socializing, and masculinity for work. Rather than changing work culture, feminism over the last several decades has changed women. Attempts to emancipate women have sought to change them--to tell them how to say no, how to stand up for themselves and how to walk out of marriages, how to get jobs etc. There have been 0 attempts to educate men directly. Feminism has had a similar focus on women just like religion did. The comparable narratives are : O ye pious women, cover yourself, stay home, while 'prophets' sleep with wives and slaves--strikes one that god speaks from male tongue. And Feminism, 'Emancipated women sleep with who they want, they wear less clothes and they have pride enough to tell men to go to hell if they hurt them' also serves men who now get sex for a dinner, rather than a piece of paper. Neither succeeded in making men less exploitative.***]

And after sex the woman gets knocked up, it will be her child. She may sleep with 10 men, but in case of pregnancy she knows whose child it is: it is her. Male partner OTOH will always be in doubt about paternity. Is this not to women's advantage? They now have choice of men, choice of whose child to bear, choice of whether to have children at all. Men are in a bad deal here. They now have to suggest darkly that they are likely to have more money in future if they already do not have enough of it now. And they have to prove it by economic activity, gifts, roses, dinners etc that they indeed are going to have more money so when a paternity suit is filed for child support woman is assured of major cash.

This Is For The Men Who\'ll Roll Their Eyes [#103 nb
*** the family birthdays remembered***]

I saw recently "Lost in Translation" written and directed by Sofia Coppola. First thing that Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is handed includes a fax from home from his wife which reads: "You forgot Adams birthday I'm sure he'll understand. etc". The plot summaries for this movie at IMDB (which I assume are all written by americans) make several intersting points which could easily be made by choksters here.

Some crazy american has gone to a great extent of using high-tech to figure out what Bob speaks to Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) in whispers when he gives last embrace before parting on his way back to US. It is at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=5MV7Sym8bIQ . (Hope the link survives dodgy chowk software)