"Gow Mata" pe atyachar, zulm

 Pradakshina with force. poor things are being dragged with rings inserted through their nostrils.

Ring in the nostrils. Pathetic. Poor 'holy cow' is in pain. swamiji is almost strangling the calf.

Thanks TOI for these photos.

TO ' baba' Ramdev

Saw your advertisement, ‘ Use patanjali cow’s ghee’.  Very sad! Have the ‘holy’ cows given their consent?

Have you noticed pain in the eyes of cows when you deprive their offspring of their right?

SAD!

Swabhimani hindu

Add some fiction, some myth, a little bit of facts and a lot of what people take pride in and you have history. Deccan chronicle of 22nd Nov.2014 under the headline, ‘Bold Hindu in Delhi throne:VHP’, reports Mr. Singhal saying, ‘it took 800 years for the power to return to another swabhimani Hindu ruler after Prithviraj Chauhan’. Singhal was addressing inaugural session of ‘world Hindu congress’. “History and the myth of what people believe to have been their past, gives them a sense of identity. Thus the self-proclaimed Hindus of India continue to laud and revere the loser of the battle of Tarain, Prithviraj III, emperor of Ajmer, as a great and doughty enemy of invading Islamists. According to the evidence provided by the coins of the period, he became a tribute paying vassal of Shahabuddeen Muhammad bin Sam of Ghor after his defeat and was no anti-Islamist hero”, writes historian Akhilesh Mithal in the same newspaper of Oct. 28,2006.

RSS attempt to distort history

Here are some extracts form the article ‘RSS rewrites history: Dalits 'created' by Muslim invaders’ in Hindustan Times New Delhi, September 22, 2014

Three top RSS leaders have sought to attribute the genesis of Dalits, tribals and many other groups to “Muslim invasion” in medieval times.
Was Manu one of the Muslim invaders?
According to Bhaiyyaji Joshi, No.2 in RSS hierarchy, ‘shudras’ were never untouchables in Hindu scriptures. ‘Islamic atrocities’ during the medieval age resulted in the emergence of untouchables, Dalits and Indian Muslims.
Shudras  are within the Hindu four-fold society. All the communities other than Brahmins, vaishyas, kshtriyas and Shudra. They have never been untouchables.  Dalits and tribals are outside the fourfold hindu society.
Another top RSS functionary, Suresh Soni, echoed the same: “Dalits had their genesis during Turks, Muslims and Mughal eras.
Ashuras and Rakshasas were later called Dalits and tribals respectively. Remember, Bhim of Mahabharat married a rakshsa woman.

Italics mine.

What is spiritual?

If he is not paying for special train what is the point talking about what he is talking. He is promoting himself. If any official or minister has provided at the public expense, all costs should be recovered.

At whose expense

“The great Hyderabad tamasha starts every day sharp at 6.30 am and the lead actor in this show is 'George'. Are you wondering who this new actor is? Well, he is Governor ESL Narasimhan, the first citizen of Andhra Pradesh, whose temple visits at the cost of the state exchequer has become almost unbearable for the aam aadmi of the city, who are left high and dry each time he steps out into the street in his convoy of cars and posse of policemen”*
My view is he is more ritualistic than dharmic.

. “The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) supplies around 60,000 litres of pure and safe drinking water everyday to Raj Bhavan without fail.

"Other than Raj Bhavan, two important government guest houses, Dilkusha and Lake View, where VIPs frequent, also gets uninterrupted water supply," says HA Wahab, HMWS&SB manager and in-charge of Somajiguda section.

But nearby Anandnagar, which has 1500 connections and a population of 5,000 people, the situation is reverse, with the board supplying water on alternate days for 45 minutes at a trickling flow and restricted supply of once in three days during summer months”**
What does he do with 60 KL water everyday?
“As a state guest, Sri Sri will travel across the districts of Ranga Reddy, Mahbubnagar, Kurnool, Anantapur, Kadapa, Chittoor, Nellore, Prakasam, Guntur, Krishna and West and East Godavari to motivate people to "participate in the democratic process" while also engaging with "developmental activities" in the country. He will be accompanied by over 100 people from 15 countries on this "unique journey"”.***
Unbelievable! How can he be a state guest in a secular democracy? will the Govt. have a priest or a moulavi as state guest?


Srinath Vudali, TNN Jan 1, 2014, 01.34AM IST*

Sunil Mungara,TNN | Jan 31, 2014, 04.49 AM IST**

TNN | Feb 15, 2014, 03.53 AM IST***

Thanks Times of India 

Belur temple

These sculptures are in Channakeshava Temple(1117 AD), Belur, Karnataka state in India.

Muslim hospitality

Attending a Muslim marriage these days is a painful experience. If the time given is 7 pm, the function starts at least two hours late. A guest is not received by anybody. Host is not to be seen. In Hindu marriages you are received with sprinkling of rose water at the entrance.
Guests keep looking for the host, who is not to be seen. About 15 years ago ‘mehman nawazi’ was the in thing, but these days it is ‘mezbaan nawazi’. The moment ‘nikah is over ‘guests’ rush in to the dining hall. Some even reserve seats for their friends or relatives. The way ‘guests grab the dishes is to be seen to believe. After food they look for the host. They hug him and leave.

Walima dinner is worse. I am not talking about food quality. Dinner is not served till the groom arrives. If the dinner time is 9 pm the groom arrives past 10 pm. There are, I think two reasons, the previous night ( nikah day) bride leaves with groom at 3 pm, the next reason could be the groom is too tired (you know).

PERKS

According to PTI online news of 18.12.2009, “The Government is considering taxing most of the perquisites, including housing and conveyance at the hands of the employees during this fiscal.

According to official sources, the salaried class may have to bear an additional tax burden on their perquisites in the form of housing, conveyance, or monetary compensations in lieu of them, among other benefits”.
Whenever I go for some purchases at ‘more’ or ‘food world’, I find quite a few buyers make their payment through coupons. Both the malls are near Shantinagar colony where many residents are IT employees. I always wondered what kind of coupons they were. They carry a big ‘book’ of coupons and tear out some for purchases worth over thousand rupees. One day I asked a buyer with coupons and his reply was that the companies they were employed by gave them coupons as part of certain portion of their salary. He agreed when I said it was one way of avoiding Income Tax. What does the Government intend to do in such cases?

The other huge area is dividends. Shareholders do not pay tax on income from dividends. Just imagine the amount of money large shareholders make through dividends. If the government is serious about revenue collection they should make dividends taxable beyond a reasonable amount.

Picture of the year

I do not know what to say. I invite comments.

Classical dances of India

Classical dances in India have their origin in temples. They began as a form of worship.

Kathakali is a Kerala dance. It is a pantomime depicting a scene from Mahabharat, an epic, whch Hindus consider as 'smriti'(tradition). It is only performed by men.


Bharat Natyam is of Tamil Nadu origin. It was also originally performed in temples as a form of worship. This form of dance is sensuous and has foot work facial expressions (bhava), delicate body movements(mudra)and acting (abhinaya).

Kuchipudi originated in a village called Kuchipudi, in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. Originally it was performed by boys. When boys impersonate girls, they tend to exagerate the feminine gestures. That is how this dance has exagerated faminine gestures. This dance was patronised by Quli Qutub Shah, the founder king of Qutubshahi dynasty.

Orissi originated in Orissa. This dance was formed on the basis of scupted temple figures of Orissa. Since the movements in sculptures were restrited, in this dance foot and hand movements are closer to the dancers' body. In Bharatnatyam there is no restriction of movements.

Manipuri dance is Krishna Lila. This is a costume dance. Since the costume is very elaborate, the vibrancy is affected. However costumes, bhava and mudra are a treat to watch.

Kathak also originated in temples. Because of the patronage of Wajid Ali Shah of Avadh, it has become a secular dance. It has beautiful foot work, bhava, abhinaya and mudra. Most of the Hindi film dances are based on this form.

Dress

A large majority of Muslim women wear ‘burkha’. Of those who wear ‘burkha’ think that it is a command from Allah and hence compulsary. Afterall, violating Allah’s command means hell after death. Whether Allah really commanded so is a matter of dispute, I say matter of dispute because it depends on one’s interpretation of the relevant verse. For some it is liberation. It gives you anonimity. Even the girl’s father cannot recognise her if he happens to see her outside the house. Great emancipation!

My own interpretation of the relevent verse is that a woman should dress modestly, which means she should cover her breasts and not highlight her sexuality. I have never seen a painting of Mary without head cover.

While I am not in favour of ‘burkha’, I am also not in favour of displaying armpits, and heavy make up of face. Is displaying of armpits a sign of liberation?


You see men dressed from top to toe with that meaningless tie and women are ‘half naked’, to use a phrase Churchil did to describe Mahatma Gandhi. He used it contemptuously, while my sympathies are with western women. Or, are western women wearing minimum as a weapon?
Victorian age was puritanical to the extent the legs of a table were covered. Women were dressed top to toe. In 1890s it was said, ‘to breathe one had to break the windows’. Has the rebellion of women gone so far as to shedding their clothes bit by bit? Western women need to introspect. Their perceived freedom is perhaps becoming their hadicap