Old lady singing "En Yesu Rajavukke"

This lady with such a strong, beautiful voice sang this song for us at Sothavilai Beach near Nagercoil, Tamilnadu. She told us that she had been part of the choir many many years ago when she was young. God blesses some people with such lovely voices!

IndiBeers - everything about beer and much more

I came across this beer forum recently - www.indibeers.com. Love beer and thought I'd check out this forum. Though it is kinda new, loved the idea and have registered there. Would love to see my friends there too.

Though there are beer forums abroad, very rarely do we get to see reviews of beers in India or beers that we get in India. Or they're not written by people from India. Though the IndiBeers mods might not agree, I think that that is what makes this site unique. And yes, IndiBeers accepts and encourages registrations from outside India too. Check it out - register and start writing your own reviews of beers you've had.

Infact, check out these great reviews written by a friend at IndiBeers - http://indibeers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=57

Anti Corruption

This month, might end up writing a long post about anti-corruption. Something along the lines of a post I'd written years back - more than 5 years back. I'd equated casteism to racism. You can read about that post here - Casteism = Racism.

Motherjane, Maktub

Can't wait to watch Motherjane perform at RockEthos tomorrow. Hopefully they will play some tracks from Maktub. Nice album that!

Even better is that Tom's cousin is Clyde, who plays the bass in Motherjane. One step even better is I know the co-ordinator of RockEthos. Nice!

NO COVERS! Yeah, I know you sissies who love Indian Rock bands playing fucking covers - NO FUCKING COVERS - stay away!

Taj Mahal - copyrighted?

Found this bit of new incredibly stooopid....

Bangladesh version of the Taj Mahal

WTF

WTF (where in this case) were those upholders of Marathi manoos and guys who hate valentine's day when Mumbai was turned into a war zone? Why didn't they turn up in their large numbers all dressed in saffron carrying tridents and chase the terrorists out while screaming in chaste marathi and asking the terrorists to stop their punjabi mobile chatter and learn marathi or else leave Mumbai? Or were you holed up in your foxholes, watching it on TV?

I am tired of some news channels - all they do is spread FUD...

I am tired of those fucked up politicians who just want political mileage out of the situation.

I am tired of those fucked up politicians who wasted precious hours in getting the commandos out into the war zone...

I am tired of those fucked up politicians who just resign after the shit hit the fan....

I am tired of Bollywood which just sits and wrings its hands in anguish because of the loss of revenue....

I am tired of too much sentimental shit attached to the aftermath, after it is all over - remember the time is now for action!

Remember the tragedy with this badge on your blog....you can download it from Indiblogger....






Also, check out some of the posts by Indibloggers on the Indiblogger page...

Orissa burning!!

And I thought that the Indian Blogosphere had matured! In fact, I should not even be capitalising those words! It is not deserved at all.

Not one blog have I read that has written about what has happened in Orissa. I waited this long to see that some post will end up on my Google Reader. None. Nada. Zilch. Zero.

What balls it had, has been lost. For the indian blogosphere that is! Not capitalised anymore.

Well, I shouldn't really say that none of the blogs have mentioned it. Some have. Actually very few have. We have more important things to cover like the Barack Obama situation. Or the Gustav in the Americas. Or that some random indian was punched in the face and called names in some subway station in London. Or that some random person who was "racially abusive" can now no longer participate in some random "reality" show somewhere.

No one cares to know that "a mob "allegedly" set fire to a person - alive" in some random village in Orissa. No one bothered to write about people who ran away from homes, literally scared for their lives and lived in the forests. No one cared to even write about the fear that these people still live in. Some have returned. To be put into special centers - riot care victim centers. India shining - burning more likely. Smell the progroms all over again.

I appreciate some of the bloggers who have indeed written about this. Samuel and Mutiny.in to name two. And let me tell you that I am not even going to start on the perpetrators of this crime. I am just concentrating on the indian blogosphere here.

Dissapointing to see that two of my favourite Blog aggregator sites - Desicritics and DesiPundit did not even mention it. Yes, I know that you aggregate or put up posts only when someone else posts them. No posts then. I would not want to start on the blogs of other "socially active" bloggers even. Not one mention. Damn disappointing people!

You didn't mention it cause the tribals asked for it? To be displaced and burnt alive?

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Forget the Native Americans. Forget the Indus Valley Civilisation. Forget the ancient cultures of the Chinese and the Japanese. Forget the Mayan and Inca civilisations. Forget it all. Forget culture. Its not important after all.

Kashmir

Well, looks like more people are discussing it these days the way it ought to be discussed! Amit Varma asks - Do You Think Kashmir Is An Integral Part Of India? He provides links to two arguments by imminent journalists. Before I am labelled something I don't want to be labelled as - read the article on Amit's page and the links to the arguments are there.

No right, no left - just middle!

Compulsory draft for India?

Well, me thinks this is a very good idea. India is one of the few developing/developed countries in the world which does not have its citizens to compulsorily serve in the army at one point in their lives. I really believe that this will teach a lot of values to our people and make them learn discipline both mental and physical!. Also think that it will teach them to stop cribbing and crying for all the governments faults and help out more to make this country a better place. Your thoughts?

For more information on conscription, check out Wikipedia.

Biker and Indian? Indiblogger helps....

If you are the above, then you have to put this up on your blog!!! Or BE LEFT OUT!!!

My badge is already up on my blog...check it out on the left side.

By the way, clicking on this badge takes you to Indiblogger.in, the latest in a series of adventures taken up by the err, drunken monks. This site is for now, a directory of blogs by people of Indian origin. We have a lot more in store for the future. But what you can do right now is to click the above badge, register your blog on the site and best of all, pick one of the badges to proudly display on your site!!. Like we say, "Feed your blog often or it will die".

Massacre

Does anyone remember this picture?




Interesting. In this time when they have handed out umpteen death and life sentences out to various people of the Mumbai bombings, I was reminded of the Gujarat pogrom. A systematic, well-planned massacre that took place in Gujarat some years back. I don't think anyone has been convicted. Hmm, some even have offices of position these days. Aah, the irony.

Incidentally, that picture is of Qutubuddin Ansari, a tailor who was pleading with the mob at the time this picture was taken. He is now living in West Bengal at the behest of the government there.

Just an excerpt from Harsh Mander's writeup.... " What can you say about a woman eight months pregnant who begged to be spared. Her assailants instead slit open her stomach, pulled out her foetus and slaughtered it before her eyes. What can you say about a family of nineteen being killed by flooding their house with water and then electrocuting them with high-tension electricity. What can you say?"......

Read more on that here....