Common (Loot) Games?

This is how our tax money is (mis)used

And right under the nose of all the ruling party elite in Delhi

What a shame!

P.S: In the past five months, the estimated expenditure on the Commonwealth Games (CWG) has increased by over Rs1,000 crore to a whopping Rs11,500 crore, and rising! This is a quantum leap from 2003, when the erstwhile NDA government had bagged the rights to hold CWG for Rs655 crore, and December 2008, when the expenditure was estimated at around Rs7,907 crore. In February, minister for sports MS Gill had estimated the expenditure at Rs10,455 crore.On Thursday, however, he told Rajya Sabha the estimated expenditure had risen to Rs11,494 crore. And the stadiums are incomplete, infrastructure in delhi in shambles and it is a total mess. No one is held responsible as everyone has his hand in the cookie jar. How can an estimate made in 2003 for a 2010 games jump from 655 crores to 11494 crores is beyond ones imgination

,

What is common.....................?

What is common to Kerala & Paraguay/Philippines, Goa & Indonesia, Jharkhand/Bihar & Congo, Tamil Nadu & Ghana, Punjab & Guatemala, Himachal Pradesh & Morocco, Bihar & Somalia, North Eastern States & Haiti..............................?

They have similar development levels. Doesn't reflect so well on our country, does it?

Get more details HERE

Trivia

The word 'trivia' is derived from the latin word 'trivium', which means 'three roads' or more colloquially 'crossroads'. The junction of three roads is where common people meet, and exchage small, inconsequential bits of information or hold conversations that were general, interesting but unimportant in nature.

A trivia could be an information like India having only 2.2% of the Worlds total land mass, but is home to 16.5% of the World's population.

Another trivia is that Kuwait is the 3rd crowded nation in the World, with Singapore and Israel taking the first two places. India is ranked 33rd.

Why oh Why adjourn?

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day on the first day of the monsoon session of parliament Monday. The lower house assembled at 11 p.m., which was followed by Speaker Meira Kumar leading the members in paying tribute to deceased former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and former union minister and Bihar MP Digvijay Singh. The speaker also remembered the victims of various disasters - the train accident in West Bengal July 22, the Maoist attack in Narayanpur in Chattisgarh June 29 and the plane crash in Mangalore May 22. On the 11th anniversary of Kargil operations, she also paid tribute to the martyrs of India's war who protected the Kargil heights in Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistani raiders and camouflaged regular troops in 1999.

Meira Kumar then adjourned the house for the day

Why adjourn? Why can't the Parliament spend 15 mintues paying tributes, observe one minute of silence and then get on with the job of law making? That would be the best tribute one can give to the dead. Why should all the MP's get a days holiday? I am sure no one will be even thinking about the dead once they are out of the hall. They will be indulging in wheeling and dealing, brokering deals, playing petty politics to the detriment of the nation rest of the day. The cost of maintaining these MP's per day is prohibitively high. Why should the tax payer be cheated of his hard earned money like this?

Of Apparitions and Evil Spirits

Couple of decades ago, I visited Chottanikkara temple in Kerala in the evening. This was my first visit to the temple. There are two temples - the upper and the lower, knows as Melkkavu and Kizhukkavu respectivel. The upper temple has,as presiding deity, Devi (Annapoorneswari) in full splendour, and represented as Saraswathy in the morning, Lakshmi in the noon and Durga in the evening. The Bhadrakaali at Kizhukkavu is believed to exorcise evil spirit from devotees, after conducting bhajanam.

I was tired after a few days on the road. After having had my darsanam in the more conventional upper temple, I moved to the lower temple. I have heard stories about the power of the bhadrakali, and of the many people, belived to be under the influence of evil spirits, who become violent on seeing the deity, unable to look at her directly. I have also heard of the tree in the Kizhukkavu, where the evil spirits are supposed to be parked, after being exorcised, using nails hammered into the tree (see image on the right).  Though god fearing, I have  been very rational those days, taking all these with a pinch of salt.

While I was on the pathway to the kizhukkavu, there was a powercut. It was twilight outside. The sun had set, the sky was red and there was a surreal feeling.  There was a crowd of about 100 in the kizhukkavu, with the sreekovil door closed for deeparadhana. There was pindrop silence. Everything normal, quiet and peaceful, but getting darker by the minute. Then the door opened showing the deity illuminated with hundreds of oil lamps. A magnificient sight. I closed my eyes, at peace with myself. Suddenly, I heard a scream to my left. A young lady of twenty something had started screaming and jumping. She had her hair down and was uncontrollable. My heart missed a couple of beats. Immediately, another commotion in my back as another lady, this time an older lady started gyrating, abusing the deity. To say I was disturbed is an understatement. I was scared out of my wits, for it was my first encounter with people supposedly afflicted by evil spirits. All my rationality vanished in thin air. I had always thought that most of the people like these fake a lot, but however skeptical I tried to be, I just couldnt believe that these two were faking, and years on I still dont. I watched, half scared, half curious at their actions. It went on for nearly half an hour and the energy levels were amazing. They were still on, with relatives unable to hold them back, when I left, shaken and very very disturbed.

I travelled overnight in a bus, physically and mentally fatigued. The event of the previous evening had taken its toll on me. I dozed off, and had strange dreams of evil spirits floating in my dreams, disturbing me further. I was woken up at 5 am by the conductor. I got down and made haste to my friends house, who had just got married, but I had not yet seen his wife. It was still reasonably dark when I pressed the bell, and was horrified at the apparition that opened the door. It was clad in a white dress, face red, hair in a bundle on top of the head, only the teeth and the whites of the eyes bright.

I almost had a heart attack. All the experience of the previous evening and the dreams of the night had suddenly come back to haunt me, or so it seemed. I couldnt answer her simple question as to who I was. I stood transfixed to the ground, mouth agape, pulse racing.

Fortunately, I could make out behind her the familiar face of my friend, who told the apparition who I was, and it withdrew flashing its teeth in a huge smile, making it more scary (something similar but thrice as scary as the image on the left. All pictures sourced from google images)

'W........h....a....a...t   .w...a....a....s..,,    t....h...aaaa....t...      t...h....i....n.....g..?

I blurted out. My friend was nonplussed for a moment, then threw his head back in laughter. Taking the bag from my hand, he put a comforting hand of my shoulder and said,

'That thing is my wife. She has applied red sandalwood as a facepack when she went to bed last night. I had always joked with her that all she had to do is to show her face in the event of a thief entering the house in the night, and looks like she managed to scare the living daylights out of you'

Though years have passed, the image of his wife as she was when she opened the door ( a pretty, beautiful, bubbly woman without facepack otherwise) still sends a shiver up my spine.

Have you heard of this law?

Ever heard of  LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES?

The law warns that an intervention in a complex system invariably creates unanticipated and often undesirable outcomes.

The consequence can be a positive benefit, called windfall or serendipity. Aspirin was introduced as a pain killer. But it was found out that, it has anticoagulant properties, which prevents heart attacks. In India, there are many cities which has Army Cantonements. Large, sprawling areas of land in the heart of the city, with lot of greenery, peaceful atmosphere and walking space around it. Years later, when the city around has become concrete jungles, these cantonment areas are perhaps the only saving grace in an otherwise crowded city. A classic case was MGR introducing the noon meal scheme in mid 1970s, which led to the birth rate falling rapidly in Tamil Nadu by late 1980's, which was totally unintended. More rural parents sent their girl children to school so that they can get the noon meal, and these children attained reproductive age by late 1980s, and when the family planning workers went to them to explain the benefits of family planning, because of their education, the girls were much more receptive.

There could be unexpected drawbacks. While the computers and internet have changed the way we work for the better, making us very efficient, it has killed original writing with people resorting to copy, pasting whether at college or at work. This has adversely affected original thinking. While monsoon brings the much wanted rains, so essential for drinking water and for agricultural purpose,the drawback is that it also results in waterborne diseases spreading. Industry set up in a rural area, instead of providing job to locals, may result in locals migrating, as they will be displaced from their land and vocation.

It can result in a perverse effect. By this we mean that the consequence is diametrically opposite to what is intended. A book or a film is banned to prevent public from reading or watching it. But what happens in reality is the contrary. The action results in the book or the films sale increasing leaps and bounds through internet and through the grey market, with more people reading or watching than it would have had the ban been not effected. Another classic case is prohibition. The liquour consumption actually goes up when the prohibition is in place, as people get a perverse satisfaction in defying a law.

Metti

I was asked a question as to the significance of wearing 'metti' on the leg by south indian married women. This is a silver ring that is worn on the second finger from the toe on both the legs, at the time of marriage and since.

'Metti' is worn on the second finger from the toe. There is a nerve that connects the second finger to the heart that also passes through the uterus. It is felt that wearing silver and the friction it causes while walking or doing household chores activates the said nerve. This nerve becoming active, revitalizes the productivity organs. It is also believed, that wearing metti on both feet facilitates regular menstrual cycles, thus increasing the chances of conceiving, which is very important for a married women then, and even now.