THREATENING MINARETS

From Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad's page on Facebook
1. Switzerland has decided that Muslim mosques in that country would not be allowed to have minarets. It seems that minarets would overwhelm the Swiss.

2. I wonder what would happen in Malaysia if Hindu temples are not allowed to have statues, for example. I think there would be an explosion. The whole world will condemn us as being undemocratic, not respecting human rights, not upholding religious freedom etc.

3. But when the Swiss bans minarets (there are only four minarets in the whole of Switzerland) and the French ban headscarves, these are very democratic. Always double standards and unfortunately the discrimination is always against Muslims.

4. Mr Obama, the Nobel Laureate President of the United States of America who promised to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan and close Guantanamo Detention Camp, have not honoured even a single word of his promises.

5. In fact more soldiers have been sent by him to Afghanistan and Iraq. He is now preparing to attack Iran together with his ally, Israel.

6. There will be excuses of course. They will show evidence that Iran is making nuclear bombs and is about to launch nuclear war against the world.

7. But after the evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of that country, can we believe that the attack against Iran is due to the imminent nuclear attack by that country???

My brother forgot Windows XP administrator password

Today, when I came back home in the evening, I was in for a surprise. My younger brother, Nazeer, changed the login password for his system (Windows XP) and forgot the password. Fortunately for non-tech guys like us, I was able to locate these simple steps to reset windows XP password at wikihow.com

• Reboot your machine.
• Press F8 before the Windows boot screen appears. Do not press F5 as used on the NT/9x series of Windows. You will be be prompted with a boot options menu.
• Select the Start Windows in Safe Mode option.
• Click through several self-explanatory screens until your reach the familiar 'Welcome' screen.
  • Note that this welcome screen is limited to 256 colors and 640x480 resolution because the primary graphics will have been set to the Windows Safe Mode software VGA adapter. You will not be able to change this mode even in Display options, while Windows is running in Safe Mode.
• Find the icon for the Administrator user. If the default settings of your system haven't been changed, there should be no password for this account.
• The Safe Mode Welcome screen might display some of the other users on your system.
• Login as the admin.
• Press Yes at the prompt asking if you would like to continue using Safe Mode.
• Continue on to the User Settings control panel. Here you can change any of the other passwords for user on the machine. Make any changes you want.
• Reboot your computer. As long as you don't press any keys (i.e. F8) during the boot-up the computer will startup normally.
• Login as the user for which you set the password.
• If it doesn't work above, you can try to use professional support recommendation -- Windows Password Reset to crack your windows password without erasing anything.

Thank you wikihow!

Beautiful Rainbow

This beautiful rainbow was shot today evening by my colleague Navin from our office terrace. It was a beautiful evening after some rains. Its been raining cats and dogs now for over a week. Most of the surrounding districts have been flooded killing over 200 people. Anyways, may their souls rest in peace.

Hyderabad in 1948 (i.e. About 61 years ago)

I recently came across some really old pics on Hyderabad, from about 60 years ago. Sharing it with you all. I will try and post the pictures from current days for the same locations.

1. This pic is of the famous Moazam Jahi Market, a kind of shopping complex at that time.

It was constructed in 1935 during the reign of the last Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan. It was named after his second son Moazzam Jah.

This building is a great landmark of Hyderabad even today and the main landmark is built entirely in stone.

PS: Please click on each pic to get a larger view.

Effect of H1N1 flu on an Indian Wedding

Shahrukh Khan Detained at Newark Airport

Shahrukh Khan's press conference in India after he was detained at Newark Airport for more than two hours because of his surname 'Khan' and being a Muslim. In the interview, he said that he is more than happy to abide by the security rules of any country, but there shouldn't be any racial profiling. The rules should be same for all people, they shouldn't be discriminated based on color, religion, race, country of origin or surnames.

Ramadan Glossary

Ramadan time is around, i thought its the right time to share some of the words frequently used during ramadan. Ramadan kareem to all

RAMADAN GLOSSARY

Adhaan/Azaan: Muslim call for Prayer

Duaa/Du'aa: Supplication

Eid al Fitr: Muslim Festival at the end of Ramadan

Fajr: The morning prayer that marks the starting of the fast for the day

Iftaar:The time when Muslims break their fast as the sun begins to set, coincides with the Maghrib prayer

Leylatul Qadr: The night of power, Falls under the last ten days of Ramadan. A night in which the first verse of the Quran was revealed

Maghrib: The evening prayer that marks the ending of the fast for the day

Masjid: Mosque, muslim place of worship

Mubarak: Blessed

Ramadan: The holy month of fasting

Salat/Namaz: Prayer

Sadaqah: Charitable giving (not obligatory like Zakat)

Sehri/Suhor: The pre-dawn meal

Taraweeh: Evening prayer only in the month of Ramadan where 1/30 of the Quran daily is read until completion at the end of the month

Zakat: Almsgiving, one of the five pillars of Islam

Indian Independence Day - August 15th

August 15th we're gonna celebrate our independence day. The independence from the British rule of over 200 years. There were two Kings who early on resisted the British rule and fought till their last breath. Nawab Siraj Ud Daulah and Tipu Sultan.

Siraj-Ud-Daulah

The Battle of Plassey (or Palashi) is widely considered the turning point in the history of India, and opened the way to eventual British domination. After Siraj-Ud-Daulah's conquest of Calcutta, the British responded by sending fresh troops from Madras Chennai to recapture the fort and avenge the attack. A retreating Siraj-Ud-Daulah met the British at Plassey, but betrayed by a conspiracy hatched by Jagat Seth, Mir Jafar, Krishna Chandra, Umi Chand etc, he lost the battle and had to escape. He went first to Murshidabad and then to Patna by boat, but was eventually arrested by Mir Jafar's soldiers. Siraj-Ud-Daulah was executed on July 2, 1757 by Mohammad Ali Beg under orders from Mir Jafar.

Tipu Sultan

The Sultans of Mysore, Hyder Ali and Tipu proved much harder nuts to crack. They defied the British and their allies. They fought four valiant wars. In the fourth war British gold effected what British guns had so far failed to accomplish. The ministers betrayed the master. Tipu refused to surrender and died bravely fighting in defence of his fort.

---- Tara Chand, History of the Freedom Movement in India,

revised edn., Delhi, 1965, I, pp.226-27.

Must Watch Video of a movie made on Tipu Sultan

Reaction of British after seeing Tipu dead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2R60xM1lwA (unable to embed, so please click to watch :) )

Hyderabad Gearing up for Ramadan

There is a lot of hustle justle going on around the city. Its like the silence before a storm. Very soon the roads are going to witness a sea of people around the city. The faithful are awaiting the sighting of the moon to begin fasting. Shops have renewed their stocks and awaiting customers. People are awaiting their paychecks. Businessmen are expecting an explosive turnover and a windfall of profits.

Foodies are awaiting haleem, the traditional flavour of Hyderabadi evenings. Brightly illuminated hotel fronts, buzz of a gathering, clanking spoons and a rejuvenating haleem disappearing in minutes from bowls is a common sight at almost every nook and corner.

The lip-smacking delicacy which has the city restaurants and eateries set up special counters and stalls to dish it out is the most popular draw for denizens during the month of Ramzan

People do not hesitate to travel from one end of the city to other to try different outlets around the city. Some people make it a point to have haleem every day at a new outlet and do not repeat the outlet.

Even the parcel service at most places has become popular and at times, those manning the counters can be seen struggling to manage the orders of packing and delivering.

Some of the most popular haleem spots of the city include hotels such as Naayab, Madina, Shaadab, Niagara, Rainbow and Paradise apart from other outlets such as Pista House and Kababish (the MD of Kababish is my friend :) ). Clusters of eateries at Punjagutta, Nampally, Madina and other places too have a good daily evening clientele that stretch till late hours.

Taraweeh, is the special prayers performed through the month of Ramadan. It begins about two hours after breaking the fast. It is the Sunnah prayers and the Huffaz (reciters of Quran) recite complete Quran at least once during the month of Ramadan in the Taraweeh. There are 30 chapters in the Quran and mosques have schedules according to the convenience and the schedules of nearby mosques. For example, if there are three mosques in a locality, one mosque would have a schedule of 3 chapters per day, second would have a schedule of 5 chapters per day, and the third would have a schedule of 1 or 1.25 chapters per day.

During the last 5 days of Ramdan, there would be special Taraweeh organized at certain mosques and community places where they would recite the whole Quran in one night in the prayers.

Last but not the least, the rich and well to do families become very generous during the month of Ramadan and distribute clothes, food, and sometimes even help poor relatives in building a home from the Zakat fund.

This month of Ramadan comes as a blessing for one and all. The rich get an opportunity to earn good deeds while the poor get their needs fulfilled. The faithful dedicate themselves to the prayers. The businessmen finish the month with swollen bank accounts. The kids would be happy too with the holidays and fun through the holy month. I wish all my readers a very happy and blessed Ramadan. Ramadan Kareem to all.

PS: I am gonna try to post pics of Ramadan in Hyderabad whenever I find time to.

World AirTraffic - A beehive from outerspace

Stay with the picture. You will see the light of the day moving from the East to the West, as the Earth spins on it’s axis. Also you will see the aircraft flow of traffic leaving the North American continent and traveling at night to arrive in the UK in the morning. Then you will see the flow changing, leaving the UK in the morning and flying to the American continent in daylight. It is a 24 hour observation of all of the large aircraft flights in the world, condensed down to about 2 minutes.

You could tell it was summer time in the north by the suns foot print over the planet. You could see that it didn’t quite set in the extreme north and it didn’t quite rise in the extreme south.

With this 24 hour observation of aircraft travel on the earth’s surface we get to see the daylight pattern move as well.

PS: The yellow dots are airplanes in the sky during a 24-hour period.

Taslima Nasreen back to India again

Back again on the diplomatic dilemma of the Indian Foriegn affairs ministry. Controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who was dramatically bundled out from West Bengal in November 2007, returned to New Delhi on Thursday to seek an extension for her visa, which is ending on August 17. More news here

I have earlier posted about Rebiya Kadeer being denied a visa to enter India.

People are just getting bad bad bad

A woman in Worcester killed her friend, tore open her tummy and took away the baby she was carrying. She later claimed that she had delivered the baby. It is such a gruesome act that she's put the humanity to shame. This heinious act could be unearthed only because of the common friends of the victim Darlene Haynes and the murderer Julie A. Corey. The murderer told friends in recent days that she had delivered a baby some. The claim piqued the suspicions of friends, who did not know she was pregnant. Those friends alerted Worcester detectives after the Haynes slaying became public.

It is disheartening to see that we are just getting bad bad bad at micro and macro levels. We as nations do not hesitate to go occupy others lands nor we as individuals are hesitating to steal our own friends of their lives and kids. I feel these are just the signs of the end of the world.

World eBookfair. Free eBooks for free until Aug 4!

The 4th annual e-book fair is on www.worldebookfair.com fromJuly 4 to August 4.

About 2 million pdf books are available for free download in this fair,

After Aug4 the same collection will only be available for an annual membership fees of $8.95.

So, grab the opportunity.

Dual standards of Indian Diplomacy

Again, it is the story of two women and how different treatment was meted out to them. But this time, it is the Indian diplomats who are in the spotlight.

India has denied a visa to Rebiya Kadeer, the Uighur matriarch exiled by China, on the advice of Beijing which accuses the 62-year-old of inciting the recent violence in Xinjiang.

In stark contrast to this, India has been sheltering the controversial author Tasleema Nasreen from the neighboring Bangladesh. India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee assured Nasreen a "shelter" in India, but urged her to "refrain from activities and expressions" that may hurt the sentiments of Muslims in India and harm relations with friendly countries.

It was very well known that India follows a diplomacy of appeasement of the external superpowers. That does not mean that they ignore the internal powers. Muslims are the second largest population in the country and their feelings cannot be fiddled around by sheltering somebody who the community does not see in good light and denying entry to a freedom fighter who is globally well known.

This act has definitely hurt the sentiments of the masses. Not just muslims but all peace loving citizens of the nation.

Googlized

A Google Saree displayed in a Indian fashion event

Ice Cone vendor in India....

A small convenience store on the Washington side of the Columbia River (Oregon)

A Laundry in Kuwait

A Lebanese Grocery Store

Explore the moon in Google Earth

Coinciding the anniversary of Man's landing on the Moon, Google has provided with an option to explore moon using the Google Earth. I have always been fascinated by space, starts, planets, universe, extraterrestrial bodies, aliens, UFOs. I always wondered if humans could ever get to know any living beings outside Earth. Checkout more details at Official Google Blog: Explore the moon in Google Earth

Hyderabad International Auto Show 2009

As the name suggests this happened in Hyderabad, its the first time that an International Auto Show was held at Hyderabad.

The event was the first of its kind in the south India spread over 6,400 sq. mtrs of Air-conditioned facility, where all the major automobile manufactures, finance companies and insurance companies participated. Biggies like Hyundai, Maruti, Ford, Tata Motors, General Motors, Mahindra, Renault, Fiat, Toyota, Honda, Skoda,Mercedes, Volvo, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Porche, Land Rover and Rolls Royce. Two Wheeler manufacturers like Hero Honda, Honda Motor Cycles, TVS Motors, Bajaj Auto, Yamaha Motors, Kinetic and Suzuki Motors also participated.

Apart from these, there were stalls of selected manufacturers/importers of automobile accessories like Sony, JBL, Panasonic, etc.

My nephews liked the Toys for Big Boys.. where radio controlled airplanes and copters were on display and yea they were affordable in the range of $100 to $1000 :)

I'll post a few pics of the vintage stuff that was on display outta there... I liked them the most.. There were the BSAs, Nortons, Red Indians....wooohoooo

Music Knows no Barriers

Chinese contestant singing a Indian Bollywood song in a Chinese contest. Amazing

Rockscape of Hyderabad

Hyderabad is blessed with a unique landscape: spectacular ancient rock formations - though almost extinct in the centre of the expanding metropolis - still dot its suburban expanses: Granite ridges and hillocks weathered into picturesque balancing forms, part of the Deccan Shield area. Geologists date these rocks to 2,500 million years back, amongst the oldest and hardest rocks in the world.

Uncontrolled quarrying and destruction for the sake of building material and more building space threatens to make these rocks a thing of the past. But do we have to destroy a unique asset that other cities would be proud to possess? We should realise that our rocky hillocks lend themselves to great nature and adventure parks. Nature is recreation for the body and the soul - and we are sorely in need of more recreation areas for the increasing millions of our city.

Hyderabad is growing its concrete monuments at a crazy pace. But every visitor to Hyderabad admires the balancing boulders of our landscapes with awe. The indiscriminate cutting down of the rocks is seen with dismay. We need to protect rock formations as natural monuments. They cannot be reproduced by man. They are simply priceless!!!

Rockscape pics from Hyderabad!

Riot-Hit Western China Allows Friday Prayers

Glad to know that Friday prayers were allowed in few mosques in Urumqi. Quoting ABC News

"Boisterous crowds turned up at mosques in riot-hit parts of this western Chinese city, ignoring orders canceling Friday prayers due to the ethnic violence and forcing officials to let them in.

About 100 men argued with guards, demanding they be let in for prayers at the White Mosque — near the Muslim Uighur neighborhood that saw some of the worst violence after angry protests Sunday spiraled into a riot that left at least 156 dead, many of them from China's Han majority.

A Uighur policeman guarding the mosque, who would not give his name, said: "We decided to open the mosque because so many people had gathered. We did not want an incident."

Nearby, on Liberation Road, a group of about 40 Uighur men and women began to march, shouting, crying and pumping their fists in the air as they walked.

Madina Ahtam, a woman in a multicolored headscarf, begged foreign reporters to stay with them as they walked."

The rest of news and source of this post here

China bans Friday prayers - Not Fair

After the recent riots in Urumqi, China has ordered the mosques to be closed for Friday prayers. Quoting Al Jazeera: "Under instructions from superiors, normal prayer will be suspended from today," said a notice dated Wednesday posted at the gateway of the nearby Guyuan mosque.

"Anybody wishing to pray … please do so at home."

This is not fair. It is an important aspect of Islam and it is obligatory for all Muslims.

Jumu'ah (Arabic: جمعة‎) (also known as jum'ah, Friday prayer, etc.) is a congregational prayer (salat) that Muslims hold every Friday, just after noon in lieu of dhuhr. It is mentioned in theQur'an as:

O you who believe! when the call is made for prayer on Friday, then hasten to the remembrance of God and leave off trading; that is better for you, if you know. (Qur'an 62:9)

And when the prayer is ended, then disperse in the land and seek of Allah's bounty, and remember Allah much, that ye may be successful. (Qur'an 62:10)

China please allow the East Turkestan people to pray freely.

Rant: Oppression suppression at its best. World over Muslims are alleged of oppressing others in their society... the reality is something else.. Muslims are being targeted and hated.

Random colorful pictures I came across.. Have a great day.. Keep smiling :)

Tribute to Marwa Sherbini

Two women were killed in two distant countries: Neda Agha Sultan was shot during a protest in Iran while Marwa el Sherbini was stabbed 18 times inside a courtroom in Germany. Each death, of these women who stood up for what they believed in, tells a larger story. Neda in Iran became a world icon, Marwa in Germany was simply disregarded.

I feel sorry for the family, especially the kid, who will now be deprived of his mother's love, the most beautiful thing to happen on earth. I appreciate that she did not take the racist attacks on her lying low and instead took to the court of law and won the case. Unfortunately, she had to pay with her life in the same court of law. Women like these, who have such strong Character and Faith turn out to be essential assets of the Muslim Ummah. Allah grant her peace, highest level of Jannah, and grant patience to her innocent child and family. Ameen

Thanks for visiting, please leave your tribute as a comment

Google Chrome OS - Various Reactions

I couldn't stop myself from sharing various reactions I came across after the launch of Google Chrome OS. Here’s a sampling of the reaction, positive, negative and in-between:

The fans, boosters and generally positive takes:

TechCrunch, BetaNews, Computerworld, Mashable, BuzzMachine, Ars Technica,Bloomberg, ArsTechnica, Google Watch, MediaMemo, Linux-Watch.com, Google Operating System, The Register, TheNextWeb.com, Black Web 2.0, BloggingStocks, Gadget Lab,Computerworld Blogs, ContentBlogger, Lockergnome Blog Network, About Mobility . . .

The critics and skeptics:

PC World, CNET News, Search Engine Watch, AllThingsD, ZDNet, InformationWeek, Techdirt,Traffick, SlashGear, MacDailyNews, SmoothSpan Blog . . .

The “wait and see” or “he said/she said” pieces:

BBC, TheStreet.com, eWeek, GigaOM, Venture Capital Dispatch, The Microsoft Blog,IntoMobile, Between the Lines, Mercury News, Seattle Times, ReadWriteWeb, TG Daily,Googling Google, New York Times . . .

Some verbatims:

This is Google dropping the mother of bombs on its chief rival, Microsoft. It even says as much in the first paragraph of its post, “However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web.” Yeah, who do you think they mean by that? And it’s a genius play.

–TechCrunch

The privacy implications are, of course, horrendous. And while Google will inevitably dismiss such concerns as paranoid and argue that any data the company might collect at the OS level will be used only to improve its services and benefit users, it should still give us all pause. Because when it is finally launched, Chrome OS will be yet one more deep well of consumer data to which Google will have access

– Digital Daily

If Google wants to succeed in its boldest product launch to date, the Chrome OS, the company needs to focus on its success with the same intensity it once dedicated to search. If it doesn’t, Chrome OS will end up just like Chrome: yet another irrelevant skunkworks project used by a handful of digerati and Microsoft-haters and ignored by everyone else.

–Silicon Alley Insider