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.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
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.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
World eBookfair. Free eBooks for free until Aug 4!
The 4th annual e-book fair is on www.worldebookfair.com from
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.
Monday, July 27, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
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
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
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
Monday, July 20, 2009
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
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Music Knows no Barriers
Chinese contestant singing a Indian Bollywood song in a Chinese contest. Amazing
Monday, July 13, 2009
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!!!
Friday, July 10, 2009
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:
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.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
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.
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 accessIf 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.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Mirza Ghalib's Movie
For those who don't know, Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan was a renowned classical Urdu and Persian poet of the subcontinent. Most notably, he wrote several ghazals during his life, which have since been interpreted and sung in many different ways by different people. He is considered to be the most dominating poet of the Urdu language.
For Ghalib's fans, I found a complete movie on him with beautiful ghazals at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMb9quUSAls&feature=related
Also, it is worth visiting his page on wikipedia
About 37 poems (Ghazals) translated to English can be found here http://www.yagmin.com/ghalib/joy.cgi
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Hyderabad's favorite Irani Chai
There are a few things which can be called quintessentially Hyderabadi and of those is the Irani chai. In fact, it is so popular that even film songs have a mention of it.Tea cafes became a part of the Indian culture when Persian traders visited the country. The Irani Chai that came with it is known to be a great blend of brewed tea leaves, boiled milk and sweetened condensed milk.
This kind of tea is available at small and old cafes and is usually served with tempting sweet and salty Osmania biscuits (see pic). And the price surprisingly still ranges from Rs. 2.5 to Rs. 5 per cup. Do not forget to ask for the Khade Chammach ki chai if you have a sweet tooth. It is so named because the cup has so much sugar that the spoon stands upright when inserted to mix!
A mosque desacrated - 3 killed in related violence
An unfortunate incident of desacration of a Mosque resulted in clashes between two communities in the city of Mysore in South India. Three people were killed and According to the police, the victims have been identified as Mubarak (25), Junaid Pasha (15) and Tirupathi (46).
The trouble started following the desecration of a Mosque where a carcass of a slaughtered animal was found. When the news spread, a large number of people gathered outside the school.
Communal frenzy knows no sentiments and relations. In incidents of communal violence, the victims are the innocent people whose only commonality is poverty. Thursday's communal violence in Mysore starkly brought this out.
All the three killed in the violence were poor and innocent. Communal feelings made no sense to them. Whether it was truck driver Mubarak or Tirupathy, they had never imagined they would meet a gory end.
A crestfallen Hasina, mother of Mubarak, 22, says though she urged her son to have breakfast, he told her he would meet his friend and come back. "I waited for him till 12.30 pm, only to learn from my neighbours that he was stabbed to death," she said.
More tragic tale was that of Junaid, 14. When he died, his father, plastic goods hawker, was roaming in the same area, unaware of the tragedy. His mother Munzira Banu, who rushed to the spot on hearing the news of her son's death, initially said he was killed in the police firing. But police denied it saying he was stabbed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
