Okay its plain copy paste from Cyril’s FB wall but its too wonderful a debate to control the temptation of sharing. Cyrill initiated it by posting a quote from Salman Rushdie then it spiraled into full blown debate between believers and atheists.  I like these debates despite these being paradoxical. If believers agree to reason out with logic against atheist, they are agreeing to the fact that reasoning is way to achieve truth…if they agree what is point in debating God which they believe can not be understood through reasoning.

Here goes copy paste act:

"There are people who believe in God, and people who don't believe in God. Why should the people who do not believe in god be obliged to not criticize the people who believe in God? Because, goodness knows, there's plenty of it the other way round."

- Salman Rushdie.

You can call an atheist 'Kafir', or 'Heathen', or 'nastik'. Ostracize him, or worse hang him, or kill him in hordes like the buddhists or the pagans were, and still be a great champion, but if all you do is utter words against god and religion, you're a criminal. Why?

• Masijeevi Hindi  : आस्तिक आक्रामक हैं क्‍योंकि वे डरे हुए हैं...

  Milind Ranade :  Premise of this argument is wrong. Believers are the ones who believe which is not seen or can't be proved scientifically. That's what is their belief. And they have a Right of having a belief. Non believers have no foundation at all. They ...See more

• Cyril Gupta ‎Milind, please focus on the qualitative aspect of it, and not the literal.

• Milton D'Silva ‎"Non believers have no foundation at all. They are just against something which they do not believe exists." - Well, I am a non believer and I am not against anything, so even if that makes me pure idiot, I am happy to be one!

• Milton D'Silva So fundoos are not the only ones who hate non believers...

• Masijeevi Hindi Very premise that atheist are out there to prove/disprove is all wrong. Onus of proving existence of something is with the one saying it exists.

• Milind Ranade That's what belief is. Believing in something which Science can't prove. BTW, science can't prove many things. For example. Mind. I hope evryone writing here, be a believer or a non believer, must be using it. But asked to prove, you won't be able to prove existance of your or anyone's Mind. So, save your proving to yourself Masjeevi Hindi ji. Science is lame. Belief may be blind, but it's wise and loving.

• Javed Iqbal For all those who hate Athiests....---> Dont hate, Educate.

• Milind Ranade Education is indoctrination. I won't go for that. Self understanding. Illumination. Self realization. That's what is needed. Not prostelyzation. That's meaningless.

• Milton D'Silva Dont hate, do not try to educate...just leave each other to their own...

• Milind Ranade ‎...that's what the great lady does. she gives us birth. nurtures us, and then leaves us to live our life and die our death. the great lady. cosmos.

• Prakash Gupta me being an atheist knows that this feeling in anyone do not possess anything rebellious to the society.
  its something very personal and emotional too
  however i personally do not have any feeling to spread this to believers of god and make atheism a doctrine.
  It deals with personal opinion and it has always been and will remain something very personal

• Cyril Gupta: ‎Milind Ranade, that mind thing, is actually a joke. It doesn't make sense, not in scientific terms, not when you go by empirical standards of science. Science has proven by dissection of live bodies (and dead), that human beings generally possess a mind. So unless there are non-humans walking against us (some people don't seem quite human do they?), we can safely say that they should possess a brain.
  The case about God is entirely different. There are only fictionalized accounts, there's no credible proof of God's existence. Nor has it been proved that God wants humanity to behave in a certain fashion, specially as dictated by religious people.
  Javed Iqbal, Why hate an atheist at all? Atheists don't hate you. As far as education is considered... We got here because we got educated buddy. Most of the atheists in existence were born surrounded by religious practitioners, and if they could move beyond their beliefs, it is only by careful consideration and thought, and by educating themselves.
  Do you think it's an easy decision to not believe when everyone else believes?

• Gunjan Joshi : Amazing post Sir, I don't know what god means for anybody or for that matter for someone following Islam but I have read numerous muslim authors from M.J Akbar to Aatish Taseer and Salman Rusdie. Everyone tells a different story of Islam and various strata of Hindu Pundits also do same thing. Everyone has put believing or not-believing into a mould of his or her convenience. I agree with Salman Rushdie when he says,"putting a ban on anything publicizes it". I would rather say criticizing anything gives it fame. But, one thing I am certain about that I need my god with me(for my reasons, sounds selfish I guess).

• Javed Iqbal :Dost....read again,..i said DONT hate...i dont recommend hate myself. baat bahut simple si hai...if u find logic and goodness in a religion, follow it. if you dont..dont follow it. as i said earlier...an atheist ATLEAST has the courage to challange the religion that his family has been following since ages, and he is keen to explore the depth of any religion for that matter....this is called exploring one's existance...again...this is my opinion

• Jude Terrence Dsouza: Science is lame.? Last I heard many lame walk. All use some prosthetic or the other created from the process known as science. While many who use those props believe that it is God's gift to them, Science never denied them the prop merely because of Science's belief that the believer's belief in God is incorrect and the proof would be the utterly simple act of taking away the prop.
  Education is indoctrination with fact which is known and you are free to prove otherwise. Religion is indoctrination with that which is unknown. and your are subservient to never know. So religion loves to ban everything, including people, science does nothing of the sort.
  Religion - a never ending joke with no punchline, but yet manages a real laugh. I LOVE RELIGION.

• Milind Ranade :Cyril, it's not a jo ke. Science can't prove existence of Human Mind. That's the inconvenient truth about science. Science can't prove the Vital Energy which makes living being a Living Being. And we all ( including the atheists) consider it the Soul of our existence. All emotions and feelings which make us human are BEYOND science. Science talks about Time, Space, Dark Matter and Dark Energy and Black holes and it hasn't seen any of them. Those are just logical inferences. Logic is a faculty of Human Mind. It's not like something you can touch and weigh. So, basically, foundation of all science is Belief. And they have audacity to pick on the Believers. Bravo!

• Milind Ranade Jude, birds and insects fly. Do they USE Science to do that? Seems to me, your logic is going in that direction. Humans had to develop so much science and technology to fly. And birds and cockroaches do it by birth. How amazing. So, here we are, confusing Religion and Spirituality with Science and Science with Technology.

• Cyril Gupta: Milind, I think I will disagree about science not being able to prove the human mind. In what sense do you mean? A lot of research has been done on the human thought process, and I will admit that we are still only beginning to unravel the way the mind works, but we've come quite a way ahead. I am not a student of the brain, but I've found this book -'On Intelligence' very intriguing. That book is written by Jeff Hawkins, a programmer and an entrepreneur who's dedicating the rest of his life to research on the mind. It talks at great length about how the mind does what it does.
  Science is a journey and not a destination, and I like to think we are getting ahead every year, but, whatever science has unraveled till now is enough to destroy many of the old beliefs of the religion. I guess by now the only claim you can make about science is that it has not disproved the existence of God entity. Apart from that it has pretty much destroyed all other religious doctrines laid down in the holy books.
  As an atheist and understanding what atheists stand for, I can say that atheists do not feel threatened by belief in God. It is the belief in religion that is a problem. If the belief in God was a personal matter without any of the associated symptoms (preaching, public processions, masses, conversions, arguments, fights, riots, crusades), I don't we'd be arguing this point at all.

• Cyril Gupta ‎Gunjan, if God is a personal friend for you why is there any harm in having him around? I do not intend to discredit believers in God. I just want to make the point that I've been godless almost all my life and life hasn't treated me any worse than it has treated any believer.

• Mahesh Dutt brilliant Cyril...loved reading it...gives me more insight into your thought. Thanks for being your self bro.

• Milind Ranade: It's just the 1% picture you are painting Cyril. Science has brought us at the brink of annihilation. In the age of IPhone, people are dying of all kinds of diseases and many of them are created by the medicines. Land is being made barren by the use of fertilizers which are created using so called science. Countries and civilizations are being made into slaves and their means of living are systematically being taken away in the name of science and progress. Check out Dr. Vandana Shiva's speech which I gave a link yesterday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lOQzD6aEay4#!

• Milton D'Silva Amazing...science has brought us at the brink of annihilation! I thought it was greed!

• Cyril Gupta: Milind, of course you are right about all those things happening but is that science or humanity at work? Science is is not a motive, it's just a tool and what to use it for is humanity's decision. Religion is the motive, and we were breaking each other's heads with clubs and swords when that was all the science we had.
  We've used religion for practically the same purposes as science then. People have died and killed for the sake of religion, and I might say the number is quite high. I won't engage you any more in debate because I think I've said all that I can for now.
  Thank you for sharing Milind, I appreciate your contribution. Let's pick this again some time as we have done earlier :). Please do make a closing remark if you wish so.

• Cyril Gupta ‎Mahesh Dutt: Mahesh bhai, you're thanking me because I am being me? :) That's a first. Thank you for you for finding me so interesting.

• Jude Terrence Dsouza: Science is about understanding and possibly imitating nature. Science is about unshakling your self from the constraints of nature. Although a dog, a monkey, some spiders, fish etc did make it past some of the constrains nature placed on them, by flying into orbit on the skylab, as far a I know it was science and humans who got them there. All the million years of their existence did not get them there. Nor did a lot of prayer. While science has the inherent ability to debunk itself and come in with ever improving understanding of the world around us, religion has not resolved anything at all. Regarding your rant about science bringing us to the brink of destruction, it escapes the believers that if we removed scientific processes of the past 300 years, 80% of our population would be dead. If you removed it past 3500 years, 99% would be dead. OTOH if you removed religion, we would probably be spared a series of bloody genocides and wars. Read Steven Pinkers chronicle of violence to understand where science has got us, as far as security to life is concerned.
  Science does not understand very many things - far far more than it does understand. BUT SCIENCE UNDERSTAND THAT ALL OF IT'S UNDERSTANDING IS SUBJECT TO SCRUTINY, REFINEMENT, REJECTION AND REPLACEMENT BY NEWER MEMES.
  That does not in anyway provide religion a licence to paint illusions or automatically make it's pontifications a truth.
  Dark energy, matter black holes etc I dont know which hole you come from, but If you did build some instrumentation, through technology derived from science, that allows you to transcend your pathetic senses, you can see and experience all of them. True, others had to sit many hours in deep meditation and indulge in discourse to suggest the existence, or explain certain phenomena, either observed or predicted by maths. Same as a relgion apologist might do, to claim religion as being the same as science. But the similarity ends right there. While science provides the means for anyone to reproduce the result, eventually making it simple enough for high school students to replicate, religion still requires sophistry and punditry, the same as it was 3500 years ago, with the same hallucinatory results. I must confess I am impressed that nonsense such as this has survived to date. Might I say it's one of the oldest multilevel marketing scams going on.
  You might want to read Dr. Villanur Ramchandran's brilliant unraveling of this thing we call the mind and it's workings. Turns out, it is no different from your flies, ants, lizards etc. Heck we have 98%+ genes shared with apes, yet we have religious crackpots who believe some god created man on the 7th day. The gene for eye development is the same in primitive single celled protozoa and arose abot 800 million years ago. Which however does not give you the right to claim any fancy pedigree for religion, from protoplasm days.

• Milind Ranade: Jude, I can understand the difficulty we are having in communication. I will hold our different upbringing in completely different set of values and beliefs as a culprit. For me, Science is nothing great to be looked at as sacred. Neither religion as some kind of a dictat given by some Hitler like God sitting in the heaven. Science is just special knowledge, not an instrument to subjugate innocent and illiterate people and religion is celebration of life, not set of commandments given by God. 'I am That' and 'You art though' are the basic premises from which I learned Religion and Spirituality. So, I can understand your outrage. It's the Dualism and Non Dualism debate. Where there is no middle ground. Either you are a reductionist or a wholist. There is no in between.

• Milton D'Silva It is religion that has subjugated innocent and illiterate people, not science...

• Jude Terrence Dsouza: As Milton D'silva points out you have got it ulta. Science is not special knowledge. It is knowledge with explanations that fit the reality we observe. Science compulsorily requires you to not consider anything sacred and question every assumption. Science does not subjugate anyone.
  Religion has no explanations to fit reality. It compulsorily require you to have faith. And it has always been used to subjugate and humiliate non adherents. Last I heard all religions were a series of prescriptions handed over to manu, moses, mohamed, or some hallucinating madman, by God. Even Buddhism required Budhha to get enlightened. Spiritualism and prescriptions via dalals = religion.
  The people who brought me up had very little ability to influence the diktata's henchmen - moses, manu, mohomed, etc - time travel having not been invented then and as far as I know, now. So as an alternative, and in a very schizoid way they would intrigue me with science, via books from BC library, while requiring that i follow all those stupid religious rituals. I would share my discovery from those books and other books at the school library, with my peers - a wonderful mix of rich, poor, rebellious, conforming etc etc kids. Those kids were in the same boat as me. We learnt to question because of science. Which has a vicious side effect - that of questioning authority. And made one realise that religion is about hierarchies, conformity and subjugation to the prescribed authorities. Follow the diktat of God's choosen henchmen else you shall - be reborn as xyz, fry in hell, have a sorry life, blah blah.
  And religion is not spirituality. As usual, religion has tried to usurp the positions of spirituality, philosophy and science. And there lies the major rub. I might add that there is a profound spirituality in science. The ecstasy of discovery.The excruciating low of a theory failing, the delirious high of discovery and the utter humility of understanding that we know so much yet know almost nothing. The realisation that we are no different from an amoeba or monkey. That we can contemplate upon the laws of nature that govern us and transcend some of nature's limitations. All of these does not require a God or religion or duality or singularity. But it requires one to be aloof, dispassionate involved, inspired by the magnificence of the world around, while one does science. Does that not sound like spiritualism?
  My problem with religion is that it wants to occupy all the high grounds of human endeavor, without an iota of substance in it's innards. I have no problem with anyone following any religion within the privacy of their spaces and flagellating themselves to a pulp. But I do have a problem with it when it starts to be used for governance and biases decision making.

• Vinay Thakur very interesting discussion for me...very good points mentioned. Please read my post on similar subject and give your insights.
  http://selfrealization-vinay.blogspot.com/2012/03/science-and-religion.html

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Freakonomics  by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is a popular reading in non-classical economics.  I am reading it now a days and I am feeling something like what I felt while reading Animal Farm.  Levitt presents a case of Chicago Public School System where high-stake test were introduced. Such test resulted in large scale cheating not only from students but also from teachers.  If enough stakes are there then even the very system can cheat against itself.  Last semester exam at University of Delhi has shown it to the world. Stakes were high because it was necessary to show to courts and rest of world that newly imposed semester is such a good system…therefore University itself cheated in the result of examination.  Unusually high marks were given to students and such a cooking of results was done well after papers were checked.

for records here is excerpts from freakonomics : 

The Chicago Public School system embraced high-stakes testing in 1996. Under the new policy, a school with low reading scores would be placed on probation and face the threat of being shut down, its staff to be dismissed or reassigned. The CPS also did away with what is known as social promotion. In the past, only a dramatically inept or difficult student was held back a grade. Now, in order to be promoted, every student in third, sixth, and eighth grade had to manage a minimum score on the standardized, multiple-choice exam known as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.
Advocates of high-stakes testing argue that it raises the standards of learning and gives students more incentive to study. Also, if the test prevents poor students from advancing without merit, they won’t clog up the higher grades and slow down good students. Opponents, meanwhile, worry that certain students will be unfairly penalized if they don’t happen to test well, and that teachers may concentrate on the test topics at the exclusion of more important lessons.
Schoolchildren, of course, have had incentive to cheat for as long as there have been tests. But high-stakes testing has so radically changed the incentives for teachers that they too now have added reason to cheat. With high-stakes testing, a teacher whose students test poorly can be censured or passed over for a raise or promotion. If the entire school does poorly, federal funding can be withheld; if the school is put on probation, the teacher stands to be fired. High-stakes testing also presents teachers with some positive incentives. If her students do well enough, she might find herself praised, promoted, and even richer: the state of California at one point introduced bonuses of $25,000 for teachers who produced big test-score gains.
And if a teacher were to survey this newly incentivized landscape and consider somehow inflating her students’ scores, she just might be persuaded by one final incentive: teacher cheating is rarely looked for, hardly ever detected, and just about never punished.

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Shivkumar Mishra is his status recalls how when judges ask for medical reports of Amar Singh from his lawyers… he recovers miraculously and dashes to Court only to be shown the door (to Tihar)

Kucha ghaṇṭē pahalē hī amara sinha jī kē vakīla nē n'yāyādhīśa mahōdaya kō batāyā thā ki vē āja kōrṭa nahīṁ ā sakatē kyōṅki vē bahuta bīmāra haiṁ aura khaṭiyā para paṛē hai. N'yāyādhīśa jī nē unakē vakīla kō bīmārī kī ripōrṭa dikhānē kē li'ē kahā. Dōpahara taka vē khuda chalakara kōrṭa pahunchē.

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For sometime now there were no updates on this blog. I was not following Hindi Blogs myself. But I think its time to get back to work. Considering the changing time I’ll update not just blogs but also stuff from micro blogging and FB.

So this status from Dilip Mandal

भारत के पहले गर्ल्स स्कूल की पहली हेड मिस्ट्रेस सावित्रीबाई फुले इतिहास की काल कोठरी से बाहर आकर, वर्तमान के सीने पर धमक गई हैं। अब जिसे रोकते बने-रोक ले इस महिला शिक्षक और समाज सुधारक को। 3 जनवरी को इनकी जयंती पर धूमधाम से मनाएंगे शिक्षक दिवस। सरकार का आग्रह होगा तो, 5 सितंबर को सरकारी शिक्षक दिवस भी मना लेंगे।

 

Dilip is denouncing Teacher’s day as it is celebrated on birthday of Radhakrishnan and not Savitribai Phule.

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Who says there is no spice in Hindi blog world need to look at recent blogger’s meet in Lucknow which instead of nazakat was full of blows. News goes like this.. Saleem Ali with his not so healthy intentions is making the blogspace a lot murkier for some time now. But it was time for some real action. It so happened that Mehfooz, Salim and Saurabh met and while Mehfooz conveniently slipped as and when required Salim and Saurabh cam to blow repeatedly. It is interesting to note that like a true blogger Mehfooz chose to blog rather then intervene :)

hanste hanste took some nice pinches on these punches

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In sensational breaking posts two Hindi Blogs claimed that renowned, and not always for nice reasons saint AshaRam Bapu has a satanic face. Michal Chandan quoted from the account of old disciple Bapu that Asha Ram is involved in black magic tricks and is involved with many sadhikaas of his ashrams. 

aasharam bapu ka kai mahilaon ke sath avaidh rishta hai। yah sant ke bhesh men havas ka pujari hai।aasharam bapu ko maine aashram ki kai sadhikaon ke sath sharirik sanbandh banate hue dekha hai। yah kala jaadu karta hai। mahilaon par yah teen-teen ghante tak tantrik kriya karta hai। bad men unamen kai ke sath sharirik sanbandh bhi banata hai ।

Another Hindi blog reminds its readers that Asharam and His son are involved in a number of scandals earlier as well.

aasharam pahle bhi kai vivaadon men ghire rahe hai। aasharam ke bete par bhi aashram ki kai sadhikaon ke sath yaun shoshan ka aarop lag chuka hai julai 2008 men ahamadabad sthit unake aashram men do chhatr rahasyamay paristhitiyon men mrit paaye ge the। un par kala jaadu kar tantrik kriya kiye jaane ka aarop laga tha। us mamale men abhi bhi aasharam sandeh ke ghere men hai।

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It is an open secret that Anup (Fursatiya) and Sameer are not at best of their terms. Inside story attribute it to a wedding party in samir’s family things did came out but not quite. Both stars of the blogdom are diplomatic best not to spill beans though beans are quite bagful so they do come out occasionally. In recent Allahabad conference episode it bacame more then obvious. Not to mention the grapevine stuff that actually flows behind the scene in chats and phone calls. But when khushdeep raised the issue in his post Sameer politely declined and said terms with Guruji are just fine-

(Thanks to Google Script Convertor now it is possible to quote the blogs in roman itself)

..lekin ek baat khatakti rahi ki donon men aapas men tanaav kyon jhalakta hai...ya vo sirf mauj ke lie ise jhalakte dikhana chahate hain....kya ye tanaav thik vaisa hi hai jaisa ki chunbak ke do sajateeya dhruvon ke pas aane par hota hai...jitana is gutthi ko sulajhane ki koshish ki, mere lie utani hi ye roobik ke pajjal ki tarah vikat hoti gi.

Stars obviouly don’t want to wash the linen so publicly so sameer’s response is gracefull

hamari apne aapako chela se gud hone ka jhootha ahasaas jaahir karne ki lalsa jayegi nahin aur unki muskarate hue hamen dharati par tikaye rakhne ki aadat..to aise lekhaneeya dvand to dikhte hi rahenge, unase pareshan hone ki jarurat nahin. ham bhi pareshan nahin hote balki mauj kiya karte hain ki agli bar poorv hausle aur josh kharosh se siddh larenge. :)

You guys decide I find the little mun mutaav just okay :)

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This week Chitthacharch the popular Hindi Review blog churned out 1000th post. Post wasn’t made a gala event and Kavita gave her post as routine but did mention the milestone. By and large the blogger appreciated the effort. In his post Anup recalled how some English bloggers during the Bharat Blog Mela (BBM) days tride to humiliate the then very small Hindi Blogging fraternity which gave rise to platform of Hindi Chitthacharcha. Five years is long time when we talk of internet.

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It is reported in a section pf press that second and final installment of sixth pay commission arrears is scheduled to be paid next month. It is important to note that Arrears of sixth pay commission were to be paid in two installments, While first installment of 40% of arrears was paid in last FY, second installment of 60% of arrears is due in this FY. Now it is being reported that this installment will be paid in September 2009. Some are linking it to recovery of economy as well. Public expenditure of this order will help in increasing the demand thereby giving a boost to economy.

Technorati Tags: sixth pay commission,arrears,6th pay commission arrears,CPC,salary

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In a latest panga, Pangebaj Arun withdrew his post after the legal patriarch of Hindi Blogosphere Dineshji advised in strangely worded mail to Arun. Arun’s original post which is still available to web world , Net do not forget things easily!!

Whole thing is about annoyance to  the way legal fraternity is addressing the Kasab episode there wasn’t anything against Dineshji except a veiled sarcasm for lawyers. Lawyer friend Dinesh reacted with an email that on first reading is concern and advice but closer readings suggests otherwise. It was advised that if post is not removed Arun is likely to face judicial music, with judges being sold two a penny, Arun succumbed and now post is not available at his blog.

My understanding is that by removing the post still making the email public what Arun has done is nothing but what he is best in…taking panga. He is not scared as some suggesting but is actually blowing the bigul hard. Episode is far from over.

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Pratik informed by an email today that IPLKhabar.com  is providing bal to ball coverage, scores, news and views on IPL world in Hindi. Now that is quite a news because despite all threadbare coverage including from fakeplayer, Hindi world was forced to digest the firang version. Till now I am not sure if it is venture of Pratik himself or Pratik just announced it but it is important nonetheless. It is however saddening that due to discriminatory policies of adsenses regarding language, IPLKhabar is not getting paying adsense revenue but showing public service ads only thereby making this venture commercially unviable. Hope Google will get wisdom soon.

I’ve not tested the ball to ball coverage aspect that I will today when my dear Delhi daredavil will meet the facinating Deccan Chargers today. If IPLKhabar is taking pains to do the ball to ball coverage in Hindi by itself then it is big big thing and they deserve good revenue from it, may be they should head to non google ad services.

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Now while Malvika at HT reported that someone is blogging the dirty secrets at IPL, the whole net is going awry to find the dirty blog :)-

A blogger, who calls himself IPL anonymous, is digging up dirt on players, owners and coaches. Fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com is where the off-pitch action is. The blogger, who claims to be a part of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), could be a player or a crew member. But he’s bringing the aankhon dekha haal from inside the dressing rooms and the bedrooms.

This blog has become a hit in no time. with really dirty yet funny nuances. mandira may (not) mind -

At least Sandy Baddy Babe has a few tricks up her sleeve to distract the viewer from what she says.

Anyway the Cricket league is forced to rely on these non cricketing stuff afterall rain isn’t allowing much cricket otherwise.

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The inaugral day at T20 was dissapointing for finalists of last edition. Pratik in his post which is the only post so far from Hindi blogworld. What is intresting is the fact that the Premier League is obviously not just cricket. It is all about cheerleading and the the dog intrusion into the field. Yes bollywood is invading the field  and there are words that Dhoni’s beloved is likely to be present.

Next days match are among Delhi Daredavils vs kings of Punjab.   Kolkata Knight Riders vs Deccan Chargers. Match is vailable Live on Sony SMax. and live on Cricinfo as well.

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I chanced upon this piece at Pak tribune, it lists the list of dont’s being implemented at Swat in Pakistan by Taliban. I realise that though Muthalik and his men are doing very shameful acts but they have lot of catching up to do if they want to imitate their idols across the border. look at the list:

1- Complete ban on women’s work outside the home, which also applied to female teachers, engineers and most professionals. Only a few female doctors and nurses were allowed to work in some hospitals to look after the female patients only.

2- Complete ban on women’s activity outside the home unless accompanied by a ‘mahram’ (close male relative such as a father, brother or husband).

3- Ban on women dealing with male shopkeepers.

4- Ban on women being treated by male doctors.

5- Ban on women studying at schools, universities or any other educational institution. (The Swat Taliban have already let their distaste for women’s education be known by bombing close to 200 girl’s schools in the past few months.)

6- Requirement that women wear a long veil (Burqa), which covers them from head to toe.

7- Whipping, beating and verbal abuse of women not clothed in accordance with Taliban rules, or of women unaccompanied by a mahram.

8- Whipping of women in public for having non-covered ankles.

9- Public stoning of women (and men) accused of having sex outside marriage. (A number of lovers were stoned to death under this rule).

10- Ban on the use of cosmetics.

11- Ban on women talking or shaking hands with non-mahram males.

12- Ban on women laughing loudly. (No stranger should hear a woman’s voice).

13- Ban on women wearing high heel shoes, which would produce sound while walking. (A man must not hear a woman’s footsteps.)

14- Ban on women riding in a taxi without a mahram.

15- Ban on women’s presence in radio, television or public gatherings of any kind.

16- Ban on women playing sports or entering a sport center or club.

17- Ban on women riding bicycles or motorcycles, even with their mahrams.

18- Ban on women’s wearing brightly colored clothes. In Taliban terms, these are “sexually attracting colors.”

19- Ban on women gathering for festive occasions such as the Eids, or for any recreational purpose.

20- Ban on women washing clothes next to rivers or in a public place.

21- Modification of all place names including the word “women.” For example, “women’s garden” had been renamed “spring garden”.

22- Ban on women appearing on the balconies of their apartments or houses.

23- Compulsory painting of all windows, so women can not be seen from outside their homes.

24- Ban on male tailors taking women’s measurements or sewing women’s clothes.

25- Ban on males and females traveling on the same bus. Public buses were designated “males only” (or “females only”).

26- Ban on the photographing or filming of women.

27- Ban on women’s pictures printed in newspapers and books, or hung on the walls of houses and shops.

Apart from the above restrictions on women, the Afghan Taliban also had:

- Banned listening to music, not only for women but men as well.

- Banned the watching of movies, television and videos, for everyone.(Witness the bombing of audio/video shops in the NWFP Province)

- Ordered that all people with non-Islamic names change them to Islamic ones.

- Forced haircuts upon Afghan youth.

- Ordered that men wear Islamic clothes and a cap.

- Ordered that men not shave or trim their beards, which should grow long enough to protrude from a fist clasped at the point of the chin. (Witness the bombing of barber shops in the NWFP Province)

- Ordered that all people attend prayers in mosques five times daily.(As if obeisance to God could be ordered by dictat)

- Banned the keeping of pigeons and playing with the birds, describing it as un-Islamic. The violators were imprisoned and the birds were killed.

- Ordered all onlookers, while encouraging the sportsmen, to chant Allah-o-Akbar (God is great) and refrain from clapping.

- Ban on certain games including kite flying which was considered “un-Islamic” by the Taliban.

- Anyone who carried ‘objectionable literature’ was liable to be executed.

- Anyone who converts from Islam was liable to be executed.

- All boy students wore turbans. They said “No turban, no education”.

- Non-Muslim minorities wore distinct badge or stitch a yellow cloth onto their dress to be differentiated from the majority Muslim population. (Just like what Nazis did with Jews)

- Banned the use of the internet by both ordinary Afghans and foreigners.

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Blog feminism is not new to Hindi blogosphere, its here for some time now. To talk numbers we can say it is at least one year old. Chokherbali which switched to its custom domain recently is now one year old. All these days Chokherbali some 38 women and men were talking and taking virtually everyone but virtually only. There were couple of print mentions, stories and cover stories but Chokherbali themselves worked offline. On its anniversary they came out for real test, and what a test it was. They took bigmouth Madhu Kishwar head on, who did not disappointed anyone. In her polemical best she dared the whole house without mincing words to put the records straight. Another interesting part was absolute absence of Hindi Massabs from the dice. Anamika and Sukrita Paul Kumar are English teachers at University of Delhi  Rajkishore is Journalist while Madhu is well… well… well activists, feminist and journalist all rolled in one.

A lot of heat is generated in Student Activity Centre of DU on 6th Feb, keep watching. 

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Looking at trends at google one really wonder that how come it is holding 10 out top 10 positions in trends list. The list is as follows:

1.  satyam shares

2.   satyam stock

3.   satyam fraud

4.   satyam computers

5.  satyam news

6.  sebi

7.  ndtv profit

8.  ramalinga raju

9.  economic times

10.  satyam scam

On the other hand when I digg the aggregators I find that Hindi Blogosphere is still waiting for first post on the issue. How do we explain it? Digital divide I suppose. We are writing what they are not searching. Tough time.

 

Technorati Tags: satyam shares,satyam stock,satyam fraud,satyam computers,satyam news,sebi,ndtv profit,ramalinga raju,economic times,satyam scam

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Science Fiction Blog in Hindi is really promising blog. This New Blog focuses on Development in science and its fiction. An ongoing publication there is  'Taboot' a science novel with 42 episodes already published.

It is really heartening to see Hindi Blogging going new spaces (across the time and space).

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After the sixth pay commission revision teachers like me were sulking a lot. Now the Ministry of HRD has finally out with pay revision notification. As per the notification now Assistant professors will draw close to 45000 in big cities while Associate Professor should take home around 75000 before tax add 10000 or so for Professors, Hike though not as per demands but is spectacular nonetheless.  Though it is in proportion only to the hike given to all central govt employees last September.

Whole notification can be seen and downloaded here.

Karmcharis were informed in this Hindi  Blog as well

Technorati Tags: sixth pay commission news,ugc,university teachers pay,salary revision,chadha committee,notification for pay revision

Technorati Tags: Bumper,Hike,Notification,Beta,revision,Ministry,Assistant,Associate,Professor,demands,Though,proportion,employees,September,Whole,Karmcharis,Hindi,Blog,Technorati,news,salary,committee,Teachers,professors,sixth

Blogger Labels: Bumper,Hike,Notification,Beta,revision,Ministry,Assistant,Associate,Professor,demands,Though,proportion,employees,September,Whole,Karmcharis,Hindi,Blog,Technorati,news,salary,committee,Teachers,professors,sixth

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