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Pradhan panel slams Gafoor; Maharashtra rejects findings - National News – News – MSN India - News

I fail to understand why every government resort to this kind of eyewash excercise.

Almost 90 % of reports have been rejected by governments..

why tax payers money is being wasted like this ?

 

'Maatru Devobhava’ literally means ‘Hail, Mother Goddesses’. It’s the first thing any student of not so older India has to learn. Our tradition has kept mothers ahead of father, teacher and the god him/herself.

I got to put my hands on some of the best books written on Swami Vivekananda at ‘Vivekananda Rock Memorial, Kanyakumari’.  It’s a place every Indian has to visit at least once in life time.  The mighty Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea converge here to form the southern end of Indian subcontinent.  The first thing most of the visitors want to visit at Kanyakumari is the Swami Vivekananda memorial rock, situated half a mile away from the sea shore.

A young monk wandering across India to find answers for the raging questions in his mind, reached kanyakumari by the Feb 1892. He was very much disturbed by the dismal state of India, especially the younger generation. The Young monk was in search of an isolated place to sit and bring together the ocean of ideas waving in his mind.  The isolated rock, away from all attention and disturbances, seemed as an ideal place for him. He dint hesitate a bit to jump in to the sea which was infamous for its killer sharks. He swam half a mile across defying killer ocean waves and the sharks to reach the huge rock island. For three days and nights he meditated on this isolated rock and found answers to his quest. He was able to decide his course of action towards the future of India and its people.

Its from this point, he emerged as the social activist, youth leader, a swami, what ever we could think of him.

(By the way, his birth day is being celebrated as international youth day by the UN)

One can not forget his mother, Bhuvaneshwari Devi’s contribution in transforming Narendranath Dutta in to Swami Vivekananda.

As a child, Narendra was like any other child we come across. Full of questions and most diverged interests.

One day after returning from a trip, young Narendra announced his wish to grow in to a horse cart driver. He was very much fascinated by the horse cart driver’s skills, which just dropped them home.

Narendra’s father got wild after hearing his son’s desire. Bhuvaneshwari Devi just smiled and took her son to the Geetopadesha portrait they had at their prayer room.

“Here my son, you have all the right to decide what you want to become. If you decide to become a driver I want you to become a driver like Sri Krishna, who drove millions towards prosperity by giving bhagavadgita. Its up to you if you want to a driver for the hand full or the entire mankind!”  

The incident left an everlasting impact on child Narendra’s approach; he grew to become Swamy Vivekananda.

( to be continued)

Roja was a trendsetting film in south Indian film industry. Mani Ratnam tried to blend two entirely different subjects like Romance and Patriotism and the subject became an instant hit with Indian cine goers. The dubbed version became a bigger hit with north Indian audience.

The biggest find of the movie was A.R.Rehman. This first timer’s music played a major role in bringing out the soul of ‘Roja’

‘Time’ listed the sound track in its all time top 100 tracks.

Cinna Cinna Aasai won the national award and the youngest music director became a brand by himself.

If I can remember each and every frame of the movie even after 16 years of its release, its because of the plot and the background score of the movie.

With in no time this wonder kid becomes talk of the nation. Sound tracks like Chaiyah chaiyah of Dil Se, masti ki path shaala of Rang de Basanti, Rangeela, etc made him immensely popular.

His interpretation of Vande Maataram is the best visual treat of recent independent albums.

To day morning I woke up to sweet surprise news. This musical genius has won Golden Globe for his music for Slum dog Millionaire. Two thumbs up to the musical maestro for his achievement.  

I have not heard the full version Jai ho track. I’m waiting for its release in India.

I'm visiting this state government (licensing) office for some work for quite some time. Just because I'm not ready to bribe, the work which usually takes around an hour, is still pending for me. From past three months I visit this office on every Saturday and, it has become like my part time office destination.

I’m planning to use RTI act to know why my work is not being done.

As usual I was there last Saturday also. The clerk hinted at an amount to me. I made it very clear that I’m no game for it.  Surprisingly, I dint get irritated this time. Instead, I remembered this joke I had heard long back.

“I’m ready to wait for another six months.” I told the clerk with a smile and went out to have a cup of coffee.

I’ve slightly changed to joke for my convenience.

Three government officers from Switzerland, America and India went to hell. They were asked their last wish. Swiss man wanted to make a call to his manager asking him to make an immediate delivery to a customer. He spoke for a minute and he was charged a bill for $1.  Then American officer made a call to his office and instructed about the pending work. He spoke for 2 minutes and he was charged $2. Lastly Indian officer made a call to his Assistant. He instructed him about the pending works and hinted about the price negotiated for each file. He inquired about his boss. Assistant replied that he has not seen him for couple of weeks. He inquired about the new government policy and helped his assistant in finding loop holes. Then he started inquiring about his family and friends.

He went on speaking for almost 2 hours. As he finished he was given a bill for $0. All the three officers were very surprised to know the bill amount. They thought it was an error.

Upon inquiring, the billing clerk of hell made it clear to them that it was not a mistake. They had a free call facility from hell to hell!

Indians and Greeks were the first to announce the heliocentric theory.  But it took centuries for the rest to accept the truth. It was only in 16^th century, Nicolas Copernicus demonstrated to the west that the motion of celestial objects can be explained by not keeping earth as the center. This realization of truth triggered what we can call a scientific revolution. Astronomy and physics saw fundamental transformations in its basic principles. In a sense Copernicus’ book ‘De revolutionibus orbium coelestium’ gave birth to what we call the ‘Modern Science’ today.

Galileo Galilee played a major role in supporting Copernicus’s theory. Out of his numerous contributions to the modern science, improvement of telescope was responsible for the birth of modern observational astronomy. He turned to two glass pieces which were being used by the pirates towards the sky. And lo. He found answers for a whole lot of unanswered questions. (The sad part of the story is, he was sent to prison for life for contradicting the Catholic Church belief that the earth can not be moved.).

The fun part is, the telescope developed by Galileo was largely ignored till late 19^th century. Even Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh tried to find answers by constructing gigantic observatories ( Jantar Mantar at Jaipur) in 1734.   

But the revolution had begun as an under current. What begun as an epiphany has revolutionized it to today’s modern science.

Very rightly the UN has announced 2009 as the International year of Astronomy. It’s a fitting tribute to all the great people who have contributed in achieving today’s knowledge about the planet we are living on. And, a right step towards making Astronomy popular among Children and common men.

 Let us turn the telescope towards universe. Who knows? We may find a moon, a meteor or a comet is waiting to be named after us!

After all IYA tag line is ‘The Universe: Yours to discover’

Problems..

The recent media report suggests that Omar Abdullah is all set to become the next CM of J & K. I really hope this will turn in to reality.

This particular election has literally opened new doors of hope. It has provided century old political party with a chance to prove itself. The congress should grab this opportunity with both hands.

India, especially the J & K region needs a young, dynamic and nationalist leader like Omar. Years of divisive politics has entirely ruined the valley. As the NC does not enjoy absolute majority, it needs an external support. And quite naturally NC is looking towards congress leadership for it. NC does not want to loose its secular (?) tag by joining hands with BJP.

At present it does not matter who join hands with whom. What really matters is how fast the valley will return to national mainstream. And who delivers.

As every one knows, in politics no one is enemy for life. Forget all the differences for a while and work together. At least friendship between Rahul and Omar should prove handy at times like these.

Time and again its proved that development will be the main issue for voters. J & K has proved it again. They have voted for want of better infrastructure. It’s the duty of elected representatives to fulfill their expectations.  

By showing their faith in democracy, the people of J & K have taken a couple of steps forward in bringing normalcy to the valley. Now its time for politicians to show that they too care for the betterment of the valley.  

ps. Its funny to see the PDP which was in no mood for the elections is front runner in claiming responsibility for the high voter turn out in the valley.