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Question: What do you do when the object of your affection rejects you because you are too dark?
Answer: Sit outside her house for two days and get a tan.
In the case of Saral Prasad from Bihar, this worked. The lady in question “was finally moved by the gesture of the young man and married him.”
So now every time he wants to sulk, you know what will happen. He’ll go outside the house and wait. Men!
(Link via email from reader Nox Rupawalla.)
The New York Times reports:
The United States is continuing to make large payments of roughly $1 billion a year to Pakistan for what it calls reimbursements to the country’s military for conducting counterterrorism efforts along the border with Afghanistan, even though Pakistan’s president decided eight months ago to slash patrols through the area where Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are most active.
[...] So far, Pakistan has received more than $5.6 billion under the program over five years, more than half of the total aid the United States has sent to the country since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, not counting covert funds.
As I’d written in my essay, ”General Musharraf’s incentives,” the carrots aren’t working. And the US is too scared to try the stick, having bought Musharraf’s bluff of après him le déluge. And so it goes…
(Link via email from Manish Vij, who has recently returned to the US, and after numerous emails about how his broadband is 82 times faster than mine, has started sending me screenshot evidence. Fug you, Mr Vij. Fug you and your broadband. We have culture and family values here in India. You can stig your broadband you know where, and make that broad too. So there.)
In an interview by Naresh Fernandes, Robin David, a journalist from the Bene Israeli Jewish community who has just written a book set in Gujarat called City of Fear, says something very interesting:
NF: How does your position as having been born as a member of a tiny minority influence the way you see the world?
RD: Because I am neither a Hindu, nor a Muslim, and because I don’t even fit into the Jewish community easily, there are times when I feel totally integrated into Gujarati society. And there are times when I feel like a complete alien.
The interview jpeg was via David’s blog here. And I got there via Uma.
Posted by Amit Varma on 19 May, 2007 in
India
There have been bomb blasts in Hyderabad, at the the Mecca Masjid compound near the Charminar. Shivraj Patil has said that a crude bomb caused the blast, while AP chief minister, YS Rajasekhara Reddy, has stated the obvious.
Meanwhile, back in Mumbai, some chaps have reacted to this by stoning buses in Kurla. Why? What have buses in Kurla got to do with it? Have buses planned these attacks? Do we even know yet who has carried out these attacks? Who are we stoning?
I think I’m just going to go and get stoned now. If anything significant happens on this story, I’ll update this post and maybe make it sticky.
... are irrelevant in the case of Virender Sehwag’s loss of form, according to one group of people. The problem might just be evil spirits. MSN reports:
An interesting Tantrik Pooja was held at the banks of Yamuna near Delhi’s Kalindi Kunj to bring Virender Sehwag back to form.
According to an India TV report, the Mahakali Pooja was allegedly organised by the dashing batsman’s relatives and implemented by a distant relative, but there was no quote or evidence to suggest their involvement. Probably, it was a fan’s idea, masquerading as a distant relative.
However, the visuals did show Havan fire, two pair of stumps - one on each side, some statues, a photograph of Sehwag and a bat with which “he had been dismissed without scoring.”
So the next time Viru swishes outside the off stump, the evil spirits that made sure it hit the edge of the bat will stay away, and good spirits will probably make sure he middles the ball and it goes for a boundary. Why didn’t we think of this earlier? Can we have a “Tantrik Pooja” for the entire team, please? And one for this blog also, so no one is ever displeased by what I write!
And while checking my earlier posts on superstition, I came across this one on the predictions made by astrologers before the World Cup. Heh.
Now I’m off to get me some spirits.
(Link via email from Ullas Marar.
Some earlier posts on superstitious nonsense: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 18 May, 2007 in
India |
Old memes |
Astrology etc
Here are two lovely excerpts from pieces published today. First, from S Mitra Kalita’s moving letter to her mother:
I realize now that much of your rearing was spent making sure I didn’t have the life you did.
And from Salil Tripathi’s comment on the Baroda affair:
[I]f Muslims can get Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” or the Danish cartoons banned, they [Hindutva supporters] want Mr. Husain’s—and now Mr. Chandramohan’s—freedom restricted.
At last, it seems, Hindus have secured the parity they believe they’ve been denied. They have their own Taliban.
Both make me sad in different ways, and remind me of how futile this whole game is. And so, recursively, we progress.
Most delightful, this photograph of Chiranjeevi and Aamir Khan:
The picture is via a Mid Day article with the charming headline, ”Scoop! Aamir begins shooting for Kajri!”
Such are the simple joys that make life bearable.
Posted by Amit Varma on 17 May, 2007 in
Arts and entertainment |
Journalism
Imagine there’s a God. Yes, yes, I know it’s hard, but billions of people do it, and so can you. Imagine there’s a God. Imagine you’re an angel sitting on the clouds and watching the action down below. And—here’s the thing—you already know what’s going to happen in the future.
So you sit on that cloud and watch the lives of people knowing what’s going to happen to them, all the sadness and joys, while they remain unaware of what lies ahead, and you know. And when bad shit happens to them, how agonizing it must be for you, watching their innocent moments of hope before the fall.
Well, that’s how I feel right now watching the American Idol results episode. It’s a delayed telecast here in India, and I already know, courtesy the Godlike omniscience of the internet, that the amazing Melinda Dolittle is out. And yet the show is going on, and everyone’s smiling. Scoundrels!
And then God decides in her infinite wisdom that rain is required. So from an angel on a cloud, you’re a raindrop waiting to hit the ground. Splash!
Posted by Amit Varma on 17 May, 2007 in
Arts and entertainment
Lalbadhshah sends me a link to a lovely poem by Anne Sexton, ”The Ballad Of The Lonely Masturbator”. I can’t help but quote this particularly sharp excerpt:
The boys and girls are one tonight.
They unbutton blouses. They unzip flies.
They take off shoes. They turn off the light.
The glimmering creatures are full of lies.
They are eating each other. They are overfed.
At night, alone, I marry the bed.
Marrying the bed, I would humbly submit, is better than marrying a tree. Or is it?
Posted by Amit Varma on 17 May, 2007 in
Arts and entertainment
This is the 14th installment of my weekly column for Mint, Thinking it Through.
This is the text of a speech given by Shri Adolf Shah at the Baroda University on 17 May 2022.
Dear Friends
I welcome you to Baroda University for this special ceremony. This day marks the eighth anniversary of Shri Neeraj Jain’s appointment as vice-chancellor of this university by our honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. We have seen some glorious days under him, and have grown almost analogously with our Hindu Rashtra, as India has officially been for the last decade. Indeed, these two stories are interlinked, and if you permit me, I shall take you through some of our most glorious moments. The monitor on top of the stage will instruct you when to clap; please do so.
Shri Jain first came to our notice when he protested against some paintings at the now long-defunct fine arts faculty around 15 years ago. Shri Jain said the paintings offended his religious sensibilities, and his valiant thugs manhandled the painter, who was sent to jail. Many people protested, including the dean of the faculty, who, in contrast with protesters of later years, was lucky to get away with just a suspension. It was an important moment for us, for reasons other than just the emergence of Mr Jain.
Posted by Amit Varma on 17 May, 2007 in
Essays and Op-Eds |
Freedom |
India |
Politics |
Thinking it Through
Covers, Portraits & an article by Hitchens.
A Mefi post with links to “Unusual books. Unusual art made from books. Unusual bookcover. Unusual bookshelves. Unusual bookstore.”
By Sanjeev Naik in Arts and entertainment | Oddball | The visual arts
Method acting meets controlled staginess in 3:10 to Yuma
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Pablo Bartholomew's latest exhibition offers intimate recall of the 70s and 80s
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Sample clues
9 across: Van Morrison classic from Moondance (7)
6 down: Order beginning with ‘A’ (12)
