Barely a few weeks back, I wrote a post lamenting our inability to learn any lessons from past experiences with China. I had not realised I would be writing a  follow-up post so soon after. I learnt recently (via Gaurav Sawant) that Chinese troops have committed 50 violations of LAC in the last 3 months alone.
Apparently platoons of PLA (on foot, horseback and helicopters) destroyed Indian defences & bunkers during this violations. Gaurav also reported that DC Leh had filed several reports saying Chinese troops beat up Indian shepherds, steal their cattle & …

Nanopost of the day…
…in which a High Court with 466 years of backlog of cases will now also monitor sale of “junk food” near schools and other educational institutes, potentially worsening (and adding several more years to) an already creaking system.

Sigh.
Related Post: Forget Right to Justice; Just Do What is Right and Do we Really Need a Jan LokPal?
Dumb Headline of the Day: Do women really realize how harmful junk food is? Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

Dear All: It is my pleasure to publish this remarkable essay by Bibhu on the Krishna worship, the Rath Yatra festival and the Gods of ancient Egypt. Please do read and share (emphasis added)…
*** Krishna worhsip and Rathayatra festival in Ancient Egypt? by Bibhu Dev Misra ***
An interesting piece of information caught my attention during my journey across the sacred sites of Egypt during early 2010. During the light and sound show in the magnificent temple complex of Karnak, I heard a voice booming over the loudspeakers: “I am Amon-Ra…The …

May MahishAsur-mardini, MA DurgA give us strength, courage and power to slay the evil demons that continue to plague Bharat…
VijayAdashami celebrates the victory of Shakti over MahishAsura and of ShriRAmChandra over RAvana. It is celebrated on the tenth day (dashami) of Ashvin (lunar month) and is associated with numerous rituals such as Vishwakarma PujA, Shastra PujA, VyAs PujA, Semmalanghan (Maharashtra), Shami PujA, gifting of aapta tree leaves as “sona” (gold) leavs  etc
In the north, Dussehra (or Dasha-hara) is celebrated by burning effigies of Ravana (along with KumbhaKarna and MeghnAd).  This …

This is what the Home Minister of an aspiring superpower says in a public statement (emphasis added):
‘This is not new. We know where he (Dawood Ibrahim) is…” Chidambaram told reporters when asked about his reaction to the lavish reception Dawood Ibrahim hosted for his son’s wedding in Karachi recently.’..(but) What is it that we can do from India,’ he asked.
I am speechless…and reminded of  We know its Pakistan but we hope its not

Also read: Now You See Him, Now You Don’t* and Another fellow Indian in Forbes List

13 vs. 0
That is the number of advertisements I counted in today’s Times of India (Delhi edition). No points for guessing who was the man in the 13 ads. And no points for guessing who had zero ads mentioning him. At least one of you had anticipated this (see Uma’s comment here).
As I wrote last year, this man was easily India’s most unassuming, modest and hard-working Prime Minister..

Lal Bahadur Shastri
Image courtesy: Uday Kuckian, Rediff

The man who put forward the example of “moral responsibility” as Union Minister for Railways
A man with an unparalleled …

Today is the 104th birth anniversary of Sardar Bhagat Singh Shaheed – a man who truly became a legend in his own lifetime. His story must be familiar to almost all of you. Many of you will also remember his crime – shooting a police officer in response to the “lathi charge” on a gathering that resulted in the death of Punjab Kesri, Lala Lajpat Rai. But few may know that patriotism and participation in the freedom struggle ran in the family. His uncles as well as his father were members …

..or The Great Joke that is Indian Media – Part XVI !
Please have a look at the two images below…They refer to news-reports of certain politicians implicated in a crime. They are both from the same newspaper and are fairly recent (one from yesterday; another from a few months back). Notice anything strange?

Source: Missing woman: Rajasthan Minister is accused of her murder and rape

Source: CBI arrests Punjab BJP MLA for graft, names minister too
I would like to think that the curious omission of the name of the political party to which …

Dear All: I finally managed to upload the video of my talk and Q&A at IIM-Indore on 1st Sept ’11…Here is the entire playlist (also below):

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These are my favourites of the lot:

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Interestingly, in an Op-Ed for Pioneer written a few days later, Shashi Shekhar made a point very similar to the one I mentioned in the Open Government, Information and RTI clip (emphasis added):
Hard questions need to be asked on why the focus of the RTI Act was not on creating an open Government where information was freely available, thus …

Dear friends, some of you will remember the conversation I had a few days back with the proud parents of Captain Saurabh Kalia, Kargil’s first war hero – who has been all but forgotten by the “official” media and the government machinery. I sent an email to Dr Kalia after the call requesting details of his efforts to get justice and offering whatever little help I can..In response, I received this very moving email written by him. I sought his permission to reproduce it on the blog. He kindly agreed…The …