Look at the news-reports below. Notice anything strange (hint: look at the words in bold)?
Body of major killed in Kashmir brought to Gujarat
Ahmedabad: Body of a major from Gujarat who was killed in a fierce gun battle near the LoC in Kupwara district of North Kashmir was brought here tonight. Major Rishikesh Vallbhbhai Ramani(27) of the 23 Punjab Regiment and one of his colleague were killed in the gun battle when army confronted a group of heavily-armed militants at Gulab Post, 130 kms from Srinagar when they were attempting to …

Airtel soars 8 p.c. on BSE
Parsvnath to raise Rs 2,500 cr via QIP, scrip soars 10%
Ranbaxy soars 7 p.c. on BSE in early trade
Enjoy the day.

Over the course of last few days, I came across two separate mentions regarding Indian media and the on-going elections. Both of them had a very disturbing underlying theme – which was – we cannot trust our media any more. We cannot rely on them to be unbiased, impartial and committed to the democratic processes.
Everything you read about the candidates, their utterances, their actions must be taken with a pinch of salt….for the truth may not be what it seems to be.
For the hardcore sceptics amongst you, this will hardly …

*** CAUTION: Long Post ***
Over the last few days, as news continued to pour in about Taliban’s seemingly unstoppable march across north-west Pakistan, the question that would not go away in my mind was: Why is this not on the national agenda?
Is the Indian media really clueless? is it really so naive that it does not realise the gravity of the situation? or was this simply something that could be dismissed with a “Yeh to hota hi rahta hai” (and/or its variant: “Kuch nayee baat batao yaar“) ?
And yet, the happenings in Pakistan are not only much …

*** “Who is a Soldier?” by Amitabh Soni ***
In memory of our soldiers, the Late Maj Unnikrishnan (NSG Commando – martyred during Mumbai attacks) and Late Maj Mohit Sharma & his troops (Para Commando – martyred earlier this week in J&K) and hundreds of others. I believe, it is more than a coincidence that I have written this piece today – 23 March 2009 – on the 78th anniversary of the Martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru.
“….gave the supreme sacrifice of his life and……” TV commentary …

*** UPDATE ***
Pl. see my comment at # 12 and Nanda’s at # 13.
***
This is a very hurried (but almost effortless) post…the kind of post in which words simply flow out (or almost type themselves out).
Many of you (by now) must have read about the “attack” on Charlie Chaplin’s “statue” in Udupi, Karnataka (e.g. BJP activists attack ‘Christian’ Chaplin statue).
Leaving aside the “sensationalisation” of the incident (I could not find a description of any ”attack” in the report above; it mentions BJP activists “blocked” the installation of the statue) – and there is no denying …

Once upon a time (when there was no ”Google”), if you heard something that was hard to believe you had two options: 1] to believe the person from whom you heard it or 2] to go to the library in the hope (that) you can find a source to validate it
These days of course, we have “Google”!*
Unfortunately that also means if something cannot be “googled“, it may as well not exist (or be untrue).  Now read on…
Earlier this week, alert reader Dheeraj sent me a report about Father Menengis’ confession before the Justice Somashekhara Commission …

Some of you may remember the scandal that rocked Tony Blair’s government in 2001 when one of his aides appeared to suggest that 9/11 offered a good opportunity to distract attention from “bad” news.
I was reminded of that when I chanced upon Ahmed Ali Shaik’s post on Satyam Scam – Politics, Media and Lies (Hat Tip: Vijay). In the post, Ahmed wrote:
It’s been more than a month since Satyam scam came to light…with elections round the corner, I feel that Satyam will get very little space in both television and print media in …

….. or The great joke that is Indian Media – Part X. Courtesy BarbarIndian and the post  Let Afzal hang Pramod Muthalik,
So, here is the latest transgression of Mr. Muthalik:
Hindustan Times:

a group of men intercepted the bus on the outskirts of Mangalore  forced Shruti out, along with her co passenger, Shabeeb
They were interrogated about their relationship for over 20 minutes before being released.
“It is the Sri Rama Sene which is responsible for this incident as well,” Kunhambu told HT

NDTV:

Kunhambu told NDTV that his daughter and her friend were assaulted by Bajrang …

*** Why I Hate Bloggers ***
Reflections of a “mainstream” journalist/reporter
They trawl the internet (and worse, google caches) to find words/reports/quotes from me that are either a] embarrassing and/or b] contradict my current position/actions and/or c] make me look like a devil (or worse, an idiot). Such quotes are *always* taken out of context.
When confronted, they gang up with their fellow bloggers and try to start campaigns like STOP watching/reading XYZ (I alas do not have anyone to stand up for me).
They think (and fervently believe that) they are better at writing and …