Here is what I read this weekend….
First, a strong case by Prof R Vaidyanathan on why our “kirana” stores need to be supported (emphasis added):
…More than 125 lakh kirana stores provide a source of livelihood to 16 crore people…The retail trade comprises all kinds of people and formats — from street vendors to departmental stores of various types, shapes and characteristics.
More than 80% of trade is accounted for by partnership and proprietorship forms — often called the unorganised sector. The kirana shop adjacent to my home opens at 7am …

Dear All: I am opening this thread to carry forward the discussion generated on the guest post by Sh Krishen Kak. Please use this thread for all comments that may not be directly related to the post. Thank you.
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1. Comment by Bhagwad Jal Park:
@Sid
Come – this should be obvious. When parents kill their adult children from marrying whomever they please, is that not a violation of the principle “Do what you want as long as you harm no one?”
When the crazy “darul ul uloom” tells women …

Thanks to JKV and Sudhir Kumar for alerting me to this nugget (UPDATE: Credit for picking this story must go to Venkat Kumar. Thanks).
From a PTI news-story filed by a staff writer (6th Aug ’10; 14:21 hrs IST; emphasis added):
Alappuzha (Ker), Aug 6 (PTI) The right hand of a 24-year-old man was nearly severed by a gang, allegedly to wreck revenge for his questioning one of them for teasing his cousin sister near Cengannur here, police said here today.
Abhilash, an autorickshaw driver, was waylaid and attacked by the gang on …

I am grateful to Sh Krishen Kak for giving me permission to publish his article titled, “MOTHER INDIA and MODERN INDIA – The Mother Tongues or a National Language?”. The article first appeared in Eternal India (India First Foundation), June 2010:77-90. This is a slightly revised version.  Please read on and share widely (emphasis mine).
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MOTHER INDIA and MODERN INDIA: the Mother Tongues or English? by Krishen Kak

Each and every window in the house of language opens to a different …

Thought for the week by F Scott Fitzgerald:

The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposite ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

Past quotes are here.
Picture of F Scott Fitzgerald: Courtesy Wikipedia

Thanks to Jay Paudyal for this great effort to develop a font for the new Rupee symbol.

As Jay mentions, it will (typically) “…take around two years to get this symbol to be included in ‘Unicode Standard‘…but his firm developed this font just hours after the new symbol was finalised!
Download the font here, copy it in your fonts folder and you are ready to go (you may need to assign a “short-cut key” to it – click the picture below to see how).

Click picture to enlarge