I am a little worried about the growing anger aimed at the Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi (India). Former Union Sports Minister and a senior member of the ruling Congress Party Manishankar Iyer said “Personally, I will be unhappy if the Commonwealth Games are successful … If the Games do succeed, that [...]
Mount Kailash according to Hindu mythology is the abode of Lord Shiva. In the Vishnu Purana Kailash is described as the center of the world and also the one of the pillars of the world. Some Buddhists also believe that Kailash is the home of Buddha. The mountain itself is in Tibet (occupied by China [...]
Whenever I am up late I turn on the TV and watch the “Tonight Show” hosted by comedian Jay Leno. My favorite segment of this show is called “Jaywalking”. Reporters from the Tonight Show approach pedestrians in some of the major American cities and ask them fairly basic questions. Some of the responses are hilarious. [...]
I want you to think about these numbers for a moment. According to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimates the GDP of the United States is $14.26 trillion (2009). For the same period India’s GDP was $1.16 trillion. American defense spending was approximately $663 billion for 2009 which is more than half of India’s GDP. [...]
Those of us who are in the software industry have been in situations where we release a product to the customer only to find that the customer has found some issues that requires another full release or a patch release. In such situations one of the first questions that management wants answered is why we [...]
Recently a co-worker of mine who is a Muslim from the Middle East asked me whether Indians like the people of Pakistan. I explained to her that an average Indian citizen probably has never heard of Pakistan and would not be able to point out Pakistan or Kashmir on a map (an average Indian most [...]
Indian constitution guarantees freedom of speech just like the American constitution yet places some significant restrictions on it. According to the constitution these restrictions are in place “in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India or public order or morality”. The Indian government has used this loophole on numerous occasions to impose censorship. [...]
Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace has published the failed states index for 2010. The group aims to rank nations based on what they call “12 Degrees of Failure”. This includes among other things demographics, number of refugees, illegitimate government, brain drain and human rights. For the record Somalia came in first with [...]
In an attempt to embarrass India, a Canadian Indian politician with Sikh origins has introduced a motion in the Canadian parliament asking the Canadian government to declare the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 as a genocide. This motion comes a few weeks before the Prime Minster of India Manmohan Singh’s visit to Canada to attend the [...]
Former American President and five-star general of the United States Army, Dwight D. Eisenhower once said that “We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom”. There is no question that peace and freedom go hand in hand. You cannot have peace if you do not have freedom. But this message is yet [...]
I am an Indian who has lived half of my life in the United States. Adjusting to live in America is very difficult for a person from a developing nation like India but I would not have it any other way. It has been a fun, humbling and a learning experience. Indians in the United [...]
In a ruling that will have a major impact on the lives of millions of children in India, the Indian Supreme Court has ruled that a child born out of a live-in relationship can only claim a share of the parents acquired property and not ancestral property. This is because the child born out of [...]
Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) General Secretary J.B. Kadian informed journalists that “at the intervention of the Chief Labor Commissioner (CLC) and in the interest of the traveling public, we are calling off our spontaneous, flash strike with immediate effect. We are communicating to our rank and file to join duty immediately”. What a kind [...]
The Canadian High Commission in New Delhi has described the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) as “a notoriously violent paramilitary unit engaged in systematic attacks on civilians and responsible for torturing suspected criminals”. This was used as an excuse to deny visa to a former BSF jawan who wanted to travel to Canada. Such language [...]
One of the criticisms leveled against a Muslim in India is that they are supporters of Pakistan. Of course this is not true in the vast majority of cases. Some of us accuse Indian Muslims of supporting the Pakistani cricket team when they play in India. This is the very same accusation made by locals [...]
For the first time in over 70 years the Indian government is very likely to include the question of a person’s caste in the Census. This should not come as a surprise to many Indians. The Congress Party led UPA government has done its best to slice and dice the Indian population in whichever way [...]
The United States is required by its constitution to conduct a Census every 10 years. The 2010 Census is now in full swing. In 2004 the American Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated that the 2010 Census would cost approximately $11 billion. In a step back the United States decided not to allow residents to respond [...]
