My friend came from India yesterday. He was talking about the changes he saw there since the last time he was there two years ago. The first thing he noticed is the number of cell phones in smaller cities. This is one change I am really proud of, telephone is no more a symbol of higher status. It was when I was growing up. I remember only couple of my friends had telephones in my school.

This is truly a change for good.

The next change I would look forward too is the spread of internet in India. I was reading an editorial in Hindu, a very well read English paper in India, where they were discussing how much we need internet percolation. The only way anyone could log in right now in India is through dial up. Yikes! that is painfully and its so freaking expensive as your airtime in landline is billed. Why cant the telecommunication companies make high speed internet cheap? That would go along way in crumbling the information divide. We could develop systems in local languages. This could go a long way in combating corruption, and would be a big help to primary education.

that's the change I want this year, lets hope we realize this.

The other thing that got me disturbed is, the number of lewd dances and programs on prime time TV. I am not exactly your text book conservative. I am against rules and regulation on what people should and shouldn't. But teen girls dancing around deliberately showing their underwears is not exactly I want to see on prime time TV. He was saying that a slow romantic song is shot in bed room with lewd scenes. Can't it be shot in beach showing both of the walking hand in hand? Whom am I question the artists choice? No one, but the answer is "I would stoop to any level to sell my wares" Is the price the end of all?

I don't know, I guess there will be always sellers as long as there are buyers. We as a society has always been deprived of sex. There is so much smut out there now, that we are literally stuffing ourselves silly with it. Hopefully we will see how stupid this is and we may change.

Hope my friend, hope eternal!

Then and Now!

It was 60 years since Russians freed the Jews in the concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland. Nazis, thought Jews were a pollutants on earth, and went on exterminating them, literally. They were used as fuel for furnaces, human fat was used to make soaps, human hair for carpets etc.

The whole world was appalled, and truly it was so.


A group of boys at the camp in Auschwitz.


So, a 60 years years later, we should have smartened up and would never allow this tragedy, to say the least happen. But, no our hatred to each other is so much that we are allowing this trampling of human rights happen all over again in Dafur, Sudan.


An impoverished baby in Dafur


Earlier Nazis thought that Jews are an inferior race and tried to exterminate them, now Arabs are saying that blacks are inferior and should be treated worst than animals. The women are raped, the children beaten to death, and the villages bombed from air whenever they feel to.

The world is standing around and doing nothing. US is busy giving speeches how it will spread Freedom around the world. EU is busy playing politics with US. China doesn't really care! Indians don't have clue.

May be we can commemorate the deaths in Sudan 60 years later. Hatred for each will be the main cause of down fall of Human race.

India is celebrating 55^th Republic day today. What’s the significance of this day? What’s the point of celebrating this day?

When we got independence everyone thought that this would be the end of the misery and the golden age would start then and there. I know everyone knows what the answer is?

55 years later after having Jawharlal Nehru’s socialism experiment gone really bad, Gandhi’s secularism mutated nto a bad monster, corruption rampant, what do we have to celebrate? A few missiles? A second hand nuclear submarine? A lot of grandstanding is all what we have to show to the Bhutan’s king. I am sorry, I am bitter.

Missiles being paraded on Rajpath

In the Tsunami relief camps, the people of lower castes were shunted out. In Satara, women and children were trampled. The celebration was cut short to show respect to the Tsunami victims. I shouldn’t say we should stop living just because we had a big tragedy. I have problem when there is pomp, when there is a need for action. What’s the need for the military power? Why are we devoting more than 10% of our GDP on military? Who are we scaring? Not China, not USA, we are scaring that rat of a country Pakistan, the country, which exists on the basis of hatred towards India. Hope they see light soon. This hatred is not a very good business plan. Hatred has never been a good idea to invest in.

Imagine for second if we had universal education and universal health care, everyone would treat us a developed country. We would have enormous respect, which we are trying to buy by buying and building bigger missiles and ships. Whom are we playing this ‘mine is bigger than yours’ game? Am I talking like a commie? If I am, I am sorry, all I want is reduction in infant mortality and every kid to get an education.

Don’t ask me what I am contributing by ranting? If you don’t know, that’s all I do, rant!

What would have been the result if we had invested that 10% in education, in health care? Do we have universal health care in India? Nope! Not even close. What we have these Government hospitals which are understaffed, not monitored and not even functioning. The poor people in turn depend on quacks and homeopathic ‘doctors’. Spending on missiles and war planes is good but I guess Government should also worry about its citizen’s health.

As I always say, we never learn, we never improve, and truly strange people are we!

A tip to use your generic MP3 player with iTunes:

I have an el-cheapo flash based mp3 player. I catalogue my music using iTunes. I have been trying to figure out using this generic player with iTunes. Apple guys sure make it difficult. I think I figured a round about way to do this. Just follow this step by step procedure.

1. Form a smart play list
2. Goto that playlist
3. Select all
4. Open your flash player as a directory
5. Drag the selected list of songs into this directory
6. Done!

No need for all those fancy drivers or anything.

Stampede in India!

Have you all heard about the Stampede in Maharastra? 300,000 people were crammed into a small temple and a there was rumor of fire, everyone tried to rush out at once, people got trapped in small passageway, that's it, people got crushed down and died.
I have been to Temples where there are literally thousands of people packed into the these holding pens with no exit at all. In Tirupathi, a famous south Indian Temple, as soon as one enters into the queue s/he gets shoved into this holding area for God only know how long. Twelve hours in a stretch is not a exception at all.
I am not really sure , if they have any emergency exits and procedures at all. That's a catastrophe waiting to happen. Hopefully there are smart people managing the queues there in Tirupathi, rather than in Mahrastra.


An Ariel view of crowds in Tirumala during the Brhmostavams, a major festival.

The most who suffer in these queues are the little kids. It is so inhuman to take small children into these dungeons. They don't have enough room, there is no fresh air, they become so hot and then there is no good food and water available.
What can I say? We Indians will never learn. We flock these temples in droves get killed like mosquitoes and justify this by saying that it is in our destiny to die in a temple. We will never grow out of this misery. We will never learn.

Strange people are we!

Homeopathy and Me

I got thinking about Homeopathy when my friend mentioned how good these homeopathy medicines are! My mum and her father, a very learned and knowledgeable man by the way, are big believers in this Pseudo-Science.
My mum always gave me homeopathy tablets whenever I was sick, and I guess they worked, cause I never doubted them.

I was reading James Randi’s website www.randi.org, Randi is big skeptic and has million dollar challenge for all the charlatans out there, who can prove their gobbledygook. Please do visit his website. Randi wrote how unsubstantiated is the claim of Homeopathy. That got me thinking and I started reading about this sham, I am convinced now this 'alternative medicine' is not at all medicine.

In Homeopathy, the 'mother tincher' which is supposed to be the potent drug is diluted millions of times and then is coated to these sugar pills. The idea apparently is the higher the dilution the more potent the drug is! Crazy. The dilution is so high, that it’s below what any chemical method can recognize. Surely our body can’t recognize that there is chemical intake either. Many scientific studies have shown that homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo effect. Do read the wikipedia article about Homeopathy, they have a pretty neutral viewpoint as apposed to my rants.

What's the scientific principle behind the Homeopathy? There are apparently three basic ones. The one that caught my attention is that the water 'remembers' all the chemicals which it came in contact with and uses that 'memory' when inside the body and fights the germs. Any one with slightest o scientific sense I hope would see through this mockery.

What pisses me off is Indian government supports this pseudo-science. We have government Homeopathy colleges, dispensaries and hospitals. This surely lends credence to this science. I am not sure how many people lost their lives by depending on this 'medicine'. There is very big Government Homeopathy hospital in Hyderabad, and many a times I saw people in a line outside to see their 'medicine man'.

A German named Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843) 'invented' this technique. It was very popular in Germany, the Germans saw through this and Homeopathy medicines are not covered by their medical insurance anymore. Good for them. Wait, that’s not the end of the story, apparently, what’s not good enough medicines for them are very good for us Indians it seems. German government is promoting the use of Homeopathy medicines in India. I guess, exporting 'mother tinchers' is lucrative business and 'truth and honesty' aren’t really good for business.


German Ambassador with then Deputy Prime minister Advani Honoring Hahnemann, founder of Homeopathy. Copyright: German Embassy, India


Doesn’t this reek of hypocrisy? I guess I can’t blame anyone for our own mess. The firsts step should be taken by the government to derecognize this sham.
As usual I don’t see any hope, we Indians will be queuing up before these charlatans swallowing these sweet sugar pills.

President Bush took oath as the 44th president of the US of A. The republican's are literally having a ball. It is estimated that they have spent $40 mil. On these festivities. If India were at war and if the government was spending this ostensible amount of money far patting each other backs, there would be huge backlash. The press would have thrown a tantrum. We Indians who are pretty complacent and lazy would become very active if we have to put down someone or something.

When BJP was in power it never had a day easy, there was some issue which would blown up day after each other. In Contrast congress is having it easy because it supposedly secular. I guess I wont get into the match we all Indians like to play "I am more secular than you". Congress has won the match right now with the communist parties lending some key batsmen. It's not a fair observation but whenever I think of communist parties in India, the image of a cunning fox comes into my mind. Its altleast fair for the fox! These parties are truly the bottom scrapers, and they are calling the shots, a truly sad affairs of state.

Would the pride be little lesser if the president took the oath is a little ceremony, and carried on as if its another day in his life and $40 ml. Going to the soilders' families if not for Tsunami victims? Has anyone seen this picture of a blood stained Iraqi girl? Apparently she was traveling with her parents in a car and they couldn't stop when asked to stop at a check stop. They were fired upon and both the parents were killed. One more sad story, I wonder day in day out when will I hear a good story? Or am I blocking out good news?


The injured and bloodied Iraqi Girl

I guess no price is too high to pay for freedom, even freedom itself! One moment playing "I spy" with her mum in the car and the next moment on the pavement in the pool of blood, try to wake her mum from death.

No price too high!

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Leaving the Brothel Behind

BATTAMBANG, Cambodia

A year ago, a pimp handed me a quivering teenage girl. Her name was Srey Neth, and she was one of the hundreds of thousands of teenagers who are enslaved by the sex trafficking industry worldwide.

Then I did something dreadfully unjournalistic: I bought her.

Nichiolas Kristoff is a columnist for New york Times. I like reading him, he is sensible, rational and very readable. He did a story on prostitutes in Cambodia last year and followed it up this year too.
The story of these teenage girls is very saddening. He gave the girl some money and she started a small shop, the family became jealous and looted the whole shop. Can it get more pathetic? Now they are all hungry. Its like killing the golden goose. The girl became a prostitute in the first place to feed her family. That's the gratitude they have, by looting their daughter shop.

The girl Shrey Net in her store. nytimes

Prostitution is a very big problem in India. Its not only girls from poor background end up in these dark corners of the Society but rich and educated girls do this for the sake of quick money.
My friend sent me this video clip on a sting show in India. These guys were following the rumors which we always heard in India. The models and film actresses moonlight as prostitutes for very high price.
To cut a long story short after many tries they can't believe themselves that this new actress is in their hotel room selling herself. "why are you doing this, you have all the fame and money ?" the journalsit posing as a customer asks. "Easy money" that's its that's her answer.
Compare this actress and the little girl in Cambodia, the Combodian teenager sold her body so that she could feed her family and this actress sis doing so that she could make some quick money. I don't know what to say.
I feel sorry for these girls, who are sold and bought as commodity. Can we stop this from happening? I guess no, as they say it has been the oldest profession and there will sellers as long as there will be customers. A sad fact of life indeed. Atleast we could spare teenage girls from the misery.
I guess I am asking for a lot. It sure doesn't hurt to hope.

The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Sania creates a flutter: "MELBOURNE, JAN. 17. For all the attention she received, Sania Mirza might have been excused if she felt a bit like a newly-crowned Grand Slam champion here on Monday. The teenager from Hyderabad turned out to be just the right sort of spicy story to kick-start a Grand Slam championship with."


Sania Mirza , a talented Tennis Player from Hyderabad. Rediff

Sania Mirza has advanced into the second round of Australian open. I always believed that the future of India is in the hands of our girls. Not only India, but all over the world, the civilizations which excluded women and made progress exclusively men didn't really progress at all.

After she won the match the press surrounded her and asked her lot of questions. I guess an Indian woman Tennis player is as rare a species as a Tasmanian Tiger. One of the question which made me laugh aloud is whether her parents loathed her for playing tennis? Yeah right, without her parents consent she was able to learn and play tennis to this level so that she could beat a ranked Australian player. Other question included on how many girls in India play Tennis or sports in general, or I guess do Indian men hit women who play , Would be a better question.

We Indians are to blame for this gross mis/dis information our culture. But I guess I have to accept we do have our share of domestic violence. We do burn our brides, we have child marriages, we have our share of Male chauvinist pigs, who believe that they can make decisions on what's good or bad for women.

As I said before, this can be changed by none other than women. They are sure getting empowered and are sure changing their society. I have the privilege of growing with two amazingly strong women, my mother and sister. They never compromised and they were proactive and fought all the way for a change. They are still fighting. Godspeed for all those strong women.

Coming Back to Sania, she basked in the limelight as any Teenager would and handled the press well. Good Luck Sania, show the world what you are made of, and make us all Indians proud.

The Hindu : Front Page : Godhra fire accidental, says Banerjee panel
As I was reading this news, I kept asking myself this question, is truth absolute? If there is only one truth why are we having so many versions of it?
If Godhra fire was accidental why wasn't this made public then and there itself? The worst riots in Indian history would have never happened. We would have spared the shame of carrying around this Godhra mark in our history text books.
So should I belief this commission now? What if BJP wins again and comes with anew report saying that Godhra was pre-planned cold blooded conspiracy? So, all this killings are justified instantly?
Whom should I believe? The news reports of thousands of Muslims storming the compartment and burning it down? The secular press even offered reasons for this storming, The Hindus kidnapped an young daughter of Muslim tea vendor from Godhra platform. They hit an elderly chai wala when he asked them to ay for the tea they drank. So, now all these stories are false? So no one kidnapped a Muslim girl? No one hit Rahim chacha? So, no Muslims crowd storming the compartment? Why aren't anyone asking questions?
No one feeling betrayed as I am?
In fact the fire was supposedly caused by people cooking inside the compartment it seems. I am believing this report on its face value and I am mad at BJP government then, for jumping into conclusion and allowing this massacre to happen.
Whom can we turn to when people we elect betray us? We have no where to go except to wait for an other election to come along, and after that for an other 5 years. I don't so any hope at all.
Singing off sharing my pessimism...

Why do Women like shopping so much? That was the question myself and Erin, my roommate were pondering upon over couple of beers. We have two theories why the fairer sex enjoy so much in those malls. Market Mall, one of the bigger malls in advertises with women camping out in the mall's parking lot. I wouldn't be surprised if I saw womencamping out just because a new shop is opening the next morning. Ionce stood in line for tickets for Cherenjeevi's (My favorite Teluguhero) when I was growing up in India. Well, I am digressing.
The two theories we have are
1. The empowerment theory-(Mine)
Have you ever seen a bunch a women going around a mall looking around for deals? You could feel literally the sense of empowerment. As soon as they enter 'GAP' they get mesmerised by the choices. You can see the glee in their eyes as they feel good about themselves for choosing the blue sweater over the green top and saving 5% in the deal. It's all about being in control which they 'perceive' they are not in this big bad male world. The mall is their little refuge.
2. The gatherer theory-Erin's
This theory is by some evolutionary biologists not really Erin's. According to this theory women have evolved to gather berries and nuts when men went out to hunt big wooly mammoths. So that's evolution in action, women need not scour around for ripe berries and nuts anymore so they do it with passion for those 'cute shoes.

Choose your favorite theory and let me know what to you think which one these theories is more plausible. One of my friends the reason most probably is the combination of both of the above theories.

Waveofdestruction.org - Photos and Videos from the aftermath of the Asia Tsunami.

This website has a amazing collection of videos and photos of December Tsunami in Asia.
I was watching them with my supervisor today, it was a very disturbing experience. In one video shot in Phuket, we watched two guys holding on for life to a pole and then the force got stronger and stronger and they got swept away. It was such a humbling experience watching those videos.
I haven't yet come to accept that a catastrophe of such magnitude happened just in the backyard of where I come from.
Sad, sad and sad. I also saw a family enjoying a sunny day in raft, and suddenly this killer wave came and tossed them like rag dolls. How powerless we are before the nature?
I guess we will forget this tragedy soon and move on with our lives, fighting for Bollywood tickets, bickering with spouses and getting pissed off because our email server is down. The only person whose life will be changed is the fisherman who returned home from a fishing trip to find whole his family was brushed off from this face of the earth. The guy whole lost all his boats and nets and is scared of going back to sea and knows no other way to feed his kids.
We, in turn will be wondering who will Donald 'The chimp' Trump will choose the next apprentice. Human Endurance I bow before thee.

US RJs abuse Indian girl, air tape on radio- The Times of India

This is the headline I woke up to. Not a bright one by any means. These dudes just for fun sakes and for a few laughs abused a girl in India.
I hate these shock jocks that's what they are called in these parts. There is one guy in Calgary named Jerry Forbes he is on CJ 92. He is on the morning show and he has a potty mouth. He ones called up a old lady trying to sell her refrigerator. Made fun of her and he made her to wake up and down her whole apartment and it was his finest hour.
Would these people behave the same way when speaking with person face to face? Would this guys in Philadelphia call the Indian girl a bitch and a rat eater? A rat eater? Poor girl was just doing her but taking order for some god forsaken beads. Imagine what would have gone through her, I really feel sorry for her.
Coming back to the point, can these guys abuse people face to face? "Look at me I can call a old lady and make fun of her I am so cool" Fools!
Do you know what happened to these Philly guys? There were slapped on the wrist and suspended for day, in other day given a day off. That's what you get for racially and sexually abusing a girl doing her job some where on the other end of the world, a paid day off.
All I can do is just sit back and be amazed by the injustice the world and life serves us.

Apple released a lot of goodies at its annual jamboree in San Francisco today. The two, I want the most is iPod Shuffle and Mac mini. If only they released this iPod a month ago, I would have bought this flash based player. A month ago, I bought an el-cheapo flash based player for my running purposes. I was almost tempted to buy it this morning as soon they opened the gates, thanks to the battered Apple server, I lost my patience and I didn’t buy it. Now, the initial urge spent up, reason has taken control and I am happy with my old mp3 payer.


iPod Shuffle
copyright Apple


“When is enough is enough?” I have tough time answering the question. This question has been on the menu of philosophers for centuries in both East and West for centuries. Early philosophers both East and West realized that there is no end to these materialistic comforts and preached that the comfort should be taken spiritually and not materialistically. During last 10 centuries or so, some western philosophers started preaching that life is short to be spent about thinking about eternity and started prorogating materialism, live life to it’s fullest was their battle cry. Industrialization and renaissance are the result. West just took off in the pursuit of wealth health and wisdom as they say.
We Easterners were still stuck in the spiritual world, we spnent our time gazing at the sky and looking down upon anyone making money as if they committed a sin akin to murder. It was bound to happen. Westerners came and kicked our asses, enslaved us, took whatever wealth we had, took our women and left us with this complex of hating ourselves.
Hating ourselves? What I am talking about? How many of us Indians hate out dark skin? How we look up to people with fairer skin? How we buy ‘Fair and Lovely’ in dozens so that we turn into ‘Fair and Lovely’ oneday? No, I am not accusing our philosophers for all our ills. What I am saying is we don’t realize what a mess we are in.
We still believe that our culture is the best, our way of living the most pious and our languages the sweetest. May be, but did we ask ourselves a question why is that the lower class people are being shooed away from the relief camps in Tamil Nadu? Why is the relief being diverted and sold to the victims whom it should have reached at the first place?
I understand we can’t change overnight, but we can at least start by question what went wrong, where and how?

A Love letter...
DP, my very good friend is a quintessential romantic. He fells in Love at every available occasion. At school he has been all over all the inhabitants in the girls hostel even their cook. His Love letters are legendary.
He is a Reuters fellow in Stanford right now and has written a love letter which he says is a 'literary piece' but I have my own doubts.
I couldn't stop laugh after reading this love letter, I bet the girl would laughed out too. The best is when he talks about songs being more meaningful in spite of bad music. Read the letter and enjoy.

Dear Princess,

Yesterday was special. You called me.

I once again feel hopeless in fighting my attraction for you. I don’t really know why I am fighting it in the first place. Why am I standing up-or seemingly so- against something perfectly natural?

I think I know now why ‘I love you’ is such a magic phrase. I just want to whisper it softly to you again and again. Oh, how badly do I want to tell you I love you. Why do I feel so strongly about you, so hopelessly attracted to you. Will I ever be happy without you? Will I ever stop thinking about you..

I feel so miserable at times, that I haven’t seen you for so long, that I am eventually not going to see you everyday, that I may never really be able to connect with you deeply. How can I be spiritual without meeting you, my spiritual self?

Love is so stupid. The surest way to make yourself miserable, yes I mean it, miserable, unless you are a lucky one. Why can’t I just love another girl? Why do I find you so irreplaceable?

I think of these questions everyday. I think of them all the time. I fight my thoughts of you, and fail, everyday. Somewhere inside it secretly makes me happy, because it leaves hope for me. The hope for a day when you will reciprocate my feelings; when you will know how deeply I am in love with you, and that will mean something to you – something as precious as I find the soft sound of your breath on the phone.

When I am walking on the roads here, I think of you walking beside me. The roads are good, and I think they deserve you walking on them. You are so naturally elegant, and they are elegant too, though man-made, and in a different way. I am the strange man walking on an elegant road with an elegant, virtual companion.

I suddenly see new meaning in songs. I discover what they really meant, and like them despite the bad music. I like them when they express my soul. I don’t imagine myself singing the songs to you. I just find them singing out my heart to you.

I am a fair man, and I believe my love for you is pure and true. That is why it just refuses to subside. It just keeps getting strong and more vigorous everyday.

Why am I making such a big deal of an attraction for you? Isn’t this a crush that will pass by? Maybe. But I am not making anything of it, it’s just beyond my control. Love is complete loss of control. Love is surrendering myself to you, completely. Do whatever you want to me. I am just happy in the beauty of my love for you.

Don’t love me if you don’t feel like it deep in your heart. Don’t ever try to cultivate a love for me. If it doesn’t happen by itself, then its not there. If there is a seed of love for me in your heart, nothing can stop it from blossoming. Not even you.

I will take your rejection, but not your pity. Rejection is natural, pity isn’t. Just ask me to go away. Just tell me simply, directly. I will take it.

I just hope I will have the courage to show you this letter some day.

Thinking of you morning, day and night. You are with me every moment of my life.

-DP

Dp can be reached at his website www.dpsmiles.org . He is a very good writer too, please do read his stuff.

Orphans!
Someone forwarded me an email with a photo of a very cute two-year old kid supposedly found in debris in Phuket, Thailand. That photo disturbed me a lot. How fortunate must we be, in our comforts, in our worlds, pissed of that our Coffee had too much cream in it.
Just imagine the happy family playing in the beaches of Phuket, building a sand castle may be, and then in a second the whole castle of dreams shattered. No one knows who the boy is. This is the picture of the little boy.


This is whom to contact if anyone knows about this kid.
Nobody knows what country he comes from. If anybody known him please contact
us by phone 076-249400-4 ext. 1336, 1339 or e- mail : info@phuket-inter-hospital
Your earnest cooperation in this regard shall be highly appreciated.
This kid looks European, if possible please pass this photo around Europe and I sincerely hope that someone recognizes him.

Imagine the number of orphans and the shit they have to cope with. I know from now what I would not mind , a creamer coffee and icier roads.

An Iceage?
Its freaking cold out there, -20 or something outlandish. I was thinking that committing suicide right now will be very reasonable, and you have a quite a presentable explanation. People would say " yeah, I can understand why that dude hung himself, he is not crazy". So people, that's it, we have a perfect reason to end this misery.
The heartland of Canada is having it worse, -50 C with windchill, since two freaking weeks, and no one knows when will this end. In Calgary usually the winds from the West bring warm tidings. At least for a day or two they warm up this cold hell! I have been looking towards west since last week and nope not a sign of Chinook ( these warm winds, meaning snow eater). Instead we are having these cold hearted winds from north.
I guess the snow Gods feasting in Arctic had enough with Global warming crap, and trying to show who is incharge, or atleast they must be fighting with their last battle against the hole in the ozone layer.
Wouldn't it be funny if this is the start of a new Iceage? The last Iceage in Northern hemisphere was 10,000 years ago and since then we have been warming, and all the global warming advocates are saying that the climb is too steep and we are heading for to big melt down. Now if only this climb is suddenly reversed and we head in to an Iceage.
Glaciers would advance, summers as such four months long would be only couple of months long, the Arctic sheet swallows up the whole of Canada. I guess that's not funny at all.
Lets hope that this is not a mini Ice age or a mega melt down. Hope the powers to be realize that we cant take this planet for granted.

I reread the post yesterday and boy I was appalled at myself. I am not a good self critique. I don't find faults in myself at all. That posted reeked of anger, anger against the apologists of God. Why should I be angry at them at all? They havent bothered me, they haven't shoved their religion into through out at gun point. Why such hatred? Should I change my name to Bigot?
May be because if we believe in something, we try to make others also believe in the same cool idea. I guess this one the intrinsic traits of humans. If we believe in something, we literally indulge in it. My father does it very overtly. If he buys, say a brand of razor and if he likes it he would make sure that every one he knows would buy that brand.
The Mac zealots have been doing this for decades. They hate everything other than Mac and love everything about Mac.
So shouldn't we propagate what we like? Spew hate on what we don't like? Who are you to tell what to do and what not to do? Sorry sir!
In some religions, sure way to book a window seat to heaven is to spread the word of God. That's where I have problem, converting me for your selfish reasons.
well I babbled enough. I should be a little more tolerant to people who think differently than me. That's what my mum has been teaching me since I was born.
I learnt something today about blogs, there are more number of women bloggers than men bloggers and also women tend to update blogs more regularly than men. I am not surprised, women have always been the sex which wanted to be heard , to be sympathized, to be cooed along with. Thank god they have this media to let their anguish out, now we males ca have our beers in peace!
-True peace at last.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | 'Where is God in all this?' - the problem for religions
Every man who prays before 'a' God has an explanation for this mega Tragedy. They are as follows,
1. We have been committing sins so we are getting punished.
2. God had enough with our non/dis belief in HIM/HER, so he showed who is in charge.
3. The Hindu way of explanation that they are paying for their sins in the past birth.
4. or My favorite, God acts in mysterious ways.

so why did this God let this happen? What was the reason? What is your pick? Choose one and lets go back to smug world of ours.
let me try to analyze these reasons I came up.

1. The classic, we are paying for sins reason. What did the 3 day old baby do? Is drinking milk and sleeping sin? I guess the baby is collateral damage. Small price to pay for getting rid of the world of sinners. If this logic holds, all others left are not sinners! I will leave it to the interested readers to blow holes in this reasoning.

2. He could have appeared before everyone in this world and screamed. That would have been enough. He could have eradicated the drought in Africa, got rid of HIV/AIDS,. I don't know killing 200,000 people just to stoke his ego is not particularly a loving God to me.

3. Hindus and their karma, which I was strong believer till recently. So all the millions who have been affected have bad karma account? Is there not one with good karma account? If there is none then did God concentrate all the bad Karma guys at these places? Must have been one logistical nightmare!

4. God and his mysterious ways, All the above explanations for this reason. To teach us resilience? To teach us compassion? So Millions of humans lives worth this?

No doubt there will be thousands of explantions of why God allowed this to happen. I am pretty sure no of this is going to be right. The only answer is we live on a very active planet, and we should be prepared for these natural disasters.

The only lesson is for us humans a imaginary God is more important that our fellow being. If only we had donated money to building a warning system rather than donating to Temples Church and Mosques!