Bollywood Movies: Ten Worst

An Indian blogger, Raj Mangalam, lists his ten most unfavorite Bollywood movies of all time here.

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I've never been a big movie-goer either in the US or India, so I can't compare Raj's tastes with mine. All I know about Bollywood movies, of which I have seen maybe a dozen, is that there's lots of singing and dancing, as well as occasional scanty outfits.

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Here's a TIP for those who have never been to India: the costumes the actor and actress are wearing in the photo are NOT typical Indian outfits you can see on the streets.

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Actually, now that I think about it, one Indian movie (strictly speaking it's not a Bollywood movie) that made a lasting, life-long impression of me is Satyajit Ray's Shakeseare Walla. I rank that movie as one of my all-time favorite best ten movies. See it if you have a chance. I haven't checked out whether it's available on the net. If you find it, let me know.

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PS That's not me in the photo.

Yoga warning

A very cute billboard from the blog of another visitor to India, Tiziana Stupia.

Stumble-d Upon

I was stumble-ing around this evening and came upon this website, which perhaps some of you might be interested in.

Is the US ready for an Indian President?

John McCain has the US Republican party's Presidential nomination sewn up. People are waiting to find out who McCain's Vice Presidential nominee will be.

For the most part who the US Vice Presidential nominees have been has not been significant issue in US Presidential elections, although they carry a small symbolic value. McCain's Vice Presidential nominee is slightly more important than the average since McCain is 71 years of age and some people wonder who will become President in the event of the President's death.

One name being bandied about as McCain's possible Vice Presidential nominee is Bobby Jindall, the 36 year old Governor of the State of Louisiana. Jindall was born in the US of parents who migrated from Punjab. Before his unlikely election as governor (unlikely since he is a member of the minority political party in a heavily partisan state) he had served for three years in the US House of Representatives. Although born Hindu, he converted to Roman Catholicism.

This article from the Times of India describes recent maneuvering in the McCain camp. There will be some sort of event this weekend held by McCain, to which Jindall is invited. Two other names supposedly in the list of possible McCain Vice President possibles were also invited to the event, so political wags are having a field day speculating on Jindall's possibilities.

My personal position is that Jindall is too young and too untested for the high office of the Vice Presidency. Perhaps some day he will be ready. Nevertheless it doesn't hurt to throw his name into the pile so people can measure the likelihood of a Jindall Vice Presidency, which conceivably could lead to a Jindall Presidency. Wouldn't that be interesting?

Trouble in Paradise

Many people world over associate the name of the city of Bangalore with success. Without doubt Bangalore is one of the great cities of the world for internet technology (IT) and outsourcing. But anyone who has spent time in the city, as I have, knows there are many problems in Bangalore just below the surface. Yesterday's post directs attention to one of the major problems: vehicular infrastructure--roads, to put the matter into plain English--are awful, leading to excessive commute and travel times.

Despite Bangalore's success in computer-related fields, an article in today's Times of India suggests that efforts to solve Bangalore's lingering infrastructure problems are not guaranteed. Local politicians are not pulling the wagon together. Sometimes local politics acts as if Bangalore's commercial success is something to be resented, not encouraged.

The Bangalore area, as is true of most of India actually, was predominantly rural and agrarian until just a decade or so ago. Politics in Bangalore was aimed at the rural constituency. When computer people came along, many of the local agrarian powers in politics acted offended. Very few local political powers did anything to accomodate the needs of the computer newcomers, even if the computer newcomers brought billions of dollars of new income into the area. When it came time to build infrastructure such as roads, local politicians dragged their feet. Computer-based success in Bangalore was treated as a stepchild.

Some recent adjustments have given the computer-based newcomers in the Bangalore region slightly more political power. But only slightly. Two incidents cited in today's highlighted article illustrate the marginal power of the newcomers in their attempts to modernize Bangalore infrastructure.

One local spokesperson was interviewed for the article. This person claims it took ten minutes to cross the road by foot to get to the interview location. I can believe this claim. There are few designated crosswalks on Bangalore streets or intersections, and the norm is for drivers to aggressively ignore pedestrians.

Bangalore's new airport is the second warning sign. Bangalore has an airport within city limits. Airport facilities are strained, as the airport was built decades ago when the city was a sleepy retirement village. After much effort, a new, modern airport is almost complete a few kilometers out of town. It is expected to open within months. Two problems plague the new airport:

Roads to the airport are ancient and not designed for high speed traffic. Efforts to replace the roads have been casualties of the old politics of rural resentment. It will take hours to reach the new airport for some Bangalore commuters.

Secondly, the new airport was built by people who were promised that the old airport would be closed down. Now there are stirrings in the air to keep the old airport open. As the English say, that's not cricket. Some people who invested a lot of money in the new airport are crying foul. Politics in the area being what they are, these people might not be able to recoup their losses from the double-cross.

According to today's article, some major Bangalore companies are so disgusted with the slow accomodation of local infrastructure to their needs that they are considering moving or building not only out of town but out of India entirely. It remains to be seen whether this threat will be effective to wake up the local powers to their messy local problems.

Bang In Bangalore

Bangalore has initiated a publicity campaign with the slogan Let's Put The Bang Back In Bangalore. Cute slogan.

If you click on the advertisements on the web you are lead to this website.

One of the most prominent features of the website is its moaning about excess traffic and wasted travel time. Bangalore is now a big town with small town roads. In my opinion nothing will save Bangalore from its road problems short of severe measures to evict entire neighborhoods. I am sure Bangalore will not take this step. If you're going to Bangalore bring lots of reading and sudoku puzzles so you have something to do while you sit in traffic.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

The phrase Good Fences Makes Good Neighbors is the title of a poem by the American poet Robert Frost. In the poem Frost extolls the virtue of keeping to one's self and avoiding too much meddling with one's neighbors.

A news story today points to an issue which might make Indian-Chinese relations difficult. It seems China has plans and the means to do serious damage to India. This news was learned by people inspecting photographs available from Google Earth images.

Google Earth Smokes Chinese Missiles

May 17, 2008: Google Earth strikes again, with the revelation of a major ballistic missile launching facility in Central China. The missiles appear aimed at targets in Russia and India, and are fired from roadside launching areas.

Is it possible that India has similar missiles and weapons pointed at China?

Drug fakes

Another black eye for India. A Times of India article reports that one in five drugs sold in India is fake, and perhaps 75% of the fake drugs on the world market are made in India.

NEW DELHI: A paracetamol tablet that fails to bring the fever down or, more seriously, a capsule for a heart condition that has no curative effect — imagine putting your faith in a medicine that doesn't cure you, or worse, actually harms your body. That could be a growing reality in India, with experts in the Indian pharma industry fearing that one in five drugs sold in the country are fake.

ASSOCHAM estimates that the lethal market is growing at 25% annually. In fact, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's latest figures say 75% of fake drugs supplied the world over have their origins in India.

Sounds awful. But deeper in the article is a rebuttal to these drastic claims. Some people are willing to admit there might be a tiny percentage of fake drugs made in India, and claim the problem is overblown:

Said Department of Biotechnology secretary, M K Bhan, "Counterfeit drug market is still not a colossal problem in India. We will have to keep a close watch on the market’s expansion and punish those involved with it very strongly."

According to drug expert, C M Gulati, the estimates made about India’s counterfeit drug market is highly exaggerated. [snip] There is no evidence that 30% of Indian drugs are counterfeit, as sometimes claimed. The drugs in India are so cheap that the profit margin is paltry. At present, in 90% cases, it’s as expensive to make spurious drugs as to make real drugs. India is the only country where tableting, packaging and carton costs are more than the cost of the actual active medicine."

I can attest to the claim that prescription drugs are cheap in India. However, of the three medications I take regularly two are generics. Because of my medical insurance plan the two generics I take regularly are cheaper in the US than in India. The non-generic cost in India was about ten percent of the US cost.

Whether this price comparison supports the second spokesperson's claim that drug profit margins in India are paltry and therefore drug fakery is small is not clear. If there is substance to the first, headline claim to this story this will be a continuing topic in the news, I am sure.

Cyberwarfare?

An article, titled Stealthy China Probes Alarmed India, warns of naughty things happening on the web in India:

Indian government and military Internet security officials have been comparing notes, and have raised the alarm about Internet based attacks, and suspicious activity, coming from China. Particularly worrying is the probing of India's Internet infrastructure. This is a sign that China is mapping the Indian Internet, a necessary prerequisite to taking it down in wartime, or tampering with it in peacetime. [snip]

It is possible these cyberattacks are being carried out by criminal gangs, not the military of China. Nevertheless, the Indian military is keeping an eye on things, just in case.

Indian Weapons Research Fumbles

From a recent article about India's DRDO (Defense Research abd Development Organization):

DRDO is a network of 51 weapons and technology laboratories, employing over 30,000 people (20 percent of them scientists and engineers.) DRDO has been screwing up weapons development programs for half a century. Efforts to shape up DRDO have consistently failed. It's all about politics (DRDO provides jobs for well connected people) and nationalism (India wants to produce its own high tech weapons.) DRDO has failed in most all areas (small arms, tanks, missiles and warplanes). The failures have grown over the years, and created louder calls for reforms.

The 'Murphy's Law' referred to in the article title is a colloquial American expression: Murphy's Law = Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Maoists In The News

A recent article concluded with the following paragraph [the 'Maoists' referred to in the article are sometimes referred to in India as 'Naxalites']:

India is organizing more local militias to enable villages to protect themselves from Maoist control. While the Maoists are popular in many areas, some of the Maoists operate like local dictators, and are not popular at all. Another problem is that the Maoists often try to take over local government by threatening and intimidating local officials. These bureaucrats welcome local militias to prevent them from getting caught between Maoist threats and government obligations.

Bangalore In The News

credit: Uriel Sinai, Getty

FYI [= for your information] here's a recent article about Bangalore. It's kind of downbeat. An excerpt:

Experts at the Bangalore-based National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) have been warning that an increasing number of young professionals, including IT sector workers, are reporting psychological problems.

The article goes downhill after that quote, so be warned.

Cable Cuts Solved

Last year India and a number of neighboring countries suffered severe disruption of cable-based internet service. At the time the cause of the cable cuts that produced this undesirable nuisance was unknown. Human minds being what they are, all sorts of conspiracy theories were born and spread.

It appears the mystery of the cause of these disrupting cable cuts has been solved. To the vast disappointment of the conspiracy theorists, the cause was quite mundane.

Some ordinary commercial ships dropped anchor in the wrong places, causing cables to be damaged because of the ordinary jerking and movement of their anchors.

Using satellite pictures, the guilty parties were recognized, their whereabouts and identities were reported to authorities, fines were assessed and paid, and life goes on without the fulfillment of the conspiracy theories.

Is life as much fun without conspiracy theories?

India Under Attack

This article claims cyberattacks on India, including the Indian military, are becoming more frequent. The attackers use many ruses to get inside Indian computers, from which they hope to leech information and send the information back to the attacker's computer. Actually, this is a world-wide problem and many nations are awakening to the likelihood that their computers are vulnerable.

According to this article, China is the source of many of these cyberattacks. In a recent article in the most recent issue of BusinessWeek, a major American financial magazine, this issuse was discussed. The authors of that article spoke with various Chinese sources, who denied China's involvement in cyberattacks. It was pointed out that it is possible not only to break into other people's and other governments' computers, it is also possible to fake addresses to make it appear as if China is the source of the cyberattack when that is not the case.

In any event, computer cyberattacks on government computers world wide is increasing and India is not an exception.

Who's Laughing Now?

Earlier this month I posted a note about health insurance being un-Islamic. At the end of that post I added my own comment. I expressed my belief that health insurance has played a negative role in health care economics.

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article expressing my opinions exactly. Take a look at it to read about the danger of health insurance.

My opinion is that health insurance for catastrophes makes sense. But health insurance for everyday medical procedures is a mistake and costs too much--and is a misunderstood social policy/political issue.

India and China--Trouble Ahead

According to this article, the Olympic torch run is causing major problems between India and China.

The torch is scheduled to be run through New Delhi. To avoid the kind of embarassing problems that cropped up in Europe and San Francisco, the Chinese suggested to the Indians that the route of the torch be 'sanitized.' India has sternly declined to implement China's sanitization plan. India is a democratic country. In a democratic country the opposition must be allowed to express itself. China does not quite understand how committed India is to democracy and freedom of expression.

The article suggests that during the torch run some Tibetan monks might immolate themselves. China might have a hard time explaining away such demonstrations.

Even the last paragraph of this article contains explosive nuggets of information:

In a suggestion that China has admitted its inability to quash unrest, the path the torch will take on May 2 in Hong Kong, its first stop in the host nation, is thought likely to be curtailed "to avoid embarrassing scenes".

Hong Kong? Are there so many Tibetans in Hong Kong? Or will other Chinese who have other grievances against the government piggy-back their grievances onto the torch run? Will the torch run become a symbol not only of Tibetan protest but of many other forms of protest against the Chinese regime too?

If that is the case, the present ruling regime is in far more trouble than I knew.

There is a famous scene in an old Charlie Chaplin movie. A truck drives down the street. The truck carries some long timber to be used in construction. To warn drivers behind the truck to keep a safe distance, small red flags are tied to the ends of the lumber. One of the flags falls off. Chaplin is waling by. He sees the fallen flag. He picks it up. He runs after the truck, waving the flag to get the truck driver's attention. As he runs down the street, other people see Chaplin running by, waving a red flag. They start running behind Chaplin. Soon there is a huge crowd running along with Chaplin.

Chaplin was a leftie. The symbolism here was that the red flag is also the leftist revolutionary flag. Waving the red flag through the streets to a leftie is a sign of revolution. All the passers-by joining Chaplin was supposed to be a sign that deep in their hearts people wanted revolution and are just waiting for a leader.

Perhaps this time the Olympic torch run through Hong Kong will be the opposite of the red revolutionary flag. Perhaps this time the torch will be the igniting symbol of counter-revolution.

India In The News Once More

There were two very interesting articles about India on the net today.

One article claims India and Afghanistan are cozying up. Afghanistan is asking for India to provide military help. India is looking for ways to help.

In the past the two countries had friendly relations (if you go way, way back in history you will find that at one time Afghanistan was a powerful country which supplied many of the warriors and nobles who fought in and ruled India--how the once-mighty have fallen!!). Now Afghanistan is having problems with terrorists, such as the Taliban, who are causing major disruptions.

In the recent past India supplied a small quantity of manpower and weapons to assist its neighbor. The supply of manpower and weapons is likely to increase as domestic problems remain out of control of the central Afghani government. The Afghan government admires how India has kept it own terrorism problems under control.

There is a third element: Pakistan. Afghanistan is becoming increasingly annoyed as terrorists from Pakistan enter Afghanistan and cause trouble. They now hope India can supply some solutions for their Pakistan problem.

The second article, with the provocative title The CIA Owns India, says that the American CIA always had friends in high places in the Indian government and intelligence communities--and is likely to have such friendly relations in India well into the future.

Russia once had strong relations with India, but these relations are strained these days. The communist-style system of economics and government which controlled Russia and once controlled India have not served India well, more and more high-placed Indians are finding. Also many of the massive military arms purchased from Russia have been shoddy, overpriced or less than expected. The result is that in economic and military matter India is leaning away from Russia and toward the US and its ally Israel.

Interesting stuff.

Terrorism In India

If this column , published April 8 2008, is to be believed, militant Islamic terrorism in India is under control.

Two points are made in the column:

Police have arrested thirteen of the top leaders of SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India). This organization has been involved in nearly all of the Islamic terror attacks in India since 2001.

Some leaders of SIMI were arrested by the Indian police. They were squeezed to reveal information about their organization, such as the names and locations of other leaders and location of stored arms. This Indian police operation appears successful.

The second point the article makes is that most Muslims in India oppose the use of terrorism and are not assisting the mostly non-Indian Muslims that come to India to do harm.

[S]o far, the biggest obstacle Islamic radicals face in India is that the majority of local Moslems are hostile to terrorism in the name of religion. Indian Islamic radicals are responsible for a lot of the pro-Islamic terrorism web activity. That's because the Indians tend to be better educated, and speak English. But these fellow also tend to talk more, and act less. Most of the terrorism in India still comes from imported Islamic terrorists, communist rebels and tribal separatists.

I'm not sure how accurate this assessment is. While in Bangalore I read a small handful of news articles claiming militant Muslims were attempting to set up bases in Bangalore. So far, they don't appear to be successful. There might be things going on beneath the surface that even the police don't know about. We can only wait and see.

Health Insurance Un-Islamic

The Economic Times, an offshoot of the India Times, has an article about the place of health insurance in Muslim Sharia law.

A conference of Indian Muslim scholars decided that health insurance is a form of gambling, and as a consequence violates Sharia.

Comparing the benefits of health insurance policy to gambling, key Islamic organisations have termed the policies as "illegal" and directed Muslims to keep away from them.

Before you go off and start accusing the conference of being misguided, I'd like to add my two cents. Although I don't have the same compunctions about gambling as these scholars have, after a long career in health services I have come to the reluctant conclusion that health insurance is a destructive force in society. We might be better off without health insurance and its doleful consequences.

Health insurance is actually a recent development. In the United States it has been a force since the period of World War II, the 1940s. Prior to health insurance doctors generally charged what patients could pay. Since health insurance doctors charge either what they hope insurance companies will pay or what insurance or government agencies tell them to charge. The result is that the costs of medical care have risen well above the general inflation level.

Without the existence of health insurance, doctors providing ordinary and routine services would almost certainly charge less than they do now. Maybe there is a role for health insurance in the event of catastrophic conditions. In that case, high deductible health insurance would do the trick. That is, if the insurance didn't kick in until costs were relative high, say 1 or 5 or 10 thousand dollars, people would be protected from disaster. But the costs of ordinary care would be lowered.

Health insurance has fueled the race to higher health care costs. And in the case of national insurance schemes such as Medicare in the US or socialized health in Britain for example, it has taken control of health out of the hands of people and placed it in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats.

Health insurance schemes have turned a noble service in to a business activity, hence under Islam it is not permitted, they said

Those Muslim scholars are onto something, even if their reasons are different from mine.

Blood Crimes in India

An Associated Press story this morning puts a serious black eye on India's face

[in American slang, 'giving someone a black eye' is a figurative way of claiming the person has been hurt]

Durga Prasad, a blood racket victim, recuperates in the District Hospital in Gorakhpur, India
Blood racket drained poor Indian workers
By BISWAJEET BANERJEE, Associated Press Writer

When Durga Prasad heard of the mysterious job with the hefty paycheck, he jumped at it, no questions asked.


The work could be risky — Prasad figured he'd be asked to smuggle drugs into Nepal — but for the itinerant laborer from Uttar Pradesh, one of the poorest states in India, the money was worth it: 250 rupees a day, about $6. [snip]


The salary turned out to be part of a trap that ensnared Prasad and 14 other poor laborers, who were held captive while their blood was drained for sale to private medical clinics.

Many people from America, England and other places travel to India to have medical operations performed. An indistry has grown around this phenomenon, called 'medical tourism.' Not only are health care costs much lower in India than in other countries, medical expertise and reputation have been rising in India. Al least a half million non-Indians a year choose to have serious medical procedures done in Indian hospitals.

A story such as today's news could seriously harm India's medical reputation. Today's news dispatch talks about the poor conditions suffered by blood donors. Apparently many promises and contracts are broken, and many crimes are committed up and down the blood supply chain. Conditions are far from sanitary. The article makes it appear the patient in Indian medical clinics might be taking great risks when using Indian medical facilities.

While India has a range of laws overseeing medical care, enforcement is often exceedingly lax and corruption is widespread. Screening donors for illegal drug use or exposure to diseases like AIDS, hepatitis B or C, or malaria is usually left to individual clinics and hospitals. In India, a nation of 1.1 billion, some 2.5 million people are infected with HIV, according to international AIDS experts and Indian health officials.

Blood donors trapped into this illegal scheme suffer greatly.

...Prasad said he was held for nearly six months and captors took his blood at least three times a week. Adults can safely donate blood about once every two months, according to American Red Cross guidelines.

By the time he was rescued, the father of two weighed just 84 pounds. It took him and the others three days to regain enough strength to stand.

The Indian law enforcement and medical communities have their work cut out for them if they want to clean up the black eye this kind of story leaves--and if they want to see the medical tourism industry flourish. Come to think of it, Indian citizens using Indian medical facilities are also vulnerable, since they are exposed to the same conditions. The story only gets worse unless something is done by the people involved.

Enlightenment or Un-enlightenment?

From the Indian newspaper The Hindu:

CHENNAI: Voluntary organisation Exnora is discovering just how difficult it can be to wake Chennai up to the realities of global warming. Especially if it involves asking people to switch off their fans and air-conditioners in the heat of May.

Rallying for climate: Swedish students take part in a bullock cart rally at Koyambedu market on Thursday as a run up to Exnora’s ‘88888’ campaign against global warming.

“Awareness about global warming is very low in the city… we have only been able to reach one per cent of the people of Chennai so far,” said Exnora chairman M.B. Nirmal on Thursday, explaining why the Chennai Lights Out campaign is being postponed from May 1 to August 8 and reduced from one hour to eight minutes.

A group of volunteers, some from Sweden, descended upon Chennai in January hoping to convince the residents to turn off their electricity for an hour on May 1, the traditional May Day for socialists, as a sign they are in sympathy with the notions of the Global Warm mongers.

Chennaiers would have none of it. In addition to the original target date conflicting with exams for students, it came at one of the warmest moments of the year--when fans and air conditioners are most appreciated.

The campaign to "un-enlighten" the people of Chennai was stiffled. The foreigners--who consumed much fuel when they flew from their native lands to India, and who probably stayed at hotels with many modern, electrically-operated appliances--had to invent a Plan B to fall back upon.

They chose August 8 2008 at 8PM. Instead of the hour they asked for in their original plans, they reduced their request to 8 minutes. Please, please, Chennaiers, they ask, turn off your electricity for 8 minutes on that date to show you care.

Whether Chennai will care to play that game has yet to be determined.

Indians In The News

There are two interesting articles about Indians in America in this morning's New York Sun. The Sun, which is one of my favorite news sources [it can be read daily on the web at http://www.nysun.com/], is a very small circulation daily in New York. It has an unabashedly conservative slant. Once in a while it breaks news stories other sources haven't.

The first story, titled Indians Flee Afghanistan, Flourish in New York, begins with the following paragraph:

Strapped into the trunk of a Toyota sedan, the smiling face of a deity draped in plastic flowers rolls slowly down a suburban Long Island street behind a crowd of chanting women in saris. Holding up golden pineapples wrapped in red and gold ribbon, the small parade processes past a car wash and around the block until it returns to the temple, a former synagogue facing the Long Island Rail Road tracks.

The other story, titled In California, Indian Americans Show Loyalty to Clinton, begins:

MODESTO, Calif. — Senator Clinton is proud that her ties with the Indian-American community once led to jokes that she could be elected as a senator from the Punjab in India, President Clinton told a fund-raising lunch here yesterday, according to guests.

To read the entire story, click on the titles of the stories written above.

Indian Political Analysis

I just came across a blog devoted to analysis of Indian politics and world affairs. Written by Monotapash Mukherjee, the blog is titled The Political Planet and is subtitled A Magazine on National and International Relations: World Politics, Homeland Security and Strategic Affairs.

The contributions are quite sober and rational . The most recent entry is about India's place in the hot, newsgrabbing Tibet-China conflict. The author suggests the Dalai Lama's nonviolent approach might be losing out to the more violent tendencies of younger Tibetans. If so, the future might hold great danger for India, since China disapproves of India's loose grip on Tibetans in India.

For those who want to wave the Indian flag and brag a little, another article in the blog claims India was the first country in the world to use missiles in war (by Tipu Sultan against the British).

Will To Power

The term 'Will To Power' comes from Freiderich Nietzsche, the 19th century German philosopher. Nietzsche is most famous for declaring God dead. If you read Nietzsche's work carefully--which I have--you will find he believed religion, especially the form of Christianity he knew, is flawed and distorts man's natural impulses. Nietzsche, although not personally a Nazi (he died before German National Socialism, the party of Hitler, was born, and, according to his notes, he broke off his friendship with the German composer Richard Wagner because Wagner was too anti-Semitic), was adopted as a favorite philosopher of the Nazi movement, since his work can be misread to justify anything powerful people do to less powerful people.

One characteristic of human thought Nietsche wrote about is called the 'Will To Power.' People desire to have power, especially power over other people's lives. There is a very human tendency to believe 'I am right, you are wrong, so anything I want is right, and what you want is wrong.' Religions and religious thinkers usually believe their way is right and other people's ways are wrong. The same hold true for political and national movements, and most other human endeavors.

In the West, yoga is usually thought of as a benign, non-judgemental movement. It is assumed to value one's inner struggles to find inner peace, and it is not usually associated with the kind of social control and 'will to power' other religions and political movements desire.

Maybe Westerners have an incomplete idea of yoga.

Today's Times of India has an article about a leading Indian yoga guru.

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev gets threatening letter

A local man sent a letter to the guru which contained threats of dire consequences. Local authorities are questioning the supposed writer of the letter. According to the news article the cause of the letter was a dispute about public policy.

Baba Ramdev reportedly advocated the two-child policy for India, while addressing his followers in Lucknow two days ago. He said that those who maintain small families should be honoured and suggested imposing a harsh penalty on those who keep relatively large families.

If this article is accurate--that the yoga guru advocates harsh penalties for those who do not follow policies he approves--the yoga guru is as guilty of a Will To Power as any other religious or political leader. He seems to have crossed over from advocating a philosophy and approach to inner peace into a dispenser of rewards for his followers and punishments for his opponents. Beneath his otherwise calm exterior seems to reside the same sort of incipient dictator which resides in the hearts of any other bully. So much for yoga's reputation.

Tata Buys Jaguar

If you want to Buy-Indian and you've been saving your rupees and wondering whether to buy a Tata Nano or a Jaguar, you have a problem:

Ford sells Jaguar/Land Rover to India's Tata
Source: Automakers ink $2 billion deal for British luxury-car builders

LONDON - U.S. automaker Ford has agreed to sell its luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata Motors for more than $2 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Hmmmm, at two billion dollars that means only about a dollar and change per Indian. All Tata has to do now is sell one measly Jaguar to each person in India and he'll be filthy rich.

Ravi Shankar

The Ravi Shankar Americans know.

The Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Indians know.

Hit The Road Jack

One of the great breakup songs of the American rock repertoire, for all those searching for an education in American music.

Sugar Pie Honey Bunch

Quite a few posts ago I mentioned the classic (1965) American pop song 'Sugar Pie Honey Bunch.' I just came across the lyrics, which I post below. If you know nothing about American music, this song is a great place to start.

If you click on the words 'Sugar Pie Honey Bunch' you will be taken to a YouTube version of the song by the Temptations. Unfortunately it is an audio-only version; there is no video. There is a shorter version with video of the same song by the Four Tops on YouTube, but it is less than a minute long. Less than a minute doesn't do it justice. There is a longer version by the Four Tops with video (titled 'I Can't Help Myself'), but the video consists of stills of their pictures and albums. If you're partial to the ladies, there's also a YouTube version of the song by Diana Ross and the Supremes which can't be resisted.



I'm not sure who the original singers of this song were, the Temptations or the Four Tops. Both groups were popular Motown groups of the era. 'Motown' is a shortened version of 'Motor Town,' meaning Detroit, where this style of music began. Aretha Franklin was just one of the other famous Motown singers of the times.

Here are the lyrics:

Sugar Pie Honey Bunch-

I'm weaker than a man should be
I can't help myself
I'm a fool in love you see
Wanna tell you I don't love you
Tell you that we're through
And I've tried
But everytime I see your face
I get up all choked up inside
When I call your name, girl
It starts the flame burning in my heart
Tearin' it all apart
No matter how I try
My love I cannot hide

Sugarpie honeybunch
You know that I'm weak for you
I can't help myself
I love you and nobody else

Toilet Basics For Mature Audiences--revised

Last year, on April 18 2007, I posted about sprayers in Indian toilets. Next to most toilets in Bangalore and environs is a sprayer or spritzer at the end of a hose which spritzes water on the user's private parts. Check out my previous post for a picture of this device in India.


I just discovered that an equivalent device is available on eBay in the United States and maybe many other countries.

A few days ago I ordered this extension from a company called Pacific International. There are many other companies on the net which sell similar products. This company is just one example. Their attractive products are for sale without the bother of ebay auctions.
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A box arrived in the mail today and I installed the contents in about ten minutes. I now have a functioning sprayer which can be used as a hand held bidet or as a substitute for toilet paper. It attached very easily to my American-style toilet tank (I am only an average home handyman, so when I say it attached very easily, you can be sure it attached very, very easily.)

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I now have another reminder of India in my home. In this case, it is a reminder of how in one way India is a bit more sanitary than America. That's right, that's what I wrote: more sanitary. You might have thought you'd never see those words applied to India, so read them again and believe.
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If you are interested in placing a similar, easy to install hand-held bidet in your home, check out this company. Shipments can be arranged almost anywhere in the world.

Natural Gas For Indian Vehicles

From the Jerusalem Post:

Israeli company Energtek and Confidence Petroleum India announced on Tuesday [March 18 2008] the launching of a joint venture aimed at commercializing environmentally-friendly natural gas for vehicles in southeast Asia.

The Indian and Israeli companies will combine to introduce their natural gas product in several South Asian countries, not just India.

As an aside: I have seen many references to natural gas as environmentally friendly. Perhaps in the big picture it is more environmentally friendly than other products. But by my own nose sniffing the air of Bangalore--replete as it is with fumes from vehicles using natural gas--it sure doesn't seem to me that natural gas in the air is either natural or friendly.

"Our Joint Venture with Energtek will enable us to become a leading international player in the supply of natural gas products, and clean energy solutions," Confidence Petroleum chief managing director Nitin Khara said. "We are witnessing over 50 percent growth in the Asian natural gas vehicle market since 2000, with much of that growth here in India."