Aren’t you very worried by the RSS takeover of your party? It seems to me that nothing good can come out of it. What are you folks thinking? (You may respond even if you aren’t exactly a BJP supporter. )

Just thought I’d remind people that Salman Khan is a bad man, not because he was mean to a nice girl like Aishwarya Rai, but because he has done other bad things like get drunk and mow down people sleeping on the pavement, and wilfully shoot blackbucks in places that he wasn’t supposed to. If the media had followed up the mowing down story with as much diligence as it is following this story (or, for a better example of what the media can do – the Marine Drive rape case ) perhaps we’d have seen him in jail by now.

Or, if you are a human female, consider the question amended to “Would you find a male gorilla attractive?” (“Of course! Why else would I get married?” will not be considered an answer.)

Yes, by “attractive” I mean attractive in that way. If your answer to this question is a shocked or a somewhat bemused “No”, let me remind you that I am not asking you “Do you find her attractive” My question is would you find her attractive if you were brought up in a different culture. Suppose that you were a feral child brought up by gorillas, or if you were brought up by some sort of cult which considered gorillas distant cousins of humans, and hence accepted sexual relations with them as normal. Would you ever be attracted to a gorilla?
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Bomb Blasts in London

Well, not really, but that is what his article bemoaning the growth of cars amounts to.
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Like a novel where it is obvious from the outset that the two protagonists are meant for each other, but take hundreds of pages to get together…

That’s how the The Economist starts its article about the recent defence deal between India and the US. Whether you agree with the sentiment or not, don’t you agree that this sentence conveys that sentiment perfectly?

This scenario played out during World War II. Country A was under the colonial rule of Country B. Country B was at war with Country C. Faced with attack from C, B had to withdraw from A. Now, in A, there was a freedom struggle going on to free the country from B. The leader of this struggle was Person D. So when C drove B out of A, D welcomed C as its deliverer and joined his forces with C’s armies. But C treated A so badly that within a couple of years, D switched sides and allied himself with B once again. The country got its freedom a few years after WWII.

Identify A, B, C and D. I have put a “hint” after this line. Though I call it a hint, I think that “giveaway” would be more accurate. So my request to readers is, if you guess this after reading the hint, don’t put in your guess in the comments. Otherwise, please do. Also, I think that this question is difficult to google. So googling is allowed. If you do google, please mention that in the comments.

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Most newspapers have reported that Imrana has been asked to marry her Father-in-law. I don’t think that is correct. Or, to be precise, I would be very surprised if it was correct. In Islamic law, they have a concept of Mahram. A father-in-law is “Mahram” to a woman (i.e. cannot ever get married to her because of her relationship with her husband. ) The problem seems to be that because of the rape, the husband too has become Mahram to her. This last point is, admittedly a leap of logic.But as I understand, once a Mahram, you are always a Mahram. So, I think that all they’ve done is pronounced her marriage void. This doesn’t make much difference to the cruelty that she is being subject to, but it does tell you how much effort reporters put into getting their facts right.

Imrana’s travails have given yet another opportunity for the pseudo-secularists to display their dishonesty and for the “real” secularists to point it out. Seriously, which word would better describe Mulayam’s and Salman Khurshid’s position than “shameful”? Perhaps “disgusting” would do as well.
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Readers are invited to suggest a suitable caption for this


Originally uploaded by ravikiranr.

I need to answer Swami who says

I find your statement about economists and their theories of rational behaviour so odd, that I don’t believe it.

If economists are so mathematical in their analysis of society, of what good could their theories be?

I also need to answer Shrikanth who says

Why don’t conservatives use a similar logic vis-a vis political issue?. Right Wingers keep asserting ad-nauseum that terrorism is indefensible. But they are almost always unwilling to investigate the psychology of the
terrorist or seriously reexamine foreign policies that might be sowing the seeds of terror.
Am I seeing a contradiction of views here?What’s your take?

(Read the post for the original context in both cases.)

I will do so sometime. But readers’ thoughts are welcome.

I confess that I am utterly puzzled by the results of the Pew global attitudes survey (via Acorn) which says that Indians have an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards the United States. Apparently 71% of us like them.

Is that plausible? Yes, the survey is skewed. India is one of the few countries where they have asked only urbanites. But this means that it is skewed in a way that makes it easy for us to subject it to a smell test. I am afraid it doesn’t pass, which is why I am utterly puzzled.
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