Jingle bombs

Achmed sings the Jingle bombs for us tonight :)

911 & God... A thought

From Stanley...

On the 11th of September 2001 my wife and I were to visit New York and Washington. Sitting before the television after breakfast we were suddenly thrown into a pool of tears to think of what happened to thousands at 9 am and how God spared us.

Almost all the evangelical Christian leaders of America would agree that God is angry with their nation. A country which was founded on God and the Bible has drifted away from Him. God says, " My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters; and hewn themselves cisterns-broken cisterns-that can hold no water" (Jer 2:13). America has invented new gods. The attack on the World Trade Centre is God's rebuke against the god of materialism. The goddess of entertainment received her rebuke when the antenna on the tower fell. The attack on Pentagon is a rebuke on the reliance on military strength. The hijacking of airplanes tells us that we cannot boast of our technological advance. It's time that what's inscribed on the American coin-IN GOD WE TRUST-be transcribed on the hearts of people. King Solomon, the wisest and the wealthiest man who ever lived, said, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding" (Prov 3:5).

By letting such a tragedy happen in the only super power nation in the world, God tells all the inhabitants of the earth, "Everything that can be shaken must be shaken so that only that which cannot be shaken may remain" (See Heb 12:27). It is not the super power but the supernatural power that will stand for ever.

The city of Chennai (India) experienced a tremor measuring 5.9 in the Ritcher Scale on the 25th the same month. Chennai is the Jerusalem of India. Are we heading towards a World War? This is a question that haunts every heart. We don't know anything at the moment for sure. Christ predicted of "wars and rumours of wars" as the "beginning of sorrows" (Mt 24:6-8). We are however admonished to pray for all leaders that we may lead "a quiet and peaceable life" (1 Tim 2:1,2). There is no security in the military strength or monetary power. No place on earth is absolutely safe.

Let's resound the immortal words of the hymnologist Edward Mote (1797-1874)-

On Christ the solid Rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand!

Mumbai attacks real story

The untold story of 2008's terrorist attack on Mumbai last year, in the words of its victims and the gunmen. While most behaviour of media was unacceptably cheap to gain publicity and TRPs, some were good too. This programme contains graphic images and descriptions of the atrocity which may upset some viewers. Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Dan Reed, Terror in Mumbai tells the story of what happened when 10 gunmen held one of the world's busiest cities hostage; killing and wounding hundreds of people while holding India's crack security forces at bay.

Featuring footage of the attacks and interviews with senior police officers and hostages, including the testimony from Kasab - the sole surviving gunman, Dispatches reveals what happened, hour by hour, from the perspective of the security forces, the terrorists, their masterminds and the victims.

While it may be chilling and horrific it is reality. Damn the religion, race, nation, hatred. How can anyone do such a thing? Indian Government's response was calculative and decisive but not as strong as people expected it to be. While there is a lot of need to build up strength and scale up measures the question of why us still remains unanswered by the innocent victims and their families. Hope some sanity dawns on them.

Check the complete video here.

Attack on Lankan cricketers and implications

Harsha writes: For years, we in India, have shifted our eyes westward, only marginally westward, with awe and admiration at the kind of talent that came bursting through. Suddenly Wasim Akram appeared, suddenly Waqar and Inzamam and Saeed Anwar and many others who, though not quite destined for greatness, played lovely cameo roles. In recent times that production line has got clogged. There is hardly any incandescent talent that illuminates stadiums now. And in the years to come it could only get worse. Wasim Akram was in awe of Imran and Waqar wanted to be like him. Shoaib Akhtar wanted to bowl with Waqar and that is how it always is. One generation inspires another as Tendulkar did with Sehwag and Dhoni. If there is no cricket in Pakistan, there will be no inspiration. Expect lots of journeymen T20 players unsure of whether they are playing for Sussex or Northern Transvaal or South Australia.

This half-hour of madness in Lahore has far-reaching implications. Increasingly cricket grounds will be heavily guarded, cricketers will play in what look like garrisons; it will take longer to get into a T20 game than actually watch it. Little children will no longer eye the wax paper packet in which their mother has packed the best sandwiches in the world. People might stay in drawing rooms, not only because they are more comfortable, but because they are safer. Increasingly cricket will be limited to what the camera shows and what the commentator says. If they can fight their way through all the advertising! I fear cricket watching will become clinical rather than innocent.

Ultimately though, cricket is only a tiny part of the reality of our existence. Like the movies, if more strongly, it can allow us to escape into our little cocoon for a few hours. But thereafter we must emerge and place it in the context of our times. This is a time of extraordinary hatred and violence, of tearing apart rather than stitching together; of grown-up men fighting like neighbourhood kids but with weapons that can maim and kill. The sad reality in our part of the world is that we have far too many people to police and far too few that don’t need policing.

The ICC must act fast and not close their eyes to reality like they did with the Champions Trophy. A firm decision on the World Cup will have to be taken quickly and without emotion or appeasement. This is neither the time to cater to vote banks nor for the former gentry to get back at the nouveaux riche.

Indian Politics

Politics in India is still substantially driven by identities of caste, subcaste, subcommunity within that. Elections are like chess games, with each major party watching whom the others are nominating in each constituency like hawks and then working to break the numbers: getting relatives from the opposition candidate’s family to stand, incentivizing some independent candidates to step up, buying off others who could swing key blocks. With each move, the calculated aim is to splinter the electoral math and nudge the needle by the barest minimum margin for victory.

Cash and crime are increasing determinants of success. Aspiring candidates need to bring their own kitty; only the rare honest worker can expect to win with little money. Elections are times of massive cash transfers across the chain, with middlemen lopping off their share of the grease that is lubricating our democratic machinery. The same is happening with criminals—those who can use strong-arm means to sway the vote.

Seat by seat, block by block, this same process is repeated: a complex, multi-dimensional jigsaw puzzle that changes with every passing day as the nomination deadlines close in. Senior politicians’ homes and offices are besieged by potential candidates demanding “tickets”, supporters are rallied from constituencies, mobiles buzz continuously.

After the Mumbai attacks, we saw many states going to the polls. I have seen some of the post-poll interactions among senior politicians, both winners and losers. One was with a political scion. This young parliamentarian told me disparagingly, “Your columns with their elegant ideas, all the media talk about a new wave of development and governance—all romantic nonsense. We are still working the same political equations on the same age-old formulae. I can show you one district where I spent months bringing development to the areas and we won just one seat. And another district where we played the most cynical form of electoral politics and we won a majority of the seats.”

--- Mobius Strip

The Home-grown terrorist

What a shame you keep blaming the neighbour about the extremities being committed! We are no less. Here is a first hand example and what a pity, you try it on yourself! It only keeps getting worse. Intolerance is a stain that is spreading deep and fast in our country. Violent attacks by hoodlums inspired by extreme ideologies - be it regional chauvinism, religious bigotry or a warped sense of Indian tradition and ethos - are becoming an alarmingly frequent feature of our times. The incident last weekend in Mangalore, in which women were physically assaulted by a bunch of goons bearing allegiance to whomsoever is disgusting. 

Is beating up women also part of this culture? Our culture and traditions are neither static nor singular. Through the centuries, they have been shaped and reshaped by historic events and interactions with other cultures. Today, there could be more than a billion ways of being Indian.

It's worrying that small groups of people can hold the public to ransom and assault our collective liberties with such apparent ease. More troubling is the fact that our state and central governments seem ill-equipped and unwilling to crack down swiftly on such groups. Be it against Raj Thackeray in Mumbai or similar troublemakers elsewhere, administrations move too slowly and feebly, undermining citizens' faith in their ability to secure law and order. Those responsible for attacks on churches and prayer halls last year in Mangalore have not all been brought to book yet.

I think they are no different from the terrorists who created havoc in Mumbai in November 08.

May be some researcher or psychologist can explain why people behave in this way. We don't need any foreign terrorists, we can grow a few here.

Parizaad's account of the Mumbai terror attack

“I want you all to stay calm. Listen to me, there is nothing to worry about. The first bullet will go through me, I’m leading you out,” our commando said.

We heard later that many police personnel and some of the hotel staff lost their lives. We’re probably alive because of them.

Read a first hand account of what happened on 26th November here.

Look at how the hotel staff, commandos behaved. Hats off!

Evidence?

Source: TOI

Open letter to the PM

Scores of journalists have published details of the terror network including names and addresses and every time, the Pakistani government has brazenly denied them. Don’t forget it denied the existence of its nuclear programme, too, for years. How can you expect it to suddenly confess, when for most of the previous two decades, ISI and Pakistan’s army have nurtured jihadis to fight its proxy wars in Kashmir and Afghanistan? Today, the monster is so big that ISI can’t control it even if it wants to.

Even with the most sophisticated intelligence and security systems, history suggests that you cannot stop an indoctrinated suicide bomber. But that doesn’t mean we don’t put those systems in place, at least to serve as deterrents to many more who would otherwise be tempted to take a shot. Convince the nation, give us one good reason to believe that such an attack won’t happen again.

We don’t need a Rambo today, so please don’t attack Pakistan in the heat of the moment, for we all know the limits of hard power after the US misadventure in Iraq. Can you not pour money into technology and arm our security agencies (the Chinese spent $6 billion on security during the Olympics alone), invest in setting up a highly sophisticated counter-intelligence agency, get the Mossad to train our commandos, step up the diplomatic offensive at every forum to isolate Pakistan and, most importantly, come down heavily on corruption at all levels, starting with your cabinet? Can you not ensure simple reforms in the criminal justice system (which scores of committees such as Malimath have outlined) to ensure certainty of punishment for any offence from pickpocketery to terror? Can you not lead legislation to keep criminals out of politics and try to stem the flow of illegal money into campaign funding?

If not, then what use is it being a prime minister if, even after reaching the very top, you can’t do a damn in an hour of national crisis? Soon, all this will be forgotten and it will be back to business as usual. But then, history will judge you. If you have some conscience left, please do something. Don’t forget, “mind without heart, intelligence without conduct, cleverness without goodness are all tools, but only for mischief”.

Read more here.

Bullets vs India

India is a land of great resilience that has learned, over arduous millenniums, to cope with tragedy. Bombs and bullets alone cannot destroy it, because Indians will pick their way through the rubble and carry on as they have done throughout history. But what can destroy India is a change in the spirit of its people, away from the pluralism and coexistence that has been our greatest strength. The prime minister's call for calm and restraint in the face of murderous rampage is vital. If these tragic events lead to the demonisation of the Muslims of India, the terrorists will have won. For India to be India, its gateway - to the multiple Indias within, and the heaving seas without - must always remain open.

Shashi Tharoor

Shut up, Page 3!

There have been many Page 3 personalities recently mouthing what seemed to be the best they can do in their small piece of lime light. Everyone including Shahrukh Khan came up with interesting yet unreasonable solutions on what India should do about the terror attacks on Mumbai. And all the news channels kept airing these episodes again and again. This is sickening to think what they would do to get those TRPs.

Lets look at the celebrities to begin. I think the only sensible comment came from Big B in his blog. Ridiculous suggestion even a possible war were made. My take on this is, Dear Page 3, please shut up and concentrate on what you are supposed to do, make better movies, if you can.

About the media and the news channels who reported the Mumbai attach with unending zeal, passion and delight that they had the biggest thing in the last decade on TV to Hollywood fed brain dead people who enjoy the hostage situations in those movies like the recent Die Hard 4 where in the hero comes in the end to save the day. Sadly my friends this doesn't always happen in real life. The bravery of the few journos who stood the cold weather, possible bullets or bombs and report continuously for hours and days together under tense situations is admirable. 3 cheers for Indian Journalism. Don't make real life reel. Some channel dumbo came up with this idea of comparing the attack at Mumbai to 911 and with in minutes all the channels started to use the term. Same happened to the 7/7 last year. Sandeep and me were watching the news live and the thought sickened us. How can you talk of a continuous attacks on a peace loving, tolerate nation to an off attack on the US? If you can't think of something better please remain silent. Don't make everything a point to score TRPs.

Please don't clutter my brain with your ideas which are borrowed and let me think. Because if you don't I will accept everything that you say with a pinch of salt and your credibility will be lost.

Dual standards

Its how you treat your heroes that makes you as a nation.

When Abhinav Bindra won a gold medal in a game at Olympics, shooting some mud targets Government of India gave him 5 crores and his picture was all over the media for almost a month. Remember the support and prizes that the Indian team got when we won the 20-20 world cup?

When three warriors fought off terrorists and gave their lives facing real bullets in the recent Mumbai attack the same Government gave 5 lakhs each (I wonder why they gave this big amount). And every one, including you and me, the media have already forgotten them! Every one except their families. And you call them heroes!

This is high time to increase the salaries and compensation of the military, police and other forces in the country. Hope the politicians would take this step before the the families die waiting for the pension and wondering if they could get back their loved ones in exchange for the money they got. And thinking what un-grateful people we are.

Everyday heroes

Sandeep Unnikrishnan (March 17, 1977 – November 28, 2008) was a Major in the Indian Army serving in the elite National Security Guards (NSG) who was led his life in an encounter with terrorists in November 2008 Mumbai attacks.

“Do not come up, I will handle them.” These were probably the last words which Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan told his men as he was hit by bullets while engaging terrorists inside the Taj Hotel, Mumbai during the Black Tornado operation.

During the operation, when a commando got injured Major Unnikrishnan arranged for his evacuation and started chasing the terrorists himself. The terrorists escaped to another floor of the hotel and during the chase Major Unnikrishnan was seriously injured and succumbed to his injuries.

Its common people like this who keep pitching in for the good againist the evil that make us safer and to these everyday heroes we need to be grateful. That may be in any form - a bus conductor, a doctor, a vendor, a mother, a teacher or just anyone, but they have this quality of human compassion and selflessness that sets them apart. This is a rare breed and they dont make men and women like this often.

Pics are from his Orkut album from the July' 08 trip he took to Hampi.

New hot stock options

Security systems provider companies witnessed a sudden action in terms of both orders/enquiries as well as stock changes in the last 3 days.

Companies providing Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) solutions in India and internationally. It also offers Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) solutions, smart cards, and point of sale solutions. Also technological development such as access control, building management, crowd management, patrol management, retail security, campus management, canteen management, library management, application tracking, vehicle tracking, warehouse management, work-in-progress tracking, siren management, inventory management, job costing, consignment tracking, field service automation, sales force automation, and fleet management are in huge demand now after the Mumbai Terror attack.

Enough is enough

This is no time to demonstrate gesture. This is the time for me to listen to a leader that shall strongly assure me of what needs to be done and will do it ! This is the time for each citizen of this country to act and behave in a dictated disciplined profile. This is the time for those that lead, to educate us all in a common curriculum bearing a common code of conduct. A code that shall bind us all as one collective strength. If the invader has been psychologically brain washed into believing that what he is doing to us is ordained through divine intervention, then let him face 1.2 billion brains that have been ordained in unison to ‘teach’ him how horribly wrong he is.

For too long we have remained the servile submissive nation. There has been no strong adjective to describe our character. When you meet an Indian abroad and when you ask where he is from he invariably states the State he comes from, not the country. A motorist on a street in Mumbai will willingly open the door of his car and decorate the road with his colorful mucus lined spit. Same motorist in Singapore will not dare to perform similar feat. A cyclist at 2 in the morning on a deserted street in London shall respect the red light at a signal and wait for it to turn green before crossing it. He not only depicts discipline, he reflects the character of his country. Here even in the busiest moments of the day, the red light at a crossing is an indicator to ‘GO’ !!

You know why the Indian Cricket team has had its phenomenal run of successes in recent times ? Its because it has shown character and attitude. Yes, of course it has the talent, but its body language and behavior on the pitch is rattling the opponent. When a Gambhir elbows his response to continuous sledging of the foulest tongue, I like that. It is a fault and it is up for penalization, but I simply loved his statement thereafter, that he ‘did not regret doing it’. When a Harbhajan challenges a Symonds and walks up to exchange words, when Yuvraj back answers his English opponent and follows it up with 6 sixes in one over, it shows character.

--- Big Blog

Salute

To Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar, Ashok Kamte, Unnikrishnan, commandos, soldiers, police, civilians who laid their life or injured, the brave hotel staff, press reporters, people who donated blood, helped the procedures, medicos... I salute you. Your sacrifice will always be remembered.

‘aye mere watan ke logon, zara aankh may bhar lo paani,

jo shaeed huwei hain unki zara yaad karo kurbani….

We win, always

Nariman point, one of the three points of hostage situation has been regained. Commandos cheer up and come out after 44 hours of fighting, victorious. They are exhausted, tired, tested, strained both physically and mentally but there is nothing like victory. God bless India.

Agreed that we were able to win back all that was seized from us but why let the dogs come in in the first place? Why not create a system that keeps stray dogs away.

Think twice before you neglect

Never think some one as a loser, some one who need not be cared. Never turn away your customers, colleagues, clients.

Jamshedji Tata was turned away from the Grand Watsons and built his own hotel, the Taj Mahal, the one that has been targeted by the terrorists now.

Prof. Sudhir Angur decided to open his own business school when he couldn't find a good business school for a relative in Bangalore and the result is Alliance Business School.

There exists a popular story that a lady in "faded gingham" and a man in a "homespun threadbare suit" went to visit the president of Harvard about making a donation, were rebuffed, and then founded Stanford University.

A hurt customer is worth more than 100 new customers. Same applies to a hurt friend, client, neighbor. Its all about trust and how you treat your not-so-financially-viable customers. Its not about money or present utility always.

Think twice before you turn away some one next time. Who knows you may be working for them later.

Mumbai under attack

Terrorists attack Mumbai. Its a sorry scene. Government requests people to main calm and stay at home. Please stay calm and united. Don't let these cowards change our communal fabric. Watch live coverage here.