Who let the dogs in the parliament!!

What are the politicians getting paid for? Not even a single day of Monsoon session was conducted this year. Thanks to the drama by the POLY - TICIANS!!! Opposition was busy preparing the Gadkari wedding, and the ruling government attending that wedding. Thanks for proving time and again that we voted for fools during the elections. I would loose my salary if i don't work, but you are enjoying with my money out there not even working for a single day. That money is mine and its worth more than what you do.Shame on you people who were given ONE more chance to run the country. One more session of Parliament is over, i wish there was one bill that was passed during this monsoon session and that's the "Who let the dogs in" policy to be abolished so that we could vote all over again!!!

NDTV Tiger Telethon raises 5 Cr.

I had the opportunity to witness this LIVE on NDTV yesterday and Buoy o Buoy, it was a great thing by the Indians to take this first step forward to save tigers in the country. It also showed that Indians are no more the "poor" Indians that the world always projected, Starting with Celebs like the Bacchans to the corporates like CII to individual contributors closely monitored by the NDTV group headed by Vikram Chandra and Prannoy Roy. The show was fantastic, thanks to NDTV,Contributors and the celebs from various walks of live to put up such a great event for such a noble cause. I felt proud to see the accolades that India received from Foreign contributors as well. I just hope that this money goes to the right people( I hope because its a media event and not a government event). Kudos to NDTV and the Contributors for pulling off such an event.

Himachal Exam Scam

One of the very few states to be scam proof, "Himachal Pradesh" showed to the entire country that they are not far behind in scams. A country that boasts of the maximum student population in the entire world is finding easier methods to increase the literacy rates. 20000 rs is what it takes for any person to be awarded a degree with whatever marks you want, to top it all, Its not a fake certificate, it is a certificate issued by the actual department. No wonder, we would call India a developing country from the past many years and we still call the same.

Nobel in Absentia

Nobel Peace prize was awarded to Liu Xiaobo in absentia yesterday. Whether china is correct or wrong to prevent a Human Rights activist to receive the world's most prestigious award and choose another person to get the award internally( Confucius award) is debatable. Dictatorship works in some countries and china has got used to the communist regime , but that doesn't mean that democratic support is a jail-able offence. His wife also is kept in house arrest in the "Freedom City" of China. India was represented at the award and this surely is going to be a problem during the Chinese premiers visit later this month to India. I personally would feel ,India did the right thing by representing itself at the presentation ceremony. But the major concern being what will be the prime ministers reply when jiabao brings this up.

Sari Spells Terror for US security - (A) Thithi Devo Bhava?

I wish something like this should have happened when the US's first lady was here. Only sari's allowed in Indian airports and the US first lady should have been frisked by the AOI. Indian Envoy Meera Shankar was recently patted down at the US airport In spite she proving her diplomatic status with the officials.Reason, She was wearing a Sari. Indians treat guests with the mantra "Athithi Devo Bhava" (we know how the Obama's and Sarkozy's were treated), again and again Indians are not treated like that in many countries. Some raise objections for Burqa's, Some for Turbans, Some for Sari's and we as always want to strengthen the diplomatic relationships with many countries and hope to bring it up during the next diplomatic meetings. We are just hoping and Hoping and Hoping for someone to come to india and we then tell them "Please Take care of this the Next time around". All diplomats are not politicians, so please don't treat them as terrorists!!!

POSCO Project - (Dis)Investment ?

A Village under Seige. A group of security men guard a security post which scrutinizes visitors using a bamboo and stone entry control in the coastal village of Dhinkia. This is the state of just one of the 6 villages that will be displaced due to the direct foreign investment by the South Korean steel giant POSCO. No doubt that the 12 billion dollar investment will be a part of exclusive growth in India but it brings with it a burden of Environmental issues which includes disturbance of ecology and people in the area. A fertile land getting converted to a company concrete land? There are lot of infertile lands in the country for POSCO, but the conditions for building a PORT in this coastal village makes Dhinkia and surrounding villages more vulnerable. Advantage for POSCO here is in spite of environmental issues, Orissa backs the project. The Government should take this 4800 acre land problem with Korea and sort this out in the interest of the people of India and Environment(indirectly both these add up to India more than the Growth).

2010 - A Year of Controversies

Phew!! What a year we have had!!!

Starting from J&K stone pelting to Kerala IPL team, Land scams and Horse trading in Karnataka to Vedanta in Orrisa, From Raja's to Adarsh's, From Lalit Modi to Assange, From IPL and CWG to FIFA bid everything seems to be wrong. Each and every state in India is suffering scams today. TN land scams, Andhra's political retaliation, Bengal's election mood, Terror and Naxal rise in the east, UP's Varanasi Blast, HP's glacier gate, Delhi's CWG, Gujarats Riot judgement, Ayodhya Verdict, Goa's Rane.India surely is in no mood to forgive the people responsible for this.

The silver lining being Economic revival, Modi's Gujarat, Nitesh's Bihar,Obama's visit, Sarkozy's visit and of course India's sportsmen were the only source of light in a rather dark environment this year

We still have 20 days more remaining to see what will be china's reaction for India's Nobel price ceremony visit, Wen Jiabao's visit, Cases, Judgements, Parliaments log jam, Yedyurappa's gods and dogs!!!

I wish 2010 never existed.

The Vedanta Mining Project Row

Ever since India's independence, in the name of economy, revival, corruption or selfishness, infrastructure, developments,money; India's forests, rivers, gardens, parks are disappearing as we see. Forests which is the sole source of environmental revival are vanishing by the day thanks to extensive and exclusive growth of the economy in making India a DEVELOPED country.

First it was the turn of Indian vultures,sparrows,tigers and now it is the tribal people of Niyamgiri hills who are facing the heat. Vedanta a big name in corporate exclusive growth today tried to Inhabitate the land of Dongria Kondh Tribe in the eastern state of Orrisa. Thanks to the environment ministry, the project is now stayed. Corporates cash in so much using the terms "LEGALLY", "ON PAPER" but never understand simple terms like "Humanity", "Nature Balance" and "COMMON SENSE".

Happy 100th year birthday mother teresa

Mother Teresa (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was a Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, India in 1950. For over 45 years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity continued to expand, and at the time of her death it was operating 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools.

She has been praised by many individuals, governments and organizations; however, she has also faced a diverse range of criticism. These include objections by various individuals and groups, including Christopher Hitchens, Michael Parenti, Aroup Chatterjee, Vishva Hindu Parishad, against the proselytizing focus of her work including a strong stance against contraception and abortion, a belief in the spiritual goodness of poverty and alleged baptisms of the dying. Medical journals also criticized the standard of medical care in her hospices and concerns were raised about the opaque nature in which donated money was spent.

Although Teresa enjoyed teaching at the school, she was increasingly disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Calcutta. The Bengal famine of 1943 brought misery and death to the city; and the outbreak of Hindu/Muslim violence in August 1946 plunged the city into despair and horror.

Missionaries of Charity

On 10 September 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call" while traveling to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling from Calcutta for her annual retreat. "I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith." She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blue border, adopted Indian citizenship, and ventured out into the slums. Initially she started a school in Motijhil; soon she started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving. Her efforts quickly caught the attention of Indian officials, including the prime minister, who expressed his appreciation.

Teresa wrote in her diary that her first year was fraught with difficulties. She had no income and had to resort to begging for food and supplies. Teresa experienced doubt, loneliness and the temptation to return to the comfort of convent life during these early months. She wrote in her diary:

Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Today I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home I walked and walked till my arms and legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul, looking for a home, food and health. Then the comfort of Loreto her former order came to tempt me. 'You have only to say the word and all that will be yours again,' the Tempter kept on saying ... Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard. I did not let a single tear come.

Teresa received Vatican permission on 7 October 1950 to start the diocesan congregation that would become the Missionaries of Charity. Its mission was to care for, in her own words, "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone." It began as a small order with 13 members in Calcutta; today it has more than 4,000 nuns running orphanages, AIDS hospices and charity centers worldwide, and caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, aged, alcoholics, the poor and homeless, and victims of floods, epidemics, and famine.

In 1952 Mother Teresa opened the first Home for the Dying in space made available by the city of Calcutta. With the help of Indian officials she converted an abandoned Hindu temple into the Kalighat Home for the Dying, a free hospice for the poor. She renamed it Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart (Nirmal Hriday). Those brought to the home received medical attention and were afforded the opportunity to die with dignity, according to the rituals of their faith; Muslims were read the Quran, Hindus received water from the Ganges, and Catholics received the Last Rites. "A beautiful death," she said, "is for people who lived like animals to die like angels—loved and wanted." Mother Teresa soon opened a home for those suffering from Hansen's disease, commonly known as leprosy, and called the hospice Shanti Nagar (City of Peace). The Missionaries of Charity also established several leprosy outreach clinics throughout Calcutta, providing medication, bandages and food.

As the Missionaries of Charity took in increasing numbers of lost children, Mother Teresa felt the need to create a home for them. In 1955 she opened the Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, the Children's Home of the Immaculate Heart, as a haven for orphans and homeless youth.

The order soon began to attract both recruits and charitable donations, and by the 1960s had opened hospices, orphanages and leper houses all over India. Mother Teresa then expanded the order throughout the globe. Its first house outside India opened in Venezuela in 1965 with five sisters. Others followed in Rome, Tanzania, and Austria in 1968; during the 1970s the order opened houses and foundations in dozens of countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States.

The Missionaries of Charity Brothers was founded in 1963, and a contemplative branch of the Sisters followed in 1976. Lay Catholics and non-Catholics were enrolled in the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa, the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, and the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests, and in 1984 founded with Fr. Joseph Langford the Missionaries of Charity Fathers to combine the vocational aims of the Missionaries of Charity with the resources of the ministerial priesthood. By 2007 the Missionaries of Charity numbered approximately 450 brothers and 5,000 nuns worldwide, operating 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries.

International charity

By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries. Over the years, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity grew from twelve to thousands serving the "poorest of the poor" in 450 centers around the world. The first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York; by 1984 the order operated 19 establishments throughout the country.

Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack in Rome in 1983, while visiting Pope John Paul II. After a second attack in 1989, she received an artificial pacemaker. In 1991, after a battle with pneumonia while in Mexico, she suffered further heart problems. She offered to resign her position as head of the Missionaries of Charity. But the nuns of the order, in a secret ballot, voted for her to stay. Mother Teresa agreed to continue her work as head of the order.

On 13 March 1997, she stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity. She died on 5 September 1997.

At the time of her death, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters, and an associated brotherhood of 300 members, operating 610 missions in 123 countries.[citation needed] These included hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs, personal helpers, orphanages, and schools. The Missionaries of Charity were also aided by Co-Workers, who numbered over 1 million by the 1990s.

Mother Teresa lay in state in St Thomas, Kolkata for one week prior to her funeral, in September 1997. She was granted a state funeral by the Indian Government in gratitude for her services to the poor of all religions in India.

Source: Wikipedia