It's an odd world out there: Rediff.com News
The flip side of life often goes unnoticed. They say a mark of a good photograph is its ability to convey not just the message but also its various hues.
rediff.com has listed some odd moments captured through 2009.
Celebrating New Year, the Telangana way!: Rediff.com News
In Hyderabad, the Bharatiya Janata Party also organised a torchlight rally on the Tank Bund. It was led by the state BJP president Bandaru Dattatreya.
On the other hand, the traditional New Year Celebrations were held at five star hotels, clubs and resorts under the shadows of tight security as some organisations had threatened to disturb them. However, the occasion passed without any disturbances.
If one man can be said to be responsible for Mattur’s Sanskrit revolution, it would be Srinidhi, a stocky, bullet-headed man with an enthusiasm that belies his forties. Srinidhi heads Sanskritha Bhavan, a Sanskrit-teaching institute that has taken upon itself a job that to many would seem quixotic, the task of taking the language out of textbooks and literature and bringing it back to life on the streets of Mattur. Among the many things the institute does, the primary one is the language support it gives to the local school. Sanskrit is the first language in the Sharada Vidyapeeth, a private school managed by the villagers that educates the village’s children at little more than Rs 80 a month. Sanskrita Bharati organises spoken Sanskrit courses every few months to make sure that nothing is learnt by rote and forgotten. These Sanskrita Shibirams (Sanskrit camps), where learners brush up on their speaking skills see all kinds — men, women, Brahmins, Harijans, college students, middle-aged farmers. And the discussions, Srinidhi says, are very lively. The enthusiast, however, admits that the occasional old-timer who grumbles “Sanskrit? At my age?” is not uncommon.
Mappilas: The first Muslims of India | TwoCircles.net
1st January, 1818: ‘The Battle Of Bhima Koregaon’
Google and India Test the Limits of Liberty - WSJ.com
The rules of political speech on the Internet are usually pretty simple. In America, almost anything goes. In places like China, the censors call the shots. But in India -- a boisterous democracy that's riven by religious and ethnic tension -- the game is far trickier, as Google is discovering.
In September, lawyers at Google Inc.'s New Delhi office got a tip from an Internet user about alarming content on the company's social networking site, Orkut. People had posted offensive comments about the chief minister of India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh, who had died just a few days earlier in a helicopter crash.
Google's response: It removed not just the material but also the entire user group that contained it, a person familiar with the matter says. The Internet giant feared the comments could heighten tensions at a time when thousands of mourners of the popular politician were emptying into the street.
Buddhist monks on hunger strike for control over Bodh Gaya temple
A group of Buddhist monks are on a hunger strike to demand control over Bodh Gaya’s 1,500-year-old Mahabodhi temple, days after Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan backed the move and sought the amendment of an act relating to the shrine.
The monks began their fast Friday near the office of the temple management committee at Bodh Gaya, some 110 km from here, where the Buddha attained enlightenment 2,550 years ago.
“It is time we sacrifice our lives for Buddhist control of the temple,” Bhante Budh Saran, one of the monks on fast said, adding that many monks from abroad will also join them in their cause.
Class action - India - The Times of India
Communal riots 2009 | TwoCircles.net
Kashmiri Hindus Exodus Led To Babri Demolition….? | Asian Tribune
Indian Army chief to visit Nepal
ndian Army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor will be visiting the Himalayan republic this month to be decorated with the honorary title of general of the Nepal Army.
Gen Kapoor, who assumed office in 2007 and kicked up a controversy last month by opposing the induction of Nepal’s former Maoist guerrillas into the Nepal Army, will resume the tradition of Indian army chiefs visiting Nepal to receive the honour after four years.