Monday, May 31, 2010

Indian entrepreneurs chase the 'pink rupee'

Indian entrepreneurs chase the 'pink rupee'

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  • SANJAY Malhotra, the owner of an Indian travel company, knows his target market - so he seeks out and recruits gay-friendly guides, taxi drivers and hotel managers. 'Nobody who works for me laughs or passes a silly remark if two men are obviously partners. They treat gays as anyone else because I have hand-picked these people,' he said. Malhotra's company, Indjapink, is a bold venture offering custom-designed travel packages for gay men who are keen to explore India but who are often victims of what he calls 'cheap abuse and insults.'
  • Malhotra, who is also a professional fashion designer, said that while the fight to gain acceptance continues, savvy marketers and entrepreneurs are now chasing the 'pink money'.
  • 'If there is a market for the pink dollar and pink pound, then it is time for pink rupee in India to make its presence felt,' said Malhotra.
  • He is about to launch a company taking tourists to temples dedicated to Bahucharaji, the goddess of transsexuals, as well as shrines of so-called 'gay' saints and ancient sculptures depicting same-sex courtship and intercourse.
  • A small number of hotels, restaurants, shops and night clubs are now catering to homosexual customers in big cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengalaru as they try to tap into a discreet but lucrative niche market.
  • Dhaliwal has been organising private parties for the gay community since 2009 and said business was growing every month. 'We are now planning to start queer-friendly brunches, fashion shows, painting and photo exhibitions. There is a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow,' he said.

SHOT GUN AT ART OF LIVING ASHRAM: Sri Sri better drop Gandhi, embrace Osho | Great Hindu

SHOT GUN AT ART OF LIVING ASHRAM: Sri Sri better drop Gandhi, embrace Osho | Great Hindu

  • I was at Sri Sri Ashram at Kanakapura Road in Bangalore yesterday when a gunman tried to shoot him. However, I was at the 20,000 seater Yagya Shala at his Ashram. Sri Sri had just finished his satsang and was getting into his car when the bullet missed him and grazed the leg of his devotee who was standing near him.
  • Who could have been responsible for the assassination bid? I am afraid to say that it was just a...................................

Right Angle: Face it, India is all about caste

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    • By Swapan Dasgupta
    • Chirol mirrored the colonial perception of India as a land obsessed by caste and unable to rise above it. Since the foreign rulers never aimed at being social reformers, they attempted to accommodate this caste obsession in public policy. They documented caste in all its bewildering complexities in the Gazetteers and, most important, attempted to quantify caste allegiances in the Census operations from 1881. As Census Commissioner for the 1911 Census, Sir Herbert Risley went one better. It wasn't enough merely to record the caste preferences of individuals. To make life easier for policy makers, the Census had also to identify "social precedence as recognized by native public opinion." In other words, the administration had to locate a caste in the ritual and social hierarchy and determine which caste was high, intermediate or low.

      Risley's attempt to define caste precedence triggered an upsurge in civil society. Caste groups mobilized to redefine their varna status, undertake changes in ritual practices and even press for changes in caste names. India experienced a bizarre ferment with caste leaders pressing for vegetarianism, restrictions on widow remarriage and changes in the rituals governing marriage and mourning. The Census led to a government-induced process of what MN Srinivas was later to call 'Sanskritization' — social changes premised on the belief that Brahmins were role models.

      For nationalist historians, Risley was a villain promoting 'false consciousness' and furthering a divide-and-rule approach to undermine national unity. The Census was perceived, not merely as a quantitative exercise, but a divisive game which, in the process, reduced Indian society to a hideous caricature.


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The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> Who are Hindus

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    • Jagmohan
    • Historians, mostly Europeans, formulated and propagated the fiction that light-skinned nomadic tribes from Central Asia, known as Aryans, invaded India in 1500-1000 BC, and their descendents are known as Hindus! This fallacy now stands exposed

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