Pak flip-flop on Saeed
;Agencies
Islamabad, 14 JULY: Pakistan's Punjab provincial government today decided to withdraw its appeal against the release of JuD chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed, a key accused in the Mumbai terror attacks, but the federal government is pressing ahead with its case in the Supreme Court.
Punjab's surprise move caused a flutter coming as it did hours before a meeting between foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan in Egypt on the margins of Nam summit to review the progress made by Islamabad to bring to book perpetrators of Mumbai attacks.
The state Advocate General Muhammad Raza Farooq told the Supreme Court when it resumed hearing on the two appeals that the provincial government wanted to withdraw its petition as it did not have adequate evidence against the JuD chief.
The court adjourned the matter till Thursday without any decision on Punjab government's request to withdraw its appeal.
However, the federal appeal remains and the Supreme Court will take up the matter on 16 July.
Advocate General Farooq also told the court that federal authorities had not shared any proof against Saeed with the Punjab government.
The Supreme Court yesterday began hearing the two petitions filed by the federal and Punjab governments to challenge Saeed's release on the orders of the Lahore High Court on 2 June.
Meanwhile, in Egypt, India today demanded a “visible response” and undertaking from Pakistan on bringing the perpetrators of Mumbai terror attacks to justice as officials and leaders of the two countries prepare to meet here to review Islamabad's actions on its promises. Foreign secretary Mr Shivshankar Menon will meet his Pakistani counterpart Mr Salman Bashir ahead of the parleys Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will have with his counterpart Mr Gilani on Thursday.
External affairs minister Mr SM Krishna told reporters that India would like a “visible response” from Pakistan whose commitment is to bring to justice the perpetrators of Mumbai attacks and the earlier attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul. “I think Pakistan should give us an undertaking that they will not let their soil to be used for terrorist activities directed against India,” he said.
Mr Menon, who is accompanying Dr Singh on his trip to Paris and from there to the Egyptian Red Sea resort for the Nam Summit, will meet his Pakistani counterpart Mr Salman Bashir and prepare the basis for the Prime Ministers' meeting.
The officials will report to their principals on their discussions which India wants focused on Pakistan's action against the terrorists involved in the Mumbai attacks.
If India expects any help from Pakistan, it is living in a fool's paradise.
The military is hands in glove with the terrorists and so it cannot even stop their terrorists activities in Pakistan itself.
How can you expect a stone to teach you to swim for it does not itself know how to swim itself.
Pakistan and its army makes a show of taking action against the terrorists every now and then so that the aid pipe line from USA and the European Union does not stop.
If India wants to stop terrorists activities from Pakistan soil it will have to adopt the Israeli policy of bombing their camps every now and then.
If then, Pakistan goes to war, so be it. We have had enough of their nonsense.
India should also set up a special task force which would enter Pakistan and kidnap these terrorists.
I remember, some years back, how the Israeli secret service had kidnapped and flown back one of the Nazi conspirators from Argentina to stand trial in Israel.If I remember right, his name was Eichmann.
Then there was the bringing back of a plane which was hijacked and taken to Uganda during Idi Amin's time. This was made famous by the book Nine Minutes at Entebbe.
Within 9 minutes, they completed the whole operation, losing just one lady passenger.
Unless India starts proactive action, we will always be at the receiving end of the Pakistan terrorists activities.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Ostriches Galore
Azad’s remark derogatory: AIDWA
Aarti Dhar
NEW DELHI: The All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) has described as “derogatory and untrue” Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s statement that rural population produced more children for lack of recreation.
“His views on late marriage as the only way of checking population growth quite unrealistically proposes to recognise only marriages contracted after 30 years. The reality that lack of development is the biggest driver of high birth rate has been ignored,” said a resolution passed by the AIDWA central executive committee.
Provision of TV sets or enforcing coercive measures was not the way forward, rather it was lowering maternal and infant mortality rates, providing education and health facilities and addressing the huge unmet demand for family planning.
The AIDWA expressed disappointment over non-passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill despite President Pratibha Patil’s assurance.
Expressing deep concern over the Gujarat liquor tragedy, in which more than 180 people died, the committee demanded stringent action against the guilty and adequate compensation to the bereaved.
The resolution also expressed concern over growing violence in J&K, particularly at the Shopian incident, which, the committee said, showed the State government’s insensitivity.
At last a minister is talking of family planning.
I thought they had forgotten the word and wiped it from their dictionary after the emergency excesses of Sanjay Gandhi and having the RJD boss Lalu Yadav in the last UPA ministry.
However, what the AIDWA is bickering over is like splitting hairs.
What Azad has said may not be the only reason but it is one of the reasons and and important reason.
The basic reason is poverty.
It is the poor who have hordes of children.
Here caste or religion plays no part, it is poverty.
The poor people think that the more hands they have, the earning members will be more and they will gain. They forget the additional expenditure which may be incurred for they do not intend to send their children to school.
Hence, although child labour may be banned, the parents would like their children to work as they bring in additional income and there is no way the government can stop it.
Having more than two children should be banned or punished by depriving the parents of government facilities like ration cards, facilities in Government Hospitals and government jobs.
I know this is counter-productive as it will bring additional sufferings to the people. But the people should realize that the government has (using our PM's favourite phrase) zero tolerance for large families.
No person in any family should remain hungry.
Work should be provided and they should be paid so that they get money for at least minimum sustenance.
No beggars should be allowed.
All beggars should be removed, provided work and given food, shelter and clothes.
Why should a person have to beg another for his food?
What is the government doing?
The government should eradicate corruption.
This one step, together with disbanding all future pay commissions would go a long way to provide the finance for the above mentioned projects.
Regular Pay Commission awards every five years fuel inflation and make the life of these poor people even more difficult, pushing them down the ladder of BPL, EBPL ...
The awards also disrupts life through strikes and other coercive methods adopted by government/semi-government/PSU employees who are dissatisfied with what they have got, forgetting there are crores of fellow countrymen who do not get even 1/100 of what they are earning.
A recent example is the strike by government doctors and teachers in Maharashtra
Aarti Dhar
NEW DELHI: The All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) has described as “derogatory and untrue” Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s statement that rural population produced more children for lack of recreation.
“His views on late marriage as the only way of checking population growth quite unrealistically proposes to recognise only marriages contracted after 30 years. The reality that lack of development is the biggest driver of high birth rate has been ignored,” said a resolution passed by the AIDWA central executive committee.
Provision of TV sets or enforcing coercive measures was not the way forward, rather it was lowering maternal and infant mortality rates, providing education and health facilities and addressing the huge unmet demand for family planning.
The AIDWA expressed disappointment over non-passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill despite President Pratibha Patil’s assurance.
Expressing deep concern over the Gujarat liquor tragedy, in which more than 180 people died, the committee demanded stringent action against the guilty and adequate compensation to the bereaved.
The resolution also expressed concern over growing violence in J&K, particularly at the Shopian incident, which, the committee said, showed the State government’s insensitivity.
At last a minister is talking of family planning.
I thought they had forgotten the word and wiped it from their dictionary after the emergency excesses of Sanjay Gandhi and having the RJD boss Lalu Yadav in the last UPA ministry.
However, what the AIDWA is bickering over is like splitting hairs.
What Azad has said may not be the only reason but it is one of the reasons and and important reason.
The basic reason is poverty.
It is the poor who have hordes of children.
Here caste or religion plays no part, it is poverty.
The poor people think that the more hands they have, the earning members will be more and they will gain. They forget the additional expenditure which may be incurred for they do not intend to send their children to school.
Hence, although child labour may be banned, the parents would like their children to work as they bring in additional income and there is no way the government can stop it.
Having more than two children should be banned or punished by depriving the parents of government facilities like ration cards, facilities in Government Hospitals and government jobs.
I know this is counter-productive as it will bring additional sufferings to the people. But the people should realize that the government has (using our PM's favourite phrase) zero tolerance for large families.
No person in any family should remain hungry.
Work should be provided and they should be paid so that they get money for at least minimum sustenance.
No beggars should be allowed.
All beggars should be removed, provided work and given food, shelter and clothes.
Why should a person have to beg another for his food?
What is the government doing?
The government should eradicate corruption.
This one step, together with disbanding all future pay commissions would go a long way to provide the finance for the above mentioned projects.
Regular Pay Commission awards every five years fuel inflation and make the life of these poor people even more difficult, pushing them down the ladder of BPL, EBPL ...
The awards also disrupts life through strikes and other coercive methods adopted by government/semi-government/PSU employees who are dissatisfied with what they have got, forgetting there are crores of fellow countrymen who do not get even 1/100 of what they are earning.
A recent example is the strike by government doctors and teachers in Maharashtra
Justice Denied
Let-off in professor murder
- Jessica parallel despite trial held outside MP
OUR BUREAU
July 13: A Nagpur court today regretfully acquitted six ABVP students accused of beating a professor to death in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, after dozens of witnesses turned hostile in a case carrying echoes of the Jessica Lal murder trial.
The Supreme Court had transferred the H.S. Sabharwal murder case to Maharashtra amid fears about a fair trial in Madhya Pradesh since the accused were from the BJP student wing.
Scores of people — students, teachers, staff and police — were on the campus of Madhav College in Ujjain when Sabharwal was attacked during the August 2006 student polls, and the accused were filmed threatening the professor. Yet none of the 69 prosecution witnesses acknowledged seeing anything.
Sessions judge Nitin Dalvi said the prosecution had “miserably failed” in its job and added he regretted being unable to bring justice to the victim and his family.
Maharashtra special prosecutor Praful Shandilya said that when Madhya Pradesh police sent him the TV footage of the incident, “the crucial footage was edited out of all the CDs”.
“All eyewitnesses, including three police personnel (posted for the college polls), turned hostile…. They could have been under pressure, I don’t know,” he said, adding he would appeal in the high court.
Shandilya said 92 teachers of Madhav College had initially issued a joint statement saying they were eyewitnesses to the killing, but some changed their minds when police recorded their statement.
Sources said some of the teachers may have feared a backlash, adding it was a reflection of the deep roots politics has struck in academia.
Sabharwal’s death has become a reference point on campus violence, and the Centre had cited it in the Supreme Court while arguing for the J.M. Lyngdoh Committee’s recommendations on curbing money and muscle power in student elections. The court too had expressed anguish while approving the recommendations.
Today’s acquittals mirror the verdict of a Delhi court that had cleared a politician’s son, Manu Sharma, in the 1999 murder of model Jessica Lal at a crowded party. Nineteen witnesses had turned hostile and scores of socialite eyewitnesses chosen silence, but an uproar prompted Delhi High Court to fast-track the hearing of the appeal, leading to a conviction and a life term.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, who had termed Sabharwal’s death a haadsa (accident), “welcomed” the acquittals saying the verdict had vindicated him.
Sabharwal’s son Himanshu said his worst fears about possible machinations by the Chauhan government had come true. “The judge made an important note saying he was aware that the accused might be guilty,” he claimed.
Defence counsel Pushpendra Kaurav said the prosecution had failed to prove his clients were present during the incident, or that they had any possible motive. Sabharwal was attacked after, as election supervisor, he had cancelled the polls following complaints of irregularities.
The most stunning U-turn in the case came from college peon Komal Singh Senger who had, days after the attack, told the media that ABVP state chief Shashi Ranjan Akela had incited the attackers.
Weeks later, he sobbed before cameras saying he had received threat calls asking him to retract. Months on, he told the original trial court in Ujjain that the main accused, Akela and ABVP general secretary Vimal Tomar, were not among the attackers.
Komal said Sabharwal was attacked before the police, Rapid Action Force, three town inspectors, a city superintendent and a magistrate. Apart from Akela and Tomar, the acquitted accused are Sudheer Yadav, Hemant Dubey, Vishal Rajauria and Pankaj Mishra.
When it comes to corruption, all parties are the same.
Here we have the BJP who have made a mockery of justice by turning all hostile by either inducements or threats.
The judge, although he knew justice was not being done had to deliver the verdict based on the evidence provided to him.
This is one of the reasons which gives birth to Maoism.
When people lose faith in the system, they take up up.
Unfortunately, it is the policemen who are killed since they are paid to protect the politician.
Oh! How I wish the politicians were killed instead.
Radheshyam
- Jessica parallel despite trial held outside MP
OUR BUREAU
July 13: A Nagpur court today regretfully acquitted six ABVP students accused of beating a professor to death in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, after dozens of witnesses turned hostile in a case carrying echoes of the Jessica Lal murder trial.
The Supreme Court had transferred the H.S. Sabharwal murder case to Maharashtra amid fears about a fair trial in Madhya Pradesh since the accused were from the BJP student wing.
Scores of people — students, teachers, staff and police — were on the campus of Madhav College in Ujjain when Sabharwal was attacked during the August 2006 student polls, and the accused were filmed threatening the professor. Yet none of the 69 prosecution witnesses acknowledged seeing anything.
Sessions judge Nitin Dalvi said the prosecution had “miserably failed” in its job and added he regretted being unable to bring justice to the victim and his family.
Maharashtra special prosecutor Praful Shandilya said that when Madhya Pradesh police sent him the TV footage of the incident, “the crucial footage was edited out of all the CDs”.
“All eyewitnesses, including three police personnel (posted for the college polls), turned hostile…. They could have been under pressure, I don’t know,” he said, adding he would appeal in the high court.
Shandilya said 92 teachers of Madhav College had initially issued a joint statement saying they were eyewitnesses to the killing, but some changed their minds when police recorded their statement.
Sources said some of the teachers may have feared a backlash, adding it was a reflection of the deep roots politics has struck in academia.
Sabharwal’s death has become a reference point on campus violence, and the Centre had cited it in the Supreme Court while arguing for the J.M. Lyngdoh Committee’s recommendations on curbing money and muscle power in student elections. The court too had expressed anguish while approving the recommendations.
Today’s acquittals mirror the verdict of a Delhi court that had cleared a politician’s son, Manu Sharma, in the 1999 murder of model Jessica Lal at a crowded party. Nineteen witnesses had turned hostile and scores of socialite eyewitnesses chosen silence, but an uproar prompted Delhi High Court to fast-track the hearing of the appeal, leading to a conviction and a life term.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, who had termed Sabharwal’s death a haadsa (accident), “welcomed” the acquittals saying the verdict had vindicated him.
Sabharwal’s son Himanshu said his worst fears about possible machinations by the Chauhan government had come true. “The judge made an important note saying he was aware that the accused might be guilty,” he claimed.
Defence counsel Pushpendra Kaurav said the prosecution had failed to prove his clients were present during the incident, or that they had any possible motive. Sabharwal was attacked after, as election supervisor, he had cancelled the polls following complaints of irregularities.
The most stunning U-turn in the case came from college peon Komal Singh Senger who had, days after the attack, told the media that ABVP state chief Shashi Ranjan Akela had incited the attackers.
Weeks later, he sobbed before cameras saying he had received threat calls asking him to retract. Months on, he told the original trial court in Ujjain that the main accused, Akela and ABVP general secretary Vimal Tomar, were not among the attackers.
Komal said Sabharwal was attacked before the police, Rapid Action Force, three town inspectors, a city superintendent and a magistrate. Apart from Akela and Tomar, the acquitted accused are Sudheer Yadav, Hemant Dubey, Vishal Rajauria and Pankaj Mishra.
When it comes to corruption, all parties are the same.
Here we have the BJP who have made a mockery of justice by turning all hostile by either inducements or threats.
The judge, although he knew justice was not being done had to deliver the verdict based on the evidence provided to him.
This is one of the reasons which gives birth to Maoism.
When people lose faith in the system, they take up up.
Unfortunately, it is the policemen who are killed since they are paid to protect the politician.
Oh! How I wish the politicians were killed instead.
Radheshyam
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Msgs from Friends 27
Msg from Willy Wu
Hi guys,
We spent our two weeks vacation in Peru.
During that brief period we visited Lima
and Cusco.
From Cusco we spent two days at Machu Picchu.
It is believed to be the lost paradise of the Incas
Empire. Attached are some of the pictures of this
famous ruin located high up in the Andes mountain.
Willy.
Hi Radhesh,
How are you and the family ?.
I beleive the summer heat is keeping all of
you indoor with the A.C going non-stop.
I'm organizing a reunion dinner night for our boys
in the Toronto area. So far many old faces have
given me a positive response. We need some new
faces to show up, and the only way to do it is to
get the message out to them.
So could you please post the invitation on your
website: Reunion Day Sept.19th./09.
Contact Willy Wu at :willywcwu@hotmail.com
I will get back to anyone who email me, please make
an effort to show up. I promise you a great evening.
Thanks,
Willy Wu (1971).
Hello Willy,
I am presentlly in Ahmedabad and will be returning to Kolkata around the 21st July.
I'll post your message then.
I am accessing my mails through a cyber cafe and it becomes expensive working for two/three hours, the time it take for making my weekly reports.
Yes, it is hot in India.
Kolkata have started getting rains but it is still very hot in Ahmedabad. But the evenings here become pleasant as my flat has very good cross ventilation.
I saw your great pictures with your wife in Peru.
Those too I'll post after I get back.
Bye for now.
Cheers.
Radheshyam
Msg from Ralph Reeves
Hey Radhesh,
Thanks for the news update.
Incidently, here in Canada we had a heat wave in the Toronto area and temperatures went up to 39 deg C with the humidity. Kind of makes you think doesn't it? Am I in India or am I in Canada!!!! Honest to God though this year the weather here has been really wierd. But it doesn't bother me as I always work around things. Just go with the flow and quit the stress.
I am in Calgary right now spending time with my boys who work here. We plan a 5 hour drive trip to BC tomorrow where we will be travelling over two stretch of mountains namely the Banf and Cootney mountain ranges. Then we jump into the hot springs for a theraputic swim followed by a nice family dinner. The weather is great so we should have a good time.
Keep cool and don't let the heat get to you,
Take care
Cheers
Ralph
Msg from Ranjan Guha Mazumdar
Dear Friends,
The issue regarding helping out our School for repairing the damages caused due to the recent AILA Cyclone has been discussed with our seniors / office-bearers in Kolkata as well as with few of the Kurseong boys.
Moreover, Manas Chowdhury as well as K K had recently visited the school and they report that the damage caused can be managed by the school authorities themselves.
What is most important is that the School HAS NOT ASKED FOR ANY ASSISTANCE )Financial or otherwise) from anyone (either in Kurseong or elsewhere). Therefore, the overall opinion is that we should not poke our nose where not asked to. Moreover, we do not wish to start a fund collection without the express written permission from the school and expose ourselves to all sorts of accusing fingers).
It has been suggested that if anyone (from India or abroad) wishes to help the school in their own little way they can send the funds directly to the school.
The Kolkata boys however are always willing to help in what-ever way they can when asked for.
Attaching a Photo of the damage caused to our school.
Hope this mail settles the issue.
Thanks
Ranjan Guha Majumder
Dear friends,
Many of you will be aware that the Goethals Alumni (Kolkata) has been officially formed and the process to get the Alumni Registered has also been initiated. Meanwhile, a Bank Account has also been opened.
Unfortunately, however, we find that many Kolkata based Ex-Goethalites have not yet enrolled themselves as Members of this Alumni by paying a ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP FEE of Rs. 1,000/= only maybe because you are aware.
Therefore, you are requested once again to enroll yourself as a Member of the Alumni. Let us together strive to make the Kolkata Chapter a strong and vibrant Alumni.
For further details and . or for Membership Forms please mail / contact the undersigned at the earliest possible.
Thanks & Good Wishes.
Ranjan Guha Majumder
Dear Friends,
Please be informed that we, Ex-Goethalites, are meeting our Alumni, Admiral Nirmal Kumar Verma, Chief of the Indian Navy (designate) over cocktails and dinner on Sunday 9th August 2009
All Ex-Goetyhalites and their spouses are requested to participate and make the event a grand success.
Further details will be communicated to you early next week.
Meanwhile, all those who have not enrolled themselves as Members of the Goethals Alumni (Kolkata) are requested to enroll themselves without further delay.
Thanks
Ranjan Guha Majumder
Msg from John Kingsley
Hi folks,
After a long silence I am finally writing to you with an update on Shirley and Jenn (daughter).
Jenn is feeling much better now and has just returned to work on a part time basis this past week. However, there is still quite a bit of pain lingering on especially when she has to get up from a sitting or lying position. She will be staying with us until she has fully recovered.
To get at her kidney the doctors had to cut through a portion of her muscle in the lower abdomen area and this takes a longer time to heal then most other surgeries.
Shirley has been home for a couple of weeks now. She has to wear a mask whenever we have any visitors or if she goes outdoors where she may come in contact with anyone, especially with the current H1N1 scare. Due to the massive Immuno Suppressant drugs Shirley must take each day (to fight the anti-rejection) her body is now vulnerable to attacks from the common flu and any other minor illnesses which she must ward off at all costs for the next little while. She has been staying secluded as much as possible until her condition improves and she can finally get rid of the mask.
Shirley has to attend a daily transplant clinic at the Health Science Centre at 8:00 AM each morning where the transplant staff check her blood work and daily progress. A daily creatinine level is also scrutinized to verify how well the new kidney is doing. The lower the creatinine level the better. The Doctor also adjusts her dosage for the following day. This procedure will continue on until the necessary levels have been reached and the Doctors are satisfied that the new kidney is functioning well.
We would like to send out a BIG THANK YOU to all the many “Get Well” cards, the beautiful flowers, the emails and the phone messages which we received but were unable to reply to individually as I was at the hospital most of the time helping the nurses with their chores.
God bless and thank you all,
Warm wishes,
JohnK
Msg from John Mason
I would like to procure a copy of The Centenary DVD
Hello John,
You could get the DVD by contacting Ranjan Guha Majumdar.
His contact details are given below:
Ranjan Guha Majumder
CE-163, Salt Lake,
Sector-1, Kolkata - 700 064
Phones : +91-33-23373569 & +91-3340047219
Mobiles : 9433381303 & 9433036869
Mail ID's : technog@airtelmail.in /ranjan.guha@yahoo.co.in/rgm@miscot.com
Hope it brings back all the memories.
I was in Goethals from '55 to '65.Which were your years in Goethals. I have a distant memory of one Mason during those years. He was of course senior to me.
Radheshyam
Hi guys,
We spent our two weeks vacation in Peru.
During that brief period we visited Lima
and Cusco.
From Cusco we spent two days at Machu Picchu.
It is believed to be the lost paradise of the Incas
Empire. Attached are some of the pictures of this
famous ruin located high up in the Andes mountain.
Willy.
Hi Radhesh,
How are you and the family ?.
I beleive the summer heat is keeping all of
you indoor with the A.C going non-stop.
I'm organizing a reunion dinner night for our boys
in the Toronto area. So far many old faces have
given me a positive response. We need some new
faces to show up, and the only way to do it is to
get the message out to them.
So could you please post the invitation on your
website: Reunion Day Sept.19th./09.
Contact Willy Wu at :willywcwu@hotmail.com
I will get back to anyone who email me, please make
an effort to show up. I promise you a great evening.
Thanks,
Willy Wu (1971).
Hello Willy,
I am presentlly in Ahmedabad and will be returning to Kolkata around the 21st July.
I'll post your message then.
I am accessing my mails through a cyber cafe and it becomes expensive working for two/three hours, the time it take for making my weekly reports.
Yes, it is hot in India.
Kolkata have started getting rains but it is still very hot in Ahmedabad. But the evenings here become pleasant as my flat has very good cross ventilation.
I saw your great pictures with your wife in Peru.
Those too I'll post after I get back.
Bye for now.
Cheers.
Radheshyam
Msg from Ralph Reeves
Hey Radhesh,
Thanks for the news update.
Incidently, here in Canada we had a heat wave in the Toronto area and temperatures went up to 39 deg C with the humidity. Kind of makes you think doesn't it? Am I in India or am I in Canada!!!! Honest to God though this year the weather here has been really wierd. But it doesn't bother me as I always work around things. Just go with the flow and quit the stress.
I am in Calgary right now spending time with my boys who work here. We plan a 5 hour drive trip to BC tomorrow where we will be travelling over two stretch of mountains namely the Banf and Cootney mountain ranges. Then we jump into the hot springs for a theraputic swim followed by a nice family dinner. The weather is great so we should have a good time.
Keep cool and don't let the heat get to you,
Take care
Cheers
Ralph
Msg from Ranjan Guha Mazumdar
Dear Friends,
The issue regarding helping out our School for repairing the damages caused due to the recent AILA Cyclone has been discussed with our seniors / office-bearers in Kolkata as well as with few of the Kurseong boys.
Moreover, Manas Chowdhury as well as K K had recently visited the school and they report that the damage caused can be managed by the school authorities themselves.
What is most important is that the School HAS NOT ASKED FOR ANY ASSISTANCE )Financial or otherwise) from anyone (either in Kurseong or elsewhere). Therefore, the overall opinion is that we should not poke our nose where not asked to. Moreover, we do not wish to start a fund collection without the express written permission from the school and expose ourselves to all sorts of accusing fingers).
It has been suggested that if anyone (from India or abroad) wishes to help the school in their own little way they can send the funds directly to the school.
The Kolkata boys however are always willing to help in what-ever way they can when asked for.
Attaching a Photo of the damage caused to our school.
Hope this mail settles the issue.
Thanks
Ranjan Guha Majumder
Dear friends,
Many of you will be aware that the Goethals Alumni (Kolkata) has been officially formed and the process to get the Alumni Registered has also been initiated. Meanwhile, a Bank Account has also been opened.
Unfortunately, however, we find that many Kolkata based Ex-Goethalites have not yet enrolled themselves as Members of this Alumni by paying a ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP FEE of Rs. 1,000/= only maybe because you are aware.
Therefore, you are requested once again to enroll yourself as a Member of the Alumni. Let us together strive to make the Kolkata Chapter a strong and vibrant Alumni.
For further details and . or for Membership Forms please mail / contact the undersigned at the earliest possible.
Thanks & Good Wishes.
Ranjan Guha Majumder
Dear Friends,
Please be informed that we, Ex-Goethalites, are meeting our Alumni, Admiral Nirmal Kumar Verma, Chief of the Indian Navy (designate) over cocktails and dinner on Sunday 9th August 2009
All Ex-Goetyhalites and their spouses are requested to participate and make the event a grand success.
Further details will be communicated to you early next week.
Meanwhile, all those who have not enrolled themselves as Members of the Goethals Alumni (Kolkata) are requested to enroll themselves without further delay.
Thanks
Ranjan Guha Majumder
Msg from John Kingsley
Hi folks,
After a long silence I am finally writing to you with an update on Shirley and Jenn (daughter).
Jenn is feeling much better now and has just returned to work on a part time basis this past week. However, there is still quite a bit of pain lingering on especially when she has to get up from a sitting or lying position. She will be staying with us until she has fully recovered.
To get at her kidney the doctors had to cut through a portion of her muscle in the lower abdomen area and this takes a longer time to heal then most other surgeries.
Shirley has been home for a couple of weeks now. She has to wear a mask whenever we have any visitors or if she goes outdoors where she may come in contact with anyone, especially with the current H1N1 scare. Due to the massive Immuno Suppressant drugs Shirley must take each day (to fight the anti-rejection) her body is now vulnerable to attacks from the common flu and any other minor illnesses which she must ward off at all costs for the next little while. She has been staying secluded as much as possible until her condition improves and she can finally get rid of the mask.
Shirley has to attend a daily transplant clinic at the Health Science Centre at 8:00 AM each morning where the transplant staff check her blood work and daily progress. A daily creatinine level is also scrutinized to verify how well the new kidney is doing. The lower the creatinine level the better. The Doctor also adjusts her dosage for the following day. This procedure will continue on until the necessary levels have been reached and the Doctors are satisfied that the new kidney is functioning well.
We would like to send out a BIG THANK YOU to all the many “Get Well” cards, the beautiful flowers, the emails and the phone messages which we received but were unable to reply to individually as I was at the hospital most of the time helping the nurses with their chores.
God bless and thank you all,
Warm wishes,
JohnK
Msg from John Mason
I would like to procure a copy of The Centenary DVD
Hello John,
You could get the DVD by contacting Ranjan Guha Majumdar.
His contact details are given below:
Ranjan Guha Majumder
CE-163, Salt Lake,
Sector-1, Kolkata - 700 064
Phones : +91-33-23373569 & +91-3340047219
Mobiles : 9433381303 & 9433036869
Mail ID's : technog@airtelmail.in /ranjan.guha@yahoo.co.in/rgm@miscot.com
Hope it brings back all the memories.
I was in Goethals from '55 to '65.Which were your years in Goethals. I have a distant memory of one Mason during those years. He was of course senior to me.
Radheshyam
The Power in Your Hands
It is said that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
Well, there are many other things which a hand can do besides rocking the cradle.
Ashok Goyal send a few pictures of what a hand can do with the following quotation.
The fragrance always remains
in the hand that gives the rose.
I seem to remember that I may have posted something like this earlier, but then it is worth posting again.
Radheshyam
Well, there are many other things which a hand can do besides rocking the cradle.
Ashok Goyal send a few pictures of what a hand can do with the following quotation.
The fragrance always remains
in the hand that gives the rose.
I seem to remember that I may have posted something like this earlier, but then it is worth posting again.
Radheshyam
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Gayocracy - Views of Religious Leaders
Religious leaders condemn gay sex ruling
July 09, 2009 19:49 IST
Last Updated: July 09, 2009 19:55 IST
A group of religious leaders today alleged that the campaign to legalise homosexuality in the country was part of a "well-planned conspiracy" to finish India's moral and social values, and sought government intervention against it.
Terming the Delhi [Images] High Court's recent judgment which decriminalised homosexuality "shocking, deplorable and unfortunate", they said "unnatural sex is totally unacceptable in India which has rich cultural and ethical traditions.
"It is a conspiracy to finish our moral values and those who are involved in such activities have no place in our society," Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari, president of Jamaat- e-Islami Hind, told reporters.
Maulana Umari also criticised those who cite fundamental rights for legalising gay activities saying such rights are not absolute.
"The individual rights are not absolute but are subject to public order, morality and health," he said.
Father Dominic Emmanuel, Director of Delhi Catholic Archdiocese, claimed gay activities would increase the risk of HIV infection. He, however, made it clear that they were not in favour of treating homosexuals as criminals despite their activities are "unnatural".
"We are always with them (gays) and ready to offer them counselling as it is possible to bring homosexuals in the mainstream of life," Immanuel said.
Acharya Lokesh Muniji, a Jain religious leader, also maintained that the campaign to legalise homosexuality was "conspiracy to finish our social fabrics".
"Indian civilisation survived centuries after centuries because of its moral and spiritual values. Westernisation is not acceptable in the country," Muniji said. While Sardar Tarsem Singh of Delhi Sikh Guruduwara Prabandhak Committee said gay activities should not be encouraged as it is against the law of nature.
However, he maintained that Sikhism does not treat homosexuals as criminal
I concur with the above views.
I understand Swami Ramdeo is challenging the high court judgement legalising gay sex.
I support him.
Our Indian civilsation has survived more than 5000 years based on certain principles which treats sex as a very private affair between man and woman.
If God had wanted gayocracy, he would have made two Adams in the Garden of Eden instead of Adam and Eve.
We can do without importing these western diseases and these rights to deviation.
Radheshyam
July 09, 2009 19:49 IST
Last Updated: July 09, 2009 19:55 IST
A group of religious leaders today alleged that the campaign to legalise homosexuality in the country was part of a "well-planned conspiracy" to finish India's moral and social values, and sought government intervention against it.
Terming the Delhi [Images] High Court's recent judgment which decriminalised homosexuality "shocking, deplorable and unfortunate", they said "unnatural sex is totally unacceptable in India which has rich cultural and ethical traditions.
"It is a conspiracy to finish our moral values and those who are involved in such activities have no place in our society," Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari, president of Jamaat- e-Islami Hind, told reporters.
Maulana Umari also criticised those who cite fundamental rights for legalising gay activities saying such rights are not absolute.
"The individual rights are not absolute but are subject to public order, morality and health," he said.
Father Dominic Emmanuel, Director of Delhi Catholic Archdiocese, claimed gay activities would increase the risk of HIV infection. He, however, made it clear that they were not in favour of treating homosexuals as criminals despite their activities are "unnatural".
"We are always with them (gays) and ready to offer them counselling as it is possible to bring homosexuals in the mainstream of life," Immanuel said.
Acharya Lokesh Muniji, a Jain religious leader, also maintained that the campaign to legalise homosexuality was "conspiracy to finish our social fabrics".
"Indian civilisation survived centuries after centuries because of its moral and spiritual values. Westernisation is not acceptable in the country," Muniji said. While Sardar Tarsem Singh of Delhi Sikh Guruduwara Prabandhak Committee said gay activities should not be encouraged as it is against the law of nature.
However, he maintained that Sikhism does not treat homosexuals as criminal
I concur with the above views.
I understand Swami Ramdeo is challenging the high court judgement legalising gay sex.
I support him.
Our Indian civilsation has survived more than 5000 years based on certain principles which treats sex as a very private affair between man and woman.
If God had wanted gayocracy, he would have made two Adams in the Garden of Eden instead of Adam and Eve.
We can do without importing these western diseases and these rights to deviation.
Radheshyam
Monday, July 6, 2009
Changed India
An article worth reading for those of us from India – even though some of us are a lot older than the author and we might be “anglo-indians” not “Indians” –yet India was our home for many years.
Sent by Fay Kelly
July 5, 2009
The World
Farewell to an India I Hardly Knew
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS
MUMBAI, India — The first thing I ever learned about India was that my parents had chosen to leave it.
The country was lost to us in America, where I was born. It had to be assembled in my mind, from the fragments of anecdotes and regular journeys east.
Now, six years after returning to the country my parents left, as I prepare to depart it myself, the mind goes back to the beginning, to my earliest pictures of it.
India, reflected from afar, was late-night phone calls with the news of death. It was calling back relatives who could not afford to call you. It was Hindu ceremonies with saffron and Kit Kat bars on a silver platter.
India, consumed on our visits back, was being fetched from the airport and cooked a meal even in the dead of night. It was sideways hugs that strove to avoid breast contact. It was the chauvinism of uncles who asked about my dreams and ignored my sister’s.
It was wrong, yet easy, to feel that we did India a favor by coming home. We packed our suitcases with things they couldn’t get for themselves: Jif peanut butter, Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Gap khakis. These imports sketched a subtle hierarchy in which they were the wanting relatives and we their benefactors.
My cousins in India would sometimes ask if I was Indian or American. I saw that their self-esteem depended on my answer. “American,” I would say, because it was the truth, and because I felt that to say otherwise would be to accept a lower berth in the world.
What it meant to be American was to be free to invent yourself, to belong to a family and a society in which destiny was believed to be human-made.
I looked around in India and saw everyone in their boxes, not coming fully into their own, replicating lives lived before. If only they came to America, I told myself, so-and-so would be a millionaire entrepreneur; so-and-so would be as confident in her opinions as her husband; so-and-sos’ marriage would be more like my parents’, with verve and swing-dancing lessons and bedtime crossword puzzles; so-and-so would study history and literature, not just bankable practicalities.
I moved to India six years ago in an effort to understand it on my own terms, to render mine what had until then only belonged to my parents.
India was changing when I arrived and has changed dramatically, viscerally, improbably in these 2,000 days: farms giving way to factories; ultra-cheap cars being built; companies buying out rivals abroad. But the greatest change I have witnessed is elsewhere. It is in the mind: Indians now know that they don’t have to leave, as my parents left, to have their personal revolutions.
It took me time to see. At first, my old lenses were still in place — India the frustrating, difficult country — and so I saw only the things I had ever seen.
But as I traveled the land, the data did not fit the framework. The children of the lower castes were hoisting themselves up one diploma and training program at a time. The women were becoming breadwinners through microcredit and decentralized manufacturing. The young people were finding in their cellphones a first zone of individual identity. The couples were ending marriages no matter what “society” thinks, then finding love again. The vegetarians were embracing meat and meat-eaters were turning vegetarian, defining themselves by taste and faith, not caste.
Indians from languorous villages to pulsating cities were making difficult new choices to die other than where they were born, to pursue vocations not their father’s, to live lives imagined within their own skulls. And it was addictive, this improbable rush of hope.
The shift is only just beginning. Most Indians still live impossibly grim lives. Trickle down, here more than most places, is slow. But it is a shift in psychologies, and you rarely meet an Indian untouched by it.
Grabbing hold of their destinies, these Indians became the unlikely cousins of my own immigrant parents in America: restless, ambitious, with dreams vivid only to themselves. But my parents had sought to beat the odds in a bad system, to be statistical flukes that got away.
What has changed since they left is a systemic lifting of the odds for those who stay. It is a milestone in any nation’s life when leaving becomes a choice, not a necessity.
My parents watch me from their perch outside Washington, D.C., and marvel at history’s sense of irony: a son who ended up inventing himself in the country they left, who has written of the self-inventing swagger of a rising generation of Indians, in a country where “self” was once a vulgar word.
At times, my mother wonders if they should have remained, should have waited for their own country’s revolution instead of crashing another’s. And as I leave India now I can only wonder how history would have turned out if the ocean of change had come a generation earlier.
Because it came between their generation and mine, the premise of our family story has been pulled out from beneath us. We are American citizens now, my family, and proudly so. But we must face that we are Americans because of a choice prompted by truths that history has undone. They were true at the choice’s making; in India, I saw their truth boil slowly away.
They don’t crave our mayonnaise and khakis anymore. They no longer angrily berate America, because they are too busy building their own country. Indian accents are now cooler than British ones. No one asks if I feel Indian or American. How delicious to see that unconcern. How fortunate to live in a land you needn’t leave to become your fullest possible self.
And how wondrous, in this time of revolutions, to have had my own here.
I grew up in America defining myself by the soil under my feet, not by the blood in my veins. The soil I shared with everyone else; the blood made me unbearably different. Before I loved India, I loathed it. But that feeling seems now like a relic from a buried past.
I leave now on the journey’s next stretch, with sadness and with joy, humbled by India, grateful to have been at the revolution and to have known the revolutions within.
Sent by Fay Kelly
July 5, 2009
The World
Farewell to an India I Hardly Knew
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS
MUMBAI, India — The first thing I ever learned about India was that my parents had chosen to leave it.
The country was lost to us in America, where I was born. It had to be assembled in my mind, from the fragments of anecdotes and regular journeys east.
Now, six years after returning to the country my parents left, as I prepare to depart it myself, the mind goes back to the beginning, to my earliest pictures of it.
India, reflected from afar, was late-night phone calls with the news of death. It was calling back relatives who could not afford to call you. It was Hindu ceremonies with saffron and Kit Kat bars on a silver platter.
India, consumed on our visits back, was being fetched from the airport and cooked a meal even in the dead of night. It was sideways hugs that strove to avoid breast contact. It was the chauvinism of uncles who asked about my dreams and ignored my sister’s.
It was wrong, yet easy, to feel that we did India a favor by coming home. We packed our suitcases with things they couldn’t get for themselves: Jif peanut butter, Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Gap khakis. These imports sketched a subtle hierarchy in which they were the wanting relatives and we their benefactors.
My cousins in India would sometimes ask if I was Indian or American. I saw that their self-esteem depended on my answer. “American,” I would say, because it was the truth, and because I felt that to say otherwise would be to accept a lower berth in the world.
What it meant to be American was to be free to invent yourself, to belong to a family and a society in which destiny was believed to be human-made.
I looked around in India and saw everyone in their boxes, not coming fully into their own, replicating lives lived before. If only they came to America, I told myself, so-and-so would be a millionaire entrepreneur; so-and-so would be as confident in her opinions as her husband; so-and-sos’ marriage would be more like my parents’, with verve and swing-dancing lessons and bedtime crossword puzzles; so-and-so would study history and literature, not just bankable practicalities.
I moved to India six years ago in an effort to understand it on my own terms, to render mine what had until then only belonged to my parents.
India was changing when I arrived and has changed dramatically, viscerally, improbably in these 2,000 days: farms giving way to factories; ultra-cheap cars being built; companies buying out rivals abroad. But the greatest change I have witnessed is elsewhere. It is in the mind: Indians now know that they don’t have to leave, as my parents left, to have their personal revolutions.
It took me time to see. At first, my old lenses were still in place — India the frustrating, difficult country — and so I saw only the things I had ever seen.
But as I traveled the land, the data did not fit the framework. The children of the lower castes were hoisting themselves up one diploma and training program at a time. The women were becoming breadwinners through microcredit and decentralized manufacturing. The young people were finding in their cellphones a first zone of individual identity. The couples were ending marriages no matter what “society” thinks, then finding love again. The vegetarians were embracing meat and meat-eaters were turning vegetarian, defining themselves by taste and faith, not caste.
Indians from languorous villages to pulsating cities were making difficult new choices to die other than where they were born, to pursue vocations not their father’s, to live lives imagined within their own skulls. And it was addictive, this improbable rush of hope.
The shift is only just beginning. Most Indians still live impossibly grim lives. Trickle down, here more than most places, is slow. But it is a shift in psychologies, and you rarely meet an Indian untouched by it.
Grabbing hold of their destinies, these Indians became the unlikely cousins of my own immigrant parents in America: restless, ambitious, with dreams vivid only to themselves. But my parents had sought to beat the odds in a bad system, to be statistical flukes that got away.
What has changed since they left is a systemic lifting of the odds for those who stay. It is a milestone in any nation’s life when leaving becomes a choice, not a necessity.
My parents watch me from their perch outside Washington, D.C., and marvel at history’s sense of irony: a son who ended up inventing himself in the country they left, who has written of the self-inventing swagger of a rising generation of Indians, in a country where “self” was once a vulgar word.
At times, my mother wonders if they should have remained, should have waited for their own country’s revolution instead of crashing another’s. And as I leave India now I can only wonder how history would have turned out if the ocean of change had come a generation earlier.
Because it came between their generation and mine, the premise of our family story has been pulled out from beneath us. We are American citizens now, my family, and proudly so. But we must face that we are Americans because of a choice prompted by truths that history has undone. They were true at the choice’s making; in India, I saw their truth boil slowly away.
They don’t crave our mayonnaise and khakis anymore. They no longer angrily berate America, because they are too busy building their own country. Indian accents are now cooler than British ones. No one asks if I feel Indian or American. How delicious to see that unconcern. How fortunate to live in a land you needn’t leave to become your fullest possible self.
And how wondrous, in this time of revolutions, to have had my own here.
I grew up in America defining myself by the soil under my feet, not by the blood in my veins. The soil I shared with everyone else; the blood made me unbearably different. Before I loved India, I loathed it. But that feeling seems now like a relic from a buried past.
I leave now on the journey’s next stretch, with sadness and with joy, humbled by India, grateful to have been at the revolution and to have known the revolutions within.
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