A Good Phrase
Rahul Tandon was on the BBC this morning talking about the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. He used a Hindi phrase “Athithi Devo Bhav”, which he translated as “We treat our guests like God”
It all fits with my experience of India, where I’ve never had anything but good service.
Let’s hope they sort the Games out!
A Sad Tale from India
I received a message this morning, which looked like spam, but it was informing me about a little girl, called Pooja, who has been rescued by the Police in Kerala from kidnappers.
It would appear to be genuine as it is mentioned on the Kerala Police web site and in other blogs.
Even if they don’t find Pooja’s parents, it just shows how the Internet might be able to help.
Do We Somehow Absorb The Events Happening As We Are Born?
I don’t mean in an astrological way, as that is a load of old rubbish. But surely the state, feelings and emotions of the mother, must be passed to the child!
When our first son was born in 1969, everybody was on edge for the first moon landing. But it all turned out well! Gayle Hunnicutt whose own son was born at the same time, said her son was placid. Was ours? Perhaps as a young child, but not like how Gayle described her son.
I was born on the 16th August 1947, just a day after India gained independence. I am a few hours late to be one of Midnight’s Children. Has it affected me? I love India and most things Indian. I’ve been twice and hopefully I’ll go again. I’ve just watched John Sergeant’s excellent documentary on Indian railways, which talked eloquently about the tragedy and violence of partition, when around a 1,000,000 people died. It must have been in the papers and on the radio around the time I was born. I’ve also heard of this violence from a man, who at the time was a young officer in the British Army trying to move civilians to safety in soft-skinned vehicles. He wouldn’t talk about it.
In Sergeant’s documentary, we saw how the tragedy still continues, with India and Pakistan refusing to forget the violence and emnity and try to build a better future.
Today London showed how bad that relationship has become, with Pakistan playing Australia at the neutral venue of Lords. Judging by the fact that Pakistan are on top, they will claim victory, when in truth they have been defeated by the terrorists, who have forced them to play in England.
We must learn to renounce violence and surely the Indian sub-continent has seen enough in the last seventy years.
Ridiculous Holiday Compliants
This list on the Telegraph‘s web site is very funny!
I have highlighted the one about Goa. It was a very good place for a coeliac to have a holiday. The thought makes me want to go back!
English Wimps
So the English badminton team has pulled out of the World Championships in India.
The Scots and Welsh have stayed and the head of Scottish Badminton has been quoted as England have perhaps overreacted.
In my view they have.
A few months ago and a few weeks before the attack in Mumbai, I was in the Taj Mahal Hotel. Do the attacks mean I won’t go back to India again. Of course not!
I just worry for all those wonderful people in that hotel, whose lives will never be the same again. And how many of them died in the attack?
Remember if you want to be safe in a country like India, you are better off mixing it with the local people. They don’t want trouble and will make sure you don’t get it.
Gay Sex in India not Criminal
The Indian High Court has just ruled that gay sex is not criminal according to the BBC.
This appeared to be on the cards when I posted about Gay Pride in India.
I have no particular axe to grind, but I do think that what people do in their lives provided it doesn’t affect anybody else should be left to them. As an example, I don’t take drugs, but feel if someone wants to smoke cannabis, then it’s up to them. But if they then commit crime to feed the habit, then it is wrong.
Do It in God’s Name
I’ve just watched the Channel 4 programme, Dispatches about the attacks in Mumbai.
It’s chilling and it shows the callousness of those that controlled the gunmen from Pakistan. Is it alright for them to send young men to their deaths, when they are sitting comfortably at home? The title of this post is what a controller said to a gunman.
They said they did it in God’s name! Whose God? Not mine as I have none but life itself. And any religion that preaches death is some nihilistic cult that goes against all I believe in!
They were not even doing it in the good name of Islam. Much of Islam is now a bastardised version of a religion that looked after our science and made women equal. I’ve read enough history to know that.
But why do I feel so affected by the Mumbai attacks?
I wasn’t there, but I was in the Taj Mahal hotel two weeks previously. How many of those wonderful and kind people that we met in the hotel, died in the attacks?
Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai
I shall return to the hotel to show that terrorism will never get the better of me.
Gay Pride in India
India is one of a few countries in this world, where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by jail of up to ten years.
But now after India has had it’s second Gay Pride march, it looks like according to The Times that this law will be repealed.
Good!
Especially, as this leaves a rather rag-bag collection of represive regimes where this ban is in force.
The Anonymous Widower 