Attukal Pongala - The largest religious union of women

Thousands of women on Friday participated in the 'Pongala' festival at the Attukal Devi temple, famed as the "Women's Sabarimala" for attracting one of world's biggest female devotional congregations.

The entire city turned into a virtual sea of women since the day-break as devotees poured in from far and wide and joined the local crowd to participate in the annual ritual, which made the temple enter Guinness Book of World Records.

The Attukal pongala festival is all set to break its own record. The festival, which entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 1997 for being the largest religious gathering of women, has now received the go-ahead from the Guinness authorities to update its record.
In 1997, the Attukal pongala festival entered the Guinness Book with the participation of 15 lakh devotees. This year, the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple Trust authorities are expecting 25 lakh devotees, Trust members said at a news conference here on Wednesday.

I guess "liberals" should start a new movement to allow men to take part in this event and give a writ petition in High Court

RSS launches SAVE GANGA campaign thru Ganga Sanskriti Pravah Yatra

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has launch a 99-day 'Save Ganga' campaign. This is first time RSS is directly getting involved in a environmental Program.

The rally will start from Gangasagar where the river merges into the sea and go all the way up to the river's source at Gangotri. One of the high points of the campaign will be when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani and RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan will participate in a special yagna, or fire ritual, in Varanasi.       Hindu clerics, including the four Shankaracharyas, yoga guru Swami Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as well as Ramjanmbhoomi Trust president Mahant Nritya Gopal Das will join what the RSS has billed as the Ganga Sanskriti Pravah Yatra.

"Pollution and commercialization has increased a threat to river Ganga. The society is also polluting Ganga in the name of development. We believe this initiative would help in creating awareness regarding cultural and water pollution," said Indresh Kumar, All India Karamkarini Member of the RSS.

Daytime dozing may up stroke risk

The next time you feel drowsy while watching the television or reading a newspaper, just get yourself a cup of coffee. Nodding off inadvertently during the day may increase your risk of a stroke.
A team of researchers in the United States has carried out a study and found that daytime dozing raises the risk of a stroke by nearly two to four fold, particularly in people who are a little aged.
"Our study suggests that daytime dozing may be an important and novel stroke risk factor," according to lead researcher Professor Bernadette Boden-Albala of the University of Columbia.

Obviously (or Should we say Unfortunately) Its not Working in India

The Need of Hour: More Hanna Yasir's

The finale of the week-long Nheralath music festival lived up to the tradition of religious harmony of Thirumandhamkunnu Temple. Seated in front of the portraits of the Bhagavati and the legendary Sopana sangeetam maestro Nheralth Rama Poduval, Hanna rendered ‘multi-religious’ keerthans’ in Jaunnpuri, Mohanam raga and Arabhi raga.

Hanna has earlier sung at the music festivals of Kalpathy and Subramania Temple, Paloor. Hanna’s two-hour performance at the Bhagavata Navaha Satram at Manidweepapuri, Padinjattumuri near Malappuram, recently won her much fame.

“Music is divine. It’s beyond all religions. Nothing should be allowed to be a barrier to the flow of music,” says her father, Karuvattil Yasir.

MY SALUTE TO THE FATHER AND DAUGHTER DUO

Aussie PM Kevin Rudd & his Chinese Passion

Kevin Rudd, the non-Chinese world's first Chinese-speaking prime minister seems to be in a hurry to Rub India's the wrong way.

Australia's Labor government says it will scrap a deal to sell uranium to India, reversing a decision taken by the previous government, unless New Delhi signs up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

He also  dealt a lethal blow to a budding "Asian Arc of Democracy" that was actively pushed by then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that appeared designed to isolate Beijing.

Kevin Rudd Speaking in Mandarin

Instead, Australia has decided to improve relations with China and has just launched the first "strategic dialogue" between the two countries with Stephen Smith, the new Australian foreign minister, meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi.

During the bilateral strategic meeting, Smith informed Yang that Australia would no longer participate in the quadrilateral strategic dialogue, which also involved the United States, Japan and India.

Rudd’s avowed lifelong interest in China, its language and its history, is born of a childhood interest and led to a diplomatic and private career in Beijing. He was even invited by Brookings Institute president Strobe Talbott to speak in Washington on the rise of China and its strategic implications for the US-Australia alliance. With this background, It seems Mr Rudd is going out of way to please China, last Year Mr Rudd impressed Chinese Premier Mr Hu with his Mandarin Skills. He used the language to welcome Mr Hu to Sydney during a luncheon hosted by Prime Minister John Howard.

Is India's Foreign Ministry (being remotely driven by CPM) taking Note!

TATA: Truck to Nano

1954
Tata launched its first Mercedes Benz diesel truck, Telco.

1977
Tata manufactures its first commercial vehicle at its plant in Pune.

1986
Tata launches its first light commercial vehicle from Telco, the Tata 407.

1992
Tata Estate, Telco's second passenger vehicle launched by JRD Tata and Ratan Tata.

1994
Tata Motors released its multi-utility car, Tata Sumo in the year 1994.

1998
Ratan Tata drives the first Tata Indica off the assembly line

1998
Tata Motors produced an SUV, Tata Safari. It was the first SUV to be designed, developed and manufactured entirely in India.

2002
Tata introduced India's most competitive indigenous sedan, the Indigo.

2004
Tata Motors acquires Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company, South Korea. The first range of Tata Novus vehicles from Tata Daewoo is launched soon after.

2008
Tata Motors launched the most-awaited car of the year, its one-lakh car called Nano, at the 9th Auto Expo.

Nepal Maoist launch Shrill attack on Indian Political Parties from India!

Top-rung Maoist leader and party's central committee member C P Gajurel launched a scathing attack on Indian Opposition Party BJP by holding it responsible for "sabotaging" the April elections to the Constituent Assembly of  that country. C P Gajurel had come to the Chennai to attend a meeting of an Indo-Nepalese forum.

Speaking at the program he said, "Elections have been postponed thrice... The US and the BJP and its sister organisations such as VHP and RSS in India do not want the elections to be held for their own vested interests,"

I am amazed at the audacity of  a foreign political player to launch an attack on India's Opposition Party while in India!!!

It seems Indian backers of Nepal Maoist CPM and Congress has given them an Open Cheque!

 

News

February 19 day on which Era of two despots comes to an end.

Yesterday Fidel Castro who ruled cuba for over five decades resigned as Cuba's President, effectively ending the ailing Communist icon's iron-clad rule. Castro, who took power in a 1959 revolution, was the world's longest-serving head of government. He handed over power to his Brother Raúl Castro.

With the end of  Soviet era proved catastrophic for President Castro's revolution. Moscow in effect pulled the plug on the Cuban economy by refusing to take its sugar any more.

Still under American blockade and with its Soviet lifeline cut off, chronic shortages and empty shelves in Cuba were inevitable. Tempers grew shorter as the food queues grew longer.

By the mid-1990s, many Cubans had had enough. Thousands took to the sea in a waterborne exodus to Florida. Many drowned. It was a crushing vote of no-confidence in their leader. Even his own daughter Alina Fernandez prefers a life of exile as a dissident in Miami to rule under her "despotic" father.

In 2006, Forbes magazine estimated Castro's personal fortune at $US900 million ($980 million) - almost double the fortune held by Queen Elizabeth. Castro denied the claims.

In another Landmark event, Pakistan’s two centrist opposition parties have routed the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), a pillar of the military-backed regime that has ruled for eight years, speeding the country towards a return to democratic rule.

Long Live Democracy

Believe on your own Peril!

This is a photograph that everybody is familiar with, its picture of Famous Qinghai-Tibet railroad. The Tibetan antelopes and the train on the Qinghai-Tibet railroad appeared simultaneously in the eye of the camera.  This photograph was selected as one of the top 10 most memorable photographs of 2006 and its author received innumerable honors.

"The antelopes in the photograph are real.  The overpass bridge is also real.  But they were taken at two different time and stitched together using photoshop!

 

The influential America-based Science magazine published a photo which it claimed to be of a wild South China tiger, which was taken in northwest China.
The magazine quoted Gary Koehler of Washington State's Department of Fish and Wildlife as saying that "it's tremendously exciting news, if it can be substantiated".  The photograph, purporting to be the first sighting of a South China tiger for more than 30 years. The photo was chosen from 71 digital and film photos, reportedly taken by a local farmer named Zhou Zhenglong in early October in Zhenping County, Shaanxi Province.

However when a netizen broke the bubble when he posted online what he claimed was a "convincing proof" that the pictures are fakes - a New Year picture of a tiger (above) that hangs on the wall of his home!!!

Raoudram Mamooty beating his fan at malappuram

Pathetic!!! That poor guy was extending his hand for shake hand. A civilized man will never beat a person extending his hand for shake hand.

No GandhiGiri here!

Malaysian police used water cannon and tear gas on Saturday to break up an anti-government protest by ethnic Indians carrying roses to symbolise a peaceful demand for justice. The demonstrators consisting of about 300 men, women and children, gathered near Parliament House were defying a ban on rallies.

The children in the group were led by Hindraf chief Wayathamoorthy’s five-year-old daughter Vvaishnnavi, who wanted to present roses to Badawi and had last month written a letter to him urging him to be present at Parliament house to receive the flowers.

In Sudan even Donkeys commit suicide

Reports coming in from the UN Mission say that donkeys in Malakal,  are being severely mistreated by their owners, leading to their casualties.

Two cases of donkeys “taking their own lives” have been cited in a UN report filed by the Indian Army recently. In the first incident, according to the report, an overworked donkey preferred to be beaten to death by his master rather than pulling a heavily loaded cart through the market.

In the other case, a donkey jumped in to the Nile river, along with its load of a water barrel. “A donkey, who had decided to end his miserable and wretched life, ran towards the Nile. As he approached the banks, he plunged into the river and moved towards the current and the strong current of the mighty river swept it to a watery grave,”” says the report, written by Major Shambhu Saran Singh, posted at the UN mission. “He (the donkey) was still tethered to the water cart he was pulling when he decided to go and drown.”

Why Seculars failed to Condemn Raj Thackeray

The most intriguing feature of the ongoing turmoil in Maharashtra provoked by Raj Thackeray's posturing against North Indian migrants was the total silence of those professing to be the watchdogs of Secularism!

I am yet to hear Sonia Gandhi taking a strong stand against Raj Thackeray. Neither did CPM who have an opinion in everything ranging from Palestinian Issue to China have an opinion on this issue. Perhaps Sonia Gandhi had more important issues like membership of the Order of Leopold Association to be distracted by the antics of a small-time politician in Mumbai. and CPM Leaders were busy ducking Bottles being thrown by their Drunk Followers.

Or was it a calculated assault by an interloper on the traditional vote base of the country's most enduring saffron alliance? It followed the methodology of a party that tacitly built up Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale to outmaneuver the Akalis and pumped up the ULFA in Assam to cripple the AGP.