Sunday, April 17, 2016

Messi, Bolt, Serena vie for Laureus honours

From soccer genius Lionel Messi to sprint king Usain Bolt, a shimmering array of the world's greatest sports stars are in the race for top honours at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards -- also called the 'Oscars of Sport' -- to be presented, in Berlin, on Monday.
The generous sprinkling of stars is not just limited to the men's nominations with the women's category also featuring iconic names like tennis queen Serena Williams and track and field's ‘Pocket Rocket’ Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce among others.
In the men's category, three-time winner Bolt and five-time Ballon d'Or winner Messi, are joined by tennis No 1 Novak Djokovic, triple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton along with first time nominees Stephen Curry, star of NBA's Golden State Warriors, and golf's world No 1 Jordan Spieth, who has also been nominated in the 'Breakthrough of the Year' category.
In the quintet, Messi is perhaps the biggest star to have never won this coveted trophy even though he has been nominated in five previous editions.
Winner of the Ballon d'Or for a fifth time, the Argentine genius played a crucial role in Barcelona's outstanding season last year, in which the Spanish giants won the Champions League, La Liga and the Copa del Rey treble.
Among his 43 goals in La Liga, he scored a record 32nd hat-trick for Barcelona.
Djokovic, who won this award in 2012 and '15, clinched three Grand Slams -- Australian, Wimbledon and US Open – last year and was finalist in the French Open.
He became only the third man to reach all four finals in the same year and also the first to win six Masters 1000 events in one year. In 2015, he reached 15 consecutive finalsand won 11 titles.
Bolt, on the other hand, reaffirmed his status as the greatest sprinter the world has ever seen by defending his 100 metres, 200 metres and 4x100 metres titles at the World Championships. The Jamaican superstar took his career tally to 17 world and Olympic gold medals in the year gone by.
Among the women, Serena will once again be a top contender for the coveted trophy after securing her 10th Laureus nomination. The American icon sparkled in the year gone by with three Grand Slams.
On the other hand, Fraser Pryce continued to rule the 100 metres event with her second straight World Championships gold medal, which took her overall tally to third. The 28-year-old is the only woman to be crowned 100m world champion three times (2009, 2013, 2015). Last year, she also steered the Jamaican women's 4x100m team to a world gold.
In World Team of the Year category, the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team has been nominated for the second straight year along with Rugby world champions the All Blacks, Champions League winners FC Barcelona, NBA champions Golden State Warriors, the British Davis Cup team and the US women's football team, which won its third World Cup.
The Breakthrough of the Year category has British boxer Tyson Fury and golfer Jason Day among the nominees.
The Laureus World Comeback of the Year nominations features among others, American swimming sensation Michael Phelps. The most decorated Olympian with 22 medals, including 18 gold, had retired in 2012. The 30-year-old came back to swimming last year in the US National Championships, where he won gold medals in the 100 metres butterfly, 200 metres butterfly and 200 metres individual medley, clocking the fastest time of the year in all the three events.
Nominations for the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability include two former winners – Brazilian swimmer Daniel Dias, who won in 2009 and 2013, and France's Marie Bochet, the 2014 winner, who had her second clean sweep of all five events at Paralympic World Skiing Championships.
Nominees for the 2016 Laureus World Sports Awards:
Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award: Usain Bolt (Jamaica, Athletics), Stephen Curry (US, Basketball), Novak Djokovic (Serbia, Tennis), Lewis Hamilton (UK, Motor Racing), Lionel Messi (Argentina, Football), Jordan Spieth (US, Golf).
Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award:
Genzebe Dibaba (Ethiopia, Athletics), Anna Fenninger (Austria, Skiing), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica, Athletics), Katie Ledecky (US, Swimming), Carli Lloyd (US, Football), Serena Williams (US, Tennis)
Laureus World Team of the Year Award:
All Blacks (New Zealand, Rugby), FC Barcelona (Spain, Football), Golden State Warriors (US, Basketball), Great Britain Davis Cup team (Tennis), Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team (Germany), US Women's football team
Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award:
Chile Men's Football team, Jason Day (Australia, Golf), Tyson Fury (UK, Boxing), Adam Peaty (UK, Swimming), Jordan Spieth (US, Golf), Max Verstappen (Netherlands, Motor Racing)
Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award:
Dan Carter (New Zealand, Rugby), Jessica Ennis-Hill (UK, Athletics), Mick Fanning (Australia, Surfing), Michael Phelps (US, Swimmer), David Rudisha (Kenya, Athletics), Lindsey Vonn (US, Skiing)
From soccer genius Lionel Messi to sprint king Usain Bolt, a shimmering array of the world's greatest sports stars are in the race for top honours at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards -- also called the 'Oscars of Sport' -- to be presented, in Berlin, on Monday.

8 ways to beat the summer heat

With scorcher days ahead, you must be looking for ways to avoid the heat. Here are few!
During school, summer was probably the most-awaited season, since it coincided with the start of the long vacation.
Whole days spent playing with friends; school uniforms and textbooks swapped for the television and comics; ice creams and ice lollies no longer forbidden by indulgent parents; trips to visit the grandparents or a jaunt to a hill station -- what was not to love about summer?
Nostalgia probably lends a rose-tint to the glasses with which you look back at those days because summer seems so unpleasant now.
Were those days also this hot and sticky, or are we feeling the effects of ubiquitous global warming, you wonder?
The summer sun in most places in India has the power of sapping out your energy and leaving you tired and irritable.
Escaping to the cooler climes of hill stations or renting a little cottage in an Alpine village, against a backdrop of picturesque snow-clad mountains, is sadly not an option for most.
Sitting closeted inside an air-conditioned room is again not always an option, nor is it the optimal choice health-wise.
The upside is that there are several simple and natural measures that one can take to take the edge off the searing summer heat.
Hate UV rays, not the sun
Photograph: Tim Murphy/Creative Commons
Sandhya Gugnani, a nutrition expert associated with the television show The Great Chefs of India says, "Sometimes people ignore the basics. During summer, avoid direct sunlight and protect yourself by carrying an umbrella when stepping out." It is also essential to apply sunscreen.
When it is bright out, eat light
Photograph: Daniel Ford/Creative Commons
Heavy meals high in fat and spice are not your best choice when it's hot outside.
Eat small and frequent meals during all seasons, but especially during summer.
Dimple Mirchandani, a nutrition and health expert, says that avoiding meat and high-calorie dishes will make quite a difference to one's overall wellbeing.
Eat green, (and yellow and orange!)
Photograph: Lisa Clarke/Creative Commons
Plenty of vegetables and fruits should be incorporated in the diet. Cucumbers and watermelons have high water content and help prevent dehydration.
Sandhya suggests a balanced diet with antioxidants like beta-carotene, selenium and Vitamins E and C.
They are present in green leafy vegetables, yellow and orange coloured fruits and vegetables, whole grains, pulses, and nuts and seeds such as almonds, pumpkin and fenugreek.
Hydrate and hydrate
Photograph: John Revo Puno/Creative Commons
Drinking water before you feel thirsty is important. Thirst is a sign that your water intake has been poor. Sipping water through the day is a great idea to keep electrolytes balanced in the body.
A slice of lime, or orange with a few sprigs of mint in a bottle of water helps make it more palatable.
Buttermilk and tender coconut water are also healthy options. Dimple says packaged juices and colas are packed with sugar, which is high in calories and addictive, and should be avoided.
Regular workouts
Photograph: Kind Courtesy Malaika Arora Khan/Instagram
Summer is not an attractive season for exercise, given how much one sweats. But regular workouts keep the stamina up.
Dimple says "I wouldn't recommend outdoor sports when the sun is blazing outside. Either exercise early in the morning or in the evening, or else workout indoors."
Cotton and comfort
Photograph: Kind Courtesy Neha Dhupia/Instagram
Loose-fitting cotton outfits work best in the summer. Comfortable footwear and a bright scarf for protection from the sun also makes for good fashion sense.
Home sweet home
Photograph: Frank/Creative Commons
Staying indoors at home or work during the day and restricting outdoor activities to when it's cooler outside, before 10.30 am or after 5.30 pm, is recommended especially if temperatures hit near 40 degrees Celcius and above.
Frequently moving from air-conditioned to non-air-conditioned rooms can be detrimental to health, says Sandhya.
Prevention is better
Photograph: Forest Starr and Kim Starr/Creative Commons
As tempting as they are, it is better to avoid extremely cold foods and drinks.
Water-borne diseases are common in summer, so proper care should be taken by avoiding water and food from street vendors. Sandhya feels it's best to carry water from home.
Fruit and raw vegetable salads should be avoided if the hygiene of the place is suspect. Milk and dairy products spoil faster in hot weather and should be consumed with care.
According to Dimple, one common mistake that people make is not understanding seasonal produce. It is the magic of nature that each season brings with it the right diet.
Summer fruits like watermelons, sweet limes, and lychees are perfect for summer, whereas apples are excellent for winter.
By not following seasonal patterns in our diet, we run the risk of not just eating wrong but also ingesting non-seasonal fruits and vegetables that are usually not organic and have higher chances of being treated with chemicals.
If we take a bit of care, we can get back to the fun of childhood summers.
As the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow evoke so perfectly -- 
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new-created in all the freshness of childhood.

Companies line up IPOs worth Rs 15,000 crore

Eye business expansion, fulfil working capital requirements and making loan repayments
The IPO lane is getting increasingly crowded as companies have lined up offers worth more than Rs 15,000 crore in the current fiscal to fund their business expansion, meet working capital requirements and make loan repayments.
Dilip Buildcon, New Delhi Centre for Sight, Ujjivan Financial Services, Quess Corp, Hinduja Leyland Finance and Seaways Shipping and Logistics are among the ones that plan to launch share-sale offers in the coming months.
At present, 25 companies plan to raise Rs 12,500 crore (Rs 125 billion) and have secured approval of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Prime Database Managing Director Pranav Haldea said.
Another six firms looking to mop up Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) have filed draft documents with the capital market watchdog and are awaiting approval, he added.
Besides, many more filings are expected in the near future.
Proceeds of the IPO will be used to fund business expansion plans, to meet working capital requirements and to repay loan and for other general corporate purposes.
According to experts, the IPO market is expected to see some activity in the current fiscal as half a dozen companies have filed their draft papers with Sebi in the last three months (January-March) to launch public offers.
Seven firms - Equitas Holdings, Infibeam Incorporation, Bharat Wire Ropes, HealthCare Global Enterprises, Quick Heal Technologies, TeamLease Services and Precision Camshafts - have come out with IPOs this year.
During the just-ended 2015-16, fund-raising through IPOs came in at Rs 14,461 crore (Rs 144.61 billion), making it the highest in the last five financial years. In comparison, Rs 2,770 crore (Rs 27.7 billion) were mobilised in 2014-15.
The past fiscal year also witnessed a flurry of activity on the small and medium enterprise (SME) platform as there were as many as 50 SME IPOs that mobilised Rs 311 crore. In 2014-15, 38 IPOs mopped up Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion).

Marketmen said an attractively priced IPO will get a solid response from investors as its chances of listing with gains get higher. Conversely, if an IPO is "over-priced", it may not be able to list attractively.

India's military embrace of the US comes at a price

'The Modi government will do well to thrash out a national consensus before taking the leap and put itself in America's pouch,' says Rajeev Sharma.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter tour the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya at the Indian Naval Station Karwar, April 11, 2016. Photograph: Senior Master Sergeant Adrian Cadiz
IMAGE: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter tour the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya at the Indian Naval Station Karwar, April 11, 2016. Photograph: Senior Master Sergeant Adrian Cadiz

The Narendra Modi government may well be playing with fire in pursuing a policy of great American embrace, which seeks to turn the Manmohan Singh government's decade-long foreign policy on its head.
At their bilateral meeting in New Delhi on April 12, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and United States Defence Secretary Ashton Carter decided in principle to negotiate and sign the Logistics Support Agreement or LSA to provide logistical support, fuel supplies to each others' militaries from respective bases in India and the US.
This raises the spectre of not only infuriating a key friendly country like Russia, but also a giant neighbour like China with which India boasts of having a strategic partnership.
Besides, powers like Iran and other Muslim countries would have their own issues resulting from the Modi government's American embrace.
In the coming days, the Modi government will have a lot of explaining to do as India engages directly with Iran, Russia and China.
At least three top officials of the Modi government are set to engage with these three powers in coming days. Inevitably, the US will be the elephant in the room in all these discussions.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is in Iran and scheduled to have substantive talks with the Iranian interlocutors April 17. From Tehran, she travels to Moscow where on April 18 she is scheduled to meet her counterparts from Russia and China under the rubric of RIC (Russia, India and China).
Defence Minister Parrikar is in China on his maiden visit and will meet his Chinese interlocutors on April 17-18.
Immediately after Parrikar departs from China, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will be in China. His meetings with top Chinese officials are scheduled for April 21-22.
All three Indian officials -- Swaraj, Parrikar and Doval -- are expected to be swamped by questions on the Modi government's strategic shift towards the US. It will be hard for the trio to satisfy their hosts, particularly Russia and China.
The Congress party has already noted that the Modi government does not have the mandate to push the country towards a military alliance with the US. This raises the domestic challenges for the Modi government as the previous government had consistently warded off American pressure to sign the LSA since 2004.
'Though, America is India's strategic partner and there is an ongoing defence cooperation we have strong reservations and concerns over this development,' Congress leader and former Union minister Anand Sharma said.
'Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government do not have a national mandate to push India into a situation in closer, deeper, military alliance and become part of the larger operational designs and requirements of the US in Asia, in the Pacific and the South China Sea,' Sharma added.
'It would be detrimental to India's strategic interests, our security interest and also undermine or rather underrate the critical geo-strategic balance and also the balance for forces in India's extended neighbourhood in the region,' Sharma -- who served as minister of state for external affairs during Dr Singh's first term in office -- said.
'When you have such an agreement put in place, it will also require, though the government may deny, the presence of support personnel for maintenance and repair in India's military bases and that will further be taking a step towards a formal military alliance,' Sharma pointed out.
'We have also concerns that it will be, in fact, inviting opposition and serious concerns of India's strategic partners -- Russia and even China.'
Throughout its decade-long rule, Dr Singh's government had resisted the LSA and two other concomitant pacts -- CISMOA or the Communication and Information Security MOA and the BECA or Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement.
Dr Singh's government saw these agreements as intrusive which would be construed or misconstrued by India's other strategic partners as India being drawn into a military alliance with the US.
The Congress party's concerns are that the CISMOA would take into its embrace the complete communication network of the Indian armed forces, its radar and other communication signals including that of the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy which can jeopardise India's operational preparedness and strategies.
The Modi government has said it wants to have the LSA on a case-to-case basis and formal arrangements already exist between India-the USA, India-Russia and our other partners when there is a specific requirement. The The Congress party has raised an important question. asks why then is there a need for a formal agreement with the US?
Since the LSA is not a done deal yet and not something cast in stone just as yet, the Modi government will do well to thrash out a national consensus before taking the leap and put itself in America's pouch.
Rajeev Sharma is an independent journalist and strategic analyst who tweets @Kishkindha

Friday, April 15, 2016

Smriti Irani will destroy Indian education for good

Our recent piece on the valedictory speech of the minister of HRD at a Kolkata workshop elicited many replies from the readers. Some found that we indulged in a personal attack, our piece lacked "logic" and "argumentation" and one of her secret admirers, in her defence, even sent us a link to a report by Saptadwipa Ghosal in The Echo of India. Such responses demand an adequate reply. Actually, we wanted to show how profound her new education policy is and we failed in demonstrating it. In this piece, through the use of sophisticated hermeneutics, we shall make our mistake good.
Personal attack
About personal attack, one of the authors has met Smriti twice so far and his impressions of her are very positive. Though rumours are rife about her abrasive and arrogant personality, she came across as a nice, pleasant and witty person in her conversations with him. Nothing in our article suggests anything about her personality, whether positive or negative. In this sense, we could not have indulged in a personal attack.
The second sense of personal attack involves impropriety, whether understood in terms of some vague notion of "good manners" that is prevalent among the fake intellectuals that populate the Indian academia or in the sense of being abusive. Only those who cannot read a text properly would see a sarcasm-laden text as either being abusive or lacking in good manners. We have no answer to give to those who cannot understand a text or know how to read it.
The third sense of personal attack involves the fallacy of ad hominem criticism. It is very well-known in India because it is the only kind of "criticism" that Ambedkarites and their sycophants use: challenge and reject some idea because it comes from the "Brahmins" and/or the "upper caste" members. This "radicalism" and "social justice" which they are taught in the Indian universities, especially in humanities and social science departments, as a heroic and valid criticism is an argumentative fallacy everywhere else in the world. One cannot reject an argument because of the person who says it; the truth and the validity of the argument do not depend on the nature of the person who puts the argument across. We did not reject anything that Smriti said in her speech because of who she is but because of what she said.
In all these three senses, our article cannot be seen as a personal attack on Smriti Irani by any reasonable person. However, it did attack her ideas, if she has any worth calling her own, because they are asinine, silly and dangerous. The hyperlink that her secret admirer sent us makes this fact even more painfully obvious. Surely, some salutary words are required about the HRD"s ground-breaking policy initiatives, as The Echo of India presents them, and also to meet the objection that we presented nothing of "substance" in our earlier piece.
Apparently, Dr Nagesh Thakur, a professor at Shimla University, introduced the "10 points" discussed at the Kolkata workshop that the HRD is going to implement. We begin with a crucial assumption that this man is not one of Smriti Irani"s favourites. She appears to favour people in terms of their degrees of incompetence, immorality and corruption: one of the blue-eyed boys in the servile entourage of the minister, for instance, has "the UGC in the palm of his hands", as one of his erstwhile collaborators proudly and openly declares today. In any other country, this man would be languishing behind bars; in India, under the able guidance of Smriti Irani, this man occupies a whole series of plum positions and lords over multiple commissions with many more in the offing. Thus, assuming that Dr Thakur is a man of intellectual and moral integrity and, therefore, not one of the minister"s favourites, to read some of the "most potent points" that came up for discussion is to taste the "most potent" recipe for generating instant ulcers. Here, we will look at two such.
The first "potent" idea
One ingredient in that recipe is constituting a "national education commission in India" that "will run independently, in an autonomous manner with integrated thoughts". The previous sentence is an exemplary instance, if there was ever one, of disintegrated "thoughts" coming from disintegrating minds.
Argument One
What does "integration" mean in this context? This is not a word-quibble, when it is about a national education policy. One could speak of "physical", "psychological" or "religious" or "spiritual" integration, for example, but none of these makes sense with respect to thoughts. One could speak of "logical", "conceptual" or "cognitive" integration of thoughts in a sensible way, of course. However, this use of integration requires that one specifies the sets of thoughts with which any particular set of thought ought to be integrated. Should some set of thoughts, for instance, be integrated with "Vedic" or "Upanishadic" thoughts? Or, perhaps, to aim at the highest and the impossible, namely, "integrated" with Ambedkar's non-existent thoughts? This is not an avenue worth exploring while interpreting the sentence here since we will come back to this towards the end; besides, the word "integration" in this context qualifies the word "thoughts" to tell us something about their nature. The thoughts of the commission should not be disjointed but "integrated", suggests the sentence. Thus, we have to look elsewhere.
Argument Two
Probably, the HRD is vaguely thinking (even if in a "disintegrated" fashion) of the following two possibilities: (a) holistic thinking, or (b) inter- or multi- disciplinary thinking. Very frankly, we cannot imagine what it is to think "holistically" except in health care ("holistic medicine") or in semantics ("meaning holism"). We doubt whether her blue-eyed boy that we spoke about or the current favourite person in her entourage would have even heard of "meaning holism". Smriti could not have; nor could her advisor excelling in citing Sanskrit shlokas or those bureaucrats who are drafting the national educational policy with great care and concern. "Holistic medicine" cannot function as a paradigm for framing policies about teaching physics (unless her vernacular geniuses, unknown to the republic of letters but doing cutting-edge research in physics in Bhojpuri language, have come up with "holistic physics") or Integral calculus. Thus, the only option is that the national commission has "integrated thoughts" in the sense that it thinks inter or multi-disciplinarily.
Argument Three
There are only two kinds of people who can undertake such a task in, to take an example, the domain of mathematics. The first are the multitudes doing research in social, cultural, psychological and cognitive foundations of mathematics; the second are unsung geniuses like the Infosys founder Narayan Murthy, one such typical individual, who can hold forth on any subject under the sun with a clarity and originality that would put an Einstein to shame. Clearly, choosing the first is not an option: if it is, the national education commission would swell in size to millions with most of them coming from Europe and the US (unless, of course, Smriti's vernacular geniuses in Tulu have accomplished this wondrous task already). That is because of the number of people doing research in all scientific fields and disciplines in this manner is not in single digits nor are they to be found in India. That leaves only one other option: induct windbags and empty heads to sit on the national commission on education. Now, this option makes perfect sense: such an illustrious bunch of intellectuals will truly be "autonomous" from all constraints imposed by disciplined thinking and "will run independently" of all scientific knowledge. Given that they will have no thoughts of any kind, being the null set, the group is tightly "integrated" and well-structured. Indeed, this is a very "potent" idea as the reporter puts it but one capable of destroying whatever little education that is left in this country.
The second "potent" idea
Consider the next "potent idea" that the HRD is going to implement: "The new education policy must reflect Indian ethos and philosophies along with importance for all Indian languages in the higher education". The italicised part of the previous sentence is a real humdinger. Let us reflect a bit on what it could possibly mean and what it will definitely entail.
Argument one
The first question is: what is this "Indian" ethos? To use the language of the postcolonials in India, another pernicious group in the academia, this is a "contested concept". That is to say, today there is a severe "power" struggle to determine the meaning of these two words. Once this question comes into existence, there arises their next favourite questions, which are inane everywhere else except among the postcolonials in India: (a) "who" represents the Indian "ethos"- the "Brahmins", the "upper castes", the "OBC"s" or "the Dalits"? (b) "who" speaks for these groups? Unless these two questions are "settled" to everyone's satisfaction it is ridiculous to introduce it as the aim of a national education policy.
Let us sidestep this issue for a moment and say that "truth", "knowledge" and "intellectual integrity", etc. are being talked about here. Would this do? No, it would not, because these are not "Indian" ethos but of every kind of serious research. Consequently, this is not adequate either. Further, does the education policy intend to induce an "ethos" of a people, an "ethos" of a culture, an "ethos" of a society or an "ethos" of a civilisation, or, failing all these, an "ethos" of a group that shouts the loudest (like the Ambedkarites and their sycophants, for instance), the "chosen" or the "best"? Or, perhaps, the ethos of doing research? The talk of "Indian ethos" is so silly in this context that to propound it as a policy measure is to out-beat the most insane policy that the Congress party ever implemented. And most policies of the Congress party regarding education have been insane.
Argument two
Consider the issue we sidestepped. Who represents whom and who should speak for whom? In India, this issue has taken proportions that defy even the insanity of lunatics. When, everywhere in the world, such people would be admitted to mental institutions, in India they become professors in the universities. The right caste certificate and the chanting the Ambedkar-naam with the right intensity and devotion will propel you to a state or central employment quicker than you can say "presto" or "abracadabra".
Be it as that may, these questions have no reasonable answers. In principle, anyone can represent and speak for anyone else as long as we know what should be spoken about. This elementary idea in political philosophy has escaped the grasp of Indian intellectuals because they are more than mesmerized by something that paralyses the brain completely. The best way to indicate that state of affairs is to provide evidence about the paralysis first and then go on to talk about the nature of the paralysis and its relationship to the national education policy.
Evidences: People, especially the secularist intellectuals of India, are against "idol worship" and deny the causal efficacy of mantras in the real world. We are always doubly astounded by this phenomenon: how can people who are living proofs of what they deny, negate the reality of the foundation on which they stand?
Consider the innumerable (almost infinite) photographs, busts and statues of Ambedkar in both private and public places in India. We do not know of a single secular intellectual who does not piously bow down to these relics of Ambedkar: they take out processions of his images, celebrate his birthday and mourn his passing, chant his name in great fervour and piety, name children, schools, hospitals, streets and townships in his name, bow down to his images with great reverence… And the secular intellectuals who do all these are supposed to be against "idol worship"!
This is true not just of "secular" intellectuals. It is more pronounced in those who are called the "Hindu Fundamentalists". In fact, the fortune of Ambedkarites is on the upswing under the rule of the BJP in India. While the almost bankrupt Maharashtra treasury groans under the weight of drought and decades of incompetent governments, its chief minister spent nearly 50 crores buying a house in London where Ambedkar apparently stayed once. In less than a decade, that government will have spent Rs 100 crores on that house to transform it into a religious shrine. Fadnavis even declared Ambedkar to be "the" greatest Buddhist scholar ever. That being the case, we wonder why the Dalai Lama and others talk about Nagarjuna or Chandra Kirthi. Surely, "the annihilation of the caste system" is indescribably superior to themulamadhyamikakarika of Nagarjuna.
When Fadnavis waxes eloquent about Ambedkar and bows piously with eyes closed and hands folded before his bust, rumours abound that Modi is involved in serious diplomatic negotiations with the British government in order to allow extraordinary regulations to be observed in the Ambedkar Pilgrimage Centre in London: Modi apparently wants to forbid the devotees from walking in the pilgrimage house. They are supposed to crawl on their knees and lick the holy ground. We suspect that the British government is raising objections to such measures but, we are sure, Modi is heroically holding firm and affirming his Indianness and bhakti in this regard.
One wonders though why the entire "opposition" is silent about the Pilgrimage Centre and regarding such a conspicuous waste of tax payers' money. Would they show the same revered attitude if Fadnavis celebrated the "teen murtis" or "three jewels" of Maharashtra, namely, Ambedkar, Hegdewar and Golwalkar, in an identical manner? If Ambedkar, till the late 70's an insignificant "leader" of a small minority, can become God of the Nation today, why not a Golwalkar who is also, by all accounts, a "leader" of even a bigger group of Hindus? Would the Centre in Delhi create study centres in memory of Din Dayal Upadhyaya or Shyamprasad Mukherji with the tax payers' money? To do so, it appears to us, requires acts of courage or foolishness, depending on where you are coming from; to do the same for Ambedkar merely requires servility, which Fadnavis and Modi appear to possess in abundance.
As far as those who deny that mantras have no efficacy in the real world, they seem to have no idea what the chanting of Ambedkar's name causes: if you do it regularly, loudly, diligently and with the right amount of passion, worldly favours are granted, gates of power go open and promotions are guaranteed. How, then, can anyone deny the efficacy of the mantras when mere namasmarane of Ambedkar has these incredible effects?
Back to the argument: If these are evidences for the paralysis, what is the nature of paralysis? It has to do with the psychological effects of joining a cult or a religious sect. In the India of today, Ambedkarismhas become a cult: to join it, you have to renounce your past (say, of coming either from the "upper caste" or for being under the influence of "Brahmins"); you have to punish those who refuse to be converted (the terror tactics of excommunication, brow-beating, physical beating, threats, letters of complaint written to the SC/ST commission and the president of India, etc.); you have to intimidate your opponents and reward the faithful; you need prophets and divinity; a charismatic leader… Every single property of a cult can be discerned in Ambedkarism, the religion of the Ambedkarites.
A national education policy ought to set up research centres and institutes. It should not set up pilgrimage shrines and finance priests, Rabbis or imams to study their holy texts. The UGC and the ICSSR so far have mostly financed nothing except projects set up to study and propagate a cultic and sectarian theology. Under Smriti, this tendency has only been encouraged further. Her educational policy does not stimulate the emergence of science but the expansion of the Ambedkarian cult.
This being the case, we can now ask the question: Whose "ethos" is "the" Indian "ethos" then? Answer: those of Ambedkarism. Who represents that cult and can speak for it? Why, the Ambedkarites, to be sure. They do that in "the name" of the Dalits, of course. What is "the ethos" of these Ambedkarites? Look around you in the Indian universities and government institutions where they are in the majority, you will discover the facts of the matter. The second "potent" point transforms these old facts into the "New" and "national" education policy.
Argument three
These facts are indicative of a process that confirms one of the oldest ideas about the origin of religion. That idea says that God (or gods) is/are human creations and that people transform some human beings into gods. That is the process that is occurring in India: in about 100 years, if things go the way they are going, Ambedkar will have become GOD and not just one of his avatars or reincarnations. Even if Ambedkarism always remains a cult, it will be soon recognised as a "major religion", more important in India than, say, "Hinduism". Indira Gandhi began this process in order to liquidate Jagjivan Ram and his influence on the Harijans. The successive governments since then have faithfully pursued her political strategy by transforming it into a national religious and educational policy. The current BJP government, under the charismatic and able Leader Modi, is accelerating that trend: never did Ambedkarites have such success as they have now. Ambedkarism is rapidly taking the visible shape of an institutionalised religious cult.
How exactly does this process work? As we have already shown, thenamasmarane of Ambedkar has miraculous powers: it gives phala to those who chant it vigorously. To the individual, it gives worldly success; to the political parties, it yields them votes and brings them to power; to the Ambedkarites, it provides them the boon they desire, irrespective of which party is in power. This being the case, his texts obviously will have very mysterious and potent powers: if your read his "annihilation of the caste system", your brain gets slowly but inexorably paralysed because the text takes over the critical centres of your brain first; if you read two of his books, your central nervous system succumbs next; if you go further, there occurs a total and irredeemable failure of both the brain and the central nervous system leaving most physiological processes intact. At that stage, you reach "Shunyata": the highest state in the Buddhist tradition. However, Ambedkarism takes you one step higher: the world remains full and the entire Shunya remains only inside your head. If you persist, then you are elevated as a university professor and have a chance to become an acolyte. This religious profundity requires gospels written by prophets. Currently, many wannabes in Indian higher educational institutions are vying for the position of becoming one of His prophets by writing His biography. However, the competition is rather fierce, as Arundhati Roy discovered to her great discomfiture. Competition, we all know, brings out the best in people but Ambedkarism seems to embrace this principle only half-heartedly though.
However, there is something "new" in the BJP policy as it is expressed in the NEP that Smirti has choreographed. The "ethos" of the Indian society that it wants to cement is to be found in the gopsel: not in the gospel according to Ambedkar but in the Gospel of Ambedkar, the holy texts of Ambedkarism. The objectless thoughts of Ambedkar (the highest phase in Zen Buddhism is to think objectless thoughts) will be "integrated" by the "autonomous" and "independently" functioning national education commission to provide the children with the Ambedkarite ethos, which is also the "Indian Ethos". What more do you want? Truly, this education policy is new and unprecedented deserving of applause from all and sundry. Surely, our hermeneutic exercise has revealed unanticipated depths and the matchless profundity of thoughts that swirl in the cranium of the HRD minister, Smriti Irani, by now.
Conclusion
There are more "potent" facts to speak about, where each has the potency to blow the Indian Education system to smithereens, and they can also be rendered hermeneutically profound. To do so would be an overkill in the context of this piece. But we promise to come back to this issue again. Surely, the current Indian scene generates pathos: it has tragic consequences for the future of India. Every single "potent point" made in that Kolkata conference is chilling in its implications in terms of what it holds for the Indian youth. If implemented, as it surely will be, it will accelerate the process of disintegration of India that Indira Gandhi initiated more than four decades ago. Every single government since then simply followed the same course; today, the BJP is accelerating that process. The secularists and the Ambedkarites should clap and cheer: their dream is coming true at last. The BJP should be voted back to power, in case they do not achieve their goal within the course of this term. Kapil Sibal, without a doubt, contributed enormously in his own incompetent way to the destruction of the Indian education system. But his success in doing so does not hold a candle to the realisations of the most competent minister of the HRD we have ever had: Smriti Irani. She will completely destroy and decimate Indian education. The only "development", to chant that famous Modi's Mantra again, that we see is the accelerated development of the disastrous process that Indira Gandhi initiated decades ago. Perhaps, this is what the HRD ministry has been aiming for all along. All power to Smriti.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Home made remote Control Car

DIY : Learn how to make a simple 4x4 RC electric car using four motor, also watch homemade remote using simple material, its very simple wire coded remote controlled car
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About Glue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvCrE...

Thank you for watching crazy NK !!!!!!

The Bollywood Movies on Azhar Sachin and Dhoni











Posibilities pf Mergers: India & Maldives

  There are a number of reasons why the Maldives might merge with India in the future. These include: Cultural and historical ties: The Mal...