I hate Mayawati

so says Manoj Singh Naruka in his orkut community named "I Hate Mayawati". NDTV and other TV channels having been showing reports that Maywati is pissed off by "fake" profiles on orkut and demeaning comments written by the authors about her. There was also a report which said that Google acknowledged that fake profiles are against the policy of orkut.

Assuming that creating a profile with the name of someone is against the policy of orkut, is having a community which speaks against a person illegal? This community was shown on NDTV and I am assuming that Manoj Singh is already a celebrity for all the wrong reasons. I don't know anything about Mayawati, in fact i don't know and i don't care about Indian politics, so i don't have anything to say for or against her , but does this mean the end of freedom of speech in India ? or some might ask, was there ever such a thing as freedom of speech in India?

In fact, my neighbour has always wanted to start a website http://www.ihatemayawati.com/, the mayawati in question is not the UP Chief Minister, but a lady called Mayawati Rama Devi who lived from 1882-1923. It seems that this Mayawati had slapped his great-grandfather who had accidentally bumped into her on August 10th, 1902 at the local market. Though his great-grandfather had apologised saying that it was an accident, she started shouting and as always in India, a crowd collected and boo'ed him. He was "greatly" insulted by this. This story passed on from him to his son to his son and finally to my neighbour. This was regarded as a family insult and my neighbour had always wanted to take revenge. But, with the current circumstances where uneducated accomplices of politicians go witch-hunting, where constitutional rights take a back-seat, having a website called ihatemayawati.com, though intended for Mayawati Rama Devi is an open invitation for trouble.

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Kerala celebrates Onam

To all the Mallus, whether you are Nairs or not, Happy Onam !

Salman Khan to go to jail

Wow, what is happening to the Indian Judiciary? Is it finally waking up after 60 years of Independence?

First, it was Sanjay Dutt who was sent to jail and now it is the "superstar" Salman Khan who is going to jail. A Jodhpur court rejected Salman Khan's appeal against the jail term given to him by a lower court. This was for "allegedly" poaching a Chinkara, an endangered species in 1998. He is also "allegedly" involved in another poaching case. He is also "allegedly" involved in the hit-and-run case killing one person in September 2002.

Govinda was on NDTV defending his "partner" Salman khan and he used the usual quotes used by bollywood under such circumstances - "He is a good human being", "he is being targeted". He also went to extent of making a quote "Nothing fails like success" and said that Salman's conviction was not good for India. When the reporter mentioned all the incidents where Salman broke the law, Govinda was quick to reply that all were "alleged" circumstances and that he was convinced that Salman had nothing wrong. Shame on you Govinda!

Technorati Tags: sanjay dutt salman khan jail chinkara salman khan

Happy 368th Birthday Chennai

Chennai (w.k.a Madras) is celebrating its 368th birthday today on August 22nd. There are lot of activities like tshirt design contests, quizzes etc being organised in Madras in the coming week. Wish i were there now!

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Limassol Wine Festival 2007

The annual wine festival held in Limassol, Cyprus is going to start the coming Friday (August 24th) and will go on for a fortnight. This is a good opportunity for one and all to taste all the local wines. If you are a teetotaller, you can do lot of other things. The opening ceremony will give you a good opportunity to take photographs of fireworks if you position yourself properly on the pier close to the old port. You can also win lot of prizes in the various games which are organised in the municipal gardens where the wine festival is held. Keep watching the Cyprus Blog for updates and photographs from the wine festival.

Btw, i visited the wine festival on the opening day. You can find the photographs on the Cyprus Blog.

Technorati Tags: limassol wine festival municipal garden cyprus wine festival

"Atlas Jet" plane hijacked from Northern Cyprus to Istanbul

The plane was not hijacked from the southern free part of Cyprus, but from the occupied Northern part also known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The Atlas jet was travelling from Ercan Airport in Northern Cyprus to Istanbul when it was hijacked. The hijackers wanted the plane to fly to Tehran, Iran, but the plane landed in Antalya in Turkey to refuel. The latest news is that most of the passengers have escaped from the plane unhurt.
Cyprus, a country probably unheard of outside Europe, is gaining prominence in the world. First it was Marcos Baghdatis and now it is this plane hijack. If you are from outside Cyprus and worried about visiting Southern Cyprus and feel conerned about this hijack, don't worry! it is very difficult for some one to carry out a hijack on a plane from Southern Cyprus, the airports here are amazingly efficient.

Technorati Tags: plane hijack cyprus atlas jet hijack istanbul turkey northern cyprus plane hijack cyprus

Effective Communication Skills

Sometimes, when language is a problem, a highlight here and there solves the issue! The poster that was put up announcing a 20% discount at a newly opened Bowling Center.

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Euro-Mediterranean Dance Festival in Limassol

Been in Cyprus for more than six years and i have never been to any folk dance festivals until now. A BIG mistake! I went yesterday to the 2nd Euro Mediterranean Folk dance festival being held in Limassol currently.

There were participants from many European countries including Serbia, Belgium and Greece. It was one of the best dance shows i have ever seen. The show went on for a little more than 2 hours and the crowd enjoyed every minute of it. The elaborate costumes and the well choreographed dance sequences were too good not to be captured on a photo.

For more photographs (lot of them), go to the Cyprus Blog.

Technorati Tags: euro mediterranean festival folkdance cyprus limassol dance festival

Free Gtalk Theme with lot of features for download

I am not into chatting big-time. But, over the past few days, had to use GTalk a lot, because i had to communicate with a colleague in another country for many issues and using the phone would simply be too expensive, as we don't have any "official" connection to this country. One of my friends Ravi Sharma had developed his own Gtalk Theme which has some amazing customisations. I am kind of reviewing in detail all the features below so that you can see these wonderful features in action and then download the theme.

Features of the new free Gtalk Theme:

• Changing the background of the Gtalk Chat Window. All you have to do is go to Start--> gtheme--> Change Background. Then, choose any jpg and reopen your chat windows and you shall have the background you want. When you download the theme, you get more than a dozen sample images too.

• Got bored of the same old smileys in your chat? This theme provides dozens of innovative smileys to be used in you chat. You can see the complete list of smilies and their codes on this page.

• Day in History: You can also post a Day in history in your chat window by using the command sravi:dih in the chat window.


• Joke of the Day: You can post the Joke of the day in your chat window by using the command sravi:jod


• Word of the Day: You can post the Joke of the day in your chat window by using the command sravi:wod


• Live Cricket scores: By entering sravi:cricket, you can get the latest score of that day's match or the last recorded match.

• For the romantically inclined, try this command: sravi:msg1:I*Love*You or any other message with the * denoted a break of a line eg: sravi:msg1:I*like*chatting*with*you

• You can even send a hand-written letter to the person you are chatting with by using the command: sravi:msg2:Hi$I am enjoying this theme, You should try it too$Rajaram S

• You can even play any youtube/google video inside the chat window by using the command: sravi:gvideo:(google video link) or sravi:utube:(youtube video link)
• You can share random picasa photos inside the chat window using the command: sravi:photos:(google user id without @gmail.com)
• Read comic strips online within the chat window: Use the command sravi:comics: (number is from 1-34) to share various comic strips. Go to the comics page for details on which number to use for a particular comic strip.

and of course, the most important feature, you can chat too !

If you are interested in this theme, you can download the theme by going to Ravi Sharma's Gtalk theme page here or you can download the zipped installer directly by clicking here.

Technorati Tags: google+chat google gtalk chat gtalk theme google chat theme free download google talk

How big are the stars and the planets in the Universe?

I got this interesting email-forward today showing the sizes of the planets in the Solar System compared with the Sun and other stars. We are indeed small and negligible compared to the other occupants of our universe.

Arcturus is third brightest star in the night sky after Sirius and Canopus. Pollux is also one of the brightest star. Antares (below) is the 16th brightest star in the night sky. Betelgeuse(below) is the ninth brightest star.

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