amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxyphrenyl- 2-butanone (10% solution in alcohol), ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, undecalactone, vanillin and solvent.
If this sounds like the next a-bomb or something, your are wrong. It is the constituent elements of a strawberry milkshake available at your friendly, neighbourhood McDonalds. Ouch. I wonder which has more nourishment – semtex eaten raw or the strawberry milkshake. Ultimately they both sound equally explosive!
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…..Indians will take your job, warns Uncle Bush.
“It’s important to understand if children don’t have those skill sets (in maths and science) needed to compete with a child from India, or a child from China, the new jobs will be going there,”
This happened at almost at the same time that the education minister of Maharashtra has proposed to make maths an optional subject in the state, replacing it with options like Computer Science, Agriculture and Handicrafts.
I think that one of the things that went wrong with the west, was its completely crummy educational policies. Rather than provide competitive skills – including language and numeracy – they dumbed down education so that the lowest common denominator would be advantaged.
As a result skills, rather than being widely available, became scarce. And, scarce means dearer. And dearer skills means a more expensive work force. Rather than provide better support for the less advantaged, the educational policies ended up churning out functionally illiterate people – who could barely manage to add 2 and 2 together. Who could barely manage to string a comprehensable sentance to gether. Today western jobs are suffering because of inappropriate and insufficient skill sets.
In India too, instead of making education more interesting and appropriate so that everyone benifits, education policy makers are looking to dumb it down to make sure that no one benefits.
A long time ago, when I was a student in London – i remember buying something worth 32 pence and giving a pound for it. While the shop assistant was busy hunting for the calculator I told him that the change was 68 pence. They called me a genius, and I sniggered in my mind. Last week, I was at a shop and spent 35 bucks and gave a hundred to the shop assistant. As they dived for the calculator, i had an awful sense of dejavu.
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Two very different stories in the papers.
This from the DNA talks about how the price for restoring the hymen – Hymenoplasty – is Rs.20,000/- and quotes a doctor saying:
“Young Gujarati girls turn up with the sole intention of keeping their future in-laws under the illusion that they are virgins,’’….. “I get queries from Indians in the US and Britain. If the practice becomes a trend, we will strike gold,”
And this one from the ToI talks about how men from Punjab, purchase brides from the North East – they have to look for brides from afar, coz they have systematically murdered the women in their own communities – for Rs.25,000!
For, now in its swirling fields play ‘chinky’ children, born of an urgent union between Sikh fathers and north-eastern mothers. These days, due to the unimaginably skewed sex ratios — in Fatehgarh Sahib, for instance, there are just 754 girls for 1,000 boys — Punjabi and Haryanvi men scout far and wide for brides.
(aside: Ahem, why is there a comma after the for and "urgent unions" – sounds like a bad line from a Gothic Romance. Gosh, who edits this stuff. )
So 20k for fixing a hymen and 25k for fixing a bride.
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….. finally got my room back. Spent the better part of last night putting things in place. STill lots to do.
I know, now, why people don’t redo their homes regularly – it is a pain!!
The final phase begins today – when they invade the drawing room. One more week to go!
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One of the more common sights on Indian roads – the palmist – who will peer into your hand and tell your fortune! I found this one’s face very interesting. The hand belonged to chap whose friend had dragged him there. From the conversation it seemed that they were figuring out when he would be married. after a bit of mumbo jumbo – aapka rahu ketu mein hai — the astrologer gave his verdict – 2007 ke baad. I loved the vagueness of it!
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Of all the forms of State so far, the modern Republic is the only one based on the consent of civil society. We are all supposedly participants in the state. And we abbrogate a lot of our responsibilities vis-a-vis the society we live in to the state. So for us to continue believing in this institution called the ‘state’ we need to see it delivering. Otherwise there is no reason for us to continue consenting to the existence of a monolith. This is not a revolutionary concept or even a treasonous one – it is simply a matter of fact. Those states that haven’t delivered have been washed away by society – just look at whole chunks of Eastern Europe to know what i mean. It is more than the fall of Communism, it represents the failure of the State. Just look at the nationalistic tensions within Russia, or the mutual anihilation tried out by the former citizens of Yogoslavia, or even the more civilized divorce of Czechlovakia. Western European state face tensions internally, but immersing themselves in the Superstate called the EC – has probably helped them maintain their states! I can see a whole lot of turbulence hitting western europe – just look at France, or the UK now. They aren’t really happy states. One of ways that a certain level of faith is maintained in the State, is to ensure that a commonly agreed set of laws are applied equally, and justice is delivered without bias within the State. And, this is where i think that the Indian state is massively screwing up. Society, as a whole, is taking a back seat to a few select power oligarchies – and the sense of failure of the ‘state’ is huge. The sense of a few getting away with it on mere legal technicalities is frustrating, to put it mildly. After the Jessica Lall Case where the guilty walked, with Satyendra Dubey‘s killers still at large, with Priyadarshini Matoo family still waiting for justice, with Manjunath’s family in the same state, it is common news to see the guilty go scot free. Either because they are never caught or because they get off on techicalities. If you are super rich or super connected you simply hire lawyers who flood the system with paper work and keep pushing the date of trial – till such time witnesses are dead, purchased or scared off. Add to it a whole bunch of Parlimentarians who think that they are above the law – just look at the blatant vioationof the election code by Arjun Singh – with no action being taken as yet – and it is little wonder that there is so little faith in either the system or the state. So, in this scenario, it was rather refreshing to see Salman Khan go to jail. We all know that he won’t serve even a tenth of his sentance. But, it was nice to see justice being delivered for a change. Maybe if the EC spanks Arjun Singh this week – my cup truly will overflow with joy 
Technorati Tags: Jessica Lall, Satyendra Dubey, Priyadarshini Matoo, Arjun Singh, Salman Khan
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As of this afternoon I am roomless. The painters have invaded. 5 long days.
10 days down, 10 more to go!
The painters are very good and thorough. And we have too many books. And shifting them around is a complete and utter pain!
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…. believe it or not, is a Hindi film from the 1960′s (or was it the late 50′s). A channel that i had consulted for had it as part of their library, and that is the first time ever that i had heard of the film. But, obviously for the guys who set the curriculum and write the text books in Rajasthan, the film has some sort of sacred symbolism. This from the ToI
"A donkey is like a housewife. It has to toil all day and, like her, may even have to give up food and water. In fact, the donkey is a shade better, for while the housewife may sometimes complain and walk off to her parents’ home, you’ll never catch the donkey being disloyal to his master,"
Ouch! incidentally Rajasthan ranks 5th in the country in terms of violence against women. Well, maybe to reach the top of the table – they should start such lessons at a slightly lower class! Charu in the mean time has looked at the other side of this kind of socialisation- a skewed (and screwed) male female ratio – caused by female foeticide. With female population in some villages (co-incidentally in the state of Rajasthan) dipping as low as 50% of the male population, families only get their daughters married if her prospective husband has a sister who can marry the son!. And dowry of course is disappearing. I can almost hear a chorus saying – man, this is the ultimate proof of the efficacy of the free market, as supply decreases – value increases!! And, the market? rectifies it self. And, i suppose that too is a point of view. Finally, i guess that in a societyfemale foeticide is the norm and not the exception, and where both urban and rural societies, north and south india are united in their preference not to have a girl child – there needs to be some sort of mass social reformation movement to ensure that balance is restored.
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Check out the Guardian’s comment is free section – great set of blogs. would love to see something like this in our msm!
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ToI for the buzz on those who matter. IE for the buzz from those who think that they matter. The Hindu on things that matter. DNA for Mumbai specific news Mumbai Mirror for Television specific gossip Indian Television for industry goings on The Guardian, Washington Post, and New York Times a look over for opinion & review rather than news. Blogs for opinion
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