The Times of Bullshit

It's All About Loving Your Family

2009-11-09T23:33:00.006+05:30

History and Other Works of Fiction

2009-11-04T00:58:00.005+05:30

Indians have an odd relationship with History. Growing up, the subject along with the rest of the Arts is consigned to the bottom of the educational caste system. To have graduated in History either means you are academically challenged or you’re a women who’s about to be married off the day you graduate. Of course, it doesn’t help that the way it’s taught in school, it’ll take quite an effort to

Sour Grapes and Sweet Mangos

2009-10-21T23:12:00.008+05:30

Mary Roy explains how the craze for an English-medium education in a country that is not an English-speaking one is killing, well, education in that country:Watching these children being taught is to be amazed, and horrified. In an English recitation class in lower primary, for example, you will hear 40 children chanting in unison, with accompanying actions, “The fox jumped and jumped and jumped.

Now You be Nice to Him

2009-10-21T22:51:00.003+05:30

In spite of the criticism she’s faced from many quarters, Karen Armstrong is not a bad read really. However, I couldn’t but help have a chuckle at this :Whether we like it or not, God is here to stay, and it’s time we found a way to live with him in a balanced, compassionate manner.It’s almost as if a harried mother is trying to make peace between two squabbling, preadolescent siblings.Also, why

Funjabi

2009-10-19T23:54:00.008+05:30

There is a certain something about Punjabis as a community--whether you like them or hate them, you really can’t ignore them. Take Punjabi music, for instance, or food (which is my pet peeve) the culture has a stranglehold on India.For example, restaurants in Calcutta which serve Butter Chicken and Tandoori Chicken, take to calling themselves Indian restaurants, which is all right but I’d like to

PM Without a Single Nobel Seeks Light and Knowledge from Diwali

2009-10-16T00:00:00.001+05:30

New Delhi: In an expansive gesture to Indians worldwide as much as to showcase his – and India’s -- multi-cultural affections, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday lit a ceremonial Diwali lamp to ''symbolise victory of light over darkness.'' ''This coming Saturday, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists, here in India and around the world, will celebrate this holiday by lighting

The Nobelman: Obama Wins Peace Prize

2009-10-10T03:32:00.007+05:30

Barack Obama, Supreme Commander of the most destructive conventional and nuclear military in the world, was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace on Friday.The news was greeted with unbridled joy and a sense of vindication by many who believe that Obama is just one in a long line of prophets sent by Him to deliver peace, prosperity and good oratory to the world. However, there were quite a few

Kabuliwalah

2009-10-05T22:42:00.005+05:30

The Indian Express reports:Against severe odds, India has built a 202-km transmission line to bring electricity to Afghanistan’s power-starved capital, Kabul.Now if only someone would bring electricity to India’s power-starved capital. ***A fairly informative article on the matter: Candle-Light Vigil

Jashn-e-Azadi

2009-08-15T18:01:00.006+05:30

Independence Day: A day for which the nation's copywriters are eternally grateful.

The Apu Theory

2009-08-13T00:20:00.005+05:30

The Times of India reports that the SC has rejected a plea to to make it "mandatory for people to show respect to Mahatma Gandhi.”The decision came in response to a PIL against UP chief minister Mayawati’s alleged description of Gandhiji as a ‘natakbaaz’ (a hypocrite or gimmicky). The petitioners — advocate Ravi Kant and Sukumar — had cited Gandhiji’s contributions to argue that he deserved

See No Evil

2009-07-30T09:21:00.005+05:30

The Delhi High Court dismissed two petitions against the TV show Sach ka Saamna yesterday. The Court, though, did give a simple solution to anyone who was afraid of getting corrupted by watching the show—DON’T WATCH THE SHOW."In this land of Gandhi, it appears that nobody follows Gandhi... Follow the Gandhian principle of ‘see no evil’. Why do you not simply switch off the TV?”"If only this sort

We Will Overcome

2009-07-25T16:56:00.003+05:30

Oh my fucking god! The horror! Those imperialist, white, sons of bitches, how dare they insult us?I mean, is there no sense of decency and good conduct left in those white chaps? How could they frisk a VVIP/VIP exempted from pre-embarkation security checks as recorded in the BCAS Circular No. 6/2008. What kind of a world do we live in where airline staff doesn’t read BCAS Circulars issued by the

Obscene Picture

2009-07-19T13:29:00.004+05:30

A picture of my neighbour's Laura. (Click picture if you want to, er...make it larger)

Delhi HC Judgement Brings Communal Harmony to India At Last

2009-07-04T23:47:00.006+05:30

Religious leaders across board showed rare camaraderie and unity to come together as one big happy family and denounce the Delhi HC judgement making homosexuality legal in India. The judgement has bought in its wake unprecedented communal amity among India’s religious leaders—remarkable in a country prone to frequent communal violence.The Delhi High Court had passed the judgement on Thursday,

Irony

2009-06-17T02:47:00.003+05:30

The Congress, it seems, is getting rather egalitarian nowadays. The party will not tolerate feudal titles anymore says this report from the ToI:Kunwar', `Raja', `Rani', `Begum', `Srimant' will soon stand deleted from the AICC's listings and records some 40 years after Indira Gandhi did away with privy purses in what was then meant to signal the arrival of a post-colonial egalitarian

It's Getting Better All the Time

2009-06-06T12:52:00.004+05:30

Getting the Women's Reservation Bill passed in Parliament will kill two birds with one stone:1) More women will enter the highest legislative body in the land.2) Sharad Yadav would be no more.I say, go for it.

Talk English, Walk English

2009-06-04T00:21:00.007+05:30

The Samajwadi Party manifesto is not exactly bestseller material (strictly speaking other than ‘guide books’ for IIT-JEE, nothing in our country is). In spite of that, however, the manifesto had achieved a considerable amount of infamy for the single sin of calling for the abolition of English in our schools. Newspapers went apoplectic, lengthy editorials were written and English news channels

Oh! Calcutta...

2009-05-25T23:09:00.010+05:30

What did Calcutta do to deserve this?I mean, yes, the city sucks, no doubt. It must be the dirtiest, most polluted city ever. Everybody who goes to Calcutta should see the marvel of Free School Street (just ahead of Kathleen) where Pigs and Humans co-exist peacefully on a wonderful garbage dump which would, one day, be used as a model for sustainable housing.And, of course, the water logging.

Sarkar - Part II

2009-05-17T00:47:00.009+05:30

Yes, it’s time to jive to Jai Ho. The big story of the day, apart from what I had for lunch, is that the Congress has swept the country, Singh is King and Sonia is our soniya.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

2009-05-13T23:24:00.003+05:30

Sanjana, Surbhi aur unke kayi naye dost aayein hai chat room pe. Bus dial karein 55313@Rs9/min aur kare unse dher saary baatein.I’m a Vodafone subscriber and every spam SMS they send me, like the one above, is prefixed with VD, for, I assume, Vodafone. So, for example, an SMS containing offers would be called ‘VD Offers’.Anyways, I would certainly have called “Sanjana, Surbhi aur unke kayi naye

Super Chomu

2009-04-28T23:59:00.007+05:30

In the real world there are many identifiers of a chomu--watching reality shows, quoting your mum in a conversation or, as my mum says, writing blogs which are are a pun on the name of a major newspaper.But in cyber space nothing identifies a person as more of a chomu than commenting on random YouTube videos. Nothing. That was what I thought till today. However, with this comment on an audio clip

Pitha Versus Papa

2009-04-19T19:35:00.018+05:30

This is a Yahoo! Answers page which asks a fairly innocuous question: How should one address family members in Hindi or Bengali? Fairly simple question, you'd say, and I'd agree. However, there is a twist in the tale:So 'Sa' thinks that nani is Hindi for maternal grandmother but she also opines that papa and mummy are the Hindi translation for father and mother, respectively!Weird, isn't it? Well

Normal Born Brother-in-Law

2009-04-07T22:11:00.008+05:30

Rabri is apparently in a bit of a spot because she used the word saala in a campaign speech. This is what the sister of Jalebi had to say:"Who is Lallan Singh? He is Nitish Kumar's saala. Everyone knows this. I say this openly. This is why Nitish Kumar holds Lallan Singh's hand all the time whether they are in a meeting or a rally"Which brings us to Hindi's most popular gaali—saala. Although I've

Pseudo-Secularism

2009-04-02T20:46:00.007+05:30

Ad in the Delhi edition of the Times of India, 2nd April, 2009.Without touching upon the utter hypocrisy, absurdity and futileness of having the concept of a ‘dry day’, can’t the Government even proof-read its Dry Day announcements?If today is the 2nd (which it is), do tell me how the 3rd, the 7th and the 10th constitute the ‘Next 3 Days’? P.S: By the way, this is how Urban Dictionary defines '

After Britishers, Congress drives Cricket back to Britain

2009-03-23T17:51:00.002+05:30

With the IPL to be played in England, the Congress Party has successfully managed to chase the British game of cricket out of India. In a long drawn out struggle, the Party fought valiantly to wipe out all vestiges of the British, including the game of cricket. Mass movement were led which insisted that Indians play Indian games like Kabbadi, Kho kho and ‘Will Your Paan Spit Hit the Wall?’ and