Rumi Nations

I am against death punishment too. But I am in favor of death punishment for gargantuan-sized criminals such as Kasab, Raja, and Kalmadi. Let me see if I can explain that. Death punishment for Kasab seems to be such a no-brainer that no one would really give it a second thought nor would there be any need for writing columns about it. The usual homilies would be paid about the due process of law being followed and that would be it. That was my impression. And in due course, India being India, Kasab’s case would go to President Pranab and then perhaps the Congress Party will try to do Muslim pandering as it habitually does and Kasab’s fate might be left hanging like that of so many others’. And on each 26/11 anniversary, we would see the usual debates on the TV channels about why Kasab is still alive and blah blah. But no. That’s not how this has panned out. The against-death-punishment brigade has come out! Now THIS is something that I had not expected. I am not opposed t...

If I should have a daughter, instead of mom, she's going to call me Point B, because that way she knows that no matter what happens, at least she can always find her way  to me. And I am going to paint the Solar Systems on the backs of her hands, so she has to learn the entire universe before she can say 'Oh, I know that like the back of my hand' And she's going to learn that this life will hit you, hard, in the face, wait for you to get back  up , just so we can kick you in the stomach but getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.

My Dear Citizens, (I know that if you're below 18, you're doing any of the following: if you're like 2 yrs or younger, you probably are asleep, if you're six years to 10 years, you're probably playing games on the phone or the dad's laptop connected to the internet, if you're 12 to 14, you're probably busy watching or playing cricket, and if you're between 14 to 18, you're either watching porn or trying to recall and fantasize about the porn you saw a couple of days ago when you got the opportunity when no one was home. I am referring to males only of course. If you're female, how the hell do I know what you're doing anyway!) To begin with, I want to exhort you to lose the usual habit of smallmindedness of Indians and look at the BIG picture. The big picture is this: I'm now officially and irrevocably and for ever and ever after a member of the TRULY GREAT Bong group. This is of course what every Bengali worth his or her h...

This is not a reflection caused by any anniversary. We all eventually become adults. Just think back to when as kids we wished so badly to grow up. Once we grow up, however, we probably realize that it is not so fun being grownups after all. And we wistfully look back upon our childhood days. And eventually the moment comes when our parents die. It’s a moment of transition in our lives. But why do we grieve when our parents die? What a stupid question, one might think. But I preferred to think about that when my father died. I think we grieve because as long as our parents are alive, we are still kids at heart as we once were. So we become orphans when our parents are no more. I think we are all lucky to have parents – most of us anyway – who are happy to have been our parents. They have learned to live with their kids’ limitations in skills or achievements in life. We too eventually accept our parents for who they are. So it’s a bond like no other. Immutable, everlasting, unqu...

India is simple to understand if you are willing to shed all the fuzzy romantic spiritual notions about it. Forget the sadhus, the yoga, etc. It's just a capitalist democracy luckily with the freedoms of expression and criticism associated with that democracy. The enduring nature of that fragile and chaotic democracy has been the most significant achievement over the past six decades. As people rise above desperate poverty, the easy availability of images and information over TV makes people aware of their middle class existence. The youth is aspiring to more and more of the fruits of a consumerist culture. As people gain access to those products -- such as cellphones, LCD TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, ACs, cars -- they realize that oh! Owning them does not provide nirvana which is what they had hoped for. They aspire for more of the fruits of a consumer economy. The cycle of desire, satiating that desire, and then new desires cropping up, endures. No different than...

Is it okay if I feel inclined to pass judgment on the newly elected president of India? Am I allowed to call him a sycophant and a donkey -- or a sycophantic donkey? Perhaps some will feel I am 'demeaning' the office of the President? Why is that? What is wrong with expressing my opinion openly that I fear his long history in the strum and drang of Indian politics likely means that he is probably corrupt? He may not be as steeped in corruption as some of his illustrious peers who have long experience of being visitors to Tihar. I sense a desire of people to attach a bit of godliness or demi-godliness to people. Why this desire? I was asked by a college girl relation if I didn't feel a 'divine' presence or some such thing when I visited the 'holiest' temple in Odisha in Puri. What I felt was the sense of awkwardness at the odd behavior of the crazy believers who were throwing themselves at the statues of the lords ... meaning stretching their bod...

Believers! Here's a task for you all. For males in particular. Have you taken off your pants ... and had a picture of a particularly sexy beauty on the computer screen ... say KK or PC or MM or CC or someone else to your particular liking. AP is one of my favorites. And touched your manhood to the face or mouth of the female star on the screen? Go ahead. Do not hesitate. Do it if you have not done it before. Does it have any or some slight effect at all? It should. It really should. Now put a photograph of a female goddesses -- of the celestial kind -- on the same computer screen and do the touching thing again. Oral sex with human beauties and oral sex with celestial beauties or goddesses. Nicely brings together the two crazy worlds of religion and sex together.

How do you find out about the guys who had leukemia and thought that if they got to touch Sai Baba's penis or something (or vice versa) they would get cured? The problem with superstition is that it's more often than not innocent. How do you deal with the fact that the educated 30-something professionals of this country can get taken for a ride by the 'sophisticated' charlatans like Sr Sri or Deepak Chor pa? It's so annoying to find out as I did that the educated types say that they're all skeptical and don't believe in God but will do stupid stuff which contradicts that position. I've an aunt who says she got cured from her back trouble because she keeps photos of some godmen ... I don't remember ... probably the name of the charlatan is ... well ... Bhagwan! Take that for humility! How do you prove the 'harm' in visiting temples every Monday morning to touch or kiss a penis of a god? (sorry if offending anyone) I like to keep photo...

On the same day that the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity landed on Mars after a nail-biting Entry, Descent, and Landing sequence, there are now reports of a shooting incident involving two rovers. The mission managers in JPL, CalTech issued a terse press release which simply said: "There has been a shooting incident involving our rovers on Mars." This has confounded the American public who did not even know that the rovers were equipped with guns in the first place. Sources inside JPL have given some hints as to how this might have happened. The sources say the rovers are equipped with guns which they are programmed to use for 'self defense' in case of appropriate emergencies. The software inside the 'brains' of the rovers has algorithms which try to identify any Little Green Men nearby and if any creatures resembling the LGM are detected by the rovers, they are authorized to shoot at the LGM in self-defense. The rovers are allowed to take this dec...

Here are a variety of articles I have read recently or was pending to be read ... they just keep accumulating on 50 browser tabs. Ever growing, growing, growing ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/13/eva-rausing-story-white-noise-age?newsfeed=true http://www.granta.com/New-Writing/The-Goddamn-Particle http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/rachel-maddows-quiet-war-20120627?page=2 http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-scam-wall-street-learned-from-the-mafia-20120620 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/health/new-frontiers-of-cancer-treatment-bring-breathtaking-swings.html?_r=4 http://www.businessinsider.com/the-secret-lives-of-teenagers-online-a-full-report-from-business-insider-2012-7?utm_source=twbutton&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sai#-3 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/health/research/rare-gene-mutation-is-found-to-stave-off-alzheimers.html?_r=3&hpw http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/24/opinion/urry-sally-ride/index.html http://www.n...