A load of crap from an idle brainPersonal, Movies, Music, IT, India, Singapore, Politics, Fun

Do you believe that the sensation crazy Indian media was reponsible for the irresponsible live coverage of the Bombay attacks which could have strengthened the terrorists defences against our security forces?

Have you ever felt that in the craze for notching up TRPs, our media is sensationalizing issues and working against the interest of the country, polarizing people among communal,castiest lines and putting the lives of its citizens in danger?

Vishal Dadlani (music director of the blockbuster Om Shanti Om) is filing a PIL against the media and asking for a scrutiny of all the live feed in the Mumbai high court.  The PIL asks for the courts to pass orders that will restrain the media from airing any live feed in the future if and when such an incident happens again.

You always asked, what can be done?  This is probably the first step in our fight against not only the terrorists, but against their sympathisers in the media and general community. The media that sensationalizes the attacks and makes the terrorists a hero and makes our valiant security forces a sitting duck against terrorists.  Its time we called the media bluff that always hid behind the “freedom of speech” saying and behaved irresponsibly.

Sign the petition at http://smallchange.in and send a message across that we are not going to take it lying down.  Raise your voice.  Write to all the media (especially morons like Barkha Dutt and the idiots at India TV who interviewed a terrorist when the fight was going on).  Write to Pranoy Roy (NDTV), Rajdeep Sardesai (CNN-IBN), the morons at India TV, Aaj Tak, Times Now etc… and let them know that we dont appreciate their kind of sensational journalism and jingoism.

Its time we called their bluff.  Sign the petition here at http://smallchange.in

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Am sure, you would have received chain mails which propagate myths about the Indian civilization, the number of doctors and scientists working in USA and NASA etc.   Outlook magazine has gone around asking people with authority and knowledge on the subject and debunks almost all the myths that get propagated around by some stupid NRI sitting in some corner of the world.

Claim: India never invaded any country in her last 10,000 years of history.

Fact: This is not fully true, as the Cholas conquered Sri Lanka and took its ruler prisoner. In AD 1025 the Chola navy of Rajendrachola I (r.1012-1044) conquered Sri Vijaya in the Malayan archipelago.

-Pius Malekandathil, maritime history specialist at JNU, Delhi

Claim: Taj Mahal predates Shah Jahan’s era, and was a temple dedicated to Shiva, worshipped by Rajputs.

Fact: The Taj was built by Shah Jahan. Every single brick and stone purchased has been documented in the Taj Mahal archives. so is the land deed. Travellers from different periods also saw it being constructed.

- Mushirul Hasan, Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Milia Islamia

Claim: Times Group is owned by Bennett & Coleman. ‘World Christian Council’ does 8- per cent of the funding, and an Englishman and an Italian equally share the balance 20 per cent.

Fact: Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL) is largely owned by the Jain family and some subsidiaries, such as ENIL are listed. All details of the holding company, BCCL, are available in ENIL’s prospectus at the time of listing.

- Vanita Kohli-Khandekar, author of The Indian Media Business

Claim: The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5,000 years ago. The very word ‘navigation’ is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘navgatih’.

Fact: It is absurd. All river-valley civilisations like the ancient Egyptians, the Mesopotamians and the Chinese resorted to riverine navigation and coastal navigation. The English word ‘navigation’ is derived not from Sanskrit ‘navgatih’, but from two Latin words navis (ship) and agere (to drive). It is from them that English and Latin family languages, like Portuguese, got the word.

- Pius Malekandathil, maritime history specialist at JNU, Delhi

With Independence Day round the corner, get ready to receive more such bullshit in your mailbox.  To read more about all the myths, click here and here.

Now, am waiting for some member of the chaddi gang to call me a commie

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I dont really fancy CNN. I have always been a BBC person. Maybe its because of my affinity to anything British. But sometimes, i just switch to CNN and wait to see if Monita Rajpal comes online.

And ya, she is quite yummy

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