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

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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Would you want to be caught in this traffic jam?  A typical evening rush hour on one of the roads in New Delhi.

Picture courtesy: Skyscrapercity

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Ooh, i really missed out on this year’s fashion week. The program has been on for 4 days now. A visit to their website has some fabulous creations by some of the best designers of India. Quite a lot of pictures. So, please wait for them to load. Apologies to people with lower bandwidth.

Abhijeet Khanna

Deepika Govind

Rahul Reddy

More designers in next post. All the above pictures are courtesy the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week website.

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Just as expected, or as rumoured, Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are already under American control. Surely the US cant sit aside and fiddle its thumbs as Pakistani politics goes for a roller coaster ride.

Years ago, there were rumours that in case of Musharraf being killed by the extremists or the jehadis taking over the country, there would be a 3 pronged attack by Israel, USA and India on Pakistan and the USA would either decamp with the nuclear weapons or take control of the nuclear facilities and the weapons.

But according to latest reports, it seems the USA has already had its way…

In a stunning disclosure certain to stir up things in Washington’s (and in Islamabad and New Delhi’s) strategic community, the journal Stratfor reported on Monday that the “United States delivered a very clear ultimatum to Musharraf in the wake of 9/11: Unless Pakistan allowed US forces to take control of Pakistani nuclear facilities, the United States would be left with no choice but to destroy those facilities, possibly with India’s help.”

“This was a fait accompli that Musharraf, for credibility reasons, had every reason to cover up and pretend never happened, and Washington was fully willing to keep things quiet,” the journal, which is widely read among the intelligence community, said.

The Stratfor commentary came in response to an earlier New York Times story that reported that the Bush administration had spent around $100 million to help Pakistan safeguard its nuclear weapons, but left it unclear if Washington has a handle on the arsenal.

“As the government of Pakistan totters, we must face a fact: the United States simply could not stand by as a nuclear-armed Pakistan descended into the abyss,” proposed Frederick Kagan and Michael O’Hanlon, analysts at two Washington DC think-tanks. “One possible plan would be a Special Forces operation with the limited goal of preventing Pakistan’s nuclear materials and warheads from getting into the wrong hands.”

Full article here.

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India and Russia have signed an agreement to jointly develop the 5th generation stealth fighter aircraft with equal financial and technological stakes. Overall development cost of the Sukhoi T-50 is in the region of US$ 10 billion.

An artist’s rendering of the Sukhoi T-50 fifth generation fighter aircraft

India will lease a nuclear powered Akula-II attack submarine from Russia from mid-2008 onwards under a hush-hush Rs 2600 crore (US$ 650 million) deal.

The Akula-II class attack submarine

Then, of course, India will be acquiring another 40 Sukhoi-30MKIs to add to the 190 already contracted, 347 more T-90S to add to the 310 such main-battle tanks already inducted, and 80 more Mi-17 medium-lift utility and assault helicopters from Russia. The deal does not include 230 Sukhoi-30MKI fighters India is going to acquire from Russia at an overall cost of over $8.5 billion.

2 SU-30K Flankers, 2 F-15 Eagles and 2 Mirage 2000 flying in formation

The 44,570-tonne aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov (below), was initially supposed to join Indian Navy by August 2008 as per the $1.5 billion package deal signed with Russia in January 2004. But India will not be getting the carrier, already rechristened INS Vikramaditya, anytime before 2010. The package deal, incidentally, includes 16 MiG-29K ‘Fulcrum’ supersonic fighters and a mix of Ka-31 and Ka-28 helicopters to operate from the carrier’s deck.

News source: TimesofIndia

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