The Big Story - how true?

T. N. Ninan in the Business Standard

.... people have tended to forget that the big story in India, the truly exciting story, remains rapid economic growth. That was underlined by the Planning Commission formally adopting on Thursday a 9-9.5 per cent annual growth target for the five years beginning next April — building on the average of 7.8 per cent in the preceding 10 years.

The last days of Kasturba

Controversy is often raised about the fact that Gandhiji disallowed the new drug pencillin to be used on Kasturba when she was in her deathbed. Here is some additional information.

Bhangra Blowout 18

Here is a photograph from Bhangra Blowout 18:

Arundhati Roy Parody

I know, it is hard to parody a parody, but Great Bong does just that!

Vive La Difference!

 Shahid Afridi, Pakistan cricket captain on Indians:

To recap, here’s an English translation of what Mr. Afridi told Samaa TV, a Pakistani channel, in Urdu at the weekend:


“If I speak truthfully, they just can’t have the kind of heart a Muslim has or a Pakistani has. I think they don’t have the sort of big hearts, pure hearts, Allah has given us. It is a very difficult thing for us to be together or to have a long-term relationship.”

Capitalism and Slavery

This, from the Disunion series on the NY Times, argues that capitalism wasn't incompatible with slavery and that the economic causes of the American Civil War are greatly exaggerated.  Because the Northern and Southern economies were so linked, people expected economic disaster as a result of secession.

Of course, the dire predictions did not come to pass. The northern economy did not collapse without access to Southern markets, a monopoly on cotton did not make the Confederacy invulnerable and economic self-interest did not forestall a bloody conflict. Yet by reminding us of slavery’s importance to the nation as a whole, these prognostications suggest that the Civil War was hardly the result of the inherent hostility of capitalism to slavery.

The Beleaguered Revolutionary

Courtesy Cafe Pyala:  (if you can't follow the whine-fest, Cafe Pyala also has a translation)
An excerpt:  Sir, look our own police is beating us, how can we bring about a revolution? You tell me, you're from the media. If you're with us, only then will the revolution come about. If the police don't beat us up, only then will the revolution come about.