DWS Extra

Yes, really. The comments on news websites (even after moderation) are so ridiculous sometimes. Especially when the topic is even slightly sensitive.

Rediff message boards are a perfect example of this. Take any story that has some religious angle, and you will find a great brawl. The horrible English is OK, we weren’t born into English-speaking families. But if Islam is connected to the discussion in anyway, or the story is about someone with a Muslim name, all hell breaks loose. Islam will be roundly condemned, Muslims in India will be called traitors, and there will be calls for all-out wars with Pakistan. And then would pop in someone from the other side, reaffirming the supremacy of Islam over all other religions, singing praises of the one true God. Not to be left behind, some evangelist will make his appearance and sweetly tell everyone to accept Jesus. Roundhouse madness. The anti-Muslim lobby always wins the shouting match, of course - they are just too many in number.

Today I noticed a slightly tamer version of the same on the CNN-IBN website. The story was titled Mumbai Riots: A planned, perfected pogrom. Typical IBN-style reporting, a bit over the top, about how some cops in Mumbai were part of the rioters, and often were instigating riots and abusing Muslims, abusing their senior officers who wanted to help Muslims, and even creating trouble for the army in doing their job.

They have also given snatches of some wireless conversations, full of maa-behn-ki-gaalis.

Nothing new, really, for anyone who was capable of reading a newspaper in 1992-93.

But apparently the commenters were too young then. That is what I think. At this moment, there are eight comments, all angry at the story, accusing CNN-IBN of fabricating the story and wondering what else they would do to further the agenda of the Congress!

Look at this example:

Under the pressure of Congress, IBNlive is making these arguments? The big question is that where was IBNLive since 1992 to yesterday?

Heh heh. There was no CNN-IBN in 1992. They are quite new, and since they were born, have played up riot stories. Making up arguments? Mumbaikars would admit all that easily. They lived through that. Some may be ashamed of it, some may be proud of it, but no one will deny that riots happened, cops sometimes helped the rioters etc. The difference of opinion is about whether the riots were justified or not. Sainiks in Mumbai will admit to their part in the riots proudly - though obviously they cannot come on television and take credit for that. No one wants to go to jail.

The same commenter also accuses Muslims of killing thousands of Hindus in Kerala, and that it is all covered up by communists! Come on, man. I was born there, and killings mostly happen in Kerala on a party vs party basis. And thousands? There are problem areas in Kerala too - but what is considered a bad law and order situation in Kerala is the height of peace in the rest of India!

There is one commenter who justifies the killings, citing other crimes by Muslims. That at least is better that flatly denying the truth, I think. Of course, even here, there is no attempt to see if if one crime justifies another, there are many all sides can come up with.

How about this gem?

what a piece of garbase. Your are printing lies. Sensationalism and Muslim Appesement. Disgusting !!!!

Again, do these people truly believe that to be the case? I can understand the Shiv Sena officially saying so. They have to stay out of court and jail, but anonymous commenters really believe that all this is a lie? If that is the level of awareness, I truly fear for this country.

There is more, you can go to the story and read the rest.

The overwhelming pro-Hindu-at-all-costs attitude on the messageboards worries me. I do not see this negativity in real life. Are all the people on the Net closet fundamentalists? Is the new generation massively fascist?

Someone who justifies the wrongs - him I can talk to, even if only in a blog. What can one do with the idiots who believe everything is a lie?

I was in Mumbai recently, during the hard rainy season. Met Bijoy of BSMotoring (he’s a classmate from Kerala) and while we were discussing Formula One racing, he explained that he likes Fernando Alonso, the reigning world champion. Seems the hot-headed spaniard has a way of attacking corners that shows he is not afraid to take risks, and do unconventional things.

Later, while walking towards an intersection near Green Park market, I realised something else. Delhi’s drivers may not be the best in the world in road discipline or racing lines. But so what if they can’t attack a corner? They sure can attack a junction!

Let me explain how they accomplish this feat which can chill the hearts of even a Fernando Alonso if he is at the receiving end.

Before getting inside his car, every Delhi driver pats the bonnet, where in his mind’s eye, he can see his flag fluttering. His Flag. Because this is his personal chariot. And he is off to war. Once the windows are rolled up and AC is on, he shouts to himself, “Aage badho!!” The growling car and driver shoot forward, at a rate of acceleration that would put a professional test driver to shame.

His target is the junction. Any junction. He approaches a junction and wants to drive on straight ahead. Now visualise a car / scooter/ rickshaw, which is cutting across his path. A normal, sensible, wimpy driver would probably tap the brakes and slow down a wee little bit to allow the offending vehicle to pass. Not the heroic driver of Delhi. The moment he sees the vehicle cutting across, he stands on the accelerator! His car bucks up, roars and bears down on the offender accelerating further - and the poor driver inside the other vehicle, eyes popping out in sheer panic, somehow gets out of the way. The victorious driver vanishes into the distance, imaginary flag fluttering high on his bonnet.

Do not for a moment think this is an easy thing to accomplish. You need a heart of stone. After all, one mistake is all it takes, right? If the little guy is frozen in terror and is unable to move, or speeds up and crashes into some unsuspecting pedestrian, that is his fault. Not DD’s (Delhi Driver). DD never makes any mistakes. Even when he does, its not his mistake, his mama told him that, and she is never wrong too.

Okay, minor complications happen. If the offending car has a DD inside, our DD (DD1) is in for some trouble. DD1 will race towards the other DD (DD2), and when DD2 is supremely unperturbed, DD1 will stand on his brakes. What would follow then is DDA (Delhi Driver Abuse, not Delhi Development Authority). And there is always the chance that one of the two DDs end up as DDT (Delhi Driver Terminated).

This life and death game - that is what driving in Delhi is about. Memories of raths racing, chasing away invaders, being chased by marauders, battles won and lost in chariots and on horseback, are still imprinted in DD’s genes. Give way or slow down? You will not catch a DD doing that.

It’s a simple, but enormously exciting life as a DD, I must imagine. The sheer thrill of driving just a few inches away from the pedestrian’s foot! Aaaah! Scaring the daylights out of the woman in the Maruti Alto - Oooh!

Now you know why Delhiites do not like life in Mumbai. After such thrills, what is the big deal about hanging out of a second class dabba in a Western Line local train, or never drinking from the plastic cup in your left hand while the right hand holds the steering wheel? Because, they are all DDs, today or tomorrow! To him, it must seem like the only people who have any fun in Mumbai are the bhais, Bollywood types and Thackeray.

DD wants his chariot. So, no Mumbai for him. Delhi is where it’s at, for the braveheart DD.

The Elder Wand and all that stuff

When I write my initial post about the Plot Holes in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I never expected the kind of response it generated.

My plot holes were picked apart, analysed, dissected, destroyed, thrown in the garbage bin, recovered and refurbished and thrown in the garbage bin again.

The number of Harry Potter experts out there is simply amazing. Some of you know such in-depth, forgotten stuff from the books that it is just admirable!

One of the questions - and answers - which came up again and again was about the Elder Wand, one of the Deathly Hallows. How it worked in the book, was there anything inconsistent about it, was it logical the way it switched allegiances…

I have extracted the Elder-Wand related portions from the comments of the original thread, and am posting it here separately for those who have questions, and answers, on the Elder Wand. Remember that each paragraph below is an extract from a comment from the original thread. So if it doesn’t make sense on its own, go to the original Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Plot Holes thread and read from the beginning.

Here goes, all about the Elder Wand! Entirely made up of contributions from Potter and Rowling fans. Here’s a Thank You to you all!

START

1. Because he disarmed Draco, the Elder Wand, which Voldemort now possesses actually considers harry its master. Assume that this is true. How can Harry be so sure? Dumbledore did not tell him that. Olliwander did not tell him that. Harry is no expert in wandlore. How did he figure it out? How did this clueless nitwit suddenly work it all out by himself?
2. As mentioned, Dumbledore also defeated the guy with the Elder Wand in a duel. What’s up with that? Did he get Death’s backup Wand to make it equal?
3. The story of how the Elder wand was undefeatable was only legend/myth/story - not meant to be taken literally. Its a very powerful wand but the fact that Dumbledore beat Grindelwald and the wand - is merely an implication of Dumbledore’s amazing skill. The Elder wand can be beaten - its just very difficult.
4. If you defeat the owner of the Elder wand, you become the righful owner of the Elder wand. It doesn’t matter if he’s using the deathstick, his old wand or a stick of wood he just found on the floor, if you defeat him, you become the rightful owner of the Elder wand - its magic!
5. Crucio did not work on Harry for two reasons1. Harry was the rightful owner of the Elder wand
   2. In sacrificing himself , Harry put the same protection on himself and the others, as Lily gave to him - therefore Voldemorts curses were not binding.
6. If the Elder Wand is not undefeatable, what’s so powerful about it? Catch someone off guard and simply disarm them like Draco did and guess what, you’ve got the most powerful wand in the world! Ridiculous.
7. What’s the purpose of the Elder Wand being such a powerful and “Hallowed” thing if a sixth-year student can knock it out of your hands simple as pie? And you slipped up saying if you beat the Elder Wand you become the master of it. See, just like Rowling that put you in a corner. Grindelwald didn’t defeat anyone to get it, so he was never the rightful owner. The old wand maker is.
8. “So if a wizard takes any wand that belongs to the owner of the Elder wand, the wizard is considered defeated, and Elder Wand switches loyalties? Sorry, Rowling has not thought this through well enough.” - I’m sorry but that’s your opinion, there is no flaw in this.
9. Voldemort’s cruciatus curse did not work on Harry because Voldemort was using the Elder want ,which as I said, was owned rightfully by Harry. I’ll admit i made a mistake before - the protection did not contribute to why cruciatus didnt work on Harry, the fact that he was the rightful owner of the Elder wand was enough.
10. ive re-read the whole Elder wand thing, and it appears that i have an answer to your ‘plot hole’ (and yes i do know the meaning of the term). Grindelwald was never the rightful owner of the wand, as he captured it. I’ll agree with you there, perhaps thats why Dumbledore could defeat him. But by defeating him Dumbledore won the allegiance of the wand and became its rightful owner! convenient i’ll admit, but remember it’s a book!
11. To say he didn’t feel it because Voldemort was using the Elder Wand doesn’t work either. He felt the death curse. It hit him like an iron fist I believe he said.
12. There was only one time in history in which somoene had survived the avada-kedavra curse - and Voldemort thought he had solved that problem the second time round. He also had the Elder wand, and didn’t know about its alternate allegiance so he had every reason to believe that Harry was dead, especially when his wishful thought was reinforced by a death-eater.
13. Firstly, if the Elder Wand is undefeatable, how on EARTH did Dumbledore get it from Grindelwald? And we know they had a battle of epic proportions. Enough said for that first one.
14. Ollivander told him that when a wand is taken from a person by means of “defeating” the other person, the wand will realize and shift allegiance. This should hold true for all wands belonging to that person. PLUS, technically, Draco was “defeated” by Harry, so the Elder Wand WOULD have changed allegiance. (Note, Dumbledore was defeated by Draco when Dumbledore got expelliarmus-ed. About Grindelwald taking wand from Gregorovitch: “defeated”, again, buy stunning.)
15. And it seems unlikely that Voldy would like to know about children’s tales. He only knew about the Elder Wand after Voldy confronted Ollivander about it.
16. About the whole Elder Wand business: I don’t think the Elder Wand is REALLY unbeatable. It’s a VERY powerful wand that gives its owner a huge advantage in open combat, BUT a skilled enough opponent could still beat the Elder Wand’s master. Dumbledore was the most powerful wizard in the world, and probably had enough skill to beat Grindlewald in a duel, DESPITE the fact that Grindlewald had the Elder Wand.
17. “How about the fact that the Elder wand was supposed to be unbeatable in a duel…yet Dumbledore won it in a …duel?”This question has been asked several times. And the answer is: It’s NOT unbeatable. It’s just very powerful.
18. All of this was supposed to be Dumbledore master plan but how could he possibly know that Harry is going to disarm Malfoy, it is purely accident that they ended up in Malfoy mansion and that he happened to disarm him, so how was Harry supposed to get the elder wand?
19. How did the elderwand end up back in Dumbledore’s crypt (to be later stolen by Voldemort) to begin with?

Yes. I am. Heh heh.

If you have been blogging for a while, you know what TLA is. Text Link Ads are those little text links that you see on some blogs and sites that link directly to another website.

Essentially what does TLA do? It offers bloggers a way to monetize their blog by using those 3-4 word text ads which link directly to an advertiser’s website.

This would be one of the most natural ways of advertising and monetization on the Web, if only Google were not around. Funnily, TLA is big news because of Google too.

What a text link ad from a blog attempts to do is to pass some PR to the advertiser’s site. If the link is from a related site, even better.

Now as far as Google is concerned, paid links are a strict no-no. Matt Cutts has often advised against it, and asked people to report such paid links to Google.

The thing is, while it may seem quite natural to give a text link to another website for money, the money is there mostly for the PR which might be passed to the advertiser. It is not for traffic, and everyone concerned acknowledges that.

But this undercuts Google’s flawed system of trying to rank sites based on the links to them. Flawed, because the Web is not a free-linking, academic Web of 1996-2000 but a cut-throat business arena now where big and small publishers and shops are trying to make a living.

But TLA is extremely popular, and that makes me jealous. A single text link can be a few good dollars, and a few of them on a page, and thousands of such pages… means a lot of good money. And there are a lot of people doing that.

My estimate is that the money one can make from Text Link Ads will anyday beat the money you can make from using Adsense. We at DWS use Adsense. And Adsense itself is ten times better than any of those CPM ad programs.

So yes, I am jealous. I know they are making good money, and I want to jump in too into the feeding frenzy.

However, The FUD spread by Matt Cutts has got me too. So I know that it is possible for Google to recognise the TLA patterns. Cutts says one should use a rel=nofollow on paid links. rel=nofollow is against TLA’s terms. So there. Follow TLA’s terms and possibly get in Google’s bad books and lose any ability to pass link juice and PR - or take the risk and make money while you can.

I am too afraid to take the risk, though sometimes I fret and fume at Google’s methods of controlling the Web to suit their search engine. But then it all soon becomes rhetoric, and the fact is that Google has jacked this site before for no reason I could identify, and they might do it for a good reason the next time. Can’t afford to take that risk; I have people to pay, mouths to feed… !

Even more tempting is ReviewMe. I just saw a site offering ReviewMe reviews. he was charging $ 250 for a blog post! Granted that it was a PR6 blog. But lowly me too can probably get $ 50, can’t I? Ah, my world turns green….

Anyway, ReviewMe too is essentially just selling PR. I believe that a site should be able to sell advertorials on its pages the same way newspapers have advertorials. But then it affects Google’s precious results, and we can’t do that.

You guys who use TLA and ReviewMe, good luck to you. You might turn out smarter than I am in the end, and nothing may happen to your sites. May they always be able to pass PR, and link-juice. May you never lose rankings, may no dreaded 950-penalty hit you. However, I have been hit badly before for reasons which no one ever explained to me. Maybe it was a 950-penalty, maybe it was subdomain spam, maybe it was a 302 hijack. But hit I was, and for 6 months and then again for two months, this site crashed in Google SERPs, seriously making me reconsider taking any risks. So on you go, pioneers. I shall stick to the safe, well-trodden tracks for monetizing this site. May the Force be with you!

At least that is what I think. Sharique has written an open letter to the firebrand atheist (and anti-Islamist) writer on indianmuslims.in

I have a few problems with it, though.

Before that, just how does she spell her name? In the Indianmuslims.in post, her name is mentioned as both Nasrin and Nasreen - and strangely, even her website does the same thing. An attempt to get visitors through search engines by both? Or a genuine error? Anyway as this post too mentions both the versions, I think even I would get some extra visitors!

Now to the actual letter.

Sharique talks about an aunt who barely escaped from Bengali Muslim rioters. Somehow he confuses stuff here.

Little girl somehow survived the attack. But she developed a deep rooted hatred for Muslims.

And in the next paragraph, he says:

Anyone would have developed hatred for Islam but she didn’t. Her hatred was more directed at Bengalis.

Umm, so who does the aunt dislike? Muslims or Bengalis?

Sharique then goes on to say thus:

The reason why I mentioned this story was to prove that actions of few cannot be taken of the whole community.

It doesn’t prove anything of the sort, Sharique. Bengalis are a community too, so the story just says that one community was not the target of the aunt’s hatred but another one.

…there are people who have perhaps seen worse than you but are still practicing Muslims.

So? Their choice, her choice, isn’t it? Or the point he is trying to make is that some people did not get angry enough to reject their religion, so Taslima should do so too? Everyone has their own ways of dealing with trajedy, and one way is not necessarily better than the other.

Why should you blame the religion for acts of few morons who are trying to manipulate religion for their own needs. Quran has been misinterpreted to extract political mileage out of it.

Valid point. But I don’t think they are morons. Some of the people who manipulate religion are very smart at it. The rest truly believe that what they say and do is what their religion dictates them. So it is a matter of faith. Quran has been misinterpreted; so have all other religions’ texts. But when misinterpretation is an everyday thing - and there are large numbers of people and mullahs / priests doing it, how is one to know what is the authoritative version of the instructions? I am sure there are a few Muslims who would think even the letter to Taslima Nasrin is an offence, and the writer should be punished for even trying to reason it out with her. How is a third-party to know if they are right or wrong according to the religion?

I must also tell you that most of your logic against Islam is based on your limited knowledge. I have replied once (Answering Taslima Nasrin) to your article in Outlook. If a person like me, who is a novice as far as Islamic knowledge is concerned, can refute your claims then imagine your situation in front of learned men. You are not achieving anything by your critique of Islam.

Hey hey. Not so fast. I am sure Taslima Nasrin would reply to the first line saying that Sharique’s logic for Islam is based on his limited knowledge!

I read Sharique’s answer to Taslima on his personal blog. She has an English translation, and he has an English translation. Which is right? I am sure they both would stand by their translations. They can both refer back to the original in Arabic, but I am sure if you put two Mullahs in a room, they would fight over it to, with their differing interpretations. And one might even declare the other an infidel.

Sorry, Sharique. You have not proved anything in your post. You have just offered a counter-point, and it might be right or wrong. And I am sure there will be many who take both sides.

Again, Sharique rushes ahead assuming too many things.

See I am just asking you to think and argue logically…

Why? Religion is a matter of faith, not logic as far as I know.

Islam is too big a thing to understand, particularly by an individual based on self study, and nothing can deter the Quran and Hadeeth.

That is the point of view of a believer, and believer only. A Christian can say the same thing about Bible, and a Muslim can refute that if he wants. I am sure another believer would agree to that, but Taslima is not a believer. Who is Sharique talking to?

I am sure you know that the safety of Quran (along with the safety of Mecca) has been guaranteed by Allah (SWT). No one can change a word in the holy book. The various huffaz (people who have memorized the Quran by heart) and alims can trash your criticism of Islam.

I don’t know about the first part of that paragraph, so I am not touching that issue. However, I am sure Taslima believes that she can trash the huffaz and alims, and religious scholars from all religions generally are confident that they can all trash each others’ beliefs. And that athiests believe they can trash all of them together. That is just a boast, Sharique. The same kind of boast believers in every religion routinely make.

I like Sharique’s requestto Taslima to reconsider her decision, though. Such innocence still brings tears to my eyes.

But the ending was on a bad note I think.  Sharique asks Taslima not to wear a particular pair of jeans which he calls ‘crappy’. First, is calling a woman’s attire ‘crappy’ is islamic? I don’t know… Two, are true believers allowed to comment on a woman’s attire? (I am sure any two scholars would have totally opposing opinions on that!). And three, is the objection only to this pair of jeans, or to jeans in general, or to women wearing jeans? Perhaps a short skirt would get his approval?

Recently, we started a Digg-like Formula One social news bookmarking site using the popular open source script Pligg.

To a large extent, it runs well.I am no PHP or database expert and can barely edit a CSS file, but have managed to successfully install it on a few domains, and this was no different.

Today, however, was a bad day. I had known about the tag inaccuracies in Pligg for a long time. But while searching for some information on the upcoming F1 race - the Turkish Grand Prix - in the new Pligg site, I noticed something which was really, really, bad.

There are several stories in the site about the Turkish Grand Prix, but clicking on the tag which says Turkish Grand Prix presents a age of results which have nothing to do with the tag at all. The tag-result page shows info on the European Grand Prix, Nurburgring, Hungaroring and all - but the stories with the appropriate tag do not appear in the first page of results at all.

Imagine how embarrassing this is. A user clicks on the tag, and he gets results which have nothing to do with it. Click on a driver’s name, and you may or may not get stories with his name in the tags.

I have posted this in the Pligg forum, and am still waiting for a response.

I know some of you are going to jump on me saying its open-source, and I should piss off and have no right to complain. That is a much larger discussion, and I am not going to get into that. However, open-source or not, I think it totally disappointing to have such a feature-failure in such a high-profile Digg clone script.

That is why I went for corank as the platform on which to build another one of my sites. The Corank  platform has its idiosyncracies - their core idea of people adding each other as sources - does not work at all when you are dealing with small communities. Often, you end up on pages with stories from the one or two sources you have added, and think that the site is almost empty — till you click on the site logo and reach the real homepage, not the home.html which confuses you totally. And their comments allow 5000 characters, while the actual story submission allows only 500 - despite assurances from RBA who owns corank, this is still not fixed after 2 months. But yes, their tags work, and beautifully too. And the overall system is massively fast compared to Pligg.

If only the tags would work as advertised in Pligg… If you are a Pligg coder or familiar with open-source enough to fix this, do let me know. Or better still, help me fix this and then post it in the Pligg forum so Pliggers can benefit from it.

Continuing on the theme of my last post.

Today I heard that Arun Shourie is going to file a privilege motion against the PM Dr Manmohan Singh for misleading parliament on the nuclear issue. More specifically for claiming in parliament that India can conduct nuclear testing if it wants, and that the 123 Nuclear agreement is silent on the topic. (This was promptly denied by US in a statement which was tantamount to a nuclear test under the Indian government’s collective arse.)

I don’t know if a statement from US is enough to file a privilege motion against the PM. (A PM against a PM? Heh heh.) I mean, who has more credibility, eh? The Indian PM or some US undersecretary?

Even more important point. How about a privilege motion against the government’s inability to pull this thing off? I mean what kind of diplomacy was going on for the last two years, if immediately after the 123 thingummy was signed, everyone starts offering a rainbow of interpretations? File a motion against the government’s inability to read English, I say.

Ah, and the man who is filing the PM (Privilege motion). Arun Shourie. How I adore him. During the days of Rajiv Gandhi, he was the superhero editor of Indian Express who was exposing Rajiv in the newspaper every day. How I gulped it all down. Bofors and scam and Ram Jethmalani’s questions to Rajiv. And how Shourie built up V P Singh. And demolished Devi Lal. All lasted till Mandal. And the moment BJP was against VP, so was Shourie. VP the Saint became VP the devil incarnate. Moment of truth for a lot of us. How we were fooled by Shourie into supporting VP as long as it was convenient for BJP. The turnaround in the paper was faster than a F1 pitstop.

Not that it was relevant to this post. But I had to say it. The man Arun Shourie had a major hand in turning a lot of us journalism students cynical.

Back to the PM (the prime minister). Can you file a PM against him if he never made a statement in parliament? I mean, no statement was made that was humanly recognisable as a statement. I saw lots of people standing up and shouting. Maybe the PM tabled the statement.

I think Arun Shourie and BJP first should invite the PM back so he can really make the statement, and then file a privilege motion against him. Or even better, Shourie also should just table a privilege motion, the voting also should not be humanly recognisable, as the slogan shouting crowd keeps up its volume all through the process. After all who wants to hear anything, right?

First of all, I do not claim to know much about the Indo-US 123 Nuclear Co-operation agreement. So this post is not about that at all.

But there has been something that Dr Manmohan Singh and proponents of the 123 agreement in India have been claiming. They say that India has the right to conduct nuclear tests if it wants; and that the 123 nuclear agreement is silent on the topic.

As we had expected, Left has been blowing hot on the topic and things seem to be heading towards a showdown on the deal. But what I expect from a PM is to know what he is talking about.

Here is the statement of Dr Manmohan Singh on testing:

“Let me hence reiterate once again that a decision to undertake future nuclear test would be our sovereign decision, one that rests solely with the government.”

And this is what US said today:

“The proposed 123 Agreement has provisions in it that in an event of a nuclear test by India, then all nuclear cooperation is terminated,” US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said on Tuesday.

This is utter nonsense by both parties to the agreement. How can diplomats of two countries be stupid enough to leave something like this vague, and to be exposed so quickly?

I know that in diplomatic negotiations, often it is necessary to leave certain topics vague. This is done when there is an implicit understanding on the topic, but no one wants to put it on paper. It is a common tactic considering political compulsions on both sides.

But it is also critical that both sides keep their traps shut on those topics. So the unwritten understanding does not become a political football, so it does not get exposed.

That is what has happened now. May be the Indian government knows for sure that India has no need to conduct nuclear tests in the future; may be the US knows India would not but cannot make an official promise.

If that is the case, then the countries should know when to keep their traps shut.

Now Singh looks like an idiot; and he is. He is an idiot because such an important point is not being reiterated in public forums. The diplomacy has failed.

The 123 agreement may be alright. The incapability to keep unwritten agreements under wraps is not.

Oh, don’t tell me that I am actually asking the government to fool its citizens. All governments do that. Smart, capable governments pull it off. No government will survive if some topics get discussed in public and becomes political weapons.

P.S. We should stop calling Sonia a dictator. A dictator, well, dictates. Looking at what Sonia has not managed to accomplish in Congress even when it is in power, considering the internecine warfare in the party which has led several times to electoral failure, she is just inefficient. Hardly a dictator. She may have a petty ego, but not a dictatorial bone in her body. As useless as the rest of our leaders.

Been a resident of Mumbai for 12 years, and almost one year in Delhi now. All metros have a problem of drinking and driving, and accidents caused by it. You hear a lot less about it in Mumbai generally, but when you do, it is on the lines of half a dozen people sleeping on the pavement getting killed. In Delhi it is much more common, but you don’t hear about such high profile incidents.

I have just landed in Mumbai on a short break, and the news on the drunken driving front is just super. A couple of thousand people were arrested last week - prompted by the general disgust among people about the accidents - and quite a few were sent to jail. They include a woman too! Bravo!

We are getting a step closer to male-female equality, aren’t we,  when women are caught and sent for drunken driving?

A month back, I had heard of police in Mumbai waiting outside pubs and catching offenders as they come out sozzled. I have been looking for something positive to say about Mumbai for a while, and here it is!

People being sent to jail for anything from 2 days to 45 days - that is a brilliant example. It will make them remember their nanis, as Rajiv Gandhi used to say. I mean who would want to get into that kind of shit? You hear about one person sent to jail by courts for drinking and driving, and there will be a lot of people who get immediately determined never, ever go that way. For that way lies jails, crappy jail food and smelly toilets.

Now I really, really pray to the Gods of all religions to please, please get the cops in Delhi to do this too. I mean it is so easy - 90 % of people out driving after 10 PM  in Delhi are drunk anyway! Just send them to the court and then fine them a couple of thousand rupees (good) or sent them to jail for a couple of days (brilliant) and the city would remember their nanis for sure.

There is one thing the capital city understands: Power. Political power, cop power, court power. Show them the power of the arrest. I mean, it is routine, socially accepted and all to drive in Delhi. That has to change. Two pegs, and you are above the legally accepted alcohol limit in your blood. These are people who will never break such a law abroad, but once in Delhi, they feel confident to do so.

I have seen cars full of drunken teens, movie-villain types, born-ruffians all drinking and driving. Driving dangerously. That should stop.

Oh, and I pray more for just more cops out on the streets. More cops stopping cars even to ask a cursory question means trouble for the goondas and rapists on the streets of Delhi.

Beat the city down, and it learns its lessons well. It understands power. Show them the power of the smelly toilet in a dirty jail cell. Please.

You say anything about Blank Noise Project, and you instantly get hit with a deluge of abuse. Not the fault of those behind it, definitely. It is an either-you-are-with- us, or you-are-with- the-terrorists mentality. Of some of their readers. Goes to show that small-mindedness is not the exclusive preserve of men, so maybe I should congratulate the gaali-givers! I was once called “Dancewithshadows Hater”. That was really funny.

Anyway, some of their supporters seem to think that questioning Blank Noise’s methods is the same as supporting rapists. Sad. (That’s not from any comment.)

I have been following their work. It definitely has significance - they set out to capture some of the public space that has been denied to women; try to beat men at the ganging up and staring game, give out letters and talk to the curious. All good. Yea, except the staring at men business. Probably has no positive effect on the dangerous guys, and confuse the rest. All men have at some point been in a situation where they were stared at by girls. Has happened to me, when I landed up on a side-street where girls lined the compound walls lf several houses on either side. They did not stop staring, and I was suitably embarrassed. Girls, please go Yay! now.

Point is, what next. At CP, while stenciling on the pavement near Rivoli, people got aggressive. Some guy pulled someone’s dupatta. Blank Noise members got away. Don’t know if the dupatta was given back.

But that is the state of affairs in Delhi. If in the national capital of India, if a bunch of women decide to stencil some message on the ground (illegal activity? I don’t know), drunk guy shouts, aggressive crowd gathers and someone pulls someone’s dupatta and all a bunch of women can do is get away. If that is all a group of women can do, I seriously doubt how far away real change is.

Me, Dancewithshadows Hater, is neither blaming them or mocking them here. I would have decided to slink away too, in such a situation.

But this is it? The event tells me exactly how bad the situation can get in India. And all we can do - even when in a group, is to get away? No retaliation? No police case? No IPC 509?

This is pretty bad. A nice guy (though a bit of a nitwit) recently told me that women who get raped often desire it subconsciously. And here I was, under the false impression that it was a belief that was dead and gone. He was young, had a little bit of a spiritual side - and I had to ask him if all the women who were raped during Partition wanted to get raped, and those women who go for a walk with their husbands or boyfriends are subconciously wishing a rape.

This is worse than I thought.

And when things are so bad, how important is Blank Noise’s obsession with the relatively milder hassle of being stared at?

Women have been telling me that lechers are a lot lesser now in Delhi, as the composition of the city changes, and the number of professionals who are busy enough increases. But whether that is true or not, the fact remains that there is nothing a bunch of women could do - or wanted to do, despite the IPC 509 - then where is a real action plan? Something that will make a bigger difference to attitudes and violence against women? If the people who are vocal about street harassment are bullied about on the street,what chance does the lonely woman in a crowded bus have?