Unfortunately, I didn’t save the links that I wanted to use for the post titled A tale of two teens and will have to spend more time looking for them to complete the post. In the meantime, here is a video I came across on YouTube while searching for those links.

Cats must be one of the cutest, funniest and most adorable creatures on the planet – this is a funny video about their antics. Have some feline fun!

Do you love cats? Or do you hate them? What do you think about these little domesticated felines that bring out extreme human reactions – from been almost worshipped as “holy creatures” in ancient Egypt to being despised and killed for being “agents of the devil” in mediæval Europe and everything in between? Take this little poll:

With the H1N1 swine flu pandemic sweeping across India and leaving 48 people dead (as on August 21, 2009) and infecting thousands more in its wake, one would expect the health minister of the government of India (Ghulam Nabi Azad) to be working furiously, co-ordinating and taking steps to contain its spread and treating sick people. Sadly, work is not something that politicians like Mr. Azad are fond of. Unfortunately, but expectedly, he has chosen a novel strategy of fighting the swine flu virus.

It’s physically impossible for a pig to look at the sky. A swine can only look at the ground beneath its feet in order to keep munching rotten things with its big mouth. The brilliant Mr. Azad has chosen to replicate the strategy of the swine to fight the swine flu virus. Mr. Azad hopes that he can contain the H1N1 pandemic by opening his big mouth!

A couple wear face masks as they travel on a motocycle in Pune, one of the cities worst affected by the swine flu…

Image: Associated Press

Health is a state subject in India and the state governments (along with local government authorities) have the responsibility of ensuring the health and well-being of their citizens. The role of the central government is to co-ordinate things and take measures to do things that the states cannot do. But the loudmouthed Azad wants to enjoy power without taking any responsibility and has kept spewing out nonsensical stuff to draw attention to himself. Such is the low nature of India’s worthless, crooked politicians that they don’t think of gaining political mileage out of dozens of swine flu deaths.

In a meeting of a rural health mission with state health ministers, the loudmouthed central health minister chose to flay the efforts of states in combating the swine flu pandemic. Though Mr. Azad’s utter incompetence has actually aided in the flu spreading rapidly across several cities, he decided to put the blame on the state health ministers saying “he could do only so much” and that “one should not expect him to go beyond a point”. Thankfully, the health minister of the state of Gujarat, JN Vyas, had the guts to tell the loudmouth to stop the nonsense. He reportedly told Mr. Azad, “We are not here to listen to these words. You are a federal minister and we look forward to your co-operation.” Three cheers for the Gujarat health minister JN Vyas!

It seems Mr. Azad simply cannot keep his big mouth shut. Like an empty vessel that is devoid of any stuff, he keeps making the maximum possible noise and the notorious Indian “mainstream media” that is eagerly waiting for stupid things to keep dishing out around the clock, lap up Mr. Azad’s ridiculous statements. It should be noted that Mr. Azad has no kind of experience whatsoever in the medical field and like many others, he became a minister only because of his ability to faithfully lick the boots of a certain lady who controls all her puppets, including the blue-turbaned one, by means of iron strings. As soon as he assumed charge, Mr. Azad immediately did great damage to the health of millions of Indian citizens. Paid by the notorious tobacco lobby       that also has some prominent film “stars” from one particular regional film industry (Bollywood) on its payroll, Mr. Azad virtually overturned the ban on on-screen smoking that was put in place against all odds by his predecessor – a trained physician who dared to take on this dangerous lobby and their cronies in the “mainstream media”. The tobacco lobby rejoiced since they could now go back to spreading the curse called tobacco to harm India’s youth and children, not to mention millions who suffer because of the ill effects of second hand smoke.

When the swine flu virus began killing people, affecting some cities so badly that schools had to be shut down for a week, Mr. Azad once again found it impossible to restrain his big mouth. In a shocking incidence of insensitivity, the health minister insulted an unfortunate little girl who had died of swine flu complications.     He blamed the dead girl for “spreading the virus”. Understandably, 14-year old Reeda Shaik’s parents were outraged and demanded his resignation. Mr. Azad was forced to apologise for his callous remarks.

Now, what has Mr. Azad actually done to stop the spread of swine flu? Very little! In fact, his ignorance of the dangerous nature of the flu and his incompetence actually helped in spreading the virus to all parts of the country. Unlike Mexico, the United States and many other countries that reported the outbreak of swine flu months ago, India was free from this scourge. Instead of taking measures to stop the virus before it affected people, Mr. Azad chose to play the fiddle. He neither co-ordinated the establishment of a sound response system nor did he take measures to increase the screening and testing facilities. On the contrary, he made sure that the one could not access the common drugs to treat swine flu, Tamiflu and Relenza, because the government was hoarding them. He took no measures to increase the production of either these drugs or face masks. The sale of face masks has degenerated into a racket with unscrupulous traders hoarding them, creating an artificial shortage and selling the masks at inflated prices. Screening systems were not put in place at airports to detect people who were infected. All airports are managed by the incompetent central government and even a few days back, my friend told me that he was not screened when he landed here. So much for the loudmouthed minister’s proclamation that “he could only do so much”!

I guess if Mr. Azad chose to put in even a fraction of the effort in his work as he does in opening his big mouth, the H1N1 swine flu would not have infected and killed so many people.      

(P.S.: My “next post” – A tale of two teens has been delayed by this important post)

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Back to the future?

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It’s bailout time again!

My next post:

A tale of two teens

My favourite blogging software, WordPress, and my favourite blogging site, WordPress.com, by far the best in the world, seemed like they could simply do nothing wrong. The WordPress team are the most capable folks out there, design the best sofware, keep improving it with each passing day and always listen to their users though most of us are free users!

As most of us bloggers would agree, WordPress is simply the best blogging software available on the planet!

Now for the first time, unfortunately, they have put a wrong foot forward. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m talking about the new WordPress smilies. One fine day, WP decided to replace the fantastic old smilies with an ordinary bunch of emoticons that can be called as frownies. In my humble opinion, these new smilies are not half as good as the old ones. The old bunch were a set of simple, cute, emotive faces that were extremely expressive!

Unfortunately, WP has decided to completely replace the old ones with the new bunch. Take a look at the two and decide for yourselves:

This is the lovely old set of smilies (animation doesn’t work since this is a screenshot) taken from this page…

…and these are the ones that have replaced them…

smile
grin
sad
eek
shock
???
cool
mad
razz
neutral
wink
lol
oops
cry
evil
twisted
roll
!
?
idea
arrow
mrgreen

Since most commenters here use WordPress or comment on WP blogs, let’s have a poll on WP smilies:

Thanks in advance for voting! Please let me know your opinion on WP smilies by leaving a comment below.

…and one was made to believe that the ideology of communism and state ownership of enterprises had (deservedly) ended with the fall of the Iron Curtain!

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It’s bailout time again!

It’s not easy to be classified as a champion team when you finished dead last in last year’s championship. However, the Deccan Chargers from Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) have done just that – from the zeroes of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2008 to the undisputed champions of IPL 2009, it has been one dream journey for this deadly combination of crack cricketers led by Adam Gilchrist.

Gilly receives the trophy from the South African President, Jacob Zuma…

Image: www.deccanchargers.com

No one doubted the potential of this team – they have a great mix of youth and experience, a cool combination of seasoned international pros and talented young Indian cricketers. But, in last year’s inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket, the team simply failed to click. All that is history now!

Gilchrist took over as the captain from VVS Laxman for this year’s IPL that was shifted to South Africa since the Indian government could not provide security for the tournament, as the dates coincided with the General Elections. It was a blessing in disguise for the League as it helped to increase its popularity beyond Indian shores. Full credit goes to Cricket South Africa for organising a fantastic tournament at a very short notice. We all look forward to the big one – the 2010 FIFA World Cup. South Africans have proved to be great organisers and wonderful hosts!

For the Chargers, it was a superb team effort that took them all the way. Gilchrist and his fellow Aussie, the DC coach Darren Lehmann have managed to bring out the best in all their boys. Young cricketers like Tirumalasetti Suman, Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha and Harmeet Singh have proved themselves on the big stage while seasoned international pros like RP Singh (who won the Purple Cap for taking the most number of wickets in the tournament), Herschelle Gibbs, Ryan Harris and Andrew Symonds made great contributions at crucial stages to keep the charge going. Not to forget Gilly’s sterling contribution – he not only shouldered the burden of keeping wickets while leading the team, but got the Chargers’ off to a flying start with his aggressive batting as an opener. Chasing a big target in a pressure semi-final against the highly rated Delhi Daredevils, Gilchrist played the knock of the tournament, single handedly demolishing the Daredevils’ attack with his incredible hitting. It was champion stuff from a champion cricketer!

The Royal Challengers Bangalore is another team that deserves apprecation. The boys from Bengaluru (Karnataka) finished second last in the IPL 2008 and made an ordinary start in this year’s edition. Anil Kumble lifted the RCB to a new level when he took charge as skipper. The Challengers put together a string of successive victories over top teams and knocked out last year’s runners-up, the Chennai Super Kings, in the second semi-final. They lost the final narrowly to the Chargers in a pressure cooker situation.

There is no doubt about the heroes of this year’s IPL, though. It has to be the Chargers from Hyderabad! A word of praise for T. Venkattram Reddy, the DC team owner. He solidly backed his team and could be seen in the team dugout with his boys when some other team owners chose the comfort of the hospitality box. The team is owned by the Deccan Chronicle, a reputed broadsheet and South India’s largest selling English language newspaper. I guess when you are the undisputed numero uno in one field, it tends to rub off on your other business ventures too!

I look forward to watching the Deccan Chargers in action at the T20 Champions League. As the Chargers’ cheerleaders and fans say: GO, Chargers! GO, Chargers! GO, go, go, go!!!

Thanks to Prakash, my fellow blogger at Kalugu for his contribution in putting this post together!

Poverty has a greater effect on women than it does on men. That’s because women’s needs are more complex and they are usually treated as second-class citizens in most poor societies. Basic things that rich and middle-class women take for granted usually remain a distant dream for poor women and girls. Feminine hygiene products fall in this category.

In most Third World societies, women suffer greatly during their menstrual periods. In addition to the physiological issues they face, they also have to face the psychological problem of being treated as untouchables due to the social and cultural backwardness of their societies. As if this were not enough, lack of education about one’s own physiology adversely affects their health by limiting their access to feminine hygiene products. Affordablility of hygiene products is another serious issue. While only rich and middle-class women can afford the exorbitantly priced products marketed by the large companies, poor women are forced to use uncomfortable and unhygienic substitutes like cloth, and this impacts their health, well-being and self-confidence negatively.

An invention that would help school girls in many developing countries to keep attending classes:

Image: www.mrds.org

In a country like India, the lack of affordable hygiene products seriously affects the ability of millions of poor girls (in rural areas and deprived neighbourhoods of large cities) to attend school. Many of them shy away from attending school during their periods since sanitary napkins remain unaffordable and unaccessible to millions of poor girls and women.

A revolutionary invention that democratises sanitary napkins and makes them affordable and accessible to millions of women has been developed by Mr. Arunachalam Muruganandan from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. Muruganandam was forced by the economic circumstances of his family to drop out of school after Class X and work in a factory that produced machines used in the production of textiles. Utilising his ideas and experience, he developed a low cost sanitary napkin manufacturing machine that costs less than one-tenth that of the large automatic machines used to produce sanitary napkins. He set up his own firm to manufacture and market these semi-automatic machines to women’s rural Self Help Groups (SHGs) across the country. He was also ecouraged in his efforts by the government of Tamil Nadu, which set up vending machines for these sanitary napkins along with low-cost incinerators in state-run schools in several villages. The sanitary napkins are made available at a very low cost (2 INR/piece) by the SHGs which produce them using the mini napkin making machine. And now, a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has decided to purchase Muruganandam’s machines and supply them to groups in several African countries, thereby enabling millions of poor girls and women in another continent to benefit from his low cost invention.

Read more about Muruganandam’s efforts in this great post by Malarthamil on www.kalugu.com Thank you, Malar!

To know more about this machine and how it has helped girls and women across India and generated employment for women’s SHGs, click here.