A Journey

Note: I am not a Feminist or Male chauvinist, I am a humanist.

Well that is some question (the title question) to be asked taking the prejudisctic thoughts that religions put forward in this so called modern world. nearly 33% of the population on earth are outcasted for one quarter of a period in a month because of this natural process. And why? because religions (to be precise, religious priests or so called scholars) teach them that they are impure during this period.

Saddest part is, majority of the victims believe that they are impure, brainstorming from their childhood by the society makes them think like that. The society is patriarchy dominant, so are the religions. The laws are made convenient to one Gender. This point is directly proportional to the laws of religions also. Every law in every religion is made from a single genders point of view, but who cares as long as the messages are directly from 'GOD'. 

I start with some examples I know. As I was born and bought up in Hindu background, I have more ideas about what happens in Hinduism. Biggest point that I noted, If father or mother of a lady expires, she wont be allowed to be in the house where the dead body is kept because of the simple reason that she is menstruating. According to the book of laws of religion, it is ok. As for me it is a cruelty. It is a criminal act. Ladies are not allowed to enter the premises of temples during this time. Well believers, I have one doubt, Why would your 'GOD' create something that is so impure that is denies entry to his/her fellows to visit him/her?Perplexed. Even cow dung is treated as sacred inside temples. In earlier days (may be now also in some parts) menstruating ladies were not allowed to enter the kitchen or take water from the well.

Why are women exempted from giving the position of 'priest' in Christianity? I am not going in to other religious faiths, as almost all religious laws are against women (As per the information from Wikipedia, Sikhism is an exception in this topic). Wild beliefs like plants getting faded out because of the menotoxin are still prevalent. The worst part being that people doesn't want to understand the actual science behind menstruation and having blatant belief in what is taught to them.

More than the teachings by religion, its the attitude of the society and the victim itself that has to be changed. They need to believe that menstruation is just a natural process that happens in the womens body just like Sweat, Urine etc. Religions always exist on the platform of making its followers believe its rituals and customs blindly. Religions always act as a negative force against women. 

Women, think. Think in a positive way. If you think that something that happens naturally in your body is impure, then you have lost your self respect. You are blindly following something which has no scientific evidence to back up. You are promoting dogmatic beliefs. You raise your daughters with your beliefs, You are killing the feminity in your daughters, you are killing her self respect. 

Courtesy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstruation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_and_menstruation

The curse: a cultural history of menstruation- Janice Delaney, Mary Jane Lupton, Emily Toth. 

http://www.mum.org/religmen.htm

http://dayswork.wordpress.com/2006/07/01/when-religion-made-women-outcasts/

Well we stopped at the Mughal Empire in the last post. 

On a quick revision we go back to the list of Super Powers from the ancient Times.

1. Egypt
2. Iran (Achaemenid)
3. Greece ( Macedonian )
4. India (Mauryan Empire)
5. China (Han Dynasty)
6. Italy (Roman Empire)
7. Central and West Asia (Caliphate)
8. Mongolia (The Mongol Empire)
9. India (Mughal Empire)

Next comes the Largest and Wealthiest empires ever to rule the world, the Empire 'where sun never set'. The British Empire. Colonization was at its best under United Kingdom. At its peak almost a quarter of World's land and a quarter or world population was under the British dominance. First making America and India as their colonies, the loss of 13 colonies in America forced Britain to look for colonies in Africa, Asia and Asia-pacific.With series of war between other European contenders like Netherlands, France, Portugal and Spain, Britains supreme technology and war skills and divide and rule policy helped them to capture and hold on to much of the colonies in Asia, Africa and Asia pacific. 

With the fall of Napoleon in the battle of waterloo in 1815, Britain enjoyed a period of supreme dominance of world till the decolonisation started after the second world war in 1945.Inroads were made to the military and financial power of Britain by the start of first world war itself with regular war with Germany and losing many colonies. The emergence of USA and Germany as technological super powers also slowed down the supremacy of Britain. Though British empire formally ended by the hand over of Hong Kong to China in 1997, it was till the first world war, that the British empire was at its best.

The cultural impact of British rule is huge because of its vastness and longevity in its colonies. Prime example is the English language which is used by close to two billion people in world now. The historical monuments, the railways, the telegraph all are the contribution of Britain to its colonies though Britain was financially looting its colonies. Games like Cricket, Football and Tennis are popular in most part of the world, which is contribution of Britain. Tenth in the list - Great Britain

The decline of Britain and the rise of USA was happening at the same time. A notable difference between the other empires and USA is that, territorial annexation is not done by USA for spreading its geographical extenstion. The policies employed was either overturning a government in a country where the US has some political, or financial or any other interests and make one dummy government or culturally annexing the country such that US is seen as ultimate market for satisfyin their needs. This policy is widely petnamed as 'American Imperialism'. USA is enjoying ultimate dominance after the fall of USSR. For quarter of a century they are the real global power.

As with any empire, though there is a fall, there is time for fall, the decline happens gradually in an empire.The US empire is on helm for the past one century with absolute dominance for just about one third of a century. Fore cast, it will take another 50-70 years for complete decline of the US dominance and rise of another super power. And if looked at history, though there are lot of empires at same time, only one can be called a real super power at a time. Though China is rising, it is along with an existing super power. By the time US dominance ends, as per my predication, China also will be done with their rise.

My predication, next super power is not China or even India. Its a new country from Africa.

With this we come to the end of the series. Next on list - The mafia around the world

After the Roman rule, Europe was sliding into Dark Age era. This was the time when the Caliphate Empire and the rise of the new religion, Islam took place in Central Asia. The Caliphate rule is regarded as the golden age of Islam. The Caliphate rule was established by 7th Century AD after the death of Prophet Muhammad. The rise of Islam was through a series of Conquests by Muhammad. Rashidun Caliphate was established soon after the death of Muhammed, but was overthrown by the Ummayad dynasty. But it was under the Abbasid Caliphate the Golden age really started and Islam really began to spread and develop into a major religion in present Africa, West and Central Asia. Baghdad became the scientific and Cultural capital of the world. About 30% of world population was under Caliphate rule during the 7th and 8th Century. Islam spread to West Asia, Africa and to parts of Afganisthan during this rule. So 7th in the list - We cannot limit it to one nation - It involves Present day Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Afganisthan etc. So we can tell it as Central and West Asia 

Genghis Khan, The warrior who laid the foundation of the second Largest Empire of all time, The Mongol Empire, Which covered 22% of the land area and had about 26% of world population under them. Mongol Empire had a whopping 34 Million Sq Km under its control. The Mongol empire had Mongolia, Parts of Russia, China and a major portion of Central Asia under its reign. Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan were the most famous emperors of this Empire. It covered in the east, parts of Europe and to the west up to Sea of Japan. To the north it went up to Siberia and to the south up to South China. Though the impact of Culture and Religion on rest of the world is not that much as much in the case of Roman or Caliphate empire, Mongol empire still holds to the top position because of it vastness. Internal civil war is mainly considered as the main reason for fall of Mongolian empire. Mongol empire lasted till the thirteenth century. So 8th Super power - Mongolia  

After the fall of Mongol Empire, there were two prominent empires in the world, The Ming empire which ruled over China and the Mughal Empire which ruled over Indian Subcontinent. Though both had profound impact over culture, religion and technology in those times, Mughal Empire can be deemed as the next real world empire because of its impact in other parts of the world also including the trade with West Europe. 

Although less in area covered than Ming Empire, the percentage of world population, advancement in Science & Technology, Art and literature and cultural implications make Mughal Empire one of the empires with most implications in day to day life, just like the Roman Empire. Akbar is considered as the greatest of all emperors in the Mughal Dynasty. Almost 30% of world population was under the Mughal Empire. Its vastness reached heights under the reign on Aurangazeb. Mughal empires decline started with the fall of Aurangazeb, coerced with the rising Maratha Empire and eventually British imperialism.

Under the rule of Akbar and Shah Jahan, world saw a new rise in art and sculptures as many of the beautiful structures like Taj Mahal, Red fort, Lahore Fort, Fateh pur Sikri etc were built in these times. Large scale trade started with West Europe during the time of emperor Salim (Jehangir). 

We stopped at Mauryan Empire in the last post. It was towards the end of the BC era that Mauryan Empire declined. At the same time, towards north of India, In China there was Han dynasty under which China was flourishing. The period of Han Dynasty in Chinease history is called the golden age of China. Most of the people in China now belong to the 'Han' sect.

Spread across over a six and half million sq.km, Han empire had 26% of the world population at that time under its regime. China became a military as well as economical and cultural powerhouse under Han dynasty. The extend of Han dynasty was up to todays Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Vietnam. The Han Dynasty was arguably one of the strongest's empires in the world during the reign of Emperor Wu. Han dynasty came to an end due to various external and internal factors, the main thing being the battle of redcliff - Fifth in list - China

Now comes one of the interesting empire of all time, the Romans. The Roman empire is known as Ancient Europe's powerful and largest empire and Roman civilization was the largest civilization that Europe had ever witnessed till that date. People all over the world will still be influenced by the Roman civilization of that time. Several historical characters take their birth from this civilization. Great and famous Emperors like Augustus, Julius Caesar and Trajan belong to this era. 

Because of the long and vast reach of the Roman empire, its influence is still felt in day to day life. The Roman empire at its peak time had almost entire Europe and northern parts of current Africa under it. The Extent in area was up to 6 Lakh sq Km. As much as 36% of the world population was under the Roman Empire, which truly makes it one the most dominating ever in the history of mankind. The Roman Empire lasted until 3rd Century AD. Next in list of Super power - Italy

Thats it for now.

All the characters in this are real. I have no issue in getting sued also. I was so much in frustration after this happened.

Well, this is not about the empires. This is a real life incident that happened recently. 

Most of my friends might be knowing the red tap-ism in the Government offices in Kerala. In a very demoralizing and frustrating act, the bureaucratic (I would rather say dictators) bunch of the college which I studied, denied a simple letter for my friend. 

Go down to see what happened:

My friend Anup Nambiar was applying for MBA in USA, needed on letter from the college (L.B.S.College of Engineering) that the medium of instruction in the college was English. As he was in Bengaluru, he asked my help to get this letter to him. I inquired our HOD about the same and was informed that a formal request will be needed. Anup E-mailed me the request and I got it verified from the HOD and she signed it that Anup was a student of the institution and the letter may be issued. 

I took the same to the Principal chamber and it was forwarded to the C1 section of the college. I went to the C1 section by 10Am in the morning and hope to get the letter by maximum 11 Am. I asked the lady in the C1 Section, how much time it will take? She told come in the evening, we have to verify the records, we have to draft the letter etc. I just asked her, what record you have to verify for making a letter like 'The medium of instruction in LBS college of Engineering is English', if you are talking about verifying whether the applicant was student of the college, it is already certified by the HOD. If you are taking about drafting a letter, it is at max three lines. I got a smile as the reply. 

I waited and waited and had to postpone a meeting of mine which was scheduled to at 11:30 Am to 3:15 Pm. By 12 Noon, the lady sent the file to the Superintendent of the office (I think his name is Dileep). He informed the lady that the letter cannot be given to me ! ? :(. The reason I got was the applicant is not me and the letter can be issued to him only. I told the C1 Section officer that, please make a general letter like 'To whomsoever it may concern' and please give me. If needed, I will give a new request, she asked to get the permission from the Principal in charge( Sri. Sukumaran Sir) (Principal was on leave). The principal in charge was the HOD of the Electrical department who knew me. He told me that as this is a general certificate, there is no issue, otherwise specific certificates can't be given to some one else as it can be mis utilized. Principal in charge signed to proceed with the draft.

Now it was 1:30 and these people didn't started typing the letter itself and went for lunch. I waited till 2.15Pm and I also went for lunch in the canteen. The letter got prepared by that time and was given to the peon to deliver to the principal to sign the letter. After 2:50 also, when I didn't saw her, I went outside the office and what I could see was the peon was talking to some of her colleagues and the letter to be signed was still with her. Seeing me, she went to the  Principal. 

Now the most embarrassing part came, As it was already 3 and I had to leave for my meeting, I asked the Superintendent of Office that I will come tomorrow and collect the Letter, The answer I got was what was told in the morning that it cannot be issued to me. I told about the approval from Principal in charge. He asked me to get that in writing, adding that Principal in charge changes his words 40 times, it should be in writing. Now I told him, this is a general letter to be issued, not a specific one, is there any need for these much formalities.He gave me some speech then

I called Anup and told the situation, The certificate was ready, but they are not giving to me. He wanted to ask some doubts over this and so I told the superintendent whether he can talk to my friend, the response I got him was worst, he just had some harsh words on me for asking this. 

After this I just left the place as I was already late for my meeting. 

Conclusion: My friend is travelling from Bangalore to collect this certificate. The C1 section officer, The superintendent etc might be correct from the legal point of view. But my question is Why there should be so much formality and delay in getting such a simple thing sorted out? Why are they not finding out an alternate way to handle these small matters easily?

I wish these people mentioned above happens to read this post.

Sorry for the delay Ladies / Gentlemen.

The first part was stopped at Persian empire, present Iran which had 44% of the world population under its geography. This was in 5th Century BC.

After the Persian (Achaemenid) rule, the next power which contributed to major changes in the civilization progress was the Macedonian empire, which reached heights during the kingship of Philip II and then conquered the geographical area from Western Europe to North Western India under 'Alexander the Great'. The geographical limits of Alexander’s empire was from the West of Greece to North Western India. After the death of Darius and Xerxes, Persian empire became weak and the emergence of Macedonia under Philip II also happened the same time.

As we have seen, world is ruled by empires and empires are made where there happens an explosion of Scientific and Cultural innovations. The same thing happened in Greece also. The period of Alexander is called the Classical period of Greeks. Famous Parthenon in the acropolis was built during this time. Remember the great Scholars, Plato and Aristotle belonged to this period.

Alexander’s invasion included the territories which was under Persian empire, Egypt, Afghanistan, Iraq and current Pakistan. The most influential part in Alexander’s invasion is that it left the Greek culture to these parts for ever. The Hellenistic period (The Yavana kingdom in North western India) was established as a consequence of invasion of Alexander. Alexander invasion left lasting impressions of Greek culture and administration methods for centuries in the annexed territories. Remember the Yavana kingdom mentioned in Mahabharata J.

After colonizing up to North Western India, Alexander returned to annex Arabia. Due to rough weather and ill health he died suddenly in 323 BC leaving behind Antipater as the successor. Soon Macedonia fell into civil war and the entire empire was no more after the Romans attack.

Though the worlds majority population was not under Macedonian territory (Main land China and India being still un conquered), the lasting impression it left on the culture and administration of many of the countries make it truly the world dominating force during Alexander’s time. So current GREECE comes third.

While Alexander was annexing the North western parts of India, the only major dynasty in India was Nanda dynasty. (Alexander didn’t conquered main land India, not because he had a major emperor to resist him, but of the sheer Geography of India and continuous war done by the Greeks. Same thing can be attributed to non annexure of South India by any of the major empires of mainland India. You have to cross mighty rivers like Krishna, Godavari etc to reach South India J ).

Chandragupta Maurya belonged to the Moriya clan of tribes. He formed an army and with the help of Chanakya (Vishnugupta) over threw the Nanda dynasty and established the Mauryan Empire. 

The Geographical limits of Mauryan empire reached up to Assam in the east, Afghanistan in the west and up to parts of Tamil Nadu in the south. The major rulers in this dynasty were Chandragupta and Asoka.  Chandragupta had war with the Hellenistic ruler Seleucus and was victorious as Seleucus couldn’t annex any of Chandragupta’s territory and had to surrender some of his territory. During the period of Chandragupta, Bindusara and Asoka, much of the Indian subcontinent was under Mauryan rule except Kalinga (Orissa). Kalinga was annexed to Mauryan empire through the battle of Kalinga. After Asoka, Mauryan empire became weak and was taken over by the Sunga Dynasty later.

Scholar works, cultural transformation etc reached heights during the Mauryan empire. Arthashasthra was written by Vishnugupta. It is a major work on Politics, Economics, Administration, Religion etc. The Mauryan period saw the boom of Jainism and Buddhism in India. Chandragupta Maurya in his later years adored Jainism. Asoka adored Buddhism and promoted it in many parts of South East Asia.

Almost 33% of the world population was in India that time. Mauryan empire had strong trade relation with the Hellenistic world and in terms of Geographical area also this was the largest empire in the world during the reign of Asoka. So Mauryan Empire was the fourth major empire of the world. INDIA

Well am a hard core fan of history..history always beckons me. Well in this post I want to analyze whether India will be a super power in the near future. I am taking some facts and figures from the known history to analyze this. 

Am back after a gap of 21 days and thats much of a break as I was planning to write blog in posterous more frequently. I like posterous interface more than blogger and thats the reason, I shifted from Blogger to Posterous.

Well today I am writing about the film I watched last week, Once Upon a time in Mumbaai. Its based on Bombay of 70's and how the smuggling underworld of 70's changed to the terrorist underworld in the 90's. the film is directed by Milan Luthria and the cast includes Ajay Devgn, Emraan Haashmi, Kangana Ranaut,Prachi Desai and Randeep Hooda. Protagonist in the film is Ajay Devgn as Sulthan Mirza, his characted closely resembles the life of Haji Masthan Mirza, aka Haji Masthan, who was a legendary figure among his community and was a 'popular' (point to be noted, popular and not notorious) smuggler in Bombay in 70's. 

"Rewind to the Era of Real Men"

"Rewind to the Era of the Divas"

"Rewind to the Era of Romance"

"Rewind to the Era of Punch Lines"

I grew up hearing the names of Haji Masthan, Varadaraja Muthaliyar and Kareem Lala and of course Chotta Shakeel, Chota Rajan and the prime star Dawood Ibrahim.I never heard bad things about Haji Masthan though he was a smuggler. Of course he was doing the wrong thing, but he was never in the list of of dreaded criminal.  We had film like "Deewaar" in which Amitabh Bachchan played the character similar to Haji Masthan. 

I was very fond of film like that. We had Deewaar, Nayagan in which Kamal Hassan played a role of life time as Velu Nayakkar (based on Varadaraja Muthaliyar) , God father trilogy which is a master piece in world cinema, and in malayalam we have Rajavinte makan which made Mohanlal rise to super stardom. Ajay Devgn is my favourite actor in bollywood after Amitabh Bachchan. The reason why Amithabh scores over Ajay is his voice and his screen presence. both of the actors have an un believable eye with which itself can render powerful expressions. Ajays eyes has got the power to speak to the audience. Take his performance in Legend of Bhagat singh, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Gangaajal, Company or Omakara, there is no one to beat him in a serious role. As I tell, Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bchchan may be the don's of Bollywood, Ajay Devgn is a several notches higher above them as a don. Amitabh Bachchan also has got powerful presence in such kind of movies starting from Deewaar to Agneepath, but I feel that they have got a bit of melodrama in it. 

Well talking about the movie, this one is bit low to company, but as I say, it cannot be compared also. This one got some commercial items in it. We have some humour, romance etc which was not the case with Company, which makes it completely a film on underworld. Some may tell that this is not up to the league of Satya, Sarkar etc, but still this film has got its own plus points. This rolls back to the 70's and the Bombay of 70's are well depicted in the movie. The heroines Kangana and Prachi Desai are well shown. Kangana was made to look like a diva like the heroines then. I saw a hint of Madhubala in Kangana Ranaut. Well I don't want to tell the story here, but it is all about the changes that happens when the underworld comes from the hands of Sulthan Mirza to the hands of Shoaib Khan.

The dialogues of the film are superior and the music stand outs. Though I heard that Pritam "inspired" from some other music, still he has a wonderful ability of getting inspired and make the audience love his music and for that he should be applauded. The theme music is splendid and I used to hymn the music on a regular basis now a days, I got to know that this music is also inspired from a holly wood movie.

Talking about the performance, as I already told, Ajay Devgn as Sulthan Mirza forms the back bone of the film. Emraan Hashmi as the ambitious goon is surprisingly good and so does the heroines. Prachi Desai has done a commendable job and as told earlier, Kangana Ranaut reminds of the divas of 70's. Chemistry between the lead pair is awesome.

Cinematography reminds us of the films of 70's and how Bombay was in 70's. The film has got the substance and it has got a heart

So in total, hats off to director Milan Luthria and producer Ekta Kapoor for making such a wonderful film ..don't miss this film ...go and watch it....."Mein un cheezon ki smuggling karthaa hoon jiski ijaazat sarkar nahi deti, un cheezon ki nahi jinki ijaazat apni zameer nahi deta" (I smuggle things which are not allowed by govt, not those which are not allowed by my conscience)

 

The Indian Rupee has got its own symbol. As an Indian, am very much pleased with this. We are into the elite club of the Dollar, The Pound, The Euro and the Yen. As other south Asian countries like Pakistan and Srilanka also have the Rupee as their currency, India needed a change from that as it is a rising global power.

Uday Kumar, and IIT graduate designed this symbol. Its truly fantastic feeling. It will take another 18 months to get the Unicode approved for this symbol, but the time is worth waiting. For the time being, Foradian Technologies have developed the Font for using the Indian Rupee and its quite working. Please see the sample below that I used in my doc file from the Font I downloaded. You cannot see the symbol unless you download it in your system

Font size I chose was 72.

I say, the Rupee symbol simply rocks. Its more appealing than the Dollar or the Euro or Yen. 

Please see the detailed step to use the font and link to download the font here - http://blog.foradian.com

` 10,000

This is my first Post after creating the Posterous account. I started blogging way back in 2005, then I was an engineering student. Technically I am weak then and now. But am always fond of new innovations happening in the technical world. So even though late, I am into Posterous now. In the 4+ years of blogging, I had only some 20 odd posts, which seems very odd :). That is one post every quarter. I want to increase the frequency of posting and I feel with the switch to Posterous, I will be able to achieve the target. Initial target is 3 posts every quarter. That is one post every month. So lets see how this goes and am very much impressed with the GUI of Posterous. Also my company's blog is also done in posterous only and it really seems cool. visit blog.foradian.com to check that out.