Just like that

Weird!!! But sounds logical!!! INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2004 08:28:59 AM NEW DELHI: Top astrologers in the country are hinting that the tsunami strike might indeed be a step towards Nostradamus' prediction - End of the world in 2010. Minutes after panic gripped southern India following warnings of a fresh tsunami strike on Thursday, one of India's top astrologers, Kewal Anand Joshi, warned: "It's not over yet." "We (a group of astrologers) are currently diagnosing the calamity. There's going to be another major strike in June 2005, somewhere in the world. It will continue in 2006 and even in 2007 taking millions of lives," Joshi almost assured. "And we have reason to believe, besides tsunami strikes, there'll be a series of natural catastrophes which could destroy parts of the world," he added. Toll in Saturday's tsunami-strike has already reached 80,000 of which 13,500 were killed in India alone. Experts ...

REUTERS Posted online: Friday, December 31, 2004 at 1127 hours IST JOHANNESBURG, DECEMBER 31: Wild animals seem to have escaped the Indian Ocean tsunami, adding weight to notions they possess a 'sixth sense' for disasters, experts said Thursday. Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean island's coast seemingly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found. "No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit. I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening," HD Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka's Wildlife Department, said Wednesday. The waves washed floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lanka's biggest wildlife reserve and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards. "There has been a lot of anecdotal evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcan...

The ever extant ,urban-rural divide, seems to have seeped in providing relief for tsunami victims too. For, the folks in the urban areas are better placed in terms of access to relief materials that there were even reports of they exercising choices about what to eat and what not. Its not that they don't have a right to choose the food of their choice; but certainly not when they themselves are homeless and are wholly dependent of such good works of a few voluntary groups. The quote of a local fisherman in one of the dailies was quite irritating. He said: "I am fed up of eating puliyodarai and pongal and so I opted for puris instead. Though I'd like to have some meen kozhambu, I know that these relief people will not give non-veg." Isn't it ironical that jus about three days ago, he had lost all his belongings and was right now sheltered in a corporation school and yet such comment. Whereas the same tsunami victims in an interior hamlet of Kalpakkam, far away f...

It takes a tsunami to let the world know about the numerous good samaritans that it harbours. The aftermath of the tidal tragedy has left many dejected and directionless. But amidst this mayhem, is a group of people who have managed to recover themselves from the tragedy and extend a helping hand to the victims. Numerous voluntary and non-governmental organisations have sprung into action to provide succour to those bereft of the basic needs - food, clothes and shelter. But a major problem that many of them seem to be facing is the lack of communication. Most of them are ready to help but do not know where to begin and how to go about it. The State Government, undoubtedly, is now burdened with a mammoth task of saving all these people and is quite busy with this task. But, surely it can provide some sort of guidance and information to all these voluntary groups who are share its burden. The lack of communication has left most of these groups in a soup and many are dejected with the go...

Its a gory display of nature's fury reminding us once more that not all are automated or computer-controlled. The devastating tsunami has left everyone spellbound. The fact that Chennai, considered to be a safer haven among all the Indian metros, could be rocked by something so natural was quite unnatural. Unfortunately, the year has been a sad one for all young ones. Even in this tragic tidal terror, it was the women and children who have been hit. Young ones who had been playing a game of cricket or hockey, who were jus building castles on the sand, who were simply waiting for their fathers to return or those who had religiously gone off with their mothers to offer prayers at the Velankanni church were sweeped away in jus no time. After the Kumbakonam tragedy and the Beslan massacre, this is the third time in 2004 when the young ones had been affected in huge numbers. It's heart-rending to hear the tales of anguished parents with the dead bodies of their wards in their han...

I really enjoyed reading this..!! Karnataka film ban A cosmopolitan culture going nuts SUJATA SRINIVASAN Posted online: Thursday, December 23, 2004 at 0000 hours IST Every nation has its share of nutcases. But Dr Chandrashekar Kambara, a venerable gatekeeper to Kannada literature, certainly deserves the epithet Chief Nut. ‘‘Everybody should join hands to protect the Kannada language,’’ he declared grandiosely, in a display of solidarity with a breed of fellow nuts—protectionists in the Kannada film industry who have ‘‘restricted’’ the viewing of other language films, including Hindi, Tamil, and English, in the state of Karnataka. In a sickening web of double standards, a section of producers and directors has launched the pro-Kannada language Kannada Film Chamber of Commerce, to take over the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce! We all know why this jittery bunch want to ‘‘ban’’ competition—the lot doesn’t have stomach enough to gulp a good, strong dose of fair play. And what...

He begged to be killed. But, not out of fear or pain, out of his sincere desire to help at least five other patients who were in need of various organ transplants. However, the last wish of the 26-year old Hyderabad chess player, K. Venkatesh, reamined unfulfilled. Venkatesh, who was suffering from Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, begged for euthanasia so that his organs can be harvested in good condition. Despite his mother's best efforts, she was unable to win the legal battle to fulfil her son's last wish. The Hyderabad high court had rejected both her pleas of advancing Venkatesh's death to enable organ transplant and for including non-heart beat deaths in the organs transplantation act. Despite his sincere desire to help five more patients, none of his organs, barring eyes, were useful for transplant as Venkatesh had been on a ventilator for a long period. The courage and compassion displayed by this sportsman, even at his death bed, is something truly awe-inspirin...

Some more terrifying incidents!!! December 21 IANS AGRA: Raids on cyber cafes in this Taj Mahal city have revealed disturbing ramifications of how Internet porn was influencing morals and leading to sexual escapades in the most unlikely of places.Police raids on two cyber cafes, following complaints, found schoolboys and girls in various stages of undress and some of them also in intimate contact, a police official alleged.The raids on in the Sanjay Place commercial complex in the heart of the city found that many of them were showing pornographic films online. The cafes have been sealed."Many cabins just did not even have computers. Several girls hurriedly put on their clothes after they were caught with their boyfriends with their pants down," said an officer of the Hari Parbat police station."The cyber laws are too vague and just not understood here," said a criminal lawyer, who felt that the 15-odd couples in the two cyber cafes at the time of the raids cou...

The 'porn-maker kid' is the hot news story of the day. There is an alarming trend seen among the children who have been misusing the modern gadgets such as computers and camera mobiles, much to the chagrin and horror of their parents. The children and youth of the day are increasingly resorting to such pervert ideas. Look what has happened in the case of the Delhi Public School student. Its a class XI boy and girl who have ventured into this and gone to the extent of recording it on their mobiles. After they broke up, the boy has circulated to everyone of his friends for a price!! What kind of thinking is this?Is this a way of seeking revenge? And what do the parents of these children do? The guy has been having such obscene photos in his mobile for so long and yet his parents, who are wealthy enough to afford him one at such a young age, are totally unaware about the uses that he subjects the gadget to. And in the case of that IIT student, his computer at home (!!!!) is full...

IIT-ian peddled girlfriends' pics IANS [ THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2004 02:28:41 PM ] NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) student arrested for selling a pornographic video clip of two Delhi students had earlier tried to vend obscene photographs of his girlfriends on the web, Delhi Police officials said. Investigation has revealed that Ravi Raj Singh, suspended from IIT Kharagpur, had a history of perversion, police sources said. "Scanning of his (Singh's) computer and mobile phone revealed that he had earlier tried to sell obscene photos of his girlfriends on the web," an official said Cops arrest porn-maker kid INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2004 05:46:41 PM ] NEW DELHI: After the arrest of an IIT-Kharagpur student for peddling the infamous DPS pornographic MMS clip online, Delhi Police are now gunning for the standard XI student who shot the clip. Senior Police officials said they were now focussing on unravelling the entire cha...

TIMES NEWS NETWORK NEW DELHI: The youth of India just won't stop experimenting with intoxicants. A few weeks ago we told you about school and college-goers pasting Iodex, a pain-relieving ointment, on bread and eating it for a high. Now, a new trend among hard-core drug addicts has come to light is of a cocktail of acid (LSD) and Viagra. Apparently for "prolonged mind-blowing sex." This new addiction is not just limited to a handful. In Delhi it is revealed by a telling statement of an addict, "I was at a rave in Mumbai (which has the highest number of LSD users in India) and almost everyone there had a Viagra pill which they'd pop after doing acid. That's where I started doing it. But now almost every acid-doer in Delhi carries Viagra pills with him." But no longer restricted to just Mumbai, this deadly new trend is on its high at any farmhouse rave party that take place on the outskirts of metropolitan towns almost every week away from public view....

A killer is at large. Killing in broad daylight daily with thousands of witness; still reamining scot-free. The target of destruction are mostly young children; yet, both the parents and the police, are unaware of the destruction being wreaked upon their wards. More so, they even unwittingly await the arrival of this serial killer with eager with their eyes glued on to the idiot box. Yes! we are talking about the television serials. Look at the kind of muck that goes into each one of them. All of them have a vamp or a villain trying to debase the hero or the heroine or the entire family. The most disgusting part is that the villanous character is also shown as a member of the family. To cite a few of this highly rated tamil serials are Sorgam, Avargal , etc.. A recent study carried out by the Centre for Media Studies has revealed some alarming findings with regard to television serials and children. Gone are the days when one's teacher was the role model that every kid vied to be...

Its better to skip reading the papers, especially the vernacular ones, in the morning if you don't want your day to be spoilt. All that they carry is about murder, sex, rape and cheat... Are only such items worthy of being classified as news? Anyway, one such report in December 6th edition of Dinamalar, a Tamil newspaper, definitely made me feel sick and worry about the thoughts running in the minds of our children. It was about a 11-year old boy being brutally beaten up after being subjected to sexual torture..Not that such news is something new now-a-days. But this was reported in some village in Coimbatore. The boy, hailing from a poor family, was asked by his mother to get some balance money on some milk account from a house in the next street. While returning, a 20-year old lured the young boy to his home to watch a movie on TV and when the boy entered the house, he locked all the doors, tied the boy and forced him to cater to his carnal needs...A 11-year old.. and for a blow...

The Kanchi Shankaracharya issue is the current rage. With intial reports about his 'indirect" involvement in the murder of Sankararaman, the manager of Varadaraja Perumal Koil, to his "direct" links with Usha of Srirangam, the Tamil Nadu government has been successful in its mission to malign the 2000-year old institution and the its chief, Jayendra Saraswathy. As if this was not enough, the suicide of some hapless student at one of the hostels run by the Kanchi institution too is now being probed for possible links to the Shankaracharya's "murderous" instincts.. And the press in Tamil Nadu has dutifully played into the hands of the Chief Minister of the State forgetting all the ordeals and humiliations it had been subjected to by her just a couple of years ago! Whether Jayendra Saraswathy is the real culprit or not, this is yet to be decided...However, amidst all the ongoing drama, the designs of the State Government (read the Chief Minister) is all ...

With blog being the most searched and researched word in Webster's site, even I fell for the lure of a blog today to say hello to all the Netizens. A better way to register your thoughts...