UN Languages

Recently, i read that at United Nations only 6 languages are used. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.  Many Devanagari and Dravidian languages are spoken by millions of people across India, but none of them figure in the official languages of UN

One reasons might be that all Indian languages are not international languages like English or Spanish or Portuguese.  What about Chinese, Arabic, French and Russian.  They are also spoken only in their respective countries and not global languages.  Is this because, 5 permanent members of the UN security council made their language as UN language ignoring other major languages of the world

None of our leaders raise this at UN annual meet and i don't know why.  We fight internally over which of our language is better and we discriminate within our country based on language and like slave accept other languages thinking that they are global languages

Probably, many of us are not aware that out of 5 ancient languages of the world, 2 are from India.  Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Sanskrit and Tamil are 5 original languages of the world

When will this end

Colleges have started and as usual menace of college students climbing bus roof top, their gang wars also has started.  Two days ago close to 30 students from Pachaiappan college had climbed the roof top of a city bus and paralyzed the traffic.  It has happened near police commissioners office

What i wonder is that, why no government is taking action against this menace.  Why this is happening only in Chennai even after repeated court orders to stop this menace

Where is the loss

I read an article which said petroleum prices in pakistan, sri lanka, bangaladesh and nepal are very much lower than that of India.  All these countries depend on imported fuel like India and i was surprised how these countries sell petrol for less cost as the purchase price of crude will be same for all the countries

I realized that taxes might be the reason for this as we have close to 100% central taxes in the form of excise and customs on these products.  Even after considering all these things, there is still a vacuum between cost and selling price.  We can also add state government taxes on it to bridge the gap.  Even after all these things assume that you have to add your margin to arrive at selling price.  Assume that you add 10% margin to the cost.  Even after all these things, our selling price is way too high compared to cost, so i am amused to know where the actual loss is

State run oil marketing companies claim that they are incurring losses and government claims that they have a burden of 1lakh crore as subsidy on petroleum products and price has to be increased.  Successive governments have been doing this without any clarity to the common man.  As a lay man, i would like to know, where is the loss.  If there is a loss, then how the oil companies are paying dividends to the government

Polavaram Dam

Polavaram Dam - This dam was proposed to be built during 1940 based on recommendations of erstwhile Madras presidency and the cost estimated was approximately Rs.7 crore.  This dam was supposed to bring in enormous benefits to the entire north madras presidency.  Surplus water from the flooding godavari river is supposed to get stored.  It was taken up again post independence, but at a revised cost of Rs.12 crore

Somehow, this project got shelved by successive governments and Vajpayee government took this up for consideration in 1999 and when YSR became CM of Andhra in 2004, funds was allocated and after 30% of work being completed, environment ministry put a tab on it.  This dam once built will have the capacity to save upto 900 tmc feet of water and also the flood waters can be diverted to krishna river and subsequently to water starved chennai city.  This dam can also come with a power generation capacity of 900 MW.  This dam and inter linking of water will benefit the entire south india

The flip side is that it will submerge 50000 acres of farm land and also will displace equal number of people mostly tribals and already telengana chattisgarh and odisha governments have voiced concern about displacement of people and submergence of farm land.  This project might bring in additional areas under cultivation with continuous supply water and power alongwith meeting drinking water requirements

I think that with proper rehabilitation of tribals, this project can be taken up as this will benefit more than 15 crore people of this country

Dementia

Dementia - it is slow death of brain cells leading to memory loss, loss of appetite, excessive talking, loss of activities and what not.  We all know that brain controls the entire body and its activities and with brain cells dying, brain cannot command your body and as such, body do not react

This is a disease which can come to anyone and it is deadly.  Unfortunately, we do not have any cure for this at this point in time.  Lot of research is being done globally to find replacement for brain, but with little success

Dementia leads to slow death say in 5 to 10 years depending upon the body condition of the individual sufferring from it.  You will be helpless as you can see people dying in front of you because of this killer disease

My mother suffer from this disease and i am losing her slowly

My mother never hated anyone and she always wanted good things for everyone.  After seeing her like this, i feel that even my worst haters (if at all any), should not get this

Fun word called 'Secularism'

From what i understand, in a democracy secularism means not bringing religion in daily running of government or administration or in other words, religion is kept out of politics and policy.  However, in India, we have been told that secularism means treating all religions as equal

Worst is the case, our politicians and policy makers go one step further.  For our politicians, if anyone says that they are Hindu, then they are communal.  However, if someone claims they are from another religion and if they meet with Imams or Bishops for seeking votes, they are secular.  To cut things short, in our country, if anyone says that they are supporting sangh parivar, they become communal

If any regional party gets into alliance with BJP, then it is a communal alliance.  However, once these regional parties break and gets into alliance with any other party, then they are part of secular alliance

To conclude...is, BJP the only communal party in India.  For me, any party which uses caste as the basis of getting votes are communal

Idli - Dishes for all ages with no side effects

IDLI - This food is part of any household in Tamilnadu.  I am not sure, how this food came into being.  However, this is one of the safest food that any human being can have.  This food will do no harm even to the new born as this can be further smoothened and fed

Doctors too recommend this dish as safe food even for diabetics.  Mouth watering chutneys or sambar add to the delicacy.  There are different variety of idlis available like the one made of Sooji or Ragi.  There is one special variety called Kancheepuram Idli which is famous for its taste and aroma.  This is an all weather dish and more suits our weather condition

Pastas, burgers and pizza are not part of our food chain and will not suit our digestive system and might spoil it as well.  My concern is that, when a westerner can come here and market his food and we go behind it madly, why our restaurant chains does not think of marketing our own safe dish Idli with foreigners.  While the western dish does not suit our stomach our Idli will suit everyone

We will wake up only when an American applies for patent on Idli