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Showing posts from March, 2016

How Sri Sri destroyed the Yamuna River

Yamuna was a beautiful river in Northern India. It originates in the Yamunotri glacier at a height of 6400 metres above sea level. You may not remember it, and no, it's not Ganga. Let me remind you of a picture of the beautiful river here, the river that flows by the Taj Mahal. That's how the Yamuna river looks! Or rather looked before Sri Sri came. Yes, the picture above was real. The river supported a population of 57 million people. It continues to do now. The water was pure. Animals were aplenty. The air was sweet and the birds flocked to the area in thousands. The local forests on both sides of the floodplain were thicker than those in the Amazon and the waters were filled with fish. The standards of conservation of biodiversity was impeccable and often produced as an example to other river management bodies. Then came Sri Sri. An Indian godman who owned millions to spread his pagan beliefs and something called 'Indian' culture along with the cultures of

Mokhada, Holy Cow and the Family

We, the city educated have always looked down upon the village dwellers. Of course not all of us. And even those who do, don't do this all the time. But in general, it is true. This phenomenon is not restricted to India or any developing world but also all over the Industrial world. The perception of tribal populations is also nuanced. Some consider them exotic, some think they are uncivilized, some find them as an opportunity to proselytize, some wish to use them as cheap labor, some hope to drive them out for mining or dam projects, and so on. Very few consider them similar to us. This is very true for the Left leaning self proclaimed liberals. They are always at the forefront when demanding tribal rights. In some landmark cases they have achieved wonderful results that anyone, regardless of their political ideology can be proud of. But the politically biased conclusions they derive spoil the efficacy of such interventions. The worst being them called as interventions. The ver