SG OwnBlog

I am a big fan of historical fiction and that I love Dan Brown's books should come as no surprise. I read all the previous books of Dan Brown before starting from Angels and Demons to the Lost Symbol and loved them all. The idea of conspiracy theories coupled with historical accuracy keep me hooked to them.  Cover picture - Always looked intriguing Inferno launched in India this year and I had been waiting for it. Unfortunately I am deep in whatever. So could not get the time even to think about going ahead and buying it. Now the things seems to be improving on the personal and official front so perhaps I will just book the order for the book and have it ordered to me in the office itself. Saves me all the hassle of going to the bookstore and all - you know normal 'buy online' tendency. Perhaps there is some laziness to it as well, but I won't accept that here anyway.  Inferno does promise to be a great book. Also that Dan never let me down in the p

Tomorrow is June 6th. The world may be well on its way to forget the importance of the day. But I, far away from the historic places, value it. Yes, I mean the battlefield of Normandy or Normandie. On June, 6th , 1944, the Allied forces began their Operation Overlord . English, American and Canadian forces assaulted the German forces of Festung Europa , perched on the imposing but ineffective Atlantik Wall. This is not going to be a war account. I have no veteran stories or other war manuals or diaries to share either. I just write this in memory of the countless number of Allied soldiers killed my MG42 s while they were coming ashore, the disfigured bodies of many Allied men (nay boys) who faced hell from the German artillery batteries and static naval guns. I write about the hundreds of paratroopers who went behind the lines to harass German forces in their rear, the pilots who broke the back of the German transport and logistics network, about the valiant few members of the Fr

In India we often name people according to their profession. Like someone selling aloo or potatoes becomes aloowala meaning potato guy. Same goes for rickshaw wala (a man who drives rickshaws). I was having serious issues due to insufficient speed due to a shared connection . It was not the fault of the people sharing it. When the speed is high, the fair usage limit (read miser speed limit) needs to be high. Unfortunately, the download limit was low and so after exhausting it in a couple of days, the rest of the month we would just be sharing a 512KB connection. That is completely inadequate for my needs. Hence, I was forced to order for a new connection. I called up the local DSL network operator . If you are not familiar with how things work in India - these are small cable operators who buy bandwidth from the ISPs and then themselves rent out small bits at a time. Hence they get them at a bargain. We get them cheaper than other players in the market. The only downside? Suppor

I am afraid of a number of things. Of the irrational fears I have, the fear of surgery is paramount. So this Saturday I decided to subject myself to some exposure therapy. What I basically planned was that I will sit down and watch a particularly grisly surgery on youtube and not black out. For many of you it might sound as easy and simple. But not for me. Indeed, I subjected myself to a number of torture-exploitation films just to overcome my fear. Funny thing is, I could watch Hostel I, or Hostel II and even ‘ A Serbian Film ’ without batting an eyelid but when it came to a real hospital environment I freak out. Possibly the idea of ‘this is not real’ kept me from feeling sick. So I went over to Youtube and decided to watch a brain surgery where a group of doctors would remove a brain tumor while the patient is only locally anesthetized. I got myself a piece of paper and a pencil to write down about the impulses I feel. Also having something to do also meant that it w

Rajesh Ahuja is one of the top journalists that India has been able to produce. Now he has come up with a startling piece of information that he and only he has been able to unearth. Hopefully a great controversy will now be put to death. So lets try to unearth this revolutionary discovery and the mystery man (turned superman) behind it.   On the quest for truth, our crusader journalist hunted down an 'intelligence official' who admitted he worked for the RAW ! He apparently either refused to give up his identity or our crusader is keeping it secret to keep the  whistle-blower  safe and sound. Now lets pack the 'facts' that our mighty knight discovered. One - this ex-RAW man admitted (under interrogation???!!!) that Sarabjit Singh worked under him to fulfill operations in Pakistan. Lets call this ex-RAW man Yudi - short form of Yudisthir. He has also been mentioned as the 'external intelligence agency's chief as well'. Two - Let me quote Yudi now,&q

So here I go again. My topic  is Islam in Arab countries. You might think, here I am ranting my ' Islamophobic ' rants here on my blog. You might think, that since I don't like a few things, and I honestly come out in the open saying so, rather than conspiring behind everyone's backs, I no longer have the right to live. Well, maybe, but today this post is going to be something different. I recently watched a number of videos and came across some well meaning individuals and groups that are a beacon of humanity amid the barbarism and stone age mentality of the middle eastern fundamentalists. This post is about those free people who wish to remain just that - free. Islam in Arab countries is perceived to be highly politicized , radical that permits and encourages barbaric practices that are completely opposed to the requirements of basic human rights and dignity. Values that go against the very basic principles of life are promoted with divine sanction. The image is tr

In India the constitution came into effect on 26th January, 1950. In theory we got a very liberal framework that could have been an instrument to promote equality among all Indians irrespective of caste, sex, race etc. Though a lot of progress has been made in form of social and cultural reform, several essential sectors have remained stuck in stone age. Indian Law is still, by and large pathetically outdated. This is not a matter of dispute. All policymakers and lawyers accept this. Of course they prefer not to implement a new one. Who wants to change the syllabus anyway? :) So what is the Big Fuss? Simply put, the Indian laws, the Penal Code, the constitution, all, by and large do not differentiate between Indians. In comes the Personal Law. Hell, this one could well have been a troll comics in other countries. In  spite of being a "secular" country, India has two distinct Personal Laws. One for a set of Indians, collectively called "Hindus" and the oth