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- A Wicked Leak: Stratfor, Dow Chemicals, and India | By Ulrik McKnight
'Union Carbide India Limited’s 1984 Bhopal pesticide plant leak is one of the worst industrial accidents in history, killing 4,000 people overnight and leaving 500,000 severely ill. The accident site has still not been cleaned up, victims continue to die in many thousands, and to suffer in hundreds of thousands ... The Stratfor materials reveal that over an extended period of time, Dow has employed Stratfor to produce intelligence reports on Bhopal activists. This was not a one off piece of analysis, but an ongoing, multi-year, and presumably very expensive campaign.'
- Part I of Krishna Kavita Kasturi's account of teaching Indian languages and culture to American diplomats
'Everybody asks me how I landed my job. That is because, in the National Capital Region of Washington DC, I get to speak my mother tongue, wear my native attire and am paid to wax forth on my motherland & its shenanigans for five days a week. (Telugu. Sari. India.)'
- Part II of KK Kasturi's story
'No, we don’t ask if a woman is pregnant unless it is obviously evident that she is, although we are an extremely nosy kind of people otherwise. No, we don’t ever divide the bill/check at the restaurant under the waiter’s nose as he watches, smirking at your tight-fistedness. Oh! Please remember to always share whatever you eat, will you? But not if you have already tasted it… that would be inappropriate… but (Is now a good time to talk about Caste?). No, we don’t really understand what you mean by “space”, physical or mental. Emotional space? (ayiyyo! who wants THAT? Is it why Americans have so many psychological issues?)'
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Loading ...J. Jayalalithaa and Sasikala: The Big Break-Up | By Nandini Krishnan
'In most photographs and videos of Jayalalithaa, a dour-faced woman wearing an expression not unlike that of an anxious grandmother watching a toddler bumble about the garden, can be spotted somewhere in the frame. She is Sasikala Natarajan, the close aide and best friend of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Some believe she’s also the CM’s puppet master. Often seen whispering furtively to Jayalalithaa, occasionally caught smiling, and never interviewed, the wary-looking Sasikala was her most – perhaps her only – trusted lieutenant. On 19 December, 2011, a terse statement was issued from the office of Jayalalithaa. She had expelled Sasikala and 11 of her relatives from the AIADMK party “with immediate effect”...' (The India Site)
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Air India ‘staff stealing whisky and caviar and being chauffeured in limousines to five star hotels … one pilot had been paid more than £250,000 in allowances for simulator training while he was off work on sick leave.’
Read more: Air India ‘staff stealing whisky and caviar and being chauffeured in limousines to five star hotels … one pilot had been paid more than £250,000 in allowances for simulator training while he was off work on sick leave.’
Bookshops in Peshawar face closure … ‘Militants also directly undercut bookstores’ sales by distributing Jihadi literature outside mosques.’
Read more: Bookshops in Peshawar face closure … ‘Militants also directly undercut bookstores’ sales by distributing Jihadi literature outside mosques.’
The Times of India extols the value of virginity |’So now, save your virginity. Don’t give it away on a platter.’
Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/man-woman/Great-things-about-being-a-virgin-woman/articleshow/11537111.cms
How do you tell the difference between a Sunni and a Shia sperm? “There was a list of Bollwyood actors such as John Abraham and Emraan Hashmi and each of them was graded…” (Read this story for the comments alone)
Read: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Brahmin-sperms-in-high-demand-among-childless-couples/articleshow/13114610.cms
“We’ll never let them take our India” | Boot camp or Beauty Pageant? | Tribeca film festival award-winning documentary follows Miss India contestants alongside RSS ‘Durga Vahini’ boot camp trainees
‘Boot camp or Beauty Pageant?’ Tribeca film festival award-winning documentary follows Miss India contestants alongside RSS ‘Durga Vahini’ boot camp trainees Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/india/india-pageant-fundamentalist-tribeca
Ongoing chaos at Air India:“AI is almost bankrupt. It is not able to pay salaries for months, not paid to airport authority and oil marketing companies”
Read: http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/SectorsAviation/Air-India-crisis-continues-over-20-flights-cancelled-today/Article1-853444.aspx
Number crunching on ‘The business of family politics in India’ by A. Dar | “Hyper-hereditary MPs are the richest folks in the Lok Sabha and their average total assets is even more than MPs who have a business background!”
Read: http://theopendata.com/site/2012/04/the-business-of-family-politics-in-india/
New findings on the link between heredity and wealth in politics | “Mummy-daddy MPs are on average a whopping 4.5 times richer than MPs who have no family background in politics … If you rank the 20 richest MPs in the Lok Sabha, 15 are hereditary politicians and 10 are members of the Indian National Congress”
Read: http://week.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/theWeekContent.do?tabId=13&programId=1073755417&categoryId=-1073908161&contentId=11528955
Angry Telecom goes after the GOI: “It would be grossly unjust if, on the basis of legislation passed five years after the event, Vodafone were to be charged tax on a gain made by someone else, especially where the Indian Supreme Court unambiguously ruled that no tax was payable in India according to the laws of India in force in 2007″
Read: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Vodafone-threatens-legal-action-as-govt-plans-Rs-20000-crore-tax-demand/articleshow/13067340.cms