Thank YOU ALL

I’m going to London….

I just wanted to thank everybody for their gift of unconditional positive energy. It worked. Special thanks to Karma for helping out with that. If you ever need some positive energy for your own purposes, you know where to get some….

A Request….

For some positive energy…
So it’s like this…there is a friend of mine who I care about more than anything else in this world whom I am going to try and see in London. But, in order for me to get to London, I need a Visa. I will be going to get that Visa this Thursday. But in order for me to get that Visa, I also need to get a few papers from my company, which have been mailed from California on Friday, but have not reached me yet…and may not reach me in time for my appointment. (Due to circumstances beyond my control, this is the only time I can got for the appointment).
Anyway, so as an experiment, I am asking all those people who pass my site, to donate or lend me some of their positive energy – i.e. just a ‘best of luck’ or a ‘you’ll surely get it’ type deal. I’m not much of a religious person, but I do believe there is a powerful force (or multitude of forces) at work in the world. The universe is too perfect to have sprung up randomly. But we’ll discuss those metaphysical issues later. Right now, could I ask you for some totally-renewable, environmantally-friendly, and healthy positive wishes?

Thanks.

Shabd: A Review

They keep trying…almost there….but not quite

1) Aishwarya is what God defined as beauty. In this movie, it really shows. I don’t give a shit what anybody says about her. There is nobody more beautiful (on the outside). On the inside, I know a few candidates…

2) Sanjay Dutt can act, we always knew that

3) Zayed Khan sucks

4) Written & Directed by Leena Yadav – debut. Wow.

Ok, this movie tends to ramble too much, the plot is a little difficult to believe, and the songs are awful. But I always try to give extra points for not going the usual Bollywood way, and abandoning all masala. And this movie is anything but typical Bollywood. The unconventional story is about an Author who pushes his wife into a relationship as inspiration for a book. It leaves the viewer confused – is Ash just a stupid puppet or a bold woman who doesn’t mind having a fling? You can never really decide, and I don’t think the director could either. Sanju is decent as the crazed author. Yes, he’s over-the-top somewhat, but since the entire story is a little over-the-top, you expect him to be too. Zayed Khan is not meant for this kind of stuff. You need somebody with more maturity and poise, yes even though Zayed’s character is meant to be younger than ash and stuff. The cinematography is of course, astounding. This is something I think Indian cinema has finally perfected. There are lots of them out there who know how to capture a setting, a mood, Ash’s looks. It’s a shame the writing is still behind. This could’ve been a great movie, but like many of the other could-have-beens it turns in to style, over substance. And of course, being a non-masala movie, I don’t think I’ll see any truck-drivers spouting this one to their friends. Finally, I’m confused. A big thing was made about whether Ash would do a kissing or sex scene in Hollywood. In this movie, it’s clear what she and Sanju are upto (LUCKY BASTARD), but very tastefully portrayed…so maybe she’s changed her mind…

2.75 stars out of 5

Ye Olde India-China Debate…

*Pats self on back*
There is a publication, that this Voice has always admired, and turned to as a source for most of its information, called the Economist. Started, in late 19th century London by a Walter Bagehot, to promote Democracy and Capitalism, it has quite a few followers (recent circulation figures have just crossed 1 million, with 500,000 of those in USA). I respect it simply because it makes out a very objective case for the two systems, and is very objective in its news reporting (although it did support the Iraq War II ). Anyway, The Economist makes a case that this Voice has been screaming about forever.
It is this – that although it seems that India is way behind China currently in the race to become richer, India is going to win out in the long-haul. Some excerpts from the India-China (”Tiger in Front”) survey, from the 5th March Edition:

HOME to nearly two-fifths of humanity, two neighbouring countries, India and China, are two of the world’s fastest-growing economies. The world is taking notice. In December, a report by America’s National Intelligence Council likened their emergence in the early 21st century to the rise of Germany in the 19th and America in the 20th, with �impacts potentially as dramatic�.

That India is an open society and China is not is one of the most glaring differences between the two. Some people in both countries are tempted to use it to explain another: that China’s economy has grown much faster. This survey will argue that this view is simplistic and misleading.

Some of the main reasons for China’s better performance have nothing to do with the political system. When China started its reforms, in 1978, it was poorer than India. Part of the gap now is due simply to that earlier start.

India is often portrayed as an elephant: big, lumbering and slow off the mark. Now investment-bank reports are beginning to talk of it as a new Asian �tiger�.

According to the World Bank, 87% of adult Chinese women are literate. The equivalent figure in India is 45%. Many things follow from educating girls: better health and education and longer lives for the whole family; more productive workers; and a boost to industrialisation and urbanisation. �An educated child�, says Asian Demographics’ Mr Laurent, �does not want to plant rice.�

The other consequence of smaller families has been a sex ratio strongly skewed in favour of boys. In China there are 118 boys for every 100 girls born, compared with a natural ratio of 105 to 100. India’s figures are also skewed, but to a lesser extent. The most recent census, in 2001, showed 108 boys under the age of seven for every 100 girls.

The foreign-investment boom in China was started by overseas Chinese. From 1985 to 1996, two-thirds of foreign investment in China came from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. There China has, close at hand, some 30m ethnic Chinese, many of them with close ties to the mainland. Moreover, these places specialised in labour-intensive manufacturing industries for export. Wage costs were rising fast, so, in effect, they exported their trade surpluses with America to coastal China. They were made very welcome, for political as well as economic reasons, and paved the way for the big multinationals.

Overseas Indians, in contrast, are scattered around the world and across professions. There are a number of global tycoons, tens of thousands of software engineers who powered Silicon Valley’s dotcom boom, and millions of others. It is not surprising they have played a different role to that of the Chinese diaspora.

Except for the brief interlude of �emergency� imposed in 1975 by Indira Gandhi, the then prime minister, Indian democracy has stuck. It may have seemed an improbable experiment in such a poor, ethnically divided and hierarchical society, but it has proved resilient and deep-rooted. Turnout at elections is higher than in many developed countries�and it is the poor who vote in large numbers. The system may not deliver economic growth rates of 9-10%, but nor has it imposed Mao Zedong’s murderous millenarian lunacies.

After Jawaharlal Nehru became independent India’s first prime minister in 1947, his Congress party enjoyed three decades of uninterrupted rule, most of them with a large parliamentary majority. It took the chance on offer to make radical choices and changes. It is not democracy’s fault that many of them were the wrong ones.

Well there you have it… of course, I have given you just a small taste of it. Obviously I can’t give more, else I’ll probably be sued. Do check out the latest copy of the Economist and see for yourself. I, in the meantime, shall wander around cyberspace, smug in the knowledge that the Economist agrees with me, rather than Deeshaa.org… it is simply a matter of time, before I will have to change the title of my blog… the sooner, the better.