Maha Bhaaratham 

The Mahabharata tells the story of two sets of paternal first cousins--the five sons of the deceased king Pandu (the five Pandavas and the one hundred sons of blind King Dhritarashtra--who became bitter rivals, and opposed each other in war for possession of the ancestral Bharata kingdom with its capital in the "City of the Elephants," Hastinapura , on the Ganga river in north central India. What is dramatically interesting within this simple opposition is the large number of individual agendas the many characters pursue, and the numerous personal conflicts, ethical puzzles, subplots, and plot twists that give the story a strikingly powerful development.

The five sons of Pandu were actually fathered by five Gods (sex was mortally dangerous for Pandu, because of a curse) and these heroes were assisted throughout the story by various Gods, sages, and brahmins, including the great sage Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa (who later became the author of the epic telling this story), who was also their actual grandfather (he had engendered Pandu and the blind Dhrtarastra upon their nominal father's widows in order to preserve the lineage). 

The one hundred sons of the blind king Dhartarashtra, on the other hand, had a grotesque, demonic birth, and are said more than once in the text to be human incarnations of the demons who are the perpetual enemies of the devotees of the lord. The most dramatic figure of the entire Mahabharata, however, is Sri Krishna who is the supreme personality of Godhead himself, descended to earth in human form to reestablish his devotees as care takers of the earth, and who practice Dharma. Krishna Vasudeva was the cousin of both parties, but he was a friend and advisor to the Pandavas, became the brother-in-law of Arjuna , and served as Arjuna's mentor and charioteer in the great war. Krishna Vasudeva is portrayed several times as eager to see the war occur, and in many ways the Pandavas were his human instruments for fulfilling that end.

The Dhartarashtra party behaved viciously and brutally toward the Pandavas in many ways, from the time of their early childhood. Their malice displayed itselfwhen they took advantage of the eldest Pandava, Yudhishthira (who had by now become the ruler of the world) in a game of dice: The Dhartarashtras 'won' all his brothers, himself, and even the Pandavas' common wife Draupadi They humiliated all the Pandavas and physically abused Draupadi; they drove the Pandava party into the wilderness for twelve years, and the twelve years of exile had to be followed by the Pandavas' living somewhere in society, in disguise, without being discovered.

The Pandavas fulfilled their part of that bargain by living out side the kingdom, but the evil leader and eldest son of Dhartarashtra, Duryodhana , was unwilling to restore the Pandavas to their half of the kingdom when the thirteen years had expired. Both sides then called upon their many allies and two large armies arrayed themselves on 'Kuru's Field' (Kuru was one of the eponymous ancestors of the clan), eleven divisions in the army of Duryodhana against seven divisions for Yudhishthira. 

Much of the action in the Mahabharata is accompanied by discussion and debate among various interested parties, and the most famous dialog of all time, Krishna Vasudeva's ethical lecture and demonstration of his divinity to his devotee and friend Arjuna (the Holy Bhagavad Gita appeared in the Mahabharata just prior to the commencement of the world war. Several of the important ethical and theological themes of the Mahabharata are tied together in this Gita, and this "Song of the Blessed One" has exerted much the same sort of powerful and far-reaching influence in the Vedic Civilization that the New Testament has had in the Christian world. 

The Pandavas won the eighteen day battle, but it was a victory that deeply troubled all except those who were able to understand things on the divine level (chiefly Krishna, Vyasa, and Bhishma the Bharata patriarch who was symbal of the virtues of the era now passing away). The Pandavas' five sons by Draupadi, as well as Bhimasena and Arjuna Pandava's two sons by two other mothers (respectively, the young warriors and Abhimanyu, were all tragic victims in the war. Worse perhaps, the Pandava victory was won by the Pandavas slaying, in succession, four men who were like fathers to them: Bhishma, their teacher Drona , Karna (who was, though none of the Pandavas knew it, the first born, pre-marital, son of their mother), and their maternal uncle Shalya (all four of these men were, in succession, 'supreme commanders' of Duryodhana's army during the war). Equally troubling was the fact that the killing of the first three of these 'respected elders,' and of some other enemy warriors as well, was accomplished only through ' trickery', most of which were suggested by Krishna Vasudeva as absolutely required by the circumstances.

The ethical gaps were not resolved to anyone's satisfaction on the surface of the narrative and the aftermath of the war was dominated by a sense of horror and malaise. Yudhishthira alone was terribly troubled, but his sense of the war's wrongfulness persisted to the end of the text, in spite of the fact that everyone else, from his wife to Krishna Vasudeva, told him the war was right and good; in spite of the fact that the dying patriarch Bhishma lectured him at length on all aspects of the Good Law (the Duties and Responsibilities of Kings, which have rightful violence at their center; the ambiguities of Righteousness in abnormal circumstances; and the absolute perspective of a beatitude that ultimately transcends the oppositions of good versus bad, right versus wrong, pleasant versus unpleasant, etc.); in spite of the fact that he performed a grand Horse Sacrifice as expiation for the putative wrong of the war. These debates and instructions and the account of this Horse Sacrifice are told at some length after the massive and narrative of the battle; they form a deliberate tale of pacification that aims to neutralize the inevitable reactions of the war.

In the years that follow the war Dhritarashtra and his queen Gandhari , and Kunti , the mother of the Pandavas, lived a life of asceticism in a forest retreat and died with yogic calm in a forest fire. Krishna Vasudeva departed from this earth thirty-six years after the war. When they learned of this, the Pandavas believed it time for them to leave this world too and they embarked upon the 'Great Journey,' which involved walking north toward the polar mountain, that is toward the heavenly worlds, until one's body dropped dead. One by one Draupadi and the younger Pandavas died along the way until Yudhishthira was left alone with a dog that had followed him all the way. Yudhishthira made it to the gate of heaven and there refused the order to drive the dog back, at which point the dog was revealed to be an incarnate form of the God Dharma (the God who was Yudhishthira's actual, physical father), who was there to test Yudhishthira's virtue. Once in heaven Yudhishthira faced one final test of his virtue: He saw only the Dhartarashtra Clan in heaven, and he was told that his brothers were in hell. He insisted on joining his brothers in hell, if that were the case! It was then revealed that they were really in heaven, that this illusion had been one final test for him.

End.

Source: Indian Knowledge System

The Deception called Islamic Banking!

Two years ago, in my book Chasing a Mirage, I had explained the unethical and unislamic nature of Sharia Banking. I am sharing this part of the book for all to read and understand the subject without reading it filtered through the rose-coloured prism of the liberal media that seems fascinated by the exotic nature of the claims.

Read and reflect.

Tarek

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Sharia Banking: An expose

Tarek Fatah

Excerpt from "Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State

Family law is not the only place where the introduction of sharia law is being sought in Canada. While Islamists may have suffered a setback in their attempt to introduce sharia law in this country, they have not accepted defeat. In fact, their plan is to introduce “sharia” in any form, wherever it would gain acceptance as a legitimate part of the Western lexicon.

The recent attempt to obtain government validation and funding of sharia-based private Islamic schools in theprovince of Ontario almost sneaked in, but for a public outcry. Sharia-compliant music, sharia-sanctioned soccer, sharia-based health practice (in which physicians refuse to treat patients of the opposite gender)—you name it and the Islamists are trying to push some aspect of sharia into our lives. However, the one area where their efforts are making the most ground is in sharia banking, where they have the help of some extremely powerful allies.

On one hand Islamists have made common cause with such figures of the left as London Mayor Ken Livingstone and maverick British MP George Galloway, denouncing capitalism as the source of all ill. However, a closer examination suggests Islamists are also lining up with such icons of global capitalism as Citibank NA, HSBC Holdings PLC, and Barclays PLC, which have all endorsed sharia banking and started offering Islamic financing products to a vulnerable Muslim population.

While sharia-style family law was essentially promoted by imams and the mosque establishment, sharia-based banking is being promoted by well-heeled Muslim bankers and investment lawyers, who are driven not by teachings of the Prophet but the lure of profits.

The Globe and Mail reported in May 2007: “Several Canadian financial institutions are preparing sharia-compliant mortgages, insurance, taxi licensing and investment funds to help serve the country’s fastest-growing part of the population.” Promoting it of course is a prominent Muslim corporate lawyer with close ties to Canada’s Conservative Party, Walied Soliman. A lawyer at Ogilvy Renault LLP, Soliman told The Globe, “I expect it [sharia banking] to grow exponentially in Canada in the next couple of years.”

He confessed that the promotion of sharia banking has become a priority practice area for his firm.

This push from Muslim banking executives working inside the corporate world has had some success. Most big Canadian institutions are treading carefully, and not all are jumping on board. The Globe reported that while the Royal Bank of Canada quietly tested a sharia finance product a few years ago and didn’t find enough market interest, other Canadian banks, smelling easy pickings, are lining up to wear the Islamic mantle. Scotiabank and Toronto- Dominion Bank have been quietly considering whether to start offering sharia-compliant products as part of the big banks’ strategy to reach out to a growing “immigrant population.” I doubt very much if Hindu, Sikh, and Chinese “immigrant” Canadians are excited at the prospect of halal banks.

The promoters of sharia banking are Islamists, and their target is to control the Muslim population and segregate them from the rest of the world, one bank account at a time. With every mortgage signed, the family has to take ownership of sharia and disown the rest of society as the impure moneylenders.

While Scotiabank and TD officials were rubbing shoulders with two hundred delegates at a Toronto Islamic Finance World conference in Toronto in summer 2007, Canada’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), which regulates financial institutions, said their staff was being pushed to brush up on the fine points of sharia law to cope with the anticipated expansion of Islamic financial services in Canada.

Normand Bergevin, managing director at OSFI’s approvals and precedents division, told The Globe that several people on his staff were learning about business plans, legal structures, accounting methods, types of governance and other issues related to Islamic finance. He told the newspaper: “It’s fairly new to us.

There’s not a whole lot of experience here in terms of supervising or even understanding the different types of products. They all have little twists on them that make them very unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.” Guess who is going to fill the knowledge gap and find jobs in high places of Canada’s financial watchdog?

While Canada’s banks salivate at this supposed untapped niche market, one Muslim-owned financial institution with strong marketing and social links to most Islamist events in Canada has been doing a brisk business.

Omar Kalair, the chief executive officer of UM Financial, has said demand for his group’s sharia-compliant products has been so great that UM has stopped all marketing and has a five-thousand-person waiting list of people who want to switch over from conventional mortgages to ones that are sharia-compliant. Kalair however admitted that from among the 200,000 Muslim households in Canada, his target is the capture of 2.5 percent of this market, and that too with the help of one of the big five banks.

Origins of Sharia Banking

Islamic banking traces its roots to the 1920s, but did not start until the late 1970s, and owes much of its foundation to the Islamist doctrine of two people: Abul Ala Maudoodi of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan and Hassan al-Banna of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. While these two pillars of the Pan-Islamist movement propagated jihad and war against the West, they also recognized the role international financial institutions could play in carrying out their political objectives.

Since 1928, when it was created, the Muslim Brotherhood has placed a high emphasis on the creation of a so-called Islamic economic system. Banna and his successor Syed Qutb even laid down principles of Islamic finance. Millard Burr and Robert Collins in their bookAlms for Jihad claim that the Muslim Brotherhood watched, waited, and learned the management of money that was essential to finance a worldwide organization devoted to spreading their Islamist ideology.

But the theory was only put into practice once the US-backed Pakistani military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq overthrew the government of Z.A. Bhutto and established sharia law in Pakistan, forcing the country’s public-sector banks to run their operations based on Islamic principles and without the role of interest.

The proponents of Sharia banking rest their case on many verses of the Holy Quran, which in their interpretation outlaw any business or personal financial transaction involving interest. There is no unanimity among the Muslims who, in voting with their feet and chequebooks, have overwhelmingly rejected banks that operate in a supposedly interest-free environment. Most Muslims can see through the fog of deception, but we are a billion strong worldwide, and even if a small minority falls prey to the Islamist

propaganda, there is lots of money to be made.

Quranic verses that address the question of the role and the question of loans and debts include:

• Al Baqarah (2:275): “God hath permitted trade and forbidden usury.

Those who after receiving direction from their Lord, desist, shall be

pardoned for the past; their case is for God [to judge]; but those who

repeat [the offence] are companions of the Fire: They will abide

therein [forever].”

• Al Baqarah (2:276): “Allah does not bless usury, and He causes

charitable deeds to prosper, and Allah does not love any ungrateful

sinner.”

• Al Baqarah (2:278): “O you who believe! Be careful of (your duty to)

Allah and relinquish what remains [due] from usury, if you are

believers.”

• Al Baqarah (2:280): “If the debtor is in a difficulty, grant him

time Till it is easy for him to repay. But if ye remit it by way of

charity, that is best for you if ye only knew.”

• Al Nisa (4:161): “And their taking usury though indeed they were

forbidden it and their devouring the property of people falsely, and

We have prepared for the unbelievers from among them a painful

chastisement.”

• Ar Rum (30–39): “And whatever you lay out as usury, so that it may

increase in the property of men, it shall not increase with Allah; and

whatever you give in charity, desiring Allahs pleasure—it is these

[persons] that shall get manifold.”

From these Quranic verses it is abundantly clear that the Quran is addressing the rich money lenders to show compassion towards the borrower and give him or her more time to pay back the loan. In fact the Quran suggests to the lender that it would be far better if the money lender forgave the loan altogether.

To suggest that the onus of complying with sharia rests on the weaker borrower is obscene and against the spirit of equity in Islam. I say this because what the imams and self-styled scholars of sharia banking are proposing makes it easy for the wealthy to be pious simply by not having to do anything, while the poor who need to borrow are told to stay away from banks that lend.

Once more we see an example of Islam attempting to bring justice to the poor while Islamists make it difficult for the poor to access funds they don’t have. Today, owners of Islamic banks are billionaires—the practitioners of sharia banking are among the richest men in the world,* while the vast majority of Muslims still struggle to eke out a living beyond one dollar a day. Sharia banking fattens the bottom lines of the imams, the bank owners, and the lawyers who pull out their best to Islamicize anything that sustains their handsome hourly rate.

Every translation of the Quran into the English language has rendered the Arabic word riba as “usury,” not “interest,” yet Islamists have deliberately portrayed bank interest, the cost of borrowing money, as usury. For Islamists, there should be a cost to renting a car and renting a DVD, but when renting money for a period of time, there should be no cost of this capital. Instead, Islamists have created exotic products with names that are foreign to much of the world’s Muslim population

This is where interest can be masked under the niqaab of Mudraba, Musharaka, Murabaha, and Ijara.†

Whereas interest is the charge for the privilege of borrowing money, typically expressed as an annual percentage rate, usury is the practice of lending money and charging the borrower interest, especially at an exorbitant or illegally high rate.

Two senior Muslim banking experts-turned-authors have written scathing critiques of sharia banking: Muhammad Saleem has labelled the practice as nothing more than deception, while Timur Kuran has suggested that the entire exercise was “a convenient pretext for advancing broad Islamic objectives and for lining the pockets of religious officials.”

Why Canadian banks would contribute to this masquerade is a question for ordinary Canadians to ask.

Muhammad Saleem is former president and CEO of Park Avenue Bank in New York. Before that he was a senior banker with Bankers Trust, where among other responsibilities he headed the Middle East division and

served as adviser to a prominent Islamic bank based in Bahrain.

In his book Islamic Banking: A $300 Billion Deception, Saleem not only dismisses the founding premise of Sharia and Islamic Banking, but says: “Islamic banks do not practise what they preach: they all charge interest, but disguised in Islamic garb. Thus they engage in deceptive and dishonest banking practices.”

He writes:

“Proponents of Islamic banking say that Islam bans all interest. But an understanding of pre-Islamic and Islamic history and keeping in mind the context would lead one to conclude that what the Quran bans is usury, not interest. Usury can be defined as interest above the legal or socially acceptable rate. Phrased differently, usury is the exploitative, exorbitant interest rate.”

Islam’s essence is its quest for equality and social justice. Muhammad Saleem says that any banking or economic system that purports to be “Islamic”—including the current crop of Islamic banks—should answer two questions: By supposedly staying away from interest and sharing risks with their clients, were they able to help make the economic system more just, fair and equitable, and honest?

While Saleem goes to great lengths in exposing the intellectual  dishonesty surrounding the marketing of sharia-compliant banking, Professor Timur Kuran, who taught Islamic Thought at the University of Southern California, mocks the very idea.

 In his brilliant book Islam and Mammon: The Economic Predicaments of Islamism, Kuran writes:“There is no distinctly Islamic way to build a ship, or defend a territory, or cure an epidemic, or forecast the weather.” He says the effort to introduce sharia banking “has promoted the spread of anti-modern currents of thought all across the Islamic world. It has also fostered an environment conducive to Islamist militancy.”

Secondly, were these banks able to promote economic development in the Muslim world? In the words of Saleem: “Sadly, the answer is a resounding no. There is absolutely no evidence that the Islamic banks have made any contribution in either of these two areas.”

The fact is that China and India, two countries that have had some measure of success in alleviating poverty and enhancing development, have outpaced all the Muslim countries put together despite their enormous natural resources and strategic locations. Sharia banking may not have alleviated poverty or generated economic development, but it has been a boon to the mullah class on one hand and, on the other, to the yuppie Muslim bankers and investment lawyers who have created a niche for themselves at the expense of the larger Muslim masses.

Saleem, who saw the functioning of Islamic banking from the inside, writes:

“In promoting the establishment of Islamic banking, the Sharia scholars have played a critical role. Lacking any knowledge of banking, economics and for many even Islamic history, in interpreting riba, they have confused interest with usury. . . . Secondly, as Sharia advisers to Islamic banks, they have blessed many transactions as Islamic—meaning non-interest bearing—when in fact they are clearly charging interest, but interest payments are masked.”

Dozens of Islamic scholars and imams now serve on sharia boards of the banking industry. If Canada’s TD Bank, BMO, and RBC join the league, it will be interesting to see how the ultra-left Trotskyite allies of the Islamists view their partners hobnobbing with the bankers atop Toronto’s TD Tower.

Moreover, a new industry of Islamic banking conferences and forums has emerged, permitting hundreds of sharia scholars to mix and mingle with bankers and economists at financial centres around the globe. In the words of Saleem, who attended many such meetings, they gather “to hear each other praise each other for all the innovations they are making.” 

The Toronto conference promoting sharia banking and Islamic investments was part of this worldwide touring circuit that allows banks to keep the sharia scholars pampered and well looked after. There are at least five international conferences every year and these have been going on annually for the past twenty-five years. Saleem estimates that the cost of each conference exceeds $2 million and so far more than $200 million has been spent just keeping the sharia banking circuit alive.

He cites one example of how sharia scholars only care for the money they get from banks, and are willing to rubber-stamp any deal where interest is masked. Saleem describes one such incident as “comical”:

"I have first hand seen comical cases where the sharia scholar of an Islamic bank only spoke Arabic, but a lending officer only spoke English and Urdu. A particular financing transaction was structured in English with such terms as x% over LIBOR.** So we had an interpreter who would translate from English to Arabic, explaining this convoluted transaction to the Sharia advisor. It was at times painful and other times comical to watch the proposal being presented to this religious scholar for his blessings to ensure that it was consistent with the principles of sharia. The “sharia scholar,” elderly and partly deaf, had little experience in modern banking and finance. However, mindful of the fact that the bank was paying him a generous retainer, he gave his blessing to the deal, after being fully made aware that the bank wanted to do this deal, even though from the look on his face it was obvious that he could not tell the difference between a trade deal and a leveraged buyout transaction.

In the name of Islam, what amounts to deception and dishonesty are being practised while ordinary Muslims are being made to feel that their interaction with mainstream banks is un-Islamic and sinful. As the Muslim banker asked: “Through various devices—mostly cosmetic—[Islamic] banks end up with virtually no risk. If Islamic banks label their hamburger, a Mecca Burger, as long as it still has the same ingredients as a McDonald’s burger, is it really any different in substance?”

Muhammad Saleem laments the fact that few people are exposing the deception of this exercise in the name of Islam. “We should be able to point out the failures and shortcomings of Islamic banking and economics without being accused of being anti-Islamic,” he says. Perhaps Scotiabank, the RBC, BMO, and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions will pay heed to this former banker’s words of caution.

The sharia-banking charade is a sad indictment of the Muslim community. Islamic banking is not some resurrection from a golden period—it is a 20th- century creation that flies in the face of reason, logic, and the spirit of Islam, yet is being thrust on us for no fault of ours.

-------

* “The reason [why they are so wealthy] was a two-page report on the wealth of 15 ruling dynasties, seven of which are Arab,” Refaat

Jaafar, managing editor of Dubai- based Forbes Arabia, told Reuters. In October 2007, Forbes Magazine reported on the wealth of 15 ruling dynasties, seven of which are Muslim. Saudi Arabia banned the issue after it ranked Saudi King Abdullah third, behind the rulers of Brunei and the United Arab Emirates.

† Arabic names given to various banking products.

** LIBOR is the London Interbank Offered Rate, much like the US Federal

Bank rate or the Bank of Canada rate.

source : mukto-monadotcom

10 reasons to celebrate Diwali

The origin of Diwali dates back to periods, when there was little or no writings and knowledge used to be transferred through generations, purely by listening, memorizing, and then speaking it out to someone else. Thus the process continued.

The origin of Diwali lies in different and varied legends and mythologies of the Hindu scriptures, mostly the Puranas. However, all of them have a single commonality, they all depict the triumph of the good over the evil.

You can read below for some of the most accepted views of the origin of Diwali or compare with all the views of origin and history of Diwali is given.

The sparkling "festival of lights" Diwali, is celebrated all over the world with great piety and enthusiasm. But do you know the reason behind the jubilations? You'll probably be amazed to learn that there

are not one, but several reasons why we hold Diwali celebrations every
year.

Go over ten mythical and historical reasons why Diwali (Deepavali) is
celebrated annually.

1) Goddess Lakshmi’s Birthday:
On this very Diwali day, the Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi is said to have been incarnated from the depth of the bottomless ocean. The Hindu scriptures tell us that both Devas (gods) and Asuras (demons) were mortal (Mrita) at one point of time. Seeking a deathless condition (Amarattva), they churned the ocean to seek
Amrita, the nectar of immortality (an event mentioned in the Hindu scriptures as "Samudra-manthan"), during which a host of divine celestial objects came up. Prime among these was Goddess Lakshmi, the
daughter of the king of the milky ocean, who arose on the new moon day (amaavasyaa) of the Kartik month. She was subsequently married to Lord Vishnu on the same darkest night of the year and brilliant lamps were
illuminated and placed in rows to mark this holy occassion.

Hence the association of Diwali with Goddess Lakshmi and the tradition of lighting of lamps and candles during the festival. To this day, Hindus celebrate the birth of the goddess Lakshmi and her marriage to
Lord Vishnu on Diwali and seek her blessings for the coming year.

2) The Legend of King Mahabali :
The Bhagavata Purana (also known as Srimad Bhagavatam), the most sacred Hindu text, reveals how on a
Diwali day Lord Vishnu, in his fifth incarnation as Vaman-avtaara, rescued Lakshmi from the prison of King Bali during the Treta Yug. Bali, or rather King Mahabali, was a powerful demon king who ruled the
earth. Powered by a boon granted to him by Lord Brahma, Bali was invincible and even gods failed to defeat him in battles. Although a wise and perfect king otherwise, Mahabali was violent in his ways with
the Devas (gods). On their insistence, Lord Vishnu disguised himself as a short Brahmin and approached Bali for some charity. The righteous and benevolent King couldn't refuse the Brahmin's offer and was
tricked into giving up his kingship and wealth (of which Lakshmi is said to be the Goddess). Diwali marks this overcoming of Mahabali by Lord Vishnu and this is another reason why Goddess Lakshmi is
worshipped on Diwali. In Kerala, the festival of 'Onam' is celebrated around the month of
August to mark this legend.

3) The Killing of Narakasura:
The Bhagavata Purana tells us about Narakasura, an evil demon king who had managed to acquire awesome powers. Unrivalled in prowess, he conquered both the heavens and earth and was tyrannical in his reign. Addicted to power, he even stole the earrings of Aditi, the heavenly mother goddess, and usurped some of her territory. When Lord Vishnu was incarnated as Krishna in the Dwapara Yuga, he killed Narakasura on the day preceding Diwali and rescued 16,000 women whom the demon had imprisoned in his palace. The deliverance from the terrible Narakasura was celebrated with much grandeur, a tradition that continues to this day. However, another version of the story credits Lord Krishna's wife Sathyabhama as the one who eliminated Narakasura. It is said that Narakasura could only be killed by his mother Bhudevi and as Satyabhama was an incarnation of the same Bhudevi, she only could kill him. Before death, however, Narakasura realized his mistake and requested a boon from Satyabhama that everyone should celebrate his
death with colorful light. To commemorate his death, the event is celebrated in some parts of India as Naraka Chaturdasi, two days before Diwali day.  

4) The Return of the Pandavas:
The great Hindu epic ‘Mahabharata’ reveals that it was ‘Kartik Amavashya’ (the new moon day of the Kartik month) when the Pandavas appeared from their 12 years of banishment as a result of their defeat in the hands of the Kauravas at the game of dice (gambling). The five Pandava brothers, their mother and their
wife Draupadi were honest, kind, gentle and caring in their ways and were loved by all their subjects. To celebrate the joyous occassion of their return to Hastinapura and to welcome back the Pandavas, the
common people illuminated their state by lighting bright earthen lamps everywhere. And the tradition is maintained to this day.

5) The Victory of Rama:
The great Hindu epic ‘Ramayana’ describes how Lord Ram (the incarnation of Lord Vishnu in the Treta Yug) conquered Lanka after vanquishing the evil King Ravana and after passing a period of of fourteen years in exile returned to his capital Ayodhya on a new moon day of Kartik with wife Sita and brother Lakshman. To celebrate the homecoming of their beloved king, the people of Ayodhya burst crackers, lit up their houses with earthen lamps (diyas), and decorated the entire city in the grandest manner. Year after year this
homecoming of Lord Rama is commemorated on Diwali with lights, fireworks, bursting of crackers and merriment. The festival gets its name Deepawali, or Diwali, from the rows (avali) of lamps (deepa) that
the people of Ayodhya lit to welcome their King.   

6) Coronation of Vikramaditya:
It is also said that Vikramaditya, the legendary Indian king famed for his wisdom, valour and magnanimity was coroneted on the Diwali day following his victory over the Sakas in 56 BC. This was marked by a grand celebration which is still maintained annually. One of the greatest Hindu monarchs, Vikramaditya ruled the greatest empire in the world from modern-day Thailand in the east to the borders of modern-day Saudi Arabia in the west. Diwali, thus, apart from being a religious festival also has a historical
association.

7) The Enlightenment of Swami Dayananda Saraswati:
Diwali also marks the auspicious occasion when on a new moon day of Kartik (Diwali day)
Swami Dayananda Saraswati, one of the greatest reformers of Hinduism attained his nirvana (enlightenment) and became Maharshi Dayananda, meaning the great sage Dayananda. In 1875, Maharshi Dayananda founded the Arya Samaj, "Society of Nobles", a Hindu reform movement to purify Hinduism of the many evils it became associated with at that era. Every Diwali, this great reformer is remembered by Hindus all over India.

8) The Enlightenment of Vardhamana Mahavira:
For Jains, Diwali commemorates the enlightenment of Vardhamana Mahavira(the
twenty-fourth and last Tirthankaras of the Jains and the founder of modern Jainism) which is said to have occurred on Oct. 15, 527 B.C. This is one more reason to engage in Diwali celebrations for pious
Jains and other than the purpose of commemoration, the festival stands for the celebration of the emanicipation of human spirit from earthly desires.

9) Special Day for the Sikhs:
For Sikhs, Diwali holds a special significance for it was on a Diwali day that the third Sikh Guru Amar
Das institutionalized the festival of lights as an occasion when all Sikhs would gather to receive the Gurus blessings. It was also on a Diwali day in 1619 that their sixth religious leader, Guru Hargobind
Ji, who was held by the Mughal Emperor Jahengir in the Gwalior fort, was freed from imprisonment along with 52 Hindu Kings (political prisoners) whom he had arranged to be released as well. And it was
also on the same auspicious occasion of Diwali when the foundation stone of the Golden Temple at Amritsar was laid in 1577.

10. Goddess Kali:
Kali, also called Shyama Kali, is the first of the 10 avatars (incarnations) of Goddess Durga, Lord Shiva's consort. According to legend, long ago after the gods lost in a battle with the demons, Goddess Kali was born as Kal Bhoi Nashini from the forehead of Goddess Durga. Said to be a personification of Nari Shakti (female power), Kali was born to save heaven and earth from the growing cruelty of the demons. After killing all the devils, Kali lost her control and started killing anyone who came her way which stopped only
when Lord Shiva intervened. The well-known picture of Ma Kali, with her tongue hanging out, actually depicts the moment when she steps on the Lord and repents.

That momentous day has been commemorated ever since and the main purpose of celebrating Kali Puja is to seek the help of the goddess in destroying evil both external and internal to us as also to get her
blessings for general happiness, health, wealth, and peace.


To conclude, there are several reasons behind Diwali celebrations and almost every region of India has its own reason to observe the occasion. All of these however, matters little to the festival itself. Whatever the cause behind its celebration, Diwali is undoubtedly a national festival of India, and the aesthetic aspect of the festival is enjoyed by most Indians regardless of faith.

Happy Deepavali to everyone!

source: theholidaysport

Pancreatic Cancer: Risk Factors 

Early symptoms vague

The sad news of the death of Steve Jobs has brought pancreatic cancer into the headlines. 

The Apple co-founder underwent surgery in 2004 for an islet cell neuroendocrine tumour, a rare and less aggressive type of pancreatic cancer. 

This - and excellent medical care - is probably why he lived so long with the disease. 

Each year, more than 7,500 people in the UK are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and around 6,500 die of it. 

Of the most common cancers, it has the worst survival rate. 

Just three per cent of patients live for five years or more after being diagnosed with the disease, a figure which has remained static over the last 40 years. 

UK pancreatic cancer survival figures also lag behind other European countries, as well as the US, Canada and Australia, according to a recent report by charity Pancreatic Cancer UK. 

In countries such as Canada and Australia, reported survival rates are double those of the UK. 

Part of the reason is that the disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose in the early stages.

Some of the most common early symptoms - stomach pain, nausea, jaundice, weight loss, fever - can be caused by several other conditions. 

However, the Study for Survival report, based on the experiences of nearly 1,000 patients, found that more than 50 per cent of pancreatic cancer patients experience symptoms up to a year before being diagnosed, with nearly a third of all patients making five or more visits to the doctor. 

By the time they are diagnosed, the disease is often in its advanced stages, which can limit treatment options. Risk factors Age Pancreatic cancer is more common in older people. 

Eight out of ten people who develop the disease are aged over 60. 

Smoking Smoking increases your risk of a number of lethal diseases, including pancreatic cancer. 

Up to one in five pancreatic cancers may be linked to smoking cigarettes, cigars or chewing tobacco. 

Blood group People with the blood groups A, A/B or B are more likely to develop the disease than people with blood group O. 

Medical conditions Diabetes may be linked to an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer. 

Chronic pancreatitis has been shown to raise the risk of developing the disease. 

Hereditary around one in ten cases of pancreatic cancer are thought to be caused by inherited genes which predispose them to developing the disease. 

People who are already at risk of a number of familial cancer syndromes linked to faulty genes are at a greater risk of pancreatic cancer. 

These include breast cancer associated with the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, familial atypical mole melanoma, hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer, familial adenomatous polyposis, and Peutz-Jeghers syndrome. 

Prevention A healthy lifestyle can help to reduce your risk of cancer, including pancreatic cancer. 

Limit saturated fat and sugar, eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day, try to maintain a healthy weight and keep physically active. 

There is some evidence to suggest that lycopene (found in tomatoes) and vitamin C may help protect against pancreatic cancer.

Hindraf Makkal Sakti’s decision to revive its suit against the British government

GEORGE TOWN: An academic has hailed Hindraf Makkal Sakti’s decision to revive its suit against the British government, saying it will serve to draw domestic and international attention to the plight of Malaysian Indians.

“The success of the suit is not relevant; it is the intended message that matters,” said Azmi Sharom, who teaches law at Universiti Malaya.

The class action suit demands US$4 trillion in compensation for Malaysians descended from Indians whom the British brought to Malaysia as indentured labour. Hindraf claims that the British government, when it granted independence to Malaya, left the Indians without representation and at the mercy of Malay extremists.

Hindraf’s London-based chairman, P Waythamoorthy, originally filed the suit on Aug 31, 2007, but it stalled following a Malaysian clampdown on Hindraf that included the arrest of several lawyers under the Internal Security Act.

Waythamoorthy announced recently that he would file the suit again.

Hindraf’s lawyers in London told FMT that they needed more documents on the colonial period in Malaysia, kept by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The movement’s chief legal counsel in London, Imran Khan, will head a three-man delegation to Malaysia next month on a fact-finding mission.

Azmi met Waythamoorthy in Bangkok last year during an international conference and they discussed the suit.

He told FMT he was aware that Waythamoorthy and his small team of researchers were working hard to obtain and study thousands of relevant documents in Britain’s archives.

“From my personal point of view, Hindraf has every right to file the case on behalf of all Malaysian Indians,” he said.

“It’s an incredible effort by an ordinary person to push the issues pertaining to a community’s plight into the international and domestic limelight.”

He dismissed suggestions by certain quarters, notably in Umno, that the suit would threaten Malay interests.

“The extremist, nationalist and right wing Malay elements have their right to talk about the so-called Malay supremacy,” he said.

“But we have our right to ignore them.”

Nirupama Menon Rao’s Ultimate Criminality towards the Eelam Tamils

Most of us, when we are leaving the country for a prolonged period of
time, would prefer to spend the last few days at home with our
families. Not so with India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao;
she hurriedly left for Colombo on Friday night 29 August, to spend her
last three days with the genocidal Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa. She
was the Indian High Commission in Colombo during the critical period
from 2004 to 2006, when the Mullivaaikkal genocide was hatched.

According to sources, Rao had been given a personal invitation to
visit Colombo before the end of her term by President Mahinda
Rajapaksa when she was part of the troika of top Indian officials to
the island nation in June. “A few days ago, the President wrote a
letter to Rao inviting her to Sri Lanka,” said a senior MEA official.
After reaching Colombo on Friday night, Rao was hosted to a farewell
breakfast meeting on Saturday morning by President Rajapakse, with
whom she shared a close rapport.

“There is no official mission or objective to this visit,” said the
official. Rao will return on Sunday, which will be the last day of her
two-year term. She will shortly be going to Washington to take charge
as India’s Ambassador to the United States. The Brahminic newspaper,
Hindu, saying that the meeting was a result of spontaneous invitation
from Rajapaksa, cited officials describing the meeting as a “farewell”
Rajapaksa had wanted to accord her because of the special relationship
she shared with the country. But political observers said Nirupama’s
fascination with Colombo on the eve of her retirement is connected to
her new assignment as India’s ambassador to the US.

This is not a farewell but the beginning of a new line-up in the
crime-filled war partnership in Colombo and in the National
Security-Foreign Service junta in New Delhi. Their original planning
was sabotaged by WikiLeak and Channel 4 revelations and Colombo and
Delhi are now standing exposed in front of the world community. They
are now forging a shield to evade international justice and to impose
a silencing political model in the island, a political analyst in
Colombo said.

Evidence of this is already available as soon as she departed from
Colombo. The president’s powerful brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa admitted
for the first time that there were civilian casualties at the end of
the war, but he downplayed it as collateral unavoidable causality and
not a deliberate attempt to kill to kill the Tamils.

“The Sri Lankan
government is finally admitting that its forces caused civilians
losses during the conflict’s final months, but unconvincingly claims
no responsibility,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights
Watch. “This is just the latest and glossiest effort to whitewash
mounting evidence of government atrocities during the fighting.”

“The use of unmanned aerial drones by Sri Lankan commanders to gain a
clear picture of the battlefield raises concerns that artillery
attacks on hospitals and other civilian areas were deliberate, and not
mere mistakes resulting from the ‘fog of war,’” Adams said.

“The Sri Lankan Defense Ministry report is yet another feeble attempt
to convince the world, despite growing evidence to the contrary, that
government forces committed no crimes in the conflict with the Tamil
Tigers,” Adams said. “Concerned governments should use this factually
challenged report to jump-start international accountability efforts
as the UN Panel of Experts recommended.”

Nirupama Menon Rao has a close working relationship with Shiv Shankar
Menon, the current National Security Advisor of India, who previously
as Foreign Secretary was one of the key persons handled India’s role
in the genocidal war in the island of Sri Lanka. The other prominent
Keralite mafia M.K.Narayanan, who was National Security Advisor of
India at the time of Mullivaaikkal genocide, is now Governor of West
Bengal. Madam Sonia takes care of all those who carried out her
biddings and retire them to cosy jobs, not withstanding their failures
in their duty to secure India against genuine terrorist attacks.
Narayanan was NSA during the Bombay terrorist attack in 2008 and
Shivshankar was NSA during a similar attack in Bombay in 2011; both
were busy with LTTE ‘terrorism’ in a foreign country when their own
country was exposed to grievous risks from people who wanted to
destroy India.

Nirupama Rao’s position as foreign secretary will be taken over by
Ranjan Mathai, another native of Kerala. There are two types of
succession in India – one is family succession like the Nehru family
and the other is tribal succession like the Keralite mafias. That was
how the Keralites dominated the Indian intelligence organization, RAW,
and important positions in the Indian administrative service. They
were so powerful that they could even override the recommendations of
Indian IPKF commanders. The Eelam Tamil plight would not have reached
this stage, had it not been for these people; their hands are stained
by the blood of 200,000 over Tamil deaths since Rajiv Gandhi
interfered in Sri Lanka in 1987.

The American diplomats as per WikiLeaks had warned that Narayanan
along with Principal Secretary TKA Nair, constitute a Keralite ‘mafia’
in the Prime Minister's Office. "In a bureaucratic culture dominated
by North Indian Hindi speakers, this Keralite lock on the PM's inner
bureaucratic circle represents something of an anomaly, which could in
the long term create new faultlines around the Prime Minister," the
leaked document elaborated on the impact of the "Keralite mafia."

The ‘faultlines’ are now beginning to appear in Tamil Nadu.
Karunanidhi, who sacrificed the Tamils in Eelam to shield his family
against corruption charges, supported the Delhi Pundits. He was
unceremoniously removed from his power by Jayalalithaa, who has taken
over the reins in Tamil Nadu. The first thing she did was to pass a
resolution unanimously in the State Assembly stating that Rajapaksa be
brought to justice, failing which India must place economic sanctions
against Sri Lanka. Two months later she is reiterating that the Indian
government’s economic embargo is now overdue. Addressing a news
conference in Chennai, she asserted that AIADMK lawmakers would be
raising the issue before other parties during the Parliament's Monsoon
Session beginning on August 1.

"Yes, our Members of Parliament will definitely be raising the issue
on the floors of both houses of Parliament, with regard to the
atrocities committed against Sri Lankan Tamils and the resolutions
passed in the Tamil Nadu assembly to declare those guilty of war
crimes as war criminals and to see that they are made to appear before
the International Criminal Court for inquiry," said Jayalalithaa.
"We have also been insisting that an economic embargo should be
imposed against Sri Lanka. Our Members of Parliament will raise these
issues in both the houses," she added on 31 July. True to her word
AIADMK members led by M Thambidurai were on their feet raising slogans
on the plight of Lankan Tamils as the Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar
was introducing the Sri Lankan Parliament Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa and
his team, who happened to be in the house on 1 August. As this
embarrassed the visitors the speaker was very upset.

"They have come at our invitation and you must honour and respect
them," Kumar told the protesting members sternly. As the speaker
wished the visiting delegation a pleasant stay in the country, the
Congress members thumped their desks vigorously so as to drown cries
of 'shame, shame' from AIADMK members.

American Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, unexpectedly visited
Jayalalithaa in Chennai last month. In spite of the Indian
government’s advice to Hillary to avoid political discussions with
Jaya, she still ventured into the plight of Eelam Tamils. At the end
of her meeting she said that the Tamil problem in Sri Lanka must be
solved by an innovative method. Perhaps, because of Indian objections,
she didn’t even have a clue as to what that method would be.

Vaiko, one of the Tamil Nadu politicians, after watching the Channel 4
film on the Mullivaaikkal genocide, said every Tamil heart bleeds at
the sight of the sufferings of the victims. In trying to safeguard the
integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka the Delhi Pundits are
endangering the integrity and sovereignty of India. Those in Delhi
including the Keralite mafias, have scant respect for the feelings and
sentiments of the Tamils worldwide. Many Tamils are deceived with the
policies of India. This is exactly what happened to hill tribes, the
original natives of India. To exploit the riches under their feet the
government evicted them from their homeland; the net result was the
Maoist insurrection, which has shown no sign of abating.

Just before her departure to Colombo on Friday, 29 July Nirupama Rao
gave an interview to Headlines Today, which had the distinction of
televising the Channel 4 documentary on the Sri Lankan genocide in
India. Obviously she had to counter and, perhaps, justify what took
place in the killing field. In the whole process she was meandering
aimlessly and at times incoherently during the interview. Here are
some of the snap shots of the interview.

“Obviously they have to look at this (cases of human rights violation)
very carefully, there will be, I am sure they will be assessing the
impact of that documentary (Sri Lanka's Killing fields). I believe
they are in touch with the western governments. In the last days of
the war, I would call it a war, they were fighting a terrorist outfit
LTTE and it was the last days of the conflict and we have seen around
the world. I am not justifying it, but it was a war zone.”

She says she was not justifying it, yet she calls LTTE a ‘terrorist
outfit’. What would she call the racialist Sinhala army? Is it not a
terrorist outfit? During the last days of the war most of the
civilized governments wanted Sri Lanka to go slow and save the
civilians and accept the surrender of the combatants; instead they not
only used excessive fire to kill everybody on the ground but also
drove the tanks over the dead and the wounded and raped and murdered
the victims. Please remember it was a war against its own people. Then
she went on.

“Very often things can go wrong in war, civilians can get caught and
civilians become victims.”
“I think the
civil war in SL was a human tragedy. You think of the people killed,
maimed, got displaced in the northern part of the country. On the
government side, many young soldiers were recruited from the
villages.”

Instead of shedding crocodile tears for the victims she should know
that there is the Geneva Convention and many others governing the
rules of war. The war that was fought in Sri Lanka was a barbaric war
that followed no rules; it had no witnesses, as the foreign media and
NGOs were asked to leave the war zone. India and Sri Lanka were
determined that everyone associated with the LTTE were eliminated.
Hence, the need for heavy weapons against unarmed civilians. All the
countries, including India knew what was happening on the ground. US,
Britain and France were calling for a ceasefire to save the civilians,
and as per WikiLeaks, two Keralite mafias were playing all sides to
continue the war, until all those in the war zone were killed or
maimed. The barbaric Sinhalese soldiers added to the agony of the
victims by raping and murdering the women in front of their kith and
kin. What a heinous crime! Hold on please, she had not finished yet.

“In the deep south of the country also, people lost their lives. These
wounds need to be healed. We must think of restoring normalcy in the
country, rehabilitation of the country and allowing minority to have
the voice, to be able to realise their aspirations, as citizens who
can contribute to the progress of their country, a lot of work needs
to be done.”

The young Sinhalese soldiers, recruited by the government, came in
with the full knowledge that their job was to subjugate the Tamils and
if they had died in battle it was their choice. If Prabhakaran had
killed his own people, he did it for three reasons. He had no patience
for informers, corrupted officials and rapist. The other set of people
whom he eliminated was those who were opponents, who were
treacherously working against him. Even the opponents of Prabhakaran
had acknowledged that the LTTE was a very disciplined and organized
army. There was not a single case of a Tiger cadre raping a Sinhalese
woman or killing people out of the combat zone. If there was any
bombing in the South it was in retaliation for Sinhalese bombing in
the North. Even most of the Indian commanders of the Indian Peace
Keeping Force have a lot of respect for Prabhakaran and LTTE, as a
disciplined and responsible army.

Then she ventured into the realm of healing the wounds, created by
India and Sri Lanka, and restoring normalcy in the country, which was
also shattered by India and Sri Lanka, as if some balm will do the
job. Sonia and her diplomats had done so much harm to the Tamil
psychic that it would take centuries to heal the wounds. One of the
bigwigs in the RAW, Col. R.Hariharan, a great supporter of Indian
objectives, have now concluded that India should have allowed the
February 2002 Ceasefire to succeed. By helping Rajapaksa to break the
ceasefire and start the war, India had done not only a great
disservice to the Tamils but also brought in the Chinese: thus
exposing India’s southern flanks to Chinese infiltration. All these
took place when Nirupama was Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka.
Before that the Chinese presence in China was almost zero. They didn’t
want to antagonize the LTTE; it was only when they were sure that the
Tigers were about to be defeated by a combined force of India and Sri
Lanka, they moved into the island in a big way.

Having lost track of her arguments she took refuge under Gandhian
philosophy. I thought she was going to expound some profound wisdom,
like Gandhiji’s Salt March, when he marched 20 odd miles to the sea
just to take a few drops of sea water in his mouth. This was his
symbolic gesture to show that Indians do not have to pay salt tax in
their own land. Today, the Eelam Tamils are asking the same question;
why should they be raped, murdered and live like slaves in their own
land. According to her, Gandhi merely said that “SL is India’s nearest
neighbour”. I am of the view that you don’t need a great man like
Mahatma Gandhi to come out with that great wisdom. Any child in Kerala
would have told her that. This is the type of diplomats that India has
– totally ignorant and uneducated. Navi Pillay, the Human Rights
chief, having been rebuffed by Manmohan Singh when she tried to stop
the war in Sri Lanka in May 2009, wondered whether she was in the land
of Mahatma Gandhi. If Gandhi revisited India today, he would commit
suicide for having fathered such a nation.

She continued, “and as a nearest neighbour we also have certain
obligations to be aware and look at this 2020 vision, we have to avoid
any partial and jumping to conclusions based on what we see coming in
from other sources.”

Here she casts doubts on the horrific scenes in the Channel 4 ‘Killing
Field’,as she says it came “the other sources” presumably not from Sri
Lanka or India. UN sponsored specialists have confirmed that the
scenes in the ‘Killing Field’ are authentic.

She don’t seem to have the faintest idea of what their obligations
were as neighbours. Committing genocide on Eelam Tamils on such a vast
scale is definitely not one of them, especially when there are sixty
million Tamils across the Palk Straits. It is not a sin for the Tamils
to express a desire to go free. The Eelam Tamils have tried to live in
a united Sri Lanka for the last sixty years; what they experienced was
death and destruction. Asking the Tamils to “look at this 2020 vision”
is a puerile attempt to blur the vision of the Tamils and prolong
their genocide. Here are some ideas of what the Sinhalese have in mind
for the Tamils under her vision 2020.

J.R.Jayawardene, Former President of Sri Lanka - Daily Telegraph,
11th July 1983
"I am not worried about the opinion of the Tamil people... now we
cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion... the
more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people
will be here... Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people
will be happy."

Chandrika Kumaratunga, while addressing a South African television
sometime in the 1990s as the Sri Lankan President said that Blacks in
South Africa were entitled to fight for their rights because they were
the sons of the soil whereas Tamils did not belong to the country and
hence they cannot fight for their rights in Sri Lanka.

D.B. Wijetunge, another former president compared the Sinhala
'majority race' as a tree and the Tamils and other communities as
vines that can get entangled in it and grow.

Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, former army commander in an interview with
Stewart Bell of the National Post newspaper of Canada, published on
September 23, 2008 has stated that: "I strongly believe that this
country belongs to the Sinhalese but there are minority communities
and we treat them like our people…We being the majority of the
country, 75%, we will never give in and we have the right to protect
this country…We are also a strong nation... They can live in this
country with us. But they must not try to, under the pretext of being
a minority, demand undue things."

Finally President Rajapaksa’s attitude towards Tamils
Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, at one of his election
campaign rallies in the north of Sri Lanka – which is part of the
Tamil homeland – raised his voice in anger during the general
elections last year shouted in Sinhala: "We are Sinhalese and I am
Sinhalese – you listen Tamils!", as the crowd hooted at him to express
their frustration and despair about his policies.

This is the vision 2020 awaiting the Tamils in a united Sri Lanka in
the future. The above is the recorded history for the past sixty
years. If the Pundits in Delhi expect the Tamils to wait for another
sixty years for justice to come by, then they are truly in their own
dreamland. The way matters are moving in Sri Lanka the Tamil identity
will be wiped out in the next few years. Let me wind up the discussion
with a statement from Mahatma Gandhi about the spread of Islam in the
7th century Arabia. This is a reflection on why the Indians failed to
protect India against foreign invasions. The Maoist rebellion and the
Tamil genocide are invitations for foreigners to move into the
country.

The citizens of any country must have a sense of belonging to that
country; otherwise they have every reason to break off. Mahatma Gandhi
once said, “When the smoke from the chimneys of factories cover the
sky, man is separated from God”. This is exactly what has happening to
India today. Corporate culture had made Indians greedy and blind. This
led to Boffers scandal, 2G scam and many others. All the tribal
uprisings in the sensitive Sino-Indian borders and elsewhere are a
product of this greed. The rulers have no regard for smaller and
weaker communities, resulting in such wars as caste wars. Now they are
hurting the sentiments of Tamils in Tamil Nadu and overseas, just to
appease the Sinhalese who had always been anti- Indian rather than
pro-Indian.

Another element that has moved into the Indian society is the mafia
culture, where rape and cold blooded murders are justifiable means of
achieving Indian objectives. When the Western society who are not
supposed to be as cultured as the Indians are, as they are not
protected by a 5,000 year old civilization, are gunning Sri Lanka to
make them accountable for genocide, India is one of the few countries
who are giving excuses for Sri Lanka’s barbaric conduct. Russia and
China are supporting Rajapaksa for their own geopolitical interests,
but how is India’s geopolitical interest served when China is moving
into Sri Lanka. One of Hillary Clinton’s interests in Tamil Nadu was
the danger China’s involvement in Sri Lanka posed to the Indian Ocean
sea lanes. That is not the worry of the Delhi Pundits; as long as
Sonia’s desires are served, they are safe. Perhaps, the Gandhian
advice below may help to awaken the Indian leaders.

“...I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that
won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the
rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the prophet, the
scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to his friends
and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust
in God and his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything
before them and surmounted every trouble.” YOUNG INDIA, 1924

This was Gandhiji’s advice to Indians on why India lost the country to
foreigners. He made this statement 70 years after the Indian Mutiny,
when Indians were dejected and were treated like slaves by the
British. They were in the same state as the Tamils are today in Eelam.

India is not upholding any of the qualities mentioned in the quotation
of Mahatmaji. The Tamils were India’s friends for centuries, while the
Sinhalese were hostile towards India all throughout history,
especially after independence in February 1948. In the Bandung in the
early fifties, President Kotelawala supported the Western powers
against India. During both the Indo-Pakistani wars and during the
Chinese invasion in the Himalayas Sri Lanka was on the side of India’s
enemies. Yet India can reverse Indira Gandhi’s policies and adopted
policies that led to Mulliavaakkal genocide.

Contrary to the conduct of the Delhi Pundits, Prabhakaran lived up to
the qualities enunciated by Mahatmaji. He observed ‘rigid simplicity,
the utter self-effacement’ and his ‘scrupulous regard for his pledges,
his intense devotion to his friends and followers’ were well known.
His intrepidity and his fearlessness in the face of odds were
exemplary. He stood with his people right up to the end with his
father, mother wife and children. He fought valiantly even when the
end was near and thus bestowed pride and dignity on the eighty million
Tamils. He observed all the ceasefires to the last word and the
clauses to which he attested his signature. He may not have absolute
trust in God, but was absolutely principled. He never lost sight of
his mission to bring salvation to his people; his cadres were
disciplined to the core and never caused more pain to their enemy than
was absolutely necessary. Rape and murder was never heard of in the
territories he ruled. The IPKF commanders would attest to the above.

It is about time India change course and realize how dangerously
India’s southern flanks are exposed. Sooner rather than later India
will have to recognize the legitimacy of the Tamil aspirations and
redeem the trust of the Tamils.

Visvanathan
Reproduced from GTF-Malaysia
[GTF-Msia:3711]

Eat Less Rice!

Eat Less Rice!

The human body was never meant to consume rice! You see, our genes have hardly changed in more than 30,000 years. However, our food choices and lifestyle have changed dramatically. The caveman would hardly recognise our food or way of life.
Caveman food was never cooked as fire was not yet tamed. Thus, he ate only those foods that you can eat without treatment with or by fire. He ate fruits, vegetables, fish (sushi anyone?), eggs, nuts and meat. Yes, even meat! You can even eat meat raw if you were starving in the forest. You have the necessary enzymes to digest meat.
However, rice, like wheat and corn, cannot be eaten raw. It must be cooked. Even if you were starving in the desert, you cannot eat rice in the raw form.. This is because we do not have the system of enzymes to break rice down. You were never meant to eat rice. To make matters worse, you not only eat rice, but also make it the bulk of your food.

In some parts of Asia , rice forms up to 85% of the plate. Even if you take rice, keep it to a minimum. Remember, it is only for your tongue - not your body. Actually, rice and other grains like wheat and corn are actually worse than sugar. There are many reasons:

Rice becomes sugar - lots of it!

This is a fact that no nutritionist can deny: rice is chemically no different from sugar. One bowl of cooked rice is the caloric equal of 10 teaspoons of sugar. This does not matter whether it is white, brown or herbal rice. Brown rice is richer in fibre, some B vitamins and minerals but it is still the caloric equal of 10 teaspoons of sugar. To get the same 10 teaspoons of sugar, you need to consume lots of kangkong-10 bowls of it.

Rice is digested to become sugar.

Rice cannot be digested before it is thoroughly cooked. However, when thoroughly cooked, it becomes sugar and spikes circulating blood sugar within half an hour-almost as quickly as it would if you took a sugar candy. Rice is very low in the 'rainbow of anti-oxidants. '

This complete anti-oxidant rainbow is necessary for the effective and safe utilisation of sugar. Fruits come with a sugar called fructose. However, they are not empty calories as the fruit is packed with a whole host of other nutrients that help its proper assimilation and digestion.

Rice has no fibre.

The fibre of the kangkong fills you up long before your blood sugar spikes. This is because the fibre bulks and fills up your stomach. Since white rice has no fibre, you end up eating lots of 'calorie dense' food before you get filled up. Brown rice has more fibre but still the same amount of sugar.

Rice is tasteless-sugar is sweet.

There is only so much that you can eat at one sitting. How many teaspoons of sugar can you eat before you feel like throwing up? Could you imagine eating 10 teaspoons of sugar in one seating?

Rice is always the main part of the meal.

While sugar may fill your dessert or sweeten your coffee, it will never be the main part of any meal. You could eat maybe two to three teaspoons of sugar at one meal. However, you could easily eat the equal value of two to three bowls (20-30 teaspoons) of sugar in one meal. I am always amused when I see someone eat sometimes five bowls of rice (equals 50 teaspoons of sugar) and then asks for tea tarik kurang manis!

There is no real 'built in' mechanism for us to prevent overeating of rice:

How much kangkong can you eat?
How much fried chicken can you eat?
How much steamed fish can you eat?

Think about that!

In one seating, you cannot take lots of chicken, fish or cucumber, but you can take lots of rice. Eating rice causes you to eat more salt. As rice is tasteless, you tend to consume more salt-another villain when it comes to high blood pressure. You tend to take more curry that has salt to help flavor rice. We also tend to consume more ketchup and soy sauce which are also rich in salt.

Eating rice causes you to drink less water.

The more rice you eat, the less water you will drink as there is no mechanism to prevent the overeating of rice. Rice, wheat and corn come hidden in our daily food. As rice is tasteless, it tends to end up in other foods that substitute rice like rice flour, noodles and bread. We tend to eat the hidden forms which still get digested into sugar.

Rice, even when cooked, is difficult to digest.

Can't eat raw rice? Try eating rice half cooked. Contrary to popular belief, rice is very difficult to digest. It is 'heavy stuff'. If you have problems with digestion, try skipping rice for a few days. You will be amazed at how the problem will just go away.

Rice prevents the absorption of several vitamins and minerals. Rice when taken in bulk will reduce the absorption of vital nutrients like zinc, iron and the B vitamins.

Are you a rice addict? Going rice-less may not be easy but you can go rice-less. Eating less rice could be lot easier than you think. Here are some strategies that you can pursue in your quest to eat less rice:

Eat less rice-cut your rice by half.

Barry Sears, author of the Zone Diet, advises 'eating rice like spice'. Instead, increase your fruits and vegetables. Take more lean meats and fish. You can even take more eggs and nuts.

Have 'riceless' meals.

Take no rice or wheat at say, breakfast. Go for eggs instead.
Go on 'riceless' days.

Go 'western' once a week.

Take no rice and breads for one day every week.

That can't be too difficult. Appreciate the richness of your food. Go for taste, colours and smells. Make eating a culinary delight. Enjoy your food in the original flavours.

Avoid the salt shaker or ketchup.

You will automatically eat less rice.

Eat your fruit dessert before (Yes! No printing error) your meals.
The fibre rich fruits will 'bulk up' in your stomach. Thus, you will eat less rice and more fruits.

It's your life. Decide what you want to eat! But eat less rice!