Don't worry, mickeymouse, with me, Harish, ace, Ankur and Manvinder and you, we've got quite a bunch of Indians !

I agree with you that "The God of Small Things" was really not so good. It was pretty boring and I think Arundhati Roy can do better.

Has anyone read "Transplanted Man" by Sanjay Nigam. It is another one of the great books !

"Malgudi Days " by R.K Narayan was one of my favourite books. I loved his simpleness. He's one of the greatest Indian authors for me.

As we're on the literature idea, I'm adding some poetry. Here is a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, the greatest writer and poet.

Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high ;
where knowledge is free
where the world has not been broken
up into fragments by narrow domestic walls ;
where words come out from the depth of truth,
where tireless striving
stretches its arms towards perfection;
where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the
dreary desert sand of dead habit;
where the mind is led forward
by Thee into ever widening
thought and action -
into that heaven of freedom, My Father
let my country awake.

Harish, you forgot to say that we have a school student from Ambala too !

I agree with you about R.K Narayan. There is something so good about his books. I have read a lot of books and I love to read his books because I get that Indian feeling. It's a great feeling when you see persons acting like Indians. That is one of R.K Narayan's strengths. He keeps his books Indian unlike the contemporary Indian authors who are always trying to always add some foreign things in them.

By the way, I finished " My Family and Other Animals" in 3 days ! I'm a very fast reader. I finished the massive "Order of the Phoenix" in just 5 days !

.. and also, something has happened over the name of Thiruvunanthapuram ( sorry if it's the wrong spelling).

The money which India has, should be used for useful things. Has the Indian government ever seen the poverty in India ? Can't they see how badly people are dying due to hunger, illness ? Are the Government completely blind. The hard earned money is being used to do all this. This is absolutely stupid. I can't see any point in doing this. What's the use of renaming Bombay, Mumbai, Calcutta, Kolkata, I see no point ? Their ridiculous excuses that they are doing to preserve our heritage and history are completely foolish. Arre, come on ? Can't they see it would be better to use it on something else ??

(( Reading this twice, it seems a bit rebellious of me))

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What's the use of renaming Bombay, Mumbai, Calcutta, Kolkata, I see no point

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Does that mean I am allowed to continue to call it Bombay??
Can I say Poona too??

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Does that mean I am allowed to continue to call it Bombay??
Can I say Poona too??

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Ren, I remember sometime ago telling you via PM not to call Pune 'Poona', and now I must apologise for my double-standards!

The thing is, I being born in my generation, have known the place as 'Pune' all my life, whereas 'Mumbai', 'Chennai', 'Kolkata' and 'Thiruvananthapuram' are comparitively recent. And so for half my life, I've been calling these places by their old names, hence they don't sound so strange!

Anyway, now that the name-changing is over, we might as well all adapt our speech to avoid further confusion...

Ren - I think you can call it what you know it as!
from the Fosse in Ratae Coritornum or Ratae Coritanorum or Leirecestre or any of the other names that the place has had over the centuries (According to the Guinness book of records it's the oldest place name in Britain) or you could call it....... (which the locals do!)

Harish, I am not sure if my memory is playing tricks on me but did I not mention MickyMouse in a PM to you some time back, perhaps not by name but by reputation? Don't worry MM, it would have been very nice things!

Yes, I found it, August 27th and it was by name!

Personally, I prefer Bombay, Madras and Calcutta to the new names. But I agree, we have got used to saying 'Pune', not Poona...

I'd also prefer Trivandrum to Thiruvananthapuram for the simple reason that the latter is too much of a tongue-twister. (Why do you think I wrote 'the latter' instead of the whole name? )

Right on mark again, instead of the idiotic bureaucratic paper-pushing and money-spending on silly schemes like changing names, we could use the money for literacy, health, etc. But with politicians being what they are, one should feel glad that at least some money (the one used to change names) is not in their pockets already...

Sorry about the NRI thing, I just found it hard to believe that there could be so many Indians here. We are a crowd, compared to what it was previously! Harish, haven't I seen you somewhere else too? Your ID seems familiar

I'd read 'Where the Mind is Without Fear' 2 years back, Chinky, and it never fails to move me. It means a lot to every Indian, because this was what we started out to achieve but things went wrong somewhere. Yet, it brings new hope, makes one think "We can still do it" - talk about unbreakable spirit!

Today we had a discussion in Civics class in school about the best ever Prime Minister and the Government India has had. It was a good discussion where we were asked to give our opinions and reasons.

I opted for Congress under Nehru as the best Government, and AB Vajpayee as the best PM. Nehru's govt. was composed of all sort of patriotic men, who did a great job. But for Vajpayee, I just couldn't reason why I like him as PM. What are your choices friends??

Very true Harish. I just can't understand why he (his party, actually) is supporing RSS and VHP to this very extent.

I was surprised to hear how Togadia, VHP leader, criticised BJP. Vishva Hindu Parishad is in no way going to help BJP (as far as I understand) and; at least when I grow up I'm not going to support BJP communal lines ever.

The BJP supports the communal forces because I doubt they could have come to power without them, and will probably have a tough time in the March 2003 Lok Sabha elections (parliamentary elections, for all our non-Indian members). The VHP claims that the BJP won't come into power these elections without their support.

Poor Vajpayee...he sure deserves a party other than the BJP; maybe he could join the TDP...

His party 'supports' these forces because most of its big leaders (Vajpayee included) are members of the Sangh Parivar.

You people somehow feel a sence of pride in disgracing the RSS. I don't blame you. The Indian media is responsible for this. Have you ever wondered why people like Vajpayee(whom everyone respects) would join the RSS?
The RSS may be an extremist right-wing organisation but if you ask my personal opinion I feel it has been more of a boon to the nation than a bane.

Most of the RSS's achievements have gone unnoticed. I won't be discussing them here as this might trigger a lot of controversy.

I personally have no objections to the use of communal agenda by the BJP in order to get more votes until and unless it turns into mass-rioting like we saw in Gujarat.

In Antwort auf:

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Poor Vajpayee...he sure deserves a party other than the BJP

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Give me 10 good non-BJP leaders.

She declared an "emergency" for 19 months from '75 through '77, threw the forms of democracy into the wastebasket, muzzled the press and ruled autocratically. She then called elections and was voted out. She was later returned to office, but during her tenure she cracked down drastically on Sikh nationalists and in fact was killed by a Sikh bodyguard of hers.

I don't know but if that's so why is she called great then ?? Anyways, I know this is getting a bit boring; for me atleast.

Let's talk about movies for a change!!
Has anyone seen Lagaan? I didn't like it much, but just can't understand why was it so hyped.!?!? Well, what are your views on Lagaan, tell them freely.....

I loved Lagaan !! It's my favourite second Hindi film. I think a film that goes to the Oscars should be hyped. It was one great film, with a nice tight storyline and

SPOILER ( Don't read if you haven't seen the movie)










and the cricket match at the end was great. It showed a bit of ancient India.

SPOILER - what's SPOILER? I don't have even a clue about this

A spoiler is when you tell of the plot and ruin the film/book for a person who is yet to see/read it for themselves. Please take great care not to do this, I know how upset I was when someone gave away a major 'secret' from the latest Harry Potter book, I have all five books waiting to be read and I was SO angry as I now know what happens even though I have never opened the books, that is a spoiler.

Oh thanks, sue. I really didn't know that.
I'm still waiting for views about Lagaan........

Spoiler about HP can be really annoying, true sue.

I don't think many have seen Lagaan. I thought Hum Aapke Hain Kaun was better. A lot better...

Well, friends, and Sirs or Mams, who is your favourite Indian personality. Anyone from any field, political or sports or anything. But, he should be of pure Indian origin.

For me, its tough to decide(India is great), but I'll go for Mahatma Gandhi.

Yes, for me it has to be Gandhiji too, I guess.
But ,oh , some of those cricket players are gorgeous!!