Mumbai Residents Served Urine and Food; Vendor Fined $25

In this picture, Rajdev Lakhan Chauhan, a street vendor is observed pissing into a bowl that he later used to serve his customers in a Mumbai suburb in India.  He was fined $25.  Yay, Aamchi Mumbai. 

Cleveland Desi Travel Agents

Cleveland, Akron Area Desi Travel Agents For Airline Tickets to India

• Asim Datta (216) 932-7300
• Dhaval Ghiya (440) 554-6921
• Amarjit Kang, Amar Travel (440) 201-6125

If you would like your information added to or deleted from this post, please email clevelanddesis@yahoo.com
 

India Sucks Away Jobs From America

I hope that there is nobody naive enough to believe that India among several other countries (China, Phillipines0 etc.) is not taking away jobs from the United States, as reported recently.  

Based on a survey of 35 CII-India Business Forum member companies, the study concluded that since 2005, nearly two-thirds of Indian companies have added jobs to their US operations.  Together, these 35 companies employ more than 60,000 people across 40 states and the District of Columbia and more than four-fifths of workers at these companies are hired locally.  It also said an overwhelming majority of workers who are employed at these companies are American citizens. India-based companies that have operations in the US have saved 2,585 jobs from being eliminated due to their acquisition of US firms and the value of these acquisitions since 2005 is USD 5.9 billion

The Psyche of a Muslim and the Pakistani Cricket Captain

The Pakistani Cricket Captain Shahid Afridi is reported to have commented on a talk show on Samaa news channel to applause from the audience that,

"In my opinion, if I have to tell the truth, they (Indians) will never have hearts like Muslims and Pakistanis. I don't think they have the large and clean hearts that Allah has given us.  It is a very difficult thing for us to live with them (Indians) or to have long-term relationship with them. Nothing will come out of talks. See how many times in the past 60 years we have had friendship and then how many times things have gone bad."  We don't want to fight with each other but a third country – everyone knows which one it is? is trying to spoil our relations. (This country) is taking advantage of Pakistan and wants to take advantage of India. I don't want to go into details but these people will not let us come together.  Our media, which is criticised by people, is hundred times better than theirs.  I think they were both very stupid comments by Rehman Malik and Gautam Gambhir...I wasn't expecting this from Gautam...This is all politics, what do you know about who carried out the Bombay attacks?"

Me thinks that there is a bit of truth in Shahid Afridi's statement and what he says above is indeed the majority Muslim opinion.  The truth portion in his statement is that Indians are not as large hearted as Pakistanis and Muslims; the rest of his comments are bullshit.

A rebuttal to these comments has come, astonishingly from (a Muslim) Mumbai-based Shia scholar Maulana Zaheer Abbas Rizvi

 "If Allah has really given Pakistan and Pakistani Muslims such a large heart, why is it that the minorities, the Ahmedias and the Shias, live in fear there.  It is this supremacist idea of Islam that is forcing well-off Pakistanis to flee that country. While the affluent are leaving the country, the poor are getting killed in the almost daily terrorist attacks in Pakistan."

It is fair to assume that this Shia scholar will be taken to task for speaking out against Shahid Afridi because Shahid is a Muslim.  Here is an excerpt from a related article from a Pakistani news media, titled Pakistan on a Shrink's Couch by Irfan Hussain that probably explains Shahid Afridi and the Muslim psyche

Dr Haider (Mubarik Haider) is of the view that “Pakistan exhibits all the symptoms of a schizophrenic society embroiled in innumerable conflicts”.  He blames state institutions, the political and religious leadership and media organizations of “further fomenting a culture of conflict and paranoia by irresponsibly perpetuating myths about the world”.

These myths are on display in Pakistan round the clock on TV where anchors and their self-important guests hold forth on a large number of conspiracy theories. In this warped worldview, everything from a defeat in cricket to a natural disaster is somebody else`s fault.

 Perhaps nobody is as responsible for feeding our paranoia and our state of denial than our TV channels. Our anchors invariably duck their responsibility of critically examining all the claims and charges flying around the studios. Instead, they fuel this madness by browbeating those few guests who refuse to take part in this orgy of unfounded accusations against dark forces inimical to Pakistan.

Mahatma Gandhi's Amorous Letter To A Man

There is a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the India Cultural Garden in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.  Joseph Lelyveld's book titled Great Soul-Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India has been reportedly banned in Gujarat, India.  

Apparently, Mahatma Gandhi had a relationship with a German architect, Hermann Kallenbach and in a letter writes "How completely you have taken possession of my body.  This is slavery with a vengeance."

Gandhi's great grandson Tushar Gandhi is reported to have commented that it did not matter "if the Mahatma was straight, gay or bisexual.  Every time he would still be the man who led India to freedom".

What would Mahatma Gandhi say about the banning of this book?  Me thinks it wouldn't have bothered him for a second.  He would probably laugh it off.  There is only Mahatma Gandhi, after all.