Those Happy Pune People

LONDON: The happiest Indians in all the world live in Pune
and India's Western seaboard is absurdly happy compared
to both Delhi, its political centre, and Silicon Alley down
south in Bangalore, while Kolkata is our capital of
cheerlessness, according to a survey of gross national
happiness across the planet.

The survey is published here by GfK-NOP, the market
research organisation that happily boasts it figures among
the top four worldwide, with sales of EUR 672 million last
year and operations in 63 countries.

It reports that more than half of all Pune residents say they
are "very happy with the overall quality of life". Pune is closely,
if surprisingly, followed by its richer, sassier neighbour,
Mumbai, which comes in at 42 per cent.
Article from the Times of India

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Well, Punekars like the ones below seem to know what
real happiness is all about ....
The Smile Granter
Annie Thomas, 82, resident of a Pune old-age home was
recently presented with a Casio electronic organ—something
she’d wanted for a long time. Today, Annie, a former music
teacher, not only plays the organ for her own pleasure, she
provides music at the home’s prayer service.
Annie is among the 500 people whose lives have been
brightened by Anil Bora, a 50-year-old Pune businessman
who started the Grant A Smile Foundation.
“I’ve always wanted to help people,” Bora says. In 1998, after
reading an article on the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants
wishes to terminally ill children, Bora started its Pune chapter.
But wanting to help adults as well, he branched off on his own,
and four years ago launched Grant A Smile. And in 2003, he
opened Rainbow Home, where seriously ill patients and their
families can enjoy free holidays together.
More stories like this one are in the Indian Reader's Digest

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And then there's... S m i l e - the Shop With A Purpose
Savitri Marketing Institution for Ladies Empowerment

The movement which begun two years ago has benefited
thousands of the women in Pune region, not only by providing
them with employment opportunities but empowering them in
many other areas. Today there are many success stories of
unemployed women turning into successful entrepreneurs.
http://www.smilepune.com/index.html

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Good Hurricane Story

A New Orleans storm victim shelled out $4.25 in quarters and
won a $1.6 million jackpot at a Louisiana casino where she had
stopped to play the slot machines on her way to shop at a
Wal-Mart discount store.

"I am a casino fanatic, it relaxes my nerves," said Jacquelyn Sherman,
a 57-year-old retired librarian whose fortune changed on Tuesday.
"I like winning but I never expected to win like this."

Sherman has been sleeping on her sister's floor in Opelousas, Louisiana,
since the storm ravaged her house and killed hundreds of New Orleans
residents in late August. Sherman said she is determined to find a new,
comfortable home back in New Orleans.

The casino where she got lucky with the slot machine was
Evangeline Downs Racetrack & Casino in Opelousas, near Lafayette
where many victims of Katrina and later Hurricane Rita sought shelter.

With regard to Wal-Mart, Sherman said: "We haven't gotten there yet."

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Salmon Rush

“Salmon-Thirty-Salmon” aircraft underscores
carrier’s role in transporting Alaska seafood

Alaska Airlines today landed the world’s largest king salmon—
stretching 120 feet and weighing in at 140,000 pounds—
at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

The “Salmon-Thirty-Salmon,” sporting the glimmering image of
a wild Alaska king salmon, is among the world’s most intricately
painted commercial airplanes. Complete with shiny scales,
a dorsal fin and gills, the livery on the Alaska Airlines 737-400
passenger aircraft is the result of a dedicated team of 30 painters
working nearly nonstop for 24 days.

Thanks to Boing Boing for the Alaska Air link !

Til' Death Do Us Part (not)

Teacher clings to mother in life and death
Tue Oct 4,10:09 AM ET
A professor of English in southern India loved his mother
so much that he lived with her corpse for 20 years.
When he died, the pair were laid to rest in the same grave.

Syed Abdul Gafoor's mother died in 1985, but he refused
to bury her, authorities said.
Link to Reuters article via Yahoo News

Conjoined Twins Slideshow

 

Conjoined twins Saba, left, and Farah sit on a bed

at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in New Delhi, India,

Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2005. American neurosurgeon

Dr. Benjamin Carson said Tuesday he believes the

10-year-old Indian twins joined at the skull can be

successfully separated but would wait making a final

decision on whether surgery is possible until more

tests had been conducted. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)

Yahoo Slideshow link 

The Human Skeleton of Pakurtala

Indian performer Gopal Haldar(R) comes out of his house
as his wife(L) looks on in the village of Pakurtala.
Haldar, who suffered from malnutrition his whole life and
weighs a mere 52 pounds, has been making his living in
India's Sunderbans mangrove region as a ghost for more
than 40 years (AFP/File/Deshakalyan Chowdhury)

.....Lighting up a hemp cigarette in front of his wife, Haldar
acknowledged his love of the herb.
"(But) when I indulge myself in smoking hemp and playing
chess, I wonder if I am a real ghost or a human being,"
he said philosophically....

AFP Story via Yahoo News

Under Kilimanjaro

In his last book, ‘Papa' Hemingway meets an Indian
Under Kilimanjaro, the last novel by Nobel laureate Ernest
Hemingway that hit the bookstores this month, has an
Indian character.

The 850-page manuscript was kept in a Cuban bank. It saw
the light of day on September 27 2005 - more than
44 years after Hemingway's death in 1961.

Under Kilimanjaro - based on Hemingway's experiences of
an actual African safari months before he received the
Nobel Prize in 1954 - was released at a simple ceremony at
Grand Forks in North Dakota, where its editor,
Robert W Lewis, is based.

Talking to this website's newspaper, Lewis revealed that this
was the first time that a Hemingway book had an Indian
character and a liberal sprinkling of Hindi words.

“I had a tough time in learning the meanings of these
words and getting their correct spellings,” Lewis said.

The character, Singh, owned a general store in Loitokitok
- the town closest to the safari camp, said Lewis. This was
the shop from where Hemmingway got his supplies.
Singh's wife, Turkana, was an African.

It was during his interaction with Singh that Hemingway
made liberal use of Hindi.

Sharing his experiences of editing the manuscript, Lewis
said: “It was a terrific responsibility. We decided that we
would be very conservative while making any changes.
But I have enjoyed every part of it. This has been a great
experience.”
-As reported by newindpress.com

US visa rules and frustrated Indian wives!

As reported by
Press Trust of India
Posted online: Monday, October 03, 2005 at 1840 hours IST

Washington, October 3: Thousands of wives of skilled professionals
from India and other countries who come for temporary work,
extending over several years, are increasingly frustrated because
the visa regimes in the US does not allow spouses and dependents
to work, however qualified they are, a report said today.

Nearly half a million H-1B visas have been issued in the last four years
and about 300,000 visas have been issued for the professionals'
dependents, who cannot work, according to a front-page report in
The Washington Post. "Having a trailing spouse in today's day and age
is not dealt with," said Immigration lawyer Elizabeth Espin Stern of
Baker and McKenzie LLP. We have neglected these individuals and
their families. It is an arrogant stance and an insensitive one,"
the daily quoted her as saying.

The backlog of applications for green cards or permanent residence
visas which are the gateway to citizenship and which allow holders to
work is now 300,000. A typical case is that of Hanuma Samaveda
living in the Greater Washington area. She came to the US after
marrying her husband who is on H-1B. She has an MBA degree and
experience as a finance manager at an accounting firm in India.
But here she cannot work unless and until her husband gets a green
card or permanent visa.
Full story here

Gandhi's Shadow Speaks Boldly Now

“If Gandhiji were to return to life now, he would take the next
flight to London, fall at Queen Elizabeth’s feet and beg her to
come back. He would take back his observation that self-
government is better than good government.”

These are the words of a man who was virtually the Mahatma’s shadow in
his last five years.

V. Kalyanam, who joined Gandhiji’s staff on his release from Agha Khan
Palace in Mumbai after the Quit India Movement, believes Gandhi’s
followers and successive generations have let him down. “At least
Manmohan Singh had the courage to admit the British had good
governance. But for their exploitation and racial discrimination, you really
can’t fault the Raj. Now you not only have a corrupt administration but
exploitation and discrimination in the name of class and caste,” he says.
- from a Hindustan Times article, Oct. 2nd 2005

Cenk Uygur: There is No Iraq

I try to keep Politics to a minimum here but had to share this link to an
article by Cenk Uygur. He co-hosts "The Young Turks" on Sirius
Satellite Radio, a show that covers current events from politics to pop
culture under the motto, "We don't make the news, we make the news
sexy."

Everyone is wrong -- from the arrogant neo-clowns who brought you this war to
the mindless bureaucrats who maintain it to the well-intentioned intellectuals
that are grasping for a decent and humane way out. Humpty Dumpty has fallen
off the wall and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Iraq
back together again.

Whether people want to leave or stay, the assumption is that they have what is
best for Iraq in mind. But there is no Iraq.

Today General Casey and General Abizaid admitted in the United States
Senate that after two and a half years, they have only been able to train one
Iraqi battalion. One! You could blame this on the incompetence of the Pentagon
or the administration – and one is tempted to because that is usually the correct
answer these days – but there is a better explanation. The Iraqis have no
allegiance to their central government. They do not wish to serve in its army or
to die for its goals. http://tinyurl.com/9jmuu
Read about Cenk