A drought of marriage

Mohan Yadav is 32. For five years now his family has been trying to find him a bride. Villagers say there are nearly 60 men like Mr Yadav who face the same crisis in the village.

“People refuse to get their daughter married to me saying there is a water crisis in my village and after marriage they would have to walk miles to fetch water. I want to get married,” says Mr Yadav. He wants the government to help. “Solution to the water problem is possible, if government makes a dam,” he adds.

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Exposing the saffron nonsense in science

“We can feel proud of what our country achieved in medical science at one point of time. We all read about Karna in the Mahabharata. If we think a little more, we realise that the Mahabharata says Karna was not born from his mother’s womb. This means that genetic science was present at that time. That is why Karna could be born outside his mother’s womb.
We worship Lord Ganesha. There must have been some plastic surgeon at that time who got an elephant’s head on the body of a human being and began the practice of plastic surgery.”

                                                                    –Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi

“Aero planes were invented by a Hindu sage 7000 years ago. The planes could travel from one planet to another, halt in mid air and move sideways”.
                       –invited speaker at Indian Science Congress in Mumbai, 2015

 

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This time they targeted kids on swings

The bomber managed to enter the park and blew himself up near the kids’ playing area where kids were on the swings.

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At least 70 people were killed in a suicide attack in Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park of Allama Iqbal Town, Lahore Pakistan on Sunday evening, rescue sources said. Hospital sources added that over 250 were injured.

The attack was claimed by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan Jamaatul Ahrar.

Iqbal Town Superintendent Police Dr Muhammad Iqbal confirmed this was a suicide attack that took place at a children’s park, where a large number of families, especially women and children, were present.

The area is a renowned residential area of Lahore. The blast was just outside the exit gate and a few feet (metres) away from the children’s swings.

DCO Captain (Retd) Muhammad Usman said the head of the suicide bomber was recovered. Ball bearings were also found at the site.
Eye witnesses said there were pools of blood and scattered body parts spread across the site of the attack.

Witnesses said they could hear children screaming as people carried the injured in their arms, while frantic relatives searched for loved ones in nightmarish scenes at the park near the centre of the city.

“We carried out the Lahore attack as Christians are our target,” Ehansullah Ehsan, spokesman for the hardline Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location. He said the group would carry out more such attacks, vowing to target schools and colleges alongside government and military interests.

 

Religion based isms continue to kill in cold blood.

Sources : Dunya news TV, The Dawn , AFP, @ZeshanMalick

Freedom and cricket

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The cricket World Cup in the 20-20 format for both men and women are being held in various cities of India this month. Sadly, but as expected, the women’s tournament is getting less than 10% of media coverage when compared to that of men.

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I did watch some of the women’s games on TV and was very impressed with the level of skills, application and competitiveness. More heartening to watch was the clash between teams from Pakistan and Bangladesh, two predominantly Muslim countries. The point to note was the women players did not have any attire that was different from players of other countries. I could sense the freedom and carefree joy they were feeling, running and diving around with  hair all over the place. Wish all women of the Indian subcontinent, regardless of religion could enjoy the freedom these girls get in the playing field.

pics from espncricinfo

Some tuberculous thoughts

Doctor , how long I have to take these medicines ? Should I continue it even if I am completely all right?

I hear this question very frequently, mostly from patients diagnosed with tuberculosis. TB medicines usually make most patients all right in 4-6 weeks. But science has estimated that at least 6 months of treatment is needed for complete eradication of the pathogen from the body. The sad fact is most people stop therapy early and there by help in development and propagation of drug resistant TB

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The most famous Indian atheist

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I ask why your Omnipotent God does not hold a man back when he is about to commit a sin or offence. It is child’s play for God. Why did He not kill war lords? Why did He not obliterate the fury of war from their minds? In this way He could have saved humanity of many a great calamity and horror. Why does He not infuse humanistic sentiments into the minds of the Britishers so that they may willingly leave India?

 

 

This was written by Indian revolutionary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh 85 years ago , while in prison facing death penalty. He along with 2 other freedom fighters were hanged in Lahore jail on March 23 , 1931.

 

The essay from which the above quote is taken is titled ‘Why I am an atheist ‘. It is being shared widely in media, both online and offline, on this day of his martyrdom. Bhagat Singh is one of the most revered freedom fighter in both India and Pakistan.

Bhagat Singh and his friends belonged to a more radical movement than that led by Mahatma Gandhi. They were inspired by Marxian and anarchist ideologies. Singh did not believe in the Gandhian ideology—which advocated Satyagraha and other forms of non-violent resistance, and felt that such politics would replace one set of exploiters with another.

Some critics have said that the tactics and politics chose by Bhagat Singh, if had become mainstream , might have led to much more bloodletting than that actually happened in India’s freedom struggle. That may be true, but no one can belittle his courage, sincerity and efforts for the cause of freedom from colonialism.

Today he is considered by many as an atheist icon.  He ends his essay like this.

Society must fight against this belief in God as it fought against idol worship and other narrow conceptions of religion. In this way man will try to stand on his feet. Being realistic, he will have to throw his faith aside and face all adversaries with courage and valour. That is exactly my state of mind. My friends, it is not my vanity; it is my mode of thinking that has made me an atheist. I don’t think that by strengthening my belief in God and by offering prayers to Him every day, (this I consider to be the most degraded act on the part of man) I can bring improvement in my situation, nor can I further deteriorate it. I have read of many atheists facing all troubles boldly, so I am trying to stand like a man with the head high and erect to the last; even on the gallows. Let us see how steadfast I am. One of my friends asked me to pray. When informed of my atheism, he said, “When your last days come, you will begin to believe.” I said, “No, dear sir, Never shall it happen. I consider it to be an act of degradation and demoralisation. For such petty selfish motives, I shall never pray.” Reader and friends, is it vanity? If it is, I stand for it.

FAQ Terror attacks

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Why are you bothered only about terror attacks in the West and not about those taking place more near to you in Asia or Africa?

 

I am bothered when innocent people are killed anywhere in the World. I may be more bothered when it happens in places where such things never happen because it means violence is spreading. When it happens in liberal Western Europe with a secular democratic polity which opened its gates to thousands of refugees from war and terror torn countries, it bothers me more. I fear that it may result in closing of gates and hardening of attitudes towards Muslims. I fear it may result in strengthening of racist right wing political parties there. That in turn will strengthen the Islamists.

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