A. R. Rahman, Oscar award and an open letter

Sirajul Hasan has done it.
I always believed, hoped and expected that he alone could do it.
Siraj Bhai, Siraj Sahib, Sirajul Hasan as he is affectionately called by everybody is the chief editor of Samarasam Tamil Fortnightly.
He is a prolific writer in Tamil and master player of words. Over the years he has developed his own style of conveying his thoughts. It could be described as simply endearing. He is in the field for the past three decades. He was groomed by late Moulana M. A. Jameel Ahmed. He has written three books and a collection of short stories. He is the most soft spoken man in the earth. But he is very shrewd in equal measure. Measure your words when you speak with him.
Now what has he done?

He has written an open letter to A. R. Rahman, the music wizard of Chennai. He has lauded ARR for his achievement. He has expressed his joy, pleasure in his own way. A.R Rahman had declared "Yella pugazhum Allahvukke" (All glory be to Allah!!) at the dias of Oscar arena.
Sirajul Hasan has lauded this spontaneous reaction of the Music maestro. Then he explains the significance of Alhumdulillah...!
Slowly and steadily he has woven the web and highlighted the drastic consequences of Shirk-Inai vaippu.
A.R. Rahman is known to be very particular in offering Namaz in time. Sirajul Hasan mentions this and praises the enthusiasm shown by ARR in offering Namaz. Then he goes on elaborating the significance and importance of the ultimate success - the success in Hereafter.
The final appeal from Siraj is what makes your heart melt.
His words are:

isai vazhiyil payaniththu immaiyin sigarangalai ththottu vitteergal
ini-
irai vazhiyil payaniththu marumaiyin vetrigalai pera muyalungal.

It could be roughly translated as "You have reached the zenith of glory in the path of Music.
Next, in future, Please try to get success in Hereafter"

Oh! I miss Br P. H. Shafeeq Ahmed, the lanky lad from the dusty town of Tirupattur. He is also a gifted writer. Shafeeq writes in English.
More than a decade ago, Ace director Manirathinam produced a stupendously stupid film "Roja" depicting Muslims in a very bad light. At that time too Sirajul Hasan wrote an open letter to Mani Rathinam. The finishing lines of that letter are still embedded in my mind "Today what you have in your hands is a stone..! I pray and hope that a day will come when the stone would be replaced by a flower"
Br Shafeeq translated the letter in English and it was published in Radiance Views weekly, Delhi.
I wish I had Shafeeq at my side. He would have translated the piece in English in no time.
As my hands are full I could not do it by myself. If somebody reading this, wishes to translate in English, he is most welcome.

"It is the farewell kiss, you dog"

Alhumdulillah..! All praise be to Allah..!
Today I feel immensely pleased and my heart is full of joy. I just don't know what to say!
Today my eyes have seen a spectacular scene..! I don't know for how long I have been yearning to see such a glorious, hilarious and exhilarating scene..!
Now that I have seen it, Iam very much satisfied. I eagerly wait for the day, when I would say my grand children "I had seen it, with these eyes!" with pride and joy.
Oh..! What a scene it was..!
Oh..! What a lovely, utterly butterly scene it was...!

It happened in a small hall. Some thirty, forty people had assembled there. Two gentlemen were standing in front of them, shoulder to shoulder. Presumably it was a press conference and one of the two gentlemen - an old, week and meek man - was uttering some non-sense. All those who are seated there must be press people and they were frantically taking notes.

Just then, it happened! The operation lasted eight to ten seconds. But it was dramatic! and heroic! One of the press persons suddenly got up and said "It is the farewell kiss, you dog" and hurled a pair of shoes one after other. The old, weak and meek man ducked and saved himself from the impact of the shoes. But, it definitely shattered him. You could see it in his eyes. The fear of death was there in his eyes. How swiftly he ACTED! The whole hall was stunned. The Police, cops, sleuths, agents everybody were stunned. They were on their foot only after the second shoe was thrown.

I enjoyed every second of it. I will cherish the scene.
Do you know why?
First, it happened in Iraq.
Second, the old, meek and weak man has a name which is spelled as B..U..S..H. Yeah! He is none other than George W Bush, the mass murderer of the twenty first century.
As his days are being numbered, he wanted to pay a farewell visit to Iraq. It was also orchestrated in a secret manner. And he got what he deserved.

And Salams to that unknown Iraqi press man! Mr Iraqi, May God bless you.

I know, I know you also want to see them.
See it by clicking here!, here!, here! and here.
I could not upload them in youtube. If some of you could do it, I would be happy.

Mumbai Terror and 'Rebuild India!'

Mumbai Terror has gripped the nation.
The dust has settled now. The Taj is cleared. The Leopold Cafe, a place frequented by liquor drinking westerners is buzzing with the sounds of clattering glasses.
The politicians are playing their own games. Resignations, blame games, rhetoric etc etc have become the order of the day.
The good thing about the Mumbai Terror is that it has stirred the nation as a whole. Particularly, the elite has swung into action. Those who never voted in their life, those who gone out on picnic on the day of polling now talk about CHANGE in politics.

The wrath of the public towards the politicians is unprecedented. It was evident, when Naredra Modi was booed loudly, when he visited the site. To add insult to the injury, Mrs Hemant karkare, the widow of the slain patriot refused to accept his Rs One Crore compensation - the largest sum as compensation in the country - and sent him off. Similarly, when kerala CM went to Bangalore to meet the family of Major Unnikrishnan, an NSG commondo who laid his life in the operation, the father of the slain Major literally shooed away the CM.

And the message from the voters of the five states was even more louder. They dumped those politicians who tried to catch fish in the troubled waters. They trounced the veterans who shamelessly sought to gain political mileage from the tragedy. They shooed away the smart players who overplayed the plank of terror. God bless India!!

The fury of the public is palpable.

Now, a small group of bloggers but 'with huge levels of motivation'...initiated a movement to publicize the voice of the citizen. And the "Rebuild India' mission was born. As a first step, bloggers were invited to sublimate their anger into positive action by listing out action points that need to be taken in order to get the nation back on track post the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Based on suggestions received, an online survey with 17 simple questions has been formulated which is currently open to all for participation.
The questionnaire is lengthy. It may test your patience. But, it is the little price, you have to give back to your nation. The survey details are follows:

Survey Details

The motive behind conducting this survey is to get the suggestions presented by bloggers, certified by general internet users. (For further details on the 'Rebuild India' plan of action, please click here). The survey comprises of 17 questions, which would hardly take around a couple of minutes to respond to. However, since the survey consists of proposed actions steps as options, it is advisable to ponder over each and every option mentioned in order to gain valuable perspective on where the nation stands at this point of time. If done with the focus and attention, the survey in itself would prove to be a huge learning curve with respect to where the nation stands as of now.

Please go to the site (Let us all make it our site and our mission) at
http://www.intheorbit.com/.
Participate and be a part of the rebuilding process ! Hearty congratulations to the team behind it!

And please spread the word around.

A box full of.....!!!!

Nowadays it is very depressing to read newspapers. They are invariably always full of violence, crimes and rubbish.
Seldom we come across something inspiring. It seems the media people have lost their soul. They don't go after truth. They lack commitment. They don't have vigour and passion for their profession. Simply they lack social responsibility.
Fed up with this, I had quit reading newspapers altogether. But somehow or other I return to them to be depressed once again.

Once in a blue moon I get some great news to cheer about.
The story of a box full of kisses is one such story. yeah, it is not news. Just a story. But is inspiring, mellowing and heartening.
Read and get inspired.

Once, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Abba."

The man was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found out the box was empty. He yelled at her, stating, "Don't you know, when you give someone a present, there is supposed to be something inside?
The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and cried,

"Oh, Abbajan, it's not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They're all for you, Abba."

The father was crushed.

He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness.

Only a short time later, an accident took the life of the child. It is also told that her father kept that gold box by his bed for many years and, whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

Moral of the story:-In a very real sense, each one of us, as humans beings, have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses... from our children, family members, friends, and Allah. There is simply no other possession, anyone could hold, more precious than this.

Indian plans to create rival to Google Earth

Indian plans to create rival to Google Earth

Emboldened by its first mission to the Moon, India is to take on a target closer to Earth: Google. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), which is based in Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of the sub-continent, will roll-out a rival to Google Earth, the hugely popular online satellite imagery service, by the end of the month. The project, dubbed Bhuvan (Sanskrit for Earth), will allow users to zoom into areas as small as 10 metres wide, compared to the 200 metre wide zoom limit on Google Earth. It comes as India redoubles its efforts to reap profits from its 45-year-old space programme, long criticised as a drain on a country where 700 million people live on $2 a day or less. It also follows in the slipstream of the country’s first Moon probe, Chandrayaan-1, which reached the lunar surface successfully on Friday. Bhuvan will use a network of satellites to create a high-resolution, bird’s-eye view of India – and later, possibly, the rest of the world – that will be accessible at no cost online and will compete with Google Earth. If a pilot version passes muster, Bhuvan will be fully operational by the spring. There are also plans to incorporate a global positioning system (GPS) into the online tool.

The data gleaned by the state-sponsored project will be available to the Indian Civil Service to help with urban planning, traffic management and water and crop monitoring. G Madhavan Nair, the Isro chairman, said:

“This will not be a mere browser, but the mechanism for providing satellite images and thematic maps for developmental planning.”

There could also be commercial spin-offs. Experts say that Google Earth is being built as a platform for advertising that could be worth billions, and that Bhuvan will also address one of the issues taxing the web’s biggest companies: how to engage users amid the mass of digital detritus that has accumulated on the internet. Alex Burmaster, of Nielsen, the web analysts, said: “The amount of time that people spend online is reaching a plateau and websites are battling furiously for attention. Anything that relates to where a person is, saves a user time, and makes the web more relevant — especially geographically — is big news.” Isro officials say Bhuvan will provide images of far greater resolution than are currently available online — particularly of the sub-continent, a region where large areas remain virtually unmapped.

There are plans to charge fees for the most detailed information. The agency intends to refresh its images every year — a feature that would give it an edge over its biggest rival and help keep track of the frenetic pace at which Indian cities are growing. A recent report by Gartner, the technology analysts, gave warning of the risk of relying on the “outdated information” used by Google Earth, which is now four years old and has been downloaded some 400 million times. (Source: Times online)

And to know the status of the other sides of India, look these images:

1. Rise of Fascism.

2. India of homeless .There is no full stop in India. The list goes on.