· March, 2007

Stories about India from March, 2007

India: Flower-Lane

  31 March 2007

A flower market in photographs at Trivial Matters. “A kaleidoscope for your senses. Dadar Phulgalli [flower-lane] takes your traditional Bombay smells of sweat, toil, paint, iron and turns them into the smell of marigolds.. Wipe your brow and you find petals in addition to sweat.”

India: On the shariah

  31 March 2007

Indian Muslims on the shariah, law, state and culture. “I firmly believe that in this present day world shariah laws cannot be enforced on people because Muslim society in general has diverted away from religion. Concepts which invite death punishment in Islam are now acceptable in many cultures, like live...

India: Reservations, Law, Bollywood and Peanuts

  30 March 2007

So far this month the major topic of discussion in virtual India was the world cup cricket match in the West Indies. Now that India was unceremoniously bowled out of the world cup, bloggers have turned their attention to other issues. Yesterday the Indian Supreme Court temporarily stopped the implementation...

Hindi Blogosphere: Hi-tech Blogger Meet and Match Making over Blogs!

  30 March 2007

Its no use telling that I've been quite busy off late with some unexpected emergency at office & the usual banter!! ;) So without much ado, lets have a peek into the world of Hindi blogging & know whats going on there!! Shrish asked some frequently questions from the Inscript...

India: The mother of two children

  29 March 2007

Motherhood and two children at The Mad Momma. “I held her against my chest and made him put his head down in my lap and comforted both and tried to fight the sense of utter despair. How would I protect one from the other without destroying one? She is so...

India, Bangladesh: Lessons from Nandigram

  29 March 2007

Unheard Voices takes a look at the violence in Nandigram in India. “What is remarkable in this tragedy is the arrogant attitudes and brutal actions of a government that is democratically-elected and that is filled with nominal socialists and communists. In true deshi fashion, the police forces’ brutality has been...

India: Feminism and Bangles

  28 March 2007

Jag's Blog points out to the ways that people take to insulting the cricketers who didn't make it to the World Cup. In this case they were shown as wearing bangles. “Does it mean that those who wear bangles – women – are … what? Useless? Incapable? Weak? Unskilled? Unable...

India: Women Sufis

  28 March 2007

Indian Muslims on women sufis in and from Delhi. “Among the other early women mystics are Umm Haram whose tomb is in Cyprus, Rabia bint Ismail of Syria, Muadha al Adaiyya of Syria, Nafisa of Mecca, Zainab and Ishi Nili of Persia. These women made major contributions to the vitality...

Haiti, India: Becoming a local

  28 March 2007

Haitian blogger Pascale Doresca reflects [Fr] on the ways she is settling into life in India: “For while now I have not found the time to write, to be moved or to be shocked by India. Maybe it finally happened. Although I didn't see it coming, I am now from...

India: Qualitative Research and Blogs

  27 March 2007

Conversations with Dina discusses if blogs will kill focus groups in qualitative research. “Because blog conversations are viral on the other hand, and often there is no way of ‘checking’ back on the demographics. Its difficult for an ‘outsider’ (read marketer who isn't into blogging) to trust this conversation then,...

India: Nandigram, it could get worse

  26 March 2007

Even as the media appears to be forgetting about Nandigram, SacredMedia Cow has a post by a journalist who says that the real carnage is yet to come. “Though the report is yet to be made public, CBI sources very clearly detail out the following – a. police did not...

India: On TATA

  26 March 2007

International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal provides a rap sheet for a corporate giant TATA. ” Until the onset of liberalisation, Tatas remained the undisputed king of the license-raj, covering its trail of human rights, labour and environmental violations with liberal philanthropic give-aways.”

Bahrain: Storms and D-cups

Bahrain was enveloped in a heavy dust storm on Thursday night, the beginning of the weekend, and TechZ wrote about getting caught in it: I couldn’t see anything ahead, other than for the windshield and my wipers. Headlights were useless in this much sand and rain drops. I had to...

India: Development of Choor Dhar Hills

  22 March 2007

myHimachal on an effort by citizens for local development. “Setting a rare example of ‘peoples action for the development’ by crossing all the social, cultural and area boundaries , thousands of resident of Himchal Pradesh and Uttrakhand have joined hands to develop Choor Dhar Hills known as heaven of adventure...

India: For Nandigram

  22 March 2007

Cuckoo's Call on Nandigram – “Nandigram is a symbol of humble people’s defiance, protest, militant resistance and sacrifice against the globalising local state. It has broken the stupor, apathy, cynicism and mute, opportunistic acceptance defining the intelligentsia and middle classes in Calcutta and West Bengal.”. This comes at a time...

India, Pakistan: Google and Local

  22 March 2007

I, Me, Myself on how even as organisations cater to an international audience, they don't always get the local preferences right. “The text on the Google Pakistan page in Punjabi has been written in the Gurmukhi script, which most Punjabis in the Pakistani part of Punjab can not read (except,...

India: 50 million missing girls

  21 March 2007

A flickr group called 50 million missing attempts to collect pictures of Indian women and girls. “It is the HOPE of this website to have as many possible of the 50 million missing represented by a photograph. These can be of Indian women or girls, of any age, and community...

South Asia: Brown people in the UK

  21 March 2007

Pickled Politics on brown people and the government in UK. “Although I’ve frequently explained the process and the reasoning behind which the Labour government has engaged with brown people in the UK, especially Muslims, I haven’t explained it properly in one article.”

India: Sex Ed

  21 March 2007

India Daily reports on children being denied sex education, because, well, apparently it's too graphic. “The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to ban the sex education provided under the adolescent education program in its present form in the schools.”

India: New Year Celebrations

  21 March 2007

New Year in March you ask? Well, yes in certain parts of India it the start of a new year since they follow a different calendar and not the Gregorian calendar that the western countries follow. Ugadi, Gudi Padwa are some of the names for the New Year celebrations in...

India: Rapes in tele-serials

  20 March 2007

DesiDabba on the almost flippant use of rape as a plot twister in Indian tele-serials. “While the producers and others involved justify inclusion of such social offences as the ‘demand of the script’ and ‘story-telling’ there are many who simply label it as a cheap TRP tactic. Audiences across the...