City-hopping, trivia-gathering, identity-hunting. Obsessions include culture, social software, cities, literature, internet, music, history, marketplace and anything that doesn't twinkle.
I blog at Within / Without
and can be found at other CollaBlogs such as DesiPundit, Indicubed and The Sea-Eat Blog.
Latest posts by Neha Viswanathan from April, 2007
India: Incompetent Cricket Council
Almost as good as chocolate is rather miffed with the ‘Incompetent Cricket Council’. “With Australia having pretty much won the tournament (Sri Lanka needed 63 runs required from 18 balls with 7 wickets down!!), the batsmen were offered light (i.e. they could walk off because they couldn’t see anything). Australia...
Sri Lanka: Cricket and LTTE
LTTE choses to attack on the day that Sri Lanka played for World Cup. Vindicated13 says “Last night all us Sri Lankans both at home and away came together to support the home team and suffered the contemptible brunt of cowardice of “freedom fighters” as they call themselves, who tell...
Nepal: About Mohan Gopal Khetan
Nepali Netbook on how the country has lost not only a businessman but also a nationalist. “Mohan Khetan could not have achieved his business successes without at least some of the “shadiness” ordinarily associated with entrepreneurs. Where he stood out was in his espousal of issues going to the heart...
Nepal: Violence against Education
Nepal Monitor has a summary of a report by UNESCO on violence against education. “In Nepal, 145 teachers and 344 students were killed between 13 February 1996 and 31 December 2006.13 In the 5 years between 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2006, the Maoists destroyed 79 schools, one university...
Bangladesh: Water Bully
The 3rd World View on the Farakka Barrage. “Construction of the Farakka Barrage was started by India in 1960 unilaterally violating the international norms of any construction for diversion of water on any international river. It was completed in 1974 to divert Ganges River water into the Bhagirati-Hooghly River in...
India: The other side of gender
Responding to issue of a gender bias in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), The Other Side presents well, the other side – by pointing to what appears to be the real issue. “But the malaise runs deeper than that. In our society, career choices are made by parents, not by...
Sri Lanka: LTTE and the Government
Indi.ca explains LTTE's strategy. “The LTTE is the most efficient terrorist organization ever. They don’t even hit anything, they just take off or hit something nearby, the government panics, and it gets reported as an attack on the airport. More important, it gets perceived as an attack at the airport.”
Nepal: The Diplomatic Act
Nepali Netbook attempts deciphering diplomatic due processes. “The fact that Chinese Ambassador Zheng Xianglin became the first foreign envoy to present his credentials to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala contained much symbolism. The normally reticent official Chinese media, too, highlighted how this development broke the tradition of ambassadors presenting credentials...
Sri Lanka: Art and Children
cerno attends an art competition awards ceremony and is struck by the children present. “The majority of these kids were from rural schools. A string of Mahavidyalayas, Madya Maha Vidyalayas, and simple Vidyalayas. Words not heard among us Colombo types used to abbreviations of Visaka, Ananda, Royal etc. There were...
India: No Kiss for Gere
A kiss on stage leads to much trouble for Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty. Desidabba has more. “I simply can’t comprehend on what basis the chief judicial magistrate found the “kissing episode” to be “highly sexually erotic”; I mean what did he see that we didn’t, maybe somebody slipped him...
India: Women and Engineering Institutes
nanopolitan about the possible inherent bias against women in the Joint Entrance Examination to some of the premier engineering institutes in India. “Finally, since when have we started allowing our public institutions to hide behind the society moral shortcomings? If the society is screwed up, I would argue that our...
Pakistan: Roadmap to Peace
At The Pakistani Spectator, an Indian living in Doha talks of the roadmap to peace. “In my conversations with both Pakistani and Indian taxi drivers is that both Indians and Pakistanis are fed wrong ideas about the others by their respective governments, My interactions with Pakistanis from Peshawar or Lahore...
India: Meeting a Star
Sheetal Goel meets a superstar and is rather smitten. “For those who don't know me, here's something you need to know. Shah Rukh Khan was my first love, at the age of 13. And without gushing too much about him and my love for him, suffice to say I'd been...
India: Folding Up
Munjal Shah, the CEO of Riya explains the decision to close their Bangalore office. “The costs of having two offices, which are twelve time zones apart, is significant. People in both offices frequently had conference calls at 10pm and midnight every night (as a result the office in the US...
India: Provoked
An Anthropologist Wannabe on the film Provoked. “Having said that however, I think the movie should be seen because it speaks very strongly about domestic violence suffered by women. And in recent years, South-Asian women in Canada, especially from the immigrant Punjabi community, have witnessed a rise in the number...
Sri Lanka: An unlikely Cricket Fan
The World Cup makes an otherwise indifferent person a cricket fan. “I was surprised by my own enthusiasm because honestly I still don't care much for the sport. It being the World Cup it was only natural that I rooted for the home team. I can't exactly point out how...
Bhutan: Feeling unlucky? Get a dog.
Visit Bhutan compiles an interesting list of popular Bhutanese beliefs! “Keeping dogs as pet is advisable as they act as a recipient of all the bad luck and curse of the family. In effect, the family is spared of the suffering of curses and bad luck in the house.Comments :...
Nepal: Law and Order
Blogdai spells out Nepal's last option – establishing law and order. “We have NO effective form of government. We have murderous Maoists on the verge of ascending to the highest seats of power; we have big brother India sitting back and supporting it all with their deliberate inaction; and we...
Nepal: April Revolution, a year after.
Kathmandu Speaks reflects on the April Revolution a year after. “Here it is about Madhesi representation and the unfinished revolution. There is an element of truth in all the allegations about the fires that raged here in January: royalist meddling, a ‘foreign hand’, forces of Hindu fundamentalism, disgruntled, disaffected members...
India: The Left and History
Jaffna takes a close look at how the Left has dominated the interpretation of history in India all these years. “One could disagree. The importance of the Gupta period did not lie in its political hold over the Indo-Gangetic plain from the Hindu Kush to Assam and its links with...
India: On Corporate “Greed”
My Himachal on corporate play in the state. “Hydro-electric power projects of private firms in Himachal Pradesh are being pushed by local officers who have made it clear to the people that they have vested interest in these projects. Officers of the state government have tried to influence local activists...
