Australians are a proud lot. And they have done well in various areas. Sports being chief in that - specifically Cricket. There was a time, when teams from Indian sub-continent were just push-overs. Either they were beaten easily or when the Aussies were at the receiving end they would do things not completely sportsman-like and then pound those teams into submission. Those days are over.

Now, the entire world cricket is funded by the Indian sponsors. India goes out of cricket - the game would not survive. That's the truth now. The center of cricket has moved from England and Australia to India. This has had its own issues. The teams from India (and Pakistan) do not take things lying down. They give it back. Which is somewhat bad for the Aussie psyche, which cannot handle that well... as yet.

Cricket Tensions

During one series in 2007-08, in Australia, there were rather unsportsman-like stuff from the Aussies (like the captain flooring the catch and yet claiming it to be a neat catch). That obviously made Indians mad and then there was this controversy about Harbhajan Singh calling Andrew Symonds (a mixed race player) a monkey.

This created a lot of heated arguments. Aussies were obviously backing their team and Indians theirs. You can see the comment thread on the Ricky Ponting story to get a glimpse.

There is a slave trade going on in kids for killing them by Taliban. But its not new. Such slave trade - in just better holier-rhetorical has been conducted by the Pakistani Government and their allies, the Jehadis for over two decades now.

The going price for a young Pakistani child: $7,000 to $14,000. It comes with bomb straps, free, around the kid and the compensation is based on his ability to get near the "target" to blow himself up.

While the kids in the other countries are worrying about their homeworks or playing thier next local game, a Pakistani kid from poor areas is busy preparing himself to blow up.

Despite what the Governments like the US have been saying in public about Islam and Terrorism not being linked, the Pentagon does not believe that to be so. In Pentagon's opinion, a suicide bomber is behaving as a normal and rational Muslim when he commits suicide while bombing.

"Suicide in defense of Islam is permitted, and the Islamic suicide bomber is, in the main, a rational actor," concludes a recent Pentagon briefing paper titled, "Motivations of Muslim Suicide Bombers."

Dear SAP Professional:

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The power of this site depends on interaction. We have created a site that is very powerful and quite unlike ANY in the world today - given its functionality and reach. Please join and also invite your friends!

Here is a beautiful rendering of the Punjabi folk song, Challa - one of my personal favorite. I love it in the voices of Gurdas Mann and Shaukat Ali (Pakistani singer).. and never could believe that anyone could do a different or a better job... but Rabbi Shergill has done it. He has his own unique style which shows through!

In my analysis on Mumbai Attacks on November 30th, 2008 - while they were on-going - I had suggested 3 "Internal measures" that we, in India, need to take against Islamic terrorism. They were:

• Engage Muslims
• Close madrasas and make secular schooling mandatory
• Give State encouragement to Sufism and other Spiritual practices and put down Wahabism.

I know many people wouldn't have thought much about these three suggestions at that time. But it had taken a lot of thought and thinking to come up with these three things. I have had the benefit of engaging with Muslims at the grassroots in UP during, what I believe was one of largest studies of its kind for Minorities Welfare Board, where we went to over 60 villages talking to youth, elders, Maulvis, teachers, intelligentsia in Masjids, Wakf boards, Madrasas etc. We even visited Deoband and other major schools. Our perspective was different and from a detached standpoint, and so had its own merit.

Today, I was amazed to read an article which suggests that Pakistan itself - in view of the Taliban's offensive and regular blasts and suicide bombings as the country plunges into more and more darkness - has started to move on the 3rd suggestion I had made for India. The move to Sufism!

When pop morality defines your spirituality, then your access to god could become a sham for you at best and a tragedy for another.

People go to Ajmer, Pushkar and other pilgrimages, give alms to beggars and somehow believe they have gained the goodness of divinity and now all their sins are gone!

Begging in Ajmer is a Rs. 10 crores business. In a 15 day Urs at the Khwaja Garib Nawaz Dargah, the total earning amount to USD 2.2 million... that's a cool about $150k a day!!

A woman walks into a store and sees trousers and short skirts. Decides to buy both. One for office and another for her party. She has a choice. Some guys see her in the trousers and admire her figure while some guys see her in short skirt on the dance floor and admire at her dance moves.

Is the attitude of the beholder based on the dress of the object or the situation and the beholder's response to it?

However, in another culture, a Prophet uses the pretext of divinity to enforce a dress code. [Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin: "The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: Allah does not accept the prayer of a woman who has reached puberty unless she wears a veil." Book 2, Number 0641]. Now, this lady can no longer wander into a shop and buy the dress from the shelf she pleases. She has been told by one "Messenger of God" whom somehow the God, formless and un-named that he insists, somehow keeps speaking to in his ears. That this formless and un-named is somehow so bothered about the dress code of a special category of a special species in one of the tiniest specks of this entire Universe, is intriguing and probably a discussion for another time.

Yash Pal graduated with a degree in physics from Punjab University in 1949 and was awarded a PhD degree in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1958. During a long academic and research career he served as a visiting professor at the Niels Bohr Institute, the California Institute of Technology and the Danish Space Research Institute. Yash Pal has held several prominent positions during his career which includes Chief Consultant, Planning Commission (1983-84), Secretary, Department of Science & Technology (1984-86) and Chairman, University Grants Commission (1986-91).

Yesterday, Yashpal Committee report on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education (embedded below) was accepted by Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal. It is an interesting document and a well times one. According to the foreword, this document has full backing of PM Dr. Singh and the HR Minister Sibal.

A lot of years back, I had once watched in interview with Prof. Yashpal. He is a scientist with interests in arts. So, the interviewer asked him about his varied interests to which he replied that at the end of his life he did not want to look back and see only one road on which he had walked. He wanted to wander on the sideways and smell the beautiful flowers and watch the streams also that were away from the main road. That one answer of his has impacted me a lot over my years of growing up.

I think this report includes that thinking. The report is very wide ranging - from structure of the Indian education to the examination system to the inequities to how a good and high level University should be structured. He has taken his learnings from MIT and Caltech to fashion the next generation of the Indian Universities. There is also an admittance on the peripheral education structure of donation colleges that proliferate the Indian landscape. There is also the acceptance of the uselessness of the traditional Undergraduation degree courses - which has taken a long time coming. There is also the push to a more robust and meaningful vocational strata of education.

I know my generation was really impacted by Michael Jackson and his breakdance. How did the "King of Pop" affect you?