Friday, October 30, 2015

Easiest Way to Develop India?!!



Easiest Way to Develop India?!!



There are two ways.

1. Easy Way. Develop in showing-off. Go around proclaiming what great things India was going to achieve; how India's achievements would make her the world's leading nation.

For such development...no work is needed. Only a thick skin. And a big mouth.

2. Hard Way. Keep mouths shut, plan with expert advice, and do whatever is necessary in the long-haul work to improve conditions in the country.


Of course, the first way is far far far far far far far far far far far far far far.....easier!

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Dreamy Tail-Lights:

New India Theme
A Revolutionary Theme, the people's inspired March to an Ek Desh India, lights up Dreams of One Country by Jagjit (and John Daniel). You can check it out on Amazon.com. If the theme of transforming India into a truly modern nation appeals to you, download the novel on any device - I-phone, pad or computer.


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Sunday, October 18, 2015

India's Thrilled Globe-Jetters

India's Thrilled Globe-Jetters



In the age of globalization is India becoming a global leader at jet speed?
Anyone of any importance in the country (i.e. anyone who doesn't have to worry about the fares, including business honchos) are busy globalizing India by jetting around the globe. They are so busy they don't have time to unpack their travel bags. They keep constantly checking airline schedules to discover potential new destinations. What about Iceland? they wonder. Or Greenland? Will the welcome be warmer in Serbia...or Bosnia? Overall they are certain their frequent appearances in global capitals will establish the idea that India is now in the forefront of globalized development. Wherever they land, they compulsively collect piles of paper mementos - which they add to the piles of garbage in the home country. They fail to notice that people abroad are actually more than a bit tired seeing those smug, permanently-grinning  faces every few days. In fact our champion nonstop world tourists are so determined to make India a global leader they have no time to spare for (or, maybe, it's the easiest way to avoid facing) realities back home...poverty, hunger, systemic corruption, divisiveness, bigotry etc.

By constantly jetting to show up and off around the globe. they feel they are patriotically proving that India is a global leader - a feeling that surely leaves them happy. Thrilled! Oh, deliriously thrilled!

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Are you ready for an Amazing novel on Amazon?
An unforgettable love story that inspires the people's March to an Ek Desh India lights up Dreams of One Country by Jagjit Daniel (and John). Check it out on Amazon.com. If the transforming India Revolutionary Theme appeals to you, download the novel on any device - I-phone, pad or computer.


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Brando's Indian Star Wife


Brando's Indian Star Wife

Anna Kashfi, born as Joan O'Callaghan in the northern hill resort of Darjeeling in 1934, was yet another girl who sailed away from India to seek fame in Hollywood.

Throughout her life she insisted that William O'Callaghan (who worked in the Indian Railways) was her stepfather, that her real parents were a Devi Kashfi and Selma Ghose. Some reports suggest she had decided the best way to succeed in Hollywood was to hitch on to a big star...and that's how she met Brando in the commissary (restaurant) of a Hollywood studio.

Marlon Brando had made the big time with A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront. He came from Lee Strasberg's Method School of Acting in New York. (James Dean and Al Pacino are among notable alumni of the School) which taught students to act out emotions without getting emotional, underplaying roles to create a powerful effect.


Marlon fell for Anna's dusky, exotic looks. She became his first wife. But their marriage was shortlived, tempestuous. They fought bitterly over custody of their son Christian Brando. Anna's brief Hollywood career was cut short by drug and alcohol problems. She died, aged 80, in August 2015.

Among her movies are The Mountain (1956) with Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner and Battle Hymn with Rock Hudson. In Night of the Quarter Moon (1959) she plays the African-American wife of the renowned singer Nat 'King' Cole.

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Dreamy Tail-Lights:

New India Theme
A Revolutionary Theme, the people's inspired March to an Ek Desh India, lights up Dreams of One Country by Jagjit (and John Daniel). You can easily check it out on Amazon.com. If a transforming India theme appeals to you, venture to download the novel on any device - I-phone, pad or computer.


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Saturday, October 10, 2015

India Needs MindQuakes, 1

A Blog begun years ago as a stroll on the Funny Side of Serious Street, highlighting India's problems. Revived now by adding memories of old Bombay, including excerpts from Dreams of One Country.


NewIndia Needs MindQuakes, 1

Change is inevitable. And change is necessary to build NewIndia.
Thinking must change. Mindsets must change. First, for example, a NewIndia will no longer be a country where a common idea is....

To grab whatever one can get away with - whether it's part of a pavement or other public use space, or government-owned land or a neighbour's property. Grabbing often starts with an encroachment that, if unresisted, grows in ambition. Cheating, lying, bribing and other deceits - in the process of grabbing - are taken as proof of one's own smartness. As for ease of bribing, there are any number of officials (uniformed and un-uniformed) who consider it their own smartness to be able to bend or break any rule or law and thus add to their daily take in bribes. And, worse, among those who wield power you'll find those who loot the most and get away.

The whole grabbing business indicates a failure of basic ethical values.

No country that runs short on ethical values can be truly modern and developed - an enlightened nation.

NewIndia will be a country of people committed to ethical values. 
        
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Tail-Lights:
New India Theme
A Revolutionary Theme, the people's inspired March to an Ek Desh India, lights up Dreams of One Country by Jagjit (and John Daniel). You can easily check it out on Amazon.com. If a transforming India theme appeals to you, venture to download the novel on any device - I-phone, pad or computer.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

India's Only Top Hollywood Heroine

India's Only Top Hollywood Heroine

A Blog begun years ago as a stroll on the Funny Side of Serious Street, highlighting India's problems. Revived now by adding memories of old Bombay, including excerpts from Dreams of One Country.

Does anyone remember Merle Oberon?

Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson was born in Bombay of Welsh-Indian parentage in 1911. 'Queenie' (her nickname) escaped an aimless life by sailing to London with an English boyfriend at the age of 17. There, while she was trying to enter films, she did odd jobs like entertaining at the Cafe de Paris. She got only bit parts till her looks and talent were noticed by Alexander Korda, Britain's Hungarian emigre movie mogul. She appeared in Men of Tomorrow in 1933. Then came the starring role of Anne Boleyn in the The Private Life of Henry VIII. Successes in London led her on to Hollywood.

Among her big movies were The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Divorce of Lady X , Wuthering Heights (a memorable performance) and Berlin Express. She was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her role in The Dark Angel (1935). She acted with many top stars, including Gary Cooper, Laurence Olivier, Leslie Howard, Marlon Brando and David Niven.

Merle Oberon married Alexander Korda. She was with him at the presentation when Korda received a Knighthood at Buckingham Palace in 1942. So she was the first Lady Korda. After divorcing Korda, she went through two more divorces, and then married actor Robert Wolders. She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

She died of a massive stroke in 1979 at Malibu, California.

Throughout her life she was secretive about her parentage, family and early life in Bombay.

A glittery, almost fairy-tale story! A teen girl adrift on the streets of British Bombay, Queenie set out to make something of her life and achieved world stardom.

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Tail-Lights:
New India Theme
A Revolutionary Theme, the people's inspired March to an Ek Desh India, lights up Dreams of One Country by Jagjit (and John Daniel). You can easily check it out on Amazon.com. If a transforming India theme appeals to you, venture to download the novel on any device - I-phone, pad or computer.


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Saturday, September 19, 2015

Busted BusStop's Thieving Secret!!!

Busted Bus-Stop's Thieving Secret!!!



The truth's out! Busting the bus-stop was sheer drama.

The two main rival political parties deserve a Filmfare (or even Oscar) nomination for Acting - their rivalry act that demolished the bus-stop shelter/bench and led to scenes of pretended violence on the street. And the net result? The bus-stop's gone. In the open plot behind the former bus-stop pavement a builder has made iron grille gates right across the plot's frontage and put up his signs saying No Parking In Front Of The Gates. He has sloped the pavement down to the street. And now his cars and construction trucks occupy the public pavement, virtually stealing the pavement . He has started building a multi-storey commercial plus residential complex. Since it's a prime location on a business street, he will earn big money. And, of course, the two political parties will be well rewarded for collaborating in a rivalry act to get rid of the bus-stop from the complex's frontage. It seems everybody gained. Oh, not everybody! The public lost the all-weather facility provided by the bus-stop. And ethical values and probity in public life in the country took another hit!

Where's India headed? 

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Tail-Lights:
 
1. New India Theme
A Revolutionary Theme, the people's inspired March to an Ek Desh India, lights up Dreams of One Country by Jagjit (and John Daniel). You can easily check it out on Amazon.com. If a transforming India theme appeals to you, venture to download the novel on any device - I-phone, pad or computer.
2. Man's Easiest Job!
 Look at history, past and present. Nothing is easier for man than to delete 'kind' from mankind. (From Tipsy Tweetlines)

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Friday, September 18, 2015

ANewIndia'sModernizers: Children

ANewIndia'sModernizers: Children

Sixty-eight years after winning freedom, in India, a country with an abundance of talent, the same biases and mindsets continue that have hindered her evolution into a modern nation.

Let's be clear on ground realities. A country that is not committed to every citizen's right to 'life and liberty' cannot be a truly modern, developed nation. Nor can a country where fair-play and rule of law are routinely battered, particularly by those with power. Nor can a country where pettiness, selfishness and taking advantage of others (even the weak) for gain are so common that too few realize such behaviour is unworthy of a refined nation. Nor can a country where the people do not share and care for each other, where the better-offs are insensitive to the suffering of the many. 

India has still to grasp that factories, armies, nuclear bombs, space explorations, a small wealthy class or some whose wealth matches the world's richest do not make a truly developed country. Russia has done it all, but remains stuck as a developing country.
 
The HDI or Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Program rates Denmark the most developed land in the world, followed by Norway, New Zealand, Singapore and the U.S. India ranks 135th among 185 countries. Between developed and under-developed countries the essential difference is heart: The ability of the people to feel and care for one another. Denmark, for instance, without discriminating on any basis offers all her citizens free education at all levels and free health care.

India has still the same long way to go to develop as she did at Independence. A positive change in attitudes has to happen through education. In children.   

That's the key. It has to begin in childhood.


And it means not math or geography, but the basic civilizing ideas of humanity.

When I was in school one of our subjects was Moral Science. It's not a science at all. I still remember one lesson, with the illustration of a schoolboy volunteering to help a blind man cross a busy street. Moral Science was a subject neither pupils nor teachers bothered about. We were promoted even if we failed in it. Somehow, I took the subject seriously and got a story-book every year for scoring in it. Later, I went on to professional studies. But I still consider Moral Science the most important part of my education. I believe that the subject - on caring for one another in our inter-dependent society - must be taught to children across the world.


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Tail-Lights:

1. Ready for an Amazing novel on Amazon?
An unforgettable love story that inspires the people's March to an Ek Desh India lights up Dreams of One Country by Jagjit Daniel (and John). Check it out on Amazon.com. If the transforming India Revolutionary Theme appeals to you, download the novel on any device - I-phone, pad or computer.
2. Man's Easiest Job!
 Look at history, past and present. Nothing is easier for man than to delete 'kind' from mankind. (From Tipsy Tweetlines)



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