Blog unconference

Bloggers in Chennai have gained international attention by organising a "blog unconference" which turns to be India's biggest ever. Organizers claim it to have everything from keynotes, talks, forums, hallway discussions, demos, party and contests. The idea to bring bloggers to one spot is great by itself. Do not miss the great event on Sep 9th and 10th at Tidel Park, Chennai.

My new blog

Friends,

I am happy to announce the launch of my new blog dedicated to controversies in history . I have named it MANKIND - HISTORY AND HERITAGE. I am trying to make it as interesting and accurate as possible. Please do check it and support me as you have been doing all these days.

yours ever- friendly,

Arunkumar Arumugam

"INDEPENDENCE IS MY BIGGEST ASSET"

Mothers lost their gifted sons,

Leaders sacrificed a good living,

Numerous kids were orphaned,

Rivers turned red with human blood,

All to make this flag fly high,

Let us swear on this wonderful day to

keep it flying higher and higher .

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY !!

Terrorists are maniacs !!

I love Islam for its uniqueness. The great Prophet Muhammad wanted to pull common men out of a deadly well called innocence, and now it seems that he couldn't successfully pull the last man out. It is atrocious to use the credits of such a great Prophet to kill common people for whom he lived his life. They call it jihad (the holy war) as against some evil spirit. The irony is that the satan (evil spirit) in the form of terrorists is fighting jihad against man kind. The world calls them terrorists, of course they are not. They are sick maniacs who have sold their brains for stale meat.

Guerrilla warfare is the name given to the insane terror attacks. This term comes from mid 20th century. Legends Che Guevara and Fidel Castro in Cuba and Subash Chandra Bose in India have used Guerilla warfare as an effective means to fight colonial powers. Guevara found mass support for this warfare from the people. Subash was a millionaire, an ICS (British-Indian civil service) officer by profession while Guevara himself was a doctor. They took to Guerilla warfare sacrificing a comfortable living for the sake of people who were helpless at the hands of colonial powers. All they had were untrained men highly influenced by common principles to fight against the huge armies of the then super powers.

The term today is used to mark the way trained maniacs attack unarmed civilians. Every country be it a super power or not, is facing threat from sick terrorist maniacs who never realise what is being done. All they know is to kill people in masses and call it a victory for Allah. They bring discredit to Allah and the Prophet in every means. I have always wondered why terrorists are called terrorists for they can never fight a real war. They just appear from nowhere and kill unarmed civilians with the most sophisticated firearms on the planet. This is the height of insanity. This insanity is fed with money and technology from a few corners of the world, and these maniacs seem to have super good intelligence networks operating across the globe.

The solution to this problem should be nowhere but with us. The countries most affected by terrorism have the best possible answers for it. Last week, the British police have thwarted a major plot to blast several aircrafts on air and many of the accused identified are connected with Pakistan. It was the British PM in 2004 who reaffliated Pakistan with the commonwealth giving its military rule a strong international recognition. Mr. Blair justified his decision by calling Pakistan a force against terrorism. While "big brother" USA will slaughter Iraq for he just beleived that there could be WMD (Weapons of mass destruction) hidden somewhere in the territory, he will send strong warnings to India not to strengthen its borders with more forces even after an attack on her parliament by terrorists. The "Big Brother" will dictate nuclear deals for every country in the world map but will earn billions selling nuclear weapons and carriers to Pakistan and Israel, the impact is well seen in Lebanon today. The Hezbollah themselves are just the fall out of the American hand in grooming Mujahideens to overthrow USSR occupation in Afghanistan decades back. Its too difficult to uproot them today and innocent civilians are targeted in turn.

History has seen the once popular religions go nowhere, mighty empires falling with time, great warriors biting dust and big armies being destroyed by unarmed civilian revolutions. Nothing is certain in this world. We have a very short time in our hands to do something that'll make this place a better place to live for generations to come. If we dont take an initiative then nobody will. Every one of us have the responsibility to create a conciousness among fellow humans. Please do not support terrorism in any means. Its nothing but digging our own burial ground. LONG LIVE HUMANITY!

Star Glitz in PSUs

"Public sector is for public good" - As a child, I have seen this phrase written on my dad's NLC documents. I remember him telling me that the government runs the Public sector undertakings (PSUs for short) for the betterment of the people. The PSU's have changed faces with time. Almost a decade ago, the oil companies were 'corporatised' with new management norms for better governance with the government just holding their stakes. Today I see no signs of government intervention in their inner operations, a good sign of course.

We know that oil prices in the world market are fixed by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) and our markets reflect the same. But how many of us are aware that the oil companies in India are among the profit making PSUs, and not to mention the lavish marketing campaigns of these corporations.

We struggle to bring petrol costs into our family budget while the cooking gas (LPG) prices have become a night mare for the middle class. The oil companies keep reviewing the prices every fortnight to ensure a rise in their quarterly profits as if they are some alein corporation. They do it at the cost of our blood.

I dont know if our Harvard educated Finance minister, well known for his flamboyant economic policies cares about it at all. He is too busy marketing government stakes in the PSUs instead of streamlining them. I dont find a point in oil companies paying crores of our money to rope in Sania Mirza or Narain Karthikeyan to promote their petroleum products that are essential commodities for the masses. I dont demand they run to lose or run on a no loss no gain basis as it is with many countries but shouldnt they cut the marketing crap to save our skin? Isnt their basic objective to serve the public? The highly illustrious PC-Montek-Man Mohan trio arguably called the Indian economic 'Dream team' has to answer this strange business approach.

I wonder if we are in a democracy sometimes. We often proudly call ourselves the biggest democracy in the world but we end up paying extra to our own government just to feed a few greedy executives at the top management. I have always felt happy that my constitution has empowered me to think freely and question my government's actions but I am sad that it never assured me an answer.