If there’s one thing desis learn to do early, it’s to wait in line. Years of living in crowded countries make sure of that. You’d think Russians under communism would be the world champions of waiting. But Hindu mythology mentions sanyasis who went so deep into meditative penance, they were slowly covered by creepers and anthills.

Sanjai L. Shah knows the meaning of waiting. As Ennis posted earlier, he’s spent the last year camping out at the Nairobi airport waiting for British citizenship:

In 2004, Mr. Shah received a British passport and headed off to London. But he made a critical error. He bought a one-way ticket, raising the suspicions of immigration authorities at Heathrow Airport… Before he was put on a plane back to Nairobi, the ominous words “PROHIBITED IMMIGRANT” were stamped into his British passport. His Kenyan passport had already been cut by British consular officials in Nairobi… [NYT]

He feared if he tried to leave the airport he would be arrested by Kenyan police and imprisoned… His wife, Rashmita, and son, Veer, who have Kenyan passports, have visited him every few days, bringing food and clean clothes. [BBC]

But what’s in a year? To a religion which measures times in yugas, a year is less than the time it takes for Brahma to reach for His electric toothbrush in the morning. Now the Brits have poured a spot of tea, taken a puff from a pipe and said, ‘Really, old chap, is all this quite necessary?’ They just granted Shah full citizenship:

… now Mr Shah has been told by officials from the British High Commission in Nairobi that his application for a full British passport has been approved… A spokesperson at the High Commission said the decision had nothing to do with what he described as the pointless protest that Mr Shah has conducted for the past year. [BBC]

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In a grand jury filing two weeks ago, D.C. prosecutors revealed that Jayant Kadian confessed to killing his mother:

The 20-year-old Great Falls resident told a Fairfax County detective that the tension between them escalated after he was arrested in connection with marijuana possession a third time… his mother, Kiran V. Kadian, told him she wanted him to see a psychiatrist, he told police… “He said at that point, he picked up a butcher knife out of the butcher block, and he said, ‘I . . . axed her. It was weird.’ ”

… Kadian stabbed or slashed his mother 23 times in the neck and seven times elsewhere… he said… he stabbed her once from behind and she dropped to the floor, Allen said. “I wanted to kill my mother real quick,” Allen quoted Kadian as saying. “I did my best to make it quick.” [Washington Post]

There’s a special pit in hell reserved for this guy, who allegedly did the deed while she was making him food:

KADIAN’S MOTHER, 52, was preparing food for her son when she was murdered, according to testimony from Allen, a homicide detective. When Allen arrived at the Kadian’s house, an untouched plate of food remained on the kitchen counter above her body which was surrounded by a pool of dried blood…

Kadian thought the purpose of meeting with a psychiatrist was to place him in a 28-day inpatient treatment center, according to Allen, who said Kadian didn’t want to go… after the murder, Kadian washed the knife, placed it on the dining room table and went upstairs to get $4, shoes and socks and to put a Band-Aid on two cuts he suffered during the stabbing. He set the alarm to the house and drove to the Great Falls Shopping Center, where he parked behind the CVS Pharmacy, according to Allen. Later he drove back by the house and saw the police cars and “decided he wasn’t ready to be caught and drove to James Madison,” Allen said… [The Connection]

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I am all for nudity, but I care even more about trees and the state of our global environment. That is why the following story from India left me feeling conflicted. From Reuters:

Women in an eastern Indian forest are stripping naked to distract police and to help a criminal gang avoid arrest while illegally chopping down trees, the Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday.

Some of the women belong to a timber mafia in the heavily-forested state of Jharkhand while others are paid to strip in front of the police, who are too embarrassed to arrest them or too distracted to hunt the gang down, the daily said.

“It is proving tough to deal with these women,” Jharkhand forest official B.K. Singh said. “It has almost become a regular practice for them to strip.”

The story gets even more absurd when you read the headline of a similar article at Sify.com: Women terrorise Jharkand forest guards. Hmmm. I guess anyone can be a terrorist these days. Fear not though because Chief Wiggum and his posse have a solution: “But the guards are not stumped — they are planning to recruit women guards to deal with the problem.” Continue reading →

This week we’ve received several tips about the case of the two Pakistani men arrested in Lodi, California on charges of being tied to terrorist training camps abroad. DNSI especially has done a good job of following the case. Just to re-cap, here is an excerpt from the Contra Costa times:

Two Lodi men arrested this month and accused of being connected to a Pakistan terrorist camp pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges they lied to federal agents.

Hamid Hayat, 22, who is facing two counts of making false statements to the FBI, and his father Umer Hayat, 47, who faces one count on the same charge, could be sentenced up to eight years in jail for each conviction.

Federal prosecutors say Hamid Hayat attended a terrorist training camp tied to al-Qaida to learn “how to kill Americans” and that his father helped pay for it. After initial denials, the two U.S. citizens with relatives in Pakistan confessed they had done so, the government alleged in an affidavit. They were arrested June 5 and have been held since in Sacramento County Jail without bail.

Local Muslims are worried about a possible backlash toward the community, but Mayor John Beckman tried to calm fears:

Mayor John Beckman said in an interview with KCRA 3’s Rich Ibarra Friday that the community is experiencing feelings of shock, fear, anger and distrust.

“We have 60,000 people in our community, and their safety and security is our priority and No. 1 concern, regardless of what their religion, faith or ethnicity is,” Beckman said.

The Muslim community, which is mostly Pakistani, has been a part of Lodi for decades.

“The Pakistani community is part of Lodi,” Beckman said. “We have a Pakistani Independence Day celebration we do every year. And time and time again, the Pakistani community is a very vibrant part of Lodi.”

The mayor met with Muslim leaders on Thursday to hear their concerns and to ease tensions. He said he sees the events that have occurred in Lodi as possible in any other city in America.

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