I took a speech and debate class in middle school which I remember fondly. I used to give my persuasive speeches on trying to convince people that there was in fact such a thing as the Loch Ness Monster, Aliens, and Bigfoot. It didn’t matter whether they really existed or not in fact. It just mattered how well I did convincing the other students that they did. Well, let me try with SepiaMutiny readers. From the Times of India:

Guess what the students at the Delhi centre of Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) up to these days? Not cracking complicated problems through game theory or laws of probability. They are visiting temples and investigating the paranormal.

Books are shut, classes stalled since Friday, most students have been sent home with an unofficial holiday being declared.

The reason being even more unofficial. There is a ghost on campus.

My inner Fox Mulder has just been aroused. But who is this “ghost.” What does it want?

On August 24, a first year MStat student died a sudden death in the classroom. For most students who saw it happen at such close quarters found it “inexplicable”, although it is quite explainable in medical terms.

Somebody ingenious mind came up with a theory that the boy is back. And he appears in the habit as he lived.

“A girl who never smokes, felt a strong stench of cigarette in her bathroom. The boy who died used to smoke a lot,” said Saptrishi, student representative at ISI.

Ummm. Helloooo? Can anybody say “smoking gun.” Have I persuaded you yet? The students want to hold a tantra-mantra puja. Is that like an exorcism? Can someone fill me in?

The truth is out there.

i wish this very odd story was in more places than the moonie news, aka the washington times:

New Delhi, India, Sep. 12 (UPI) — Israeli citizens were flocking to the Indian cities of Jammu and Kashmir Sunday to see the graves believed to be those of Jesus Christ and Moses.

…A section of the local population believes Kashmiris are one of the lost tribes of Israel. Aziz Kashmiri, the author of the book Christ in Kashmir, insists that the Kashmiri people’s ancestors were one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel and that Jesus died during a visit to the Valley.

those lost tribes of israel turn up everywhere.

Many people in Florida (especially Indians) have strong opinions on the plight (or supposed plight depending on what view you take) of Paramvir Singh Chattwal. The Herald-Tribune reports:

Paramvir Singh Chattwal would rather stay in jail than be sent back to his native India, where he says he would face another round of beatings and torture.

Chattwal, 30, says he is so afraid of returning to India that he will take his life before someone else does.

“If I am to be deported, I will end my life here,” Chattwal said in a recent phone interview from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Bradenton.

But what is Chattwal so afraid of? Continue reading →

anyone catch the miss america pageant this weekend?

Miss Alabama Deidre Downs, an aspiring doctor who put off medical school to compete for the Miss America crown, won it Saturday night.

but…

…Miss North Carolina Kristin Elrod was second runner-up, followed by Miss Arkansas Lacy Fleming and Miss California Veena Goel.

this wasn’t Goel ‘s first attempt at the crown; the UCLA grad/Pi Beta Phi Alumna was a runner-up in the 2001 and 2003 miss california pageants as well. if at first you don’t succeed…

this year, Goel got some press as part of the national pageant:

In a preliminary competition earlier this week, Miss California, Veena Goel, won the talent section for a jazz dance routine and told reporters she had been dancing since age 3.

she also commented on this year’s swimwear “controversy”:

Goel, 22, defended the swimsuits, saying they were intended to show that contestants were physically fit, not just thin, echoing the official line of the organizers.

not just thin? interestingly enough, Goel’s “platform” was eating disorders; the issue is a personal one, since she suffered from anorexia in the past.

via HT and Salon.

Last week, as we availed ourselves of the magnificently efficient Tokyo public transportation system, my friends and I commented on the fact that so many people who appeared to be deeply asleep were able to immediately wake up and get off at their exact station. How do they do it? When I fall asleep on the train my jaw drops open in a rather unnattractive manner and my head bobs around like it is improperly balanced. I am glad I am not the only one who suffers such problems but should defective people like me be punished? Gaurav Bhatia of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago was. According to India Daily:

When a 25-year-old Indian student at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) dozed off in a Chicago subway train, he did not realise his predicament would quickly become a cause celebre. Gaurav Bhatia unwittingly got caught in a controversy over Chicago’s bureaucracy after he was given a $50 ticket for sleeping on the train. The incident occurred when Bhatia, who does not own a car and resides on the IIT campus, fell asleep while riding to work. Local TV and radio channels have highlighted Bhatia’s experience, but Chicago Transport Authority (CTA) and police officials say he was penalised for “sleeping dangerously”. “How dare they?” asked an outraged Bhatia. “If the police officer had written those words on the ticket I would have told him to lock me up because I won”t accept the ticket.” Explaining how the incident had occurred, Bhatia said: “My work starts at 8 a.m., so I leave the house at 7 a.m. I usually sleep on the train. “A lot of people sleep on the train. I mean, I don”t put up my feet and lie down. I just sit there and sometimes I fall asleep, because there is nothing to do.

I am sure this law was meant to prevent homeless people from making a residence out of the train, but is a ticket necessary for an honest mistake?

A police officer came in. “He did not have to shake me up or anything like that. My body is programmed. Every day I take the same train, so my eyes just open up at the same time,” Bhatia said.

You might want to check the lines of code in your program for errors buddy.

Chicago police spokesman David Bayless, who affirmed Bhatia was “sleeping dangerously”, said: “I am told his legs were blocking the aisle.”
.
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Bhatia explained he had his face against the train window, so he could not possibly have stretched into the aisle. “It would have been physically impossible,” he said, “Even Keanu Reeves from ”Matrix” could not do it.”

I like to follow the exploits of old Indian men that do crazy things. Earlier I brought you the misadventures of a man that survived upon a diet of staring at the Sun. Now I bring to you the Rolling Saint. I saw this guy on TV many years ago (there is a 1994 documentary on him). From Outside Magazine:

October 1994: Covered in blisters from lying down and rolling along the roadside for 2,485 miles, Indian holy man LOTAN BABA reaches Jammu, in Indian-controlled Kashmir, eight months after departing his home, in Ratlam. Now, he’s on the roll again, covering 1,500 miles on his way to Lahore, Pakistan.

Well, it seems Baba has run into a little hitch. As reported at NewKerala:

A maverick saint who travels by rolling his body along the road has vowed to enter Pakistan Saturday to visit several religious places in the neighbouring country.

But there is a serious hitch in Lotan Baba’s plans to roll into Pakistan through the border check post at Wagah, 30 km from here, and the saint from Maharashtra knows it well.

For the record, he cannot cross into Pakistan easily as he has neither a passport nor a visa.

“I have appealed to the Indian government to issue me a passport and visa. It is up to them to complete the formalities so that I can undertake my journey smoothly,” he said Friday.

The saint, who claims to have rolled over 25,000 km, said he would start rolling from this Sikh holy city to reach the Wagah border Saturday morning.

Roll on Baba. Roll on.

No way! It will never happen. I don’t think it is very likely that a brown man will become the leader of Germany, nor is this mayor even considering it. I just wanted to put it out there to see how it sounded. Still, the thought of a brown mayor in the heart of former East Germany raised my eyebrows. From AFP:

Altlandsberg in eastern Germany has long been known for its medieval church and its stork nests, but today it is known, above all, for its long-serving Indian mayor Ravindra Gujjula.

On Sunday, Gujjula will put his popularity here to the test for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s ruling Social Democrats (SPD) in the state of Brandenburg, in a neck-and-neck race with the successors of the former communist rulers.

He presents himself as Germany’s “only mayor of colour” and he is also one of the country’s most appreciated town leaders. Last year, electors in this town of 8,875 residents returned him to office with 80 percent of the vote.

Continue reading →

Amardeep Singh reports that Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh is visiting the UN in New York this weekend, followed by meetings with Bush and Musharraf and some quality time with his youngest daughter, Amrit.

Now here’s what’s really interesting: Amrit Singh works for the ACLU in NYC fighting both the Pentagon on Abu Ghraib and airlines on anti-brown discrimination while flying.

Many years ago, my now-retired uncle was an Indian diplomat. Whenever my cousin and I stepped out of the family apartment, we were trailed by Indian men in dark suits, packin’ heat. So here’s what I want to know:

1. When Manmohan Singh meets Bush, are their daughters verboten? Is talking about Amrit frowned upon, like ‘Hey Dubya, is Jenna out of rehab?’ and ‘Hey Dick, what’s Mary been up to lately?’
2. Could Amitabh Bachchan beat up eight Indian bodyguards, like in the movies? Or do they have some gatka moves up their sleeves?

Maybe they need to hire this woman.

Miss India 1997 Nafisa Joseph hanged herself on July 29, distraught over an argument with her already-married fiancé. The 25-year-old model and MTV VJ had locked her mother and a friend into an adjacent room in her Bombay flat. The publicity over her death may have sparked a wave of copycat suicides in Bombay.