I am reading this book by Thomas Friedman. I am amazed about the lucidity with which the book has been written and the amount of research done by the author.  The book is about how, we the human race are running a strong risk of becoming extinct ourselves. The facts and figures are thought provoking and a discerning reader would actually want to do his bit for the environment in real terms. I actually felt elated personally to have illuminated one of our factories by solar power.

Hello world!! Let the Lord illuminate your days with his brightest lights.

 

Diwali, also known as Deepawali – rows of small oil-lamps – also marks the homecoming of King Rama of Ayodhya after a 14-year exile in the forest. The people of Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) welcomed Rama by lighting rows (avali) of lamps (deepa), thus its name, Deepawali, or simply shortened as Diwali. Southern India marks it as the day Lord Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura. In western India it is also in honor of the day King Bali went to rule the nether-world by the order of Vishnu.

 

Happy Diwali!!!

When I was a kid, we used to have month long Puja holidays. My kids now have less than 2 weeks of Puja vacation as schools have adjusted to the demands of modern education system and pressures on the society.

 

But not Indian courts!! The courts have 6 weeks of summer vacation, 4 weeks of Puja vacation, 2 weeks of Christmas vacation, a 5 day week, a holiday for festivals of every religion in the world, a holiday for birthday of every dead politician worth his salt, and a holiday if Mamta Banerjee feels like it.

 

Litigants of millions of pending cases deserve to suffer for being so litigant !! The best way to resolve a case is to get tired, grow old and die; in that order. There is nothing wrong at all if the judges and the court staff continue to enjoy the fun of school days. They have such a great burden to deliver justice. Justice delayed is NOT justice denied; it is an effective way to prevent disputes in the first place.

 

Happy holidays!!! I won’t limit saying which one. There is one in the offing, whenever !!

That would be the name of my newspaper, if I would have the resources to publish and edit one. The newspaper would not have any negative news on the front page. Anything negative, no matter how big, would be shunted to some other pages. And on the front page, there would be no headlines!! Yes, I mean it, no headlines. Let me explain why.

 

The world has enough people who do not want to see negative, speak negative and hear negative. I cannot understand why newspapers carry bold headlines for disasters – manmade or natural. In the first palce why should headlines exist? Who gave the journalists the right to decide which news story is big or small? Why should there be a 120 font size headline telling about a disaster? In what way does it help the victims or others from becoming a victim? In case of terrorism, the headlines only help to further the cause of the terrorists. Unless there are headlines, the acts of terrorism would be acts of futility for them.

 

Yes, news should be made available, fully and impartially. The quantum of contents might differ, but journalists have no right to tell which news is important and which isn’t. Newspapers (if at all they should exist in the days of the Internet), should only have story titles, all with the same font size, leaving importance or the impact to the wisdom of the reader.

 

And yes! The Positive Herald would positively be a success story, and others would soon follow.