While the IMD has predicted “a below normal monsoon this year”:https://varnam.org/archives/000072.html, the IRI is predicting that the monsoon will arrive on time and bring good rains. IRI is the US-based International Research Institute for Climate Prediction
“Now, some good news on monsoon”:http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=23818
bq. In its sumBook Review: Pakistanreport, the IRI notes with satisfaction that the El Nino of 2002-03 ??has now nearly dissipated to neutral conditions??. That?s very good news for India because El Nino years have a 60 per cent chance of of average rains being below normal and 55 per cent chance of the driest season.
It seems El Nino is out and La Nina is in. No one tells me anything these days. And here is some accusing IMD of “gratuitously staying prisoner to the exigencies of vote bank politics”. Note that the IMD is just the Meteorology Dept.
“Prospects For South-West Monsoon 2003”:http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=33995
bq. However, by not making public the details of its own forecasting exercises, the IMD is gratuitously staying prisoner to the exigencies of vote bank politics. The only way to establish its professionalism is to make public the product of its exertions without an eye to the comfort or discomfort of politicians. Else, it fails to serve the public interest.
This blog will keep track of who won the prediction contest. The IMD or the IRI.

There are many people who believe that it was due to Buddhism that Vegetarianism was introduced into Hinduism. Again let me quote some paragraphs from the book I am reading now “Gem in the Lotus”  by Abraham Eraly.

Buddhist monks were not vegetarians, but they were forbidden to eat the meat of an animal specifically slaughtered to feed them, for that would indirectly make them the killers of the animal. Said Buddha: “Let no one, O monks, knowingly eat the meat[of an animal killed for that purpose…] I prescribe, O monks, that flesh (or fish) is pure to you in three cases: if you do not see, if you have not heard, if you do not suspect[that it has been caught or killed specially to prepare food for you].”

That was from the chapter titled “Gem in the Lotus”, which is what Eraly calls Buddha. He continues to mention that Buddha himself was a non-vegetarian. On his way to Kushinara, Buddha was resting at a place called Pava and one of his devotees, a metalsmith of the name Cunda invited Buddha for a meal.

There sitting the Exalted One called to Cunda and said: “Cunda, as to that fat hog’s flesh which you have prepared, serve me with it, but serve the brethren with whatsoever food both soft and hard, you have prepared”
Buddha, it seems had a weakness for pork—his favourite food, says Milinda-panha, was “tender boar’s flesh, and rice porridge boiled in milk”

But after eating this food prepared by Cunda, Buddha fell seriously ill, and with great difficulty he reached Kushinara and left his body.

In Kerala, last week, a group of Hindu fishermen “were attacked by an armed”:http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/09rajeev.htm Muslim mob and 9 people were murdered. The Government has taken over the local mosque after a large amount of arms were discovered there. When the police went to enter the mosque, “they were stopped”:http://www.keralanext.com/news/index.asp?id=10356 by the Muslim League leaders.
Continue reading “Hindus Murdered in India” →

There is “lot of discussion”:http://www.ashoo.org/blog/archives/cat_india.html#000109 going onin the Indian Blogosphere about the decision of the central govt. to ban cow slaughter. The book I am reading now “Gem in the Lotus”:http://penguinbooksindia.com/Books/aspBookDetail.asp?ID=2951 by Abraham Eraly has the following passage about beef eating during the Vedic times.
Continue reading “Holy Cow!” →

What is common between these
* Euro-Asian snow cover in December
* Temperature over North West Europe in January
* Pressure gradient in Europe in January
* The 50 millibar wind of January/February
* Arabian Sea surface temperature in January
* Atmospheric pressure of East Asia in February
* Sea surface temperature over Southern Indian Ocean in February
* El Nino status of the previous year.
Continue reading “Small is beautiful” →

“Bungalow blow to Arundhati”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=308813
bq. Rights crusader Arundhati Roy has been caught on the wrong foot � a hilltop bungalow her husband owns near Panchmarhi stands on notified forest land and has to be pulled down.
bq. The Panchmarhi district administration last week informed the couple that the allotment of the land on which the bungalow stood had been cancelled on grounds of violation of forest law. Section 18 of the law bars buying and selling of notified forest land.
I weep for my country when so called activits who preach morality to the world blatantly violate the law of the land. Who the hell is this person to decide where she can build her house and turn everything we love – our earth, our skies, our mountains, our plains, our rivers – to her personal property in an instant? Think of the amount of wild life she has destroyed by building her house on protected land ? Doesn’t she owe an apolgy to that eco system that was destoyed by her illegal abode. I weep for those ferns and trees and that little crow whose nest was destroyed by this inhuman activity.
No freedom for rest of the world to do as they please, but only for me.
(The Editorial adapted from “The End of Imagination”:http://www.zmag.org/southasia/endofimagination.htm)

“Pakistan offers nuclear-free deal”:http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/05/05/pakistan.india.nuclear.ap/index.html
bq. “As far as Pakistan is concerned, if India is ready to denuclearize, we would be happy to denuclearize,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said. “But it will have to be mutual.”
This is one trick we should not fall for as Scott Draker warns
Continue reading “Why India should remain nuclear” →

“As I was saying before”:https://varnam.org/archives/000072.html, the monsoons are the most important weather phenomena affecting everything in India. General elections are due in 2004 and political parties are gearing up to face the fact their prospects maybe affected by a less than normal rainfall this year.
“How Ballot Hopes Rest On Good Monsoon”:http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=32684
bq. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is drawing up a contingency plan to boost its electoral prospects in case the monsoon fails for the second year in a row. The plan includes involvement of non-government organisations (NGOs) to augment food distribution network. The plan is aimed at neutralising the impact of drought.A bad monsoon is not good news for the ruling party which is gearing up to face elections.
Around this time, the most important person in the country is the head of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), who makes the weather prediction. In his book, Chasing The Monsoon, Alexander Frater mentions that the Prime Minister’s Office makes regular calls to the IMD to keep track of the arrival of the rains.
Update: “Salomon says Indian monsoon a source for worry “:http://reuters.com/financeArticle.jhtml?storyID=2684164&newsType=usGoldRpt&menuType=markets
bq. “Some of the long-term global circulation models are indicating a dry bias across much of India during the time frame of June through September — the Indian monsoon season,” Russo and Davis said. This does not mean there will be a replay of last year’s poor monsoon, but the “guidance…raises the possibility for a dry bias this season,” the two concluded.