I decided to maintain a separate blog for photos and reserve this space for my musings & rants. Here is the link to my photo blog: http://shuuro-photos.blogspot.com/ and subscription feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/shuuro-photos
Starting next year, my postings will be more regular.
I was going through my CD collections and i found some pictures Of Sri Kalahasti Temple Town, which i took three years ago and thought of sharing them.
Sri Kalahasti temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is one of the five major Shiva temples. It is situated on the banks of the river Swarnamukhi and it is 36 kms from Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. Initial structure was built in the 5th century and later it was extended in the 12th century. Entire temple is carved out of the side of a huge stone hill and it is recognized for it's architectural brilliance. Unfortunately, photography is prohibited inside the temple.
This is one of the gopurams(entrance towers)
This elephant at the entrance of the temple gives blessings to devotees in exchange for coins.
View from the top of the mountain
This is the garden near the temple
I took these pictures with Sony Ericsson’s K750i, therefore clarity isn’t good.
Around 90,000 Indian students study in Australia and they have contributed $2 billion to the Australian economy in last financial year. This is the third largest export earnings for them.
There has been reports of racial attacks on Indian students in Australia. I’ve been reading about such attacks since my 10+2 college days. During those days, due to severe racial abuse, one of my friend was forced to return to India leaving his graduation unfinished. Now, situation seems to have become very grave.
According to Mr. Gautam Gupta, Australia’s FEDERATION OF INDIAN STUDENT Adviser:
"We have seen over 60 to 70 violent attacks in the last one year and over 600 reported attacks. And that's too many"
Australia’s Graduate Student Association president Mr.Paul Coats has following to say:
I am opposed to calls for more police, as it appears that the police have been part of the problem... they blame Indian students for 'making themselves targets’
You might wonder how do they make themselves targets? Well, according to Victorian Police deputy commissioner Kieran Walshe, Indian students carry valuable items such as Ipods, laptops and phones during their commute. Shamelessly blaming victims doesn't hide Aussie police's ineptitude, Why is that these items which are commonly used by everyone else has become uncommon items for Indian students?. How can they explain attack on Sravan Kumar and his friends, which happened inside his house?. Even though eye witness & victims had reported accounts of racial slur at the time of some attacks, police still believes that these crimes are not racial at all, they just think that Indians students were at the wrong place at the wrong time!.
I’m completely disappointed with Indian government's response, When situation is so serious, Why don’t they issue travel advisory to Indian students who intend to study in Australia?. Let Australian government feel the financial pain. Specially, when they are not too willing to admit that these attacks are racially motivated and let alone address them.
Hindu women from Bihar and UP states performing Chat Puja, It is dedicated to the Sun God
More pictures from Chowpatty:
Some more pictures from Marine drive :
Above pictures were taken with my cell phone, I-Mobile 902.
Taken with I-Mobile 902
Some kid on a train. He was very happy to sit near a window but his elder brother didn't let his pleasure last for long.
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Taken with I-Mobile 902.
Scene from Marine Drive, Mumbai.
Here is the initial version of this picture, i felt that tones are bit bland to compliment the mood, therefore i revised it.
Taken with I-Mobile 902
Tried to make this flower look transparent with experimental processing. But realized that i need DSLR for capturing more details and to retain more clarity in the picture. This cannot be done with my 5mp cell phone without sacrificing picture quality.
Taken with I-Mobile 902. Originally posted here
Scene from Chowpatty Beach, Mumbai. An old man from a nearby village takes a stroll on the beach. In the background, fisherman's kid swims on a hot day.
Mumbai police commissioner has revealed that additional 14 to 16 Indians & pakistanis (besides fahim ansari and sabahuddin) were involved in mumbai terrorist attacks on 26/11. One wonders why such late admission and as per congress, withholding this information is some kind of grand scheme to trick pakistan into accepting facts as claimed below:
A senior Congress leader and one of the key strategists of the party explained the rationale behind Gafoor's revelations. He said, "It was India's strategy to wait for Islamabad to first accept that the Mumbai attack was planned inside Pakistan. Before we revealed the involvement of Indians in the attack, it was necessary that they admit the involvement of Pakistan-based people. They would have ducked the issue if we had revealed all the facts. Since Pakistan has now admitted that Pakistani-based elements masterminded the attack and that Kasab (the lone terrorist arrested during the terror strike) and the other terrorists were Pakistanis, there is no harm in revealing facts that are already known to the Mumbai police and the government."
But when satellite phone records, intercepts and other evidences clearly establishes nationality of key perpetrators, why do we need to withhold information?. Is it because some of the terrorists had managed to escape during operations, as claimed in earlier news reports and also that it reflects poorly on congress government and security agencies?.
In fact, IB which had carried it’s own investigations, believed that they were around 24 terrorists and they suspected that few might have managed to escape from Taj:
Although the IB confirms that no terrorists managed to escape from the Trident and the Nariman House, the same cannot be said about the Taj. Despite a heavy deployment of security forces and firing, two terrorists managed to gain entry into the Taj and this is an indication of how familiar they were with the terrain. They suspect that two may have managed to get away from the Taj after the rest of their team had taken position inside.
Here is an eye witness account, which strengthens above assertion:
The question now is where are the four men who took over the Taj initially. The body count of terrorists recovered from the Taj shows that only four terrorists were found. It is believed that these men could have escaped from the Taj. It would also be interesting to point out here an eye witness account of a person by the name Apurva Parekh who said that he heard voices of three to four terrorists at the Trident which were different compared to the voices he heard at the same place earlier. This is a clear indication that the there were more than three men initially at the Trident and they could have escaped during the operation since the Mumbai police do not account for these additional men.
Further IB believes that:
Intelligence Bureau sources now confirm that the men who came into Mumbai earlier to set up base were completely different from the men who carried out the final assault.
Moreover there were some rumors of terrorist checking in as guests in Hotels.
These reports were not given credence before but in awake of current revelations they gain importance. Lack of clarity in the investigation over number of terrorists, that were involved in assaults and those who had provided logistics support only adds to confusion. All these reports certainly raises questions over motive behind congress government's grand scheme and perhaps their explanation seems to be an excuse to hide their failure in letting these terrorists escape and it appears to be revealed under compulsion of circumstances.
Finally, holding our premature jubilations over pakistan’s admission will serve us better.
If we remain immune to exuberance exhibited by our media, we will understand that pakistan’s response does not indicate positive shift in their policy. Under overwhelming evidence and international pressure, they just couldn’t deny facts, as they did in the past. They have only accepted certain things, which are palatable and gives them enough room to play their usual game.
They have only accepted that some part of the conspiracy was planned in pakistan, which leaves them with some room to shift the blame as their strategies & events unfold. This becomes important as Interior Ministry Chief, Rehman Malik has made connection between of the accused and the Samjhauta Express attack.
Now, that they have acted on certain leads provided by India and demonstrated their so-called sincerity of cooperation, onus will be on India to provide tangible evidence to prosecute those accused as claimed by the pakistan. But what would constitute as tangible evidence will remain subject of contention. Since pakistan would only want to engage New Delhi in legalities & evidence and elongate the issue as long as possible, therefore they will not accept even internationally validated evidence, that is provided by India. However, This exercise will ease international pressure on pakistan to some extent and also they will claim their so-called sincerity in their effort against terrorism.
Question here is, whether Indian people will be satisfied with these token trials of few terrorists, rather than considering dismantling of entire jihadi-military network?. Our premise of this exercise was that we will garner such great international support with our irrefutable evidence, that it will force pakistan to act on jihadi complex or at least on those involved jihadi organization. Which in retrospect, sounds quite naive.
Mangalore pub attack on young men and women is indeed outrageous and barbaric. As free citizens, it is individual’s prerogative to choose on how one leads their life and it is not anyone's business (including the state) to prescribe things. Misguided puritans have no role in our democratic and secular country. Certainly those hooligans of Sri Ram Sena must be punished stringently and made to pay for using Sri Ram’s name. But why call them Taliban?. For our media, is it so hard to relay news and evoke people's emotions without using flammable,incongruous and debatable label, which has wider connotation than it is required?.
All those naive views on the internet that pronounce these hooligans as terrorists only distort actual meaning of a terrorist and provide future fodder to Hindu-Zionists conspiracy theories, which are rampant among our adversaries. Any use of terror laws against them as suggested by Ananthamurthy will only dilute our critical fight against actual terrorists (whichever religion they may belong). Why can’t we handle this issue by remaining immune to our prejudices & hatred, is it too hard to try?.
Those pseudo secularists and politicians, who pounce on anything which is related to Hindus, should ask themselves, why they weren’t so outraged, when muslim legislators and urdu press in Hyderabad, demanded head of an hapless lady? and don’t they care about sexual exploitation of women in the north east by the christian terrorists of NLFT?, Doesn’t these women and all other women in the country matter to them?. Their selective amnesia just exposes their intellectual dishonesty.
It would serve our cause better, if we just focus on the issue, rather than exhibit our prejudice & hatred in open, which only muddle things!.
