അഭയ കേസ് നമ്മെ പഠിപ്പിക്കുന്നത്‌ എന്താണ്?.

അഭയ കേസ് അതിന്റെ പരിസമാപ്തിയിലേക്ക് നീങ്ങുകയാണെന്ന് തോന്നുന്നു. സംഗതികള്‍ ഇപ്പോള്‍ എല്ലാവര്‍ക്കും പകല്‍ പോലെ വ്യക്തമായിട്ടുണ്ട് . എന്നാല്‍ പ്രതികള്‍ ശിക്ഷിക്കപ്പെടാനുള്ള സാധ്യതയൊന്നും കാണാനില്ല. തെളിയിക്കപ്പെടാന്‍ കഴിഞ്ഞില്ല എന്ന ആനുകൂല്യത്തില്‍ അവര്‍ വിട്ടയക്കപ്പെടാനുള്ള സാധ്യതയും ശിക്ഷിക്കപ്പെടാനുള്ള സാധ്യതയും ഇപ്പോഴും ഫിഫ്റ്റി ഫിഫ്റ്റി ആണ്.

മനുഷ്യര്‍ ചില ദുര്‍ബ്ബലനിമിഷങ്ങളില്‍ എന്തെന്ത് കാര്യങ്ങളാണ് ചെയ്ത് പോകുന്നത് ! പത്ത് പതിനാറ് വര്‍ഷങ്ങളായി അനുഭവിക്കുന്ന മാനസികപ്രയാസങ്ങള്‍ തന്നെ പ്രതികള്‍ ഇതിനകം ശിക്ഷയായി അനുഭവിച്ചുവോ എന്തോ. ഒരു കൊലപാതകം നടക്കുമ്പോള്‍ കൊല്ലപ്പെട്ട ആള്‍ ജീവിതത്തിന്റെ വിഷമതകള്‍ ഒന്നും പിന്നെ അനുഭവിക്കേണ്ടി വരുന്നില്ല. എന്നാല്‍ കൊലപാതകിയുടെ കാര്യം അതല്ല. ശിക്ഷയില്‍ നിന്ന് രക്ഷപ്പെട്ടാലും ജീവിതത്തിന്റെ ദുരിതങ്ങള്‍ ആ പ്രതിയെ വേട്ടയാടുന്നു.
ഈ കേസില്‍ നിന്ന് പഠിക്കേണ്ട ഒരു പാഠമുണ്ട്. ഈ കേസില്‍ നിന്ന് മാത്രമല്ല. പഠിക്കുന്നെങ്കില്‍ മുന്‍പേ പഠിക്കേണ്ടതാണ്. വൈവാഹികജീവിതം ഒരു പുരുഷനോ സ്ത്രീക്കോ എക്കാരണം കൊണ്ടും നിഷേധിക്കാന്‍ പാടില്ല എന്നതാണത്. ഒരു വ്യക്തി ആണായാലും പെണ്ണായാലും സ്വമേധയാ കല്യാണം വേണ്ട എന്ന് തീരുമാനിക്കുകയാണെങ്കില്‍ അത് വേറെ കാര്യം. എന്നാല്‍ ബ്രഹ്മചര്യം എന്നത് മനുഷ്യനായി ജനിക്കുന്ന ആരിലും ബാഹ്യമായി ആരും അടിച്ചേല്‍പ്പിക്കരുത്. അത് പ്രകൃതിവിരുദ്ധമാണ്, മതങ്ങളുടെ പേരിലായാലും ദൈവങ്ങളുടെ പേരിലായാലും. ജന്മസഹജമായ വാസനകളാലാണ് ഓരോ ജീവനും പിറന്ന് വീഴുന്നത് . മതങ്ങളും അനുബന്ധകാര്യങ്ങളും ഒക്കെ വരുന്നത് പിന്നീടാണ്. മതങ്ങളുടെ ആചാരാനുഷ്ടാനങ്ങള്‍ നിറവേറ്റപ്പെടാന്‍ വേണ്ടി ആരും ജനിക്കുന്നില്ല. ജനിച്ചു കഴിഞ്ഞാല്‍ അടിച്ചേല്‍പ്പിക്കപ്പെടുന്നതാണ് ബാക്കിയെല്ലാം. മനുഷ്യന്റെ ജന്മസിദ്ധമായ തൃഷ്ണകള്‍ അവഗണിക്കുന്നതോ നിഷേധിക്കുന്നതോ ഒരു കാരണവശാലും ന്യായമല്ല.

ചില സത്യങ്ങള്‍ ആരും തുറന്ന് പറയില്ല. എന്തിന് അപ്രിയസത്യങ്ങള്‍ വിളിച്ച് പറഞ്ഞ് മറ്റുള്ളവരുടെ അപ്രീതിയ്ക്ക് പാത്രമാവണം എന്നതാണ് ചിന്താഗതി. അഭയസംഭവം പോലൊന്ന് ആവര്‍ത്തിക്കുന്നത് അപൂര്‍വ്വമാണെങ്കിലും, കൊലചെയ്യല്‍ അഥവാ ആത്മഹത്യ എന്ന ഒന്ന് അത്തരം സംഭവങ്ങളില്‍ നിന്ന് മൈനസ് ചെയ്താല്‍ ബാക്കികാര്യങ്ങള്‍ എല്ലാം അന്നും ഇന്നും മുറപോലെ പല സ്ഥലങ്ങളിലും നടക്കുന്നുണ്ട് എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞാല്‍ ആരും നെറ്റി ചുളിച്ചിട്ട് കാര്യമില്ല. സ്വകാര്യ സംഭാഷണങ്ങളിലും പലരും പങ്ക് വയ്ക്കുന്നതാണ്. ഇത് പോലെ പല കാപട്യങ്ങളും നമ്മുടെയിടയില്‍ സദാ നടന്നുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്നു. അവനവന്റെ ആന്തരാത്മാവില്‍ ഇറങ്ങി ഇതൊക്കെ ഒന്ന് പരിശോധിച്ചാല്‍ ആര്‍ക്കും ഇതൊക്കെ മനസ്സിലാവും. പക്ഷെ ഒരു സിസ്റ്റത്തിന് കീഴടങ്ങി എല്ലാം സഹിക്കാനാണ് ആളുകള്‍ തയ്യാറാവുന്നത് . അതാണ് വ്യവസ്ഥാപിതങ്ങളാവുന്ന സിസ്റ്റങ്ങളുടെ അപ്രതിരോധ്യമായ ബലം. പൊതുവെ മനസ്സില്‍ അടിച്ചമര്‍ത്തുന്ന വികാരങ്ങള്‍ വേഷപ്രച്ഛന്നമായി മനുഷ്യരെ ചെകുത്താന്മാരാക്കുന്ന പ്രവണത കണ്ടു വരാറുണ്ട്.
ഇപ്പോള്‍ കസ്റ്റഡിയിലിരിക്കുന്ന പ്രതികള്‍ക്ക് ആരും മാപ്പ് കൊടുക്കുകയില്ല. എന്നാലും അവര്‍ വിട്ടയക്കെപ്പെടണേ എന്ന് ഞാന്‍ ചിന്തിച്ചു പോകുന്നു. അത് അഭയയുടെ മാതാപിതാക്കളുടെ ദു:ഖവും അമര്‍ഷവും കണക്കിലെടുക്കാതെയല്ല. ജീവിതം എത്ര നശ്വരമാണ് എന്ന ദാര്‍ശനിക വ്യഥയില്‍ നിന്നാണ് ആ ചിന്ത എനിക്ക് ഉണ്ടാവുന്നത്. ഇങ്ങനെ പറയുന്നതിന് അഭയയുടെ മാതാപിതാക്കള്‍ എന്നോട് പൊറുക്കട്ടെ. മരണാനന്തരം ഒരു ആത്മാവ് ശേഷിക്കും എന്ന വിശ്വാസമില്ലാത്തതിനാല്‍ വായനക്കാരും എന്നോട് പൊറുക്കുമെന്ന് കരുതുന്നു.

" വൈവാഹികജീവിതം ഒരു പുരുഷനോ സ്ത്രീക്കോ എക്കാരണം കൊണ്ടും നിഷേധിക്കാന്‍ പാടില്ല എന്നതാണത്."
ഞാനും യോജിക്കുന്നു. ആരും അനുസരിപ്പിക്കപ്പെടാന്‍ ആഗ്രഹിക്കുന്നില്ല. സ്വയം തോന്നി ചെയ്യുന്നതാണ് നല്ലത്. എന്റെയൊരു സുഹ്രുത്ത് ഇതു പോലെ അച്ഛനാകാന്‍ പോയി. പത്താം ക്ലാസ്സില്‍ ആ‍ായിരിക്കുമ്പോളായിരുന്നു. അതു വരെ ഞാനും അവനും ഒരുമിച്ചായിരുന്നു വായ് നോക്കാന്‍ നടന്നിരുന്നത്. എനിക്കത്ഭുതമായിരുന്നു ഇവനിനി പെണ്ണുങ്ങളുടെ മുഖത്തു നോക്കില്ലേ? എങ്ങനെയാ ഇത്ര പെട്ടെന്നു മാറുവാന്‍ സാധിക്കുന്നേ എന്നൊക്കെ.പിന്നെ എന്റെ അനിയന്‍ ഇന്നലെ പറഞ്ഞു പ്രണയനൈരാശ്യം ഉള്ള സ്ത്രീകളും, സൌന്ദര്യത്തെ കുറിച്ച് അപകര്‍ഷത ബോധമുള്ള സ്ത്രീകളും പിന്നെ സ്വയംവര്‍ഗ്ഗപ്രേമികളായ സ്ത്രീകളുമാണ് ഇപ്പോള്‍ കന്യാസ്ത്രീകളാകാന്‍ പോകുന്നതെന്ന്. യൂറോപ്പിലെല്ലാം ഇപ്പോള്‍ പുരോഹിതരാകാന്‍ ആരും വരുന്നില്ല. അവന്റെ അഭിപ്രായങ്ങള്‍ ശരിയാണെന്നു തോന്നി. ഈ കേസിലെ പ്രതികള്‍ രക്ഷപ്പെടണമെന്ന ആഗ്രഹം എനിക്കില്ല. ഇത് മറ്റുള്ളവര്‍ക്കൊരു പാഠമാകണം. മതവും പണവും ഉണ്ടേല്‍ എന്തും ചെയ്യാമെന്നുള്ള ധാര്‍ഷ്ട്യം അവസാനിക്കണം. എനിക്കു മനസ്സിലാകാത്തത് പ്രതികള്‍ക്കു വേണ്ടി കൂട്ടമായിപ്രാര്‍ത്ഥിച്ച വിശ്വാസികളുടെ മനസ്സില്‍ എന്തായിരുന്നു എന്നാണു? അച്ഛന്മാര്‍ എന്തു പറഞ്ഞാലും ചെയ്യുന്ന കുഞ്ഞാടുകള്‍ മാത്രമാണോ അവര്‍? പ്രതികളെ പീഡിപ്പിച്ചു എന്നും പറഞ്ഞ് പരാതി. മാന്യമായി ചെയ്തത് സമ്മതിക്കുന്ന അളുകളായിരുന്നു ഇവരെങ്കില്‍ ഈ കേസ് ഇത്ര നീണ്ടു പോകുമായിരുന്നോ? മാന്യന്മാരായിരുന്നേല്‍ കേസ് ഉണ്ടാകുമായിരുന്നോ? എന്തായാലും അഭയപീഡിപ്പിക്കപെട്ടയത്രയും ഇവര്‍ പീഡിപ്പിക്കപെട്ടിട്ടില്ല. ഞാന്‍ മാഷിന്റെ ആ അഭിപ്രായത്തോട് വിയോജിക്കുകയാണ്. ഇത്ര ചെറുപ്പത്തിലേ മരിക്കേണ്ടി വന്ന ഹതഭാഗ്യയല്ലേ സിസ്റ്റര്‍. അവരുടെ മാതാപിതാക്കള്‍ അനുഭവിച്ച ദു:ഖം പ്രതികളേക്കാള്‍ കൂടുതലാണ്. പ്രതികള്‍ കുറ്റം ചെയ്തിട്ടാണ് മാനസിക വേദന അനുഭവിക്കുന്നത്. എന്നാല്‍ മകളെ സ്നേഹിച്ച കുറ്റമാണോ അഭയയൂടെ മാതാപിതാക്കള്‍ക്കു ദു:ഖം സമ്മനിച്ചത്? തന്റെ കന്യകത്വത്തില്‍ തനിക്കു വിശ്വാസമുണ്ടേല്‍ എന്തിനാണ് സിസ്റ്റര്‍ സോഫി കന്യകത്വ പരിശൊധനയെ ഭയപ്പെടുന്നത്? സമ്മതത്തോടെ ആണേലും അല്ലേലും,ഈ കേസിലെ പ്രതികള്‍ക്കു ശിക്ഷ കിട്ടണം എന്നു തന്നെയാണു എന്റെ അഭിപ്രായം. അവര്‍ക്കു മാനസാന്തരം ഉണ്ടാകില്ല മാഷേ. ഉണ്ടാകുമായിരുന്നേല്‍ ഇത്രയും വര്‍ഷങ്ങള്‍ കൊണ്ട് ഉണ്ടാകേണ്ടതായിരുന്നു.

കത്തോലിക്കാ സഭ പുരോഹിതന്മാര്‍ക്കും കന്യസ്ത്രികള്‍ക്കും എത്രയും പെട്ടന്ന് വിവാഹ ജീവിതം അനുവദിക്കേണ്ടതാണ് എന്ന അഭിപ്രായത്തോട് യോജിക്കുന്നു. ഇതു അനുവദിച്ചിട്ടുള്ള മറ്റു സഭകള്‍ ഉണ്ടല്ലോ. മണല്‍തരികളെ പോലെ പെറ്റു പെരുകാന്‍ കുഞ്ഞാടുകളെ ഉപദേശിക്കുന്ന സഭ പുരോഹിതിരോട് ചെയ്യുന്ന മനുഷ്യാവകാശ ലങ്ഘനം പ്രതിഷേധാര്‍ഹമാണ്.
വികസിത രാജ്യങ്ങളില്‍ സെമിനരികള്‍ ശുന്യമാകാന്‍ തുടങ്ങി. പള്ളിയില്‍ പോകുന്നവരുടെ എണ്ണവും ഗണ്യമായി കുറഞ്ഞിട്ടുണ്ട്. ഇടവകകള്‍ പലതും നിര്‍ത്തലാക്കി. കൂടാതെ പുരോഹിതരുടെ കേസുകള്‍ പണം കൊടുത്തു ഒതുക്കി തീര്ത്തു സഭ കുത്തുപാള എടുക്കേണ്ട അവസ്ഥയില്‍ എത്തിയിരിക്കുന്നു. മാപ്പ് ചോദിക്കുകയാണ് പോപ്പിന്റെ പ്രധാന ജോലി. കാലഹരണപ്പെട്ട ഈ സ്ഥാപനം എത്രയും പെട്ടന്ന് അടച്ചു പൂട്ടുന്നതാണ് സാമൂഹ്യ പുരോഗതിക്ക് നല്ലത്. എന്തായാലും ബുദ്ധിമാന്മാരായ കേരളത്തിലെ പുരോഹിതര്‍ ഇപ്പോള്‍ ദൈവ സേവനം കുറച്ചിട്ട് സ്വാശ്രയസ്ഥാപനങ്ങള്‍ നടത്തുകയാണല്ലോ. ഒരു കച്ചവടം നഷ്ടത്തിലകുമ്പോള്‍ വേറൊന്നില്‍ പിടിച്ചു നില്‍ക്കാനുള്ള വ്യാപാര തന്ത്രം കൊള്ളാം.

പൌരോഹത്യവും പോപ്പ് മുതല്‍ക്കിങ്ങോട്ടുള്ള സംവിധാനവുമൊന്നും ബൈബിളില്‍ പറഞ്ഞ കാര്യമല്ല. അല്ലെങ്കില്‍ ദൈവത്തിനും നമുക്കും ഇടയില്‍ ഒരു മദ്ധ്യസ്ഥന്റെ റോള്‍ എന്താണ്? ആദ്യം ആണിനെ സൃഷ്ടിക്കുകയും അവനു കൂട്ടായിരിക്കാന്‍ അവന്റെ വാരിയെല്ലില്‍ നിന്നും തന്നെ ഇണയെ സൃഷ്ടിക്കുകയും ചെയ്തു എന്ന വിശ്വാസമാണല്ലോ ബൈബിളിന്റെ അടിസ്ഥാനം. എന്നാല്‍ തികച്ചും പ്രകൃതി വിരുദ്ധമായ വുക്തിജീവിത നിഷേധമാണ് ദൌര്‍ഭാഗ്യവശാല്‍ ചില സഭകള്‍ പിന്തുടര്‍ന്നു പോന്നത്. അഭയ കേസ്സ് പ്രസക്തമാവുന്നത് ഇവിടെയാണ്.

Some real picture of life in Dubai !!!!!!!!!!

അഭയം

പുത്തന്‍ യുഗത്തിൽ ചെന്നായകൾക്കും ളോഹയോ
മറഞ്ഞിരിക്കുന്നു അവരീ വെളുത്ത ളോഹക്കുള്ളിൽ

കൊന്തയും, കുരുശും, ബൈബിളും 
അഭയമെന്നു കരുതിയോരഭയയെ, 
കാത്തിരുന്നൂ, ളോഹക്കുള്ളിലെയാ 
രക്തദാഹിയാം വിശുദ്ധ ചെന്നായിക്കള്‍

കൂട്ടുനിന്നതോ  ദൈവത്തിൻറെ  
സ്വന്തം പാപിയാം മാലാഖയും
പാപത്തിന്‍ കറ കഴുകാന്‍ വന്നതോ

അപ്പോസ്തലരുടെ കുന്തമാം തിരുസഭ
ആ നീതി പിറന്നൊരു നാളിലും 
വന്നൂ നാശത്തിന്‍ ഇടയലേഖനം

അഭയേ, നിനക്കിലാത്തൊരഭയം നമുക്കുമിലീഭൂമിയില്‍
അറിയുന്നു ഞാന്‍ നിന്‍റെ നിശബ്ദമാം തേങ്ങലുകള്‍.
അറിയട്ടെ ഇനിയുമീ ലോകം, അറിയാത്ത സത്യത്തിന്‍ പേമാരി.

കാലം മാറ്റിയ കോലം....

കാലം എത്ര പെട്ടന്നാണ് എന്നെ മാറ്റിയത് ?

എൻറെയാ നിഷ്കളങ്കമായ ചിരിയും,

എൻറെയാ നിശബ്ദമായ വാക്കുകളും,

എൻറെയാ ഭയമാര്‍ന്ന കണ്ണുകളും,

എൻറെയാ സംശയമാര്‍ന്ന ചോദ്യങ്ങളും.

എല്ലാം ഈ കാലം എത്ര പെട്ടെന്ന് മാറ്റി

പിന്തിരിഞ്ഞു നോക്കുമ്പോള്‍ മാറിയ മാറ്റം

ഓര്‍ത്തെടുക്കാന്‍ പോലും കഴിയാത്ത നിമിഷങ്ങള്‍

കാലമേ നീയെന്നെ എത്രമേല്‍ മാറ്റിയോ?

സുഗന്തം പോലും തിര്‍ച്ചറിയാന്‍ പറ്റാത്തത്ര മാറ്റം

നിറങ്ങള്‍ പോലും തിരിച്ചറിയാന്‍ പറ്റാത്തത്ര മാറ്റം

ഇരുട്ടിനെ പോലും ഭയപ്പെട്ടിരുന്നൊരു നല്ലകാലം

ചുവപ്പ് ചോരയാണെന്ന് ഭയപ്പെട്ടിരുന്നൊരു നല്ലകാലം

പൂവ് സുഗന്ധവും സൌന്ദര്യവും ആണെന്നറിഞ്ഞ നല്ലകാലം

സ്നേഹവും ശാന്തിയും നിറഞ്ഞിരുന്ന നല്ലകാലം

കാലമേ നീയെന്നെ എത്രമേല്‍ മാറ്റിയോ?...

ഒരിക്കലും പൂട്ടുകില്ലെന്നു കരുതിയ വാതിലുകള്‍

ഒരിക്കലും മുറിയുകില്ലെന്നുകരുതിയ ബന്ധങ്ങള്‍

ഒരിക്കലും മറക്കുകില്ലെന്നു കരുതിയ ഓര്‍മ്മകള്‍

ഒരിക്കലും തോല്ക്കുകില്ലെന്നു കരിതിയ തോല്‍വികള്‍

ഒരിക്കലും പിഴക്കില്ലെന്നു കരുതിയ വാക്കുകള്‍

കാലമേ നീയന്നെ എത്രമേല്‍ മാറ്റിയോ

Major Sandeep, We salute you. Jai Hindh

ധീര യോധാവേ നിനക്കു മരണമില്ല........
Being in the forefront of the National Security Guards operations at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan not only waged a valiant battle against the terrorists but also did his best to save his injured colleagues and in the bargain lost his life. He showed the real warrior in him before laying down his life. Thirty-one-year-old Major Sandeep is the only son of retired ISRO officer K. Unnikrishnan, who is settled in Bangalore.

His father told presspersons: “I lost my son in Mumbai on Friday. Though I do not like to call him a martyr, I can proudly say that he has done something for this country.” He was informed of the death of his son by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (National Security Guards).
According to information reaching the family, “Major Sandeep was leading a team and during the operations two of his colleagues sustained bullet injuries. In a bid to save them Sandeep turned back. The bullets fired by the terrorists pierced him. On November 26, he had called us and said that one of his childhood friends is getting married in the city on December 17. He had planned to attend that marriage,” Mr. Unnikrishnan said.

Major Sandeep was ambitious, talented and a brave soul, said his friends and neighbours. He joined the National Defence Academy and was commissioned in the Bihar 7th Regiment in 1999.
He was drafted to the NSG after his gallantry was recognised,”

He was deputed to the NSG on January 20, 2007 and participated in various operations conducted by the elite force. The gallant officer of the team commander of 51 SAG was deployed to clear Hotel Taj Mahal of extremists on November 27.

He led the team from the front and engaged the terrorists in a fierce gunfight. When one of the NSG commandos was injured in the exchange of fire, he arranged for his evacuation and regardless of personal safety chased the terrorists who, meanwhile, escaped to another floor of the hotel, and while doing so Major Sandeep continuously engaged them. In the encounter that followed, he was seriously injured and succumbed to injuries.

Who could be behind the Mumbai attacks and why?

Militants armed with automatic weapons and grenades attacked luxury hotels, hospitals and a famous tourist cafe in India's commercial capital Mumbai late on Wednesday, killing at least 150 people.

* WHO IS BEHIND THE ATTACKS?
The attacks were claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen in an e-mail to news organisations. Deccan is an area of southern India.
But it is not clear if the claim is genuine, and analysts say the bombings are almost certainly the work of a different group.
The most likely perpetrators, they say, are either the Indian Mujahideen or Lashkar-e-Taiba.

* WHO ARE LASHKAR-E-TAIBA?
Lashkar-e-Taiba is one of the largest Islamic militant groups in South Asia, based in Pakistan and fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. Security analysts say it is a well-funded and highly organised group that sympathises with al Qaeda.
Lashkar-e-Taiba denied being behind the Mumbai attacks and said it condemned them.
The group was blamed for bomb attacks on markets in New Delhi that killed more than 60 people in 2005, as well as an assault on India's parliament in 2001 that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of a fourth war.

* WHO ARE THE INDIAN MUJAHIDEEN?
Indian police say the Indian Mujahideen is an offshoot of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), but that local Muslims appear to have been given training and backing from militant groups in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh.
SIMI has been blamed by police for almost every major bomb attack in India, including explosions on commuter trains in Mumbai two years ago that killed 187 people.
Police said the Indian Mujahideen may also include former members of Bangladeshi militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami.
The group first emerged during a wave of bombings in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh in November 2007, sending an e-mail to media outlets just before some of the bombs exploded.
They have since claimed responsibility for multiple bomb attacks in Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and New Delhi.

* WHO DOES INDIA BLAME?
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the attacks were probably plotted by a group based in a neighbouring country.
But Indian governments often blame neighbouring Pakistan or sometimes Bangladesh for supporting or harbouring militant groups which have launched attacks on Indian soil.

* WHAT CAN BE INFERRED FROM THE ATTACKERS' TACTICS?
The Mumbai attacks were unusual in that they involved coordinated attacks by gunmen on multiple targets, hostages were taken, and foreigners were specifically targeted.
Several analysts say these tactics point to Lashkar-e-Taiba as being involved. The attacks on symbolic targets designed to gather maximum publicity, and the specific targeting, point to a group following al Qaeda ideology and tactics.
The attacks also show a considerable degree of sophistication, another factor pointing to an experienced group like Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The Indian Mujahideen have also surprised police with the sophistication of their attacks, however, although until now these have always been bomb attacks on Indian targets.
In May, the Indian Mujahideen made a specific threat to attack tourist sites in India unless the government stopped supporting the United States in the international arena.
The threat was made in an e-mail claiming responsibility for bomb attacks that killed 63 people in the tourist city of Jaipur. The mail declared "open war against India" and included the serial number of a bicycle used in one of the bombings.

* WHAT CAN BE INFERRED FROM THEIR DEMANDS?
A man speaking Urdu with a Kashmiri accent phoned an Indian TV station, offering talks with the government and accusing the Indian army of killing Muslims in Kashmir. This suggests the attackers are involved with a Kashmiri group like Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The demands of the Indian Mujahideen -- like their targets -- have always tended to be much more domestic. The group issued an e-mail threat in September to attack Mumbai but directed its anger at the Mumbai police anti-terrorist squad, accusing them of harassing Muslims.
"If this is the degree your arrogance has reached, and if you think that by these stunts you can scare us, then let the Indian Mujahideen warn all the people of Mumbai that whatever deadly attacks Mumbaikars will face in future, their responsibility would lie with the Mumbai ATS and their guardians," it said.

തീവ്രവാദം എന്തിന്റെ പേരിലായാലും അത് നമ്മുടെ സമൂഹത്തിനു എതിരായ ഒരു വെല്ലുവിലയാണ്. ഈ മനുഷ്യത്വം ഇല്ലാത്ത വെല്ലുവിളിയെ നമുക്കു ഒറ്റക്കെട്ടായി നിന്നു ചെറുത്തു തോല്പിക്കാം.

ജയ് ഹിന്ദ്‌......

India's moon impact probe lands on lunar surface

New Delhi - A moon impact probe launched from India's first lunar spacecraft successfully landed on the lunar surface Friday, an official of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said. The 35-kilogram probe, with the Indian flag painted on its sides, crash-landed at the Shackleton crater near the moon's south pole at 8:31 pm (1501 GMT).

"We have planted the moon probe successfully," ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said at a press briefing. The successful landing makes India the fourth country - after the United States, Russia and Japan - to deploy a moon probe. The moon probe took 25 minutes to reach the lunar surface after being launched from the orbiting Chandrayaan-1. "We have received signals from the moon impact probe," Nair said. The scientists at the ISRO control centre said the moon probe's built-in video imaging system had taken pictures of the lunar surface during its approach and sent them back to the Chandrayaan-1.

The orbiter's name means "moon craft" in Sanskrit. Nair said the ISRO expected to receive data and pictures from the lunar orbiter once it emerges from behind the moon. A spectrometer on the probe is expected to later analyse chemicals and minerals on the moon and send data to the lunar orbiter. Former president APJ Abdul Kalam was also present at the press briefing as ISRO scientists celebrated their achievement. Kalam, one of India's top scientists who has played a key role in developing India's space programme, said it was a moment he would remember. Nair earlier said ISRO plans to send a second spacecraft - Chandrayaan-II - to the moon in 2012, equipped with a lander which will drop a small robot on the lunar surface.

The ISRO is also working on a proposal to send a spacecraft to Mars, he said. Chandrayaan-1, described as the cheapest-ever moon mission, was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre near the southern city of Chennai on October 22 and has successfully completed about 95 per cent of its mission over the past 24 days, according to ISRO officials. The 1,380-kilogram spacecraft, built by the ISRO, was Friday orbiting the moon at a distance of 100 kilometres. In its present orbit the spacecraft takes about two hours to complete one circle of the moon, Satish said. For the next two years, the spacecraft will carry out chemical, mineral and geological mapping of the moon with 11 scientific payloads on board. Five of these payloads were designed by the Indian space agency; three devised and contributed by Germany, Britain and Sweden from the European Space Agency; two from the US space agency; and one from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Two of the payloads - a terrain mapping camera and a radiation dose monitor - have been successfully switched on. The camera has taken pictures of the earth and moon and sent them back to the monitoring centre.

Global economic crisis and its effect on India

2008 - a year that has witnessed the fall of the big players in the investment field-
Bear sterns was taken over by JP Morgan
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were nationalized
Lehman Bros became bankrupt.
Merryl Lynch taken over by Bank of America for a meagre $50 bn !
With financial institutions falling prey one after another to the global credit crisis, the bailout packages announced by various governments across the globe are inching towards $2 trn mark — an amount nearly double the size of Indian economy !
The Wall street tremors will have aftershocks the world over, with global markets plummeting to new lows and with liquidity crisis in perspective, the world is facing a severe economic crisis and many are blindly hopeful of a bail-out plan. But …….let me guess what you are thinking…..
Q 1) what in the world is going on right now?
Q 2 ) why does all this matter to me? and how do I, the Indian citizen stand to be affected by this?
THE WHOLE STORY:
The first signs of the sub-prime crisis was evident in the form of Bear Stearns whose 2 hedge funds collapsed in the mid of June 07 . Sadly , help in the form of $ 100 billion in liquidity courtesy Federal Reserve Bank and European Central Bank didn’t do much to solve the prevalent sub-prime crisis as the housing market continued to elevate without increase in interest rates. Then the wall street virtually went on a wild horse ride with one of the prestigious players Lehman brothers posting huge losses and eventually they din’t become lucky as the others as both Bank of America and Barclay’s refused to save the investment giant. The sole cause- Lehman Bros and Bear Sterns had relatively small balance sheets, they were heavily dependent on the mortgage market and were humungously reliant on the repurchase market (use as a short-term financing tool). The final nail in the coffin of the Lehman Brothers was put as it applied for a bankrupt protection on September 15th, which created a violent storm in the world financial system
AIG which was supposedly a basic insurance company also committed the erraneous speciality of investing in derivatives. Now for non- enthusiasts like some people out there, what are DERIVATIVES? Well, more on that later in this post.
IMPACT ON INDIA:
With many of the top IT companies save HCL having half their revenues from financial and banking segments, no doubt they are going to take a harsh beating, with Infosys already losing $2 bn the past week(Sept end) out of an approximate $10 bn lost by Indian IT companies listed on the US market. Banks may suffer as Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch had invested substantially in the formers’s stocks.
Supposedly, some of the PSU banks are also said to be affected even though assurances by the FM P.Chidambaram that none of the former are influenced. Well, that remains to be seen.
Now with traders possibly selling their stocks in India, Indian rupee stands to decline and hence imports will become costlier, one of the many things that stand to be affected, in line with many of the innumerable crisises that our country has still looming at large.
WHAT IS DERIVATIVES ( In Layman’s terms) in this case also know as HEDGING
–>The main use of a derivative is reducing risk for a party.
–>Derivative products derive their existence from actual market indices, hence the name derivatives.
I am not a expert on this, but with a great amount of thanks to my dad( who is pretty good at this stuff), I can put forward a vague idea what this is all about. Now supposing Mr.X enters into a FUTURES CONTRACT with Mr.Y, say he pays a certain amount of money for a certain commodity from Mr.Y in the future(any fixed amount of time in the future) , now as the market can be totally unpredictable with fluctuating interest rates, such an agreement can reduce risks.
BENEFITS:
1. Mr.X now has an assured supply of commodity in the future at the existent market rates at that time.
2. Mr.Y now has an assured price for his commodity in the future from Mr.X
Something like this.
Now there are many forms of derivatives, one which caused the epicentre here in the sub prime crisis being mortgage-backed security (MBS). For more information on MBS, you can easily refer … say wikipedia or the article by Mohit Satyanand in Outlook MONEY was pretty awesome.
Now in the present case , since the housing rates didn’t shoot up, the investment banks couldn’t recover money and the growing housing markets only added to their downfall.. Voila !! this almost does it for a layman’s understanding to the current global economic crisis.

Kerala youth get inspired by Naxalite Movement

Thallappavu -A Movie on Com Varghese.

Kerala cinema is currently witnessing a deluge of naxalite and maoist inspired movies with some of them even going on to become blockbusters. Thallappavu and Gulmohar are just two of the most recent ones with a naxalite theme..Com Varghese it seems did not shout his last slogan in vain... almost four decades afterhis death "Inquilab Zindabad" is once again reverberating throughout Kerala .

Madhupal makes a dream debut as a director, Prithviraj and Lal give their best performances till date, Babu Janardanan delivers a world class script which will stand its ground in any film festival ,and Azhagappan mesmerises with the Camera. “Thalappavu” is one movie which puts to rest any doubts about the class and scope of malayalam movies. We rank right up there!
“Thalappavu” is a gripping movie, immensely watchable, it doesn’t drag a bit, there is no suspense (starts with the death of the central character), no violence, no comedy, no love lines. Its almost like a Rohinton Mistry novel with tragedy heaped over tragedy, and finally topped with some very sad tragedy. I hate sad movies, and this is not one of them. Its a classic.

In a recent article from the Rupesh Paul-Amal Neerad junta, Rupesh had pointed out that “Story” is not an important part of a movie. While nobody liked his movie, the point remains that, if Cinema is for telling a story then you could as well publish a short story. Making a movie for telling a story is as good as using Google for searching for porn alone, or using your Blackberry for incoming calls alone. Cinema as a medium has immense potential which needs to be tapped. “Thalappavu”, kudos to Madhupal, does exactly that. It uses the medium’s untapped potentials for handing down a classic.

Thalappavu’ (headgear or turban) is a symbol of authority. In many societies, those in the upper social strata wear the turban as a symbol of power and authority. For the working class it provides shade from the hot sun and pelting rain.

The relationship between a hardcore revolutionary and the masses is usually distressing as far as governments are concerned. Everywhere in the world, it is a common practice for the ruling class to fetter one who is ready to sacrifice his life for social causes. The basis of a constitution is that whatever the crime, it is the law of the land that has the right to mete out punishment. The Malayalam movie ‘Thalappavu’ tries to portray that it is the very watchdogs of law who shamelessly violate the rules that they bound to defined

Gulmohar - Malayalam movie on Naxalite Maoist Movement in Kerala.

Once a revolutionary, always a revolutionary' should have been the tagline of Jayaraj's much talked about new Malayalam film Gulmohar. The acting debut of writer-director Ranjith has added to the curiosity value of this endeavour.Scripted by Didi Damodaran (daughter of T Damodaran, the hit script writer of yesteryears) Gulmohar tells the story of a group of friends who were revolutionaries in their younger days. The tale is told from the point of view of Induchoodan (Ranjith), who now is settled as school teacher with his wife, two kids and mother-in-law.

As Induchoodan jogs down the memory lane, we get glimpse of their adventurous existence mostly lived on the edge as they took on the establishment and fought for the voiceless.The script as such is packed with lot of layering.

The current generation ridicules the suffering and the sacrifices their elders made to make the world a better place. Their relatives never empathised or appreciated the zeal with which they followed their heart's calling or even their sense of justice.

Induchoodan was an orphan (maybe it is used as a tool to justify why he is moved by the plight of others, as conveyed in a scene in the beginning where he tackles a complaint against an orphaned boy in the school) with only an elder sister to call his own. A person with a creative bent of mind, he uses his writing skills to propagate his ideas on revolution.

We fear that Induchoodan's character may go overboard any moment as any conventional multi-talented hero's would. But it is discreetly held back at the script level itself.The narrative moves from the past to the present, giving us the story of Induchoodan's past and how his present is made.Ranjith's performance does not look like he was the last minute replacement for the role of Induchoodan (Suresh Gopi was to play the role).

He makes us feel that the part was written with him in the mind. He gives the impression that he has rehearsed well for the part.

Debutant Neenu Mathew is the other performance that impresses us.

Technically too, Gulmohar is in a league of its own, helping Jayaraj to bounce back in form.

J@$$!M

Bush’s adventure in Iraq: who has gained from it?

Amid five years of mutual slaughter, thousands of dead, millions of lives ruined and a war that has no end in sight, US president George W. Bush keeps insisting on his victory in Iraq. George W. seems unable to stare reality in the face.
In reality none of the war's proclaimed goals have been achieved: weapons of mass destruction were nowhere to be found; Iraq, instead of magically transforming itself into a puppet bourgeois democracy after the eviction of Saddam Hussein from power, has totally disintegrated and became a hotbed for international terrorism of all sorts. This is while American soldiers and Iraqi citizens lose their lives on a daily basis.
However, from the shortsighted point of view of the major oil companies, which the Bush family comes from, the war seems to be their greatest victory in recent history.
The fact is that the war was never about protecting the world from weapons of mass destruction or bringing democracy to Iraq. The war was about enforcing the rule of the United States, a declining imperialist power and getting control of oil supplies and establishing some kind of control over the whole of the unstable Middle East.
On 19.6.08, the New York Times reported that 36 years after Saddam Hussein nationalized the Iraqi oil fields, the pro-imperialist puppet government in Iraq has granted concessions to all the major world oil companies to "service" Iraqi oil fields again. After 36 years in the cold, they are back: the oil giants Exxon Mobile, Chevron, Total, British Petroleum and Shell have now returned to plunder the most lucrative oil fields in the world. From their narrow perspective, these measures of the present Iraqi government are a welcome step, and for them it makes all the destruction and bloodshed worth it. From this to actually getting the oil flowing is another question.

The true reasons for fighting Iraq

The major western oil companies suffered a setback after Iraq and other oil producing states had nationalised their oil fields. The US government seriously considered military intervention. The Carter administration even responded by setting up a stationary military force that could intervene in the Middle East at short notice. They even contemplated the possibility of invading parts of Saudi Arabia, that area where the oilfields are concentrated, should the regime fall.
However, in that period, the situation in the Middle East was too delicate for such an intervention. During the Cold War, the American attitude toward the Middle East swayed between two extremes. One was the immense importance of controlling Gulf oil for American capitalism and the military machines and modern weaponry that sustain it. The other was the fear that if America were to become too openly aggressive in defending its interests, the Arab masses could become radicalised and leaders could emerge who might turn to the Soviet Union for help.
We also have to remember that Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party initially received US support, as it removed the pro-Soviet Abd el-Karim Qasim in the 1963 coup. The US knew perfectly well that if they tried to replace Saddam, his successor might turn out to be even worse for them. On top of that, despite his "mischief" in nationalising the oil fields, Saddam had proven himself as a vital force in guaranteeing imperialist interests in the region. They could count on him to slaughter the communists (which he did), block Iran's anti-Western regime, and help to keep oil prices low.
The final argument against invading Iraq was that the oil companies, even after losing the concessions, were still making massive profits from shipping, refining and marketing oil and oil products. In that period, oil supplies were abundant and the price was on the rise. However, all this was about to change.
Since the late 1980s, all the arguments against war in Iraq and to regain direct control over oil had become irrelevant. First, the fall of the Soviet Union changed the balance of forces in the region. With the Soviets out of the way, the US had become the world's only superpower. An intoxicating feeling of omnipotence swept through all the top ranks in Washington. They felt they now owned the world and that they could do anything they wanted.
Second, as demand for oil increased reserves in oil fields around the world started to go down, while new oil discoveries in the Persian Gulf were still increasing. Persian Gulf oil started to become the most lucrative and abundant oil reserves in the world. Controlling the Gulf thus became much more urgent for American imperialism.
Finally, Saddam Hussein had ceased to function as an agent of "stabilisation" in the Gulf. Faced with the bankruptcy of his country after the costly war with Iran, and furious at the US and his regional neighbours for not providing financial help after fighting Iran for them, Saddam decided to occupy Kuwait. After witnessing Kuwait flooding the oil market and thus reducing oil prices, he knew that by conquering it, he would have greater control over oil prices. He naively thought he could reconcile US fury by reducing oil prices. However, he did not take into consideration who was now in charge of the White House - the Bush family and its very close links to the oil giants - the ones who had their eyes on controlling Iraqi oil again after decades.
The accumulation of these conditions paved the way for the first Gulf War. In that war, while the Soviet Union was still in existence, replacing rebellious leaders by means of direct military intervention was not the option of choice for the US government. In such a delicate matter, it usually preferred to intervene indirectly. It encouraged coups by the local opposition using economic sanctions and covert aid from the CIA. That is how Saddam himself came to power in the first place, together with many other contemptible dictators. This is why during the Clinton administration, there were US and UK attempts to destabilize the regime through sanctions and continuous low-level military attacks, but not through the use of direct military means to oust Saddam from power.
As we have seen, during the time of George W. Bush, a feeling of omnipotence flowed through the veins of the American leaders, and with such important goals at stake, the choice was to intervene directly.
The terrorist attacks in 2001 on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were just a pretext for something that had been planned long before. According to a testimony of Mr. Paul O'Neill, the former Secretary of the Treasury, the Bush administration started planning an invasion of Iraq almost immediately after being elected. In fact, it was reported on the BBC in 2005 that US officials had started to look among the Iraqi opposition for a successor to Saddam well before September 11.
The big oil companies started operating in Iraq immediately after the US-led invasion, using their own personnel to direct oil extraction, receiving immunity from the local puppet-government. The recent agreement reported in the New York Times is another important step in assuring American and Western control over the oil fields. It made sure that Russia and China would be kept out of Iraq, thus securing American control over the Gulf region and its oil fields - the greatest treasure in the history of humankind.

Barack Obama at the CBC Dinner in DC

Analysis: What's the big deal on Indo-US Nuclear Agreement?

Now that India and the US have formally inked the 123 civil nuclear cooperation agreement and sealed another pact with France following the Sep 6 waiver by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), it is time to look at the fierce debate on the issue in this country with some detachment.
The debate was not just about the nuclear issue alone. In fact it was about two competing worldviews held by rival groups.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh belongs to the school that argues that after the end of the Cold War, the international system has changed and the bipolar world has yielded place to a balance of power system, comprising six powers - the US, the 27-nation European Union, China, Japan, Russia and India.
The centre of gravity of world economy is shifting from the trans-Atlantic area to Asia. China has grown rapidly and India, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa and Mexico are also expected to grow rapidly, thereby reducing the dominance of the US as an economic power in the world.
Since bipolarity has come to an end and the US, the EU, China, India and Russia are independent nuclear weapon powers, there is not likely to be any war among them - a situation new to the world.
On the other hand, terrorism, organised crime, narcotics, religious extremism, pandemics and failed states are likely to pose international threats which these major powers may have to deal with collectively. This situation has developed along with the globalisation of the economy.
While the US will be militarily, economically and technologically pre-eminent it is not in a position to impose its policies on other major countries. The view that the US is trying to attempt to enlist India for military containment of China is totally untenable. The US is China's largest trade partner. China holds hundreds of billions of dollars of US treasury bonds. Their economies are so intertwined that what happens to Dow Jones has an immediate impact on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. It will take many decades for the US to reach with India the level of economic intimacy it has with China. All that the US, the EU, Russia and Japan are interested in promoting is faster growth of India so that there can be greater balance among the powers in Asia and the world.
Such a balance of power involves both competition and cooperation. The US and the EU, the US and Japan, China and Japan are all cooperating and competing economically and technologically at the same time. There will be similar competition and cooperation between China and India, though China has advanced far ahead of India and the latter will have to sustain a high economic growth rate to reduce the gap with China.
India's rise as an economic power has been hailed all over the world as unique. When a major power rises, it generates a sense of threat among other nations.
This is what happened when Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia or Communist China rose as major economic powers. But India's emergence is seen as non-threatening by other major powers.
India getting an NSG waiver and being allowed to have a nuclear arsenal in spite of not signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) are signs of India being viewed as a non-threatening balancer in the six-power balance of power system.
Those who oppose the nuclear deal have a different worldview. They are still conditioned by the historical experience of the Cold War era, are not reconciled to globalisation of the international economy and have fears of possible nuclear wars among the major nuclear weapon powers.
Their worldview rejects the economic intimacy of the US and China and regards them as potential adversaries. It considers that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world has become unipolar with the US in a commanding position to dominate the world.
Therefore, they like to believe that when the US makes a move to promote India as a balancer, it amounts to the incorporation of India in the hegemonic US strategic system. Since China is the only non-democratic major power and is likely to rise to close the economic gap with the US, this school regards China as a potential adversary of the US.
Second, India has been isolationist from 1947 till 1992 when economic liberalisation started to integrate India with the international economic system. The isolationists have fears about integration with the rest of the world. Fears of the British East India Company coming back and scenarios of multinationals dominating India are being conjured up. Underlying this view is the lack of self-confidence to deal with the world at large economically, technologically, strategically and politically - presumably a colonial legacy.
This school ignores the fact that the term used for India developing relationships with other major powers is not alliance but partnership. In an alliance the leader of the alliance has a decisive say. Partnership is different. Neither the US nor India has any previous experience in partnership.
Therefore, both the countries will have to try hard to cultivate a partnership - a new experience for both. We have seen that in the WTO (World Trade Organisation) issues India and China are on one side and the US and the European Union are ranged on the other. The arguments have been pursued fiercely for months. Those who fear that with nuclear agreements India would lose its autonomy should explain why India is leading the opposition to industrial powers on the WTO issues.
All these differences in perspectives lead to a major contradiction in approach to international trends. While the Manmohan Singh school argues that there are vast opportunities in the present global trends for India to exploit, the second school fears that some of the global trends may prove hostile to Indian interests and security and, therefore, India has to be cautious.
In a sense it is a repeat of the controversy we witnessed in the 1990s when then prime minister PV Narasimha Rao and then finance minister Manmohan Singh launched the economic liberalisation. Not only did Manmohan Singh and Narasimha Rao demonstrate they were right in launching economic liberalisation but their policy led to the comfortable foreign exchange balance in 1998 which enabled India to conduct the nuclear test without too much worry about external pressure.
Such controversies are the pith and substance of the democratic process. If and when the party which loses the argument at present comes to power it will not necessarily give up a successful policy.
It will make some marginal changes and appropriate the policy as its own. This happened in the case of economic liberalisation and may very well happen in respect of our nuclear policy. There were critics of the non-alignment policy who asserted that they would work for genuine non-alignment. They discovered on assuming office that our non-alignment was genuine enough. There were critics of our nuclear tests. Again, on coming to office the critics found that the nuclear weapons were developed by their own leaders. The ongoing debates should, therefore, be treated with a certain amount of scepticism and tolerance.


"The deal has been done at the cost of the country's sovereignty and nuclear independence,"
India already has committed to buy equipment to produce a minimum of 10,000 megawatts of power from the American nuclear industry, "which has not received any new order for the last 30 years," said Prakash Karat.

by,

J@$$!M

CERN - Experiment of Universal secret

Located in the salubrious suburbs of Geneva on the Franco-Swiss border is the world's largest particle physics laboratory. CERN, or the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of leading centres for scientific research. It was founded in 1954 and now has 20 members.

CERN is mainly trying to find out what the Universe is made of, and how it works. At CERN, the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments, including those from India, are used to study the basic constituents of matter -- the fundamental particles.

The most well-known scientific instrument at CERN is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is a particle accelerator that the physicists are currently using to study the smallest known particles.

The experiment being conducted now involves using the LHC to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang, by colliding the two beams at very high energy. It is still not sure what will result from these collisions, but what's sure is that human understanding about the working of Universe will be enhanced by the experiment.

The essential idea is that the universe has expanded from a primordial hot and dense initial condition at some finite time in the past and continues to expand to this day. The CERN is trying to create the big bang in a lab using LHC.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex, intended to collide opposing beams of protons charged with approximately 7 TeV of energy. Its main purpose is to explore the validity and limitations of the Standard Model, the current theoretical picture for particle physics. It is theorized that the collider will produce the Higgs boson, the observation of which could confirm the predictions and missing links in the Standard Model, and could explain how other elementary particles acquire properties such as mass.

The LHC has been in construction for some 13 years. According to BBC:
Scientists have hailed a successful switch-on for an enormous experiment which will recreate the conditions a few moments after the Big Bang.

They have now fired two beams of particles called protons around the 27km-long tunnel which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The first beams were circulated through the collider on 10 September 2008, and the first high-energy collisions are planned to take place after the LHC is officially unveiled on 21 October 2008.

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J@$$!M

India's First Mission to the Moon Unveiled!

According to the Indian space agency, India's first mission to the moon is to be launched sometime around October 22-26, 2008 from the coast of the Bay of Bengal. It will be lofted up using the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) workhorse rocket the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the mission is likely to cost Rupees 386 crores. Chandrayaan-I is an unmanned scientific mission designed to map the resources of the moon and would undertake the most intense search for water on the moon surface.

Dr Alex said that the main objective of this mission was to understand the origin of the moon. Apart from conducting tests on the surface of the moon, the mission also intends to conduct tests on the poles of the moon. Scientists are planning to land a rover on the moon to carry out chemical analysis of the lunar surface.

Chandrayan, which is being launched at a total cost of Rs 386 crore, is also scheduled to carry 11 payloads, which would include those from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Sweden, Japan, Germany and Bulgaria. Dr Alex further pointed out that the technology used for the Chandrayan mission is ten times better than other countries. Moreover, ISRO excels in remote sensing and imaging and hence the moon can be photographed from a close range of five metres from the ground

The mission aims to cover the entire moon and gather as much information as possible. Currently, Chandrayan is going through crucial tests in Bengaluru. It still has to undergo the vibration and acoustic tests. The spacecraft will be subject to heavy vibration first and then the sound of four jet planes will be put together to check its endurance.

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J@$$!M

An Unholy Crusade

India is so called democrated country and it gives me pain when I think of such attacks happens against Christianity. But unfortunately the Government is very slow in taking action against the culprits. At the same time I am really appreciate the work of the media for bringing the real incidents before the presence of the public. We the Indians should not allow such violence against any religion. Let the people think of the social upliftment and educational developenment which the country receives thro' Christianity. Let there be peace and love in the country. Let us continue to hold our unity and democracy and prove that we are one and no one can break our unique unity by their voilence and terrerarism. May the Lord change the heart of the people who are attacking the churches and Christian people and the missionaries.

There is no way the BJP and its affiliates will give up attacking the minorities in Karnataka. They would pretend but they will not. It is party of the killers of Gandhi, murderers of Muslims in Gujarat, bomb-makers of UP and the communal carnage across the country. Their want to make the Advani the Prime Minister. Given the sanity of the nation, Advani will remain the Prime Minister in waiting forever. You can't win votes by attacks. The Dalits continue to be victims of caste violence. The backwards are second class citizens and now we will have the minorities to be destroyed. What we need to destroy is the communal hate of the BJP and work for an India of humanity. We do not need parties like the BJP and social groups like the Bajrangis, VHPs and others. I am an Indian; christians are India. So are the Muslims. Dalits too as well as the OBCs. We do not need high caste and low caste people. India needs brothers and sisters to live as members of one human family. Denounce violence

Regards,

J@$$!M

A.K.G - From sthyagrahi to Revolutionary

• 1904 Was born in Mavilayi, Kannur District.
  
• 1923 Became schoolteacher in an elementary school.
  
• 1926-29 Participated actively in Congress Party.
  
• 1930 Joined a Satyagraha and was jailed. Became full-time political worker.
  
• 1931 Participated as a Captain of the volunteers, in the Guruvayoor Temple-entry Satyagraha.
  
• 1934 Joined Congress Socialist Party, founded in Kerala.
  
• 1936 Led unemployed jatha from Cannanore to Madras-600 miles on foot.
  
• 1937-38 Participated in workers’ struggles and militant peasant agitations.
  
• 1939 Joined Communist Party.
  
• 1941 Escaped from Vellore Jail.
  
• 1946-47 Jailed and spent Independence Day in prison.
  
• 1948-51 Jailed under preventive detention; case in Supreme Court.
  
• 1951 Elected President of AIKS.
  
• 1952 Elected to Lok Sabha and became Leader of the Communist Party in Parliament.
  
• Elected subsequently in 1957, 1962, 1967 and 1971, Parliamentary elections.
  
• 1952 Visited China and the Soviet Union, attending the 19th Congress of the CPSU.
  
• 1957 Participated in the Samyukta Maharashtra and Mahagujarat movement. Arrested in Gujarat.
  
• Gave leadership to the struggle of retrenched labourers of India Coffee Board which resulted in the formation of Indian Coffee Houses.
  
• 1958 Went to Punjab to aid the peasants in the anti-betterment levy struggle.
  
• 1959 Led the struggles of Amravathi peasants in Kerala and went on prolonged hunger strike.
  
• 1960 Led peasant jatha in Kerala demanding land reform.
  
• 1962 Jailed by the Congress government.
  
• 1963 Led peasants against eviction and police terror in Keerithode, Kerala.
  
• 1963 Among the 32 leaders of the National Council of the CPI who walked out.
  
• 1964 Participated in the Seventh Congress of the CPI(M) elected to the CC and PB in which position he remained till his death.
  
• 1965-66 Jailed by the Congress government.
  
• 1970 Gave leadership to the militant hutment dwellers struggle of agricultural labour in Kerala where scores died in police firings and goonda attacks.
  
• 1972 Participated in the Kerala surplus land struggle and was arrested.
  
• 1975 Arrested under MISA and later released.
  
• 1977 Visited Kannur district to oppose police-Congress repression.
  
• March 22, 1977 Died in Thiruvananthapuram Medical College hospital after a severe stroke.

Regards,

J@$$!M