Summary Post and two tags

It’s been more than a month since I wrote a summary post, something I used to do on a regular basis, weekly or fortnightly. As you’ve guessed I didn’t do so as I haven’t been writing that much, and was also on a break as I moved house.

I received a few awards recently. Amrutha was kind enough to give me the Resonance award, the Versatile blogger award, the Lovely Blogger award, the Kreativ Blog award, the I love your blog award and the Emerald award. Poorna gave me the garland award. The awards are put up on this page. Thanks for this!

There are also two tags to do. One is by Odzer, who tagged me to find the sixth folder in my photo gallery, and then the sixth picture in it and publish it. He has said to write a post about that, but well, the picture already has a post attached to it so I am simply publishing the photograph, which I think is apt as a picture for International Women’s Day which just passed. I am not into writing posts for particular “Days” so this hopefully makes up for that, at least a little.

Vishesh tagged me to “spread the smile.” For this I need to post a funny picture or write something funny. And begin the post with a line of smileys. So here are the smileys!
             

And as for the funny picture, well, I posted most of my funny pictures here, but this time I thought of posting a personal picture of mine, just to put a smile on your faces. I would never have published this picture but this tag came along and I guess there is no harm! And by the way, it was my hubby who insisted that I pose with Aamir Khan when we went to see Ghajini and he took this picture with his cell phone. Naturally I was feeling very conscious as a lot of people were standing by and smiling!

Now here are the summary posts!

How many in Pakistan are sympathetic to the extremists? Pakistan, some say, is on the brink, and extremists are gaining control of the country…I do not believe that a country founded on, or based on religion, can succeed. I mean, as a democracy…Not that many in Pakistan support suicide attacks. Considering that there have been about 120 suicide attacks in Pakistan in the last two years, it’s not surprising that there is little support today for suicide attacks in Pakistan (details here.) But suicide attacks are one thing, and the Taliban, another…One reason why the Pakistani Army is finding it difficult to combat the Taliban is because the armymen see the extremists as a lesser evil than the United States. Also, many of the extremists are not really the hardcore Taliban, but just religious mullahs who are mostly anti-America…

India entering the third phase of the tobacco epidemic The world’s largest tobacco control event – the14th World Conference on Tobacco and Health – was held in Mumbai from March 8th to 12th. India being in the midst of a rising tobacco epidemic a conference such as this here in Mumbai couldn’t have happened at  a more opportune time…This post talks about the four stages (socio-economic) of the tobacco epidemic and the countries in each stage and also the dangers of second hand smoke. India is different from other countries due to the high prevalence of bidi smoking and chewing tobacco…

10 + 5 ways to have a happy relationship and a healthy marriage I thought I would jot down some of the things which I feel are important for a couple to make a go of it. Most of these things should come instinctively and that is why I feel that if the first couple of years go well, it means the foundation is a good one. But if they don’t, well, all of us make mistakes and its never too late to say sorry…

Unfit government employees survive and thrive I had a bad experience at a post office in Pune when I went to renew my post office savings fixed deposit. This post gives the experience in detail. As I had mentioned in the comments I complained to the authorities by email. After that I received an email reply and also got a phone call from someone in the post master general’s office telling me that action will be taken against the errant employee.  He also told me that he had come to my blog and read the post (I had sent the link by email). I was quite satisfied with their response and now they have sent me an official letter. This is the letter and they said they will write again:

Your income can determine your attitude! India’s middle classes are estimated to be about 300m today, a figure expected to double in the coming decades. And along with the economic transition, what is also evident is a transition in value systems. We have always strongly suspected that people who are better off have more of a liberal attitude, or rather, they can afford to have it…but who are the middle class anyway…

The culture vultures hate pre-marital sex The reason why the culture vultures protest against Valentine’s Day is because they feel that Valentine’s Day is a celebration of sex, not love. And to them sex before marriage is immoral and always casual. But it’s futile getting into a moral debate about pre-marital sex. Neither the moral police nor anyone else can stop it. The fact of the matter is that the average urban Indian is not marrying at 14 or even 18, and it’s stupid to assume that if marriage is postponed, sex will be postponed as well…given the fact that the human species reaches sexual maturity…

Delhi 6 movie review The movie makes old Delhi come alive. The narrow bylanes, the havelis (old style houses) and the way people talk and act feels very authentic, although apparently the director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra shot most of the movie in Sambar, (near Jaipur, Rajasthan) which is similar to Old Delhi…What I liked about the movie is that its visually pleasing which speaks very well for the cinematography (Binod Pradhan). It isn’t breathtaking, but it is interesting and original. The dialogues and acting also seem very natural…the problem with the movie is that one doesn’t know where it’s heading…

The Dharavi spirit Ever since Slumdog Millionaire released there has been a lot of discussion on whether it is right to portray India’s poverty. Well, SM is not a treatise of history nor a documentation of life in a slum. It is a fictional account based on a novel and presented in a cinematic, dramatic fashion. Yes, it’s been tweaked, but that’s what commercial cinema is about. But if one wants to know the whole truth, then the reality is that slum dwellers in Dharavi are a spirited and hardworking people. Dharavi is a place where human spirit and enterprise lives and triumphs against all odds. Far more so that in the luxurious apartments of the rich…

Advertising mistakes All of us have a pet peeve against some advertisement or the other and we wonder how such ads are even allowed to be aired or printed! Well, some people do complain, and as a result advertisers are forced to remove their ads or modify them. The ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India) receives complaints and acts on them. The number or complaints in India are far fewer that in developed counties, but some good work is being done in this area in India too. If you ever wondered why some ads or television commercials simply disappeared or changed, well, it’s because some enterprising soul complained. Here is a small list of some of the ads…

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