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E-mail from readers the world over
Date: Saturday, January 17, 1998 10:18 AM Shukriya for this beautiful slide show on a Ramzan evening. That made me feel as I am back in India. Thanks again. Please do something like that for Eid too. Kashif
Date: Saturday, January 17, 1998 3:14 AM I just wanted to thank you guys for providing news, pictures and great articles. I am really impressed. You guys are doing a wonderful job. I really liked this article which reminded me of my old days when I used to celebrate Ramzan/Eid in Ahmedabad. I also liked the slide show of Bombay. I really miss my India because we don't have that much fun in the USA during Ramazan/Eid as we used to. You guys are doing a great job. Keep it up! Ubaid Pathan San Jose
Date sent: Sun, 21 Dec 1997 00:59:34 -0600 It was a riveting, eye opening article. Sailesh Yellumahanti
Date: Friday, December 12, 1997 2:45 AM Your slide show on the National Defence Academy is brilliant, especially the fact that one doesn't have to keep clicking the mouse to go through it. It's just like "being there." Please convey my thanks to your team. Keep it up. Anupam Singh
Date sent: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 11:26:08 -0600 I must say that I was particularly pleased and impressed with your article --"Don't throw English out of India." Thank you Mr Diwanji. I am a student pursuing my Ph D at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I have been a student in the United States for the past two-and-a-half years, and sometimes I think about how lucky I was to have English as my medium of education in India. People from other countries have as much technical knowledge as we have. However, we have one more advantage -- our communication skills which is a major plus point and I believe we have this advantage because the medium of instruction was English for most of us. In a country like ours where we have so many languages, we cannot afford to be narrow minded, in fact the best way to bring all of us together is to have a common language which each and every one of us can understand, and what language is better than the universal language -- English. Thanks a lot and I wish I can read more articles like this more often. Ramesh Ganapathy
Date: Wed, 07 Jan 1998 01:50:10 +0400 Surely the church has no business meddling in politics. It appears that this curse of reservation, thrust upon us by vote gathering politicians, is here to stay. Surely, such a system does not exist anywhere in the world where minorities get more rights than the vast majority. Surely this is a case of reverse discrimination. The wrongs of centuries cannot be corrected by appeasing the few now. What is required is to forget the past and for all of us to go forward on an equal footing. It is institutions like the church that should take the lead in espousing such a philosophy. A uniform civil code amongst other things is a step in the right direction. As regards casteism, Hindus are not the only ones to be affected by this malady. Go to Kerala and one loses count of the number of sects of Christianity, each one despising the other as not being the 'true' Christian. Less said about this the better. I know this letter would show me up as a prejudiced Hindu, but rest assured, I am not. I am just stating the simple truth.
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 08:35:07 -0800 I am surprised that after so many Indian temples were destroyed by the Muslims and mosques were built over them, no one is very angry at being treated badly by our Muslim rulers of the past. It is our day and we did what history has always done. We need to protect the Muslims as long as they are also law abiding citizens of our country. The Muslims will have to fear the Congress which is a turncoat party rather than the BJP.
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 15:19:51 PST I found your columns interesting. I also found that all the writers's background appears to be similar. They are raised in absolutely safe havens with the myth that a Muslim is a monster and a traitor. This myth may not appear true for some, but may appear to be true for some others who have lived in minority dominated areas. It will be interesting to have similar views from Hindu writers who have been raised in Muslim majority areas and also from Muslim writers who have been brought up both in Muslim majority and Hindu majority areas and their perceived myths..
Date: Thursday, January 15, 1998 12:38 AM Recently somebody circulated an article picked up from your website. The article written by Pritish Nandy has had a profound impact on me and many of my friends and colleagues. To assess whether I was being emotional and going through a short hysteria, I asked for the opinion of many of my friends, who also expressed opinions similar to mine. Basically, this article has brought to light, our responsibilities and how "WE" have miserably failed in fulfilling them and thus leading to the present chaos that we see in India. This article portrayed a totally different view from the many others that we have seen before and talks at a very fundamental level as to where we are going wrong, bringing out examples from our day to day life. I am sure it will be a great favour to ourselves and hence the future of India, even if a small part of our population realises and thinks about what he has said. Balaji Max Planck Inst. fur Molekulare Physiologie Dortmund, Germany
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 12:19:09 -0500 Waaaaaaay to go Mr Nandy! Nice, neat concise -- part of the blame must go to the talented themselves though after all people do have a choice NOT to succumb to society's self-appointed "people-who-know-better" morons -- after all a good prophet should know enough of his own skill, not to attempt playing god. As you said running a universe requires different skills .. and titles have a nasty way of turning into epitaphs!!! Good day Sonal Shanker Cincinnati
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 14:38:07 -0500 One of the finest articles ever read, very beautifully framed and proposed in public. Good job. Good luck Mr Nandy.
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 00:21:52 -0800 An excellent article enlightening us about a forgotten principle. One wonders if only the Indian selectors had gone to Peter's school all this shuffling would not have taken place, assuming that they still have some rationale thinking.
Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 11:37:58 -0800 I agree great players do not necessarily make great captains. But in cricket a captain has to lead by example not just be a strategist. He has to make handsome contributions to the team. We cannot include somebody in the team just because he is a great leader but can fail as a batsman or a bowler. Arnab Guha California,US
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 10:19:09 +1300 Pritish's article is very balanced and makes a valid point. Our selectors (it is very hard to own them up to call them 'our selectors') have time and again come up with unworldly things. Hence, Pritish, unfortunately your valid arguments are for deaf ears. However, I am surprised that most of the media is missing one big factor. Be it Azhar or Sachin, I understand that you need bowlers to be a successful cricket team. Currently Australia, South Africa and Pakistan have some great bowlers. Barring Srinath, we have not come close to producing one of the quality of Wasim or Warne or Younis or McGrath or Donald or Pollack or Ambrose or Walsh or .........! They say Mark Taylor of Australia is a good captain because his bowling changes are imaginative. Who can Azhar or Sachin use for a change? I think the Indian selectors are capable of telling the captain to bowl Srinath from both ends and change the laws of cricket to suit that. It is a real pity that the real issue is being totally ignored. Shrikant Dharap
Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 18:36:26 -0700 The article is comprehensively good. I think the best selectors can do is select a non-playing captain as is done in the Davis Cup. So that no player takes the captaincy burden.
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 15:24:49 +0530 This is in response to Mr Eric Gooch's letter about Vaishali Honavar's article. How is it that whenever we 'Third/Fourth world country have-nots' (yes, this is for you too Mr Mohammed Saleem) 'dare' to point out the unsavoury details of the so-called 'first world's past, they seem to be rather touched to the quick? Is it because it spoils their perception of themselves as pure angels in white doling out morality at every opportunity which their media provides at the cost of some 'Third World' nation's misfortunes? God knows, Mr Mohammed Saleem, India has had enough of 'first world' redeemers who write prejudiced books and make even more prejudiced movies without even bothering to cross-check their facts about our culture. Ms Vaishali's article was about a movie. It wasn't meant to preach to you about your culture's shortcomings, unlike many features that regularly pop up in the Western press about our's. The fact is, Mr Gooch, we know about our past, just as you do about yours. We are as ashamed of casteism as you are of racism. But please do not think that Indian culture is all about casteism and 'untouchability'. Maybe you have heard a few key phrases and words about my country in the course of your education, but we as a people are inheritors of a more ancient past than people in your country can ever think of. Yes, we also had an ugly system of casteism, just as you had slavery. Ms Vaishali was completely justified in not pointing out that fact in her article. It was simply because it was not aimed at you to remind you of your past. It was aimed at people like us to remind us that you, who stand on a pedestal of money today and preach to us about morality, have very little right to do so.
Date: Friday, January 16, 1998 7:52 PM Music lovers should be indebted to Shobha Warrior. Tiruchy Sankaran's comment is a matter of amusement. We should not be severe on him.After all, he is a great scholar in music and a fine percussionist.But he certainly is an NRI. He can't pick up a quarrel with us on this. The learned professor of music at Toronto should have been the happiest man that a number of citizens of Indian origin who persue this divine art abroad, are keen to appear before the home of Carnatic music and that too in the holy month of Margazhi. As for NRIs bringing in lots of money to the poverty stricken Madras Sabhas and thus get a chance to perform only because they pour in their wealth and all that.....well, this observation should be treated with contempt. As Professor Sankaran is not a student of statistics, he should be enlightened. There may be some statistical error, but around 2,500 kutcheries are offered during December-January by various sabhas, cultural and other organisations in Madras. Professor Sankaran is, of course, entitled to draw his own conclusions when he says 'It is not a healthy sign at all. It is not fair on the local artists...' Here is a case of 25 kutcheries coming in the way of 2,500 kutcheries. We hope Hamsadwani will carry on, and the NRI series will be a regular feature in Margazhi when there is an invasion from abroad. And Professor Sankaran will always be well received by them.
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