My heartiest well wishes to all of you on the occasion of India’s Independence Day (which is on 15th August). May our motherland, India, reach heights of success and achievements.

I pray to Almighty Allah for making our country overcome all the odds and succeed in all the avenues and be at the forefront of freedom for which we Indians have stood.

Freedom, as everyone should know, is in our blood. To fight for and uphold the values of freedom will and should always be the first concern for us Indians.

So, go out and do good deeds on this I-Day and raise the bar for other countries/communities to follow.

As with all the good things that could have happened to our beloved country, you gotta give it to the politicians to spoil the celebrations!

Suresh Kalmadi (Image Courtesy: Times Of India)

As if the preparations for the Common Wealth Games (CWG) wasn’t enough, we have started reading and hearing daily bytes of the corruption (obviously with the ‘blessings’ of the high & mighty politicians) trickling in. The web is spread so wide that it’s surprising. It has acted as the perfect disgrace for a rising country called India.

No one from the government seems to be ready to talk about CWG. No statement from anyone has come in yet. Suresh Kalmadi, the man in the eye of the CWG storm seems answer-less to all the allegations that are coming up.

It is only in India that Mr. Kalmadi continues to head the CWG Organising Committee despite all this. What has happened to the moral responsibility of this man? (even if there is no proof of his involvement in all of this which I honestly doubt).

Even the PM hasn’t reacted to all this.

I request the hon’ble Prime Minister of  India to intervene on this matter and make Mr. Kalmadi resign to avoid further embarrassment for our nation.

Yes, those are the exact words that came to my mind after reading an awakening article on Times Of India today that talks about how sometimes both the pilots may fall asleep due to pilot over burn (read fatigue):

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has admitted that in India, as across the world, there are instances when both pilots on duty have fallen asleep and overshot destinations.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA)  joint DG A K Chopra had this to say:

There were a few incidents in the recent past in India and worldwide wherein both cockpit crew operating the aircraft fell asleep during the flight. This resulted in aircraft passing over the destination airport.

Before you draw any conclusions, this phenomenon is not just confined to India dear readers and (potential) fellow air travellers.

So, the next time you board that aircraft, pray to God that the pilots are well rested and sleep-free while they take your bird into the air…

Mobile number portability is set to be introduced in India by August this year:

“Mobile number portability, enabling customers to retain their old number while shifting from one operator to another, would be launched in major cities by August this year,” Union Minister for IT and Communication A Raja told reporters here on the occasion of the launch of BSNL’s 3G services.

Well, I know that I am definitely going to benefit from this service. And it is great for people like me who hate their current operators but love their numbers. This way, they get to leave their operators but keep their numbers which they have cherished since a long period of time and which is synonymous with them now (by being distributed to their family and friends).

So do you like to take your existing number with you when you switch operators?

Lucknow's Iconic Rumi Darwaza

A great snap uploaded by my friend, Faraz Ali, on his photogallery that shows the famous iconic Rumi Darwaza (A grand gateway) monument in our home town of Lucknow. Known for it’s great food and hospitality and the royal treatment meted out to visitors, Lucknow has a host of great monuments built by grand rulers of the historic province of Awadh, called Nawabs. The Nawabs built monuments which are part of the national heritage of India now.

Yesterday, 27th Of July 2008, was the finale of Kya Aap Panchvi Paas Se Tez Hain?. For those who don’t know, Panchvi Paas is the Indian version of “Are you smarter than a Fifth Grader?”.

Coming back to the finale, Shahrukh Khan had none other than our very own Lalu Prasad Yadav for company. It was really a great show and had Lalu chugging through the whole episode and answering all the questions without much hesitation.

Or perhaps the show’s questions were setup that way? Who knows. Anyway, I pretty much enjoyed the show and was thoroughly entertained by our very own Railway Minister who has an ear to the ground!

With TRPs or ratings running low for the show mostly due to the Indian Premier League debuting side by side, I am doubtful if the show will return for a second season. Although SRK was optimistic about it and was saying that this is the season finale episode.

Well, I was kinda tweaking the blog today to checkout various plugins and their effects on the site and then was checking India’s score versus Srilanka on Cricinfo.com when I found out about widgets introduced by Cricinfo.com for site & blog owners to include scores, images and more from their vast database.

So, I went ahead and got the embedding code for the International Scores Widget to include it in the sidebar of my blog. Cricket enthusiasts will now be able to check the scores of their favorite matches without even leaving my blog!

Cricinfo.com is a big website of vast properties related to Cricket. It was previously owned by Wisden Group before being purchased by ESPN.

ESPN on the net

Cricinfo on the net

The Honourable Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh is surely the man of the moment after winning the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament in India).

He has emerged stronger from this political crisis as far as anyone can say and I hope he stays on the fast track in implementing his reformist policies.

Watch as the news report explains why exactly Singh is King!

Budgeted at a whopping US$ 25 million (or Rs 1 Billion), SRK is all set to make India’s costliest movie. The movie is a fantasy based subject which will have lot’s of CGI and VFX.

It will be produced by Shahrukh’s home production, Red Chillies Entertainment, and directed by Anubhav Sinha of Tere Bin and Dus fame.

I hope the movie is a good one and lives up to the hype.

With the Indian public (including me) questioning the need of bringing down a government over a deal, the process of debating went on today in the parliament.

It was a day of total anarchy. Both the government and the opposition traded charges and exchanged blows. Charges and counter charges were exchanged, all this leading up to the mega event tomorrow evening (that is the 22nd of July) when the actual vote for the motion of confidence takes place.

I must make one comment, though. This government was one of the best ever as deduced by me. I am not sure whether it will stay or not (and I am keeping my fingers crossed on this) but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is one the finest leaders to grace the top post for India.

Whether the UPA (United Progressive Alliance), lead by Dr. Manmohan Singh, weathers this storm is something we have to wait and watch.

Even though I am not that sure about the 123 agreement or the India-US Nuclear Deal, but I do think this government deserves to stay

I am breaking out of the mold and posting this here on APU! instead of posting it on my political views blog, Newz Is Yours.