This has been a surprising month for the newspaper; one thing a pleasant surprise, the other, not so good. I am aware that  newspapers are not available the day after a holiday (because the workers were not working during the holiday). Thus, I was pleased when I saw that the newspapers were available on 3 October (the day after the National Holiday of Gandhi's birthday). I had hoped that this would be replicated during the Puja. Unfortunately, this was not to be. During the Puja, and the Muslim Festival afterward, I did not get the newspapers for about a week. This left me bereft of articles for this post, and made each morning very lengthy and boring for me.

3 Oct  Normally, I include articles only from the Telegraph and Times of India in this monthly post and which I can not place elsewhere in this blog. I saw an article in the 8 October Times of India but could locate it neither at its website nor through Google. I did find this similar article, however.
Regardless, I can not comprehend either article. If certain words do not exist then how can they be loved or hated? How can wazzock be loved and amazeballs be hated, and why not the other way around? Just now, I did a cursory search and it seems that the latter word does exist. (It sees to be slang, although I did not pay attention to the definition.) The survey was done in the U.K. It seems that the British are indeed a very peculiar species, and it is good that they are confined to an island.
How can accepted words describing reality be loved or hated? Raindrop simply describes a particle of water that falls from thew sky, and moist simply describes a condition of an object being damp. Why would there be any emotional attachment to this?
If a word can be, and is, loved then why is it not used frequently? In this blog, I have written over four lakh/400,000 words and I have never written the words hippopotamus or sprocket. I suspect that it will be another 400,000 words before they are included again. I have read many newspaper articles and blog posts, and almost never saw those words. Again, the British seem to be a very peculiar species.  

4 Oct  I have read many articles about the partial shut-down of the United States government, yet I can not understand what the fuss is about. I used to live in California; I can not remember a year in which that government was not shut down.

Moreover, don't people want to live in a society where there are no Thieves and Sexual Abusers at airports? Where women, children and other innocent civilians are not gunned down by government agents in lands that we will never visit? Where people can have many options of health care rather than having socialized medical insurance? Where unarmed Black women are not gunned down in broad daylight? Where people are not killed or injured by perpetrators of road-rage, vehicular manslaughter or while driving under the influence of various chemicals because no alternative is available to the unproductive government agency that nominally prevents these things from happening? Where people can communicate on the phone or via the computer and not have their conversations listened to by the Nazi Scum of America?

6 Oct  I do not know if it is objectively the world's biggest street festival, but I do know that Durga Puja is always very troublesome for non-celebrants.

6 Oct  I alluded to this being a problem in India in my Body Ritual Aong the Naidnipost.

9 Oct  I suspect that Walmart has done this in the belief that Narendra Modi will be the next Prime Minister and that this will be more conducive to WalMart's growth in India. Regardless of whether this belief is true or not, I have always thought that an increased presence of WalMart here will help bring down prices--and inflation has been a continuing problem for these past five years.

9 Oct  I saw a condensed version of this in the print edition of the Times of India but could not find the online version, so I a providing a similar article.
I am providing it because if terrorists can enunciate the truth in this respect then why can Americans not comprehend the truth?

11 Oct  I have already mentioned some of the following in my Sport post, but it is worth reiterating and rephrasing. In the United States, the sports of American football, baseball and basketball each have more than thirty teams, and attract tens of millions of fans. In India, there is only cricket, and there have never been more than ten professional teams. Given that it is virtually the only professional sport, it ought to have at least as many teams as do the combination of American football, baseball and basketball, and given that India has four times the population, it ought to have four times as many teams. Instead, it has only eight; in other words, it is pathetically and microscopically small. Nevertheless, it is a great unifier, and for almost a quarter-of-a-century, people have adored the talents of Sachin Tendulkar, who announced his retirement.
Other articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

16 Oct  When the print newspapers returned after the pujas, they contained some news that were a few days old. This article was about the cyclone Phailin; here is another one.

16 Oct  For news, I prefer the Times of India; for the Sudoku and Jumble puzzles, I prefer the Telegraph. However, the latter newspaper does have a biweekly column by Stephen Hugh-Jones, which I enjoy, and every Wednesday it has a column about various legal topics.
I have place this article in a Google+ community, but thought that I should also place it here to show a free-market solution to a problem.

18 Oct  I have always enjoyed reading and learning history, especially of things with which I am familiar. I think that I have already mentioned New Market several times in this blog. Here is another article.

20 Oct  I have written that, late last year, we went to a restaurant that served emu meat which, we were told, came from Andhra Pradesh. However, we never had it. A few weeks later, I went to a restaurant that served ostrich meat, and it was delicious. The Kolkata restaurant closed at the beginning of the year and, it seems, emus are no longer available. (I do not know if the two are related.)

22 Oct  Narendra Modi has said that the world is laughing at India because the government is heeding the dream(?) of a Hindu monk. I do not know if that is true; I do not know if this news item travelled far. Just now, I have found this article from San Francisco. In any case, recent reports seem to downplay the existence(?) of valuables. From the very beginning, I thought that it would be a repeat of Al Capone's vault..

22 Oct  This may be a run-of-the-mill story (it was, in fact, on the back page of the local section of the newspaper) but it impacted us. Caroline and I were to have an appointment with the Inspector at the Ekbalpore Police Station. We arrived in time, but a short time later he came out of his office saying that an emergency had come up. From bits and pieces of information that we gathered, it seemed that there was a bus or lorry that became overturned nearby. The next morning, I saw the linked article.

23 Oct  For me (and especially since we have shifted to another neighbourhood), it is nice to see foreigners, and even nicer to learn of their experiences. I am providing this to show another viewpoint of the city.
The next day, this article appeared.

24 Oct  I do not know much about the singer Manna Dey, but I do know that there were at least a dozen articles about him in today's English newspapers. This is one of them.

27 Oct  When I was in the United States, I did not really appreciate films. I appreciated individual films, like Field of Dreams, but not so much the art form. Then, the early 90s arrived  and Caroline got me interested in Hindi films. Now that I am here in India, I do appreciate the more, but perhaps even more than that, I enjoy articles about films. The linked article is about Hollywood films; this very similar article is about HiFI (Hindi Film Industry) films.

27 Oct  We woke up to a flooded Saturday morning. A few of the articles indicated that our area (near Park Circus) and Caroline's old neighbourhood (Kidderpur) were among the worst hit. Other articles: 1, 2, 3)

27 Oct  I have been here for five monsoon seasons and do not remember a wetter October. This article is verification of it.

27 Oct  In India (and especially for this blog), I have been interested in not only minorities but also history. This article is an example of the latter.

27 Oct  It may see that I have a fetish about the Jews in India, given all the articles that I provide in these monthly posts. However, I am not reporting any ore than what I see in the daily newspapers. If there were articles about the similarly small Parsi population then I would link those here as well.
I do want to add something that I do not think that I have reported before: I have read that the Jewish population in India used to be far larger but that virtually all of them shifted/moved to Israel when that place became a nation. 

1 Oct  (Pati) RCW

1 Oct (Military) Kenya
2 Oct (FCM) England/G.A.
2 Oct  (Pati) RCW (Where else but in the RCW, where rape is legal, could this happen?)
2 Oct  (FCM) South Africa
2 Oct  (FCM) G.A.
3 Oct  (FCM) Brazil
3 Oct  (FCM) Papua New Guinea
3 Oct  (FCM) India
3 Oct  (OC) G.A.

4 Oct (Judiciary) Australia (Life imprisonment without parole is certainly a deterrent against the killing of a police officer. What deterrent, if any, is there against an FCM murdering a civilian?)
4 Oct  (OC) G.A. (A government big enough to give you everything you want...)
5 Oct  RCW
5 Oct (Irresponsible Rotten Scum) G.A.
5 Oct  (FCM) RCW
6 Oct (Thieves & Sexual Abusers, GI) G.A.
6 Oct (FCM) G.A. (When chess is outlawed, only outlaws will play chess)
7 Oct  (FCM) Brazil
8 Oct  (Pati) RCW (For whom are you going to vote: the rapist or the murderer, and why??!!!)
8 Oct  RCW (It is so wonderful that the government provides a right to education! It would be so nice if every  government program were run as well. Oh wait, that is already happening.)
9 Oct  (Irresponsible Rotten Scum) RCW
9 Oct  (Pati) RCW/G.A./Woirld  (The interesting thing about this article is that, by changing a few words and exaples, you can relate it to any country you want. For example, you can replace Emergency with PATRIOT Act and relate it to the G.A.--although the Nazi-inspired Act is not yet history; we can only hope that one day soon it will be gone.
9 Oct  G.A. [For many years, I have been saying that the U.S. government either did not know about the precursors to 9/11--even after spending hundreds of billions of dollars on "intelligence" (a very ironic word)--in which case they were proven incompetent or did know about them--but allowed it to happen so that they could unleash the Nazi-inspired PATRIOT Act--in which case they were proven corrupt. The article provides further evidence of the former.]
9 Oct  (Thieves & Sexual Abusers) G.A. (Are you a thief? Are you a sexual abuser? Are you mentally deficient? If yes, then come to the TSA--they have a job for you!)
9 Oct  (FCM) Ukraine
10 Oct  (Judiciary) RCW (A young boy kisses a girl and goes to jail. Another young boy horrificallyrapes and murders Nirbhaya and gets free boarding and lodging.
10 Oct  (Pati, $) G.A. (What?! Politicians are considering taxing and spending?! Stop the presses! This is news!)
11 Oct  (Thieves & Sexual Abusers) G.A. (Boo hoo hoo. He who lives by government dies by government)
11 Oct  (Pati, OC) Canada
12 Oct  (OC) Mexico
13 Oct  (Thieves & Sexual Abusers) G.A. (Only thieves and sexual abusers re qualified to work for the monstrous entity known as Thieves & Sexual Abusers)
15 Oct  (FCM) Bosnia & Herzegovina
15 Oct  (FCM) Canada
16 Oct (FCM, $) G.A.
16 Oct (Pati) G.A.
17 Oct (FCM, GI) RCW
17 Oct (Pati, $) G.A. (Governments heave sigh of relief; taxpayers have to foot the bill for government's spending more than it takes. The kicking of the can, Part 2)
18 Oct (FCM, Cannibalism) RCW (Where else?!)
18 Oct  (Pati) RCW
18 Oct  (Pati) RCW
18 Oct  (FCM) G.A. (U.S. taxpayers are continuing to pay for the Keystone Cops.)
18 Oct  ($) France (Their tax dollars not at work.)
18 Oct  (Thieves & Sexual Abusers) G.A.
18 Oct  (Thieves & Sexual Abusers) G.A. (If the Thugs & Sexual Abusers really wanted to catch terrorists then they ought to look in the mirror.)
19 Oct  (Pati) RCW (To err is human; to really screw things up requires government)
20 Oct  China
20 Oct  (Pati) U.K.
21 Oct  (FCM) RCW
22 Oct  (Pati) RCW
22 Oct  (Pati, Military) G.A.
22 Oct  (Thieves & Sexual Abusers) G.A. (Permisionnotright to travel.)
23 Oct  (FCM) RCW (Under "Cop bribe")
23 Oct  (Pati, $) G.A.
24 Oct  (FCM) RCW
24 Oct  (Pati, Military) G.A. ("U.S. counter-terrorism operations are precise, legal and effective..." What is "legal"? Anything that the makers of diktats say is legal.)
24 Oct  (Military, GI) G.A.
24 Oct  (Pati) G.A. (Fired for not being a Nazi; I suppose that this is actually a good thing--it would be even better if there weren't so many politically fascist, economically socialistic rulers.)
24 Oct  (Irresponsible Rotten Scum, $) G.A. (Money taken by criminals, going to criminals)
25 Oct  (FCM, GI) RCW
25 Oct  (Judiciary) RCW (Fifteen years to get justice?! I think that Bushama is envious, and is keeping Guantanamo Bay Prison open so that he can exceed that time)
25 Oct  (FCM) RCW
25 Oct  (Pati) G.A. (Is this not like the pot calling the kettle "black"? Or has Bushama conveniently "forgotten" about Guantanamo Bay Prison?)
28 Oct  (FCM, GI) RCW
28 Oct  (OC, $) G.A. (The G.A. as ambulance-chaser. Socialized medical insurance--aka "health care" or ObamaCare--is good for government, but how is it good for you?).
28 Oct (FCM, GI) RCW
28 Oct (Pati) RCW
29 Oct (FCM, GI) RCW ("Police inaction"? A redundancy)
29 Oct  RCW
29 Oct  (Pati) G.A. (Just yesterday, there was an article that said that Bushama did know of the spying on Merkel by the Nazi Scum of America. It seems the government does not know what it does not know.)

The restaurant (in Kolkata), not the Italian merchant traveller.

Caroline received some (not a lot) of money recently, and decided to use some of that to treat herself and me to a nice dinner at Marco Polo (apparently officially named as Marco Polo in China). She had been there several years ago, and fondly remembered having a pork meal along with a drink.

The evening we went, it was raining. It rained throughout the night and, the next morning, we woke up to the worst floods that I have ever seen (and recounted in my recent News: Other post). We opened the door to the restaurant, went in, and I saw that it was indeed a 5-star restaurant. I was fearful that our wet shoes might track a lot of water, but the granite(?) floor seemed to make the water almost invisible.
Caroline headed for the "downstairs" or lower section (where she had eaten before), but we were led to the "upstairs" or upper section, which had a wide stairway. We were also led to a table for two, but Caroline likes to have a lot of room so she went to a table for six. We were the only customers there at that time so there was no real objection. Moreover, the seats along the wall were far more comfortable.
Again, it was raining outside and yet the AC was on, making it chilly even for me (and I am more used to cooler temperatures, having lived in San Francisco). She asked a waiter to turn it off and he complied.
She commented that there were no table cloths. I mentioned that there were place-mats, and that it seemed to be part of its professional ambiance. However, the wood did seem to be somewhat damaged, although that may have been some imperfections in the paint or glaze used.
Even before that, she bemoaned the dim lighting. I mentioned that all 5-star restaurants have dim lighting, to promote an ambiance and to encourage conversation (rather than reading). However, it did make it difficult to read the menu so it may have been counter-productive.
 

We were given the menu which was almost like a thick coffee-table book, bound in leather(?) (although, this being India, it was more likely vinyl). At about the same time, we learned of two things:
1) They offer a buffet for 750 rupees. She is fond of having a buffet, as she had it twice at a nice (vegetarian) restaurant in Hyderabad, and she finds it practical as she can eat a lot and she likes to have a variety of dishes. However, I do not eat a lot and when I go to a restaurant, I usually have a type of meal in mind. However, they offer the buffet at 7:00pm, and it was still about ten minutes before that, so she had to wait a little bit more.
2) When she decided to go to Marco Polo, she encouraged me to have a pork dish, as she had that several years ago there. However, they no longer offer pork dishes. Moreover, I felt that I wanted spaghetti or another pasta dish and, especially with a name like Marco Polo, I assumed that they would have it. I decided to have the Spaghetti alla Carbonara for 425, partly because it had bacon. Other than two or three times at the Changi (Singapore) Airport and perhaps once or twice in Cebu, I have not had bacon since my arrival in India--and certainly never had bacon here in India. I could have ordered the Spaghetti alla Amatriciana which was also 425 and also had bacon, but it also had chili flakes, and I did not want anything spicy. Of course, I could have asked them to not make it with chili flakes, but it did not seem to be worth the effort.
They do offer a large variety of dishes (as evidenced by the large-sized menu), almost all of which are under 500, including pasta, noodles, Chinese, Tandoori, grilled and seafood. However, the dishes with prawn, lobster or crab are usually 550.

For drinks, I examined the menu. As I mentioned in my Sick of India? post, we stayed at the Taj Bengal about thirteen years ago. At one of the restaurants, she ordered a duck (or perhaps it was lobster or crab) dish without looking at the menu. I did not want to have anything because I was feeling unwell, but one of the waiters brought out a few bottles of wine, one of which was from Sonoma County, not far from San Francisco! I hoped and expected to have just a glass, but he gave us the entire bottle. When I got the bill, the meal was an astronomical INR11,000 (if I remember correctly; in any case it was the equivalent of USD240.00, at that time) of which USD125.00 was for the wine! When I returned home, I found the vintage for just USD8.00 at Safeway (a grocery store)! Since then, I have been leery of prices of drinks in nice restaurants.
At Marco Polo, they do have sparkling wine for 1800 and overseas wine "as per brand". Needless to say, we did not have the wine. However, most of the cocktails were under 400. She had the brandy for 375 because, especially during the older months, it helps to warm her up. However, when she was given the brandy, it was so little that she felt cheated. When I have a drink, it is often Kingfisher beer. However, I decided to have a Long Island Iced Tea, also for 375. In San Francisco, someone introduced the drink to me and I have been fond of it ever since. I am somewhat leery of ordering it at new places because I once ordered it at a bar and restaurant in San Francisco and it was so strong that I did not like it. However, I now realize that that was the only place that made it not to my liking. At Marco Polo, they served it in a wide and very tall glass.

The service was professional and, at the same time, delivered the Wow! that Wells Fargo strives to achieve in every interaction with customers. Again, Caroline had the buffet so it was understood that she would get the food. However, for her second dish, she asked one of the waiters to get her some food and he did! A slight damper was that they would not pack up the food for her. This, of course is understandable because otherwise people would order enormous amounts of food and have it for the next few days at home. However, she genuinely wanted to give it to the poor people so it was a shame that the food went to waste instead.

My overall impression is that Marco Polo is very professional, both in appearance and in service, and may appeal more to business people along with their colleagues whereas Mocambo may appeal more to couples and to families. It certainly is more expensive than Mocambo and may be commensurate with the restaurants of the Taj Bengal. However, if you can afford it then it is worth going to.

[For introduction, see Part 1]

As I have mentioned in a few reviews, the length of a film is usually not note-worthy. It is not note-worthy in this film, but I just want to mention that the intermission came surprisingly early. I think, though, that it was a break based on the nature of the film rather than on its length. It separated the first portion from the more action-packed time after the intermission..

The songs in this film were also not especially note-worthy.  They may be note-worthy only in relation to other songs; specifically, both Caroline and I thought that the location of the scenes in Dil Tu Hi Bataa resembled those from Pagal Anukan in Enthiran/Robo/Robot (if they were not the very same locations).

In India, every actor is a dancer, but not every actor is known as a dancer. Hrithik Roshan is one of those who are.As I mentioned in the linked post, Caroline thinks of him as a "jelly fish". To a certain extent, I agree. I tried to put all of that out of my mind and simply concentrate on the first and most popular SAD (song-and-dance) routine in the film. I realized that he is "different" which is not necessarily bad. After all, if a person dislikes an objectively excellent performance then it would be a fault in the viewer's interpretation and appreciation of it. If a person dislikes a song sung by Michael Jackson then it is most likely a defect in that person's observation and experience of it. In the end, though, I still thought of Hrithik's dancing as being like that of a jelly fish.  

The film stars Hrithik Roshan as Krrish (the superhero), Krishna Mehra (his real name, and his "alter ego") and as Rohit Mehra (his own father!). For this, I give praise to Hrithik as an actor. The character of his father and that of Krrish/Krishna were so different that it had to take a person of great acting ability to make both of them believable, especially as they often appeared together (with the help of special effects).
Vivek Oberoi, on the other hand, played Kaal, the villain. Vivek is one of those actors--along with Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Shahid Kapoor and a couple of others--whom Caroline detests. I did enjoy his performance in Company (his very first film, in 2002) but I agree that he has contributed little, if anything, to subsequent films.
In the beginning of this film, I thought that his character could have been portrayed with more believable intensity by Ronit Roy or by one of the many actors in a few of the television series shown on the Life OK channel. However, I thought that the director wanted a "name" actor to match Hrithik. Caroline thought that Jackie Schroff would have been a good choice. I gradually warmed up to Vivek's performance, especially after his character regained the use of his back and legs.
Vivek also plays the son(?) of Rohit Mehra, and thus the brother(?) of Krishna Mehra. I use the question marks because Kaal, after capturing Rohit, calls him "Dad". It was my impression that Rohit simply conducted experiments on the very young Kaal that resulted in his being confined to a wheelchair, not that he was his biological father. It was a very confusing scene and even Caroline could not explain whether Rohit was or was not his father. If he was then it would be a reverse-Star Wars, in which Kaal says, laden with heavy breathing, "Rohit, I am your son". 
I was somewhat disappointed with Priyanka Chopra as Priya Mehra, the wife of Krishna/Krrish (after meeting him in Krrish and after Preity Zinta's character--his love-interest in Koi...Mil Gaya--was apparently killed off). She did not seem to be much more than arm-candy throughout the film.
On the other hand, both Caroline and I were impressed with the performance of Kangana Ranaut as Kaya, one of the evil minions of Kaal and who gradually falls in love with Krishna (not knowing that he is also Krrish). Caroline knew that she acted in Fashion starring...Priyanka Chopra! but wanted me to find out ore about her.
She is a relative newcomer, appearing in just 24 films since 2006. I had read that she got many rave reviews of her performance in this film, and she has already won 7 awards and received two other nominations.
It also stars(?) Gowhar Khan as Frog-Mam, Nazia Shaikh as Cheetah-Woman, Sameer Ali Khan as Ant-Man, Shaurya Chauhan as Scorpion-Woman and Danniel Khaleb as Rhino-Man. I put a question mark here because they have no speaking roles, and they have no entries either at Wikipedia or Imdb (except for Shaurya at Wikipedia and Sameer at Imdb). It is a shame because they do enhance the film, and it was always fun to see Frog-Man (especially when he was stealing ice cream).
It also stars Fareed Zakaria, the host of the CNN show with his name! Actually, it features Arif Zakaria. I found out that both Fareed and Arif were born in Mumbai within a few years of each other, implying that they were brothers (Fareed being just four years older), but there was never any mention of them being related. Through a more exhaustive search, I found that Fareed's father had four children by two wives, none of whom were Arif! It is extremely surprising and even mysterious that two people with the same surname, born in the same city within a few years of each other can look like identical twins but have no known relationship! (During the film, I thought that Arif's character was meant to look like Dr. Sanja Gupta--the candidate for Surgeon General under Barack Obama--as Arif was playing a doctor. In either case, all three of them look eerily similar.)

Arif Zakaria

Fareed Zakaria

It also stars Anupam Kher as a doctor under the orders of Kaal (Ha ha). Anupam Kher is a well-respected actor, having acted in over 350 films over 30 years and winning many awards, and I wondered how he could have accepted such a menial role. Then I saw a scene which showed him more prominently and I could see that he was not Anupam Kher! Caroline told me that the actual actor was Anupam's real-life brother!
It does feature Asif Basra. I greatly enjoyed the Hollywood film Outsourced and  have since seen this actor in small roles in The Attacks of 26/11 and now Krrish 3.
The film does not star Preity Zinta, who was Hrithik's love interest in Koi...Mil Gaya. In Krrish, we see her only in a garlanded framed photo. I do not think that this was explained either in KMG or in Krrish. My guess is that Preity Zinta could not or would not do the sequel, so the writers killed off her character.

Nor does it star Rekha. In Krrish she played an elderly grandmother to Krishna. I suppose that the script required her to be very elderly, but in real life, she is only 59 years old. Because of the age she portrayed, I guess that the writers killed off her character as well.

For a film about a superhero, it does have its heroic moments more so (or better than) Man of Steel including saving an airliner and saving a baby from being crushed in the climactic fight.
The climactic fight also had a unique and interesting way to kill the villain (Kaal) who could not be killed.
He was very heroic, but it was touching when he realized that he could not fight something; he could not fight the plague that was affecting the millions of people in Mumbai. You can sense his feeling of frustration and helplessness. For this, though, he did seek the help of his father, and soon came up with a solution.
I also enjoyed the brief scene in which Kaya (a shape-shifter who was imitating Priya Mehra at the time) sees a chameleon in the garden of the Mehras; it was very apropos. 

I think that my concept of "unreality"--things happening or appearing with no logical or rational basis, and which I have exemplified in a few reviews--is catching on. A few days before I watched the film, I read this review in which the author asks why someone who is obviously well off financially should be looking for a job as a security guard(and the other jobs he was seeking).
The film also had a uniquely "Bollywood" scene. Kaal destroys the statue of Krrish and, a few seconds later, the police arrive in cars (along with many journalists)! How did they know of this event just seconds after it occurred and how did everyone arrive--at the exact same time--within a few seconds after the destruction?
On the subject of the statue and police, there is a scene in which Rohit Mehra accepts a prestigious award at the location of the statue. There are policemen with large rifles in the aisles. This gave the impression that something villainous would soon happen, but nothing did. Why were the policemen in the aisles then?

There seems to be a lot of criticism about a lot of Hindi films imitating other films, primarily those of Hollywood. To me, such "copying" is irrelevant. Comic films appeared in Hollywood beforefilms even appeared in India! Does this mean that all comic films are copies of those in Hollywood?! We should judge each scene on its own merits.
In one scene of Krrsih 3, several children say something that I believe can be translated as "I am also with you (Krrish)!" This reminded me of the message of The Dark Knight Rises that anybody could be Batman. This was further enhanced when Krrish told a boy whom he had just rescued that he could be like Krrish as long as he did not try to run and fly like him. It was a nice cautionary tale.

In Part 1, I wrote that Krrish 3 is a wonderful attempt at bringing an Indian superhero to the national consciousness and that it is worth watching twice. Very many people agree with me as the Telegraph printed today the feedback of many of its readers, the overwhelming number of whom said that it is a wonderful film.

Whatever became of Krrish 2?

Caroline wanted to watch Krrish 3 because she saw a preview of it and wanted to see more of the wonderful special effects. I wanted to watch it because I enjoyed watching Koi..Mil Gaya and Krrish (perhaps that is why this film is titled as number 3), and because I wanted  to discuss the dearth of certain things and topics in India.

India has about 1.236 billion inhabitants; the United States has about 0.317 billion people. India has almost four times as many people so, in theory, it should have four times more of everything.

It should have four times as many professional sports teams as does the U.S. In the U.S., baseball, basketball and American football are extremely popular, each with crores (tens of millions) of followers. They each have more than 30 professional teams. In India, there is only cricket* with a paltry 8-10 professional teams.

*(There is football/soccer and field hockey--which may or may not be the National Sport--but I rarely see news articles about them, let alone see them on television.)

It should have four times as many centenarians as does the U.S. The U.S. has 53,364 (as of 2010). In theory, India should have about 2 lakh (200,000) centenarians. Instead, it has no more than 20,000, far fewer than those in the U.S.

It should have far more Academy Award nominations for Best Foreign Language Film than it does. More films are produced here than anywhere else, including the United States. Instead, it has only three: Mother India (its very first submission); Salaam Bombay! (featuring a young Irrfan Khan); and Lagaan (starring Aamir Khan). Even more disheartening is that none of them won.

It should have far more comedians. I may elaborate upon comedy in another post in the near future, but here I want to acknowledge that this may be an unfair observation. After all, "dying is easy; comedy is hard". Even Jim Carrey seems to do as many dramatic roles as he does comedic roles. In India, there are (or were) people like Asrani, Johnny Walker, Mehmood and Kader Khan, but they are either dead, retired, or have negligible roles now. Currently, there is only Govinda,  who was surprisingly good in Sandwich. There are Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Paresh Rawal and Boman Irani but they (especially Paresh Rawal) are versatile actors and have also done action, dramatic, romantic and villain roles. When they do comedy, they are usually good only in ensemble films. There are also Johnny Lever and the television series Comedy Circus, but there must be more to comedy than simply having bulging eyes and a female host with a very, very, very annoying laugh.
It should be noted that satire is done very well here, and is appreciated (except by HRH Mamata Banerjee). Perhaps it is because it is so easy, with criminal politicians and incompetent police (yes, both of these are redundancies) being so prevalent in India. Regardless, I enjoy watching The Week That Wasn't with Cyrus Broacha.

It should have far more (fictional) super-heroes. This, too, may be an unfair observation. After all, in the U.S. most of the credit goes to Stan Lee. If the situation were reversed and if India did have someone of Stan Lee's stature, and the U.S. did not then the results might also have been reversed.
It may be an unfair observation also because there have been some attempts at introducing super-heroes on film. There was Ra.One but critics usually found it disappointing, as did I. Drona was one of the biggest flops in the history of Indian cinema. Mr. India was a wonderful film that had wonderful potential, but it was made in the time before sequels were known in India. There is talk of making a sequel now, but it seems to be just that--talk.Shaktiman may be the best example of an indigenous superhero, although it was shown only on television.
In the U.S., superheroes came about from comic books and then evolved to larger audiences through television and films. In India, superheroes in comic books were nipped in the bud "with the advent of cable television, Internet and other modes of entertainment in India".
Having watched Krrish 3, I think that it is the best attempt at creating a superhero for all ages, for many ages to come.


It should have four times as many cinema screens as does the U.S. On the same day that we watched Krrish 3, Caroline asked me why movies do not run for long in India. Many years ago, many films would complete a Silver Jubilee (running for 25 weeks). Now, almost no film lasts more than 4 weeks in cinemas. (Although DDLJ is still going strong at the Maratha Mandir theatre in Mumbai after 18 years). It was serendipitous that she asked me that question as I had been thinking about that topic for awhile. There are two easy answers and one somewhat problematical answer,
1) The number of screens. Again, India has four times as many people so there should be four times as many movie screens as there are in the U.S. According to this map, there are slightly more than 40,000 cinema screens in the United States and only slightly more than 10,000 screens in India--four times fewer screens. The figure for the U..S. is probably accurate but I suspect that of India is far lower than it actually is. I suspect this because a) the film industry--although the largest in the world--is not consistent with figures. It is often difficult to determine the true amount that an Indian film grosses because one reporting agency will report one figure and another reporting agency will report another figure. Wikipedia and Imdb almost never report the same amount, and other sources may report yet another figure.and b) other articles report higher figures for the number of screens. This article indicates that there are slightly more than 10,000 single screens in India--the implication that it ignores the growing number of multiplexes in the country. This article gives a higher figure of 13,000 theatres. This still raises the questions of the number of the number of screens, and what exactly is a theatre? The Inox is a large chain of multiplexes, with almost 300 screens throughout India. Are all these screens considered to be one theatre? I suspect that there are still more single-screen cinemas that multiplexes in India. However, since multiplexes--by definition--have more screens there could be another 10-13,000 (or more) screens. Still, it may not approach the number in the U.S. Why is this?
Since it is based not on population, I believe that it is based on geography. The U.S. is far larger in area, and there are small towns with populations of 5,000 people that are separated from other populated areas and which, most likely, have their own cinema hall (or even multiplex). If Kolkata were to have one cinema screen for every 5,000 of its 1.44 crore (14,400,000) inhabitants in its metropolitan area then it would have 2,880 screens! Obviously, it does not have that many.
This lower-per-capita number of screens ought to result in films lasting longer in the cinema. When Star Wars was first shown in 1977, the only theatre in all of Northern California that showed it was the Coronet Theater (now closed and demolished) in San Francisco. Needless to say, there were extremely long lines for it, forcing people to wait a very long time to watch it, and forcing the theaters to keep showing it for a very long time.
There is some evidence that this has made an impact in India, even now. Even now, blockbusters are often housefull/sold out during the first week. However, films still rarely last more than four weeks.
2) Perhaps a more accurate answer is that it is a result of television, Youtube and pirated versions. As I wrote in Television Programs, television sets and programs were relatively rare even just 30 years ago. Thus, the only entertainment was the movies. There certainly were no multiplexes then so each of the fewer cinema halls had more people watching the films, necessitating the halls to screen them for a longer period of time. Now, films--even mega-hits like Chennai Express are shown a few weeks after the end of its theatrical release. Thus, many people simply wait for it to be shown on television.
Both Caroline and I have maintained, though, that good films ought to be watched on the big screen to get a better(?) experience. Unfortunately, this being India, the film-going experience means hearing very many mobiles ringing and seeing many people use their smart-phones. This could be yet another reason why people do not go to the cinemas as much now.
Similarly, Youtube (as well as DVDs and downloads) could be other reasons. However, this being India, pirated versions can be a more significant and unique reason. A few years ago, while I was away on one of my mandatory departures from India, Caroline and her mother watched Ra.Onenot in the cinema hall but from a pirated DVD! (Although I do not think that they were aware of the concept of piracy at that time.)
These reasons are verified in this article.
3) Perhaps the most accurate reason is that there may be fewer films worth watching a second time. Especially now, for a film to last a long time, it must be worth watching more than once. In the U.S., I watched Field of Dreams three times, and The Usual Suspects, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and Om Shanti Om twice in the cinema halls. Since I arrived in India, the only films worth watching more than once are 3 Idiots and Robot, and perhaps English Vinglish, OMG: Oh My GodandBarfi. Chennai Express did gross a lot of money, but only because a great many people decided to watch it once, and it ended no more than four weeks after it began. 

Having watched Krrish 3, I think that it is also worthy of watching again.

In writing, I often have the option of editing a previous post, or writing a new post.
Almost two years ago, I wrote a post about Indian TV Commercials. Now, I have new ideas. Nevertheless, I could incorporate them into that post. However, I prefer not to for two reasons: 1) It would make that post unduly lengthy, and I feel that very long posts can bore the reader and 2) I feel that the new information would be hidden in an old post which no one may see. Hence, this new post.
In my old post, I wrote about very good commercials, some note-worthy ones and some horrible ones. In this post, I shall provide very good and recent commercials, and some general observations. About horrible commercials, I shall only reiterate something that I mentioned in the older post: that even somewhat good (or potentially good) commercials can be made horrible by being repeated ad nauseam. I do not know why this is done. Perhaps it is because there are so few commercials in production that they have to constantly repeat the paucity of commercials, or because the commercial breaks are so long (usually lasting 10-15 minutes) and that they have to fill up the time slot by repeating the commercials.
I do not think that any of the following were repeated ad nauseam but even if they were then I think that they would still be considered good.

1) Old Spice "Mantastic"
A recent, interesting (or perhaps, peculiar) theme for a few (about two or three) commercials is that they feature half-naked men (with the implication that they are fully naked) selling certain products. The following is the one that I find the most humourous.
It stars Milind Soman who has acted in a modicum of films over 18 years and who was born in Scotland and whom I have now listed in my Indians? and Indians! post. I have read an interview of his in which he says that he enjoyed doing the commercial because "it pays the bills". It certainly is popular.

2) Nerolac "Umbrella"
Shahrukh Khan may or may not be a good film actor now (it seems as if he has not starred in a decent film since I arrived here in India) but his commercials are almost always good.
In addition, the music and the lyrics of the song, and the story of the commercial itself are good.

3) Ceat Tyres "Idiots"
These commercials have been around for a few years, but it is only now that I have come to appreciate them. They all center around idiots (both other drivers and pedestrians) and that you should have Ceat Tyres to avoid running into them.
The following commercial is the latest installment.

4) As I briefly mentioned in #1 and as I said in my previous Commercials post, humour--along with an emphasis on a product's excellent qualities--is a very powerful combination and usually results in a commercial being designated as very good.
This Amul's Body Warmer Ultima commercial is such an example. The clerk brings this clothing to the customer who says that it is so thin that it could not possibly keep him warm. The bodywarmer feels insulted and slaps the customer several times.

5) Halkat Sawaal
Technically, these are not commercials as they do not promote any product or service and because they are found only on the 9x Jalwa TV channel (a channel showing music videos). However, they do appear during the commercial breaks, and they are very good (Caroline often laughs out loud when watching them) so I am providing one here.

There are many in the series, but they all revolve around Mr. Halkat (the slim character) selling movie tickets on the black/on the black-market and Mr. Sawaal pestering him with so many questions until Mr. Halkat faints from frustration.

In the United States, I observed that a great many (perhaps most) commercials are of products that Americans need or want. This makes logical and rational sense. In the United States, however, the commercials were of fast-food restaurants and cars. In India, a great many (perhaps most) commercials are of personal care products: toothpaste (usually of Colgate or Pepsodent--Crest is not known here), skin-lightening lotions, shampoo, soap, razors, and perfumes and colognes (the above named Old Spice "Mantastic" being one of them).
There are also a few commercials from abroad--which is somewhat surprising--primarily China (and/or Hong Kong and/or Taiwan) and the United States (or perhaps Australia, England, Canada or another place where there are Caucasians--I can not tell because the voices are dubbed into Hindi).
There are many commercials featuring overweight or even obese children doing normal things (although many of the commercials show them to be eating). Unfortunately, obesity has become the new normal in India, and unfortunately there are no commercials or messages informing people of the health risks and other dangers associated with being overweight.
Another, recent observation about television commercials in India, from the Telegraph nerwspaper.

In my recent review of Krrish 3, I wrote that many people complain that Indian films often copy things from other films. To me, this is irrelevant. If you have not seen the original then it will be new to you. If you have seen the original, and if the copied scenes are done well then it will not matter to you. It will be a concern only if the newer version is not done well, and that is a concern regardless of whether or not you have seen the original. This post, itself, repeats many things that I have written in other posts. However, if you have not read them then this will be new (and hopefully good) to you.

In another post, I wrote that I am a member of both IndiBlogger.in (a community of bloggers in India and of Indian bloggers anywhere) and Expat-Blog.com (a community of not just expats and not just bloggers but of anyone who merely wants to be an expat or know more about them). 

At IndiBlogger, some of the blogs are written in devanagari or other Indian languages. Other blogs are of poetry, fiction or photography. I do admire these genres--I do not think that I have such talent--but I can not get enthused about these posts. Other blogs are too short and/or too personal, about places in India that I have never heard of, about religious festivals or about technological or political minutiae. In short, I can not empathize or connect with many of these blogs.  

At Expat-Blog, however, I do feel simpatico with a great many bloggers and posts. I have concluded that there are two types of expats: those who are accepting, and those who are quizzical. Those who are accepting accept and adopt their new countries just as they had their previous countries. Those who are quizzical challenge the belief systems and actions that are not objective or rational, and certainly of those that are harmful (such as why rape appears to be legal in India). I consider myself to be of the latter type. From Expat-Blog, I think that Indian Samourai is one, as well.

I recently read this post of hers and desired to place a comment there but was hampered by two things: 1) The posts are in English but the template is in French. I knew that the first three boxes were for the commenter's name, email address and website, and that the large box was for the comment. I had (and still have) no idea what the check-boxes are for, and it is only now that I learned that Apercu means "comment" (noun) and that Envoyer means "to send". 2) I felt that I had many comments. Unlike at social networking sites, I do not think that there is a limit to the amount that can be written in a blog post's comment box. However, I felt that it would be more productive and efficient to write my own post, and then link (hopefully) this post to her post's comment box.

 

Fortunately, in the nearly five years that I have been here, I (unlike Indian Samourai) have not come across a person who habitually belches and/or passes gas. However, I have come across 1.236 billion people who spit. (Yes, every Indian.) I sometimes think that the monsoon floods are caused not by the monsoon rains but by the accumulation of spit.

In truth, I rarely see women spit. That may be because I rarely see women. Those who have not been raped and killed come out in public only to shop. When we are in Mumbai, we often go to Md. Ali Road (not far from Grant Road). In the bazaar there, I do see many women, but even then they are wearing burqas. In Kolkata, while waiting for Caroline at a bank, I decided to count the people coming into the bank. Of the 50 people who came inside, 47 were men. I stopped counting after that, but the ratio did seem to hold up throughout my wait.

Regardless, being in public can be unsettling, if not hazardous. People often come out of doorways suddenly to spit. If you are walking on the footpath/sidewalk then there is a good chance that you will be spat upon People often spit on the street. They often spit in front of rickshaw-pullers, many of whom do not wear shoes. I often wonder how many infectious and dangerous germs there are in saliva.

I have come across just two people who sneeze incessantly and loudly. However, one was in our previous residential building, and the other is at our current residence. Thus, there are potentially many more people who have this habit. 

In doing research for an article that I wrote, I learned of a condition called the photic sneeze reflex in which people sneeze to a sudden exposure of bright light. This may be what they suffer from as they sneeze in the morning, when the dark night makes way for the bright dawn. I do not know what is the treatment for this, but surely there must be something, and it would be nice if they followed it so that people would not rise from the dead from hearing this very loud and annoying habit.

There are also a few people who loudly say "Ahh!" after drinking water, chai, coffee or other drinks, much like the annoying security guard in Shoot 'em Up starring Clive Owen. (I wanted to link a video of the scene but could not locate it at Youtube or elsewhere.)
I think that this may hint at a cause of the problem of sneezing. I think that many Kolkatans have difficulty in breathing. This is not surprising as Kolkata is one of the most polluted cities in India and the world. The sneezers whom I have encountered seem to have breathing irregularities.

In addition to having difficulty in breathing (resulting in the two annoying habits described above), several Kolkatans have difficulty in hearing and say "Huh?" repeatedly. When I became more aware of this, I thought that they could be saying "yes" as the Hindi word for it is somewhat similar (although I do not know the Bengali word for "yes"). However, there is still a difference in the words and, moreover, the original speaker always seemed to have to repeat himself/herself. In addition, I came across this article which states that "huh" is somewhat universal in saying and meaning. (I originally found a similar article in the Times of India but that link has disappeared.)

A difficulty in hearing is further evidenced with people who speak by shouting. I suppose that this can be convenient for them. If such a Kolkatan wants to speak to someone in Puri then he does not need to use a telephone; he can just speak and the Odishan will hear him. Unfortunately, it is horrible for those who are in proximity to him.

Even when Kolkatans speak in an acceptable tone they can be annoying. One thing that I hear repeatedly is the question, "Where are you from?" I understand that this can be an attempt at small talk, much like asking about the weather or asking "What's your sign?" in bars/pubs in the United States. However, even these are annoying. Moreover, "Where are you from?" is usually asked by Indian males to foreign females, perhaps in the hope that they can get together so that the Indian can rape and kill her.

Some Kolkatans are annoying when they speak; many more Indians are annoying when they listen. As I mentioned in the first part of my two-part Review of Krrish 3, Indians have on their mobiles in cinema halls and a great many of them will answer them when they ring! Unlike in the United States where there are messages during the previews adjuring people from having on their cell phones, in India there are no such messages. Even if there were, I suspect that Indians would ignore them.

Perhaps it is too easy and unfair to poke fun at those who are different. Perhaps many Indians will be annoyed by my habit of referring to rapes in India. Yes, not every Indian male is a rapist (although, at times, it seems as if they are, given the number of articles in each day's newspaper). However, if people are annoyed at what is real then they are free to change reality. I try to do that by stating the number of rapes in India is horrific, in the hope that others will agree, and ensure that they and their loved ones do not commit such acts. 

Moreover, those who are truly quizzical (like myself) challenge the status quo in the societies in which they were brought up, as.well. In a democracy, you vote for the things that you want. In a republic (as is the United States and India), you vote for the people who will choose what they want. This has now resulted in the Nazi (politically fascist, economically socialist) regime known as Bushama. I am even more disheartened by the fact that Hillary Clinton could very well extend this Reich. By the end of her term, most Americans will have forgotten that there was a time when the War on Civilians did not exist. I always implore people to not give support to such terrorists

By the way, where are you from?

I consider myself to be knowledgeable, astute and erudite in many areas. I may not be a polymath, but I may be close. The majority of my blog posts concern society; however, when called upon, I am hep to the latest in technology. (The young whippersnappers still say "hep" do they not?)

For example, this is I, writing this on my tablet.

First and foremost, I have great difficulty typing on it. It is difficult to find the keyboard, and even when I do see it, it is difficult to press the keys. I am constantly making typographical errors because of the mix-up of letters. It is expensive, having cost BRC1,000 (1,000 Bedrock clams). It is also fragile. If I were to drop it then it would break into pieces.

Fortunately, Lenovo has introduced the new Yoda tablet (or, more appropriately, "introduced the new Yoda tablet, Lenovo has").

Beginning to write like Yoda, unfortunately I am. Green screen and compact size, Yoda tablet has. Backwards writing (right-to-left in most Indo-European languages, and left-to-right in Urdu and other languages) it features. Serutaef ti gnitirw sdrawkcab example is. When in vicinity of competitors' tablets, special app of light saber activated is. Already know you that which you need. Nothing more will I teach you today. Clear your mind of questions. The force runs strong in Lenovo. Pass on what you have learned. There is...no other...tab...let.

Oh wait. I have just been informed that Lenovo has introduced a new Yoga tablet. It does have a compact size, but not the other features (although, I am sure, Lenovo wants us to feel that there is no other tablet).

Its defining features are that it has a hold, tilt and stand modes; that it interacts with keyboards; and that it has an 18-hour battery life.

In other words, it has the best of everything. You can use it when and where you want, how you want, and for how long you want. The keyboard is obviously not a problem. The tablet costs USD249 and, although I would not recommend that you drop it, it is more sturdy than other tablets as it can mimic a laptop.
Be careful when you use it, though. It has the power to destroy the Death Star.

(If you have not guessed it by now, this is an entry for IndiBlogger's contest for the Lenovo Yoga tablet. I have come to enjoy these contests. They are challenging, impel me to be creative; often allow me to write things that I normally would not, or allow me to write things that I have been wanting to discuss, such as in my Naidni post; and, of course, I hope to win prizes.)

[Warning; potentially disturbing photo at the bottom of this post] 

My desires for these monthly Daily Life posts are that they are monthly and that they consist of items or topics which could fit neither elsewhere nor in their own individual posts. Unfortunately, these posts are not consistently monthly. Oftentimes, I do not have enough items or topics to discuss. More recently, though, I was inundated with recreating my War on Civilians post and I did not have a working camera. I attempt to publish these posts along with a Photos post. My camera has been fixed only recently so I still do not have a sufficient number of photos for another post, but I am posting this anyway.
I am also going to pattern this post on what I do each day and discuss those things that are pertinent to them.

After waking up and getting ready for the day, I go outside to wait for the newspaper-wala.For me, there are now 2-3, or even more, newspaper-walas. I stand at one corner of an intersection on Elliot Road, slightly before 7:00am, and a newspaper-wala from that side of the street soon arrives. Sometimes, though, he does not or sometimes I am a little bit late in arriving. In those cases, a newspaper-wala from the other side of the street arrives. Occasionally, although not consistently it seems, another newspaper-wala will come up from the street behind me. Occasionally I need to do other things earlier. At those times, I walk to the intersection of Elliot Road and Royd Street because that sees to be an arterial lane for any newspaper-walas, or I walk to the end of Ripon Street where there is a stand of newspapers and magazines. When we first arrived in our new area, I would get the newspapers from newspaper-walas who went by the chai-stand. They never seemed to go on the other side of Elliot Road; I guess that everyone has their routes assigned to them. In all cases, the newspaper-walas are on bicycles and they see to disappear after early morning.
In our previous residence, the newspaper-wala would walk along Sudder Street and on its by-lanes, and would do so until about 2:00pm. Occasionally, I go back to Sudder Street and see him. He feels that I am neglecting him. I explained to him that I have shifted, but I still feel somewhat guilty for not buying the newspapers from him. However, I still do not, for a few reasons.
The cost. He charged 7 rupees for two newspapers; the others charge 6 rupees. Moreover, if I gave him a 10-rupee note then I would not get change, or I would not get the proper amount. Granted, this is just a matter of a few rupees but in terms of percentages it is a significant amount, and over the long term it does amount to a lot of rupees, and it is the principle of the matter.
The timing. Currently, I buy the newspapers at about 7:00am, go back home to read them (to read interesting articles which I can link to various posts in this blog and/or at Google+) and then go to the Internet Cafe (which is actually close to Sudder Street) at about 9:00am when it opens. If I were to buy the newspapers from him then I have three options:
a) Wait until 9:00am to buy the newspapers from him. However, this would mean that I would be doing virtually nothing for two hours. I wake up before Caroline does, so I do not want to disturb her sleeping. Thus, I do not do much other than reading the newspapers. Moreover, if I did wait until later to read the newspaper then I could not adequately find the articles that are useful.
b) Buy the newspapers from him at about 7:00am. I could then have a cheap breakfast at the Sudder Street Cafe (where I used to eat). However, I eat somewhat quickly, so I would still have to wait awhile before the Internet Cafe opened. Moreover, Winter is approaching and it can be extremely cold in the morning, and SSC is a roadside-stand so it is open to the cold weather.
c) Buy the newspapers from him at about 7:00am, walk back home and read the newspapers there, then walk back to the Sudder Street area. Unlike Caroline who has an arthritic knee, I do not have difficulty in walking, but I am trying to find easier ways of doing things and all this walking seems to be needless. Of course, I could rake an auto-rickshaw or tram but I am trying to find cheaper ways of doing things and all those transportation costs seem to be needless.
What I sometimes do when I see him, to assuage my feelings, I buy him biscuits as I used to do for him on a weekly basis, and which he always appreciated.

Again, I go to an Internet Cafe at about 9:00am. I then meet Caroline at a pre-arranged place for breakfast. This was not always the situation. Earlier, I would wait for her and we would go to breakfast together. However, her leaving would get later and later. Of course, there were the newspapers but I had read and done everything (in addition to reading the articles, I enjoy solving the Jumble, Sudoku and Spellathon puzzles) by the time that she was ready, so I was spending an increasingly longer amount of time doing nothing. Hence, my change of plans.
Regardless, when we did go out together, we took a shortcut along a narrow lane. There, we often saw remarkable things. There were virtually nothing except small shops, attracting many pedestrians. At the same time, and even though it is narrow, there are vehicles (including taxis and lorries) that go along the lane. This makes it even more difficult to be a pedestrian on the road.
In addition to the innumerable shops (including a few on the footpath and street) we enjoyed seeing the animals. It was from here that I got inspiration for my recent Fowl and the Pussycat post. We also came to know of Mini-Cow. She seemed to be a fully-developed and grown cow but still very short in stature. There were other cows (whom we named as Skinny-Cow) who were equally short. We liked Mini-Cow because she was somewhat plump (Caroline described her stomach as being like a football) and because her eyes seemed to be indicative of a friendly disposition. For better or for worse, the lane is inhabited by Muslims, so cows never last long there. We often see cow-tails and beef-meat hanging from the shops. I tell Mini-Cow to run to the Hindu neighbourhoods but she has not listened to me.
We see goats and goat-shops (for mutton) but recently I have seen a few Mini-Goats. As with Mini-Cow, I think that they are fully grown, but just short in stature. I think that they may also be a slightly different species or variety, as their heads resemble those to which I was accustomed. The larger goats have a flat face.











In addition to Mini-Cow and Mini-Goat, Caroline has seen someone whom she has named "Mini-Father" at one of the Catholic Churches she attends. Near our home, there is an Airtel shop that--on its sign--proclaims itself as being a Mini-Store. India is also home to the Tata Nano. For such a big country, everything in it seems to be small.

On our way to our breakfast place(s), we see something that we always see: that the roads are always being dug up, even those that are especially narrow (or, perhaps, especially those that are especially narrow). The sewer lines always seem to be in need of repair, and they seem to be quite deep. Because the roads are so narrow and because labour is very cheap, everything is done by pick-axes, shovels and other hand-tools. (The Indian government, unlike that of the U.S., does not seem to eager to extract large amounts of property from productive people, to be spent on expensive and wasteful things.)  In any case, we sometimes see workers standing up in these holes, with their heads still a few feet below street level!
On the subject of street, since we see the cross-section, we see that there is about 25cm (about 10 inches) worth of pavement making up the streets. I am not a civil engineer, and therefore do not know if that is the proper amount, but it does seem to me now that it is an inordinate amount.

We have also seen something that we never saw before or since. We saw a Muslim man having a condition similar to this Hindu man. (I found the photo below from Google Images; I did not think that it would have been appropriate to take a photo of the Muslim man--especially as I had never seen him before.) The blog states that it is a result of leprosy. It is true that leprosy is prevalent in India, where 70% of the people afflicted with it reside. However, I searched for "leprosy" at Google Images and, although I did find some disturbing photos, I did not find anything quite like this.In short, I am not certain what is this condition.

This post is over 1,500 words long now. As a blogger, I am not averse to long posts. I have read the posts of other bloggers which are perhaps 3,000 words, or even longer. However, I believe--rightly or wrongly--that posts of 2,000 words tend to tax the patience of readers or to bore them. Thus, and when there is a natural break, I prefer to split a long post.
I plan to publish Part 2 next month, hopefully in conjunction with a Photos post.

I tend to be extremely busy and anxious toward the end of each month. To alleviate this, I sometimes publish some posts (such as News: Other and GaC) early, and then do my best to ignore other articles that could be linked in them.

In October, I did that but the next day I found three note-worthy articles. Of course, I could have edited my October post to include them but I felt that they would then have been overlooked by the first readers of the post, and they would have been at the very bottom of the post. Also, I could have continued to ignore the articles, but I decided to include them in this post.

30 Oct  Throughout these posts, I state that I am intrigued by minorities in India and by history. The linked article is about the now very interesting history of the southern portion of West Bengal. 

30 Oct  I am including this article for two reasons: 1) The typographical error much more healthier which was in not only the print edition but also the online version. Many Indians can be quite eloquent and erudite in written English. In fact, I have read some words that I have never before read or heard, and have included these words in my Glossary post. However, I have also come across many typographical errors. It may be because of the times pressures of writing for a daily newspaper (I am sure that I would have many errors if I were forced to write a lengthy post within an hour) or because of a lack of a proper education. It seems that more people write it's (it is or it has) and its (possessive form) incorrectly; it seems that the incorrect has become the correct, and that is a great shame.

2) The horrific idea in India that obesity can even be considered as being "healthy". This is like saying that ice is hot, black is white, Indian cops do something, and that politicians have your best interests at heart. None of this does or should make sense. Yet, obesity is worshiped, adored and emulated in India. This is an even greater shame.

31 Oct  I considered putting this into my GaC post. Although it could be appropriate there, I want to discuss the ideas behind the quotes which seem to afflict many people.
"Everyone spies; what's the big deal?" Wow! Such powerful logic! Let me try it out: In India, every female is raped; what's the big deal?
When I was a young child, I would ask my parents for permission to go to little Timmy's party because everyone was going. My mother would usually respond by asking, "If everyone were jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge then would you want to do that?" It seems that General Alexander the Killer does not know what 5-year old children know.
"As Americans, we face an unending array of threats to our way of life. We need to sustain our ability to detect these threats". Replace "Americans" with "North Koreans" and the North Korean dictator could have said the same thing.

2 Nov  A view by a foreigner of not necessarily India but the Indian military

2 Nov A view by an Indian of the warlike savages

2 Nov I found this typical Rajnikanth joke in the print edition of the Calcutta Telegraph
2 Nov The author begins by contradicting himself--that poor people have rights but to realize those rights, they have to seek permission from the government--but the rest of the article is quite astute.

3 Nov  I have read several articles about the book Gandhi: Before India which presumably was published recently. Here is another such article.

3 Nov  In this blog, I attempt to provide a feel for how it is to live in a country other than where you were born and raised. I am constrained, however, by where I am specifically (i.e. Kolkata). I hope, however, that the ideas can be extrapolated and applied anywhere.
Regardless, here is some down-to-Earth information on another location in India: Sikkim. I wonder, however, how it can be a tourist destination. I have read that there is neither an airport nor even a train station. My guess is that you can get there only by bus from Kolkata, Darjeeling or Guwahati (in Assam).
The same day, however, I saw this article which indicates that tourism is not prosperous in Sikkim. This article does seem to be based on information from several tears ago whereas the first article seems to be more current.

3 Nov  In these monthly posts, I  link articles often of foreigners in India and sometimes of Indians in the U.S. (or views of the U.S.). This linked article is an example of the latter, and I am including it because, about 30 years ago, I visited a friend in the state of Hawaii. He worked at First Interstate Bank (later bought out by Wells Fargo) which was a sponsor of the Ironman Triathlon. I was visiting him at the time of the race so I became a volunteer.
I learned two small things from it: 1) You are supposed to jog with the runners to give them a drink (they do not want to slow down to take the drink, and they find it difficult to take it from a stationary hand) and 2) They do not like Pepsi (apparently another sponsor of the event) because of the carbonation (although flat Pepsi is ok).
There was an entrant named "Cow-Man" because he raced in a cow-costume, and had been doing that for a few years. Since then, the rce has become far more professional, and I do not know if he still races in the Triathlon.

3 Nov  This article of Ravinder Singh reminded me of myself (or, at least, of what I hope to be).
In the U.S., I did neither writing nor social networking. My social networking was simply my interacting with my clients at Wells Fargo Bank.
After arriving in India, I became active at Classmates.com, then IndiaMike.com,  then Orkut.com. Especially at Orkut (and even at Google+, where I am currently), I became frustrated that it was difficult to communicate the things that I felt needed to be communicated so I started writing at Blogger.com (and now, a few other places).
I can only hope that one day (preferably soon) I shall be as financially successful as Mr Singh.

5 Nov  This article is obviously not about anything related to India or the U.S., but it is about one of the strange or peculiar things that I have been thinking about for awhile: the impossibility of us being alone in the universe.
Wikipedia states that there are at least 170 billion galaxies in the universe. It gives a broad range of stars in each galaxy but let me say that the average number may be close to the middle, at about 10 billion stars in each galaxy. I have no idea how many planets there are in each solar system. Our solar system has 8. That may (or may not) be high as an average, but since I may have been too conservative in the number of stars in each galaxy--and for mathematical ease--let me provide an average of 6 planets in each solar system. Thus, there are most likely (if I have corrected done my multiplication and counting of the zeroes) 10 sextillion planets in the universe.
Now, for the sake of argument, let us agree that only 0.0001% of these planets have life on them, and that only 0.0001% of those planets with life have intelligent life, and that only 0.0001% of those with intelligent life now have the capability and technology to communicate and interact with us. Applying this infinitesimally small percentage to the planets, I calculate that there should still be 10 billion planets that have inhabitants that can contact us.
The dated-linked article indicates that there are 11 billion planets like Earth in our galaxy. Applying the same infinitesimally small percentage to these planets indicate that we could be alone in the galaxy, but not in the universe.

7 Nov  In a few posts, I have commented about the dearth of sports in India. Right now, though, the news is sports: specifically of Sachin Tendulkr's retirement and the upcoming World Chess Chamionship, held in Chennai. Another article of Tendulkar. and one of the chess match (appearing on the same day). There was also a full-page advertisement of the chess match, in the Times of India but I could find it through neither Google Images nor a Google search.
On 14 November, there was a special 12-page section in the Times of India devoted to Sachin Tendulkar, and called "Sach a Joy". The next day, there was an 8-page section in the Telegraph.
On 17 November, there was an article about the two chess palyers. It now looks as if India will lose its World Champion status.

8 Nov  Articles about unique times and dates (in this case, 11/12/13) are somewhat numerous and is becoming somewhat boring. (My American birthday, however, is 10 October, so I enjoyed reading the articles about 10/10/10 a few years ago.) I am linking this article partly because I suspect that it was written in the United States as, other than the U.S., the Philippines and perhaps Canada, the rest of the world understands 11/12/13 as being the 11th of December, not November 12 as stated in the article.

10 Nov  The actress Jiah Khan committed suicide(?) a few months ago, but there was always a cloud of suspicion on her boyfriend, Suraj Pancholi (another actor). Unfortunately, the incompetent government doctors (a redundancy) destroyed evidence. This article indicates that there could still be a resolution to this tragedy.

10 Nov  A guideline, if not rule, of this monthly post is that I include articles from the Telegraph and the Times of India which I can not place in other posts and which pertain to India or the United States. However, I have also been to Cebu in the Philippines so I am including these articles about Typhoon Haiyan. None of the articles that I have seen mention Cebu, but I have seen maps which indicate that Cebu was still amongst the worst-hit areas in the Philippines.
Growing up in the U.S., I was aware that Cuba suffered from the devastation inflicted from numerous hurricanes. The Philippines seems to be prone to even more natural disasters as the linked article says that "The Philippines endures a seemingly never-ending pattern of deadly typhoons, earthquakes, volcano eruptions and other natural disasters".
Other articles are 1, 2

11 Nov The Times of India has been providing the games (or parts of the games) between Vishwanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen each day after the game. Unfortunately, I did not keep the first game. I could probably search for it, but it does not see worth the bother (especially as that one was a quick draw. The following games are here: Game #2, Game #3, Game #4, Game #5, Game #6, Game #7Game #8, Game #9, Game #10
 

12 Nov  It seems that every month, I link an article of an American celebrity in India. This one, of Robert De Niro, seems to be more significant though; in the print edition, there were many photos of him with Anupam Kher, Anil Kapoor, and others, in addition to Ranbir Kapoor in the online version.
Sharon Stone in India. On the same day and on the same page that I saw that article, I saw an article about Oprah and Lindsey Lohan possibly coming to India. However, I could not find the online version.

14 Nov  Prince Charles is in India at the same time that PM David Cameron is in Kolkata

17 Nov  I read the full text of Sachin Tendulkar's farewell speech in the print edition of the Times of India. When I searched for the online version, I found one dated 16 November and significantly shorter than the print version. Upon further research, I found one in another newspaper which matches the one that I had seen.

17 Nov On the same day that I saw an Amazing Spiderman cartoon featuring the San Francisco International Airport, I saw this article about "Batkid" in San Francisco.

17 Nov Kolkata and India are the repositories of forgotten things. I still see many LPs being sold along Mirza Ghalib St. (nee Free School Street) and, until recently, you could send a telegram. However, it seems that even harmonicas have been forgotten in India. Cassettes are also slowly (or maybe quickly) disappearing

20 Nov  I do not think that I have ever included an article from the Business section but this one about Bharatiya Bahila Bank caught my eye.

20 Nov  In the early morning of 11 November, there was a killing not very far from where we live. Since then, it has become almost like a serial/soap opera, with daily updates and an ever-increasing cast of characters. Here are other articles about it 1, 2, 3, 4

21 Nov I have written about trams in Kolkata (the only city in India to have them). Because of that fact, I have a slight fondness for them as they remind me of cable cars in San Francisco. Caroline, on the other hand, dislikes them for being so noisy and for causing the roads to be especially horrible. This recent incident shows that she may be more correct. Here is an article from the Times.
The result is that the trams have stopped plying along Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road and Elliot Road.

21 Nov  For awhile, we had been considering going to Hyderabad at this time, but backed out at the last moment. Regardless, the city seems to be suffering from several severe storms recently.  

22 Nov The Times of India is 175 years old now. In celebration, there are many articles about history. This article looks at heritage buildings in Kolkata, such as the Indian Museum (where Caroline's Uncle worked for many years); the Great Eastern Hotel where I stayed for a few days, many years ago when it was in great disrepair although it has now been remodeled into a 5-star hotel; the National Library; and other buildings.

26 Nov  This is an interesting article, and it is even more interesting in that the best actor is not an actor but an actress--Deepika Padukone, who beat the 3 Khans and Ranbir Kapoor, rhe heir to the reign of the 3 Khans.

28 Nov  News of Hollywood appeals to me; news of Hindi cinema appeals to me; and news comparing or contrasting the two appeals to me most of all. This article is of actors and actresses who have gained and/or lost weight for film roles.

28 Nov My mother loves bird-watching and used to take many photographs of birds. This activity seems to be popular in Kolkata and West Bengal, as well, and I used to send her articles of it. Here is another article about bird-watching.

I shall iterate and re-iterate some abbreviations: RCW=Rape Capital of the World (formerly known as India); G.A.=Gulag Archipelago (formerly known as the U.S.); FCM=Fee-Collecting Murderers (formerly known as police); GI=Government Inaction/Incompetence; OC=ObamaCare; $=tax money at work.; Pati=Politicians and their ilk; SPM=articles that I have found at the Stop Police Misconduct community at Google+; HF/HS=Human Feces/Human Scum--applicable to a variety of government agents; GRMRCY=Governent-Run Mandatory Reeducation Camps for Youth (formerly known as public schools)

1 Nov  (OC) G.A. (ObamaCare is dead! Long live ObamaCare!)
1 Nov  (OC) Lebanon
1 Nov  (FCM, SPM) G.A. (STOP CALLING 911 unless YOU want to be harmed!)
1 Nov (Pati) Canada

2 Nov  (Pati) RCW

2 Nov (FCM, Cannibalism) RCW
2 Nov  (FCM) G.A.
2 Nov  (FCM) Brazil
3 Nov  (Pati) RCW
3 Nov  (OC) Uganda
4 Nov  (FCM) G.A.
4 Nov  (FCM) G.A.
4 Nov  (OC) G.A.
4 Nov  (OC) RCW
4 Nov  (FCM, WoC) Nigeria
5 Nov  (FCM) G.A.
5 Nov  (FCM) G.A. (It should be against the law not to flip off FCMs)
5 Nov  (FCM) G.A.
5 Nov  (FCM, SPM) G.A. (If the Hidalgo County FCM really wanted to see an a**hole then they should look into a mirror.)
5 Nov  (OC, Pati) G.A.
5 Nov  (OC, $) G.A.
5 Nov (OC, Military) G.A. (The Nazi U.S. imitating Nazi Germany. And you want these people to be in charge of your medical needs?!! WHY??!!)
5 Nov (Military) RCW (The reason why rape is legal in India.)
5 Nov ($) U.K. ("[Paddy] Tipping, however, says he doesn't 'think that it's fair that they [the dog handlers] have to pay all the bills'". Spoken like a true Socialist; he thinks that it is fair for productive taxpayers to pay all the bills.)
5 Nov  (FCM, WoC) Myanmar
5 Nov  (FCM, WoC) Turkey
6 Nov  (WoC) G.A.
6 Nov (Pati) RCW
7 Nov  (OC) RCW
8 Nov  (OC) Venezuela (Venezuela as a harbinger of ObamaCare? Has no one heard of England?)
8 Nov (Pati, OC) G.A. (Obama said, "The majority of folks will end up being better off". I have been saying this for a long time, but I never thought that a psychopathic liar--otherwise known as a politician--would confirm that democracy is a form of government that guarantees that people will be hurt.)
8 Nov (Pati) Canada
11 Nov  (Pati) G.A.
11 Nov  (OC) Austrlia
12 Nov  (Pati, GI, $) RCW
12 Nov  (Judiciary) RCW
13 Nov (Pati) G.A. (A politician who is dishonest and untrustworthy? Wow! That is news! Stop the presses!)
13 Nov ($) RCW (The Mafia engages in illegal activity and extorts money. Governments do the same thing except they call it "taxes".)
13 Nov (FCM, SPM) G.A.
13 Nov  (FCM) G.A.
14 Nov RCW
14 Nov  (Thieves & Sexual Abusers, $) G.A.
14 Nov  (OC) U.K.
15 Nov  (FCM) RCW
15 Nov (OC) G.A. (Suppose they gave a war and no one came? Suppose they gave socialized medical insurance and no one came?)
15 Nov  G.A. (Despicable Homeland Scum have now become Despicable International Scum)
15 Nov (FCM, SPM) G.A.
15 Nov  (FCM) China
16 Nov (Pati) G.A. (Has no one heard of FDR, LBJ and Bushama?)
16 Nov (FCM, GI) RCW
16 Nov (FCM) RCW
16 Nov (FCM, SPM) G.A.
16 Nov  (OC) U.K.
17 Nov  (OC) Pakistan
17 Nov G.A.
17 Nov (FCM) G.A.
18 Nov (Thieves & Sexual Abusers, $) G.A.
18 Nov  (Military) G.A. (In the TRUE gulag)
19 Nov  (GI) RCW (Typical of government: they make the mistakes, you pay for them and you are the one expected to correct their mistakes. Typical of you: you are still paying for them and you are still voting for them)
19 Nov  (FCM) RCW
19 Nov  (FCM) G.A.
20 Nov  (OC) U.K. ("We need to face up to the hard truths". Except, of course, to the hard truth that monopolistic violence has not, and can not, solved anything, which is why ObamaCare fails everywhere it is imposed.)
20 Nov  (Pati, WoC) G.A.
20 Nov  (FCM) G.A.
20 Nov  (FCM) G.A.
20 Nov  (Judiciary) G.A.
20 Nov (Irresponsible Rotten Scum) G.A.
21 Nov  (FCM) G.A.
21 Nov (WoC) G.A.
22 Nov  (OC) RCW
24 Nov  RCW & G.A. (Terrorism must be perpetuated in the War on Terrorism.)
25 Nov  RCW
26 Nov  (Media) Thailand (No, they are not anti-government protests; they are anti-this-government protests. If they were anti-government protests then they would be rational people, which government can not allow.)
27 Nov (Pati) RCW
27 Nov (Media) RCW (An example of the media parroting the government line: "virtually everyone in every household in the state has something for free from the state". "Free"? Is that like "free" education in the United States? Is no one from the state paying for these "free" things? If so, then people from Gujarat, Punjab, Kerala and other states and places should be very angry.)
27 Nov  (FCM) G.A.
27 Nov  (GRMRCY) G.A.
28 Nov  RCW (I have said it before, and I say it again: If government bureaucrats do not like government then why should we human beings?)
28 Nov  (Pati, $, OC) RCW

A guideline--if not a rule--for these posts is that I use news articles from only from the specified month. For example, for my June 2013 post, I used news articles that were published in June 2013. If I found a news article from March 2013 then I would not use it.
In my recently completed War on Civilians post, I had a link simply named Compilation.without naming or providing information on the victims. This was done because it seemed to be too much a Herculean task to do so. Even though the linked article was published almost a year ago--and certainly not this month--I have decided to name the victims now. Moreover, a failure on my part in the past should not adversely affect the quality of these posts now.
All of them were from the Gulag Archipelago (formerly known as the United States); all, or almost all, of them were killed before the end of 2011; and almost all of them have the labels "FCM" and "Female".
It should be noted that there are a tremendous number of events listed here and in my previous War on Civilians posts. However, I have been very diligent in searching for names and dates and I am confident that there are no victims listed here who were listed in previous posts. 
I want to emphasize and define some abbreviations that I use: JJE=Judge, Jury & Executioner (aka police); FCM=Fee-Collecting Murderers (aka police); HF/HS=Human Feces/Human Scum (a variety of killers, usually police); BSK=Border Security Kills; CD=Custody Death; KWB=Killed While Black; KWN=Killed While Naked; KBSK=Killed By Serial Killers (usually FCM) TD=Taser Death; UM=Unarmed Man; WoC=War on Civilians; WoPB=War on Pit Bulls; DBOC=Death by ObamaCare; DBO=Death by Obama (aka drone strikes); GI=Government Inaction/Incompetence; Cannibalism=Killing of a government agent by another government agent; RCW=Rape Capital of the World (formerly called India); G.A.=Gulag Archipelago (formerly called United States)

20 Sept 1994  Candace Belt 22 & Gloria Ross 18 (FCM, HF/HS, Murderous Thugs, Female) (Oak Grove, Christian county, Kentucky, G.A.)
15 Apr 2001  David Broderick 21 (CD) (Crow Wing count, Minnesota, G.A.) (NOT Aug 2002, as stated in the first link)
15 July 2001  Christopher James Ingle 20 (JJE) (Asheville, Buncombe county, North Carolina, G.A.)
19 Mar 2002  Matthew Hines 24 (CD) (Crow Wing county, Minnesota, G.A.)
25 Aug 2002  Ronald Surrett 48 (JJE) (Buncombe county, North Carolina, G.A.)
3 May 2003  Crystal DeEtte Judson (FCM, Female) (Tacoma, Pierce county, Washington, G.A.)
5 Sept 2003  Aldonna Harris 23 (FCM, Female) (Pembroke Hall, St. Andrew parish, Surrey county, Jamaica)
21 Sept 2004  Austin Hayslip-Tyler 4 (FCM, Youth) (Albany, Dougherty county, Georgia, G.A.)
2 Jan 2005  Antoine Scott Peterson 33 (JJE) (Asheville, Buncombe county, North Carolina, G.A.)
31 Jan 2005 Jeffrey Turner 41 (TD, CD) (Lucas county jail, Ohio, G.A.)
10 May 2005  Karen McGowan 42 & Angela McGowan 75 & Chase McGowan 13 & Paige McGowan 10 & Rayne McGowan 8 (FCM, Female, Youth) (Riverside county, California, G.A.)
2 Sept 2005  Henry Glover 31 (FCM, HF/HS, KWB) (New Orleans, Orleans county, Louisiana, G.A.) (Henry Glover survived nature but he could not survive government)
4 Sept 2005  James Brissette 17 & Ronald Madison (FCM, HF/HS, Youth--remember, this is the type of individual whom you are paying "to protect and serve") (New Orleans, Orleans county, Louisiana, G.A.)
10 Oct 2005  Elyse Terry 10 & Ian Terry 8 (FCM, Female, Youth) (Orange county, Florida, G.A.)
6 July 2006  Lacy Pickens III (JJE) (Asheville, Buncombe county, North Carolina, G.A.)
13 July 2006  Gregory Keith Hensley 44 (JJE) (near Weaverville, Buncombe county, North Carolina, G.A.)
13 July 2006  Terry Jackson Evans 17 (JJE, Youth, Killed for Being in Buncombe County this Week) (Leicester, Buncombe county, North Carolina, G.A.)
26 Aug 2006  Akbar Khan Bugti 79 (Militry) (Kohlu, Balochistan, Pakistan)
22 Mar 2007  Theresa Parker (FCM, Female) (Lafayette, Walker county, Georgia, G.A.)
1 May 2007  Habib Solebo 23 (CD, WoC) (Chicago, Illinois, G.A.)
25 May 2007  Joseph E. Martin 30th birthday (JJE, Killed by Robotic Murderers) (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
18 Oct 2007  Quilem Registre (TD, Torture Death) (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
20 Mar 2008  Darryl Wayne Turner 17 (TD, Killed for Being Angry, KWB, Youth) (Charlotte, Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, G.A.)
May 2008  Jim Workman 75 (DBOC) (Biloxi, Harrison county, Mississippi, G.A.)
29 July 2008  2 Labrador retrievers (Animal, WoC) (Prince George's County, Maryland, G.A.)
12 Aug 2008  Christopher Zerby 41 (Cannibalism) (New Brunswick, Middlesex county, New Jersey, G.A.)
17 Nov 2008  Kyle Peterson 42 (CD) (Crow Wing county, Minnesota, G.A.)
10 Jan 2009  Marie Harper Cogburn (FCM, Female) (Murfreesboro, Rutherford county, Tennessee, G.A.)
12 Jan 2009  Elena Cole (FCM, Female) (Centereach, Suffolk county, New York, G.A.)
21 Feb 2009  Marcus Lavar Lemons 31 (FCM) (Los Angeles county, California, G.A.)
2 Mar 2009  Robert Perez (FCM) (Oxnard, Ventura county, California, G.A.)
18 May 2009  Kathryn Rebeka Minton Tucker (FCM, Female) (Bedford, Shawswick township, Lawrence county, Indiana, G.A.)
3 July 2009  Susan Hammond 61 (DBOC, Female) (Lincolnshire, England)
22 Sept 2009  Patricia Catherine "Katie" Ryan Williams (FCM, Female) (Detroit, Wayne county, Michigan, G.A.)
25 Sept 2009  Adolph Anthony Sanchez Gonzalez 21 (JJE, Torture Death) (Anaheim, Orange county, California, G.A.)
28 Sept 2009  Kristin Palumbo-Longo (FCM, Female) (Utica Oneida couty, New York, G.A.)
6 Oct 2009  Rosa Maria Castilla Hernandez (FCM, Female) (San Juan, Hidalgo county, Texas, G.A.)
27 Oct 2009  Jeffry Woodward 33 (CD) (Gallatin, Suimner county, Tennessee, G.A.)
16 Nov 2009  Stacey Savoy (FCM, Female) (Old Orchard Beach, York county, Maine, G.A.)
22 Dec 2009  Stephen Niit (CD) (Echuca, Victoria, Australia)
11 Feb 2010  dog (Animal, WoC) (Columbia, Boone county, Missouri, G.A.)
12 Feb 2010  Charlotte Grahn & Kathleen Hoffmeister & Victoria Schulmerich (FCM, Females) (Clackamas county, Oregon, G.A.)
25 Feb 2010  Brian Macias (FCM) (Los Angeles, California, G.A.) (Do not hold picture frames in front of  an FCM; you will be shot!)
4 Mar 2010  Bimbo Onanuga 32 (DBOC, Female) (Dublin, Leinster province, Ireland)
16 Mar 2010   Shari Bethel Cartmell (FCM, Female) (Nashville, Davidson county, Tennessee, G.A.)
20 Mar 2010  Robin Lee Prentice Miller (FCM, Female) (Sunbury, Northumberland county Pennsylvania, G.A.)
26 Mar 2010  Rose M. Rascoe Maynard 47 (FCM, Female) (Snohomish, Washington, G.A.)
4 Apr 2010  Jessie Alexander Smith Raponi 34 (Female) (Flagstaff, Coconino county, Arizona, G.A.)
11 Apr 2010  Sandra Silcox (FCM, Female) (Citrus county, Florida, G.A.)
18 Apr 2010  Telisha Earls (FCM, Female) (Madison county, Alabama, G.A.)
13 May 2010  Gong Ling Tang 53 (CD, Torture Death) (Dandenong, Victoria, Australia)
8 June 2010  Scott Pierce (CD) (Crow Wing county, Minnesota, G.A.)
3 July 2010  Brandon Daniels (CD) (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada)
16 July 2010  David Gruno 54 (CD) (Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada)
20 July 2010  Tabatha Hancock & Logan Hancock 8 months (FCM, Female, Infant) (Oxford, Alabama, G.A.)
20 July 2010 Amit Jethwa 34 (Pati, Execution) (Ahmedabad, Gujarat, RCW)
6 Aug 2010  Eric Wells 30 (FCM) (Fort Wayne, Allen county, Indiana, G.A.)
2 Sept 2010  Michelle O'Connell 24 (FCM, Female) (St. Augustine, St. Johns county, Florida, G.A.)
22 Sept 2010 7 elephants (Animal) (Dooars, West Bengal(?), RCW)
30 Sept 2010  Anna Beach (FCM, Female) (Parker, Bay county, Florida, G.A.)
5 Oct 2010  Rhonda Mickens-Williams 36 (FCM, Female) (Overtown, Miami, Miami-Dade county, Florida, G.A.)
11 Oct 2010  Nancy Mendoza Rojo (FCM, Female) (Cook county, Illinois, G.A.)
13 Nov 2010  Mohd. Shamil Hafiz Shafie 15 & Mohd. Khairul Nizam Tuah 20 & Mohd. Hanafi Omar 22 (JJE) (Jalan Kerjaya, Glenmarie, Shah Alam(?) Selangor, Malaysia)
11 Dec 2010 Jamie Ellyn Goodan (Female) (Longview, Texas, G.A.)
12 Dec 2010  Michael Watson 35 (CD) (Pendlebury, Greater Manchester, England)
14 Dec 2010  Heather Przasnyski (FCM, Female) (Statesville, Iredell county, North Carolina, G.A.)
18 Dec 2010  Fatoumata Ntiamoah 27 & Mohamed Zaine 32 (FCM, Female) (Kennesaw, Cobb county, Georgia, G.A.)
4 Jan 2011  Lynn Marie Blake (FCM, Female) (Ada county, Idaho, G.A.)
27 Jan 2011  Ryan Michael Gladstone (CD) (Kennewick, Benton county, Washington, G.A.)
6 Feb 2011  Caitlin McGuire (FCM, Female) (Pittston, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, G.A.)
17 Feb 2011  Austin Zundel (JJE) (Onslow county, North Carolina, G.A.)
16 Mar 2011  Laura Worthington (FCM, Female) (Franklin county, Ohio, G.A.)
21 Mar 2011  Patricia Mackenzie (FCM, Female) (Norfolk, Virginia, G.A.)
28 Mar 2011  Lachan Kelly-Tumarae 19 (JJE) (Omahu Marae cemetery, near Napier, Hawke's Bay region, New Zealand)
17 Apr 2011  Mahry Rosser 19 (CD, Female) (Flockton, Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England)
30 Apr 2011  Vashti Seacat (FCM, Female) (Sedgwick county, Kansas, G.A.)
10 May 2011  Arabella Bradford 38 & Marvin Conley Jr. 43 & Virgil Millon 46 (JJE, FCM, Female) (Riverside, California, G.A.)
21 May 2011  Sean Moore (CD) (Yakima county, Washington, G.A.)
25 May 2011  Robert Peter Edwards 55 (CD) (Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England)
30 May 2011  Jennifer Louise Carter Agee (FCM, Female) (Franklin county, Virginia, G.A.)
31 May 2011  Wynetta Wright & Jaylin Wright (FCM, Female, Infant) (Washington D.C, G.A.)
3 June 2011  Lisa "Nettie" Peterson (FCM, Female) (Gaston, Washington Township, Delaware county, Indiana, G.A.)
8 June 2011  Stephen Andrew Schmitz (FCM) (Hatfield, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, G.A.)
7 July 2011 Tracey Arden 44 (DBOC, Female) (Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England)
11 July 2011 Arnold Lancaster 71 (DBOC) (Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England)
11 July 2011  Chevron Alexander 29 (FCM, Female) (River Forest, Cook county, Illinois, G.A.)
19 July 2011  Ryan Metz 3 (FCM, GI, Infant) (Maryland Heights, St. Louis county, Missouri, G.A.)
21 July 2011 Derek Weaver (aka Alfred) 83 (DBOC, Elderly) (Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England)
8 Aug 2011  Ariel Vega 78 (DBOC, Elderly) (Wollongong, Illawarra region, New South Wales, Australia)
8 Aug 2011  Suki Thurairajah 55 (DBOC, Female) (Canberra, Australia)
11 Aug 2011  Holly Dembie (FCM, Female) (Lorain county, Ohio, G.A.)
26 Aug 2011  Ismael Lopez 29 (JJE, HF/HS, Killed by Murderous Thug) (Long Beach, Los Angeles county, California, G.A.)
28 Aug 2011  Jennifer Michelle Flores (FCM, Female) (Muskegon, Michigan, G.A.)
6 Sept 2011  Michael Lykins 43 (DBOC) (Larned, Pawnee county, Kansas, G.A.)
7 Sept 2011  Uteva "Butterfly" Monique Woods Wilson 23 (FCM, Female) (Birmingham, Alabama, G.A.)
13 Sept 2011  Sarah Shepherd 26 (DBOC, GI, Female) (Guildford, Surrey county, England)
19 Sept 2011  Omar Olivarez 26 (Border Patrol Kills) (Eagle Pass, Maverick county, Texas, G.A.)
19 Sept 2011  Danielle Maudsley 20 (JJE, Female, HF/HS, Killed by someone so filthy that even the Thieves & Sexual Abusers think that he is VERMIN) (Gino DiFonzo shared this at Google+ on 5 Nov)
30 Sept 2011  Haji Yousuf (CD) (Srinagar?, Jammu & Kashmir, RCW)
7 Oct 2011  Sylvia Klibingaitis 52 (JJE, Female) (North York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)  (Stop calling 911; you will only get yourself killed!)
14 Oct 2011  Ezzaldin Toaiman's brother & father (DBO) (Azzan, Shabwa, Yemen/G.A.)
25 Oct 2011  Raquel Estrada 53 & Juan Herrera 34 (Military) (Yorba Linda, Orange county, California, G.A.)
29 Oct 2011  Chanda Lynn White Pickney 33 (FCM, Female) (Woodworth, Rapides parish, Louisiana, G.A.)
18 Nov 2011  Colin Whalley 68 (DBOC) (Prescot, Merseyside, England)
27 Nov 2011 Lynn Shimek (FCM, Female) (San Jose, Santa Clara county, California, G.A.)
29 Nov 2011  Honda Lynn Tine Bucholtz (FCM, Female) (Bad Axe, Huron county, Michigan, G.A.)
30 Nov 2011  Wayne Spencer Broad 51 (CD) (Barnet, London, England)
9 Dec 2011  Mary Pizzuto & Robert Pizzuto & Patrick Pizzuto (FCM, Female) (Bedford, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, G.A.)
10 Dec 2011  Annette Durham 32 & Steven Strotkamp 39 (FCM, Female) (Dent county, Missouri, G.A.)
10 Dec 2011  Tracey Young 42 (FCM, Female) (Queens, NYC, New York, G.A.)
13 Dec 2011  Amanda Blaies Rinaldi (FCM, Female) (Phoenix, Maricopa county, Arizona, G.A.)
15 Dec 2011  Darcy Rice 27 (CD) (Sarnia, Lambton county, Ontario, Canada)
20 Dec 2011  James McGillivray 53 (Military) (Placentia, Orange county, California, G.A.)
24 Dec 2011  Gary Willingham 80 (DBOC, Elderly) (Dallas, Texas, G.A.)
28 Dec 2011  Lloyd "Jim" Middaugh 42 (Military) (Santa Ana, Orange county, California, G.A.)
30 Dec 2011  Paulus Cornelius "Dutch" Smit 57 (Military) (Yorba Linda, Orange county, California, G.A.)
30 Dec 2011  Surinder Singh Mahli 58 (CD) (Surrey, Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
31 Dec 2011 Bill Dickson 82 (DBOC, Elderly) (Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England)
1 Jan--31 Dec 2012  1,890 individuals (FCM, WoC, Female) (Brazil) (The article also states that 410 people were similarly killed in the U.S. I do not list that as a separate entry partly because I have named some, if not many of them, and partly because it seems to be a very low figure. I suspect that the actual number of killings is much higher.)
1 Jan--31 Dec 2012  45 Cambodians (BSK) (Thailand)
13 Jan 2012  John Berry 64 (Military) (Anaheim, Orange county, California, G.A.)
14 Jan 2012 Linda McDonagh 60 (DBOC, Female) (Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England)
20 Jan 2012 John "Jack" Beeley 73 (DBOC) (Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England)
27 Jan 2012  Paul Somerville 21 (CD) (Maghera, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland)
3 Feb 2012  Michael Eligon 29 (JJE, KWB, DBOC) (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
6 Feb 2012  Sheila Hibbert 77 (DBOC, Female, Elderly) (Bingley, City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England)
13 Feb 2012 Nora Hyland 31 (DBOC, Female) (Dublin, Ireland)
22 Mar 2012  Rekia Boyd 22 (JJE, KWB, UW, Female) (Chicago, Illinois, G.A.)
27 Mar 2012  Jean Tulloch 83 (DBOC, Female, Elderly) (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)
8 Apr 2012  Laymon Coleman 74 (DBOC) (Memphis, Shelby county, Tennessee, G.A.)
15 Apr 2012 Ryan Pringle 33 (JJE) (The School of Happiness, near Tenterfield, New South Wales, Australia)
28 May 2012  Mackenzie Cackett 4 (DBOC, Youth) (Colchester, Essex, England)
9 June 2012  Shane Tasi (JJE, Killed for Holding a Broom) (Anchorage, Alaska, G.A.)
21 June 2012  Teresa Scheunert 47 (DBOC, Female) (Watson Lake, Yukon, Canada)
26 June 2012  Harbhajan Kaur (FCM, Female, Elderly) (Gants Hill, Ilford district, Redbridge borough, Greater London, England)
30 June 2012  Kathleen Leech 68 (DBOC) (Tallaght, County Dublin, Leinster province, Ireland)
July 2012  A wood cutter & vegetable seller & miners (18 in all) (DBO, WoC, Youth) (Zowi Sidgi, North Waziristan, Pakistan/G.A.)
9 July 2012  Billy Paul Thomas Salton 19 (CD) (Cheadle Heath, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England)
17 July 2012  Destin Thomas 21 (JJE, KWB, UM) (Columbus, Fairfield county, Ohio, G.A.) ("If that burglary had not occurred, Destin would still be alive". CORRECTION: "If the FCM were not involved, Destin would still be alive".  (Stop calling 911; you will only get yourself killed!)
30 July 2012  John Adam Kriewaldt 30 (CD) (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, G.A.)
14 Aug 2012  Brian Galea 47 (DBOC) (Preston, Lancashire, England)
29 Aug 2012  Salim bin Ali Jaber & Walid bin Ali Jaber (police officer) & 3 others (DBO, Cannibalism) (Khashamir, Hadhramaut governate, Yemen/G.A.)
30 Aug 2012  Julio Cesar Perez (JJE) (Calexico, Imperial county, California, G.A.)
23 Sept 2012  Eric Lewis 56 (CD) (Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia)
1 Oct 2012--30 Sept 2013  500 infants (DBOC, Infants, Females) (GB Pant Hospital, Badami Bagh, Srinagar district, Jammu & Kashmir, RCW) (Coming soon to ObamaCare hospitals in the U.S.!)
Oct 2012  Mamana Bibi 68 & 8 others (DBO, WoC, Female) (Ghundi Kala, North Waziristan(?), Pakistan/G.A.)
19 Oct 2012  Susan Wilson 59 (DBOC) (Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England)
3 Nov 2012 newborn (DBOC, Infant) (Staffordshire, West Midlands, England)
12 Nov 2012  Dean Miles 18 (JJE) (Waihi, Hauraki district, North Island, New Zealand)
20 Nov 2012  Dune Charley (CD, DBOC) (Medical Lake, Spokane county, Washington, G.A.)
15 Dec 2012  Averil Hart 19 (DBOC, Female) (Tameside, Greater Manchester, England)
23 Dec 2012  Alexander McKee (DBOC) (Coleraine, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland)
29 Dec 2012  Nirbhaya 23 (FCM, GI) (Rape Capital of India, RCW)
31 Dec 2012  David James 68 (DBOC) (Aintree University, Fazarkerley, Liverpool, England) (Since when do the "rights" of government agents outweigh the intrinsic rights of human beings?)
1 Jan--29 Nov 2013  37 Cambodians (BSK) (Thailand)
3 Jan 2013  foetus (DBOC--where no one is spared) (Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England)
24 Jan 2013  Natasha Simmonds 16 (DBOC, Female, Youth) (Bristol, England)
10 Feb 2013  Maula Jan (CD) (Ghallani, FATA, Pakistan)
12 Feb 2013  5 individuals (in addition to the 8 already mentioned on 12 Feb in 43rd Anniversary) (WoC) (Krishnai, Goalpara district, Assam, RCW)
22 Mar 2013  Russell Smith 51 (JJE) (Columbia City, Rainier Valley, Seattle, King county, Washington, G.A.)
29 Mar 2013  Michael Deal 65 (DBOC) (Des Moines, Iowa, G.A.)
25 Apr 2013  Daniel Mitchell 30 (CD) (Sarnia, Lambton county, Ontario, Canada)
4 May 2013  Pedro Campos Martinez 29 (Suicide-by-FCM) (Escondido, San Diego county, California, G.A.) (Stop calling 911; you will only get yourself killed!)
16 May 2013  Ryland Joseph 7 months (DBOC, Infant) (San Francisco, California, G.A.)
12 June 2013  Ethem Sarisuluk (WoC, UM) (Istanbul, Marmara region, Turkey)
13 June 2013  Edward Lyen 61 (CD) (Montezuma county, Colorado, G.A.) 
14 July 2013 Bijan Ebrahimi 44 (GI) (Brislington, Bristol, England)
17 July 2013  Matthew Cline 17 (GI, Youth) (Huntington Beach, Orange county, California, G.A.) (The Kolkata police have come to the U.S.)
19 July 2013  9 newborns (DBOC, Infants) (Burla, Sambalpur district, Odisha, RCW)
30 July 2013  Paul E. Schenck 42 (WoC) (Greene county, Ohio, G.A.)
15 Aug 2013  Jason Miller (CD) (Crow Wing county, Minnesota, G.A.)
15 Aug 2013  Stephen Whitaker 57 (DBOC) (Airedale, Yorkshire, England)
1 Sept 2013  Christopher Greaves 23 (JJE) (Beetham Gardens, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago)
3 Sept 2013  Maureen Doran 68 (DBOC, Female) (Woodbridge, Middlesex county, New Jersey, G.A.)
4 Sept 2013  wife of Nabil Al Khatir (DBOC, Female) (Dammam, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia)
5 Sept 2013  child of Nabil Al Khatir 1 day old (DBOC, Infant) (Dammam, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia)
7 Sept 2013  Jorge Azucena (CD) (Los Angeles, California, G.A.)
9 Sept 2013  unnamed boy 18 months (DBOC, Infant) (Westmead, New South Wales, Australia)
10 Sept 2013  Christopher Paul Blackwell (CD, DBOC) (Phoenix, Maricopa county, Arizona, G.A.)
30 Sept 2013  Wendy Lawrence 45 (JJE, Female) (Manchester, Hillsborough county, New Hampshire, G.A.)
4 Oct 2013  Larry Peck 62 (CD) (Carson City, Nevada, G.A.)
5 Oct 2013  Richard Ferst 52 (CD) (Carson City, Nevada, G.A.)
6 Oct 2013  Brent Springford Jr. (CD) (Donaldson Prison, Jefferson county, Alabama, G.A.)
7 Oct 2013 "Patches" 2 (Animal, SPM) (Albany, Dougherty county, Georgia, G.A.)
9 Oct 2013  Max Cocheta Martin 43 (JJE) (Leicester, Buncombe county, North Carolina, G.A.)
11 Oct 2013 Kenneth Ray Clark 47 (WoC) (Sullivan county, Tennessee, G.A.)
13 Oct 2013  Brandon Smith (JJE, KWB, UM) (Castle Hayne, New Hanover county, North Carolina, G.A.)
15--18 Oct 2013  6 newborns (in addition to the 12 mentioned in 43rd Anniversary) (DBOC, Infants) (Malda, West Bengal, RCW)
17 Oct 2013  Jose Guerrero 36 (WoC) (Indianapolis, Marion county, Indiana, G.A.)
18 Oct 2013  rottweiler (Animal) (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)
19 Oct 2013  Taemarr Walker 24 (JJE) (Warren Township, Trumball county, Ohio, G.A.)
19 Oct 2013  Patrick Hill (Cannibalism) (Detroit, Wayne county, Michigan, G.A.)
20 Oct 2013  Devara Tulasi Srinivas 28 (CD) (Rajahmundry, East Godavrari district, Andhra Pradesh, RCW)
20 Oct 2013  dog (Animal) (Saddle River, Bergen county, New Jersey, G.A.)
20 Oct 2013  3 pit bulls (Animal, WoPB) (Flint, Genesee county, Michigan, G.A.)
21 Oct 2013  sick inmate (CD) (Carson City, Nevada, G.A.)
21 Oct 2013  Todd Hoke 22 (CD) (Pinal county, Arizona, G.A.)
21 Oct 2013  Cristoval Quintana (JJE) (Roswell, Chavez county, New Mexico, G.A.)
21 Oct 2013  unnamed man (JJE) (Leesburg, Lee county, Georgia, G.A.)
22 Oct 2013  suspect (JJE) (Rosemoor, Chicago, Cook county, Illinois, G.A.)
22 Oct 2013  Ryan Salonga 25 (JJE) (Sam Bruno, San Mateo county, California, G.A.)
22 Oct 2013  Nor Pugh 67 (DBOC, Female) (Gorleston, Great Yarmouth. Norfolk, England)
22 Oct 2013  8 newborns (DBOC, Infants) (Balangir district, Odisha, RCW)
22 Oct 2013  coyote (Animal) (Moncton, Westmorland county, New Brunswick, Canada)
23 Oct 2013  Chakadan Daniel 21 (CD, Torture Death?) (Micoud, St. Lucia)
23 Oct 2013  Ishan Ahir 2 & Twinkle Ahir 15 (WoC, JJE Infant, Female) (near San Carlos town, Panama province, Panama)
23 Oct 2013  unnamed suspect (JJE) (Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria)
23 Oct 2013  Tiombe Carlos 34 (CD, Female) (York county, Pennsylvania, G.A.)
23 Oct 2013  Matthew S. Lofaro 28 (JJE) (Milford, New Haven county, Connecticut, G.A.)
24 Oct 2013  Steven Hughes Henning 32 (JJE) (Weed, Siskiyou county, California, G.A.)
24 Oct 2013  Matthew Deshune Swiney 22 (JJE) (Houston, Texas, G.A.)
24 Oct 2013  "Ziggy" (Animal, WoPB) (Savannah, Chatham county, Georgia, G.A.)
24 Oct 2013  Surendra Malik (aka Neetu Dabodi) & Alok Gupta & unnamed man (JJE) (Rape Capital of India, RCW)
24 Oct 2013  B. Lakshmi 45 (FCM, GI, Female) (Chennai, Tamil Nadu, RCW)
25 Oct 2013  3 Pakistanis (WoC, Border Security Kills) (near Mullankot border, Amritsar district, Punjab, RCW)
25 Oct 2013  Julie Caudill 43 (Suicide-by-FCM, Female) (Columbus, Ohio, G.A.)
25 Oct 2013  Sergio Alberto Munoz 39 (JJE) (Ridgecrest, Kern county, California, G.A.)
25 Oct 2013  Victor Torres-Elizondo 30 (JJE, WoC) (Hillsboro, Washington county, Oregon, G.A.)
25 Oct 2013  Vincent L. Young 68 (JJE, Suicide-by-FCM?) (Bay Pines, Pinellas county, Florida, G.A.)
25 Oct 2013  Robert Parlette Jr. 73 (JJE) (Islamorada, Monroe county, Florida, G.A.)
25 Oct 2013  unnamed suspect (JJE) (St. Louis, Missouri, G.A.)
25 Oct 2013  Joseph Oxford-McArthur (CD)  (Carson City, Nevada, G.A.)
25 Oct 2013  A. Seeni (or A. Srinivasan) 45 (CD) (Vilakathoon, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, G.A.)
25 Oct 2013  Tevin Robinson 20 & Dashawn Roland 18 (JJE, KWB) (Wilmington, New Hanover county, North Carolina, G.A.)
26 Oct 2013  Afghan soldier (Cannibalism) (Qarghayi district, Laghman province, Afghanistan /G.A.)
26 Oct 2013  Richard Rodriguez 32 (JJE) (Banning, Riverside county, California, G.A.)
26 Oct 2013  David Rocco Diroma 68 (JJE) (Clearwater, Pinellas county, Florida, G.A.)
26 Oct 2013  Jonathan Robertson 32 (JJE) (Pearisburg, Giles county, Virginia, G.A.)
26 Oct 2013  Rashedul Islam 27 (?--various ages given in various articles) (WoC) (Kajla area, Rajshahi, Rajshahi division, Bangladesh)
26 Oct 2013  Jake Ramsey Maese-Murphy 26 (WoC, Killed by Pack of Wolves) (Ripton county, Tennessee, G.A.)
26 Oct 2013  Josh Collins (JJE) (Yuma, Arizona, G.A.)
27 Oct 2013  Prakash Chand (Border Security Kills, Cannibalism) (Uri sector. Baramullah district, Jammu & Kashmir, RCW)
27 Oct 2013  Jarmel Anthony Cosby 28 (JJE) (Jacksonville, Duval county, Florida, G.A.)
27 Oct 2013  Arturo Jorge Guzman 51 (JJE) (Hialeah, Miami-Dade county, Florida, G.A.)
27 Oct 2013  Marie Hartman & Andrew Hoffman 27 (FCM) (Glen Burnie, Anne Arundel county, Maryland, G.A.) 
27 Oct 2013  Amy Reyna 35 (JJE, Female) (near Hobbs, Lea county, New Mexico, G.A.)
28 Oct 2013  2 suspects (JJE) (Michoacan state, Mexico)
28 Oct 2013  George Pryor 61 (JJE) (Statesboro, Bulloch county, Georgia, G.A.)
28 Oct 2013  Clinton Peterson 28 (JJE, UM) (Duncanville, Dallas county, Texas, G.A.)
28 Oct 2013  "Amore" 15 months (Animal) (Albany Bulb, Albany, Alameda county, California, G.A.) ("I don't think that any police officer likes to kill a dog" said Jill Posener of Paw Fund. Obviously, she has not been reading my posts.)
28 Oct 2013  unnamed man (JJE) (Jeppestown, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa)
29 Oct 2013  2 civilians (WoC) (border of Rwanda)
29 Oct 2013  a suspect (JJE) (Gadar Maiwa, Ningi Local Government Area, Bauchi state, Nigeria)
29 Oct 2013  a suspect (JJE) (Obuasi, Ashanti region, Ghana)
29 Oct 2013  Abdul Shakoor & Ghulam Ullah (JJE) (Rajanpur, Punjab, Pakistan)
29 Oct 2013  Marvin (JJE) (Albion Mews, Montego Bay, St. James parish, Jamaica)
29 Oct 2013  Surya Bahadur Ale 21 & Krishna Bharrarai 18 (WoC) (Chapakot, Syangja district, Gandaki zone, Nepal)
29 Oct 2013  2 protestors (WoC) (Kutubdia island, Cox's Bazar district, Chittagong division, Bangladesh)
29 Oct 2013  Quentin Hicks 49 (JJE) (Inglewood, Los Angeles county, California, G.A.)
29 Oct 2013  Cortdalro Damarcel Brown 25 (JJE) (Houston, Texas, G.A.) (Once an FCM, everywhere an FCM)
30 Oct 2013  James Bryant 28 (JJE) (Fort Belvoir, Fairfax county, Virginia, G.A.)
30 Oct 2013  Shane Whitworth 30 (JJE) (Virginia Beach, Virginia, G.A.)
30 Oct 2013  Dionne Jordan 30 (JJE) (Erie, Pennsylvania, G.A.)
30 Oct 2013  pit bull (Animal, WoPB) (Evansville, Vanderburgh county, Indiana, G.A.)
30 Oct 2013  Alfred Ferrell III (JJE) (Indianapolis, Marion county, Indiana, G.A.)
30 Oct 2013  Thompson Lekishorimoi (JJE) (Maralal, Samburu county, Rift Valley province, Kenya)
30 Oct 2013 pit bull mix (Animal, WoPB) (Antioch, Contra Costa county, California, G.A.)
30 Oct 2013  Simon Chung 39 (TD) (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
30 Oct 2013  Dhonika Karmakar 18 (Gazole, Malda, West Bengal, RCW)
30 Oct 2013  Swapan Manna 50 (GI) (Taluk, East Midnapore, West Bengal, RCW)
30 Oct 2013  an Arab resident (WoC) (Qabatiya, Jenin governate, Palestine)
30 Oct 2013  two suspects (JJE) (Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines)
30 Oct 2013   scooter passenger 22 (FCM) (The Hague, South Holland province, Netherlands)
30 Oct 2013  Michael Dwayne Atkins 41 (Killed by Government Building) (Decatur, Morgan county, Alabama, G.A.)
31 Oct 2013  3 civilians (DBO, WoC) (Miranshah, North Waziristan, FATA, Pakistan/G.A.)
31 Oct 2013  Sahidul Islam 22 (FCM) (Krishnai, Goalpara district, Assam. RCW)
31 Oct 2013  a suspect (JJE) (Bronx, NYC, New York, G.A.)
31 Oct 2013  Arthur Page (JJE) (Beaufort, Carteret county, North Carolina, G.A.)
31 Oct 2013  Sumit (CD) (Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, RCW)
31 Oct 2013 "Marley" 1 (Animal) (Port Chester, Westchester, New York, G.A.)
31 Oct 2013  John Arthur O'Brien 53 (CD) (Dorchester, Westmorland county, New Brunswick, Canada)
31 Oct 2013  Tanisha Jefferson (CD, Female) (Huntsville, Madison county, Alabama, G.A.)
31 Oct 2013  dog (Animal) (Omaha, Douglas county, Nebraska, G.A.)
31 Oct 2013  unnamed suspect (WoC) (Pretoria, Gauteng province, South Africa)
1 Nov 2013  Gerardo Hernandez 39 (GI) (LAX, Los Angeles, California, G.A.) (Transportation Security Administration? If they can not protect themselves then do you really think that they are interested in protecting you? Yes, this is a case of a human being killing a Thief & Sexual Abuser--rather than the other way around--but like deaths in jails and prisons, in which every square metre is owned, operated and controlled by the government, killings at airports are also the result of government action or inaction. The good news is that the victim was a Thief & Sexual Abuser so no one--not even his own mother--will mourn his demise.)
1 Nov 2013  Kadeem Williams 17 (JJE, Youth) (Beetham Gardens, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago)
1 Nov 2013  Lishane Campbell 17 & Romario Campbell 19 (JJE, Youth) (Mount Salem, St. James parish, Jamaica)
1 Nov 2013  Adam Harvey Kargus 29 (CD) (London, Ontario, Canada)
1 Nov 2013 Salvador Munoz 22 (JJE) (Dallas, Texas, G.A.)
1 Nov 2013  Sudhir Kumar 30 (CD) (Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, RCW)
1 Nov 2013  Carlos Saenz 27 (JJE) (Los Angeles county, California, G.A.)
2 Nov 2013  2 suspects (JJE) (Aladja, Delta state, Nigeria)
2 Nov 2013  Hiramani Bhatra 50 (DBOC, Female) (Jeypore, Koraput district, Odisha, RCW)
3 Nov 2013  Nattela Ruth Blackwell 64 (Suicide-by-FCM, Female) (Covington, Tipton county, Tennessee, G.A.) ("This was justifiable for the simple fact that she was dangerous to society". Who else is dangerous to society?)
3 Nov 2013  M. Balsubramani 38 (DBOC) (Kodaikanal, Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu, RCW)
3 Nov 2013 Alfred San Antonio 51 (JJE) (Phoenix, Maricopa county, Arizona, G.A.)
3 Nov 2013  Faisal (aka Pana) & Aamir Nadeem (aka Deema) (JJE, WoC) (Tariqabad, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan)
3 Nov 2013 pit bull (Animal, WoPB) (Tuscaloosa, Alabama, G.A.)
3 Nov 2013  Jason Lopez 30 (CD) (Levelland,Hockley county, Texas, G.A.)
3 Nov 2013 8 civilians (WoC) (Matamoros, Tamaulipas state, Mexico)
3 Nov 2013  Rou Sona 20 (DBOC, Female) (Anlong Veng district, Oddar Meanchey, Cambodia)
4 Nov 2013  12 people (near Bandarawela, Badulla district, Sri Lanka)
4 Nov 2013  Robert Desir 23 (JJE) (Miami Gardens, Florida, G.A.)
4 Nov 2013  unnamed youth 16 (FCM, Youth) (Brownsburg, Hendricks county, Indiana, G.A.)
4 Nov 2013  Tyler Comstock 19 (JJE, UM) (Iowa State University, Ames, Story county, Iowa, G.A.)
4 Nov 2013  Karim Gazi 35 (CD) (Kolkata, West Bengal, RCW)
4 Nov 2013  1 suspect (JJE) (Aniocha South, Delta, Nigeria)
4 Nov 2013  large-breed dog (Animal) (Richmond, Madison county, Kentucky, G.A.)
4 Nov 2013  Michael Blair 25 (Suicide-by-FCM) (Fort Bend county, Texas, G.A.) (Stop calling 911; you will only get yourself--or a loved one--killed!)
4 Nov 2013  Abhijit Patra 23 (CD, Torture Death) (Malipara, Kolkata, West Bengal, RCW)`
4 Nov 2013  Leon Briggs 38 (CD) (Luton, Bedfordshire, England)
4 Nov 2013 unnamed victim 59 (FCM, HF/HS--remember, this is the type of individual whom you are paying "to protect and serve") (Eastrern Ore mountains, near Dresden, Saxony state, Germany)
4 Nov 2013  Bronwyn Hlligan 60 (DBOC) (Christchurch, Canterbury region, South Island, New Zealand)
5 Nov 2013  Deonte Traylor 24 (JJE) (Fairfield, Solano county, California, G.A.)
5 Nov 2013  Dwayne Wilson 24 (JJE) (Kingston?, Surrey county, Jamaica)
5 Nov 2013  Jerry Vue 27 (JJE) (Fresno, California, G.A.)
6 Nov 2013 Jose Quinonez 22 (WoC) (Essex county, New Jersey, G.A.)
6 Nov 2013 Wayne Brunette 49 (JJE) (Burlington, Chittenden county, Vermont, G.A.) (Stop calling 911; you will only get yourself--or a loved one--killed!)
7 Nov 2013 Jeanette Anaya 39 (JJE, Female, Killed for Driving) (Santa Fe, New Mexico, G.A.)
7 Nov 2013  Bashir Same Hananeen 28 (BSK) (Tapuah, West Bank, Israel)
7 Nov 2013 unnamed man 29 (WoC) (Morona Santiago province, Ecuador)
8 Nov 2013 dog (Animal, WoPB) (Antioch, Contra Costa county, California, G.A.)
8 Nov 2013  Anas Fouad al-Atrash 23 (BSK, WoC) (near Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine)
8 Nov 2013  Maxine Burns (FCM) (Durham, North Carolina, G.A.)
8 Nov 2013  Ehsan Payam (WoC) (Nosood, Kermanshah province, Iran)
9 Nov 2013  newborn (DBOC, Infant) (Kolkata, West Bengal, India)
10 Nov 2013  "Jane" 14 weeks old (Animal, WoPB) (Arlanta, Georgia, G.A.) (Stop calling 911; you will only get yourself--or a loved one--killed!)
10 Nov 2013  unnamed man (JJE, Killed by Serial Killers) (Long Beach, Los Angeles county, California, G.A.)
10 Nov 2013  unnamed driver (JJE) (Elkhart, Indiana, G.A.)
10 Nov 2013  4 suspects (JJE) (Buruburu, Nairoibi, Kenya)
10 Nov 2013 Don White 24 (JJE) (Kenner, Jefferson parish, Louisiana, G.A.)
10 Nov 2013  unnamed woman 64 (Female) (Camden, New Jersey, G.A.)
11 Nov 2013  Arup Chatterjee & Heera Lal & Littu Sao & Sitaram Manjhi (Killed by Government Land) (Dhanbad district, Jharkhand, RCW)
11 Nov 2013  pit bull (Animal, WoPB) (Wilton, Fairfield county, Connecticut, G.A.)
11 Nov 2013  Abdul Kamal 30 (JJE, UM) (Irvington, Essex county, New Jersey, G.A.)
11 Nov 2013  Shawn M. Rieves 17 (JJE, Youth) (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, G.A.)
11 Nov 2013  2 suspects  (JJE) (Lavington, Nairobi, Kenya)
11 Nov 2013  John W. Montgomery 59  (JJE) (Westerville, Ohio, G.A.)
11 Nov 2013 Jonathan Clark 25 (Cannibalism, Suicide-by-FCM) (Fountain, El Paso county, Colorado, G.A.)
11 Nov 2013  Daniel Menard 41(TD, Torture Death) (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
11 Nov 2013  Manish Kumar 32 (FCM, Torture Death) (Sangrur district, Punjab, RCW)
11 Nov 2013  Alhaji Rabo (JJE) (Freetown, Western Area region, Sierra Leone)
11 Nov 2013  Michael Lynch 63 (CD) (Buncrana, County Donegal, Ulster province, Ireland)
12 Nov 2013  3 Ethiopians (WoC) (Manfuhah, Riyadh, Riyadh province, Saudi Arabia)
12 Nov 2013  Eng Sokhum 49 (WoC, Female) (Meanchey district, Phnom Penh, Camodia)
13 Nov 2013  2 suspects (JJE) (Eastleigh, Nairobi, Kenya)
13 Nov 2013  Sudanese migrant (WoC) (Manfuhah, Riyadh, Riyadh province, Saudi Arabia)
13 Nov 2013  unnamed man (JJE) (Hawthorne, Los Angeles county, California, G.A.)
13 Nov 2013 7 elephants (Animal) (Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, RCW)
13 Nov 2013  Edward Paul Dundas 24 (CD) (Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada)
13 Nov 2013  Terry Smith 33 (CD) (Chertsey, Runnymede, Surrey county, England)
13 Nov 2013  Uday Chand 48 (FCM, Torture Death) (Rape Capital of India, RCW)
13 Nov 2013  unnamed man (JJE) (San Antonio, Texas, G.A.)
13 Nov 2013 Jonathen(?) Santellana 17 (WoC, Youth) (Navasota, Grimes county, Texas, G.A.)
13 Nov 2013  3 children (WoC, Youth) (somewhere, Colombia)
14 Nov 2013 John Williams 49 (JJE, Suicide-by-FCM) (Little Rock, Pulaski county, Arkansas, G.A.) (Stop calling 911; you will only get yourself--or a loved one--killed!)
14 Nov 2013 Willie James Williams (JJE) (Columbus, Muscogee county, Georgia, G.A.)
14 Nov 2013 pit bull (Animal, WoPB) (Flint, Genesee county, Michigan, G.A.)
15 Nov 2013  Ted Christopher Hoffstrom 30 (JJE) (Orono, Hennepin county, Minnesota, G.A.)
15 Nov 2013  Maxine Burns 50 (FCM, Female) (Durham, North Carolina, G.A.)
15 Nov 2013 Raju Kushawah 34 & Satyaveer Jainarayan Yadav 45 & Satya Bir Singh 40 & 2 others (GI) (near Nashik, Maharashtra, RCW)
15 Nov 2013  Richard Pulga 27 (DBOC, Hurricane Katrina II) (Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines)
15 Nov 2013  Avin Osmani 19 (WoC, Female) (Baneh, Kurdistan province, Iran) ("The driver, thinking they were being attacked by bandits..." They were being attacked by FCM so of course they were being attacked by bandits.)
16 Nov 2013  Andrea Naharro Gionet 61 (JJE, HF/HS, Female) (San Jose, Santa Clara county, California, G.A.) (Next job for the murderous thugs: being Thieves & Sexual Abusers)
16 Nov 2013  5 suspects (JJE, WoC) (Makhachkala, Dagestan, Russia)
16 Nov 2013  Muhammad Hakeem (Chota Jheengu) & Umra (Jadoo) & Shabbir (Goga) & Mohsin Baba (JJE) (Lyari, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan)
16 Nov 2013  Nicholas Simonitch 22 (JJE) (Kansas City, Wyandotte county, Kansas, G.A.)  
16 Nov 2013  unnamed woman 21 (FCM, Female) (Wanganui, North Island, New Zealand)
16 Nov 2013  Sukhwinder Singh Dhillon 54 (CD) (Trent Hills, Northumberland county, Ontario, Canada)
16 Nov 2013  Jordan Lindsey Leigh Thompson 26 (CD, Female) (Garfield county, Oklahoma, G.A.)
17 Nov 2013  Alok Mallick 61 (CD) (Kolkata, West Bengal, RCW)
17 Nov 2013  Sukhvir (CD) (Sohna, Gurgaon district, Haryana, RCW)
17 Nov 2013  Jason D. White 31 (JJE) (Columbus, Ohio, G.A.)
17 Nov 2013  Bob Bandler 75 (JJE, Elderly) (Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California, G.A.)
17 Nov 2013  Jonathan Wilcher 26 (JJE) (Titusville, Brevard county, Florida, G.A.)
17 Nov 2013  dog (Animal) (Albany, New York, G.A.)
17 Nov 2013 Steven J. Bell 38 (JJE, UM) (Berlin State Forest, New York, G.A.)
17 Nov 2013  Almus Taylor 38 (CD) (Covington county, Alabama, G.A.)
17 Nov 2013  Abdoul Aziz Balde 15 (WoC) (Demoudoula, Conakry, Guinea)
17 Nov 2013  Edward Akoto (aka Ghadhafi) (CD) (Accra, Ghana)
18 Nov 2013 Rexford Dasrath 22 (JJE) (Bushwick, Brooklyn, NYC, New York, G.A.)
18 Nov 2013  Antoine Duane Goodrum 27 (JJE) (Germantown, Montgomery county, Maryland, G.A.)
18 Nov 2013  James Fay 55 (JJE) (Boynton Beach. Palm Beach county, Florida, G.A.)
18 Nov 2013  Wayne Courtright 59 (Suicide-by-FCM) (Guerneville, Sonoma county, California, G.A.) (Stop calling 911; you will only get yourself--or a loved one--killed!)
18 Nov 2013  Mark Griffin McCaffrey 62 (FCM) (Clairemont, San Diego, California, G.A.)
18 Nov 2013  Hasina Juma Kasimu 44 (WoC) (Mumbai Airport, Maharashtra, RCW)
18 Nov 2013  Badsha Mia 25 & Ruma Aktar 22 (WoC) (Ashulia, near Dhaka, Bangladesh)
18 Nov 2013  Ashanine Clarke 17 (Torture Death) (Hanover, Cornwall county, Jamaica)
19 Nov 2013  bull (Animal) (Trumbull, Fairfield county Connecticut, G.A.)
19 Nov 2013  Jesus Huerta 17 (CD, Youth) (Durham, North Carolina, G.A.)
19 Nov 2013  Lennord Whittle 25 (JJE) (Middletown, Orange county, New York, G.A.)
19 Nov 2013  Larry Clay 44 (Suicide-by-FCM) (Prescott, Yevapai county, Arizona, G.A.)
19 Nov 2013  Tyler Damon Woods 19 (JJE, UM) (Long Beach, Los Angeles county, California, G.A.)
19 Nov 2013  Shanti Mahanand 35 (DBOC, Female) (Chitakhei village, Bargarh district, Odisha, RCW)
19 Nov 2013  Shaakrullah & Roshan (WoC) (Boti Kot district, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan/G.A.)
20 Nov 2013  unnamed man 44 (JJE) (Eugene, Lane county, Oregon, G.A.)
20 Nov 2013  unnamed man 46 (WoC, KBSK) (San Antonio, Texas, G.A.)
20 Nov 2013  Andrew Murnieks 28 (WoC, KBSK--although I an not find verification of the last sentence in the linked article) (South Brunswick, Middlesex county, New Jersey, G.A.)
20 Nov 2013 Sanjiv Kumar (GI) (Nagrota, Jammu district, Jammu & Kashmir, RCW)
20 Nov 2013  Kevin McGurty 43 (CD) (Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland)
21 Nov 2013 2 teachers & 4 children (DBO, Youth) (Hangu district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan/G.A.)
21 Nov 2013  2 patients (DBOC, CD) (Yerwada, Pune district, Maharashtra, RCW)
21 Nov 2013  Jeorge Blano 29 (JJE) (Pulpogan, Consolacion, Cebu province, Philippines)
22 Nov 2013  Nonoy Pangilan 35 (JJE) (Malangas, Zamboangay Sibugay, Philippines)
22 Nov 2013 2 suspects (JJE) (Quezon City, National Capital Region, Philippines)
22 Nov 2013  Tyson Rodriguez 27 (CD) (Placencia, Stann Creek district, Belize)
22 Nov 2013  Danny Thornton 47 (JJE, Suicide-by-FCM) (Columbus, Ohio, G.A.)
22 Nov 2013  Apolinar Solis 51 (CD) (Manhattn, NYC, New York, G.A.) (A blind, diabetic man arrested on drug charges--truly the War on Civilians!)
22 Nov 2013  "Lexie" 18 months (Animal, WoPB) (St. Clair Shores, Macomb county, Michigan, G.A.)
22 Nov 2013  unnamed suspect (JJE) (North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, G.A.)
22 Nov 2013  unnamed suspect (JJE, WoC) Fort Worth, Tarrant county, Texas, G.A.)
22 Nov 2013  unnamed driver (JJE) (Whiteside county, Illinois, G.A.)
22 Nov 2013 unnamed man 31 (WoC) (Bend, Deschutes county, Oregon, G.A.)
23 Nov 2013 Manuel Ganga (WoC, Killed for Running) (Luanda, Angola)
23 Nov 2013  unnamed man (JJE) (South Gate, Los Angeles county, California, G.A.)
23 Nov 2013  Chester Leroy Dodd 69 (CD) (Denver, Colorado, G.A.)
24 Nov 2013  Michael Habay 42 (JJE) (Boulder, Colorado, G.A.)
24 Nov 2013  Samuel See 34 (CD) (New Haven, Connecticut, G.A.)
24 Nov 2013  Bryant Bullard 54 (CD) (Mena, Polk county, Arkansas, G.A.)
25 Nov 2013 Clarence Dorris 53 (JJE) (Mableton, Cobb county, Georgia, G.A.)
25 Nov 2013  Bhura Kansana 27 (JJE) (Morena, Madhya Pradesh, RCW)
25 Nov 2013  8 babies (DBOC, Infants) (Malda, West Bengal, RCW)
25 Nov 2013  3 suspects (JJE) (Hawan Maiashi, Sabon-Gari LGA, Kaduna state, Nigeria)
25 Nov 2013  police inspector (Cannibalism) (Ikpoba Hill, Benin city, Edo State, Nigeria)
25 Nov 2013  Robert Gillon 72 (JJE) (Granada Hills, Los Angeles, California, G.A.)
26 Nov 2013  3 wolves (Animal) (Colchester, Essex county, England)
26 Nov 2013 dog (Animal) (Benton, Saline county, Arkansas, G.A.) (Stop calling 911; you will only get yourself--or a loved one--killed!)
26 Nov 2013  unnamed driver (JJE) (Orlando, Orange county, Florida, G.A.)
26 Nov 2013  4 newborns (DBOC, Infant) (Malda, West Bengal, RCW)
27 Nov 2013  Houda Rafle 28 (DBOC) (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
27 Nov 2013  Rahana Salim Khan 51 (Nagpada, Mumbai, Maharashtra, RCW)
28 Nov 2013 unnamed baby 2 (DBO, Infant) (Helmand province, Afghaistan/G.A.)
28 Nov 2013 unnamed man (JJE) (San Jose, Santa Clara county, California, G.A.)
28 Nov 2013  Itzcotl Ocampo 25 (CD) (Santa Ana, Orange county, California, G.A.)
28 Nov 2013 unnamed man (JJE) (Arapahoe county, Colorado, G.A.)
28 Nov 2013 Troy Harden 44 (JJE) (Nashville, Washington township, Brown county, Indiana, G.A.)
28 Nov 2013  Abdul Halim (CD) (Chakaria, Cox's Bazar district, Chittgong, Bangladesh)
29 Nov 2013 unnamed man 22 (JJE) (Hays county, Texas, G.A.)
29 Nov 2013 unnamed man (JJE) (Seattle, King county, Washington, G.A.)
29 Nov 2013 Gary Arthur 48 & David Traill 50s & 4 other civilians & 2 cops (KGM--Killed by Government Machine) (Glasgow, Scotland)
30 Nov 2013 Antar Shibly Aqra 23 (BSK) (Tel Aviv, Israel)
3,034 individuals & 43 animals

When I win the Nobel Prize in Literature or the Man Booker Prize, I may not write about that. (Oh, wait; perhaps I should write, "If I win the Nobel Prize...")
As a blogger, I read very many blog posts. In at least some of them, the blogger writes about important milestones s/he has had: the number of readers; prizes/awards/contests won; the number of posts; recognition by outside sources; or other note-worthy events. There is nothing wrong with that but I tend to not do that.
It is true that I write an anniversary post (on 1 October of each year) but I do that to clarify some things. It is also true that I wrote a 200th Post but that was primarily a plea to my readers to help me carry on with this blog.
Several weeks ago, I realized that my 300th post would soon be published, most likely between late November and early January 2014. (I have continued a frantic pace of writing, so this is being published now.) I did not have any plans to commemorate this, and I thought that it might be whatever post that would be published at that time. However, I thought that I should at least ask Subhorup Dasgupta to write a guest post for my 300th post.

I first came to learn of Subhorup through IndiBlogger.in. I soon came to admire him because not only is he an excellent and erudite writer but also we seem to share a similar philosophy. After awhile, we started exchanging emails. One day, he surprised me by asking me to consider writing a guest post for him.
I had heard of this concept but did not know the mechanics of doing so. Moreover, I never wanted to write a guest post because I was busy on my own blog. However, because the request came from him, I accepted.
As he had done with me at that time, I told him that he could write about anything that he wanted to write about.(assuming that he accepted my offer). However, I suggested that he write about his observations and experiences of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh (as of this writing); of other cities in India; or reviews of films, hotels or restaurants as I felt that these topics were slightly lacking in my blog or could be enhanced by another viewpoint. Moreover, I felt some trepidation in what he might write otherwise. He can be quite philosophical; even his film reviews are more about ideas rather than about the actual movie itself. Again, there is nothing wrong about this but I did not know if or how I could label the post so that it would fit nicely into my blog.

The following post (My 300th Post), written by Subhorup,  might be such a post. It is quite philosophical. However, it is also practical. It also appeals to expats and PTs; It appeals to people who want to release themselves from shackles, to take responsibility, to embrace the things that are truly important to them.and to seek out the best choices for accomplishing this.
Moreover, as I have included in My Favourite Quotes and written about in other posts, "We need to be the change we wish to see in the world"..His guest post shows this, and I urge you to contact him to pursue this. You can send him an email (shown at the bottom of his post) or go to the Facebook page. I wish that he had a Google+ page so that I could promote it more effectively and more frequently. (He does have a personal Google+ page, but for SoCh--Social Change, Hyderabad--it is only on FB.) As of this publishing, the event on 10 November in Hyderabad has passed, but there are bound to be other events in the very near future.
Thank you, Subhorup, for writing a post that not only enhances my blog but also fits nicely into it..I hope that the recent event was a success, as will be future ones.

[Written by Subhorup Dasgupta; for introduction, see My 299th Post]

What happens instead… 

When I received an invitation from Micky to write something to celebrate 300 posts on this blog, I was more than a little stumped. Like many aspiring writers, I write about stuff close to my heart without necessarily letting on how close. My posts are usually built around wordplay and emotional thievery, and a little substance once in a while. The reason for that is that as a writer, what I have to say can be summed up in very few words, perhaps even two. Live, stupid. Thank you. Love more. All of which ultimately mean the same thing. 

As I reflected and tried to fit in with the editorial slant of this blog, I realized that the one thing that I could write about with some authority was the one thing that I have never written about. At least not in a direct, honest, factual manner. So on the occasion of three centuries of posting on this blog, here is my story. 

My wife and I live in Hyderabad. After spending nearly three decades clawing up the corporate ladder, heading large multinational healthcare BPO’s, I hit the proverbial hump. I like to believe it was the other way around, that midlife hit me, an ignorant, if not innocent bystander unaware of the fast flowing traffic of a materialistic world. However, instead of buying a shiny new red sportscar and growing a ponytail, I decided to quit my job, and use my limited skills to encourage people to lead simpler, kinder, more responsible lives. I took stock. I realized I had at my disposal a reasonable willingness to talk (write) about things, a useable computer, and an affordable internet plan. I chose to use my blog, which till then had been more an online journal for my jejune life, as the vehicle for my mission.

My father and I

What was I going to write about? My life situation was too close for comfort, and I do not believe in using public fora to wage personal wars. I looked at what else about life bothered me. Strangely, in spite of my fundamentally non-litigious nature, almost everything did. I realized that the times we live in had given greed, ignorance, anger, and intolerance a level of respectability and acceptance where they seem to be character assets rather than liabilities. At the core of this lies what we term development, both economic and social, and the emergence of lifestyles dictated by corporate strategies. 

The effects can be seen in every area of life – education, health, welfare, relationships, religion, commerce; you name it, and you will find it has been corrupted to a point difficult to trace one’s steps back out of. As a matter of fact, the illusion of a “good life” is so skillfully woven that we are no longer able to see that the ills of our times are actually by-products of the behaviors we are being goaded into. Initially, I would write directly about these issues, about values in public life and governance, about the need to downsize and adopt responsible economic behavior, about seeking gratitude and compassion in a sea of discontent, distrust and hate. I realized very quickly, and contrary what the occupy movement would have us believe, that that was not what the 99% wanted to read. 

It took me a while to figure out how to put the same thoughts into formats that people would want to read. Though satire was never my preferred style, I studied it to see how I could sow the seeds of change in the minds of my readers as they read my film reviews, recipes, writing on music, writing on writing and on poetry, and poetry. I also began studying the way the internet works. I learned a little about search and social, optimizing my writing for search engine results and promoting my work on the social media. I learned about the best practices – writing attractive and effective titles, using just the right density of keywords, and alt-tagging my images. 

This period of trying to write for the billions that make up the internet, the billions who rely on searchbots and spiders to tell them what they are seeking in life, was, thankfully, relatively brief. However, it did leave me with the realization that the new “marketplace” was a powerful tool for change. I put my toddler skills in social media to use by promoting the various social change organizations that I was part of. To my surprise, it yielded good result. I then put a price to my time and went back to where my heart was – writing to enable change. In the process of writing about change, I began encountering more and more people who were far ahead of me in what I was trying to do. Many of them were engines of change, whereas I was still theorizing. I also realized that at a personal level, I was too lazy, perhaps too hypocritical to pledge my being in its entirety to what I believed in. I decided to pull together my writing, my network and my social media skills to add power to an engine that was already in motion – the magic bus that would take us to a better, kinder, more just society. 

In spite of the multi-billion-dollar enterprises that work day and night to convince us that we are ugly and incomplete, that business schools know better than grandmom, that war is justified, there are countless pockets of reason, repair and resistance. All you need to do is look. One of the main reasons that I had not considered a more frugal, minimalistic, ethical lifestyle was the lack of support systems and role models. I didn’t want to stick out, and I didn’t want to rough it out. But as I began exploring alternate ways of thinking and being, I encountered similar initiatives by the dozen, each vying with the others in innovativeness and inspiration. 

Towards this end, we began creating various platforms to help add momentum to change. One of these was an online fine tea catalog to promote the meditative and healing aspect of tea drinking as a cultural activity. Another was a platform for change-makers to pitch their projects to decision-makers who could connect them with the resources they need (read about SoCh later in this post). We created and supported groups promoting poetry, music, the arts. Many of these initiatives later took on lives of their own, and we saw them grow beyond our imagination with a mildly parental pride. It took close to three years for my work to crystallize around my beliefs. These three years were extremely instructional.

SoCh Hyderabad

What did we learn? 

If you are willing to read on, here are some of the important lessons. 

1. Debt is the biggest trap, and it does not always come dressed as debt. It comes as EMIs (equated monthly installments), mortgages, investment plans, all of which are ways to spend income that one is yet to generate. Sometimes it comes in the form of lifestyle costs that, with time, you are unwilling to do without. 

2. Housing and food are the two main cost heads. If you can find ways of addressing these, a lot is taken care of. Health and education costs are largely perceptions. If you eat, exercise and rest with wisdom, only accidents and aberrations need to be addressed, and usually when they do arise, they bring with them the resources to deal with them too. Education cost is largely a myth. Every single corrupt politician, every cheating businessman, and every clever criminal is a product of the existing education system. On the other hand, most of the brilliant minds of all times are self-educated. Homeschooling and democratic education are practical and more dependable than sending kids to schools where all they learn from their teachers and peers is jealousy, discontent, lusting, and violence. 

3. There are countless ways to make your life count. It all begins with intent. Create the intent and the avenues will appear. The price of letting “someone else” clean up the mess we have made of our world is much higher than the price of dedicating your life to a higher cause. 

4. We can all significantly reduce our carbon footprint without making large sacrifices. Any impact on the future is better than no impact at all. If what we have outlined seems scary, do what little you can to scale back. Anything you do is of immense value. Do not underestimate the power of small change. 

5. Frugal does not mean cheap, miserly or even austere. Austere is a wonderful word but is often associated with deprivation. Going frugal and responsible can actually enhance the quality of your living, you can take more pleasure in activities of life, eat better, dress better, and do more for those around you. The association of frugal and deprivation is a devious marketing ploy by those who profit from your consumption. 

6. True riches are the treasures of the heart. Our decision to simplify our living led us to discover who we were deep within, something that is often tarnished by the dust and clamor of a materialistic life. We have learned to love each other for who we are, love ourselves for who we REALLY are, and to love those around us for being expressions of the universe’s desire to heal itself. We have discovered the riches of music, books, films, food, flowers, gardening, dance, mornings, nights, winters and summers. 

7. The tipping point is for real. All you need is the determination to hang in there. 

How has our journey been and what have we achieved? 

The first two years were an experiment in taking rational economic exchange to a metaphysical level. We had no savings, no earnings, and no livelihood. Perhaps it is better to say we chose to do without savings, earnings and livelihood. Instead my wife and I embarked on a program of service, making our time, skills, and attention available to anyone we felt needed it. The initial months were truly turbulent, testing our belief, and filled with many anxious days and weeks. However, as people around us began understanding and perhaps appreciating what we were trying to do, the balance began to return. We found our environment taking care of us in mystic ways. During this phase, we found ways to use our skills to help others that they could pay for in more conventional economic terms. 

The next phase dawned with the realization that individual economics had been hijacked by governments and corporations to a point where the desire to lead a responsible life was challenged at every step. Our tea catalog and our work as social media consultants are our experiments in responsible business. In addition to the more prevalent concepts of green operations and organic products, we have tried to consider the 360-degree impact of our business decisions, and exercise the most viable ethical options. In scenarios where it is not possible to choose ethically, we have chosen to exclude it from our field of operation. 

We also lent our time and energy to the creation of SoCh, a community building initiative that uses the tools of social media to bring people together. SoCh uses the unconference format to connect change-makers with thought-leaders. There is no agenda, no call to action, no expectation. Once the pot comes to the boil, it dictates what ingredients it most needs, and it is our experience that when it does, the ingredients emerge. We know that what we are doing is nothing more than an echo of several similar initiatives being undertaken across the world. We hope that our work will encourage others to join the bandwagon 

It was both easier and harder (primarily harder) to get to St. John's Church and Cemetery in Sealdah, Kolkata. In preparation, I printed a Google map of the destination. I felt comfortable in getting there, but I have found that I sometimes get lost in returning from a new destination. I also had the impression that it was a somewhat short distance.

One Monday morning, I set out to go to the Church and Cemetery. One thing that the map did not tell me was that AJC Bose Road (formerly Lower Circular Road) was very wide in places, making it even more difficult and dangerous to cross. While walking, I did see a structure that seemed to be an entrance-way to a train platform so I thought that I was getting close to Sealdah. However, I did not see the Church which I knew was very close to the station. I walked further, and finally came to the flyover/overpass which I knew was next to the Sealdah train station, having been there once or twice before. The other time(s) I was there, I was, of course, in a taxi with Caroline. This time, I was walking, and there was no footpath on the flyover! There were perhaps a hundred large buses and other vehicles coming at me. I found myself walking on the railing most of the time.
In crossing the flyover, I saw the ticket counter at with very long queues and even more passengers coming into and going out of the station. It reminded me of the Howrah Station. I read that the station at Howrah was largest in India in area. I was not certain if that was true, but I have since verified it through Wikipedia. (It should be noted that Mumbai has two major train terminals: CST--featured in Slumdog Millionaire  and other films--and Churchgate.) Regardless, Howrah has a small city's worth of people and shops. I have been inside Sealdah once. It is smaller, but it still has the appearance of being very large. 

In arriving on the other side of the flyover, I was at the Church. However, I was not at the Church; I was blocked by the railing. Perhaps I could have climbed over the railing, but if I had then I would have been blocked by the innumerable shops on the footpath. Thus, I had to walk further--and away from the Church--find an opening in the fence, and then walk back toward the Church. After doing this, I then saw that the gate to the Church was closed and locked! I thought that there might be an attendant, but I did not see any. I stayed for some time, in the hope that somebody would make an appearance, but no one did. I gave up, and walked back home.

I then tried to find an email for the Church and/or Mass timings, but could not locate any. I then sent an email to the nearby Christian Burial Board which I thought might have access to that information. I did not receive a response, so I sent it again. In getting a reply, I read the email address to which I should send an inquiry. I then forwarded the email to that email address. I did not receive a response. As I often do, I looked at my "deleted" folder before permanently deleting the messages. There, I saw the response! 

It said that Mass was held in the mid-morning on Sundays (and at other times). I liked this because it was the next day (I had found the reply on a Saturday) and because I knew that traffic would be less-congested on a Sunday. This time, it was easier to get to the Church, but it was still frightful to cross AJC Bose Road. 

In arriving at the Church and Cemetery (which was, thankfully, open), I became fearful that I could not find the specific headstone for Stella Agnes Carey (nee Rebeiro) either because the cemetery was too large, or because there was no headstone or because the headstone was too faded or damaged. I was also fearful that I could not find her date of birth (which was the request). All of these fears came true.

In looking at the graves near the entrance, I saw that virtually none of them had a date of birth for the deceased. However, it seemed to be a relatively small cemetery so I still felt comfortable in locating the headstone. After looking at a couple of dozen headstones, I walked further and saw that the cemetery was about twice as big as I had thought it to be. Moreover, about a third (or more) of the graves had no headstone. A large number of the graves that did have headstones had headstones that were too damaged or faded to be legible. 

Throughout my visit, I focused on looking for the name "Stella" and then either "Carey" or "Rebeiro", but could not find any. I did find two individuals named "Stella" but they had other names. I decided to leave partly because I had given up on finding the headstone and partly because I had to join my wife for breakfast. (I did not know the time because I did not have a watch; the watch that I have needs to be repaired. However, I felt that I had spent a lot of time there, and thought that it was time to get back.) 

Then, a man approached me, said that he was the caretaker and asked for the death-year of the person. He became animated when I told him, so I became equally happy and hopeful. He showed me three graves, in various parts of the cemetery, but none of those were for Stella. I suspect that if Stella is indeed buried there then she either has no headstone, or that the headstone is too faded or damaged to be legible. If she does have a legible headstone there (and if I had overlooked it) then I suspect that it will not have a date of birth.

In the near future, I shall try one or two things: 1) Write another email to the address that I was given by the CBB, and hope that they can provide specific information; 2) Go to St. John's again with a camera. I did not bring a camera this time because it--like my watch--needs to be repaired. (About ten days ago, we did go to a camera-repair shop. They said that it needed a part and that it would cost INR1,000 to have it done. This seemed to be consistent with the charge when I needed to have another camera repaired, and with what another shopkeeper said he would charge. When I went there a few days later to pick it up, they wanted to charge me INR1,250, even though the receipt showed a charge of INR1,000--my wife had dropped it off so I suspect that they wanted to charge me more because I am a foreigner. However, I was insistent on paying only the 1,000, and they gave in. They did show me that it was now working, and it continued to work for about two days before "giving up the ghost" again.) Regardless, I hope to take photos of headstones so that even if I can not find Stella's headstone then I still hope that I can provide information that will be helpful for others looking for Christian relatives/ancestors in Kolkata.

Although I was not successful in what I had hoped to do, three good things did come from this:

1) In approaching the entrance to the Church, I took out the magazine, in which I had placed the Google map (and on which I had written Stella's name and date of death), from my bag and walked on. A short time later, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and saw a young girl holding my papers and cash! Unbeknownst to me, these had slipped out from the magazine. Usually when I lose things, I lose things; I lose them, never for them to return to me. I was greatly appreciative of someone returning things that I had inadvertently dropped so I enthusiastically said shukriya (thank you) twice to her.

2) On my return, I walked by the Loreto Day School which my wife attended many years ago. The gate was shut, but even if it were open then I would not have entered because I did not have a camera and because Caroline was not with me so it would have been uneventful. When I returned home, I told her that I had seen her schiool. She promised to take me there in the future.

3) Again, I did not find the headstone for Stella, but I did see other interesting things. I saw several graves for Chinese people and some for Armenians. The CBB has some Chinese buried there, but in terms of percentages it is far, far smaller. The CBB, however, does have a large section for Armenians.

I found the grave for Andrew Devane! Having stayed at the Fairlawn Hotel, I was aware of him and that he had passed away. I always assumed that he had passed away elsewhere. I now think that he passed away at the Fairlawn Hotel, or that he requested to be buried in Calcutta (as it was called then). The headstone showed that his birthdate was 3 November 1917 and that he died on 15 January 2000, which even Wikipedia does not provide!

Perhaps helpful to Anonymous is that I found the headstones for Helen Rebeiro (10 October 1884--21 November 1961); Basil Rebeiro (23 March 1947--26 May 1974); George Rebeiro (17 September 1908--13 February 1980; and Thomas Walter Ribeiro (5 November 1853--28 September 1921) (The last one was spelt with an "i" but that may have been a typographical error.) I do not know if they were related to Stella, but this may be helpful to someone, somewhere.

I am becoming more and more proud of this blog. I think that the quality of the posts have improved. The quantity of the posts is quite large so I am providing more and more information which, I hope, is being appreciated. I am getting more and more readers, and from more and more countries. Earlier, I thought that my blog was banned by the Chinese government (as I knew they banned many websites, and I had only a handful of readers from there in the past two years). However, I am beginning to get some pageviews from there. It is nowhere near the amount that I get from India or even the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia, but since China and India have an equal number of people I am hoping that one day soon, I shall have as many Chinese readers as I do for those in India. I have some people who actively follow my blog and I receive some comments on various blog posts (all of which I have viewed as being favourable), and I hope to have more and more followers and favourable comments.

One such comment was recently made to my Genealogy (December 2012) post. In it, the writer asks me to assist him(?) in finding a specific grave-marker at St. John's Cemetery in Sealdah. I was honoured to be asked to help. I have often desired that a family member or friend in the United States would write to me and tell me that he/she is visiting me here in Kolkata. I would then write a blog post describing all the things that they should do and consider in his/her trip to Kolkata, and which could be useful and applicable to other cities in India and which (I feel) would be useful to any reader coming to Kolkata or other cities in India. Unfortunately, none of my friends or family has done this. The comment by Anonymous, however, has impelled me to write about other things that I have wanted to mention.

Although I wanted to provide a solution to Anonymous, I did have a few concerns:

1) He (there is no tangible evidence of the sex of the writer, so I shall just make it a "he" for the sake of simplicity) does tell me that the cemetery is in the district of Sealdah. We have recently shifted our residence, and Sealdah is now closer to us. However, I did not know where exactly was the cemetery. 

This may, or may not, be surprising. I have been in Kolkata for almost five years, so I ought to know a lot about it (especially as I am writing about it). However, Kolkata is nearly the same size as London in area so there is a lot that I do not and can not know. Moreover, I do not do the "touristy" things. In fact, I have never been to Victoria Memorial; the closest I have been was during my first visit to Calcutta. However, we (myself, Caroline and her family) saw a sign stating that cameras were not allowed, so it did not seem to be worth the effort. Now, I simply go about my life doing the things that I need to do each day.

Fortunately, there is Google. I searched, but could not seem to find it. I searched some more, and it seemed to be on Lower Circular Road. I had heard of that but did not know exactly where it was. I searched for it and it seemed to be far from Sealdah. I then searched again for St. John's and found it in Sealdah on...AJC Bose Road! This surprised me. I know that very many of the streets in Kolkata have changed their names and, in many cases, I know both the old and the new names but I did not know that Lower Circular Road was the former name of AJC Bose Road, which happens to be not far from our residence.

2) When would I go? In Kolkata, there are only two types of weather: hot and humid, and rainy, and these are not good conditions in which to walk. There is also the cold climate; it is not intrinsically cold (the lowest temperature is 10°C or 50°F--and that is only at night or in the very early morning) but it is cold by the standards of Kolkata. The cold temperatures are actually ideal in which to walk to somewhere, but they will not begin until about three months from now [I began to write this in September], and I did not want to wait that long.
Of course, I could take a taxi but I have had horrific experiences in taking a non-prepaid taxi in Kolkata. I could take a bus but I would have to walk far to the bus stop, and I am not certain about its destination. In both cases, St. John's Cemetery is not significantly far, and one foreigner told us that she often walks to and from the Sealdah train station (close to the cemetery) so if she can do it then so can I.
The weather this year, though, has been peculiar. The monsoon began in May (the month in which it is normally very hot and humid) and has not ended. [As of mid-November, it has ended.] In the past, when there is rain the temperatures drop significantly. When the rains stop, the rest of the day is very hot and humid. This year, when the rains stopped the temperatures remained cool. This is ideal weather in which to walk.
When I read the comment of Anonymous it was during such ideal weather. However, when I read the comment I was working frantically on many projects. When I thought that I was ready to go to St. John's the weather became hot and humid again. I am hoping that ideal weather will return soon. 

3) Would they let me in? When I go to the cemetery of my in-laws, it is usually with Caroline. I have gone several times on my own (which is usually when I take the photos for my other Genealogy posts) but I seem to have become somewhat familiar to them. Moreover, they seem to let anybody in. We once saw a group of Muslim youngsters (in the Christian cemetery) climbing a tree to get its fruit! However, I did not know the policies and procedures of the new cemetery, nor how they would view me.

4) Would they let me take photographs? Caroline's family's cemetery is extremely large, and a large portion of it is away from the entrance (where the offices are located). Recently, I took some photographs of headstones near the entrance, and the security guard objected. St. John's Cemetery is most likely much smaller, so there could be a greater chance of an objection.

5) Most importantly, could I find the grave-marker? Caroline's cemetery does seem to have a system whereby individual graves can be located. My impression is that there is a fee for this service, but I do not know how long it would take to locate it, I do not know if I have enough information on this specific grave, and I do not know if they would provide that information to someone who is not related to the deceased. I have no idea of what are the policies and procedures of St. John's, nor of how many graves there are, and of how difficult it may be to find the specific grave-marker.

6) Would Anonymous see this? He seems to not be at Google+, or if he is then he did not not sign onto the account when he sent the comment. Finding a specific grave-marker seems to take a lot of time and effort which may not be worth it if the intended beneficiary will not see the results. However, I am hoping to take many photos so even if he does not learn of the information provided then I hope that others, who are also looking for distant relatives or ancestors, will benefit from this post. In any case, after publishing this post, I shall link this as a reply to his comment, in the hope that he will get an email notification.

Finally, in response to his other statements, I would like to say that I admire your perseverance. I do not think that I could do anything continuously for 37 years.
Do not worry about not (responding to) blogs. I have blogged but I still do not know how! (Ha ha) I consider myself a good writer and have felt this for about thirty years. In the beginning, that is what I did: I took pen to paper and wrote. Now, I have to worry about fonts, font size, placement of photographs, inserting videos, links, word count, labels, promotion and many other things.

In the past twelve months, I have had just three About Me posts: Favourite Videos (virtually twelve months ago); Favourite Indian Websites (an off-shoot of a post originally titled Favourite Websites) and My Expat-Blog Interview. 

I suppose that this is how it should be. After all, this blog is not about me; it is about Kolkata, India, other places, film reviews, interesting news articles, genealogy (in which I provide names of deceased people who may have distant relatives or descendents in other parts of the world), and other topics found in the "Label" button (the top button on the auto-hide tab on the right-hand side of this screen).

Moreover, I have been interviewed just once, and I have probably run out of ideas for Favourite posts. The first few Favourite posts were inspired by my Blogger profile (before my Google+ profile became my Blogger profile). Other Favourite posts were inspired by other things and events. My Life in Boxes, My Life in a Suitcase and About Me probably give as much of an autobiography that needs to be given. For a short time, recently, I thought that I could write about my Favorite Celebrities in which I mention Karan Johar, Mani Ratnam, Paresh Rawal, George Clooney and others. I may still do that, but I more likely will mention them only in an appropriate film review.
However, I still felt a need for a new Favourite post.Then, and at about the same time, I thought of my Favourite Places. I realized that this would be a win-win situation: I would be writing about something that is near-and-dear to me and, at the same time, is pertinent to this blog and informative to readers. The title, however, is a misnomer. I have not been to most of the places listed here, and for the others, I have visited only as a child. This, then, can be thought of more as a wish-list of places that I will visit when circumstances allow. Regardless, I am providing appropriate links to WikiTravel (preferably, for practical and objective information about the sights), Wikipedia or other sites.

Australia  When I was a child, my father had an opportunity to work in Australia; my mother was uncomfortable with the educational system (for us children) there, so we remained where we were. Now, I know that it is a favourite destination for Indians, especially college students. When I first arrived in Kolkata, however, I read many newspaper articles of rampant racism there, and frequent beatings and even killings of Indians. I have not read of such incidents in the past few years, however.
Australia has many things that I consider to be ideal: 1) It is large, geographically. Largeness can be very good. If the United States were run by American society rather than by the American government then freedom would reign and it would be a joy to go anywhere there in that large country. 2) It has virtually nothing but towns and small cities. I could then look up at the night sky and see thousands and thousands of stars, as I did when I was a child. In Kolkata, I am very lucky if I see a dozen stars at night. 3) Virtually all of these inhabited places are next to the oceans, seas, bays or other large bodies of water so there are any beaches. I have always enjoyed beaches. Perhaps that is because I was born and raised near the Pacific Ocean. If I were born and raised in the Rocky Mountains then I might enjoy hill stations more.
Because of its size, I assume that most people travel to more distant places by airplane. In India, however, I have become fond of travelling by train. Australia does seem to have an extensive train system but I do not know if the trains are frequent nor if they are a "city-on-wheels" as they are in India. In India, I have come to realize that 36 hours on a train is probably the limit of human endurance. In Australia, I suspect that it takes far, far longer to get to many places.

Birgunj  I have already written a lot about this place; here, I simply want to say that I am thankful for this place being a visa-run. If I resided in the Philippines or Australia then my options would be more limited and less-than-ideal. If I resided in Thailand then I certainly would not want to go to Myanmar if I needed to leave Thailand for visa purposes.
In addition to Nepal, perhaps another good place is Bhutan. Several years ago, however, I read that it was almost impossible to get a visa to go to Bhutan (and which is why I did not go to Bangladesh). They do seem to be opening up now so it may be easier. As with Nepal, they do have an open border with Indian nationals

Calico Ghost Town  When I was a child, my family visited this place once or twice.If I remember correctly, we simply camped outside. Now, they do seem to offer their own accommodation. However, I do not think that there is any viable way of getting there, other than by driving your own car.

Cambodia  I learned somewhere--either by watching a television program or by reading a blog post or news article--that Cambodia is becoming a hotspot for expats and PTs. Because I do not remember where, I am not sure if I remember correctly, nor do I have verification of that. At Expat-Blog however, they do have a large and active forum, many recent blog posts, and many recommended business and services.in Cambodia.
An obvious drawback to staying here is that the English language is probably not well known nor spoken, and their language is written in a script that is alien to the Roman alphabet, hindering the learning of their language (as I feel a similar hindrance in learning Hindi).

Changi Airport  If you are going to Singapore then you probably want to go to Singapore, that is, the city-state of Singapore. However, I would urge you to simply remain at the airport. When I arrived in India five years ago, my connecting flight was in Singapore. (I almost always took Singapore Airlines as I always enjoyed the flights.) While waiting in a lounge, I sat down in a chair, went to sleep and did not wake up until after the flight had left! That had never happened to me before (or since). At that time, there were fewer flights to Kolkata so I had to wait another 48 hours. (Now, there are daily flights.) However, I greatly enjoyed those 48 hours. The last time that I was there, I purposefully planned my itinerary so that I would stay there 24 hours. If you do have to (or want to) stay there for a long time then there is a hotel in each terminal for you. If you do not want to stay at the (somewhat expensive) hotel but do want to freshen up (as I needed to do when I stayed there five years ago) then there are separate showers. No matter how any times that I go there, I always see or learn something new about it. Moreover, unlike the airports in the U.S. where there are Thieves and Sexual Abusers, Changi Airport feels very safe and comfortable.

Dillon Beach  This has two wonderful things: 1) A beach. Because I was raised near the Pacific Ocean, my family often went to the beaches during the hot Summer months. One of the beaches was Dillon Beach, and I always enjoyed digging in the sand and going into the Ocean up to my hips. 2) A small town. In Class 8, we students were assigned to write an essay about anything we wished. I wrote about the small towns in Marin County, one of which was Dogtown, with a population of only 30 individuals! Another small town was Dillon Beach. I remember enjoying travelling around the county and asking residents about their thoughts. (However, I think that my father began to resent driving me around so much on the weekends.)

Dubai  Several years ago, I often dreamt of staying at the Burj al-Arab. At one lakh rupees per night, it probably will remain just a dream. Caroline has also said that if she ever gets a comfortable amount of money then she would also like to go to Dubai

Essel World  I am not as fond of Mumbai as is Caroline; however, I do enjoy amusement parks. (I did enjoy Nicco Park in Kolkata far more than did Caroline.) Amusement parks in India, however, are somewhat pathetic in relation to those in the U.S. Roller-coaster rides are usually just kiddie-rides, and the ride that is known as the Viking Ship in the U.S. goes no more than at a 90° angle (whereas in the U.S. it goes for a few 360° turns). Essel World, I believe, is primarily water-slides, which I have always enjoyed.

Goa  A few years ago, I did an analysis of what I wanted and concluded that Goa is the best place in India for me: 1) It does not border another country, so there are no worries about border skirmishes or incursions 2) Hindi (and English) is well-known, unlike places further South. I know very little Hindi, but I do hope to learn more at some time, and would like to be in a state where it is also well-known. 3) It is small in population so I can see the stars at night. (See my comment regarding Australia.) 4) It has wonderful beaches (see my comments regarding Australia and Dillon Beach.) 5) It is on the Western side of the country, just as is San Francisco in the United States. 6) Because it is on the Western side, it faces the Arabian Sea, not the Bay of Bengal. Of course, water is just water and beaches are just beaches, but the "Arabian Sea" seems to have a more warm and romantic connotation to it than does the "Bay of Bengal". Having said that though, Goa faces only Dubai and Mauritius, whereas the Eastern side of India is in the direction of Australia, Cambodia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and other nice travel destinations. 7) It is sparsely populated. I walk briskly and have been doing that all of my life, so I can more easily avoid traffic. However, as I get older, I may slow down. Cities like Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad--where it is virtually impossible to cross the street to get to the Nampally Railway Station without the assistance of an auto-rickshaw--are very scary for pedestrians. (If I remember correctly, it was better in Bangalore, but not by much.) Moreover, Caroline suffers from arthritis in her knee, making it more difficult for her to walk, and causing me some concern. However, because it is sparsely populated, it may be more difficult to find doctors and medicines that we may need in our old age. Oh well. As Caroline often says, you can't have everything.
Caroline sometimes wishes to stay in Velankanni. I agree that this is also a nice place.

Kolkata Mint  I would like to go inside because this is where Caroline's father worked for many years. I have been outside of it, and even took photos of it, but have never been inside. A few years ago, Caroline spoke to the guards in their cubicle near the entrance. She was told that she would need an appointment. It is probably not worth the effort, though. In a similar way, I would like to see the school that Caroline attended when she was younger. I have, however, been to the Indian Museum where at least one of Caroline's Uncles worked.
On my side of the family, I would like to visit Leon Junction, Texas--a place that is so small and unknown that even Google offers little realistic information on it--where my Father was born.
One or two days before I left for India, I visited Novato, where I was raised when the population was--if I remember correctly--22,000. (Now, it is more than double that amount.) I took more than 100 photos of the places I knew as a youth. When I was growing up, it was a stereotypical suburb of a city (in this case, San Francisco); it was a bedroom community full of families with young children. Now, it is a stereotypical suburb of a city (in this case, San Francisco); it is a community of DINKs--Double Income, No Kids. Thus, even though the population has more than doubled, the number of schools has renmained the same.

Latin America  Again, I have heard that Cambodia is a hotspot for expats. However, I have read more books, and more books that speak favourably, of Central America. Current websites like ExpatWorld.org and Offshore-Manual.com also seem to agree.

Manila  I have been to Cebu a few times. I have regretted not going to its beaches which, I believe, are extremely beautiful. I have also regretted not going to Manila. At the same time, however, I am somewhat fearful of going to Manila as this is the most-densely populated city in the world--almost twice as crowded as the very congested Kolkata.
One thing that I appreciate about all of the Philippines is that it is very easy to get and stay there. For U.S. citizens (and perhaps for others) there is a visa-on-arrival that is good for 21 days. It is also easy and quick to renew it for 59 days. If I remember correctly, you can stay up to 16 months in this way. (After that, you probably need to make a visa-run or look into alternatives.)

Mauritius  This is known as the playground for the wealthy in India, and is extremely scenic. (Just google images of Mauritius and you will agree.) In addition, very many films (primarily Hindi) have been filmed here.

Palace on Wheels  Like Dubai, this may remain as just a dream. For those who do have the desire and the resources to travel on this train, this is the official website

San Francisco  I have already devoted a post to my hometown, in which I neglected to mention the Exploratorium. According to WikiTravel, the admission to it on the first Wednesday of each month is free, and there are discounts for Bay Area residents and others.

Santa Cruz Mystery Spot  As with Calico Ghost Town, this is a place I visited once or twice as a child. As with Calico Ghost Town, I do not know how to get there, other than by travelling in your own car. I suspect, however, that if you are visiting or staying in the city then motels or some hotels may be able to arrange a tour bus to take you there and back. As an adult, I am not sure if I would be as excited at going there, though. Of course, I may be remembering the place wrongly and since it has been about 40 years since I last went there, many things may be even better now.

I had wanted to watch and review Krrish 3 because I wanted to discuss super-heroes in Hindi films. There, I discussed comedy, as well. In two other posts, I mentioned that I would review Hindi films that were available on Youtube, provided that they were subtitled. Bhagam Bhag is a comedic film and is subtitled on Youtube 

Since my review of Krrish 3, my views of comedy have not really changed. Even the impressive Chachi 420 (inspired by the Hollywood film Mrs. Doubtfire, and starring the even more impressive Kamal Hassan) worked because it had an ensemble cast. I would like to add, however, that comedy also works when the characters are put in incredible predicaments, as they are in Bhagam Bhag.

Especially since my arrival in India, I have noticed that Hindi films often have fewer and shorter SAD (song-and-dance) routines than they have had in the past. Bhagam Bhag was released in December 2006, so it may have been one of the first to begin this trend. It has just three SAD routines, plus one more as the end credits roll. (More and more Hindi films also have SAD routines at the end, so this film may have been one of the first to begin this trend, as well.) It may have been one of the last to have another practice. When I began to watch Hindi films there were no Indian cinemas around. There were only VHS tapes, almost none of which were subtitled (although it did not matter with the excellent Roja--which I may review in the future). Then, DVDs came along, although most of the SAD routines were not subtitled. This applies to the Youtube version that I watched. Regardless, I did enjoy Tere Bin.

When I review Hollywood films, I often discuss the special effects, not the SAD routines (which virtually do not exist). When I review Hindi films, I discuss the SAD routines, not the special effects. However, the penultimate scene in Bhagam Bhag shows a beehive from which thousands of bees emerge, attacking all of the actors. The beehive, though, does not look like a beehive, and the bees certainly do not look like bees. I suppose something was needed to get the actors from inside the clock tower to the outside of it; I just wish it were done differently or better.

Because it is a comedy, there really are no fight scenes, although there are many chase scenes. Even when there are fights or violence, they are usually done comedically, as when Shakti Kapoor's character gets his legs broken and when Paresh Rawal's character is tortured.

The penultimate scene, in which the actors escape from the bees by climbing down from the clock tower, I would describe as an action scene. It seems to be a virtual copy of the penultimate scene of the 1963 Hollywood film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The last scene of this movie (as well as that of Bhagam Bhag) has all of the actors in a hospital room.

The film stars Akshay Kumar, Govinda, and Paresh Rawal, all of whom I have mentioned before. I mentioned Akshay in Boss and Housefull 2. I think that I may have been too harsh on him in the past. He has been in a few flop films, and he does not seem to have much of an acting range, but he always has great chemistry with his fellow stars.
Govinda I have praised for being the sole comedian in Sandwich. I do not think that any current actor could accomplish such a feat.
Paresh Rawal is one of the few actors who always delivers a good performance. After I first wrote that, I have come to realize that Irrfan Khan and Naseeruddin Shah are other such actors.
The lead actress is Lara Dutta. India seems to be twice blessed twice over. In 1994, 18-year old Sushmita Sen won the Miss Universe title while Aishwarya Rai won Miss World. In 2000, Lara Dutta won Miss Universe while 18-year old Priyanka Chopra won Miss World. However, neither Miss Universe has received as much recognition in their acting as have their Miss World counterparts.
The film also features Rajpal Yadav as the taxi-driver "Gullu" and who is, as I am writing this, in jail.
Asrani plays the theatre troupe sponsor and is one of the last of the old-time, if not the only living, actors who is known as being a comedian. (Johnny Walker died several years ago.) Asrani has appeared in 382 films, starting in 1967, and perhaps most notably in Sholay in which he played a prison warden resembling Adolf Hitler.
Sharat Saxena plays a henchman to M.G. Gandhi (played by Manoj Joshi). He seems to have a knack for doing this because his most famous role is probably that of Daaga, a henchman to Mogambo, famously played by Amrish Puri in the 1987 film Mr. India (starring Anil Kapoor and Sri Devi). He, like Paresh Rawal and a host of other very famous Indians, was born in 1950. The future Prime Minister(?), Narendra Modi, was also born in 1950. (Most Americans have not heard of him because the U.S. government has never granted him a visa.) I do not know what it is about 1950; I ought to do research, and perhaps even write a blog post about all of the famous Indians born in this year.
Shakti Kapoor (as Guru) and Razzak Khan (as Hakka) have relatively small roles. When I first watched (most of) Bhagam Bhag (on television, with Caroline), I thought that Shakti Kapoor was playing a double role; they appeared to be very similar. In real life, they still appear similar. (Shakti Kapoor is on the right.)
Jackie Shroff plays the London police commissioner J.D. Mehra. Like Sharat Saxena, Jackie has been in many films (194, since 1973, for Jackie and 215, since 1974--including 10 for 2006--for Sharat). They have appeared in a great many films in the last fourteen years, but almost all of their noteworthy performances have come before this century.
The film is directed by Priyadarshan, who was recently interviewed by the Telegraph.

I never thought that one scene could be worth the price of admission until I watched Paresh Rawal wearing thick spectacles/eyeglasses. Oh wait, I already wrote something similar for ABCD; Any Body Can Dance. And, come to think of it, there is no price of admission if you watch it on Youtube. However, I hope that you get my drift. This scene was the reason why I wanted to watch a full, subtitled version of the film on Youtube. While watching it on television, Caroline and I both laughed out loud, and we still laugh whenever we talk about it. We also refer to it often. In our building, there is a cat named "Leo" who--when he wants to be let in--looks intently at his owner's front door, much like Paresh Rawal looked intently when he was in the elevator. I remembered the scene as being earlier in the film; however, it actually is toward the end.

At the beginning of this post, I wrote that the comedy of Bhagam Bhag was driven by predicaments. The predicaments, though, could be thought of as arising from the dialogue--more accurately, as the misinterpretation of dialogue.
Sharat Saxena and his partner (who does not have a speaking role) mistake Akshay and Govinda as being the people they are looking for, then mistakes "heroine" for "heroin"; and then mistakes them for undercover cops. This sets up all of the later antics.
Paresh Rawal is kidnapped and then beaten into saying what he knows about Gandhi (the name of the local Don). Paresh knows absolutely nothing about him and thinks that they want to know about Mohandas Gandhi.
In addition, I enjoyed it when Rajpal Yadav meets the theatre troupe at the Heathrow Airport (or perhaps it is another) and advises them: "Listen; do not smoke and do not spit; this is not India and don't make it one."

Even if you have to pay for watching this (by buying a DVD or Blu-Ray) then I recommend that you do so. The film may be ridiculous and OTT (over-the-top) in places, but that hearkens back to films of yester-year, and what makes it so fun and enjoyable to watch.

I have written Sick of India(?) in which I wrote about my physical difficulties in adjusting to the Indian climate and food (specifically, beef). I have written Health(?) in India in which I wrote about my general well-being since my arrival and provided (and continue to provide) links to health-related articles that I see in the daily newspapers. I have written Food & Drink in which I wrote about the things that you should (and should not) eat and drink. I have written 5 Dabur Products that I wrote as an entry to a blogging contest. I have decided to combine the themes of these posts and write this one. I have been inspired to write this now because I am suffering from a cold now, and have been taking Lemolate (see below).
All of the following are things with which my wife and I have personal experience. As the weeks and months go by, I shall add to this list as I become aware of them. With those things, we may or may not have had personal experience. I shall indicate that, if need be. Wherever possible, I provide a link to the product's website, to a Wikipedia article, or other informational site so that you can see the ingredients, features and benefits from another point of view.

Many, if not most of these are ayurvedic and may not be easily obtainable outside of India. However, with Amazon.com and the products own websites, you should be able to get them. If you are visiting India, you should obtain a few of these during your stay.
Some of these things are more properly "personal care" products rather than medicine. However, since they are ayurvedic, it may be more correct to think of them as being both.

Boroline  An antiseptic cream used in much the same way as Neosporin is used in the U.S. I use it for cuts, scrapes, cysts and rough or dry skin. Caroline often uses a small amount of it to wash her hands to keep them from of germs.
It is manufactured here in Kolkata.

Bournvita / Chyawanprash / Horlicks  All of these are delicious and extremely nutritious products to keep you healthy. Bournvita and Horlicks are meant to be mixed with hot water or milk; Chyawanprash is more of a thick paste or jam and is usually spread on biscuits or bread.
I first became aware of Horlicks on my first or second visit to Calcutta (as it was called then). A few years later, I saw it being sold in stores that catered to the Chinese community in San Francisco. 

Dabur Red Toothpaste  I have not done a thorough or even adequate research into the ingredients but as I wrote in 5 Dabur Products it does not contain the scary sodium fluoride. In the United States, I did my best to avoid that; in India, this is more easily achieved.
It has the power of the powder, but with the convenience of a paste form.

Enteroquinol  I am a little bit confused. Virtually all of the webpages that I found (with the exception of the linked page and a couple of others) indicate that it is a cream and used for other purposes. The linked page shows that it is a tablet, used to treat diarrhoea and other stomach ailments. However, the linked page gives me the impression that it is available only here in Kolkata. I have not tried to buy it elsewhere, so I am uncertain.
Regardless, it and Lemolate are two of the staples that Caroline and I bring on our train trips.

Lemolate  As I wrote above, I have a lingering cold. On the second day, I may have overdosed on Lemolate; I took seven tablets within twelve hours. I did have a mild headache and felt somewhat groggy, but after a long sleep, I did feel much better. Unfortunately, the cold has returned.
In the U.S., I would take massive amounts of vitamin C. This did get rid of my cold very quickly (often within a few hours, but I often had diarrhoea afterwards.
In the U.S., it is easy to purchase large bottles or containers of vitamins, minerals or other health-related products. In India, I almost never see this. Ebay.in does seem to have a handful of appropriate vitamin C tablets; Amazon.in is still in its infancy.

Limca  Yes, this is neither medicine nor a personal care product, but it can be thought of as being medicine. As a child, my mother gave us children 7Up whenever we vomited or had upset stomachs. Years later, I thought that this may have been an old wives' tale. Years later--after the Internet, Google, Wikipedia and other sites--I found many pages verifying the efficacy of 7Up on upset stomachs. In India, Limca is used for the same purpose and is another item that Caroline and I always bring on our train trips.
Limca, ThumsUp, Maaza and others are indigenous companies that have more recently been purchased by Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

Liv-52  As I have written at least once, I acquired jaundice in Mumbai. (Exactly how I contracted it, I have no idea.) When we returned to Kolkata a few days later, I looked for a product that would treat it. The chemist/pharmacist told me to take Liv-52. I took the maximum dosage until the tablets ran out because I did not think that I would ever need the tablets again and because I did not want the jaundice to return in a more virulent form simply because I had not treated it properly.
During the time that I was taking the tablets, I usually felt drowsy, which may be a side effect of the medicine.

Neem   Neem seems to be a very versatile product, much like aloe vera.
I do not know the specific procedures and tools used to get earrings and nose-rings in the United States. My belief is that it is relatively quick, easy and painless to get. In India, it is (or was) somewhat barbaric. Caroline has a few earrings in each ear, and one nose-ring. For each, she had to leave a copper wire in the hole for one full day. Once or twice, she has lost an earring. When this happens, she gets a neem stick to leave in the hole (presumably to keep it open and/or to prevent any infection). There are a few neem trees scattered throughout Kolkata. However, the branches are too high to reach. There is a locality where people on the street sell these neem branches; however, they offer just the neem leaves and/or (small) branches--the twigs they give freely to Caroline.
Here is a website devoted to neem products.

Neko soap  Soap is soap, but some soaps do seem to be better than others. Dettol, Medimix and Neko seem to be more effective in warding off germs, and Caroline uses Neko soap for more serious skin conditions.

Rhuma Oil  As I have mentioned many times, both at this blog and elsewhere, Caroline suffers from arthritis in her knee. To alleviate the pain and discomfort, she rubs Rhuma oil on her knee and leg. She has also used Sandhi Sudha; however, the latter is not easily obtainable, while the former can be found at most chemist shops/pharmacies.

Sea Cod tablets  Every day, Caroline takes one or two Sea Cod tablets. As the name implies, it is rich in omega-3 fatty acids. She views this as being a panacea, much as I view vitamin C as being.

Slice  No, this is neither medicine nor a personal care product. It does not have even the same efficacy as does Limca (see above). However, I am including this to contrast India with the United States.
Slice is one of a few mango juice drinks available at many shops. Other such drinks are Maaza, Frooti and others--although the three named ones are by far the most common. I enjoy the taste of Slice the most, although I once looked at the ingredients and it does seem to have more sugar than does Maaza. Frooti does not seem to contain real mango juice; if it does, then it seems to be greatly watered-down. In addition to mango juice, there is a large variety of other fruit juices, usually available in boxes, unlike the mango drinks which are in plastic bottles.
In addition to fruit juices, there is a small army of people selling coconuts. They use a chopper to cut off the top, and give you a straw so that you can drink the coconut milk. Afterwards, if you want, they can break up the coconut so that you can eat the coconut meat. There is an equally large number of people preparing sugar-cane drinks. I have always thought that merely watching them make the drink is worth the price of the drink.

making sugar-cane juice in Kolkata

Having praised sugar-cane juice, I should inform you that after you drink it, the man will merely rinse your glass and leave it for the next person to drink from. If you have a contagious disease then there is a good chance that he will contract it and, of course, the reverse is equally true. There are some who offer disposable plastic or paper cups, or clay pots, but these are a small number.
Finally, you can find many fruit juice stalls (usually selling sweet-lime juice) on many footpaths.
In the U.S., Coke, Pepsi, other sodas, and drinks with Obesity Liquid (otherwise known as HFCS or high fructose corn syrup) have an enormous market share. In India, they are virtually unknown, although they are found in the growing number of fast-food restaurants (the most numerous being Subway, McDonalds, Dominos and KFC).

I think that this will be good post and I think that I shall be proud of it, but I am ambivalent about other factors. I had thought of merely linking this article in my monthly Government as Criminals post. Then, I realized that it was more significant than that and that I should mention it in my monthly News: Other post. Then, I realized that it was more significant than that and that I should discuss it at length in its own post. There is precedence for my doing this. I wrote a post about San Francisco after seeing a newspaper article about it and first thinking that I should include it in a News: Other post but then deciding that it needed its own post.

At the same time, though, I feel somewhat guilty for an oversight of mine. One year ago, an even more significant event occurred. One year ago, Nirbhaya was brutally and horrifically raped--and eventually died--while the police in the Rape Capital City of the Rape Capital Country of the World twiddled their thumbs (and continue to twiddle their thumbs). I never discussed this event at length. I have provided (and continue to provide) news articles in my monthly Government as Murderers post but I never gave it its own post.

I think that the reason was that I, along with 1.2+ billion other people, hoped that her wish would come true and that she would survive. A few days after she succumbed to the unspeakable injuries inflicted upon her, I had to leave for the Philippines and had less time and resources to write about it. Moreover, I did not even think of writing about this tragedy. Even if I had thought of doing so, I think that I would have concluded that it would have been out of place in this blog. (Since then, I have modified my blog so that it may have fit nicely here.) Even if I had written it, I do not think that I could have written anything more than what the entire world came to know.

However, an oversight on my part in the past should not adversely affect what I can do regarding the current event. Moreover, I think that I can provide unique information. I can provide personal impressions and knowledge, and frame this post in such a way that will appeal (I hope) to the people who (I hope) are regular readers of this blog.

I also have to confess that I was somewhat confused. I had thought that same-sex marriage was legal throughout India and that this was done shortly after my arrival here, so when I read the headline that the Supreme Court made homosexuality a crime I thought that the Supreme Court ruled against the Supreme Court. I thought that they were saying that same-sex marriage was okay but that same-sex sex was not. This, obviously, did not make sense. It would make sense only if sexual people were asexual--a contradiction in terms.
Then I learned that in 2009, the Delhi High Court ruled in favour of same-sex marriage. Even if this did legalize same-sex marriage, it probably would have applied only to the National Capital Territory of Delhi--the DHC's small jurisdiction. However, the case had to--as is obvious now--wind its way to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court's decision was based on an interpretation of section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (page 168 in the link) which says:

377. Unnatural offences. Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with 1*[imprisonment for life], or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.

Are the judges not listening to what they are saying? They are saying that the act is bad, but the actor is good. ????????? This is like saying that rape is bad but the rapist is good; spreading AIDS is bad but the AIDS carrier is good; killing innocent civilians in lands that we will never visit is bad but Bushama is good.
Are the judges not listening to what they are saying? I am not a legal scholar. I know little of the inner workings of the United States' Supreme Court, and I know even less of that of India. I do know that the U.S. Supreme Court regularly decides on Constitutional matters. I think that it is a fair assumption that the Supreme Court of India does likewise. The Constitution of India does guarantee the right to freedom of expression. This obviously conflicts with Section 377. It was incumbent upon the judges to decide which was preeminent. Till now, I have not heard nor read anything from the judges justifying Section 377 over the Constitution.

The good news is that Parliament may do something about this. The bad news is that Parliament may do something about this. The Indian Parliament is even more inept than the United States Congress--if such a thing is possible. Parliament had the opportunity to delete the Section almost fourteen years ago but twiddled their thumbs, instead. It could very well be another fourteen years, or more, or never, before the section is repealed.
The good news is that people may do nothing about this. The Indian government is a government. As such, it is an addict. It is addicted to money. A few years ago, the Indian government imposed the "David Headley Rule" which prevented most visitors to India from re-entering India until two months elapsed from their departure. This apparently had a big impact upon the government's finances and they have recently repealed it. They have gone even further and enlarged their visa-on-arrival to include citizens of even more countries, including those of the United States.
The re-imposition of section 377 may have an effect similar to that of the DHR. Already, there have been many cancellations of visits to India by members of the LGBT community. The addicts may soon experience withdrawal symptoms again. The addicts may soon need another fix, and decide to repeal Section 377. This may actually be the saddest thing of all: political rulers may end up doing the right thing, not because it is the right thing to do but because they need money.

The better news is that people may do nothing about this. If very old people who have no known relationship to you say the aliens from Neptune will be attacking your home then would you do anything about their rantings and ravings? I hope not. If very old people who have no known relationship to you say that you should put a coin in the box so that you can ride through a wormhole in the space-time continuum on a green unicorn held aloft on a flying carpet then would you do anything about their rantings and ravings? I hope not. If very old people who have no known relationship to you say that you should sign up for "free" socialized medical insurance and your children's children will pay for it then would you do anything about their rantings and ravings? I certainly hope not. I hope that you understand that they are simply rantings and ravings; they are simply tales, told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
When you eat and drink, do you eat and drink only what, where, when and how very old people tell you to eat and drink? When you travel, do you travel only where, when and how very old people tell you to travel? When you entertain yourself, do you find enjoyment only in what, where, when and how very old people tell you to entertain yourself? When you enter into a relationship with someone, do you enter it only where, when, how and with whom very old people tell you to enter it? If you do not want nor need very old people to tell you what to do in your personal life then why would you want them to tell you what to do in your social life?
(Yes, I live in India. Yes, many of my readers are Indians. Thus, very many of my readers believe in and have arranged marriages. This could very well be the problem, and could be worthy of another blog post. If the arranged marriage prospect is simply viewed as advice or a recommendation, and is based on a thorough and objectively good and beneficial information then I suppose that it can be good. However, if the arranged marriage prospect is enforced or if it is imposed on those too young to comprehend the consequences--i.e., child marriage--then it is no better than listening to very old people.)
Of course, there are sometimes consequences beyond your control. In the United States, there are people who are interested in botany. The FCM/JJE (Fee-Collecting Murderers/Judge, Jury & Executioner--formerly known as the police) will often go to their homes at three o'clock in the morning, break down the front doors, and kill them as they are reaching for their spectacles/ eyeglasses, or kill their children or pets, or do anything else that they want to do.
In North Korea, Kim Jong-un recently had his Uncle executed after putting him on trial--albeit at an obvious kangaroo court. In the United States, has Bushama provided even this to the thousands of people who are on his Kill List?
Yes, governments everywhere have their Daagas, their loyal and obedient henchmen, but it is not advisable, beneficial or practical to live your life according to these possibilities. My suggestion is to live your life as if you were free and you may end up being it. You do not exist for the sake of government; government--if it is to exist at all--has to exist for your sake. Remember: the Emperor has no clothes!

It used to be that India was in the world spotlight for all the right reasons. It used to be that India had a very strong economy (second only to that of China) during the Great Depression II. Now, India is always in the world spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Perhaps this, too, deserves its own post.