The Human Rights Activist

Check out this talk to see what a human rights activist should be like...http://www.ted.com/talks/sunitha_krishnan_tedindia.html I feel quite small and insignificant after listening to Sunita.

"Holiday' Time or Just Good Old Christmas?

There is a lot of mention in the newspapers of 'holiday' shopping, holiday season, holiday spirit etc. The 'politically correct' description of Christmas time is the fall out of the American style of secularism which divorces religion from public life entirely, therefore 'holiday' season refers to all the festivals that may be celebrated at this time. I personally feel that this takes away from the true spirit of things. I have just planted a 'holiday tree' at my farm in the facebook game 'Farmville' and let me tell you, I am not happy at all!! I do so like the all encompassing secularism of India which says that all religions should be treated equally....as a result we are as excited about Christmas as about Diwali or Id or Gurparb and, what a relief, we can actually call a Christmas tree a Christmas tree without offending anyone! Another reason that the US model would be unworkable in India is the number of holiday seasons that are there. If we say 'holiday decorations' then we would be at a loss to figure out which holiday they were refering to!! The festivities start from Raksha bandhan right upto 'Bengali new year' for us Bengalis which is in April and each festival has a different flavour...
Well, the bottomline is that it is irritating to be 'politically correct' about such things so let's call a christmas tree just that, please. Thanks to the Indian take on secularism we can happily say 'Christmas tree' 'Christmas holiday', 'Christmas decorations' without any fear! HO HO HO HO