Eating Crocodile Meat

The crocodile needs to be looked after and not allowed to become dead like the Dodo. Recent events in Australia are a warning and steps need to be taken to conserve the crocodile.

The Crocodile is an Endangered Species

Crocodile

 Recently in Australia authorities found heads of 70 crocodiles stuffed in a freezer. Hunting a crocodile is banned in Australia and can earn a 5-year jail term.

Crocodiles are protected species in Australia and only a few are killed in case they become a danger to human habitation. Thus authorities have to answer how the crocodile heads turned up in the freezer. So far no arrests are made and one can only hope some action will ensue.

Another fact I am unable to digest is people eating crocodile meat. A friend has written to me that Crocodile meat is served in all places in the USA. I am told Crocodile meat is a delicacy in Louisiana state of USA - the alligator variety. The tail meat is costlier. One can get 'Gator burger' or 'Alligator Smoked Sausage' and other preparations in some of the restaurants, available more in the 'French Market' area along Mississippi river in New Orleans city.

There are alligator farms where they are bred and reared only for commercial purpose (human consumption). Alligator heads (after the taxidermy) from very small to large sizes are displayed and sold in different shops as a souvenir. Cost varies between $ 15 to $ 50. Visitors are naturally surprised to see that alligator meat is consumed by the inhabitants. NatGeo channel shows 'Alligator hunting".

Despite this, I do feel crocodile hunting needs to stop. You can't kill one in India, where wildlife laws are strict, yet aberrations take place. Talking of crocodiles, their skin is worth a fortune in the fashion market with women leading the way. It's about time this was stopped. 

Indian made Whiskeys have made a Global Mark

Imperial Blue whiskey

The British ruled India for 190 years and gave many gifts to India. They also reduced Indians to second class status, but some of their legacies really helped India like the railways and the army. Also, the British also introduced whiskey and allied drinks in India. Once the products were introduced many enterprising Indians in collaboration with the British opened distilleries in India and some are now big names like Mohan Meaken and Kingfisher. These were referred to as IMFL or Indian made Foreign liquor

IMFL became popular in India and after the independence and liberalization of economy foreign manufacturers of Scotch whiskey also started manufacturing their products in India. Indian made whiskey has now reached international standards in quality and good Indian whiskey is close to scotch in taste and flavor.

India has gone forward and recently an international survey has shown that the 10 top-selling brands in the world seven are from India. The only Scotch whiskey brand in the list is single malt Glen Livet. It is indeed surprising that 7 Indian brands are the top-selling brands out of the first 10 in the world. The topmost brand with maximum volume in sales is Imperial Blue followed by MacDowell No 1.

The sale of Indian made foreign whiskeys has grown by geometric progression. One reason is the price as Indian whiskeys sell at 50% of the cost of similar Scotch whiskey. In a match with price and quality, IMFL scores and thus more and more buyers are drinking Indian made whiskeys. In Pakistan, UAE and even Europe Indian Whiskeys are stocked in the bars and there is no stigma attached to them.

Shameful conduct of a male passenger in Bhopal against a lady in Aircraft

In India, the male chauvinism rears its head now and then. Recently a video has gone viral of a passenger aboard a flight in Bhopal talking improperly to a lady passenger. `The lady is a wheelchair-bound traveler and is also an MP from the same city -Bhopal. She had trounced the anti-Hindu and BJP leader  Digvijaya Singh by over 350,000 votes.
The airline has now said that they were not aware that the lady MP, was wheelchair-bound. This is a clear case of the airline being at fault. Worse this passenger thought he is king and used improper language against her. Who will take cognization of this and charge this man ?. `The way he was shouting deserves to be condemned.
I wonder if this man is aware that a woman who had a child out of wedlock is the PM of Finland without any stigma and here this man was uttering all nonsense. Who will bell the cat?

A Dance to Remember

Dancing is always great fun. What if you get a chance to swing with a lovely Lebanese girl?

 The Desert and teh UAE is a great place for a holiday and you can really let your hair down. Perhaps it's one of the paths to Nirvana. So fly to the UAE from London or Mumbai and part of millions who come for a holiday here.

Goa and the Bikini; No Politics

Goa has ample sun-kissed beaches and thousands of tourists from the west, particularly from the Slav nations flock here. The bikini has become a part of politics.

Goa and the bikini

Indian in bikini

Goa brims with foreign tourists around the year and no other spot except Goa deals with such astronomical tourist-influx. Goa is indeed in oddity with all other tourist zones of India. And what that fixates one’s eyeballs upon and also heats up a debate among ministers of Goa is ‘bikini’.

Why is it that bikinis still continues to be a matter of squeamishness among the ministries of Goa? Very recently, Goa PWD minister Sudin Dhavalika reportedly said that he would oppose free bikini wear in Goa. He is reported to have said that if tourists come to Goa wearing bikinis, then I am against it. He added that “culture” was against wearing the two-piece bathing garment. In contrast, the Tourism minister Parulekar had commented that as a tourism minister, he had never said no to bikinis.

The tourism minister, however, added that bikinis could be worn on beaches as well as swimming pools but not in supermarkets or temples. One gets a feeling that politics is needlessly injected into a mundane topic.

Live and let live

Goa Beach

My stance is in favor of bikinis beyond the beach

With no intention of inflicting my views on anybody who is reading, I put forward my stand on the ‘bikini-issue’. Well, in my eyes, I don’t see any need for a ban on bikinis outside the beach, that is, in swimming pools, markets, kiosks or any open-to-public section. One should not forget that the ancient Indian dresses as seen from paintings and sculptures are far more revealing.

Most tourists who come to Goa do it to relax and let their hair down. Many come from extremely cold countries and Goa is heaven for them, with its sunshine and all-weather beaches.

Donning a bikini is one’s self-choice and there should be no talk of culture and heritage etc. These can be self-defeating. I think bringing politics into wearing a bikini is not the right approach. Many Indian girls also wear bikinis. Goa on the Arabian Sea is a blessed place, let's keep it that way.

Punjabi Chess with Rare Scotch Whiskey

Punjabi Chess with Scotch and Rare Scotch

Chess is a popular game of skill and intellect. In Punjab, the Punjabi's have modified the game to incorporate their love for good whiskey and rum.

Modifying Chess

Punjabi Chess

Playing Chess is popular all over the world. Its an ancient game and mention of this game is found in the Mahabharata, which was written in about 5000BC. The Greeks also played chess and by all accounts, it was a popular game.

The game has not changed much over the last 7000 years, except for the addition of some rules and regulations. The game for long was the preserve of Royalty and the elite, but now its played by all and sundry.

The game is played on a chessboard and consists of a total of 32 pieces known as soldiers and knights. It also has a king and queen and the game involves making a plan to checkmate the king. Anyone who checkmates the king is the winner.

I have been playing chess for ages. Earlier I used to play as a child with my maternal grandfather. The game has however been given a welcome twist by the Punjabi's. They are robust people with a penchant for the good life including good whiskey. The chessboard has been transformed by some robust and energetic people from Punjab with various shades of Scotch whiskey replacing the traditional players on a chessboard

Playing Chess the Punjabi way

Punjabi chess

On my visit to my village in Punjab near Hoshiarpur, I often play this "Whiskey Chess" as it is popularly called. The players on the chessboard are replaced by delicate glasses containing Scotch whiskey. the pawns or soldiers are replaced by glasses containing ordinary scotch like 100 Pipers, Vat 69, Old Smuggler or similar brands.

The warriors like Knights and Horse and Castle are represented by glasses containing good whiskey like Johnny Walker Black Label, Chivas Regal, etc. The king and queen have glasses filled with a peg of rare scotch like Royal Salute.

The game is played the normal way with the exception that when any player wins an opponent he gets the chance to gulp the scotch peg. The winner who checkmates the king is awarded with the rare scotch. It's a wonderful game and not for anyone with a weak disposition. I will say its a real macho game and the host will also keep supplied with an endless quantity of Chicken and meat kebabs.

Its great fun and one must play it to relish the flavor of " Punjabi Chess". I for one love it and whenever I go to my village in Punjab at Hoshiarpur I make it a point to play Punjabi Chess with my friends. I don't think even Omar Khayyam can better THIS!

Review MG Singh's Novel "ROMANCE OF THE FRONTIER''

The novel

The author

Writing a novel is a work of inspiration and this novel fills that genre. The novel was written many years back but was kept pending till the writer finally decided to publish it. Notion Books, Chennai was happy to publish it. There is a lot of action, killings, and the most important part is that the book is laced with oriental erotica.

Notion Books an Indian publishing firm has taken pains and printed the book with an excellent get-up and glossy cover.

The book is on sale on-line in both paperback forms, as well as a Kindle e-book.

The Plot

Book cover

The novel is set in the period when the British empire was on its last legs and as a parting shot had decided to divide India into two by creating Pakistan. This was a tumultuous period in Indian history and forms the background of the novel.

The hero is a Muslim Pathan tribesman who is benevolent, educated and above all a great warrior. The novel delineates his love affair with the daughter of a British major of the Indian army and subsequent affair with Anglo- Indian girl. In all this mayhem there are excellent erotic passages, as well as action. The hero kills with compunction, but he is just and fair. The novel also relates a feud between him and a Punjabi Muslaman who wants to drive the Hindus out of Punjab.

There is plenty of action and the reader can be spellbound in case he likes tales of love and adventure.
The book is available on all major online sites like Amazon, Flipkart, News hunt, Kobo, Google play, etc. I hope some friends will grab a copy.

Last Word

The book

Considering that it is the first book, it's a commendable piece of work. Some passages do appear disjointed now, but hopefully,  the writer will correct them in later novels.

The book runs into 252 pages and gives a picture of that turbulent time. The backdrop of a sizzling love adds to the allure of the novel. It's a good tale and readers should like it. It's also a tribute to the language of English which is now part of India, making it the biggest English knowing nation in the world. At a conservative estimate over 350 million Indians are well versed in this language. India has produced a number of top writers like Salman Rushdie and Kushwant Singh and I hope this novel will add to the repertoire of English literature published in India.

Priyanka Chopra strikes out in Hollywood: A First for an Indian Actress

Star from India in America

Chopra

The Mumbai film industry is second only to Hollywood, but despite churning out the largest number of films in the world, hardly any Indian actress makes it big in the US entertainment industry. After decades, one actress, Priyanka Chopra has been a success and it is a tribute not only to her hard work, but also her beauty, sex appeal, and tanned body. Priyanka has shot music videos and is also acting in Baywatch and this has gladdened the hearts of Indians.

Priyanka and entry in American show biz
Priyanka (born 1982) is the daughter of a military officer who had her schooling in the USA. She entered the Miss World contest and was crowned the winner in 2000. She has not looked back after that as she joined Hindi films and in a few years has reached the apex. Having spent her early years in the US, Priyanka had no phobia about life in the USA and she wished to make a mark in the TV and music industry there. She made waves when in 2012, she was signed by Creative Artists Agency. It was the first time an Indian actress had been signed by this agency. Chopra collaborated with Sam Walters, Jay Sean, and Mathew Korma, and produced her first album RedOne. She also released her first single" In My City." She made a mark with this album and received 3 nominations: best female artist, best song, and best video at the World Music Awards. Priyanka is on the road to success and she has released many more music videos.

Success in Baywatch series
One of her biggest successes was in bagging a role in Baywatch. In this serial, she has excelled and shown to Americans what an Indian beauty is like. Priyanka is the first star from India to have made a mark in America. She is the top star in Bollywood. Come to think of it, the doyen of Indian acting Amitabh Bachchan got a 10-minute measly role in the Great Gatsby. One can safely say that Priyanka is a trailblazer. She is now busy with her commitments in both Mumbai and the USA. One can be sure she will do better in the years to come. 

Memoir: Stanes High School

The Stanes High School

sir stanes

The Stanes High School on Avinashi road at Coimbatore is a school that is a testimony to the good that the Raj brought to India. The school now in its 148th year of existence is a tribute to the Raj and the men who were the sinews of that period. I had attended this school decades back when my father was posted at Coimbatore. Thus I have fond memories of this school.

Inception

Old residence of Stanes

The Stanes High school was the brainchild of Sir Robert Stanes a coffee planter who had his plantations of coffee in the Nilgiris. In those days Robert Stanes used to take his coffee seeds for processing to Kerala. But once he happened to visit Coimbatore, he liked the place immensely as it had a salubrious climate that reminded him of Manchester.
The school saw the shape in 1862, making it one of the oldest schools in India. In fact, it is older than the Daly College and Doon School.
The school was set up with help from the church. But by the turn of the twentieth century, the school opened its doors to all categories and classes of people. The name European was dropped and the school renamed as 'Stanes High School'. However in keeping with the wishes of Sir Stanes the school even now carries on with reservations for the minority Anglo Indian community. .

The School Today

the school

The Stanes High School will soon be celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2012. This will be a rare achievement as hardly any school in India is that old. Presently the school has over 3000 students and the medium of instruction is English.
When we look at the school now, we must all spare a thought for Robert Stanes who had the vision to set up this school. For his services to India and the people of Coimbatore, Henry Stanes was knighted by the King. He was also awarded the Kaiser-e-Hind medal by the Governor-General. Sir Robert Stanes breathed his last in 1936. But he left behind a splendid monument of all the good that the Raj brought with it.
For me it will always remind me of one the best period of my life.

Indo-Japanese Girl is Miss Japan

Miss Japan

Miss Japan

Japan was for centuries a closed society. In fact, from about 1600 the Togukawa shogunate closed Japan from the rest of the world in the belief that the Japanese were superior to the world, and could not associate with other races, who they deemed inferior. The Japanese imposed stringent restrictions on foreigners and hardly anyone was allowed into Japan. This state of affairs continued till about 1850 when the American flotilla commanded by Commodore Mathew Perry laid siege to Edo Bay. He was successful and the Japanese had no choice but to give in to American demands and open up their country.

Copying the West
The Japanese are avid learners and they soon copied or even bettered some of the ideas from the West. They built up a formidable military machine and at one time dominated the entire SE Asia. The Japanese also copied the concept of beauty pageants and began to have their own contests.

Despite the opening up, a section of the Japanese people still looked down on other races and many Japanese children from mixed marriages suffered, Called Haafu, or half Japanese, these children were often discriminated against. A blow was struck against this apartheid when last year a Haafu girl Ariana Miyamoto won the Miss Japan beauty contest for the first time. Many criticized her as she did not look Japanese enough. Nevertheless, she represented Japan at the world beauty contest.

Half-Indian girl wins beauty pageant

Miss Japan

This year another girl with mixed parentage Priyanka Yoshikawa has won the Miss Japan title. She is half Indian, as her father is from Calcutta and her mother is Japanese. She is related to the ex-Indian chief minister of Bengal and spent over a year in Calcutta in 2003-04. Priyanka was born in Tokyo and will represent Japan at the Miss World contest this year to be held in Washington. She has joined the rank of Celebrities.

Last word

Priyanka in a bikini

Orthodox Japanese are not happy at a non-Japanese girl winning the beauty contest and now representing Japan. But times are changing and so is Japan. There is more openness now and Priyanka considers herself Japanese first before anything else