Once upon a time....

Wow!! looks like there are soo many interesting things happening back in India:

for starters, I read in USA Today that Banglore was going to be renamed as 'Bengaluru', the Kannadian name for it. This IT hub of India will most likely lose its anglocized name if the cabinet approves the bill. While the cultural chairs in Indian govt. can boast about changing all those city names given by foreign rulers (remember, Bombay-->Mumbai, Madras -->Chennai, Calcutta --> Kolkatta, Pondicherry--> Punducherry !!), can they actually preserve the culture and traditions of our ancestors that are being sucked up by western influences? I am up for a more broad-minded society, but can you tell at what point people will compromise their lofty ideals in the face of the modern style of living? Are we actually happier after integrating western influences into our beliefs? I understand that there are pros and cons to everything, and I am not voting against western ideologies, but instead, only hoping that we can combine the best of the two and come up with our own system. Like it or not, the reins of future of any society are controlled by the culture preached by media and other influential people. I don't know much about influential people, but Indian media definetely does not seem to be helping with its increasing use of carnal content. The only thing left for us is to see if changing anglocized names of cities will remind people to be proud of their original identities and forego the western ideologies that preach obtaining sensual pleasures.


One more note on the topic of media:- two superstars from Bollywood are planning to get married in 2007. It could be one of the several rumors that has been making rounds since past year, but it seems very likely now that Abhishek Bachhan and Aishwarya Rai will end up as couple to the dismay of their fans. After all, these news were busted by Bachchan family's Swamiji who checked Abhi and Ash's hororscopes :-P...

Also, note that Shabana Azmi is going to receive gandhi Peace Prize.... an ultimate honor for her! You can read about this article here:http://in.rediff.com/movies/2006/oct/27shabana.htm

Interestingly enough, after the big cry in US of how jobs were being outsourced to India, China and other low-income talent houses, now Indian IT company Infosys is also outsourcing its jobs to foreigners....maybe outsourcing is not the right word, but it is definetely attracting foreign citizens to settle down in India!! This should be an interesting development for the country and the foreigners, although, the real question is: can Infosys pick and keep these talented international workers with its salaries and facilities for long?