Book Republic is an alternate book publishing and distribution platform founded by a group of Malayalam bloggers. Their aim is to bring in talented writers to the mainstream and to implement a decentralized distribution system. Their first book, “Nilavliliye kurichu kadam kathakal”, which is a collection of poems by T P Vinod (who writes in the name Lapuda), has been published on last Saturday. You can order the book from www.bookrepublic.in. And their blog is here.
The latest to join the celebrity bloggers from India is Malayalam actor and 3 time national award winner Mammootty. He has started blogging from today onwards and he blogs in Malayalam. His first post is titled “Sampad Vyavasthayude Raashtreeyam” which could be roughly translated to “The politics of economics”. With the rumors of Mammootty going to contest in the next general elections with support of the Communist party, his blog would make an interesting read.
Mathrubhumi newspaper reports that an Information Technology Amendment Bill which was passed on the last day of Lok Sabha meeting without any discussion could lead to serious consequences. It says that there are 45 amendments to the existing law and some of them, which are seemingly not harmful, are very draconian in nature. However, reading through the bill doesn’t give us much reasons to worry. (Click here to read the full form of the amendment bill).
Let’s see 67A for example:
67A. Whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted in the electronic form any material which contains sexually explicit act or conduct shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees and in the event of second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years and also with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees.
And the punishment:
80. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, any police officer, not below the rank of a Deputy Superintendent of Police, or any other officer of the Central Government or a State Government authorised by the Central Government in this behalf may enter any public place and search and arrest without warrant any person found therein who is reasonably suspected or having committed or of committing or of being about to commit any offence under this Act.
Mathrubhumi news article says that if you watch, search or download porn in the Internet, you can get imprisoned for 7 years with a fine of Rs. 10 Lakh as per this amendment. Or suppose if somebody else uses your computer to view, search or download porn, you – the owner of the computer – can be arrested. Not only that, some websites display porn site ads when you go there, and you will be punished even for that!
Perhaps the Mathrubhumi reporter is worried about misuse of the word “transmission”. Because when you watch a porn video or image in a website, it actually transmits the file to your computer (in the temporary storage area). But that process doesn’t hold you guilty as it is only the “person who transmits” the material who can be charged guilty. So watching or searching porn sites/images/videos wouldn’t hold you responsible as per this amendment. However, if you send a file, video, email or photo that has sexually explicit content to someone else, it can take you to jail.
(Info via Aashik)
(Image courtesy: iStockPhoto)
Here comes that moment of the year again where we all get to listen to the songs of Blogswara! Blogswara’s version 5 has been released today at 12 AM IST in our website – http://www.blogswara.in. There are 14 songs in total for this album which includes songs in 4 langauges – Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi and Kannada – and instrumental music. Go to our website, listen to the songs and let the song teams know your feedback. And also if you like the songs, please do spread the word through your blogs and emails. By the way, I have sung two songs – Azhaithathu Yaaro (with Sindhuja) and Etho Oru Pookkaalam. Listen to both and let me know your comments. 🙂
I would like to thank each and everyone from the song teams who have worked hard to make this happen. You guys keep the spirit of Blogswara going on! Also thanks to our moderators panel who have been instrumental in the songs selection process. I want to specially thank Nandu Mahadevan for taking time to master all the songs through his busy work schedules and Jyothis E for taking care of the hosting of our songs and for promptly responding at the crucial times. Thank you both!! And to Connexionz and Don who have been helping us with the website hosting from the very beginning.
For those who don’t know about Blogswara yet, here is an introduction given below:
Blogswara (http://www.blogswara.in) is an internet music community which acts as a common platform for musicians (a majority of whom are amateurs) to showcase their talent before the world by producing original music and share it over the internet. It is also a free-music movement where visitors/listeners can listen and download the mp3 files free of cost. So far we have released 4 internet albums and Blogswara Version 5 is scheduled to be released by the year end. The songs are in multiple languages and so far we have had songs in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi. People from abroad have also shown interest in Blogswara. There is an American musician, who plays Sitar, will be working for this year’s album.
Blogswara proves that people, wherever they are or whatever languages they speak, can come together for a cause – here the cause being music. And the digital age has made it easy for them to meet each other and collaborate. Many of the individual musicians who have appeared in Blogswara have not seen each other in the real world but they are still able to collaborate. Human spirit is what drives Blogswara. Like the Blogswara tagline (United in Music) says here people unite in music.
Avant Garde Bloggies Awards is an initiative by Poonam Sharma & her friends to recognize some of the best posts of the Blogosphere. The winners have just been announced in Poonam‘s blog, and there are some very interesting posts out there. I had the privilege of being one of the judges for the Music category. Check out the list of winners and go through the winner blog posts. Congrats to Poonam for taking efforts to carry out this initiative successfully and to all the winners and participants.
Plan India is a Child-Centred Development organisation that works towards promoting Child Rights and improve the quality of life of vulnerable children. They have launched a campaign “Learn without Fear” against violence faced by children in schools and homes. This campaign is currently being launched in seven states (Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Bihar, Rajasthan, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh & New Delhi) in which Plan works, and will aim to directly improve the lives of millions of children in India.
This campaign is about preventing all forms of violence against children in schools. It includes corporal punishment, sexual abuse, neglect, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, bullying, peer-to-peer violence, youth gangs, use of weapons, and harassment in school and on the journey to and from school.
Plan India, has also set up a Children Advisory Board (CAB) wherein children from different stratas of society meet every month and discuss problems faced by them in schools, share their experiences and views and suggest solutions. They are also planning to work within communities, parents, teachers and children to end violence in schools.
Key findings of the study by Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India 2007*
1) 69 % children reported physical abuse, including corporal punishment, i.e. two out of three children were victims of corporal punishment
2) 62 % of the corporal punishment was in government and municipal schools
3) Most children did not report the matter to anyone
4) 53.22% children reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse
5) 21.90% child respondents reported facing severe forms of sexual abuse and 50.76 % other forms of sexual abuse
6) The states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Delhi have almost consistently reported higher rates of abuse in all forms as compared to other states
* Study based on experiences of 12, 447 children, aged 5-18 years across13 states.
(Image courtesy: PlanIndia.org)
(Thanks to Kanika Kohli for the info)
Update 06:
Jacob Joseph, Founder and editor Mutiny.in, escaped the Taj hostage situation and recounts the horror. Vinu has several photographs from the affected locations
One of the terrorists’ picture from Mumbai CST (courtesy: Maharashtra Times):
It looks like justice is finally being done in the Sr. Abhaya murder case. After 16 years, the CBI has arrested and remanded two priests and a nun on Nov 18th and 19th. The CBI joint director Ashok Kumar said the arrests were made on strong evidence. It was evident from the news came out in May 2008 that the narco analysis points at Thomas Kottoor, Jose Poothrikkayil and Stephy as the culprits.
The arrest also renews my faith in our country’s judicial system. Reportedly, there were serious tampering of evidence right from the beginning of the case inquiry. The case was initially taken by Kerala Police and then moved to Crime Branch and finally to several teams of CBI. The Court intervened and severly criticized CBI and closely followed up the case. If not for the Kerala High Court and the latest CBI team, the case would have been lost forever and the arrests would never have been made.
Google continues to rock and the latest is that you can add themes to your Gmail page. You can choose from any of the available themes/skins and get rid of the boredom of seeing the same old page every day. I like the color based ones than the graphical themes and some of them are really good to read and makes it easy for the eyes. Check it out.
