Don’t like abortions? Don’t get one.

Don’t like drugs? Don’t do them.

Don’t like sex? Don’t have it.

Don’t like your rights taken away? Don’t take away anybody elses.

And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
“When you coming home, dad?” “I don’t know when,
But we’ll get together then.
You know we’ll have a good time then.”

My son turned ten just the other day.
He said, “Thanks for the ball, dad, come on let’s play.
Can you teach me to throw?” I said, “Not today,
I got a lot to do.” He said, “That’s ok.”
And he walked away, but his smile never dimmed,
Said, “I’m gonna be like him, yeah.
You know I’m gonna be like him.”

And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
“When you coming home, dad?” “I don’t know when,
But we’ll get together then.
You know we’ll have a good time then.”

Well, he came from college just the other day,
So much like a man I just had to say,
“Son, I’m proud of you. Can you sit for a while?”
He shook his head, and he said with a smile,
“What I’d really like, dad, is to borrow the car keys.
See you later. Can I have them please?”

And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
“When you coming home, son?” “I don’t know when,
But we’ll get together then, dad.
You know we’ll have a good time then.”

I’ve long since retired and my son’s moved away.
I called him up just the other day.
I said, “I’d like to see you if you don’t mind.”
He said, “I’d love to, dad, if I could find the time.
You see, my new job’s a hassle, and the kid’s got the flu,
But it’s sure nice talking to you, dad.
It’s been sure nice talking to you.”
And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me,
He’d grown up just like me.
My boy was just like me.

And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
“When you coming home, son?” “I don’t know when,
But we’ll get together then, dad.
You know we’ll have a good time then.”

One can’t always hop across to a library or a bookshop and pick up a new book to read. Apart from the facts that new books are frighteningly expensive, and that there are some purchased books which you would rather not read and preserve on your bookshelf because they are crap, library books tend to be in relatively poor condition and just don’t feel right.

Receiving an Amazon Kindle 2i on my birthday a couple of months ago was like a dream come true.

I now have a complete library of must-read and must-keep books with me at all times. Even in those long and dreary waits in court or elsewhere, its a pleasure to be able to get lost in the minds of various wonderful authors.

I have a few hundred books that I can now carry with me at all times. The list is as eccentric and eclectic as I am. From Osho to Enid Blyton, including Paulo Coelho, Mario Puzo, Louis L’amour, Tom Clancy, Wilbur Smith, the obligatory unread Deepak Chopras. I even managed to find decent readable versions of Locke, Hobbes, Rousseou and even Sun Tzu.

The kindle also lets me carry around sufi music. There’s nothing like listening to the Wadali Brothers sing their heart out with Dama Dam Mast Kalander while reading.

All in all, a great way to move around. Highly recommended.

Plutarch described Lupercalia:Lupercalia, of which many write that it was anciently celebrated by shepherds, and has also some connection with the Arcadian Lycaea. At this time many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy.

From Wikipedia

One day Solomon decided to humble Benaiah Ben Yehoyada, his most trusted minister. He said to him, “Benaiah, there is a certain ring that I want you to bring to me. I wish to wear it for Sukkot which gives you six months to find it.”

“If it exists anywhere on earth, your majesty,” replied Benaiah, “I will find it and bring it to you, but what makes the ring so special?”

“It has magic powers,” answered the king. “If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy.”

Solomon knew that no such ring existed in the world, but he wished to give his minister a little taste of humility. Spring passed and then summer, and still Benaiah had no idea where he could find the ring.

On the night before Sukkot, he decided to take a walk in one of the poorest quarters of Jerusalem. He passed by a merchant who had begun to set out the day’s wares on a shabby carpet.

“Have you by any chance heard of a magic ring that makes the happy wearer forget his joy and the broken-hearted wearer forget his sorrows?” asked Benaiah.

He watched the grandfather take a plain gold ring from his carpet and engrave something on it. When Benaiah read the words on the ring, his face broke out in a wide smile. That night the entire city welcomed in the holiday of Sukkot with great festivity.

“Well, my friend,” said Solomon, “have you found what I sent you after?”

All the ministers laughed and Solomon himself smiled.

To everyone’s surprise, Benaiah held up a small gold ring and declared, “Here it is, your majesty!”

As soon as Solomon read the inscription, the smile vanished from his face.

The jeweler had written three Hebrew letters on the gold band: gimel, zayin, yud, which began the words “Gam zeh ya’avor” — “This too shall pass.”

At that moment Solomon realized that all his wisdom and fabulous wealth and tremendous power were but fleeting things, for one day he would be nothing but dust.

These are genuine clips from British Council flat tenants complaining to the Council about problems with their flats !!*

1. My bush is really overgrown round the front and my back passage has fungus growing in it.
2. He’s got this huge tool that vibrates the whole house and I just can’t take it anymore.
3. It’s the dog’s mess that I find hard to swallow.
4. I want to complain about the farmer across the road; every morning at 6am his cock wakes me up and it’s now getting too much for me.
5. I am a single woman living in a downstairs flat and would you please do something about the noise made by the man on top of me every night..
6. And their 18-year-old son is continually banging his balls against my fence.
7. Please send a man with the right tool to finish the job and satisfy my wife.
8. My lavatory seat is cracked, where do I stand?
9. I am writing on behalf of my sink, which is coming away from the wall.
10. Will you please send someone to mend the garden path? My wife tripped and fell on it yesterday and now she is pregnant.
11. I request permission to remove my drawers in the kitchen.
12. 50% of the walls are damp, 50% have crumbling plaster and 50% are plain filthy.
13. I am still having problems with smoke in my new drawers.
14. The toilet is blocked and we cannot bath the children until it is cleared.
15. Will you please send a man to look at my water, it is a funny colour & not fit to drink.
16. I want some repairs done to my cooker as it has backfired and burnt my knob off..
17. The man next door has a large erection in the back garden, which is unsightly and dangerous.
18. Our kitchen floor is damp. We have two children and would like a third so please send someone round to do something about it.
19. I wish to complain that my father hurt his ankle very badly when he put his foot in the hole in his back passage.
20. I wish to report that tiles are missing from the outside toilet roof. I think it was bad wind the other night that blew them off.

(from http://www.indianexpress.com/news/17-years-after-babri-liberhan-files-his-report/483495/0)

Almost 17 years after it was set up to probe the “sequence of events leading, and all facts and circumstances relating to, the occurrences at Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid complex on December 6, 1992”, the one-member Justice M S Liberhan Commission finally submitted its report to the Union Government today.

The demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya had triggered communal riots in the country, claiming many lives.
Accompanied by Commission counsel Harpreet Singh Giani, Liberhan handed over a four-volume report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this morning. It is learnt that a copy of the report has been forwarded to the Union Home Ministry for action.

While Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Narayanasamy told reporters that the report would be tabled in Parliament along with an Action Taken Report (ATR) during the Budget session, sources in the Home Ministry denied any such move. “There is no deadline. We will study the report and take a call,” a senior MHA official told The Indian Express.

While the contents of the report have not been made public, sources in the Commission said the report comes down heavily on the then Uttar Pradesh government of Kalyan Singh and its top officers for failing to prevent the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

“The Commission has also taken a negative view of the failure of the then Congress government at the Centre led by P V Narasimha Rao in protecting the disputed structure,” said a source associated with the Commission.

Commission functionaries, however, refused to say whether BJP leader L K Advani, over whose role Liberhan and previous Commission counsel Anupam Gupta had a bitter fallout, has been indicted or let off.

Liberhan too refused to say anything on the report. “I have submitted my report to the Government. It is now for it to decide whatever it wants.”

Liberhan had also been mandated to probe the role played by then Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, his ministerial colleagues, officials of the UP government and by individuals, agencies and organisations in bringing down the structure. He was also tasked to probe deficiencies in security measures and the attack on mediapersons on the day of the demolition.

Set up on December 16, 1992 by the Central government, the Liberhan Commission received as many as 48 extensions and was criticised by many Muslim organisations and NGOs for failing to submit its report in a time-bound manner.

Asked what took him so long, Liberhan said: “I have written the reasons in my report. Beyond that I will not say anything.” He did blame the “non-cooperative attitude” of some people for the delay but took no names. He said he was “independent” and “relieved” after submitting the report. “I didn’t have any pressure from anybody.”

To a question whether he feared that the report would be used for political considerations, Liberhan said: “I am not afraid of anything. It is for the people of this country to take note of that.”

Among those who appeared before the Commission to depose were former PMs Rao and V P Singh, BJP leaders Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Vinay Katiyar, former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, Congress leader Arjun Singh, Uma Bharati, VHP leaders V H Dalmia, Ashok Singhal, former Union Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar, then Home Secretary Madhav Godbole, senior civil and police officers, civilians and journalists.

Officials associated with the panel say that apart from Uma Bharati and, to a certain extent, Kalyan SIngh — both are now out the BJP — no BJP functionary showed any inclination to share responsibility for the December 6 incident. In fact, most BJP leaders told the Commission that they had tried to prevent Kar Sevaks from carrying out the demolition.

“During her deposition in 2001, Uma Bharati became emotional and blurted out that the structure deserved to be brought down. However, during subsequent cross-examination, she claimed she was at a distance from the disputed structure and when she saw the structure being pulled down, she tried to stop it,” said a source.

Kalyan Singh, who quit the BJP and supported the SP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, first got a court stay to avoid deposing before the panel. Later, when the protection granted was lifted, he appeared as the last witness and his deposition was said to be “very productive”.

“His (Singh’s) was the longest testimony before the Commission which continued for 20-odd sittings and his deposition ran into over 400 pages. In fact, he volunteered to submit an affidavit and written statements which most top leaders avoided,” recalled an official.

In his testimony, Singh claimed that the demolition “was an act of God… whatever happened on that day, the deponent has no regret, no repentance, no sorrow, and no grief for that… Historians will write that devotees of Ram and devotees of the nation had demolished this symbol of slavery and disgrace and though this demolition was not unexpected, it was purely sudden and totally unplanned.”

But most leaders, including Advani, denied knowledge of any plan to demolish the structure or having instigated the Kar Sevaks to do so.

During his testimony, which runs into almost 200 pages, Advani said while the BJP wanted a Ram temple, it didn’t intend to hurt the sentiments of Muslims.

Commission sources recall that during one of the hearings, Advani took strong exception to the manner of questioning by the then counsel of the Commission, Anupam Gupta. “He was upset by the line of questioning. He said the counsel was asking questions beyond the terms of reference of the Commission. He also asked Justice Liberhan to take action against Gupta,” said the source.