Source INDIA, October 21, 2011 (livemint): Less than 37 miles from Udaipur is Madla village in the rugged interiors of southern Rajasthan. It’s an unusual sight for a Sunday afternoon. A group of daily wage laborers, having taken the day off, are assembled in a quiet hut next to a swaying maize field. The womenfolk of the village are equal…
Source BANGALORE, INDIA, November 6, 2011 (thehindubusinessline.com): Aromas from China and Thailand have started filling the Rs 4,000-crore (US$780 million) global incense stick market shaking the traditional Indian stronghold over the industry. Indian agarbatti makers, with an Rs 1,800 crore (US$350 million) turnover, offer heritage fragrances as their USP. Chinese and Thai incense stick exporters, on the other hand, have…
Source SAYREVILLE, NEW JERSEY, November 10, 2011 (gmnews): Owners of the Shree Dwarkadhish Temple on Washington Road in Sayreville aim to replace their building with a larger one that includes indoor residences as part of a $5 million redevelopment project. They are seeking approval from the borough Zoning Board of Adjustment to construct an 86,700-squarefoot, two-story Hindu house of worship…
Source You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger. — Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha
Source US, November 21, 2011 (NY Times): The world is even smaller than you thought. Adding a new chapter to the research that cemented the phrase “six degrees of separation” into the language, scientists at Facebook and the University of Milan reported on Monday that the average number of acquaintances separating any two people in the world was not six…
Source INDIA, November 11, 2011 (rediff): In the wake of the killing of three Hindu doctors in Sindh province in Pakistan, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Friday asked India to take up the issue of the security of the minority community with officials in Islamabad. “We demand protection of minority Hindus in Pakistan where they have been subjected to repeated…
Source ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN, November 10, 2011 (ndtv): Text books in Pakistani schools foster prejudice and intolerance of Hindus and other religious minorities, while most teachers view non-Muslims as “enemies of Islam,” according to a study by a U.S. government commission released Wednesday. “Teaching discrimination increases the likelihood that violent religious extremism in Pakistan will continue to grow, weakening religious freedom,…
Source UNITED KINGDOM, November 12, 2011 (BBC): India’s thriving economy has brought many advantages to the population, including the widening of access to a special kind of funeral at the holy city of Varanasi. Trade is brisk as more people can afford to travel long distances to the cremation site. There are 80 ghats (ghat means a series of steps…
Source [HPI note: This rather long summary is drawn from a much longer article examining the role of gold in the modern world, focused specifically on production. For the full piece, click on Source, above.] US, January 1, 2009 (National Geographic Magazine): No single element has tantalized and tormented the human imagination more than gold. For thousands of years the…
Source NEW YORK, November 20, 2011 (ibn live, Press Trust of India): An Indian spiritual leader has been found guilty by a federal jury of selling religious worker visas to Indians for over $ 30,000 each to enable them to enter the US fraudulently. Sagarsen Haldar, 31, also known as Gopal Hari Das, identified himself as the president of a…