Ravi S. Iyer: Worldly

At 17.5 Million, Indian Diaspora Largest in the World : UN, https://www.thequint.com/news/india/indian-diaspora-largest-in-the-world-un-report , 29th Nov. 2019 It is not surprising to know that the Indian diaspora is the largest in the world. Right in mid 1980s in my foreign stints in Western Europe and USA, I have seen Indian stores and Indian food restaurants in Western Europe & USA which was a clear sign of settled presence of Indians there for some years in the past. And as globalization has grown & grown, more & more Indians migrated to Western Europe and USA, and Australia and New Zealand, along with many Indians working for decades in oil rich countries of Middle East (but not settling down there as that was, and continues to be, prohibited by those countries I think). The vast majority of my friends & colleagues from my Bombay software industry days (1984 to 2002) are settled in USA, Western Europe and Australia (one person lived for some years in New Zeala

Given below is a superb quote shared by a Facebook friend. Thanks to her for sharing. "People often say, with pride, 'I'm not interested in politics.' They might as well say, 'I'm not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future.' ... If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics." - Martha Gellhorn, https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1169479 . ---- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Gellhorn tells that Martha Gellhorn (1908-1988) was an American writer and journalist. Ravi: Policy decisions regarding a huge variety of fields from education to health to business environment/regulation to taxes are taken by the government. The power that the government has over almost everything in the country one lives in, is awesome. My first close & direct experience of that was in the months of March to June 2011 when Sathya Sai was first hospitalized f

Given below are contents of my recent Facebook (FB) posts related to 1970s Trinity movies starring Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer: FB post:  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2641956069354287 , 2nd Nov. 19 The Trinity Western spaghetti movies of 1970s were very famous in Bombay of my childhood (school days) among English movie watchers. Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer were famous names. I recall them very well but I am not able to recall exactly which films of them I saw. I have been watching a few clips of their Trinity movies over the past few days. I just came to know that both Terrence Hill and (Late) Bud Spencer are/were Italian! I thought they were American guys!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Hill ,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Spencer . Here's a clip from Trinity is Still My Name:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTmVLHXn3H4 , 3 min. 12 secs. ===================================================== FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iye

Given below are my comments (slightly edited) from a recent Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2644815935734967 , comment exchange, starting with this comment response of mine: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2644815935734967?comment_id=2649509201932307&reply_comment_id=2650328995183661 . To read the full exchange readers will have to visit the above post's above referenced comment thread. In response to a comment, I wrote: I find some of Rajiv Malhotra's views to be very informative and useful. He seems to have done significant work in challenging some wrong notions about Hinduism put forward by some Western academic scholars of Hinduism (e.g. Wendy Doniger). I think that has been a very notable contribution of Rajiv Malhotra. Note that it is academic views on such matters that are regarded as authoritative in the West, unlike in India where, for Hinduism, such authority is typically and informally vested in religious institutio

When author of post or comment is not mentioned, it should be assumed that it is me (Ravi S. Iyer). To save time, I am usually not providing my FB post links but only contents. I am also not hyperlinking links. So readers will have to copy-paste links from this post onto a browser link box and then browse to that link. =========================================== Good to see some efforts to ensure accountability in what seems to have been delayed response from the police to family's complaint about the lady being in danger, in this horrific tragedy. Telangana vet's rape and murder: Three cops suspended over allegations of laxity, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/telangana-vets-rape-and-murder-three-cops-suspended-over-allegations-of-laxity/articleshow/72312507.cms ---- Good to see the National Commission for Women highlight this aspect. If police officers/constables were slow to respond to the family's complaint about the lady being missing and

When author of post or comment is not mentioned, it should be assumed that it is me (Ravi S. Iyer). To save time, I am usually not providing my FB post links but only contents. I am also not hyperlinking links. So readers will have to copy-paste links from this post onto a browser link box and then browse to that link. ----------------- Video is around 13 minutes. Just say NO to drugs! I had seen parts of this video earlier (about the girl Anja who broke the habit. relapsed and then broke it again, and whose boyfriend died of an overdose ...) as parts of some other video. [Shared FB video: https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/2154101224897094/ ] ------------------------------- Delightful farewell to UK Speaker John Bercow. I think Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn may be right when he said, "... you've (Bercow) stood up for Parliament when it has to be stood up for, and I think we thank you for that. Because you've also carried that message internationally as well