Rani of Jhansi

Here is a letter found in London by scholars, accredited to the Rani of Jhansi, a queen and wife of the Raja of Jhansi who ruled, ofcourse, the state of Jhansi during the pre-1947 India.

She married when she was 14 and as a young girl, she learned horse-riding due to her father's influential position in the local courts.

Her husband died, some say, due to severe depression caused by the death of his new-born son.

She died in the 1857 rebellion of Indians against the Colonial rule of the British East India Company (EIC), which entered India deceptively claiming to partake in business.

The cover was blown and this "mutiny" as the British call it (most fighters were serving colonized soldiers) initiated a wider, independence movement sparked by a revival of self-determination. This cultural pride, unfortunately, led to widespread bigotry in some communities of the subcontinent.

This letter, as can be clearly seen is written in the Persian script, which would embarrass the proponents of the Out-of-India theory, which suggests that the Muslims and Christians don't belong in India as their forefathers were 'foreign' Mongol (Mughals) and British respectively.

Unlike the British, the Muslims stayed and were part of the Indian subcontinent and so are the Christians that did not leave alongside their colonial "forefathers" upon Independence.

This bigotry is promoted for political purposes but the reason to mention these issues is that Jhansi was a part of the Maratha Empire that Mr. Balasaheb Thackeray and his Shiv Sena (party) claim the throne of.

If this letter is in the Persian script, would that make her foreign too?

Without politicizing a revered legendary personality anymore, I will briefly explain the letter:

She writes to the Governor General of EIC, Lord Dalhousie about her husband's death.

According to the EIC policy, a state was to be engulfed because it was considered "unjust" and this threat caused her to enter the Rebellion or Mutiny (depending on which side of history one considers rightful).

The words are too small to read (if one can understand) but just a glimpse may be sufficient to cause goosebumps, especially when considering its historical context.

World Fat Map

Speaking of food for which Col. Gaddafi visited Rome, here is an interesting map showing the world with respect to the per capita food intake of each country.

Some countries are already massive based on their original land size so this map changes that; all nations don't start from the same size.

The change can be observed when placed in juxtaposition to the real world map.

Population is an important factor to consider in this FatMap since it represents the nations "per-capita".

This map has been compiled by the World Food Program (WFP) and was obtained from the following source:

A blog on HuffingtonPost by Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/princess-haya-bint-al-hussein/mapping-starvation-and-th_b_357352.html

Muammar Al-Gaddafi

First of all, I like to pronounce the names of people, especially "ethnic" names as they are supposed to be pronounced according to their ethno-linguistic backgrounds.

Therefore, here is a link to the pronunciation of Mr. Gaddafi's name as he would pronounce it

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Ar-Muammar_al-Qaddafi.ogg

There is much to be shared about Mr. Gaddafi such as his interesting Bedouin tent in which he stays during foreign, state-level, diplomatic visits and his UN speech (aka rant) that went over the 15 minute time limit by 83 minutes.

But this video shows Mr. Gaddafi in Rome for the UN Food Summit. Well, without giving away too much information about what took place, check out Libya's "mission" to the UN in Rome.

Carrie Prejean

Let's start off the blog with something foolish that I came across yesterday on Youtube. The intention is not to make this blog into a "tabloid" and to share stupid things celebrities or wannabe celebrities do.

This woman participated in a pageant where she revealed her homophobia for which she lost the potential title of "Ms. California". She went on to suggest that she would rather be "biblically" correct instead of being "politically" correct.

Whatever the case, she decided to file a lawsuit. The purpose behind sharing this is to show how incapable people are when it comes to interpreting basic questions these days.

Larry King asks her in three different ways, WHY she decided to file a lawsuit and go through the mediation process. She interprets that as him asking about WHAT took place during the "confidential" meeting.

WATCH:

Introduction

"This blog is mine" because it is a reflection of what I am doing on the internet and an easier way for my family and friends (if I have any) to keep in touch with the information that I am sometimes unable to pass on to them in person.

It is a hobby for me to spend time on the internet searching for informative, yet interesting things that I occasionally share.

Due to recent busy schedules and reclusive lives that we have developed, I find a blog is an easier way to share info. instead of flooding an inbox. Striving to maintain someone's attention in person is much harder and much more difficult even if a link is sent online.

The reason is that people in free societies don't like to be told what to do even in a friendly tone. If they get the slightest hint of being directed to do something, such as checking out a link, they won't do it unless they find it for themselves while surfing the net.

Therefore, the objective is to share the same info. in a much more convenient way; by updating the blog instead of telling each person, individually, everything I saw today.