Make Idli Not War

This afternoon I was having a conversation about being being good doesn’t means you always have to be nice. Saying yes while you mean no, having somebody else take credit for your hard work just because you don’t think it’s worth the fight or letting one of your photo’s get printed  by The Hindustan Times - without any notification, without any credits, without any payment, without any word of thanks… without any shame.

It’s not being good it’s just being bad to yourself.

Nita, who you might know from A wide angle view of India     and a subscriber of the Hindustan Times got today what she definitely didn’t pay for; a picture taken by herself and published by herself on her own blog got published in the Hindustan times (a major newspaper in India that in contrary to Nita earns money - $9000 for the quarter - with it’s articles)  without any form of permission!

She spoke up - The full story you can read here: A major Indian newspaper steals a blogger’s photograph!!

How you can support? Get the word out there - if you haven’t been at it for a while just blow that dust from your keyboard and have your say. Be good to yourself!

Folks just some snaps from gorgeous Auroville just to prove those ‘horrible horrible amateurs’ working at BCC wrong. Hope you like ‘em. I’ve been trying to put some pictures up for a while. These few are from the Irumbai tempel nearby Kottakarai, a village in the outer ring of Aurovillë:

PICTURE ME WILD

It made a huge impact on me as kid. Salaam Bombay. I didn’t know the meaning of those two words. I didn’t know that there was something different other than Hinduism and Salaam was one of those words from far away. I didn’t know bombay was a city. I didn’t know how to read the subtitles. I didn’t know what hasjies were or prostitution I didn’t even know that this was a reality for some or perhaps many.

Now almost  20 years later I found the dvd in one of the… dvd shops (duh) in Pondi and watched it with a little bit more but perhaps just as much knowledge about the things I didn’t know about then.

I don’t know how to describe the movie or tell what it is I love about the movie. The folks over at IMDB are doing a whole lot better at it. As for me I don’t have anything sensible to say other than that you really should watch the movie. It’s worth it!

Well, so why a whole post for just a stupid message? When I was watching the dvd I felt to lazy to switch my comp off and watched all the features. Apparently after or during the making of the movie a trust was founded for the children this movie is dealing about. It’s called Salaam Balaak Trust and again I don’t have anything sensible to say about other than have a look a their website:

SALAAM BAALAK TRUST

Sigh, now if you excuse me I’m going to try and find something I have something sensible to say on…