Friday, January 08, 2010

The Story Behind the Hype

The Maya inherited their basic calendrical information from an earlier civilisation called the Olmecs who developed the Long Count between the second and first centuries BC. There is only one known inscription that mentions the end date. It is Monument 6 from Tortuguero, and is damaged and broken. At the end of the damaged inscription, three calendars cross-reference one date: “It was 2 days, 9 Uinals, 3 Tuns, 8 Katuns and 3 Baktuns before the 13th Baktun is completed on 4 Ahau 3 Kankin. Then it will happen – darkness, and Bolon-Yokte will descend to the (???)”

In the most popular correlation to our calendar, this equates to the 21st December 2012.

Baktun 13 (which is also Baktun zero) starts when the calendar reaches 13.0.0.0.0 in December 2012… (The Book of Chilam Balam of) Tizimin adds a prediction of UFOs, poor harvests and extreme weather, along with a mass near-death experience. However, the Maya were not the only ones to see this coming. There are several other independent sources that also mark 2012 as a conspicuous time. In the 1970s, the Chinese oracle, the I Ching was found by Terence McKenna, (who knew nothing of the Maya calendar at that time), to encode a fractal time wave that terminates late in 2012.

In the 1980s, the Paqos, who are priests of the Q’ero tribe living in the Andes, Peru, announced that their Pachakuti formula – the overturning of spacetime – would start in 1990 and last 22 years. Thus 2012 would bring the start of a Golden Age called Taripay Pacha, when the upper world, lower world and everyday world will unite.

All these other sources knew nothing of the Maya Long Count, so what can it all mean?

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2009


An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva

Husband of Margaret Alva

If you go by what Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva says, it should have been her husband Niranjan Alva, and not she, who should have made it big in politics. After all, in his time, Niranjan was a very successful student leader. And what’s more, as a son of the extremely successful and popular Alva couple—who spent a considerable part of their life in Parliament—Niranjan’s jump from student politics to mainstream politics would have been a natural progression.

Margaret says, “He would have been more successful than me had he entered politics.” But Niranjan could not have possibly ditched his first love—law. As a successful lawyer, he entered into Margaret’s shoes to take care of his family, as he lent his to her.

When Indira Gandhi, impressed by one of her political speeches, asked Margaret to jump on to the Congress bandwagon, Niranjan was only too happy to cajole her to accept the offer. Margaret was a bit sceptical to begin with as she did not wish to leave Bangalore for Delhi, but Niranjan assured her that in her absence, he’ll happily take care of the family.

As he looks back now, Niranjan “Dada” Alva has reason to feel satisfied that as a homemaker, he did his duty with distinction. And as their children are settled in their respective fields, Niranjan can now take a long deserved break.

His relatives as well as others who know him well bet that such selfless dedication to the cause of the family and wife is difficult to find in a man these days.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2009


An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Development, too, has been on Nitish’s priority list

Development, too, has been on Nitish’s priority list. The NDA government has built and repaired thousands of kilometres of roads and hundreds of bridges all across the state. “Earlier it used to take more than three hours to reach Patna from Arrah, which is just 60 km away. Now it takes just an hour because the road has been widened and re-laid,” says Vijay Manjul, an Arrah restaurant owner.

"If I have not brought the moon for the people of Bihar, I have certainly made Bihar a place where they can live and pursue their vocation fearlessly. This is my biggest achievement," Nitish said while releasing the progress report on his government’s four years in power. He completed four years in office on November 24, 2009.

The RJD-LJP combine has charged the Nitish government with corruption, misrule and criminalisation of power. "The people of the state have declared that the Nitish government has failed on all fronts," state RJD president Abdul Bari Siddiqui said while talking to TSI from Patna.

The RJD has asserted that reports of the CAG have exposed the hollowness of the claim of good governance. "Corruption has surfaced in most of the state's departments and the CM has failed to rein it in," RJD general secretary Ram Kripal Yadav told TSI. The RJD has released a “chargesheet” against the government.

Ram Kripal said the CM had told the Assembly that there would be more than 1,44,000 crore rupees of investment in the state, but there is nothing on the ground. The NCP has also released a “Black Paper” against the NDA government chastising it for widespread corruption and misrule. NCP leader Tariq Anwar has said that Nitish Kumar has been a complete failure as chief minister.

Countering the Opposition, the CM asserts that Bihar is poised to be one of the leading states in India. “The central government and other state governments have not only applauded some of the innovative schemes started by us but have adopted them as well,” Nitish says.

The Bihar government has been lauded by none other than the Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who publicly said the state had made progress in the infrastructure, education and health sectors in the past four years. If Bihar kept up the momentum, it would achieve 8-9 per cent economic growth, he added.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2009


An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Major Chetna Sharma

Every now and then, we read in magazines and newspapers about the toughest biking roads. It would immediately remind the readers of the danger-fraught Leh-Manali road. Major Chetna Sharma, the mother of a four year old and wife of an Army officer, successfully led a motorcycle expedition team on the same precarious route with fourteen other male colleagues. She is a serving officer of the Corp of Signals of the Indian Army. For her, duty comes first.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2009


An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Born on 26/11 - Freelance journalist, bangalore

TSI Profiles some Indians whose birthday last year was engulfed by death and destruction

Uday sangli

Freelance journalist, bangalore


Actually, I am not really into celebrating my birthday. I've never done it. I have no plans to celebrate it this year either. This day will be like another day for me.

On the fateful day last year, I was busy covering a rally on “world peace” at Basaveshwara Circle in Bangalore. The rally had been organised by the Art of Living Foundation. The protest was against the accusation that that the Art of Living Foundation had harboured a terrorist.

Volunteers from Art of Living Foundation were on a candlelight vigil to register their protest against what they called was an attempt to vilify them. In a tragic coincidence, the horrific terror attack on Mumbai occurred even as the Bangalore rally was on. It obviously took us all by surprise. The sense of shock and grief was palpable.

A year has gone by since that terrible day. What I fail to understand is that even after an entire year, Kasab, the only culprit detained, has not been convicted. Instead the man's day to day activities in prison continue to rake up various issues.

Sadly, Kasab is not the first terrorist that India is looking after like a ‘guest’; Afzal Guru and many other terror suspects have been receiving the same sort of VIP treatment from the Indian government. really, this can happen only in India and everybody knows the politics behind it. So I don’t have any hope that India will ever be able to take tough measures to weed out the threat of terrorism from our midst.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative