Ashish's Niti: Bharateeya Blog Mela

I apologize for being late, but I am very excited to present the latest edition of the Bharateeya Blog Mela here. The posts are on variety of subjects and are generally of good quality. So enjoy!

Fascinated by its claim that Thiyyas were from Kyrgyzstan, JK reviews a Malayalam book, Lankaparvam by T. Damu, about the history of Sri Lanka.

Neelakantan is sure that the free markets/capitalism is the right way for India.

"Inspire by Fear"?

Nilu thinks that freedom is an end in itself and does not want to associate himself with the libertarians who argue that free markets reduce poverty.

Ujval Gandhi worries about the sorry state of National Parks in India and argues that handing them over to corporations will not only help their preservation but also make them a tourist attraction.

Is the world over-dependent on the Saudi oil? arZan's concern is shared by many as is evidenced by the New York Times article he cites. It is interesting that these concerns are being voiced at a time oil prices are not anywhere near the record high reached during the oil shock of 1980:

The price of light, sweet crude oil on NYMEX has been above $40/barrel since late July 2004. By August 11, 2005, the price had been above $60/barrel for over a week and a half. A record price of $67.70/barrel was reached on August 25, 2005. While oil prices are considerably higher than a year ago, they are still far from exceeding the inflation-adjusted "peak of the 1980 shock, when prices were over $90 a barrel in today’s prices" [2].

A peek inside a dangerous mind. Root cause of terrorism, anyone?

Santosh Singh points out that one cannot call somebody egoist without being one him/herself.

Some rather aggressive ideas about anti-hijacking policies from Saket Vaidya, some of which he had to retract later in the comments.

PZ Myers takes on anti-evolutionist Deepak Chopra in this excellent post. But if you think that you are a fierce Darwinist, read this.

Rakesh Chaudhary asks "Who framed Mangal Pandey?" Aren't all our leaders made of legends?

Vinay posts summary of the book, Economic Freedom & Development, by Prof. Wolfgang Kasper.

Sujatha narrates her experience in a very delightfuly written post with self-explainatory title, Halfway Around the World With a Toddler in Tow.

Sourin Rao's advice about the FOB desi caricatures: ‘Jaane bhi do yaaron. Ab Dil pe maat le yaar. This too shall pass.’

After being frustrated with a boring orientation session at the Texas A&M university, Patrix is much satisfied with the session on the next day.

Leave it to the Gawker to turn an boring wait into a interesting post. Thanks to Seinfield, "about nothing" has become sellable.

Some very interesting male and female definitions contrasted by Sakshi.

Sakshi also posts an informative writeup by Suicide Girls about the growing popularity of Femidom, the female condom in developing countries.

"Angrezi film desi naam" by Sakshi.

After trashing Barista for their poor Cawfee quality, Saad Akhtar gives a detailed (with pictures too) Recipe for making South Indian coffee in North India.

Karthik is angry with the government for always going for the short-term populist "solutions". For all those who still expect something from the government, I just have one question, why?

"Dont Hijack My Religion and Culture", arzan sam wadia in response to call for a new universal temple of worship for Zoroastrians, not necessarily Parsis.

Kiruba supports buying pirated books and people disagree in the comments.

Raven thinks partition of India was not worth it.

Raven illustrates the cultural thievery through an example of the Indian Cross and Circle game Pachisi.

The Bharateeya Blog Mela will be hosted by Sunil at Balancing Life .

Navin is Miffed at India's economy being overly coupled to US.

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