Raman's Bridge

Raman's Bridge

  June 12, 2010    Pradeep Padma

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Space images taken by NASA reveal a mysterious ancient bridge in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka. The recently discovered bridge currently named as Adam's Bridge is made of chain of shoals, c.18 mi (30 km) long.

The bridge's unique curvature and composition by age reveals that it is man made. The legends as well as Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the a primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge�s age is also almost equivalent.

This information is a crucial aspect for an insight into the Hindu legend called Ramayana, which was supposed to have taken place in the age of treta yuga (0.869 to 2.165 million years back).

In this epic, it is stated in the Hindu scriptures that a bridge was built between Rameshwaram (India) and Srilankan coast under the supervision of a dynamic and invincible figure called Lord Ram, who was the incarnation of the supreme. The bridge was built by Lord Ram with the help of his army of monkeys to cross over to Lanka to rescue his wife Sita, who was captured by the demon king of Lanka, Ravana.

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Mythical Sarasvati river exist?

Mythical Sarasvati river exist?

  June 12, 2010    Pradeep Padma

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New Delhi: Did the mythical Sarasvati river actually exist? Eminent French non-fiction writer and Indophile Michel Danino suggests that oral tradition, literary testimony and now a mass of evidence could all be made to converge to establish that it did.

Danino, a religious scholar who has lived in India for more than three decades, finds 'startling matches between literary accounts and ground situations' in his new book 'The Lost River: On the trail of the Sarasvati.'

'There was indeed a local oral tradition recalling the loss of the river. But there was also much literary testimony to that effect, and now a mass of evidence in the form of topographic and geological studies, archaeological findings and satellite imagery. Could it all be made to converge?' enquired Danino.

'In the case of the Vedic Sarasvati river, we find an excellent match between the literary record and the ground situation. That is the story I tried to tell in my book,' the writer said.

The earliest evidence of the existence of a vanishing river in official annals, said Danino, could be found in the folios of Lieutenant Colonel James Tod in the early 19th century.

Tod refers 'to the tradition of the absorption of the seasonal Caggar (Ghaggar) river as one of the causes of the comparative depopulation of the northern desert.'

The 'Sarsuti (Sarasvati)' or the sacred river of Punjab since 'early Brahminical times' is known to have merged with the Ghaggar somewhere in the Haryana region after passing through Kurukshetra, says Danino in his book.

A British surgeon, C.F. Oldham, known for his varied interests, drew attention to the river in a paper 'The Sarasvati and the Lost River of the Indian Desert'. Danino falls back on this text to bring the mythical Sarasvati to life.

Oldham said the Vedic hymns placed the river somewhere 'between the Yamuna and the Sutlej'.

'It is difficult to say how Sarasvati came to be deified. The river was worshipped as a goddess as early as in the Rig Veda, but the Indus, which is equally important as a river, never enters the pantheon. I assume that many of the 'rishis' (seers) who composed the Vedic hymns lived on the Sarasvati's banks - in fact, the Mahabharata states as much,' Danino said.

Danino, who gathered the bulk of his evidence from the archives, is struck by two mysteries about the Sarasvati. 'First the strange fact that the only river deified in the Rig Veda (and in the Yajur Veda, she becomes the goddess of speech) should be the one to disappear,' he said.

Secondly, the hundreds of ruined sites along its banks had always been known to local people and 'were recorded by British topographers, but no one knew what epoch they belonged to', the writer argued.

'That hundreds of them should have turned out to be Harappan was a major discovery. But it also presented a riddle. This was the dry bed of a river everyone agreed must have been the Vedic Sarasvati, so where were the Vedic settlements one might have expected? Or was it possible that the Harappan settlements had a connection to the Vedic culture?' he said.

Why was the story of Sarasvati of such profound interest to foreign audiences unlike other Indian river lores? For the writer, the Sarasvati is 'a whole symbol of Indian civilisation.'

'But beyond this, anyone trying to pierce the riddle of human existence needs to go back to some of our myths of origin, myths that define what we are and what we should aspire to. Gilgamesh's quest for immortality, Prometheus' stealing of the heavenly fire, Osiris' death and resurrection, Sarasvati's disappearance and rebirth are powerful stories that can still inspire us and give meaning to our increasingly drifting lives,' the writer said.

Danino was drawn to India at the age of 15 and is an authority on Sri Aurobindo's philosophy of divine consciousness and Aryan culture with several books and treatises to his credit.

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Football World Cup 2010 schedule - Indian Time

Football World Cup 2010 schedule - Indian Time

  June 12, 2010    Pradeep Padma

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Many football fans have been searching for the FIFA Full form. FIFA stands for Fédération Internationale de Football Association.

Mentioned here is the Football World Cup 2010 schedule and fixture according to Indian Time (IST). The FIFA 2010 schedule is the one of the most searched these days, as no one wants to miss out the matches of their favorite countries.

First Round Football Matches

June 11
07.30pm – South Africa Vs Mexico – Johannesburg (SC)

June 12
12.00am – Uruguay Vs France – Cape Town
05.00pm – South Korea Vs Greece – Johannesburg (SC)
07.30pm – Argentina Vs Nigeria – Port Elizabeth (Ellis)

June 13
12.00am – England Vs USA – Rustenburg
05.00pm – Algeria Vs Slovenia – Polokwane
07.30pm – Serbia Vs Ghana – Pretoria

June 14
12.00am – Germany Vs Australia – Durban
05.00pm – Netherlands Vs Denmark – Johannesburg (SC)
07.30pm – Japan Vs Cameroon – Bloemfontein

June 15
12.00am – Italy Vs Paraguay – Cape Town
05.00pm – New Zealand Vs Slovakia – Rustenburg
07.30pm – Ivory Coast Vs Portugal – Port Elizabeth

June 16
12.00am – Brazil Vs North Korea – Johannesburg (Ellis)
05.00pm – Honduras Vs Chile – Nelspruit
07.30pm – Spain Vs Switzerland – Durban

June 17
12.00am – South Africa Vs Uruguay – Pretoria
05.00pm – Argentina Vs South Korea – Johannesburg (SC)
07.30pm – Greece Vs Nigeria – Bloemfontein

June 18
12.00am – France Vs Mexico – Polokwane
05.00pm – Germany Vs Serbia – Port Elizabeth
07.30pm – Slovenia Vs USA – Johannesburg (Ellis)

June 19
12.00am – England Vs Algeria – Cape Town
05.00pm – Netherlands Vs Japan – Durban
07.30pm – Ghana Vs Australia – Rustenburg

June 20
12.00am – Cameroon Vs Denmark – Pretoria
05.00pm – Slovakia Vs Paraguay – Bloemfontein
07.30pm – Italy Vs New Zealand – Nelspruit

June 21
12.00am – Brazil Vs Ivory Coast – Johannesburg (SC)
05.00pm – Portugal Vs North Korea – Cape Town
07.30pm – Chile Vs Switzerland – Port Elizabeth

June 22
12.00am – Spain Vs Honduras – Johannesburg (Ellis)
07.30pm – Mexico Vs Uruguay – Rustenburg
07.30pm – France Vs South Africa – Bloemfontein

June 23
12.00am – Nigeria Vs South Korea – Durban
12.00am – Greece Vs Argentina – Polokwane
07.30pm – Slovenia Vs England – Port Elizabeth
07.30pm – USA Vs Algeria – Pretoria

June 24
12.00am – Ghana Vs Germany – Johannesburg (SC)
12.00am – Australia Vs Serbia – Nelspruit
07.30am – Slovakia Vs Italy – Johannesburg (Ellis)
07.30am – Paraguay Vs New Zealand – Polokwane

June 25
12.00am – Denmark Vs Japan – Rustenburg
12.00am – Cameroon Vs Netherlands – Cape Town
07.30am – Portugal Vs Brazil – Durban
07.30am – North Korea Vs Ivory Coast – Nelspruit

June 26
12.00am – Chile Vs Spain – Pretoria
12.00am – Switzerland Vs Honduras – Bloemfontein
Second Round – ROUND OF 16

June 26
07.30pm – Group A winner Vs Group B 2nd place – Port Elizabeth

June 27
12.00am – Group C winner Vs Group D 2nd place – Rustenburg
07.30pm – Group D winner Vs Group C 2nd place – Bloemfontein

June 28
12.00am – Group B winner Vs Group A 2nd place – Johannesburg (SC)
07. 30pm – Group E winner Vs Group F 2nd place – Durban

June 29
12.00am – Group G winner Vs Group H 2nd place – Johannesburg (Ellis)
07.30pm – Group F winner Vs Group E 2nd place – Pretoria

June 30
12.00am – Group H winner Vs Group G 2nd place – Cape Town
Quarter-finals

July 2
7.30pm – 1st Quarter-final – Port Elizabeth

July 3
12. 00am – 2nd Quarter-final – Johannesburg (SC)
7.30pm – 3rd Quarter-final – Cape Town

July 4
12.00am – 4th Quarter-final – Johannesburg (Ellis)
Semi-finals

July 7
12.00am – 1st Semi-final – Cape Town

July 8
12.00am – 2nd Semi-final – Durban

Third Place (July 11)
12.00am – Semi-final losers – Port Elizabeth

Final (July 12)
12.00am – Semi-final winners – Johannesburg (SC)

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Blast on railway track in Tamil Nadu, narrow escape for passengers

Blast on railway track in Tamil Nadu, narrow escape for passengers

  June 12, 2010    Pradeep Padma

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CHENNAI: Passengers of Chennai-bound Rockfort Express had a miraculous escape on Saturday morning when the driver stopped the train immediately after receiving a warning about a blast on the track near Perani station, 160 km from here.

The blast damaged three feet of tracks and caused a four feet crater, Vellupuram police officials said.

The driver stopped the train 200 feet before the damaged spot, they said, adding that the railway officials at Trichy and Chennai were informed immediately.

Railway Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Pon Manickavel and other officials rushed to the spot. Repair work is on and the traffic is expected to be restored by 9am, the officials said.

Trains coming from southern districts to Chennai were delayed because of the blast.

Rockfort Express, Pearl City Express, Kanyakumari Express, Mumbai-Madurai Express and others were stopped midway. Trains departing from here to Guruvayoor, Puducherry and other places were also delayed.

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Pak wants India, US to share details of Headley's interrogation

Pak wants India, US to share details of Headley's interrogation

  June 12, 2010    Pradeep Padma

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Pakistan wants both India and the US to share details of the interrogation of David Coleman Headley, the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative who is currently in America’s detention, so that the ‘myth’ surrounding the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks is unearthed.
“Although India and the US are not bound to share findings of investigation, however, they need to share them with Pakistan in order to unearth the myth of Mumbai attack,” The Nation quoted a top Pakistani official, as saying on conditions of anonymity.
However, there has been no official statement from Pakistan regarding sharing of details of Headley’s interrogation.
A four-member National Investigation Agency (NIA) team quizzed Headley for over a week recently, drawing information about his role in the Mumbai attacks.

According to a statement issued by the US Justice Department, Headley and his counsel answered all queries of Indian investigators in a series of interviews starting June 3.
The statement further added that both New Delhi and Washington have agreed not to disclose any detail of Headley’s interrogation in order to protect the secrecy of the probe surrounding the November 2008 terror attack.
Headley was arrested by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in October 2009 for plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper.
During his interrogation, he also confessed to his role in the Mumbai attacks in which Pakistani terrorists killed 166 people and injured over 200 others.
Headley, 49, told US interrogators that he had conducted a reconnaissance of the Mumbai sites before the attacks, having visited the country several times.
Headley has pleaded guilty on all 12 criminal counts against him, including his role in the 26/11 attacks conspiracy.

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