kasmenon

  SAILING ON THE NILE AND EGYPTIAN GOULASH OF ITS HISTORY  After endless screening of bags, boots, belts and what not, we managed to board the Egypt air flight from Cairo to Luxor. The airline provides a no-frills service on this an hour plus flight. Hassan Ali, son of Mohammed Ali, or so he boasted in jest, who was   our local coordinator, met us at the arrival lounge. After briefing us, he handed us over to our local guide, Ahmed.  A serious looking character, well past his fifties, Ahmed's  wrinkled face showed the results of time and strain of walking across the sand and rubbles of the valley and caves and attempts to do justice to 8000 years of history. A certain resignation was reflected in the way he viewed his job. It was past 3 pm by the time we checked into our hotel. Our hotel, an impressively laid out place, German owned with all the usual trapping and located on the banks of the river Nile. The German fetish for near faultless offeri...

  WHO ARE  MODI'S  BHAKTS From my experience and interaction and thus  assessment,  the following  categories  of Indians form Modis bhakts : 1. Bharmin and upper caste Hindus ( a vast majority of them) 2. Mumbai based Gujaratis ( almost all  of them) 3. Gujarat based Gujaratis( about 50 % of them) 4. Non brahma  and non uppercase indians ( who are highly religious but  generally apolitical who were made to beleive  that their religion is under threat.. About 50%  of them 5. Others, not excluding above but generally  apolitical, who was taken in by Modis self positioning as a anti corruption and pro development leader ( about 20 to 30% of generally population... a large section ) 6. Old RSS members , all contained in the above 1 to 4  ( most of them) One may note  that these categories are not mutually exclusive  but is a kind of profile of bhakts. It will also give you an idea of how strongly Relig...