Category: This is India !

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This is India !

Disciple declares Guru dead to get property

This post is in continuation of This is India ! series (see here)

Yugal Bihari Das, a senior Naga Vairagi of Hanumangarhi, was relatively unlucky. When he was ousted, he could not get anyone to fight on his behalf. About a decade ago, while he was away from Ayodhya, his disciple Ramagya Das declared him dead, organised a bhandara (community feast) in honour of the ‘departed soul’ and took over his Asthan (seat) in Hanumangarhi.

 

After his return, Yugal Bihari Das spent years trying to convince other sadhus as well as local officials that he was alive, but to no effect. Frustrated by everyone’s acceptance of the exaggerated news of his death, he recently left Ayodhya for good and is said to be living somewhere in Bihar.

–from Open Magazine

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This is India !

How to win friends and influence people in India

There is a company in India (say XYZ Ltd.) which is famous for its ability to “manage the environment”.

An old riddle used to go like this:

Q:How many types of people are there in government ?

Ans: Two types.One is Friends of XYZ and the other is Servants of XYZ !

 

An acquaintance who used to work in the HR department of this company explained their secret sauce.Apparently, on the employee rolls of the company, there is a special list .

On this list are the family members/friends/wives etc of politicians, bureaucrats and other important people.These people are obviously not expected to do any work of any sort and get the salaries just to “maintain relationship”

Some famous examples are the brother of an influential politician who got a salary as a “Marketing Consultant”, a former Police Commissioner of Mumbai who got his fees as a “Security Consultant” and funniest of all, an underworld element who got his fees as a “HR Consultant” !

This is India !!

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Realty This is India !

Why Sir Currimbhoy Ebrahim would be turning in his grave

As a student of history, I marvel at how ironical the fates are.

This true story probably highlights the irony more than anything.

Sir Currimbhoy Ebrahim was one of the greatest industrialists of his era.His family were fabulously rich and wealthy and at one time (1920) held the second largest number of mills in Bombay.

Belonging to the Ismaili Dawoodi Bohra community, he harbored a desire to give back to the community.So he started the Currimbhoy Ebrahim Khoja Orphanage in 1894 for the welfare of orphans .

One of the most generous princes of the time, Maharaja Madhavrao Scindia of Gwalior donated the land for the orphanage.

Fast forward, more than hundred years later, the richest man in India, Mukesh Ambani  wants to build a private residence for himself and his family.

He buys the property from the trust for 21.5 Crores in the year 2002.He builds a 27 storey  building there called Antilla and starts living there (see photos)

So in a supreme irony of fate, the land which was meant by Sir Currimbhoy Ebrahim and Maharaja Madhavrao Scindia to be used for poor orphans is now being used legally by the richest man in the land.

This is India !!

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Crime This is India !

Navi Mumbai gang smashes coconut on builder’s head

This post is in continuation of This is India ! series (see here)

In a daring crime in broad daylight, a builder was stabbed multiple times and then shot from close range outside his office in sector 29 along Kopar Khairane Road in Navi Mumbai at 8.30 am Saturday.

Sunil Kumar, who owned SK Builders and stayed in sector 18, Sanpada, was walking to office after parking his BMW when two men, one of them dressed as a security guard, attacked him.

Eyewitness said one assailant was holding a wooden stool and the other had a coconut and a marigold garland in his hands.

CCTV footage shows the two stopping Kumar and one smashing a coconut on his head. After Kumar lost his balance, one of the assailants stabbed him in the chest and stomach with a knife.

“As Kumar began bleeding, the second assailant pumped five bullets into him from a pistol,” said Purushottam Karad, DCP (zone 1) Navi Mumbai. The two then spread the garland on the bleeding builder and tried to flee on a motorcycle.

Meanwhile, the gunshots had alerted a few neighbours and passersby who chased them and pulled the pillion rider, later identified as Venkatesh Shettiyar (35), down, while the rider managed to speed away.

The locals then beat up Shettiyar till he fell unconscious. They rushed Kumar to hospital but he died during treatment.

“We arrested Shettiyar (from Navi Mumbai Municipal Hospital, where he was being treated) and are looking for his accomplice,” Karad said.

Police said smashing coconut was a ritual of some south Indian gangs operating in Navi Mumbai.-from the Indian Express

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IndResearch This is India !

Spare a thought for Nitin Mangal

Nitin Mangal is an equity analyst who wrote the IndiaBulls Report for Veritas last year.

According to FE,

The co-author of the 105-page report on the Indiabulls Group has already been subjected to more than 100 hours of grilling by the police in Mumbai. On Monday, the Bombay High Court directed Mangal to be present before the cyber crime investigation cell of the Mumbai Police later this week. While the court told Mangal to cooperate with the investigation, it continued with the interim relief that bars the police from arresting the analyst who has shifted, with his family, to Indore ever since the court battle began.

 

According to the first information report, Mangal along with Monga and Veritas has been charged under Section 384 (punishment for extortion), Section 500 (defamation), Section 506 (criminal intimidation) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, and Sections 66A and 75 of the Information Technology Act.