mantra title song maha copied from english song my hump (TELUGU SONG )
Monday 31 March 2008
Head implant that makes you taller
Is your wife or girlfriend taller than you? Forget shoe lifts. Instead you can try out a two-inch head implant. A cosmetic surgeon in Spain has developed a new way of adding up to two inches to a person's height by inserting a silicone head implant, British newspaper the Daily Mail reported on Sunday.
According to Dr Luis de la Cruz of the Clinica La Luz hospital in Madrid, the operation takes 90 minutes during which an incision is made in one side of the head and then the implant is squeezed in between the skull and the scalp. The cost of the entire operation is roughly £4,000 and it is usually performed by applying a local anaesthetic.
Patients are released from the hospital the subsequent day. Dr de la Cruz, who has already carried out the operation on 17 patients, said: "It is a relatively simple procedure that can have a wonderfully positive effect on the patient's life. Like most good ideas it came to me in a flash.
"I was approached by a young woman who always dreamt of becoming an air stewardess. She was rejected for being half an inch too small and asked if there was any technique to add to her height.
"At the time the only way was through lengthening the leg bones, which is an extreme and traumatic option. It got me thinking. I carry out many chin implant operations and suddenly I thought, 'Why not an implant between the skull and the scalp?'. She is very happy with the result and is now an air stewardess."
A woman patient called Eugenia said: "It changed my life. I look a different person." The Clinica La Luz in Madrid is thought to be the only place in the world where the operation is performed. But people with long, thin heads are advised against the surgery as the result can look odd. Clinical psychologist Javier Hernandez said: "People should think long and hard before having this surgery."
According to Dr Luis de la Cruz of the Clinica La Luz hospital in Madrid, the operation takes 90 minutes during which an incision is made in one side of the head and then the implant is squeezed in between the skull and the scalp. The cost of the entire operation is roughly £4,000 and it is usually performed by applying a local anaesthetic.
Patients are released from the hospital the subsequent day. Dr de la Cruz, who has already carried out the operation on 17 patients, said: "It is a relatively simple procedure that can have a wonderfully positive effect on the patient's life. Like most good ideas it came to me in a flash.
"I was approached by a young woman who always dreamt of becoming an air stewardess. She was rejected for being half an inch too small and asked if there was any technique to add to her height.
"At the time the only way was through lengthening the leg bones, which is an extreme and traumatic option. It got me thinking. I carry out many chin implant operations and suddenly I thought, 'Why not an implant between the skull and the scalp?'. She is very happy with the result and is now an air stewardess."
A woman patient called Eugenia said: "It changed my life. I look a different person." The Clinica La Luz in Madrid is thought to be the only place in the world where the operation is performed. But people with long, thin heads are advised against the surgery as the result can look odd. Clinical psychologist Javier Hernandez said: "People should think long and hard before having this surgery."
Pollution level in Ganga reaches septic levels
Despite hundreds of crores of rupees being spent to clean the Ganga, the lifeline of north India, pollution levels in the river have reached septic levels at certain points with dissolved oxygen dropping to alarmingly low levels.
"In Varanasi alone, the seven km stretch from upstream Assi Ghat to Varuna Sangam, pollution has reached septic levels and we have data to prove this point," Hydraulic expert and Professor Vir Bhadra Misra said.
Misra said that the samples tested by the laboratories set up under the 'Clean Ganga Campaign' of the Sankat Mochan foundation, of which he is the head, show that the river is dirty in the upstream Assi Ghat area and by the time it reaches Varuna Sangam, it attains septic levels.
"We had set up these labs along the river ever since it was claimed by the authorities that the water in the river has been cleaned following the Ganga Action Plan," the former Civil Engineering Department head at the Banaras Hindu University said.
Misra, who was recently honoured by the Council of Science and Technology with Vigyan Ratna award, said he had formulated a plan for the Varanasi Nagar Nigam way back in 1995 to clean the river using low cost gravitational force method to stop inflow of domestic sewage into the river.
Sewage inflow is one of the main causes for pollution. The project was aimed at not only stopping the inflow of sewage into the river from the banks but also to treat it in a manner so as to make it fit for reuse.
Although Misra's plan continued to gather dust, he is still upbeat after being invited to New Delhi on November 6 last year by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his "important" meeting with Union Secretary for Environment and Forests on February 29 last.
"Almost 95 per cent of the pollution in the river is caused at 'point sources' at which sewers and open drains bringing pollutants in domestic and municipal limits fall, while only five per cent is by the direct users, especially in the case of rivers like Ganga, which were in constant use for religious reasons," Misra said.
"In Varanasi alone 32 drains fall in the river, in Kanpur 22 and in Allahabad there are 40 point sources in the Ganga," he said.
Explaining the process used in his proposed project to clean Ganga in Varanasi, Misra said the sewage carrying drains would be intercepted in a water tight drain all along the river and directed to four large ponds for treatment set up outside the city.
These four large ponds have been specially designed with the assistance of experts from University of California, Berkeley which would be used to treat the polluted water.
The activated sludge plant and UASB (up flow Anaerobic sludge blanket) the two main methods of water treatment currently in use have not been proved to be effective enough, besides they also consume heavy electricity making them costly, he said.
Misra said his project was not only more effective but also requires very low maintenance and was cost effective.
Misra said with the assurance from higher authorities during his New Delhi visit last year he is hopeful that his project could be utilised for dealing with the massive
"In Varanasi alone, the seven km stretch from upstream Assi Ghat to Varuna Sangam, pollution has reached septic levels and we have data to prove this point," Hydraulic expert and Professor Vir Bhadra Misra said.
Misra said that the samples tested by the laboratories set up under the 'Clean Ganga Campaign' of the Sankat Mochan foundation, of which he is the head, show that the river is dirty in the upstream Assi Ghat area and by the time it reaches Varuna Sangam, it attains septic levels.
"We had set up these labs along the river ever since it was claimed by the authorities that the water in the river has been cleaned following the Ganga Action Plan," the former Civil Engineering Department head at the Banaras Hindu University said.
Misra, who was recently honoured by the Council of Science and Technology with Vigyan Ratna award, said he had formulated a plan for the Varanasi Nagar Nigam way back in 1995 to clean the river using low cost gravitational force method to stop inflow of domestic sewage into the river.
Sewage inflow is one of the main causes for pollution. The project was aimed at not only stopping the inflow of sewage into the river from the banks but also to treat it in a manner so as to make it fit for reuse.
Although Misra's plan continued to gather dust, he is still upbeat after being invited to New Delhi on November 6 last year by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his "important" meeting with Union Secretary for Environment and Forests on February 29 last.
"Almost 95 per cent of the pollution in the river is caused at 'point sources' at which sewers and open drains bringing pollutants in domestic and municipal limits fall, while only five per cent is by the direct users, especially in the case of rivers like Ganga, which were in constant use for religious reasons," Misra said.
"In Varanasi alone 32 drains fall in the river, in Kanpur 22 and in Allahabad there are 40 point sources in the Ganga," he said.
Explaining the process used in his proposed project to clean Ganga in Varanasi, Misra said the sewage carrying drains would be intercepted in a water tight drain all along the river and directed to four large ponds for treatment set up outside the city.
These four large ponds have been specially designed with the assistance of experts from University of California, Berkeley which would be used to treat the polluted water.
The activated sludge plant and UASB (up flow Anaerobic sludge blanket) the two main methods of water treatment currently in use have not been proved to be effective enough, besides they also consume heavy electricity making them costly, he said.
Misra said his project was not only more effective but also requires very low maintenance and was cost effective.
Misra said with the assurance from higher authorities during his New Delhi visit last year he is hopeful that his project could be utilised for dealing with the massive
Sania moves up in singles and doubles WTA rankings
Sania Mirza, struggling to recover from a wrist injury, moved one place up to 31 in singles and gained three spots in doubles to be 22 in the latest WTA tennis rankings.
Sania, who withdrew from the on-going Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, made the singles pre-quarterfinal at the Pacific Life open and reached doubles semi-finals with American partner Bethanie Mattek at the same event.
In men's section, Mahesh Bhupathi continued his rise in the ATP ranking charts and stands 13th with a gain of four spots while his estranged partner Leander Paes dropped to 19, losing two positions
Sania, who withdrew from the on-going Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, made the singles pre-quarterfinal at the Pacific Life open and reached doubles semi-finals with American partner Bethanie Mattek at the same event.
In men's section, Mahesh Bhupathi continued his rise in the ATP ranking charts and stands 13th with a gain of four spots while his estranged partner Leander Paes dropped to 19, losing two positions
Sehwag leapfrogs Dravid, Tendulkar in Test rankings
DUBAI, March 31: Virender Sehwag's career best 319 against South Africa catapulted him to the 12th spot in the ICC Test Rankings, making him the highest ranked Indian in the batting chart.
Sehwag, whose triple ton was the fastest in Test history, jumped 13 places to 12th spot after a massive 17 per cent rise in his rating that saw him leapfrogging compatriots Rahul Dravid (13th), Sachin Tendulkar (15th) and VVS Laxman (18th).
On current form, Sehwag has a realistic chance of returning to the top 10. He is within touching distance of 10th place Kevin Pietersen of England who is just behind ninth-placed Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies.
Dravid himself rose two places to 13th following his 25th Test century, while Tendulkar dropped three places to 15th position after a fifth-ball duck in the Chennai Test against South Africa.
Besides Sehwag, South African batting duo of Hashim Amla and Neil McKenzie have also made significant upward movement.
Amla, who made scores of 159 and 81, rocketed up 10 places to a career-best 24th spot while McKenzie, who contributed 94 and 155 not out, jumped 26 places to 36th position.
Jacques Kallis, however, continued his slide in the rankings as he slipped another place to drop to fourth behind Australia's Ricky Ponting, while captain Graeme Smith fell two places to 16th position.
In the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, South Africa's Dale Steyn took 4/103 to stay within touching distance of Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan who still leads the list.
For India, Harbhajan Singh has climbed four places to 24th position after match figures of 8/265 and the 28-year-old stands a good chance of returning to top 20 as only 25 ratings points separates him from James Franklin of New Zealand, who occupies the 20th place.
The LG ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders is still headed by Kallis but he is on the verge of dropping below the 500-point mark after conceding 23 ratings points from the Chennai Test.
Irfan Pathan is the highest ranked India all-rounder in seventh place while captain Anil Kumble, sixth in the bowlers' chart, is in 10th position.
Sehwag, whose triple ton was the fastest in Test history, jumped 13 places to 12th spot after a massive 17 per cent rise in his rating that saw him leapfrogging compatriots Rahul Dravid (13th), Sachin Tendulkar (15th) and VVS Laxman (18th).
On current form, Sehwag has a realistic chance of returning to the top 10. He is within touching distance of 10th place Kevin Pietersen of England who is just behind ninth-placed Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies.
Dravid himself rose two places to 13th following his 25th Test century, while Tendulkar dropped three places to 15th position after a fifth-ball duck in the Chennai Test against South Africa.
Besides Sehwag, South African batting duo of Hashim Amla and Neil McKenzie have also made significant upward movement.
Amla, who made scores of 159 and 81, rocketed up 10 places to a career-best 24th spot while McKenzie, who contributed 94 and 155 not out, jumped 26 places to 36th position.
Jacques Kallis, however, continued his slide in the rankings as he slipped another place to drop to fourth behind Australia's Ricky Ponting, while captain Graeme Smith fell two places to 16th position.
In the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, South Africa's Dale Steyn took 4/103 to stay within touching distance of Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan who still leads the list.
For India, Harbhajan Singh has climbed four places to 24th position after match figures of 8/265 and the 28-year-old stands a good chance of returning to top 20 as only 25 ratings points separates him from James Franklin of New Zealand, who occupies the 20th place.
The LG ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders is still headed by Kallis but he is on the verge of dropping below the 500-point mark after conceding 23 ratings points from the Chennai Test.
Irfan Pathan is the highest ranked India all-rounder in seventh place while captain Anil Kumble, sixth in the bowlers' chart, is in 10th position.
Interview Questions.3
Question 4: Interviewer: He ordered a cup of coffee for the candidate. Coffee arrived kept before the candidate, then he asked what is before you?
Candidate: Instantly replied "Tea"
He got selected.
You know how and why did he say "TEA" when he knows very well that coffee was kept before.
(Answer: The question was "What is before you (U - alphabet)
Reply was "TEA" ( T - alphabet)
Alphabet "T" was before Alphabet "U"
Question 5: Where Lord Rama would have celebrated his "First Diwali"? People will start thinking of Ayodya, Mitila [Janaki's place], Lanka etc...
But the logic is, Diwali was a celebrated as a mark of Lord Krishna Killing Narakasura. In Dusavataar, Krishnavathaar comes after Raamavathaar.
So, Lord Rama would not have celebrated the Diwali At all!
Question 6: The interviewer asked to the candidate "This is your last question of the interview. Please tell me the exact position of the center of this table where u have kept your files."
Candidate confidently put one of his finger at some point at the table and told that this was the central point at the table. Interviewer asked how did u get to know that this being the central point of this table, then he answers quickly that sir u r not likely to ask any more question, as it was the last question that u promised to ask.....
And hence, he was selected as because of his quick-wittedness. ........
"THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX
Candidate: Instantly replied "Tea"
He got selected.
You know how and why did he say "TEA" when he knows very well that coffee was kept before.
(Answer: The question was "What is before you (U - alphabet)
Reply was "TEA" ( T - alphabet)
Alphabet "T" was before Alphabet "U"
Question 5: Where Lord Rama would have celebrated his "First Diwali"? People will start thinking of Ayodya, Mitila [Janaki's place], Lanka etc...
But the logic is, Diwali was a celebrated as a mark of Lord Krishna Killing Narakasura. In Dusavataar, Krishnavathaar comes after Raamavathaar.
So, Lord Rama would not have celebrated the Diwali At all!
Question 6: The interviewer asked to the candidate "This is your last question of the interview. Please tell me the exact position of the center of this table where u have kept your files."
Candidate confidently put one of his finger at some point at the table and told that this was the central point at the table. Interviewer asked how did u get to know that this being the central point of this table, then he answers quickly that sir u r not likely to ask any more question, as it was the last question that u promised to ask.....
And hence, he was selected as because of his quick-wittedness. ........
"THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX
Interview Questions.2
Question 2: What will you do if I run away with your sister?"
The candidate who was selected answered " I will not get a better match for my sister than you sir"
Question 3: Interviewer (to a student girl candidate) - What is one morning you woke up & found that you were pregnant.
Girl - I will be very excited and take an off, to celebrate with my husband.
Normally an unmarried girl will be shocked to hear this, but she managed it well. Why I should think it in the wrong way, she said later when asked
The candidate who was selected answered " I will not get a better match for my sister than you sir"
Question 3: Interviewer (to a student girl candidate) - What is one morning you woke up & found that you were pregnant.
Girl - I will be very excited and take an off, to celebrate with my husband.
Normally an unmarried girl will be shocked to hear this, but she managed it well. Why I should think it in the wrong way, she said later when asked
Interview Questions
Below are the Interview Questions.
No one will GET second chance to impress....
Very very Impressive Questions and Answers..... ...
Question 1: You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy night, it's raining heavily, when suddenly you pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for a bus:
An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
An old friend who once saved your life.
The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.
Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing very well that there could only be one passenger in your car?
This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of a job application.
* You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first;
* or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to ! pay him back.
* However, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.
The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with his answer. Guess what was his answer?
He simply answered:
"I would give the car keys to my Old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams."
Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thought limitations. Never forget to "Think Outside of the Box."
No one will GET second chance to impress....
Very very Impressive Questions and Answers..... ...
Question 1: You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy night, it's raining heavily, when suddenly you pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for a bus:
An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
An old friend who once saved your life.
The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.
Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing very well that there could only be one passenger in your car?
This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of a job application.
* You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first;
* or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to ! pay him back.
* However, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.
The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with his answer. Guess what was his answer?
He simply answered:
"I would give the car keys to my Old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams."
Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thought limitations. Never forget to "Think Outside of the Box."
Friday 28 March 2008
Experts detect amino acid in Milky Way
Scientists have detected for the first time an organic molecule closely related to an amino acid near the centre of our Milky Way.
The organic molecule, known as "amino acetonitrile", was found with a 30-metre radio telescope in Spain and two radio interferometers in France and Australia in the "Large Molecule Heimat", a giant gas cloud near the galactic centre in the constellation Sagittarius.
It is a very dense, hot gas clump within the star forming region Sagittarius B2. In all space observations, scientists give the most importance to the detection of so-called "bio" molecules, especially interstellar amino acids.
The organic molecule, known as "amino acetonitrile", was found with a 30-metre radio telescope in Spain and two radio interferometers in France and Australia in the "Large Molecule Heimat", a giant gas cloud near the galactic centre in the constellation Sagittarius.
It is a very dense, hot gas clump within the star forming region Sagittarius B2. In all space observations, scientists give the most importance to the detection of so-called "bio" molecules, especially interstellar amino acids.
Brain has sixth sense for calories
NEW YORK: The brain has a way of sensing calories in food, independent of the taste mechanism, according to a new study.
The discovery that the brain's reward system is switched on by this "sixth sense" machinery could have implications for understanding the causes of obesity.
For example, the findings suggest why high-fructose corn syrup, widely used as a sweetener in foods, might contribute to obesity.
Findings of the study have been published in the latest issue of the journal Neuron.
Ivan de Araujo and his research colleagues genetically altered mice to make them "sweet-blind", or lacking a key component of taste receptor cells that enabled them to detect the sweet taste.
The researchers next performed behavioural tests in which they compared normal and sweet-blind mice in their preference for sugar solutions and those containing the non-caloric sweetener sucralose.
In those tests, the sweet-blind mice showed a preference for calorie containing sugar water that did not depend on their ability to taste, but on the calorie content.
In analysing the brains of the sweet-blind mice, researchers showed that the animals' reward circuitry was switched on by caloric intake, independent of the animals' ability to taste.
Those analyses showed that levels of the brain chemical dopamine, known to be central to activating the reward circuitry, increased with caloric intake.
Also, electrophysiological studies showed that neurons in the food-reward region, called the nucleus accumbens, were activated by caloric intake, independent of taste.
The discovery that the brain's reward system is switched on by this "sixth sense" machinery could have implications for understanding the causes of obesity.
For example, the findings suggest why high-fructose corn syrup, widely used as a sweetener in foods, might contribute to obesity.
Findings of the study have been published in the latest issue of the journal Neuron.
Ivan de Araujo and his research colleagues genetically altered mice to make them "sweet-blind", or lacking a key component of taste receptor cells that enabled them to detect the sweet taste.
The researchers next performed behavioural tests in which they compared normal and sweet-blind mice in their preference for sugar solutions and those containing the non-caloric sweetener sucralose.
In those tests, the sweet-blind mice showed a preference for calorie containing sugar water that did not depend on their ability to taste, but on the calorie content.
In analysing the brains of the sweet-blind mice, researchers showed that the animals' reward circuitry was switched on by caloric intake, independent of the animals' ability to taste.
Those analyses showed that levels of the brain chemical dopamine, known to be central to activating the reward circuitry, increased with caloric intake.
Also, electrophysiological studies showed that neurons in the food-reward region, called the nucleus accumbens, were activated by caloric intake, independent of taste.
First looks: Adobe Photo Express
The maker of the popular photo-editing software Photoshop launched Photoshop Express, a basic version available for free online.
The company hopes the hosted version of its popular Photoshop image-editing application will give it an edge over Google, Microsoft and other competitors. The online service is expected to broaden the company's reach into the consumer market. As for the revenues, the company envisions it coming from online advertising.
Hyderabad
The second round of IPL auctions are over and a clear picture is emerging about the strengths and weaknesses of the squads. Like after the first round, we size up the options available for the skippers.
Far and away a dream Twenty20 line-up when it comes to batting firepower. Spoilt for choice when it comes to openers, with Gilchrist, Afridi and Gibbs around.
With the likes of Symonds, Styris, Laxman, Sharma and Silva shoring up the middle order, this is one team which can pack a mean punch.
Hyderabad, unhampered by the presence of an icon player, pulled out all the stops in the first auction and didn't have much to do in the second.
RP Singh and Chaminda Vaas offer quality seam options, although the presence of an additional pacer wouldn't hurt because the seam options lack variety. Pragyan Ojha (if he gets a look-in), Afridi and Symonds will bolster the spin department.
Probably the best fielding side around, too, with Gibbs and Symonds leading the way.
Squad: VVS Laxman (capt), Andrew Symonds, Rudra Pratap Singh, Rohit Sharma, Adam Gilchrist (wicketkeeeper), Shahid Afridi, Herschelle Gibbs, Chaminda Vaas, Scott Styris, Nuwan Zoysa, Chamara Silva, Halhadar Das (wicketkeeper), Pragyan Ojha, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Paidikalva Vijaykumar, Arjun Yadav, D Kalyankrishna, Venugopal Rao
Coach: Robin Singh (TOI Photo)
Far and away a dream Twenty20 line-up when it comes to batting firepower. Spoilt for choice when it comes to openers, with Gilchrist, Afridi and Gibbs around.
With the likes of Symonds, Styris, Laxman, Sharma and Silva shoring up the middle order, this is one team which can pack a mean punch.
Hyderabad, unhampered by the presence of an icon player, pulled out all the stops in the first auction and didn't have much to do in the second.
RP Singh and Chaminda Vaas offer quality seam options, although the presence of an additional pacer wouldn't hurt because the seam options lack variety. Pragyan Ojha (if he gets a look-in), Afridi and Symonds will bolster the spin department.
Probably the best fielding side around, too, with Gibbs and Symonds leading the way.
Squad: VVS Laxman (capt), Andrew Symonds, Rudra Pratap Singh, Rohit Sharma, Adam Gilchrist (wicketkeeeper), Shahid Afridi, Herschelle Gibbs, Chaminda Vaas, Scott Styris, Nuwan Zoysa, Chamara Silva, Halhadar Das (wicketkeeper), Pragyan Ojha, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Paidikalva Vijaykumar, Arjun Yadav, D Kalyankrishna, Venugopal Rao
Coach: Robin Singh (TOI Photo)
Sehwag at his peak
CHENNAI, PTI: A belligerent Virender Sehwag presided over a bowlers' bloodbath and blasted an unbeatean 309 as India responded emphatically to South Africa's massive first innings total in the first cricket Test on Friday.
The dashing right-hander wielded his willow like a sword and cut the South African attack to ribbons during his 292-ball blitzkrieg that powered India to 468 for one at stumps on day three.
Sehwag thus equalled his career best score of 309, also the highest Test score by an Indian, which he had recorded against Pakistan in the 2004 Multan Test.
India now trail the visitors by 72 runs and Sehwag and Rahul Dravid (65) will return on Saturday to first wipe out the arrears and then establish a lead
Thursday 27 March 2008
UK Immigration Procedures
UK Immigration Procedures
Recent changes to immigration procedures mean that international students now have a more streamlined route to studying in the UK.
Requirements to enter as a student
The requirements to be met by a person seeking to enter the United Kingdom as a student are that he or she:
has been accepted for a course of study at:
(a) a publicly funded institution of further or higher education; or
((IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) a bona fide private education institution which maintains satisfactory records of enrolment and attendance; or
© an independent fee-paying school outside the maintained sector; and
is able and intends to follow either:
(a) a recognised full-time degree course at a publicly funded institution of further or higher education; or
((IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) a weekday full-time course involving attendance at a single institution for a minimum of 15 hours- organised daytime study per week of a single subject or directly related subjects; or
© a full-time course at an independent fee-paying school; and
intends to leave the United Kingdom at the end of his/her studies; and
does not intend to engage in business or take up employment in the UK, except part-time or vacation work undertaken with the consent of the Secretary of State for Employment; and
is able to meet the costs of his/her course and accommodation, and the maintenance of him/herself and any dependants without taking employment or engaging in business or having recourse to public funds.
Recent changes to immigration procedures mean that international students now have a more streamlined route to studying in the UK.
Requirements to enter as a student
The requirements to be met by a person seeking to enter the United Kingdom as a student are that he or she:
has been accepted for a course of study at:
(a) a publicly funded institution of further or higher education; or
((IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) a bona fide private education institution which maintains satisfactory records of enrolment and attendance; or
© an independent fee-paying school outside the maintained sector; and
is able and intends to follow either:
(a) a recognised full-time degree course at a publicly funded institution of further or higher education; or
((IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) a weekday full-time course involving attendance at a single institution for a minimum of 15 hours- organised daytime study per week of a single subject or directly related subjects; or
© a full-time course at an independent fee-paying school; and
intends to leave the United Kingdom at the end of his/her studies; and
does not intend to engage in business or take up employment in the UK, except part-time or vacation work undertaken with the consent of the Secretary of State for Employment; and
is able to meet the costs of his/her course and accommodation, and the maintenance of him/herself and any dependants without taking employment or engaging in business or having recourse to public funds.
some uk visa FAQ
Visa and Immigration Problems
Q: What if I am refused a UK visa?
A: If you are refused a visa, the entry clearance officer will give you a written notice clearly explaining the decision, which will also tell you if you have the right of appeal. For more information read our guidance on Appeals (INF 20)
Q: If I am refused, can I appeal against the decision?
A: Certain categories of visa attract the right of appeal. If you have the right of appeal this will be stated in your written notice of refusal. Family visitors, settlement applications and students who apply to spend over six months in the UK - amongst others - have the right of appeal.
For more detailed information read our guidance on Appeals (INF 20).
Q: What if I have been refused a visa for another country before?
A: Each visa application for the UK is dealt with on its own merits, but an entry clearance officer may wish to know why another country refused you a visa.
Q: What if I have been refused entry to another country?
A: As above, the entry clearance officer may wish to know why you were refused entry to another country
Q: What if I am refused a UK visa?
A: If you are refused a visa, the entry clearance officer will give you a written notice clearly explaining the decision, which will also tell you if you have the right of appeal. For more information read our guidance on Appeals (INF 20)
Q: If I am refused, can I appeal against the decision?
A: Certain categories of visa attract the right of appeal. If you have the right of appeal this will be stated in your written notice of refusal. Family visitors, settlement applications and students who apply to spend over six months in the UK - amongst others - have the right of appeal.
For more detailed information read our guidance on Appeals (INF 20).
Q: What if I have been refused a visa for another country before?
A: Each visa application for the UK is dealt with on its own merits, but an entry clearance officer may wish to know why another country refused you a visa.
Q: What if I have been refused entry to another country?
A: As above, the entry clearance officer may wish to know why you were refused entry to another country
one joke with a lesson
A mechanic was removing the cylinder heads from the motor of a car when he spotted the famous heart surgeon in his shop, who was standing off to the side, waiting for the service manager to come to take a look at his car. The mechanic shouted across the garage, Hello Doctor! Please come over here for a minute. The famous surgeon, a bit surprised, walked over to the mechanic. The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and asked argumentatively, So doctor, look at this. I also open hearts, take valves out, grind em, put in new parts, and when I finish this will work as a new one. So how come you get the big money, when you and me is doing basically the same work? " The doctor leaned over and whispered to the mechanic ...... What did he say ??? Guess ...... ... ... He said: Try to do it when the engine is running.
Arrested for laughing.........
Hi,
This is from an actual trial in the UK : A young woman who was several months pregnant boarded a bus.
When She Noticed a young man smiling at her she began feeling humiliated on Account of her condition.
She changed her seat and he seemed more amused.
She moved again and then on her third move he burst out laughing.... ......... ......She had him arrested.
Then the case came before the court, the young man was asked why he acted in such a manner.
His reply was: When the lady boarded the bus I couldn't help noticing she was pregnant..
She sat under an advertisement, which read: 'Coming Soon: The Gold Dust Twins'.
I was even more amused when she sat under a shaving advertisement, which read: 'William's Stick Did The Trick'.
Then I could not control myself any longer when on the third move she sat under an advertisement, which read:
'Dunlop Rubber would have prevented this accident.'
The case was dismissed... ......!
Have a nice day...!
This is from an actual trial in the UK : A young woman who was several months pregnant boarded a bus.
When She Noticed a young man smiling at her she began feeling humiliated on Account of her condition.
She changed her seat and he seemed more amused.
She moved again and then on her third move he burst out laughing.... ......... ......She had him arrested.
Then the case came before the court, the young man was asked why he acted in such a manner.
His reply was: When the lady boarded the bus I couldn't help noticing she was pregnant..
She sat under an advertisement, which read: 'Coming Soon: The Gold Dust Twins'.
I was even more amused when she sat under a shaving advertisement, which read: 'William's Stick Did The Trick'.
Then I could not control myself any longer when on the third move she sat under an advertisement, which read:
'Dunlop Rubber would have prevented this accident.'
The case was dismissed... ......!
Have a nice day...!
This is called love
Korean music video, the music isn´t so great bu... (more)
Added: May 14, 2006
Korean music video, the music isn´t so great but the message in the video is very emotional. If you are in love, this is the right thing for you
Tuesday 25 March 2008
Hindi teachers wanted in US
MUMBAI: Jagdish Prasad Sharma has hardly dreamed that his proficiency in Hindi would one day take him from the quiet holy town of Mathura to the bright lights of the US.
Earlier this month, Sharma was one among the 100-odd Hindi teachers who travelled to Noida to be interviewed by a delegation from Connecticut and Carolina, which was in India to headhunt young, full-time Hindi teachers for schools in the US.
Hindi is the new Mandarin. Just as Mandarin is being learned by youngsters all over the world to give them a strategic advantage with the emerging China, Hindi too is being sought after as the language of the other Asian tiger.
Some schools in the US have decided to introduce Hindi as a foreign language with staples like French, Spanish and German.
Apart from Hindi teachers, the delegation also interviewed about 70 Arabic teachers. Last year, the Bush administration had identified Arabic and Hindi among half a dozen critical foreign languages which it felt were vital for its national security.
"We're going to teach our kids how to speak important languages. We will welcome teachers here to help teach our kids how to speak languages," US president George Bush had said during a National Security Language Initiative in New York.
With an initial budget of $114 million, this initiative aims at helping more Americans to become multilingual and to do so at a young age. Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, Persian and Hindi are all "important languages".
Instructors are being recruited to teach these from kindergarten right up to the university level. In India, the recruitment process is being facilitated by an arm of the HRD ministry, called Education Consultants India Limited, or EdCIL.
Earlier this month, Sharma was one among the 100-odd Hindi teachers who travelled to Noida to be interviewed by a delegation from Connecticut and Carolina, which was in India to headhunt young, full-time Hindi teachers for schools in the US.
Hindi is the new Mandarin. Just as Mandarin is being learned by youngsters all over the world to give them a strategic advantage with the emerging China, Hindi too is being sought after as the language of the other Asian tiger.
Some schools in the US have decided to introduce Hindi as a foreign language with staples like French, Spanish and German.
Apart from Hindi teachers, the delegation also interviewed about 70 Arabic teachers. Last year, the Bush administration had identified Arabic and Hindi among half a dozen critical foreign languages which it felt were vital for its national security.
"We're going to teach our kids how to speak important languages. We will welcome teachers here to help teach our kids how to speak languages," US president George Bush had said during a National Security Language Initiative in New York.
With an initial budget of $114 million, this initiative aims at helping more Americans to become multilingual and to do so at a young age. Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, Persian and Hindi are all "important languages".
Instructors are being recruited to teach these from kindergarten right up to the university level. In India, the recruitment process is being facilitated by an arm of the HRD ministry, called Education Consultants India Limited, or EdCIL.
New drug to fight multiple sclerosis
CHICAGO: A new drug currently being tested in humans has been found to suppress multiple sclerosis and other auto immune diseases in mice, according to a study published on Monday.
The drug works by stimulating the development of T-cells, a kind of white blood cell which helps the immune system target specific pathogens.
"We know that it generates T-cell lines that are regulatory for auto immune diseases and that the same T-cell line will suppress three different auto immune diseases in mice," said study author Jack Strominger of Harvard University.
"It is also effective in several other auto immune diseases in mice, so it's possible this class of molecules could be more broadly used than simply for multiple sclerosis."
Strominger and his team developed a relative of the drug Copaxone which is currently used to treat multiple sclerosis.
They tested it on mice directly and then generated a T-cell line from those treated mice. Those t-cells suppressed the disease in three different models, he said in a telephone interview.
In testing it on mice they discovered it was "far more effective" in treating multiple sclerosis and "amazingly more effective" in treating uveitis, a common cause of blindness, he said.
This comes as researchers have reported that a bodysuit that heats or cools a patient, combined with painless measurements of eye movements, is providing multiple sclerosis researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Centre with a new tool to study the mysterious link between body temperature and severity of MS symptoms.
The researchers studied an aspect of MS called Uhthoff's phenomenon, named for the German ophthalmologist who reported in 1889 that some people have temporary vision problems after exercise or in hot weather. This and other symptoms of MS, such as fatigue or problems with coordination, worsen in the heat for most people with the disease.
The drug works by stimulating the development of T-cells, a kind of white blood cell which helps the immune system target specific pathogens.
"We know that it generates T-cell lines that are regulatory for auto immune diseases and that the same T-cell line will suppress three different auto immune diseases in mice," said study author Jack Strominger of Harvard University.
"It is also effective in several other auto immune diseases in mice, so it's possible this class of molecules could be more broadly used than simply for multiple sclerosis."
Strominger and his team developed a relative of the drug Copaxone which is currently used to treat multiple sclerosis.
They tested it on mice directly and then generated a T-cell line from those treated mice. Those t-cells suppressed the disease in three different models, he said in a telephone interview.
In testing it on mice they discovered it was "far more effective" in treating multiple sclerosis and "amazingly more effective" in treating uveitis, a common cause of blindness, he said.
This comes as researchers have reported that a bodysuit that heats or cools a patient, combined with painless measurements of eye movements, is providing multiple sclerosis researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Centre with a new tool to study the mysterious link between body temperature and severity of MS symptoms.
The researchers studied an aspect of MS called Uhthoff's phenomenon, named for the German ophthalmologist who reported in 1889 that some people have temporary vision problems after exercise or in hot weather. This and other symptoms of MS, such as fatigue or problems with coordination, worsen in the heat for most people with the disease.
Sex education makes teens aware
NEW YORK: Comprehensive sex education that includes discussion of birth control may help reduce teen pregnancies, while abstinence-only programs seem to fall short, the results of a US survey suggest.
Using data from a 2002 national survey, researchers found that among more than 1,700 unmarried, heterosexual teens between 15 and 19 years old, those who'd received comprehensive sex education in school were 60 per cent less likely to have been pregnant or gotten someone pregnant than teens who'd had no formal sex education.
Meanwhile, there was no clear benefit from abstinence-only education in preventing pregnancy or delaying sexual intercourse, the researchers report in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
The study found that teens who'd been through abstinence-only programs were less likely than those who'd received no sex education to have been pregnant. However, the difference was not significant in statistical terms, which means the finding could have been due to chance.
In addition, there was no evidence that comprehensive sex education increased the likelihood of teen sex or boosted rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) -- a concern of people who oppose teaching birth control in schools.
While comprehensive sex education did not clearly reduce the STD risk, there was a modest, but statistically insignificant reduced risk of engaging in sex.
The abstinence-only approach had no effect on either factor, the researchers found. "The bottom line is that there is strong evidence that comprehensive sex education is more effective than abstinence-only education at preventing teen pregnancies," said lead researcher Pamela K Kohler, of the Centre for AIDS and STD at the University of Washington in Seattle.
She told that the study "also solidly debunks the myth that teens who learn about birth control are more likely to have sex."
Currently, the federal government champions the abstinence-only approach, giving around $170 million each year to states and community groups to teach kids to say no to sex. This funding precludes mention of birth control and condoms, unless it is to emphasize their failure rates.
Critics have long pointed out that studies have failed to show that abstinence-only education delays sex or lowers rates of teen pregnancy. The current study is the first to compare the effects of comprehensive sex ed and abstinence-only education in a national survey, Kohler noted.
Of the teens in the study, two thirds said they had received comprehensive sex education, while about one quarter had had abstinence-only courses. Just under 10 per cent said they'd received no formal sex education. There is now a body of evidence showing that the comprehensive approach may cut the odds of teen pregnancy, without increasing the likelihood of teens having sex, according to Kohler.
However, she added, "there seems to be a gap between scientific evidence and policy change."
Using data from a 2002 national survey, researchers found that among more than 1,700 unmarried, heterosexual teens between 15 and 19 years old, those who'd received comprehensive sex education in school were 60 per cent less likely to have been pregnant or gotten someone pregnant than teens who'd had no formal sex education.
Meanwhile, there was no clear benefit from abstinence-only education in preventing pregnancy or delaying sexual intercourse, the researchers report in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
The study found that teens who'd been through abstinence-only programs were less likely than those who'd received no sex education to have been pregnant. However, the difference was not significant in statistical terms, which means the finding could have been due to chance.
In addition, there was no evidence that comprehensive sex education increased the likelihood of teen sex or boosted rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) -- a concern of people who oppose teaching birth control in schools.
While comprehensive sex education did not clearly reduce the STD risk, there was a modest, but statistically insignificant reduced risk of engaging in sex.
The abstinence-only approach had no effect on either factor, the researchers found. "The bottom line is that there is strong evidence that comprehensive sex education is more effective than abstinence-only education at preventing teen pregnancies," said lead researcher Pamela K Kohler, of the Centre for AIDS and STD at the University of Washington in Seattle.
She told that the study "also solidly debunks the myth that teens who learn about birth control are more likely to have sex."
Currently, the federal government champions the abstinence-only approach, giving around $170 million each year to states and community groups to teach kids to say no to sex. This funding precludes mention of birth control and condoms, unless it is to emphasize their failure rates.
Critics have long pointed out that studies have failed to show that abstinence-only education delays sex or lowers rates of teen pregnancy. The current study is the first to compare the effects of comprehensive sex ed and abstinence-only education in a national survey, Kohler noted.
Of the teens in the study, two thirds said they had received comprehensive sex education, while about one quarter had had abstinence-only courses. Just under 10 per cent said they'd received no formal sex education. There is now a body of evidence showing that the comprehensive approach may cut the odds of teen pregnancy, without increasing the likelihood of teens having sex, according to Kohler.
However, she added, "there seems to be a gap between scientific evidence and policy change."
Smoking major cause of TB deaths
MUMBAI: Taking cue from last week's WHO warning about tuberculosis (TB) killing 1.7 mn people in India and China in 2006 alone, anti-tobacco campaigners once again reinforced that smoking was the main cause for spreading tuberculosis and causing deaths.
Says Dr. P C Gupta of Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health," Smokers seem to have higher propensity (to TB) and suffer much worse consequences. In India smoking was causing TB and killing more people than lung cancer."
When the Indian researchers looked at effect of smoking, the findings revealed that 40 percent of TB deaths were among men and it happened because of smoking, informed Dr Gupta.
While it's true that TB is more common among the lower socio economic strata because of over-crowding and poverty, the common use of smoking and tobacco, played a major role in the spread of the disease which is swelling despite the fact that there's a cure available for it.
So, why are people dying of a curable disease TB in the 21st century?
The government controlled programmes are lagging behind, feel experts. "It has not been 100 percent successful," concurs Dr Gupta. He adds, "TB was controlled in the developed countries in the 50s and the 60s. But in India factors like population density, lack of resources and improper access to health care systems leave a lot to be desired."
Doctors agree that to some extent the fear of stigma attached to the disease is one of the causes for the spread of the disease. "At the time of conducting research work we find that people do not like answering to direct questioning about TB. And this is true of all levels of people, regardless of age and socio-economic status."
Also, there have been wrong (and at times wilful) diagnoses by quacks, whom the poor or illiterate approach for treatment. However, this is something most medical experts are not willing to talk about, openly.
The best prevention of TB is timely and wide detection and proper treatment. According to Dr Gupta, there have been good reports of the strategy of DOT (the government of India's tuberculosis control programme) and thinks TB must be treated on the spot.
With the detection process made more efficient, India can rid itself of TB, just like the western countries have achieved, feel medical experts.
Says Dr. P C Gupta of Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health," Smokers seem to have higher propensity (to TB) and suffer much worse consequences. In India smoking was causing TB and killing more people than lung cancer."
When the Indian researchers looked at effect of smoking, the findings revealed that 40 percent of TB deaths were among men and it happened because of smoking, informed Dr Gupta.
While it's true that TB is more common among the lower socio economic strata because of over-crowding and poverty, the common use of smoking and tobacco, played a major role in the spread of the disease which is swelling despite the fact that there's a cure available for it.
So, why are people dying of a curable disease TB in the 21st century?
The government controlled programmes are lagging behind, feel experts. "It has not been 100 percent successful," concurs Dr Gupta. He adds, "TB was controlled in the developed countries in the 50s and the 60s. But in India factors like population density, lack of resources and improper access to health care systems leave a lot to be desired."
Doctors agree that to some extent the fear of stigma attached to the disease is one of the causes for the spread of the disease. "At the time of conducting research work we find that people do not like answering to direct questioning about TB. And this is true of all levels of people, regardless of age and socio-economic status."
Also, there have been wrong (and at times wilful) diagnoses by quacks, whom the poor or illiterate approach for treatment. However, this is something most medical experts are not willing to talk about, openly.
The best prevention of TB is timely and wide detection and proper treatment. According to Dr Gupta, there have been good reports of the strategy of DOT (the government of India's tuberculosis control programme) and thinks TB must be treated on the spot.
With the detection process made more efficient, India can rid itself of TB, just like the western countries have achieved, feel medical experts.
Obama backers attack Clinton on 'exaggerating' Bosnia trip
WASHINGTON: Hillary Rodham Clinton had the Democratic presidential campaign trail to herself, but the camp of vacationing rival Barack Obama challenged the former first lady on her claim to have landed in Bosnia 12 years ago under sniper fire. Clinton characterised the episode as a "misstatement" and a "minor blip."
Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said on Monday that her story "joins a growing list of instances in which Senator Clinton has exaggerated her role in foreign and domestic policy-making."
During a speech about Iraq last week, Clinton said of the March 1996 Bosnia trip: "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."
The Obama campaign carried Internet links to a CBS news video taken from the Bosnia trip and posted on YouTube. It showed Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, walking across the tarmac from a large cargo plane, smiling and waving, and stopping to shake hands with Bosnia's acting president and greet an eight-year-old girl.
Asked about the issue during a meeting with the Philadelphia Daily News' editorial board on Monday, Clinton said she "misspoke."
"I went to 80 countries, you know. I gave contemporaneous accounts, I wrote about a lot of this in my book. You know, I think that, a minor blip, you know, if I said something that, you know, I say a lot of things, millions of words a day. So if I misspoke, that was just a misstatement," she said.
Clinton often cites the trip as a part of her foreign policy experience, which she claims gives her an advantage over Obama.
Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said on Monday that her story "joins a growing list of instances in which Senator Clinton has exaggerated her role in foreign and domestic policy-making."
During a speech about Iraq last week, Clinton said of the March 1996 Bosnia trip: "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."
The Obama campaign carried Internet links to a CBS news video taken from the Bosnia trip and posted on YouTube. It showed Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, walking across the tarmac from a large cargo plane, smiling and waving, and stopping to shake hands with Bosnia's acting president and greet an eight-year-old girl.
Asked about the issue during a meeting with the Philadelphia Daily News' editorial board on Monday, Clinton said she "misspoke."
"I went to 80 countries, you know. I gave contemporaneous accounts, I wrote about a lot of this in my book. You know, I think that, a minor blip, you know, if I said something that, you know, I say a lot of things, millions of words a day. So if I misspoke, that was just a misstatement," she said.
Clinton often cites the trip as a part of her foreign policy experience, which she claims gives her an advantage over Obama.
Under-fire Gavaskar set to give up ICC post
NEW DELHI, March 25: Sunil Gavaskar is all set to step down as ICC's cricket committee chairman after the governing body asked the former Indian captain to give up his other job of a commentator and columnist, which is in "direct conflict" with his duties in the ICC.
Watch: Gavaskar's ICC job in jeopardy
The issue was raised in the ICC's executive committee meeting in Dubai last week where members felt Gavaskar's dual roles were in conflict with each other and he should choose between the two.
However, the committee decided against removing Gavaskar as it felt it would be better to give him the option of deciding what he wants to do.
The former batsman will meet ICC CEO Malcolm Speed this week to take a final call on the issue.
"Gavaskar will meet CEO Malcolm Speed in Dubai this week to discuss this matter," An ICC spokesman said.
Gavaskar has lucrative deals as a television commentator and a newspaper columnist and this is likely to weigh on his mind when he decides on whether to continue as ICC's cricket committee chief.
The development comes close on the heels of his latest outburst in which he described England and Australia as "dinosaurs" unable to digest India's growing clout in the governing body's affairs.
A BCCI source said despite the outburst, the ICC wants to have Gavaskar on board.
"The ICC has lot of respect for Gavaskar and it does not want to take such a step of removing him. The ICC wants to have Gavaskar on board as cricket committee chairman," the source said.
Gavaskar, a celebrated right hander who has more 10,000 Test runs under his belt, took over as ICC cricket committee chairman from West Indian cricketer Clyde Walcott in June 2000.
He has been at the helm since then, getting an extension once but his never-ending outbursts against some of the ICC members like England and Australia have not gone down well with the ICC board.
ICC President-elect David Morgan had also expressed his concerns at Gavaskar's outspoken views.
"Conflicts of interests pervade our sport. In terms of Gavaskar, within the ICC, there is a concern now that he's chairman of the cricket committee and a journalist who has expressed some fairly outspoken comments," Morgan had said during India's tour of Australia this year after Gavaskar's scathing criticism of umpiring in the controversial Sydney Test.
Watch: Gavaskar's ICC job in jeopardy
The issue was raised in the ICC's executive committee meeting in Dubai last week where members felt Gavaskar's dual roles were in conflict with each other and he should choose between the two.
However, the committee decided against removing Gavaskar as it felt it would be better to give him the option of deciding what he wants to do.
The former batsman will meet ICC CEO Malcolm Speed this week to take a final call on the issue.
"Gavaskar will meet CEO Malcolm Speed in Dubai this week to discuss this matter," An ICC spokesman said.
Gavaskar has lucrative deals as a television commentator and a newspaper columnist and this is likely to weigh on his mind when he decides on whether to continue as ICC's cricket committee chief.
The development comes close on the heels of his latest outburst in which he described England and Australia as "dinosaurs" unable to digest India's growing clout in the governing body's affairs.
A BCCI source said despite the outburst, the ICC wants to have Gavaskar on board.
"The ICC has lot of respect for Gavaskar and it does not want to take such a step of removing him. The ICC wants to have Gavaskar on board as cricket committee chairman," the source said.
Gavaskar, a celebrated right hander who has more 10,000 Test runs under his belt, took over as ICC cricket committee chairman from West Indian cricketer Clyde Walcott in June 2000.
He has been at the helm since then, getting an extension once but his never-ending outbursts against some of the ICC members like England and Australia have not gone down well with the ICC board.
ICC President-elect David Morgan had also expressed his concerns at Gavaskar's outspoken views.
"Conflicts of interests pervade our sport. In terms of Gavaskar, within the ICC, there is a concern now that he's chairman of the cricket committee and a journalist who has expressed some fairly outspoken comments," Morgan had said during India's tour of Australia this year after Gavaskar's scathing criticism of umpiring in the controversial Sydney Test.
Sony Ericsson MBW-100 Bluetooth Watch review
The Sony Ericsson MBW-100 Bluetooth Watch is probably a must have gadget for those of you already possessing one of newest Sony Ericsson mobile phones. Owners of other mobile phone brands may of course crave for this watch as well, but it is not compatible with other brands than Sony Ericsson. The watch itself is made in partnership with Fossil. Fossil has probably made the mechanical part and Sony Ericsson the Bluetooth component. The watch is rather heavy (187,5 g), massive, and has a fairly masculine style with its polished steel housing. Sony Ericsson MBW-100 is available in a black limited edition and a silver variant. All photos in this review are of the silver variant.
The obviously things first: MBW-100 is a analogue watch where the time is set by dragging out the quite large crown and turning it round just like you do with any other analogue watch.
Now to the part that describes the unique features for this watch; he communication with your mobile phone. Two buttons positioned above and below the crown wheel are used to set up and control the communication settings.
The mobile phone and the MBW-100 need to be paired before they start communicating. The pairing process is quite simple. Make the phone searchable by other Bluetooth devices and press one of the watch keys to search for available phones. When a phone is found it will ask for the standard 0000 paring code. The phone and MBW-100 is now linked together and the watch will search for this phone whenever it loses the connection for more than 30 seconds. That is actually one of the nice features of the watch. You can set it up to notify you when the phone gets out of range. It will do so by blinking an icon in the status area and vibrate at the same time. So if you tend to forget your phone, this watch will help you never do that any more.
The complete list of notifications done by the MBW-100 is:
Notify when receiving a message by displaying an envelope icon in the status field and vibrate.
Notify of incoming calls. Name of the caller will be displayed in the watch status field if the caller has an entry in the phone contact list. The caller name is not stored in the watch, but is transferred from the phone during the incoming call. Incoming calls can be muted or rejected by pressing one of the watch keys. If you want to talk to the caller, you will have to pick up the phone of course.
Notify when connection to phone is lost. Again, display an icon and vibrate.
The three notification alarms can be switched on and off independently of each other.
Searching for phone
Current date and battery status
Current time and Bluetooth status
Mode selection. Bluetooth on,
message notification on, out of range is on
and icon for start pairing.
Connection to phone lost
Play and pause music player
The MBW-100 can only be connected to one phone at a time. The pairing process needs to be repeated if another phone is going to be connected.
Sony Ericsson MBW-100 can also operate as a remote and control the phone media player. It is done by pressing the watch crown. Depending on the phone model and therefore installed phone applications, it is possible to start, pause (not stop) and forward to next track on the music player and start and stop the FM radio. It is the last used phone application that will be started or paused. The manual claims that 2 meter is the out of distance range if the watch has a direct visual view to the phone. This distance will be shortened if solid objects get in the way. I have experienced that the connection was lost when the phone was in my right hand pocket and the watch was on the left hand. I have also been able to controll the media player from up to 10 meters of free sight.
Sony Ericsson MBW-100 Bluetooth Watch displays three levels of battery status. Fully charged, 2/3 and 1/3. One of the things I was curious about when I first got it was how long the battery would last. The first charging lasted one week, the second lasted two weeks and now on the forth charge I have been using it for almost 3 weeks without recharging. You will probably want to start recharging when battery status is on one third because Bluetooth will turn itself off when battery level is below this level. MBW-100 is a very small device with limited room for battery, and in my example it had Bluetooth turned on for 21 days (504 hours). I think that is quite impressive. The MBW-100 uses connects to the regular Sony Ericsson Two Port Standard Charger CST-75 via the included extension cable. It has a special clamp wich is put round the clock and the other into the charger output. CST-75 is the carger following the latest Sony Ericsson handsets wich means that you do not need to clutter your desktop with one more of those chargers.
MBW-100 charger plug
My guess is that the current design will attract mostly male buyers. It's a gadget made just for male. MBW-100 is a cool watch but I miss some basic features I think Sony Ericsson should have implemented. What about a stopwatch and timer for example? These are features I had on my first red LCD display wristwatch back in the eighties. Yes, your phone most likely has these features but it is often easier to touch your left wrist for such tasks.
Time and date can not be adjusted on the watch directly. MBW-100 fetches this data from the currently paired mobile phone during initial setup. If the Bluetooth pairing is reset, the watch will not display date or time until a new pairing is set up. It should be possible to adjust the time and date without a paired phone nearby.
To some, a watch is a piece of jewellery and the masculine look of the MBW-100 is soon to be replaced be the newly announced Sony Ericsson MBW-150 Executive Edition, MBW-150 Music Edition and MBW-150 Classic Edition. I use my MBW-100 every day and think it looks good. You might prefer one of the other more classy models.
New MBW models. From the left: MBW-150 Executive Edition, Classic Edition and Music Edition
Sony Ericsson MBW-100 is currently available for aouround 260 Euro, but expect the price to drop as soon as the three new models are for sale.
Thursday 20 March 2008
Sony Ericsson's W910 Walkman is awarded GSM Association's Best Handset 2008
Sony Ericsson is delighted to announce that its W910 Walkman phone has been awarded Best Handset at the GSM Association's 13th Global Mobile Awards 2008.
Launched last year, the W910 Walkman phone is designed for entertainment; whether music, 3D games, video, or high-speed Web access. It's also geared to let consumers choose their music just the way they want it. Applications such as Shake control enable them to flick the phone to control games or skip and shuffle between music tracks while SenseMe(TM) lets them discover music to match their mood and tempo. With its 1GB Memory Stick Micro(TM) provided in box, the W910 Walkman phone can hold over 900 songs* with room for plenty more thanks to its expandable memory.
"We are very proud to receive such a prestigious award for what has proved to be a very popular product," says Dick Komiyama, Sony Ericsson President. "The W910 Walkman makes it quicker and easier to transfer or download music. It's also about thinking beyond music, to games, videos and the Web."
Since the launch of the W800 Walkman phone in August 2005, more than 57 million Walkman phones have been sold worldwide. The Walkman phone range has seen rapid expansion, most recently with the launch of the W980 Walkman phone at this year's Mobile World Congress. This latest Walkman phone promises to get the most out of consumers' music with superior clear audio sound, storage for 8,000 songs, and Walkman on Top experience that allows users to control all of their music from the outside of their phone.
Sony Ericsson today announced the T303 slider phone at the yearly CeBIT trade fair
Sony Ericsson announced no less than 7 new devices at the Mobile World Congress one month ago leaving very few supprices for the CeBIT fair this year. The new Sony Ericsson T303 is on of the smallest Sony Ericsson phone models to date. Only the Z520 and Z300 clamshell series are smaller. Sony Ericsson T303 is a slider model hiding the number keys when not needed. Only a few navigation buttons are accessible when it is closed. T303 should be put in the low-end segment with only 8MB free storage. This will leave room for only 20+ photos taken with the 1.3 megapixels camera. The press release does not mention any expandable memory option which we find strange. The T303 also has a MP3 player as well which make the few 8MB even less usefull. We might be wrong so the T303 could have expandable memory but none of the press images shows any input holes for memory slots. Sony Ericsson T303 will be found in two colors: silver and black. T303 will be available in selected markets from mid 2008
Press release:
The stylish new T303 slider phone furthers Sony Ericsson's commitment to broaden its appeal to a wider audience. Petite and good looking, it offers designer good-looks without the price tag to match.
Hanover, Germany – 4th March 2008 – Sony Ericsson today unveiled the T303, an attractive phone that is small and neat enough to carry with you on every occasion. This compact slider phone has been given the high-end treatment, with a mirrored screen, metal housing and chrome finish.
"The T303 is a great addition to the Sony Ericsson T-line of products, combining premium finish and materials with a good feature-set to deliver 'style with substance'." said Lykke Tærsbøl, Senior Designer at the Sony Ericsson Creative Design Centre. "The balance between shape and size in combination with the design makes it a truly eye-catching product. Our aim was to create a phone that would function equally as a daily companion as well as something to show off on a night out.
Sony Ericsson T303
Style at its best
Provides pocket-sized convenience
Promises premium good looks thanks to a metal and chrome finish
Does the basics well, whether that's camera, Bluetooth or FM radio
Big in looks, mini in size
The T303's diminutive size is distinctive for all the right reasons. Because it doesn't take up much room, it's perfect for those nights out when space is limited and not everything can come out with you. The T303's compact size means that this phone will always be one of the chosen few.
Chic and smooth, reflecting your every move
The T303's metal and chrome finish makes it hard for those around you not to be impressed by its premium appearance. Its soft shape and smooth sliding mechanism make it a feel-good experience that you can enjoy every day. And the mirror glass display on the front of the phone goes yet further in making the T303 even more stand-out in its appearance.
Picture perfect
The T303's megapixel camera is ready to take pictures in an instant. So if you come across the perfect shoes whilst out and about, but want a second opinion, just one quick snap and you can send a picture message to one of your friends. You can use Bluetooth™ technology to transfer photos wire-free from your phone to a compatible computer, and then email them to any number of helpful style-advisers. Or just to send the photos of a day's adventure directly to a friend's phone.
Play-as-you-go
With life being ever more hectic, it's essential to be able to slow down the pace and take time out, whenever you get the chance. The T303 comes with a built-in FM radio, meaning you can tune in, chill out, and let time just pass you by. It also has its own media player and comes preloaded with Sony Ericsson's TrackID™ feature. Record a clip of a song in a bar or café and find out instantly what track it is and who sings it.
Accessorise
With such a good-looking phone, you'll want to keep it that way. The Protective Case IDC-22, part of Sony Ericsson's Design Collection, gives you the opportunity to develop your stylish look still further. Not only will it help keep your phone looking good, but it also has room for all of those essentials…your credit cards, keys and your T303.
Sony Ericsson T303 facts and figures:
Size: 83 x 47 x 14.7 mm
Weight: 93 grams
Main screen: 65,536 colour TFT
Resolution: 128 x 160 pixels
Size: 1.8 inches
Phone memory: Up to 8 MB
Talk time GSM: Up to 9 hrs
Standby time GSM: Up to 400 hrs
Music and Entertainment
TrackID
FM Radio
Media player
Music tones (MP3)
Java
Camera
1.3 megapixel camera
4x digital zoom
Internet
WAP 2.0 XHTML
Communication & Messaging
Polyphonic ringtones
Speakerphone
Vibrating alert
Picture messaging (MMS)
Predictive text input
Sound recorder
Text messaging (SMS)
Design
Navigation key
Picture wallpaper
Wallpaper animation
Organiser
Alarm clock
Calculator
Calendar
Notes
Phone book
Stopwatch
Tasks
Timer
Bluetooth technology
USB mass storage
USB support
Networks
T303/T303c – GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900
T303a – GSM/GPRS 850/1800/1900
Soha Ali Khan in Gun trouble
The black buck hunting case returned to haunt the Pataudi family with Haryana authorities deciding to issue a show cause notice to actress Soha Ali Khan for alleged Arms Act violations.
Soha and her father Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, former cricket captain, faced trouble since he had allegedly used the gun issued in her name to kill an endangered black buck near Gurgaon for which he is facing a police case.
She was issued the gun license in November 1996, when she was only 18 years and one month old, whereas the minimum age limit for getting a gun license is 21 years, Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Gupta said on Tuesday.
She has been asked to explain in two weeks how she obtained a gun license when she was still underage and ineligible for it, Gupta said.
Gupta said if it is established that Pataudi had used the same weapon in hunting down a black buck, action would be taken against him and Soha on the charge of violating the Arms Act and misleading the Gurgaon administration.
Gupta also said the file containing documents related to the issuance of the license to her was also missing from government records and added that an FIR would be lodged against unnamed persons in this regard.
He said Pataudi took the permission for carrying .22 bore rifle no. 91501 "as retainer" on January 7, 2000 for which license was issued to Soha.
Pataudi had allegedly used the same weapon in June 2005 for hunting down and killing a black buck in Jhajjar district, the official said.
I'm doing it for Sallu:Kareena
On Tuesday, Kareena who's been on a vertiginous high since the release of Jab We Met finally starting shooting a new film at Film City at the outskirts of Mumbai.
Nervous like a debutante Kareena said, "Although we've done Priyadarshan's Kyun Ki before, I always get nervous working with Salman. He was my sister's heroine long before we were paired together. And now to be doing a film with him."
The two were destined to serenade immortality in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Bajirao Mastani. But the film never happened. Kareena was also signed for Salman Khan's home production My Punjabi Nikaah. That never happened either.
Kareena chuckles in disbelief. "Our new film Main Aur Mrs Khanna is an intensely romantic film. I don't think Salman has done a a pure love story like this before. Neither have I. Sohail is also in the film."
Interestingly this is the first time in her distinguished career that Kareena will be working with a debutant director Prem Soni.
"He's very talented. It wouldn't matter even if he wasn't. I'm doing it for Salman," says Kareena emotionally.
Katrina Kaif: It's My Slice
PepsiCo has signed Bollywood's actress Katrina Kaif, who gave huge hits like 'Namastey London' and 'Welcome' last year, as its brand ambassador for its popular mango juice drink brand Slice.
'I am extremely proud to be associated with Slice. When the brand approached me, I readily agreed because it is the best tasting mango drink and has been my favourite for a long time.
Its taste makes it a perfect drink suitable for all occasions,' said Katrina in a press release.
With this, Katrina, who will be seen in a completely different avatar in Abbas-Mustan's 'Race', becomes the first brand ambassador for Slice.
'Slice enjoys high salience in the Indian market. We are delighted to associate with Katrina as the brand ambassador for Slice and are positive that she will help build the brand's connect with our core consumers,' said Homi Battiwalla, vice president, Emerging Categories, PepsiCo India.
Abhishek can't lose weight!!!
Abhishek Bachchan took a day off from his hectic schedule to do some additional shooting for Ram Gopal Varma's Sarkar Raj before he flew off to Miami to join Karan Johar's crew for Tarun Mansukhani's Dostana.
According to Ramu, "It was a few vital close-ups of Abhishek that I wanted to add to the film, so before anyone jumps to the conclusion that I re-shot my film, let me quickly clear the air.
I think Abhishek excels in silent close-ups. Not too many actors of his generation know how to hold silences on camera. I made him do that in Naach.
And I just thought a few tight close-ups would add to the drama in Sarkar Raj."
According to Ramu, Abhishek has given yet another riveting performance in Sarkar Raj after Guru.
"I wouldn't even compare the two performances on any level except that intensity that Abhishek brings to both the Abhishek and Aishwarya you'll be seeing in Sarkar Raj will be very different from Guru. And if you ask me he has gone far beyond what he did in Sarkar."
Ramu adds, "Abhishek is looking really thin these days. For those who are writing that he's frantically gyming to lose weight here's some disappointing news. I don't think Abhishek can lose any more weight."
On Tuesday night Abhishek left for Miami to do what he calls a fun film on the beach. Before that he tried to spend as much time as possible with wife Aishwarya who, incidentally, is trying juggle domestic duties with script readings.
Says a source, "After the success of Jodhaa-Akbar the offers are phenomenal. The Bachchans specially Jaya who gave up her career at her prime, are delighted.
They thought her marital status would inhibit her career. But the offers are pouring in. Besides Shankar's Robot Aishwarya has already said yes to Sridhar Raghavan's film with John Abraham and Ben Kingsley's Taj Mahal project which also has Bipasha Basu."
Not surprising to see Bipasha in an Aishwarya project because the former has hired the latter's American agent to handle her work and hopes to see some of the international projects coming her way.
Sophie trashes Malaika-Amu
The news of seeing the sexy sisters, Malaika Arora and Amrita Arora together in an item song has now bit the dust as the duo have been replaced by the gorgeous Sophie Choudhry.
Yes, we are speaking of Sanjay Gadhvi's film, 'Kidnap'.
A very delighted Sophie acclaims, "Sanjay Gadhvi and I have been good friends! He had spoken to me about this song three weeks ago.
I usually have refrained from doing item numbers, but I could not say no to this one asit was for a crucial part of the film. The song appears during the pre-climax of the film.
It is great being a part of a film in such a big way. Also it involved Sanjay Dutt and I'd do anything for a respected and adored actor like him".
Sanjay Gadhvi who was earlier keen on casting the Arora sisters for the item number now says, "The personality that Sophie has is in sync with the look and the song. I could not have wanted anybody else for this number".
Sophie who had won all hearts for her number in Pyaar Ke Side Effects adds on, "I am doing the song now and that is a fact! I am not aware whether Malaika and Amrita were to do it.
I was not in country when the news that Malaika and Amrita were to do the number splashed out in the media. I don't even care about it."
'I Feel Like I Might Just Die On Stage'
She is famous for her brash confidence, but pop icon Madonna has revealed she suffers from crippling panic attacks on stage.
Panic attacks: MadonnaThe 49-year-old singer admitted she sometimes 'expects to die' while performing and that she has to take extreme actions to control her nerves.
In an interview with magazine Dazed & Confused, she said: "I have moments where I feel incredibly invincible and know that I have the audience in my hand - I know that everything is absolutely perfect.
"And then I have panic attacks where I feel like everyone is breathing my air and I cannot live up to everybody's expectations and I might just die on stage."
In her 30-year career Madonna has played in front of millions of people from all over the globe.
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The singer explained that she has to take extreme action to restrain her attacks.
"I normally try to turn my back to the audience, take a deep breath and remind myself that it's all temporary. I'm not worried about f***ing up - I really have a panic attack that everyone else is breathing my air. It's hard to describe," she said.
"When you have panic attacks you cannot rationalise them.
"Obviously there's enough oxygen for me but it never happens outdoors, it's normally in indoor sports arenas that feel very close when suddenly I feel claustrophobic," she explained. "It's not a fear of performing," she added.
Panic attacks: MadonnaThe 49-year-old singer admitted she sometimes 'expects to die' while performing and that she has to take extreme actions to control her nerves.
In an interview with magazine Dazed & Confused, she said: "I have moments where I feel incredibly invincible and know that I have the audience in my hand - I know that everything is absolutely perfect.
"And then I have panic attacks where I feel like everyone is breathing my air and I cannot live up to everybody's expectations and I might just die on stage."
In her 30-year career Madonna has played in front of millions of people from all over the globe.
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The singer explained that she has to take extreme action to restrain her attacks.
"I normally try to turn my back to the audience, take a deep breath and remind myself that it's all temporary. I'm not worried about f***ing up - I really have a panic attack that everyone else is breathing my air. It's hard to describe," she said.
"When you have panic attacks you cannot rationalise them.
"Obviously there's enough oxygen for me but it never happens outdoors, it's normally in indoor sports arenas that feel very close when suddenly I feel claustrophobic," she explained. "It's not a fear of performing," she added.
'Interact' With New England Kit
England will line up against France in a friendly at Wembley later this month - and they will be wearing the world's 'first interactive football shirt'.
The Umbro QR codeManufacturers Umbro have placed a QR code on the care label of the new England away kit - which the team will wear against France.
Replica shirts also containing the code have now gone on sale.
QR codes, which have arrived from Japan, are two-dimensional patterns which can be read by mobile phones carrying the appropriate software.
Pointing a QR-enabled phone at a patterns translates it into information - in the case of the new Umbro shirt directing people to a wap site which cannot be accessed in any other way.
Once on the site, users can access exclusive information and pictures about England and enter competitions.
The Umbro QR codeManufacturers Umbro have placed a QR code on the care label of the new England away kit - which the team will wear against France.
Replica shirts also containing the code have now gone on sale.
QR codes, which have arrived from Japan, are two-dimensional patterns which can be read by mobile phones carrying the appropriate software.
Pointing a QR-enabled phone at a patterns translates it into information - in the case of the new Umbro shirt directing people to a wap site which cannot be accessed in any other way.
Once on the site, users can access exclusive information and pictures about England and enter competitions.
How To Control Your Facebook Friends
Facebook fans with large numbers of friends have now been given a new range of ways to interact with them.
Facebook is always changingThe social networking website's new privacy tools will mean that people can assign different privacy settings to different people.
The change means that certain information such as contact details can be kept from people who are befriended via the site.
People will be allowed to put their friends into individual lists, so that information can be easily circulated to some contacts.
Facebook is always changingThe social networking website's new privacy tools will mean that people can assign different privacy settings to different people.
The change means that certain information such as contact details can be kept from people who are befriended via the site.
People will be allowed to put their friends into individual lists, so that information can be easily circulated to some contacts.
Man Kills Himself With 'Suicide Robot'
An Australian pensioner has reportedly killed himself after building a "suicide robot" from plans downloaded from the internet.
This robot is not so dangerousThe 81-year-old, from Queensland, set up the machine to remotely fire a semi-automatic pistol.
When he activated it, it fired several shots into his head.
The man, who lived alone, left a suicide note saying he was unhappy at being forced by relatives to move into care home.
Full details of how the machine worked have not been released.
The man explained in his notes that he set the machine up on his driveway as he knew there were builders next door, and they would be alerted by the sound of gunshot.
This robot is not so dangerousThe 81-year-old, from Queensland, set up the machine to remotely fire a semi-automatic pistol.
When he activated it, it fired several shots into his head.
The man, who lived alone, left a suicide note saying he was unhappy at being forced by relatives to move into care home.
Full details of how the machine worked have not been released.
The man explained in his notes that he set the machine up on his driveway as he knew there were builders next door, and they would be alerted by the sound of gunshot.
India 'Blood Draining' Gang Captured
A criminal gang in northern India held 17 men captive and drained their blood, selling it for thousands of pounds, police say.
Blood was sold to hospitalsThe victims - all poor migrant workers - were so weak when they were rescued that they could not stand up.
They are now being treated in hospital.
Five men have been arrested and charged with selling blood, which is banned in India, and keeping the men against their will.
The gang promised jobs to poor labourers, who travelled to the town of Gorakhpur, in northern Uttar Pradesh state, and persuaded them to undergo blood tests by paying them about 60p.
They were then paid less than £20 a month for giving blood on
Blood was sold to hospitalsThe victims - all poor migrant workers - were so weak when they were rescued that they could not stand up.
They are now being treated in hospital.
Five men have been arrested and charged with selling blood, which is banned in India, and keeping the men against their will.
The gang promised jobs to poor labourers, who travelled to the town of Gorakhpur, in northern Uttar Pradesh state, and persuaded them to undergo blood tests by paying them about 60p.
They were then paid less than £20 a month for giving blood on
Monday 17 March 2008
Guess ............ ........ Who is this???????? ??
Guess ............ ........ Who is this???????? ??
answer is
Sachin Tendulkar in college fancy dress competition (look again .carefully)____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________
No support for Beijing boycott, says Australian Olympics chief
SYDNEY: The Australian Olympic Committee does not support a boycott of the Beijing Games because of concerns about human rights in China, committee president John Coates said on Monday.
Deadly violence in Tibet has raised some calls to boycott the sporting showcase.
But Coates said Australia agreed with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) policy that boycotting the event would only hurt the athletes participating.
"It is not the role of the IOC to take the lead in addressing such issues as human rights or political matters, which are most appropriately addressed by governments or concerned organisations," Coates said in an open letter.
"The fact that the Games in Beijing put the spotlight on the country, thereby encouraging discussion on issues of interest to the global community, is a positive outcome of bringing the Olympic movement to China.
"Australia has participated in every Olympic Games of the modern era and the Games in Beijing will be no different."
Deadly violence in Tibet has raised some calls to boycott the sporting showcase.
But Coates said Australia agreed with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) policy that boycotting the event would only hurt the athletes participating.
"It is not the role of the IOC to take the lead in addressing such issues as human rights or political matters, which are most appropriately addressed by governments or concerned organisations," Coates said in an open letter.
"The fact that the Games in Beijing put the spotlight on the country, thereby encouraging discussion on issues of interest to the global community, is a positive outcome of bringing the Olympic movement to China.
"Australia has participated in every Olympic Games of the modern era and the Games in Beijing will be no different."
'Indian students spend $13 bn a year on education abroad'
NEW DELHI: Industry body Assocham on Monday said over $ 13 billion is spent every year by about 450,000 Indian students on higher education abroad as they are not accommodated by domestic institutions.
Over 90 per cent of students appearing for IIT and IIM entrance examinations are rejected due to capacity constraints, of which the top 40 per cent pay to get admission abroad.
"Over 150,000 students every year go overseas for university education, which costs India a foreign exchange outflow of 10 billion dollars. This amount is sufficient to build more IIMs and IITs," it said.
The primary reason for a large number of Indian students seeking professional education abroad is lack of capacity in Indian institutions. The trend can be reversed by opening series of quality institutes with public-private partnership by completely deregulating higher education, Assocham President Venugopal Dhoot said in a statement.
Higher education in India is subsidised as an IIT student pays an average $ 120 monthly fee, while students opting for education in institutions in Australia, Canada, Singapore, the US and UK shell out $ 1,500-5,000 as fees every month.
Deregulation of higher education in the country will result in creating annual revenues of $ 50-100 billion, besides providing 10-20 million additional jobs in the field of education alone, the chamber said.
India has only 27,000 foreign students, as compared to four lakh in Australia.
Assocham further said vocational education in India is a meagre five per cent of its total employed workforce of 459.10 million as against 95 per cent in South Korea, 80 per cent in Japan and 70 per cent in Germany.
Over 90 per cent of students appearing for IIT and IIM entrance examinations are rejected due to capacity constraints, of which the top 40 per cent pay to get admission abroad.
"Over 150,000 students every year go overseas for university education, which costs India a foreign exchange outflow of 10 billion dollars. This amount is sufficient to build more IIMs and IITs," it said.
The primary reason for a large number of Indian students seeking professional education abroad is lack of capacity in Indian institutions. The trend can be reversed by opening series of quality institutes with public-private partnership by completely deregulating higher education, Assocham President Venugopal Dhoot said in a statement.
Higher education in India is subsidised as an IIT student pays an average $ 120 monthly fee, while students opting for education in institutions in Australia, Canada, Singapore, the US and UK shell out $ 1,500-5,000 as fees every month.
Deregulation of higher education in the country will result in creating annual revenues of $ 50-100 billion, besides providing 10-20 million additional jobs in the field of education alone, the chamber said.
India has only 27,000 foreign students, as compared to four lakh in Australia.
Assocham further said vocational education in India is a meagre five per cent of its total employed workforce of 459.10 million as against 95 per cent in South Korea, 80 per cent in Japan and 70 per cent in Germany.
The key travel destinations of India are
The key travel destinations of India are:
Agra : Agra is possibly the most famous tourist destination in India. Known for the spellbinding Taj Mahal, one of the wonders of the world and a monument regarded worldwide as a symbol of eternal love, the city invites tourists with open arms from all parts of the world. The other must visit monuments of the state are the Agra Fort, tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah, Jahangiri Mahal, the Rambagh and Dayalbagh Gardens.
Rajasthan : Rajasthan, the northwestern state of India is a land of majestic forts, opulent palaces, picturesque lakes, shimmering deserts, exotic wild life and colorful bazaars. Ruled by the valorous Rajputs in the yore, the state offers innumerable attractions in its heritage cities of Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Pushkar, Ranthambore, Mount Abu, Shekhawati.
Goa : Goa, situated in the western coast of India, offers unadulterated sea, sand, surf, and sun accompanied with gracious hospitality of the warm-hearted natives. The state beckons the tourists with its palm fringed beaches, rich cultural heritage and untiring festive mood. The churches such as Se Cathedral, Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, Basilica of Bom Jesus are world famous across the world.
Kerala : Kerala conjures up images of serene beaches, emerald backwaters, lush greenery, coconut groves, cashew plantations, wildlife sanctuaries, and ayurvedic centers for rejuvenating and much more. Alappuzha, Cochin, Kollam, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Thekkady and Trivandrum are the major cities of Kerala.
Agra : Agra is possibly the most famous tourist destination in India. Known for the spellbinding Taj Mahal, one of the wonders of the world and a monument regarded worldwide as a symbol of eternal love, the city invites tourists with open arms from all parts of the world. The other must visit monuments of the state are the Agra Fort, tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah, Jahangiri Mahal, the Rambagh and Dayalbagh Gardens.
Rajasthan : Rajasthan, the northwestern state of India is a land of majestic forts, opulent palaces, picturesque lakes, shimmering deserts, exotic wild life and colorful bazaars. Ruled by the valorous Rajputs in the yore, the state offers innumerable attractions in its heritage cities of Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Pushkar, Ranthambore, Mount Abu, Shekhawati.
Goa : Goa, situated in the western coast of India, offers unadulterated sea, sand, surf, and sun accompanied with gracious hospitality of the warm-hearted natives. The state beckons the tourists with its palm fringed beaches, rich cultural heritage and untiring festive mood. The churches such as Se Cathedral, Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, Basilica of Bom Jesus are world famous across the world.
Kerala : Kerala conjures up images of serene beaches, emerald backwaters, lush greenery, coconut groves, cashew plantations, wildlife sanctuaries, and ayurvedic centers for rejuvenating and much more. Alappuzha, Cochin, Kollam, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Thekkady and Trivandrum are the major cities of Kerala.
MAPS OF INDIA.........
The story so far...
Mapsofindia.com
MapsofIndia.com is the largest online repository of maps on India since 1998. The site provides business mapping solutions and thematic map images of India, its states, union territories, districts, and cities. It is an established brand, servicing businesses, institutions and individuals across the globe.
The early roots of MapsofIndia.com can be traced to the year 1997. Realizing that the Internet would become the next medium of mass usage after the invention of television, few IT savvy entrepreneurs emerged out of IT, as well as non-IT companies, to together form Compare Infobase Limited.
The objective was to become a factory that developed Internet sites, on any subject and at all price ranges, for the Indian market.
Compare Infobase launched its first project, Indiaprofile.com, on 15th August 1998. The site was developed with the focus of emerging as the default portal for information on India. It started with information structured around travel, infrastructure, economy, education, culture, celebrations and maps. By October 1998, it was clear to all the entrepreneurs that within Mapsofindia lay an idea whose time had come.
An analysis of the detailed traffic report indicated that 50% of the traffic, which was coming to Indiaprofile, was going to the smallest section of the site, which was Mapsofindia. The Mapsofindia section had about 50 maps on India and its important states.
The decision was taken to immediately launch Mapsofindia.com with maps of all states, important cities and thematic maps on India in general. On 14th December 1998 Mapsofindia.com became fully operational with over 250 maps.
Those were early days; Yahoo was the king in search engines and submissions. India on the Internet was limited, and maps on India were nowhere to be found. Yahoo's directory on India did not have a sub-directory on maps and fewer than 2000 India specific sites were listed on Yahoo. Yahoo was impressed with Mapsofindia in terms of the depth of information that was offered, and worked together with Mapsofindia to develop a directory structure within yahoo's India sub-directory called Maps & Views. With a cross routing, Yahoo also developed a directory structure called States and Union Territories. Yahoo reciprocated the gesture of Mapsofindia by accommodating Mapsofindia in each section of the new directory structure. Chandigarh, Pondicherry, Haryana & the whole of the North East, was among the new directory structures created specifically to accommodate Mapsofindia.
There was no stopping after this, and the site started growing phenomenally. Mapsofindia was a free site at the time of planning and remains largely so, even today. From 250 maps as its initial database, Mapsofindia has grown to over 6,000 pages of maps and content.
Today, Mapsofindia has promoted a host of travel websites, apart from India's largest online map store by the name of Indiamapstore.com. To know about the products and services of Mapsofindia.com, please click here.
The team at Compare is today confident that it is in a position to replicate the success of Mapsofindia in the larger world domain. In the month of February 2004, Mapsofindia went ahead and launched what is planned to be the largest site on the world i.e. Mapsofworld.com. Mapsofworld.com is growing at a phenomenal rate and it is expected that in couple of years it would become the largest map resource in the world.
CLICK HERE
Wednesday 12 March 2008
TAJ MAHAL IS A HINDU TEMPLE............?
THE TAJ MAHAL IS TEJOMAHALAY
A Hindu Temple
By P. N. Oak
Probably there is no one who has been duped at least
once in a lifetime. But can the whole world can be
duped? This may seem impossible. But in the matter of
indian and world history the world can be duped in many
respects for hundreds of years and still continues to be
duped. The world famous Tajmahal is a glaring instance.
For all the time, money and energy that people over the
world spend in visiting the Tajmahal, they are dished
out of concoction. Contrary to what visitors are made to
believe the Tajmahal is not a Islamic mausoleum but an
ancient Shiva Temple known as Tejo-Mahalaya which the
5th generation moghul emperor Shahjahan commandeered
from the then Maharaja of Jaipur. The Tajmahal, should
therefore, be viewed as a temple palace and not as a
tomb. That makes a vast difference. You miss the details
of its size, grandeur, majesty and beauty when you take
it to be a mere tomb. When told that you are visiting a
temple palace you wont fail to notice its annexes,
ruined defensive walls, hillocks, moats, cascades,
fountains, majestic garden, hundreds of rooms archaded
verendahs, terraces, multi-storied towers, secret sealed
chambers, guest rooms, stables, the trident (Trishul)
pinnacle on the dome and the sacred, esoteric Hindu
letter "OM" carved on the exterior of the wall of the
sanctum sanctorum now occupied by the centotaphs. For
detailed proof of this breath taking discovery,you may
read the well known historian Shri. P. N. Oak's
celebrated book titled " Tajmahal: The True Story".
But let us place before you, for the time being an
exhaustive summary of the massive evidence ranging over
hundred points:
NAME
1. The term Tajmahal itself never occurs in any mogul
court paper or chronicle even in Aurangzeb's time. The
attempt to explain it away as Taj-i-mahal is therefore,
ridiculous.
2. The ending "Mahal"is never muslim because in none of
the muslim countries around the world from Afghanistan
to Algeria is there a building known as "Mahal".
3. The unusual explanation of the term Tajmahal derives
from Mumtaz Mahal, who is buried in it, is illogical in
at least two respects viz., firstly her name was never
Mumtaj Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani and secondly one
cannot omit the first three letters "Mum" from a woman's
name to derive the remainder as the name of the
building.
4. Since the lady's name was Mumtaz (ending with 'Z')
the name of the building derived from her should have
been Taz-Mahal, if at all, and not Taj (spelled with a
'J').
5. Several European visitors of Shahjahan's time allude
to the building as Taj-e-Mahal is almost the correct
tradition, age old Sanskrit name Tej-o-Mahalaya,
signifying a Shiva temple. Contrarily Shahjahan and
Aurangzeb scrupulously avoid using the Sanskrit term and
call it just a holy grave.
6. The tomb should be understood to signify NOT A
BUILDING but only the grave or centotaph inside it. This
would help people to realize that all dead muslim
courtiers and royalty including Humayun, Akbar, Mumtaz,
Etmad-ud-Daula and Safdarjang have been buried in
capture Hindu mansions and temples.
7. Moreover, if the Taj is believed to be a burial
place, how can the term Mahal, i.e., mansion apply to
it?
8. Since the term Taj Mahal does not occur in mogul
courts it is absurd to search for any mogul explanation
for it. Both its components namely, 'Taj' and' Mahal'
are of Sanskrit origin.
TEMPLE TRADITION
9. The term Taj Mahal is a corrupt form of the sanskrit
term Tejo-Mahalay signifying a Shiva Temple. Agreshwar
Mahadev i.e., The Lord of Agra was consecrated in it.
10. The tradition of removing the shoes before climbing
the marble platform originates from pre-Shahjahan times
when the Taj was a Shiva Temple. Had the Taj originated
as a tomb, shoes need not have to be removed because
shoes are a necessity in a cemetery.
11.Visitors may notice that the base slab of the
centotaph is the marble basement in plain white while
its superstructure and the other three centotaphs on the
two floors are covered with inlaid creeper designs. This
indicates that the marble pedestal of the Shiva idol is
still in place and Mumtaz's centotaphs are fake.
12. The pitchers carved inside the upper border of the
marble lattice plus those mounted on it number 08 -- a
number sacred in Hindu Temple tradition.
13. There are persons who are connected with the repair
and the maintenance of the Taj who have seen the
ancient sacred Shiva Linga and other idols sealed in the
thick walls and in chambers in the secret, sealed
red-stone stories below the marble basement. The
Archaeological Survey of India is keeping discretely,
politely and diplomatically silent about it to the point
of dereliction of its own duty to probe into hidden
historical evidence.
14. In India there are 12 Jyotirlingas i.e., the
outstanding Shiva Temples. The Tejomahalaya alias The
Tajmahal appears to be one of them known as
Nagnatheshwar since its parapet is girdled with Naga,
i.e., Cobra figures. Ever since Shahjahan's capture of
it the sacred temple has lost its Hindudom.
15. The famous Hindu treatise on architecture titled
Vishwakarma Vastushastra mentions the 'Tej-Linga'
amongst the Shivalingas i.e., the stone emblems of Lord
Shiva, the Hindu deity. Such a Tej Linga was
consecrated in the Taj Mahal, hence the term Taj Mahal
alias Tejo Mahalaya.
16. Agra city, in which the Taj Mahal is located, is an
ancient centre of Shiva worship. Its orthodox residents
have through ages continued the tradition of worshipping
at five Shiva shrines before taking the last meal every
night especially during the month of Shravan. During
the last few centuries the residents of Agra had to be
content with worshipping at only four prominent Shiva
temples viz., Balkeshwar, Prithvinath, Manakameshwar and
Rajarajeshwar. They had lost track of the fifth Shiva
deity which their forefathers worshipped. Apparently
the fifth was Agreshwar Mahadev Nagnatheshwar i.e., The
Lord Great God of Agra, The Deity of the King of Cobras,
consecrated in the Tejomahalay alias Tajmahal.
17. The people who dominate the Agra region are Jats.
Their name of Shiva is Tejaji. The Jat special issue of
The Illustrated Weekly of India (June 28, 1971) mentions
that the Jats have the Teja Mandirs i.e., Teja Temples.
This is because Teja-Linga is among the several names of
the Shiva Lingas. From this it is apparent that the
Taj-Mahal is Tejo-Mahalaya, The Great Abode of Tej.
DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
18. Shahjahan's own court chronicle, the Badshahnama,
admits (page 403, vol 1) that a grand mansion of unique
splendor, capped with a dome (Imaarat-a-Alishan wa
Gumbaze) was taken from the Jaipur Maharaja Jaisigh for
Mumtaz's burial, and the building was known as Raja
Mansingh's palace.
19. The plaque put the archealogy department outside the
Tajmahal describes the edifice as a mausoleum built by
Shahjahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, over 22 years from
1631 to 1653. That plaque is a specimen of historical
bungling. Firstly, the plaque sites no authority for
its claim. Secondly the lady's name was Mumtaz-ul-
Zamani and not Mumtazmahal. Thirdly, the period of 22
years is taken from some mumbo-jumbo noting by an
unreliable French visitor Tavernier, to the exclusion of
all muslim versions, which is an absurdity.
20. Prince Aurangzeb's letter to his father, emperor
Shahjahan,is recorded in atleast three chronicles titled
`Aadaab-e-Alamgiri', `Yadgarnama', and the
`Muruqqa-i-Akbarabadi' (edited by Said Ahmed, Agra,
1931, page 43, footnote 2). In that letter Aurangzeb
records in 1652 A.D. itself that the several buildings
in the fancied burial place of Mumtaz were seven
storeyed and were so old that they were all leaking,
while the dome had developed a crack on the northern
side. Aurangzeb, therefore, ordered immediate repairs
to the buildings at his own expense while recommending
to the emperor that more elaborate repairs be carried
out later. This is the proof that during Shahjahan's
reign itself that the Taj complex was so old as to need
immediate repairs.
21. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur retains in his secret
personal `Kapad-Dwara' collection two orders from
Shahjahan dated Dec 18, 1633 (bearing modern nos. R. 176
and 177) requestioning the Taj building complex. That
was so blatant a usurpation that the then ruler of
Jaipur was ashamed to make the document public.
22. The Rajasthan State archives at Bikaner preserve
three other firmans addressed by Shahjahan to the
Jaipur's ruler Jaising ordering the latter to supply
marble (for Mumtaz's grave and koranic grafts) from his
Makranna quarris, and stone cutters. Jaisingh was
apparently so enraged at the blatant seizure of the
Tajmahal that he refused to oblige Shahjahan by
providing marble for grafting koranic engravings and
fake centotaphs for further desecration of the Tajmahal.
Jaising looked at Shahjahan's demand for marble and
stone cutters, as an insult added to injury. Therefore,
he refused to send any marble and instead detained the
stone cutters in his protective custody.
23. The three firmans demanding marble were sent to
Jaisingh within about two years of Mumtaz's death. Had
Shahjahan really built the Tajmahal over a period of 22
years, the marble would have needed only after 15 or 20
years not immediately after Mumtaz's death.
24. Moreover, the three mention neither the Tajmahal,
nor Mumtaz, nor the burial. The cost and the quantity
of the stone also are not mentioned. This proves that
an insignificant quantity of marble was needed just for
some supercial tinkering and tampering with the
Tajmahal. Even otherwise Shahjahan could never hope to
build a fabulous Tajmahal by abject dependence for
marble on a non-cooperative Jaisingh.
EUROPEAN VISITOR'S ACCOUNTS
25. Tavernier, a French jeweller has recorded in his
travel memoirs that Shahjahan purposely buried Mumtaz
near the Taz-i-Makan (i.e.,`The Taj building') where
foriegners used to come as they do even today so that
the world may admire. He also adds that the cost of the
scaffold- ing was more than that of the entire work.
The work that Shahjahan commissioned in the Tejomahalaya
Shiva temple was plundering at the costly fixtures
inside it, uprooting the Shiva idols, planting the
centotaphs in their place on two stories, inscribing the
koran along the arches and walling up six of the seven
stories of the Taj. It was this plunder, desecrating
and plunderring of the rooms which took 22 years.
26. Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra recorded in
1632 (within only a year of Mumtaz's death) that `the
places of note in and around Agra, included
Taj-e-Mahal's tomb, gardens and bazaars'. He,
therefore, confirms that that the Tajmahal had been a
noteworthy building even before Shahjahan.
27. De Laet, a Dutch official has listed Mansingh's
palace about a mile from Agra fort, as an outstanding
building of pre-Shahjahan's time. Shahjahan's court
chronicle, the Badshahnama records, Mumtaz's burial in
the same Mansingh's palace.
28. Bernier, a contemporary French visitor has noted
that non-muslim's were barred entry into the basement
(at the time when Shahjahan requisitioned Mansingh's
palace) which contained a dazzling light. Obviously, he
reffered to the silver doors, gold railing, the gem
studded lattice and strings of pearl hanging over
Shiva's idol. Shahjahan comandeered the building to
grab all the wealth, making Mumtaz's death a convineant
pretext.
29. Johan Albert Mandelslo, who describes life in agra
in 1638 (only 7 years after mumtaz's death) in detail
(in his `Voyages and Travels to West-Indies', published
by John Starkey and John Basset, London), makes no
mention of the Tajmahal being under constuction though
it is commonly erringly asserted or assumed that the Taj
was being built from 1631 to 1653.
SANSKRIT INSCRIPTION
30. A Sanskrit inscription too supports the conclusion
that the Taj originated as a Shiva temple. Wrongly
termed as the Bateshwar inscription (currently preserved
on the top floor of the Lucknow museum), it refers to
the raising of a "crystal white Shiva temple so alluring
that Lord Shiva once enshrined in it decided never to
return to Mount Kailash -- his usual abode". That
inscription dated 1155 A.D. was removed from the
Tajmahal garden at Shahjahan's orders. Historicians and
Archeaologists have blundered in terming the insription
the `Bateshwar inscription' when the record doesn't say
that it was found by Bateshwar. It ought, in fact, to
be called `The Tejomahalaya inscription' because it was
originally installed in the Taj garden before it was
uprooted and cast away at Shahjahan's command.
A clue to the tampering by Shahjahan is found on pages
216-217, vol. 4, of Archealogiical Survey of India
Reports (published 1874) stating that a "great square
black balistic pillar which, with the base and capital
of another pillar. . . now in the grounds of Agra, . . .
it is well known, once stood in the garden of Tajmahal".
MISSING ELEPHANTS
31. Far from the building of the Taj, Shahjahan
disfigured it with black koranic lettering and heavily
robbed it of its Sanskrit inscription, several idols and
two huge stone elephants extending their trunks in a
welcome arch over the gateway where visitors these days
buy entry tickets. An Englishman, Thomas Twinning,
records (pg. 191 of his book "Travels in India - A
Hundred Years ago") that in November 1794 "I arrived at
the high walls which enclose the Taj-e-Mahal and its
circumjacent buildings. I here got out of the
palanquine and . . . mounted a short flight of steps
leading to a beautiful portal which formed the centre of
this side of the `COURT OF ELEPHANTS" as the great area
was called."
KORANIC PATCHES
32. The Taj Mahal is scrawled over with 14 chapters of
the Koran but nowhere is there even the slightest or the
remotest allusion in that Islamic overwriting to
Shahjahan's authorship of the Taj. Had Shahjahan been
the builder he would have said so in so many words
before beginning to quote Koran.
33. That Shahjahan, far from building the marble Taj,
only disfigured it with black lettering is mentioned by
the inscriber Amanat Khan Shirazi himself in an
inscription on the building. A close scrutiny of the
Koranic lettering reveals that they are grafts patched
up with bits of variegated stone on an ancient Shiva
temple.
CARBON 14 TEST
34. A wooden piece from the riverside doorway of the Taj
subjected to the carbon 14 test by an American
Laboratory, has revealed that the door to be 300 years
older than Shahjahan,since the doors of the Taj, broken
open by Muslim invaders repeatedly from the 11th century
onwards, had to b replaced from time to time. The Taj
edifice is much more older. It belongs to 1155 A.D,
i.e., almost 500 years anterior to Shahjahan.
ARCHITECHTURAL EVIDENCE
35. Well known Western authorities on architechture like
E. B. Havell, Mrs. Kenoyer and Sir W. W. Hunterhave gone
on record to say that the TajMahal is built in the Hindu
temple style. Havell points out the ground plan of the
ancient Hindu Chandi Seva Temple in Java is identical
with that of the Taj.
36. A central dome with cupolas at its four corners is a
universal feature of Hindu temples.
37. The four marble pillars at the plinth corners are of
the Hindu style. They are used as lamp towers during
night and watch towers during the day. Such towers
serve to demarcate the holy precincts. Hindu wedding
altars and the altar set up for God Satyanarayan worship
have pillars raised at the four corners.
38. The octagonal shape of the Tajmahal has a special
Hindu significance because Hindus alone have special
names for the eight directions, and celestial guards
assigned to them. The pinnacle points to the heaven
while the foundation signifies to the nether world.
Hindu forts, cities, palaces and temples genrally have
an octagonal layout or some octagonal features so that
together with the pinnacle and the foundation they cover
all the ten directions in which the king or God holds
sway, according to Hindu belief.
39. The Tajmahal has a trident pinncle over the dome. A
full scale of the trident pinnacle is inlaid in the red
stone courtyard to the east of the Taj. The central
shaft of the trident depicts a "Kalash" (sacred pot)
holding two bent mango leaves and a coconut. This is a
sacred Hindu motif. Identical pinnacles have been seen
over Hindu and Buddhist temples in the Himalayan region.
Tridents are also depicted against a red lotus
background at the apex of the stately marble arched
entrances on all four sides of the Taj. People fondly
but mistakenly believed all these centuries that the Taj
pinnacle depicts a Islamic cresent and star was a
lighting conductor installed by the British rulers in
India. Contrarily, the pinnacle is a marvel of Hindu
metallurgy since the pinnacle made of non-rusting alloy,
is also perhaps a lightning deflector. That the
pinnacle of the replica is drawn in the eastern
courtyard is significant because the east is of special
importance to the Hindus, as the direction in which the
sun rises. The pinnacle on the dome has the word `Allah'
on it after capture. The pinnacle figure on the ground
does not have the word Allah.
INCONSISTENCIES
40. The two buildings which face the marble Taj from the
east and west are identical in design, size and shape
and yet the eastern building is explained away by
Islamic tradition, as a community hall while the western
building is claimed to be a mosque. How could buildings
meant for radically different purposes be identical?
This proves that the western building was put to use as
a mosque after seizure of the Taj property by Shahjahan.
Curiously enough the building being explained away as a
mosque has no minaret. They form a pair af reception
pavilions of the Tejomahalaya temple palace.
41. A few yards away from the same flank is the Nakkar
Khana alias DrumHouse which is a intolerable incongruity
for Islam. The proximity of the Drum House indicates
that the western annex was not originally a mosque.
Contrarily a drum house is a neccesity in a Hindu temple
or palace because Hindu chores,in the morning and
evening, begin to the sweet strains of music.
42. The embossed patterns on the marble exterior of the
centotaph chamber wall are foilage of the conch shell
design and the Hindu letter "OM". The octagonally laid
marble lattices inside the centotaph chamber depict pink
lotuses on their top railing. The Lotus, the conch and
the OM are the sacred motifs associated with the Hindu
deities and temples.
43. The spot occupied by Mumtaz's centotaph was formerly
occupied by the Hindu Teja Linga -- a lithic
representation of Lord Shiva. Around it are five
perambulatory passages. Perambulation could be done
around the marble lattice or through the spacious marble
chambers surrounding the centotaph chamber, and in the
open over the marble platform. It is also customary for
the Hindus to have apertures along the perambulatory
passage, overlooking the deity. Such apertures exist in
the perambulatories in the Tajmahal.
44. The sanctom sanctorum in the Taj has silver doors
and gold railings as Hindu temples have. It also had
nets of pearl and gems stuffed in the marble lattices.
It was the lure of this wealth which made Shahjahan
commandeer the Taj from a helpless vassal Jaisingh, the
then ruler of Jaipur.
45. Peter Mundy, a Englishman records (in 1632, within a
year of Mumtaz's death) having seen a gem studded gold
railing around her tomb. Had the Taj been under
construction for 22 years, a costly gold railing would
not have been noticed by Peter mundy within a year of
Mumtaz's death. Such costly fixtures are installed in a
building only after it is ready for use. This indicates
that Mumtaz's centotaph was grafted in place of the
Shivalinga in the centre of the gold railings.
Subsequently the gold railings, silver doors, nets of
pearls, gem fillings etc. were all carried away to
Shahjahan's treasury. The seizure of the Taj thus
constituted an act of highhanded Moghul robery causing a
big row between Shahjahan and Jaisingh.
46. In the marble flooring around Mumtaz's centotaph may
be seen tiny mosaic patches. Those patches indicate the
spots where the support for the gold railings were
embedded in the floor. They indicate a rectangular
fencing.
47. Above Mumtaz's centotaph hangs a chain by which now
hangs a lamp. Before capture by Shahjahan the chain
used to hold a water pitcher from which water used to
drip on the Shivalinga.
48. It is this earlier Hindu tradition in the Tajmahal
which gave the Islamic myth of Shahjahan's love tear
dropping on Mumtaz's tomb on the full moon day of the
winter eve.
TREASURY WELL
49. Between the so-called mosque and the drum house is a
multistoried octagonal well with a flight of stairs
reaching down to the water level. This is a traditional
treasury well in Hindu temple palaces. Treasure chests
used to be kept in the lower apartments while treasury
personnel had their offices in the upper chambers. The
circular stairs made it difficult for intruders to reach
down to the treasury or to escape with it undetected or
unpursued. In case the premises had to be surrendered
to a besieging enemy the treasure could be pushed into
the well to remain hidden from the conquerer and remain
safe for salvaging if the place was reconquered. Such
an elaborate multistoried well is superflous for a mere
mausoleum. Such a grand, gigantic well is unnecessary
for a tomb.
BURIAL DATE UNKNOWN
50. Had Shahjahan really built the Taj Mahal as a wonder
mausoleum, history would have recorded a specific date
on which she was ceremoniously buried in the Taj Mahal.
No such date is ever mentioned. This important missing
detail decisively exposes the falsity of the Tajmahal
legend.
51. Even the year of Mumtaz's death is unknown. It is
variously speculated to be 1629, 1630, 1631 or 1632. Had
she deserved a fabulous burial, as is claimed, the date
of her death had not been a matter of much speculation.
In an harem teeming with 5000 women it was difficult to
keep track of dates of death. Apparently the date of
Mumtaz's death was so insignificant an event, as not to
merit any special notice. Who would then build a Taj
for her burial?
BASELESS LOVE STORIES
52. Stories of Shahjahan's exclusive infatuation for
Mumtaz's are concoctions. They have no basis in history
nor has any book ever written on their fancied love
affairs. Those stories have been invented as an
afterthought to make Shahjahan's authorship of the Taj
look plausible.
COST
53. The cost of the Taj is nowhere recorded in
Shahjahan's court papers because Shahjahan never built
the Tajmahal. That is why wild estimates of the cost by
gullible writers have ranged from 4 million to 91.7
million rupees.
PERIOD OF CONSTRUCTION
54. Likewise the period of construction has been guessed
to be anywhere between 10 years and 22 years. There
would have not been any scope for guesswork had the
building construction been on record in the court
papers.
ARCHITECTS
55. The designer of the Tajmahal is also variously
mentioned as Essa Effendy, a Persian or Turk, or Ahmed
Mehendis or a Frenchman, Austin deBordeaux, or Geronimo
Veroneo, an Italian, or Shahjahan himself.
RECORDS DON'T EXIST
56. Twenty thousand labourers are supposed to have
worked for 22 years during Shahjahan's reign in building
the Tajmahal. Had this been true, there should have
been available in Shahjahan's court papers design
drawings, heaps of labour muster rolls, daily
expenditure sheets, bills and receipts of material
ordered, and commisioning orders. There is not even a
scrap of paper of this kind.
57. It is, therefore, court flatterers,blundering
historians, somnolent archeologists, fiction writers,
senile poets, careless tourists officials and erring
guides who are responsible for hustling the world into
believing in Shahjahan's mythical authorship of the Taj.
58. Description of the gardens around the Taj of
Shahjahan's time mention Ketaki, Jai, Jui, Champa,
Maulashree, Harshringar and Bel. All these are plants
whose flowers or leaves are used in the worship of Hindu
deities. Bel leaves are exclusively used in Lord
Shiva's worship. A graveyard is planted only with shady
trees because the idea of using fruit and flower from
plants in a cemetary is abhorrent to human conscience.
The presence of Bel and other flower plants in the Taj
garden is proof of its having been a Shiva temple before
seizure by Shahjahan.
59. Hindu temples are often built on river banks and sea
beaches. The Taj is one such built on the bank of the
Yamuna river -- an ideal location for a Shiva temple.
60. Prophet Mohammad has ordained that the burial spot
of a muslim should be inconspicous and must not be
marked by even a single tombstone. In flagrant
violation of this, the Tajamhal has one grave in the
basement and another in the first floor chamber both
ascribed to Mumtaz. Those two centotaphs were infact
erected by Shahjahan to bury the two tier Shivalingas
that were consecrated in the Taj. It is customary for
Hindus to install two Shivalingas one over the other in
two stories as may be seen in the Mahankaleshwar temple
in Ujjain and the Somnath temple raised by Ahilyabai in
Somnath Pattan.
61. The Tajmahal has identical entrance arches on all
four sides. This is a typical Hindu building style
known as Chaturmukhi, i.e., four-faced.
THE HINDU DOME
62. The Tajmahal has a reverberating dome. Such a dome
is an absurdity for a tomb which must ensure peace and
silence. Contrarily reverberating domes are a neccesity
in Hindu temples because they create an ecstatic
dinmultiplying and magnifying the sound of bells, drums
and pipes accompanying the worship of Hindu deities.
63. The Tajmahal dome bears a lotus cap. Original
Islamic domes have a bald top as is exemplified by the
Pakistan Embassy in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, and the
domes in the Pakistan's newly built capital Islamabad.
64. The Tajmahal entrance faces south. Had the Taj been
an Islamic building it should have faced the west.
TOMB IS THE GRAVE, NOT THE BUILDING
65. A widespread misunderstanding has resulted in
mistaking the building for the grave. Invading Islam
raised graves in captured buildings in every country it
overran. Therefore, hereafter people must learn not to
confound the building with the grave mounds which are
grafts in conquered buildings. This is true of the
Tajmahal too. One may therefore admit (for arguments
sake) that Mumtaz lies buried inside the Taj. But that
should not be construed to mean that the Taj was raised
over Mumtaz's grave.
66. The Taj is a seven storied building. Prince
Aurangzeb also mentions this in his letter to Shahjahan.
The marble edifice comprises four stories including the
lone, tall circular hall inside the top, and the lone
chamber in the basement. In between are two floors each
containing 12 to 15 palatial rooms. Below the marble
plinth reaching down to the river at the rear are two
more stories in red stone. They may be seen from the
river bank. The seventh storey must be below the ground
(river) level since every ancient Hindu building had a
subterranian storey.
67. Immediately bellow the marble plinth on the river
flank are 22 rooms in red stone with their ventilators
all walled up by Shahjahan. Those rooms, made
uninhibitably by Shahjahan, are kept locked by
Archealogy Department of India. The lay visitor is kept
in the dark about them. Those 22 rooms still bear
ancient Hindu paint on their walls and ceilings. On
their side is a nearly 33 feet long corridor. There are
two door frames one at either end ofthe corridor. But
those doors are intriguingly sealed with brick and lime.
68. Apparently those doorways originally sealed by
Shahjahan have been since unsealed and again walled up
several times. In 1934 a resident of Delhi took a peep
inside from an opening in the upper part of the doorway.
To his dismay he saw huge hall inside. It contained
many statues huddled around a central beheaded image of
Lord Shiva. It could be that, in there, are Sanskrit
inscriptions too. All the seven stories of the Tajmahal
need to be unsealed and scoured to ascertain what
evidence they may be hiding in the form of Hindu images,
Sanskrit inscriptions, scriptures, coins and utensils.
69. Apart from Hindu images hidden in the sealed stories
it is also learnt that Hindu images are also stored in
the massive walls of the Taj. Between 1959 and 1962
when Mr. S. R. Rao was the Archealogical Superintendent
in Agra, he happened to notice a deep and wide crack in
the wall of the central octagonal chamber of the Taj.
When a part of the wall was dismantled to study the
crack out popped two or three marble images. The matter
was hushed up and the images were reburied where they
had been embedded at Shahjahan's behest. Confirmation
of this has been obtained from several sources. It was
only when I began my investigation into the antecedents
of the Taj I came across the above information which had
remained a forgotten secret. What better proof is
needed of the Temple origin of the Tajmahal? Its walls
and sealed chambers still hide in Hindu idols that were
consecrated in it before Shahjahan's seizure of the Taj.
PRE-SHAHJAHAN REFERENCES TO THE TAJ
70. Apparently the Taj as a central palace seems to have
an chequered history. The Taj was perhaps desecrated
and looted by every Muslim invader from Mohammad Ghazni
onwards but passing into Hindu hands off and on, the
sanctity of the Taj as a Shiva temple continued to be
revived after every muslim onslaught. Shahjahan was the
last muslim to desecrate the Tajmahal alias Tejomahalay.
71. Vincent Smith records in his book titled `Akbar the
Great Moghul' that `Babur's turbulent life came to an
end in his garden palace in Agra in 1630'. That palace
was none other than the Tajmahal.
72. Babur's daughter Gulbadan Begum in her chronicle
titled `Humayun Nama' refers to the Taj as the Mystic
House.
73. Babur himself refers to the Taj in his memoirs as
the palace captured by Ibrahim Lodi containing a central
octagonal chamber and having pillars on the four sides.
All these historical references allude to the Taj 100
years before Shahjahan.
74. The Tajmahal precincts extend to several hundred
yards in all directions. Across the river are ruins of
the annexes of the Taj, the bathing ghats and a jetty
for the ferry boat. In the Victoria gardens outside
covered with creepers is the long spur of the ancient
outer wall ending in a octagonal red stone tower. Such
extensive grounds all magnificently done up, are a
superfluity for a grave.
75. Had the Taj been specially built to bury Mumtaz, it
should not have been cluttered with other graves. But
the Taj premises contain several graves atleast in its
eastern and southern pavilions.
76. In the southern flank, on the other side of the
Tajganj gate are buried in identical pavilions queens
Sarhandi Begum, and Fatehpuri Begum and a maid Satunnisa
Khanum. Such parity burial can be justified only if the
queens had been demoted or the maid promoted. But since
Shahjahan had commandeered (not built) the Taj, he
reduced it general to a muslim cemetary as was the habit
of all his Islamic predeccssors, and buried a queen in a
vacant pavillion and a maid in another identical
pavilion.
77. Shahjahan was married to several other women before
and after Mumtaz. She, therefore, deserved no special
consideration in having a wonder mausoleum built for
her.
78. Mumtaz was a commoner by birth and so she did not
qualify for a fairyland burial.
79. Mumtaz died in Burhanpur which is about 600 miles
from Agra. Her grave there is intact. Therefore ,the
centotaphs raised in stories of the Taj in her name seem
to be fakes hiding in Hindu Shiva emblems.
80. Shahjahan seems to have simulated Mumtaz's burial in
Agra to find a pretext to surround the temple palace
with his fierce and fanatic troops and remove all the
costly fixtures in his treasury. This finds
confirmation in the vague noting in the Badshahnama
which says that the Mumtaz's (exhumed) body was brought
to Agra from Burhanpur and buried `next year'. An
official term would not use a nebulous term unless it is
to hide some thing.
81. A pertinent consideration is that a Shahjahan who
did not build any palaces for Mumtaz while she was
alive, would not build a fabulous mausoleum for a corpse
which was no longer kicking or clicking.
82. Another factor is that Mumtaz died within two or
three years of Shahjahan becoming an emperor. Could he
amass so much superflous wealth in that short span as to
squander it on a wonder mausoleum?
83. While Shahjahan's special attachment to Mumtaz is
nowhere recorded in history his amorous affairs with
many other ladies from maids to mannequins including his
own daughter Jahanara, find special attention in
accounts of Shahjahan's reign. Would Shahjahan shower
his hard earned wealth on Mumtaz's corpse?
84. Shahjahan was a stingy, usurious monarch. He came
to throne murdering all his rivals. He was not
therefore, the doting spendthrift that he is made out to
be.
85. A Shahjahan disconsolate on Mumtaz's death is
suddenly credited with a resolve to build the Taj. This
is a psychological incongruity. Grief is a disabling,
incapacitating emotion.
86. A infatuated Shahjahan is supposed to have raised
the Taj over the dead Mumtaz, but carnal, physical
sexual love is again a incapacitating emotion. A
womaniser is ipso facto incapable of any constructive
activity. When carnal love becomes uncontrollable the
person either murders somebody or commits suicide. He
cannot raise a Tajmahal. A building like the Taj
invariably originates in an ennobling emotion like
devotion to God, to one's mother and mother country or
power and glory.
87. Early in the year 1973, chance digging in the garden
in front of the Taj revealed another set of fountains
about six feet below the present fountains. This proved
two things. Firstly, the subterranean fountains were
there before Shahjahan laid the surface fountains. And
secondly that those fountains are aligned to the Taj
that edifice too is of pre-Shahjahan origin. Apparently
the garden and its fountains had sunk from annual
monsoon flooding and lack of maintenance for centuries
during the Islamic rule.
89. The stately rooms on the upper floor of the Tajmahal
have been striped of their marble mosaic by Shahjahan to
obtain matching marble for raising fake tomb stones
inside the Taj premises at several places. Contrasting
with the rich finished marble ground floor rooms the
striping of the marble mosaic covering the lower half of
the walls and flooring of the upper storey have given
those rooms a naked, robbed look. Since no visitors are
allowed entry to the upper storey this despoilation by
Shahjahan has remained a well guarded secret. There is
no reason why Shahjahan's loot of the upper floor marble
should continue to be hidden from the public even after
200 years of termination of Moghul rule.
90. Bernier, the French traveller has recorded that no
non-muslim was allowed entry into the secret nether
chambers of the Taj because there are some dazzling
fixtures there. Had those been installed by Shahjahan
they should have been shown the public as a matter of
pride. But since it was commandeered Hindu wealth which
Shahjahan wanted to remove to his treasury, he didn't
want the public to know about it.
91. The approach to Taj is dotted with hillocks raised
with earth dugout from foundation trenches. The
hillocks served as outer defences of the Taj building
complex. Raising such hillocks from foundation earth, is
a common Hindu device of hoary origin. Nearby Bharatpur
provides a graphic parallel.
Peter Mundy has recorded that Shahjahan employed
thousands of labourers to level some of those hillocks.
This is a graphic proof of the Tajmahal existing before
Shahjahan.
["92." appears to be missing in this transmission.]
93. At the backside of the river bank is a Hindu
crematorium, several palaces, Shiva temples and bathings
of ancient origin. Had Shahjahan built the Tajmahal, he
would have destroyed the Hindu features.
94. The story that Shahjahan wanted to build a Black
marble Taj across the river, is another motivated myth.
The ruins dotting the other side of the river are those
of Hindu structures demolished during muslim invasions
and not the plinth of another Tajmahal. Shahjahan who
did not even build the white Tajmahal would hardly ever
think of building a black marble Taj. He was so miserly
that he forced labourers to work gratis even in the
superficial tampering neccesary to make a Hindu temple
serve as a Muslim tomb.
95. The marble that Shahjahan used for grafting Koranic
lettering in the Taj is of a pale white shade while the
rest of the Taj is built of a marble with rich yellow
tint. This disparity is proof of the Koranic extracts
being a superimposition.
96. Though imaginative attempts have been made by some
historians to foist some fictitious name on history as
the designer of the Taj others more imaginative have
credited Shajahan himself with superb architechtural
proficiency and artistic talent which could easily
concieve and plan the Taj even in acute bereavment.
Such people betray gross ignorance of history in as much
as Shajahan was a cruel tyrant ,a great womaniser and a
drug and drink addict.
97. Fanciful accounts about Shahjahan commisioning the
Taj are all confused. Some asserted that Shahjahan
ordered building drawing from all over the world and
chose one from among them. Others assert that a man at
hand was ordered to design a mausoleum amd his design
was approved. Had any of those versions been true
Shahjahan's court papers should have had thousands of
drawings concerning the Taj. But there is not even a
single drawing. This is yet another clinching proof
that Shahjahan did not commision the Taj.
98. The Tajmahal is surrounded by huge mansions which
indicate that several battles have been waged around the
Taj several times.
99. At the south east corner of the Taj is an ancient
royal cattle house. Cows attached to the Tejomahalay
temple used to reared there. A cowshed is an
incongruity in an Islamic tomb.
100. Over the western flank of the Taj are several
stately red stone annexes. These are superflous for a
mausoleum.
101. The entire Taj complex comprises of 400 to 500
rooms. Residential accomodation on such a stupendous
scale is unthinkable in a mausoleum.
102. The neighbouring Tajganj township's massive
protective wall also encloses the Tajmahal temple palace
complex. This is a clear indication that the
Tejomahalay temple palace was part and parcel of the
township. A street of that township leads straight into
the Tajmahal. The Tajganj gate is aligned in a perfect
straight line to the octagonal red stone garden gate and
the stately entrance arch of the Tajmahal. The Tajganj
gate besides being central to the Taj temple complex, is
also put on a pedestal. The western gate by which the
visitors enter the Taj complex is a camparatively minor
gateway. It has become the entry gate for most visitors
today because the railway station and the bus station
are on that side.
103. The Tajmahal has pleasure pavillions which a tomb
would never have.
104. A tiny mirror glass in a gallery of the Red Fort in
Agra reflects the Taj mahal. Shahjahan is said to have
spent his last eight years of life as a prisoner in that
gallery peering at the reflected Tajmahal and sighing in
the name of Mumtaz. This myth is a blend of many
falsehoods. Firstly, old Shajahan was held prisoner by
his son Aurangzeb in the basement storey in the Fort and
not in an open,fashionable upper storey. Secondly, the
glass piece was fixed in the 1930's by Insha Allah Khan,
a peon of the archaelogy dept. just to illustrate to the
visitors how in ancient times the entire apartment used
to scintillate with tiny mirror pieces reflecting the
Tejomahalay temple a thousand fold. Thirdly, a old
decrepit Shahjahan with pain in his joints and cataract
in his eyes, would not spend his day craning his neck at
an awkward angle to peer into a tiny glass piece with
bedimmed eyesight when he could as well his face around
and have full,direct view of the Tjamahal itself. But
the general public is so gullible as to gulp all such
prattle of wily, unscrupulous guides.
105. That the Tajmahal dome has hundreds of iron rings
sticking out of its exterior is a feature rarely
noticed. These are made to hold Hindu earthen oil lamps
for temple illumination.
106. Those putting implicit faith in Shahjahan
authorship of the Taj have been imagining
Shahjahan-Mumtaz to be a soft-hearted romantic pair like
Romeo and Juliet. But contemporary accounts speak of
Shahjahan as a hard hearted ruler who was constantly
egged on to acts of tyranny and cruelty, by Mumtaz.
107. School and College history carry the myth that
Shahjahan reign was a golden period in which there was
peace and plenty and that Shahjahan commisioned many
buildings and patronized literature. This is pure
fabrication. Shahjahan did not commision even a single
building as we have illustrated by a detailed analysis
of the Tajmahal legend. Shahjahn had to enrage in 48
military campaigns during a reign of nearly 30 years
which proves that his was not a era of peace and plenty.
108. The interior of the dome rising over Mumtaz's
centotaph has a representation of Sun and cobras drawn
in gold. Hindu warriors trace their origin to the Sun.
For an Islamic mausoleum the Sun is redundant. Cobras
are always associated with Lord Shiva.
FORGED DOCUMENTS
109. The muslim caretakers of the tomb in the Tajmahal
used to possess a document which they styled as
"Tarikh-i-Tajmahal". Historian H. G. Keene has branded
it as `a document of doubtful authenticity'. Keene was
uncannily right since we have seen that Shahjahan not
being the creator of the Tajmahal any document which
credits Shahjahn with the Tajmahal, must be an outright
forgery. Even that forged document is reported to have
been smuggled out of Pakistan. Besides such forged
documents there are whole chronicles on the Taj which
are pure concoctions.
110. There is lot of sophistry and casuistry or atleast
confused thinking associated with the Taj even in the
minds of proffesional historians, archaelogists and
architects. At the outset they assert that the Taj is
entirely Muslim in design. But when it is pointed out
that its lotus capped dome and the four corner pillars
etc. are all entirely Hindu those worthies shift ground
and argue that that was probably because the workmen
were Hindu and were to introduce their own patterns.
Both these arguments are wrong because Muslim accounts
claim the designers to be Muslim,and the workers
invariably carry out the employer's dictates.
The Taj is only a typical illustration of how all
historic buildings and townships from Kashmir to Cape
Comorin though of Hindu origin have been ascribed to
this or that Muslim ruler or courtier.
It is hoped that people the world over who study Indian
history will awaken to this new finding and revise their
erstwhile beliefs.
Those interested in an indepth study of the above and
many other revolutionary rebuttals may read this
author's other research books.
A Hindu Temple
By P. N. Oak
Probably there is no one who has been duped at least
once in a lifetime. But can the whole world can be
duped? This may seem impossible. But in the matter of
indian and world history the world can be duped in many
respects for hundreds of years and still continues to be
duped. The world famous Tajmahal is a glaring instance.
For all the time, money and energy that people over the
world spend in visiting the Tajmahal, they are dished
out of concoction. Contrary to what visitors are made to
believe the Tajmahal is not a Islamic mausoleum but an
ancient Shiva Temple known as Tejo-Mahalaya which the
5th generation moghul emperor Shahjahan commandeered
from the then Maharaja of Jaipur. The Tajmahal, should
therefore, be viewed as a temple palace and not as a
tomb. That makes a vast difference. You miss the details
of its size, grandeur, majesty and beauty when you take
it to be a mere tomb. When told that you are visiting a
temple palace you wont fail to notice its annexes,
ruined defensive walls, hillocks, moats, cascades,
fountains, majestic garden, hundreds of rooms archaded
verendahs, terraces, multi-storied towers, secret sealed
chambers, guest rooms, stables, the trident (Trishul)
pinnacle on the dome and the sacred, esoteric Hindu
letter "OM" carved on the exterior of the wall of the
sanctum sanctorum now occupied by the centotaphs. For
detailed proof of this breath taking discovery,you may
read the well known historian Shri. P. N. Oak's
celebrated book titled " Tajmahal: The True Story".
But let us place before you, for the time being an
exhaustive summary of the massive evidence ranging over
hundred points:
NAME
1. The term Tajmahal itself never occurs in any mogul
court paper or chronicle even in Aurangzeb's time. The
attempt to explain it away as Taj-i-mahal is therefore,
ridiculous.
2. The ending "Mahal"is never muslim because in none of
the muslim countries around the world from Afghanistan
to Algeria is there a building known as "Mahal".
3. The unusual explanation of the term Tajmahal derives
from Mumtaz Mahal, who is buried in it, is illogical in
at least two respects viz., firstly her name was never
Mumtaj Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani and secondly one
cannot omit the first three letters "Mum" from a woman's
name to derive the remainder as the name of the
building.
4. Since the lady's name was Mumtaz (ending with 'Z')
the name of the building derived from her should have
been Taz-Mahal, if at all, and not Taj (spelled with a
'J').
5. Several European visitors of Shahjahan's time allude
to the building as Taj-e-Mahal is almost the correct
tradition, age old Sanskrit name Tej-o-Mahalaya,
signifying a Shiva temple. Contrarily Shahjahan and
Aurangzeb scrupulously avoid using the Sanskrit term and
call it just a holy grave.
6. The tomb should be understood to signify NOT A
BUILDING but only the grave or centotaph inside it. This
would help people to realize that all dead muslim
courtiers and royalty including Humayun, Akbar, Mumtaz,
Etmad-ud-Daula and Safdarjang have been buried in
capture Hindu mansions and temples.
7. Moreover, if the Taj is believed to be a burial
place, how can the term Mahal, i.e., mansion apply to
it?
8. Since the term Taj Mahal does not occur in mogul
courts it is absurd to search for any mogul explanation
for it. Both its components namely, 'Taj' and' Mahal'
are of Sanskrit origin.
TEMPLE TRADITION
9. The term Taj Mahal is a corrupt form of the sanskrit
term Tejo-Mahalay signifying a Shiva Temple. Agreshwar
Mahadev i.e., The Lord of Agra was consecrated in it.
10. The tradition of removing the shoes before climbing
the marble platform originates from pre-Shahjahan times
when the Taj was a Shiva Temple. Had the Taj originated
as a tomb, shoes need not have to be removed because
shoes are a necessity in a cemetery.
11.Visitors may notice that the base slab of the
centotaph is the marble basement in plain white while
its superstructure and the other three centotaphs on the
two floors are covered with inlaid creeper designs. This
indicates that the marble pedestal of the Shiva idol is
still in place and Mumtaz's centotaphs are fake.
12. The pitchers carved inside the upper border of the
marble lattice plus those mounted on it number 08 -- a
number sacred in Hindu Temple tradition.
13. There are persons who are connected with the repair
and the maintenance of the Taj who have seen the
ancient sacred Shiva Linga and other idols sealed in the
thick walls and in chambers in the secret, sealed
red-stone stories below the marble basement. The
Archaeological Survey of India is keeping discretely,
politely and diplomatically silent about it to the point
of dereliction of its own duty to probe into hidden
historical evidence.
14. In India there are 12 Jyotirlingas i.e., the
outstanding Shiva Temples. The Tejomahalaya alias The
Tajmahal appears to be one of them known as
Nagnatheshwar since its parapet is girdled with Naga,
i.e., Cobra figures. Ever since Shahjahan's capture of
it the sacred temple has lost its Hindudom.
15. The famous Hindu treatise on architecture titled
Vishwakarma Vastushastra mentions the 'Tej-Linga'
amongst the Shivalingas i.e., the stone emblems of Lord
Shiva, the Hindu deity. Such a Tej Linga was
consecrated in the Taj Mahal, hence the term Taj Mahal
alias Tejo Mahalaya.
16. Agra city, in which the Taj Mahal is located, is an
ancient centre of Shiva worship. Its orthodox residents
have through ages continued the tradition of worshipping
at five Shiva shrines before taking the last meal every
night especially during the month of Shravan. During
the last few centuries the residents of Agra had to be
content with worshipping at only four prominent Shiva
temples viz., Balkeshwar, Prithvinath, Manakameshwar and
Rajarajeshwar. They had lost track of the fifth Shiva
deity which their forefathers worshipped. Apparently
the fifth was Agreshwar Mahadev Nagnatheshwar i.e., The
Lord Great God of Agra, The Deity of the King of Cobras,
consecrated in the Tejomahalay alias Tajmahal.
17. The people who dominate the Agra region are Jats.
Their name of Shiva is Tejaji. The Jat special issue of
The Illustrated Weekly of India (June 28, 1971) mentions
that the Jats have the Teja Mandirs i.e., Teja Temples.
This is because Teja-Linga is among the several names of
the Shiva Lingas. From this it is apparent that the
Taj-Mahal is Tejo-Mahalaya, The Great Abode of Tej.
DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
18. Shahjahan's own court chronicle, the Badshahnama,
admits (page 403, vol 1) that a grand mansion of unique
splendor, capped with a dome (Imaarat-a-Alishan wa
Gumbaze) was taken from the Jaipur Maharaja Jaisigh for
Mumtaz's burial, and the building was known as Raja
Mansingh's palace.
19. The plaque put the archealogy department outside the
Tajmahal describes the edifice as a mausoleum built by
Shahjahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, over 22 years from
1631 to 1653. That plaque is a specimen of historical
bungling. Firstly, the plaque sites no authority for
its claim. Secondly the lady's name was Mumtaz-ul-
Zamani and not Mumtazmahal. Thirdly, the period of 22
years is taken from some mumbo-jumbo noting by an
unreliable French visitor Tavernier, to the exclusion of
all muslim versions, which is an absurdity.
20. Prince Aurangzeb's letter to his father, emperor
Shahjahan,is recorded in atleast three chronicles titled
`Aadaab-e-Alamgiri', `Yadgarnama', and the
`Muruqqa-i-Akbarabadi' (edited by Said Ahmed, Agra,
1931, page 43, footnote 2). In that letter Aurangzeb
records in 1652 A.D. itself that the several buildings
in the fancied burial place of Mumtaz were seven
storeyed and were so old that they were all leaking,
while the dome had developed a crack on the northern
side. Aurangzeb, therefore, ordered immediate repairs
to the buildings at his own expense while recommending
to the emperor that more elaborate repairs be carried
out later. This is the proof that during Shahjahan's
reign itself that the Taj complex was so old as to need
immediate repairs.
21. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur retains in his secret
personal `Kapad-Dwara' collection two orders from
Shahjahan dated Dec 18, 1633 (bearing modern nos. R. 176
and 177) requestioning the Taj building complex. That
was so blatant a usurpation that the then ruler of
Jaipur was ashamed to make the document public.
22. The Rajasthan State archives at Bikaner preserve
three other firmans addressed by Shahjahan to the
Jaipur's ruler Jaising ordering the latter to supply
marble (for Mumtaz's grave and koranic grafts) from his
Makranna quarris, and stone cutters. Jaisingh was
apparently so enraged at the blatant seizure of the
Tajmahal that he refused to oblige Shahjahan by
providing marble for grafting koranic engravings and
fake centotaphs for further desecration of the Tajmahal.
Jaising looked at Shahjahan's demand for marble and
stone cutters, as an insult added to injury. Therefore,
he refused to send any marble and instead detained the
stone cutters in his protective custody.
23. The three firmans demanding marble were sent to
Jaisingh within about two years of Mumtaz's death. Had
Shahjahan really built the Tajmahal over a period of 22
years, the marble would have needed only after 15 or 20
years not immediately after Mumtaz's death.
24. Moreover, the three mention neither the Tajmahal,
nor Mumtaz, nor the burial. The cost and the quantity
of the stone also are not mentioned. This proves that
an insignificant quantity of marble was needed just for
some supercial tinkering and tampering with the
Tajmahal. Even otherwise Shahjahan could never hope to
build a fabulous Tajmahal by abject dependence for
marble on a non-cooperative Jaisingh.
EUROPEAN VISITOR'S ACCOUNTS
25. Tavernier, a French jeweller has recorded in his
travel memoirs that Shahjahan purposely buried Mumtaz
near the Taz-i-Makan (i.e.,`The Taj building') where
foriegners used to come as they do even today so that
the world may admire. He also adds that the cost of the
scaffold- ing was more than that of the entire work.
The work that Shahjahan commissioned in the Tejomahalaya
Shiva temple was plundering at the costly fixtures
inside it, uprooting the Shiva idols, planting the
centotaphs in their place on two stories, inscribing the
koran along the arches and walling up six of the seven
stories of the Taj. It was this plunder, desecrating
and plunderring of the rooms which took 22 years.
26. Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra recorded in
1632 (within only a year of Mumtaz's death) that `the
places of note in and around Agra, included
Taj-e-Mahal's tomb, gardens and bazaars'. He,
therefore, confirms that that the Tajmahal had been a
noteworthy building even before Shahjahan.
27. De Laet, a Dutch official has listed Mansingh's
palace about a mile from Agra fort, as an outstanding
building of pre-Shahjahan's time. Shahjahan's court
chronicle, the Badshahnama records, Mumtaz's burial in
the same Mansingh's palace.
28. Bernier, a contemporary French visitor has noted
that non-muslim's were barred entry into the basement
(at the time when Shahjahan requisitioned Mansingh's
palace) which contained a dazzling light. Obviously, he
reffered to the silver doors, gold railing, the gem
studded lattice and strings of pearl hanging over
Shiva's idol. Shahjahan comandeered the building to
grab all the wealth, making Mumtaz's death a convineant
pretext.
29. Johan Albert Mandelslo, who describes life in agra
in 1638 (only 7 years after mumtaz's death) in detail
(in his `Voyages and Travels to West-Indies', published
by John Starkey and John Basset, London), makes no
mention of the Tajmahal being under constuction though
it is commonly erringly asserted or assumed that the Taj
was being built from 1631 to 1653.
SANSKRIT INSCRIPTION
30. A Sanskrit inscription too supports the conclusion
that the Taj originated as a Shiva temple. Wrongly
termed as the Bateshwar inscription (currently preserved
on the top floor of the Lucknow museum), it refers to
the raising of a "crystal white Shiva temple so alluring
that Lord Shiva once enshrined in it decided never to
return to Mount Kailash -- his usual abode". That
inscription dated 1155 A.D. was removed from the
Tajmahal garden at Shahjahan's orders. Historicians and
Archeaologists have blundered in terming the insription
the `Bateshwar inscription' when the record doesn't say
that it was found by Bateshwar. It ought, in fact, to
be called `The Tejomahalaya inscription' because it was
originally installed in the Taj garden before it was
uprooted and cast away at Shahjahan's command.
A clue to the tampering by Shahjahan is found on pages
216-217, vol. 4, of Archealogiical Survey of India
Reports (published 1874) stating that a "great square
black balistic pillar which, with the base and capital
of another pillar. . . now in the grounds of Agra, . . .
it is well known, once stood in the garden of Tajmahal".
MISSING ELEPHANTS
31. Far from the building of the Taj, Shahjahan
disfigured it with black koranic lettering and heavily
robbed it of its Sanskrit inscription, several idols and
two huge stone elephants extending their trunks in a
welcome arch over the gateway where visitors these days
buy entry tickets. An Englishman, Thomas Twinning,
records (pg. 191 of his book "Travels in India - A
Hundred Years ago") that in November 1794 "I arrived at
the high walls which enclose the Taj-e-Mahal and its
circumjacent buildings. I here got out of the
palanquine and . . . mounted a short flight of steps
leading to a beautiful portal which formed the centre of
this side of the `COURT OF ELEPHANTS" as the great area
was called."
KORANIC PATCHES
32. The Taj Mahal is scrawled over with 14 chapters of
the Koran but nowhere is there even the slightest or the
remotest allusion in that Islamic overwriting to
Shahjahan's authorship of the Taj. Had Shahjahan been
the builder he would have said so in so many words
before beginning to quote Koran.
33. That Shahjahan, far from building the marble Taj,
only disfigured it with black lettering is mentioned by
the inscriber Amanat Khan Shirazi himself in an
inscription on the building. A close scrutiny of the
Koranic lettering reveals that they are grafts patched
up with bits of variegated stone on an ancient Shiva
temple.
CARBON 14 TEST
34. A wooden piece from the riverside doorway of the Taj
subjected to the carbon 14 test by an American
Laboratory, has revealed that the door to be 300 years
older than Shahjahan,since the doors of the Taj, broken
open by Muslim invaders repeatedly from the 11th century
onwards, had to b replaced from time to time. The Taj
edifice is much more older. It belongs to 1155 A.D,
i.e., almost 500 years anterior to Shahjahan.
ARCHITECHTURAL EVIDENCE
35. Well known Western authorities on architechture like
E. B. Havell, Mrs. Kenoyer and Sir W. W. Hunterhave gone
on record to say that the TajMahal is built in the Hindu
temple style. Havell points out the ground plan of the
ancient Hindu Chandi Seva Temple in Java is identical
with that of the Taj.
36. A central dome with cupolas at its four corners is a
universal feature of Hindu temples.
37. The four marble pillars at the plinth corners are of
the Hindu style. They are used as lamp towers during
night and watch towers during the day. Such towers
serve to demarcate the holy precincts. Hindu wedding
altars and the altar set up for God Satyanarayan worship
have pillars raised at the four corners.
38. The octagonal shape of the Tajmahal has a special
Hindu significance because Hindus alone have special
names for the eight directions, and celestial guards
assigned to them. The pinnacle points to the heaven
while the foundation signifies to the nether world.
Hindu forts, cities, palaces and temples genrally have
an octagonal layout or some octagonal features so that
together with the pinnacle and the foundation they cover
all the ten directions in which the king or God holds
sway, according to Hindu belief.
39. The Tajmahal has a trident pinncle over the dome. A
full scale of the trident pinnacle is inlaid in the red
stone courtyard to the east of the Taj. The central
shaft of the trident depicts a "Kalash" (sacred pot)
holding two bent mango leaves and a coconut. This is a
sacred Hindu motif. Identical pinnacles have been seen
over Hindu and Buddhist temples in the Himalayan region.
Tridents are also depicted against a red lotus
background at the apex of the stately marble arched
entrances on all four sides of the Taj. People fondly
but mistakenly believed all these centuries that the Taj
pinnacle depicts a Islamic cresent and star was a
lighting conductor installed by the British rulers in
India. Contrarily, the pinnacle is a marvel of Hindu
metallurgy since the pinnacle made of non-rusting alloy,
is also perhaps a lightning deflector. That the
pinnacle of the replica is drawn in the eastern
courtyard is significant because the east is of special
importance to the Hindus, as the direction in which the
sun rises. The pinnacle on the dome has the word `Allah'
on it after capture. The pinnacle figure on the ground
does not have the word Allah.
INCONSISTENCIES
40. The two buildings which face the marble Taj from the
east and west are identical in design, size and shape
and yet the eastern building is explained away by
Islamic tradition, as a community hall while the western
building is claimed to be a mosque. How could buildings
meant for radically different purposes be identical?
This proves that the western building was put to use as
a mosque after seizure of the Taj property by Shahjahan.
Curiously enough the building being explained away as a
mosque has no minaret. They form a pair af reception
pavilions of the Tejomahalaya temple palace.
41. A few yards away from the same flank is the Nakkar
Khana alias DrumHouse which is a intolerable incongruity
for Islam. The proximity of the Drum House indicates
that the western annex was not originally a mosque.
Contrarily a drum house is a neccesity in a Hindu temple
or palace because Hindu chores,in the morning and
evening, begin to the sweet strains of music.
42. The embossed patterns on the marble exterior of the
centotaph chamber wall are foilage of the conch shell
design and the Hindu letter "OM". The octagonally laid
marble lattices inside the centotaph chamber depict pink
lotuses on their top railing. The Lotus, the conch and
the OM are the sacred motifs associated with the Hindu
deities and temples.
43. The spot occupied by Mumtaz's centotaph was formerly
occupied by the Hindu Teja Linga -- a lithic
representation of Lord Shiva. Around it are five
perambulatory passages. Perambulation could be done
around the marble lattice or through the spacious marble
chambers surrounding the centotaph chamber, and in the
open over the marble platform. It is also customary for
the Hindus to have apertures along the perambulatory
passage, overlooking the deity. Such apertures exist in
the perambulatories in the Tajmahal.
44. The sanctom sanctorum in the Taj has silver doors
and gold railings as Hindu temples have. It also had
nets of pearl and gems stuffed in the marble lattices.
It was the lure of this wealth which made Shahjahan
commandeer the Taj from a helpless vassal Jaisingh, the
then ruler of Jaipur.
45. Peter Mundy, a Englishman records (in 1632, within a
year of Mumtaz's death) having seen a gem studded gold
railing around her tomb. Had the Taj been under
construction for 22 years, a costly gold railing would
not have been noticed by Peter mundy within a year of
Mumtaz's death. Such costly fixtures are installed in a
building only after it is ready for use. This indicates
that Mumtaz's centotaph was grafted in place of the
Shivalinga in the centre of the gold railings.
Subsequently the gold railings, silver doors, nets of
pearls, gem fillings etc. were all carried away to
Shahjahan's treasury. The seizure of the Taj thus
constituted an act of highhanded Moghul robery causing a
big row between Shahjahan and Jaisingh.
46. In the marble flooring around Mumtaz's centotaph may
be seen tiny mosaic patches. Those patches indicate the
spots where the support for the gold railings were
embedded in the floor. They indicate a rectangular
fencing.
47. Above Mumtaz's centotaph hangs a chain by which now
hangs a lamp. Before capture by Shahjahan the chain
used to hold a water pitcher from which water used to
drip on the Shivalinga.
48. It is this earlier Hindu tradition in the Tajmahal
which gave the Islamic myth of Shahjahan's love tear
dropping on Mumtaz's tomb on the full moon day of the
winter eve.
TREASURY WELL
49. Between the so-called mosque and the drum house is a
multistoried octagonal well with a flight of stairs
reaching down to the water level. This is a traditional
treasury well in Hindu temple palaces. Treasure chests
used to be kept in the lower apartments while treasury
personnel had their offices in the upper chambers. The
circular stairs made it difficult for intruders to reach
down to the treasury or to escape with it undetected or
unpursued. In case the premises had to be surrendered
to a besieging enemy the treasure could be pushed into
the well to remain hidden from the conquerer and remain
safe for salvaging if the place was reconquered. Such
an elaborate multistoried well is superflous for a mere
mausoleum. Such a grand, gigantic well is unnecessary
for a tomb.
BURIAL DATE UNKNOWN
50. Had Shahjahan really built the Taj Mahal as a wonder
mausoleum, history would have recorded a specific date
on which she was ceremoniously buried in the Taj Mahal.
No such date is ever mentioned. This important missing
detail decisively exposes the falsity of the Tajmahal
legend.
51. Even the year of Mumtaz's death is unknown. It is
variously speculated to be 1629, 1630, 1631 or 1632. Had
she deserved a fabulous burial, as is claimed, the date
of her death had not been a matter of much speculation.
In an harem teeming with 5000 women it was difficult to
keep track of dates of death. Apparently the date of
Mumtaz's death was so insignificant an event, as not to
merit any special notice. Who would then build a Taj
for her burial?
BASELESS LOVE STORIES
52. Stories of Shahjahan's exclusive infatuation for
Mumtaz's are concoctions. They have no basis in history
nor has any book ever written on their fancied love
affairs. Those stories have been invented as an
afterthought to make Shahjahan's authorship of the Taj
look plausible.
COST
53. The cost of the Taj is nowhere recorded in
Shahjahan's court papers because Shahjahan never built
the Tajmahal. That is why wild estimates of the cost by
gullible writers have ranged from 4 million to 91.7
million rupees.
PERIOD OF CONSTRUCTION
54. Likewise the period of construction has been guessed
to be anywhere between 10 years and 22 years. There
would have not been any scope for guesswork had the
building construction been on record in the court
papers.
ARCHITECTS
55. The designer of the Tajmahal is also variously
mentioned as Essa Effendy, a Persian or Turk, or Ahmed
Mehendis or a Frenchman, Austin deBordeaux, or Geronimo
Veroneo, an Italian, or Shahjahan himself.
RECORDS DON'T EXIST
56. Twenty thousand labourers are supposed to have
worked for 22 years during Shahjahan's reign in building
the Tajmahal. Had this been true, there should have
been available in Shahjahan's court papers design
drawings, heaps of labour muster rolls, daily
expenditure sheets, bills and receipts of material
ordered, and commisioning orders. There is not even a
scrap of paper of this kind.
57. It is, therefore, court flatterers,blundering
historians, somnolent archeologists, fiction writers,
senile poets, careless tourists officials and erring
guides who are responsible for hustling the world into
believing in Shahjahan's mythical authorship of the Taj.
58. Description of the gardens around the Taj of
Shahjahan's time mention Ketaki, Jai, Jui, Champa,
Maulashree, Harshringar and Bel. All these are plants
whose flowers or leaves are used in the worship of Hindu
deities. Bel leaves are exclusively used in Lord
Shiva's worship. A graveyard is planted only with shady
trees because the idea of using fruit and flower from
plants in a cemetary is abhorrent to human conscience.
The presence of Bel and other flower plants in the Taj
garden is proof of its having been a Shiva temple before
seizure by Shahjahan.
59. Hindu temples are often built on river banks and sea
beaches. The Taj is one such built on the bank of the
Yamuna river -- an ideal location for a Shiva temple.
60. Prophet Mohammad has ordained that the burial spot
of a muslim should be inconspicous and must not be
marked by even a single tombstone. In flagrant
violation of this, the Tajamhal has one grave in the
basement and another in the first floor chamber both
ascribed to Mumtaz. Those two centotaphs were infact
erected by Shahjahan to bury the two tier Shivalingas
that were consecrated in the Taj. It is customary for
Hindus to install two Shivalingas one over the other in
two stories as may be seen in the Mahankaleshwar temple
in Ujjain and the Somnath temple raised by Ahilyabai in
Somnath Pattan.
61. The Tajmahal has identical entrance arches on all
four sides. This is a typical Hindu building style
known as Chaturmukhi, i.e., four-faced.
THE HINDU DOME
62. The Tajmahal has a reverberating dome. Such a dome
is an absurdity for a tomb which must ensure peace and
silence. Contrarily reverberating domes are a neccesity
in Hindu temples because they create an ecstatic
dinmultiplying and magnifying the sound of bells, drums
and pipes accompanying the worship of Hindu deities.
63. The Tajmahal dome bears a lotus cap. Original
Islamic domes have a bald top as is exemplified by the
Pakistan Embassy in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, and the
domes in the Pakistan's newly built capital Islamabad.
64. The Tajmahal entrance faces south. Had the Taj been
an Islamic building it should have faced the west.
TOMB IS THE GRAVE, NOT THE BUILDING
65. A widespread misunderstanding has resulted in
mistaking the building for the grave. Invading Islam
raised graves in captured buildings in every country it
overran. Therefore, hereafter people must learn not to
confound the building with the grave mounds which are
grafts in conquered buildings. This is true of the
Tajmahal too. One may therefore admit (for arguments
sake) that Mumtaz lies buried inside the Taj. But that
should not be construed to mean that the Taj was raised
over Mumtaz's grave.
66. The Taj is a seven storied building. Prince
Aurangzeb also mentions this in his letter to Shahjahan.
The marble edifice comprises four stories including the
lone, tall circular hall inside the top, and the lone
chamber in the basement. In between are two floors each
containing 12 to 15 palatial rooms. Below the marble
plinth reaching down to the river at the rear are two
more stories in red stone. They may be seen from the
river bank. The seventh storey must be below the ground
(river) level since every ancient Hindu building had a
subterranian storey.
67. Immediately bellow the marble plinth on the river
flank are 22 rooms in red stone with their ventilators
all walled up by Shahjahan. Those rooms, made
uninhibitably by Shahjahan, are kept locked by
Archealogy Department of India. The lay visitor is kept
in the dark about them. Those 22 rooms still bear
ancient Hindu paint on their walls and ceilings. On
their side is a nearly 33 feet long corridor. There are
two door frames one at either end ofthe corridor. But
those doors are intriguingly sealed with brick and lime.
68. Apparently those doorways originally sealed by
Shahjahan have been since unsealed and again walled up
several times. In 1934 a resident of Delhi took a peep
inside from an opening in the upper part of the doorway.
To his dismay he saw huge hall inside. It contained
many statues huddled around a central beheaded image of
Lord Shiva. It could be that, in there, are Sanskrit
inscriptions too. All the seven stories of the Tajmahal
need to be unsealed and scoured to ascertain what
evidence they may be hiding in the form of Hindu images,
Sanskrit inscriptions, scriptures, coins and utensils.
69. Apart from Hindu images hidden in the sealed stories
it is also learnt that Hindu images are also stored in
the massive walls of the Taj. Between 1959 and 1962
when Mr. S. R. Rao was the Archealogical Superintendent
in Agra, he happened to notice a deep and wide crack in
the wall of the central octagonal chamber of the Taj.
When a part of the wall was dismantled to study the
crack out popped two or three marble images. The matter
was hushed up and the images were reburied where they
had been embedded at Shahjahan's behest. Confirmation
of this has been obtained from several sources. It was
only when I began my investigation into the antecedents
of the Taj I came across the above information which had
remained a forgotten secret. What better proof is
needed of the Temple origin of the Tajmahal? Its walls
and sealed chambers still hide in Hindu idols that were
consecrated in it before Shahjahan's seizure of the Taj.
PRE-SHAHJAHAN REFERENCES TO THE TAJ
70. Apparently the Taj as a central palace seems to have
an chequered history. The Taj was perhaps desecrated
and looted by every Muslim invader from Mohammad Ghazni
onwards but passing into Hindu hands off and on, the
sanctity of the Taj as a Shiva temple continued to be
revived after every muslim onslaught. Shahjahan was the
last muslim to desecrate the Tajmahal alias Tejomahalay.
71. Vincent Smith records in his book titled `Akbar the
Great Moghul' that `Babur's turbulent life came to an
end in his garden palace in Agra in 1630'. That palace
was none other than the Tajmahal.
72. Babur's daughter Gulbadan Begum in her chronicle
titled `Humayun Nama' refers to the Taj as the Mystic
House.
73. Babur himself refers to the Taj in his memoirs as
the palace captured by Ibrahim Lodi containing a central
octagonal chamber and having pillars on the four sides.
All these historical references allude to the Taj 100
years before Shahjahan.
74. The Tajmahal precincts extend to several hundred
yards in all directions. Across the river are ruins of
the annexes of the Taj, the bathing ghats and a jetty
for the ferry boat. In the Victoria gardens outside
covered with creepers is the long spur of the ancient
outer wall ending in a octagonal red stone tower. Such
extensive grounds all magnificently done up, are a
superfluity for a grave.
75. Had the Taj been specially built to bury Mumtaz, it
should not have been cluttered with other graves. But
the Taj premises contain several graves atleast in its
eastern and southern pavilions.
76. In the southern flank, on the other side of the
Tajganj gate are buried in identical pavilions queens
Sarhandi Begum, and Fatehpuri Begum and a maid Satunnisa
Khanum. Such parity burial can be justified only if the
queens had been demoted or the maid promoted. But since
Shahjahan had commandeered (not built) the Taj, he
reduced it general to a muslim cemetary as was the habit
of all his Islamic predeccssors, and buried a queen in a
vacant pavillion and a maid in another identical
pavilion.
77. Shahjahan was married to several other women before
and after Mumtaz. She, therefore, deserved no special
consideration in having a wonder mausoleum built for
her.
78. Mumtaz was a commoner by birth and so she did not
qualify for a fairyland burial.
79. Mumtaz died in Burhanpur which is about 600 miles
from Agra. Her grave there is intact. Therefore ,the
centotaphs raised in stories of the Taj in her name seem
to be fakes hiding in Hindu Shiva emblems.
80. Shahjahan seems to have simulated Mumtaz's burial in
Agra to find a pretext to surround the temple palace
with his fierce and fanatic troops and remove all the
costly fixtures in his treasury. This finds
confirmation in the vague noting in the Badshahnama
which says that the Mumtaz's (exhumed) body was brought
to Agra from Burhanpur and buried `next year'. An
official term would not use a nebulous term unless it is
to hide some thing.
81. A pertinent consideration is that a Shahjahan who
did not build any palaces for Mumtaz while she was
alive, would not build a fabulous mausoleum for a corpse
which was no longer kicking or clicking.
82. Another factor is that Mumtaz died within two or
three years of Shahjahan becoming an emperor. Could he
amass so much superflous wealth in that short span as to
squander it on a wonder mausoleum?
83. While Shahjahan's special attachment to Mumtaz is
nowhere recorded in history his amorous affairs with
many other ladies from maids to mannequins including his
own daughter Jahanara, find special attention in
accounts of Shahjahan's reign. Would Shahjahan shower
his hard earned wealth on Mumtaz's corpse?
84. Shahjahan was a stingy, usurious monarch. He came
to throne murdering all his rivals. He was not
therefore, the doting spendthrift that he is made out to
be.
85. A Shahjahan disconsolate on Mumtaz's death is
suddenly credited with a resolve to build the Taj. This
is a psychological incongruity. Grief is a disabling,
incapacitating emotion.
86. A infatuated Shahjahan is supposed to have raised
the Taj over the dead Mumtaz, but carnal, physical
sexual love is again a incapacitating emotion. A
womaniser is ipso facto incapable of any constructive
activity. When carnal love becomes uncontrollable the
person either murders somebody or commits suicide. He
cannot raise a Tajmahal. A building like the Taj
invariably originates in an ennobling emotion like
devotion to God, to one's mother and mother country or
power and glory.
87. Early in the year 1973, chance digging in the garden
in front of the Taj revealed another set of fountains
about six feet below the present fountains. This proved
two things. Firstly, the subterranean fountains were
there before Shahjahan laid the surface fountains. And
secondly that those fountains are aligned to the Taj
that edifice too is of pre-Shahjahan origin. Apparently
the garden and its fountains had sunk from annual
monsoon flooding and lack of maintenance for centuries
during the Islamic rule.
89. The stately rooms on the upper floor of the Tajmahal
have been striped of their marble mosaic by Shahjahan to
obtain matching marble for raising fake tomb stones
inside the Taj premises at several places. Contrasting
with the rich finished marble ground floor rooms the
striping of the marble mosaic covering the lower half of
the walls and flooring of the upper storey have given
those rooms a naked, robbed look. Since no visitors are
allowed entry to the upper storey this despoilation by
Shahjahan has remained a well guarded secret. There is
no reason why Shahjahan's loot of the upper floor marble
should continue to be hidden from the public even after
200 years of termination of Moghul rule.
90. Bernier, the French traveller has recorded that no
non-muslim was allowed entry into the secret nether
chambers of the Taj because there are some dazzling
fixtures there. Had those been installed by Shahjahan
they should have been shown the public as a matter of
pride. But since it was commandeered Hindu wealth which
Shahjahan wanted to remove to his treasury, he didn't
want the public to know about it.
91. The approach to Taj is dotted with hillocks raised
with earth dugout from foundation trenches. The
hillocks served as outer defences of the Taj building
complex. Raising such hillocks from foundation earth, is
a common Hindu device of hoary origin. Nearby Bharatpur
provides a graphic parallel.
Peter Mundy has recorded that Shahjahan employed
thousands of labourers to level some of those hillocks.
This is a graphic proof of the Tajmahal existing before
Shahjahan.
["92." appears to be missing in this transmission.]
93. At the backside of the river bank is a Hindu
crematorium, several palaces, Shiva temples and bathings
of ancient origin. Had Shahjahan built the Tajmahal, he
would have destroyed the Hindu features.
94. The story that Shahjahan wanted to build a Black
marble Taj across the river, is another motivated myth.
The ruins dotting the other side of the river are those
of Hindu structures demolished during muslim invasions
and not the plinth of another Tajmahal. Shahjahan who
did not even build the white Tajmahal would hardly ever
think of building a black marble Taj. He was so miserly
that he forced labourers to work gratis even in the
superficial tampering neccesary to make a Hindu temple
serve as a Muslim tomb.
95. The marble that Shahjahan used for grafting Koranic
lettering in the Taj is of a pale white shade while the
rest of the Taj is built of a marble with rich yellow
tint. This disparity is proof of the Koranic extracts
being a superimposition.
96. Though imaginative attempts have been made by some
historians to foist some fictitious name on history as
the designer of the Taj others more imaginative have
credited Shajahan himself with superb architechtural
proficiency and artistic talent which could easily
concieve and plan the Taj even in acute bereavment.
Such people betray gross ignorance of history in as much
as Shajahan was a cruel tyrant ,a great womaniser and a
drug and drink addict.
97. Fanciful accounts about Shahjahan commisioning the
Taj are all confused. Some asserted that Shahjahan
ordered building drawing from all over the world and
chose one from among them. Others assert that a man at
hand was ordered to design a mausoleum amd his design
was approved. Had any of those versions been true
Shahjahan's court papers should have had thousands of
drawings concerning the Taj. But there is not even a
single drawing. This is yet another clinching proof
that Shahjahan did not commision the Taj.
98. The Tajmahal is surrounded by huge mansions which
indicate that several battles have been waged around the
Taj several times.
99. At the south east corner of the Taj is an ancient
royal cattle house. Cows attached to the Tejomahalay
temple used to reared there. A cowshed is an
incongruity in an Islamic tomb.
100. Over the western flank of the Taj are several
stately red stone annexes. These are superflous for a
mausoleum.
101. The entire Taj complex comprises of 400 to 500
rooms. Residential accomodation on such a stupendous
scale is unthinkable in a mausoleum.
102. The neighbouring Tajganj township's massive
protective wall also encloses the Tajmahal temple palace
complex. This is a clear indication that the
Tejomahalay temple palace was part and parcel of the
township. A street of that township leads straight into
the Tajmahal. The Tajganj gate is aligned in a perfect
straight line to the octagonal red stone garden gate and
the stately entrance arch of the Tajmahal. The Tajganj
gate besides being central to the Taj temple complex, is
also put on a pedestal. The western gate by which the
visitors enter the Taj complex is a camparatively minor
gateway. It has become the entry gate for most visitors
today because the railway station and the bus station
are on that side.
103. The Tajmahal has pleasure pavillions which a tomb
would never have.
104. A tiny mirror glass in a gallery of the Red Fort in
Agra reflects the Taj mahal. Shahjahan is said to have
spent his last eight years of life as a prisoner in that
gallery peering at the reflected Tajmahal and sighing in
the name of Mumtaz. This myth is a blend of many
falsehoods. Firstly, old Shajahan was held prisoner by
his son Aurangzeb in the basement storey in the Fort and
not in an open,fashionable upper storey. Secondly, the
glass piece was fixed in the 1930's by Insha Allah Khan,
a peon of the archaelogy dept. just to illustrate to the
visitors how in ancient times the entire apartment used
to scintillate with tiny mirror pieces reflecting the
Tejomahalay temple a thousand fold. Thirdly, a old
decrepit Shahjahan with pain in his joints and cataract
in his eyes, would not spend his day craning his neck at
an awkward angle to peer into a tiny glass piece with
bedimmed eyesight when he could as well his face around
and have full,direct view of the Tjamahal itself. But
the general public is so gullible as to gulp all such
prattle of wily, unscrupulous guides.
105. That the Tajmahal dome has hundreds of iron rings
sticking out of its exterior is a feature rarely
noticed. These are made to hold Hindu earthen oil lamps
for temple illumination.
106. Those putting implicit faith in Shahjahan
authorship of the Taj have been imagining
Shahjahan-Mumtaz to be a soft-hearted romantic pair like
Romeo and Juliet. But contemporary accounts speak of
Shahjahan as a hard hearted ruler who was constantly
egged on to acts of tyranny and cruelty, by Mumtaz.
107. School and College history carry the myth that
Shahjahan reign was a golden period in which there was
peace and plenty and that Shahjahan commisioned many
buildings and patronized literature. This is pure
fabrication. Shahjahan did not commision even a single
building as we have illustrated by a detailed analysis
of the Tajmahal legend. Shahjahn had to enrage in 48
military campaigns during a reign of nearly 30 years
which proves that his was not a era of peace and plenty.
108. The interior of the dome rising over Mumtaz's
centotaph has a representation of Sun and cobras drawn
in gold. Hindu warriors trace their origin to the Sun.
For an Islamic mausoleum the Sun is redundant. Cobras
are always associated with Lord Shiva.
FORGED DOCUMENTS
109. The muslim caretakers of the tomb in the Tajmahal
used to possess a document which they styled as
"Tarikh-i-Tajmahal". Historian H. G. Keene has branded
it as `a document of doubtful authenticity'. Keene was
uncannily right since we have seen that Shahjahan not
being the creator of the Tajmahal any document which
credits Shahjahn with the Tajmahal, must be an outright
forgery. Even that forged document is reported to have
been smuggled out of Pakistan. Besides such forged
documents there are whole chronicles on the Taj which
are pure concoctions.
110. There is lot of sophistry and casuistry or atleast
confused thinking associated with the Taj even in the
minds of proffesional historians, archaelogists and
architects. At the outset they assert that the Taj is
entirely Muslim in design. But when it is pointed out
that its lotus capped dome and the four corner pillars
etc. are all entirely Hindu those worthies shift ground
and argue that that was probably because the workmen
were Hindu and were to introduce their own patterns.
Both these arguments are wrong because Muslim accounts
claim the designers to be Muslim,and the workers
invariably carry out the employer's dictates.
The Taj is only a typical illustration of how all
historic buildings and townships from Kashmir to Cape
Comorin though of Hindu origin have been ascribed to
this or that Muslim ruler or courtier.
It is hoped that people the world over who study Indian
history will awaken to this new finding and revise their
erstwhile beliefs.
Those interested in an indepth study of the above and
many other revolutionary rebuttals may read this
author's other research books.
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