India wow

A few things in the past week have opened my eyes. An activist group in Mangalore chased girls out of a pub for "indecent acts" (drinking and dancing). The same group wants to ban Valentines Day in the name of morality. A wider debate has been unleashed about whether drinking is un-Indian (and plenty of pollies think it is). Meanwhile in Delhi a married couple was charged for kissing in a train station - but the charge was disallowed by a higher court. In Tamil Nadu a man self immolated to protest against the treatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka. And in a mainstream newspaper a writer mused on whether the environmental degradation of the Ganges River was foreshadowed in scripture (the Ganga was only suppposed to be on earth for 5000 years and that expired at the start of the 20th Century). Finally at a bling 5-star ceremony the Indian of the Year Award was given to the country's chief space scientist who landed a high-tech device on the moon. Pretty interesting country!