World's Top Twentyfive Trains-Fresh list

On January 16^th , 2008 I posted an article in this blog on WORLD’S TOP TWENTY FIVE TRAINS on the basis of the report of The Society of International Railway Travelers. But who are there in this Society? They are intelligent, experienced travelers from all over the world who love the comfort, romance and fun of traveling on great trains. Owners, staff and editors have evaluated trains all over the world for their magazine, The International Railway Traveler®, giving us a unique perspective and objectivity. Owen and Eleanor Hardy, of Louisville, KY, USA, are the sole owners of Hardy Publishing Co., Inc., and The Society of International Railway Travelers, Inc. International rail-travel specialists celebrated their company’s 25 th Annivesary in 2008.

But there have been some changes in the list and other stuffs related to the world’s top twentyfive trains since I posted my article on this. Eleanor Hardy,President, Society of International Railway Travelers has informed me - “I just wanted to let you know, sadly, that one of the trains on our list has gone out of business as of a few months ago. GrandLuxe Express is now selling their rolling stock and equipment. Bon voyage to a great train”. He also has remarked –“I wanted to pop a note to all of you folks out in Sydney moaning about your suburban rail service. Perhaps it is true that it's not as fast, or as on-time as some others, but Sydney itself is a transit lovers' dream, and everything, from rail to ferries to buses, works together to get you where you want to go. Come to the US sometime to see what a dismal situation we have in many major cities -- just no really good ways to get around except by car. (Some cities of course have fantastic systems but they are the rarity.) Our Society of International Railway Travelers members have absolutely loved visiting Sydney and have enjoyed your long-distance train Indian Pacific and Ghan -- how cool is that to have TWO cross-continental trains?”

So I feel to make a fresh list of the World’s Top Twentyfive Trains from six continents. I think that for people who can afford –travelling in these trains is most enjoying affair of modern world. It’s more attractive than staying in the most luxururious hotel of the world as you can have the equal amenities and comforts in travelling in these trains as you have the added opportunity of passing through nature-the forests, seaside, cities, deserts and everything you love to imagine! It’s like living in your imagination! Here are the fresh list as published by The Society of International Railway Travelers.

Africa

1.Pride of Africa (Luxury)

Europe

2.Venice Simplon-Orient Express (Luxury)

3.Royal Scotsman (Luxery)

North America

4.Royal Canadian Pacific (Luxury)

Europe

5.Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express (First Class)

6.Danube Express (First Class)

Asia

7.Deccan Odyssey (First Class)

8.Shangri-La Express (First Class)

9.Eastern & Oriental Express

Europe

10.Glacier Express (First Class)

11.Bergen Railway (First Class)

12.Flam Railway (First Class)

13.Bernina Express (First Class)

South America

14.Hiram Bingham (Luxury)

15.Andean Explorer (First Class)

Europe

16.El Transcantabrico (Luxury)

Africa

17.Blue Train (Luxury)

Europe

18.British Pullman (Luxury)

North America

19.Rocky Mountaineer (First Class)

20.Canadian (First Class)

Asia

21.Palace on Wheels (First Class)

22.Darjeeling Himalayan Toy Train (Steam/Railfan)

Australia

23.Sunlander (First Class)

24.Indian Pacific (First Class)

25.Ghan (First Class)

An Appeal to Indian Muslims

It is very unfortunate that even after more than sixty years of partition of India which led to the birth of Pakistan in 1947-Indian political leaders and the intelligentsia in general have failed to grasp the root of all the unfortunate events of communal strife and terrorism (basically Islamic).

India will never be able to solve these two problems so long the state of Pakistan will exist with its existential root in religion. If there is any single community in the world that has the least knowledge of its religion and its philosophy –then it can be mentioned without the least qualm- that it is Pakistan. There are several Islamic states and groups in the world but none of them is so un-Islamic as Pakistan and now Bangladesh. It can not be expected that all the states of the world like India –will effectively pursue the noble idea of states of not interfering in the affairs of the religions of their subjects and thereby remaining perfectly neutral to all religious sects and groups of the people living in these countries. The word secularism is relatively modern in its use relating to governance of states. But when Asoka or Harshvardhana became Buddhists they did not discriminate against the majority Hindus. Religious tolerance is deep in Indian psyche; it’s basically for the Hindus that it was possible for the birth the Upanishads, the Vedas and the Gita. The catholicity of the wisdom as evident from these great books must be considered for analysing the nature and character of the Hindus –if one wants to understand a nation in a scientific way. It is for this rooted wisdom the Indian leaders accepted secularism as a policy of the government and ingrained it in the constitution of free India after the partition. And it was for this same wisdom and catholic attitude that Indian political leaders never accepted the two-nation theory of Jinnah. Indian people never accepted partition. It is not for the love for Hinduism but for India –the land-whom they consider as their mother. Muslims have failed to understand this spirit of the majority Hindus who regard their land as dear and as loving as their mother-a mother who is the source of all sustenance of the life of a child. The most sacred and deep relation is missed when the narrow and sectarian way is chosen for a refusal of a noble and tender feeling.
Muslims of various shades and sects invaded India time and again to plunder away with her wealth and destroy the Hindu temples –and finally they settled in India by conquering the country. Hindus –perhaps destroyed only one- the Babri Mosque in the historical time. But the vehement protests came from the majority Hindus who did not approve of that destructive impulse. But there is no recorded instance in history of a single protest by any Muslim for destroying thousands of Hindu temples by the Muslims in one thousand years. There is no recorded instance of the Hindus invading a foreign country in history. Hindus are basically peace-loving people because of the influence of their spiritual thoughts from time immemorial.
In time of Sepoy-mutiny against the British –the Hindus were at the helm of that revolt and not any Muslim of any consequence. The Hindu militants wanted to oust the British and replace them not with any renowned Hindu but with the Second Bahadur Shah-a descendant of the Moughal emperors. They considered the last Moughal as their own person and not the British. It was because of living under Muslim rule for almost five hundred years. So it was natural for the Hindus to want to remain in an undivided India.





Unfortunately, the Muslims in this sub-continent had an uncomfortable complex to live under Hindu rulers whom they had been accustomed to rule for five hundred years. So it was desirable to them even to be ruled by the British than by the Hindus. Throughout the period of freedom –movement against the British –Muslims –in general remained aloof and did not take any significant part in that struggle. They had no significant political grievance against the British and they never felt it in their passion to see them free from the foreign rule. It was much later the league and some rootless leaders appeared to fish in the troubled water for personal and individual gains. Some argue that the majority of the Muslims in the then undivided India were too uneducated and socially backward to be aware of the value of independence. But why were the Muslims were so backward? They had had the advantage of being patronised by their own Muslim rulers for about five hundred years before the British came to replace them. So for what reasons the Hindus became more associated with the British administration than the Muslims? In all fields of life the Hindus were an overwhelming majority in the British period. The Hindus were treated at par with the Muslims by the British and they did not discriminate Muslims against the Hindus. If we go on tracing the root of this backwardness –we will find it in the dominant mullahs who were the guardians of Muslim society. These mullahs were unenlightened medievalists and fundamentalists. Muslims were –in the name of religion-kept outside the ever changing and progressing world. The evolution of mind as reflected in new thoughts and ideas was anathema to the Muslim world of this sub-continent. The society turned into ghettos thanks to the alienation of the Muslims from the large open world. In this background the Hindus and for that matter any progressiveness was seen as anti-Islam. This anti-Islamic conception was imposed against Hindus emphatically in Muslim psychology. The more the Hindus progressed and developed the more the Muslims became anti-Hindu. This social and economical differences gave a fillip to anti-Hindu feeling as was seen in the case of Jews in many other countries. But here in India the chemistry was more complicated with the elements of religions and the sense of inferiority.
Here the concept of Islam is mixed with anti-Hinduism. This is a very complicated situation. One may argue that why then Osama bin Laden and his terrorist outfits have grown against the US when it has no way been related to the Hindus? Yes –this is a very pertinent point while discussing the issue of Islamic terrorism and the situation in India is also related to a common psychological problem.
Muslims all over the world are victims of a peculiar psychology. They are very sensitive of their religion. They could not think of other identity –however great that may be than the identity in religion. The Christians missed the true spiritual import of Christ and took only the element that ensued from the original consciousness-the element of charity and kindness to the fellow neighbours. So is the reality with the true and proper Islam but in the inferior way. The instinct of organisational cohesion got the better of love, chivalry and universal brotherhood of Islam. So for this instinct to get into the organisation than to remain in the wider air of the world –the Muslims –in general become unusually sensitive of their physical existence as Muslims.
This psychology also plays a in a subtle way in their approach to the Hindus and their affairs apart from what have been told above.
It’s not a question which country the terrorists belong to. There are so many anti-Indian Muslim terrorists in India-and some of them are citizens of India. But the home of all the terrorists is Pakistan –in the full knowledge of Pakistani rulers and the pamparing ISI whose existence is for causing harms to India with the terrorists. They are not state-less but with a home in Pakistan. All these terrorists are trained in Pakistan and Bangladesh and they are moved to action by the instigation and plan of the ISI and Pakistani army. The loss of property and life by the Muslim terrorists are definitely shocking and each terrorist strike caused immense damage to this country. But the most alarming damage –Pakistan has been inflicting on India is communal disharmony among the people of India. Pakistan can not survive without India bashing. Anti-Hinduism and Islam are now tantamount to them. They will be more inimical in future for India’s every step towards material prosperity. For all this the most responsible groups are the group of the mullahs who are the walls against the Light that enlightens.
In such circumstance India can only be safe in dismantling of the state apparatus of Pakistan. Pakistan is now the Mecca of all the terrorists of the world. But in the law of the greater truth Pakistan in its present form will definitely be destroyed in the process.
Or the only way she can survive is to be led by a person of the magnitude of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.






But before that I would appeal to all Indian Muslims for raising their voice publicly against the terrorists and more emphatically against Pakistan and it is especially on the Indian Muslims now more than the majority Hindus to convince the other religious people of India and the world at large that it is not the Muslims but the state of Pakistan is responsible for all terrorist activities. The purpose of this appeal is for communal harmony and for the welfare of India in general.

Hindus have no right in India as Hindus: The legacy of Nehru

There are some truths which are universal whenever we discuss matters relating to man in his individual as well as collective nature. One such truth is that we have to pay dearly if we are indecisive and hesitant due to our shaky and fearful psychology to make steps to settle problems permanently. The Congress Party has all along been seen unduly compromising in matters of conflicts between Muslims and Hindus. Their so called secularism is rooted in a confusion and weakness. The Indian Muslims know it well. If one has a complaint against BJP for spreading communalism in the country –I think it was the Congress who has been helping BJP a ground for getting sustenance from the wrong and shaky approach of the Congress towards the Muslims of India. The lack of strength and vision of the Congress have harmed the Hindus and the majority of national Muslims also. If the fabric of communal harmony is destroyed beyond repair –the Congress will be held responsible for this. Ms Sonia Gandhi and her children along with their sycophants will not be affected from the communal disharmony as they being in the ruling class for a long time are neither Hindus nor Muslims. They are a class by themselves without belonging to any community.

BJP, in its present strength, has evolved as reaction of the wrong approach of the Congress toward Hindu-Muslim matters. It is not required to be a supporter of BJP to be in unison with them that the Congress has been a practitioner of pseudo-secularism. It’s now open to all to see that the Congress is yet to gather courage to hang Mohammad Afzal who was behind the killing in Parliament House. Even the merci-petition by his family was not placed before Abdul Kalam for consideration. It was only placed after Kalam’s term was over and a new president took over. The heinous killer is a Kasmiri terrorist. What message does this fact send to the people of India-Hindus and Muslims alike? The Congress is afraid of Kashmiris and Pakistan. If Congress fails to be unduly soft to the wickedness of some Muslims (read pro-Pakistanis and Islamic terrorists) the situation will bound to be out of control in near future to the detriment of the whole nation and to the jubilation of ISI of Pakistan.

I’m quoting some lines published under the first-page headline news of a National English daily which is supposed to be a subtle supporter of the Congress so far the BJP is concerned. While reporting the recent troubles in Jammu –the newspaper has reported the Jammu crisis in the following lines:

[…History is often a cause and effect lesson. The immediate cause of what’s unfolding today probably goes back to 1990 and the exodus of Pandits from the valley under the sweep of the ‘azadi’ movement. The accumulated causes go even further back the decades. Amarnath is probably merely the latest flash point.

Jammu, were you to get a sense of reigning sentiment in this shuttered, khaki and concertina-ridden city, is feeling sackfuls of its old and perceived grudges to these fires.” ‘We’ve put up with this for 60 years, 60 long years’, says Rati Razdan, a politically unaffiliated schoolteacher who has been at the barricades in Gandhingar each morning, ‘all in the name of national unity. Those who blackmail the nation with threats of separation have been pampered; those who have been loyal have been ignored. What am I to do to be heard, pick up a green flag and shout anti-India slogans? Why can we not have land in Kashmir, why must Kashmiris have their way all the time in his country?’

Why does the Valley have more seats in the state Assembly even though Jammu is greater both in population and land area? Why must they have three MPs and we only two? Why must they have all chief ministers and we none? Why do they get 80 per cent of government jobs? Why must they have 60 per cent of power? Why must they have reservation in colleges and technical institutions even though our boys and girls do better? Why is it that we can be thrown out of our homes in the Valley and nothing happens? Why is there such a crisis if we want to set up facilities in the Valley for two months each year? Why do their leaders get to build private mansions in the forests of Jammu’s vaunted Bhatindi outskirts whereas we can’t even be granted land in the name of shrine? Why are they part of an all-party delegation? They are the creators of this problem, why should they now become judges? And why should we go to them?

Why? Why? Why? Us and Them. Us and Them. Jammu is an angry trigger-burst of questions wherever you go………..-The Telegrah, Calcutta, August 10, 2008]

The Hindus of this land of India may obviously feel hapless even after almost 700 hundred plus years of foreign rules (Mughal & British + Congress).

All this is a legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru. The tragedy of India is that he was her first Prime Minister.

NO ENGINE DEFEATS GOOGLE

There are several search engines in the internet. Yahoo, MSN, Ask Me, Google etc. But generally most people use Google search engine. Google has spread its name through propaganda blitz. Gone are the days when the best known brands are best quality brands. Now a different genre of business has intruded in the internet. This class of internet service providers is not always honest. Google has a good name as a mail-service provider. There is no doubt that the top three mail-service providers are Yahoo, Hotmail and Google. But this is Google’s emphatic front not its core activity. Google-it may be said, spreads itself through various ways and in many areas with the sole aim of earning from advertisement. There’s no harm and nothing bad in earning from advertisement. But when it is done by harming the interests of the internet users-it’s definitely bad and must be protested against.

Google filters and prevents millions of results in its search engine. Firstly, it only shows those results for which they are paid. Secondly, any regular user of search engines may have experienced the fact that Google brings out millions of irrelevant results against a single search. One innocent person wonders at this volume at first. But gradually-if he or she is little alert –may discover the click behind these millions of results. Google does this intentionally as it has to serve its advertisers by opening the false or irrelevant pages where the ads lie. It’s unethical as Google makes the search-engine user a prisoner of innumerable results. One can not check and see ten million results that Google brings in for a single search. Unfortunately-the desired and meaningful results are prevented by Google as it would go against its business. A search with four or five key words should bring the maximum possible rational results. But Google is infinite in its maximum false results.

Those who are professional persons have already realized it. You will go with the search words “Google Evil” or “Freedom from search engine” or say “AyAy Sir INC’ –you will find what Google brings in.

Considering all this, a good organization tried with their own advance algorithm to help people coming out in to the light from the bewildering jungle of sites. It’s a search help. Its name is NO ENGINE.

From the very name one may guess that it functions with a human face. I have written about it in my previous post.

Any person may use No Engine to see it for him/her whether I’m right or not. No Engine still runs on donations and it has no intention to use it as a profiteering tool. For the general people it will take sometime to know about this wonderful helping hand. It has come into existence to help people and for doing that it must reduce the impact of Google from people’s mind. So No Engine now supports Yahoo against Google. Actually, scientifically and mathematically No Engine has already won over Google as it wraps all the contents of Google and Yahoo now. No Engine is far superior to Google also for the following reasons: No Engine is able to:

1. Wrap contents of any search engine.
2. Trace contents of any search engine.
3. Dump contents of any search engine.
4. Modify contents of any search engine.
5. Join contents of any search engine.
6. Improve contents of any search engine.
7. Unite contents of any search engine.

As all search engines in the market provide search results for making money from advertisements-they have the motivational compulsion to limit/block 99% results.

No Engine is not business –it stands for justice-as evident from its name.

So go to the website of No Engine by clicking:

http://www.noengine.com/

Follow the old saying: SEEING IS BELIEVING

winner

Are we carnivores or herbivores-by Nature

Although some historians and anthropologists say that man is historically omnivores, our anatomical equipment ­ teeth, jaws, and digestive system ­ favors a fleshless diet. The American Dietetic Association notes that “most of mankind for most of human history has lived on vegetarian or near-vegetarian diets.”

And much of the world still lives that way. Even on most industrialized countries, the love affair with meat is less than a hundred years old. It started with the refrigerator car and the twentieth-century consumer society. But even with the twentieth century, man’s body hasn’t adapted to eating meat. The prominent Swedish scientist Karl von Linne states, “Man’s structure, external and internal, compared with that of the other animals, shows that fruit and succulent vegetables constitute his natural food.”

Comparison between carnivores, herbivores and humans

When you look at the comparison between herbivores and humans, we compare much more closely to herbivores than meat eating animals. Humans are clearly not designed to digest and ingest meat.

• Meat-eaters: have claws
  Herbivores: no claws
  Humans: no claws

• Meat-eaters: have no skin pores and perspire through the tongue
  Herbivores: perspire through skin pores
  Humans: perspire through skin pores

• Meat-eaters: have sharp front teeth for tearing, with no flat molar teeth for grinding
  Herbivores: no sharp front teeth, but flat rear molars for grinding
  Humans: no sharp front teeth, but flat rear molars for grinding

• Meat-eaters: have intestinal tract that is only 3 times their body length so that rapidly decaying meat can pass through quickly
  Herbivores: have intestinal tract 10-12 times their body length.
  Humans: have intestinal tract 10-12 times their body length.

• Meat-eaters: have strong hydrochloric acid in stomach to digest meat
  Herbivores: have stomach acid that is 20 times weaker than that of a meat-eater
  Humans: have stomach acid that is 20 times weaker than that of a meat-eater

• Meat-eaters: salivary glands in mouth not needed to pre-digest grains and fruits.
  Herbivores: well-developed salivary glands which are necessary to pre-digest grains and fruits
  Humans: well-developed salivary glands, which are necessary to pre-digest, grains and fruits

• Meat-eaters: have acid saliva with no enzyme ptyalin to pre-digest grains
  Herbivores: have alkaline saliva with ptyalin to pre-digest grains
  Humans: have alkaline saliva with ptyalin to pre-digest grains

Based on a chart by A.D. Andrews, Fit Food for Men, (Chicago: American Hygiene Society, 1970)

Clearly if humans were meant to eat meat we wouldn’t have so many crucial ingestive/digestive similarities with animals that are herbivores.

Why do people eat meat?

Many people ask me, “If we weren’t supposed to eat meat than why do we?”. It is because we are conditioned to eat meat. Also, the ADA (American Dietetic Association) tells us that “most of mankind for most of human history has lived on a vegetarian or Lacto-ovo vegetarian diet.

A popular statement that meat eaters say is; “In the wild, animals kill other animals for food. It’s nature.” First of all, we are not in the wild. Secondly, we can easily live without eating meat and killing, not to mention we’d be healthier. And finally, as I have already shown, we weren’t meant to eat meat. Meat and seafood putrefies within 4 hours after consumption and the remnants cling to the walls of the stomach and intestines for 3-4 days or longer than if a person is constipated. Furthermore, the reaction of saliva in humans is more alkaline, whereas in the case of flesh-eating or preying animals, it is clearly acidic. The alkaline saliva does not act properly on meat.

The final point I would like to make on how we as humans were not meant to eat meat is this. All omnivorous and carnivorous animals eat their meat raw. When a lion kills an herbivore for food, it tears right into the stomach area to eat the organs that are filled with blood (nutrients). While eating the stomach, liver, intestine, etc., the lion laps the blood in the process of eating the dead animals flesh. Even bears that are omnivores eat salmon raw. However, eating raw or bloody meat disgust us as humans. Therefore, we must cook it and season it to buffer the taste of flesh.

If a deer is burned in a forest fire, a carnivorous animal will NOT eat its flesh. Even circus lions have to be feed raw meat so that they will not starve to death. If humans were truly meant to eat meat, then we would eat all of our meat raw and bloody. The thought of eating such meat makes one’s stomach turn. This is my point on how we as humans are conditioned to believe that animal flesh is good for us and that we were meant to consume it for survival and health purposes. If we are true carnivores or omnivores, cooking our meat and seasoning it with salt, ketchup, or tabasco sauce would disguise and we as humans would refuse to eat our meat in this form

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