Devotees across the country and especially in the Indian state of Maharashtra have much reason to celebrate other than then fall in cases of COVID19 and the relaxed restrictions that come with it. The most popular festival in the state, Ganesh Chaturthi, will be celebrated this week and the city of Mumbai is already buzzing with excitement.
Ganesh Chaturthi, or Vinayaka Chaturthi as it’s known in many parts of the country, is a celebration of the god Ganesha, Ganpati or Vinayaka. Lord Ganesha is the son of Lord Shiva and Parvathi who lost his head during a fit of anger from his father and had to have it replaced with that of an elephant. Lord Ganesha is highly revered in Indian and Hindu culture and is credited to be the “Remover of Obstacles” and is the first recipient of any offerings during puja or worship.
Ganesha also happens to be the most recognisable of all Indian Gods to an international audience with many referring to him as the “Indian Elephant God”.
This 10-day festival which culminates in the “visarjan” or immersion of the idol in water, is very important to the cultures of the people of  Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Goa and the southern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha. This festival is celebrated to symbolise the arrival of Lord Ganesh and his mother Parvati on earth from their heavenly abode on Mount Kailash.
Across homes and communities, huge “pandals” or enclosures are erected which house the idol and various pujas are performed. Visiting pandals and taking the blessings of the deity during these 10 days is a tradition being followed for decades. On the 10th day, to symbolise the return of God with his mother back to Mount Kailash, the idols are taken to the nearest water body and immersed. The beaches of Mumbai turn into a mass congregation of people and idols and is a sight to behold. After immersion, the clay idols will then dissolve and settle at the bottom signifying the end of the festival.
Ganesh Chaturthi did have a political tone in the 1880s when it was used every year by freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak as a forum to unite the public and for discourse on opposing the British rule in the city of Mumbai. The practice of erecting pandals to display the idols and for the congregation of people probably started there. Celebrations outside Maharashtra tend to not include mega pandals or grand visarjan rallies.
The toxic offence/cancel culture is rapidly spreading across the world with almost everyone finding a reason to get offended at something. One of the organisations at the forefront of this is PETA or People for Ethical Treatment of Animals. With having their finances being monitored and protests not being taken seriously, they are in a spot of bother internationally. This, however, does not put a dampener on the number of causes they lend their voice to.
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/09/10/peta-claims-ganesh-chaturthi-promotes-violence-against-elephants/

The newly appointed government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has been taking control of all matters of state policy ever since formally announcing the structure and composition of its administrative mechanism. The new government, which is filled with members of the Taliban and its affiliates, have promised a better future for the Afghan people without compromising on core Islamic beliefs and traditions.
The last time the Taliban headed the government in Afghanistan, the citizens were subjected to harsh punishments that coincided with archaic teachings of the Islamic religion and a biased interpretation of the Quran. This along with the affinity for terrorist activities against other countries of the world including the USA prompted a 20-year-old war that ended in August 2021.
The new administration has promised to ensure the inclusion of women, and other minorities in its functioning but has not lived up to its promise so far. They have also promised to avoid a witch-hunt against people who supported the previous government and also ensured the safety of journalists and artists in the country. Universities and schools have opened but in a manner that has become a mockery around the world when pictures of segregated classrooms for boys and girls were released.
The Taliban government has gone on record to say that they will be freedom for the citizens but this freedom will be within the purview and confines of the strict teachings of the Deobandi faction of the Islamic religion. Deobandi Islam professes strict adherence to the Sharia law which is extremely oppressive towards other religions and to women and children. They believe in going back to the life that was lived during the time of Prophet Mohammed in the 7th century.
The new government has been looking at ways to legitimise the world’s view of the administration and is in an accelerated attempt to bring all major public sector industries under its control. One of the main objectives of the government is to operate and reopen air routes to and from the country. This is to ensure that travel, trade and humanitarian operations can continue unabated.
Afghanistan currently has the domestic operator Kam Air, which resumed services on September 5th and the international flagship airline Ariana Afghan Airlines which started operations in 1955. Ariana, unfortunately, is on the list of banned airlines in the EU and does not fly to countries other than a handful including India, UAE, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. One of the main objectives of the government would be to start operating in more countries.
Our sources within the upper levels of the Taliban tell us that the government is seriously considering placing a bid on the sale of Air India by the Indian government. The sale of India’s flagship carrier to the private sector is the pet project of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman and the bids are set to close on September 15th. This is being done to modernise and turn the carrier into a profit-making business.
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/09/09/taliban-considering-bid-for-air-india-before-the-september-15th-deadline/

Formerly one of the richest men in Asia, Jack Ma has been rarely seen in public post his retirement from the company that he built and took to dizzying heights. He not only became an inspiration for a generation but also proved what ambition and relentless pursuit can achieve. He had become an international celebrity and was frequently invited to impart his wisdom to students and professionals around the world.
Born into a poor family in Hangzhou, China in 1964, Ma Yun or Jack Ma always had the entrepreneurial bug within him. His stories of having to face rejection multiple times in his life are now part of the legends associated with one of China’s biggest global companies. Starting as a teacher and then the owner of a translation company, Jack Ma was fascinated by the internet. He launched Alibaba, an online marketplace in 1994 which at its height had overtaken eBay and Amazon as the world’s largest online marketplace.
He overtook Wang Jialing of the Dalian Wanda Group to become the richest man in China in 2016 when Alibaba was clocking in over USD 460 billion in revenue. In addition to the marketplace, the Alibaba Group also owns one of the largest cloud computing businesses and also one of the largest logistics firms in the world. In the space of 2 decades, Jack Ma had become the most recognisable face internationally to emerge from China. His business ventures did not stop here and he also founded some of the most popular online companies in China including Ali Pay, Taobao, Lynx and Ali Mama which were consolidated under the Ant Group.
Things hit a rough patch for Jack Ma in October 2020 when he stepped down as the head of Ali Baba and decided to focus on making Ant Group the largest fintech company in the world by digitising banking. After making a highly controversial speech where he criticised the state-run banks in communist China, he suddenly disappeared from public view.
The proposed IPO for the Ant Group was scrapped by the Chinese government and it has begun selling off parts of the company to its preferred partners. Reports say that Jack Ma’s wealth has been stripped in half since his disappearance almost a year ago. Amidst rumours that he may not be alive, he made a surprise appearance at a charity event early this year and was also spotted playing golf at an island in China. It is believed that he became too big too soon and that too without the support of the communist party or the government who decided to reign in his influence and make an example for future billionaires.
Our source within the communist party in China told us that Jack Ma did not expect that the government would hit back like this. “He believed that he could not be touched as he has done so much in contributing to the Chinese economy by helping local businesses, creating employment and building a positive opinion about Chinese companies internationally. He forgot that in China, no one is bigger than Xi Jinping. That brought about his downfall,” she said.
The systematic shutting down or disinvestment of the Ant group has been shaving off the presence of the company and the personal wealth of Jack Ma at an alarming pace. Even ventures like the innovative Human Business School is now being disbanded.
Our sources tell us that Jack Ma is laying low after conceding his entire empire to the Chinese government. Although he has not made a public appearance in over 6 months, he is safe and sound.
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/09/08/jack-ma-finally-makes-his-real-dream-come-true/

Schools and other educational institutions have been given the green signal to open and operate in many parts of the country. While many parents have expressed concerns about sending their children to school due to the pandemic, many parents have welcomed the idea as social interaction is essential in character building.
Different states have different plans to ease the students into the normal way of life and have set up protocols and safety measures to ensure that the children remain safe during this transition process. School managements have been working closely with government health officials and medical experts to ensure that all students are monitored and even the slightest doubt of infection is swiftly handled.
The one group that feels neglected in the grand scheme of things are the teachers. Our sources tell us that teachers across the country are banding together to collectively put together a list of demands to be presented to the Ministry of Education to ensure that their requirements are also met. This group of teachers call themselves the Teachers and Educators of Distressed India or TEDI are currently performing outreach campaigns within the teaching community for more members.
One member of TEDI spoke to us and told us that the list of demands was not that big. "It is mainly to ensure that the safety of the teachers and their family." Although the list is not finalised, she did allow us a glance at the 5 demands that have been added so far.

Teachers to sit in a separate broadcasting room with CCTV cameras like Bigg Boss while teaching the kids.
Students will not be allowed to wear masks to be identifiable at all times.
Punishments for not completing homework or tasks can include helping the teacher with household tasks.
Smarter students will have to help the teacher's children attend their online classes.
Lab and computer classes will be conducted open-air to negate the effects of AC spreading the disease.

This podcast can also be read at www.thedailyvanilla.com

39-year-old Chartered Accountant, Abdul Shaheen, first felt that something was wrong when he started seeing AC ads on Facebook and Instagram during the monsoons. It was highly illogical for any company to be spending money on ads for an AC when it was not the season for it not would it make any sense to buy one at the height of the monsoons. It was even more strange that he was having a chat with his friends about how it would be smart to buy the AC before the onset of the Chennai summer rather than during it.
This was followed by similar incidents like seeing ads for a new TV when he talked to the local repair guy about fixing the audio output on his current TV, ads for sports equipment when he was talking to his family about subscribing to a family membership at the local gym and even ads for enhancing his penis size after a particularly raunchy lovemaking session.
Now Abdul isn’t the only one who has been facing this. We have had multiple cases worldwide where companies like Facebook, Apple and Google have had to come out in court and provide statements that they were not listening in on people. Despite this, there have been cases where products like Apple’s Siri, Google’s Ok Google and Amazon’s Alexa have been caught recording conversations happening in peoples homes.
The blame cannot be fully placed on the companies or app developers either. They are providing a free service which we use and in return, they take the liberty of running ads to us by using our behaviour on mobile or the internet to accurately predict what kind of ads we might be interested in. This is the main, or in many cases, the only source of income for these companies and we gladly sign off our right to privacy when we agree to the terms and conditions without reading them.
All phones today come with the option of individually providing access to various apps without having to provide blanket access to everyone. The biggest mistake we all do is clicking yes to all the permissions that a newly downloaded app asks for without actually thinking why it needs that. For example, ever wondered why that new football game you downloaded needs access to your phone calls?
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/09/06/man-learns-sign-language-suspecting-his-mobile-phone-is-listening-to-everything-he-says/

The benefits of the cow have been a huge matter in the public domain for a while now. While many advocates of the preservation of cows and the non-consumption of beef have been coming up with various reasons why cows should not be killed, the opposing section has had very little going in their favour apart from the fact that it tastes good.
In 2019, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat made claims that the cow is the only animal to exhale oxygen and so is a very important part of our ecosystem. This vital link in maintaining the balance of nature needs to be sustained and hence cow slaughter should be banned across the country. He also went on to equate the cow to be like a mother and so needs to be addressed as mata. The Uttarakhand government went ahead and also declared that the cow should be awarded the title of mother of the nation.
This was not a one-off incident of politicians making scientific claims. Trivendra  Singh Rawat, in the same speech, had gone ahead and also claimed that cow dung and cow urine (gomuthra) are also capable of curing ailments of the heart and kidney. The mere presence of a cow was also deemed to help cure Tuberculosis and improve general health by the Chief Minister. Trivendra Singh Rawat was not the first to claim that cows exhale oxygen. In 2017, the BJP education minister for Rajasthan had also made similar claims.
Other politicians who have made similar claims include BJP MP from Nainital, Ajay Bhatt, claiming that women can avoid cesarean delivery if they drink water from a particular river. Another BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur had claimed that cow urine helped her cure her cancer and that rubbing a cow in a particular way helped keep her blood pressure under control.
The whole debate of the actual scientific benefits of the cow has been pulled into the limelight once again by the Allahabad High Court.
Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav of the Allahabad High Court, yesterday, in a 12 page ruling against the bail application of a person accused of cow slaughter repeated the claim that cows exhale oxygen. The judge who had previously ruled that the cow should be the national animal of India also remarked that the use of ghee in yagnas were used to give special powers to the sun rays during a pooja, which ultimately causes rain.
He also put forward the medical benefits of panchgavya (a five-part mixture of cow urine, dung, ghee, milk and curd) for the cure of most incurable diseases. In his judgement, he also quoted Jesus Christ as saying that killing a cow is equivalent to killing a human being. He ended the judgement by saying that the Right to Life precedes the Right to Kill and the right to eat beef cannot be considered a fundamental right.
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/09/03/cow-tears-can-trigger-nuclear-reaction-better-than-plutonium-claims-bovine-expert/

The promised date of the much-hyped Indian National Congress internal elections have come and gone. The initial date promised was then shifted to June 2021 which was once again postponed due to the severity of COVID 19 across the country. Rumours have been rife about another tentative date being announced in September which will once again be postponed till early 2022.
There have been murmurs of this being a deliberate ploy of the Congress Working Committee or the CWC to keep the elections at bay and appease the detractors until Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi agrees to lead the party once again.
Our sources tell us that this will not be an easy task as the game plan includes portraying that Rahul Gandhi is reluctant to take up the post. He will also be denying the offer multiple times until eventually bowing down to the wishes of the party workers and taking up the huge burden on his shoulders. The whole scenario has been carefully crafted and a full-fledged marketing plan is underplaying.
As part of the whole plan to position Rahul Gandhi as the only saviour of the country, a huge campaign is set to be put in motion in September which is the 7th anniversary of the launch of the Make in India program. Our sources tell us that the main focus would be to project Rahul Gandhi as the only successful Make in India product and that too executed by the Congress and not the BJP.
“Name one other instance of a successful completion of a project under the Make in India program launched by Narendra Modi?” our source questioned. “The first and only time an international supplier produced in India for the good of India was when Italian Soniaji married Rajivji and gave India our only hope and saviour – Rahul baba. It is just that we did not give it fancy names.”
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/09/02/congress-party-claims-that-rahul-gandhi-is-the-only-successful-make-in-india-product/

The government has launched a new look and feel to the popular tourist spot of the location of one of the gruesome remnants of British colonial rule, the Jallianwala Bagh. The renovated location has garnered mixed reactions from different sections of society. While some believe that this will generate more interest in our history, some like Indian National Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi claims that it is an insult to martyrs and their families.
The memorial site is a reminder of the atrocities committed upon the Indian population by the British. The site was the location where British Army Colonel Reginald Dyer opened fire upon peaceful protesters in Amritsar on the 13th of April 1919.
In April 1919, the areas of Lahore and Amritsar had been placed under martial law, to counter the numerous protests against the Rowlatt Act, which allowed the army to arrest, detain and jail people without a warrant or a trial. The order had not arrived yet in Amritsar where the people were out on the street to celebrate the Punjabi festival of Baisakhi. Most of them were making their way to the Golden Temple which was a huge part of their traditions.
By evening, many of the attendees had moved onto what we now know as Jallianwala Bagh where a meeting was being held to protest the arrest of Dr Satyapal and Dr Saifudeen Kitchlew. This garden or park had a narrow entrance/exit and was flanked by tall buildings on every side making it a semi-enclosed structure. Colonel Dyer on hearing of this gathering of people reached the location with his contingent of armed soldiers and blocked out the main entrance. He then gave the orders to start firing at the people, which the soldiers obliged by emptying all of the 1650 rounds of ammunition that they carried with them.
The British pegged the deaths at 300 while historians say that the actual numbers are more than 1000. The dead included men, women and children between the ages of 9 and 80. The whole international community was horrified by the event and even the pro-colonist rule British Prime Minister Winston Churchill remarked that this event was a “monstrosity”. Colonel Reginald Dyer was removed from his position in India and given a plush office job in England after a committee absolved him of all charges.
The committee that looks after the upkeep of the memorial was awarded 20 crore Indian rupees in 2019 to renovate the structure on the 100th anniversary of the gruesome day.  The new structure has added facilities for visitors like drinking water and toilets. Apart from this, the entry into the garden has been repositioned and decorated with figures symbolising the people who were martyred. The main shrine has now been enclosed within a lotus pond and the Martyr’s Well, where people jumped to escape the bullets has now been enclosed in a glass frame. There has also been an addition of a 20 minute light and sound show telling the story of the massacre and a mini-museum showcasing the life of the people of the area.
Our sources within the Ministry of Culture tells us that the government is quite pleased with the way the project has unfolded despite strong protests from various quarters of the country who believed that these new renovations are demeaning the sanctity of the place and its sad history.
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/09/01/after-jallianwala-bagh-renovation-kalapani-jail-to-be-converted-into-theme-park/

Karan Johar is one of the most instantly recognisable faces on Indian television. He has hosted his talk show Koffee with Karan and also appeared on numerous shows as a judge; apart from directing some of the biggest hits that Bollywood has ever seen. His latest venture was to make his debut on the OTT platform as the host of the popular show Bigg Boss on the channel Voot.
Bigg Boss was originally introduced to the Indian viewers as a television show in 2006 but gained immense popularity once the host of the show was changed to Salman Khan in 2010. Salman Khan hosts the show on the Colours channel and the OTT version is billed to be a prequel to it. The producers of the show were very clear in letting the public know that Salman Khan was not being replaced in any manner.
The OTT version of the show is supposed to have a lot more for the viewers in terms of 24/7 live broadcast, the ability to actively participate in the proceeding via votes or nominations and a few more powers that are yet to be introduced to the show. The “family-friendly” nature of the content that the TV channel tried to provide is no longer relevant as anything goes on the OTT platforms.
This has led to a mindset, language and actions on the show which host Salman Khan would have disapproved but host Karan Johar revels in. Like the promo of the show… Over the Top (Karan Johar) meets Over the Top (OTT).
This year’s contestants include Raqesh Bapat, Zeeshan Khan, Millind Gaba, Nishant Bhat, Karan Nath, Pratik Sehajpal, Shamita Shetty, Urfi Javed, Neha Bhasin, Muskan Jattana, Akshara Singh, Divya Agarwal and Ridhima Pandit. Many of them are serial reality show participants with them having participated in shows like MTV Splitsvilla, Ace of Spades etc while some others are known faces on Indian television.
Karan Johan appears during the weekend shows and does what Salman Khan was famous for in the television version of the show which is to act as an observer and question the motives and actions of the participants. Karan Johar has received a lot of flak for being biased from current and former participants of the show. His mannerisms and tone seemed far too bitchy rather than judgemental to the audiences in general.
The whole show depends on the impact that the host has during the “weekend ka vaar” episodes which usually sets the tone for the next week and also breaks and forges new partnerships. It is also during the weekend that contestants are eliminated, nominated or ejected based on their performance so far.
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/08/31/karan-johar-might-not-return-to-host-bigg-boss-ott-season-2/

The Indian team has had a very mixed tour of England so far. The first test was washed out, the second test was another triumphant win for the all-conquering Indian team but the 3rd test brought the team down to reality when they were soundly beaten by the English.
The form of James Anderson, Ollie Richardson and the magnificent Joe Root has been consistent throughout the series while their counterparts on the Indian side had to use the help of the not-so-big names to make an impact. The form of stalwarts Jasprit Bumrah and Virat Kohli has been a point of concern as well for the visitors.
One of the things that have been talked about quite a bit has been team selection. Star Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has been dropped for all the matches so far and India has played the lone spinner in Ravindra Jadeja mainly due to his batting capabilities. With the bowling attack barring Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami failing to make an impact, there has been mounting pressure on the team management to bring him back into the mix. This could be at the account of Ishant Sharma is what we hear.
Our sources within the Indian camp have told us that after the ECB, ICC and even the BCCI rejected Ravi Shastri’s appeal to select the English prankster Jarvo who turned up to bat and field in the Indian uniform, he seemed to be at a complete loss of ideas. Ravi Shastri was seen relentlessly googling during the team practice sessions for excuses to not select Ashwin in the playing XI.
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/08/30/ravi-shastri-spotted-using-google-during-indian-team-practice-sessions/