BedTea.in | Ravi Matah's Blog

In another attack on an Indian in Australia, a Sikh was punched in his head by a group of Australians who also removed his turban while he was sleeping at a bus stop in Melbourne. Police said the bashing of the 22-year-old Indian youth who was punched in the head, was unprovoked and had his turban removed as he slept at a bus stop.

It was reported by ‘The Age Newspaper that – “The  man was asleep at a stop near Epping railway station in Cooper Street about 12.45 am on Sunday when a bus pulled into the depot and five males, believed to be between 17 and 19 approached him and started bashing him up.” (more…)

It has been reported by CNN news channel on Saturday that U.S. President Barack Obama has declared a national emergency to deal with the increase in illness from the H1N1 influenza virus on Friday night. An official of the U.S. Centre for Disease Control says  millions of people across the U.S. have already contracted this virus.
 
Obama’s action allows Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to help health care facilities enact emergency plans to deal with the spread of the virus. (more…)

As reported by CNN news channel on Thursday, an aircraft overshot the Minneapolis Airport on Wednesday evening. Fear was writ large on the faces of the staff of Air Traffic Control at Minneapolis Airport as they feared that Flight 188 from San Diego, California, to Minneapolis, Minnesota, had been highjacked.

Actually, this flight overshot its destination airport by about 150 miles on Wednesday, and investigators are looking into whether the pilots had become distracted or were sleeping. (more…)

I  woke up at 0545 am, picked up my spectacles from the side-board and went to the bathroom. After brushing my teeth, I had my palms full of water to splash it on my face when the call bell rang. What the hell – so early in the morning. Who could it be? The paper or the milk-man? I quickly splashed water on my face and couldn’t find the hand towel.

I was then half awake-half asleep, slightly irritated, I had splashed water on my face, with my spectacles on, and couldn’t see anything – but had to attend the door bell, asap. (more…)

Whiskey - on the rocks

Indeed, I enjoy my drink just before dinner. My wife tells me not to drink but should I drink or not? I still don’t have the answer.

My doctor says a little bit in the evening is okay, but try to avoid it. OK, if I avoid drinking then what will happen to the thousands of people who  work in the orchards growing apples, oranges and those working in the vineyards taking care of grapes.

They all would be without a job and then how will they be able to place food on the table for their families. Poor things, it would be disaster for them if I stop drinking. (more…)

‘Deepawali’ or ‘Diwali’ is certainly the most magnificent of all Hindu festivals. It’s the festival of ‘lights’ that’s marked by four days of celebrations, in which the country is illuminated with brilliance and dazzles everyone with its’ joy. Diwali is celebrated on a nation-wide scale on Amavasya – the 15th day of the dark fortnight of the Hindu month of Ashwin, (October/November) every year. Amongst Hindus, across many parts of India and Nepal, it is the homecoming of Lord Rama after a 14-year exile in the forest after his victory over Ravana. The people of Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) welcomed Rama by lighting rows (avali) of lamps (dipa), thus its’ name, ‘dipawali’. This year it falls on 17th October. (more…)

Barack Obama

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” White House report said. It further added, “ The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons,”
“Obama has, as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has reg

When I was in school, I used to wear blue shorts and red shirt in the evening to play football and ‘whites’ for cricket practice with a monogram of the school (‘SJA’) on the pocket.  This dress was  then called ‘colours’. I loved to wear tee-shirts also, in the evenings and the only choice for boys  then was blue, cream and grey and no A B C D printed on it.

Thereafter, went  to college and wore tee-shirts as there was no specific dress code. At the time, cricket was played in white clothes, until Kerry Packer of Channel 9 Australia, innovated coloured trousers and changed the white to a coloured tee-shirt with the country’s name in front and player’s name and  number on it’s back. And rightfully so, TENdulkar got the number ‘ten’ on his tee-shirt. So, the digits and words arrived on  tee-shirts. (more…)

Despite the assurances given by the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Judd to the Indian Foreign Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna, during the latters’ visit to Australia in June 09, regarding  safety of Indian students, the attacks on Indian residents there, have gone unabated. A 28 year old student from the Indian community was attacked with a “plank of wood or a baseball bat” by two men which left him with 20 stitches in his head.

The 28-year-old student, whose name was not declared, was attacked by the men after he got down from a bus at Keilor Plains train station on Tuesday. (more…)