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Law Jokes- Smoking Cigar

A Charlotte, North Carolina man, having purchased a case of rare, very expensive cigars, insured them against .... get this .... fire. Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of fabulous cigars, and having yet to make a single premium payment on the policy, the man filed a claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the man stated that he had lost the cigars in "a series of small fires." The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason that the man had consumed the cigars in a normal fashion. The man sued ... and won!! In delivering his ruling, the judge stated that since the man held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable, and also guaranteed that it would insure the cigars against fire, without defining what it considered to be "unacceptable fire," it was obligated to compensate the insured for his loss. Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company acc

Harassment of men- Need for gender neutral laws

India is now going through a very bad patch with ever increasing attacks against women and children. The same ever increased over the last year. From the infamous Sowmya murder case to the Delhi gang rape case to the present case of a little 5 year old being gang raped, there is ever increasing reports of women and children being subjected to harassment. Now it is absolute certainty that perpetrators of such heinous crimes need to be punished with such severity that will deter others from repeating such crime. Recently our parliament has passed stringent laws to make such acts punishable with even death in certain crimes. But there are certain grey areas in such laws that need to be corrected. As a legal professional, I am apprehensive about certain sections of these acts by which just the statement of the women is enough to convict the man involved. Such a notion can pave way for abuse as any women having some grudge against any man can file a false complaint and that man wil

Aliens- Myth or Reality

As we enter the new decade, it is time to ask the eternal; question, "are we alone in this world"? For me, my interest in aliens were kindled in the childhood. It began with a program by Dooradarshan called"UFO-The Extra Terrestrial" broadcast back in the mid 1980's. Largely based on the USAF investigation on the sighting's of UFO's under the project "Blue Book" , it records the sighting of UFO's  and records the experience of the onlookers. Then there was the X-Files in the late 1990's.  When we talk about aliens, the first picture that comes to our mind is the small humanoid form with big eyes. They are the most common of the aliens and are referred to as gray. They were also depicted in ET-The Extra Terrestrial movie and also in several episodes of The X-Files. The sightings of UFO's are quite rampant through out the world. The government dismisses them either as natural phenomena  or some times balloons  How ever

LAW JOKES-2

Just some more court jokes that I wanted to share:  IF YOU'VE EVER BEEN CALLED FOR JURY DUTY.....THEN YOU HAVE TO KNOW THIS IS  PRICELESS! Enjoy a good laugh! These are from a book called: "Disorder in the American Courts",  and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court  reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.  ______________________________ _____________  ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?  WITNESS: Yes.  ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?  WITNESS: I forget.  ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?  ______________________________ _____________  ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?  WITNESS: We both do.  ATTORNEY: Voodoo?  WITNESS: We do.  ATTORNEY: You do?  WITNESS: Yes, voodoo.  _______________________

VISHU-CELEBRATIONS FROM MY CHILHOOD

                                                    (Picture Courtesy-Dr T.M.Sarvothaman Nedungadi)      Vishu, the celebration of lights and celebration for the Keralites. It is the beginning of the Malayalam New Year. A time when the schools close for the long summer vacation after the end of an academic year. The children unshackled from the burden of education celebrate to their hearts fill. For me, Vishu has special place in my heart from my child hood. It was the time when after the annual exams and closing of the school, we used to travel to my father's native place at Trichur. There all my cousins would come for the vacation. There used to be my brother Anu ettan. with whom  I always had a special bond. We used to play many games including cricket. Then there was also the festivities in Trichur associated with Vishu, the cultural capital of Kerala. There used to visit  the Trichur Excibition at the Thekinkaddu Maidan. We along with our parents used to visit there. T

China-Challenges for Asia and the world

As the world wakes up to the new challenge that we call China, it is time to analyse the challenges that the world especially the countries in Asia will face, the question being how to face the emerging dragon. China has in recent years startled the world with it's fast growing economy and also the military strength. China in the last few years has rolled out magnificent    military weapons including stealth aircrafts, naval ships and other weapon systems. Backed by robust economy, China has attained to flex her muscles around the world. China has embarked on an era of cultivating friendly ties with nations around the world including countries of Asia. This has given jitters to India especially the Chinese strategy of the string of pearls strategy to encircle India. The strategic community is raking their brains to find a solution and effectively face cap the Chinese expansion. Now the question that we need to ask is whether we are over reacting or should we be cautious? I

COMBAT PLANES-MY FAVORITE ONES (Part-1)

As many may not be aware, one of my interests is strategic and defense affairs. I am specially interested in combat planes. My interests were kindled at an early age when my father first bought for me The Encyclopedia of Combat Planes from one of his tours. My interests were further enhanced by the Wings program which had complete history shown on Discovery channel. Here i am trying to make a list of my most favorite aircrafts. When one talks about combat planes, one can never ignore the contributions made by the Americans and the Russians. They are the world leaders in Aeronautics. While the Americans concentrated more on the aesthetic aspect of the plane, it was all about getting the job done for the Russians. The Russian planes were rugged and tough. The Americans concentrated more on making high end and high tech planes. I have curtailed my countdown to planes that entered services after the 1950's. It is done to limit the planes that I can deal. In the first part, I am deal

RAPE IN DELHI,WHAT IS HAPPENING TO INDIA?????

Yet another blog for me. But it has special significance as I am again forced to write about the increasing violence against our mothers and sisters in India. A few months ago, I had written a blog about the infamous rape and murder of Sowmya by a hooligan. I always prayed that I should again be forced to deal with the subject. Yet again another rape has taken place, this time in our national capital region. What has hurt me the most is the sheer brutality with which the girl was raped and treated later including insertion of rods?I keep wondering what type of animals can do such a thing to a young girl?An animal  who does not have any remorse or humane feelings? What is happening to our country where lawlessness are growing day in and day out. Corruption, violence has become part of our lives. Criminals has a field day and the law increasingly seems to be helpless and ineffective in doing anything to stop such atrocities.  As a lawyer, I see hundreds of criminal cases everyd

HARTAL, BANDH- WHO IS THE LOSER AND WHO GAINS?

                                   ( A view of deserted Court Road, Palakkad during a hartal day) I am re posting an extract from my earlier blog concerning Hartals that I posted in 2010 . Shocking to say nothing much has changed in the last 2 years. HARTAL (REFER WIKIPEDIA) Hartal is a form of civil disobedience movement. The word has it's origin in Gujarathi which was imbibed by the great Mahatma as an effective tool of civil and mass disobedience movement and an effective protest. BANDHS (REFER WIKIPEDIA) Bandhs in hindi means closed. It is perhaps the most feared form of protest where in a political party call for protest and it is expected that the public will comply, in most cases forcibly complied.  The most affected are the states of West Bengal and Kerala which is ruled by the left parties which has seen the maximum number of hartals and bandhs. In Kerala, the Honorable High Court had banned bandhs. The political parties being ingenious re branded bandhs as hart

FUEL PRICES THAT BURN OUR POCKET

                                                                                                                           I had  been out of blogging for the past one month. In this time many things had been going on including coalgate (not to be confused with the toothpaste). Yet again I am not going to write another blog lamenting about the corruption in India. I am a great believer in time and a time will come when there will be a change in the system and all the evils will disappear. So I have decided to concentrate on the impending fuel price hike in India. In the last two years, the prices of fuel have sky rocketed in India with Petrol currently being sold at about ₹70/- a litre. The continues rise has been attributed to the steep rise in the global crude oil prices. Now the price of the diesel has been increased by ₹5. The government has decided to  ration the number of gas cylinders being supplied to each household every year. In a way, the common man is put to grea