With Salman Khan rapping "East or West, India is the best" and my mother humming along in the background, I can't help but question the validity of the lyrics. Sure, Salman Khans words were probably scripted by some underpaid Bollywood writer, but the sentiment must have some sort of factual basis. I mean, it can't be that Mr. Khan or my mother, blindly believe that having 1/3 of their nation living in abject poverty that rivals sub-Saharan Africa makes it "the best".

Peering through a telescope - one fixated on the streets of Banglore or Mumbai gives limits our view of India. I'm going to guess that Salman Khan and his Bollywood kin have been bolstered by the events of globalization over the last two decades in making their musical claim.

Excluding Bollywoods attempt at hardcore rap, I'm going to say that globalization in its most basic form is benificial - economically atleast. Why? Thats simple - its the best system we've got.

Globalization is the international system that replaced the cold war system. It effects everyones domestic politics and everyones international relations. The cold war system was defined by the idea of division, symbolized by the Berlin Wall. It was like the Nile River delta, filled with dykes and damns. We could not go far without running into a wall.

Some expensive items sold on eBay

1. Frank Mulder 4Yacht Gigayacht ($85 million)
2. Grumman Gulfstream II jet ($4.9 million)
3. 1993 San Lorenzo 80 Motoryacht ($1,935,300)
4. 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card ($1.265 million)
5. Diamond Lake Resort, western Kentucky ($1.2 million)
6. Enzo Ferrari ($975,000, October 2004)^[16]
7. Shoeless Joe Jackson's "Black Betsy" baseball bat ($577,610)
8. Round of golf with Tiger Woods ($425,000)
9. Portions of the 1996-2001 Jeopardy! set. The 9-foot-high Jeopardy! logo that was etched in glass as the backdrop sold for approximately $100,000. One of the contestant podiums sold for nearly $10,000 (proceeds of the set's sale went to charity)
10. In the aftermath of both the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, the Tonight Show auctioned off two Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which had been signed by various celebrities. The winning bid for the motorcycle auctioned after the Tsunami was $800,100.
11. Following Hurricane Katrina the Lego Group auctioned off the custom made Republic Attack Cruiser (built to promote Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith). Built using more than 35,000 pieces the model raised $31,000 for Habitat for Humanity.

Acquisitions & Investments by ebay

• In May, 1999, eBay acquired the online payment service Billpoint, which it shut down after acquiring PayPal.
• In 1999, eBay acquired the auction house Butterfield & Butterfield, which it sold in 2002 to Bonhams.
• In 1999, eBay acquired the auction house Alando for $43 million, which changed then to eBay Germany.
• In June, 2000, eBay acquired Half.com for $318 million, which was later integrated with the eBay Marketplace.
• In August, 2001, eBay acquired Mercado Libre, Lokau and iBazar, Latin American auction sites.
• In July, 2002, eBay acquired PayPal, for $1.5 billion in stock.
• On January 31, 2003, eBay acquired CARad.com, an auction management service for car dealers.
• On July 11, 2003 eBay Inc. acquired EachNet, a leading ecommerce company in China, paying approximately $150 million in cash.
• On June 22, 2004, eBay acquired all outstanding shares of Baazee.com, an Indian auction site for approximately US $50 million in cash, plus acquisition costs.
• On August 13, 2004, eBay took a 25% stake in Craigslist by buying out an existing shareholder who was once a Craigslist employee.
• In September 2004, eBay moved forward on its acquisition of Korean rival Internet Auction Co. (IAC), buying nearly 3 million shares of the Korean online trading company for 125,000 Korean won (about US$109) per share.
• In November 2004, eBay acquired Marktplaats.nl for €225 million. This was a Dutch competitor which had an 80% market share in the Netherlands, by concentrating more on small ads than actual auctions.
• On December 16, 2004, eBay acquired Rent.com for $415 million in cash (original deal was for $385 million of the amount in eBay stock plus $30 million in cash).
• In May 2005, eBay acquired Gumtree, a network of UK local city classifieds sites.
• On May 18, 2005, eBay acquired the Spanish classifieds site Loquo.
• In June 2005, eBay acquired Shopping.com, an online comparison site for $635 million.
• At the end of June 2005, eBay acquired the German language classifieds site Opus Forum.
• In September 2005, eBay bought Skype, a VoIP company, for $2.6 billion in stock and cash.
• In April 2006, eBay invested $2 million in the Meetup social networking site.^[5]
• In April 2006, eBay acquired Tradera.com, Sweden's leading online auction-style marketplace for $48 Million.

A kurta (or sometimes kurti, for women) is a traditional piece of clothing worn in northern India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. It is a loose shirt falling either just above or somewhere below the knees of the wearer, and is worn by both men and women. It can be worn with either a paijaamaa (men), salwar (women), or chudidaar (a unisex tight-fitting trouser). They are typically worn in more formal occasions, especially in the case of men, who in South Asia have largely moved to Western clothes as everyday wear.

Kurtas are usually custom-made by South Asian tailors, who work with the fabric their customers bring them. South Asians overseas, and Westerners, can buy them at South Asian clothing stores or order them from web retailers.

In 2004 and 2005, a modified kurta has become fashionable and appeared in the collections of designers such as Versace. These kurtas are typically much shorter than the traditional garments, made with a lighter material more often resembling that of a kameez. They are often worn with jeans, both in India and Pakistan and throughout the rest of the fashion world.

Enjoy wearning Kurta.

Courtesy : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurta