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It’s been a fun and learning experience compiling this edition of the Bharateeya Blog Mela. Hope to do a better job next week. A big thanks to Sampada and Shanti for all your help. To all you nice people who sent in nominations, keep ‘em flowing! BTW, the dates are there just in case the permalinks don’t work, and all the links open to a new page. Now, onwards to the main event …

Prasenjeet Datta / ChaosZone has a slew of interesting posts this week. The long ones range from the challenges of localizing software for Indian languages (April 20) to periodic reviews of criminal and civil laws in India (April 22). The post I liked best was a brief ditty on French hypocrisy. (April 19).

The Iraq war still provides ammunition to Niraj’s blog with two pieces — on Geoge Galloway, a.ka. Saddam’s puppy dog and on the not-Nostradamus predictions of war critics.

Shanti / Dancing with Dogs whacks Praful Bidwai’s Lies, Trickery and Deception on the fall of Saddam’s statue in Baghdad. Rediff writers beware! Varsha Bhosle gets a whacking too — for her blind stereotyping of NRI’s. There’s also a short religion questionnaire (the comments are very long and make great reading!)

JK blogs on Syria being a welcoming friend to many a terrorist.

Prashant Kothari gives us a takeaway on US airbases in India (April 22) and a lament on the Economist’s slide.

Suman Palit / the Kolkata Libertarian gives a subtle slap to the ecological footprint and imparts some sense into the mother earth vs. concrete jungle debate.

After a longish time, Mahesh has an epiphany on Indian financial planners and their lack of professionalism.

Gaurav Sabnis commends Rajasthan CM Gehlot’s master stroke in getting Pravin Togadia charged with sedition in Laaaaa (law) is above God. (April 18, 3rd post)

Kingsley critiques religious allegiances vis-a-vis the state.

Vikas Kamat’s Potpourri reports on the turmoil in the periodicals industry and also on the challenges e-journals bring.

Tired of having his pieces edited, Arnab’s started to publish a Weekly Web Wonder column.

Sajit Gandhi / Desiblog writes about Asian film, largely focussing on Bend It Like Beckham and Better Luck Tomorrow. (April 19)

Ratheesh KrishnaVadhyar continues his review of Abraham Eraly’s Gem in the Lotus–The Seeding of Indian Civilization.

In closing, Anil Kandangath shaves off excess with Occam’s razor while Divi stands up for the death penalty.

Till next week then. The 10th Bharteeya Blog Mela will also be hosted here (on April 30). Send in your nominations latest by April 30, 10 pm IST. The posts for the 10th mela have to be dated between April 23-30.