An extract from the diary of Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin DSO who was
among the first British soldiers to liberate Bergen-Belsen in 1945.

Camp

I can give no adequate description of the Horror Camp in which my men and myself were to spend the next month of our lives. It was just a barren wilderness, as bare as a chicken run. Corpses lay everywhere, some in huge piles, sometimes they lay singly or in pairs where they had fallen. It took a little time to get used to seeing men women and childen collapse as you walked by them and to restrain oneself from going to their assistance. One had to get used early to the idea that the individual just did not count. One knew that five hundred a day were dying and that five hundred a day were going on dying for weeks before anything we could do would have the slightest effect. It was, however, not easy to watch a child choking to death from diptheria when you knew a tracheotomy and nursing would save it, one saw women drowning in their own vomit because they were too weak to turn over, and men eating worms as they clutched a half loaf of bread purely because they had to eat worms to live and now could scarcely tell the difference. Piles of corpses, naked and obscene, with a woman too weak to stand proping herself against them as she cooked the food we had given her over an open fire; men and women crouching down just anywhere in the open relieving themselves of the dysentary which was scouring their bowels, a woman standing stark naked washing herself with some issue soap in water from a tank in which the remains of a child floated. It was shortly after the British Red Cross arrived, though it may have no connection, that a very large quantity of lipstick arrived. This was not at all what we men wanted, we were screaming for hundreds and thousands of other things and I don't know who asked for lipstick. I wish so much that I could discover who did it, it was the action of genius, sheer unadulterated brilliance. I believe nothing did more for these internees than the lipstick. Women lay in bed with no sheets and no nightie but with scarlet red lips, you saw them wandering about with nothing but a blanket over their shoulders, but with scarlet red lips. I saw a woman dead on the post mortem table and clutched in her hand was a piece of lipstick. At last someone had done something to make them individuals again, they were someone, no longer merely the number tatooed on the arm. At last they could take an interest in their appearance. That lipstick started to give them back their humanity

Source: Imperial War museum

Ps: Got this one from http://www.banksy.co.uk . Please do visit.

It was a pitch black night and suddenly a hairy hand clawed at my feet. I had battled with monstrous grisly bears all through the night. Having spent all my catridges on the cubs a few minutes ago, I knew my gun was empty. I knew for sure that the 'thing' right in front of me must be the mother bear, seeking revenge. Having( more... )

And twelve months of torture will give way to a new year of hope...
A hope to build the paradise ...the paradise that we hope to build..over..err..

(pours a peg of Bagpiper and fills the rest with sandpiper ...and gulps down the infamous "bomb"( Read more )
)

This post is a result of Inspiration from a post by sajith  which you can find here.

It is always a cause for surprise in observers to notice that W.Bengal and Kerala, even though so many thousand miles apart have a lot in common, the most notorious of them being longstanding elected communist governments. Along with it are other commonalities, some of which I have listed as the title of this post.

I think that, to reason out the specifics of any development pattern, one has to go searching until the very roots are unearthed. And in this case, as I dug down, I think I came up with one good very basic component that was common between Kerala and West bengal, and that was a favouarable climate. The monsoon almost never failed here and water scarcity was nonexistant, in comparison with the other parts of India. The terrain was also very hospitable.

Then there were atleast 2-3 months of heavy rains which makes it almost impossible to go out and work or engage in outdoor activities, thus thrusting  periods of seclusion on the people. It is a known fact that Ideas emerge when people have time to think and when they think independently. Those Ideas were then discussed with each other. That also lead to a better development of art forms, literature and reading, collectively leading to the development of the intellect. Also, both the states had a very well educated middleclass which was also nonexistant in other parts of the country.

These fortunate people where those who dint have to work every single day to feed themseleves and their families. The free time was used up to hugely improve the quality of their creative endeavours. This explains why great painters and literary artists always came from the upper crust of the society or the largely educated middle class. If we take the hint from one of the more modern examples of societal develpment from history, namely development of America, the early literary endeavours of the country where  from the eastern coast which had more hospitable terrain and longer winters, giving more free time in oppostion to the west which was rugged and the populace, as we know, lead a wild life with more emphasis on physical abilities, rather than literary endeavours.

The people who are lazy (to do menial labour) and who do not have a hand to mouth existance are almost always drawn towards books which brought with them romantic Ideas. The middleclass youth of Kerala and W. Bengal, with lesser responsibilities(in comparison to contemporaries from other parts of the country), better education and independent thinking, a lot of leisure time on their hands, young blood and great regard for romanticism quickly fell for the enticing Ideals of communism. enticing. Also, Communism brought with it legends of heroes like Che Guvera who were powerful personalities whom the youth were more than willing to imitate. All this combined with the Idea of "Martyrdom" for a semmingly selfless Goal of a "welfare state" was an intoxicating heady mix that spread like wild fire through their collective consciousness and the seeds of communism were sown. 

Now, wat does that have to do with the beauty of women, here? Hmm.. Again, I feel that beauty is not only in the body but also in the mind. In fact, Intelligence greatly amplifies the physical beauty of a lady by a large degree. Atleast for me, a goodlooking lady who is well read and can appreciate a wide variety of human endeavours in art, literature and science would be much more attractive as well as desirable, in comparison to a stunning beauty with little intelligence. So, the point is that, most of the notion of the great beauty of the ladies of these states come from the fact that they are also more intelligent, well groomed and carry themselves with a confident gait which is not be matched by others.

Of course, what I am suggesting here is that all the free time that people of these states enjoyed which lead to the development of their art and intellectualism is also behind the evolution of beautiful ladies.

Surely people, that must have been the last straw for you.. ;) So IAm making an effort to contain myself :)