In fact, history in post-independence India isn’t much different (even though it is hardly ever taught in school textbooks). The Indo-Pak wars in 1948, 1971 and the Indo-China War of 1962 have played pivotal roles in shaping the country’s political future. The outcome of the Wars could have changed the very economic fabric of the nation. The fact that the Kashmir Issue receives enough limelight from international media has a lot to do with India’s economic and nuclear status. The nuclear status owes itself to the fact that Vajpayee government won elections in 1998 which in itself owes itself to the Kargil War. All the text above just leaves me with one thought. Our lives, our comfort, economic status, our jobs, our money … every part of our life depends on our country. They depend on – sovereignty and democracy that we enjoy and celebrate on every Independence Day. Sovereignty is an expensive commodity that needs to be protected by winning crucial Wars, with the blood of our soldiers a...

The other day, some of us were wondering why the UK keeps getting meddled with Bin Laden, Taliban, Saddam, Hezbollah and other terrorists when they have never directly caused any harm to them. (It is to be noted that the London Underground bombings of 2005 were probably the first acts of terrorism in the UK – and they followed UK’s participation in the War against Terror!). Clearly, it is the World War II – the mistakes and the triumphs during those days that fuel the current policies of the UK. The US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the US Marines in California after 9/11 that there were direct parallels between America’s relative diplomatic isolation over the projected war against Iraq and Churchill’s lonely stand against the appeasement of Germany in the 1930s. The consequences of ignoring Hitler were very gruesome for Britain when it remained the only country in Europe to survive Hitler’s forces. The possibility re-occurrence of events of the 40’s is probably the reason why ...

I was in Switzerland on their national day (when the Swiss Confederation was formed) and it was nothing less than surprising that there was little celebration in Geneva. I also have been hearing how there is no National Day of Britain and patriotism is the last thing people think of in the West (with exception of Germany)! As I sit in London on the Indian Independence Day – it is – or rather was- very surprisingly difficult to understand what keeps the western nations intact, whose citizen care for little but their personal lives and private re-creation. However, a book I picked up from the local library ( Hitler and Churchill ) gave me some historical perspective on this subject. I quote – “Our world is still recognizably that which post-Hitler settlement of 1945 bequeathed us … Saddam apart, the West is presently enjoying those ‘broad sunlit uplands’ that Churchill promised and Hitler tried so hard to raze … “Many another nation has had its golden age, its moment in history’s limelig...

Here is a Hindi poem co-written by a bunch of Bachelors - online ... on email http://the-new-cloud.blogspot.com/2006/08/frustration-ki-limit.html A post written on similar lines by me long ago: http://the-complete-man.blogspot.com/2005/04/i-need-girlfriend.html

As I sit here in London in my ‘fully-furnished’ (temporary) apartment listening to the album Aadat by Jal – I cannot help but recollect the past one year (rather more) that I spent in Mumbai. My first year of living – ‘on my own’ – not supported by a Hostel or home. Also my first year of living with friends – ‘on my own’ – on my own salary, in facilities organised and supported by myself. The beginning of the period in my life of what people term as ‘bachelor’s life’ – which continues still of course! The song ‘Aadat’ has a link to my ‘bachelor’s life’ – it is the song which both me and Somnath enjoy singing along as loudly as we could (probably to the horror and discomfort of our neighbours) and Sharad was most irritated to hear. The past one year was quite colourful, and apart from the three of us (Me, Somnath and Sharad) there were others who shared the apartment on-n-off. Pavan was with us from the day we dropped our luggage there – he was in for 4 months of his project stint. I...

I don't think India was ever under a government madder and more incompetent than this !! Read this before you proceed: http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/aug/10cola3.htm The government is thinking of banning Cola Advertisements because a few Cola Bottles had pesticides found in them. After the utterly thoughtless banning of blog hosting sites , this is next paranoid decision of the so called 'intellectual lead' government!! This decision is ridiculous ! One, presence of pesticide in Colas reflects an utter failure of the government regulatory machinery in controlling proper standards of health in the drinking water and commercially usable water. Rather than accept this - the goverment is covering itself up by creating unecessary controversy with media (clearly knowing how much of revenue media houses generate from Cola advertisements). Two, I don't know why Mr. Ramadoss has this habit of always solving the wrong problem! Are we assuming that banning advertisement of Cola...

My adventures for the day did not end with the take-off of the flight – which was uneventful however. On landing into Leon, as I handed over my passport to the officials – he gave me a suspicious look. I had known that there’d be trouble ever since they announced that they were diverting the flight to Leon, being well aware that Leon was in France and I did not have a Schengen Visa. But I had decided to play it – after all it was the air company’s headache, not mine – they were diverting the flight and planning to ply us by road to Geneva. So, this official curiously scrutinized my passport and then a list – which I suppose would be the list of countries whose nationals were allowed entry into France without a Visa. Had he known English, I would have spared him all the hard work by telling him that he will not find India in it; I had read about all these trespassing privileges just the day before (and out of curiosity looked for India as well in those lists of ‘allowed nationals’) w...

I am writing this ‘on-board’ the Easy Jet flight 976 and I have been here since the past 3 hours while the flight stands still at the London Gatwick Airport. And if there is one word which I would use to describe the beginning of my Europe tour – it is ‘pathetic’! The trouble started when I got late to get back home and hence had to take a cab to the Gatwick costing me a good 40 pounds. But when I reached the airport at 7, I realized that I was not only well in time but I could have been safe even if I would have come there 2 hours later. Easy Jet (which I am sure has outsourced its IT operations to a non-Indian firm) had some problem with its computers – resultantly the check in system was not running. They tried to fix the problem for hours while the queues at the check in counter first elongated and then shortened – people started leaving the queues. Finally, some intelligent soul realized that they were not going to be able to resolve their software problem for some time and so Eas...

Some flicks of my first few days in London on a Flick r Slideshow. Click here for it.

On what can be termed as the most horrific onslaught of Indian Bureacracy on Blogosphere, the Indian goverment has asked certain blogs to be blocked. Initially reported by Indian bloggers in and outside India through their blogs, the case has now been confirmed by a news item on Rediff. Some Blog reports: Gaurav Sabnis Neha Vishwanathan - comprehensive summary Rediff News Item: http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/20dot.htm As per Rediff, the Department of Telecom had "asked to block just some sub-domains hosted by those services" while ISPs "unintentionally" blocked the complete domains - Blogspot, Typepad and Yahoo! Geocities and more. The government "has asked Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to explain why action should not be taken against them for unintentionally blocking some Web sites." However, a spokesperson for the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) said that ISPs had been asked to immediately comply with the government orde...