Applause greeted the Supreme Court’s ruling that Manu Sharma should spend the rest of his life in prison. The man was a cold-blooded killer. His victim’s only fault was that she declined to pour him a drink after the bar had closed. Annoyed, he shot Jessica Lal pointblank and swaggered out.
Arrogance of this kind has marked many high-society crimes in recent years. This murderer was arrogant because of his money and his pedigree as a former minister’s son. Spoiled rich kids ran their limousines over pavement sleepers in Delhi and Mumbai because of their social arrogance. Police officer Rathod in Haryana raped an under-age girl because of his power arrogance. Sons of politicians, police officers and IAS babus across the country have been caught indulging in activities civil society should be ashamed of. They also use their influence to make an ass of the law.
This is where the Supreme Court’s incidental observations in the Jessica Lal murder case call for close attention. It said, among other things, that “trial by media… had the effect of interfering with the administration of justice”. The remark was occasioned by Sharma’s lawyer Ram Jethmalani’s complaint that his client had faced trial by media. In his enthusiasm for his client, Jethmalani lost sight of the fact that, for once, “trial by media” achieved something good, beyond anything he could have achieved.
The Jessica Lal case is in fact a classic example of how forces in our country conspire to deliberately interfere with the administration of justice. The shooting had taken place in front of many people, so it should have been easy to bring the guilty to book. But the influential culprits managed to ensure that witnesses turned hostile in court. The machinery of the state itself played dirty; the police failed to recover the gun and the prosecution presented a case that was ridiculously weak. The killer and his associates were all set free. Justice was blatantly thwarted.
It was in this situation that the public, to its credit, came forward with protests and demonstrations and candle vigils. The media took up the cause and provided persistent campaign coverage. It may have been high-pitched and less than professional. But it was well-intentioned and the honesty of its purpose persuaded the Delhi High Court to re-open the case suo motu. Under public glare, the police and prosecutors did what they failed to do in the first round. The High Court found Sharma guilty. The Supreme Court ratified that decision because Jethmalani was unable to hide the truth with his misplaced protestations against the media.
The media in India today is not exactly a clean entity. It has become, generally speaking, dubious in its motivations, mischievous in its pretensions, and plainly guilty in many of its practices. Large sections of it are corrupt. Amoral ideas have been institutionalised by the biggest players with fancy labels like “private treaties” and “paid news”. The guilty in the media too should one day be brought to justice.
It is a bit of a miracle that a media that has abdicated its responsibility is still able to do some public good. It is the nature of its work that makes this possible. Malpractices, misdeeds and criminalities dot the activities of our governments, our politicians, our businessmen, our film stars and even our sports bodies. A great deal of this is brought to public attention only because the media, by default or otherwise, dare publish information the guilty try to suppress. We only have to recall the numerous scandals of recent times to appreciate the value of this service done by the media.
The Jessica Lal case shows how the media, warts and all, and public spirited citizens and alert judicial authorities can work in tandem to keep at least a few of our influential criminals out of harm’s way. Justice is higher than a lawyer’s interest in his client.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Raavan- Music review- A.R.Rahman
Beera, in true Rahman style, takes a spirited, free-flowing life of its own; the energizing tune, completely fresh vocals of Mustafa Kutoane’s literally African sound and Vijay Prakash’s spritely rendition…it all adds up perfectly. Behene de is gorgeous! Resembling the style of Taj Mahal’s Kuliridhu is a massive advantage, even as it takes many fascinating turns mid-way. Karthik is in dazzling form in this track! Thok di killi’s exotic sounds and energy have it in great stead even beyond those occasionally predictable Arabic’esque phases, thanks in large doses to the energizer bunny-level liveliness of Sukhwinder Singh. The way it ends, in almost a frenzy, is a nice touch! Ranjha ranjha, with its methodically ascending orchestration and earthy vocals by Rekha Bharadwaj, offers instant gratification. Add to that, Javed Ali’s polished vocals, some scintillating interludes and sheer lyrical drama by Gulzar – this is a clear winner! Khili re is Rahman-template in every note…that semi-devotional, heartfelt rendition by a lady – sounds functional, but is also the sole mildly-appealing track. Kata kata is a euphoric victory, but; immediately catchy and hummable, with enough mind-boggling layers hidden to unravel on multiple listens. Mani Ratnam, as always, continues to bring the best out of Rahman!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
World Liver Day
I received this text message a couple of days ago:
"Is your liver happy? BGS Global Hospitals, liver transplant leaders bring World Liver Day special offer - 19 to 25th April. Call..."
I asked my liver if it was happy and I got a very grouchy reply that I should ask it again after it had soaked up a few more beers. That was pretty much what I'd expected it to say. Nevertheless, I find the thought of people flocking to BGS for a special offer liver transplant quite amusing. What is the hospital offering, I wonder? Buy one get one free? Or maybe they're throwing in a kidney or two as well. At the very least, I would expect that the hospital canteen has been doing a roaring trade in liver and bacon for these past few days.
"Is your liver happy? BGS Global Hospitals, liver transplant leaders bring World Liver Day special offer - 19 to 25th April. Call..."
I asked my liver if it was happy and I got a very grouchy reply that I should ask it again after it had soaked up a few more beers. That was pretty much what I'd expected it to say. Nevertheless, I find the thought of people flocking to BGS for a special offer liver transplant quite amusing. What is the hospital offering, I wonder? Buy one get one free? Or maybe they're throwing in a kidney or two as well. At the very least, I would expect that the hospital canteen has been doing a roaring trade in liver and bacon for these past few days.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Difference between Record of the Year and Album of the Year?
Record of the Year is awarded for a single or for one track from an album. This award goes to the performing artist and the producer, recording engineer, and/or mixer for that song. Album of the Year is awarded for a whole album, and the award is presented to the artist, producer, and recording engineer for that album. So, in this context, "record" means one song and "album" means the whole collection of songs on a CD or LP.
But if "record" really means "song," what's the Song of the Year award for? The Grammy's frequently asked questions page has the answer. Record of the Year is given to the artist who performs the song and the people who produce the track. Song of the Year is also awarded for a single or individual track, but the recipient of this award is the songwriter who dreamed up the song in the first place.
While some artists like 2001 Song of the Year winner Alicia Keys -- write their own songs, not all do. For example, in 1999 Itaal Shur and Rob Thomas won the Song of the Year award for "Smooth," which appeared on the album Supernatural by Santana. Guitarist Carlos Santana and his band performed that song with singer Rob Thomas, but they didn't receive the Grammy. However, they did win nine other Grammys that year, including Record of the Year (for "Smooth") and Album of the Year (for Supernatural).
Explanation to Amit Mathew and Sanjoy Alexander
But if "record" really means "song," what's the Song of the Year award for? The Grammy's frequently asked questions page has the answer. Record of the Year is given to the artist who performs the song and the people who produce the track. Song of the Year is also awarded for a single or individual track, but the recipient of this award is the songwriter who dreamed up the song in the first place.
While some artists like 2001 Song of the Year winner Alicia Keys -- write their own songs, not all do. For example, in 1999 Itaal Shur and Rob Thomas won the Song of the Year award for "Smooth," which appeared on the album Supernatural by Santana. Guitarist Carlos Santana and his band performed that song with singer Rob Thomas, but they didn't receive the Grammy. However, they did win nine other Grammys that year, including Record of the Year (for "Smooth") and Album of the Year (for Supernatural).
Explanation to Amit Mathew and Sanjoy Alexander
Monday, April 19, 2010
Money game
We as a people have gifts no other people have. Italy and New York, for example, are celebrated for their great mafia leaders. But those leaders could only think of routine stuff, like kidnapping and smuggling and murder and protection money. Only an Indian could think up the nonviolent idea of making millions from the humble, rarely noticed stamp paper. Telgi never harmed a fly.
Indians have the rare genius to turn everything into an item of trade. Who else has turned God into such profitable commerce? We discovered early that this line of business required the least investment. And the returns are huge. All it takes is the right kind of uniform – saffron robes or bishop’s cassocks or a neutral white that looks now like a saree, now like a winter shawl – and some kind of marketing mantra. Then you get enough believers around the world to keep you in eternal wealth, not to mention attractive fringe benefits provided by young devotees.
The God industry will remain by far the most widespread and lucrative of all business ventures in India. But ours is a vast and fertile land. There’s plenty of scope for all kinds of growth industries. So we have been busy developing the commercial potential of various other previously innocent ideas. Like Ambedkar, Maoists, Cricket….
B.R.Ambedkar is one of the greatest, bravest men who shaped our country’s destiny. K.R.Narayanan becoming President and K.G.Balakrishnan becoming Chief Justice of India are 20th-21st century phenomena and therefore not altogether uncommon. Ambedkar was born in the last decade of the 19th century into a family that was not only Untouchable but described openly as such. For such a boy to get a scholarship to Columbia University and then to London was an almost unbelievable feat.
Instead of hailing him as an Indian of supreme vision and value, we have reduced him to a convenient bargaining chip of Dalitism. Mayawati today claims exclusive proprietorial rights over him. Rahul Gandhi, on a mission to out-Dalit Mayawati, is not allowed to garland Ambedkar’s statue in Ambedkar Nagar area. In this one-upmanship game, Mayawati and Rahul Gandhi may or may not score points. But Ambedkar will lose. Because Ambedkar is no more than an item of political trade in their hands.
The Maoists of Dandakaranya are not very different. Home Minister Chidambaram’s hawkish policy has run into opposition from his own party colleagues who see the futility of a militaristic approach to what is fundamentally a social-economic problem. Unfortunately for Chidambaram, his earlier association with Vedanta, one of the companies that will benefit hugely if the Maoists are suppressed, has brought his motivations into question. It won’t be easy for him to avoid the impression that the lives of tens of thousands of adivasis are being traded for the commercial advantage of mining companies.
Cricket, of course, beats all other trading programmes, almost challenging the God business in scope and turnover. So many lakhs of crores of rupees are involved in the cricket business that the IPL presents its numbers in dollars and millions. Confidentiality, another word for secrecy, has been its watchword. Could such vast sums be clean? Could they include black money, terrorist money, underworld money? It is amazing that such issues attracted the enforcement directorate’s attention only when Shashi Tharoor and the Kochi franchise got into the picture. Tharoor is a natural magnet for trouble, as a playboy who wants to be everywhere doing everything. But he is a bumbling Batman before Lalit Modi’s scheming Svengali. How many political VIPs are interlinked with Svengali? Will they ensure that any investigation is yet another eyewash? Tragically cricket is no longer a sport. It too has become an item of trade, flourishing in a fish-market culture. May all the moneymakers burn in hellfire in due course for destroying the decencies that made cricket cricket and the values that made India India.
Indians have the rare genius to turn everything into an item of trade. Who else has turned God into such profitable commerce? We discovered early that this line of business required the least investment. And the returns are huge. All it takes is the right kind of uniform – saffron robes or bishop’s cassocks or a neutral white that looks now like a saree, now like a winter shawl – and some kind of marketing mantra. Then you get enough believers around the world to keep you in eternal wealth, not to mention attractive fringe benefits provided by young devotees.
The God industry will remain by far the most widespread and lucrative of all business ventures in India. But ours is a vast and fertile land. There’s plenty of scope for all kinds of growth industries. So we have been busy developing the commercial potential of various other previously innocent ideas. Like Ambedkar, Maoists, Cricket….
B.R.Ambedkar is one of the greatest, bravest men who shaped our country’s destiny. K.R.Narayanan becoming President and K.G.Balakrishnan becoming Chief Justice of India are 20th-21st century phenomena and therefore not altogether uncommon. Ambedkar was born in the last decade of the 19th century into a family that was not only Untouchable but described openly as such. For such a boy to get a scholarship to Columbia University and then to London was an almost unbelievable feat.
Instead of hailing him as an Indian of supreme vision and value, we have reduced him to a convenient bargaining chip of Dalitism. Mayawati today claims exclusive proprietorial rights over him. Rahul Gandhi, on a mission to out-Dalit Mayawati, is not allowed to garland Ambedkar’s statue in Ambedkar Nagar area. In this one-upmanship game, Mayawati and Rahul Gandhi may or may not score points. But Ambedkar will lose. Because Ambedkar is no more than an item of political trade in their hands.
The Maoists of Dandakaranya are not very different. Home Minister Chidambaram’s hawkish policy has run into opposition from his own party colleagues who see the futility of a militaristic approach to what is fundamentally a social-economic problem. Unfortunately for Chidambaram, his earlier association with Vedanta, one of the companies that will benefit hugely if the Maoists are suppressed, has brought his motivations into question. It won’t be easy for him to avoid the impression that the lives of tens of thousands of adivasis are being traded for the commercial advantage of mining companies.
Cricket, of course, beats all other trading programmes, almost challenging the God business in scope and turnover. So many lakhs of crores of rupees are involved in the cricket business that the IPL presents its numbers in dollars and millions. Confidentiality, another word for secrecy, has been its watchword. Could such vast sums be clean? Could they include black money, terrorist money, underworld money? It is amazing that such issues attracted the enforcement directorate’s attention only when Shashi Tharoor and the Kochi franchise got into the picture. Tharoor is a natural magnet for trouble, as a playboy who wants to be everywhere doing everything. But he is a bumbling Batman before Lalit Modi’s scheming Svengali. How many political VIPs are interlinked with Svengali? Will they ensure that any investigation is yet another eyewash? Tragically cricket is no longer a sport. It too has become an item of trade, flourishing in a fish-market culture. May all the moneymakers burn in hellfire in due course for destroying the decencies that made cricket cricket and the values that made India India.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Soul - reader
This blog I dedicate to the only person who knows me inside out........This person understands the slightest change in my tone or voice. She (yes, it's a "she" this time and not a "he") recognises, every single emotion that passes through my face (even when I try hard to conceal them).she is THE one, who, I believe, has the solution to all my problems.....Yes, and it is very much true.....she not just has the solutions to my problems...she has the BEST SOLUTIONS to all the problems.....Yes, she is the "Problem-solver" where I am the "Problem-maker".........she is indeed my SOUL READER...
My Soul-Reader has not only read my Soul, He has also taught me a lot, which has helped me equip myself so as to protect my soul. She has not only taught me to stand up......she has taught me how to take a stand on things. She has not only taught me how to walk .......she has also instilled in me to have the strength to walk alone when required. She has not only taught me how to speak.....she has also taught me to speak up for myself. She was the person who held my hand and taught me how to write....but then, how can I forget that she has also taught me to write my own destiny? She has understood the needs of my soul and helped me let it free to explore new horizons......... Yes, she is indeed my soul-reader....No more than that...much more than that....
My soul-reader knows my soul so well that she finds ways to satisfy all the needs of my soul even before I realise that my soul is yearning for something..... She knows exactly what is the BEST for me. Even when I cry and yell and proclaim that I am totally unhappy with what she is suggesting, I know I am 100% wrong and she is 100% correct....
She has traversed through many a difficult path so that I am happy for the rest of my life. She smiles when I smile, He consoles me and makes me smile when I am crying, She stands up for me and is always beside me as a pillar of strength..... Yes, she is God's own messenger, especially sent as a guardian for me.
She showers her love upon me even when she is angry and is scolding me.....I know all the anger in her is because she loves me a lot....Yes, I am the "Apple of her Eyes"...there is no doubt about that... Her love and affection has helped me reach where I am now. Under her patronage I know I will be secure and will have peace of mind.
She is the person, whom I look upto....A guiding force for me....A source of enlightenment for me....A source of happiness for me......A source of love for me...... I LOVE HER.....I can't tell you how much....But, one thing is for sure......I would have been a totally different person if it had not been for her...
Thanks for making life a celebration for me........
My Soul-Reader has not only read my Soul, He has also taught me a lot, which has helped me equip myself so as to protect my soul. She has not only taught me to stand up......she has taught me how to take a stand on things. She has not only taught me how to walk .......she has also instilled in me to have the strength to walk alone when required. She has not only taught me how to speak.....she has also taught me to speak up for myself. She was the person who held my hand and taught me how to write....but then, how can I forget that she has also taught me to write my own destiny? She has understood the needs of my soul and helped me let it free to explore new horizons......... Yes, she is indeed my soul-reader....No more than that...much more than that....
My soul-reader knows my soul so well that she finds ways to satisfy all the needs of my soul even before I realise that my soul is yearning for something..... She knows exactly what is the BEST for me. Even when I cry and yell and proclaim that I am totally unhappy with what she is suggesting, I know I am 100% wrong and she is 100% correct....
She has traversed through many a difficult path so that I am happy for the rest of my life. She smiles when I smile, He consoles me and makes me smile when I am crying, She stands up for me and is always beside me as a pillar of strength..... Yes, she is God's own messenger, especially sent as a guardian for me.
She showers her love upon me even when she is angry and is scolding me.....I know all the anger in her is because she loves me a lot....Yes, I am the "Apple of her Eyes"...there is no doubt about that... Her love and affection has helped me reach where I am now. Under her patronage I know I will be secure and will have peace of mind.
She is the person, whom I look upto....A guiding force for me....A source of enlightenment for me....A source of happiness for me......A source of love for me...... I LOVE HER.....I can't tell you how much....But, one thing is for sure......I would have been a totally different person if it had not been for her...
Thanks for making life a celebration for me........
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Hindi : national language?
FOR THE PAST 23 years, I have been under the impression that Hindi is the national language of India. Just a couple of days back I realised that India does not have a national language. I felt ashamed. How come I did not know this? Thank God, I am not alone in this. My friends are also under the impression that Hindi is the Raashtra Bhasha of India. Also, I can safely conclude that more than half of India’s population is under the same impression. Oh, come on, India!
But now it surprises me to hear that India never had a national language. This explains why India attached importance to each of its constituent languages. I do not know who first put this thought in my mind. There is one very interesting fact about the languages of India. Though India may boast of being home to many major languages of the world, this abode of languages, ironically, does not have a national language of its own. According to the Constitution of India, any language, accepted by a State of India as its official language will be given the status of national language. In India, no language is accepted or spoken by the States unanimously. Even Hindi, the language spoken by most people, is unable to attain the status of national language as it is does not fulfil the condition laid down by the Constitution of India. Though Hindi is spoken by a large number of people, only ten States of India have accepted it as their official language.
Article 343 of the Constitution declares Hindi as the official language of the Un-ion of India. English remains the additional official language. It is the authoritative legislative and judicial language. In fact, one could say that English is the official language of India for all practical purposes. For many educated Indians, English is virtually their first language though a large number of Indians are multi-lingual.
Then what is the difference between national and official language? The national language defines the people of the nation, culture and history. The official language is used for official communication. While the national language can become the official language by default, an official language has to be approved by law in order to become the national language. All languages spoken in India, starting from the language spoken by the most people to that spoken by the least are our national languages. This is because all of them define the people of this nation, culture and their history, collectively. India has no legally-defined national language; it has only 18 official languages according to the Constitution. There is a special provision for the development of Hindi under Article 351, though.
According to article 351, “It shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages”.
The Constitution of India came into existence on January 26, 1950. It said that Hindi and English would be the "official languages" of the Central government of India till 1965 (for a period of 15 years); subsequently, Hindi was expected to become the sole "national and official language" of India. This applied to Central as well as State governments. Hindi and English became the "official languages" in every department controlled by the Central government. This explains why Hindi is prominent in the Indian Railways, the nationalised banks, etc, which come under the purview of the Central government.
As January 26, 1965 neared, some in the non-Hindi belt, particularly the Tamils, started voicing their apprehensions openly. The idea of making Hindi the sole national language was blasphemous to the students as it involved the simultaneous and complete withdrawal of English, even as a medium for competitive examinations for jobs and education! This meant that the northern region would bag government jobs and dominate the field of education, given the proficiency in Hindi of the people of the region. Since government jobs were the most sought after in the pre-1991 era, the measure was seen as an indirect attempt to deny jobs to the English-educated South Indians. The non-Hindi-speaking people from South India feared that they would be discriminated against in government employment and in other possible ways. Between 1948 and 1961, on an average, every year, close to 24% of Central government officials had been selected from the State of Madras (the present-day Tamil Nadu). Uttar Pradesh came second best, accounting for about 16%.
The 1940s, 1950s and the first half of the 1960s witnessed many anti-Hindi pro-tests in the form of public meetings, marches, hunger strikes and demonstrations before schools and Central government offices; black flag demonstrations greeted Central government ministers. Most of these were organized either by the DK or the DMK and the general public supported them fully. There were hundreds of such protests from Tamil Nadu and thousands were jailed. Several hundreds were injured when police used lathi-charge to disperse the peaceful protesters. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then PM, even though supportive of the pro-Hindi group, came up with a set of compromises that denied Hindi the "sole national language" status, realising the seriousness of the issue.
Found this interesting article in Yahoo..
But now it surprises me to hear that India never had a national language. This explains why India attached importance to each of its constituent languages. I do not know who first put this thought in my mind. There is one very interesting fact about the languages of India. Though India may boast of being home to many major languages of the world, this abode of languages, ironically, does not have a national language of its own. According to the Constitution of India, any language, accepted by a State of India as its official language will be given the status of national language. In India, no language is accepted or spoken by the States unanimously. Even Hindi, the language spoken by most people, is unable to attain the status of national language as it is does not fulfil the condition laid down by the Constitution of India. Though Hindi is spoken by a large number of people, only ten States of India have accepted it as their official language.
Article 343 of the Constitution declares Hindi as the official language of the Un-ion of India. English remains the additional official language. It is the authoritative legislative and judicial language. In fact, one could say that English is the official language of India for all practical purposes. For many educated Indians, English is virtually their first language though a large number of Indians are multi-lingual.
Then what is the difference between national and official language? The national language defines the people of the nation, culture and history. The official language is used for official communication. While the national language can become the official language by default, an official language has to be approved by law in order to become the national language. All languages spoken in India, starting from the language spoken by the most people to that spoken by the least are our national languages. This is because all of them define the people of this nation, culture and their history, collectively. India has no legally-defined national language; it has only 18 official languages according to the Constitution. There is a special provision for the development of Hindi under Article 351, though.
According to article 351, “It shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages”.
The Constitution of India came into existence on January 26, 1950. It said that Hindi and English would be the "official languages" of the Central government of India till 1965 (for a period of 15 years); subsequently, Hindi was expected to become the sole "national and official language" of India. This applied to Central as well as State governments. Hindi and English became the "official languages" in every department controlled by the Central government. This explains why Hindi is prominent in the Indian Railways, the nationalised banks, etc, which come under the purview of the Central government.
As January 26, 1965 neared, some in the non-Hindi belt, particularly the Tamils, started voicing their apprehensions openly. The idea of making Hindi the sole national language was blasphemous to the students as it involved the simultaneous and complete withdrawal of English, even as a medium for competitive examinations for jobs and education! This meant that the northern region would bag government jobs and dominate the field of education, given the proficiency in Hindi of the people of the region. Since government jobs were the most sought after in the pre-1991 era, the measure was seen as an indirect attempt to deny jobs to the English-educated South Indians. The non-Hindi-speaking people from South India feared that they would be discriminated against in government employment and in other possible ways. Between 1948 and 1961, on an average, every year, close to 24% of Central government officials had been selected from the State of Madras (the present-day Tamil Nadu). Uttar Pradesh came second best, accounting for about 16%.
The 1940s, 1950s and the first half of the 1960s witnessed many anti-Hindi pro-tests in the form of public meetings, marches, hunger strikes and demonstrations before schools and Central government offices; black flag demonstrations greeted Central government ministers. Most of these were organized either by the DK or the DMK and the general public supported them fully. There were hundreds of such protests from Tamil Nadu and thousands were jailed. Several hundreds were injured when police used lathi-charge to disperse the peaceful protesters. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then PM, even though supportive of the pro-Hindi group, came up with a set of compromises that denied Hindi the "sole national language" status, realising the seriousness of the issue.
Found this interesting article in Yahoo..
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Hello Stranger
Over the years, I have grown up seeing various faces of life, from the ones that I expected to the ones I didn’t, from the ones I have known to the ones unknown and from the ones that made me smile to the ones that made me cry. After seeing so much and being in and out of the word called “Life”, I am all confused who “She” is. I would like to use the word “She” for life because that is a start of another mystic romance she has in store for me. The use of word “She” implies that life is taken as the manifestation of the female form and, she is a stranger for me. I have met her a million times, known her name all the while but she deprives me of the words I know I have heard a million time. So here goes one for her:
Strange lands
Stranger words
The winds that I know
The seasons so low
Deep with in me
Under my skin
I hear the echoing words
And voice that’s mine
The face that I have seen
With a smile so new
She walks up to me
And I whispered "Hello Stranger"
The place she claims,
And the times she speaks
She had been ruling my senses
And she walks with me
She lives in my thought
I know not his whereabouts
Echoing words subside
And the face is stiff
The tears have dried
And smile so fake
I felt her lament in my ears
That she is not a stranger
Over the seasons
I have been with her
The times when I cried
And the solitary bird's flight
It is more of me added to
An unknown desire
The pegs deep in my heart
And my painful shackled limbs
She set me free
And gave me wings
Now every time I meet her
I greet her saying "Hello Stranger"
- Piyush Singh
All Rights Reserved - Piyush Singh/www.piyushsingh.com
Strange lands
Stranger words
The winds that I know
The seasons so low
Deep with in me
Under my skin
I hear the echoing words
And voice that’s mine
The face that I have seen
With a smile so new
She walks up to me
And I whispered "Hello Stranger"
The place she claims,
And the times she speaks
She had been ruling my senses
And she walks with me
She lives in my thought
I know not his whereabouts
Echoing words subside
And the face is stiff
The tears have dried
And smile so fake
I felt her lament in my ears
That she is not a stranger
Over the seasons
I have been with her
The times when I cried
And the solitary bird's flight
It is more of me added to
An unknown desire
The pegs deep in my heart
And my painful shackled limbs
She set me free
And gave me wings
Now every time I meet her
I greet her saying "Hello Stranger"
- Piyush Singh
All Rights Reserved - Piyush Singh/www.piyushsingh.com
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
India is losing out. Beware !
Pakistan’s clever outmanoeuvring of India is racing towards a successful climax while India seems increasingly unsure of what to do. Consider two game-changing developments. First, America is willing to forge a strategic partnership with Pakistan. Which means one thing to America, and quite a different thing to Pakistan. Second, India has been snubbed by the US first agreeing to India interrogating American terror agent Headley and then changing its mind.
It is clear that America now sees India as a country that can be taken for granted. In all honesty, America cannot be faulted for this conclusion. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lost half the game when he turned the civil nuclear treaty into a personal prestige issue, even risking the survival of his Government. The other half of the game is being lost by his eagerness to get parliament approval for the nuclear liability bill that virtually absolves US companies of financial responsibility in the event of an accident. (This agreement is so loaded in favour of America that the BJP joined hands with the Communists to oppose it.)
The net result is that India is facing its biggest policy failure to date. It has gained nothing whatever from the US in the fight against terrorism. It has potentially lost because the approvals Pakistan has won from the US put no break on terrorist activities directed against India.
A keen Indian leadership could have foreseen much of this. America’s obsessive interest now is to get the hell out of Afghanistan. Pakistan has convinced them that it is in the best position to help facilitate this exit. It launched military operations against Taliban elements and negotiated with the “good Taliban” on America’s behalf.
But the issue of terrorists looking east to India never came up between Pakistan and the US. This is clear from the Headley episode. From the outset America was unwilling to “share actionable intelligence” on the man who, as everybody knows now, was the principal scout and organiser of the Pakistan-based terrorist attack on Mumbai. America plays hide and seek because it does not want to admit that Headley was an American spy as well. More importantly, it does not want any evidence to come out about Pakistan’s direct involvement with Headley and the Mumbai attack. In other words, America is interested in protecting the Pakistan government from terrorism charges. Protecting India from further terrorist attacks from Pakistan-backed groups is not of much interest to the US at present.
If Manmohan Singh did not understand this, it is a failure of commonsense. If he understood it and still went ahead with promoting American interests in India – from nuclear accident immunity to surrendering our farms to American agribusiness companies – it is a more serious failure.
Things can get really dangerous because the man the Americans are banking on in Pakistan is army boss Ashfaq Parvez Khayani. They speak highly of him and in 2008 they honoured him with the US Army’s General Staff College Hall of Fame. As it happens, Khayani is also a former head of the ISI, the intelligence agency behind most of the operations against India. He is said to believe that India’s disintegration, or at least immobilisation through crippling terrorist attacks, is what will eventually stabilize Pakistan’s position as a major regional power.
It is true, as a Pakistani journalist’s supposed report circulating on internet says, that two Ambani brothers can buy 100 percent of every company listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange and still be left with $ 30 billion to spare. And also that the four richest Indians can buy up all goods and services produced over a year by 169 million Pakistanis and still be left with $ 60 billion to spare. But one Pakistani military schemer can make Indian politicians go round in circles and still be left with plenty of American financial/military aid to spare. So, fasten your seatbelts.
It is clear that America now sees India as a country that can be taken for granted. In all honesty, America cannot be faulted for this conclusion. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lost half the game when he turned the civil nuclear treaty into a personal prestige issue, even risking the survival of his Government. The other half of the game is being lost by his eagerness to get parliament approval for the nuclear liability bill that virtually absolves US companies of financial responsibility in the event of an accident. (This agreement is so loaded in favour of America that the BJP joined hands with the Communists to oppose it.)
The net result is that India is facing its biggest policy failure to date. It has gained nothing whatever from the US in the fight against terrorism. It has potentially lost because the approvals Pakistan has won from the US put no break on terrorist activities directed against India.
A keen Indian leadership could have foreseen much of this. America’s obsessive interest now is to get the hell out of Afghanistan. Pakistan has convinced them that it is in the best position to help facilitate this exit. It launched military operations against Taliban elements and negotiated with the “good Taliban” on America’s behalf.
But the issue of terrorists looking east to India never came up between Pakistan and the US. This is clear from the Headley episode. From the outset America was unwilling to “share actionable intelligence” on the man who, as everybody knows now, was the principal scout and organiser of the Pakistan-based terrorist attack on Mumbai. America plays hide and seek because it does not want to admit that Headley was an American spy as well. More importantly, it does not want any evidence to come out about Pakistan’s direct involvement with Headley and the Mumbai attack. In other words, America is interested in protecting the Pakistan government from terrorism charges. Protecting India from further terrorist attacks from Pakistan-backed groups is not of much interest to the US at present.
If Manmohan Singh did not understand this, it is a failure of commonsense. If he understood it and still went ahead with promoting American interests in India – from nuclear accident immunity to surrendering our farms to American agribusiness companies – it is a more serious failure.
Things can get really dangerous because the man the Americans are banking on in Pakistan is army boss Ashfaq Parvez Khayani. They speak highly of him and in 2008 they honoured him with the US Army’s General Staff College Hall of Fame. As it happens, Khayani is also a former head of the ISI, the intelligence agency behind most of the operations against India. He is said to believe that India’s disintegration, or at least immobilisation through crippling terrorist attacks, is what will eventually stabilize Pakistan’s position as a major regional power.
It is true, as a Pakistani journalist’s supposed report circulating on internet says, that two Ambani brothers can buy 100 percent of every company listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange and still be left with $ 30 billion to spare. And also that the four richest Indians can buy up all goods and services produced over a year by 169 million Pakistanis and still be left with $ 60 billion to spare. But one Pakistani military schemer can make Indian politicians go round in circles and still be left with plenty of American financial/military aid to spare. So, fasten your seatbelts.
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