I AND MY WORDS

Reading the comments given by the interlocutors on how to deal with the issue of Jammu and Kashmir (sometimes it feels like a cottage industry enterprise of a handful of people), I am forced to question the 'breakthrough' Dileep Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M M Ansari really achieved by churning out lassi from the yakhni (yoghurt) that was all over in the first place. Many mistakes have been committed, but the biggest mistake is being committed right now by the Indian media by not discussing the report of the interlocutors threadbare. Keeping the state united in my opinion is not an option now. The regions of Ladakh and Jammu are financially supporting the Kashmir valley, but there is a lot of anger and hatred in these areas for the Kashmiri separatist sentiment, which goes beyond the religious divide. Go to places like Bhadervah in Doda, and you realize just how fed up the Muslims there are of the incessant calls for bandh issued by the Hurriyat, and the unrelenting hatred...

No, I am not merely recalling Bill Clinton's unofficial slogan for his presidential re-election bid of 1996. This is what I want to tell a host of mandarins (elected and unelected ones, ruling and opposing ones) sitting in South and North Block who have decided to bury their heads like ostriches into the sand. If I do not see the hunter, he is not there. Similarly, they can wish all that they want to, but any complaints about the more than 7 rupee hike in petrol prices is just a signal of the financial mess that we have created for ourselves right now, thanks to myopic work done by the ruling dispensation. Add to that the oversell of Manmohan Singh, Kaushik Basu and Montek Singh Ahluwalia. three 'progressive' economists who just seem to be warming chairs, and outsiders fail to understand where we went so horribly wrong. If one wants to put the economy on track, we need economic reforms. That does not stand only for FDI in retail (which by the way does NOT need...

The soul is a wanderer Why weep for its loneliness? Free yourself from the bonds of life Such that nothing then affects Were you born with something in your hands That you seek to hold on to? Raise yourself past the six limitations And then on your senses you can hold onto Know that this too shall pass Permanency of the world is a myth Delve deep into the depths of the soul And you will find the absolute truth Tread the lands as if walking on water Be in this world but not of it See everything to be equal, but judge nothing Identify what is the crux of this world, the gist

एक नदी थी बेतवा एक शहर था ओरछा समय ने जिन्हें आँचल में ढांप लिया और ढांप के जिन्हें वो भूल गया हरबोलों चन्देलों की वीरभूमि पतझड़ जंगलों के बीच कहीं गुम गयी राम भूमि जिससे याद है वो इतिहास पर इस भाग्य का फेर देख लेता बस एक आस खजूरों की नगरी खजुराहो जहां कर्णावती नदी धीमे धीमे चलती है  सैलानी यहाँ दीखते अनेकों मंदिरों की वासना मई मूर्तिकारी देखते सभी भूल गए सब चंदेलों को           

I was talking to a friend of mine, who has been working in the public health sector to understand a report recently brought out by the Public Health Foundation of India about rising non communicable diseases, especially those brought in by trans fats. She explained patiently (contrary to her nature of blowing the fuse off with dimwits like me) why people are already malnutritioned and stunted due to lack of vitamins and nutrients by the time they are able to earn and how they are interested in getting 'tasty' fatty food with their incomes, which translates into exposure to huge amounts of trans fats. This led me to ask her the question then - why is the food security bill so hamstrung with carbohydrate exposure when people need more of the other essential nutrients? Well, her answer was clear and concise. The food security bill is a monstrosity that is going to be shoved down people's food, which is not going to do anything different from what the aid agencies are already...

A lot of verbal diarrhea has flown into the sewers of the press since India voted for a watered down, non binding resolution over human rights abuses that was passed by the UN Human Rights Council. All of it can pretty much be described as paranoia, and we are certainly stuck in the foreign policy mess that we got as a legacy from Jawaharlal Nehru and his ideals of Non-Alignment as rightly pointed out by Sadanand Dhume . Again and again the China-Pakistan bogey has been raised. But all that is frankly nonsense if you were to ask me. Here's my counter to reasons due to which this move is being counted as a foreign policy failure in major sections of the Indian media. India has pushed away its most trusted ally Not true! Its a fallacy to think that any of the South Asian countries except Bhutan are trusted allies. One need not forget the double game that Ranjana Premadasa and TS Jeyawardene kept playing with our mandarins and leaders over the Tamil issue for decades, because of whi...

The hoopla that Mamata Bannerjee and her coterie has created today over the Railway Budget 2012 is clearly targeted towards her West Bengal audience. The kind of drama and sulking happening now clearly points to one of the three points: Mamata is cornering UPA-II to concede a package for West Bengal of about INR 8000 crores that she has been demanding for the past one year, else she continues to embarrass the government. This shall be used as an excuse to pull out of the UPA-II so as to save her vote share from eroding by continued alliance with the Congress There is a possibility of formation of the imaginary third front as is being projected by media moguls and so called rooters of a non Congress non BJP 'secular' alternative. So much drama for nothing. This is ridiculous. One cannot continue to blackmail the government at the cost of destabilizing the country. For once I stand by the current government. Why do the employees of Indian Railways do not seem to be the aam aa...