Rumi Nations

It's probably only if you live in a First World country that you start pondering the 'Big Questions' when a man gets killed/murdered/lynched/hacked or dies naturally. Take a look at this Guardian article where the writer is wondering ... rather proclaiming that she STILL HAS FAITH in Humanity despite witnessing the Woolwich murder. One has to be really ... ummm delicate perhaps to be someone who can be moved to ponder the big questions when one person dies. So I was driven to put in this comment on The Guardian article: People in developed nations can be so coddled! Come to India or go visit and live in some other poor African nation. You will see poverty and the ramifications thereof left, right and center. Then, we shall see how much faith in humanity you will be left with.

I read one more article by one female about how women have the right to wear what they want, when they want, where they want, etc. I would love it if women wore revealing clothes whenever they were in a public place -- not merely skin-hugging tight jeans, but short , short skirts like those Hollywood celebs wear which reveal their panties intentionally or otherwise. The top of the dress should reveal good amount of the boobs as well or preferably have wardrobe malfunctions - manufactured or otherwise. Young good-looking women wearing these clothes should preferably visit areas of Delhi at 2 a.m. which are particularly untouched by the rule of law. May be they can have their grandmother accompanying them who should be carrying 2 lakhs in cash or wearing a good amount of gold jewelry. The amount or number of incidents of rape in India seems not-too-high -> that's probably because most such incidents are in fact not even reported to the police either because the perpetrato...

How would I explain the latest happenings to an unexpected visitor to India? What do you know! There was a huge bang in the backyard last night accompanied by a bright flash of light which startled me and I woke up to investigate. Of course I saw a nice little cute alien just like in that movie where Drew Barrymore is a baby. So I welcomed the trans-galactic visitor and offered him water. Slowly we got around to discussing the current state of affairs in India. What a coincidence that an alien should visit me when the Pakistani President is visiting India too. I of course did not rake up the past with the alien … stuff such as some attacks in Mumbai or taking a percentage in deals. I did mention that a baby died recently in AIIMS. All of two months old. She experienced a lot of pain in a short life. I didn’t ask ET if they believed in god in their neck of the universe.

It isn't as absurd an idea as it might appear at first sight. Which is to say, it would be easy to find folks who might peddle this idea or believe in it. Of course, you better just listen to such ideas without your jaws hitting the floor and not try to argue or anything. Others blame Gandhi for the partition of India. I don't know what they wish for ... a Great India encompassing present day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh perhaps. Which would translate to a current population of a cool billion and a  half  people. Some people praise the great deed of the great hero Godse. They do not see him as a killer or a murderer. They see him as a great scholar intellectual who had authored Great Books. So, with a few million published books out there to choose from, people seek out Godse's book to read.

Unexpectedly (or may be, expectedly), the killing of bin Laden had some ramifications in the India Pakistan realm. Pakistan issued thinly veiled threats against India that it should not even think about doing anything similar to what the U.S. Navy SEALs did. Hmmmm ... Clearly, Indian generals were engaging in needless bluster when they declared that India had the capability to mount the same sort of mission that the U.S. did. In an worst case scenario, Pakistan will resort to the use of nuclear weapons against India. I've a funny thought in this regard: what if Pakistan lets one fly into India, say New Delhi, and the missile ends up a dud. I can well imagine the breathless reporting of the Indian TV news channel reporters. Imagine young reporters blabbering breathlessly with a sense of excitement that would be perhaps second only to if aliens make contact or if E.T. lands on Earth. How would India respond to such an attack? Will trigger happy generals want to do as Pakist...

Article first published as  A Match that Merits a Different Language  on Technorati. Cricket is a rather obscure game that’s favored mostly by countries that were once part of the British Empire. It’s quite easy in fact to list out ALL the nations of the world where cricket is played with some seriousness: England, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, West Indies, South Africa. That list tells you everything. Cricket is played in England and a couple of other nations where the English migrated to. And it’s played in the Indian subcontinent. For some odd reasons that are clearly beyond my ability to understand, cricket has become a national passion in India. And India has a great historical rivalry with Pakistan. India and Pakistan have gone to war thrice and wars being messy affairs, the countries are trying hard to avoid another battle. Cricket therefore offers the opportunity to wage a war by proxy. The World Cup of cricket is ...

I was surprised when I learnt recently that the Government of India was mulling giving aid to the flood victims in Pakistan until recently when so many weeks have passed since the floods. This is extremely unfortunate and childish on the part of the government. Does it think that the people of India will get angry if it gives aid to the poor people of Pakistan? I don't think the people of India have any enmity with the common men and women of Pakistan who are probably hostages in the hands of the Army and religious zealots. And at last, the government, in its infinite wisdom decided to give $5 million. But, strangely enough, now it's the turn of the government of Pakistan to show that it's no less childish than the government of India. So, what does the government of Pakistan do? It's still mulling whether to 'accept' India's gift or not! It's shocking to see this infantile behavior of these two 60 year old nations.

Seymour Hersh has an enviable knack for generating controversy with everything that he writes. May be, he has what might be called the 'Hersh Touch', a latter day version of the Midas Touch. His New Yorker article about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal has predictably generated strong reactions from Pakistan. Well, what can one expect if Hersh is basically saying that there's a secret argument between the Pentagon and the Pakistan Army whereby if things get out of hand in Pakistan and the Taliban are on the verge of getting hold of nukes, then Special Forces from the United States will swoop in and "secure" the assets. It would be quite something for one nation to share the exact locations (Bunker No. 9) where each component of a discombobulated nuclear device is located with another nation no matter how friendly that nation might be. On a related note, I recently read some scholarly piece about the history of India's nuclear posture ... how it slowly evolved f...