Heart to Heart

  Is another world war nigh? Powerful Putin pounds puny but intrepid Ukraine.   Mighty China looks wolf-eyed to devour the whole world– be it our own Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, or the Indo-Pacific; and even gnashes its teeth at the world’s ‘my-way-or-the-highway’ daroga, the US. India-Pakistan hostilities never cease. Long-suffering Syria is ever in a boil. Africa - the continent that birthed and cradled humankind - has militancy, coups and internal hostilities erupting every now and then. North Korea acts like a ‘main-na-maanu’ rogue thumbing its despotic nose at every one and launching missiles as children send their little ‘hawaais’ to the sky on Diwali, every now and then with sardonic glee, giving sleepless nights to its techno-savvy and industrious neighbours South Korea and Japan. And now with guns booming, bombs exploding, hospitals crumbling, and missiles whooshing over the West Asian skies, Israel and Hamas are having it out in Gaza; while Iran and Lebanon in the neighbo

  To CM Sukhvinder Sukhu ji with love (and tears) Respected Sukhvinder Sukhu ji, Namaskar.   Forgive my audacity, please. But since I consider you to be a kind, decent person coming from humble origins, are not elitist, haughty or strong-headed, and know the pain and pulse of the common man, hence this open letter. The way you have been trudging the monsoon-battered hills, villages and towns and addressing affected people’s woes with a personal healing touch despite acute resource crunch, and Delhi being more political than munificent, has endeared you to the people of Himachal at large. (I can’t remember any other CM/MP/minister, royal or rich, who has ever parted with a few lakhs of her/his crores like you did by donating all your savings of 51 lakhs for a public cause.) But that is not enough. The unprecedented, colossal devastation unleashed by the monsoon this year has left us awe-struck and grimly aware of the demonic force of Climate change getting fiercer by the day, an