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 th...
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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 th...
From Palampur to cyber city My reading delight Leaving home is never easy. It is in fact a mixed bag. There is a wrench of sadness at having to part with your little world of books, desk, bath and the bed (especially the co-conspirator of your secret dreams the pillow, you rest your head on!) that have inadvertently become integral to your daily routine. You also have a heart-tugging feeling about going away from your near and dear ones as also your bosom friends with whom you share jokes and hearty laughs, occasional beer and some naughty gossip. Also, a shadow of nostalgia...
Ode to Chandrayaan and Pragyan So our Chandrayaan has landed on the moon, become history, and an ever-shining badge of honour on the 56 inch – and still expanding – chest of ISRO. Undoubtedly, it is ISRO’s another glorious leap into space that makes India proud. This is ‘Science India’ at its finest best. How magical were those moments when Chandrayaan-3 descended on the pock-marked lunar face with the surgeon’s precision and nimble-footed feminine softness! ... Never mind the sudden juxtaposition of unsavoury political overreach – both by sight and sound – just when we were devouring those final moments with breathless anticipation, awe and wonder! With this epoch-making Chandrayaan event India proudly rubs shoulders with the world’s high and mighty- the haughty world-chowkidar, the US; Russia – a great country of Pushkins, Tolstoys and Yuri Gagarins but sadly going through unhappy times at present; ...
Elections 2024: musings Who you think will lord over 1.4286 billion of us Hindustanis from the hot and high PM’s seat after Elections 2024? As the year of our Lord 2023 with a sorry saga of mayhem and misery, Manipurs and Nuhs, shouts and shoutdowns (in the parliament) makes for a noisy, ignoble exit, the question is bound to cross our minds with growing urgency. For bhakts – both andh and moderate – the answer is obvious. Set in stone. A foregone conclusion. For the bourgeois class in general of which I am a rabbit-holed, self-aggrandizing, never-stick-your-neck-out type, I think the answer would be the same. For the toiling millions busy with eking out a living the hard way, sweating it out day and night, it matters not. Whether it is king A or B, their destiny is carved in hard rock: immutable. Hungry stomach has no appetite for these idle, elite ruminations. But they are a game for the lawmakers to bribe, corrupt, seduce and bamboozle with some quick cash and a bottle to b...
‘Hinduism/Hindutva vs Islam’: an interview I don’t enjoy a cosy kinship with social media platforms including the all-pervasive, omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-much else WhatsApp, primarily because they exude more venom than amrit, befuddle more than enlighten and emit more smoke and fire than any balmy sunshine. Yet I recently happened to watch a 1-hour plus WhatsApp video of interview on the recommendation of my dear friend of great charm, refinement and suavity, in three sittings. It was arguably a scholarly exposition backed by meticulous research in support of the thesis on Hinduism vis-à-vis Islam. Mining ancient history to trace the origins of Islam including Wahhabism and Sufism, the main drift of the interview was on the militant aspect inherent in Islam and how our religion has borne the brunt of its hostile anti-Hindu philosophy. It was this old adversarial core element-turned-driving force, went the argument,...