Prabhjot's World

How the Bail Out Package Works - Greek Economy

2011-12-20T09:11:00.002+05:30

It is a slow day in a little Greek Village. The rain is beating down
and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt,
and everybody lives on credit.

On this particular day, a rich German tourist is driving through the
village, stops at the local hotel and lays a 100 Euro note on the
desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs
in order to pick one to spend the night. The owner gives him some keys
and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs
the 100 Euro note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the 100 Euro note and runs down the street to repay
his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the 100 Euro note and heads off to pay his bill
at the supplier of feed and fuel.
The guy at the Farmer's Co-op take the 100 Euro note and runs to pay
his drinks bill at the taverna.
The publican slips the money along to the Bar Maid who has also been
facing hard times and has been working on credit.
The Bar Maid then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to
the hotel owner with the 100 Euro note.
The hotel proprietor then places the 100 Euro note back on the counter
so the rich
traveller will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the 100
Euro note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the
money, and leaves town.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole
village is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the bailout package works.

On sukna and Avdesh ...

2011-12-04T11:45:00.001+05:30

Military does take prompt disciplinary action against offenders, when and where they are detected, irrespective of the rank. But do look at the MoD, which oversees the military. Bhatnagar, as the defence secretary was charge sheeted by the CBI in the Bofors case and instead of taking legal action against him, he was moved as Lt-Governor to Sikkim, placing him beyond the reach of the Indian Law.

Another defence secretary, Ajit Kumar was indicted by the Delhi high court for tampering with the service record of a senior IAF officer, which had resulted in denial of promotion to him. Instead of taking legal action against him he was merely shifted to another ministry. Yet another defence secretary was involved in a shady deal in the purchase of one lakh rifles for the army when no ammunition for these was available anywhere in the world and for years these rifles remained rotting in the depots. No action was taken against him. (It is only when he moved as chief secretary to Tamil Nadu and tried the old MoD tricks that Iron Lady put him behind bars.) Had such misdemeanors been committed by a military officer, the full weight of the military law would have been applied on him.

So it is best to leave the army to deal with such cases. Media, both print and electronic, whatever its compulsions, should refrain from sensationalizing such cases, for they serve no useful purpose except highlight its own naivety. Now that we are on this subject of dealing with such cases, the media may as well tell us what action has been taken against all those officers of the MoD, involved in the Tehelka Sting Operation. Additional secretary who took a gold chain from the Tehelka team was promoted, because, we are told, and hold your breath, he did not take the chain home but kept it in the safe in his office! While all the army officers involved in the case were dealt with without delay, interference by civil courts not with standing. One of then ending up behind bars and others faced various degrees of disciplinary actions. In one case a general officer was merely entertained to a dinner by the Tehlka Team and that was enough to end, his otherwise bright career.

Ultimately, what is India? - Shashi Tharoor finds out

2011-11-04T11:40:00.001+05:30

Hello Dear Readers

This post is not mine. I have just reproduced is as is. This article was written by Mr. Shashi Tharoor.

________________________________

Ultimately, what is India?

Shashi Tharoor finds out

Let's talk about the whole notion of majority and minority in India. I intend to affirm that we are all minorities in India. I know that the less industrious of our journalists like to speak of the so-called majority community but where is this majority community?

Let's take a typical representative of this majority community, a good UP Hindu stepping off a train in any one of India's crowded railway stations. Now this chap may well think he belongs to the majority community but of course even though UP, if it were independent, would be the seventh largest country in the world and even if you were in UP, you would be forgiven for thinking that the majority of Indians were there, the fact is that UP does not represent a majority of India. In fact if this railway station that this archetype stepped out in happened to be in my home state of Kerala, well, a majority in Kerala is not even male.

So which of these various categories shall we choose? Shall we choose his language? Well, Hindi is not spoken by a majority of Indians. Should we choose his caste? If he is a Brahmin, then I'm afraid 89 per cent of Indians are not Brahmins. If he is a Yadav, 85 per cent of Indians are not of that so-called backward caste and so on and so forth.. But you get my point? In our country we have diversities, we can cut this majority community in a hundred different ways and find minorities lurking within.

You also have to look in terms of what makes the national. Now, in our country, it is an absolute fact that you could have a Haryanvi Jat on one hand and a Tamil Brahmin on the other and the two of them notionally belong to the same majority Hindu community. But they have almost nothing in common in terms of dress, appearance, language, culinary taste and these days, political opinions. Whereas a Tamil Muslim, a Tamil Hindu and a Tamil Christian would have far more in common with each other than other co-religionists from some other part of the country.

Why is it that I harp on these differences? It is not to divide the notion of Indianness, it is rather to affirm a notion of Indianness that is larger than the sum of its parts. Let's take these classic theories of what makes a nation. What are the various things that unite a country to create a nation? In fact when I talk about India in this context, I'm often reminded of the wonderful argument that two political scientists are having about a problem. The first political scientist says, how do we solve the problem, the second one gives a solution to the problem and the first one replies that the solution will work in practice, but the question was if it would work in theory!

You can ask the same question about Indian nationalism. The national idea has worked very well in practice but it doesn't hold up in theory. After all, we don't have nationalism that is based even on geography because the natural geography of the sub-continent was hacked by the Partition of 1947. It's not language, as we have 17 official languages, 35 depending on whether you follow the Constitution or the ethnolinguists. It's not ethnicity because by most definitions of ethnicity, there are Indians who have nothing in common with other Indians and there are Indians who have more in common with foreigners than with other Indians.

For example, an Indian Punjabi or Bengali has more in common with a Pakistani and a Bangladeshi respectively than they do with, let's say, a Bangalorean. And it is not based on religion because we are a country that is home to every religion known to humankind with the possible exception of Shintoism. And Hinduism is in many ways as much a reflection of our cultural heritage and our national diversity as a factor that under guards the notion of Indianness. So ultimately, what is India?

India, I would argue, is an idea. It is an idea of a nation, as I mentioned earlier, which has a civilisational unity, a historical commonality with overlapping histories in different parts of the country, a geographical space not complete because it has been affected by the century's politics but common geographical space nonetheless in which to work this out and a democracy within which this diversity is enshrined, supported and ultimately plays itself out. And in that sense one can argue, one can stand Peter Pan on his head that ours is indeed an 'Ever-ever land'. A nation, an idea, a country, a civilisation that has always existed but which has found a new space and new shape since 1947. A space which transcends the various diversities of which it is comprised.

I mention this because I've been living for some years in New York in the United States and we have this wonderful notion of the United States as a melting pot. In my book I've actually written that if the phrase 'melting pot' had existed 1,500 years ago, India might have had better claim to that title because of the various waves of migration into India at that time that created the ethnic mix that we all represent today.

But today, I would argue to Americans that if they are a melting pot, we are a thali. We are a collection of different dishes in different bowls on one common plate. These dishes may not necessarily mix with each other, which is why they are in different bowls but they combine on the palate to produce a satisfying repast. That, to me, is the notion or metaphor of the Indian identity.

Of course, I understand that many of you will say that is an excessively idealised view of Indianness and I'm particularly aware of the differences, the divisions, the pitfalls of misunderstanding, the arguments. And I am also aware of my vulnerability to criticism as someone who has parachuted down from far away to come and spout wisdom to you. In fact, one of my favourite Indian stories is the story not of the NRI but of the American agricultural aid expert who comes to India to give advice on agriculture, in the 1960s.

This man comes and visits this small Indian farm in Punjab where land holdings aren't very large and land reforms have worked in some parts of the country better than in others. But this Sikh farmer welcomes him very proudly and says, 'My land extends all the way to the national highway there.' (To the American it looks like a dirt road.) 'Do you see that bunch of trees out there? My land goes as far as that. Can you see that little irrigation canal?' (The canal is barely a trickle from the American's point of view..) 'My land goes all the way there.' Then he turns to the American and says, 'How far does your land go'?

Now this American is a farmer from the mid-western prairie states like Kansas, with huge holdings. He smiles and says, 'Well, in the morning I get into my tractor and I drive six hours south, to the southern boundary of my farm, and then I turn west in my tractor and I drive another three-and-a-half hours to the western boundary of my farm and I break for a sandwich and afterwards I get into my tractor and it's four hours north to the northern boundary of my farm and finally at sun-down, I spend another couple of hours in my tractor getting back to my farm house.'

The Sikh farmer smiles very sympathetically and says, 'I know, I know, I too used to have a tractor like that.' So it is possible to speak the same language and understand different things. The whole point about Indianness is that we can speak different languages and understand the same thing.

And that brings me, of course, to the developments in recent years of what is been, inaccurately in my view, dubbed as Hindu fundamentalism. I say inaccurately because Hinduism is uniquely a religion without fundamentals. We have, after all, an extraordinary diversity of religious practices within Hinduism which have no single sacred book but many.. Hinduism is, in many ways, predicated on the idea that the eternal wisdom of the ages and of divinity cannot be confined to a single sacred book and we have no compulsory injunctions or obligations. We don't even have a Hindu Sunday, let alone an injunction to pray at specific times and frequencies.

Instead, what we have is a faith that allows each believer to reach out his or her hands to his or her notion of the creative Godhead of divinity. A faith which uniquely does not have any notion of heresy in it, you cannot be a Hindu heretic because there is no standard set of dogmas from which you can deviate that make you a heretic. Here is a faith so unusual, so unique, that it is the only major religion in the world that does not claim to be the only true religion. I find that incredibly congenial. For me, as a believing Hindu, it is wonderful to be able to meet people from other faiths without being burdened by the conviction that they are embarked upon a wrong path.

Hinduism believes that there are various ways of reaching the ultimate truth. To me, the fact that adherence of this faith in a particular perversion of its tenets has chosen to destroy somebody else's sacred place, has chosen to attack others because of the absence of foreskin or the mark on the forehead, this ultimately makes me, as a Hindu, deeply sorrowful and, in a very fundamental way, ashamed. Build Ram in your hearts is what Hinduism has always enjoined. If Ram is in your heart, it would matter very little what bricks or stones Ram can also be found in, but this is a pluralist notion of Hinduism, this eclectic tolerance, which was very much in the minds of the believing Hindus in the nationalist movement as well as of those emerging from this Indic civilisation, who shared this pluralist national conviction.

That this notion of Indianness has somehow been reduced to a sectarian notion of so-called Hindutva is, to me, a travesty of what Hinduism really is. I too, as a Hindu, can say when people tell me garv se kaho ki tum Hindu ho, that I'm proud to be a Hindu, but in what is it that we are to take pride? I take pride in the openness, the diversity, the range, the lofty meta-physical aspirations of the Vedanta; of the various ways in which Hinduism is practised, eclectically, tolerantly, that is what I take pride in.

Unfortunately, there are those who take pride in Hinduism the way in which one might support a football team, (these days one can't support the cricket team, so let's leave that aside!) -- as a badge of identity, rather than as a set of values, principles and beliefs, and so Hinduism becomes reduced in their retelling to nothing more than a label.

The word for Indian has almost become Hindu. All the latter meant was the people living across the river Sindhu or the Indus. Of course, the Indus now flows in Pakistan but nonetheless, the fact is that the notion of Indianness and Hinduness is very much caught up in what Dr Radhakrishnan so memorably spoke of as a way of life. That way of life has very little room for intolerance, for dogma, for attacks on others because of what they don't believe.

And this brings me back to the notion of political democracy in India because ultimately that political democracy is what has been the saving grace of the Indianness that I talked about. Because if those who have ridden to power through the political support of others who advocate extreme notions of Hindu fanaticism, if those who have come to power have learnt anything through the process of working with others, it is that you can only rule India in alliance with people who are not like you. That you will not be able to rule India only by speaking Hindi, only by impositions, only ultimately by deciding that those who do not worship a certain kind of Hinduism are the only first class citizens in our country.

That discovery is vital because to reduce any other Indian, anyone else who lives on this soil, who carries an Indian passport, has no other notion of an extraterritorial loyalty to turn to, to deny any of those people the same first class citizenship that these Hindus claim as their birthright, would be a second Partition, this time not on the Indian soil but in the Indian soul. That partition would be in negation of this fundamental notion at the core of Indian nationalism that India is greater than the sum of its parts.

As I said, I would not want to bore you excessively, I would much rather have an opportunity to engage directly with you but let me say, in conclusion, that this is why I believe that whatever the political merits of Mrs Sonia Gandhi, whether you wish to vote for her or not, whether you wish to vote for her party or the parties allied with her or not, that ultimately is a matter of your political preference. It is ultimately a matter of what the electorate believes she is capable of doing. I hold no brief for her politics or that of any other politician in our country..

But what I do want to say to Sharad Pawar, Tariq Anwar, Purno Sangma and others like them is that, as an Indian, I cannot accept the right of any politician or any group of politicians to tell me who is an Indian. The notion of Indianness is something that is far greater, far larger, far more fundamental, far more rooted in 5,000 years of this country's civilisation, than any set of politicians or legislators can reduce.

To me, the territorial, sectarian or other notions of Indianness are essentially irrelevant. This is a society, a culture that has embraced anyone who has wanted to be a part of it, whether it was the Parsis who came in the seventh century, the Muslims who came peacefully to Kerala in the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries, or the other communities who have evolved on the soil or come to the soil. We have not questioned anyone's right to be a part of us. The notion of 'us' is more important than allowing any set of people to start dividing us into 'us' and 'them'. Ultimately, if India is denied to anyone who wants to be an Indian, has an Indian passport and claims Indianness, one day it could be denied to all of us.

I want to end with a very simple story which was told to me by my father many years ago in my childhood, which has stayed with me all these years. It is a typical story from our Puranas and is a classic story of a sage and his disciples. The sage says to his disciples, 'Tell me, when does the night end?'

"The disciples replied, 'At dawn of course.'

"The sage says, 'I know that, but when does the night end and the dawn begin?'

"The first disciple, who is from the southern part of the country, answers, 'It's when the first streaks of sunlight show you the palms on the coconut trees, swaying gently in the breeze, that is when the night ends and the dawn begins.'

"The sage says, 'Sorry my son, you're wrong.'

"He turns to the other disciple, who is from the north, who says, 'I know the answer. It is when the first streaks of sunshine across the sky glint off the snow glistening on the mountain tops. That is when the night ends and the dawn begins.'

"The saint says, 'No. It is when two travellers from the farthest corners of our land meet together and embrace as brothers. When they realise that they sleep under the same sky, see the same stars and dream the same dreams, that is when the night ends and the dawn begins.'

"We have seen many a tormented and painful night in the history of our country. Let us, at the start of this new millennium, work together, undivided, towards a new dawn. Thank you very much.

Shashi Tharoor

Kashmir 1947: A war remembered - by Lt. Gen S.K. Sinha (Article in the Asian Age)

2011-10-31T15:31:00.002+05:30

October 27, 1947 is a landmark date in the history of the Indian Army and of our nation. On that date the nation faced a grave challenge. The Army was given the task of rescuing the people of Kashmir. Against all odds, we succeeded in our mission. This sketch covers the backdrop of the first war that we fought after Independence and the events of the first 10 days of that war.

During 200 years of rule in India, the British would often claim that they had kept India safe from invasions from the northwest. Successive invaders from the dawn of history came from that direction and persistently defeated Indian forces.
The Muslims felt that their co-religionists had ruled over India for nearly seven centuries and, in all fairness, when the British depart, they should hand back power to them. Sir Syed Ahmed, the founder of Aligarh Muslim University, wrote on March 16, 1888, “Is it possible that two nations, the Hindus and Muslims, sit on the same throne and remain equal in power? Most certainly not. It is necessary that one of them conquer the other and thrust it down... Our Muslim brethren the Pathans (could) come out as a swarm of locusts from their mountain valley and make rivers of blood (flow) from their frontier in the North to the extreme end of Bengal.” Muhammad Ali Jinnah, duly helped by the British, gave concrete shape to the two-nation theory and got India partitioned. A popular slogan among his followers was, “Hans Ke Lia Hai Pakistan, Lar Ke Lenge Hindustan.” Taking a cue from Sir Syed, Jinnah unleashed a tribal invasion of Kashmir. His soldiers, in civilian clothes, were also among the invaders. Maj. Gen. Akbar Khan, under the pseudonym of Gen. Tariq, commanded the invading force. Tariq was the great Arab military commander who had conquered Spain in the early 8th century AD, about the same time as Mohammad bin Qasim had conquered Sindh. Akbar Khan was a reputed officer who had won the coveted British DSO (Distinguished Service Order) in battle during the crossing of the Irrawady in Burma. I met him when he was serving in South Block as a colonel in the Weapons and Equipment Directorate before Partition. After Partition was announced on June 3, 1947, he would often visit Jinnah, then living in his house on Aurangzeb Road in Delhi.

Barely 10 weeks after Independence, Pakistan launched the invasion of Kashmir on October 22, 1947. A battalion of the Maharaja of Kashmir’s Army, commanded by Col. Narayan Singh and defending Muzaffrabad, was soon overrun. Half the troops in the battalion were Punjabi Muslims. They killed Col. Narayan Singh and some of their Dogra colleagues. They joined the invaders. Brig. Rajendra Singh of the State Army, with a small force, rushed from Srinagar to fight the invaders. He destroyed the bridge at Uri, delaying the enemy for two precious days and was killed putting up a heroic defence.
By October 25, 1947 the enemy reached Baramulla, subjecting it to the most barbaric rape and plunder. Among the victims were the European nuns in the Baramulla Convent and the nurses in the hospital. Maharaja Hari Singh fled from Srinagar to Jammu on October 26 and signed the Instrument of Accession merging his state with India on that date. The enemy was at Baramulla, barely 30 miles from Srinagar, which lay defenceless. Jinnah was reported to have moved from his capital at Karachi to Lahore in anticipation of a triumphant entry into Srinagar.

I was serving in a skeleton Command Headquarters of 12 officers at Delhi, as a General Staff Officer Operations in the rank of major. Lt. Gen. Sir Dudley Russell was the Army Commander. Our command had been set up a couple of months earlier to maintain law and order in Delhi and Punjab and to protect lakhs of Muslims in refugee camps as also organise and protect their trains to Pakistan. We were totally unprepared to conduct a war against an invading force. This applied equally to the Army as a whole. All combat units had gone through a surgical operation with their Muslim sub-units going to Pakistan and we were trying to assimilate non-Muslim sub-units that had come from units in Pakistan. Many families of officers and men were untraceable and many were staying in refugee camps. The British officers had mostly departed or were in the process of leaving. Indian officers very junior in service had to take over senior appointments. Officers with seven years’ service replaced unit commanders with 20 years; a similar differential existed in the higher ranks.

Late in the afternoon of October 26, Gen. Russell held a meeting of his dozen staff officers and told us that Maharaja Hari Singh had acceded to the Indian Union and our command had been given the task to conduct operations in Kashmir. He added that British officers serving with both the Indian and Pakistan Army had been forbidden to go to the Kashmir theatre. Being the only Indian officer in his headquarters, I was told to act as his eyes and ears. Troops had to be flown to Srinagar the following morning.

On the first day only six Dakotas were available and from the second day all Dakotas of private airlines, numbering 40, would be available. These had mostly European pilots. The road journey from Pathankot to Srinagar took four days then as against only two now. Troops had to be flown from Delhi to Srinagar but the snag was that Srinagar was a grass airfield without proper landing facilities. The other problem was that snow was expected within 15 days, and both the airfield and the road would be closed. There was then no tunnel at Banihal and the 9,000-foot Banihal Pass would be blocked by snow in winter. The window of opportunity was only about 15 days during which a complete brigade group with four months of winter stocks had to be flown to Srinagar. I was made responsible to organise the airlift besides my normal duties as an operations staff officer. We flew 800 sorties of Dakotas in 15 days from Safdarjang airport to Srinagar without mishap. Lord Mountbatten wrote, “In my long experience of war, I have not come across such a massive airlift organised at such short notice and so successfully.”

Fashion Babies

2011-02-13T13:02:00.001+05:30

Nowadays, it is very common to see children wearing a Burberry trench, Pataugas boots, D&G vest or a Dior top, fashion is definitely no more an adult area but a wide creative and business field for designers. For mothers children clothing is a way to express their look but also a part of education introducing to them good taste and chic or “cool factor”, for a mother buying a Baby Dior T-shirt is like buying a perfume for herself, a little peace of the luxury dream.

Since past decade or so, many new brands specializing in kids fashion have introduced modern more colourful styles. Pastels are no more the only basic choice for a trendy mum’s shopping bag, some designers even use black colour as a fashion statement like those made famous by like Sonia Rykiel and Agnès B.

The French brand Bonpoint renewed it’s classy collection for fashionistas and stars such as Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise, Angelina Jolie and Claudia Schiffer. More affordable by all, Catimini, Z, IKKS offer a large choice of original creations using bright colours and funny textures. H&M and Zara make hype clothing at affordable rates.

Also adult designers are now increasing their collection in little shape sizes. Gerard Darel, Little by Marc Jacobs, Kenzo, Baby Dior and many others. Children corners are growing fast in every shop. The internet welcomes many sites providing a large choice of little picky brands such as WoW, Weekender Kids or Tuss.

The business is growing really fast and it seems the next step would be babies’ cosmetics which for now is still a product manufactured and marketed by pharmaceutical companies.

Indian designers too should now explore this growing fashion conscious audience and create fashion brands for the kids. The day is not far of when bollywood star kids like Aarav Kumar (Akshay Kumar's boy), Shah Rukh Khan's kids and many others will dictate fashion for the nex gen Indian kids.

Watch out for Fashion Babies :)

YSL 50 years among the Stars and forever…

2011-02-13T12:51:00.000+05:30

He was a legend and will remain, French designer Yves Saint Laurent died at 71 following a long illness.

He started to revolutionise the fashion world at 17, in 1953, after winning the first price at the International Wool Syndicate contest. Immediately after, Christian Dior who was really impressed by this amazing new stylist, hired him and YSL succeeded Dior at the head of the house after his sudden death.

Yves Saint Laurant was one of the greatest designers of the world and his style completely changed women when he opened his own Haute Couture fashion house with the help of Pierre Berge his financial partner and boyfriend of the moment.

Everybody will remember his woman tuxedo, the safari style and all the colourful cocktail dresses mostly inspired by modern paintings.

Gifted by a wonderful taste and a modern view of woman power, he used to say “The best clothing for a woman is a man's arms but for those who are lonely I am there”.

In 2002, he marked his retirement with a wonderful event and has been celebrated by all his staff, friends and models such as Katoucha who also died this year, Laetitia Casta, or Carla Bruni.

He also had all his life a terrible loneliness and depression that he fought with drugs and medicines. Pierre Bergé remained his special friend and shared the privacy of the very shy, nervous and secretive designer.

French women used to say, 'that we all have something from Yves Saint Laurent and it will always be close to our hearts'.

The Battle for Jamrud Fort

2010-06-23T12:43:00.002+05:30

The Battle of Jamrud was fought between the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh and the Barakzai Afghan Emir Dost Mohammad Khan. The Afghans had been losing their long held territories to Sikhs over the preceding years, and had seen their once mighty empire shrink with the loss of Punjab,Multan, Kashmir, Derajat, Hazara and Peshawar. The last three now largely constitute the North West Frontier Province. The loss of Peshawar was the most personal as the inhabitants of the region were fellow Pashtuns and the town of Peshawar was the summer capital of the Afghan Emirs.

In 1836 Gen Hari Singh Nalwa took charge of revitalizing the sikh frontier and built a fort at JAMRUD just outside Peshawar to cover the mouth of the Khyber Pass .The king of Afghanistan understood the fortifying of the frontier to mean that the Sikhs were planning to capture the Khyber pass . He declared a Jihad and on 23 Apr 1837 besieged Jamrud fort . Although the sikh forces inside the fort were under strength , and Hari Singh lay sick in Peshawar , stout resistance from the Sikhs prevented the Afghans from taking Jamrud even after heavy artillery bombardment; around 1000 sikhs held off an afghan force of 25000. The sikh position became dangerous when the afghans cut off all supplies of foods and water and continued bombarding the fort heavily .The situation began to look hopeless.

The besieged Sikh commanders inside the fort decided that their only hope lay in getting a message across to Hari Singh in Peshawar for aid . A volunteer was sought for this hazardous mission through the siege lines , and it was a woman , Harsharan kaur , who was selected on account of her small size . Accepting the risk of her death , Harsharan made her prayers , disguised herself as a dog , and set out in the middle of the night , walking on all fours picking her way carefully through the afghan encampments.

Against odds she was successful and arrived in Peshawar hours later : Hari Singh raised himself from the sick bed and with his forces attacked the Afghan at Jamrud , heavy fighting took place and eventually the Afghans were forced to lift the siege and retreat into the Khyber pass . The Sikhs pursued the Afghans and after heavy fighting captured the pass . General Hari Singh died in the fighting but the Khyber pass was now in Sikh hands.

On this occasion, a handful of Sikh forces faced the wrath of the entire Afghan Army. For want of timely help from Lahore, Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa was killed, but the Afghans could not dislodge the Sikh troops from the fort.

One view is that the decision to abandon the campaign to reclaim Peshawar had more to do with the logistic supply problems of the Afghan army. Peshawar could easily have been taken but the army was out of supplies and a decision was taken to withdraw. Another view supports the claim that the Afghans were never sure if Hari Singh Nalwa was merely wounded or was really dead. It was the fear that he might still be alive that kept the Afghan army undecided about its next move. The Afghans remained in a state of limbo for almost ten days. When Sikh reinforcements from Lahore arrived, they hastened back to Kabul.

As a result of this battle, Jamrud and the Khyber pass became the western limits of Sikh influence. The loss of Hari Singh Nalwa proved a major blow to the Sikh Army. In June 1839, the death of Ranjit Singh plunged the kingdom into dynastic conflict. The British eventually fought 2 wars to defeat and dissolve the Sikh Empire.

THE DEBASEMENT OF INDIAN CHARACTER DURING THE MUGHAL PERIOD

2009-11-08T22:08:00.004+05:30

Extracts from ‘Emperors of the peacock Throne’ by Abraham Eraly

The decline of India's position relative to the rest of the civilised world especially europe is reflected in the contrasting perceptions of travelers in ancient and medieval India.

Some 2000 years before mughal times , Megasthanes, Fa Hien had the same thing to say about Indians as did Huan tsang in the 7th century who wrote, ‘They do not practice deceipt and they keep their sworn obligations …they will not take anything wrongfully and they yield more than fairness requires.’

One sees that the predominant attitude towards India in ancient times was of goodwill, and such goodwill was almost absent in mughal times is in itself significant.

The debasement of character of man in mughal India was shocking. There was a near total absence of civic morality and personal integrity. ‘No one ever says a word to be relied upon', says Manucci. 'It is continuously requisite to think the worst and believe the contrary of what is said . They deceive both the acute and the careless; when they show themselves the greatest friends, you require to be doubly careful’. Says Roe ‘It is not the custom of the best or worst in this country to be as good as their word'. Adds Pelasaert‘Everything in the kingdom is uncertain, wealth, position,love, friendship,confidence,everything hangs on a thread'.

According to Manucci, Indians seldom spoke openly but held confabulations with nods and metaphors, which made it easy for them to break faith and still feel decent. From the Amir downwards sycophancy was viewed as good manners and therefore there was no feeling of personal degradation.

Society was at once servile and tyrannical – those who bowed and scraped before their masters tyrannized their underlings, and thus all the way down the social ladder. The mughal system was shot through and through with corruption, inefficiency and oppression. There was no sense of justice or fairplay, everything was for sale.

At the height of Mughal splendour under Shah Jahan, over a quarter of the gross national product of the empire was appropriated by 655 individuals, king, Amir and generals, while the bulk of the approximatly 120 million people lived on a dead level of poverty. No one gave a thought to their plight. Famine swept the land every few years devouring hundreds of thousands, and in its wake came, inevitably, pestilence killing an equal number. Behind the shimmering imperial façade, there was another scene, another life of wretched, half naked, half starved peasantry. In Mughal India, the contrast between legend and reality was grotesque.

The culpability of the Mughals was in their failure to lead India out of the medieval morass through the broad path opened by Akbar.

Trip to Manori Beach - Sunday 25th October 2009

2009-10-26T01:38:00.002+05:30

Sunset at Manori beach

Pagoda near Essel World

Manori Beach

Rowing boats at manori beach

A ferry at sea

A Cottage at Hotel Manoribel

A view of the city from the ferry to manori

Trees at the garden at Hotel Manoribel

Time to say goodbye. Last pic of sunsetting over the ocean, before we left manori beach

Mumbai Traffic is getting bad to worse every day :(

2009-10-25T01:07:00.001+05:30

Everyday I travel from home to work and the only way I travel is by public transport. Usually by Autorickshaws. At any hour of the day there is a traffic congestion on any road in mumbai. It takes more than an hour to reach a place which is hardly 5 kilometers away. And by the time I reach my destination I am exhausted and tired. I feel a constant pain in my back and I am afraid it will lead to some kind of problem when I grow older. But I have no alternative but to go through this ordeal each day.

I sometimes wonder why? I mean there are traffic lights installed all over, traffic cops stand guard to regulate traffic. Then why?

When I am stuck in this situation, what do I to do? I curse the traffic, curse the government for not taking adequate measures to curb traffic, curse the traffic cop for not being able to regulate traffic properly. But never ever for once think that it can be a problem with the people and not more so with the government.

Yes, it is the problem of the people. We all are responsible for this.

How many of us follow traffic rules? We blatantly flout traffic rules, jump signals, talk on mobile phones while driving, honk unnecessarily and a whole lot more.

I sometimes laugh at drivers blowing horns at a stationary vehicle infront of them at a traffic signal. I have never understood the logic behind it. The vehicle is standing at a traffic signal for the light to go green so that it can move ahead, till then it has stopped there. Is it so difficult to understand?

If uneducated people flout traffic rules it is understandable because they are uneducated, but when well educated people in business suits and or from good families behave like this, it baffles me. This irritates me and wish I could do something about it. And I will if I have the adequate means and power to do so. till then I can only bear the chaos silently.

On the other hand, it is a much larger problem which the government needs to address. The number of vehicles on roads is increasing. There is no room for more, then why are more and more new models or cars and motorcycles being introduced each month?

The government should see to it that the production and supply of cars, motorcycles and other vehicles is curbed to the maximum. Enforce strict measures to ensure that every automobile company supplies only a certain number of vehicles on roads and when that happens simultaneously reduce the lifespan of an existing vehicle so that when one new car is put on the roads, an existing or older one is taken off. This will ensure that only a certain number of vehicles are on roads at a particular time.

But, this is an idea which can never be successful in a country like India. With a growing population and its increasing spending power, the demand for cars and motorcycles will increase. Today it is the urban markets, tomorrow it will be semi urban and rural markets. The demand will increase and so will supply. The challenge here will be to ensure that the adequate infrastructure is available to manage this demand and supply which will not be an easy task, I believe it will be next to impossible.

So till then I would have to bear it on the congested roads, complain about it till the time I can and curse my luck.

Hats off to those Autorickshaw drivers, bus drivers and all other people who drive on these roads without complaining, relentlessly.

India - Independence: Partition- Article by Lt Gen (Retd) SK Sinha

2009-10-22T20:32:00.000+05:30

An extremely interesting article by Gen. Sinha

In this season of revoked interest in the events leading and following India's independence, I am sure this anecdotal and first hand narrative would be of interest to you.

________________________________________

"The Army’s contribution to India’s Independence and its role during the Partition of the Sub-Continent, have not received much attention. As one who served in the Army before and after Independence, as also witnessed the Partition holocaust, I would like to place on record my recollections of that period. My views on these two aspects of our Nation’s history are based on my personal experience and not on any erudite research.

I joined the British Indian Army during the Second World War and continued serving in the Army of Independent India. Having served in Burma (now Myanmar) and Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia), I returned home to India and landed in Calcutta (now Kolkata). I was in an army transit camp on 16 August 1946 when Jinnah launched his Direct Action Day. The Muslim League Premier of Bengal, Suhrawardy faithfully carried out the genocide in which thousands got killed in Kolkata, followed by killings and abductions in Noakhali. The calling out of the Army in Kolkata was deliberately delayed by Suhrawardy to allow the hoodlums to carry out their mayhem. I witnessed the streets of Kolkata strewn with mutilated dead bodies. Violence in the city abated after the Army was deployed to restore order.

A couple of weeks later, I was posted to the Military Operations Directorate of General Headquarters (now Army Headquarters) at Delhi. This Directorate had hitherto been an exclusive British preserve. All the officers and clerks were British.

I joined the Directorate in September 1946 along with two other Indian officers, Lt Col (later Field Marshal) Manekshaw and Major Yahya Khan, later President of Pakistan. We were allocated to three different sections of the Directorate, Manekshaw to Planning, Yahya to Frontier Defence and I to Internal Security. At that time as part of internal security duties, the Army was fully preoccupied in combating unprecedented communal violence. Never had the Army been used so extensively in this role. From my perch at Delhi I got a grandstand view of the cycle of communal violence taking place in the country. Kolkata- Noakhali killings were followed by mass killings of Muslims in Bihar and Garhmukteshwar.

The Unionist Ministry then in power in Punjab and the Congress Ministry in NWFP had managed to keep their provinces free of large scale communal violence. In March 1947 a Muslim League Ministry came to power in Punjab and a little later also in NWFP.

The floodgates of communal violence of the worst type now raged all over North India from Delhi and beyond. Muslims and non-Muslims (Sikhs and Hindus) were matched evenly in Punjab.

Both sides perpetrated the worst type of savagery. The entire population of the region appeared to have gone beserk. Towards the end of July, it was decided to have a Punjab Boundary Force of 50,000 soldiers comprising equal number of units earmarked for India and Pakistan. Major General Pat Rees took over as the commander of this Force. Two Indian Brigadiers, one Hindu remaining in India and the other Muslim going to Pakistan, were appointed his deputies. This experiment did not succeed. Within a month, the Punjab Boundary Force had to be disbanded. The two Dominions took over responsibility for maintaining order in their respective territories.

On our side, a new skeleton Command Headquarters, called Delhi and East Punjab Command, was set up with Lt Gen Sir Dudley Russell as the Army Commander. There were some twelve officers on his staff, all of them British except me.

I was then a Major dealing with operations. There were three subordinate formations under the Command – Delhi Area under Major General Rajendra Sinhji who later became Army Chief, East Punjab Area under Major General K S Thimayya who also later became Army Chief and Military Evacuation Organisation at Lahore under Major General Chimni. No passenger or goods train was running anywhere in Punjab. All the railway rolling stock had been mobilized for carrying refugees. Lakhs of Muslims from all over the country had concentrated in Delhi at three major locations, Purana Qila, Nizamuddin and the open space around the Red Fort. They were being evacuated in refugee trains, escorted by the Army, to Pakistan. Hindu and Sikh refugees coming from Pakistan were initially accommodated in a tented refugee camp at Kurukshetra, before being dispersed to other locations. At one time this camp held 5 lakh refugees. There were also long refugee foot columns, several miles long, moving from either side. It was impossible to provide adequate protection to these columns, extending several miles. Air drops of food packages were organized for these columns.

The civil administration had collapsed in Punjab and our Command was assigned the duty of restoring order and evacuation of refugees. Mountbatten had made the luxurious Viceroy’s train available to our Command. Russell established his mobile headquarters in that train. We were completely self-contained in the corridor train with accommodation for officers, clerical staff, security personnel, and our offices. Our messes and kitchen functioned in the train. We had line and wireless communications on the train as also our motor transport. I operated from this train for nearly two months travelling between Delhi and Lahore. I have in all humility recorded all these details so that some credence may be given to my views on the events of that time based on my personal experience.

As for the Army’s contribution towards the Independence of India, one has to go back to the Great Uprising of 1857. The British call it the Sepoy Mutiny or the Great Mutiny and Indian nationalists refer to it as the First War of Indian Independence. Call it what one may, it was primarily an uprising of the Indian soldier against foreign rule. It lit the spark of nationalism in the country and was a source of great inspiration for succeeding generations during our freedom struggle.

The gallantry of the Indian soldier in battles, during the First World War won world wide acclaim. This was a source of national pride for the Indian people giving them increased self confidence. The emergence of the Indian National Army under Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose during the Second World War, added a new dimension to our freedom struggle. The INA comprised soldiers of the Indian Army taken prisoners by the Japanese in Malaya. The INA trials generated a patriotic surge all over the country and was a big shot in the arm for our freedom struggle. This was followed by the Naval Mutiny in Mumbai and Karachi, Army mutiny in Jabalpur and Air Force mutiny in Karachi. This violently shook the foundations of the British Empire in India.

It was at this stage and soon after the Great Kolkata killings that I had joined the Military Operations Directorate in Delhi. There were three things that I found both interesting and revealing. First, a plan for the evacuation of all British civilians in India to the UK called Plan Gondola. Second, the operational map that I was required to maintain in the Operations Room. Third, a paper on the reliability of the Indian Army prepared by the Director of Military Intelligence.

The British feared an uprising on the lines of what had happened in 1857. Many British civilians were scattered in different parts of the country. Plan Gondola catered for their initial evacuation to temporary camps in the provinces, at provincial capitals and some selected convenient locations. These were called Keeps. Armed protection with necessary logistic support was to be provided at the Keeps.

In the subsequent phase, they were to be evacuated to Safes near the port towns of Kolkata, Vaishakapatnam, Chennai, Cochin, Mumbai and Karachi, awaiting repatriation to the UK. The troops guarding the Safes and Keeps were to be a mix of British and Indian soldiers. In the event, as communal violence escalated there was no need to implement Plan Gondola. There was now much bitterness and violence between Hindus and Muslims and none against the British. It was a great irony that at the height of the communal carnage in Punjab, British officers could move around unarmed in Delhi and Punjab while Indian officers, whether Muslims or non-Muslims, had to carry arms and in remote areas move with an escort.

I had to maintain a large map of India with pins of different colours showing locations of all combat units in the country. Red was for British units, Green for Gorkha units and Brown for Indian units. A distinction was made between Indian and Gorkha units. At that time the Gorkhas were officered exclusively by the British with no Indian officers in those units. The Indian units had a mix of British and Indian officers with Commanding Officers and senior officers mostly British. The “mutiny syndrome” prevailed among the British. It was ensured that no location had only brown pins without some red and green pins in situ. Field Marshal Auchinleck, the then Commander-in- Chief frequently visited the Operations Room and would study the map maintained by me.

The paper written by the Director Military Intelligence had a novel security classification – Top Secret, Not For Indian Eyes. My predecessor a British officer in a hurry to go back home to the UK on demobilization, had handed over the key of the almirah containing classified documents to me without checking the documents. This paper was written in the wake of the INA trials.

It stated that the Indian officers of the Army could be divided into three categories – those commissioned before 1933 from Sandhurst, the pre-war officers commissioned between 1933 and 1939, and the wartime emergency commissioned officers. The Sandhurst officers were considered more reliable. They were now middle aged with family commitments and did not nurture much grievance as they had been treated well. They were very few, their total number being about thirty. The pre-war, 1933 to 1939 officers had a grievance because their emoluments were not at par with their British counterparts. This disparity was removed during the war but its memory and of some other discriminations still rankled with them. The wartime officers numbering about 12,000 against a total of 500 of the two previous categories, were considered most unreliable. While in their schools and colleges, they had been exposed to subversive political influence culminating in the Quit India movement.

They faced an uncertain future because they were all emergency commissioned officers and only very few were likely to be accommodated in the permanent post-war cadre of the Army. They were working at the company and platoon level interacting directly with the soldiers.

As for the soldiers, the position regarding them had also changed radically. Prior to the war, the strength of the Army was 1.37 lakhs and recruitment was confined to the martial classes. A large number of soldiers came from traditional military families. During the war, floodgates had been opened for recruitment. The Army had been expanded from 1.37 lakhs to 2.2 millions. The INA had had a psychological impact on the officers and men of the Army.

Further, the bulk of the Army overseas had served in South East Asia, where they had seen how the prestige of the colonial powers had suffered at the hands of the Japanese in the early years of the war. Towards the end of the war, national movements for freedom had erupted in Asian countries ruled by colonial powers like the British, the French, the Dutch and the Portugese. The paper also took into account that an economically exhausted Britain after a long drawn out war, was not in a position to maintain a strong British military presence in India. In the circumstance, the paper recommended early British withdrawal from India. I was much impressed by this very analytical study.

The fact that the Indian Army had an impact on our movement for Independence and hastened the dawn of freedom is indisputable. Earl Atlee the British Prime Minister, who had presided over the liquidation of the British Empire in 1947, confirmed this during his visit to India in 1956. He told Mr Chakravarty, the then Governor of Bengal, that the decision to quit quickly in 1947 had been taken because the British could no longer rely on the loyalty of the Indian Army.

The role of the Army during Partition has not so far been factored into discussions about Partition. The fact that the Army also effected the decision on Partition needs to be taken into account. After their experience with Cromwell’s military dictatorship, the British ardently nurtured the concept of an apolitical army.

It suited them to transplant that concept in the Indian Army that they raised. While this concept continues to hold good in India, it got thrown overboard in Pakistan for reasons which we may not discuss here. After 1857, the British decided not to have one class regiment except for Gorkhas and Garhwalis. All other combat units of the Indian Army had the composition of 50% Muslims and 50% non-Muslims (Hindus and Sikhs). This was in line with their policy of Divide and Rule. Different communities living together in war and peace and encouraged to remain apolitical, developed a regimental ethos which held them together.

I was commissioned in the Jat Regiment which had two companies of Jat Hindus and two companies of Muslims. I served with a Punjabi Muslim company. I found that the regimental spirit among the men was strong and there was no communal divide. This continued in the Army as a whole till the end of 1946 but started cracking in 1947, reaching a breaking point by August 1947. Yet I saw that when the Muslim companies of the Jat Regiment were going to Pakistan, tears were shed on both sides. This happened in other regiments as well.

In keeping with the Army’s apolitical traditions, Indian officers during the British days, hardly ever discussed political matters among themselves. I recall that in Rangoon soon after the end of the war, one junior British officer referred to the INA as traitors and also used vulgar epithets for it.

There was no senior officer present in the Mess. This led to a heated discussion between the British and Indian officers, both Hindus and Muslims. Although politics in India had got much communalized in the Forties, Netaji seems to have promoted complete communal harmony in the Azad Hind Government and the Indian National Army. Vande Matram as an anthem had been a source of discord between the two communities in India. Netaji had coined the slogan Jai Hind which could not raise any communal hackles.

The Indian Army got involved in a strange war in Indonesia. It had been sent to that country primarily to take the surrender of the Japanese. The Dutch had been driven out from those islands. They accompanied the Indian Army to re-establish their colonial rule. The Indonesians had declared their Independence and had raised an army of their own. The Indian Army got involved in fighting the Indonesians. It was a strange situation for us. The Indonesians would tell us that we were ourselves not free and yet we were fighting against their becoming independent.

During my service in Indonesia, I used to feel very embarrassed on this account. However, what surprised me was that when the Indonesians raised the banner of Islam in their appeal to Indian soldiers, a number of Muslim soldiers of the Indian Army deserted and joined them. I was told that about a thousand or more of our Muslim soldiers had deserted. They got left behind when we came out from Indonesia. I am mentioning this because this was for the first time that I saw the communal virus affecting the Army.

Notwithstanding the early signs in Indonesia, it is remarkable that during the outbreak of unprecedented communal violence in August 1946 and till well after 1947 had set in, the Indian soldier, both Hindu and Muslim, showed remarkable impartiality when called upon to deal with communal violence. This was so in Kolkata in August 1946, in Bihar in October 1946 and in Garhmukteshwar (U.P.) in November 1946. Two or three battalions of the Bihar Regiment which had Hindus and Muslims in equal number, had operated in Bihar during the communal riots and had remained completely impartial. The Bihar riots were horrendous.

For the first time communal riots had spread so extensively to rural areas. Hitherto communal riots had remained an urban phenomenon. Several thousand Muslims got massacred in Bihar as a revenge for thousands of Hindus killed in Kolkata and Noakhali. At the time of Bihar riots, I was in Delhi getting daily reports of what was happening in my home province.

Colonel Naser Ali Khan, who later went to Pakistan Army, and I were serving at General Headquarters and were living in the officers mess on Wellesley Road (now Zakir Hussain Road). He was many years senior to me and was always very kind to me. One morning at breakfast after having read of a news report about Bihar riots in the newspaper, he told me excitedly that his blood boiled when he remembered that I was a Bihari. I told him that I condemned what was happening in Bihar more than him. He was not the only Muslim officer I interacted with in Delhi who felt so worked up over the most unfortunate happenings in Bihar.

I am mentioning these incidents to bring out how circumstances were forcing communal virus to spread in the Army. Till March 1947 things appeared to be well under control. Local communal riots were taking place in different places and the Army deployed to maintain order remained very disciplined and impartial. Wavell during his farewell address on 21 March 1947 said, “I believe that the stability of the Indian Army may perhaps be the deciding factor in the future of India.” Pakistan had not emerged as a sovereign State till then and hardly anyone could imagine that it will become a reality in the next four months.

With Muslim League Ministries coming to power both in Punjab and NWFP, communal passions were sought to be aroused in a planned manner. Pictures of atrocities on Muslims in Bihar and Garhmukteshwar started being shown in mosques along with fiery speeches by Muslim clerics on Fridays. Widespread communal riots erupted in Peshawar and Rawalpindi. Soon the whole of North India was on fire. The strain on the soldiers started showing. Most of the soldiers, both Muslims and non-Muslims, were from the North. Their homeland was getting ravaged and in several cases their families had been victims of communal frenzy.

It was becoming increasingly difficult for the soldiers to retain their impartiality. The downslide in this regard became more perceptible after Partition was announced. The day after that announcement I met two officers in their uniforms in Delhi wearing strange shoulder tittles – RPE and RPASC. In those days officers from Engineers and Army Service Corps wore shoulder titles, RIE for Royal Indian Engineers and RIASC for Royal Indian Army Service Corps. Some officers had begun to wear Pakistan shoulder titles within hours of the Partition announcement and much before Pakistan came into being.

There were reports of senior Muslim officers going to meet Jinnah who then lived in his house, 10 Aurangzeb Road. This showed how officers going to Pakistan were getting politicized. It also showed the fervour for Pakistan among some Muslim officers. On the morrow of Independence in August 1947, the Gilgit Scouts staged a coup arresting Brigadier Ghansara Singh of the Kashmir Army who had been sent there as Governor by the Maharaja. This was the first military coup in Pakistan Army. More were to follow later.

As mentioned earlier, the Punjab Boundary Force comprising in equal measure, units earmarked for Indian and Pakistan Army, was set up under a British commander in late July 1947. It was hoped that it will help in maintaining order on both sides of the border, at a time when communal violence and migration was reaching a crescendo. The experiment failed because the impartiality of the soldier had got eroded and there were several instances of soldiers taking sides.

Large scale violence again erupted in Kolkata and Mahatma Gandhi had gone there to restore sanity among the people. He undertook a fast which had a dramatic effect. It was then that Mountbatten made his famous remark that a one man boundary force had succeeded in Kolkata while the 50,000 strong Punjab Boundary Force had failed in the North. The Punjab Boundary Force was disbanded within a month of its raising and the two Dominions assumed responsibility for maintaining order on their side of the border. As a tailpiece, I may add that after a couple of months, Indian and Pakistan Armies were locked in fighting a war against each other in Kashmir.

No doubt the Partition holocaust was the greatest tragedy in the history of the Subcontinent in which millions got killed and millions got uprooted. Soon after Hindus and Muslims had fought unison in the First War of Independence in 1857, the seeds of separatism were sown by Sir Syed Ahmed. He conceived a separate nationhood for the Muslims of India. Lord Morley by accepting separate electorate in 1906 provided the oxygen for it. It fully matured by 1947 and was exploited to the hilt by Jinnah.
Looking back in hindsight, one can say that Partition could have been averted had the Congress been more accommodative and the Muslim League less obdurate. However, after the planned genocide started by Jinnah on i6 August 1946 as part of his Direct Action programme, there could be no going back from the path of disaster. The Qaid-e- Azam had become Qatl-e- Azam.

The puerile attempt by some people to underscore Jinnah’s secular image on the basis of a lone speech by him while inaugurating the Pakistan Constituent Assembly does not carry conviction. One swallow does not make a summer. It now transpires that Jinnah made that conciliatory address not out of any goodwill but under compulsion. The inside story has been revealed in a book Select Documents on Partition of India by a distinguished historian, Dr Kripal Singh. Lord Ismay the Chief of Staff of Lord Mountbatten told him in an interview on August 17, 1964, the background to that much hailed address.

Mountbatten had asked Ismay to convey to Jinnah the need for his taking that line, now that he had achieved his Pakistan. The sole aim was to check the spiraling violence in Pakistan and the counter violence in East Punjab.

That Jinnah ‘s animosity towards India had not changed is made amply clear by Pakistan’s invasion of Kashmir launched on 22 October 1947. His earlier slogan was India Divided or India Destroyed. That had now changed to India Divided and India Destroyed. It is a different matter that on 7 November 1947 the Indian Army turned back that invasion from the outskirts of Srinagar. This was perhaps in line with what Charles Martel had achieved at Tours in 732 against the Saracens thereby saving France or Jan Sobleski had done in 1683, throwing back the Turks from the gates of Vienna and saved Europe.

Lately attempts have been made by some people to exonerate Jinnah for his role in Partition.( COMMENT: Jaswant Singh !! ) They have even gone further, by trying to blame Patel and Nehru for accepting Partition. It is even insinuated that they were tired and old, and were in a hurry to grab power. Having opposed the two nation theory and partition all their lives, they caved in and opted for Partition. Ralph Emerson rightly wrote, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” In the Army the saying is that consistency is the hallmark of a mule.

Sardar Patel had the uncanny gift of foresight and the ability to take hard decisions. He rightly assessed the situation prevailing in mid 1947. Based on his experience in the Interim Government when the Muslim League had brought government functioning to a grinding halt, the crescendo of communal violence and the Army getting contaminated, combating communal violence for nearly a year, he realized that there was now no alternative to Partition. His decision to salvage the wreck in 1947 was an act of great statesmanship. If that had not been done, things would have become much worse.

We would have had a civil war on our hands with the Army broken up and participating from both sides. One does not know what the outcome of such a conflict may have been. India may have broken up into several independent States like erstwhile Yugoslavia or could have become a much larger version of present Lebanon. In his own words, the Sardar chose to save 80% of the country. Had a patchwork solution of unity with a weak centre been accepted in 1947, the results could have been disastrous. With a weak Centre the integration of the 500 odd Princely States may not have been possible.

The minority population of India was about 12% in 1947. Today, the combined minority population in an undivided India would have been over 40%. Petrol funded Islamist forces that have now emerged in the world would have swamped India. India as we know it today would not have existed. Patel’s acceptance of a moth eaten Pakistan and getting the Congress to accept it, was a great achievement. This was almost at par with his universally hailed achievement of integrating the Princely States with the Indian Union.

The first vivisection of India had taken place in the beginning of the second millennium. Although the Arabs had conquered Sindh in 712 A D, they had remained confined to the deserts of Sindh for three centuries and subsequently Sindh had not broken away from India. The Hindu Shahi dynasty ruled over Afghanistan with their capital at Kabul. They guarded the country’s North West Frontier. Starting from 999 A D, they succumbed to the invasions of the great conqueror and plunderer, Mahmud Gazni. India was exposed for the first time to the ferocity of religious fundamentalism. Soon, Afghanistan ceased to be a part of India. That was our country’s first vivisection.

The second took place in 1947 again on account of religious fundamentalism. Sardar Patel ensured that the 80% residual India was fully integrated and became a strong nation. Despite that part of the country which broke away becoming a theocracy and carrying out instant ethnic cleansing in the West and gradual in the East, Nehru and Patel ensured that India retained her secular values.

In August 1947 the residual Muslim League in India adopted a resolution reviving itself. Surprisingly, undeterred with all that had happened leading to Partition, its representatives in the Constituent Assembly, demanded reservation for Muslims and also separate electorate. Muslim members of the Assembly other than the few of the Muslim League, did not support this demand. It got rejected by an overwhelming majority. Speaking on this issue the Sardar stated, “I know they have a mandate from the Muslim League to move this amendment. I feel sorry for them. This is not a place for acting on madness. This is a place today to act on your conscience and to act for the good of the country. For a community to think that its interests are different from that of the country in which it lives, is a great mistake”.

Unfortunately the successors of Sardar Patel in his party have shown lack of vision. For the sake of garnering Muslim votes, they have been following the policy of appeasement and are prepared in that process to sacrifice national interest.

B K Nehru, an eminent member of the dynasty, in his autobiography, Nice Guys Finish Second, wrote that the old guard in the Congress considered national interests supreme but the new generation feels otherwise, giving priority to party interests.

The Congress practicing secularism selectively has been giving an impetus to communalism. It treats Muslim League as a secular party and welcomes it as an alliance partner in the Government, both at the Centre and in Kerala. It treats the BJP as untouchable and wants to have nothing to do with it, even when BJP has Muslim members but Muslim League does not have a single non-Muslim member.

It has been facilitating the illegal migration of Bangladeshi Muslims to build its vote bank. A Congress Prime Minister declares that Muslims must have the first call on the Nation’s resources. It has been decided to set up four new Muslim Universities like the Aligarh Muslim University, which had been the nursery for Pakistan. Several other such instances can be quoted. If we continue like this, the day is not far when we will have to put up with a third vivisection of the country.

The second partition was the product of separate electorate, the third may be the product of the policy of appeasement. Justice in full measurfe must be provided to the minority but appeasement can be disastrous both for them and the country.

The Indian Army made a significant contribution towards ushering the independence of India. Its role during the Partition holocaust was also of great significance.

I conclude quoting from Stephen Cohen’s book on the Indian Army. “India has virtually ignored the military as a factor in nation building. This is surprising, for the military had a profound impact on the course of nationalist politics and also upon policies after 1947.”

Interesting Geographical Facts

2009-08-06T01:31:00.002+05:30

Alaska
More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.

Amazon
The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world's oxygen supply. The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.

Antarctica
Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country. Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica . This ice also represents seventy % of all the fresh water in the world. As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches. Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it, i.e.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

Brazil

got its name from the nut, not the other way around.

Chicago
Next to Warsaw, chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.

Detroit
Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M-1, so named because it was the first paved road any where.

Damascus,Syria
Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.

New York City
The term 'The Big Apple' was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930's who used the slang expression 'apple' for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple. There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Ohio
There are no natural lakes in state of Ohio, everyone of them is manmade.

Pitcairn Island
The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia , at just 1.75 sq. miles.

Rome
The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, Italy in 133 B.C.There is a city called Rome on every continent.

Siberia
Siberia contains more than 25% of the worlds forests.
S.M.O.M
The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order ofMalta ( S.MO .M.). It is located in the city of Rome, Italy, has an area of two tennis courts, and as of 2001 has a population of 80, 20 less people than the Vatican. It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vatican is.

Sahara Desert
In the Sahara Desert, there is a town named Tidikelt, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years. Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island .There has been no rainfall there for two million years.

Spain

SPAIN literally means 'the land of rabbits.'

St. Paul, Minnesota
St. Paul, Minnesota, was originally called Pig's Eye after a man named Pierre 'Pig's Eye' Parrant who set up the first business there.

Texas
The deepest hole ever made in the world is in Texas. It is as deep as 20 empire state buildings but only 3 inches wide.

United States

The Interstate System requires that one-mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

Waterfalls
The water of Angel Falls (the World's highest) in Venezuela drops 3,212 feet. IT is 15 times higher than Niagara Falls

Paradox of Our Age - Dalai Lama

2009-05-22T11:32:00.004+05:30

We have bigger houses but smaller families

more conveniences, but less time

We have more degrees, but less sense

more knowledge, but less judgement

more experts, but more problems

more medicines, but less healthiness

We've been all the way to the moon and back

but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour

We built more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication

We have become long on quantity, but short on quality
These are times of fast foods but slow digestion

Tall man but short character

Steep profits but shallow relationships

It's a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room

- Dalai Lama

The 26/11 Hysteria and the Aftermath

2009-01-02T16:09:00.004+05:30

The 26/11 mumbai terrorist carnage Hysteria and the Aftermath has gripped us all. There have been a lot of discussions, talks, rallys, political fallouts and upheavals and god knows what not but we are still a long way from the firm and responsible solutions it.

Everyone in India is of the view that they should stop voting and paying taxes to the government. I dont agree with this view. However, I hold slightly more economic and social view to all this.

We have all (including the media & the politicians) missed the point completely.

The solutions are not that we should not vote or we should not pay taxes or anything of the sort. The solutions rather the questions are very simple and commonsensical -

How many of us will go out there and educate the poor and down trodden people and make them economically independent Give them employment of any sort.
How many of us will educate a child and show him / her the meaning of right or wrong in life so that he / she can make the right choices and not become a anti-social element.
How many of us will stop honking unnecessarily when we are driving and the vehicle ahead of us has stopped on a red traffic signal.
How many of us will stop crossing the busy roads and use the various subways and skywalks the government has made for us to safely walk and cross the busy road.
How many of us will stop driving like maniacs with complete disregard for others on the road and for once drive like responsible drivers.
How many of us will wear helmets while driving two wheelers.
How many of us will not talk on our mobile phones while driving.
How many of us will not let our mobile phones ring in a movie theatre.
How many of us will stop vandalising the various historic monuments with "GEETA I LOVE" messages engraved on stone pillars / walls.
How many of us will stop throwing garbage on the road side and wait for the garbage van from the Municipality to pick it up.
How many of us will stop spitting and urinating wherever we feel like (after all we pay taxes, dont we).
How many of us will stop bribing the babus and other administrators in the various government departments for our work to be done.
How many of us will stop or lessen the misuse or wasting electricity, water etc.
How many of us will stop refereing people on the basis of their caste and religion and treat them as Indians (EVEN INDIAN MUSLIMS).
How many of us will not hesitate to go to the police for help instead of the media.
How many of us will send bouquets and greeting cards to the police on any occassion or to appreciate the good work they do?
How many of us have forced the governements to change the pay scale of our security forces which we all know is grossly underpaid thus encouraging corruption.
How many of us has ever used the consumer courts and forums to get redressals for any faulty or fake product / service from companies.
How many of us have actually thought about the fact that our education system has made us literates but not educated.
How many of us have actually jointly fought for our rights and not individually.
How many of us will not allow media to dictate our lives.
How many of us will stop idolising our cinema and cricket stars and celebrities who we emulate blindly and live our lives accordingly.

There are many more serious issues which need to be highlighted.

Our political system is rotten because we have over the past 60 years allowed it to rot.
Politicians are using us because we have allowed them to use us for the past 60 years.
Our society is backward thinking because we have not allowed forward thinking people to live amongst us.

WE HAVE TAKEN OUR FREEDOM FOR GRANTED AND MISUSED IT. WE HAVE BECOME SELFISH AND MONEY AND LIFESTYLE MATTER TO US MOST THAN ANYTHING ELSE IN THIS WORLD.

There are enough opportunistic people in this world who will use our fickle mindedness and our insecurities for their personal gains and keep on doing it till either we all are elimited or we take action and eliminate these opportunistic people.

TERRORISTS (no matter if they are muslims or non muslims) are having a ball of a time because not only our political system is a sham but we Indians are shams as well. we talk big and do nothing.

Its time we do our part rather than hold mass rallys and candle light shows for the media to rake in the moolah and TRPs.

We need to learn from countries like Singapore and the US (not refering to 9/11). (I am refering to the change in US post Pearl Harbour), they havent allowed any country or any one externally or internally to rot them. The people along with the governments in these countries have ensured that they live in peace and build a model country and not an insecure country like India, Pakistan, Koreas, Africa etc.

Let's start a revolution and change India the way it needs to actually be changed.

Koh Chang

2008-12-31T15:57:00.015+05:30

I & my wife recently went on a holiday to Koh Chang a small but beautiful island off Trat province east Thailand. It was an amazing experience for us. The four nights we spent at a quite sea side resort will always be a part of our lives.

Here is a little bit about Koh Chang and our pictures follow:

Koh Chang is the second largest island of Thailand (largest island in the Ko Chang Marine Park archipelago), located on the Thai east coast 310 km away from Bangkok near the border to Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand.

The name means Elephant Island. Ko Chang was named for the elephant shape of its headland, although elephants are not indigenous to the island. At present, there are 8 villages in total. It is a mountainous island and Khao Salak Phet is the highest peak of all at 744 metres. Visitors are also met with several waterfalls, splendid reefs and rainforests. The island has an area of approximately 429 square kilometers. Ko Chang was previously an unsettled island but it is now important as a harbour for ships to escape from the monsoon, and dietary or fresh water resources, especially at Ao Salak Phet or Ao Salat which is well known to pirates, Hai Lam Chinese and Vietnamese. Ko Chang is surrounded by 51 islands. To the east of the area lies Cambodia and to the west, the Thai province of Chanthaburi. Ko Chang too is one of Thailand most beautiful islands with some white sandy beaches, some half deserted. Some of the beaches are rocky in parts though so it doesn't have ideal swimming beaches like Phuket. The island is also home to a wide range of wildlife, including a good selection of birds, snakes, deer and a number of elephants. The island and its vicinity are great places for snorkeling, diving and jungle hiking.

We are adding some of the pictures we took of this beautiful place. we hope you all would also ike them and be encouraged to visit this beautiful place. If you do please contact the persons below at Bangkok and Koh Chang for help and assistance.

Mr. Suriya (Bangkok) - Suriya Tours - suriyatour@yahoo.com

Dr. David (Koh Chang) - Owner Koh-Chang resortel - kohchang-resortel@hotmail.com

You can also email me at prabhjot_jolly@hotmail.com and I can guide and advice you on your trip to Koh Chang.

Have fun. :)

Warm regards

Mob Psychology In India

2008-07-02T14:33:00.000+05:30

India is witnessing turbulant times not only in politics but also in its societal structure. Our economic growth might be rapid and successful, but are we successful as a society? Where are we heading? are we heading towards a chaos and confused society, torn between traditional beliefs, many a times devoid of logic, and modern progressiveness and open mindedness. People of our country dont actually know the difference between the two.

On one hand we are very adaptive towards the modern progressiveness and enthusiastically accept change for good, on the other hand we do no accept the very change if it tries to alter or change our way of life, thinking or beliefs. Not all modernism is bad and not all traditionalism is bad too. This is a confusing trend. How can we blindly accept change without knowing how it will effect us?

As people, we are very impulsive, impatient and laid back with a "CHALTA HAI" (Let it go, why do we care) atitude, but is this attitude really going to take us somewhere?

The common man is in a tug of war between the societal change and the political change in the country, which are miles apart. There is no balancing act between the two. Politics is in its own world and the society in another. Both not realising that the actions of one affects the existance of the other. There is no symbiosis between the two.

Things are looking as if they are changing for the better, but this change is slow and erratic and what I call 'a selfish change'. The youth in our country, I believe are more practical, logical thinkers. B at the same time they believe that traditional practices are just a way to hamper growth.

We youngsters feel that in this country no one hears us. We have our voices too, our opinions can take this country to new heights, but no one listens to us, no one pays attention to us. S what do we do? We take to the streets in large numbers for "PEACEFUL MARCHES" TO BE HEARD. But more often than not, these peaceful marches turn out to be violent.

Whose reponsibility is it to guide us and show us the right path? Our elders? Leaders? Educational Scholars? We ourselves?

Mobile Marketing - Calling On Advertisers

2008-05-17T13:32:00.000+05:30

Source: Wall Street Journal

Article by Jessica Hodgson

__________

The mobile phone has long been seen by marketers as a promising medium.

But, so far, it hasn't delivered.

The audience for mobile ads remains minuscule, and advertisers have been reluctant to commit big budgets to mobile campaigns because results are so difficult to measure. Meanwhile, privacy concerns limit the amount of customer information carriers can share with marketers, which restricts advertisers' ability to extract key demographic and usage information that could improve their marketing.

As a result, while most experts don't expect mobile advertising to take off soon, they say it will eventually come into its own. "I would put mobile (marketing) in the category of overhyped near term and underestimated long term," says Mark Mahaney, an analyst with Citigroup.

Still, in 2007, some companies placed strategic bets on mobile marketing in moves analysts think indicate the longterm value of the market. Vodafone Group Plc. and Spain's Telefónica SA took stakes of undisclosed value in Amobee Media Systems, a San Francisco company with technology for delivering ads to mobile devices. Nokia Corp., the world's largest handset maker by sales and market share, launched a new set of multimedia services it hopes will attract advertising.

Internet giant Google Inc.

launched a mobile search based sponsored-link program. Advertising firms WPP Group Plc., Publicis Groupe SA and Aegis Group Plc. either ac quired or took stakes in advertising companies focused on mobile advertising.

Revenue from advertising on mobile devices approached $1 billion (about Rs4,000 crore) last year, according to Gartner Group, a technology research firm. That is still pretty slim, considering Group M, an advertising forecaster owned by WPP, estimates that $479 billion will be spent on advertising worldwide this year. Estimates on how the market will develop vary significantly. By 2011, Gartner forecasts $12.8 billion in global revenue; and research firm eMarketer Inc. sees $16 billion over the same period.

One obstacle has been consumer resistance to commer cial messages on mobile phones. In 2006, according to Jupiter Research, a telecommunications research group, 49% of mobile users "strongly disagreed" with the concept of mobile promotions, even if they were relevant, and would allow the consumer to save money.

What's more, the market still has few phones that can display video advertising to its best advantage. Then, there is the wide variety of forms that mobile advertising can take, making it hard for advertisers to know where best to place their bets.

One of the biggest hurdles for advertisers is the difficulty in extracting meaningful demographic information about how consumers are using media on mobile devices. On the one hand, executives experimenting with mobile campaigns point to high initial response rates. But, partly because operators have been wary about releasing data-such as the age, gender and spending habits of customers-advertisers aren't getting enough information about mobile users, according to eMarketer.

Because of the difficulty in measuring the success of mobile campaigns, combined with the confusing abundance of forms, most ad vertisers haven't ventured much be yond the test stage, says John du Pre Gauntt, a senior an alyst with eMarketer.

Another problem confounding the spread of mobile ad vertising is the evolving nature of the mo bile experience. Many cellphone firms want to be the gateway to mobile-Internet content and have sought to keep consumers on the carri ers' own "portals", which offer specially tailored content such as games, music and news services.

These services draw adver tisers because they allow them exclusivity, and opera tors like them because they keep the consumer from venturing into the wider Web.

But, increasingly, traditional Web search, provided by the big search companies-Google, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN-is the way consumers connect to the mobile Web. While open Internetbased search advertising promises a more measurable, direct response for marketers, it is still immature and doesn't draw the numbers of users that the carriers' portals do.

Analysts say that will eventually change as consumers seek out on mobile devices the full Web capabilities that they can get on computers.

"A banner ad on a portal is likely to get more traffic," says Paolo Pescatore, an analyst with UK-based research firm CCS Insight. "But the off-portal model is going to grow more quickly over the medium to long term."

Carriers, agencies and technology firms are taking steps to address the issues that make mobile advertising a hard sell to consumers and marketers.

For one thing, the cost of high-bandwidth services such as video will begin to fall as carriers, including AT&T Inc., Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile unit and O2, a UK unit of Telefónica, move towards flatrate plans. When this happens, it should help spur more con sumers to browse the Web on their mobile devices. Thomas Husson, a senior analyst with Jupiter, predicts that by 2012, about 40% of US callers will browse the mobile Web, compared with only 16% today.

Last year's introduction of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, along with other Internet-friendly devices coming on stream from manufacturers such as Nokia, promises to induce advertisers to be creative in their approach to mobile marketing. The iPhone "has pushed a lot of people to be more experimental with the mobile Web," says Jon Carney, managing director of Marvellous, a mobile-advertising agency acquired in 2007 by the UK's Aegis Group Plc.

The Denver-based Mobile Marketing Association, members of which include handset makers, operators and advertisers, is working to devise better ways to standardize and measure the effectiveness of mobile campaigns.

Laura Marriott, the association's president, says many of the measures for determining success in a mobile campaign have been inherited from either the Internet or more traditional media. She says her association hopes to have guidelines in place in the first half of this year.

Also, as mobile-Web use grows, the confusing array of ad types is likely to settle into a handful of more familiar methods. Jupiter predicts that short message service text ads will decline as mobile Web browsing improves-and that video and banner ads will predominate.

Arguably, the mobile-phone industry's biggest plus is its youthful demographics. "If you were in information technology in the 1990s and you didn't advertise on the Internet, you very quickly became irrelevant," du Pre Gauntt says. "The same thing is now happening with the mobile for certain sectors, such as soft-drink manufacturers and music firms, because consumers in their target market are drifting into mobile in a big way."

This, the industry hopes, is what will propel it from a marginal to a dominant position in the advertising food chain.

Punjab : A Brief Historical Perspective

2008-05-17T12:26:00.001+05:30

Source: www.punjabilok.com

Punjab had been the area that formed the hub of Indus Civilization. Important sites like Harrapa & Ropar have shown the prosperity, Art, Culture, Trade, Faith habitation and lifestyle of the people in those early times. From the pre-historic times, this part of Area has been known as a land where fighting was a rule. A number of war lords had invaded and forced their entry into the plains of Five Rivers and many of them made their permanent base here. But after some time, another invader came with more force resulting turbulence and successive fighting. The Punjab being the gateway of India was made by geography and history to form the arena where multiracial and multi-sided conflicts had to rage endlessly. In this way, the local people of Punjab had to struggle against outsiders relentlessly for their existence. Thus, their determination to live life strengthened and a remarkable community known for its value, fortitude and high sense came to be forged in this part of India. Now, the Punjab of today has acquired a character of high minded adventure, sportsmanship and strong resistant to domination at all levels.

The Punjab has a distinct honor of having composed Vedas mainly on the banks of rivers of ancient Punjab. The Rig Veda is the testimony of Punjabi Culture and faith. When the Aryans settled here, they made the rearing of new Punjab societies on the lines of warfare. Later on, Tenth Sikh Guru Gobind Singh ji prepared Punjabis to carry on an ever ready weapon of defense and offence.

If we talk about the epic age, the great battle of Mahabharata was fought in this land of warriors. An other example of the people who welcome death and make it honor. The great philosophy of Karam Yoga was evolved in this land, when the Rishi Ved Vyasa composed the great discourse by Lord Krishna named 'Gita' in this part of the continent. This is why the Punjab remains Karam Yogi area till today. When we came to Ramayana, it is told that the famous battle between Rama and his two sons Love-Kusha was fought at temple of Ram Tirath which is about 10 miles from Amritsar. It is also told that the two young warriors later founded two historical cities of Lahore and Kasur which were the part of pre-divided Punjab.

The Punjab and its people are also known for bravely tackling and defeating the invasion of Alexander, the great King who started his endeavor as a winner and succeeded in capturing the most part of the world, was stopped and defeated by King Porus in this land. It is pertinent to recall that army of Alexander refused to cross river Beas and mutinied and turned back, thus giving a big defeat to unconquered King. The same history was repeated when in 1965, the army of General Ayub Khan tried to cross this river during Indo-Pakistan War but failed.

Punjab had constantly been under invasions. After Aryans from Central Asia, come Iranians, Tibetans, Kambojas, Sakas, Turkis, Pathans, Mangols and many others who tested their arms on the Punjab soil and settled down as a part of Punjabi Community.

The Punjab is the land where Sufi Saints like Baba Farid, Shah Hussain, Sultan Bahu and Bulle Shah composed their Sufiana Kalam. This is also the place where love tales like Heer-Ranjha, Sassi-Punu, Mirza-Sahiba enthralled the people with their passion of love.

Introduction of Punjab cannot be completed if we don't discuss Bhakti Movement and Sikhism. In the time of Guru Nanak Bhakti Movement had bifurcated into Nirguna and Sarguna branches which were substantially different from Guru Nanak's concept of devotional love. Guru Nanak advocated a full blooded living of complete social responsibility of working hard and earning through the sweat of labour and sharing earnings with each other. Guru Nanak sought to demolish the caste divide in the society and preached for equality. His successor Gurus also followed his path. From Guru Nanak Dev to Guru Gobind Singh, every Guru made their existence by pursuing one or other social cause. Guru Nanak Dev Ji raised his voice against the oppression of King Babar and wrote beautiful couplets in this regard. The Fourth Guru Ram Dass ji started building The Golden Temple in the middle of the sacred Pond (Sarover). The Guru requested a Muslim Faqir Mian Mir to lay the foundation stone of the same, thus starting a new wave of Hindu-Muslim unity. The Fifth Guru edited Adi Granth in which Bani (Poetry) of Muslims and Hindu Saints formed a major part alongwith the Bani of five Sikh Gurus. The Ninth Guru Tegh Bahadur also sacrificed his life for the honour of mankind. Similarly, the Tenth Guru sacrificed all of his family. The Tenth Guru Gobind Singh ji was the spirit behind the incarnation of Sabad as Guru.

Thus, we can say that Punjab has travelled a long to reach this modern era, Punjabis have contributed a lot for the pride of Modern India specially the sacrifices made by its people during independence can never be forgotten.

ONE PARAGRAPH THAT EXPLAINS LIFE!

2007-09-13T14:05:00.000+05:30

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983. From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: "Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease"?

To this Arthur Ashe replied: The world over -- 5 Crore children start playing tennis, 50 Lakh learn to play tennis, 5 Lakh learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, When I was holding a cup I never asked GOD "Why me?". And today in pain I should not be asking GOD "Why me?"

Happiness keeps you Sweet, Trials keep you Strong, Sorrow keeps you Human, Failure Keeps you Humble, Success keeps you Glowing, But only God Keeps you "GOING

PR Campaigns via Mobile Communications

2007-09-12T18:20:00.000+05:30

Hi

I found this very interesting article on PR campaigns via mobile communications. It made for a very interesting and thought provoking read. I will definitly implement the suggestions by the author.

I guess everyone should read this too. here goes.

_______________

“Give your PR campaigns an advantage to target 1.8 billion consumers through mobile communications”.

If you have not yet considered incorporating telecommunications in your PR campaigns, maybe you should think again. While the Internet made PR campaigns more interactive. The mobile phone has the potential to make PR campaigns more direct. Mobile websites and text messaging is an excellent tool to make PR campaigns more direct.

Incorporating telecommunications in PR campaigns can tremendously increase brand awareness. Targeting consumers through mobile phones is a potential to reach 1.8 billion people. Looking ahead into the future, mobile communications will be a vital resource for PR campaigns.

Those individuals who learn how-to implement public relations practices that add value to their PR campaigns will be well prepared. Mobile communications among PR campaigns is still somewhat in infancy stages in comparison to Internet communications. However, the timing is clever to incorporate mobile communications strategies for PR campaigns.

How to implement mobile communications in PR campaigns:

1. Go .MOBI – Purchase a .mobi domain name and create a mobile website to launch your mobile PR campaigns.

MosnarNic (http://www.mosnarnic.com/) has resources to create mobile websites, mobile blogs and mobile communications tools for PR campaigns.

2. Go Mobile Communications – Communicate through text messaging via mobile communications. You can send text messages from Internet email.

3. Go Mobile Database – Include market research with data on mobile communications. When targeting audiences make sure to include mobile phone carriers and contact numbers.

4. Go Mobile Promotions –Promote PR campaigns through mobile phones. Directly track back mobile communications from mobile phone responses.

5. Go Mobile Blogging – Launch a mobile website blog. Directly interact via your mobile website blog.

6. Go Mobile Surveys – Conduct surveys via mobile communications. Utilize mobile websites, mobile blogs, and mobile texting.

The future of mobile communications for PR campaigns is looking very bright. Today the worldwide mobile data market is worth 100 billion dollars and by 2015 the mobile content market is predicted to be worth $1 trillion dollars. Mobile websites offer an opportunity to reach 1.8 billion consumers through mobile phones. Targeting this market is setup to be the largest circulation to reach consumers in the world. Go Mobile!

Srinagar - A paradise on earth

2007-07-27T23:59:00.000+05:30

Just some of the pics.... more to come.

Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.

2007-05-28T19:00:00.001+05:30

People usually ask obvious situations and some equally stupid answers:

1. At the movies: When you meet acquaintances/friends...

Stupid Question: Hey, what are you doing here?

Answer: Don't u know, I sell tickets in black over here.

2. In the bus: A heavy lady wearing pointed high-heeled shoes steps on
your feet...

Stupid Question: Sorry, did that hurt?

Answer: No, not at all, I'm on local anesthesia. Why don't you try
again?

3. At a funeral: One of the teary eyed people ask...

Stupid Question: Why, why him, of all people.

Answer: Why? Would it rather have been you?

4. At a restaurant: When you ask the waiter

Stupid Question: Is the "Paneer Butter Masala" dish good?

Answer: No, it’s terrible and made of adulterated cement. We
occasionally also spit on it.

5. At a family get-together: When some distant aunt meets you after
years.

Stupid Question: Munna, Chickoo, you've become so big.

Answer: Well you haven't particularly shrunk yourself.

6. When a friend announces her wedding, and you ask...

Stupid Question: Is the guy you're marrying well?

Answer: No, he's a miserable wife beating, insensitive lout...it's just
the money.

7. When you get woken up at midnight by a phone call...

Stupid Question: Sorry. Were you sleeping?

Answer: No. I was doing research on whether the Zulu tribes in Africa
marry or not.

And you thought I was sleeping.... You dumb witted moron.

8. When you see a friend/colleague with evidently shorter hair...

Stupid Question: Hey have you had a haircut?

Answer: No, its autumn and I'm shedding.

9.At the dentist when he's sticking pointed objects in your mouth...

Stupid Question: Tell me if it hurts?

Answer: No it won’t. It will just bleed.

10. You are smoking a cigarette and a cute woman asks...

Stupid Question: Oh, so you smoke.

Answer: Gosh, it's a miracle ...it was a piece of chalk and now it's in
flames!

How Smart is Your Right Foot???

2007-05-28T18:43:00.000+05:30

This is so funny that it will boggle your mind and you will keep
trying at least 50 more times to see if you can outsmart your foot, but you
can't.

1. While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and
make clockwise circles.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your
right hand.

YOUR FOOT WILL CHANGE DIRECTION ! . ! . !

I told you so.....And there's nothing you can do about it.

The Indian Salesman

2007-05-28T18:41:00.000+05:30

The Manager says: "Do you have any sales experience?"
The Indian says: "Sir, I was a salesman back home in India."
Well, the boss liked the Indian chappie so he gave him the job. "You start tomorrow.. I'll come down after we close and see how you did."
His first day on the job was rough but he got through it.

After the store was locked up, the boss came down. "How many sales did you make today?"
Indian boy says: "Sir, Just ONE sale."
The boss says: "Just one? No! No! No! You see here our sales people average 20 or 30 sales a day." If you want to keep this job, you'd better be doing better than just one sale. By the way, how much was the sale for?"
Indian boy says: " $101 237. 64"
Boss says: "$101 237. 64? What the hell did you sell?"
Indian boy says: "Sir, First I sell him small fishhook.
Then I sell him medium fishhook.
Then I sell him large fishhook.
Then I sold him new fishing rod and some fishing gear.
Then I ask him where he's going fishing and he said down on the coast, so I told him he'll be needing a boat, so we went down to the boating department and I sell him twin engine Chris Craft.
Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to our automotive department and sell him that 4X4 Blazer.
I then ask him where he'll be staying, and since he had no accommodation, I took him to camping department and sell him one of those new igloo 6 sleeper camper tents.
Then the guy said, while we're at it, I should throw in about $100 worth of groceries and two cases of beer.

The boss said: "You're not serious? A guy came in here to buy a fishhook and you sold him a boat, a 4X4 truck and a tent?"
Indian boy says: "No Sir, actually he came in to buy Anacin for his headache, and I said: Well, fishing is the best way to relax your mind."

A letter to Ex-Girl friend

2007-05-28T18:34:00.000+05:30

Dear Simran,

Thanks for being my love for one and half year , when you
receive this letter I believe you might have selected a new boy friend
and started enjoying your dating.

Every lovers needs to struggle a bit to get a boy friend or girl friend.

Simran… In order to recover your missing , I got another girl from the
next street & as you know this is my forth love, from all my past
experiences I have learned a lot.

When the love blossoms everyone starts writing love letters, you know
very well… I have written many love letters to you , and writing a
love letter in poetic way is not so easy nowadays SIMRAN , and
it's a time consuming work , In order to avoid all this I need all my
love letters back so that I can put corrector and send to my new girl
friend , please send it back to me , I don't have poetic reference or
any photocopy of this letters.

Another thing SIMRAN , I have given you one cute photo of mine , can
you send it to me please , you know better that this is the only photo
I look very cute & handsome and this photo I have taken when I was in
my first love.

And also , during my one and half year of love days I have spent a lot
of monies for impressing you , I am attaching a list of expenses which
I request you to clear it at the earliest.

The expenses are as follows : Lunch / Dinner ; 895 , cool drinks 2938
Rs , snacks 5645 Rs , Juice 3845 Rs , Cinema 1235 Rs , Internet
chatting 1499 Rs , Mobile 2546 Rs, Petrol 4255 Rs , Gift items 7850 Rs
, - Grand total :Rs 30708/- (in words: Thirty thousand seven hundred
eight rupees)

Please try to clear the above amount so that I can spend these monies
on my new girl friend , and more over if you have any of my gifts
lying with you , am ready to take these packs in half prices . Please
calculate the value of packs left over and deduct it from the above
statement of account.

I am enclosing herewith your love letters (weigh around 4 Kg) so that
you no need to write again to your boy friend and our photo so that
you can give to your new BF.

Also please advices your expenses which incurred during our dates , I
don't think you have got any expenditure during these dates , I have
seen many times that you always forget your purse when it comes to
pay.

Anyway I hope you will clear the above outstanding at the earliest
and wishing you a very wonderful 6th love affair with Subil.

Your Ex-lover…..