Pakistan and its options

After witnessing its own 26/11, unleashed upon it by NATO government of Pakistan has been facing tremendous pressure, with US aid dwindling, worsening global economics scenario and rising capabilities of Afghanistan Army with rapidly increasing Indian support to Afghanistan, Pakistan finds itself completely isolated. Its tactics to pressurise US using NATO supply lines has run out of steam and its support to extremism in Kashmir is all set to backfire as it happened on Afghanistan border where federal government of Pakistan is trying hard to assert its control over its own territory.

Over the past decade Indian army has multiplied its surveillance capabilities and has managed to check infiltration, which has created a tremendous backlog in terror camps across the border, with number of trained terrorists going as high as 15000, and with chronic shortage of basic amenities number of students in madarsas operated by terrorist organisations like Jamat-ud-Dawa & Lashkar-e-Tayaba, soaring to 200,000 making it almost impossible for government to Pakistan to take any action.

In past Pakistan has borne the brunt of the ire of its own creation when it dared to act against lal Masjid concentration and faced severe backlash for months by various organisations like TTP. In past Pakistan survived many do or die situation without actually doing anything, but then it had the US support and Chinese friendship. Now, when US is out of the scene and China over occupied with its own border troubles and North Korea, how much it will be able to support Pakistan is anyone’s guess.

Therefore the only option available to Pakistan is to try and push these terrorists into Indian state and to bring Kashmir back on international scene, from where it has largely disappeared. With 2014 approaching faster than imagined Pakistan can also try to increase tensions with India with not actually going to war but to keep India tied down on its own border, therefore reducing Indian intervention in post NATO Afghanistan and to send these huge number to trained men to Afghanistan to scuttle Afghanistan government exactly the way they did during Soviet invasion, as by that time US might not be willing to stay back in Afghanistan anymore and defeating ill-trained, ill equipped Afghanistan army won’t be that difficult for seasoned ISI.   

Great Game

Prime Minister has announced a three year credit line worth $5 billion, as a follow of earlier credit line of similar amount covering a period of five years. It has been termed as a "Great Game of Africa" and its main players are India, China and USA. It is significantly different from south Asia game currently being played between these three. 

But the play ground and equipments are significantly different from the Af-Pak, where both Afghanistan and Pakistan are the casualty of the game, and India has bore the burnt of this game of an extremely long and tiring period.  These three countries have lost many lives because of the vested interested of America and China, who kept instigating Pakistan, which foolishly followed their instruction.

Pakistan sought strategic depth in Afghanistan, as it doesn't wanted an India friendly government in its neighbour and it was happy with Taliban in the region which it supported vehemently till very recently. It never heeded to a  a simple age old fact that if neighbours house is on fire, even you are in danger. A radicalised and unstable Afghanistan  where Pakistan had a role to play is now cursing its future too. 

To save their chairs, Pakistani politicians kept singing Kashmir tune kept and supporting terrorism in Kashmir, which worked two ways, on one hand it made India a more active, secure, powerful, resolute, aware and united country where as it had only weakened Pakistan in all aspects of life. 

Now, it has no control over its own airspace or its on borders. Its sovereignty is being raped every day by several US drones in the sky and by US commandos and various terrorists on land. Pakistan as a nation has lost its confidence and its way. Its people are suffering from chronic poverty, power cuts and inflation, where as government depends on foreign aid to save itself from getting bankrupt. Its stature and credibility as a nation is at all time low due to which even during its worst floods countries didn't donated as much as they should have. 

As President Obama  said, Pakistan is obsessed with India and it sees everything from India angle only. It has stepped up its nuke programme, it has stepped up its defence spending. In Pakistan Palestine and Kashmir are the main issue whilst they don't care about their own backyard. Palestine and Kashmir are not going to improve the quality of life of an ordinary Pakistani citizen, who needs good education, uninterrupted power supply, drinking water, roads and parks. 

But the  Pakistani politicians and media has filled them with so much of hate and anger on these two issues that people cant even think about these basic amenities and lack of these only fuels anger. Passion for cricket is something which  used to unite the nation, but an attack on visiting team had even taken away that from them, but instead of improving their own deeds, they blamed India for it, which has only increased animosity between the people of these two countries, who otherwise are friendly to each other.  

Coming back to African Game, it is being played using economy and regional development as a tool, instead of using guns and terror and non development as a weapon as is being used in Asia. Pakistan needs to learn something from these African nations who other wise are not very friendly to each other and do have their own differences but they are united and committed for the development of the region and do not intersect each other on these issues. It needs to learn from its past that tall claims doesn't helps in real world, USA used them and they are in trouble because of that "strategic depth" and now they are about to commit same blunder again by submitting themselves to the china. No matter what they claim, but once their goals are fulfilled they will leave Pakistan on its own.

Pakistan needs to understand that China won't support it against India in any direct action because China itself is dealing with too many problems which include Taiwan, Tibet and sustaining communist rule in the country. India and Pakistan have more in common than China and Pakistan have, we two can be two great coexisting countries supporting each other. If India can donate billions to the world, it certainly can help Pakistan during its tough times and better relations with India will result in rapid development of Pakistan. 

All Pakistan needs is to mend its fences with its neighbour

Relations: Complexified

No matter what relations are special, relation with parents, with friends, with teacher with known and with unknown. Each relation brings something new in our life, it fills some part of a jig-saw called life, without which it would have remained incomplete. It brings a lesson to be learnt and love to be share, an emotion to be expressed and a bond to rejoice. 

However, things do not remain same forever, people changes because of changing society, technology, politics, economy and for many more such reasons. Change is inevitable, in fact its only change that is constant to put it in crude words, if you don't change, you will perish, hence change is inbuilt in human genes and that is the only fact which has brought us here where today we stands as humans, and that shall not change. 

But, there are relations who we trust more than we depend on ourselves, we need more than we need oxygen, when people involved in such relation changes, truth becomes so ugly, that we want to ignore it, to forget it to decide to believe and live in past. We tend to force our wishes and expects them to be respected and feels greatly hurt when truth comes out to be a sourer than we imagined. 

Why it happens, why we feel hurt, despite knowing the fact that some got to change some day, that its not impossible to live without anyone and that no matter what life goes on. Why we tend to blur those facts and highlight what we were trying to suppress as a nightmare, that actually wasn't a nightmare but a truth standing naked in broad day light 

Is it because we have invested so much in a relation that we fear to be emotionally bankrupt if we lose that specific relation, or is it because we depend so much on that that we tend to forget that there are several other relations exists in our live too. 

Is it because our pride hurts when someone changes against our wishes

Is it because we feel cheated because someone has changes though we had expected that one not to change

Is it because we are being an emotional fool

In my view third and last point should suffice to say it all. In our country where we brought up in an environment of respecting each and every relation no matter how insignificant that is, we are supposed to maintain it and that develops a tendency within to keep relations but it doesn't taught us how to do that. 

It makes us a semi robot when it comes to relation and expect us only to respect, but never told us what to do when ignored. 

This brings a self learned style to deal with those questions, few adopts anger to suppress their feelings, few hide in tears, few seek solace in lamenting themselves for their actions and few do the bigger sin and leave this world well before living their life, off-course all of this is wrong and no matter what cannot be termed right, no matter supported by what argument these reactions do not have a place in the life of any sensible human being. 

The, few would ask what should one do when hurt, well I'm no doctor or any relationship expert. But I an tell what I do, I adopt a simple line "I'm fine". Because I know what ever has happened has a reason and there is no point in taking a relationship until I get that reason and there is no point in lamenting, or being angry or crying without knowing that reason. Because unless I know that "Change Agent", I doesn't matter what I do, relations are not going to change. 

Its not about "who's" fault, but its about failing at spotting the change and being disappointed when all of a sudden finding it right on the top of the head and it should be understood that its a mutual failure. 

Nothing's gonna change unless you yourself adopt to that change, and to do so you need to learn, learn by your actions and by the action of others, and that's the only way you can manage to bring life back in your life, else each and every time you will end-up hurting yourself. 

There is no point in over committing yourself, there is not point in over ego, over anger or anything that is above accepted limits and there is no point in forcing your habits down someone else's throat and threatening him otherwise. There is no point in "trying" or in pretending that you are trying to save a relation, because other are human too and they can spot your ego and your anger very well, thus unless you don't have enough fire to save a relation you should not try to do so. 

one needs to change with time, with relations and that's the only way to have good relation till eternity and the last and the most important point is to respect someone else's decisions, to understand his point of view and his thinking that has went behind a decision, and rest assure if you succeed in doing so, you won't find yourself hurt again. 

Have a happy life... 

It's Just another page: Dot Com Boom again

It's Just another page: Dot Com Boom again: "LinkedIn couldn't have imagined a better welcome to the market, but as the dusk approached there were whispers all around. Analysts were sk..."

Dot Com Boom again

LinkedIn couldn't have imagined a better welcome to the market, but as the dusk approached there were whispers all around. Analysts were skeptical and were playing safe, none of them came out bold and said whether this is the start of another dot com boom. whether it will stay, whether it will go up or will falter, no one had the answer.

But if we had to compare  90's boom with the recent incident, I would say Linkedin is here to stay. Linkedin 
and most other companies coming to market in near future are well equipped and cannot be compared to many of the websites developed on impractical ideas developed in 90's which were the main cause of the dot com bubble. Even from that time many web companies like Yahoo, MSN and Naukri.com from India survived the tsunami which destroyed entire silicon valley.

Companies like Linkedin and Facebook enjoys first mover advantage, they have users trust, mass user base and most importantly they have got data. Which provides them a great insight of the trend and makes them more flexible. These companies may have been started by enthusiasts in dorms, but are run by professionals.

These companies knows their limitations and there punches extremely well, these companies are not and cannot be compared to the companies of earlier decade as these companies enjoy resources that they can't even have dreamt of.

Increasing broadband penetration and increasing cost of man power will become fortune for these companies and web is an addiction in itself and these guys knows it extremely well.

If I had to put million dollars in Linkedin, I would have done so without any second thought. Though there possibilities that something like twitter or facebook may pop up from somewhere destroy facebook kingdom in a matter of minutes, but I would say these kingdoms are too big to fall. Even if you consider the fall of Orkut in India, though Facebook has took away its sheen but it still has a huge base and will die an extremely slow death unless Google resurrects it and supports it in full strength.

So, when it comes to dot com.....Invest invest invest

Love???

Don't you think idea of love, romance etc is highly overrated, I mean how often you see a "perfect" couple, with an stunning understanding and never dying romance. I've seen people getting married to their "love of life" and within few days of their "unification" both love and life decides to de-merge their relationship and choose to settle on different planets leaving mortal souls on earth, but I'm in no way relating it to fights, fights will be their in any case so fight doesn't reflects any thing except for few things about the "fighters".

So what is love, well its nothing but a feeling which humans feels due to rise in testosterone, which is quite normal in living beings and should be considered normal in any case. If you mix that with a nice behaviour and beauty (definition varies person to person and is highly debatable) you will get a person whose company you are likely to like and hence you will fell like meeting more and more with that person and hence a system was evolved which allowed two people liking each other to stay together without any inhibitions. well I don't know as how and why marriage was created but I feel tat it was done to control younger lads of any group from wooing other younger chicks, allowing leader of the clan to assert his power or love on as many chicks as he wishes to. 

Hence over a period of time with a systematic brain wash with the help of books, novels, movies and songs we have been programmed to choose only one partner or monogamy, which was not the case in pre industrialization period. because no one had any access to books or anything like that, which allowed people to live their lives without in a non programmed manner or allowing them to follow their natural instincts. 

There was a time when writers used to write stories like Romeo- Juliet and there were enough followers too, but in the recent past time has changed bit too fast which rendered that old age but nice to ear concept obsolete. 

Now, youngsters are experienced with multiple relationships before they enters into their twenties. There are increasing cases of extramarital affairs and divorces even in cases of love marriages. People or so called analysts or social scientists (well tats a weird term) are blaming it onto our changing lifestyles or increasing competition, work load and what not. but the only thing they won't talk about is the natural and genuine human instinct. 

I mean com'on its very much understood that you need money, if you don't have money you have love either and if you need money you got to work, more money brings more love hence more work. So, while at work for extended period of time, you feels like having fun and you can't find your so called soul partner around you coz, even your partner is busy making money, then wats the wrong if you enjoy your natural instinct instead of suppressing it and frustrating yourself. Which may affect your work and your earning and if it continued it may cause troubles between you and your "soul mate". So, is it wrong if you enjoy and obeyed the call of nature to save you "married-life" and harmony between you and your "soul-mate". Money is just an example though and you would need many other ingredients to have a happy life but money is most basic and most important of them. 

Well I don't think so, you need not feel any guilt....you had fun..and fun is fun....whether you had it in an amusement park or somewhere in the dark corners of a street...enjoy life is short ...after after you die its only you who died...everyone else will keep having fun ....and btw no one gonna tell you how much he/she had...after you. 

once you dead u dead.....so why to work hard for a life after life ..live the life within life ...

Foundation

whoooooooo after attending an extremely optimistic talk on Indo-Pak future together, I feel like I'm from Mars or I'm on Mars, because I can't even think what speaker said. He rightly appreciated the contributions made by Pakistan in the war on terror, but he missed few points such as

• Terrorism in Pakistan has two major fractions i.e. one is anti american and another is anti India. At this point of time Pakistan is at war with Anti american terrorist because Pakistan is surviving on "donated US dollars". 
• Pakistan is not acting against India centric terrorists because it is receiving "Petro-dollars" to continue militancy in India and especially in Kashmir, to help so called "Muslim brothers". However this phrase is of no use when they fight within. 
• Third section of terrorists which is carrying out raid against Pakistan and its government is an spin-off or a by product or a mixture of other two products, although Pakistan claims that these movements are supported by India, it has failed to submit even a single dossier on the same issue.

26/11 inaction is just an example of hollow claims made by Pakistan, more than 50wanted terrorists are roaming free in Pakistan. Despite ton's of dossiers and proofs Pakistan has been unable to even hold a trial, and cannot provide voice samples of a person making speeches against India in the markets of Islamabad and Karachi.

Pakistan itself is a divided country, where government has no control over areas like Balochistan has a shoddy record on human rights. It has done nothing but has mobilized its entire population against India through mass brainwashing campaign which includes its academic curriculum. When its international players speaks against India and Hindu's it simply shows how much knowledge they have. Rights enjoyed by minorities in Pakistan are well known to the world, where even Hindus have to wear a Muslim attire to hide themselves. Minority women are being killed, raped and are being forces to convert their religion.

It may sound like any other propaganda, but if someone wants to know the real facts, just check the population of minorities in Pakistan over past 50 years. where Pakistan's Muslim population has grown leaps and bounds, Hindu population has only shrank in Pakistan, whereas in India Muslim population is growing pretty well which should be enough to prove independence enjoyed by minorities in India. 

It may sound not related to terrorism in Pakistan but it is, because it has only embolden radical thought in Pakistan and has legitimised atrocities anything that is not Islamic, tolerance for other religions in Pakistan has become extremely low, and has been supported by draconian laws. 

Thus, the terrorism Pakistan is facing within its own boundaries is created by its own policies and wide ranging  corruption and unemployment. There is a lot of frustration within Pakistan, because you can't expect one of the world's largest and most populates city facing load shading for 12 hours in a day, Thanks to its policies Pakistan has destroyed its economy and is now living on donations, whereas 20 years ago its economy was better than India's because of its relations with China, America and in Muslim world. Pakistan has become a toxic mess of home-grown terrorism based on false grievances and groundless fear of India and the west. 

If I had to talk about relations between India and Pakistan, I would put it simply two unequal enemies can't be friends. Pakistan is suffering from a phobia called India, its entire military is trained to fight against India and it has evolved its policies that are anti India which includes foreign policies too. It has outsourced its security to China which made cooperation more difficult. 

Pakistan was created on the basis of a religion and later added another dimension of "hate" against other religion, and elaborated it to other "religions", hence how can it be possible to  develop good relations on a wrong foundation. 

It is not easy for any nation to forget sacrifices made by its people to protect their country, and Pakistan had only made it more and more difficult for the people of India to do so. 

Hence what Pakistan is doing, is doing for its own benefits and not for the sake of global community or humanity, if it has to survive it has to destroy the monster created by it, else its not hard to predict its future. 

and BTW no country on this earth likes a strong enemy and everything is fair in love and war, India has been on receiving end for a long time and now its your turn.....face it 

Ass 'N' Nose

Pakistan was in the state of shock for hours and couldn't manage to issue a press release even after six hours after Abettabad. Clearly, Pakistan was not prepared for what happened, it was caught napping and when it woke-up, it has two clear choices, either to save its nose i.e. reputation or save its ass, i.e. its future. Very cleverly and rightly it choose to save its ass and did not accepted responsibility for Abettabad. Because if it had said that they were involved in it, their own people would have thrown their leaders in Arabian Sea.  In their attempt to check the tide of emotions which would have sank already in trouble Islamabad and it's economy they had no choice but to do what they did. 

However, I'm more interested in what happened during that mission, if because I don't think that US military will insert its choppers without any armed and credible air support that deep in a hostile air space. Hostile in the sense that Pakistan armed forces were not aware of any such action and hence had every right to respond to any threat to their country especially when it is arising from a place which is so close to its nuclear facilities, national capital, HQ's of three regiments and national military academy.

In case US choppers had to face their own weapons i.e. F-16's, it would have been hard for them to exit safely. Thus, presence of few raptor's or few such USAF fighter jet's in Pakistan airspace should not surprise anyone. However it may never get confirmed by either side, because it will raise anger amongst the people of Pakistan on the grounds of breach of sovereignty, which is quite fair on their part. 

Whatever it may be, some of it will surface in future and some will stay under the surface forever. However it was the best time for Indian armed forces to take a swift action against wanted's such as Dawood etc. and make merry, but given the spineless approach of GOI it's an opportunity which half dead politicians in Delhi can't realize. 

Strange

When I mentioned in my post that there might be a report comparing Prince Williams and our own prince i.e. Rahul Baba jee Gandhi, I got it in print from HT. Though matter was made to look different as they didn't had the courage to make a direct comparison between the two and they did it from more acceptable route. They compared how these two are seeking normal and not so prince like lifestyle and are trying to get close to the people i.e. common man. 

But, it is no more than any paid advert ..........this is the limit.. 

Expanding war zone.

I mentioned increased diplomatic conversation between USA and Pakistan in my post few days ago, events last night summed them all pretty nicely. No matter what USA or Pakistan's official statements are saying but as always truth lies behind the curtains. Osama was killed in Pakistan and I don't have any doubt that it is Pakistan which traded him off for something extremely special. 

Because reasons given and reactions made by Pakistan are certainly not acceptable to say the least. I'm not willing to buy Pakistan's argument that Americans simply blinded their radar's and entered their airspace and successfully carried out such a huge mission. 

Choppers used for the mission might have been purpose built special mission helicopters with capabilities to jam radars etc. but not to forget that Pakistan has got AWACS and few nice Chinese radar's and that Aibatabad is not far from Indian border and is near to Pakistan's capital city and has a military academy. Hence such a smooth entry in Pakistan is not as easy as has been expressed in media, and if it is true,  I feel sorry for the entire state of Pakistan. 

More likely and more Practical is trade-off, but then their is a question of reputation of Pakistan, because if Pakistan has the willingness, power and capability to trade Osama for something, why did they allowed American's to kill him on their own soil, which will heavily spoil the already dented image of Pakistan globally and it will have a long lasting impact. 

However, Pakistan might suffer extremely badly due to this, because of the presence of huge number of heavily armed terrorists in its western border region. In past few months intensity their action has been reduced and Pakistani security agencies manage to control the menace, which may run out of control and out of proportion due to this action. 

Whatever the trade-off is, It is for sure going to cause lot of trouble to the entire state of Pakistan and it will only weaken it here according to some analysts if pressure mounts and threatens its sovereignty, it might be forced to do what it does best to keep entire country united, yeah you got it right a war against India in the name of Kashmir. However far fetched it may sound  which actually it is but it's not impossible, given the desperate need for an exit route country's leadership is seeking on this issue, but chances of it happening are just 0.001% given the financial stress Pakistan is facing, secondly Pakistan army is just not equipped to fight on two borders at a time when its internal security is at all time low. 

As far as India is concerned, it has got nothing out of Osama's death except for the fact that if Pakistan gets its act together now, it might be the beginning towards the end of extremism in the region. But, Osama's death will fuel the terror outfits recruitment drive, hence threatening the entire region. Which might force USA to expand zone of conflict and might trigger drone attacks and special operations not only in FATA and SWAT but also in Pakistani Punajb, where lal-Masjid happened few years ago during musharraf's regime and where India centric terrorists are holed up. 

Whatever the outcomes may be, Death of Osama is a welcome change and should be a first step for a more peaceful world. 

Prince V/s Prince

So, finally warrior took the bride in a style which even Chopra's and Johar's would find hard to match. Media is filled with the news from Royal Wedding and magic kiss. However I'm waiting for a media report comparing Rahul Gandhi and Prince Williams, I know only likes of "AAJ Tak" and "India TV" (It should change its name anyway) has the guts to do it.

To support such a report there is no dearth of so called leaders comparing their "beloved" leader with the prince and judging their own prince better than the one far away, one the basis that their prince is democratic.

I don't find this idea of democracy romantic anyway because its been used by politicians for their own purposes. They send Kalmadi and Raja to jail, whilst their leaders roam free, its no different to what happened in 26/11 case. Kasab is in jail, while the likes of Hafiz saeed are roaming free.

Rahul Gandhi has talked a lot about his desire to clean the system, but I don't know how much he has done to fulfil his desire. after him being in parliament for more than seven years, corruption graph is only going up, with the cases like CWG, 2G and Adarsh. He is accepting resignation's, sending few to jail but he has done nothing to recover the lost money, which ultimately means that raja will be able to enjoy his 3000 crore's without any trouble, so as kalmadi.

Latest incident of PAC meeting just reflects how congress thinks and works, they sacked their chairman because he dared to speak against Gandhi's and a prime minister who knows nothing. This is just a reflecting of anarchic and corrupt mindset of congress.

If it continues, I don't think days are far when India will have a democratic dictatorship that too in the name of Gandhi .....what an irony.

Any which ways I can't remember a "leader" after Bose and Sardar Patel, All those who "tried" and failed to lead this country were followers, no wonder we are still developing and sadly those who are supposed to know the state of their country are boasting its somewhat useless GDP growth figures. 

Boom Boom

Lot is happening in Af-Pak region. Top Pakistan officials are visiting Washington one after another, first to visit was none other than Prez, followed by Army chief, ISI Chief, Prime Minister and now foreign sec. These visits were returned by Gen Mullen, US Top Post Candidate John McCain and many more. despite such a high level of continued interaction US-Pakistan relations are only heading south. Gen Mullen criticized Pakistan for its alleged links and support to terrorist operatives in Afghanistan, retaliated by none other than Pakistan army chief accusing US for tarnishing its image and claimed that Pakistan is doing the needful. 

On the other hand India is getting ready for a "Summer-e- Kashmir", as has been happening for past three years, separatist made mountain out of the mole or to say made mountain out of thin air. Prolonged violence in the form of stone pelting by protesters has troubled rulers. However both opposition and ruling party has failed to contain it, such campaigns initially had the PDP, the opposition party's support. Having seen the uncontrollable violence PDP has silently backed out, largely due to the fear of being accused of unable to control its own child. 

ISI in the backdrop of continued Indian Army's pressure and sharply falling figure of active militants in valley had vehemently supported this campaign. In fact its a cheaper and far better option for them to support such a campaign compared to armed militancy. firstly because of increasing global pressure and changing scenario and secondly lack of resources on its part. Paying someone INR 300 for throwing stones for a day is not at all a bad deal for them as its far cheaper compared to supporting militant base, with higher returns. ISI has been able to keep valley boiling for continued period of more than four months, which enabled it to get large international press. 

Such protests enabled ISI backed propaganda machinery to talk about so called oppression of Muslims in Kashmir. However they cannot continue with it, as people energy to support such movements will soon finish. As these are the only four months when they can earn for their rest of the year, and these are the most crucial four months for them considering academic session. These four months have the highest footfall of tourists in valley, which is the livelihood of majority. 

Government of India, knowing it well that these movements will thin out soon, did not bothered much about it, and to prevent it from happening again arrested those who are leading such movements. Now, it is for people of Kashmir to decide what they wish to do. They can choose between a peaceful money making season or can disrupt normal life of million other to raise a political issue which they cannot solve. In my view it would be better for people to leave a highly political issue to politicians and concentrate on making lives better. 

Coming back to the main issue Pakistan is running out of options, it does not have the ability to face India unless it wish to have a complete destruction inside its own borders. It cannot continue with its current policy of infiltration in Kashmir, because it has large number of trained terrorists, but is unable to support them.

Sadly Kashmir cannot be resolved unless all regional powers which includes India, Pakistan, China along with Russia, USA and to some extent United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Iran nods to do so. However thanx to the great game in the region its not as easy as it may appear to be. In the name of Pakistan China has an ally which provides it much needed space to counter USA in the region and to balance India. Russia on the other hand does not wish to let USA rule in Asia. Iran won't like a large American base in Afghanistan, but it cannot afford Taliban returning to the power either. This is not just, list of conflict of interest is longer than this brain can compute. 

Not so new

Call it Shell out of the blue or adventurous diplomacy, India and China will resume high level military contacts. As the saying goes "If you are consistent in diplomacy you are a fool". Break in ties stopped paying dividend hence tie revival. None of these two sides expects any change in heart of another and both will continue to suspect each other. India worries about ring of pearls and China curses Iron curtain. India has problems with Sino-Pakistani ties and China has got problems with every second nation on earth. Indian ties with countries like Japan, South Korea, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Mongolia, Turkmenistan etc. are causing a lot of trouble to China, and that is understandable.

On the other hand India is not new to the Sino-Pakistan love duet. What worries New Delhi is the reports confirming Chinese troops in POK. Which feels like Pakistan has outsourced its security to China. Although China has Gawadar-Karakoram link to save but positioning its troops near LOC, might create doubts in New Delhi for obvious reasons. Only future can tell if its a stopgap agreement between two countries as Pakistani defence lies thin in the view of current anti-terror operations in the country which has consumed a large part of Pakistan armies resources. Reports of Chinese cozying-up Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh has already troubled GOI in past and has forced it to take actions. Whether its Hambantota Port or Chittagong port, direct investment made by Government of China has always troubled policy makers in New Delhi.

Similarly, Indo-US nuclear deal and thriving defence ties between two countries could not find any takers in Beijing. Revival of defence ties and regular large scale military exercises has only worried Chinese leadership. Given the large scale presence of US forces in Asia, and continued US support to Taiwan has poured more chilly in Sino-Indian relations.

There is no dearth of people pro and anti Chinese Activists/Bureaucrats/ Politicians in India, very much similar to China. However it should be understood that these two countries with huge population cannot resist each other for too long, as it will only harm both. However easy it may appear, but it is not easy for both the nations to keep their apprehensions aside, the only way forward is to keep borders silent, resolve disputes as soon as possible and strengthen economic ties which includes eliminating trade imbalance and improving people to people contact which is extremely poor right now. 

Vishwashakti?

Six decades ago this very country was cheering full of optimism and joy, it was ready to put up a show the world has never seen before. Although it was licking its wounds caused by partition and communal divide, but it was optimistic. India and people of India were optimistic, were eager to work for their nation and were willing to do something. Few would have realized that this very country of their own, will become an example for the world, a case study for "How not to grow".

A lot had happened in years prior to the dawn of so-called 21st century, India had survived several attacks on its sovereignty it survived its own diversity for which people had predicted that India will fall due to its own weight, India survived its own people and politics. But At the midnight hours of 14th August when the world was sleeping and India was awake, at the moment of tryst with its destiny, India didn't thought of merely surviving.

No one realized as when a country which is known for its demeanour turned into a country full of people hungry for money and power. Be it the ruling class or the executive no one made any concessions when it came to digest public funds, this very culture gave birth to a demon which is now threatening the unity and integrity of the country. This demon of corruption became so large that Supreme Court suggested making corruption legal. Millions of those who deals with the "Great Indian Executive class" are aware that it’s all legal. Against the laws of physics your file doesn't moves or goes up unless you putt weight on it, greater the weight higher the speed.

Everything that is related to the Government has a fixed rate, few would have realized as how money paid to some clerk in some random office goes to those who are ruling this country while many have questioned why they don't act? Answer is simple a portion of what I paid to the clerk will go to his superior and superior commanding many such clerks will transfer a portion to his superior and so on, building the great pyramid of corruption. This is a great bazar where everything is one sale, and it has been demonstrated recently.

The great show of India's pride, common wealth games, made headlines and were live example of this indigenous pyramid, followed by the mother of all scams "spectrum- Ghotala" as known in general. But, the most discouraging and shocking was the Aadarsh, a Building in Mumbai, whose residents were India's topmost military commanders, bureaucrats and politicians was built on land allotted for war widows, and sadly not even a single flat went to those who deserved it. Following it many such scams from different parts of the country emerged and vanished in headlines. Earlier Armed forces were considered as an island in the midst of "ocean of corruption". Now, we have lost that island too.

India is a cricket crazy country, to the extent that it is termed as a religion in the country, it helped people to forget their worries, it gave them a reason to cheer, a moment of joy and a reason to become Indian sadly though. It overshadowed every other game in the country and it covered everything that matters. No matter how big a scam is, people are more than happy to forget it, if India wins a match.

Well, now when somehow 21st century has arrived at our doorstep and India has crossed one billion+20 mark, people got a new mantra, emerging India. I don't understand why they don't understand that a country with so much of natural resources and market, has to emerge and there is no great deal about it. 

So with world’s second largest population we have world’s fifth largest economy, what's the big deal in it. If we had provided a humble life to every Indian we would have been in a much better position.

 I find it hard to see a true success story, despite being a population of more than a billion we import high end electronics and military grade software's from a country smaller and far less populated than Mumbai. No one even realizes that we just lost some of the finest men and women just because of our inaction.

sad story is not that India failed to develop and realize its dreams, but that Life has lost its value. No one really cares for people dying and kids crying on streets. We have become so indifferent to such inhuman treatment to our own countrymen that we don't even realize that they too are humans.

Lal-Batti culture has encroached so deep that we feel proud if we are successful in insulting someone and prove ourselves somewhat better. As a dear friend of mine said "This country is growing because of aspiration and hard work of individuals", I would say the day those individuals started feeling the burden of other countrymen they are carrying, there will be anarchy, and this county will fall.

I'll be painted as a traitor if I say that Maoists are patriots, which certainly they are not, but there was a time when they were, later on their leaders started enjoying power and money sent to them by foreign governments interested in destabilizing India through their 1000 wounds policy, but one should not forget that they do have a mass support and that is the only reason that they are still surviving and thriving.

Reason for their survival is our negligence, we know everything about useless facts of cricket, we know everything about cinema, but we as an Indian are not interested in what matters. This is shameful.

Are we a world power and more importantly can we be a world power, where half of the country is ages behind the rest half, where people are busy fighting in the name of language, religion and region. Where we still finds it hard to stand as a country, where name of one state is next to slang for others, where those who are entrusted to be fair became power brokers.

How we are going to reach their, if at all........?

 (26/02/2011)