Before we judge the outcome of the Prime Minister's recent visit to the US on the basis of the past interactions between the nations... We have to realize that that basis for judging no longer exists. For we are different people with different views, today.

With the end of the Cold War, and on account of the international situation today,it brings the opportunity for India to break through a 31-year isolation caused due to Ms. Gandhi in '74 and the Jaswant Singh- Strobe Tallbot conspiracy....

The US President, described India as "a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology," thereby un- officially crediting India with the status of being a nuclear power and a part of the Nuclear Club. Not only has Mr. Bush, the President of the US, said that India "should acquire the same benefits and advantaged as other officially-decreed- nuclear states" according to the Joint Statement, he said he would "seek agreement from the Congress to amend it's laws and policies" and "workd with allies and friends to adjust international regimes to enable full civil nuclear energy cooperation and trade with India."

The US has conceded to amend the domestic law ( the Non- Proliferation Act of 1978) and securing the consent of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to offer India assistance with its nuclear energy programme.

In return, India has promised four things. One, India will continue its policy of not proliferating nuclear technology or capability; two, India will continue with its voluntary moratorium on testing; three, work with th eUS to conclude a fissile material cut-off treaty and, four, voluntarily serperate its civilian and military nuclear facilities and programmes and place the civilian part under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards... And allow international inspection of these civilian sites.

The progress will be reviewed when the President visits India in 2006. The US has also promised to help India join the International Thermonuclear Experimental reactor (ITER) and also help India participate in the international effort to develop 4th generation nuclear reactors.

On the whole the deal looks like a win-win situation for India. What troubles people is what may/ may not have been written in fine print. The Pentagon not only expects India to say thank you for the deal with arms order worth $5 billion but also hopes for more billions by persuading India to buy 126 US fighter jets.

Concerns are also being raised against the segregation of the civilian and military units. Mr.B.Chellaney, calls the relation between the two as symboitically linked. He says, " The deal will strike the weak spot in India's nascent nuclear military capability- its umbical ties with the civilian programme." In layman's language India followed a dual system, according to which, nuclear stations first addresses civilian needs and then caters to our military requirements.

Going back to reading the legible print, this deal does not extend Indo- US cooperation to the WTO negotiations or to support from Washington for the Iran-Pakistan- India gas pipeline project. People have their own doubts after the Prime Minister, just after his visit, said the Pipeline project was risky. However, the Minister of Petroleum,Mr.Mani Shankar Iyer, said that the project would go ahead and all security issues will the addressed accordingly.

The Prime Minister has ducked all such troubling questions. What was easier to clear out was the worry that while the US has only made a promise which it may or may not fulfill, the deal sets out a clear road map for India to transverse under US supervision. "This is a misconception," says Mr.B. Abhishek, Spokesperson, Congress. "The deal clearly states that India will only take the necessary steps, in reciprocation to positive steps taken by the US to close its part of the agreement," clarifies the Spokesperson. The need to stress on 'reciprocation' this time, is in regard to the US reneging its legal duties at the Tarapur Plant.

What is funny,is that after denying necessary funds for expansion of the domestic nuclear power industry, we are now agreeing to import high- priced reactors that will leave it vulnerable to outside pressures over fuel and spare parts.

So, can New Delhi, overcome the obstacles in its path on such issues discreetly? Can we do a good job of doing what's best for the country and not plundering an issue as important as this with politics? Is there really a fine print? Most of all, are we really conceding more that necessary to join the "nuclear club"?

DO NOT READ THIS if you haven't read
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince... You'll be sorry..!!


... It feels as though I've just gotten off the Hogwarts Express and am already at the Drusleys! Yeah, it's that bad to see the journey end. Another year end. And now I have to get back to reality. Yuck. It's a depressing thought... I'm comparing it to staying at Privet Drive, aren't I?? Why does there have to be a last page??

It's depressing to think that you can no longer roam the halls of Hogwarts.. That you can't sit with Harry, Ron and Hermoine in the common room.,.. Or watch Ginny shout at Ron on the subject of snogging :D....or..or ... Just watch.. Magic unfurl around you...YEAH!! 'cuz that's what it feels like... MAGIC... ugggghhh!! I wish the book would never end....

J.K Rowling has once again outdone herself... And kept the reader glued till he's reached the last page..And wanting for more after that!! It's amazing how each character slowly develops, grows, and moves on, along with the story.. What's more amazing is that while the reader enjoys reading about the usual people, he doesn't feel lost with the entry of new characters. One very successfully manages to recollect a page or a conversation from one the previous books where the names have appeared. It's so easy to feel that your a part of the whole thing...

The book has answered a lot of questions... The pensive had a lot of to do work this time..And adds a few more too, much to one's distress!!...The book's full of good news and bad news... And werewolves and deaths, and the horrrrrible death eaters.. You don't know what to expect next..! It was saddening that Dumbledore had to die... He was my favorite... Loved his glasses and robe and voice! It's impossible to think of him, as only some character from a book...Damn Snape!!

It is no wonder that while some people DO deserve a second chance.. There are others who just DO NOT...Yeah, I'm talking about Snape...! He's evil through and through and I reckon he's going to get his worth once Harry lays his hands on the creep...Because like Dumbledore wisely put ( the man's unbelievable, almost like he's a wizard..hehhe!!!) Harry has the most deadly weapon of all, Love.

Loads of people go missing and a revolting number seem to be under some sort of curse or the other. None of it diminishes the need to cheer at the Quidditch matches which become more interesting 'cuz now Harry's captain...And it doesn't decrease the studying workload, specially since Harry and gang are now in their 6th year.. Oh! Did I mention it? They all did superbly in their O.W.L.S.!!! Mr. Weasley and Mr. Weasely, as Fred and George , now like to be referred to as are doing superbly well with their own shop on Diagon Alley...! Percy's a brat and hasn't come back to the family.

Not to forget some superb new spells... I particularly like the one that hangs you in the air, upside down... Then there's the Felix- lucky-potion, which is too good to be true...!! Kaushik, you think we could make some of it, if we got hold of the half-blood-prince's book? As much as I'd hate to even touch anything that was Snape's the potion would come handy to Harry..

What's more is that there's a love-is-in-the-air atmosphere in the magical world this year... Ron and Hermoine, Ginny and Harry, Tonks and Lupin, Bill and Fleur...!!! It's very very...umm...Harry-like of him to give up Ginny, since he knows the danger she'll be in if they continued as a couple... I hope they're together at the end of the next book... Harry deserves some happiness...!!!

There's going to be a lot for J.K.Rowling to do in the next book, Harry has to hunt down all the Horcruxes and face Lord Voldemort... it's revolting that you have to call him "lord"... Rowling has kept track of all details mentioned in her other books with remarkable precision... And it's almost, if I may say, magical.... 'cuz it must have taken helluva lot of work.. It would be easier if she had a house elf... You reckon they can read, can't they?? I hope the next book comes out soooooonnnnnn.......!!!! Until then... I'm going get back on the Hogwarts Express.... Who would want to stay with the Drusley's!!!

On 26th January 1963,as the last strains of Lata Mangeshkar's "Ai mere wattan ke logon..." (People of my country..)died down, there was silence and our then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru cried like a baby. Not alone, but with the rest of the country as they mourned the loss of tens of thousands of soldiers they had on its eastern frontiers.

" On the dawn of 20th November 1962, the nation appeared to be on peril. The mighty Himalayas that were considered impenetrable were no longer so. And what looked like China's victorious march into India had begun."

The soldiers, sons of the soil, stood with rifles, ready for what would be their final assault. Lt. Col. R I S Kahlon recalls that by the time he was sent to the borders, the soldiers were living on a prayer. And, in what he calls the rustic language of the battalion, he told a soldier, "Kyun bhai aise ladkiyon ki tarah kyun letta hua hai?" ( Why do you lie down like a woman, soldier?) And the soldier got himself of the ground and picked up his gun and replied saying, " Sahib apne marwana he hai na..." ( Sir, you wish for me to die na?) ...And charged at the Chinese..Slowly, they all got up, saw their mission again, and charged forward.

The ratio of the strength of the armies was something around 800 Indian Jamaica against 20,000 Chinese soldiers.

...The gates had been opened and now India was exposed. The soldiers still charged on with never more than a few grains each, no ammunition and in freezing temperatures. Death seemed inevitable. They had to follow the sun to Bhutan, and so they went up when they had to and down when they had to... They cudn't afford to take diversions.

In a book called the Himalayan Blunder, J.P.Dalvi talks about a soldier on one the pages, who was asked to file a report. The soldier wrote the report on a Chapati... And I quote him when he says, " I regret the unorthodox choice of stationary, but atta (wheat) is the only material I have for feeding, fighting and futile correspondence."

China's major territorial claims involve two widely separated areas. The largest claim totals 32,500 square miles in India's Northeast Frontier Agency. The other disputed area lies 900 miles to the north-west in the Ladakh region of Kashmir. Who'd think that the beautiful mountains for Ladhak, were once covered with blood? At present they are difficult to protect... Back then.. It was impossible..

Issues like: the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile in India; China's non-recognition of Sikkim's merger with India; the nuclear tests in 1998 by India; the Mc Mahon line; and India's allegation that China is arming Pakistan, including the latter's nuclear program... Were and still remain unresolved.

Major Dhan Singh Thapa, A.S. Pathina and Joginder Sigh are some of the few people honored with the Param Veer Chakra and the Mahavir Chakra for their bravery during this war.... Their eyes fill with tears as they recall this as the most brutal of wars of the careers... They dedicate these medals to their fearless jawans... You can feel their pride... And it's overwhelming.. As are the tales they have to tell..

The world and the nation pointed fingers towards Nehru, Krishna Menon and Lt Gen V.M. Kaul. After 4 decades of war... The Chinese decided to treat, claiming that they couldn't stretch their communication channels any more. India lost the 1962 war but the Indian jawans hadn't failed their country.

Lt Kahlon says, until you've sung songs with the jawans around a campfire, fought by their side, hurt with them, and rejoiced victory with them.. You can't love them and know what drives them to give up their lives... And I say... Their names liveth for evermore..

I just came across these lines while watching a program on great battles... and it impressed me, which is why im putting it here so u can read it and ...leemme say, enjoy the beauty...

Oh burry me by the cassino,

For my duty to England is done,

And when you sit by the Blighty,

Drinking your whisky and rum,

Remember the old indian soldier,

For the war has finally been won.

If u guys have come across something.. do mention it in ur comments.. Each day we hear something, read something... that afffects you... this is my thought for the day... Ok OK im rambling...

Gregory David Roberts.

I had no idea who this guy was either. And then I came across his interview on television and heard him talk about his life. What hit me first, while I listened to him, was a that a very very simple policy in life that I followed and believed, wasn't just another castle in the air built by someone as dumb as me, was reality.

Everyone deserves a second chance.

The story of his life caught up with me when he talked about his marriage break-up. The court trial that followed a while later for the custody of his baby girl was won by his wife who had walked out on father and child for another man when the baby was 3 and a half. 5 years, at the time the court handed custody to the mother, she clung to her father's leg outside the court wailing that she wanted to go home with him, she moved everyone's hearts including the policemen!

Gregory, went home and sat. Night fell around him. And marked the beginning of an end , the start of his heroin addiction. Having spent all the money he had drowning his grief in heroin, he started robbing. Banks, homes. He says he was called the Gentle bandit... 'cuz he looted banks with a toy gun he used to take his heroin, wore a three piece suit and talked calmly to the people, took only how much money was required, and never harmed anyone.

Soon, he was on Australia's Most Wanted list. He was captured and imprisoned in 1978. Was chained,beaten, tortured and not fed. He'd lost half his weight when he escaped the most tightly secured prison with the help of a motorcycle gang, BLF Union, & revolutionaries to escape to New Zealand in 1980.

I'm going to cut the story short here and quote him describe his life...

"I was a revolutionary who lost his ideals in heroin, a philosopher who lost his integrity in crime, and a poet who lost his soul in a maximum-security prison. When I escaped from that prison, over the front wall, between two gun-towers, I became my country's most wanted man.

Luck ran with me and flew with me across the world to India, where I set up and ran a free clinic in a crowded Bombay slum. I joined the Bombay Mafia, and worked as a gunrunner, a smuggler, and a counterfeiter. I was chained on three continents, beaten, stabbed, and starved. I went to war. I ran into the enemy guns. And when those wilderness years of hunted exile came to an end, when I changed my life, when I stopped running onto the knives and started running into the light of love instead, I wrote the novel, Shantaram, that was based on my wild and wicked life."

Now,Gregory David Roberts, once known as Public Enemy Number One and Australia's Most Wanted Man, lectures on literature and art at universities, and teaches his philosophy and cosmosophy to students from every walk of life, including business leaders and creative artists in the fields of movies, writing, music, and drama.

While on the show, he was asked how different the under-world and the Mafia are today, when compared to the olden days when he was a part of it. He replies by saying, " There was integrity then. Yes, even among the gangsters. There were boundaries and lines which were never to be crossed."

When you see this man today, no one can ever think he is/was anything but what he looks like. Respectable and a man of integrity. When you hear him talk about how Bombay (now Mumbai), as he calls it, adopted him, you think of him as a man with passion. You cannot second guess the life he has been through until he tells you about it. And when he's told you his tale... You can see the scars that have been left behind. But you also see how they have turned him onto the right path, made him who he is today.You also see that your worst fears about everything and anything are true and not fiction. You also see that there are people who love and care about others, because they don't want it any other way,even today. After you've heard him talk it's hard to not let his experiences thaw at the cynic in you. Instead of losing faith in him and society, you find it. Faith in the world. Faith in him and in you.

THAT is all I have to say.

P.S: if u want to read up in detail about his "adventures"... I've mentioned a link. And read the book...!!

Anything and everything that goes wrong around us is blamed on the infrastructure of this country.

No judicial system.Corrupt lawyers who say whatever it is that is needed to say to get their client out of a fix. Lies. Creating evidence. Killing. Plundering. Bribes. Why only lawyers? Judges too. The court as a whole. Aint there something about 'em being "independent bodies that serve to uphold the constitution of India and to protect human rights"... "Where are we going wrong?", I ask myself and other people. And they answer in one word. Infrastructure.

No political system. Puppets. The mantra they used to follow?

To uphold and abide by the laws that govern humanity.I herein pledge my devotion to this country and its people who have elected me as their leader. I promise to live up to the faith they have shown in me. To protect human rights.To never dishonor the constitution.

The mantra they actually follow now?

To uphold and abide by the laws that govern humanity. I shall only kill, plunder and loot. No one will suffer.
I herein pledge to use all taxes for my personal use. To buy as many houses as I can so that construction companies and the Housing Dept. Don't go out of business. To spend whatever I can on my relatives and their marriages. I only do so, so that caterers, musicians, decorators, cloth shops, jewellers, car companies...Don't go out of business. To invest as much as I can in the judicial system and the police body so that the people don't realize how much I am doing to keep them in business. I herein pledge absolute secrecy. I promise to be faithful to all the people who have contributed to my campaign and those who have seen to it that I get my votes. To protect human rights. I shall make brochures on the sati sites in Rajasthan to support the tourism industry. I shall only kill animals according to my whims and fancies. I pledge to twist and turn every law written as the circumstance shall call for.

....And I ask myself and the people around me, "Where are we going wrong?" And they shake their heads and answer. Infrastructure.

The educational system. Does it exist?? I think not.Money for Nothing. Who cares if you know more about science, math, and English than your neighbor? The only reason he gets a better college is because he's got money. Not to forget the subsidiary schools you are made to go to, TUITIONS. Why the hell can't the schools employ teachers who do what they are supposed to do and teach sense? What happened to freedom of thought and expression? Freedom of choice? What happened to providing choice? Quality? What happened to righteous thoughts? Doing things because you want to do them, not because they are required of you. To learning because you wanted to learn? To aspire to inspire?.... "Where are we going wrong?" I ask people... And with a smug smile they answer me. Infrastructure.

So, what do we do now? Wait for Batman or Superman or Shaktiman to come in and rescue us all. I would actually hope for rescue if I thought it would do me any good. How can you expect one person to turn up and shake things back into place? Change the "infrastructure", that we so loyally put blame on? I know it's not possible. You know it too. So, then what do we do?

Shift the blame again. When I wanted to become a musician/writer.My parents didn't let me study what I wanted to. When I pointed out to my teacher that she was making a mistake.My teacher told me my way of thinking and questioning her was not acceptable. When I pointed out a policeman taking money from someone to my dad he just patted me on the head and said, "These things happen." When I wanted to get out there and make a change I was told by my well-wishers, "Sweetie why do you want to do all that? There are people to do such things."

What we forget is that, WE are the change that is required. YOU are the change that is required. Every little thing you do makes a difference. You want to question something in school, do it. If you think a teacher is incompetent, that is after you have put in effort from your side, talk about it. Discuss ways to find out where there is a lag and do something about it. If you think you aren't getting trained enough at school, tell the authorities. One person may not listen. Two may not listen. The tenth might. The eleventh may too. The twentieth would do something about it too. But YOU have to reach there.

We did it when we were in school. Asked for more exams, tests. We got them. Later we even thanked our teachers for listening to us and doing something about it.

We put our faith in these institutions. We put what we call our faith in these institutions. What we forget to do is put faith in ourselves and what we think.

Blame it on the infrastructure. YOUR infrastructure.

50,000 people died of poverty on Monday. A 2-3 year old with two sticks, called legs, took 5 minutes to gain balance, so that he could stand. He had a pot belly ( one of the signs of Kwahiorkor,, malnutrition, protein deficiency and marasmus). You could count the ridges in one's spine on his back. I could count 7. There was mud and dirt stuck everywhere. There were flies taking 'red eyes' from his leg to his face. There was no strength in his hands to ward off flies. What was the point anyway? They would only come back. Workaholic flies.

50,000 people died of poverty on Tuesday. It's a beautiful day. It's a beautiful place. The place where you can see nature in all its glory. It's the land of deserts, tropical evergreen forests and sand-covered beaches. It's home to the largest wildlife and breeding ground for the world's largest flora. A thousand ships found its coasts and brought with them merchants and colonisers. A thousand ships left its shores, years later, with everything that the land had to offer. Now these very shores serve as a source of entertainment to the living village kids and a source of income to an odd fisherman. Welcome to Africa!

50,000 people died of poverty on Wednesday. A baby lay within the protection provided by its mother against the harsh climate. He wore no clothes. There were flies all over him. I don't think what could be see on him was skin. He was hungry. Not even the liquid-protein stuff that passed as food was left. So, he bawled. Everyone in the vicinity was below 25 years. If the infants were lucky they'd live to see their 16th birthday. And then they'd die of either AIDS, an epidemic, malnutrition, or poverty. Did I say lucky?? The place where you see nature in its most cruel form. A gold mine, now suffering from poverty. Welcome to Africa!

50,000 people died of poverty on Thursday and Friday.

You could go on thinking
That there was nothing wrong
Whatever happened to those values of humanity
When a child is now born into this world
With no sense of skin on his bones.

50,000 people died of poverty on Saturday.

And it will never happen again.

Because there was a concert going on across 4 continents, a 50-100 cities, with more than 30 bands/ individuals performing, at least a million people as live audience and a billion watching world over. It's the second largest concert to be seen after the Woodstock in 1969. With an audience that could easily be mistaken as the entire city, artists put their hearts into the mission and performed. Something was being done about it. People really do care.

8 world leaders, gathered in Scotland for the G8 summit, will be presented with a workable plan to double aid, drop the debt and make the trade laws fair. If these 8 men agree, then we will become the generation that made poverty history.

But they'll only do it if enough people tell them to. ' We don't want your charity, we want YOU.' Sign the Live8 list now... Log on to http://www.live8live.com

This week poverty can be beaten. The concert is/was going on live at Tokyo,Rome, Canada, Berlin, Russia, Italy, Germany, Philadelphia, London, Paris, Cornwall, Las Vegas, Toronto... And you've got Madonna, Bon Jovi, Mcfly, Will Smith, Muse, Destiny's Child, Celiene Dion, Elton John, REM, Robbie Williams, U2, Pet Shop Boys, Scissor sisters,Faith Hill, Pink Floyd, The Who, George Michael, Gilmore, Bryan Adams, Velvet Revolver and Slash, Sir Paul Mcartney,Ms.Dynamite,David Hallyday,Shakira, Alicia Keys,Craig David,Liking Park, Green Day, Sting... And still counting!!! It beats going around the world in 80 days. I've been moving across continents every 15 minutes!

Hopefully, the Africans will now be provided with basic education, shelter, food and medical facilities. Hopefully, no more people will die of AIDS because they weren't aware. Hopefully, their babies will now have skin. Hopefully, they'll have the strength to fight the flies. Hopefully, they'll have clean water to drink and clothes to wear. Their prayers have been answered. People did care. Somebody up there, was watching them.

Light up. Light up.
Even if you can't hear my voice,
I'll be right beside you dear,
I swear in the days left,
We'll walk in fields of gold together.

On Sunday, no more people died of poverty anywhere on the globe.