Sometime back when I met a Chinese immigrant settled in Austria I asked him if he supported one party rule in his country. He replied that he sure did. “How else do you control 1.3 billion people?”, he added. Good point for sure. But he had no answer when I asked him if he indeed supported his country’s system of governance why did he have to migrate. To some of us the two issues may not be related to each other. One is about the country as such and the second is about personal growth. And this implies that for some of us the country as such may be okay but it does not really provide ample opportunities for personal growth and satisfaction, however ridiculous it may sound.

Posted on January 25th, 2010 under Best Articles, Track the world. Tags: Avatar, China, dissent, dracgon, Google, Hacking, internet, leadership. Comments: 5

Given the rate at which Barrack Obama is bowing in front of monarchs I’m really sacred about his back. First to the Saudi King and now to Emperor Akihito. I hope he has consulted his doctors while indulging in this back breaking exercise. I mean we can’t really have an American President with a broken back. Can we? His planners too have to be really careful so as not to include more than one meeting with a monarch in one visit. I mean one BOW is okay but BOW BOW is bad and BOW BOW BOW is disaster. It also conveys a very different meaning which I’m sure Obama would not like. Nonetheless by now Obama has actually perfected this ‘art’. So much so that he can now do it better than the Japanese. A perfect perpendicular BOW because of which Emperor Akihito could possibly read the label stitched at the back of Obama’s collar. But do you guys know why Obama keeps doing a BOW so often? That’s because he is Barrack Obama and Wife. That’s the real reason. Well, alright I admit. That’s a stupid joke. Just the same I wonder how Michelle Obama feels when she watches her husband doing all that bowing, one after the other. Thankfully for him there’s one monarch less in this world for him to bow to, Nepal.

Posted on November 19th, 2009 under Track the world. Tags: bow, China, emperor, Japan, obama, pride, saudi king, visit. Comments: 3

Red is fast getting out of fashion. If you don’t believe me ask CPM or whatever is LEFT of it. The writing on the wall of Writer’s Building is rather clear and unambiguous. Left has to go in 2011. If you believe Mamata Bannerjee “It is bhictary for the peepul, by the peepul and for the peepul”. Yeah, it was all that and more. But I was kind of hoping Mamata would use some different words. Anyways, this bhictary has once again reinforced our belief that Left has indeed failed both, the state as well as it’s peepul.

Posted on November 12th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: Bengal, BJP, China, Congress, CPM, Mamata, Sitaram, TMC. Comments: 5

Well! Well! Well!!! After all the talk of BREAKING INDIA INTO PIECES, hundreds of border ‘transgressions’, consternation on Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, separate visas to Kashmiris and a host of other provocations, Wen Jiabao now says that they want to have good relations with India. He said this when he met Manmohan Singh in Thailand on the sidelines of ASEAN summit. Damn good. Just what the doctor ordered. But why does my heart tell me not to believe him? Possibly my heart has gone crazy. After all it’s the premier of a sovereign nation saying so. Hey, wait a minute. Didn’t Hu Jintao (their President) say something similar in June when he met Manmohan Singh in Russia? And most of the provocations which I mentioned have taken place after that? Well, my heart is damn right. We cannot believe Wen Jiabao, Hu Jintao, Mao Mao, Lao Lao or even Ming Ping Chin for that matter.

Posted on October 25th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: ASEAN, balance, China, military, navy, pirates, somalia, trade, war. Comments: 4

The first and foremost thing we need to understand is that, as George Fernandes had said long time ago, it is China which is our number one enemy and not Pakistan. Yes, we need to get this straight up front. And so our military policy has to shift from being a Pak centric one to being a China centric one. In effect what this implies is that China has to be dealt with even before we sort out the problem of Kashmir with Pakistan. Yeah, that is the crux of this statement. And yes, there are many ways in which we can deal with the Chinese, effectively.

Posted on September 14th, 2009 under Best Articles, India calling. Tags: border, China, dispute, India, Pakistan, pressure, Tibet, Uyghur, Xinjiang. Comments: 11

To some people this visit was just a means of achieving the freedom of the two journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee from N Korea but it is much more than just that. The official line from Washington may well be that it was a personal visit but I’ll be damned if Obama personally did not endorse if not authorize it. Anyone who feels otherwise is just being naive. Just as well, the visit has achieved what may be called as the ‘turning point’ in the strained relationship which these two countries have shared in the past. I know I’m being premature in my judgement here but be that as it may I feel very strongly about this. And US would be rather foolish not to capitalize on this. Remember the ‘unclench your fist’ remark by Obama?

Posted on August 8th, 2009 under Track the world. Tags: China, Clinton, freedom, Japan, journalist, Korea, north, obama, Russia, talks, US. Comments: 6

Yeah, I thank the lord for not bringing me into this world through the Chinese route. They may be doing very well economically but I shudder to think what life must be out there. The first thing that strikes me is that had I been born in China I would not have been allowed to do this- blogging. And had I persisted I would have been behind bars by now.

Posted on July 8th, 2009 under Track the world. Tags: bars, China, Congress, crack down, killing, Protest, rights, Tibetan, Uyghur. Comments: 7

Nobody gives people from north east any bhav. Nobody takes them seriously. They are just ‘chinkis’ who are supposed to be made fun of and dismissed as if they were some paltu animal. Even their women are considered to be chaalu and easy meat for most of the guys. I’m dead sure most of us will not know even the names and capitals of all these states.

Posted on October 30th, 2008 under India calling. Tags: animal, army, Assam, bank, blasts, bomb, cames, capitals, causes, China, chinkis, concern, Congress, control, countrymen, current, demography, development, disgruntled, east, feelings, fight, forces, fun, idol, ignore, illegal, immigrants, independence, Indian, integral, issues, Kashmir, Kashmiris, meat, media, mess, militants, name, noises, north, ofice, organizations, parties, patriotic, peace, playing, politicians, power, problems, profile, realized, region, score, security, situation, state, terms, terrorist, ULFA, voices, vote, win, women. Comments: 1

In a historic moment the Senate passed the Indo-US nuke deal with a bipartisan support. Truly incredible. Bush’s popularity may be in the dumps in the US but in India people can’t stop praising him and Condi Rice. In fact to the extent that he can actually contest in the general elections which are [...]

Posted on October 1st, 2008 under India calling, Track the world. Tags: america, beliefs, bipartisan, Britain, Bush, cheap, China, comity of nations, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Condi, country, CTBT, deal, demand, democracy, deterrent, device, dialect, economy, elections, faiths, general, govt, growth, independance, India calling, iran, Iraq, job, languages, live, Manmohan, mantra, manufacture, middle class, moratorium, nation, NPT, nuclear, Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, nuke, Pakis, peacefully, people, popularity, powerhouse, Prime Minister, proliferation, regime, Rice, Russia, Senate, Singh, stockpile, support, survive, term, test, testing, traditions, US, weapons, work, world. Comments: None