Reflections

Yet again, our nation has been shocked by a heinous terrorist attack – at Pulwama, martyring more than 40 of our brave CRPF personnel in the prime of life. My heart – numb with shock, can only pray to the Almighty to give strength to their families in this dark hour. Let us, before we analyse our options, spend a minute to think of what these families have lost; with grief in my heart, to those braves, I can only say : shat shat naman … may you Rest In Peace! MOVING AHEAD In this terrible hour, let us do our best to keep calm. This does not mean I recommend inaction; rather, let us allow our Government-   it is an excellent Government – to do its Job. Give them time and space to deal with the terror on their own terms. I do not advocate we forgive and / or forget; just that we remain calm, and confident that our Government is there to respond and deal with this . Building vocal pressure towards any particular response method – there are plenty of options {look below}...

This week, just yesterday as a matter of fact, our Prime Minister landed in Israel  - the first ever Prime Ministerial visit to that nation from our side. This is a seminal event; yet, it was saddening to see some voices being guarded, as opposed to openly welcoming this move. In a democracy, it is perfectly fine if you don’t support the ruling party, having voted for the other side; it is accepted as well as expected that you criticize – but when the Government does something laudable – you should welcome it. This move by the NaMo Government stands in that list; a fully laudable move, one that we would do well to welcome, leaving our apprehensions aside for the time being. On that other hand – this is not a time for chest-thumping either; let us reflect what this move means for us as a nation, and analyse the pluses and the minuses of this new equation. Whatever else we look at, this is not the time for misguided moralistic analyses – Geopolitics is not a field that lends it...

Tales from Shining and Sinking India is a series of deep fascinating and interesting stories covered by a journalist during the course of his career. The selection is stupendous, meaningful, and a great value add, besides being interesting and largely of current interest. The eclectic selection includes stories on the Naxal problem, massive floods in Bihar, the 26/11 attack and its Media coverage, Air Accidents - YSR Helicopter accident & Mangalore, Chandrayaan, Tibet, A visit to Pakistan as a Media professional, West Bengal and the fall of the Left, and the two best ones – Anna, and a lovely article on Festivals of India Tales from Shining and Sinking India is a book by a Media Personality – Akash Banerjee ; it has its many good points; but let me depart from my convention, and first point out what I felt were its negatives. I want the readers to leave with a positive impression of this excellent work, so for once let me get into the negatives of the book before I delve in...

The one I missed… this is a book I read more than a couple of years ago, and forgot to review it then. As luck would have it, I dug deep into my pitaaraa two days ago, and thought of re-reading this one to check up on how exactly Iqbal ended up. The immediate stimulus was a twitter conversation with the Author himself. And so it was that I found that this excellent book was spared my attention in the list of books reviewed, which is a real pity; I would rate this as being among the Author’s very best. If any of you haven’t already read it – do so; you will not regret it. THE PLOT This is the 4 th book of the Lashkar series; and this one is all about Iqbal from start to finish. A shattered Iqbal comes out of Blowback with hatred and revenge the only two alternating emotions in his heart; a heart burning with one desire, and one desire alone. And a mind filled with alternating thoughts of Tanaz, and the man / men who were ultimately responsible for her condition… the combinatio...