A young girl gets pulled out of her car and beaten up, another gets raped in the middle of the road during peak hours, an Executive Engineer is beaten to death by a rude MLA, 27/67 MLA’s of Delhi have criminal records …and we continue to tolerate all this, saying we Indians are tolerant. So, who are we kidding? We are not tolerant, but impotent and selfish. We are the least tolerant, on the contrary, we, specialize in intolerance. We kill people in our rage – be it road rage, or the BMW rage, or the bar rage that killed Jessical Lal, or the murder of …

The day I was commissioned in the Gorkha Regiment, I knew I have been put with the most dynamic yet simple soldiers of the mighty Indian Army. The physically undersized and naïve Gorkha with small, barely discernible eyes, can be the most ferocious and heroic warrior in the combat zone on one hand, while on the lighter side he can be the unanimously proclaimed dope amongst his counter parts in other regiments.

At times one wonders, why are these nations separate in the first place. That debate aside for the moment, what is it that makes us hate people? There are enough problems around us to submerge ourselves in and deal with, but we forget all that is around us and pay more attention to what someone on a TV channel is telling us.

Look at what we are missing out on, I am a hardcore cricket fan, and I will speak for myself, that I miss watching the fast bowlers from across the border playing in our IPL

“Why is it so profoundly satisfying to lose one’s identity to one’s sons?”, I asked Soumya one sunny afternoon as we took a stroll down West Park.” I feel so good every time someone stops and praises Timmy or Tot and asks us if ‘we are Timmy and Tot’s parents?’, don’t you find this strange or do you feel the same way?”
Strange? Not at all Manjula, I feel much the same way. Life flows in a continuum. A new generation always out seats the former…

The ruckus raised by the recent IPL snub of the Pakistani players – be it accidental, or premeditated – is an example of how business focus can lead to an aggravation of sore relationships. The reason for the fiasco of not selecting the Pakistani players in any of the teams may be because none of the franchise wanted to bet money on horses, who they were not sure would even make it to the starting line. Post the Mumbai attacks, the relations between India and Pakistan have taken a turn for the worse – the effects of that can be seen on on the game too.

How I wish I spoke
How I wish I cared
How I wish this was not just a wish
How I wish I had known

You still are my angel
My darling sweetheart
This body so blue
A tear drop and a scar

Ask someone in India today, “What is the easiest way to make a lot of money?” and you might get any one of the following answers:

Become an Entrepreneur ,
Get an degree from an IIM and join the corporate world,
Start a web based company ,
Invest in the Market, etc., etc.

One answer you might not get, but which, it seems, is the right answer today is:

I am not sure whether it was Manjula or Pratima, Subir’s wife, who had had this brain wave when we were wondering how to rally the troops: look in the telephone directory, wouldn’t that be the most obvious place where we would find the details of Bengali’s or Indian’s resident in and around Wolverhampton? Wouldn’t they be the obvious choice for us to reach out to in search of donations, volunteers, attendees and ambassadors of our programme?

But what is the reason behind this dysfunctional mindset?

The answer, I believe, is fear. Everyone is afraid.

The politician is afraid that whatever he might do, he might not get a second term, so he wants to amass as much wealth as he can. He is afraid that the other party might malign his image, so he digs deep to find dirt on other politicians.

Well, oh well, another year has passed us by and we hardly realized it. There were many resolutions made, some kept, most forgotten, and many postponed for the coming year. Amidst all this there were certain moments this year that were worth remembering. Some moments that touched us, inspired us, and some that we wished never happened. I am writing my ten such moments here, so get ready to relive bits of 2009 with me.