Bodo militants kill 23 'outsiders' in 2 days - Hindustan Times

The Hindustan Times says: Militants of the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland continued their killing spree on Tuesday, taking the number of 'outsiders' they are gunning down to 23.

Bodo militants kill 23 'outsiders' in 2 days - Hindustan Times

The terrorists pulled out Hindi-speakers and killed them in cold blood in what was an absolute act of cowardice. They didn't even spare a crippled man. I have been to Assam and other parts of the northeast of India. These states have spectacular nature, good weather and a friendly and liberal populace but almost no development. The best areas of Guwahati are dirtier than most Indian cities and while you don't see "slums" there, the poverty is visible.

Most of the problems in the northeast have been caused by the politicians but the role played by the defense and para-military shouldn't be overlooked. I remember how aggressive some army men were with locals at the ancient Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati. These people were off duty but insisted on jumping queue and even threatened local pilgrims.

If India really wants to integrate its economy with the ASEAN region, a real "healing-touch" is required in the northeast, where many feel like second-class Indian citizens. While looking east, India needs to sort out the mess that is its own east.

Mizoram: A stable region in a tumultuous neighbourhood

Just for the record there are stable areas in the northeast like Mizoram, where there is no insurgency or anti-India sentiment. The state, which has a lot of autonomy, has an adult literacy rate of around 90 percent and virtually no poverty.

This is the same state that revolted against India and drove out the Indian Army, leading the Indian Air Force to bomb the state's capital Aizawl in 1966. The point I am trying to make is that no situation is beyond repair.

Ajay in Delhi

In a few days I head to the national capital for what's becoming an annual sojourn. This time it's the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit and the Delhi 21k that takes me there. I guess I am a lot more prepared for the summit than I am for the run. A series of running injuries and health problems have thrown a spanner in my mini-marathon preparations.

I love Delhi. It is one of the world's greatest cities. I love the ancient monuments, the delicious street food, the greenery, the open spaces, Lutyens' Delhi, India Gate, tandoori cuisine, the nice November weather, the stately and radiant beauties and the historical aura.

A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East

I was lucky enough to find this book at a bookshop at Kuala Lumpur's Low Cost Carrier Terminus. Before reading this book, I had never heard of this great journalist/writer and I was definitely missing something.

"A Fortune-Teller Told Me" is a well-written and passionate travelogue that shows the Asian Tigers in 1993, while they were in the process of dismantling their past and speeding towards westernization. Tiziani's views on core oriental values is something I can completely relate to. The author loved the cultures of Indo-China and all the countries that form ASEAN and this book is a travelogue of his overland journeys from these countries to Europe via Russia. You can feel how countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand were in 1993. I, for one, am glad that Vietnam is nothing like what he described (with horror) in the book. But I would have loved to see the Malaysia of yesteryear that he writes about romantically. 

Terzani knew the Chinese people well and at times I think he is overly harsh on them in this book. I was also a bit disappointed with how little coverage his Trans-Siberian journey gets in the book. Of course there are a couple of factors that need to be kept in mind: For starters, Russia looked a lot like a failed state in 1993 and the author made the mistake of just passing through the cities via train without getting off, unlike I did during my epic-journey ten years later in a more stable version of the country. 

The author has witnessed and covered three significant historic moments of the kind that every journalist dreams of . He was in the USSR when it collapsed, he saw the fall of Saigon in 1975 and the Khmer Rouge's takeover of Cambodia. I am sure his Goodbye Mr Lenin is also a great book.

Terzani had a longing to live in India, a country he believed at that time to not be following the western-style modernisation that East Asia was undertaking. I hope he was happy in India when he lived here. He died 3 years ago and I am really sorry that I won't be able to meet him in this life. The man has already become one of my idols.

The calm of a holiday

I can't believe that I am still in Andheri. The roads are empty. It is possible to get into a bus and it takes 5 minutes to get to the station. This city needs more holiday weekends. The ease with which I could get a bus reminded me of the good old days (before the work on the metro started) when I could rush to the station and back.

Happy Diwali and Samvat 2067!

Journalism in India has gone to the dogs

The hype on television and the papers over Barack Obama's visit to India is nauseating to put it mildly. I personally respect and admire Obama but this is just too much.

The Indian media has exposed itself globally as a  farce. It all started with a very poorly sourced report by PTI that the U.S. was spending $200 million a day on Obama's trip. Despite the fact that there is no way that such a figure can be backed up, the Indian TV channels and newspapers have jumped on the bandwagon citing that figure in all reports. Sigh.

The latest rubbish report came from NDTV that 32 U.S. warships were heading to the Bombay harbour to protect Obama. The sad part is that people believe this kind of non-sense. I, for one, am glad that I stopped almost all the English-language news channels in India. I can't do without the papers, especially the wonderful Sunday editions.

32

Woah. It looks like I am moving slowly into the mid-30s. It was a wonderful birthday yesterday. Low-key but nice and pleasant and I got a dose of November Rain.

I guess what I can really aim for is to look the way I did in 2006. In these conditions it won't be easy but I can do it  :)

Another Bangalorean schmuck

Picture this: A beautiful and sunny November afternoon in Colaba. 4 European friends of mine, working in Bangalore, were in Bombay for a short holiday. We were having a wonderful lunch at a place with a good view of the harbour.

These gentlemen do not like Bangalore and asked me why I left the city that I fondly call the Big Urinal (Bigga LOO ru). I told them it wasn't so much the corrupt landlords, the cheating rickshaw-wallahs, the lack of real entertainment or the blind aping of American culture. It was the "wonderful" people of that city that made vow to never set foot there again.

And guess what? One lone ranger sitting next to us, claimed he was from the great garden city of Bangalore and that it was heaven. He said the foreigners and IT people made it hell. In a slightly threatening and aggressive tone, he said he didn't like hearing negative things about the place. My friends and I heard out the poor soul and let him go. What's really ironic is the fact that the man proved me right with his diatribe. Instead of minding his own business, he wanted to get into a fight with 1 Bombayite and 4 Europeans.. Very smart, I must say, considering the fact that his Kannada Rakshana Vedike goons were 900 kilometres away.