My Thoughts

     I was ten years old when I joined Sainik School during Jan 1967. It was a boarding school with military like environment and discipline; all very different from the carefree living with the siblings, in the cosy comfort of parental care at home. Here, one had to fend for everything. Early to rise, a cup of tea, followed by physical training, then bath and change into uniform akin to the army, thereafter march to the mess in squads for breakfast, from there march-on to the academics block for classes and march back to the mess for lunch. There was a short rest period post lunch followed by games parade.  In the evenings we again took bath, wore mess dress and observed combined study period. The day concluded with marching for dinner to the mess and back to the hostel, polishing shoes and washing small garments before going to the beds at lights out till reveille early next day morning. There were intermittent doses of instructions and moral lectures everyday to m...

    One day, when I was a Colonel and commanding a combat unit, I returned home very late for lunch. Although, physically back home for some food, my mind was still reeling with the stuff at work. I was unable to notice an old friend who had come on a surprise visit and was sitting in the lawn, chatting with my wife for the past two hours. He read my mind well and smiled. When my wife moved to the kitchen for laying the lunch, we got talking over the pre-lunch drinks.      My friend, also a senior colleague, explained that when we had joined the army twenty years back, as Second Lieutenants, ten men each were placed under our command. These men made one, two or three mistakes every day. The lapses were of simple nature like getting late for parade, untidy turnout, slouching or missing salutations. It was very intimate command. We noticed almost every lapse and were well trained to take corrective actions. Thus, at the end of the day, we were quite satisfied with...

Nation is a community of people formed on the basis of common language, history, ethnicity, culture and territory. A nation exists when its members recognise one another as belonging to the same community and as bearing special obligation to each other. Main characteristics of a nation are sovereignty, land, population, government, common descent, common language, common religion, common historical experiences, same cultural practices and traditions and infrequent internal ethnic conflicts. India has most of the ingredients of a strong nation in abundance. It is a vibrant democracy with an exceptionally explicit constitution, strong central government with all its organs, competent armed forces, well developed agricultural, industrial, health and education infrastructure, extensive air, road and rail networks and postal services. We are, however a multi racial, multi lingual and multi religious secular state. Our strongest characteristic is ‘Unity in Diversity’. While all languages, re...

The religious places dispute, presently sub judice in the Varanasi Courts is manifestation of religious misadventures of a barbaric ruler, during the seventeenth century. The case is actually against the ruler who is long dead. During the past three and half centuries, nearly fifteen generations of one community living in the vicinity have been paying their obeisance at the mosque. They were not even remotely party to the mischief of demolition of temple. Now, if they are denied prayers at this mosque, they shall be victims of a cruel ruler’s deeds of pre-independence era.  On the other hand equal number of generations of the other community have not had the opportunity to pay their obeisance at the temple, as it was demolished on the dictates of the same earl. Generations of this community have suffered and denial of relief to them now, will further aggravate their wounds. The alleged incident of constructing a mosque after demolishing an existing temple at the site is ne...

RETURN OF PRIVY PURSES     India’s integration history goes back to 1946-47, when the British decided to grant independence to India based on two nation theory. India was to be divided into India and Pakistan. At that time, the British Government was administering two thirds of the Indian Empire, directly and the remaining one third through 565 odd, princely states. The future of the princely states was uncertain, as they were given three options. They had the option to either merge with India or Pakistan or remain independent. Sardar Valabh Bhai Patel and VP Menon, the then Home Minister and Home Secretary of India, appreciated that, if any of these princely states from the main land mass of India, specially Hydrabad, Bhopal or Travancore decided to remain independent or opted to join Pakistan, it will become difficult to fulfill the dream of an integrated India. They persuaded, cajoled, used ‘Saam, Dam, Dand, Bhed’ and came out with a number of proposals to persuade these pr...

Introduction Almost everyone has accountability issues in life. We do not like to be held accountable by our boss, colleagues, subordinate staff, coach or even parents, children, siblings,  friends and least of all by spouse. Even though accountability extends beyond genders, generations, age groups and all spheres of professional, personal and public life, we hate the idea of being held accountable, for the possibility of a letdown because we may not done something as effectively as we should have or expected from us. While we want increased accountability from others, we flinch at the idea of showing it ourselves. Some of the managers and commanders, for this very reason, avoid holding even their younger colleagues accountable because they evade friction and difficult conversation. Therefore, even though every organisation wants all its members to demonstrate accountability, only a few are able to sustain the culture of accountability. The consequences of ignoring responsibil...