Wit Wisdom and Whoop

  Israel Hamas – The Failure To again go back to the beginning and my blog on the issue – The invincible Mossad failed to anticipate this, as also the entire western intel community (including that Famous Five Eyes – reminds me of the Enid Blyton books) is today a proven fact. That the Hamas built more than 500 kms of tunnels fortified in various ways, all of which required massive logistic support including funding, and takes significant time to build, and the Mossad and the western intel did not ask questions is deeply troubling. To blame one man just because one hates him is stupidity of the highest order. Not one person globally flagged this issue means that nobody cared, or everybody winked at it as if kids were building castles in the sand. Forget the Intel agencies, what were the NGO’s who obviously routed some part of the funding doing? Let’s stop kidding ourselves and face the truth – the Hamas and the team behind this were so brilliant that they fooled hundreds of fol...

  The latest media reports had a rather interesting headline. It spoke about the supreme court raising many a logical question about political funding and demanding that the list of donors be readily available for the court to review. Many have also raised questions about the so-called opacity of the electoral bonds and have pointed a finger at the current government on this. Let’s step back and have a look at this issue of political funding from a larger perspective. Is this something that started in 2014 as many educated folks would like us to believe or has it been in vogue ever since politics and elections started globally? For those who have followed politics especially in the Indian context, and involved as businessmen, professionals walking the corridors of power over the last 75 years, the truth is well known. Cash was king. Bribery was rampant. Every corporate and businessman gave money to every political party in cash. This was a hugely lucrative business where one ...

In 1947 the British left behind two enduring messy legacies. One was in creating Israel but without creating Palestine fully even if the UN created a map. The solution was so messy, that Jordan and Egypt managed the area which the Palestinians today claim but as having been taken by Israel. Reality is that none of the Arab states wanted either Israel or Palestine. In this existential game Israel took control over the Golan heights, west bank and the Gaza strip. The second was a problematic situation in Kashmir, with the partition of India and Pakistan. The mess we have seen over the decades was significantly India’s own making, actively exploited by Pakistan. Before the reader jumps, read on a bit. Just as the Hamas attacked Israel and plundered, raped, killed people earlier this month, tribals were encouraged by the Pakistan army attacked India for Kashmir. These irregulars were not paid, and so they plundered, raped, looted, killed and owing to this delay, reached the outskirts o...

  Sometimes more than one event sets off a chain of thoughts, and so this is a short commentary on different topics. G20: Undoubtedly this was the highlight of the year. 100+ events were held across 41 cities in India over a year long period, 220+ meetings were held across 60 cities. The sheer breadth and scale of the arrangements which occupied the entire year involved 15 million Indians in some form of activity. Many have griped about making this as a personality cult, waste of money etc. They could not be more wrong because this year long event had a huge benefit which nobody likes to talk about – the MARKETING of India. Every visitor would have had experiences and hopefully the good would have been more in number. But every visitor – as representatives of their countries across various segments – would have noted the arrangements, planning, efficiency, culture, people,  and the scale at which this was held. Many would go back with admiration for Indian capabilities a...

  For a change this is a technical blog but then I use this as a repository for all my writings and so here it is. The flavour of the day in India & even abroad today is  #Hydrogen  & we have seen many projects, investments being announced, while some have gone ahead with actual projects on a pilot basis. Wanted to share some big picture thoughts based on my personal involvement with the industry. Hydrogen for all its benefits is unique in the sense that it has a combination of properties that straddle the very extremes making it a challenge on various fronts. Many organisations are pursuing this opportunity, but the weakness as I observe, is that the majority of the organisations look at it in the conventional sense like many other projects they may have handled so far. This to me is not a good idea & barring for luck & god, the risk of a serious accident is significant in the sector. Unlike other fuels, LPG, CNG and Hydrogen are fuels which are stored ...

Sometime back as most of us recovered from the challenges of facing life with the Covid sword hanging above us, a bunch of my school/pre-university college friends decided to locate the teachers who had taught us in school - upto 10th Standards - and honour them. What started as a small event quickly morphed into something quite big and the event was held in a friend's house. We found that 3 of our teachers were still alive and it was a pleasure meeting them, literally after 47 years for me.  The friends made the event, held in May/June 2022, bigger and bigger in terms of its scope and decided to come up with a Souvenir, even if it was hardly 60 pages. The intent was for each to write about their memories and share. The friend who was involved in this insisted that I contribute (given your writing talents as he described it). I was extremely reluctant, as the piece I write will show why, but I finally mustered enough courage to write. I then dismissed the idea of sharing that as a ...

Who doesn’t have fantasies? They take all forms, shapes, sizes and situations. I have had one for long, and before the reader’s imagination runs wild – it is to do with Cricket. A game one has followed and been involved with since 1971.  Though in current times an excess of the game in format, frequency and information makes me lose track of events. What was once a lazy 5-day long game is now like instant noodles with 20 overs. What was once a battle between nations is now a battle between multinational clubs. But then every generation sees mavericks who are born sometimes far ahead of their times. Who, consequently, end up as blazing stars, but often do not reach the kind of heights of excellence and performance they could otherwise have done. One such blazing star was Salim Durrani, who passed away yesterday. A cricketer par excellence with talents that were sheer genius, but his record and numbers do not show even the slightest glimpse of his greatness. Only those who have wat...