Rohan Nigam

1971 Indo - Pak War - A Third World War?

While all through out my history class during schooling I learned that Nazi's were bad, It was only after I passed my schooling I realized that US sees or at least used to consider USSR as an equal threat to them and to the whole world as Nazi's were. Apparently, my history teacher was very good at teaching the history of India than the History of the other parts of the world. It was natural he did not mention much about the cold war. To be fair to him, I never could relate to the history of the other parts of the world at that age. So sadly, the only thing I carried back about world's history was that Nazi's were bad.

Indo-Pak War-1971:
Many people know about the famous India-Pakistan 1971 war which was called "Bangladesh War". Not many might have heard that it could have almost turned out to be the perfect catalyst needed to start a third world war and for some strange reason I wanted to blog something about it. Actually I wanted to blog about this since neither Wikipedia nor any other link mentions this war as a potential start that would've gone on to become a Third World War.

The United States under the leadership of Nixon supported Pakistan both politically and materially. This was not because he wanted to do business with Pakistan but it was because of two main reasons:
Firstly, they feared Soviet Union's expansion to south and south east asia.
Secondly, Pakistan was a close ally of the People's Republic of China, with whom Nixon had been negotiating a rapprochement and where he intended to visit in February the year following the war in 1972.

India and the USSR:
With US and China giving open support to the Pakistan, India was left to turn to USSR. While relations between India and USSR were always good and India always kept USSR in mind whenever they had any defence expansion plans. It was in 1971, that the relations got to a new level with the signing of "Indo–Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation ". Many believe that this treaty was a direct result of having common enemies in China and USA, but some also believe that this treaty was possible because of Soviet Union's earnest foreign policy towards India: Though the Soviet Prestige in India rose to new heights, but the Soviet influence on Indian Policy did not increase. No wonder India had lost a lot when USSR was dissolved.

Pakistan-China:
China was pissed off with India fresh after the 1962 Sino-Indian war, which by the way was never officially declared as war by both the countries. They still maintained the diplomatic relations but there was never that level of comfort. Pakistani's on other hand, had made very good settlements on the border issues they had with Republic of China and now (in 1971) viewed China as their strongest ally in Asia.

The War:
So while the war was going on, and the Pakistan army was all set to face defeat US intervened and Nixon sent a USS Enterprise to the Bay of Bengal which undoubtedly was carrying Nuclear arms. In reply to this, USSR sent two groups of ships carrying Nuclear missiles and a Nuclear Submarine to keep out USS Enterprise. The tension between the two sides was very high and a third world war couldn't have been ruled out. But, US decided that it was not ready for an all-out nuclear warfare with USSR and called the USS Enterprise back.

Hence, we survived one of many world war III scares. The thing different about this scare was that it was never considered to have the potential to trigger a WWIII.

 

TED and Me

Frankly, this blog might be the direct effect of me following TED conferences like a chimp who was lost and hungry for months and who finally landed in a garden full of bananas. But seriously, I am finding it difficult to express how much every talk in TED have inspired me and helped in evolving my thinking towards life in general.

Some of the people who are reading this blog might have already heard about TED, an annual conference which gathers entrepreneurs, thinkers, artists and academics from the fields of Technology, Entertainment and Design. Every one of this conference is already overbooked well in advance. To give you an idea, the 2010 conference is already sold out almost an year before. But now, all these talks are open for the entire world. We can all watch these talks from our very home. The idea is simple but it has a really big impact.

Now, there are lot of people who talk about changing things and do nothing about it and frankly speaking at this moment of my life I am one of them. I am more worried about the problems that I have in my life than the problem the world faces. I rarely get time to think what I can give to the world. Most of the time that I spend now is in first committing mistakes and then later on correcting those mistakes or repent about them if there is no way to go back and correct them. But even with all these things, giving 2 hrs a week to TED has impacted my thinking so much that I can now see the bigger picture of life. I have understood that just doing things for the sake of doing is completely useless. There has to be a reason, a meaning behind everything we are learning in life.

There is so much to learn from these talks. Some talks just left me spell bounded and I also remember getting so involved watching podcasts of few talks, that I missed my metro rail stop twice or thrice so far.

I would have loved to mention some of the talks that really inspired me, the only problem is that there are all so good that picking few from them would not do justice to the other talks. But, If you want to get a real intellectual boost, if you want a mega dose of optimism, or if you just want to let your hair down for a few days with kindred spirits follow TED this summer.

I really don't care whether you read my previous posts or not or if you will read my other posts and follow the other links that i would provide in my posts in future. But ted.com is one link which I would want all of you to follow.

For everyone reading this blog: Do yourself a favor, Go and visit http://www.ted.com/
Get inspired and spread this to inspire others.

Cheers.
Rohan

 

World War Movies

While I was whiling away through the University library the other day after returning few long overdue books, I suddenly overheard a couple (they were holding their hand tight!) talking in German.

I don't know what happened after that to me. But the very next moment, I was going through the Library's Collection of the movies on World War. I had already seen quite a few of them before. But, I always had the drive of wanting more. I possess strong feelings of "never had enough" of anything in my life.

So I ended up picking two DVD's. The first one being:

Taking Sides

Harvey Keitel. Yes, I saw this man in some awesome roles but never bothered to remember his name. Anyways,I watched first half of the movie in 3 days and yes it was that boring. On the cover it gave "Taking Sides" - Powerful Performances. It was not until the last 20 minutes you will know what they really mean by powerful. I cannot say I haven't seen such a powerful performance before but it was after a long time.

This reminds me of the days when I was growing up. At that time,the word "Powerful" had a different meaning to me. A Powerful performance in Bollywood terms would mean Sunil Shetty and Sunny Deol beating the crap out of every cop in the police station, that after breaking off the Jail with their bare hands and "maskal" power and finally going on to kill the funny looking villain.

But anyways, lets not shift the focus of this blog which was actually talking about the world war movies. So, "Taking Sides". Nazi rule ends and in the whole first half of the movie almost every second dialogue had "Art(music, in this case) vs Politics". All in all just one another not too bad movie which talks about the condition of the Germany after World War-I.

Then, while I was all tired after a long 4 hrs session of tennis and cricket(after an year), I started watching "Stalingrad" . The second movie I had brought from the library.

This movie took me by surprise. Watching an english dubbed version of 1993 german movie, I thought would not be such a great experience. But, it turned out to be alright. This movie was different than any other world war movies in more than one way: It showed the soldiers as normal human beings, who were caught in circumstances far beyond their control while their superiors continue to put them in those situations where they had no choice but to fight. One more thing about this movie was, it was in no sense a Nazi-apologist film. Finally,the war scenes portray the horror, insecurity and confusion of a battle, instead of how cool, heroic and exciting fighting looks like as that shown in a movie "Enemy at the Gates". Anyways, Stanlingrad is a must see for all the people who love history of world war. Though film is slow at some points but is equally engrossing at other points.

Before I end this blog, I just want to mention some of the best world war related movies I ever saw. Again, there might be movies which i might have forgotten and there might be some that I might have missed simply because I haven't seen them yet. But, I will eventually catch up with them in the next few years of my life:

1. Enemy at the gates
2. The Downfall
3. U-571
4. Schindler's List
5. Saving Private Ryan
6. Pearl Harbor
7. The Thin Red Line
8. Windtalkers
9. The Pianist

Besides this, few of the movies that I would want to see in near future would be "FlyBoys" even though it was officially declared as a flop. I personally loved the trailer though. After that, "A Very Long Engagement" - Just because I want a masala movie that has romance with world war as backdrop. Just like Pearl Harbor.

One movie which I am desperate to watch is Inglourious Basterds. "You haven't seen war, if you haven't seen it through the eyes of Quentin Tarantino" the promo says. I wish it turns out that way. I just love Quentin Tarantino's work.

By the way, did I mention that the couple whose conversation led to me watching these movies and posting this blog were actually talking Spanish not German.:) How the hell am I supposed to differentiate between the languages that I do not know.


Cheers.
Rohan

 

10 months of hibernation

Yes, I couldn't believe it. It's been almost 10 months since the last time i blogged. It was mostly because I wanted to correct bunch of complicated things going on in my life. And though i have managed to put few things back on track, there is so much more that still needs my attention. Arghh... I don't know why i am talking all this now.

Let's see what all has changed since the last time i blogged:

I started twittering and have begun to like it now. You might know this from the Twitter Updates column on the right hand side of this page. Twitter is one more reason that has kept me away from blogging.

A major epidemic scare has gone down flat even though WHO claims that it might come back to become more deadly. I don't know about everyone else, but it did scare the shit out of me for sometime. Now there are theories floating that this Swine flu scare was a big political fraud to divert people's attention from the worst global economic meltdown the world has ever faced.

IPL T20 season-2 turned out to be even better and exciting than the first one. And guess how many matches i had watched this season : ZERO. Yes, somehow cricket doesn't excite me anymore the way it used to couple of years back. But looking back at the highlights i felt that I did miss out on something.

Coming to F1, I cannot express how depressed I was seeing Schumacher struggle in his final two seasons and finally seeing him say good bye to the F1 world. But strangely, F1 has become more interesting than ever now. Well at least till last season. Amazing end to the season. And this season, I think we already know who the world champion is going to be: Jenson Button. And yes, I know it's too early in the season to make such a statement. Also wonder, when was the last time Ferrari's were desperately trying to compete to stay in top 5 teams in the constructors.

And in Tennis, Nadal's first loss in French Open in 6 years. I don't know why but I felt happy about this. May be because this opens the door for Federer. Lets wait and watch if Federer can do it this time.

In Politics, Obama deservedly became the US president and even among the toughest of times continues to inspire people. On the other hand, Pakistan finally succeeded in forcing the entire world to lose faith in its democracy. Politics in India also saw a change in the way it functions. Against all odds and factors like Anti-Incumbancy Sonia Gandhi's Congress came out on top. Not that its going to change much the way India is now, but it's a significant news.

While all this is going on, N.Koreans are trying to prove a point to the whole world. And they managed to add one more problem to the already existing huge list of issues that US faces by launching second nuclear test. Looks like N.Koreans and Taliban are trying desperately to prove Mayan calendar's prediction of world ending on December 21, 2012 right.

Well there is so much to write but there are too many mediums available for all of you to know about these things. Anyways, I felt nice writing after such a long gap. I am planning to take out some time every week to blog. Let's see how it works out.

 

Look who's here !

 

Diary of the I-Day

Hurricane IKE

Sept 14th

4 am :

I lie down with iPod plugged into my ears, listening to one of my favorite bands - Coldplay. For some reason I find all of there songs magical. I never can say this about many things in my life. Anyways, right now I don't feel like taking out the ear phones and that's not because I really want to listen to Coldplay at this time but because if I don't hear them now, I hear destruction. That makes my heart pound a little faster. I feel the winds beating the hell out of the walls and the balcony doors. I just feel that these damn wooden structures(yes, everything is fkng wooden here in USA !!)will give away to these strong current of winds any moment. I feel the force shaking the entire duplex apartment of mine. I strangely remember all vague things, all the people I loved and I care for.

Every now and then the strong gush of winds make me come out of my nostalgia. I've spent the entire night in the hope that I will see the normal life again. Nothing matters now. Power or no power. Food or no food. I just want this hurricane to go away soon. My roomies and I sit there in the dining area, not wanting to sleep. I actually slept for an hour before I felt something heavy hitting the damn French balcony doors that we have. I just sense that at any moment these doors would give away and head straight on to me. I went and dared to move the blinds to see what the hurricane is doing and I see the parking lot of the apt in front of me which is completely flooded with water. I see debris on the cars, I see trees struggling hard to keep their ground and I also observe many of them which couldn't and flying all over the ground . I could see the winds changing their direction every few minutes and I know I am in the eye of the hurricane. No particular floor or spot in the apartment feels safe.

It's been 2 hours since I started writing this. Its almost 6:30 in the morning and I still see no sign of light. It's dark and I get the feeling it will remain like this for a long time. I no longer want to sleep even though my head feels heavy. I am tired typing on my ipod. I am going to brush and may be hope to have something to eat. May be pretend as if everything is normal. Cya on the other side of this much needed break.


7 am :

The winds seems to have reduced a little. It went to 85-90 mph while i was typing the previous draft. Had something to eat finally not because I was hungry but only because i was not comfortable with the situation I was in. No power since 2 am in the night made matters worse. Took some pictures and videos this morning. They can never tell what I actually went through but they are pictures nevertheless. I answer a call. Its my aunt. They are fine and so am I. I go back to the bed and lie down and I already feel my eyes heavy...


10 am :
Call #1 : How are you? Are you alright?
Reply: I am sleepy. Blah Blah Blah... I want to sleep. Bye.

12 noon:
Call #2 : How are you? Sleeping till 12?
Reply: I slept at 8 what do you expect. Bye

1 pm:
I wake up and feel relieved for this hurricane has finally ended. Rain seems to have reduced completely. For the first time we (me n my roomies) come out of the apartment and we look around and feel how lucky we are to have escaped without any damage. Many apartments had to be vacated in the middle of the hurricane. Wonder how that would've been for those people.

Relaxed and relieved we thought we can get back to normal life soon. And now I realize how wrong I was. The moment I convinced myself that hurricane had ended and I can relax, was the beginning of the most irritating days of my life...

 

The worst thing to be without ?

When I posted this question at a discussion board, I got some amazing replies. Here are some of them:

1. Love
2. Friends
3. Parents
4. Ego
5. Faith
6. Desires
7. Good Health
8. Peace of mind
9. Enthusiasm
10.Self-Respect

There were few who did not understand or rather misunderstood the question to be 'the one thing they would love to be without'. And this is what they had to say:

1. Current Presidential Candidates
2. Homework
3. Taxes
4. Worrying
5. Racism
6. War
7. Seperation
8. Back biting Friends
9. Sickness
10.Love
11.Marriage


But guess what the best answer turned out to be. HOPE.

Its amazing to know how often we use this word. "I hope it's not going to be hot today." "I hope i will have a beautiful daughter." "I hope i will get an A." "I hope i can win this match." "I hope i can have a firm of my own." "I hope. I hope. I hope".

The standard dictionary definition, and one that is generally accepted by most of the world is “to FEEL that something desired MAY happen:” . Well i dont care what the dictionary has to say. I don't know what The Holy Bible or the Ramayana or Bhagvadgeeta have to say about 'Hope'. All i know about hope is that it's a wish in your heart of good things to come.

Hope for me personally means that no matter what adversity I face and no matter how hard times get, I know my sunshine will come. It's an eternal burning flame that will never go out as long as someone believes. There are many things to hope for: love... long life... wealth..., Hope is just the start to get you going and eventually keeps you going.

Here's the answer from the discussion board that i chose as the best answer:
The Worst thing to be with-out is "HOPE", because when one looses hope , you lose your will for living and one's life end -ups up-side down , It's like you are loosing your Hope in God and your Hope is your strenght , your integrity ,your faith, your love, if all of these are gone then one will be dead Spiritualy, and then Self-Pitty will over power you. Hope and Peace and grace to all.

Someone has rightly quoted "When you don't have anything, there's always hope."

 

Memory

" ..Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a permanent record.."
-memento

Now how true is that? I feel its completely true. I can distort my memories and convince myself they are true. Its weird but its true. And i can share so many instances from my own life where i found this to be true. Lets start with the school life, from whole of my school life I took pride in the fact that i was good in mathematics but then i look at my old school report cards and there i see 13/100 (which is Fail btw) in mathematics in the final exam of my 6th grade. I have distorted my memory into forgetting what i don't like to remember. All I remember is from that time onwards whatever math exam i gave, my performance was good. Now, this might be sounding a little childish.So, lets move onto another example from little more recent days.

I remember about an year back when I said good bye to my parents and my friends at the airport I was sad for them and yet happy for seeing them all there. But what i don't remember is that there were so many others who were not there. People who really meant something to me. I didn't miss them at that point of time. I did not realize that they were missing. But now I picture them there along with all others saying good bye.Strange but I see more people than actually showed up. And this is another thing about memories. Sometimes, at least in my case, I cannot remember the things(or people) that mean most to me.It's as though my brain gets lazy, and will not allow me to digg deep.

I know many people who are in love with their memories not the person they were with. I know many people who don't hate the person but hate the memories of the sad and disappointing moments they had with that person.I myself actually can be a good example of such a person. I am sure many of us are. And many of us have such unpleasant memories.

But whatever be the argument i feel Memories make up a part of our brains that need to be nourished daily and frequently. Without them, we wouldn't be human. Memories are special, and should be treated that way. Far too often, the people we love leave us, but it is with the memory of them that stays in our hearts that they are still here with us.

 

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na - Simple is beautiful

So I finally get to watch this movie. I was curious about this movie, not only because it was an Aamir khan's production but also because previews and promos clearly hinted that it would be a typical bollywood love story. Boy and girl are close friends and don't realize that they are in love. And before we go into the theater we know that this movie can never have a sad ending. Strange as it may sound some of the biggest hits in Bollywood have had the same story. I mean common how many times haven't we seen a boy running at the airport desperately trying to stop the girl from flying away. How many times haven't we seen a boy who is extremely innocent whole movie, suddenly finds courage to show his machoness for the girl's sake. But all this worked in many movies and this movie is no exception.

I am really crazy about Bollywood, not because i want to see Sanjay Gupta trying his level best to copy stunts and stories from Hollywood movies, or Deepa Mehta making her social statements thru the movie, or not even because of Roshan's and Baweja's attempt at making a real Hollywood style sci-fi movie and definitely not because of Bhatt camp's successful attempts at making erotic thrillers. I like bollywood because of movies like Jaane tu ya jaane na. Mind you, the movie is not a master piece, the performances are decent and the direction well there was nothing new about it either. But, when the movie is over, there is a sense of happiness inside you. Something really nice. Also like to add one more thing about the airport scenes, I loved it when i saw it in Pyaar to hona hi tha, I did not hate it when it was in Chalte Chalte, and i really loved it when in the final episode of Friends, Ross runs after Rachel to stop her from going away to paris. So, the point is, its the chemistry and emotions that make the scene better or worse not the setting or the backdrop.

Most important things in life that we like are really simple things. They have simple emotions attached with them. And most things that we see in films either disturbs and irritates those thoughts or they make us feel good about them. Some of my most liked movies like DDLJ, KKHH, Veer-Zaara, or not so famous Pyaar to hona hi tha or even last year's hit Jab We Met they all had one thing in common ,no not that they were love stories but they were simple love stories. And Jaane tu ya jaane na cashes in on that simplicity factor. Well there is another factor which is youthfulness if we can call it. I know many people of my age who really didn't like movies like Veer-Zaara . But, this movie actually understands youth's 'so real yet so dreamy' emotions. And the characters in the movie for a change are someone we can relate to. They fit in their roles perfectly. Imraan khan gave a smooth performance considering this was his first film. Jenelia, well struggled a little with dialogue delievery i thought and actually i am still on her "Bommarillu" hangover, that might take some more years time to fade off. And i found the girl who played the character of 'Meghna' (Manjari Phadnis) to be very cute.

All in all this movie was a refreshing change in spite of few things which i cannot possibly understand... for instance, marriage at the age of 20?? But well its a movie and in a well made movie like this we can neglect minor things.It actually made me feel nostalgic at some parts. Once again this proves the fact that whatever Aamir does, he does it with class and maintains that quality.

Talking about simplicity, there's Shahid's Kismat Konnection releasing soon. Aziz Mirza is another director who makes uncomplicated movies. Lets wait n watch.

 

My name is Hiro Nakamura, and I am from the future

Heroes is clearly now one of the most amazing TV series i have ever seen in my life. The thing that took me by surprise was that every episode of the two seasons left me wanting for more. The thing i love is that Heroes isn't just for the geeky Sci-Fi lot, but it also taps into that childhood dream we all had of being able to do something 'special', such as fly or turn invisible or to travel through the walls.

Heroes has such a great range of characters and the storylines never become too much. They weave and twist into one another seamlessly and unlike other shows. They never show any inconsistencies in order to push one story over the other.It truly is a show in which every episode gives you enough to feel satisfied over whilst at the same time being able to deliver a killer cliffhanger

The variety of characters and their powers is simply amazing. From Peter Petrelli who can absorb any power from other "Heroes" and can do anything, to the evil Sylar, who hunts for people to get his powers to claire who is indestructible and can regenerate any part of her body to Isaac Mendez, the painter who can paint the future, to Nathan Petrelli -the flying man, to Hiro Nakamura,who can bend time and space. This series has got everything to amaze you. Every kind power that you dreamt of having while you were a kid.

My favorite character without any doubt has to be Hiro Nakamura. Not only because he can go back n forth in time, but also because of his innocence and earnestness. Although Peter Petrelli also comes close to this but the choice of the character Hiro makes me tilt towards him. Not to mention, Sylar has to be one of the best villians on TV. Infact, I haven't seen such a powerful charaterisation of a villian in any sci-fi hollywood movie also.

Anything sci-fi that i would see in future, I would compare it with Heroes. And if it could come atleast half as close to what Heroes is now, i would say it is good. I will make sure my children (when they come along!) get to watch this show.:)

Damn! I can't wait to watch Season 3.