I am sure P Chidambaram didn't fret much when it came to deciding that Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver for the farmers. For anyone who understands the dynamics of rural vote bank in this country of ours this would have been the easiest decision to make, especially if there is a Lok Sabha election next year. And here's a short story that explains my possible enlightenment in this front. While covering the electioneering in Tripura in northeastern India, I happened to meet Rakhal Das, farmer, in a rally of Congress President Sonia Gandhi. As I got chitchatting with Das, he confided that he was a former commie. He had been a staunch leftist till the Indo-Bangladesh border fence crisscrossed his tiny piece of land on the border. And almost half of his farm stuck on the other side of the fence rendering it almost useless for him. He sank in debt. Running pillar to post in native Tripura proved futile and...

The Present ----------------- The first thought that possibly confronts any journalist looking to do stories from Myanmar is the question of getting inside. The ruling regime of Myanmar has effectively converted the nation into one of the world's most isolated places, where everyone is watched including visiting journalists. So when trouble began in Myanmar in September this year, the first thing that the military regime did was curb the outflow of information. I watched keenly the international coverage that happened in those days in networks like CNN, Al Jazeera and the BBC. All that ever came out was running footage of Yangon streets and monks parading by the monasteries. Not enough to convey the real story but good enough to tell the world outside that there were many stories waiting to be told from that land.... Now back safely from there, I have only but the utmost respect for those who braved it all to send those pictures and footage....

I had written this post almost two years. And I felt that in the midst of the Prashant Tamang -RJ Nitin controversy this one finds some relevance again. But this one's less controversial for I have written about my friends who can take humour (unlike Tamang's fans! And do not stereotype people (unlike the RJ). I write this piece with much apprehension. If Prashant Pakhrin happens to see the title of this blog he will want to punch me. Two things that make him want to punch people is the 'bahadur' tag and any comment that remotely relates to physical attributes. He is almost 5 feet 1 inch tall. He would squint every time he laughed. (Most of 'us' are small time sadists, count me in). I met Prashant in Delhi again last year. I could see that he had pushed himself hard. He rode a 350 CC Enfield and nothing less.. "Alright, I can see that you are...

Around the same time a year ago I was in Nepal. The idea was to get a first hand insight into the mind of Nepal's Maoist ideologue, the then 'enigmatic' Pushpa Kamal Dahal or Prachanda. In Nepalese 'Prachanda' means the 'extreme; The adjective that Dahal took to drive a decade long armed struggle that his supporters saw as a means to end the schism that had existed in the Nepalese society for centuries. They wanted fair existence. And I could absolutely relate to this. Nepal's rich were the richest and its poor the poorest. Most of rural Nepal still qualifies as one of the poorest places on earth. But capital Katmandu was something I had never seen. Casinos, imported cars, a burgeoning yuppy crowd that fed on burgers and pizzas. But some distance away farmers toiled in mountain soil to make ends meet. Young boys made way to India to find work. Many of Nepal's women would find themselves in flesh trade. 'We...