Book Review [95] : Hard Choices

"In the aftermath of the crackdown in Iran, I resolved to step up efforts to provide pro-democracy activists with tools and technology to evade government repression and censorship. Over the next few years we invested tens of millions of dollars and trained more than five thousand activists around the world" 

The above excerpts from "Hard Choices" (memoir of former Secretary of State of US - Hillary Clinton) clearly suggests the interference of USA in the "internal affairs" of other countries on very subjective grounds of Human rights and democracy without respecting the sovereign authority of those states. 

As far as India is concerned this book does not having much to say except few points about Indo-Pak relations, pressurizing India to cut down import of Persian oil and climate change fiasco at UNFCCC summit of 2009. She categorically calls Pakistan a nation obsessed with India. In nutshell this is a good read to understand the political affairs of the world from the perspective of United States Of America. What ever US does, it does for the sake of human rights and democracy and while other countries simply use state power to crush human rights. US is the soul champion of liberty, democracy and freedom of expression. Its a one side take on international affairs (i.e. a well written American propaganda in soft version) and one should not expect any objective outcome from this memoir but its always important to know the other side of the story. 

Recommended (7/10)

Book Review [94] : The Accidental Prime Minister

Welcome back  and a very happy new year; i am sorry for keeping you waiting. These months have been tough on me and caused tremendous tension and troubles including a terrible personal loss but as they say life must go on so here i am with you guys. 

I started reading this book by Sanjaya Baru - 'The Accidental Prime Minister' a little after finishing my 23 days long Bharat Darshan (travelogue will follow soon). This book comes straight from the horses's mouth and puts a focussed light on the functioning  of the PMO and the politics of the high echelons of the government during 2004-2008. Sanjaya Baru was the media adviser of former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh from 2004 to 2008. Its bit surprising if not altogether shocking to know that the major appointments at a very high level are done based on political inclination of the person concerned not on his ability or talent and these appointments include the most important office of NSA (National Security Adviser) itself.
Its a commentary as well as observation on the politics so it will not be appropriate for me (being a civil servant) to comment on this but i feel this is a must read book. We are proud of our democracy but our leaders as well as we as citizens fail to give respect to our opponents. In US, the President can make his bitter rival the Secretary of State while in India its not possible even in wildest of the dreams.

Highly Recommended (8/10)

Augustus August

Sorry for this rather long hiatus, will be back :)

Book Review [93] : From Plassey To Partition

'From Plassey to Partition' is a must read book on modern Indian History; due to paucity of time i am not able to do a detailed review of the book but if you have faith in me then its a great book to study. 

To put in perspective this book is a much better book than India's struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra et al. 
Highly Recommended (9/10)

Travelogue: My trip to United States of America

Foreign trips are great learning experience if your eyes, ears and minds are open else it may appear a trip through a stolid country side. United Kingdom was the first foreign country that i visited (in Dec 2007), i was relatively green and impressionable and justifiably impressioned by the neat and clean cities of London, Winchester and Belfast and professionalism of Britons. I made good number of friends out there, i was a private individual working for a British firm so the responsibilities were not significant.

This month (7th to 21st June)  i traveled to USA on an Official Passport of the Government of India and as an Official of the Government of India and this resulted in a different kind of experience both inside and outside of Airport. We found US Immigration Officials very friendly and they did not even take our fingerprints (any unexpected privilege or right raises the level of ego). Our first stop was at Chicago; we (Myself, Aman, Ravi, Arun, Sanjay, Anurag) were joined by Yashasvi, Nidhi and Amrita at breathtaking Millennium Park in the heart of city. WY (We + Yashasvi) then minutely explored the coast of Lake Michigan at a level that can shame even the likes of Holmes. WY found the place where Great Swami Vivekananda gave enthralling speech at World Parliament of religion in 1893. The old building had been renovated many times; without even asking about Vivekananda the old lady official of the museum gave us the document containing that famous speech :)

From Chicago we moved to Riverside where we had 2 weeks of study program organized by University of California with site visits to Federal Reserve - LA, Transit Agency, Hollywood, Getty Museum and the District Attorney Office. WY-1 enjoyed every evening with shopping in different stores (Walmart, Target, Ontario Mills etc) and we became very close to each other. We also skipped one night to see Las Vegas from close quarter :)

There were 5 highlights of the tour:

Re-selection of our comrades in Civil Services of India

The camaraderie of WY-1

National Anthem rendition at District Attorney Office

The Shopping spree 

Chicago exploration

The tour ended on a sad note with the departing of IDAS friends to their Pune Academy. In last 6 months i came very close to IDAS guys and made some very good friends and i will surely miss their company, their discussions and above all their sheer presence in classroom, library, mess and in sports complex. Friends, i will miss you all.