The Mindset of the Indian Army vs China

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• Kautaliya that great philosopher stated that to beat an enemy confidence and belief is important. I have a feeling that this lacking in the Indian army. This is a thought hard to digest, but perhaps there is no escape from it. I will just talk of the Western border with China in Ladakh. Some of the facts that have emerged are 
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•  a) Failure to enter areas vacated by China , which they had occupied in 1962. 
• b) Failure to operationalize the Chusul airfield close to the border. 
• c) No plans for counter attack in Ladakh to enter Tibet and regain Indian territory occupied by China. Overall it appears the political leadership has a dread of China and this has rubbed off on the army. The result is that the Indian army is Pakistan centric and China features n where. Would it not have been so much better in case General VK Singh , instead of petitioning the Supreme Court on his age, had thought it fit to prod the political leadership to get cracking on China?

Secret Desires and Acharya Rajneesh

I have been wondering about the hidden desires of man. All of us have desires and for most they die a natural death. The ancient Hindu scriptures dealt with these desires in tantra. Most of these desires hover around sex. I suppose this inevitable and beautifully explained by Freud.

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I have also been prey to such desires, but like most men kept them under wraps. It was my meeting with Rajneesh that relieved me from my guilt complex. More than two decades back a friend took me to the ashram of Rajneesh. As I bowed at the feet of the man an American girl also entered. This girl sat at the feet of the master, but as she sat I was enveloped by a strange desire to love that girl. I thought it was strange desire, perhaps morally wrong. But now I know it was something absolutely normal. there was a clash in my mind, because of the guilt complex. Rajneesh had an uncanny power of divination, or maybe he was a good face reader. All he said to me was " go and mate with her" and he just smiled as the girl left. That is the essence of Acharya Rajneesh, the fact he did away with the guilt complex in a simple relationship. This was the most enlightening moment of my life as I followed what Rajneesh told me. Its a pity that after this Rajneesh left for the USA and on his return died, as he had been poisoned by the FBI.

Rahul Gandhi does a Self Goal

The UP elections were important as they were supposed to be stepping stone to Rahul Gandhi's drive to the Prime Ministership of India. As I have earlier written a Wwin for Rahul would have cemented his position. But a defeat would have deep repurcussions. This has happened. Despite a strenous campaign Rahul has lost in UP. The Congress despite an alliance with the Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh has won a measly 37 seats. The writing is thus on the wall that Rahul does not have the charisma of his great grandfather and fathet. The fact that even in the Amethi constituency, the pocket burrough of the Gandhis.,theCongress has come a cropper. Rahul's dream of leading India I suppose would be in some jeopardy. The fact is that the Gandhi aura has diminshed. Perhaps he made some serious mistakes. The formost was his playing muslim card, by way of appeasement by promising a Muslim quota. He didnt learn from his fathers mistake, who to appease the Muslim vote bank overturned the Supreme Court judgement in the Shah Bano case with a constitutional amendment. Itdidnt help Rijiv who lost power. Rahul will have to do a lot of introspection now. But perhaps I have a gut feeling that this Gandhi may noybe prime minister of India, now or in the future.

China Army Connection With India

War is a dirty business, but it is something that affects all nations and people. The Second World War was one such war and it affected a lot of people. The power equations were also different. How many know that the Chinese army was trained in India by the Americans ?

It is a fact that nearly 40,000 Chinese soldiers were trained at the Regimental Training Center at Ramgarh in Chattisgarh state of India. They were trained by the US training command under General Stillwell of Ledo road fame. It is hard to reconcile that China  is our greatest opponent now, but during the war thousands of  Chinese soldiers trained in India . They were taught everything from changing a spare wheel of a Jeep  to handling guns and  rifles.

 This Chinese army later engaged the Japanese , but their performance is not something that set the rivers on fire. The Chinese army in China was also supplied by air by the USAF from bases in India at Chabua and Kumbhigram. This was the famous 'over the hump' route and hundreds of US airmen died on the Himalayan mountains as they flew over the Hump.

 Times have changed and now China is our adversary number one. Perhaps this is the power equation that Pandit Nehru never understood.

Bradman, The Best in the World ? No Way !

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Donald Bradman played cricket for Australia. He played cricket at a time when the British empire reigned supreme all over the world. The Don has a test batting average of 99.94 and on the basis of this average many people consider him the greatest player ever in cricket. But a recent interpolation through the computers where all the innings of the Don were analyzed reveals that if the Don had played on all wickets in India ,South Africa and West Indies his batting average would have been considerably lower. For the Don played all his cricket only in England and Australia. Thus his experience was limited to playing on Australia and English wickets.
  Bradman and India
There are many people who opine that the Don had great love for India and he would have toured India if given the chance. but his attitude belies this claim. In 1948 while on the way to England his ship docked at Bombay( Mumbai). Many Indian cricketers including Vijay Merchant went up to the Don's cabin and requested him to come on deck to greet the many Indian's who were his admirers. But the sad part is the Don refused to come out of his cabin. A man who would not come out of his cabin to meet Indian is not expected to tour India even if given the chance.
  Limitations of the Don
The Don was a fair weather batsman and scored heavily on wickets conducive to batting. On the 1947 Indian tour of Australia Don Bradman failed on a rain soaked wicket in the second test. Though in the other tests on batting wickets he scored heavily.

The Don's average of 99.94 did not hold true when facing Douglas Jardine 'e team in the famous body line series when Harold Larwood ran into the Aussies as a tornado. He averaged just about 60 in that series and was effectively cut to size. At that time England had only one super fast bowler in Harold Larwood. I shudder to think what would have happened in case Bradman had to face a quartet of lethal fast bowlers like Marshall, Roberts, Holding and Garner. Wearing or not wearing a helmet is hypothetical as in that age and time nobody wore a helmet. Jim Laker in his autobiography has written that Bradman was suspect against high class spin. Jim laker took 19/90 against Australia( 1956) and this is the only record ever that will stand for all time. He claims that when Australia was racing to 404 for a win and Bradman made 173*, he was let of twice of his bowling. In any case Bradman never faced the likes of Ghulam Ahmed, Subhas Gupte and Mankad on rank turners, where the ball turned square like at Calcutta and Kanpur at that time. we have only the computer to rely on interpretations.
  Assessment
Bradman was a great player, but to label him the greatest is a misnomer. I would rate the West Indian Vivian Richards higher than him. He was the real king of cricket and his swagger and walk to the wicket itself intimidated the bowlers. Talking of helmets, he didn't wear one. More over he played all around the world and all types of wickets and everywhere he left an indelible mark. Bradman is no more. But most people are apt to hero worship, hence people forget about the Don's antics at Mumbai and his failure on rank turners. Not with standing this Don Bradman was perhaps the greatest Australian batsman, though not of the world. 

Can Indian Food Go With Wine ?

Wine is the services drink in India. There was a time good wines had to be imported from abroad and cost a pile of money, but now good wines are grown in India and it is possible to get a bottle of Indian made wine that can be refreshing. But, wine by tradition is a European drink and the food that goes with it is also Western. But there is a change and some experimentation has shown that perhaps Indian food could also serve as an appetizer or a starter with the wine served. Generally Indian food amongst all Asian cuisine is perhaps the hardest to match with wine, since the background of Indian food is a complex layering of hot spices that may well drown the taste of the wine. There is an old saying that defines the foods that go with Wine. It says something like this ‘Whitewine with fish and red wine with meat’. This is like a Sloka(verse) from the culinary Gita, but it doesn’t work in India. So what is to be done? Can we not match Indian food with wine? The point to be borne in mind is that the matching of food with wine needs to be done in such a way that the flavor of both i.e. the wine and the food is retained. Indian cuisine is not perfect with wine as too many ingredients go into its preparation, unlike the western food that is generally bland. An example is the powerful chilly dishes that are likely to knock the flavor of any wine of the pedestal. Indian citrus flavored dishes tend to put wine in the background and the curd and yoghurt based dishes give a different taste and the flavor of wine would go. Thus it is a challenge to pair Indian food with wine, yes a challenge but not difficult or impossible. Individual tastes also matter and what is good for the goose may not be good for the gander. Some Indian connoisseurs who are regular wine drinkers do feel that white wine is fabulous with Indian food. So what are the foods that go down well with wine? Gourmets and chefs feel that tandoore, smoke cooked dishes go well with an oaky chardonnay (white) or an oaky Merlot. A mildly spiced curry if you are in the mood for one will go with a Chenin Blanc. New revolutionary tastes and experimentations are on and people have tried a non spicy samosa that eternal Indian dish along with red wine. Have a sauce, both white and red with it and it goes well with red wine. Can we have an axiom for Indian food and wine? One of my friends from the Hyatt coined this. He said ‘LightIndian food with light wine and richer dishes with richer wines’

But at the end of the day, what matters is the individual taste, more than anything else. People from the subcontinent do not relish bland ham or grilled chicken with wine; they would much better prefer a Tandoore chicken tikka with the wine. I have tried it and it tastes great, both for the wine and the Indian tikka.

A Sniper Duel from the Pages of History

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History records many famous duels between opponents right from the primitive age. There was the famous duel between Hector and Achilles at the gate of Troy, during the Greek Trojan war. There is the famous test of skills between Richard the Lion heart and the Muslim warrior Saladin. In a similar vein a modern duel took place between a Russian sniper Rifleman Vasily Zaytse and a German officer, equally brave and determined Major Heinz König. The setting for this epic battle that lasted 4 days was the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942.

Vasily Zaytse was transferred to Stalingrad by the Russian top brass to help hold the Germans off. He had a one point agenda, to use his skill as a sniper to kill as many German Army officers as possible, which were considered high value targets. Zaytse moved among the ruins of the bombed out city and picked up many German officers with his rifle. In fact as per reports during the months of October-November he reportedly accounted for 242 Germans. Figures are not important, but it spread panic in the German ranks of an unknown Russian sniper who had to be contained. The German headquarters after due deliberation in Berlin selected Major Heinz of the German sniper school to come down to Stalingrad. He had been given a one point charter to eliminate the Russian sharpshooter as early as possible. Major König landed in Stalingrad and got down to his task. He realized that his enemy was a formidable adversary and he accordingly made plans to kill vasily. Thus was launched a duel between two sharpshooter, each of whom mad e his plan to kill the other. Russian intelligence also was aware of the arrival of the German ace from Berlin and accordingly vasily was called by his superior officer to get ready to face the German sniper. He was warned that Major König was the best German sniper and he headed the Training School at Berlin and thus Zaytse was advised to formulate his plans carefully. Both the adversaries played a cat and mouse game as they stalked each other. Major König drew first blood as he was able to kill two close companions of Vasily. He assumed that he had killed Vasily and came out into the open to smoke a cigarette. Vasily saw his chance and in a split second shot the German Dead. It was a tremendous victory. Later many Germans mentioned that the duel was fiction, but the fact is that the German archives do mention another name as a sharp shooter. There could be a mix up of names. Also the telescope of Major Konig’s rifle is preserved as an exhibit at the Armed Forces Museum in Moscow. It’s worth a look. After the war vasily wrote a book about his duel with the German ace. By killing the German sharp shooter, Vasily has moved into the hall of the great snipers of world history. He died in 1990 and is buried at Stalingrad.