Former foreign secretary of UK, David Miliband calls the current Prime Minister of UK David Cameron “a cuttlefish squirting ink”. This retort was in response to David Cameron’s boldly blunt statement during his week long India visit that Pakistan is exporting terrorism.
Looking back at it, I’m surprised that most parents and teachers of my school going days allowed this game to permeate within the sub-culture of our generation. The essence of this game was to announce your status and avoid receiving a knuckle punch from the person or persons with whom you’re playing (waging, really) this game. There were no other spoils of the victory except the satisfaction of the punch. Losers were left moaning and groaning.
Among the many accomplishments of modern day Israel listed in a newspaper report that I happened to glance recently, it’s envied-by-most position at the forefront of flight security was among the first as well as one of the most elucidated. I had just finished reading “Night” by Elie Wiesler then – an English translation of the Nobel prize winning author’s most celebrated work, originally written in Yiddish.
The passage through hell that Israel endured resulting in it’s conception was very honestly and palpably captured by the author and revealed to us through his eyes as a mere 16 year old, still seeking constant shelter of his father. The present day irony that Germany is not the cause for Israel’s massive insecurity was suddenly and acutely made aware to me. It’s more historical foes battling an altogether different ideology (organized religion and land) are giving it sleepless nights. Arabs, and Islam in general.
Tennis players constantly amaze me with their ability to cover
ground beyond all corners of the court and still manage to hit a swinging winner from an unimaginable position, bruising and coaxing the ball to travel impossible trajectories. So why do I find it so dumbfounding that very few have mastered the art of standing still with a stiff wrist in front of the net for a volley?
16th May, 2010, Mumbai