Imagine this. One of the terrorists from the 9/11 attacks is caught alive, and he reveals that he is from Pakistan where he and the others trained intensively in terror camps. He gives details about his village where he grew up. Then, the FBI finds satellite phones used by his fellow attackers containing detailed records of calls made between the attackers and their native land. Those calls are then transcribed, and chilling details of their conversations are decoded, in which the latter instruct the former to kill in cold blood. In the light of this disturbing and unmistakable evidence, America asks Pakistan to cooperate in bringing the guilty to trial. Pakistan not only refuses, but also makes inflammatory statements that whip the country into war-time hysteria. America, however, continues to amicably try and solve the issue, looking for help in these efforts from friends around the world, all of whom know fully well that the bloody trail leads to Pakistan, but, for some reason or the other, walk on eggshells, skirting the real issue. The perpetrators of terror walk free.
Unimaginable? Not if you're in India.
This is pretty much what has been happening in India after the Mumbai attacks in November last year. No matter what the evidence or its authenticity, Pakistan has denied it point blank. So far, it has got away with this unacceptable behavior - though, hopefully, not for long.
The Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, who has shown exemplary restraint in handling Pakistan's offensive tactics, has decided to take the diplomatic route, not the military one in response. War, he knows, is not the answer, though he is painfully aware of the fact that his way - the diplomatic one - is sure to take more time. His patience, however, is wearing thin, as time ticks by and the Pakistani government keeps up its see-no-evil, hear-no-evil act. In his strongest statement made since the attacks, Dr. Singh, on Tuesday, did not mince words as he said that attacks of this scale, of such sophistication and military precision must have been carried out with the complicity of the some of the official agencies in Pakistan.
This does not come as a surprise to India, or for that matter to the world. Pakistan's Intelligence agency the ISI is known to have links with terror groups, a fact that even the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency warned of, well before the Mumbai attacks took place.
Almost every time there has been a terror attack in India, a Pakistani connection has surfaced. In July, 2008 the Indian embassy in Kabul was attacked by the Taliban, and evidence of Pakistan's involvement had emerged. At the time Dr. Singh had, despite this evidence, continued with peace efforts with the recently elected civilian government in Pakistan. His efforts, it now seems, were in vain. That's yet another reason why he has now made his feelings clear on the matter, saying with very little equivocation that Pakistan has utilized terrorism as an instrument of state policy and aided groups who are against India. Predictably, Pakistan has not taken well to Dr. Singh's remarks and has again accused India of creating tension in the region. And so, the blame game goes on.
Meanwhile top U.S. officials are convinced that the terror situation in Pakistan is cause for concern not only for India, but for the rest of the world as well. U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley on Wednesday admitted that Pakistan is going to be a big challenge for the Obama administration and that problems in Afghanistan cannot be solved without solving Pakistan. The problem isn't limited to one state; it's regional in scope. It needs a regional solution as Dr. Singh's efforts underline.
Knowing what we do about the terror nexus - the connections between Pakistan's state agencies and extremist groups - it is a shame that no serious action has been taken against the country. The squeaky wheel is being allowed to get away, with some token wrist slaps. This dangerous for all of us. What message are the terrorists getting? Surely, they can't be running scared. They probably can't believe their luck at having gotten away. This will only encourage more attacks, which are probably being planned as I write this.
It's only a matter of time.
Offense is the best defense. That's the simple attitude that Pakistan seems to have adopted in the month since 26/11 - as the Mumbai attacks have come to be called (India follows the European dating system: day, then month for Nov. 26).
Each time Pakistanis are faced with uncomfortable questions about the toxic terror nexus on its soil, it either denies the allegations, especially if they are made by India, or, it points a finger at the accuser, the oldest of time-delaying-attention-diverting tactics.
Facts don't seem to matter, not when they point to Pakistan's involvement in events unpalatable. But the facts exist.
Fact: The only terrorist to be caught alive from the 26/11 attacks, Ajmal Aamir Qasab, has long revealed that he is from Pakistan, something that his father has also confirmed. But Pakistan, with its closed if-I-can't-see-you-you-can't-see-me attitude has disowned Qasab, denying that he is a Pakistani national. No matter that officials from the FBI, who have been in Mumbai since the attacks, interrogated Qasab in which he not only revealed details about where he grew up, but also his journey from life as a petty thief in the streets of Karachi, to the terror training camps of Lashkar-e-Taeba (LeT). Desperate for a lawyer, Qasab has twice attempted to seek help from the Pakistani High Commission, revealing in his first letter that he and the other Mumbai attackers killed in the encounter were Pakistani nationals. His pleas, however, have been in vain, as Pakistan continues to disown Qasab, stating that there is no record of him in its national database.
Fact: Both the Indian officials as well as the FBI have, after examining call records of the satellite and mobile phones used by the terrorists, confirmed a Pakistani connection. The terrorists were apparently in touch with their mentors from Pakistan while they were on their way to Mumbai and while they were carrying out the attacks. John Michel McConnell, director of U.S. National Intelligence, has confirmed that one of the numbers retrieved from the satellite phones belonged to Abu Al Qama, a well known LeT terrorist; while the terrorists were slaughtering innocent people in the Mumbai hotels, some of them Americans, they were on the phone with the headquarters. In one instance, they lined up the hostages against a wall and asked someone on the phone whether they should shoot them; the voice is known to have said, in Urdu: "blow them up".
India's patience is now running thin; it is now keen on seeing some serious action on Pakistan's part to control the terror groups and raiding camps and making few arrests is unfortunately not going to be enough this time. This year been a terrible one for India and while it's coming to an end, the same cannot be said of terror threats. More attacks, say intelligence sources, could come from anywhere and certain areas are on high alert. Goa - an extremely popular Christmas-time destination for tourists - has banned beach parties this festive season, after receiving information that it could be a target.
Tensions between India and Pakistan are on a high and both the countries have prepared their forces for any eventuality. The Pakistani Air Force, in a show of its preparedness has been test flying its fighter jets over its cities. India too is prepared, though it has maintained that war is not the answer to fighting terror. The Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has rightly urged Pakistan to stop talking war and concentrate on the real issue - fighting and defeating terrorism on its soil.
Terrorism is here to stay. Yes, that's the truth, and it's not going to change anytime soon. Not if the world drags its feet the way it's been doing since the 26/11 blasts in Mumbai, which left 180 people dead and some 300 injured.
True, that Pakistan, acting like a recalcitrant child who refuses to admit to its mistakes, finally made some arrests and appeared to have cracked down on a few terror camps, but, though that was a start, it was not enough - not nearly enough.
More, much more needs to be done if the world - and for this conversation, that's the U.S. and India - want to rid themselves of terror.
A once-bitten-twice-shy India views some of the "arrests" made in Pakistan over the past few days with a pinch of salt; Pakistan has been known to use this tactic as a delay, arresting militants when all eyes are on the country, releasing them when attention is focused elsewhere. It will take much more action on Pakistan's part to satisfy India this time.
Indians view the "house arrest" of Jaish-e-Mohammad's top man Maulana Masood Azhar, with a fair amount of skepticism. India was forced to release Azhar back in 1999 when militants hijacked an Indian Airlines aircraft and forced it to land in Kandahar, Afghanistan. After a seven-day stand-off, hijackers successfully obatined Azhar's release in exchange for the airline's passengers, but one hostage, who was on a honeymoon trip, was brutally stabbed to death. Azhar's organization has since carried out a string of attacks against India. So, when Pakistan says it has placed this man under "house arrest", Indians roll their eyes. And not for the first time.
The terror network in Pakistan is dark and murky, and not easy to understand, but, to simplify matters, there are four main elements: First, there are the militant groups, linked to each other in various ways, the topmost one being the Lashkar-e-Taiba, believed to have links with Al Qaeda.
Second, there is the Inter-Services Intelligence Pakistan's spy agency which has long aided, if not created, the militant groups, in an attempt to quash dissent from religious extremists. It, too, is said to have links with the Al Qaeda as well as the LeT. So strong are the ties that ISI chief Hamid Gul has been named by India as the main man behind many attacks on its soil - a charge he denies. Then we have the Pakistani army, which seems to be involved at some level, though the connections here are nebulous; it's hard to figure out who is mixed up and who is not. And lastly, there is the civilian government, which, if not involved, is too weak to take on so many factions - religious fundamentalists, regional sectarians, terrorists, the Army's top brass and the ISI.
The question then is, that if there is so much evidence against Pakistan, then why doesn't someone - the U.S. with its no-tolerance approach to terror - crack down hard on this clearly wayward nation? Americans are very much in the firing line of the militant groups. Attacks on Americans - the journalist Daniel Pearl among them - are by now familiar. In the Mumbai attacks, U.S. and British nationals were singled out and shot. Moreover, it is believed that terrorists are being trained in the U.S., the U.K., Australia and Canada to carry out attacks in those countries.
But America needs Pakistan's help in fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, a country that shares a long and remote border with Pakistan. And the U.S. also uses Pakistan as a route for shipping supplies to its massive air base in Bagram, Afghanistan.
And though Pakistan officially says it wants to help the U.S., there are, as I've enumerated, many forces within the country that want to sabotage that process. In addition, many militant group within the country disapprove of America and Pakistan's ties to that nation. Just last week, 160 NATO vehicles, meant for the U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, were set ablaze as a protest of the nation's involvement in western politics.
So there seems no solution, no end in sight. Terrorism - a blanket word that we now use loosely, probably without knowing who it is we mean anymore - is the word we now fear the most. It's a matter of time before those fears will once again come true.
Terror, terror and more terror - if it's not an attack, it's the fear of one that has crippled normal life in India. It's extremely angering, and tiring.
The latest is a warning of a 9/11 type of attack. Terrorists are believed to be plotting hijackings similar to what was done in the U.S. You can imagine what the airports in India must be like right now. Travel, needless to say, has turned into a nightmare.
Also, hard as it is for civilians, the Indian police has its hands full too. On the one hand, there's the fear of another attack, and on the other, the hard task of piecing together the puzzle of the Mumbai killings. In all the evidence gathered so far, and there is a lot, one thing consistently stands out - a Pakistani link; no matter what the trail, it finally leads to Pakistan.
It's a complicated problem, since terrorism, especially in Pakistan has various, interconnected layers. It is particularly difficult to parse out the nexus between the terrorists, the intelligence and the army. The Laskhar-e-Toiba, or the LeT, is one of the most active militant groups based in Pakistan; it's believed to have many splinter groups operating under different names, with one common aim - to kill and create terror in India. Most Indians, of course, believe, especially right now, that the state shares this aim and is fully aware, if not involved, in the attacks against India.
This feeling is not without reason. India says it now has proof that the Pakistani Intelligence agency, the ISI, was involved in the recent attacks, something that could not possibly have happened, say experts, without the complicity of, at least, the top brass in the army. In addition, ISI's link with militants, especially the Al Qaeda, is pretty much an open secret. India, like the rest of the world, wonders how Pakistan can brazenly deny what's so clear to outside observers. The Chairman of U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has said the U.S. had enough evidence that reveals such a link.
Pakistan's steadfast denial - the most recent statements from President Asif Ali Zardari, on Larry King Live calling the men who attacked Mumbai "stateless actors" - is particularly galling. It is more than evident that the country is home to a deadly mix of militants, terrorists and extremists and that they thrive openly. So, even if one is to believe that the state is not directly involved, it is a bit much to expect the world to believe that "stateless actors" are causing all this carnage and that the government is in no way responsible for their actions. After all, the only terrorist to be caught alive in the Mumbai, 21-year- old Azam Amir Kasav, a resident of Pakistan, revealed that he, along with the others, had trained intensively at the LeT base in Pakistan, and that he had been personally briefed about the targets by Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, one of the top honchos of the LeT.
One may be willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the new civilian government in Pakistan, or even understand that they are faced with a real problem - of weeding out the extremists and detangling the nexus between its security agencies and the militants - but only if their intent appears real. Blankly denying any links is not going to help its cause.
What would help, for starters, is if Zardari actually handed over those on India's most wanted list; this, in itself, would allay a lot of fears and suspicions. If Pakistan truly is, as it claims, keen on helping India fight terror, it could take a solid first step in that direction with this one act.
It's an explosive situation. Tensions between India and Pakistan, after the brutal attacks in Mumbai, have been close to at an all time high, bad enough to make U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, fly in to India to try ease the strain.
It may not help. The days since the attacks on Mumbai have witnessed a never-before-seen reaction from India, a country that usually thrives on a what-will-be-will-be attitude. From Facebook groups, candlelight vigils, and media outcries, to fiery debates, call for action and the resignations of ministers, - it's all happened in the past few days.
There is a lot of anger in India right now, and people want the guilty to be punished. Pakistan, needless to say, is in the line of fire, and not without reason.
As has been suspected from the start, there is now enough reason to believe that last week's attacks in Mumbai were the handiwork of the Pakistan-based militant group, The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which believes that Hindus and Jews are enemies of Islam - something that could explain why Jews in particular were targeted. The group has also long been known to have links with the Taliban and Al-Qaida. Mike McConnell, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday went ahead and named LeT as being responsible for Mumbai's terror acts.
India is, as it should be, in the mood to take serious action, for this is hardly the first time it is facing terror, which, even if one were to believe is not being directly sponsored by the Pakistani government, is being encouraged by the country. The LeT has been suspected to have been involved, at some level or the other, in many of the previous bombings in India - from the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament to the 2006 bombings in Mumbai trains, to name two incidents over the past several years. This year has been particularly bloody - even before Wednesday's attacks. There have been countless attacks in different parts of India, from the north to the south, which have left hundreds dead and perhaps thousands injured. Though these have been claimed by a previously unknown group, called the Indian Mujahideen, but terror experts say that it is really splinter groups of the LeT. For India, the important point is that no matter what the group, when followed, the trail finally leads to Pakistan.
As a result, there is pressure on the government to act. Parallels are being drawn to 9/11 when the U.S. took the hard line, - harder than many in the country approved of - to tackle terror, but it succeeded, so far, in avoiding attacks on its soil. This is not to say that war is the answer, but cracking down heavily on the militant groups certainly is, something that a so far reluctant Pakistan needs to do.
Apart from dilly-dallying over the issue and calling for joint investigations on the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, has also refused India's request to hand over the 20 suspects wanted in connection with the killings saying there was not enough evidence, despite India's willingness to present it. India on the other hand is not interested in half-baked measures, which it sees as time delay tactics which Pakistan has tried in the past; in the case of the Parliament bombings, Pakistan also offered a joint probe.
That said, it is also true that while it is easy to point fingers it is important to be introspective as well. Many questions are being asked about India's national security and the fact that the terrorists were able to smuggle so much ammunition into the country. They seemed to have done their homework, visiting Mumbai several times and checking into the Taj hotel to lay out the game plan. So the questions about Indian security are also being asked. What about those at the top? Was this an Intelligence failure or did this happen despite tips that such an attack was being planned? These questions are hotly debated.
But, the fact of the matter is - and this, again, is being debated to death in the Indian media - terror is not India's problem alone. The U.S., to take one, prime example, has witnessed 9/11 and received many threats thereafter, the latest one warning President elect Barack Obama of a terror attack to "greet" his arrival in the White House. It needs to be seriously tackled together, at an international level, with a no-tolerance approach. Till that is done, unfortunately, these attacks are not going to stop.
For the sake of the innocent lives that have so far been lost in mindless terror, I hope India, this time, takes serious action. If not, this will only encourage the terrorists to strike again. Life seems to have changes irreversibly for Indians - getting into a mall or sending a child to school now seems fraught with danger. It's no way to live.
It is being called India's 9/11, and more than 40 hours on, the nation is still trying to come to terms with the horrific, barbaric events, not all of which have come to an end. Gun battles rage in the streets of Mumbai even as I write this.
India has seen terrorist attacks in the past, but what has happened in Mumbai this time is surreal. Till now there was a general belief that, yes these things happen, but they could not happen to you - particularly if you were a well-educated western-oriented Indian. That has now changed - terror has come where it was not expected.
Time has, since, stood still in India, as the country has tuned in to watch, in disbelief, the streets of a city many Indians compare to New York for its nightlife, culture and activity turn into a war zone. The Taj and Oberoi hotels, and Nariman House, a Jewish residents block, were stormed by terrorists and hostages were taken. As I write, I can still hear explosions from my television set in the background, as the police, the army and National Security Guards (NSG) commandos tackle the tense situation.
So far the Oberoi hotel has been cleared. Most survived the ordeal, some didn't and identities are not yet fully known, though it is believed that foreign nationals are amongst the dead. The Taj hotel and Nariman House are now being stormed by the commandos, and here too many hostages have been killed. The latter is the block where the Jewish Rabbi couple from Brooklyn used to live along with many others Jews of Indian and Israeli origin - there is still no word on their fate.
India's minister of external affairs Mr. Pranab Mukherji, has confirmed that, as suspected all along, there is a Pakistani hand in this carnage. The Pakistani foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who happened to be in India, however, has been extremely defensive and has vehemently denied Pakistan's involvement - something that the ordinary Indian no longer believes. Too many clues point to the Pakistan connection, as has even been admitted by the President-elect of the United States Obama. That apart, in the present blasts too, preliminary evidence already points to a Karachi connection - a mobile phone found at the Taj hotel that belonged to one of the terrorists had received calls from Karachi.
The main suspect is The Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), as has been in the past blasts too, though they too have denied any connection. But Indian Intelligence has claimed that the LeT has been training militants in marine terror off the coast of Karachi for a while now and it is believed that the Mumbai attackers arrived on the city's peninsula by boat. The mood right now is an unforgiving one and many are calling for serious action against the Let.
Of course, there are some internal questions as well, the most obvious one being that if the authorities were aware of such training, then how were these terrorists - there are believed to be 20 of them - able take the sea route with such heavy armaments. An inquiry must be in force right away and those involved be booked.
There are many, many more questions and in the next few weeks there will be, needless to say a lot of finger pointing, but the authorities will have a lot of explaining to do. There is a lot of anger in the country right now, more than ever before. Indians are demanding answers and this time they will not be mollified by mere words as they have been earlier this year. That apart, there is also a feeling now that we must, as citizens, do our bit to fight this terror, it's not only up to the government to do this.
Interestingly, this time the reaction has been different from other attacks in the past because this has happened too close to home - India's upper class is feeling the threat too. And, of course, since the attacks have got the attention of the world's media and foreign nationals have been killed, India Inc., as the nation's new business-minded approach is sometimes known - is not happy about the sullying of its much-worked-on image as an rising economic power.
The past 40 hours have changed India and Indians forever. I only hope that once this passes, we do not slip back into complacency mode, and keep the pressure on to the authorities to take serious action. India should not take this anymore. The guilty should be punished, whoever they may be.
For now I am going back to my television set, the gruesome drama is still on.
This Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, as it is commonly called, many schools in Delhi sent out circulars urging parents not to burst firecrackers, something that is a big part of the celebration on this day. It was, however, with good reason.
Delhi ranks as one of the world's most polluted cities, with vehicular emissions accounting for 70 percent of the city's air pollution, and with some 1,000 cars being added to its roads daily - a third of which run on diesel - the situation will only get worse.
To be fair to the government, efforts have been made in the past and they have worked well. For instance, the switching of all public transport from diesel fuel to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in 2001 and phasing out of old leaded-fuel burning vehicles did lead to a dramatic fall in pollution levels. The program was applauded by many nations and back in 2003 it even won a U.S. Department of Energy's 'Clean Cities International Partner of the Year' award.
That, however, was then. A study recently revealed, much to the dismay and surprise of the city, that pollution levels in Delhi are back to the pre-CNG days. The gains of CNG have been offset, unfortunately, by the invasion of diesel run vehicles, the fumes from which are seven times more toxic than those from petrol. That apart, the problem is also the sheer number of cars - diesel or otherwise - clogging the city's roads.
India's economic boom has created a well-off middle class where more and more people, with their rising salaries and standards of living, have been able to afford cars. The auto industry has, needless to say, egged on this demand by producing different varieties of cars, from the cheapest to the high end ones, which can be bought with easy financing. It is hard to imagine what will happen once the much-awaited Nano car - the world's cheapest at about $2500 - will hit Delhi roads. This is the dirty side of the India growth story and needs to be immediately looked into says the The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
Last year Delhi's Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, called for a pollution-free Delhi by 2010, which is when the city will host the Commomwealth Games. To accomplish this goal even light commercial vehicles will be converted from diesel to CNG. But, with recent shortage of CNG - which created hours-long lines for refueling - the government has come under fire for not thinking ahead. And the shortages raised the obvious question: if more buses are converted to the green fuel, would the supply be able to keep up? The government says that is looking into solving that problem too.
Another step by the Delhi government was a proposed ban on diesel cars entirely, but that, unfortunately, was rejected by the central government, which stated that there is a need for tougher emission standards rather than blanket bans.
But, until the city is cleaned up again, Delhites will have to brace for a tough winter ahead. It's not going to be fun. Smog and the cool dry weather cause all sorts of havoc: children cough and sneeze, hospitals witness increased cases of breathing ailments, chemists stock up on inhalers, flights get diverted and canceled, and driving, especially at night and in the mornings, becomes impossible.
It is only November, but each morning as I drop my daughter to school, I wonder - looking at the smog that hangs like a thick, dusty layer just above the city, already reducing visibility - how I'll make my way in the coming months.
It is an urgent, serious problem. Delhi, once again, needs to clean up its act.
The sky is not the limit, it seems, when it comes to Indian aspirations.
Having secured it place in the sun, India now, wants the moon. On Oct 22nd amid a lot of excitement, the nation made its first major move towards that goal as it successfully sent off its unmanned spacecraft to the moon, becoming only the sixth nation in the world to have done so. And, if all goes according to plan, on the 11th of November India will become the fourth nation, after the U.S., Russia and Japan, to drop its flag on the satellite.
The primary aim, amongst others, of the orbiter, called Chandrayaan-1 - "chand" meaning moon and "yaan" meaning vehicle, in Sanskrit - is to map the moon's surface. The mission, as outlned by the Indian Space Research organization, ISRO is to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of both near and far side of the moon. This is what, claim the scientists at ISRO, differentiates Chandrayaan-1 from previous missions by other nations: special instruments aboard this spacecraft will provide high-resolution, detailed maps of the moon's surface, including the far-off areas, which have not been studied so far. This information, they hope would help understand whether the moon was ever a part of the Earth, or was an alien body.
Launched on a two-year mission, Chandrayaan-1 is carrying two instruments from the America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) which will look for ice deposits as well map the far-off regions of the lunar surface. This collaboration, of sorts, between India and the U.S. is seen as yet another sign of the growing friendship amongst the two nations (the other and more significant one, of course, being the recent nuclear deal). And, in fact, President-elect Barack Obama recently observed, while remarking about the Indian mission, that the American space program must get its act together fast if it wished to maintain its lead in the world of space, science and technology.
This mission, however, is only the first step for India's outer space ambitions.
ISRO Chairman Madhavan Nair said that the agency is already looking into sending manned missions into space, for which Chandrayaan will actually help pave the way. The project, which will cost billions, is still sometime away, but Mr. Nair is very optimistic and hopes that this dream would be realized by 2015.
It does not seem a dream too far, for, in the recent years, nothing seems beyond reach for India. The country has long recognized the importance of space research technology and has many accomplishments to its credit, of launching satellites, and other space vehicles. With the successful launch of Chandrayaan, there is more reason to believe that it will succeed in its interstellar ambitions.
All summer I've been waiting, waiting, like the rest of Delhi, for October, for October is the month that finally sounds the death knoll for the merciless Indian summer, and ushers in great weather. The next five months in this city are going to be glorious, and festive.
First there is Eid al-Fitr, which is celebrated by Muslims across India - approximately sixteen percent of the Indian population is Muslim. Then comes Dussehra - a major Hindu festival that precedes Diwali - another big Hindu festival, commonly referred to as the festival of lights. It's a day when people light up their homes with candles and 'diyas' (indigenous oil lamps made of clay); when excited children burst firecrackers; when women wear traditional bright sarees and gold jewelry and men wear the ethnic pajama kurtas; when families pray together; and when people visit extended family and friends bearing traditional Indian sweets.
It's an auspicious time of the year, a time, according to the stars, for beginning new ventures, so, not surprisingly, it's also a time of weddings. Priests are called upon months in advance to learn of the best dates for the weddings, as most Indians want the dates to be very auspicious. Last year there were some 32,000 weddings in Delhi alone on the 13th of December, since it was one of the few favorable days to tie the knot in that season- definitely not a day to have been out on the streets.
There are about fifteen days between Dussehra and Diwali every year, give or take a few days- the dates change each year according to the Hindu calendar, but it's a time of the year when most Indians take their annual vacation, using the time to unwind, visit family, and even do charity, a bit like Christmas time in the west.
Affluent Delhites (as those who live in Delhi are called), however, look forward to something else at this time of the year: playing cards. For the fifteen days between the two festivals, the custom is to meet at different friends' places almost everyday, usually after dinner, for playing Flash - a card game a lot like poker. It's not as decadent as it sounds, not if it's done the way it used to be done, the way I remember it from my childhood days. As children we were allowed to go with our parents, as long as it was not school night, and while they played for only slightly higher stakes than us, us kiddies used to play with, what you could call, the equivalent of pennies. The person who won in the end had to treat the rest to ice cream.
That was the way it used to be, but unfortunately, it's not the way it is anymore. Like everything else, this too has changed, getting affected by the amount of money the upper classes earn today. Now when we go out, as adults to friends' places, the trend, I find to my horror, is to play very high stakes, a couple of thousand dollars being bet on each hand. Winning or losing a few thousand dollars in one night, it seems, is no big deal for the rich and even the well off in this city.
After Diwali, the weddings begin, which are long and lavish affairs. Drive down any Delhi road at night in this time and you're sure to pass many a 'baraat' - a marriage procession - that consists of the groom, sitting on a white horse surrounded by joyous family and friends dancing to a band playing the latest music; uniformed men carrying lights; and an assortment of curious onlookers. The baraat makes its way to the venue of the wedding, and once the ceremony is over, the bride leaves with the groom in a car adorned with flowers.
Having had my fill of weddings over the years, for me the best thing about Delhi at this time of the year, are lazy pick nicks at the Lodi Gardens - spectacular gardens laid around the decrepit but stunning tombs of the ancient Afghan rulers of Delhi - located in a leafy, green and extremely affluent part of the city that border some of the United Nation office buildings. The park draws people from all over and of all sorts - coy lovebirds cuddling behind trees and tombs; joggers, many of whom are foreign expatriates, religiously doing their rounds; children playing Frisbee; families stretched out on durries, basking in the sun; the odd couple playing scrabble; an old man doing yoga; and a school teacher leading a group of children around the park.
Pack a ball for the kids and a book for yourself and head for the Lodi Gardens, and suddenly Delhi feels like another city - when you don't have to think about the weather before stepping out, when a day out does not have to mean a trip to the mall or to the theatre, when the sun is not some ruthless fireball blazing down your back, but a soothing glow you begin to love.
If only this could last longer, if only the whole year, or at least more of it, could be as good, if only. Though this is only the beginning of great days in the city, I am already dreading the end, for Delhi's crisp and sunny winter spoils you, and leaves you rather ill prepared for it's cruel and endless summer, which I go through reciting the exact reverse of Shelly's words: "If summer comes, can winter be far behind?"
So my advice to anyone planning a trip to India - do it before March.
It has been reviled, hailed and criticized; excited intense, heated debates; given sleepless nights to the top brass in the Indian and American governments. As a result, the nuclear trade deal between India and the U.S. almost lost its way amid political crises and seemingly insurmountable approvals, but, in the end, it has lived to tell its tale. Now it's finally going to be inked as President Bush has signed into law legislation permitting execution of the pact.
India's foreign minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee is expected to be in Washington this Friday to sign the details of the pact with U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
It's been a long, hard road. After the latest approvals of the U.S. House of Representatives (298-117), and the Senate (86 to 13), the controversial agreement was expected to be signed last Saturday when Rice flew to New Delhi. India, however, wanted to wait for President Bush to formally sign the legislation into law So, Rice left the country amid reports - still more chaos and confusion - that the much fought for alliance was still not in the clear.
A few steps, however, still remain before the two countries can start nuclear trade, the first of which is the signing of the so-called 123 agreement calling for peaceful uses of nuclear fuel. And President Bush will now have to make two certifications. One, that conclusion and implementation of the agreement by its terms is consistent with U.S. obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; and two, that it is the policy of the United States to work with members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to further restrict transfers of equipment and technology related to uranium enrichment and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. Finally - once this is achieved - the countries will exchange diplomatic notes that conform to Article 16(1) of the 123 Agreement. Only then can the trade begin.
The agreement would enable American companies to generate business worth billions of dollars by selling nuclear fuel, technology and reactors, and it's the reason why the business lobby in the U.S. has been pushing for the deal from the start. In return, India will open up its civilian nuclear plants for inspections. For India, nuclear power is the answer to its rising energy demands, which will only grow in the coming decades. The country is, at present, facing an 8% energy shortage, with its nuclear plants running on 50% of their capacities due to the lack of fuel.
But, not everyone is happy with the arrangement. Critics, in both countries, have been shouting from the rooftops about their disapproval. In India the Left parties, especially, have been against the deal, which, they see as intrusive American Imperialism that will harm India's self-reliant nuclear development and hinder its ability to conduct tests. In the U.S. too there has been a lot of debate about starting nuclear commerce with a country that has not only refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treat but also carried out nuclear tests, in 1974 and 1998.
None of these misgivings, however, have proved strong enough to stop the deal, which reverses a three-decade ban on the sale of nuclear technology to India, beginning another era in relations between the two biggest democracies.
