REFLECTIONS

      It was in 2010 when I first saw PM Manmohan Singh from close quarters. It was his visit to Brazil to attend the BRICS Summit organized in the capital Brasilia. Prior to the visit I along with the Security team from India interacted with the Security agencies of Brazil apprising them of our requirement as well as the envisaged threats to the PM from various groups. On the arrival day I was part of the Embassy team to receive him. Looking into his eyes during hand shake is a moment still etched in my memory. "This man is so humble, so down to earth, so gentle, so unassuming...."-were some of the thoughts that ran in my head during that brief eye contact.      It was in one of the functions held few days after the visit that I realized the stature of Dr. MM Singh in the eyes of the world. I was surrounded by the group, I called Indian watchers, consisting of Chinese, Pakistan, Israel, US and UK Military Advisors. The talk veered on to the recently c...

  GUIDE LINES FOR POSTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA      Socrates (469-399), hailed as the wisest person was one day faced with a friend who excitedly told him, "Socrates do you know what I just heard about Diogenes?" Socrates replied, "Wait. Before you tell me, I will subject you to a test called 'triple filter test'. The first filter is TRUTH. Are you sure that what you are going to tell me is true." The man replied, "No ...I just heard about it." " Fine", said Socrates, " So, you do not know if it is true or not. Now we try the second filter of GOODNESS. Is what you are going tell me about Diogenes something good?" The person stumbled, "No, on the contrary...".  "So," Socrates continued, "You want to tell me something about Diogenes that may be bad, even though you're not certain it's true?" The person looked embarrassed. But Socrates continued,   "You may still pass the test though, because t...

  ENGAGING IN SAREE DIPLOMACY IN BRAZIL      Diplomatic assignments abroad for Defence personnel are far few and elusive and hence considered prized. The tenure, though, has its own challenges professionally as well as socially. Hosting frequent parties for visiting delegations and diplomatic community is an essential part of such assignments which require considerable planning and effort. We however soon learnt tricks of trade and were doing well after completing 6 months and successfully hosting few such gatherings. Ladies group too was active and they conducted a regular event exclusively for ladies, café da manhã (Portuguese for Breakfast) hosted in turn by spouses of all Military Attaches. A typical such event would have as many as 40 ladies from as many countries. My wife’s turn came sooner than anticipated. While the menu was worked out after lot of brain scratching there was one aspect needing more ingenuity.       By convention such event...

  RASHOMON EFFECT.        A video emerged, post the Mayor elections in Chandigarh where the returning officer is seen surreptitiously writing more than he is required (he has to only sign the paper) on the ballot papers indicating that probably he is purposely trying to deface the ballots to make them invalid. The matter is being heard in the Supreme Court of India.       The results of the elections for the Mayor of Chandigarh were announced on 30th Jan. The results were in favour of BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar who secured 16 votes while the Congress-AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar got 12 votes.  Congress AAP side charged that there was something wrong with the process as 8 votes were declared as invalid which had made all the difference to the results. The matter reached the High Court for annulling the elections saying that the fraud and forgery has been committed . The High court refused to stay but sought response from from UT administ...

  THE MISSING CLASS Ours was the first batch of 10+2 system which replaced higher secondary pattern. For us the board exams meant that there would be no internal assessment and thus riddance from maintaining class and homework note books for good. This freedom was somewhat subdued by the lurking fear of the board exam as also the pressure from teachers and parents who projected it as a matter of life and death. The pressure to do well was all too evident. We took full advantage of it and took to skipping classes to self-study on the pretext that it would help us score more marks. However, soon such exercise turned into playing and movie sessions. Our easy life was broken by the sudden visit of the Board team to inspect the school. The focus could be on our class, being the first batch of 10+2 system. The teachers were under pressure and warned us to come lanced with class and homework assignments. With only one month left for the board exam most of us had tossed our note books re...

  BAGHPAT COURT DISMISSES DECADES-OLD PLEA OVER MAHABHARAT-ERA SITE . A court in Baghpat has dismissed a decades-old plea filed by a Muslim side over a site in village Barnawa,  that Hindu devotees claim to be the Mahabharat-era-Lakshagriha. The Muslim side had claimed that the site was a graveyard and Dargah of Sufi Saint Sheikh Badruddin. The above news dated 06 Feb 2024 captured my imagination instantly for multiple reasons. My village Dolcha, is in Baghpat and the name of the contested site, Barnawa, appeared familiar. The disputed structure ‘Lakshagriha’ also alerted some memory cells in my brain. It did not take much effort for me to reconnect with the source of these vibrations. It was the book,‘The Man From Dolcha’, written by my elder brother Dr. Bir Singh Yadav. It was there, right in the beginning of the book. 'Barnawa has underground tunnels which the Pandawas built to escape from the inflammable house (Lakshagrah)'. The book also chronicles the connection of Mahab...

     The following article was published in the news paper 'Hindustan Times' on 19 Dec 2017. That time I was working as Simulator Instructor in Gurugram (also known as Gurgaon) after taking PR (Premature Retirement) from the Indian Air Force in Aug 2016.  THE ART OF BEING POPULAR   I could never master the craft of mustering multiple likes and comments on social sites and secretly envied those who would elicit hundreds of clicks on the drop of their post. The few likes which I scored were from immediate family members who, I was pretty sure, did that out of sheer sympathy. Never to give up, I did some self styled research and went on a maddening spree to add as many friends as possible and liking any post which showed up on the screen. ‘Like begets like’ and ‘more the friends more the likes’ was the logic behind this. This phase lasted for about four months during which I tripled my friend list and scored innumerable clicks on the like button. I resisted from ...

       On retirement I gleefully joined all social networking sites which were out of bounds in service. Soon I got flooded with tsunami of comments and posts. I tried to catch some threads but was puzzled by the pattern of discussion. Though it was not new for me as the political debates which I had often heard on TV were being made on the same lines. I grew up hearing about the rich tradition of philosophical thought and debate in ancient Indian philosophy. Gargi Vachaknavi (Delhi University college Gargi is named after her) is believed to be the first female philosopher. She was famous for her intellectual debates with other philosophers. Her philosophical debate with the renowned sage Yagnavalkya about ‘nature of reality’ is documented in the Brhadarankyaka Upanishad.   After a long and intense debate Gargi humbly accepted her defeat in front of the knowledge of the great saint. The unpretentious acceptance of her defeat showed that debate was to genuinely p...

      The recent movie 'Animal' has invited lot of debate,  criticism  and condemnation for glorifying violence, misogyny, patriarchy and male chauvinism. There has been call for its   ban and boycott. Similar debate surrounded the movie Kabir Singh-  " Do Indian films encourage stalking, molesting, violence and other improper behavior towards women?" While we debated the movies ran full house. This issue was debated too in Australia and it was well settled by an Australian judge in 2015. An Indian student Sandesh Baliga in Australia was charged for stalking two women. He had been stalking them for a long time and ignored all their calls for leaving them alone till they had no option but to approach the police. When confronted for the charges he pleaded guilty but blamed Bollywood for misguiding him into believing that women eventually fall in love if pursued/chased enough. He also stated that he learnt the art of stalking from Shah Rukh Khan’s ch...

Refer news item in The Hindu, “Supreme Court questions quality of education in UP” on 26 th Sep’23 regarding the incident in a Muzaffarnagar school where a teacher was shown, in a video, hurling communal remarks on the 7-year-old Muslim student and goading his class mates to thrash him. The Judge hearing the case, raised questions about religious discrimination and quality of education in Uttar Pradesh. He asked, “If a teacher tells her students to hit another because he belongs to a certain community, what is the quality of sensitivity of the education being given?” The news item reminded me of another judgement on our education system and my own experience when choosing a school for my daughter. The pathetic conditions of the government primary schools in Uttar Pradesh had forced the Allahabad High Court judge Mr. Sudhir Agarwal to issue directives (dated 18 Aug 2015) to ensure that children/wards of government officials/servants, those serving in the local bodies, represent...

This article was published in The Tribune  on 18 Jul 2016. The link is below. https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/musings/a-rose-bloomed-in-our-heart-267246 MUSINGS A rose bloomed in our heart A rose bloomed in our heart FINDING a maid was the first task on my agenda on reaching Brazil on a government assignment. An advertisement in a newspaper brought five contestants. BS Yadav FINDING a maid was the first task on my agenda on reaching Brazil on a government assignment. An advertisement in a newspaper brought five contestants. Rose won hands down. She was a middle-aged single mother of two. She never married and was separated from her boyfriend (such ‘friendship’ has legal sanctity, like marriage, and she was receiving a stipend from him). The wage was settled as per labour norms that catered to her security and insurance. Workers have right to two holidays per week, free lunch and an additional one month salary called ‘13th pay’. Working hours are strictly eight hours, with...

 This was published in Hindustan Times in 2016.   Spice of life : Maid versus wife, they bring you strife ·        Air Cdr Biren Yadav, HindustanTimes   |    ·        Updated: Feb 02, 2016 11:22 IST   Amma became our full-time help on our posting to this town in far east. My wife, a cleanliness freak, had resisted her employment, as Amma was crude and rustic in both mannerism and turnout. For us, a working couple with two daughters aged 2 and 6, a maid was a necessity and Amma was the lone aspirant. In no time, all premonitions of my wife came true. Amma was egoist, unkempt, short-tempered and hated instructions. Her style of working, my way or no way, challenged the authority of my wife openly. Their mutual dislike soon turned into hostility, leading to frequent brawls. On the other side, Amma was an instant hit with children. They enjoyed each other’s company singing and dancing through...