Metro in Soviet Union

And you thought that train stations were boring? Check this out.

Simple but Effective

The idea of Ugandan Memory books covered on BBC news.

Begining of the Begining?

Jinnah continues to haunt an Indian political party. First it was Advani of BJP who hailed Jinnah as a secular leader (which he was - staunchly secular till maybe his demand for Pakistan which came in much later in his long political career). Now it is Jaswant Singh of the same party who reasons in a book why Jinnah was secular.
Both these are important points for us to understand. For Pakistan to understand its own genesis and more importantly for me (since I am an Indian) Indians to understand the dynamics of politics and ideologies that shaped our own freedom struggle in the 20th century.
Were Hindu-Muslim relations always hostile to each other? If so why did the Hindu soldiers from Meerut and Avadh rebelling against East India company raj in 1857 march to Delhi to fight in the name of the Muslim Mughal King Bahadur Shah Jafar? It certainly wasn't because he was a powerful king? It was because there was a certain sense of Indian identity and the last Mughal king represented a dynasty that had ruled much of India in the past and hence had a certain identity.
A lot of Muslim leaders were within the mainstream of congress and worked totally within the overall congress ideology. Even some areas of now Pakistan (NWFP) actually voted for India.
Was the idea of a unite single post British India sacrificed at the alter of 2 egos? Some say Jinnah wanted to be PM, Nehru wanted to be PM so we ended with 2 countries. Will the partition have been avoided if Jinnah's health conditions were not hidden? How did 1 (or 2 men) managed to create 2 countries despite the wishes of Mahatma (surely the most popular Indian during the 20th century among Indian masses)? Jinnah must have articulated a certain wish that found resonance with many who while loved Mahatma and many other leaders who stood for a unified country still found Jinnah's arguments compelling. For that to happen there must have been another political undercurrent that was against Jinnah's argument and not Muslims.
Unfortunately any such debate or articulation of thoughts is suppressed at the alter of our own demons. Gujrat prefers to ban Jaswant's book on grounds of insult of a respected leader instead of instituting a debate that would allow Indians to evaluate the argument dispassionately.
I am sanguine though that a beginning is made. That 2 big leaders of a mainstream political party have thought about it and articulated it is a good sign. BJP's expulsion of Jaswant for the act of writing a book in his personal capacity will hopefully make more Indians keen to read this book and start thinking about it. Let the debate begin.

Reporting from Ground Zero: Swine Flu in India

I came to Pune from Mumbai morning 8 and the bus normally full of passengers had quite a few seats. It might be the time of day, 8 am bus on a Tuesday morning might not work for the usual office goers who want to be at it by 10 but a suspicious lack of coughing sneezing in the bus is its own story. The expressway was practically deserted save the container trucks and an occasional car or a bus, so travel seems to be a bit impacted.
Pune has been homogenized. There are only 4 kind of people - without masks, green mask, yellow mask and white masks. Its interesting that 'swine' flew masks mostly resemble a snout! There was lesser than usual traffic on road, again might be the non peak hour. But I suspect its also because schools, theaters etc are closed. Overall the smoke situation is more than I'd prefer but marginally less than usual.
Passed the Aundh Chest hospital (1 of the initial 2 hospitals tasked to test for swine flu) on the way and the crowd there looked less than usual. But then again I only could see the entry side of the place so it seems the testing panic is now abated a bit.
I wonder about the masks though. Will they lead to a false sense of complacency since i understand swine flu masks need to have finer holes for breathing than normal surgical masks and I saw mostly the green ones and many people wearing handkerchiefs. The housing society also apparently distributed 2 masks/house. Given that masks need to be disposable and are effective only a few hours I am not sure if they are going to really help but if it leads to peace of mind so be it.
So as we see nothing really to panic about. People are a bit wary but life is going on.
What I find disconcerting is our tendency to react and not pro-act! The government initial asked private sector to stay out of it (conflicting statements there). The ministry said they'll co-opt private sector when they'll need to. They also said capability upgrade to test for the flu will take months and they are working on it. Given that WHO had upgraded it to Pandemic level months ago, that the ministry did not do any thing is bad. And the fact that they were waiting for the flu to hit hard within India when they planned to upgrade capacity speaks volumes about their critical thinking. A report in a newspaper yesterday mentioned it takes 6 hours for a batch of 40 samples to be tested. And there are so few government labs. What if like UK (much less population) which had 5000+ cases in the last week being reported India too is required to test hundreds of thousands of sample a week and has to wait for a month for new labs to come online?
I hope the government tasks one of the many professional health agencies under it to henceforth monitor global disease trends and accordingly act in time.