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Conscious that we’re not a window into India but into South Asia, we’re moving to a new home!

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 Namaste. Khuda Haafiz.

Why Zardari wants to be Pakistan’s Sonia Gandhi

Mail Today

Bharat Bhushan on the peculiar dynastic politics of India and Pakistan

 Asif Ali Zardari says that he wants to be Pakistan’s “Sonia” if the Pakistan Peoples’ Party is voted to power in the coming elections. He told the Sunday Times in an interview: “If our party wins in February’s elections, I will not take a cabinet post but will act like Sonia Gandhi, as an advisory figure without a seat in Parliament.”
Zardari and Sonia Gandhi are in effect “outsiders” who do not carry the family charisma. Zardari’s desire to not assume direct power is comparable to the choice that Sonia Gandhi made in 1990. She had waited for eight years before she took control of the Congress Party and a full nine years after her husband’s assassination before she contested a parliamentary election.

Sir Edmund Hillary 1919 – 2008

Times Online

Sir Edmund Hillary, the unassuming beekeeper who was catapulted into the history books when he became the first man to climb Everest, died last night at the age of 88.

Sir Edmund, who conquered the world’s highest mountain in 1953, had been suffering health problems since April after suffering a fall whilst in Nepal. While the New Zealander considered himself merely an average beekeeper, he was widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s greatest adventurers.

I’m in a lonely phase in my life: Ratan Tata

The Times of India 

On the eve of the launch of the Nano, Ratan Tata looks back on the four-year journey that led up to the most eagerly awaited launch in the history of India’s automobile industry.

Q: Are you feeling more apprehensive now than you felt at the launch of the Indica?

A: Not really. At that time, we did not know if the market, which knew us as a truck manufacturer, would accept us as a carmaker. We took somewhat widely publicised goals at that time. So at that time we were more nervous than we are today.

Q: What sparked off the idea?

A: In this particular case, you could not help but notice there were three-four family members on a scooter with a kid standing in the front, the guy driving and his wife sitting side saddle holding a little kid. When you are driving a car, you say to yourself to be careful, you know they may slip and fall. Add to that slippery roads and night time riding and you have a reasonably dangerous form of transport. That does not mean scooters should not exist—it’s an evolution of bicycles and it’s the path to prosperity. But, scooters as family transport seemed dangerous. I asked myself if we could put two wheels at the back to give the scooter greater stability. Would it make it safe for the occupants if you put a bar over the top? Last year, I was at Bertoni and to my surprise I found that BMW had produced a scooter with the same safety bars that I had thought about with rubber bumpers on the side and a seat which had a seat belt. Apparently it was not successful and BMW withdrew it.

Dream debut

Ratan Tata unveiled his company’s Rs one lakh ($2,500) car – the cheapest four-door car in the world – in New Delhi, India on Thursday, January 10. The Tata Group has also made a bid to take-over Jaguar.

(Wal)nuts about winter

Kuensel

Nima Wangdi writes about a favourite Bhutanese pastime

As the mercury dips below zero, bringing to a close the agriculture and tourist season in the central district of Bumthang, nuts start to crack.

With nothing much to do, Bumthaps spent their winter days sitting outside their houses and shops soaking up the sun while leisurely cracking walnuts and scooping out their oily insides.

The Churchill wannabes destroy any hope of a violence-free life in Pakistan

Guardian

Benazir Bhutto’s death is just the latest evidence of the disastrous legacy of western involvement in the country’s politics writes Pankaj Mishra

Last week the portrait of Benazir Bhutto as the last great hope for democracy in Pakistan had barely received its finishing touches in the world media when it was muddied by accusations that the former prime minister had sponsored jihadists in Afghanistan and India-held Kashmir.

Colossal canvas, cosmic concepts

Xinhua 

Chicago-based artist Tu Zhiwei uses his art to depict key moments in China’s history

In an epic scene from hell, a vast fiery pit swallows piles of precious ancient bamboo books. Scholars roar and wail in despair, helpless as China’s first emperor orders the burning of “dangerous ideas.” Confucian scholars are buried alive, a sacrifice to unity.

And what is it to you?

Hindustan Times

Namita Bhandare on Nicolas Sarkozy, sex and politics 

THE MANDARINS at the Ministry of External Affairs – how on earth did they come to be called mandarins? – are reported to be in a flap over India’s official guest at the Republic Day function. It’s not French President Nicolas Sarkozy who’s causing the fuss as much as his new girlfriend, now apparently his fiancee, Carla Bruni. There’s a fair chance that Bruni could join Sarkozy later this month when he begins his four-day visit to India. This is apparently causing the ‘mandarins’ to lose sleep.

Let’s not talk on the field

Indian Express

Harsha Bhogle on the India-Australia cricket controversy

And so, inevitably, the tour moves on. It had to. The world of cricket is too small for the best and the richest to eyeball each other for too long. It is not over yet but everybody has an opportunity to take a backward step, so underrated and so crucial in a standoff. Cricket is, effectively, an eight-country sport, a small family, and there is no alternative to living together. Like good arranged marriages, we will have to swallow the odd moment of discontent, take sides and draw comparisons, but a divorce is not an option.