Vikrant Kishore wrote:
Very well put across Sudesh... Ahmad Khwaja wrote: Hi Sudesh It is a well written critical short essay on what India used to be and how things have changed. Most of it is accurate but there are parts where comments by you are superficial and do not reflect the authenticity of the situation in that they show your own understanding of history, politics or economics of the time and do not pertain to reality. As an Indian - who was born in India and spent the first 25 years of my life in India during the premiership of Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi, I certainly would not agree with you regarding your comments about Nehru and Gandhi - these are your personal perceptions of two really great men who may have their faults, as we all have, but certainly were ahead of their times and had a vision, which even today, if given due consideration by the warring factions of this world ( some of whom are classed as powerful and mighty nations) would do well to learn from and if they did learn the message of non-violence and peace and shied away from war mongering can certainly make this world a lot safer, a lot fairer and a lot equal where unarmed civilians including women and children will not be slaughtered. I have lived in the UK now for over 40 years and was particularaly interested in your views about arranged marriages and what you term as arranged-love marriages. The later is a reality amongst the youngsters of Indian and Pakistani community in the UK and most of the time it works well. What makes me uncomfortable is the way the Indian society - specially the younger ones in India (and in the UK too) - hanker about the Western practices of pop, drugs and promiscuity that is disliked and abhorred by all sane people everywhere including the more conservative Western society. Your views about no regrets for obstruction by Doordarshan, the clerk in the bank acting as if he was doing a favour to you giving out your cash to you, a phone and car for the rich, an IAS groom being a hot "saleable commodity" in certain communities of India bring back some interesting memories to me. All in all it was a very interesting article to read bringing back the old 1950s and 1960s to my mind. Ahmad Khwaja
