reventon-a car without equals

The essence of the marque: just 20 examples of a design masterpiece

Clearly a Lamborghini, but nothing quite like it. A super car without equals: the Lamborghini Reventón is a road vehicle with an extreme specification and, at the same time, a limited edition masterpiece – a coherent style, angular with sharp lines, inspired by the very latest aeronautics.

With just 20 produced, each 1 Million Euro (without taxes) Lamborghini Reventón is a symbol of extreme exclusivity, yet still offering the extraordinary performance that makes the Reventón so unrivalled: under the completely autonomous design, the Reventón possesses the entire technical and dynamic competence of the twelve cylinder Lamborghini.

Lamborghini prides itself on being the extraordinary manufacturer of extreme super sports cars without compromise. Sensuality and provocation characterise every Lamborghini, with an aggressively innovative style. “However, the Reventón is the most extreme of all, a true automotive superlative. Our designers at the Lamborghini Style Centre took the technical base of the Murciélago LP640 and compressed and intensified its DNA, its genetic code,” affirms Stephan Winkelmann, President and CEO of Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.

Born in Sant’Agata Bolognese

The Lamborghini Reventón has been entirely designed in Sant’Agata Bolognese, the original birthplace of the Lamborghini and the native home of every super car born under the sign of the bull. The design drawn up in Lamborghini’s Centro Stile (Style Centre) is fine-tuned in close collaboration with the Lamborghini Research and Development Department. Thus, the Reventón is not only “haute couture” but it also stands out for its elevated dynamism whilst being entirely suitable for every day use.

The Lamborghini Reventón is not destined to remain a one-off. A total of 20 Lamborghini friends and collectors will be able to own this extraordinary car and, naturally, enjoy the incomparable pleasure of driving it.

The name Reventón has been chosen according to Lamborghini tradition. Reventón was a fighting bull, owned by the Don Rodriguez family. It is included in the list of the most famous bulls ever and is known for killing the famed bullfighter Felix Guzman in 1943.

Inspired by the fastest airplanes

The present day Lamborghini models are distinguished by the clear language of their shape. The coherent proportions of the Murciélago and Gallardo highlight their power and dynamism. Sharp edges, precise lines and clean surfaces: these are ingredients of a style reduced to the essential. Each element is created exactly according to its function; ornaments and decorations are totally foreign to a Lamborghini.

With the Reventón the Centro Stile designers have coherently developed this philosophy, inspired by another sphere where speed and dynamism reign absolute: modern aeronautics, responsible for the fastest and most agile airplanes in the world. This has created an extremely precise, technically striking style with a new vitality: interrupted lines and contorted surfaces create a fascinating play of light, giving the car incredible movement.

Made of carbon fibre and precision

Although it is based on the extraordinarily successful Murciélago LP640, the exterior design of the Reventón is completely new. Just like the base model, the exterior is made of CFC, a composite carbon fibre material, which is as stable as it is light. The exterior components are glued and fixed to the body comprised of CFC and steel.

The front is characterised by the acute angle of the central ‘arrow’ and by the powerful forward-facing air intakes. Although they do not supply air directly to the turbine like an airplane, bearing in mind the 650 hp, an abundant volume of air is necessary to cool the carbon brake disks and the six cylinder callipers.

Characterized by coherent functions

Naturally, both doors on the Reventón open upwards – since the legendary Countach this has also been a symbol of the V12 Lamborghini product line. With their asymmetric configuration, the large air intakes below the doors provide an example of the extreme coherence with which a Lamborghini fulfils its function: on the driver’s side it is large to increase the flow of oil to the radiator. On the passenger’s side of the vehicle, the air intake is flat because in this case, it only has to ensure the flow below the floor. The aerodynamically optimised flat floor structure terminates at the rear with a diffuser featuring an accentuated shape. This guarantees excellent road grip and stability even at 340 km per hour.

In spite of the extreme and innovative language of its shape, the Reventón not only maintains all the strong features of the Murciélago LP640, but also offers further amelioration in terms of aerodynamics, the important engine cooling system, the air intake system and brakes. The airflow and the section of the variable geometry air intakes of the engine and the rear spoiler (also adjustable) have been modified.
Owners of the 20 examples will be able to test the performance of his or her Lamborghini in person.

Perfected to the ultimate detail

The engine hood made of glass laminate with open ventilation slits offers a glimpse of the beating heart of the twelve cylinders of the super car. The glass also features the marked arrow angle that characterises the design from the front to the rear spoiler. The Lamborghini designers’ love for detail is beautifully illustrated by the fuel tank lid: a small mechanical work of art, achieved by milling a solid aluminium block.

The combination lights transform the incisiveness of the design into light: the front features the most modern light-emitting diodes alongside Bi-Xenon headlights. Seven LEDs ensure continuous daylight while there are a further nine diodes for the indicator and hazard lights. Another technical innovation is found in the rear light LEDs. Because of the high temperature in the rear low part of the car, special heatproof LEDs are used for the indicator and hazard lights, stoplights and rear lights with a triple arrow optical effect.

A new body colour

Naturally, such a refined language of shape also demands an extraordinary colour. For the 20 examples of the Reventón, the designers from Sant’Agata Bolognese have created a totally new hue: Reventón, a mid opaque green/grey without the usual shine. However, thanks to the metallic particles, in the daylight this colour tone features surprising depth.

Opaque and brilliant colours for the wheel rims
This play of opaque and lustre is also featured on the wheel rims, especially created for the Reventón. Opaque carbon fins are screwed onto the black aluminium spokes, not only creating a visual effect with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel, but a turbine effect also ensures optimum cooling for the powerful ceramic brake disks.

TFT display similar to an airplane

The same innovative force applied to the exterior design characterises the cockpit of the Reventón. Designed and created using Alcantara, carbon, aluminium and leather that comply with the top quality standards, the interior is inspired by the next generation cockpits: just like in modern airplanes, the instruments comprise three TFT liquid crystal displays with innovative display modes. At the touch of a button, the driver can choose from two vehicle information display modes. The instruments are housed in a structure milled from a solid aluminium block, protected by a carbon fibre casing.

The G-Force-Meter is also completely new: this display shows the dynamic drive forces, longitudinal acceleration during acceleration and braking, as well as transversal acceleration around bends. These forces are represented by the movement of an indicator on a graduated 3D grid depending on the direction and intensity of the acceleration. A similar instrument can be found in the airplanes. Formula One teams also use a similar device to analyse dynamic forces.

Customizable instruments

The instrument on the left of the speedometer associates the number of revolutions in the form of a luminous column with the display of the selected gear. Finally, every Reventón is equipped with a robotised e.gear controlled by two small levers under the steering wheel.

By simply pressing a button, the driver can switch to the second, quasi-analogical display, where the classic circular instruments, speedometer and engine speed indicator are configured in an equally innovative way and transformed into luminous pilot lamps with varying colours. The G-Force-Meter naturally remains at the centre in this display mode.

Electronic system developed entirely by Lamborghini

All this is possible thanks to the fact that the entire electronic platform of the Reventón, together with all the control devices, has been autonomously developed by the Lamborghini experts.

The same process for integrating the electronic displays in the car was applied to the Lamborghini Engineering Department.

From the conception of the very first radical ideas, the entire Reventón has been developed in Sant’Agata Bolognese thanks to tight teams of remarkably creative experts. An extremely refined and efficient process was employed: CAD design and development, creation of the prototype in the Prototype Department, all carried out under the constant supervision of the Research and Development Department’s technicians and testers.

Atelier of creativity and high efficiency

Inaugurated in 2004, the Centro Stile is dedicated to design and characterised by a high degree of efficiency: an “atelier” of creators, designers and prototype constructors, who encapsulate the Lamborghini culture and spirit by using their remarkable skills to create aesthetic innovation.

The Centro Stile is located in a 2,900 square two-storey building. The large pavilion houses two test floors and related production and analysis equipment, while other rooms are set aside for the most advanced computerised workstations for designers and a style-model construction workshop. The Centro Stile is also closely linked to the nearby Engineering Department: the direct line between the Lamborghini development departments guarantees that ideas rapidly become reality.

Creativity and production under the same roof

The Lamborghini Reventón is a practical illustration of the streamlined functionality and efficiency characterising the Centro Stile: it took less than a year to progress from the first ideas to the finished car. The complete design process from the first sketches on paper, to three dimensional computer models with 1:10 or 1:4 scale, right up to the real size prototype is organised around streamlined, fast, efficient work groups. Thanks to the Centro Stile, for the first time in its history, Lamborghini is now able to create its own style philosophy in-house without having to rely on any external collaboration.

The 20 units will be manufactured in Sant’Agata, using a production process characterised by artisan perfection and rigorous quality standards.

A masterpiece with tested technology

The technology found in the Murciélago LP640 has not been modified. The engine in the LP640 forwards is the classic twelve-cylinder engine with 6.5 litre displacement. Only for this car, Lamborghini guarantees, an astounding 650 HP (478 kW) at 8,000 revolutions per minute (rpm). The huge torque, equal to maximum 660 Nm, ensures a powerful switch from any number of revolutions: even the slightest pressure on the accelerator is spontaneously transformed into thrust. The robotised e.gear changes gear faster than even the most expert driver. In addition, the permanent Viscous Traction four-wheel drive system ensures that every force is constantly translated into movement.

As in the original Murciélago LP640, the Reventón accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.4 seconds, with a maximum speed over 340 km/h.

Born to become a legend

Since its foundation, Lamborghini has been a creator of trends in the world of sports cars and has always manufactured cars with an absolutely unmistakable character. Models such as the Miura or Countach, for example, were veritable forerunners and rapidly acquired the status of timeless classic cars. From the moment they are launched, every new Lamborghini promises to become a legend, destined to become a sought-after and precious possession.

With the Lamborghini Reventón, Lamborghini has done it again; it has created an unequalled super car; the perfect synthesis between the exclusivity and appeal of a limited edition design masterpiece, and the dynamism and driveability of a standard sports car. Thus, the Lamborghini legend is further enhanced by another, stylish future classic.

tibet,india and the dragon in arms

My north east friends haven’t been a happy bunch of late! They are upset by the happenings in Tibet and what they call the atrocious handling of the sensitive issue by China. But I guess what they are most irked by is the Indian response to the fight by Tibet! They expected more, wanted more, hoped for more. But felt a bit let down by the way we lay low. It seemed as if we were bowing to Chinese pressure, not showing support for a just cause. Not arguing the case of Tibet on a world platform or letting them have a platform to express their anguish. They were being curtailed because of Chinese pressure.

Many other Indians too have been debating on this aspect! While some agree that India is going too soft in its response to China’s attitude, some feel it is the right way to do it. I agree with the latter. India has to protect its own interests first! And that means having peaceful and friendly relations with all its neighbours. Sadly we don’t seem to have it until now. We have fought wars with Pakistan and China in the past. Some over land, others by trying to fight for someone else’s land! And none of it brought us much good. We always try to play the savior and I believe it has only backfired and will continue to do so!

Because let us face it, nobody is anybody’s friend where world politics is concerned. Every country obviously looks out for their own prosperity and advantage. So why should we get into a fight with China over Tibet when all it might bring in the end are some sour relations. We already are on tender hooks with the Chinese. There was a naïve Nehru who proclaimed a slogan that Indians and Chinese are brothers and sisters, well we paid for the Indo-Sin war with that! We lost a lot of land (got it back/still arguing about it) and Tibet fell into that gobble during that period. So while the case is ethically correct and people must support Tibet is it logical and practical to do is the question?

China is slowly gaining ground as one of the major nations of the world. One just has to see the progress to believe it! Read any financial journals to fully understand what is happening of the economy. Watch programmes to see the growth and processing of that nation. One can only then begin to realize the power that this nation will soon hold over the world. So is it wise to tick off a neighbour that is not only competition to us but also could be a worthful ally? I don’t think so! I believe we got nothing by trying to help Bangladesh procure its freedom from Pakistan. Today we have a steady pouring of militants from that part of the border and their migrant influx into our already populated territory isn’t helping. So what did we get? Nothing, other than making enemies across the other side of the boundary!

Why be the moral authority on this one? India has given refuge to the spiritual leader of Tibet and its people and continues to support them in any other ways other than political protests! I believe that is more than enough! If we get straddled in ethical concerns and emotional pleadings of our heart we shall be left behind in this century. We are an emotional bunch of people, which applies to other South Asian countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka too and perhaps that is what has been one of our major obstacles in achieving progress to our capacity so may be finally it is time to show some restraint. Let the world collectively decide what is has to do about Tibet-China. Continue to provide help through other means but not by allowing political activities or embarking on a war of words with China. It shall ultimately bring no good, because as far as it can be believed China will win whichever way it wants to!

So am I being self-centered when I say let India do for India? Yes surely! When we became a nation we decided we would fight for not only our rights but also that of the others! When the Iraq war or Afghanistan war broke out no one muttered much, even though it can be counted as one of the most horrific abuse of human rights documented! So why now? Why for Tibet? Because the Dalai Lama lives here? Because somewhere we understand and feel one with the Tibetans? Because that is the ethical thing to do? Because if everyone kept quiet it meant the death of free living and a just world? These are emotional reasons, give me some practical ones!

We need to keep quiet because frankly it isn’t our business and history has taught us that we must not meddle where it isn’t our business. Wait and watch how it plays. Let the UN decide, let other G8 partners of China come up with solutions. Being selfish you say? Yes, I think it is time India does become selfish or sensible (should I say)…

hocking cricket

OK, I know you guys may have already read tons of material analysing India’s shameful failure in qualifying for the Beijing Olympics (this happened for the first tme in 80 years). That was the one reason I was hesitant to write on this topic for a long time now. But a speech at the India Today Conclave by Bishen Singh Bedi compelled me to write on this topic.

This is how he started his speech,

I would like to take you back to a time when India beat New Zealand in a five-day Test match. In those days Indian used to get Rs. 50 a day for a Test match. But Indians won the game in four days and the Indian Board deducted Rs.50. That was the incentive of winning the game in four days.

Heh. Rs. 250 for playing a Test match? And money deducted if the match finishes in less than five days? Incredible! But of course, that was years ago. Now, let’s get back to the present. When India recently won the triangular series in Australia, Team India got a bonus of Rs. 10 crore! That is over and above their usual match fee (which in itself is quite a large amount).

If cricket could be such a money-spinner in India, we can only imagine how much money-spinning potential sports like hockey and football must be having. Let’s be honest, one-day cricket is a dreadfully drawn-out event. Each innings lasts for a never-ending three and a half hours. I mostly fall asleep in the middle overs. They are damn boring. Effectively, we end up spending no less that eight hours seeing a match. Almost a whole day wasted! And still we love cricket

Contrast this with hockey. Each half lasts for 35 minutes and the match is over in under two hours. And to top it all, every moment is filled with excitement and adrenaline. There are hardly any sleep-inducing moments. And of course, there are almost no adverisements; unlike in cricket, where we are force-fed advertisements every five minutes

So why isn’t hockey the money-spinner that it could be in India? The answer to this question can be found by analysing Indian cricket’s success story. Cricket has had great administrators like Dalmiya, Bindra et al. They have done a great job in promoting cricket. They are the guys who have raked in the moolah, so to say, for Indian cricket. And therefore, Indian cricket is where it is today.

On the other side, we have K.P.S. Gill doing the best he can to kill hockey in India for the past 14 years. I wonder why he is still hanging on. Has he become so shameless? hockey needs is great administrators who can ensure that talented youngsters get a platform where they can display their skills. Merit (not stupid internal politics and regionalism) should be the only criterion for selecting a player in the national team. Everything else will follow; sponsors, money, crowds in stadiums, everything…

If only we could kick Mr. Gill out of the Indian Hockey Federation for a start…

the mindwork behind a rumour

In the summer of 2004, Andy Martin, a colorful Web columnist and sometime Republican candidate for state office, put out a press release announcing his sadness at having to “expose” Barack Obama as a “Muslim who has concealed his religion.” Reporters ignored Martin’s charge, which offered no proof. But the story took root: Martin’s screed bounced about blogs, mutating over the course of a couple years into an e-mail message that suggested the senator is a kind of Muslim Manchurian candidate for the White House.

Though news organizations and fact-checking Web sites like Snopes.com have debunked the claim, the story just won’t die. In an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll taken in December, 8 percent of respondents thought Obama was Muslim, half as many as correctly identified him as a Protestant.

The Obama-is-a-Muslim rumor does not seem to have hurt the candidate’s fortunes, at least not yet. But the myth’s persistence illustrates a growing cultural vulnerability to rumor. Journalists typically presume that facts matter: show the public what is true, and they will make decisions correctly. Psychologists who study how we separate truth from fiction, however, have demonstrated that the process is not so simple. And because digital technology fosters social networks that are both closely knit and far-flung, rumors are now free to travel widely within certain groups before they meet any opposition from the truth.

Consider, for starters, this paradox of social psychology, a problem for myth busters everywhere: repeating a claim, even if only to refute it, increases its apparent truthfulness. In 2003, the psychologist Ian Skurnik and several of his colleagues asked senior citizens to sit through a computer presentation of a series of health warnings that were randomly identified as either true or false — for example, “Aspirin destroys tooth enamel” (true) or “Corn chips contain twice as much fat as potato chips” (false). A few days later, they quizzed the seniors on what they had learned.

The psychologists expected that seniors would mistakenly remember some false statements as true. What was remarkable, though, was which claims they most often got wrong — the ones they had been exposed to multiple times. In other words, the more that researchers had stressed that a given warning was false, the more likely seniors were to eventually come to believe it was true. (College students in the study did not make the same mistakes.)

To understand this turnabout, says Norbert Schwarz, a psychologist at the University of Michigan who worked with Skurnik on the study, it helps to know how our brains suss out truth from fiction. To determine the veracity of a given statement, we often look to society’s collective assessment of it. But it is difficult to measure social consensus very precisely, and our brains rely, instead, upon a sensation of familiarity with an idea. You use a rule of thumb: if something seems familiar, you must have heard it before, and if you’ve heard it before, it must be true.

The rule obviously invites many opportunities for error. The seniors in Skurnik’s study couldn’t remember the context in which they had heard the health claims (research shows that we are quick to forget “negation tags,” like whether something is said to be false or a lie), so they relied, instead, on a vague sense of familiarity, which steered them astray. Repetition, psychologists have shown, easily tricks us. Kimberlee Weaver of Virginia Tech recently found that if one person tells you that something is true many times, you are likely to conclude that the opinion is widely held, even if no one else said a thing about it.

Is myth busting a lost cause? Nicholas DiFonzo, a psychologist at the Rochester Institute of Technology, gives Obama high marks on his handling of the Muslim rumor, particularly a refutation Obama offered during an interview late in January with the Christian Broadcasting Network. Obama offered a clear, point-by-point rebuttal to every argument in the chain e-mail, and he provided an important alternative story — “dirty tricks.”

But Obama’s well-executed refutation didn’t kill the rumor. One problem is that rumors are rarely static. “You will see them mutate,” says Bill Adair of Politifact.com. “They’ll pick up new pieces, while some pieces drop off. There’s a line that appears in one version now: ‘I checked this out on Snopes, and it’s true.’ ” At some point, it seems, someone added a line like that as a kind of defense mechanism. There’s an arms race between truth and fiction, and at the moment, the truth doesn’t appear to be winning.

scientological facts

There has been much discussion about Scientology in the news recently. I am not one to dismiss a religion just because a few deem it a cult. I have done days of research and ask you to open your mind and digest the facts.

The following paragraphs are directly from the Scientology website.

The word Scientology literally means “the study of truth.” It comes from the Latin word “scio” meaning “knowing in the fullest sense of the word” and the Greek word “logos” meaning “study of.”

Scientology is the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, others and all of life. The religion comprises a body of knowledge extending from certain fundamental truths. Prime among these:

Man is an immortal, spiritual being. His experience extends well beyond a single lifetime. His capabilities are unlimited, even if not presently realized — and those capabilities can be realized. He is able to not only solve his own problems, accomplish his goals and gain lasting happiness, but also achieve new, higher states of awareness and ability.

In Scientology no one is asked to accept anything as belief or on faith. That which is true for you is what you have observed to be true. An individual discovers for himself that Scientology works by personally applying its principles and observing or experiencing results.

Through Scientology, people all over the world are achieving the long-sought goal of true spiritual release and freedom. Thats the official word. Below is a list of a few core beliefs of Scientology.

- People are half robot and half monkey

- We descended from aliens

- We live many times past this life

- Some dude named L Ron Hubbard is god

- One day Abe Vigoda will come back and ,with the help of

his pet armadillo, bring the dead back to life while eating cherry poptarts.

- Tom Cruise’s ass is a black hole that will lead you to a planet wholly run by pigeons

- Man is the highest form of life after chickens and postmen

- “Cocktail” and “Days of thunder” aren’t that bad. I mean I wouldn’t pay theater prices to see them but if they are TBS Ill watch them

Now you have a little more information on which to base your ridicule of Scientology.

honda,hippie and globalisation

For all its little aggravations, bandstand can be a pretty nice place for a leisurely walk. Most of the year the weather is pretty nice, there are neighborhoods comprised of magnificent houses to gawk at, and if you’re in the right mood, there is a wealth of hilarity all around you.I was lucky enough to receive some free comedy while I was out for a stroll the other day. While navigating a winding street overlooking a babbling creek, I noticed a house set away from the sidewalk. In its driveway sat a car shaded by the limbs of dense trees that encircled the house. I walked past this scene without much thought, but a sudden realization forced me stop and backtrack to the foot of the driveway. I looked at the car’s bumper and saw the usual menagerie of trite neo-hippie bumper stickers urging peace, love, and Gore in 2000.(it belonged to a foreigner living in india i guess) Something special caught my eye, though: a bumper sticker that read “Buy locally, stop corporate globalization.”

It wasn’t the message that gave me pause for consideration: I’ve spent many an hour and many an academic course ruminating on the consequences of the global economy. What stopped me was a little piece of sublime hypocrisy: this bumper sticker was stuck on the back of a Honda Civic.

Without a doubt, the phenomenon of globalization is tricky subject, regardless of your personal feelings towards it. Some argue it is a means towards cheaper goods for everyone and economic development for industrializing countries. While it may create economic disparities, neo-liberal economic policy enthusiasts take the basic argument that a rising tide lifts all boats. On the other side, critics of globalization cite the gross human rights violations and the creation of exploitative economic practices that routinely occur as evidence it is a flawed system. They believe that such unbridled capitalism is immoral and that neo-mercantilism is the end result of such an ideology.

I believe both sides have their merits, and I do not want to make some grand judgement about the direction of the human race (in this post). I just want to write about why an anti-globalization bumper sticker on a Honda is hilarious.

As many of you know, Honda is Japanese company whose main focus is automobiles. Honda, along with other Japanese manufacturers like Toyota, have experienced great success in the car industry due to their vehicles’ fuel efficiency, reliability, and reasonable prices. They are the reason the American manufacturers like Ford are continually playing a defensive game while still losing money every year. I don’t think it would be controversial to say that a huge number of supposedly progressively minded, socially conscious folks love their Japanese cars. Guess who made the first hybrid? Honda. And all those Priuses on the roads? The ultimate eco-friendly status symbol comes from Toyota. After all, most people agree that Japanese cars are simply better products than their American counterparts (just check out the sales of the Toyota Camry, it’s amazing). But how are Americans able to buy products from a company based in Japan? That’s right kiddies: corporate globalization.

Since the early 1970s, Japanese cars have given Americans an attractive buying option in the car market. But the thing that’s really mind-blowing is that Honda has both manufacturing and R&D facilities in the in the good old US of A. Not only is America involved in consuming the products of foreign based company, it is actually manufacturing the product! What a brilliant and ironic way to encounter outsourcing: I doubt the folks working in Honda’s plants are cursing the global economy that provides them with jobs to support their families. In the Bay Area, kids are even taken to the NUMMI plant for school field trips. Surprisingly enough, it’s not to educate them about the horrors of the corporate globalization.

Globalization is taking place right here in our own backyard: foreign companies like Honda have exported manufacturing and engineering jobs to red-blooded American towns: Lincoln, Alabama, East Liberty, Ohio, and Torrance, California. If everyone began to heed the advice of the aforementioned bumper sticker, those folks would be out of a job, we’d be driving shitty cars from a monopolized market, and all the faux-hippies wouldn’t be able to feel smug. And we wouldn’t want that!

So what can we learn from all this? Some very useful things:

1. Don’t distill complex issues into bumper sticker slogans

2. Think for a second before putting crap on your car

3. The smallest (and stupidest) actions you take can provide endless amusement for a complete stranger

The world is really funny place if you can stop crying long enough to laugh at it.

juvenile......

With juvenile crime rate increasing in india,i wonder if this is the same india of chacha nehru,the india of 14 november,the india of roses and culture,the india of innocence,,now lost
A child’s mind was once thought to be a mind of pristine innocence, free of rigid ideas. Alas it is no longer now. The city kids (all over the world), as young as 3 years old, have very definite views about what they want or not want, be it food, clothes, toys or even household gadgets. By the time they are of 6 or 7 years, they make their parents proud with their deft handling of mobile phones, internet games and TV sets. More than 50% of 3 year olds in UK have a personal TV set in their bedrooms and those in the age group 11-15 years spend almost 53 hours a week in front of the computer/ TV screen.

So much so that China’s health authorities have placed Internet Addiction on par with alcohol/drug abuse and gambling as it is responsible for most juvenile crimes. The situation is so grave that Internet De-addiction Centres are being opened in many south asian countries like China and Thailand as internet use (rather abuse) explodes. Recently Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai, ( a world class premier engineering institute of India) restricted internet access in its hostels saying that addiction to surfing/ gaming/ blogging was making students reclusive and even suicidal and was replacing the old hostel culture of camaraderie with depressive and dysfunctional lifestyles.

From petty thefts to rape, abduction and murder JUVENILE CRIME has entered a deadly new phase in India, mostly in the upper strata of society. In October 2007, 3 Ahmedabad (India) teenagers killed their 6 year old neighbour to raise 25 lakh rupees in ransom to lead a life of luxury. In August 2007,a Mumbai (India) teenager was killed by 4 friends who demanded Rs.2 crore (approximately US$ 500,000) ransom from his parents. A 14 year old girl helped a woman to hack her mother in law in return for a new mobile phone. A teenager, near Sonepat, molested a girl and shot dead her brother when he protested.

Our kids are indeed living in violent times--violence in movies, within families, on the roads. The ‘Age of Innocence’ is over. It has been overpowered with the lust for easy money and substance abuse. Even those few, who are brilliant achievers in various fields, cite money and power as their main aim in life.

The exuberance of childhood has been replaced with an uncouth brashness. Niceties of manners and finesse of language have become obsolete. Instead, we have the crass I, ME and MYSELF attitude. ‘Shit' and ‘Bastard’ have become the most often used words in kids’ conversations.

And all this because primarily parents, elders, teachers have failed miserably in our duties and responsibilities. Changing lifestyles, crumbling joint families and a market driven society has left our children rudderless and valueless. Instead of giving them quality time and selfless love they are smothering them with material goods.

With education perceived as the only means of advancement in the ultra-competitive society (especially in Asian countries), parents expectations are unrealistically high. American psychologist Madeline Levine has identified a growing breed of ‘helicopter parents’, so called because they hover over all aspects of their children’s lives. They push them so hard to excel at everything, from Maths to English to sports and music, that they end up as hopeless failures.

The struggle to please over ambitious parents leads to violent and immoral behaviour and feelings of self hatred. (I come across many such parents of my pupils. Sadly, even when I point out their fallacy they refuse to listen saying they are doing it for the good of their child).

With both parents working long hours, preparing balanced meals at home becomes difficult. So salty snacks and fizzy drinks have become the main meal of cranky, pampered kids. This is fomenting a health crisis in Japan, the home of sushi, seaweed and world’s longest life expectancy. The US food chains are helping it to rear a generation of young sugar addicts spending their adolescence fighting obesity and acne. India unwittingly boasts of being the largest snack market in the Asia Pacific region. Emotional stress is linked with junk food faddism.

Only if could make our kids skip the fries and go hard on soft drinks. Housewives could take this as a business opportunity to supply tasty wholesome homemade food to working parents and school canteens.

Only if we would not treat our kids as our prized possessions whose achievements alone are to be showcased as trophies. They need our love and assurance the most when they deserve it the least. Let them know that failures are as much part of growing up as success. Let us consciously try to remove the imbalance of power (still prevalent in most Indian homes) which makes the sons believe that they can get away with everything. Let us give them a sense of belonging and not expensive gifts. Let us respect the law and not indulge in a sick display of opulence.

We may have our own dreams about our children but as they grow older we need to respect (rather than kill) their interests and choices in life ,as happens so often literally in Indian homes in the name of ‘honour killings’ of adult sons and daughters.

Let our children grow to be a trifle more sensitive about the needs of the millions of those underprivileged Indian children who are working under miserable conditions in stone quarries, in the carpet industry, as domestic help, as ragpickers or in the sex market, with no access to schools and two square meals a day.

Let all of us try to gift our children their ‘Age of Innocence’ sans junk food, TV/internet abuse, conspicuous consumption, sedentary lifestyle and an insensitive couldn’t-care-less attitude. Let us guide them lovingly yet firmly on their path of self discovery.

the omnipresent walkers

DRIVING ALONG the streets on India is an enriching experience. Driving on an empty stretch of road, with the cool breeze ruffling your hair, and some fine music playing in the CD player - all regular car drivers will know that this is ultimate bliss. So that’s how it all seemed to be panning out one fine afternoon, when I took my car out for a spin. But, as they say, great dreams are short lived; and to jolt me awake from my stupor, out came this man from nowhere, right in the middle of the road! I had to summon all my reflexes to slam the brakes, simultaneously honking at the guy who decided that walking in the middle of the road was something in vogue. ‘Chacha’ (uncle) turned back, quizzically, as if to wonder what a TATA Indica was doing on ‘his’ road, bang in the middle of the afternoon. Finally, after ensuring that he had made it clear that under no circumstances would he tolerate any more vehicles on the road, and that it was meant solely for enjoying a leisurely stroll, he gave way.

This is the usual scene on Indian roads. Everywhere you go you have to spend most of your energy and concentration in trying to remove pedestrians from the streets. And it is no mean feat, mind you. These so called ‘owners of the road’ seem to materialise out of thin air. You are driving peacefully, and poof! There they are. You are left wondering where they came from: The road seemed empty just a moment ago.

Of course, the travails of the hapless driver don’t end there. Not only do these ‘fine victories of evolution’ make random appearances, but some of them make it a point not to move out of the way despite repeated honking. How middle aged females can walk in the centre of the road, listen to a horn pleading them to move, turn around, see a ten wheeler heading towards them, and still continue with their ‘this is my property’ walk is amazing. I wish I were so brave. But then again, I’m thankful I wasn’t born with the IQ of a napkin.

Another class of this malice is the children. Now, I can accept the fact that little kids cannot be held responsible for venturing out on the street. Believe me, the last thing someone wants is to see a toddler run across the road, eyes transfixed on the puppy or the ball just in front of him. And even more frightening is when there is more than just the one.

It is not just the pedestrian that walks in the middle of the street that is the problem. Even good law abiding (common sense?) people who use the footpath present a danger. How? Just accidentally run into a ‘road walker’ and you’ll see what I mean. For some inexplicable reason, you will be held responsible for the collision, and the first to come to the aid of the hit will be the people on the footpath. “Can’t you see where you are going?” they ask. "I could, but this smart Alec here didn’t find it the least bit strange to decide that he will use the road,” you argue, but to no avail.

So, that’s the scene here. Wherever you go for a drive, you are bound to bump into (pun intended) one or more of the fine class of persons called the all knowing (ignorant probably? You decide) pedestrian. They will appear out of thin air, will try and outrun your vehicle, will not budge at all if you dare to sound the horn, or sometimes, just harmlessly sleeping on the road (yes, this happens too). It may yet turn out to be an advantage though: It will ensure that the driver has his eyes firmly on the road at all times, with peak levels of concentration. No wonder us Indians seem to produce geniuses by the million!

hope,change and pissing in the wind

CHARISMATIC, ARTICULATE, SMOOTH, AND INTELLIGENT, Barrack Obama is the living embodiment of his vague, ethereal, and tantalizing messages of "hope" and "change." To the millions upon millions of US Americans desperate to purge the naked imperialism and blatant criminality of the Bush administration from the White House, Obama IS hope and change. Yet like many establishment liberals before him, Obama is no cure for the malignant creep toward fascism plaguing our nation. If elected, at best he will merely serve to postpone the inevitable a bit.
To understand why Obama and the ilk he took with him to DC would be little or no better than the human excrement currently occupying the tangible, visible positions of power in the US, let's examine various facets of Obama and of our rotten-to-the-core socio-political and socioeconomic systems.

Issue one is that Obama or no Obama, we are still stuck with a bourgeois democracy. Which means that despite all the rhetoric and mythologies about equality, freedom, meritocracy, opportunity, and a host of other lies that placate the masses and maintain the social order, the United States is a nation of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.

Even if we suspend our critique of Obama for a moment and pretend he is a man of saintly virtue, trusting an Obama or a JFK or whomever to do the right thing by the nation, the environment, the people, etc. rests on the assumption that the American president is indeed an all-powerful figure capable of enacting or precipitating policies of tremendous consequence for the country. This illusion holds when the person in the executive office is moving within the traditional confines, values and methods of the capitalist system, which even such a "radical" as FDR observed. In such a case, the media would not align and uniformly attack him and there would not be a capital strike (as savage capitalism has waged against true left reformers like Allende); we'd just see a sectoral division within the ruling class, and factions would develop-but the policy dialogue would remain within the historically acceptable parameters of capitalists elites. Their principal interest would be to maintain and preserve as many of their privileges and as much of their way of life as possible. That was fine for FDR's time.

However, let's look at the larger picture we traverse today.

In the current circumstances we face, we see a rapidly degenerating empire, in which the logical evisceration of FORMAL aspects of democracy proceeds accordingly. The prospect is for endless wars, more super-exploitation of the planet, and so on. If any "remedial" policies are implemented against judicial abuse, planetary death, or human/non-human animal exploitation in various contexts, these cannot take hold and neutralize the overarching slide toward worse because "toward worse" is embedded in the dynamics of the system-and how could it be otherwise in a socioeconomic structure premised on greed and selfishness? There are systemic contradictions at play that almost force the hand of capitalists to do what they do-for example they are now trying to roll back the social democratic gains of the European working class during the postwar period. Merkel, Brown, Berlusconi, and Sarkozy are no accidents. They represent the concerted effort of the European bourgeoisie, egged on by the American elites, to push back on the working class and take it all back under the pretext of "remaining competitive" and a plethora of other fraudulent reasons.

Capitalism faces insoluble issues. As the world's population continues to grow, it cannot hope to cure unemployment-ever- because the dynamic of modern capitalist industry is toward ever larger portions of machine labor replacing human labor. Neither science nor technology can be stopped. And advancing technology naturally makes work production routines continuously more efficient, thereby reducing the need for human workers. This phenomenon can be seen nearly everywhere now (it was always there lurking right under the surface, but remained hidden from most via cultivated ignorance, lies, and the complicity of the media) including in "cheap labor" zones such as India and China, which at last count had more than 150 million unemployed. In many places in Europe one paycheck has to be spread among 2 or even 3 "employed" workers. That means that 2 jobs have vanished and the fiction of smaller unemployment is kept alive by musical chairs, a trick which is becoming increasingly transparent to many.

The American people, in keeping with their reputation as the most misinformed people on the planet, have been the slowest to recognize that as citizens of a clearly fibrillating bourgeois democracy they are perpetually teetering on the brink of fascism. Meanwhile, while the world edges ever closer to the edge, the media-including those revered phonies on the PBS Lehrer Newshour-rarely talk about these things and the politicians even less (both out of sheer ignorance and a sense that such topics are taboo), which enables the cancer to grow unchecked. What we do receive are fictions like those of Robert Reich and his ilk, who go about preaching the pseudocure of "better education" and job retraining for technological unemployment. Reich-a terrifically intelligent fellow-may really believe his own message, but either way, it doesn't matter because the solution is no solution. This is not to say that under any and all circumstances it's not better to be educated. However the structural aspects of a capitalist economy at this point make that posture moot: all the titles in the world will not get you a job when the economy says it needs only 5 PhDs and 10 skilled technicians while there are 25,000 PhDs and 15 million technicians clamoring for jobs.
Those who bank on stopping the slide to fascism through a liberal president are deluding themselves, because the American president is powerful ONLY when he's playing with the consent of most of the ruling class and the institutions it controls. Such personal power deflates rapidly when playing against the values and consensus of the US power elite, at which point a "rogue president" would likely suffer a wave of opposition that would literally bring them down-via impeachment or through a coup orchestrated during a state of tumult created by capital strikes, agents provocateurs, and the media. Not to mention even a military takeover.

Further, we must recall that the slide to fascism is both a witting and unwitting choice by the bourgeoisie in power. The very essence of capitalism is anarchy: anarchy in production, anarchy in distribution and so on. Military precision may rule the day within each business entity, but from the larger societal perspective there is little coordination, only the selfish pursuits of the companies in play. Hence the horrific duplication and waste we see. For example, in the health care sector up to 1/3 of costs are squandered on paper-shuffling. None of this is likely to change until one deals with the fatal flaws of capitalism, which an Obama is about as likely to do as a lion is to go vegetarian.

Remember that FDR's reforms (FDR representing the classic example of the "savior" liberal president), radical as they seem now (and denounced at the time by many fellow capitalists as sheer communism and rank "class betrayal") were never such; they were just realistic measures to save the store that remained at all times totally respectful of the rights of private big business property. Thus FDR never really went deep into the question of workplace democracy, production choices, income distribution, or many other issues that would have meant a true clash of class interests. And the War of course obscured all that. Sure, FDR entered the war against the Axis, and MOMENTARILY a segment of official propaganda shifted to demonize the Germans and Japanese insteads of the "Reds", but those were not so much antifascist/anti-imperialist sentiments as nationalist power calculations.

The above means that if the ruling cliques deem it necessary to take the "nice mask" of democracy off (a big gamble since they may never restore the "legitimacy" they retain through this ruse), it will happen, no matter who's nominally in charge at the White House. In the case of the Bush/Cheney duo, they were born to stage the perfect friendly fascist coup and have almost pulled it off in slow motion over the last eight years. But if confronted with a less cooperative president, the power elite would find a way to neutralize him. We're dealing with a huge cast of actors here, many with colossal stakes, and who have enormous resources at their disposal to create all sorts of mischief, which they have done at taxpayer expense all over the world for years. These criminals will not give up their accustomed ways without a fight. In fact, they will do as Bush/Cheney have done and go on the offensive in a nearly transparent way.

What the world needs-desperately (and we are using this word sans hyperbole here) are dramatic changes in policies and top personnel and new models of advanced democratic enfranchisement. That means real democratic restructuring, proportional representation, certifiable elections, workplace democracy, a disenfranchisement of the power and income rights of the reigning plutocracy, and an effective global program of ecological respect and sanity. Do you see that being initiated under ANY establishment politico, including "Mr. Change" himself? Do you see any of these radical (yet utterly necessary) changes being implemented without a HUGE fight from capital and its affiliated elites around the globe?

Even if, and that is a big if, Obama wanted to institute beneficent change, he would be facing impossible odds. Need proof? Consider one of the ugliest and most absurd contradictions of American capitalism. Despite frontpage acknowledgement by the crypto-fascist WSJ in 1973 that 68% of US Americans supported a universal, single-payer healthcare system, the fact that even fellow capitalist nations have such a system, and the reality that our existing health care system is ruining many capitalists in the US (especially those in the small and middle sectors but even making corporate giants like GM uncompetitive), the health of the masses remains tertiary to the profits of health-care industry giants and to the availability of the gold standard in health care to a relative few. Think Obama and his family don't have the best medical care known to man?

The American people must de-link themselves from our farcical presidential election circus, turn their eyes to a different kind of electoral politics, develop and field new forms of oppositional struggle, and create mass mobilization instruments such as a real popular party. In all these tasks, the Democrats like Obama just stand in the way, beguiling the people with illusions and sucking up precious oxygen. That long journey has to be made, and the sooner the better. Trying to avoid the arrival of fascism by appealing to the "good cop" of the bourgeoisie is an illusion; fascism can only be stopped when the masses are organized-and fully aware.

Some think we gain time for such organization under the Democrats. Problem is, the Democrats and their half measures that appear to thwart the capitalist juggernaut are what keeps the masses enthralled with the system and in effect dissuade them from joining the struggle against it. The public will not do what needs to be done until professional and charismatic charlatans like Obama are revealed for what they are. Band-aid solutions by the Democrats will not stop the slide toward the disaster and chaos guaranteed by the dynamics of the system.

Simply look at what has happened with the subprime crisis, an abortion that wriggled and writhed its way directly from the foul womb of a freewheeling, mature, ultra-cynical crony capitalism. It was a deep-rooted phenomenon that happened as inevitably as the transformation of undifferentiated cells into cancers. Politicians could not see it or stop it because that's not their job under the traditional task distribution of the system.

Obama or anyone else in the establishment can't cure the myriad ills of capitalism. These ills can never be cured from within or through playing by the accepted rules of the world's plutocracy. That's why all American politicians are into tinkering and superficialities. Their programs and "solutions" to the most glaring and obvious aspects of a severely broken system are complex, almost ludicrous Rube Goldberg contraptions (the health system comes to mind yet again). Obama and his fellow liberals are incredible illusionists: they give the people the distinct impression they are acting to cure the very disease that provides the life-blood to the opulent class whose interests they strive so hard to preserve. This would be obvious to most US Americans and the WaPo, the WSJ, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, the NY Times and even the CIA headquarters would have been stoned and razed to the ground already if so many of us were not braindead and kept in that vegetative state by the corporate media, an entity that more aware Latin Americans justly call, the "falsimedia."

So if Obama-let alone Hillary-won't and can't guarantee the defeat of friendly-fascism in America, what's the point? Sure, Obama very intelligently trades on HOPE. And many people, us included, are always loath to give up on hope. Hope is a powerful drug. Cyrano is in itself a work of HOPE. So this is tricky territory.

But hope must always be tempered with reason, especially in politics and war. And no reasonable human being could conclude that putting Obama at the helm of the USS Titanic will avert disaster for anyone but him and his cronies in the first class berths.

Suddenly Ralph Nader doesn't sound like such a ridiculous option, unless you're a plutocrat or a corporado.

are americans communist?

U.S.A. has been a staunch opposer to communism ever since the second world war.but when we look into the manifestos of marx and the united states policies i find a strange similarity.is america communist too?lets have a look......

The 10 PLANKS stated in the Communist Manifesto and some of their American counterparts are…

1. Abolition of private property and the application of all rents of land to public purposes.
Americans do these with actions such as the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (1868), and various zoning, school & property taxes. Also the Bureau of Land Management (Zoning laws are the first step to government property ownership)

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
Americans know this as misapplication of the 16th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, 1913, The Social Security Act of 1936.; Joint House Resolution 192 of 1933; and various State “income” taxes. they call it “paying your fair share”.

3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
Americans call it Federal & State estate Tax (1916); or reformed Probate Laws, and limited inheritance via arbitrary inheritance tax statutes.

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
Americans call it government seizures, tax liens, Public “law” 99-570 (1986); Executive order 11490, sections 1205, 2002 which gives private land to the Department of Urban Development; the imprisonment of “terrorists” and those who speak out or write against the “government” (1997 Crime/Terrorist Bill); or the IRS confiscation of property without due process. Asset forfeiture laws are used by DEA, IRS, ATF etc…).

5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
Americans call it the Federal Reserve which is a privately-owned credit/debt system allowed by the Federal Reserve act of 1913. All local banks are members of the Fed system, and are regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) another privately-owned corporation. The Federal Reserve Banks issue Fiat Paper Money and practice economically destructive fractional reserve banking.

6. Centralization of the means of communications and transportation in the hands of the State.
Americans call it the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of Transportation (DOT) mandated through the ICC act of 1887, the Commissions Act of 1934, The Interstate Commerce Commission established in 1938, The Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Communications Commission, and Executive orders 11490, 10999, as well as State mandated driver’s licenses and Department of Transportation regulations.

7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state, the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
Americans call it corporate capacity, The Desert Entry Act and The Department of Agriculture… Thus read “controlled or subsidized” rather than “owned”… This is easily seen in these as well as the Department of Commerce and Labor, Department of Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Mines, National Park Service, and the IRS control of business through corporate regulations.

8. Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
Americans call it Minimum Wage and slave labor like dealing with the Favored Nation trade partner; i.e. Communist China. We see it in practice via the Social Security Administration and The Department of Labor. The National debt and inflation caused by the communal bank has caused the need for a two “income” family. Woman in the workplace since the 1920’s, the 19th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, assorted Socialist Unions, affirmative action, the Federal Public Works Program and of course Executive order 11000.

9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries, gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of population over the country.
Americans call it the Planning Reorganization act of 1949 , zoning (Title 17 1910-1990) and Super Corporate Farms, as well as Executive orders 11647, 11731 (ten regions) and Public “law” 89-136. These provide for forced relocations and forced sterilization programs, like in China.

10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.
Americans are being taxed to support what we call ‘public’ schools, but are actually “government force-tax-funded schools ” Even private schools are government regulated. The purpose is to train the young to work for the communal debt system. they also call it the Department of Education, the NEA and Outcome Based “Education” . These are used so that all children can be indoctrinated and inculcated with the government propaganda, like “majority rules”, and “pay your fair share”. the philosophical concept of “fair share” comes from the Communist maxim, “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need! This concept is pure socialism. ….

so i rest my case

script writer

i recently wrote a play for my college fest and acted in it also.we,being,first years were not taken seriously in the competition.but we emerged out to be davidians,defeating the goliaths of the college and securing the first prize...here's the script of the play.its a espionage thriller.enjoy!

CHECKMATE

RAW Headquarters Delhi Headquarters—Home of India’s external intelligence agency

Agastya rai, head of personnel (AR) enters…his secretary stands and wishes him...

SEC: good morning, sir.here is the papers to be stamped and signed.

AR: ok……any other priorities.

SEC: sir, here are some greetings in the envelope and this one is from the pm’s office-

AR: what a bunch of hypocrites! I have bee a straight talking pain in their neck for the last 25 years and now they show concern.

SEC: Also sir, you have a conference today.

AR: today! That too a conference!

SEC: sir, it’s important, it’s about tyagi.

AR: ok fine. The last day in office .I will miss this place. I actually had imagined retirement differently but…this thing is still pretty good. When is the conference?

SEC: Actually it will start in a few minutes. You must start now. By the way sir, I have also filed my resignation.

AR: Ok, give it to the head in the conference. Now let’s move.

(In the conference room ...there is a table in the centre, a projector... RAW head and four other directors are sitting, Placards read. External intellugence, Crypto and cipher, internal affairs, Communications and Head of Operations)

AR enters...

AR: Last day par bhi conference...

Comm. J.D.: Arre yaar (hugs) happy retirement...Agle saal main bhi aa raha hoon…

Head: If your Oprah moments are over, can we please start with our work!

Mr Rai, you must have forgotten the importance of today... so let me brush your memory. Tomorrow Abhimanyu Tyagi is being executed in SERNA prison in Burma. .The RAW doesn’t stop working on your retirement and we need to conduct this meeting...

AR: Enough I very well remember.. Age never degraded my mind. Right now I actually don’t give a shit for RAW(takes the envelope , crumples it,) all these greetings mean nothing to me. Nor does this bureaucracy..( Throws the paper in the bin)

Ext JD:Sir we need to close this file Tyagi was your agent and protégé . So help us fill this missing information in this file and then you are free..

Crypt JD: Common now, Gussa thuk Last day par toh khush rahe

AR:Thik hain.So what do you want to know about Tyagi.

Head: everything. His name,place,shoe size. Spare no details. So lets begin,(Tyagis profile on screen)tell us how did you recruit this person and why.

AR: I was in charge of the Ludovico project and Tyagi was my creation

Int JD:

Ludovico project was conceptualized by internal affairs and Personnel Dept.We wanted to create agents who did not have a conscience.These agents don’t reflect retrospect or object. They just do what is told to them

AR:

In short I was to make a killing machine without remorse. After going through various applications I found this person, Abhimanyu.No family , hardly any friends , ready to do anything..Ready to die ..Our perfect weapon.

Cry JD:yes sir, I personally took him under my wing…kamala ka banda tha.usko infiltration aur sniping to maine hi sikahi thi—

Int JD:apne!apko magnum kya hai pata bhi hai?

Head: will you please!

Comm JD:He was made to go through various trainings and tests. He killed people , he was made to cut them. We destroyed his soul , his conscience. He could kill in 256 ways and knew how to make 29 different poisons using kitchen articles

Cry JD: He had an IQ of 160 . Brilliant code breaker ,knew 7 languages and had more than 10 identities.

AR: I succeeded in making a perfect monster . He was our James Bond . a one man army.

Head: And his file says he was involved in many important RAW operations apparently

AR:He was the person who killed the CIA mole in RAW .The CIA still thinks that he died due to his peanut allergy. The MI6 infiltration to find the nuke deal details was engineered by Tyagi. His biggest achievement I feel was the killing of the ISI agent in the embassy,Tyagi killed him in a theatre using a champagne glass and a nylon ball. He was a superlative!

Comm JD:

He also headed a operation to plant a communication tower at Siachen.We are receiving class A intelligence from that tower till now

AR: Arre , you remember that,Kashmir main apni haddiyan sikud gayee thi.??

C JD: This kya , meri toh ab tak sikudi hui hain,,

Head: Can you please come to the point .your friend’s reunion for a later period perhaps.

Int JD:Arre jaldi karo yaar bhook bhi lagi hain, insulin lene ka bhi time ho raha hain

Head: Ok ,let’s hit the topic now , operation Silver Fox, let’s begin. I want to know everything what happened This is going on record any lies can affect you later .somebody can get hurt. Keep this in mind,mr.rai.

AR:Just because you are the head doesn’t mean you own me .

Int JD:Calm down sir , don’t work on your Bp too much..

AR:Operation Silver Fox Burma was in a state of civil war ,the govn. and the refugees along with the civilians were up in arms and rioting. India has a non-interference treaty with Burma .A US humanitarian Shalini Bhattacharya alias Jane was in Burma to nurse the wounded in the civilian area.She was caught by the soldiers and put in the prison of SERNA,Burma. We had been told to extract the officer from SERNA, and deport her safely back to the US of A.

Int JD: Can we please take a break ?I need to eat my lunch and take my insulin shot.

Head: OK, 30 min lunch, These things are deteriorating the quality of work at RAW.Everyone works at his own leisure..(storms to his office)

(conf room ,,directors sitting for lunch..)

Cry JD: Salla , this Head toh gets on my nerves, PM’s Office main setting hain is liye apne sir pe baitha hain…

Int JD: ( comes after taking his shot) Rai tu toh bahut lucky insaan hain yaar . abhi toh full family man banega

AR:Pata hain!! Main toh aaj raat ki flight se hi Panama jaa raha hoon ,apne bete ke pass.. Wahan toh duur duur tak RAW ka saaya bhi nahi hain… South American treaty..!!

Cry JD : Any plans for the evening?

AR: I am actually going out on a dinner with my wife .I hope this meeting ends and I can go..

Comm JD: I know , I rarely see my grandson … I too am contemplating VRS now.

( office murmurs continue .. Head’s office …head on phone )

(voices on the other end of the line ..)

So have you taken care of Rai and Tyagi..?

Head:Tyagi is getting executed tomorrow ..I think I will get the location of the humanitarian official by evening..

Voice:

She is of importance to the Burma govn. She has witnessed something… We are on her lookout for three years ..

Head: I will take care of her myself ,,she will disappear from the face of the earth.

Voice: At least be your money’s worth..

(back to conference hall)

SEC : Sir you have a call..

AR:Excuse me(ans the phone)..Ya surely, its confirmed,I will send it .Just do as per that.Ya Dinner Out is a Go. Chal.See You.

Cryp JD: 25 years main RAW ne teri English badal di. Wife ko “It’s a go”. Bechari kaisi bardaashth karti hogi tuze!!

Int JD:Don’t pull his leg too much ,Last day toh enjoy karne de.Head ne toh uska din waise bhi kharab kar diya hain..

Head (entering): So we were in Burma, (to ext jd), what does your report say..?

Ext JD: Our Embassy in Burma was redundant Tyagi was on his own in this operation. Due to political constraints we couldn’t do anything for him in Burma He was behind enemy lines with a bull’s eye on his head..

AR: Under such adverse conditions Tyagi managed to infiltrate SERNA.He had devised the escape plan .He planned the prison break impeccably. The plan was flawless

Ext JD: Was he successful?

AR: let me complete! He located the officer ,but at the prison he came across someone else

Cry JD: Kya baat kar raha hain!

AR:He saw his ex-wife there .She was working for an NGO in Burma and the military police caught her .Tyagii successfully managed to rescue the officer and she was deported from Burma .Then he did the biggest mistake o his life.His emotions killed his decision making skills .He went back to rescue his ex wife , but this time he failed.He got caught by the govn..Tomorrow he will be executed..

Head: Nice story.But whatever you said for the last 5 mins,is the most moronic fairytale I ever heard. The officer never reached US.

Ext JD: We sent our agent at the airport, but she wasn’t even in the plane.

Head:She vanished into thin air(rises ).You thinks we all are buffoons out here..The truth is your most dear agent failed in Silver fox, He failed and you are covering up for his failure..You have been hiding information for the last three yrs..

Int JD:The officer might have really disappeared or the Burmese could have captured her..

Head : You think I didn’t find that out .She is missing from US,from India, from Burma..Now Mr Rai , tell us where the hell is she..

AR:I don’t give a damn as to what you think, she could be anywhere why do I care .!And who are you to point my mistakes. Enough!!

Head: Remember you are talking to the Head of Operations..

AR:Everyone knows who am talking to ,you think your contacts in PM’s office will deter me bring it on!. You political games cant do anything to me..

C JD: But why didn’t we try to save Tyagi, after all he was one of our best agents…

Ext JD: Because he wasn’t supposed to be in Burma, there would have been a major scandal.

Head: Plus I didn’t want to waste my time behind such incapable agents and directors…

AR(Stands):Just because you are going to sign on my retirement certificate you think

you can do anything. Well I don’t need this ,(throws certificate in bin..)

I don’t need you pension, canteen benefits, free liquor .I don’t need RAW .I’m going right now .Lets see if you can stop me .the conference is over. I have told everything that I know.

Head(shouting):rai….you will pay for this…come back this instance.

(AR walks away, others still around doing paper work, Jane bends and finds paper from bin..)

SEC: Sir, I know that Mr.Rai was rude. But sir, He has been in this institute for 25 years. Please sign the retirement certificate .It will be a memento for him. Half of his life has been RAW. Even if he tries he can’t take RAW away from him.

Head: Ok (signs)

Jane: Sir even I am resigning with him, here is my resignation. Thank you sir.

Head: Hello, please transfer all phone lines of Rai to my office. I am in charge of Personnel till a new director is appointed. Also tell security to check that rai departs from the building as soon as possible.

(In anger. throws the vase on table in disgust)

Some time later... (Some one comes and gives Head a fax...)

Head: What the hell, operators call all the directors, it’s an emergency meeting. And get me all employment records and files on silver fox in the conference room fast.

(All directors in conference hall. head enters.)

Head: there has been an emergency. Can we get the records of silver fox?

Int JD: yes sir, but according to standard protocol, we delete important information after the operation.

Head: I want to know about the officer.bhattacharya.she had a code name right.

Ext JD: it was Jane sir.

Head: do we have any photos of her?

Int JD: no sir, as I mentioned standard procedure. But why is she so important?

Head: check this employment record.rai’s secretary’s name incidently is Jane. Jane menezes.her date of appointment is exactly 1 week after silver fox. All this time he kept her in one place no one would bother looking.right in raw headquaters.under our noses. (Very furious).can you please check the bin?

Int JD: (checks bin) there are no greeting cards…and this is rai’s retirement certificate!

(All directors stand in shock)

Comm. JD: so what did you sign sir?

Head: there were no greeting cards. And what I signed was a sanction for an extraction operation.rai was playing with us all along. Here have a look at this fax.

(Fax on projector. it reads)

OPERATION DINNER OUT WAS A SUCCESS.ABHIMANYU TYAGI AND HIS WIFE ARE SAFELY EXTRACTED FROM SERNA AND DEPORTED TO PANAMA.

Head: talk about checkmate!