Look out for yourself…

Imagine this: In a fit of temper fuelled by drinks, you tell your nagging wife you wished you were rid of her. Lo, the next minute, your state, or your religion, fulfils your wish. And you wake up from your stupor to find that the wife you still love and want to be with is no longer yours.
You think it’s impossible? Not according to this story.

What do you think -- is there a via media between the letter of the law, and its spirit?

That question is equally apt in this other case, of two children who were sent back to the US by immigration officials in Mumbai, simply because their parents, both Indian citizens, had messed up the paperwork.
One child was seven, the other three and a half -- come on, what kind of security, or other, issue could their presence in this country have caused? Why could officialdom not use commonsense, and grant a temporary visa?

Are laws, to look at the broader question, meant to substitute for sense?

The Great Indian Hype!

It is everywhere, the hype that India is rapidly climbing the ladder of global powers, and is poised to take the top rung in the not too distant future.
Sam Pitroda is not convinced -- in fact, he plays the contrary tune, telling that the hype is misplaced, that the country is a long way away from where it wants to be, that there are intrinsic problems that needs to be addressed before that ambition is realized.
Not quite the message you would expect to come out of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas jamboree -- but it is a timely one, and it pays to listen.
On a related note, minister for NRI affairs Vayalar Ravi, in conversation with Ramananda Sengupta, speaks at length on the PBD, and on what resurgent India has to offer the world.