My Musings

  3rd April 2022 Musings……. SriLanka Burning  What can gross mismanagement of the economy give you ? Well the answer is Sri Lanka.  Once upon a time, this island nation was considered a budding tourist destination with a vibrant democracy. All this seems to have changed for the worse within a few years.   Sri Lanka’s history as we all know has been a chequered one.    There was long years of civil war between the Singhalese speaking Government and the Tamil speaking LTTE in broadly speaking terms.  The centre and southern part of Sri Lanka is predominantly Singhalese speaking natives who form the majority and hold power in every government. The Tamil speaking minority is restricted to the North of Sri Lanka including in the district of Jaffna, and form the minority.  This internal strife lasted for years and there seemed no respite. We Indians can never forget this as we lost one of our most    dynamic Prime Ministers Shri. Rajiv Gandhi to a terrorist attack by the LTTE, for trying to

  31st March 2022 Musings……. Russians and the letter Z  The letter Z has now become a graphic rallying point of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  It is interesting to note that the letter Z was initially painted in white on Thanks and military vehicles headed to Ukraine from Russia.  Anyone supporting Russia in its invasion of Ukraine have been seen wearing the letter on clothes as badges including influencers and politicians.  The letter Z has often appeared on social media with the hashtag #СвоихНеБросаем meaning " we dont abandon our own " .    This symbol has become so much popular that, a picture of terminally ill children from a cancer ward joined to create the letter Z within the hospital compound, and the picture went viral on the internet.  The Russian Ministry of defense has since explained on Instagram that the letter Z represents a number of slogans that begin with the Russian word "for" (Za). " For Victory", "For Peace".  Symbols are

  1st Feb 2022   Musings…….  We all watched the other day, how Rafael Nadal, one of the greatest Tennis players of our times lift the Australian Open.  This was Rafael Nadal’s 21st Grand Slam Tournament win and surpassed both Roger Federer and Novak Djokowich both holding a record 20 Grand Slam wins.  The Wimbledon Tournament in London played on grass, the French Open on Clay, The US and Australian Opens played on hard court, are the four main Grand Slam tournaments and is winning these is considered the epitome of Tennis world.  All three greats have achieved career grand slams, which means winning all four of the major grand slams.  This years Australian open final was special in a way as this was one of the greatest comebacks ever witnessed in Tennis History.  In fact Rafael Nadal, the Spaniard has become the only player to win from being two sets down in the Open Era.  The Open Era is the current era of professional tennis. It began in 1968 when the Grand Slam tournaments allowed p

  25th Jan 2022 Musings……. Ukraine  So what actually is Russia’s problem with Ukraine ? To know this we must go back a bit into History, and we must know that Ukraine was a part of the Russian empire for centuries before becoming a Soviet republic. Later in 1991 it broke away as the USSR broke up and gained independence in 1991.  Since then Ukraine has been trying to shed its Russian imperial legacy and the current issue is a continuation of this of simply put.  In 2014 when then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych decided to reject an association agreement with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Moscow, it led to mass protests and led to his removal.  Then Russia had responded to the rebuttal by annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and supporting a separatist rebellion that broke out in Donbas - East Ukraine. Ukrainian separatists hold, as we speak, the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk both bordering Russia.  Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly accu