Taj Mahal Trivia - 15 things I didn't know about Taj Mahal until last week

Been to Taj Mahal yesterday, to be very honest  I was more surprised by the vision of Shah Jahan than the building it self.

 Eleven mini tombs on front and 11 on back  represents the number of years it took to build Taj Mahal – 22

Another nice view, If you step forward and see Taj from the main gate you feel like Taj is going back when you step backward you feel Taj is closer to you

 moon represents Islam and the trishul represents Hinduism

 The most popular point in Taj complex to take photos is know as Diana Point because Princess Diana spent 2 hours there and gave poses to Media

22 steps in main entrance block again to represent the number of years it took to build taj

 

All chapters of Islam on Taj walls

 Artisitic expression to Mumtaz - The crown (Taz) and the yellow flowers (mum)

 Om symbols inside Taj and if you actually read it in other way it mean Allah in arabic

 Shah Jahan planned to build the second monument here. He spent 4 or 6 crore rupees in those days to build Taj Mahal

8 blocks of gardens on each side of Taj and 53 fountains represent the year of finishing Taj - 1653

View from Agra fort where Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb. He was worried of the financial implications of building one more monument and decided to arrest his dad. How did he did it? Simple, he cut down water supply to agra fort and shajahan surrendered in matter of days. Shah Jahan used to see Taj from his prison via Kohinoor Diamond !!

Interview with quiz master Pickbrain 'Giri Balasubramanyam'

Few months back, I mailed Giri to report a issue, which I observed at one of his quizzes. To my surprise Giri called on my mobile immediately and promised to escalate the issue(as it was organizers responsibility to fix it). I was surprised by the gesture,come on why will a ace quiz master call back and explain his point of view.

I requested Giri to reply to a small email interview to understand quizzing, and how it all began and his experience as quiz master. Giri was kind enough to spare some time and replied back, So presenting you all ace quiz master Pickbrain 'Giri balasubramanyam'


Q: Now, let me began this interview with a question, that's been in my mind from quite a long time, whats the story behind your name "pickbrain"

Giri: It’s a long story like any quiz answer! I was employed with the Times of India and we decided to introduce a quiz column for a kids supplement and being an in house resource I was asked to contribute. The catch was I was part of the Brand Team and not editorial so technically my name could not appear as a byline, hence a fictional name was coined. Overtime the name became a character and the character a personality so I just lived on.

From my point of view, I get to live two lives 

Q: I guess you been into quizzing from mid 1990's, have you seen any significant changes?

Giri: Oh quizzing has changed more in the last 10 years than it has in the last 50! Fundamentally quizzing is today a sport and not just a hobby over wine and cheese. It is also about big budgets, big prize monies and far far tougher than the fun days. In short it is serious business powered by corporates and technology


Q: Why did you choose to become a quizmaster?

Giri: Quizzing in our college days (early 90’s) was an activity that attracted probably 20 to 50 people. Winning was directly proportional to your ability to read and ransack libraries. During my Disney days in corporate life it dawned on me that anything could be made fun oriented and we tried to make quizzing more fun oriented with interesting facts rather than unknown facts and that made us popular. This translated into a viable business model and we started this company.

Q: Giri's quiz generally surprises participants with formats (pyramid quizzing, nano quizzing). How do you approach a quiz? What kind of efforts generally go in making a quiz successful

Information in this google era that we live in is no longer a great differentiator. Its how you manage your knowledge that matters. Hence, we have modeled our shows around the ability the work answers out of clues or posers rather than mere recall. The effort for this is huge because our starting point is where research ended few years back – that is with identifying a fact. For us once a fact is found we work on how to present it etc.

Perhaps I am like the curator of a cricket ground who is testing players with different wickets.


Q: How tough was it to quit a corporate job and do a startup, in a rather unknown industry?

Giri: It was a tough call to be honest. It is a decision that took more than a year to take especially because I was with a giant like Walt Disney and there were many telling me I was a fool to chuck such a job.

In retrospect, it seems a wise call and my advise to youngsters on this front is simple. If you have a strong, economically viable idea, define a clear time frame and practical goals and tell yourself if I don’t reach there I get back to the corporate world.


Q: You took Tata crucible from an India level quiz to international quiz, how is quizzing culture in places like Singapore. London

Giri: It is very very different from what we see in India. They do not have a quizzing culture or system like ours. They quiz for fun and not necessarily to win, so the intensity and pressure levels are not as much. Having said that, I think the scenario is fast changing and at Singapore the second year was a lot bigger and tougher than year one.

London is an interesting location for a business quiz. Given the quality of the B-schools there you get contestants who join these schools after 3-5 years of work experience. Hence, the quality of contestants seems to be very good.

Q: Tata Crucible grew tremendously in last couple of years, participation keeps growing year on year, is it putting you a extra pressure on you??

Giri: Yes the growth of a quiz especially the way Tata Crucible has grown puts a lot of moral pressure on you as a research team. Its as simple as this. There are two types of audience that I get. Regular Teams who prepare from a few wks to a few months for your quiz and you don’t want to disappoint them, so you do your best to ensure everything is tested over and over again. The other is the first time entrant who comes with huge expectations from you because he/she has heard a lot about the quiz

Q: 1000 + quizzes, Could you share some of your interesting experiences while conducting quiz contests?

Giri: Oh the numbers don’t matter. Every show is like the first of our lives – if you don’t view it that way you can take things for granted and errors can creep in. We do encounter a lot of interesting experiences given the extent of travel we undertake but the one that I never forget is when I was at Muscat for a quiz and a man started shouting in Arabic and I thought I had done something wrong. It took a few people to gather to explain to me that he had recognized me.

Q: What advice would you like to give to young quizzers

Giri: Use quizzing as a tool to help yourself know more. Never read to win shows, read to gain knowledge. Once you start enjoying the process of knowing things you start doing well in life and in quiz shows as well.

Q: And finally what advice would you like to give to young aspirant quiz masters?

Giri: Three important things

1. Don’t try to become a quizmaster because of the glamor you see. It is one of the toughest public personality domains because you need to prepare for atleast 10 days for 1 hour show.

2. Accept the fact that as a quizmaster you role is get answers out of the teams and not use the forum to display how intelligent you are.

3. A good quizmaster is one who understands the pulse of his audience and can get his teams to answer atleast 75% of the questions and have his teams and audience understand all 100% of the questions.

Proudest moments of Indian democracy

Are you proud of Indian democracy? if you ask this question majority Indian's will say No(Esp educated, Urban, still sleeping kind).

And yes, without any doubts there are significant loop holes in our Election system. getting Voter ID cards is pain, we don't know if our name is in election list or not, we don't know where our vote is,25% elected representatives have criminal records,majority are corrupt, politics became a business and the list goes on and on.

But on the other side of coin, they are few classic examples of Indian democracies strength:

1. Voting rights to all irrespective of caste, religion, and qualification: The right to vote was given to all Indian citizens without any struggle, unlike in many countries which took decades to get voting right



Blacks in USA were guaranteed their voting rights in 1965 by Lydon Jhonson. The world's most matured democracy took 100 years to give its minority a chance to vote.

Greece, gave women right to vote in 1952, after 64 years of aggitations

Indonesia took 36 years to sanction voting rights to women

Like many other gulf nations, Saudi Arabian women still don't have voting rights

2. Military did not interfere in politics and by and large bureaucracy is not partisan:


Unlike our neighboring countries or many African countries Indian Army restrained from taking hold of power and restricted themselves to their duty.

Many of my friends occasionally rant about, benefits of Army taking our India. They feel it is the only way to kick out corrupt politicians. Unfortunately its not a intelligent solution. I believe semi-functional, un matured democracy is much better than no democracy. Absolute power without any review system will be disastrous.


3. Peaceful transfer of power:

India has ensured a smooth, almost effortless democratic transition for more than six decades.Again a fundamental thing for any working democracy which we did not screwed up in last 60 years, except on one occasion when congress leaders thought Indira is India, India is Indira.

4. Indira Gandhi defeat
1977 elections truly tested fairness in Indian elections.Indira Gandhi's mindless decision to take on judiciary and two years of ruthless power killed all democratic institutions(independent media, Police, Judiciary), however people taught Indira Gandhi a strong lesson. Remember it happened in 70's when there is no 24/7 media



I think we made a good start in sustaining our democracy, by and large we are convinced that there is a need of one working democracy, now the challenge is to make it better.

We need to change the way we elect our representatives, scrap First past The Post(FPTP) electoral system, a legacy of British colonialism and a system our constitution writers choose given India’s extremely diverse and multi-ethnic society. Stop criminals and encourage internal democracy in parties, make fund raising process more cleaner, and ensure politics attracts right(not winning) candidates.

Meet Subba Rao

Meet Subba Rao

View more presentations from indizen.

I made a small ppt on one Subba Rao, a common man and middle class Indian who is feeling helpless.I'm sure many of you can relate to this guy and have same question Vote kisko dena hai?

Let me know your feedback and please help me in spreading the word. That awesome pic in the first slide is taken by my colleague Madhu. Check out his flickr stream

Loksatta the only real alternative in India

I meet Dr.Jayaprakash Narayan(JP), as part of the youth interaction program conducted by Loksatta. I strongly believe JP/Lok satta can bring/initiate change in India and redefine how politics are conducted

Some thoughts shared by JP at this meeting:(P.S: based on my memory)

Its easy to sell color Tv schemes and idiotic policies in India and win elections on emotional issues, but it is extremely tough to sell the right thing, especially in a society where there is no belief in politicians and less hope on credible alternative

The window for opportunity to prosperity is getting thinner for India, world won't wait for us. China created 140 million jobs in last decade and we created hardly 2 crore jobs and added with failed nations as neighbors. we are running out of time and need to act immediately. But unfortunately our politicians are caught in the race for power.

Poorest Indian now know what can happen, so we now have to meet aspirations of a aspiring generation. If we can't meet aspirations India can't survive and India should n't survive, So fight as if our life is at stakes

Statesmenly politics should touch all sections, work with all forces and not exclude few sections

India will change but by design or destiny is the questions. Giving money/liquor in elections, dynasty politics will bring change only in leaders not country

Politicians who spend crores, distribute money and make politics as business are more dangerous than terrorists

Nothing happens with JP alone, people should come forward and work for better politics to give a prosperous country to our kids and future generations.

JP talked about the challenges Loksatta is facing in current political landscape:
Money: Loksatta wont accept black money, LS funds are all voluntary and raised through fund raising
Human Resources: Getting people on board, very few volunteers across the state
Time: Even if we raised money and built volunteers., we have limited time in our hand
Perceptions: Changing perceptions of people. people agree loksatta is a very good party but thinks its waste to vote for loksatta as we are not in a position to win. We need to create belief in people that lok satta is the right alternative and vote for it with confidence

I registered in voters list, just to vote for Loksatta.Would request you guys to see Lok Satta agenda and cast your vote/spread the word,if you are convinced about them.

As always let me end with a bit of trivia , I understand there are 12 Young MP's in parliament. what is common between them??

My Fav Sportstars

Ok thats actually quite a big list, the latest one to join in the list is Scotish cyclist Graeme Obree.

A Small glimpse about his achievements:
Obree built a bicycle from parts of washing maching and became a world champion in 1993
Instead of traditional dropped handlebars it had straight bars like those of a mountain bike. He placed them closer to the saddle than usual and rode with the bars under his chest, his elbows bent and tucked into his sides like those of a ski-jumper. Watching a washing machine spin at 1,200rpm led him to take the bearings, which he assumed must be of superior quality, and fit them to his bike.

Infosys not to hire Satyam employees: How media mislead with there own interpretation

Worst example of leadership:

ET reveals "Infosys has made it clear that they will not hire anybody from Satyam and has told its human resources executives to refrain from hiring employees of Satyam Computer services. Infosys has even advised staff against entertaining calls from Satyam employees"

As a company Infosys has every right on who they recruit and how they recruit, but I clear see no point in disclosing that they wont touch any Satyamite(As if all Infy guys are true epitomes of ethics). Why do Infosys need to talk about a highly sensitive policy with press??

You cant blame all associates of a company for misdeeds of senior management,board members, auditors and play with there emotions at a time when many of satyamites are worried about there future. Think about freshers who got placed in Satyam and waiting for there joining dates, where will they go and how will they react after reading such idiotic statements.

It is a pity that Mohan Das Pai cannot empathize with employees in IT sector and talk such crap.

“We will not touch such a tainted company,” Infosys founder and non-executive chairman N R Narayana Murthy(I used to respect him) had said(at present conditions no one will touch satyam). I wonder if he will stick to the same principle to clients, will he not touch tainted clients?? I am not sure

Update: I Stand corrected, the article seems to have a miss leading heading. What infosys said is they wont poach anyone from satyam, clients included. There is quite a difference from hiring and poaching. Given the tough phase satyam is going through, it is very important to retain talent and Infosys made it clear they wont take advantage of the situation and poach talent from satyam

New Blogs

Started a new blog on trends and insights, rightinsights have a look :).

Also I am volunteering for Voteyatra, VoteYatra is about bringing the elections to the voters. VY is looking for volunteers who can devote some time and In specific w for Joomla/Drupal coders. If any one would like to join please do shoot a mail to me or voteyatra2009@gmail.com

Join VY FB community or follow VY on Twitter

Tribute to Mumabi Martyrs by NDTV

R.I.P Brave hearts

What is the value of 500 Rs for different people in today's world ?

Spellbound by this video, though I dont agree with the statement "Think Before you Spend" (or am I missing something), the video shows how aspirations of people from lower income groups are radically different. poor want to spend on education, on there families and on there education where as relative well of groups want to spend on Jullia Robert movies and haircuts. Nothing wrong, but what bothers me is our fortunes are more or less depend on the families in which we are born. Can we provide quality education and opportunities to excel in life irrespective of our birth and place where you live(difference in quality of education in urban India and rural India), I hope we can

5 things I observed during American Elections

5 things I observed during American Elections:

A guy born to a Muslim father of African origin and a Christian mom, An American, half Kenyan, half white, half black,raised in Indonesia and graduated from Harvard, who have Hussain in his middle name can became US president. People actually vote for the most competent guy in the race, especially during a crisis, color and race wont matter during tough days

USA saw unprecedented voter turnout,and they do have problems like names missing in voters list, malfunction of some optical scanning machines, and allegations of voter suppression and intimidation. Common Americans turned to polling booths some waiting nearly 3 hours to cast there votes. People recognize importance of vote especially during crisis, when there present leaders failed them and see a good alternative

Obama raised record funds, in innovative ways. He raised micro donations from large number of people than raising money from few. He tapped social media and social networks. For the first time internet played a crucial role in a political campaign. Both candidates spent 2.4Billion Dollars on elections, with each spending $ 1 million per day on TV ads!!

USA can conduct elections in a single day

voters are lured with freebies not directly but indirectly. Getting free chicken, ice cream and coffee as a reward for voting are some of the hottest Google search trends early in election day

PEPSI NEW LOGO

Pepsi unveiled 11th new logo in 110 years of its history developed by Omnicom's Arnell Group.





Experts predict Pepsi spent $1 Million to design this new logo, which I feel any freelancer could have done for 35 $

As usual they come up with funny justifications one vp says the new logo represents a "series of smiles". Pepsi fired 3300 jobs – 1.8 per cent of its workforce – as part of a plan to save $1.2-billion and on the other side started a $1.2-billion marketing campaign with a change of logo. Wrong time,wired logo and change for the sake of change wont help Indra Nooyi.

Google Chrome and Baba Ramdev

Best outdoor campaign I seen so far :)

Source: Deadpresident

Yahoo Cola

Yahoo Cola - India's NO 1 cola :) , saw this one in Srisailam (AP,India).

Why Ideas remain as ideas

Why do we fail to take idea's forward and execute it??

We are totally not convinced that the idea will work
we dont have passion to execute an idea and thus don't take the risk
we don't have necessary skill set to execute it
we assume things will work in a certain way, but reality will be something else
we are not sure whom to trust and wont share ideas with others
we don't want to move out of comfort zone
Probably your ideas are ahead of time
You shared it with wrong people
You lack the environment, which encourages ideas

may be ..hmmm may be..End of the day what matters is whether you executed it or not

P.s - This post was inspired by my failure to execute a awesome idea. something very new, something very different,not sure whether its revolutionary but a original idea.

Indian Railways and IRCTC sucks

I heard quite a lot about Indian Railways reforms, how they became more customer centric and blah blah, but unfortunately I had a horrible experience yesterday.

We booked couple of tickets to Bhubaneshwar(BBSNR) in Faluknuma express from secunderabd thru IRCTC and return tickets in the same train from a railway reservation counter. We boarded the train in Secunderabad and came to know that the train was diverted in other route and wont go to Bhubneshwar.The train was diverted in some other route as the track in orissa was damaged 1.5 months ago, but IRCTC and Railways are still selling the tickets in old route. Countless others have experienced the same problem from last 1.5 months, but authorities are lethargic neither they made any attempts to inform passengers about the change in route nor made any alternative arrangements

The whole episode, have some comical errors -

IRCTC issued a ticket from Sec'bad to Bhubaneshwar, when the train is not going in the route from 1.5 months. I can understand acts of god and the IRCTC did not make changes for a week or so, but for god sake 1.5 months is damn long time, why cant they update it??or at least when they know the train is not running in that route, shoot a mail to all users who bought tickets in the train. Do they have any CRM system in place?? Its not just you refund my fair within 90 days, who will pay for the damages??

Ok, Understood IRCTC dont have info on trains diverted in some other routes, but how the hell a Railway reservation counter issue a ticket on a train which is not running from sec'bad to BBSNR. At least they should have informed the train is subject to availability and may run in some other route.

And more idiotically,Our names and berth numbers are printed and pasted in respective boggies, with seat numbers

And Our PNR status still shows our tickets are confirmed both up and down, even though the train is not running between the 2 stations

We got a gem of advice from railway authorities- Cancel the e-ticket, you will get 100% refund and buy a ticket in Vishaka Express. It was supposed to leave in 1 hr, so we need to buy a general ticket and travel 20 hrs in it, for your mistake

We called Railway Call Center to find out whether the train is coming via Bhubneshwar to Secunderabd or going in a route of there choice but the jokers dont have information on the status. The call center guys suggested to call secunderabad railway station to find out the info, but he dont have number of sec'bad station, I am not asking you phone number of a remote railway station, If a Call center dont have phone number of a zonal head quarters , who will have it?? south central railways website is down, the contact us link in official website of Ministry of Railways takes you to a park domain full of advertisements!! (go to site map n then click contact us, its not working in home page)


Railway officials came up with other innovative idea recently - add one more berth in side seats and squeeze more money. The mere sight of a side berth make me fear of a torturous journey.How the hell can 9 passengers sit in a row meant for 8? where will the extra passenger put his luggage? How can poor guys in side berths sleep in such a little place.



A railway official supported this decision saying “By adding so many passengers, the railways is doing a service. And I am sure that the inconvenience of sharing a seat with an extra passenger is better than being denied a ticket,” . Crap first you are not doing a free service. Second this is not the way to meet extra demand. Because of your inefficiencies you cant make people suffer, especially when common man dont have other choice of transport

And Dear Lalu, I know you are too busy with your guest lectures at IIM's, but don't take customers for granted. It may not reflect in your railway financial statements, but will for sure reflect in general elections.

Update: Common sense prevails, Indian Railway board decided to remove the side middle berth recently.

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara

One of the best things in India is cultural diversity. I dont think any other country has such diverse set of cultures (though with minor glitches). “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara..”,released in 1987 commemorating the 40th anniversary of Indian Independence showcases this diversity amazingly. The videos was created in 1988 by Lok Seva Sanchar Parishad, and promoted by Doordarshan to promote national integration. The song was composed by Louis Banks, written by Piyush Pandey. Raga Bharavi, a sampoorna raga, was chosen as the base for the music.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Last week I seen few of my friends changed there Gtalk status to "R.I.P. Raundy Pausch", initially I thought he may be some pop star or a sportsmen, and did not bothered much.

The buzz keep on going on, and accidentally I came across his Last Lecture video on youtube. His life really mesmerized me.

Randy worked as a professor in Carnegie Mellon Univ and was diagonised with pancreatic cancer. He delivered his "Last Lecture " at CMU, one month after he found he only had 6 months to live.Last lecture's are ongoing series of lectures at CMU where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical "final talk," i.e., "what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?" Randy Spoke about "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams and how he worked to achieve his childhood dreams.

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it or read the gist here




Randy's story touched me deeply, he accepted fate and was extremely brave to face the reality, in his 1hour 16 mnts talk you will never see fear in his eyes,words, body language, he teached about "living" and living and having fun.

Nadal dethrones Roger Federer at Wimbledon

Rafa finally did it, in a historic and absolutely mind blowing tennis match I ever watched, Rafa ended my hero Federer dream of winning 6th consecutive Wimbledon championship

Rafa defeated Fedex with thinnest of margins 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7.The match lasted nearly 5 hours, that itself tells how both players fought ferociously for each point, the two legends were separated by only 5 points(Rafa won 209 points n Roger won 204 points).
Fedex had his chances but could not convert break points, his backhand was not perfect, loosing 2nd set after leading 4-2 at one point, 50 odd unforced errors costed him the title. Fedex came back strongly after loosing first 2 sets but could not win crutial break points. Nadal did it by showing fortitude on his serve, saving 12 of 13 break points.

Nadal is playing better on grass than ever before, and he almost won Wimbledon last year and now he stopped Federer's streaks of 40 victories in a row at Wimbledon, and a record 65 in a row on grass.

How ironic, this is Rafa's first win against Roger on grass courts. While Rafa is improving his overall tennis and his game in grass and clay court's(he did not win US Open and Aus Open), Roger had a very tough 2008, especially the humiliation in French open.

How boring tennis would be with out these two players.

Now some Trivia - Twenty-seven years ago a left-handed John McEnroe crashed Borg's hopes of winning six Wimbledon's in a row, Now Federer's dream of winning 6 Wimbledon's by another left hander, Rafel Nadal.

Remebering Sam Manekshaw

The first Indian to become a Field Marshal, Sam Manekshaw passed away at age 94, on 27 th June.On any metrics Field Marshal Sam Maneekshaw is one of the greatest solider of India his heroics in WW2 fighting against Japanese despite his stomach ripped with 7 bullets and his Leadership during Indo-Pak 1971 war, his no compromise attitude with babus and Netas are legendary,

Sam Manekshaw confronted with Indira Gandhi herself and could be the only person who have guts to crack a joke with her.

The Field Marshal narrated this incident at the inaugural Field Marshal KM Cariappa Memorial Lecture in October 1995 at Delhi.

"There is a very thin line between being dismissed and becoming a Field Marshal. In 1971, when Pakistan cracked down in East Pakistan, hundreds and thousands of refugees started pouring into India, into West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. The Prime Minister held a Cabinet meeting in her office. I was then summoned.

A very angry, grim-faced Prime Minister read out telegrams from the Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura.

She then turned around to me and said, 'What are you doing about it?' And I said, 'Nothing, it's got nothing to do with me. You didn't consult me when you allowed the BSF, the CRP and RAW to encourage the Pakistanis to revolt. Now that you are in trouble, you come to me. I have a long nose. I know what's happening.'

She said, 'I want you to enter Pakistan. And I responded, That means war!'

She said, 'I do not mind if it is war.'

I said 'Are you prepared? I am certainly not. This is the end of April. The Himalayan passes are opening and there can be an attack from China.'

I turned around to the Prime Minister and said that the rains were about to start in East Pakistan and when it rains there, it pours and the whole countryside is flooded.

The snows are melting, the rivers would become like oceans.

All my movement would be confined to roads."

Manekshaw told Gandhi that the Air Force would not be able to provide support because of climatic conditions. "Now Prime Minister, give me your orders. The grim Prime Minister with her teeth clenched said, 'The Cabinet will meet again at four o'clock.'

The Cabinet members started walking out. I being the junior most was the last to go and as I was leaving, she said, 'Chief, will you stay back?'

I turned around and said, 'Prime Minister, before you open your mouth, may I send you my resignation on grounds of health, mental or physical?'

She said, 'Everything you told me is true.'

'Yes! It is my job to tell you the truth,' I responded. 'And it is my job to fight, it is my job to fight to win and I have to tell you the truth.'

She smiled at me and said, 'All right Sam, you know what I want?' I said, 'Yes, I know what you want!'"

As a true leader, When Indira Gandhi requested Manekshaw to travel to Dhaka to oversee the surrender of Pakistan, Maneshaw refused to do so, stating his Army Commander in the East, Lt General Jagjit Singh Aurora, should have the honor.


It unfortunate that our commander in chief of armed forces, aka president, Service chiefs, Defense minister or none of the senior cabinet colleagues don’t have time to pay final rites. A nation which observed 3 days of official mourning on pope’s death, don’t even show minimum respect to its legendary soldier.

Soldiers never die, they just fade away.

Three cheers to Sam!