Rajeev Srinivasan works in sales and marketing in the software industry. He spends his time in the US and India. He graduated from IIT Madras and the Stanford Business School.

• Annus Horribilis
'The thing that shocked me most about the Orissa cyclone was the uncaringness of the entire nation, and even the entire world. There was photo after photo of human beings and animals rotting in the ditches; of the benighted survivors begging for food; of people drinking contaminated water. Yet, it did not move the collective heart of the nation as the Kargil crisis did. The money collected was a fraction of what was collected for Kargil. Why did nobody care? Because these were not 'people like us'?'

• The case for Microsoft
'It is fairly clear that Microsoft has played rough; the worry is whether the cure will be worse than the disease. If all this attention makes Microsoft more careful about watching its p's and q's that would be refreshing.'

• A good life
'I would like to die like great-uncle Shankar... I would also like to live like great-uncle. Unbowed, unvanquished, looking Fate straight in the eye, with quiet dignity in the face of adversity.'

• Americans as protectors of religion: a fox guarding the hen-house?
'Let us compare acts of religious terror. It is indeed true that in India a foreign missionary has been torched by persons unknown, but certainly not by the government. But, in the US, how about the fact that a hundred Americans were torched, and that too, by the US government?...'

• The General in his Labyrinth
'While Indians might be tempted to gleefully contrast their own robust democracy with the Latin-American-style coup du jour in Pakistan, that misses the point altogether. For an overtly military-run Pakistan is a dangerous entity in possession of the famed Red Button.'

• The South also rises
'The Great White Hope has certainly been a major disappointment: she, personally, has been trounced, as this election was a personal referendum on her vote-gathering capability. I think the Nehru dynasty should now leave it to others to 'sacrifice' for the country.'

• Let us now praise famous men
'In fact, I think, in the dynasty, the genius was Motilal, a self-made millionaire and visionary; Jawaharlal was an impractical dreamer; Indira was a street-smart fighter; Rajiv an average Joe who had power thrust on him. Sonia has no demonstrated talent; and Priyanka/Rahul have not distinguished themselves at anything whatsoever. I guess dynasties deteriorate rapidly.'

• On disappointment, elections, and fat ladies singing
'Congressmen are not sticking with Madame Gandhi out of any particular loyalty to the Nehru dynasty; they are doing it only because they believe she can deliver the goods and the votes. It will only be after the election that this belief will be put to the acid test.'

• Dan Burton for ex-Congressman in 2000
'A little muscle goes a long way; it's time for Indian-Americans to assert their collective political clout.'

• Barbarians at the gates
'If India's ruling classes ever get themselves out of their woolly Urdu-poetry-reciting benignness towards Pakistan, and away from the pathetic Hindi-Chini-bhai-bhai nonsense, I do hope they will make some serious efforts to, Chanakya-like, do something to contain the two.'

• Kargil: The China Connection
'Force is the language the Pakistanis and their Afghan and Arab mercenaries understand. Instead, India, like a shrinking violet, treats them with gentlemanly restraint. Chivalry is seen as an admission of weakness -- and encourages the Pakistanis to redouble their efforts.'

• Himalayan Blunder, Reprise
'The Islamic fundamentalists are not going to stop with ''winning'' J&K. After all, theirs is a holy war. Naturally, they will then turn their attentions to other vulnerable parts of India, probably those areas where there is already a Muslim majority, and start their ethnic cleansing there. There has to be a lakshmana rekha, a line in the sand against this butchery, and J&K is it.'

• Pokhran II, the right decision still
• For Politicians, April Is The Cruellest Month
• Madeleine's Waterloo
• Millennium Fuss
• The value of a human life
• President's rule, "chaste Urdu" and other diversions
• Of cartoonists and kings
• Cricket considered harmful
• Death of a Missionary
• Solution for Sabarimala
• One hundred years of solitude
• The Problem with Fire
• South Asian Economic Community within realm of possibility
• Zen and the Art of Potomac-Watching
• Kerala: India's future California?
• Ayodhya: it's about power, not faith
• The lady doth protest too much
• Swotting CTBT
• Lies, damned lies, and economics
• Sex, Lies and Videotape
• The politics of expediency: pursuing selfish national interests
• Omagh and Osama: Faces of Terror
• Dilli Chalo!
• Hiroshima, Mon Amour
• Madeleine and Bill and the Attila-the-Hen school of foreign policy
• J'accuse...
• In memoriam
• How to sell India
• The Danger from China
• America is not India's enemy
• How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• The End of Nuclear Virginity: all things considered, this had to be
• The Great Malabar Novel
• Remember Jallianwallah Bagh!
• Among the Believers
• Speaking of Women
• A Case for Pragmatism
• The continuing saga of Clinton's, er, pants!
• Gandhi's dilemma was the same as Yudhishtira's: what and where was the sanatana dharma he claimed to follow?
• An actor and a director: Mifune and Kubrick
• The Buddhist Connection: Sabarimala and the Tibetans
• Winter of Discontent: Fumbling India's Future
• Z, Presidents and Pyrrhic victories: Is it all a Greek Tragedy?
• Dollars uber alles: Tibet falls by the wayside for 30 silver coins
• Promises to keep
• The Art of War by Other Means
• The Magic Lantern
• A Moveable Feast
• The Brits are willing to apologise, and our PM says, 'Please don't'!
• The national pastime: it's kabaddi, not cricket!
• On the persistence of time: the use and abuse of history
• Requiescat in pace, Cambodia?
• Sibilant, sinuous, sinister...
• Americans like to preach, but when it comes to practice, morals be damned!
• The romance of the open road
• A Love Letter to the 'Resident Non-Indian'
• Pilgrims and God's grace
• On why I could, seriously, chuck it all and go live
in a Kerala village
• Mad March, Triffids, Heaven's Gate, and Cruel April
• The dragon and the elephant
• The Virgin of New York, and other Tales of Two Cities
• In today's complex world, it is not dogma that is needed.
It is adaptability, live-and-let-live
• The Battle of Colachel: In remembrance of things past
• The discreet rage of the bourgeoisie: Are reservations necessary
• What is this: the season to be merry and inexplicable attacks
of good sense breaking out all over?
• Across a chasm of seventy five years, the eyes of these dead
men speak to today's Indian American
• For all our affluence and our numbers, Indian influence
in the US is minimal
• The US has no wish to have India emerge as another
superpower in Asia
• Under two flags: The existential pleasures of the expatriate

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