Unlike Wagah, where India and Pakistan mount an elaborate daily drama of military ritual watched by tourists on both sides, the Demilitarized Zone, which separates North and South Korea is barren and desolate, a terrain bristling with hostility, discovers Nikhil Lakshman.
The second Nuclear Security Summit opens in Seoul on Monday. Will it confront the dangers posed by Pakistan's unsecured nuclear programme, asks Nikhil Lakshman, currently in the South Korean capital.
Rediff.com's Nikhil Lakshman, who is travelling with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the BRICS Summit in the Chinese town of Sanya, reports that the next BRICS Summit will be held in India in 2012 even as the five BRICS nations pledged to jointly work towards peaceful transformation of the world order.
Rediff.com's Editor-in-chief Nikhil Lakshman, who is traveling with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the BRICS summit in the Chinese town of Sanya, reports that the two Asian giants have agreed to set up a working mechanism to resolve irritants that have led to a deterioration in relations
'The political situation in the country will depend on the electoral outcome in Maharashtra.'
'The Congress is trying to reinvent itself -- the caste census demand, OBC emphasis, the anti-corporate thrust, especially on Adani etc -- all this is not standard Congress strategy.'
'Fears in Washington began to intensify when it was realised that subsequent Pakistani and Indian attacks on major military facilities -- which were significant in terms of geographic scope and intensity -- could rapidly take both sides to where neither actually wanted to go.' 'The US objective was to stop the fighting as soon as possible. Everything else was secondary.'
'There is absolutely no reason for India and China to even contemplate a conflict! Yes, but we are rivals.' says National Security Adviser M K Narayanan.
At first, I think it is the same young lady, confused as I am by the numbers of women with identical nasal injuries that I encounter. Then, I realise that these ladies would need to be tele-mobile to be in different Tehran locations at almost the same time. It is thus that I stumble on the Case of the Bandaged Nose.
As the NAM summit opens in Tehran on Thursday, Nikhil Lakshman, who is traveling with the prime minister, captures the mood in the Iranian capital.
'Terrorism creates suspicion among neighbours, suspicion among communities, which could be a major blow to India's otherwise widely hailed and widely recognized society'
In the final part of an interview conducted days before the Supreme Court fast-tracked the SIT probe into the 2002 Gujarat riots, Chief Minister Narendra Modi talks about national security, vote bank politics, terrorism and the riots.
'People are so much more aware of what is what. There is no degree of passivity today,' says National Security Adviser M K Narayanan.
'Politics is playing a very big role in keeping communities apart in terms of religion,' says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
'Their offices are in Pakistan. Some of their hideouts are in Pakistan,' says Afghan envoy Masood Khalili.
'We have shown them what we are going to do. That we are willing to separate the civilian and military nuclear establishments.'National Security Adviser M K Narayanan in an exclusive interview.
'Our self interest lies in ensuring that this planet is in good health,' says Dr Rajendra K Pachauri, IPCC Chairman.
'This is not a simple enemy. It has an organisation and money spread all over the world. It has 3,000, 4,000 suicide bombers,' says Afghan Ambassador Masood Khalili.
'Afghanistan needs not to be abandoned, not to be forgotten,' says Afghan ambassador Masood Khalili.
'You cannot bring down a nation by killing a few people. Certainly not in a country like India,' says National Security Adviser M K Narayanan.
'We know our glaciers are melting very rapidly.' Dr R K Pachauri, Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, outlines the implications for India.
'The theory of karma and the principle of dharma go hand in hand,' says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
'We can fight our own battles. Let me make it clear that we are not asking America to help us.' National Security Adviser M K Narayanan in an exclusive interview.
'In spite of enormous problems, there is still compassion, there is still the sense of serving the needy,' says His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
'I told the Indian foreign office, whether you recognise Kabul or not, we will fight to the last and return to the gates of Kabul,' recalls Afghan Ambassador Masood Khalili.
'Not for somebody else.' National Security Adviser M K Narayanan on the Indo-US nuclear deal.
'Pakistan's only concern has been while they were on the FATF watch list was to distance their State institutions and organs from any direct connection with the actual execution of militancy inside Kashmir.'
'Putin will not be bound by any kind of deal he would sign with the US.'
An illuminating conversation with Chandu Borde, 90, one of India's finest cricketers in the 1960s.
'He needs to see results while he is in office.'
'Modi's intention was to create goodwill that will allow India to be seen by Trump as more than just a bad tariff problem.' 'He succeeded brilliantly on that count but none of these wins are unfortunately permanent.' 'Modi will have to do this again and again if Trump's grievances are to be durably assuaged.'
He was colourful. He was dramatic. He was The Master of His Craft. There never will be an editor as versatile as Pritish Nandy, notes Nikhil Lakshman.
Vice President Hamid Ansari, a former diplomat himself, explains his sense of India and the world. Nikhil Lakshman, traveling with Vice President Ansari to Peru and Cuba, listens in.
'By his words, actions, and body language during their joint press appearance wanted to convey his personal respect and, more broadly, his desire to work closely with India.'
'They have the greatest number of cricketers, they have the greatest enthusiasm for the game, they have the greatest resources, they have the greatest stakes in their own success.'
'Gyanendra back on the throne would be bad news for the Nepali people. He may not have learnt from his experience, but we have.'
Fidel Castro meets Vice President Hamid Ansari for an unprecedented meeting. Nikhil Lakshman reports from Havana.
'I would think a hundred times before I wrote a gay character or a mentally challenged character because it requires a lot of research and empathy. That's the reason I shy away entirely from stories that have rape. I just can't. It's just terrifying for me, as a woman, to handle subjects like that because it's so sensitive.'
'We used to get Rs 250 for a Test match, and if the match was over in 4 days, 50 rupees were cut.'
'Amritpal was just a plant.' 'We have to be careful that such kind of people do not emerge in Punjab.'
