Excerpts from recent meeting on the Indo -Us Nuclear Deal:


(The chief figures are Walter. T. Hugo and Salahuddin Arumani, from the US and Indo side respectively.)

Sal.A : I believe that you mentioned some issues which need to be....resolved.

W.T.Hugo :Right. To be resolved. Yes. Now there have been some amendments to this little agreement of ours. Non negotiable of course.

Sal. A: (flips through the pages) But this is a very late stage for bringing about amendme.....What?!? This is preposterous.

W.T.Hugo: Just fulfilling our duty, as global leader, towards reducing greenhouse emissions....

Sal.A: By banning us from using petrol engines?!?

W.T.Hugo: Actually any fossil fuel based engines. You see, India contributes to over 3% of the global greenhouse emissions. That is just unacceptable....

Sal.A : The US spews more than 25% of all emissions!!!

W.T.Hugo: Ah. Yes. Irrelevant details. This is not about us. It is about you. Let us together take this small step....

Sal.A: Together?!? And what are we supposed to do without engines??

W.T.Hugo: Well, you have a lot of cows, don't you? Very efficient, I hear.

Sal.A: ........

W.T.Hugo: Glad you agree with me. Also, now you wont be needing that Iran pipeline anymore. So why don't you just call off that deal and while you are at it, brand them as 'Evil'...

Sal.A: What!! Why??

W.T.Hugo: Well....there was that incident at that place. And there was this guy. And they have that thing.....you know what I mean. Clearly 'Evil'.

Sal.A: ........

W.T.Hugo: I knew we would see each other eye to eye on this. Oh...and one more thing. We would like to re title these talks as Use-India....err....I mean US-Indo Agreement. A small thing really.

Sal.A: But....but....

W.T.Hugo: Oh my. Will you look at the time...well, have to be going now, ol' chap. Nice talking to you. Cheerio.

[With that, the US envoy hurries out.]

Assistant [to Sal.A]: Sir, what do we do now?

Sal.A: Sigh.....bring up the cows. Its a long ride back home.


[ The above excerpts and the characters involved are purely products of my imagination. The following, however, are actual excerpts.
Increased awareness of the scientific findings surrounding global warming has resulted in political and economic debate. Poor regions, particularly Africa, appear at greatest risk from the suggested effects of global warming, while their actual emissions have been negligible compared to the developed world, reports The New York Times.^[50] At the same time, developing country exemptions from provisions of the Kyoto Protocol have been criticized by the United States and been used as part of its justification for continued non-ratification.

The United States is the world's largest energy consumer and biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions, spewing about a fourth of all global warming emissions, with emissions in the year 2004, according to a study, achieving record levels.Scientists in Britain condemned the increase, saying that it showed how the US was failing to take a lead in the international attempt to curb greenhouse gas emissions despite being the worst offender.

Sources: http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38984/story.htm
.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article358583.ece

A mischievous sprite, the wind it's steed,
Unseen, it flows over the seven seas,
Whispering of joys to fly, so free,
Teasing the waves, till in vain they leap,
For the joy unfelt, nor shall they ever feel.
Laughing, it rides to a place that none have seen,
to where the azure sky meets the deep blue sea.

Silence. Perhaps, were it not for the ringing in my ears. Somehow it seems to accentuate my own thoughts till it feels like I am shouting to myself.

Not someone I want to hear. Not now.



The ringing starts to fade and the familiar etude of intermittent gunfire resumes. A desert wind picks up, dragging away with it the dust cloud thrown up over me. Every breath a torture as the jagged particles of sand rips through my lungs. I force my eyes open, straining to see past the fast disappearing veil of dust, to see a terrain changed. What had been a level plateau just moments ago, I lie now at the tip of a fresh scar in this barren landscape. A gaping crater torn open by a mortar shell, black smoke still swirling up from the scorched remanents half buried in the blasted sand.



Something slides down the near slope of the crater, gathering momentum. A body. I knew him, though his name I knew not. A stranger, yet a friend. My comrade, my brother. A field medic, or so much his arm badge told me. I had but a glimpse of him, as he flung himself over me, the piercing whistle of the incoming mortar shell seeming to freeze time around us. His eyes acknowledge my look of disbelief, knowing that perhaps I would have done the same for him. Even now, as I watch his body roll away from me, his eyes still haunt me. For in his eyes I saw a strange mix of content and weariness, a familiarity that he shared with these war torn fields and yet, the heavy toll this familiarity had come to bear on him. Or was I seeing in his eyes what I felt within myself?

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