India, Pakistan, Iraq, USA, gooooo Wikileaks! *

Finally got to a mirror site to read some Wikileaks. For some reason the links would not work on the sites or Firefox would scare me. Tonight the stars aligned and this site let me in..

This was nice reading. Was hoping to have a laugh at what came out of Delhi but found this one from Islamabad and it was interesting..

These two paragraphs really made it interesting..

Pakistan/India
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¶8. (C) Petraeus said the most important threat to Pakistan was on the western border and internally. Terrorists were an existential threat to Pakistan. Kayani agreed. However, Kayani observed that he had postponed a missile test. The Indians, he said, in contrast, had conducted one just a few hours before. Kayani said he had no intention to resume missile testing as long as the current tensions persisted. He promised to be transparent with allies about his plans and had briefed us about his move of 6000 troops to the Indian border. Kayani said he was determined to exercise restraint in his actions with India. He recounted that he had taken no
ISLAMABAD 00000155 003 OF 003
action the evening that Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had supposedly called President Zardari and threatened to declare war. Kayani asked to be alerted if the U.S. had any warning of another attack - he understood that the Indians had been warned about the Mumbai attack. He mentioned that discussion of the consequences of a follow-on attack made both India and Pakistan hostage to extremists and increased the likelihood of an attack. “If there is any clue about another attack,” he said, “please share it with us.”

and

Swat Valley
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¶5. (C) Kayani was clear that the GOP had lost control of the Swat valley. He said the police had no ability to come in after the army to “hold” territory. He recounted that half of the 600 police officers, supposedly from the NWFP’s elite police units, destined for Swat had deserted, largely because there was no command structure. Petraeus replied that the U.S. had confronted this same issue in Iraq, describing it as a “clear and leave” strategy, requiring the retaking of the same ground multiple times. Petraeus observed that the police are the most vulnerable, since they are exposed in communities. Petraeus noted that increased measures to control population movements would probably have to be put in place throughout the country, which would require considerable manpower.

Pakistan has similar issues like Iraq when it comes to controlling extremists.

The military leadership is patient enough to not go for war. That is great. Maybe, maybe there will be a lasting peace when India and Pakistan jointly fight extremists.

The USA for its part is playing both sides. Well, that is to be expected!

India could have hastily gone to war and would be in the same boat as the USA. Thankfully there was no war. Looks like India was warned by the US about the attacks and the Pakistanis could not do anything about it either.

Just go through this stuff.. you might even find out who in India was warned about the attacks and what they did when they were warned!

This is one treasure trove of information which shows you that inspite of all that press and google and facebook being ubiquitous and in our face.. the hows and whys are always wrong!

Educated folks react to information thrown at them by the "in your face" media. We assume so many things, sway to popular opinion or in cases where we think we are better than the person who gets their news from facebook friends because we read and read a lot.. well, we read garbage!

If the press did what Wikileaks exposed on a daily basis, a lot of war, bloodshed would have been averted! A lot of politicians would have been exposed and their true colors come to light. People, countries might be more civil towards each other...

Well, maybe..

Go read it!

*.. this one is equally interesting..

The India trip roundup, last stop... Mumbai !!

We spent the last 7 days of our trip in Mumbai. That meant all last minute shopping for clothes, food, books, videos, you name it.. and the usual evening outings to show the kids some outdoor fun.

The only thing about showing outdoor Mumbai fun to kids in August is you never know when it will rain. When it rains it almost always pours!

Here is a sample of the monsoon. We did not have any umbrellas on day 1 because we were still getting used to the concept. This video was taken outside Basu tailor.

All our Mumbai trips start with a visit to Basu tailor on day 1. Why? He stitches custom fit jeans for 400-500 rupees a Jeans (be it for the adults or kids) including any embroidery. Perfect fit jeans measured and stitched within 5 days!

We still have the 2003 batch, the 2007 batch and now the 2010 batch of Jeans. They are still in good condition, were it not for the expanding waistline. There is an entire street in Kings Circle, Mumbai where there are shops like Basu where you walk in, get your measurement taken, then proceed to pick the fabric from the 150 or so samples and walk out with a card. 4-5 days later, voila... you have jeans that fit you perfectly!

The next few days were spent in Mumbai malls as we switched to indoor fun. Have already mentioned the quality of the malls. They are fantastic!

The K-stars mall in local Chembur has a movie theater complex, a food court, a grocery store, a dozen apparel stores, sporting goods, etc. etc. The movie theater was state of the art!

Once we got through this mall three four times in a couple of days, the FIL decided to take us through the new Worli sea link to go to Washi.

The sea link is great. The drive alone with the water on either side is very nice. Reminded me of the umpteen trips we took on the golden gate bridge.

A long ride with a skyline view on one side.

This is the first mall that you see in Washi. Great shops, great ambiance.

Then we went to another bigger mall further down the same road as you exit the sea link. This one was HUGE! It had a food court that had a sampler of every favorite Indian joint as well as the International sampling. The Pizza hut in this mall was really classy. Have not seen any pizza hut like this in the US. Think Olive Garden interior, Pizza hut menu!

There are speciality stores that sell "only Parathas" and those parathas were downright yummy..

This mall has a t-shirt vending machine in the food court. In case you need to hide those marinara stains ?!

We also made it to the Gateway of India area one afternoon.

and went on yet another horsie ride. The kids were obsessed with horsies on this trip!

Just as we were about to get our hands on this "butta" it started drizzling. We made a mad dash to our parked car and by the time we got to our car, everyone was thoroughly drenched!

A couple of shots taken from the moving horse cart..

We also did the usual trips to Mahalakshmi temple (and ate those delicious pakoras after visiting the temple) and Siddhi Vinayak and drove through the Marine drive area a few times.

Mumbai has an ever changing skyline, a constant reduction in available open spaces, and screams "development" from every street corner.

The Taj hotel was ready to be reopened and that was heart warming..

At the end of the trip I told FIL that either Mumbai is going to be a shining example to the world or go into military rule pretty soon! Had good reasons to make that statement because there are big big holes in law enforcement and the society is truly pocketed and segregated.

It is true that when you go to SFO you see Chinatown, Little Japan, Little Saigon etc. etc. and there is a desi pocket. But there are no issues between these pockets or within the pockets (or they do not come out in the news!). Mumbai is different. It is like a reaction waiting to happen. You sense it in the air.. from small things like the Butta vendor requesting we delete his photograph because "things are very difficult for them in the Gateway area" where "them" implied "muslims" to the auto rickshaw drivers choosing select routes to be on the safe side.

This is tricky business for a city that is "going viral" like a hit youtube video!

Now we get to look forward to our next India trip....

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Ready... Set... Laxman

The kids spent many evenings at the Diamond Garden park and apparently they were regular riders of Laxman, the resident park "horsie" on their first three week stay with the grand parents.

Laxman appeared to be very healthy and happily trot at a leisurely pace with the kids perched on top. He also seemed to be very busy the two or so hours he provided his ride service. There was a constant stream of kids eagerly waiting for their turn.

Laxman offers two rides. The half and the full.. for modest fees.

Laxman is strongly recommended, especially by Jr. and the Little one.

They want to know why we cannot import Laxman to Memorial park. Maybe we should try to lobby for a local Horsie?

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Caution

There are some reports which are now suggesting that the latest terror attacks in Mumbai is "India's 9/11" and there are some extrapolated suggestions to use this justification for war with Pakistan.

We all know what the Iraq war did, not just to Iraq and the USA, but to the rest of the world.

If these attacks in Mumbai are the outcome of "home grown terrorism", then a lot will be lost if such extrapolations are made.

The American media (and some of the prominent Indian media - apparently the video clips are all from sites like NDTV, CNN-IBN etc) need some fact checking. When you market horseshit in the name of reportive journalism with total abandon for facts, consequences, in a time when tensions are high, it should be considered a criminal offense and these folks should be tried for inciting instabilty.

The press seems to want to one up saadhus and mullahs on brining out the worst in people!

My mother almost had a heart attack on 9/11 because the local headline in the newspaper was "Americave paththi erigiradhu" (whole of America is in flames). I was on a plane that day (not anywhere in harms way), but from where she was, the picture that was painted was very different. Some person who had a 3rd cousin in the USA would have offered his expert opinion on 9/11 that day to local TV channels.

We get so used to seeing neighbours of homicide victims talk about people they hardly know in the local news channels. Same thing, different circumstance, different people, different countries.

The outcome of this always is bad!

Read Kavi's post and was very comforted by it.

For those of you here in the USA who read this blog, happy thanksgiving.

Think happy thoughts. Be thankful for what we have and take for granted!

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Life goes on

First, to all who sent me emails enquiring about family in Mumbai after the attacks, appreciate the thought. All of our relatives are okay.

These days we just go "so what if our relatives are okay and alive? They are still shut in their homes in absolute fear, knowing that they could be victims on the next round of terrorism."

We spoke to San's dad and he was very emotional. Bombay is an acquired taste for me. Had only been to the city for a couple of days in my first 25 years of life. Then got married to San and now visit Mumbai on every India trip.

Over the last ten years have come to love the city. More than that, finally understand why San's family loves the city the way they do.

My FIL loves the city like he loves his kids or parents. This time when he said "well, it is a full scale war out there! Things are slowly returning to normal in the rest of the city." , somehow this time he was not sure if this one would be forgotten and "life would just go on".

On a side note, the press coverage of the events when seen from the US Media is horrible! Absolute garbage!

People who have no clue about India, Bombay, Kashmir, Terrorism give expert opinions and commentary on what is going on to the broad American audience.

A crying shame!

Our thoughts are with Mumbai right now.

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