Looking at 18th century India, I think it's fairly obvious that it was a land waiting to be colonized. I am not going to delve into all the details, but I have to say that I am glad that we were colonized by the British and not the French or the Dutch. I don't want to kick up a storm like our Prime Minister did in Oxford but let me tell you this: if you can understand what I am trying to say, consider yourself lucky.

I spent a disastrous 45 minutes today talking to people based in Taiwan (and I actually spoke to people who were in charge of handling American clients). By the end of it, I was desperate to have a conversation in English, the way I know it. Finally, I ended up talking about the weather with a very cute Bangalooru chick at work (why the weather? Good question!)

Now, don't get me wrong, my definition of proficiency is not the ability to use words like Schadenfreude effortlessly in a sentence but knowing the language well enough to be able to sell an idea (if you have one). I have new found respect for people who go to a totally different country, without knowing the language, sweat it out and survive.

That said, the beauty of India is that you can move from one part of the country to another and yet have the same problem!
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This generation is seeing first hand, how hard 'nation building' is. I don't know whether the Americans are giving it their all but its painfully clear that its going to take a long time for Iraq to settle down.But its important to realize that no nation is built in 5 years. Its going to take time and its going to be interesting to see what happens post 2008.

I don't understand the liberals really. The way the Iraqi politicians were attacked for delaying the constitution was surprising. This is not some half baked UN resolution, this is the bloody constitution. The most important document in any nation. It looks like everything is being rushed just to make the US look good and this does not bode well for Iraq or for the middle east.

Why am I bringing this up? Just to make the point that, making democracy work is not easy. Case in point- Pakistan, a nation that was created for uniting people on the basis of religion has been a democracy for less than half its life.

Yet, we are.

Surely, 58 years on, this remains India's greatest achievement. The fact that we are united inspite of all our differences. This is largely due to people like Nehru and Patel. Yet, we have morons out there who criticize them.

Their point of view is that 58 years on, 400 million people still live under the poverty line. Yes, Nehru could have done better. But its only partly his fault. It's easy to blame the dead. The fault also lies with people like you and me. Somehow, I get the feeling, we just don't do enough.