Cavorting around California - 07 Apr 2008

For all it's hype California gave me a rather clammy welcome in early January this year. Its much-trumpeted glorious weather, instead, played truant through my four weeks' stay there with daughter Sonal. It was racy winds and rain coupled with a temperature drop, the kind locals were not used to. ‘Twas California's worst storm ever in ten years, they said! But who cared! I had the warmth of my daughter's love and the comfort of her delightful place at Domicilio, Santa Clara.

The incessant rain and unpredictable weather often forced me indoors – hampered my morning constitutional outings, and put up hurdles in my adventures to satisfy the insatiable thirst within to experience new places, people and cuisines. But the whistling winds outside seemed to have their own say – telling me there's more to California than what's commonly talked about. The beautiful view outside the apartment, overlooking the palm trees and swimming pool in the centre court below, with the distant hills in the background held promise. Considering the worst snow storms rest of America and Canada were experiencing, I was still better off.

The scenic splendour of California unfolded in bits and pieces, each time the weather held out – for me to explore the neighbourhood on foot, or for Sonal to bundle me into her car and whisk me off to see the towns that make up Silicon Valley. Initially it was the famous academia – the over two centuries old Santa Clara Mission with its University next door, and the famous Stanford University in Palo Alto, just around the corner. The impressive drive that led up to the main campus – the majestic palms towering everywhere were just amazing, especially when one realized palms were not really native to California.

While my first weekend there was a washout, the weather gods were kind over the next – to let us experience Alamo Hills, Napa Valley and Lake Tahoe on the Nevada border with its Casinos. It started with a night at Aroon and Usha's at Oakshire Place on Alamo Heights – delightfully luxurious and relaxing; with the view from the ridge during my walk in the crisp morning air, refreshingly soothing and invigorating. But Napa Valley was a disappointment. Being winter, the vineyards were all dried up, barren and devoid of leaves. For miles around not a sprout nor shred of green atop the brown stub-trunks that in season had sported lush green and grapes. But wine tasting - the bread and butter of the area still held strong! We experienced Beringer's – only to come off with a sick feeling of being cheated and deprived of an expected treat – as if wineries here have done you one helluva favour by letting you stray into their hallowed precincts! Unlike in France, wine-tasting in America's Napa is a total hoax, making you end up paying anywhere between 25 to 45 dollars for four thimbleful sips of wine while being bored with commentaries on their own founding history and assumed greatness.

Visiting Lake Tahoe in the company of David and Rebecca Pinto, was stunning; the smooth climb from rainy sea levels of Davis (Sacramento) where they live, to altitudes over seven thousand feet to access Tahoe, not discernibly felt or realized. And Tahoe itself tucked away so majestically amidst a tranquil setting of tall pines atop the pristine High Sierra Mountains – when sighted, just breath-takingly awesome. No less gripping, the sheer expanse of its unfrozen waters – even more, the dark metal green emerald waters of Emerald Bay not all tourists take the trouble to go to. The logwood cabins almost buried under snow and settlements along the route around Tahoe were very picturesque; the ski-runs/resorts on the snowy white mountain slopes around were ever so enticingly exciting; and our own dwarfed presence, mere insignificant dots marring the spotless grandeur of white for miles around. A memorable experience indeed!

Over the third weekend came my real treat – two days of San Francisco – California's show piece. Sonal chose the 49 Mile Scenic Drive what Joseph M. Lubow and Laurel Rosen called "the best tool for exploring the whole city" – in their book "San Francisco's 49 Mile Scenic Drive: The Guidebook" – a paperback of 2001. Signs for the Drive – a seagull looking over one white shoulder into a blue sky, dot throughout the route around San Francisco.

Like most who have attempted, we never got down to completing the whole ‘drive’ in one sitting. The Drive was created in 1938, to highlight the city's beauty and entertain tourists attending the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939-40, a fair that opened the following year on Treasure Island. The route then began at City Hall, curved along the northern shoreline of the bay and down the Pacific coastline, swooped around Lake Merced, dipped into Golden Gate Park, climbed to the top of Twin Peaks, cruised down Market Street, crossed the Bay Bridge, and finally ended on Treasure Island. It now begins and ends at City Hall, modified many times since its first meandering course was traced on a map.

We were able to cover majority of the listed sights; among the vintage and modern landmarks of which are – the Old St. Mary's Church, Pacific Bell Park, Palace of Fine Arts, Ferry Building and Mission Dolores where a row of stately palms greet you as you skim along. Along the way experiencing the narrow streets of Chinatown, where we funnily ate at the trendy E&O Trading Company while earnestly salivating for more traditional & down-to-earth Chinese dim-sum. We ignored not Little Italy too, the section with Italiano restaurante "Roma Italian" where we had coffees and tiramisu. After a short drive thereafter, we were greeted by giant female legs in seductive hose stockings, sticking out of a window on the street, also dotted with yoga centres! This was San Francisco's Haight & Ashbury district, which 40-odd years ago weeded out the 'straights' to welcome in the weed, LSD, hashish and riff-raff by holding the first Hippie Parade. The wonders of all three neighbourhoods are best discovered on foot. But ascending Twin Peaks known for its stunning city panorama though, we found our way blocked – for similar reason having to abandon our attempt to reach the Coit Tower with its murals too, and the towering Transamerica Pyramid that's seen from every nook and corner.

With the seagull signs missing at many intersections and without a map, the Drive is difficult to follow – as also without someone sitting in the passenger seat as I was doing for Sonal, looking back and forth between the map and the cityscape, and calling out directions despite having a GPS at hand!

Driving here can be a daunting exercise for a newcomer to the city, especially with its incredible gradients and curious distractions including a variety of architectural styles – the 'dollhouse' Victorians, the stately Queen Annes, the ornate Edwardians. There were places blocked by "one-way" or "no-turning" signs making it hard to turn around, backtrack, retrace or to get back on track. There are other stretches distinctly non-scenic – filled with fast-moving cars furiously changing lanes; as also bustling complexes clogged with cars, taxis, buses, even jaywalkers and foot-slogging nature walkers.

We drove up Nob Hill following one of the city's hallmark overcrowded antique cable cars – right on its tracks (perhaps against regulations, but we did it anyway) along steep inclines between terraced flat stretches where crossroads met, and I got pictures of the vintage coach that reminded me of railroads from the wild west era; and of people hanging out – a common sight back home in the starved-for-transport city of our New Delhi. We got into a tizzy then with even steeper gradients, on the downward stretches of which no road could at all be seen beyond the car's bonnet. Instead of holding the steering wheel with both her hands, Sonal preferred driving downhill with one hand gripping the steering wheel and the other gripping her dad's arm, whilst screaming all the way till we reached comparatively manageable level stretches. Talk about a free rollercoaster ride! With enough wind of courage under her wings, she then dared the drive down Lombard – the Crooked Street, to find it child's play compared to stretches of inclines earlier conquered.

At every road crossing in the higher stretches we had a full view reaching right up to the harbour with ships berthed alongside and deep into the bay. Where to, the Drive eventually took us – on to Jefferson Street that's despised by the local residents, but popularly known to tourists as the Fisherman's Wharf. On the embarcadero here is supposed to be mounted the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, so insultingly as to have invited protests for reasons of being difficult to locate even by those specifically looking for it. Driving past Pier 39 later in the dark, we heard the lazy sea otters cry out before they caught some shut-eye.

The finale for our first day in this glorious city definitely had to be the Golden Gate Bridge. Wanting to catch the sunset, we drove over and across it to access the vista points. We lost track of time even as we feasted on the sights from across, of the one-time-high-security-prison Alcatraz (that once incarcerated the notorious mafia don Al Capone too) and of the San Francisco skyline at dusk. We drove up the mountain side through the quaint artists' haunt Sausalito, to higher vista points hugging the mountain beside and beyond the other end of GG – where we walked right up to and above the vertical end-pillars of the bridge making my vertigo-touching acrophobia (fear of heights) act up a bit. But since this place was known to give the best view at sunset, we had to make it. It was worth the hour spent here savouring sights and taking pictures while bracing the winds at twilight against the constantly changing hues of a crimson sky. The mighty GG stood dwarfed before our eyes with the red and yellow lights from moving cars on it, appear as though they were mighty ant-trails from our vantage height. Our hearts raced with the sheer grandeur of it!

We started day two leisurely, in time for brunch at the Squat & Gobble where Castro meets Market, with friend Vikram Anand's daughter Missy Aparajita. Castro houses the town's Gay quarter, where for the first time I experienced people-watching from a street cafe, where everyone seemed to be overly groomed, young men walking in pairs, with their cute canine pets at their heels – reminding me of society ladies in high heels with foot-long cigarette holders in mouth, cuddling their manicured curly poodles. As Sonal wrote in her 'foodie' blog later, this place is her "favourite for the consistently delicious food and the fun ambience; for the friendly and extremely efficient service from the gorgeous guys behind the bar, and the warm and welcoming Management that goes above and beyond to make one's visit enjoyable, every time!"

Back to China town again, Sonal insisted we enter a reflexology joint where I refused to give a tip for the utter sham job they did on my feet – despite the Chinese lady's repeated exhortations to my daughter telling her how handsome she found her dad to be! Escaping that place, we ended up losing our way curving around the storied Presidio – earlier an Army base, now a national park with a quirky pet cemetery too – ending up at the Greek/Romanesque Exploratorium at the Palace of Fine Arts. Try as we may, we could not find a way to enter it without driving illegally across the road! The Drive here swept down the Great Highway, skirting the vast sandy expanse and crashing waves of Ocean Beach, to circle the lovely Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park which consumed a considerable part of our second day. I later got to know that the California State Automobile Association's new version of its San Francisco Guide Map which features a thick, bright red line showing the 49 Mile Scenic Drive is a good aid here, as it includes a much-needed inset of the path the scenic drive follows as it winds through GG Park – which apparently can befuddle even residents. But the sheer foresty grandeur of the Park made it a delight for us to lose ourselves in it, while on our way to and past the Dutch Windmill to reach the high-windy stretches of the Cliff House over looking vast stretches of the beach alongside the Pacific Ocean. Portions of rocky stretches here lent a great backdrop for glorious pictures. I bought Sonal some costume jewellery ear-rings too, from street gypsy vendors selling wares from portable makeshift display units. We ended day two by treating ourselves to hot mugs of cocoa at famous Ghirardelli Square along with Cara's handmade cupcakes – that left a delightfully sweet taste in our mouths to go with all the other delights of our two days in San Francisco.

April 07, 2008: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira, 3725 Sector-23,Gurgaon-122017:

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080402: On IBNLive -The Other Side of Policing: Politics, mind games!

The other side of policing: Politics, mind games
Aasim Khan / CNN-IBN
Published on Wed, Apr 02, 2008 at 14:59, Updated on Wed, Apr 02, 2008 at 18:16 in Nation section
Tags: On The Beat, Police , New Delhi
New Delhi: On a fateful November morning in 1984 – a day after Indira Gandhi’s assassination – a mob gathered outside Sis Ganj Gurudwara. One lone officer stood in the line of duty and ordered the policemen to fire.
“When mob was advancing, I gave them a warning, but when they did not heed, I ordered fire,” recalls former Delhi police commissioner Maxwell Pereira.
Many lives were saved but it did little for the career of Maxwell Pereira. After a silence of 23 years, Pereira has now spilled the beans in his book, The Other Side of Policing.
“What was shocking was I gave a message saying I have opened fire but control room would not acknowledge. They were silent,” he says.
What Pereira did was a brave act in 1984 but there were few others who could resist the political pressure.
No wonder 1984 was not the last time when the hand of law failed to help the victims.
It’s been 18 months since the Supreme Court moved to give functional autonomy to the police (Prakash Singh Vs Govt of India Case) but so far only 10 states have accepted the directives.
Most of them small states, but most big states, notorious for police-politician nexus, have simply ignored them.
Prakash Singh, a former Chief of the Border Security Force, says politicians are not keen on implementing the judgement because it takes away their powers to transfer any cop anywhere , anytime.
“It’s a very strong instrument to show I can influence your future and career,” he says.
For most in police the fear of transfer and punishment posting still weighs too heavy.

A Bold Judiciary Augurs Well for the Nation - 24 Dec 2006

Opinion
A Bold Judiciary
Augurs Well for the Nation
by Maxwell Pereira

Does one sense a kind of boldness in the ranks of the judiciary lately, a boldness that was sadly missing when occasions demanded it earlier?

We do owe our courts a lot. But for the boldness - be it over the eco-friendly compressed natural gas (CNG) which got us better breathing air or the sealing spree where the government was brought to its knees hopefully to usher in some rule of law in matters of urban discipline - things would continue to be in the rut. It does appear that the entire governance per se is dependent today and is leaning heavily on the guts of the judiciary.

In matters of criminal cognizance though, one perceived, till lately, our courts to be timid. Didn't we suffer the ignominy of watching someone accused of murder and known to be a criminal take oath as a member of the nation's parliament?

Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who wielded influence and flaunted muscle power from within the jail where he was incarcerated, had earlier warranted the Supreme Court to transfer him to Delhi's Tihar jail so that distance and better supervision could control and negate his propensity to rig an impending election, even from within Patna's Beur jail.

It was disgusting and disgraceful to note then that the very same apex court found its hands tied, to mechanically endorse and permit this individual his right to go to parliament and take oath as member, five months after being eligible to do so, because he had been duly elected by the voters of Madhepura - his constituency in Bihar.

I suppose this didn't involve guts, just a helpless interpretation of the nation's laws. But some consolation was the court's recent stand denying him bail and a firm directive not to file such requests any further.

As I see it, the discernible trend started perhaps in Maharashtra with the conviction of a minister and bureaucrats involved in a matter of non-compliance of court orders that led to resignations and jailing - something unthinkable before this really happened.

The latest is the conviction in the Shashinath Jha murder case of Shibu Soren, a minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Closely following this is the conviction of the flamboyant BJP MP Navjyot Singh Sidhu, more popular today as a TV star.

Things were decidedly different not too long ago. I remember a strange scene some of us were witness to at a conference on the criminal justice system organized by the Indian Law Society here in New Delhi in the mid-90s. A spirited young police officer from Punjab then working in CBI had made bold to express how most of the judiciary in Punjab had capitulated and abdicated their judicial functions when Sikh terrorism ran riot.

The magistracy at whatever levels could find their voice again, the officer postulated, only to castigate police officers who had actually controlled terrorism once it was subdued by sheer dint and courage of the then police management in the state.

The officer was forced to withdraw his statement when faced with the intimidating tenor of the dignitary chairing the session - a former chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. This gentleman took umbrage at the officer's direct accusation and challenged him with a "if you withdraw your statement, I will chose to ignore that you ever made it" kind of a threat.

But there were other instances too, not necessarily terrorism related, when judiciary was found lacking - viewed as too timid to take on the powerful, more particularly politicians in power.

The might of the legal fraternity is another that has always challenged and defied judicial boldness. Early in my service career I remember a murder accused lawyer who secured bail within 24 hours of arrest thanks to his cronies barging into the magistrate's courtroom determined to get him to sign on the dotted line.

There are instances when judiciary has exhibited reluctance to take on the lawyers including when members of the bar on strike ransacked the courtrooms in Delhi High Court and abused the justices. The police had to be called in to save the day - strangely without Delhi Police being asked to take cognizance of the matter.

And there is the case not too long ago of the then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, when even the apex court after holding him guilty ended up merely sentencing him "till the rising of the court".

Yes. Things are changing today -- for the better. It is indeed heartening that the errant criminal politician is being brought to book, even if it is a case of delayed justice. Is it public sentiment that is providing fillip to judicial boldness? Perhaps!

(Maxwell Periera is a former joint commissioner of Delhi Police. He can be reached at mfjpkamath@gmail.com)

December 24, 2006

061219: TheIndependentUK-Politician'sSonGuilty

Politician's son is finally found guilty of killing waitress who ...

A former Delhi police officer, Maxwell Pereira, said the order showed the road to justice for many others. "The voice of lesser people has been heard, ...
www.independent.co.uk/news/.../politicians-son-is-finally-found-guilty-of-killing-waitress-who-refused-him-drink-429180.ht... - 66k - Cached

Politician's son is finally found guilty of killing waitress who refused him drink
By Jerome Taylor
Tuesday, 19 December 2006
In a sensational climax to one of India's most notorious murder cases, the High Court in Delhi has found the son of a Indian politician guilty of shooting dead a waitress in a high society bar after she refused to serve him a drink after closing time.
Manu Sharma, whose father is a wealthy member of the government's ruling Congress coalition, was found guilty in Delhi High Court after more than seven years of judicial wrangling in a case that many felt showed how India's legal system was weighted in favour of the rich.
Jessica Lall, 34, a part-time model, was tending the bar at an exclusive party in Delhi. She was shotin front of host of socialites, bureaucrats and even police officials in 1999 because she would not serve Sharma. According to the prosecution, Sharma took out a pistol and said "I will do it my way," before shooting once in the air and then firing a single bullet at Ms Lall.
But the prosecution's case fell apart during the first trial when a key witness, the budding actor Shayan Munshi, retracted a statement linking Sharma to the shooting.
That prompted text message and e-mail campaigns for the case to be reopened, with one television news station delivering a petition to the president signed by more than 200,000 people. The city's police chief ordered an inquiry in March into claims of collusion between his officers and the accused.
A week later, senior policemen appealed against the acquittal at Delhi's High Court. A former Delhi police officer, Maxwell Pereira, said the order showed the road to justice for many others. "The voice of lesser people has been heard, above all the political influences, all the nexus of various players," he said.
Sharma is the son of Venod Sharma, a former federal minister from the northern state of Haryana. The decision came as India's courts seemed to be flexing muscles with a series of verdicts against high-profile defendants in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, the coal minister, Shibu Soren, was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a former aide. The opposition politician and former international cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu was sentenced to three years in jail for a road-rage killing which happened 18 years ago.
And in another retrial accelerated because of public pressure, the lawyer son of a former police officer was sentenced to death in October for the 1996 rape and murder of Priyadarshini Mattoo, a law student, seven years after he was acquitted.
Jessica's sister, Sabrina, who led the campaign to charge Sharma, said: "We are missing our family at the moment ¬ mom, dad and Jessica included, and knowing that wherever they are, they are finally at peace. " Jessica's mother died soon after Sharma was given bail at the start of the trial and her father died this year.
The sentence will be announced tomorrow.

Beggar Mafias!

By Maxwell Pereira :
From: MaxOpinion@googlegroups.com : 15.08.2006

The Delhi Government under chief secretary Shailaja Chandra was the
only time when some serious effort was made to tackle effectively the
beggar menace in the national capital. The social welfare department
whose baby it is to manage beggars had utterly failed despite a law on
anti-beggary and adequate beggar homes in position for incarceration
and rehabilitation, and police backup available at the drop of a hat
when sought. No amount of court interventions and High Court directives
had helped either.

Then on 24 September 2002, the Delhi High Court again directed Delhi
administration to clear the capital city of beggars and hawkers as they
`obstruct the smooth flow of traffic'. The order came in response to a
public interest litigation (PIL) petition that described beggars and
homeless people as the `ugly face of the nation's capital' and as
people who, among other things, caused `road rage'.

Taking cue from the High Court, Ms Chandra latched on to me as the
city's then traffic chief to come up with a workable plan that could
rid our road junctions of beggars. While I had nothing in the
'traffic' arsenal to target beggars, the traffic police could
definitely target those vehicle owners and drivers who patronized
begging and vending on the road - and that's what we did by
invoking the powers to issue direction to regulate road traffic etc -
to ban giving of alms and vending activity at road junctions under pain
of fine. The Traffic Police notification provided for the imposition of
a fine on motorists who gave money to beggars or bought things from
vendors at road junctions.

This was seen as an aggressive approach against beggary. And I was
quoted critically as how beggary is a menace that "flourishes with
impunity in the streets of Delhi much to the disgust, distaste and
horror of the community at large. The first thing every tourist learns
about India is that it is a land of beggars."

I am an avid supporter of the NGO movement and find laudable the work
they do in varied areas of deprivation and discrimination. But the
effective enforcement of the new rule was pinching and not palatable to
the NGOs working in the field of street children. The entire NGO world
descended on me like a ton of bricks. I was constrained to pick up the
gauntlet to face the tirade against the traffic police move, and face
the NGO music in different fora - panel discussions, conferences and
jan-sunwaiis. The plight of those deprived of their livelihood by my
merciless act of sweeping them off the road with a draconian law was
thrashed threadbare - under intense media scrutiny.

The people of Delhi though, strongly approved our move and stood by us.
The result, within days Delhi's roads were clean of beggars, enough
even to attract the international media to carry India's this step
against beggars to their own distant lands across continents and
oceans.

As part of the debate while facing the NGO onslaught, when I insisted
that there was a vested interest commercialising beggary through
maiming and dismemberment of victims kidnapped or recruited for the
purpose, an old Delhi Police crime branch study was waved in my face
claiming that the study did not find any role of criminals or mafia
operating behind begging in Delhi. Delhi Police's inability to expose
the mafia content behind beggary was used by Indu Prakash Singh, the
director of Ashray Adhikaar Abhiyan to defend beggar community as a
"distressed people" and that the police should decriminalize
begging - especially since "people do not beg out of choice, but
out of compulsion. How can the government say it is an organized
crime?"

I am sure there is a vast segment of beggars who fall in the category
described by the NGOs as "distressed people". But I firmly believed
in the existence of beggar mafias that exploit and commercialise the
Indians' tendency to gain punya by giving alms. That crime syndicates
working behind begging do exist. And no doubt a large number of people
are brought into Delhi for begging. I also remember reading how
Professor BB Pande of Delhi University's Law Faculty was then quoted
saying there were seven gangs who controlled organized begging in the
city.

True, the criminal mafia character behind beggary needed more attention
of the police, even while the infrastructure created within social
welfare department needed to have been put to adequate and effective
use to fight the beggar menace sincerely. Given the pressures and list
of priorities the police are saddled with, that beggars do not come
anywhere near the top priority should not surprise anyone.

Even so, the gory expose over the weekend by the CNN-IBN TV channel of
a beggar-doctor mafia is incomprehensible. That a beggar mafia exists
and it tortures and maims people to make them beg. And there are
doctors too who help the mafia by amputating the limbs of healthy
people. The channel claimed there are more than 12,000 handicapped
beggars in Delhi alone. And it is doctors like the ones they captured
on sting camera that help the beggar mafia to mutilate, terrorise and
live off the beggars of the city - a fact, confirmed by beggars
themselves.

In the absence of an aggrieved complainant and "an act in furtherance
of the stated intention" it is unfortunate that the 'exposed'
doctors are likely to go scot free... infuriating even further and
shocking people's conscience more. Much sensation, that is all the
channel has achieved. Had it consulted its own legal advisors how to go
about it so the perpetrators could be effectively punished, perhaps the
expose could have been better handled. But then the channel has
achieved its objective of ratings. The rest of course, they expect, is
up to the police - with or without evidence!

By Maxwell Pereira
From: MaxOpinion@googlegroups.com : 15.08.2006

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A Soldier Died Today

A SOLDIER DIED TODAY....true of our country as well..

He was getting old and paunchy
And his hair was falling fast,
And he sat around the Legion,
Telling stories of the past.

Of a war that he once fought in
And the deeds that he had done,
In his exploits with his buddies;
They were heroes, every one.

And 'tho sometimes to his neighbors
His tales became a joke,
All his buddies listened quietly
For they knew whereof he spoke.

But we'll hear his tales no longer,
For ol' Bob has passed away,
And the world's a little poorer
For a soldier died today.

He won't be mourned by many,
Just his children and his wife.
For he lived an ordinary,
Very quiet sort of life.

He held a job and raised a family,
Going quietly on his way;
And the world won't note his passing,
'tho a Soldier died today.

When politicians leave this earth,
Their bodies lie in state,
While thousands note their passing,
And proclaim that they were great.

Papers tell of their life stories
>From the time that they were young,
But the passing of a soldier
Goes unnoticed, and unsung.

Is the greatest contribution
To the welfare of our land,
Some jerk who breaks his promise
And cons his fellow man?

Or the ordinary fellow
Who in times of war and strife,
Goes off to serve his Country
And offers up his life?

The politician's stipend
And the style in which he lives,
Are often disproportionate,
To the service that he gives.

While the ordinary soldier,
Who offered up his all,
Is paid off with a medal
And perhaps a pension, small.

It's so easy to forget them,
For it is so many times,
That our Bobs and Jims
Went to battle, but we still pine.

It was not the politicians
With their compromise and ploys,
Who won for us the freedom
That our Country now enjoys.

Should you find yourself in danger,
With your enemies at hand,
Would you really want some cop-out,
With his ever waffling stand,

Or would you want a Soldier,
His home, his country, his kin,
Just a common Soldier,
Who would fight until the end?

He was just a common Soldier,
And his ranks are growing thin,
But his presence should remind us
We may need his like again.

For when countries are in conflict,
We find the Soldier's part
Is to clean up all the troubles
That the politicians start.

If we cannot do him honor
While he's here to hear the praise,
Then at least let's give him homage
At the ending of his days.

Perhaps just a simple headline
in the paper that might say:
"OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING,
A SOLDIER DIED TODAY."

sent in by D.R.Kartikeyan (IPS retd): New Delhi/ India: 06.08.2006

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WELL DONE, British Airways

WELL DONE, BRITISH AIRWAYS!
This scene took place on a BA flight between Johannesburg, South Africa and London, England.
A white woman, about 50 years old, was seated next to a black man. Obviously disturbed by this, she called the air hostess.
"You obviously do not see it then?" she responded. "You placed me next to a black man. I do not agree to sit next to someone from such a repugnant group. Give me an alternative seat."
"Be calm please," the hostess replied. "Almost all the places on this flight are taken but I will go to see if another place is available."
The hostess went away and then came back a few minutes later.
"Madam, just as I thought, there are no other available seats in the Economy Class. I spoke to the captain and he informed me that there is also no seat in the Business Class. All the same, we still have one place in the First Class."
Before the woman could say anything, the hostess continued.
"It is not usual for our company to permit someone from the Economy Class to sit in First Class. However, given the circumstances, the captain feels that it would be scandalous to make someone sit next to someone sooooo disgusting."
She turned to the black guy, and said, "Therefore, Sir, if you would like to, please collect your hand luggage, a seat awaits you in First Class."
At that moment, the other passengers, who'd been shocked by what they had just witnessed, stood up and applauded.
This is a true story. If you are against racism, do share this with all your friends.....
WELL DONE, British Airways
....sent in by Ronnie D'Souza : Bangalore/ India: 05.08.2006
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