Wallpaper 

Whole villages buried in the snow during winters. The people migrate to warmer places during the winters and return for greener pastures for their cattle in the summers. 

Thats me again on one of those days. 

Thats me with the smoke. The chopper from where this photo was taken just dropped the essential supplies for our survival. 

Me and my Kalashnikov, with Mt Viagra in the background. 

Of Heroes And Villains

Its all on the papers.

Osama lives. And he is talking.

On the eve of the American presedential elections he is becoming a kind of embaresment to the Bush administration.

Its sad to know that sometimes people in power take themselves no less than a god. Afghanistan, a country trying to establish itself and regain its lost bearings was bombed to kingdom come just for the head of one man. Did the allied troops ever think that in doing so they were not only killing people who were just trying to have a normal life, they were killing dreams and putting them back in the same place where they began. The soviets took the first kill, then the Talibans and finally the Americans. Its like all the people who sinned in their previous births were born in the same place. Their fault? they were just not educated or rich enough to be heard. Their cries lost in the gunshots of revenge.

Revenge.

An excuse to keep harming each other.

Its like the Americans, the guardians of peace for the planet, do not just get it. The whole nation cries when one of their soldiers die. But turn a deaf ear when a whole nation cries. Actually its wrong to damn a whole nation for the sins of a few men. Men who have no idea of what they are doing. Only hoping that whatever it is, it must be right. An example is Tony Blair apologising for Iraq.

At this time its confusing to decide who is the villain and who the hero. Is it President Bush who felt that by wiping out Afghanistan and Iraq, his people will live in a safer country, or is it Osama or the numerous militant organisations in Iraq in a beheading spree, thinking that vengeance is being served.And their people given justice.

Why should the people of a country be scarred with the memories of war for eternity just because a few men thought that it was the right way. Violence begets violence and love love. But love for violence begets only death.The only thing that can be said is that there is no more honour in the wars we fight. Gone is age when the whole world went to war to vanquish the all powerful despots and lunatics. When war was a celebration and a hope for better times for the children of millions who were to die in the infamous concentration camps, just because they were born Jews or of a lesser race.

Realisation.

A word without a meaning for those who find meaning in vengeance.

Me, Swetha and Naveen - with backdrop of Bahu Fort - in Jammu. The dried river bed is that of Tawi river which flows through Jammu City. Thats why the city is also known as Jammu Tawi.