Of A Man

I am a blogger. I read blogs, analyze content, stimulate my senses and put thoughts to words. Now here I was, ready to wind up my affairs for the day when I happened to chance across the word 'atmospherics' on Nandan's blog. A desire for further information led to clicking of hyperlinks that would unknowingly transport me across oceans of time and cyberspace in the hope of presenting a neutral picture of things that were. But what followed was a 7-hour epic journey tilting the scales of my mind towards pride, and prejudice.

War of 1947
War of 1965
War of 1971
Kargil (1999)

Siachen Conflict (1)
Siachen Conflict (2)

(I was reminded of Lata Mangeshkar's tribute to our heroes - Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon. These links are the untold tales of courage and heroism, of the lives that have been sacrificed to keep you and I - the ordinary citizen, safe.)

Siachen, a tactical nightmare, is the world's highest battleground. And Siachen and surrounding areas are exactly where the largest troop mobilizations since World War II have taken place; during the Indo-Pak Wars, of course.

Pakistan occupies two-fifths of Kashmir, a territory that was long acceded to India. I do not live in Kashmir, and I am very much ignorant of complex issues that exist there. But even a person whose IQ test returns negative scores can voice out a protest asking Pakistan to get the hell out of Kashmir simply because we have the balls to believe in secular ideology. And they don't. I shall now refrain from writing more about Pakistan's claim on Kashmir because my views are already biased, and quite possibly, distorted.

I shall now digress a bit.

Wikipedia took me places. And I spent a good amount of time reading about the CIA, KGB, MI6, Mossad and of course, our very own R&AW. (R&AW enjoys an undisclosed budget and is an organization free from political interference.) And as I read I vaguely traced the evolution of these, if you wish to call them that, agencies. I wonder if at some point of time, R&AW would evolve into an Indianized version of the CIA or KGB. Some say it is preferable that R&AW remain as unheard-of as possible because anonymity is an edge a secret service agency definitely needs.

It's funny how we acknowledge and glorify people who mostly do not deserve it. Shilpa Shetty won Big Brother? I don't give a fuck. Sanjay Dutt is fighting in court? I don't give a fuck either. Shilpa Shetty is hot and I love Munnabhai and Gandhigiri and all, but I still don't give a fuck.

Doubt might be percolating and you now might ask, whose picture is that? And how is it related to what he's rambling on about?

The gentleman in the picture, my friend, is Rameshwar Nath Kao.

He is the man responsible for setting up R&AW, and also the Intelligence 'System' of Ghana. A few days back I read an article by Shashi Tharoor where he recollected the honour of having spoken in honour of R.N. Kao at R&AW HQ. (The operatives prefer to call it R&AW as opposed to RAW.) He lamented that not many people knew who R.N. Kao was, or his contribution to India's development. It was then that I decided that one of these days, I would post something about him.

This is my tribute to this unsung hero, whose noble nature and determined efforts were responsible for kick-starting India's Intel. It is because of him that I can, without worrying about a bullet through my skull or a bomb on my roof, leisurely type this post sipping my supposedly organic tea.