Of Latitudes and Attidudes

Today is "Kali Chaudas", ie Black 14th day -- sounds serious, but really it means that the moon has almost waned and this day is the dark day before tomorrow's Deepavali , Festival of Lights sets in. These few days are some of the most important ones in Hinduism. Briefly, they are: a) Dhan Teras : Money's day of 13th: On this day one worships money -- literally!! A few coins, representative of family capital, are bathed in milk and yogurt and cleaned with water. Business folks close their books of the previous year (I think)...and seek blessings of Goddess Lakshmi to help them in the material world, so they may carry out the spiritual tasks for the soul...or so is my wishful interpretation. It could just mean that we are a bunch of materialistic people, though, other aspects of this festival do not bear this thought out completely. b) Kali Chaudas : Supposedly (as my dad informs me), tonight Bhagawan Shiv will stay in a Smashan , ie graveyard, and scare away a...

This is an extract from an interview of Naresh Chandra, former Ambassador to the US. The interview was conducted by India Abroad in Nov. 2002 and deals largely with how he and his staff coped with repairing relations with the US post-Pokhran (nuclear tests by India). I love this answer -- read on. Q. During Jaswant Singh's tenure as External Affairs Minister, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Congress alleged that American influence was more visible in India than before, American diplomats are now openly going to Kashmir to talk to separatist leaders. How do you view that perception? A. I am worried about the level of apprehension in India. We give long lectures to Americans about talking to Iran. On Iraq we express different views. On CTBT we were along and still shouting at the U.S. So what's the problem? How many Americans are coming here [to India]? I feel more should come. If we have just ten Americans here we start feeling apprehensive. We have ten thousand India...