Returned

I am back now from a much needed break on my part and a pretty rad visit to London. Although, with this being my last semester, I have my thesis, a couple of papers, and comprehensive exams to finish before the end of April. In fact a rough draft of my thesis is due by Monday. I am writing on the persistence of violence in Jammu and Kashmir and the more I read on it, the more I realize what a fascinating topic Kashmir is. I think as long as one isn’t taken with the current zeitgeist of well, blaming the problem of Kashmir on Pakistan, one can work through a lot of the issues that the Kashmiri’s have with the Indian government. This is of course not to say that Pakistan does not have its hand muddied in the current mess in the region, I just don't think the problem originated there. Anyway, maybe I will put the final product in .pdf when it is complete so that it can be downloaded if people are interested in reading.

Visit to London
So anyway, London was pretty rad. One of the highlights of the trip was watching the India-Pakistan World Cup cricket match in this pub in central London. It was pretty amazing, and quite new to me as I never have witnessed so many South Asians, being brazenly South Asian, in such Western surroundings. Needless to say, it was amazing.

My friend who I was visiting-Anand Desai-and I arrived at the end of Paksitan's succssful innings. The Pakistani side had batted quite well, and apparently the Indians had never caught a score that high. We arrive right as India began batting to a plethora of tricolors and a couple of dholi’s, and the familiar (to those who are into Indian cricket) chant of "Sachin…Sachin, Sachin…. "of course referring to the Indian Star Sachin Tendulkar, who saved the Indian side in almost batting a century-he had 98 runs. It was a unique experience, being in a mainstream English pub, creating a ruckus, and singing Hindi songs while the Indians and Pakistanis battled one another on the cricket field. After the match, everyone poured into the streets, and that is the picture I am pasting below. Incidentally, India advanced to the semi-finals today by trouncing upon another one of its South Asian neighbors, Sri Lanka.



Besides the match, London was pretty amazing. It was also neat to talk to students who are at the LSE with my friend about the whole war and see the rest of the World's take on what unilateral American action can do in the current order of things. It is a dangerous time right now, and as much as I hate to admit it, it seems, as much as anyone (knowledgeable or not) tries to protest or promote American intervention in Iraq, the ball is out of the average citizens court. The powers that be will make their decisions, and unfortunately, we the American people will have to live with the consequences. Regardless, I don't want to delve to heavily on Iraq right now.

Also wanted to big up some fellow bloggers, and fellow Satya Circle Columnists, Suman Palit and Kaushik Banerjee for spreading the South Asian blogging love. Also wanted to welcome Prashant Kothari to the blogosphere.

posted by sajit @ 10:01 PM