Redefining Horizons

100,000 and beyond? Yes 101, 426 today morning. I take this opportunity to reach out and share with you, my reader, that this blog, our blog, the medium through which we communicated, has crossed a hundred thousand in readership. Interestingly, you, my readers reside in more than 180 countries.  As an author it gives me immense pleasure and satisfaction that I could connect and communicate with people across the world.  Thank you very much for reading the blog. Some among you took time to share your thoughts and comment on the articles I am indebted to you. As an author, there's nothing more satisfying for me than finding someone taking the time and effort to converse with me on the subject I wrote. It's heartening to see that all of you who commented on my blog have maintained dignity even when holding different perceptions or views. In a world where “with me else against me” is the norm and dignified discourse seems like an oasis in an endless desert, polite responses com...

    Kumaranalloor is famous for its Temple. But not many people, barring locals, would know of the Government Upper Primary school in Kumaranalloor. I went there first time in 2018. I was there once again, invited to speak, on 02 Jun, 2025, as part of the “ praveshanolsavam. ” “ Praveshanam” in Malayalam means admission, and “ Ulsavam” means festival or celebration.    Praveshanolsavam   The function was organised to give the children, starting their education journey in government-run schools, a sense of festivity. It was done to initiate children into the schooling system and coincided with the commencement of the current academic year. The authorities could have used the event to take stock of the infrastructural adequacy of government-run schools. “ Sarkar karyam mura pole ”, is what Malayalees say. It only means that things that the government does will take their course when it does. The strategic aim of the event seemed to be optics and eyeballs. ...

  A Dissection   The terrorist incident and India’s response, in time, will become statistics, like the previous ones. However, the objectives of the operation and the modus operandi adopted will become the subject of intense scrutiny by the militaries of the world. When two militaries come face to face, the optics of the hardware array and application strategy can be captivating. The social media, print and visual media are sizzling with conspiracy theories, propaganda in favour of one and against the other, depending on who is initiating it. But beyond the brute force, chest thumping, media carnage and the fleeting exuberance of public euphoria fanned by politicians, exists the reality of strategic victory. It is worthwhile to analyse the entire event to understand the long-term impact it has on each country.   Pakistan's army has led Pakistan to comprehensive defeats against India in all the confrontations between the two countries. No country, however irr...

  Anatomy Of The Act And Its Retribution   The Pahalgam Carnage and Its Retribution Only on 15 April 2025, General Asim Munir, Pakistan’s Army Chief, speaking at the first annual convention of Overseas Pakistanis in Islamabad, reminded the audience of the two-nation theory that brought Pakistan on the map of the world and the unbridgeable gap between Muslims and Hindus.  In his speech, filled predominantly with anti-India rhetoric, he called Kashmir the jugular vein of Pakistan. Whether Munir’s remarks triggered the incident or it was the go-ahead signal for a preplanned carnage will remain debatable, but it was a sign of something sinister cooking. In just seven days, it became visible.   On 22 April 2025, four terrorists appeared from the shadows, in Baisaran Valley near Pahalgam in J&K, approached unarmed tourists enjoying the time of their lives, asked them to recite the Kalma, the Islamic declaration of faith, and shot point blank those men wh...

  Terrorism in Kashmir   India saw the horror of terrorism once again when the face of a newly married lady sitting desolate next to the body of her husband, shot dead in Kashmir, because he could not recite the Kalma, filled the TV screens. 22 people died there. Operation Sindoor was the reply, the retribution India had promised in revenge. The killing was not the first and might not be the last. The revenge was not the first and might not be the last. It was a new, horrific chapter with roots from the past and tentacles into the future. Let us delve into the past and crystal-gaze and attempt to understand a picture with ever-evolving pixels. Background Pakistan-sponsored terrorism visibly infected Kashmir first in 1987. How can anyone conclusively accuse Pakistan of complicity in terrorist violence in Kashmir? India has presented proof on multiple occasions to establish the complicity of the state of Pakistan in terror activities inside India. It has been of no use s...

  Can mathematics help us understand Life? Yes. Let me tell you how it works.  Assumptions and Facts “Why should I learn all these formulae if I can make do with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division?  What is the use of algebraic equations?” I asked myself after a challenging quadratic equation class in school. It was a natural response from a student not so bright in mathematics.  Learning mathematics was like walking into a minefield without knowing where one was headed and why. With every passing day, the lessons got more brutal. I think we started linear equations in the 9 th or 10 th standard, and with it, my association with the omnipresent yet ever-elusive ‘x’ . Initially, we got equations with a single ‘x.’ We graduated to creating equations with one or more ‘x’ from a given problem statement. Interestingly, all the statements of problems revolved around silly situations in life. At times, we were determining someone’s age, height, weight, or...