Enter the Republican Guard

The pictures of the 10^th Parachute Regiment jogging down Rajpath while chanting some slogan on Republic Day left me stunned. Till date, such hoo-haa drills were the sole preserve of the Pakistanis and other Middle Eastern riff-raff. Why, oh why, have we decided to emulate the cartoon-like antics of the crappiest of chest-thumping Armies? Armies that have an impeccable combat record only against innocent women and children? Armies that have been taken to the cleaners time and again by real soldiers?

The Indian armed forces always always spoke softly and carried a big stick. It was in keeping with this trend that the ridiculous goose-stepping at Wagah was done away with. So what in God’s good name were the concerned authorities trying to achieve with this jumping-jack tamasha?

2006: The Year Russia Schooled The West

I found the following article on “The eXile”, which is a Moscow based... uhh... "newspaper" (for want of a better word). The views expressed do not necessarily coincide with my own. But the staff at The eXile has done a helluva job! A must read, this article is!

This past year was a watershed both for Russia and for Russia's detractors alike. As they used to say after 9/11, "everything's changed." Although not exactly how the West imagined it.

For the first time since Mikhail Gorbachev launched his doomed Perestroika reforms, Russia returned to its rightful place as the White World's Bogeyman, annoying the living shit out of every self-righteous, sexually-frustrated Western missionary with its mixture of menace and mo'. Playing up its new role as something like a cross between Bugs Bunny, the Tasmanian Devil, and P Diddy, Russia is now officially "confident," the biggest sin a country could possibly commit if said country attained its confidence while mooning the West.

In this end-of-the-year issue of The eXile, we look back at 2006: The Year Russia Schooled The West. And looking back at each major event as if it was a university course, we issue Russia its bestest, and most-annoyingest, report card ever.

Below is Russia's report card in each subject in which it competed with The West. We at the eXile hope that by reprinting this report card in an open and transparent manner, that the lessons learned will assist all of us in the New Year.

Read further...