uLaaR

Nehru’s pride, Indo-American relationship and the Indo-China war

Vishy KurugantiDecember 02, 20122 mins

Gurcharan Das, in his book India Unbound, makes a pithy statement. When individuals make blunders, it’s sad but when leaders make blunders, it’s a tragedy. He was referring to Indira Gandhi but the…

Saigon and its women

Vishy KurugantiSeptember 20, 20121 mins

Saigon, 1961 (Pic courtesy Life/flickr.com Saigon has a curious aspect. It is a rather shabby version of a French provincial city – say, Toulouse, as I remember it. Life proceeds normally and it has…

Curious superficial pugnacity about the American people

Vishy KurugantiSeptember 02, 20122 mins

Pic: courtesy thefrustratedteacher.com In Ambassador’s Journal, John Kenneth Galbraith writes about many interesting things during his tenure as US Ambassador to India. In an Oct 9, 1961 letter to…

Unspecialized and rotating authority of civil service

Vishy KurugantiAugust 27, 20121 mins

In an earlier post, Rebooting IAS an essential part of Reforms 2.0 on my other blog, I had summarized a LiveMint article which outlined the key systemic problems with the IAS cadre. A few fixes have…

Prime Minister is like the great banyan tree…

Vishy KurugantiAugust 19, 20121 mins

No – not the current ‘great’ Dr. Manmohan Singh. In Ambassador’s Journal, John Kenneth Galbraith writes about many interesting things during his tenure as US Ambassador to India. The journal entry…

When Bokaro Steel Plant and America almost had a date…

Vishy KurugantiJune 18, 20127 mins

Bokaro Steel Plant main gate (Pic: courtesy sail.co.in) In Ambassador’s Journal, John Kenneth Galbraith writes about many interesting things during his tenure as US Ambassador to India. The snippets…

Beirut in April (circa 1961)

Vishy KurugantiApril 22, 20122 mins

Khalil Gibran parc in Beirut In Ambassador’s Journal, John Kenneth Galbraith writes about his 3-day layover in Beirut, enroute to India — where he would begin his tenure as US Ambassador to India…

Diplomacy 101 – blast from the 1961 Galbraith archives

Vishy KurugantiApril 12, 20121 mins

Pic: courtesy toonpool.com In Ambassador’s Journal, John Kenneth Galbraith shares a Diplomacy 101 aphorism (“don’t do anything”) in his February 18, 1961 journal entry. February 18-Washington…

John F Kennedy’s Presidential Desk

Vishy KurugantiApril 12, 20121 mins

Possibly the Presidential desk being referenced (Pic: courtesy masslive.com) In Ambassador’s Journal, John Kenneth Galbraith writes about the origins of JFK’s presidential desk in his February 1…

When hard liquor was served at a White House party for the first time

Vishy KurugantiApril 06, 20121 mins

I recently started reading Ambassador’s Journal – John Kenneth Galbraith’s personal account of the Kennedy years. It’s a 500+ page heavy tome but my pal (@zenrainman) tells me why it should be a fun…

• Pages
• 1