Publisher's Synopsis
What does an ordinary citizen with zero position, power or money, do when he sees something wrong or unjust? What money or position can a person have, whose father slept his first night on a street in Amritsar, with a brick as a pillow when he lost his parents, at the age of 26, when India was born in 1947? This dilemma confronts millions of common citizens like me. All of us witness events around us, which seem unfair or inappropriate, as we live our simple daily lives. Over the last 50 years, I raised issues of public concern through Letters to the Editors, wherever I lived and worked. The over 1,000 Letters to Editors selected for this book, provide a panoramic and historical sweep of the last 50 years through the sensibilities and words of a commoner. My letters to editors also covered the holiness of Mahatma Gandhi, leadership of General George Patton, vision of President John Kennedy, nobility of Mr. Martin Luther King, sagacity of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, guts of President George Bush, melancholies of Mr. Saddam Hussein, steadiness of President Obama, passion of Madam Mrs. Benazir Bhutto, anguishes of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, throbbing pain and love of Doctor Zhivago in Lara's poem, the artists in Mr. Raj Kapoor, Mr. Rajesh Khanna, Mr. Al Pacino, Mr. Robert De Niro, Mr. Sean Connery and Ms. Meryl Streep, and the talent of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer. I also wrote about the humiliation of those who held aloft the torch of righteousness. My soul was mauled by the deprivations of slum dwellers in India, Latin America and South Asia, intense poverty in villages in Africa and India, trauma of global refugees, the role of religion, caste, community and colour of skin to seek power, sufferings of Yemenis in wars, plight of orphans of Syria. These Letters to the Editors and comments were published in newspapers in India and abroad like The New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek International, Times UK, The Telegraph UK, The Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), The National (UAE), Dawn (Pakistan), Khaleej Times (UAE), Arab News (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Gulf Daily News (Bahrain), The Times of India, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, Financial Express, Business Standard, The Statesman, Hindustan Times, India Today, Economic & Political Weekly, etc. The newspapers were generous to publish about 3,500 letters by me on developmental economics, politics, status of women, children, sports, movies, etc. The letters covered global pains like poverty, hunger, corruption, wars, deaths, refugees, sanitation and also giddy subjects like films, music, etc. I also include in this book, the annual review article, which I write every year, making political, economic, social, technological predictions for the forthcoming year. I hope this Book will inspire ordinary citizens like me, to make their apprehensive voices heard. Even one voice, a simple word, can make a difference in our embattled and often unjust, world. We can Never Give Up. Ever.
