Is the 'Cold War' Over?

Is the cold war over? Well for anyone with a little bit of access to media briefings at the recently concluded Aero India 2009 Show, could get to see the 20 year old famous 'Cold War' tactics being used by USA and Russia to get the 450,000 corers rupees or 1000 billion dollar contract for 125 medium sized fighter jets which the Indian Union plans on ordering to upgrade it's Air Force strength and capability to strike with precision and speed. In these times of recession, the USA which has started to face the heat and Russia which is facing a slide down on their economy for more than a decade, this offer looks like a boon from the bolt.

Lockheed Martin which owns the F-16 Super Viper jets were holding an media briefing soon after their competitor Mikoyan the owners of MIG 35 had held one at the same venue in the media center. One of the Russian journalist stayed back while the rest of them walked out along with the Russian Ambassador to India along with the top brass of the MIG 35 company. As the other Indian media were settling into their chairs two of the top brass of the Lockheed Martin officials were seen arguing with Olga Pospelova of the Russian Aviation magazine and demanding that she leave the hall as her ID card issued did not match the one of the other media persons present in the hall.Though she pleaded that this was the card she was issued by the organizing authorities which fell on deaf ears and later she was escorted out with an bouncer on her tail.

Through these moments I kept framing the sequence of her being shouted at and later escorted out. As a journalist I quickly thought that what happened to the freeze on the 'Cold War' between the two countries. Well money they say can buy anything and now it is time for the cold war between the USA and Russia to fall prey to it.


The Lockheed Martin owned F-16 Super Viper (left) burns smoke over the Bangalore skies as Mikoyan owned MIG-35 (right) speeds past an flag at the Aero India Show 2009 at Yelanka Air Force base on 12th February, 2009.



Who says the cold war is over, it has started to heat up again with this multi billion dollar pending order for 125 fighter jets by the Indian government. The cold war was at it's warmest at the Aero India Show 2009. An sequence of the Russian Aviation Magazine representative Olga Pospelova being first asked by the representatives of the Lockheed Martin to kindly leave, and later escorted away to the door during an media briefing by the US defense company at the Yelanka Air force base in Bangalore on Friday, 13th February, 2009.

Riding in the Rain

This picture of the couple riding in the appeared in the Times of India - Bangalore edition page 1, in the month of March 11, 1990. It so happened that I was walking down MG Road, when my eyes caught these couple whizzing through the traffic. To my luck I had my Canon FT QL SLR film camera, with a normal lens. Until I developed the film I could not guess that the panning image was made, since I tried this shot for the first.

What’s a little rain after all? If you have an umbrella, a ride on a two-wheeler is the thing just to feel the cool and cleansed air swishing past you. This couple, like other Bangaloreans, welcomed the early morning rains on Saturday which brought the mercury level in the city.

Fruitless Fight

The picture below happened when I was roaming the streets of the City Market looking for some standalone, when suddenly I saw a few Bangalore City Corporation men (now Bruhath Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike), trying to snatch all the illegal pavement sellers of fruits and other perishable items. What moved me in this image was the pain the daily bread winner had to go through to ensure that his living is not stolen away. This picture was used in the Times of India, Bangalore edition in 1991.

A lawbreaker in City Market hangs on for dear life, as a Bangalore city corporation employee takes a pot shot at his means of earning his daily bread.

Rocket Man - Rakesh Sharma

During the Bangalore Mirror – 'Devana Yelli', group discussion to solve the connectivity problem between the Bangalore city and the Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli, 35 kilometers away from the city I took an chance to get his autograph on the Bangalore Mirror edition with an picture of an plan flying past showing the belly of the aero plane. Rakesh Sharma obliged and also spoke about how great he felt being on the space and looking at his mother India from there. This page will be an memorabilia for me along with various other personalities whose autographs are with me.

Former astronaut Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma at the stakeholders & decision maker's discussion on the airport connectivity titled 'Devana Yelli', at the Taj West End hotel in Bangalore on Saturday 3rd May 2008.(left) The autographed page of Bangalore Mirror.

Few Hours with Jeffery Archer

I had heard of this great writer Jeffery Archer and the one book which I liked one of his books titled 'Fourth Estate', which pertains to the present industry I am working with. It showed the dirty politics which still takes place in these times too. So I went there for the exclusive interview with the book to his autograph on it. But after reaching the hotel to my surprise my colleague Smitha Rao (then with Bangalore Mirror) as usual arrived 45 minutes late, only to get the anger seething from the author. Jeffery told us that our 30 minutes were down to 5 minutes. While waiting for the reporter to come so that we could start our session the Bangalore Times was finishing their interview and the photographer took Jeffery outside in the lawns for a shoot, so I just took two frames as a back up since he was upset with our great female reporter who had not yet arrived for the chit chat.
After 10 minutes of waiting and the BT team gone my colleague arrives and puts a show to the PRO as though she had just finished a marathon race. Jeffery was called, and he looks at his watch and says you guys have three minutes to finish your interview.
As I started to take pictures Jeffery started at me and immediately the PR walked up to me and told me that he does not like to be photographed when talking to someone. So I move across to a close by chair plunk myself and stare at the walls like a lunatic. But then I started to use the zoom lens to my advantage and took some very mood filled pictures which was to my luck better than what the BT photographer had arranged for. Well as it turned out that Jeffery some how took a liking to this reporter or was he whiling away his time so that he could get for lunch from the portico rather than go back to his room and walk back for the lunch at the restaurant. Soon after he finished his interview he said that now I am ready for the pictures to be taken, to which I asked him to pose with a Hindu goddess at the portico. Jeffery obliged and later when he went back to sit I asked him if could autograph my book and he said why not, but after I freshen up a bit. As he came out the PR lady who had my book to be autographed gave it to him and he wrote ‘to dear Victor’, later when someone told him it was the wrong name, Jeffery wrote Sorry Shiva, and also as I went to collect my book Jeffery said that in all his life he is writing the word sorry for the first time in any his of fans book. Well sorry or no sorry I had met the man named Jeffery Archer, who moved me through his 'Fourth Estate'.

Jeffery Archer poses for the Bangalore Times - Photographer after an Interview to them in Bangalore on 24th May 2008.

Jeffery Archer making a face to show that he is not comfortable being photographed while giving an interview to the Bangalore Mirror on 24th May, 2008.

Using the Zoom to my liking I took some of the candid pictures of Jeffery Archer from different angles, which he looked at later on my viewfinder to say 'very good Images'.

Soon after the interview Jeffery Archer got up and suddenly to give an bear hug to the reporter even as he made an comment 'I love Indian woman'.

This one is for the Album as Jeffery Archer poses with Indian Gods at the Portico of the Oberio Hotel in Bangalore on 24th May 2008.

The Fourth Estate book of mine which Jeffery Archer had autographed with the wrong name and then wrote sorry with my name right above the title. Later he told me that he was writing the word 'Sorry' for the first time to anyone and repents for not asking me my name before autographing the book.

Jhabua the Land of Tribe's

Jhabua is a predominantly tribal district located in the western part of Madhya Pradesh. It is surrounded by Panchamahal and Baroda districts of Gujrat, Banswara district of Rajasthan and Dhar and Ratlam districts of Madhya Pradesh. River Narmada forms the southern boundary of the district.

The terrain is hilly, undulating typically known as 'Jhabua hills topography'. In this Jhabua hill topography the difference between the highest and the lowest points is varies between 20 to 50 meters. But this difference goes on increasing as we move towards south of Jhabua.

In Alirajpur division which is in the south of Jhabua the areas is almost entire hilly and intersected by narrow valleys and low Vindhayan ranges covered with jungles. But most part of Jhabua is without any forest cover because of low fertility of land and soil erosion even mere existence becomes a hard problem and with the failure of rains the Bhils take to crime.
Jhabua is sparsely populated area with the total population of 13.94 lakhs.

The total area is 6793 Sq Kms. There are about 1313 inhabited villages. Out of which 47 per cent of the people live below the poverty line. Thus, Jhabua is an overwhelmingly tribal and poor district. The district is devoid of vegetation cover except Katthiwada and other patches and is full of undulated, hilly areas.


The area suffers from poor and skeletal soils with shallow to very shallow depth and erratic rainfall , high temperature . This area has two tribes named the Bhil and Bhilala.

BHIL Tribe
The Bhils are the third largest tribe in India. In the state of Madhya Pradesh, they are prominently found in the Dhar, Jhabua, and West Nimar regions. Anthropologists believe that the word Bhil is derived from the Dravidian word bil or vil, meaning a bow.

Over a period of time, the Bhils have given up hunting, and have taken to agriculture. They use very primitive tools, and even their agricultural style is very simplistic.

Bhil villages are generally dispersed, and each village consists of thirty to forty families. They worship numerous Hindu deities, chiefly a deity by the name of Raja Pantha. Bhils also worship crops, fields, water, the forest, and the mountains.


The Bhil dialect consists of Rajsthani, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi words, and also some unique words without any non-Sanskrit elements in it. Sawang is a popular form of entertainment among the Bhil tribals that consists of story telling combined with dancing and music. In the 1940s Uday Shankar tried to expose the performing arts of this tribe to the outside world.

Bhilala
Bhilala tribe is a tribal group located in the states of western and central India. They speak the Bhilala language which belongs to the Indo-Aryan linguistic family. The Bhilalas are descendants of the Bhil and Rajput immigrants.


The Bhilalas primarily work as farmers, farm servants, field laborers, and village watchmen. They grow crops such as millet, maize, wheat, and barley in the fields. The highlanders live in houses made with walls of sticks intertwined with twigs and small branches. Clay tiles, straw and leaves are used for the roof.

Each village is led by a head man, Mandoi, who takes care of the domestic disputes in his village. Familial ties are very strong, and they believe in the connection between the living and the dead. Male descendants inherit the property. The Bhilalas marry from their own class. For marrying into a different class, they have to convert to the higher class and leave behind all family ties. The Bhagoria festival of the Bhilala and other tribes in this area is unique in its own way.


This annual festival is celebrated with great fun and frolic, where a young man gets a chance to choose his bride from the crowd of women gathered there. The groom has to pay a dowry to the brides parents.

Bhilalas are known for their colorful, embroidered garments. Tattooing is very common among the villagers. Bhilalas love dance, drama, and music. They practice some type of ethnic religion. Hindu gods are worshipped commonly but catholic Bhilalas are known to exist in some states. Every family has its own guardian deity. Bhilalas are very superstitious and they believe in taboos and curses.

The Bhilalas are experts in handling the bow and arrow. The bow is a characteristic weapon of this tribe and they usually carry their bows and arrows with them. But with the change in technology they have started to use the double barrel guns.







The transport to these villages is by overloaded buses, jeeps, cycles and of course our last stretch will be by foot. Get ready to lose some weight if you do plan to visit these traibal of Jhabua but anyway one can still stay high on their toddy.

Fast Fingers -Zakir Hussain

This picture was carried in the Dainik Bhaskar group's - Bhopal, Indore along with other 40 editions across the North India. Divya Bhaskar edition also carried the image. It so happened that I was anchoring the RNA- wing of the Dainik Bhaskar after taking my VRS from the Hindustan Times and since Abhilash Khandekar - The Bhopal Editor, who knew me from the HT days asked me to cover the event. I obliged and enjoyed an evening with the ustad in one of his good mood. Since he was also going to stay overnight in Bhopal I quickly went and got an print made so that the next morning I could get it autographed.

Zakir was in Bhopal to Perform in an Charity event organized by the Gundecha brothers who wanted to get some money together for their dream academy 'Dhrupad Gurukul', on the outskirts of Bhopal. Since I knew the Gundecha brothers who are very close to Abhilash Khandekar had arranged an breakfast meeting with the maestro.