EVACUATION// India breathed a sigh of relief as the total number of Indian evacuees from war-ravaged Yemen touched 4,000. They were rescued in three air sorties and naval ships before the government decided to end the air evacuation operation. The smooth opeartion has won praise from many for the Modi government. While 600 people were rescued by state carrier Air India, over 100 others were being evacuated from Al Hudaydah by INS Turkish.

India initially struggled for days during the rescue effort, with planes from Air India sitting idle in Muscat as negotiations for a safe air corridor were on with the Saudis. Things started to look better with the deployment of MoS for External Affairs General VK Singh to a forward operations base in Djibouti from where Indian Air Force C-17 transporters picked up evacuees brought out by Air India from Aden and flying them home. India later received requests from 26 countries including the US, Bangladesh and Iraq for assistance in evacuating their nationals from the strife-torn country. Although Pakistan did not seek such help, India reached out to it too for the operation and earned kudos for its initiative. This in turn earned kudos. Many of the rescued people were nurses and workers who were trapped in Yemen when the war suddenly broke out, as Al Qaeda militants broke into Mukalla’s prison to free one of their local leaders and striking one of the border posts.

Some Indians were reluctant to leave even in the face of danger because losing their jobs would spell financial crisis back home.

SCAM// Former chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. B Ramalinga Raju and nine others, two of them family members, were sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment on April 9 in the country’s largest-ever corporate fraud. Although Raju cited social service in plea for leniency, the special court found him guilty for various offences and sentenced them to imprisonment for different periods besides imposing fines of Rs 5.5 crore each on Raju and his brother Rama Raju, ex-managing director of the company. Raju’s meteoric rise had made him a household name among stock market investors before he confessed to fudging his company accounts on January 7, 2009. Raju has already spent nearly 29 months in jail.

APPOINTMENT// In its working committee meet in Kolkata on April 26, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has expressed its desire to appoint the legendary trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid as advisors on all cricketrelated matters. The BCCI decided to seek the approval of the three cricket legends on the matter. The Board wants the cricketers to advise it on all important cricketing matters, including the appointment of national coach. Earlier, Ganguly and Dravid were being seen as candidates to replace Duncan Fletcher as the next coach of Team India as his contract was over after the ICC World Cup.

Their possible appointment as advisors might mean they are no long in contention for the top job. Their expertise is considered valuable as the three cricketers who together served Indian cricket on the field for decades and are known as the stalwarts of Indian cricket.

RESIGNATION// The board of directors at United Spirits Ltd has asked promoter and chairman Vijay Mallya to resign from the board after an internal probe alleged the liquor baron may have been involved in financial irregularities at India’s largest liquor company. Anand Kripalu, who led the internal probe was appointed as CEO last year by Diageo Plc., the majority shareholder in United Spirits. Vijay Mallya hit back saying he will not resign as a director of United Spirits and criticized both Diageo and PwC, which helped with the probe. “I have been flooded with media queries of different types, inferences and speculation,” he stated. “All I wish to say is that I intend to continue as chairman of USL in the normal manner.”

DEATH// An Indian farmer, Gajendra Singh from Dausa, Rajasthan, died after hanging from a tree before a huge crowd at a rally being addressed by the chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal. He was rushed to the hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead. Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had staged the rally in Delhi to protest against Modi’s controversial Land Acquisition Bill. While the opponents of the bill say it will hurt the interests of farmers, the government says it will boost the economy. The bill was passed in the lower house of parliament last month but has not yet been approved by the upper house, where Modi’s BJP is in minority. Since 1995, more than 300,000 Indian farmers have killed themselves because of debts.

TRAGEDY// A migrant ship carrying as many as 950 people capsized in the Mediterranean Sea, north of Libya and south of the Italian island of Lampedusa on April 19. Italian prosecutors said a Bangladeshi survivor flown to Sicily for treatment told them 950 people were aboard, including hundreds who had been locked in the hold by smugglers. Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat labeled the disaster the “biggest human tragedy of the last few years”.

The 66-foot vessel may have overturned because migrants rushed to one side of the craft late at night when they saw an approaching Portuguese-flagged container ship, the King Jacob, which was sent to the area by Italy’s Coast Guard. The ship’s crew immediately deployed rescue boats, gangway, nets and life rings and later 28 other ships joined the rescue effort, but only 28 survivors and 24 bodies were pulled from the water by nightfall

TENNIS// Indian tennis player Sania Mirza made history by becoming the first Indian woman to become the No 1 doubles player in the world. She, along with partner, Martina Hingis (herself a former world no 1 in singles) won the WTA Family Circle Cup in the United States and this win gave Sania the points to go to the top of the table. Mirza and Hingis have had a great run since they paired up in March. The WTA Family Circle Cup is the third title they have won in a row and the pair has not lost a single tournament. For Sania, the past 12 months have been full of high moments. She won the US Open in 2014, followed by the Asian Games gold medal and the year-end WTA title. Hingis, who retired from playing tennis singles in 2007, is having an incredible run with Indian partners. She won the Australian Open mixed doubles title in January 2015 with Leander Paes and is now playing extremely well with Sania Mirza in the women’s doubles events.

As if studying in a world-class university isn’t an experience enriching enough, that it is in Ireland, the country that reminds you of your roots and also opens itself up to discovery, makes it priceless

many more popular European countries, might seem a little strange. I mean, why go to a country relatively unheard of, when most academically-inclined students flock to the UK and the US? A majority of the students don’t consider Ireland as an option because, not surprisingly, it’s a matter of pride for parents to say, “Hamara beta toh ji London mein padhta hai”.

Somehow, in India, it’s a trend to go to places that are heard of and talked about in elite social circles. It’s not the same for me — I’ve always wanted to go to places less commercial, less advertised and, hence more real, fresher.

At the same time, it has been my aspiration to not just study abroad but also to experience new cultures and experience a different way of life. At first, it did seem like a daunting decision, I confess. I thought I was falling for a trap and choosing a place based on what was popular. I was torn between studying in England and Ireland. In the end, however, Ireland it was. This decision was made easier because I was offered a scholarship. I got even luckier when I was enrolled into one of the most sought-after masters programme in the country in the prestigious UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, Dublin. The Masters in Marketing Practice here is a unique programme that offers graduates to work for companies in the capacity of marketing advisor, hence providing them with the opportunity of gaining both work experience and a degree of high repute. The best part of this programme is that I am the first Indian to be a part of the prestigious course and the only desi in my batch of 41.

I vividly remember my first day at the college. I was scared and nervous. Nervous because I thought I’ll never be able to understand the Irish accent, scared because I didn’t want to be labeled as a “conservative, shy and quiet” Indian even before anybody got to know me. Well, that soon changed once people heard me making feminist statements in regard to the anorexic Victoria’s Secret models. My extrovert and adaptable personality led me to make excellent friends of people who had always been sceptical of Indian culture. I was soon labeled as the Irish girl with heaps of fake tan.

There are just too many instances of how popular India and its offerings are in that part of the world. I was surprised to the see the influence of Indian culture on this remote tiny island. Almost everybody loved curries more than I did. They would wait for Curry Day in the canteen and always ordered a curry in when dining out. Often, I would be the only one tucking into a plate of chicken breast with cream and mushroom, while my Irish friends would lap up their chicken curry (In its most authentic spicy taste).

It’s not jut the Indian culture but also Bollywood and Indian movies my friends were interested in. In my first week of college I remember showing my friends how to dance to the song “Radha” from the movie Student of the Year. To my amazement, they picked the Bollywood steps really fast. From that day onwards all they would talk about was saving some money to come attend my big fat Indian wedding.

I also remember this one time when on a night out, all my Irish friends ransacked my bindi collection, wore them and got plenty of pictures clicked. Not just my classmates but nearly all Europeans I had an interaction with expressed a desire to visit India in their lifetime. It hardly comes as a surprise then that the movie The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was a big hit in Ireland, staying in the cinemas for over three weeks. It was even screened in my university’s carnival! My Irish host family recorded the first part of the movie as well as a new show called Indian Summers based on the British rule over India. She would almost always watch cookery shows where the chef would travel to India in search of Indian cooking secrets.

An Irish friend of mine, Aimee, had been to Kolkata to volunteer. She was so inspired after interacting with the street children in the city that she is now organising a fundraising event with a charity that works towards the welfare of these underprivileged children in Calcutta.

This one time I needed a saree for an Indian Ball and didn’t have one with me (neither did any of my Indian friends), Aimee came to the rescue. She was kind enough to lend me a lovely bright blue silk saree she’d bought from India. In fact, she gave me plenty of options to pick from! Needless to say, my other Irish girlfriends were eager to try it on and pose, too.

I can mention so many other incidents that make me feel belonged in this country. I’m constantly reminded of my roots even as I experience the Irish way of life. I’ve found a home away from home in Ireland. I’ve travelled to every part of this beautiful island and every bit of it resonates with me. As I write this, I am thinking about the beautiful County of Donegal where the hills merge with the Atlantic Ocean and the Cliffs of Slieve League make you experience a new world altogether. If given a chance I would pick the same country, the same college and the same programme all over again. I wish this opportunity of studying abroad and experiencing a new culture on every single person. I hope that someday, all Indian students realise the value of taking the road less travelled because it sure has changed my life. I fall more and more in love with this mysterious island with every passing day.

Right here! Right now! Live and Breaking!

We may be tired of hearing these words on primetime news programming with each passing day, but the lure of the real-time is undeniable. Be it a live stage performance or a cricket match, everyone loves being right there, in the moment, as it happens. So it’s no surprise a couple of apps — adorably named Meerkat and Periscope — which bring the power of live-streaming right from your mobile phone are all the rage on social media these days, with “meerkating” and “periscoping” fast becoming the latest social media buzzwords. That’s right — anything from your mundane dinner proceedings to that blow-your-mind bungee jump — if you can see it, you can broadcast it!

If you’ve missed the news wave about Meerkat and Periscope, here’s a quick rundown for the uninitiated: Meerkat and Periscope are iPhone apps that let you live-stream video of whatever it is you’re doing, directly from your phone to your Twitter followers — think video selfies or video feeds of whatever your phone camera can see, no matter where you are, what you’re doing and for how long. It’s the ability to do all this right from your phone that’s the really big deal — just ask anyone who’s grappled with the technical challenges of live-streaming an event to an audience. In all fairness, Google’s Hangouts on Air feature started the trend a few years ago, but with Meerkat and Periscope, live-streaming’s gone mainstream, so that just about anyone with a Twitter account and a smart phone can host what is, effectively, their own show in real-time. Think about it — until recently, the only options used to be to record something live from your phone and then push it out on your social networks via Vine or Instagram, after the event. Apart from simplifying livestreaming for non-geeks, both apps also allow direct engagement with the broadcaster, where viewers can ask questions or comment on the video, which the video creator can then respond to.

Both apps have a lot in common – they have a live feed of current broadcasts, with Meerkat showing you the people you are following on its home screen, while Periscope displays a list of broadcasts from all users. Both offer comments as feedback mechanism, and both integrate to Twitter to push out notifications to your followers that you’re broadcasting. One crucial difference though: Periscope has been recently acquired by Twitter and in good ol’ competitive spirit, Meerkat’s ability to import Twitter contacts has been restricted and you have to add folks you want to follow manually (as opposed to Periscope’s nifty import feature that lets you bring in your Twitter contacts in a jiffy!) They’re both only available on the iPhone, but Meerkat’s on the verge of pushing out an Android version as well.

Separated at birth, then? Not exactly — there’s much to tell both these apps apart, and one of these distinguishing features is likely to sway you towards one app or the other. Meerkat, for instance, lets you schedule a broadcast. So if you’re planning an event, folks who follow you will get notified about the scheduled event. Periscope lets you turn on GPS location, Meerkat does not. Private broadcasts — being able to pick specific users to stream to — is only available in Periscope, so it’s a lot more suited for family events or private moments that you wouldn’t want to be broadcast to all your followers. Periscope’s killer feature though, is replay of live streams within a 24-hour window — particularly useful if your followers can’t tune in to an event at the right time but might still find the content useful. No such option on Meerkat, although broadcasters can save the show to their phone’s gallery for sharing later. Finally, Periscope has Twitter’s backing in the battle for livestreaming supremacy, so if you’re going to take a bet on which app will better integrate with your Twitter experience going forward… it’s an obvious choice.

No matter which app you choose, the possibilities that Meerkat and Periscope open up are exciting for businesses and individuals alike. Putting live video into the hands of users with an easy way to broadcast opens up all sorts of possibilities for how we share and view content. Take me, for instance. I get to attend tech events and the latest gadget launches, and both apps are a great way for letting me bring my Twitter followers in on the experience of attending the show. Consider the following use cases — I’m pretty sure more than one will appeal to you.

Business meetings

Turn on the private sharing feature in Periscope, and you could have field sales personnel report back to the head office with a location report, or have the folks in headquarters broadcast their meetings across branch offices spread across the country.

Children’s events

Why should distance stop families from seeing when the kids walk up on to the stage to receive an award, or when they deliver that awesome dance performance? This would be a great option for traveling parents to be there in the moment.

Weddings and family functions

Let’s face facts, not everyone can attend every family function, and Periscope would be a great way to privately stream the event to friends and family across the world. Even the mundane — a live cooking lesson from mother to a recently-moved-out son or daughter — would be so much better in real-time!

Live concerts and street performances

This is borderline illegal, but given how much concert footage gets recorded anyway, it’s a pretty spectacular way to share a concert with friends and followers who aren’t able to attend. It’d be heavy on your data connection if you plan to live-stream the whole event, though.

Citizen journalism

Armed with a cellphone, folks such as you or I could start broadcasting when an event unfolds in front of us — bringing attention to those who need it, or for causes that matter.

Doctor visits

Immensely useful if you wish to include out-of-town family into a doctor consultation for an elder, where there is a need to share information and ask questions in real-time.

Digital marketing

Use it for behind the scenes videos, tutorials or event broadcasts — how your brand leverages these apps and integrates them into your overall marketing/ social strategy is really up to you. Just remember that since this is live, work to a plan (and a script) else you’ll start losing followers instead.

Sepoys and sowars fighting and dying for the alien colonial regime do not go well with the dominant discourse, which emphasises the anti-colonial struggle

Amongst A body of cinema buffs there is a view that of the films made after World War I, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), adapted from a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, and Paths of Glory (1957) adapted from Humphrey Cobb’s novel by the same name, are generally held to be accurate, realistic depictions of the Great War. All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Lewis Milestone, speaks of the horrors of war from the German perspective, while Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick, depicts the events leading up to and following the refusal of a regiment of the French army to continue a suicidal attack on the Germans.

Considering our inadequacies of knowledge about the role, range and magnitude of participation by troops from the Indian subcontinent in the First World War, the enormous interest generated on this subject in Europe has touched us deeply. Several Indian publications have brought out extensive coverages in the anniversary year of the commencement of the Great War, as it was known when it unfolded. Amongst those, one by Outlook stands out. Despite the valiant attempts, however, one sees an acute paucity of authorship from the Indian sub-continent on the subject, although several historians and scholars of Indian origin as part of academia abroad have contributed. In this backdrop, one is distressed to observe that the role and contribution of India is often forgotten, although India contributed immensely to the war efforts in terms of both men and material. Indian soldiers served with credit and honour in numerous battlefields around the globe: in France and Belgium; in Aden, Arabia; East Africa; Gallipoli; Egypt; Mesopotamia; Palestine; Persia; Salonica; Russia; and even in China. They earned over 9,200 decorations for gallantry, including 11 Victoria Crosses. These figures include the contribution of over 26,000 Imperial Service troops who were part of the Indian State Forces.

We in India are, thus, blameworthy of ignoring the contribution of our kin and forefathers, albeit as part of the British Army, towards the sustenance of the British Empire and for the perpetuation of the British Raj in India. We chose not to remember that from the Indian population of 325 million people, about 1.7 million which included 1.1 million combatants and 6,00,000 labour, had sailed to fight in the war. Nearly 62,000 of them did not return and died, and another 67,000 were wounded. In total, at least 74,187 Indian soldiers died during the war. In hindsight, scholars have attempted to explain this gross act of omission by India’s intellectual milieu. Let me present a few extracts from the Collector’s edition published by the Outlook magazine on this issue.

Eugene Rogan, Associate Professor of Modern History of the Middle East; and Fellow of the Middle East Centre, St Anthony’s College, Oxford University, goes on to say: “Given the very great number of Indian men who served as soldiers, noncombatants and labourers in the First World War, it is all the more surprising how little we know about their war experiences. Unlike soldiers in Europe and the Middle East, there have been very few diaries, journals or memoirs published by Indian soldiers and officers. Scholars are working actively to fill this gap. Santanu Das in the University of London, and David Omissi in Hull, have each contributed new sources, including letters and diaries, written by Indian soldiers. Yet the quantity of material correctly available represents an insignificant proportion of the Indian men who lived, fought, suffered and in many cases died in the Great War. In this season of remembrance of the Great War, given their numbers, the fronts on which they fought, and the hardship they suffered, no account of the Great War is complete that neglects the role of the Indian forces.”

Kaushik Roy, Professor of History in Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and Global Fellow Peace Research, Oslo, Norway writes: “However, historians have been unkind to Indian army’s role. British and American scholars consider the Indian army as minor footnote in their account of the gargantuan struggles between the Allied and German armies in Europe. For them, the Indian army was a colonial police force not suited for conducting large scale attrition warfare. And Indian civilian historians have never shown much interest in matters military. Sepoys and sowars fighting and dying for the alien colonial regime do not go well with the dominant discourse which emphasises the anticolonial struggle. Higher educational institutions are also not willing to sponsor military history of the First World War for fear of militarising India’s culture. India still lacks an official history of the First World War. The Indian army’s histories usually utilised retired military historians to write “drums and button” narratives, which are not taken seriously by professional historians.”

Much of the curtain over Indian contribution is seemingly lifting as enthusiastic Indian researchers are pitched into the fray. It is believed that “The media (source of information) worked under heavy censorship since the freedom of the Press was largely an alien concept at the time of World War I. The Press was often used therefore, as a tool of propaganda. Each nation employed its media to generate a positive image of the state. The Press played a very crucial role in motivating innocent, virginal men, with a misguided sense of patriotism, to join the war. Between 1914 and 1919 there were three categories of journalists — the official reporters, the ‘free press’ and the amateur journos or the soldiers reporting from the trenches. The official reporters were the only ones allowed access to a battle-field and the official photographs were the primary source of images from the battle-fields”.

Margaret L Pachuau, Associate Professor, Department of English, Mizoram University, further brings to light a virtually unrecorded historical reality that, “The Great War had had tremendous impact upon the Mizos who were inhabitants of what was then known as the Lushai hills. Despite belonging to a predominantly tribal ethos that was bereft of literacy and decidedly under the impact of colonial umbrella, the Mizos were active participants in the war, having voyaged even in the farflung horizons of France during the war. With as many as over 2,000 Mizos participating in the war, sent as they were under the colonial rule, the Great War became the genesis of the formulation of a more coherent global identity for an inherently tribal community.”

The story of a motley group of four valiant Indian men who had participated in the British air campaigns as members of the Royal Flying Corps is exhilarating. They were Indra Lal Roy — the first Indian Combat pilot to win the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC); Hardit Singh Malik (eminent golfer and diplomat, subsequently); S C Welinkar; and E S C Sen. Somnath Sapru’s extremely engaging narrative about the verve and joie-de-vivre of these pioneers of Indian combat aviation in his book Sky Hawks would be most rewarding to the readers.