Men may come and men may go .......

I started writing my diary at 14 years of age . Since then a lot of changes have taken place in my life ,in my country and in the wide world.

I went through the rumble and tumble of a teenager's life,studied hard ,graduated in Law then on getting married settled down to domesticity and reared two children two adulthood.

India witnessed a succession of elections and a variety of Prime ministers . Two decades back the Congress party that was ruling India since independence did a U turn from its socialistic policies and liberalized the economy. There after a tremendous economic development was witnessed that catapulted a old,sick poor and tottering nation on to the exalted platform shared only by the rich nations of the world.

In the out side world tumultuous events took place. The citadel of communism USSR broke up and western democracy was supplanted in its place. the eye ball to eye ball confrontation between the soviets and the US at the height of the cold war was replaced by a warm handshake of friendship.The wall separating East and West Germany for decades was broken.Beijing suddenly transformed from a city of bicycles to a sea of cars.The highly westernized Iranian
population known for their stylish dressing suddenly switched over to burkhas and the men started sporting long beards. Apartheid that had a monstrous hold over S .Africa melted away under Mandela ,with the Whites and Blacks starting to live amicably side by side .North and South Vietnam rejoined after decades of being in war with one another.And a black man is for the first time in the history of the US is holding the reigns at the white house!

A sea of changes and catastrophic turmoils were witnessed all over the world,in India and in my life .

Despite all these changes one thing has remained comfortingly constant.When I was 14 years old our sworn enemy was Pakistan and now when I am past 50 the enemy is still the same old Pakistan.The conventional wars of the earlier years have been substituted by terror attacks by the enemy from across the borders , right into the heart of our country only to be countered by loud rhetoric's ,hectic diplomacy and threats of surgical air strikes by our politicians on and off.

Thus one thing that has stood the test of time and has stood strong and firm as the rock of 'Gibraltar' amidst all these churnings in individual life,society ,politics and economy is the stead fast enmity between India and Pakistan!

The lines of the poem 'Brook' that immediately comes to my mind is--''Men may come and men may go but I will go on forever''!