I've always wondered -- will India continue to exist as a nation state 10 years down the line? Coming to think of it, there is nothing really that can bind this country together. Where is the common language, common history, common religion, common food and common customs? The more I travel, the more differences I see. The north, is so vastly different from the south. As much as the east is from the west. Which is why, when I came across news reports that spoke of how the four South India states were trying to form a federation along the lines of an economic union, I thought my worst fears were coming true. That the Balakanization of India had begun.

Having said that, I must also confess that there is another world view -- one that another part of me subscribes to. That for all its idiosyncrasies, this country will survive. Not just survive, but flourish. Shekhar Gupta, editor in chief of The Indian Express articulated why in his brilliantly written column National Interest in today morning's edition of the newspaper. Read on .....

The best part about being a journalist is simply that you have a ringside view of history as it unfolds. What a privlege it is!!! I say that now because a while ago, I stumbled on Emergic. So what really is Emergic?

Says Rajesh Jain, the man who has pioneered the effort: " Emergic is about creating a software platform which brings down costs of technology by a factor of 10, thus making it affordable for consumers and enterprises in the world’s emerging markets."

So why am I being so effusive about the whole thing? Well, let me start right at the beginning. Rajesh Jain was among the first people in India to figure out the potential of the Internet along with early adopters like Rediff and The Indian Express group of newspapers. Unlike the both of them, however, Rajesh exited when the going was still good. That was sometime in November 1999. I was there, watching the whole thing unfold as Rajesh catapulted from a relative nobody into India's first dot com millionaire.

Quite honestly, as much as I appreciated Rajesh's acumen, I also thought it was a stupid deal and savaged the whole thing in a later column. Since then, I've only met with Rajesh briefly at various events. However, I've tried to keep a close track of what Rajesh does. I guess journalistic instinct at work. My guts tell me there's another big story waiting to be told about Rajesh. And that the earlier dot com deal was only the tip of the iceberg.

After all these years, I now see Emergic. I haven't gone into the innards of it all. I can tell you this much -- this is an idea whose time has come. My wanderings over the last couple of years along the coridoors of Indian technology tell me this is the kind of idea India has been waiting for. If Rajesh and his team pulls it off, he'll do two things. One, he'll change the course of computing in India. And two, he'll be India's first Linux billionaire.

On 25 April 2003, a Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet published photos of armed US soldiers forcing Iraqi men to walk naked through a park. For an English translation of the report, log on to The Memory Hole. Scrawled on their chests an Arabic phrase that roughly translates into "Ali Baba - Thief." A military officer quoted in the report said those men were thieves and that this technique would be used again to dissuade potential trouble makers.

Fair enough. Now, why don't the damn Americans mete out the same treatment to their comrades who stole $13.1 million in Iraq. Or the journalists who looted Iraq's art for that matter?