Delhi's famed 17th centuiry Red Fort has been selected by UNESCO to be on the World Heritage List.

I am really thrilled about this as the authorities in Delhi have been taking special care to maintain the Fort, which is one of the main symbols of India.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/jun/28red.htm

Why don't we rename Global Gallery as Slobal Gallery?

I wonder why on earth TIG is taking so long to approve pictures. It's much easier to post pictures on sites like Facebook and Flickr but I still want to put up pics on global gallery as I feel it's a good way of enhancing TIG's collection. It's too bad that TIG doesn't share my sentiments...

New York City was a tough place to go to school in. The schools, like the streets, were mean and wild in the 1980s.

There was one kid that came to my school when I was in the 5th grade, by the time I gained acceptance in class. "Peter" was an eccentric guy who was pretty nice 30% of the time but the rest of the time alternated between being a pinhead and a judgemental Christian fanatic.

The guy could never hold his own in a fight and would cry like a wimp even when he fought kids 2 to 3 years younger than he was.

The mean little rascal used to always start the fights and always lose.

Well, one day while browsing the net, I ended up seeing his blog and woah, it's been since 1991 since I have seen that guy and he still seems to be suffering from some sort of wounds that I inflicted on him..

Check out what he wrote (sic) in January of this year..

"Monday, January 29, 2007

4:50 PM - Hello, Self Confidence!
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Life

On my face there lived a mole. It was a round mole. It was brown. It stuck out like a sore thumb on the landscape of my face. Most kids have acne growing up. I had a large ugly brown mole right above my right eye. Acne goes away. Moles do not.

I remember Ajay constantly taunting me about it in 5th, 6th, and 7th grades in Flushing Christian School. I remember him wanting to play connect-the-dots with that mole and the two smaller ones right below my lip (cleverly hidden behind my goatee today). I remember him always saying how he wanted to take the needle of his compass (mathematical - not directional), stick it in the mole and flip my face upside down."

What gives with such people! I have an excellent memory and don't remember taunting this wimp about the mole except once in the 5th grade when he was creating an issue about a wart I had on my finger. The whole school used to call him Jupiter Butt as his enormous derriere looked like it stuck out till Jupiter..

Such clowns would be better off with treatment later than never.

Peter, by the way, left our school after the 7th grade, making the whole class very happy. He moved to Florida but our joy was short-lived when he came back 2 months into the 8th grade. His family moved all the way back to New York from Florida because Peter got expelled from school for getting into a fight!! His old home in New York was actually turned into a mental assylum (No Jokes)

2 months after Peter annoyed the hell out of a mature and close-knit set of 8th graders, he moved to Long Island.

That was the year that we all graduated from Flushing Christian School and the post-Peter era was the best we all experienced as a class.

This is the editorial in this week's issue of the Sakhalin Times

The Russian Government’s coercive tactics to take control of the Sakhalin II project hasn’t gone very well with the international business community. While it’s the government’s right to protect its interests (and the environment), the manner in which it went about the Gazprom “takeover” of the Sakhalin II project was unbecoming. Starting with the dismantling of Yukos, the government has been on a collision course with international companies operating in the oil and gas industry. In just 3 years, Russia’s image has taken the kind of pounding that would have been unthinkable in the post-Cold War era.

Despite membership (and presidency) of the Group of 8 industrialised and democratic nations, Russia has maintained several relics of the dark past such as an unreformed judiciary and police. The country has also curtailed individual freedoms guaranteed by the new constitution such as freedom of speech and movement. Sakhalin and many other regions in the Russian Far East have been re-declared border zones, with an eye on restricting travel. Most countries restrict access to sensitive defence establishments but the authorities in Russia have gone overboard.

Short-sighted visa and immigration policies have made it difficult for companies to get work permits for skilled specialists, while at the same time, the country is flooded with illegal immigrants from the former Soviet Union (taking advantage of no visa restrictions) and China (using improperly manned borders and lax border-visa regimes).

In Sakhalin, the oil and gas industry has created an economic boom and the quality of life and standard of living has drastically improved but a large proportion of the populace remain economically vulnerable. The administration, at one time, promised large allowances to each Sakhaliner on the lines of what residents of Alaska get but not a single kopeck has been paid.

Sakhalin’s environment is also at the receiving end of a beating from several elements although media coverage is restricted to the Sakhalin II project. It’s not a matter of too much concern for the media and the greens that the forests and wild areas of the island are slowly turning into landfills. Poachers are driving several species of marine life to extinction and criminal elements are making a killing on caviar, salmon and crabs.

It’s obvious that Sakhalin and Russia need major changes. Being such a large country with a unique set of problems, no western model really suits Russia but there has to be a point where reforms and changes are initiated. Russians aspire to have their country as a member of the civilised family of nations and this is no mean task. Unless the establishment makes tough choices in 2007, Russia will keep going backwards and fall deeper in to the dark pit. It would be tomfoolery for the establishment to think that record-high energy prices will last forever and that belligerence towards other countries and its own citizens won’t have any serious after-effects.

This is the editorial in this week's issue of the Sakhalin Times

Despite denials from both sides, it is clear now that Shell made a good-enough offer to Gazprom so that the latter can enter the Sakhalin II project. The western media in collective rage is on a Russia-condemning spree claiming that the country coerced Shell to part with a large stake in the project. Editorials have streamed in from London and New York calling the Kremlin unethical. Such criticism though harsh, is not baseless but the Russian regulatory authorities didn’t have to work too hard to “coerce” Shell.

While it is debatable whether the cost increases in the second phase of the Sakhalin II project were justified, there is little doubt that the project operator didn’t keep a watchful enough eye on the activities of its sub-contractors. The initial statements from Sakhalin Energy denying environmental violations and the subsequent blame it placed on Starstroi gave the Russian Natural Resources Ministry’s environmental watchdog enough ammunition to make life very difficult for the operator. Although Oleg Mitvol promises to continue his attack on Sakhalin Energy, it is now unlikely that the government’s environmental watchdogs will apply as much pressure as it did when the Sakhalin II project lacked direct Russian participation.

In an ideal world, Gazprom’s entry into the project will keep costs from sky-rocketing, ensure the environment is protected and at the same time the excellent human resource policies and community development initiatives of Sakhalin Energy will continue. Given the uncertainties of business and political developments in Russia, no one really knows what kind of changes we are going to see in the implementation of the Sakhalin II project. It would be a real tragedy if the government’s environmental watchdog decides to ignore environmental violations and Gazprom has the freedom and control to run amok and decides to use the project as a tool for political gains.

Russia is no longer in the economic position it was in the mid-1990s. The present regime has made it abundantly clear that terms and conditions imposed on a weak Russia will never be accepted again in the future. However, the country is on its way to becoming a member of the World Trade Organisation and wants to be immersed in the global economy. If the government makes it difficult for foreign companies to do business in Russia then it can expect the same kind of treatment overseas for Russian companies.

Since the Russia-Shell drama seems to have come to a close, we can only hope now that the Sakhalin II project can be implemented without any major interruptions, ensuring that deliveries of LNG are met as per agreed-upon schedules. This alone, can be a saving grace for both Russia and Shell, which would both lose out if there are more delays in the project.