The Indian Rafale's - Part 1

2019!

Eagerly waiting for the year to come when we would start receiving the 1st of the 36 contracted

Rafales. Suffice to say, without making it sound like a cliché, those Rafales would be a game changer

in the increasingly challenging and complex Asian security scenario.

Armed with the deadly MICA and Meteor AAM (Air to Air Missile) cued on by the superb RBE radar

 most of the PAF fighters would be toast if it were to tangle with the IAF.

Currently in the BVR (Beyond visual Range) scenario at least on paper the PAF is at near parity with the IAF. The IAF do have the superb and heavily armed Su30MKI but the R-77 BVRAAM missile that it carries is plagued by manufacturing issues and cannot be counted as a guaranteed protector against a likely swarm attack of US AIM120C AMRAMM equipped F16 Block52.

Intractable issues with the R-77 BVRAAM NATO reporting name AA-12 Adder forced the IAF to hunt for the R-27 NATO code name AA-10 Alamo from Ukraine and support whole heartedly the home grown Astra AAM missile. So desperate is the situation with the R-77 that the IAF is even looking at arming the Meteor with the Su30-MKI.

IAF fighter pilots responsible for evaluating fighter jets in the now cancelled protracted MMRCA contract have rated the Meteor+Rafale combination very highly and subsequently would more than likely have war gamed the Meteor+Rafale against the PAF F16 and the PLAAF Su27/Su30 copies.

Once the Meteor armed Rafale and the Astra/Meteor armed Su-30MKI gets inducted the complete dominance of the IAF vs the PAF would be restored.

We will look at an air war scenario in depth in future write ups , lets now concentrate on what additional the Rafale brings on to the table.

Apart from the Air to Air dominance that the Rafale would bring in assuming the current inventory of the PAF does not gets upgraded ;with its RBE radar, SPECRTA electronic warfare system, fusion sensors and MICA+ Meteor WWR/BVRAAM missiles, the most striking and least talked about factor in the $9Bn+ USD (at 2016 prices) deal for 36 Rafales is the PBL or Performance Based Logistics that is engrained into the contract. At any given time 75% of the Rafale fleet must be operational as per the PBL clause in the contract. For an air force facing squadron shortage and Russian designed and developed aircrafts having poor serviceability and turnaround time the PBL of 75% is extremely critical to ensure the deterrent against PAF and PLAAF squadrons based out of Tibet.

More to follow in Part 2

Book Review: Gentlemen Bastards On the Ground in Afghanistan with America's Elite Special Forces

Book Review: Gentlemen Bastards On the Ground in Afghanistan with America's Elite Special Forces

Author: Kevin Maurer

ISBN-10: 0425253597

ISBN-13: 978-0425253595

This books looks into the war on terror being fought by a group of elite American Green Berets in Afghanistan through the eyes of an embedded journalist .It brings out the respect and admiration of the journalist for America’s finest and the grudging trust and comradeship that is built up between the author and the soldier during his time with them. 

If you are looking for a nail biting, on the edge action packed book then this book will look you disappointed. This book is not about elite troops rappelling down helicopters in the middle of the night

To take out a Taliban HVT (high value target). Nor is it about intense fire fights or hair raising missions to capture or kill terrorist.

It  is more  about  the training of the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP) by American Green Berets , the efforts by the Green Berets to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people  and the myriad problems that they encounter from bureaucracy to rampant corruption during their deployment.

The Afghan troops are not always projected in good light, while the Afghan interpreters working with the Green Berets are solid and brave soldier’s the ANCOP are often shown as poorly disciplined and corrupt.

Another interesting fact that is brought about in the book is the friction between the conventional soldiers of the US Army and the non- conventional/special forces Green Berets.

The author also does a decent job of bringing to light the personal traits and the background of the individual operators of the unit who are there to fight America’s war on terror being thousands of miles away from their beloved homeland! Their courage, sacrifice, steely determination and never say die attitude in a foreign land is well captured in this book.

Overall a good read which gives a fascinating account of how a journalist becomes part of the story

I would give it a 6 on a scale of ten.

The Datsun redi GO

Tell me a person who is not crazy about cars? I don't know anyone who isn't. My wife a big car enthusiast though. Not just for riding, for driving, in fact. But you know, Ferraris and Lamborghinis remain a dream most of the time! My current car is going good but sometimes I think I settled for less. It’s almost six years that I am driving my hatch back. But what I want now is something different, something that will give me power, will look sporty yet I’ll have room to park it almost anywhere!

I was going through several sites for checking on the new cars that are getting launched in India. A lot of them are promising power, some promising good sleek looks. But it’s important to have all of it together.

The Datsun redi-Go is looking promising at this moment. It’s an urban cross – a bit of the both worlds. I like how sporty and wide it looks – almost gives a feeling of driving a SUV. It looks like it is going to provide a unique combination of style and comfort with the best of technology for the land of Japan.

I like the YUKAN DESIGN.  It’s smooth and sleek, the dynamic side character lines gives it just that necessary edge over others in the same class. The best part though is the GROUND CLEARENCE. If you are driving in India you know how bad the roads are so good road clearance is what you need in a car. The Safety features look cool too. A reinforced crash protection shell, which means the strengthened Datsun body structure, is optimized for Torsional Rigidity and stiffness and better Frontal Offset Crash performance. The H shaped Suspension System is also pretty good. It has double pivot arms to give high stability and cornering performance. A car that looks good and feels good and you also know at the back of your mind that it is going to keep you safe.

Feature wise this car looks power packed. It has the front airbags, power windows, sporty interiors, good legroom space. I like how the exterior looks – wide and sturdy – pretty much a man’s car. I think it will be quite spacious for the family as well.  

If I had the choice I will straight away take it to Mumbai Pune highway and drive for a few hours. It’s just pathetic to drive in the city these days specially with all the traffic and the auto rickshaws and bicycles who do not maintain their lanes nor any traffic rules. And I simply hate the traffic lights. Some elevated roadways in Bangalore gives you that peace of driving traffic lights free – but still Mumbai Pune Expressway is a dream to drive on. I should try and get a test drive at least to see how it feels and performs. That will boost my deciding factor. I’ll keep you guys posted.

Fun. Freedom. Confidence. The ultimate Urban Cross - Datsun redi-GO - the capability of a crossover with the convenience of a hatchback.

Try out Honey for a healthy life

When you are completely worked up with your daily routine of getting ready for work, going to office, working the entire day and coming back home just in time for dinner – which is the thing you give least importance too? Yes, food. We are hardly bothered about what we are eating or even eating at all or not?

There are times when we skip breakfast – most of the times, to be precise. May be a toast or a fruit or a glass of juice is maximum that we tend to have in the morning rush hours. But is that the best way to start the day? With flour, sugar laden and preservative laden juice or cereal? Why are we working so hard? Is it not for a better life for us and our family? But most of the time I find we are slogging to prove ourselves and to climb up the ladder and in all that we are missing out on so many things – quality time with family, rest and most importantly our health.

Half the time we spend our lunch times in meetings or calls – grabbing a quick bite – a mayo laden sandwich and a cup of coffee. But is that what the body is happy with? No it is not. I have trying to experiment with my lunch and pack it in such a way that I can have it in my desk while working – but I still want to have some nutrition going inside.

I have cut down on the use of sugar considerably and switched over to honey as a substitute. It is healthy, fruit glucose and it helps in digestion. Check out the Dabur Honey 3 Click Diet Planner. It helps in simplifying your worries about diet. Don’t just follow a diet fad because people are talking about it. Check what your food intake is.

Crash dieting, surviving on salads can make you lose a few Kilograms but you will end up losing muscle. While what you need to lose is the fat content. Proper nutritious diet and exercise should be the key to your healthy life.

I make sure I visit the gym at least thrice a week if not more. It is really important that you are exercising along with your healthy diet. Coming to healthy diet you can check the Honey Diet which encourages usage of honey in your food instead of sugar. Intake of honey will help you in weight management, digestion and ladies it’s good for your skin too. So next time you are having nimboo pani – have it with honey instead if sugar. Sometimes I have honey on a bread slice – its yum!

Did you know you can enjoy your chicken fingers and lamb with honey and they are really delicious. Check out the Honey Recipes specially chalked out by Vikas Khanna. 

Check out http://www.daburhoney.com/ for more information. 

Power of Togetherness

What is the good part of life – you know you are well educated, you have a secure job, you are getting a salary and you are living. What is the bad part of life? You know you have to keep working for the next 30 years to enjoy that good part of life! Yeah thirty long years… muddling in the corporate world! Not that everyone needs to sweat it out in the corporate rat race but those who need to you know what I am talking about.

Sometimes you envy the guys in HR depts or other departments where they have it relatively easy and are home on time. But month after month when you have fight with the deadline you feel like you are losing it, you are just on the verge of insanity somehow. Does that happen with you?

I have also seen myself and many more colleagues who don’t take our mandatory paid leaves. When you have responsibilities on your shoulders you seem to forget totally about the leaves. And when they get lapsed you brood over it.

Now this happens often with me that I am working round the clock and sometimes even over weekends! The family sulks over it that I am forever missing from all the important dates. And when I get sometime over the weekend or a national holiday I don’t have the energy to do anything, or go anywhere, forget about visiting a relative!

All you want to do in such times is sleep over and get yourself charged up for the next day. But that always doesn’t help. It does nothing to uplift your mood. It might just relax your body – nothing other than that.

A few months back my friends decided we should make a trip. When you are planning a trip with six or seven people it’s difficult to get everyone ready on the same date. But after the initial hiccups and shortening of the trip plans we decided a same day trip to a nearby fishing camp. How’s that for some time off.

I purposefully left the phone back home. [Wife never leaves her phone, so its okay]. We were so close to nature and so far away from the bustling city – it was enough to calm myself down. From having a hearty south Indian breakfast with friends to jumping in the river without thinking anything it was pure fun and bliss.

I was meeting my friends and their spouses after a long time but you know when you meet your buddies you just pick up from where you had left without a trouble. We gorged on fishes and took the coracle ride and spotted wild crocodiles. By the end of the long day instead of feeling tired the only thing I felt was happy, relaxed, rejuvenated.

Was it the break? Was it the friends? Was it the nature? Was it being close to my wife without worries of next day’s work? What had worked? May be it was just the togetherness.

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This post is part of #Together campaign by https://housing.com/

A decision to #StartANewLife

There are some traits in Bengalis which you just can’t miss - their passion for education, interest in cultural activities and being a foodie. Being one myself I don’t miss a single trait from the ones listed. Bengalis give a lot of respect to education – for any respectable Bengali family knowing where your son or daughter is studying and what is he studying means a lot. Same was the case with me. Physics, chemistry, mathematics – the subjects which are not favoured by a lot of people were very dear to me. Being a science student is a prestigious thing.

My dad has been a gold medalist engineering student from one of the most prestigious colleges in Kolkata. It has been an inspiration for me through out. I wanted to follow in his footsteps too. And I was pretty sure I would have done well.

But things are always not that rosy. It was also a time when there was a huge slowdown for all engineering students. Engineering colleges were mushrooming up across the country but there was a big lack of good faculties. But the aftermath was even scarier – no jobs. I have seen engineers’ applying for job posts with as meager a salary as of three thousand a month!! That is not a situation I wanted to be in – nor would anyone.

It was a time I had to decide my future. Which stream would I choose? And there I was, leaving the dream of studying science and taking up commerce instead. Believe me it wasn’t an easy decision. It meant focusing on numbers and figures and no experimentation – which originally I wanted to. But I had to choose a path which will secure my future.

It also meant I had wake up and start college at 6 in the morning! Those who are aware, St. Xavier’s B Com department functioned early in the morning earlier. Now they have an evening dept. too, I have heard. But that was a boon in a way because we had the entire day free. When some guys proffered to take up sports I took up courses for Chartered Accountancy. I had enough time in the day to go for my CA classes and the eventual articleship.

It finally helped me to clear all the CA papers at one go without losing a year. It was practically graduating and becoming a CA at the same time. It also opened up opportunities to take up lucrative job in one of the most prestigious auditing firm which brought me to this beautiful city of Bangalore.

Sometimes I do feel that I missed out on studying science, but mine was not just a decision that I had taken – it was a practical decision. The situation of majority of engineering students in the country has not changed much ever since. At least I secured my future.

It is just right sometimes to deviate from your path and #StartANewLife

This post is part of #StartANewLife campaign by https://housing.com/.

Home sweet home

When you decide to buy a house for your self in another city which is not your hometown you know what is up for you – long conversations with builders, weekends and weekends of house hunting, increasing your budget from where ever you can manage to compromising on what eventually buy. Since I have done that not so long ago things are afresh in my mind.

Me and my wife had set to out check prospective homes for we had decided to move in to our own home – an apartment which will be just ours, no tension of rent, landlord, separate rules for tenants etc. We wanted to be the landlords for a change!

But we were met with several builders, brokers who promised something else and showed something else. We were looking for a spacious apartment and not a match box like one since this would be our home for a good period of time – but we were surprised to see the size of apartments which were advertised as 1900-2000 sq ft and looked like not more than 1400-1500 sq ft.

I can’t even count how many apartments we had checked. In every corner of the city may be. The ones we liked little bit were not favorable for distance or amenities, something or the other always came up. I was losing hope. I had given up for some time. Thought of not wasting any more weekend over this.  I was actually getting frustrated. But my wife held her cool. She declared, till we are satisfied 90% with the house we’ll not buy anything random and waste money. Now when you are buying a property in Bangalore you know how much you have to shell out.

She kept looking at property ads, visited property fairs, went through online ads without letting me know all the hassles. We finally arrived one day to check an apartment in a huge complex. I was initially wary of staying with 1000 more families. But frankly when we stepped inside the apartment it was bliss. It was a ready apartment and just like what we had wanted – peaceful, serene, private, large balconies, large rooms, airy and spacious. And more technically – clear titles, reputed builder, hassle free bank loan from nationalized bank. Without wasting any more time we simply picked it up.

We built our own home sweet home with baby steps. Getting the interiors done, getting our own furniture and electrical appliances. Our apartment today has turned into a home today – home sweet home. A home that I will cherish for life. A home that both of us have built up with lot of love and affection.

It is true, you need to believe in your heart you will get what you want – it feels my home sweet home has always been in our destiny.    

Source: peloruslearning.com

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This post is written for the #LookUp campaign by Housing.com. Visit https://housing.com/lookup.