50th Post of Year 2009

I am surprised that this is just the 50th post in almost 7 months in 2009.

Recently I was asked to write my experiences as a defense scientist as part of golden jubilee celebrations of my Lab DRDO. I wrote my achievements (or what I consider to be my achievements) during a decade of work at the lab. However, what connected me to what I wrote was the impact of recent history on my life. I thought it is appropriate to recount some specific moments in my life for 50th post of the year.

My Years with LIFE

YEAR 1990: I consider 1990 as the earth-shattering year on planet Earth (no pun-intended). The world was about to change – permanently some may argue. One of the world’s two super powers, USSR and an established alternative form of governance, the communism, was about to lose traction. The cold war was about to end. Mikhail Gorbachev’s Perestroika and Glasnost were too rapid transformations that instead of stopping accelerated the break-up of USSR. Berlin wall had already fallen and suddenly many new countries were coming out of former USSR and USSR Block. India had a Prime Minister, Mr. V.P. Singh, who came to power on the promise of clean government in 1989 and stayed in only for a year till November 1990. The world was changing fundamentally. In August 1990, may be due to break down of cold war equilibrium, Saddam’s Iraq annexed Kuwait. Throughout the rest of the year 1990, there were regular reports of US attacking Iraq to free Kuwait. The attack came on 16^th January 1991. This was really for me the start a new world – we call the globalizing world. This was the year (23rd March 1990) I joined my first job as a Scientist in DRDO.