Far away from New Delhi, beyond the heart of mainstream India, forgotten in the eastern corner of the country, close to the Burmese border, lies a troubled Himalayan province with a population of around 2.2 million people, less than even Delhi. No, we are not talking about Kashmir. This is a tragedy in the remote Indian state of Manipur.The Short Story of ManipurManipur, formerly ruled by a Raja, has been a problem state since the time it was annexed to India in 1949. Insurgents have often resorted to violence (terrorism for rest of the Indians) to demand secession from the world's biggest democracy. In 1958, Indian government introduced a special law — The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) —

A Delhi-based Dutch diplomat is apparently so frustrated being a resident of this chaotic Asian capital city that he was moved enough to confess that "New Delhi is the most miserable place I have ever lived in". The venerable diplomat expressed his explosive perceptions to the Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad.Mr Arnold Parzer, holding the innocuous title of Agriculture Councilor at New Delhi's Royal Netherlands embassy, but actually being the senior-most Dutch diplomat after the ambassador, is 63 and has been posted in the city for the last three years. However the diplomat's outburst, perhaps vented out in one of his weaker moments, was not entirely off the mark. His penetrating observation that "anything that can go wrong, does go

[Picture and Review by Mayank Austen Soofi]THE noteworthy matter of interest about Home is that it happens to be the first novel to have come out of Random House India. The binding is fine, the paper is tough and the cover picture is evocative. There is gold lace attached to a fine-looking built-in bookmark. The book, like every new book, smells of fresh wood shavings. Besides, Random House did good homework before pinning down on who ought to be the author of the first book of its newly launched Indian imprint. Manju Kapur — the author of Home — has respectable credentials. She is a professor of English Literature in the up-market Miranda House — a prestigious college for girls

[Photographs and Text by Amsterdam-based Laurent Clère]Tourists in the India Gate MaidanLIKE MANY Europeans, I had several stereotypes in my mind when I arrived in India for the first time. On one hand the sensual and colorful images of a glorious India - elephants, precious stones, orange turbans, hot desert, pink palaces. On the other the hidden face of the mirror - poor, homeless people sleeping on pavements and overcrowded, polluted, hectic cities. I was also interested in the Hinduist vision of life. I had read novels by Indian authors. I had prepared myself for the country.Yet I knew that there was another India, more modern, more real. I remember my first contact with India that happened ten years