https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y8SZDH3B_4

Your blog and your FB posts are places where you toot your own horn! So bear with me on this one -

Why does the US presidential election debate attract so much of attention? It seems the Hillary-Trump debate has broken all records of viewership on TV. Of course, the US is the most powerful nation on earth, and therefore, whatever happens in the US creates reverberations throughout the globe. The other reason in my view is that these US debates showcase to the world just how a democracy is supposed to work: the two contenders for the top job are confronting each other with their beliefs and vision, and in that manner helping a fiercely independent and free electorate to decide which person deserves their vote!

On a personal note, before this present one, I, as a child, saw the presidential debate for the first time in 1976 between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. The setting was a lawyer’s house in Chandigarh where the USIS had arranged a little screening for Chandigarh residents, the effort on the part of USIS being to create awareness and goodwill for the United States. In those days, India was heavily aligned with the Soviet Union, though most Indians privately admired the Americans. I don’t know on what basis they thought that showing such stuff to inconsequential people in a little sleepy town was any good.

The small audience which had gathered to see the debate in 1976 was quite enthralled: people exclaimed in Punjabi: “Eh hai democracy” (This is democracy!) Jimmy Carter was the darling of the audience, and the people said that he would win the election just because he was good looking! And that was the way it went! The audience was also mesmerised by the technology: it was the first time I saw colour TV with a video recorder and playback system in my life!

This ghazal translated into English in 1843 speaks for itself....

There was a time when you needed a fortune to buy an encyclopaedia. Only the affluent people had stuff like the Encyclopaedia Britannica (don’t know if there was an Encyclopaedia Americana or Indica ever!) on their bookshelves. The elegant tomes of knowledge bound beautifully in leather would instil confidence in the veracity of every statement made therein due to their reputation, and due to the fact that there was no other credible source of knowledge! Today we have all the information that we want on a click of the mouse or a touch on the screen. 

Wikipedia is supposed to be an open source encyclopaedia inviting entries from the general public. Undoubtedly, it is an invaluable source of information and the first place where the web leads us to whenever we want to be elucidated about any topic. It turns fifteen now, and is hustling and bustling with information, though the authenticity of the information has to be taken with some caution....

Only once I tried to make an entry into wikipaedia. During my conversations over the radio with my ham radio friend, the late Derek Jeffries of Bombay (VU2 BEJ), I learnt that the word “Tombola” is of Indian origin, probably from the days of the Raj! The housie game got the aforesaid name from the native “Tum Bola!” It implied the shout which a player gives as soon as he/she has completed a row, house, etc. and wants to claim a prize. It means, “You called!” I put up that version on Wikipedia, but ran into a headlong online fight with an Italian in whose name the original entry for Tombola was credited. He insisted that the word came from the Italian word “tombolare” meaning, a raffle, and would not countenance any other version being put up there. After that, I was informed through email that the matter has been referred to an adjudication panel of Wikipedia. I never bothered to pursue it. It appears I lost, and the Italian guy won.... The version given to me by Derek never got published permanently on Wikipedia! Who knows what the truth is?

So, in the end, the stuff put on Wikipedia has to be taken with a pinch of salt.... 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tombola_(raffle)