November , 2009
The Cycle of Terror-
As the media goes into overdrive on the first anniversary of last November's Mumbai terror attack, we should remember that before 26/11, there was 12/3. Way back in 1993 - it does seem an awful time ago - there were no 24 hour news channels to capture every moment of the terrifying serial blasts that shook the country's commercial capital. An Anurag Kashyap made Black Friday on celluloid, but there is limited graphic representation of what happened sixteen years ago. The truth is, no mention of 26/11 is complete without 12/3 because that is where the cycle of terror began. If the attacks last November left us angry, the March 93 blasts had stunned us. We hadn't heard of RDX, Dawood Ibrahim was just another underworld don who only months earlier had been spotted waving an Indian tricolor in Sharjah, and the ISI was seen as a Pakistani army agency....
Czar of Cricket
Where were you on November 15, 1989? I know where I was: glued to the television in my newspaper office watching a 16-year-old boy with curls and rosy cheeks take on Pakistan's fast bowlers. Twenty years later, the curly locks are showing a hint of grey but Sachin Tendulkar is still doing what he does best: score runs for India. Much has changed in the world around us in the last 20 years. One thing hasn't: the presence of Tendulkar on the cricket crease. Remember 1989? It was the year that the Berlin Wall fell, symbolising the end of Communism. It was the year that Rajiv Gandhi was defeated in the General Elections, as VP Singh was transformed into a middle-class hero. It was the year that the militant's gun first echoed in the Kashmir valley while the bugle of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement was sounded in Ayodhya. In....




More about Rajdeep Sardesai
Rajdeep Sardesai is the Editor-in-Chief, IBN18 Network, that includes CNN-IBN, IBN 7 and IBN Lokmat. He comes with 22 years of journalistic experience during which he has covered some of the biggest stories in India and the world. Prior to setting up the IBN network, he was the Managing Editor of both NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India and was responsible for overseeing the news policy for both the channels. He has also worked with The Times of India for six years and was the city editor of its Mumbai edition at the age of 26. During the last 22 years, he has covered major national and international stories, specialising in national politics. He has won numerous other awards for journalistic excellence, including the prestigious Padma Shri for journalism in 2008, the International Broadcasters Award for coverage of the 2002 Gujarat riots and the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for 2007. He has won the Asian Television Award for best talk show for the Big Fight on two occasions and his current flagship show on CNN-IBN, India at 9, has been awarded the best news show at the Asian awards for the last two years. He has been News Anchor of the year at the Indian Television Academy for seven of the last eight years and won more than 50 awards in this period. He has also been the President of the Editors Guild of India, the only television journalist to hold the post and was chosen a Global leader for tomorrow by the world economic forum in 2000. An alumni of St Xavier's College, Mumbai, he has done his Masters and LLB from Oxford University and has also played first class cricket for the Oxford University team. He has contributed to several books and writes a fortnightly column that appears in seven newspapers.



Recent Posts
- + Home Truths
- + Wake up, Mumbai
- + Maharashtra becoming recipe for political chaos
- + Politicians and Paise-Pinching
- + YSR: The one man show in Andhra
- + Jaswant's book: Reading between the lines
- + George: From Giant Killer to lonely Bhishma
- + RIP Cronkite: The original TV anchor
- + Statu(e)tory Warning for Mayawati
Archives

























displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.