A telegram informing Delhi of the start of the Gadar was sent from here in 1857.Later the wires were cut. This must have been one of the very first important telegrams.

Thanks to Mr. Peter Leevers for the picture... " I am this week publishing a postcard in my series of images of Post Offices of India,showing the PO at Meerut. Tell me, is it still standing and in use? " Peter Leevers Editor 'India Post' Journal of the India Study Circle for Philately 74, Pilford Heath Road, Wimborne, Dorset, England BH21 2ND Tel: 01202-886354 www.Indiastudycircle.org

The rest is unauthorised. It is time the intellectual gatherings at NDTV and other channnels reviewed the meaning of this word in the Indian context. We are now 3 times larger than when the British left us. In the mindset of INTACH and others the right word probably is deserted us. We need more place to work and live in. Do we still need that to be filtered through myriad intractable legacy regulations? There is a very learned history society of Meerut. And they have a very succinct way of expressing things . They say India never became Independent , what happened was a transfer of power. This is hardly a Delhi issue . Every single town is affected by the immobility of the 'permitting' departments.

In recent years the powers of the Supreme Court seem to have risen to dizzy heights. It is no longer merely the Judiciary . It now appears to the Executive , the Legislature and itself all rolled in one. The knowledge that only the brightest and the best take up Law and Politics, creates an enormous sense of security that the country is indeed in good hands and moving in the right direction.

I am sure you never saw a headline like that. If you have your own website you can do things like this. Walked into a small shop in the painth area, just opposite The Metro Heart Institute. Looking for a "cheap and best" shoe. The bearded shopkeeper told me he had started the shop in the New Year. I wished him well and enquired where he had come from . "Muzaffarnagar" he said. I said Muzaffarnagar is a great place why did he need to come here? The answer "Phool wohi jo Chaman se nikal Jaye, Izzat uski jo Watan se nikal Jaye". And then noted that Shahiri has now vanished from daily life. On the way back a line from a poem translated from Japanese came to mind , "Remember me to the blue mountains of home as my hair turns grey among strangers".

It is 'Duvidha' in Hindi, conflict between Yin and Yang in Chinese. Best, of course, is leave the imponderables alone. 'Let the Dogs bark at the moon , we'll go catch fireflies'.

The most recent one shows a motorist with an expensive car and other expensive things. A beautiful road without a single pothole. There is a question mark on the road , implying who pays for the road. The missing information is, that sadly 50% of your fuel bill is tax and you don't have the option of avoiding it. Excise brings in the moolah like nothing else.

Suddenly they are everywhere in the newspapers on TV and even on Banners. I saw one banner trying to explain why you should pay house-tax. I think it invited you to a meeting somewhere. Tax affects everyone on Earth in the developed Western countries as well as countries like ours. The difference is that we don't believe in "a reciprocity of duties and rights between the governing and the governed"- William Sleeman - 1833 Rambles and recollections of an Indian Official. And this could be the reason that we remain underdeveloped.

Here is the most general definition I could find about Tax. Tax : Money, Goods or Labour paid to a Government. This should help you to see that the oldest wonder of the world - The Pyramids are a product of taxation.

Remember these sayings. They become VERY interesting in relation to Tax / Revenue / Money.

Keep these quotes in mind and reflect about Taxes. Nothing changes its properties so drastically as Money when renamed to Tax or Revenue. One of the most drastic casualties is that the over the counter exchange property, of Money goes through the window. As also the "delivery before payment convention".You could point out many other peculiar characteristics of Revenue. It certainly is good for those under the broad general classification of Government. In olden and prehistoric times there was no question about it, the beneficiaries were Kings and Queens and their entourage. Who else should it have been? The times have been a changing - mainly in the Western and other developed nations.

Here is an interesting look into why this change in properties takes place. First note that topics like Revenue and Tax fall broadly under the umbrella fiscal.The English language meaning in all dictionaries gives the meaning roughly as related to Finance or a Monetary viewpoint. However the meaning of the roots is more revealing. Fiscal - comes from Latin fiscus, which originally meant a basket, then a money basket and finally the State Treasury. The only problem is this. If the integrity of the people surrounding the money basket is doubtful then the benefits never reach those who paid. In fact huge sums find their way into private bank accounts.... And that problem has been around since Græcian democratic times. Here is a quote from Aesop's fables ( older than Ashokan Edicts) - "We hang petty criminals - the big ones we elect to high office".

That does not mean I am voting against democracy. I just want to know who froze the definition of Democracy and when to mean that there cannot be some sort preselection? And what about doing away with elected representatives altogether , it is possible in the new information age. Utopian now perhaps , but it will happen perhaps in a hundred years.