This book is not an attempt to compress events and present my views but only to chronicle what was witnessed as a journalist and reported by me during various assignments. I did not create events nor influenced them but only reported them as I saw them. In my times most of us were told clearly that we could only report; as comments were sacred and would be done by seniors or those writing for the editorial page. We had a vast canvas to cover. India, after a long time had entered a new age with new goals. Today we can take pride at being a nuclear power, an IT hub, at having set up institutes of excellence in all fields. Agreed much more needs to be done, but nations are not made like fast food. We can take pride at our many accomplishments and in the fact that we have a democracy and rule of law while countries that became free at the same time have repeatedly come under army rule or have got divided. This book is my tribute to a Free India in which I grew up and worked. About The Author Brij Lal Bhardwaj Brij Lal Bhardwaj, a journalist, who has spent over half a century in the media world found printers ink running in his veins from childhood where every morning a bundle of newspapers were delivered and different members of the joint family picked up a newspaper of their choice. In the evening he found leading journalists and editors coming to the house and having long sessions with his brothers who had started as journalists but later chose to become spokespersons for the Government in various capacities The author, a child of partition left Lahore at the age of 12, moved first to Shimla and later to Delhi to complete his education. After his schooling at Harcourt Butler School which had branches in Shimla and Delhi, he joined Hindu College in Delhi University where politics was a part of education, having been a center of the freedom movement in pre-independence days. In college he started a magazines for students before joining Indian Express as sub-editor and later joined Hindustan Times as a reporter. During his over thirty years association with Hindustan Times, he got a chance to cover various troubled States like Kashmir, Punjab and Assam. He also went to Afghanistan to see the play of international forces in that country and what was to become a permanent conflict in the country divided on ethnic lines. He bore witness to how in Pakistan a change of regime always takes place either in a violent clash or killing of previous ruler, as at the time when Gen Zia’s plane had been brought down by a box of mangoes. Alongside, he did other constructive work also like studying rural development through community development and Bhoodan movement. His field of specialisation was tourism and aviation and he was declared as the best travel writer by Travel Agents of India Association, Tour operators Association, Pacific Area Travel Writers Association and made honorary member of SKAL an international organisation of travel, hotel and aviation Industry. He was also a member of the Press Council of India from 1991 to 1994.