Reeta Sinha writes about things Indian and American. She can be reached at reetasinha@yahoo.com

• It's not the US they want to destroy. It's our arrogance'
'We have stealth bombers and space-age missile defense systems, we can land on the moon and go to Mars. We're rich, we're invincible. We're America. The reality is we're so full of it and now, thousands of innocent people have paid the price for the arrogance of some in the US.'

• What Dubya wants, Dubya gets
'It seems hard to believe, but a country known the world over for its democracy appears to have a dictator for a leader. Why should it surprise us? After all, we have a President who was appointed to office by the courts, not one who was elected by a majority of the nation's people.'

• Power to the People!
'Who do you think gains the most from Bush's policy, from current high energy prices? It's all this doublespeak that has me steamed.'

• What was taking Vajpayee so long?
'Didn't he know that every hour counts when you're buried under a building? A Russian rescue team said they were ready to fly Friday evening, the day the quake occurred, but the PM didn't ask for help until late Saturday. Why? El Salvador didn't wait a few weeks when it was devastated by a quake a few weeks ago, nor did Turkey when it was hit, did it? What made India special?'

• Thanks for the phera-by-phera coverage of Jhumpa's wedding
'Since some of your readers may suffer from Jhumpa-Wedding-Withdrawal, may I suggest you quickly publish photographs of the newlyweds cavorting in the waves on some Goan beachsays. Perhaps your crew has set up a beach shack already?'

• Acts of Compassion
'I have no personal or political grudge against Linda Chavez. I am sick, however, of the self-righteousness of so-called do-gooders in government. Particularly those who want to shape policies that affect my role as a manager and an employee.'

• My First Week as Prez-elect
'Who said this president-thing was hard? I'll just keep it vague, keep my list of issues handy, tell people we got to work together and smile a lot. Piece of cake. Now, let's see... was that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or 1500....?'

• It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over
'We were supposed to elect a president who would represent we-the-people, someone who would work for all of us. But, whether it's Bush or Gore by the time it's over, the new president of the US will represent only half of the half who voted.'

• Share and Steal Alike
'Copyright infringement is not about the Internet. The definition of theft has not changed with digital media. Making a profit by promoting copyright infringement is not about technology.'

• Getting Personal About Language
'No one Indian language can fully or even adequately express the cultures of India, of its people. One has to wonder why anyone would declare, implicitly or explicitly, that any language could, or that one is better than another. One also has to question the motives of any Indian who provokes another by saying their language, their culture could be eradicated like some disease -- be it a columnist from Kerala or a politician from Delhi.'

• The dotcom bug
'Forget passion, forget innovation and forget all that hype about technology for the new millennium. It is about money'.

• Hindi-wallahs vs non-Hindi-wallahs
'It wasn't enough, it seems, to divide India along linguistic lines. Now, in the US, Indians draw these same imaginary boundaries in the name of affinity and preserving their culture'.

• On unity, diversity and identity
'According to some, our #1 priority is to be whipped in with that cream called 'the American way of life'. Or else, we face a future that includes xenophobia and isolation.'

• How blind can we be?
'How fair is it to give this boy preference over thousands of Indians who have been waiting up to three years for their families to be reunited? Why is Elian more important than Indian high-tech workers who are trapped in H-1B hell as the INS green card backlog grows?'