Topic Of The Day:-“Losing the war, winning the peace”
India is not short of memories on 1962. The India-China War ended fifty-five years ago to the day, yet each winter brings back reminiscences of the conflict. The Chinese assault on the Thagla Ridge early in the morning of October 20, 1962, which turned simmering military tensions into open war. The doomed struggle of ill-equipped jawans. Jawaharlal Nehru’s awkward radio address to Assam, just as the Chinese seemed poised to enter the plains. The unilateral ceasefire that China announced on November 21, 1962 saving Assam but ending India’s chance of recovering the Aksai Chin. And above all, the scar of national humiliation at the hands of a triumphant China. But is there all there was to the war? One can doubt it. Standard histories of 1962 almost completely ignore a key aspect of the conflict: the way the authorities and people of Arunachal Pradesh — the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA), as it was then called — experienced it. Look away from the fighting and the India-China War takes on quite a different hue, one where the war does not end at the point of ceasefire and where the roles of winners, losers and bystanders aren’t so neatly divided.
MEANINGS AND WORDS
1) Ripple effect
Meaning: The continuing and spreading results of an event or action.
Example: “a report of one attack by one man can terrorize 10,000 women; the ripple effect is enormous”
2) Breakdown
Meaning: A failure of a relationship or system.
Example: “a breakdown in military discipline”
Synonyms: Failure, Collapse
Antonyms: Success, Victory
3) Phasing out
Meaning: To remove or stop using something gradually or in stages.
Synonyms: Remove, Stop
4) Foreclosed
Meaning: Rule out or prevent (a course of action).
Example: “the decision effectively foreclosed any possibility of his early rehabilitation”
5) Cohabiting
Meaning: Coexist.
Example: “animals that can cohabit with humans thrive”
6) Drubbing
Meaning: A beating; a thrashing.
Example: “I’ll give the scoundrels a drubbing if I can!”
Synonyms: Beating, Thumping
7) Reluctant
Meaning: Unwilling and hesitant; disinclined.
Example: “today, many ordinary people are still reluctant to talk about politics”
Synonyms: Unwilling, Resistant
Antonyms: Willing, Ready
8) Unprecedented
Meaning: Never done or known before.
Example: “the government took the unprecedented step of releasing confidential correspondence”
Synonyms: Unmatched, Unequalled
Antonyms: Normal, Common
9) Conscious
Meaning: Aware of and responding to one’s surroundings.
Example: “although I was in pain, I was conscious”
Synonyms: Aware, Awake
Antonyms: Unconscious, Unaware
10) Last-ditch
Meaning: Denoting a final attempt to achieve something after all else has failed.
Example: “a last-ditch effort to break the deadlock”
Synonyms: Last-minute, Desperate
11) Cobble
Meaning: Roughly assemble or produce something from available parts or elements.
Example: “the film was imperfectly cobbled together from two separate stories”
Synonyms: Contrive, Devise
12) Solidifying
Meaning: Make or become hard or solid.
Example: “the magma slowly solidifies and forms crystals”
Synonyms: Harden, Freeze
Antonyms: Gasify, Melt
13) Averted
Meaning: Prevent or ward off (an undesirable occurrence)
Example: “talks failed to avert a rail strike”
Synonyms: Prevent, Stop
14) Eurosceptic
Meaning: A person, especially a politician, who opposes closer connections between Britain and the European Union.
Synonyms: Conservative
15) Foregone conclusion
Meaning: A result that can be predicted with certainty.
Example: “the result of her trial was a foregone conclusion”
Synonyms: Certainty, Inevitability
Antonyms: Possibility
