Pakistan, Sept. 26 -- Rudyard Kipling, Bard of Empire, famously said, "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet. Little did he know that the twain shall meet one day as epitomized by India and the West of today".

Over the years, India has nurtured and publicized, apart from the mystical land of rajas image, a charade of a secular, tolerant and democratic country. This image gained all the more prominence given India's posture as a counter to China and Pakistan.

Today's world is built more on perceptions than reality. These perceptions are shaped and propagated in the West by the media and Hollywood. The hyper- jingoistic Indian media and Bollywood ape these convoluted and biased worldviews, more so in the post ...