Spot the original

Sir — When one hears of a raid by the Enforcement Branch of the Calcutta Police, one might imagine piles of cash or gold being recovered. But in Bagnan and Shyampur in Howrah, it was piles of fake Boroline — the panacea for most ailments in the Bengali mind — that was recovered. Locals had complained to the company that manufactures Boroline that copious amounts of their beloved salve was not yielding any effect. While the packaging looked almost exactly like that of Boroline, the expert Bengali nose had sniffed that something was amiss. The Case of Bogus Borolines has thus been solved.

Sreetama Nandi, Calcutta

Bitter words

Sir — The distasteful comment about the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, by Pakistan’s foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, at the United Nations must be condemned (“Rage at ‘Butcher of Gujarat’ retort”, Dec 17). He was retorting to a statement by the Indian foreign minister, calling Pakistan the epicentre of terrorism. Zardari cannot deny the existence of Pakistan’s deep State or its military establishment’s tacit support to terrorists. As a foreign minister, Zardari should be aware that living in peace with India is part of his job description.

G. David Milton, Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

Sir — A local politician in Uttar Pradesh has announced a reward of two crore rupees for anyone who beheads Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. In other states, Bharatiya Janata Party members burnt an effigy of the Pakistani foreign minister. One has to admit that whatever be the truth of Zardari’s words, he should not make such comments about the leader of a democratic nation in an international forum.

Roshni Nandi, Calcutta

Quell the chaos

Sir — The chaos at Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi led many people to miss their flights. This is a failure on the part of the authorities to ramp up infrastructure. As one of the busiest airports in the world, with a capacity to handle 70 million passengers annually, the IGI airport should not be found wanting. While the Airports Authority of India has announced a slew of guidelines, ranging from reducing the number of flights during morning peak hours to real-time monitoring of crowds to ease the congestion, these are only quick fixes.

Expanding facilities by increasing the number of check-in counters, personnel and gates at the busiest airports in the country holds the key to making them highly competitive in the long run.

M. Jeyaram, Sholavandan, Tamil Nadu

Positive charge

Sir — Researchers at the National Ignition Facility, California, have successfully merged two nuclei to produce a heavier nucleus. Their reactor produced about 1.5 times more energy than what was used in the process (“Greater good”, Dec 16). But scientists say that it will be several years before the process can be scaled up. In a world that is desperately searching for technologies to power the developmental needs of nations without adding to the load of greenhouse gases, this breakthrough has generated excitement.

S.S. Paul, Nadia

Dull shades

Sir — It is time to replace the blue and white used to paint kerbs, road medians, steel fencing of bridges and so on. It goes against the guidelines of the Indian Roads Congress, which is the apex body regulating construction and maintenance of roadways in India. The IRC recommends high contrast colours like white and black, white and yellow or black and yellow. Until the Trinamul Congress took charge in 2011, IRC guidelines were mostly followed.

Mrinal Mukhopadhyay, Calcutta

Change tack

Sir — Japan was forced to decide that it will double its military spending in the next five years owing to the threat posed by China and North Korea. This is the most dramatic shift in Japan’s security strategy since it adopted a pacifist constitution after World War II. Since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan has been a staunch supporter of denuclearisation. Tokyo must reconsider its nuclear policy. Ukraine handed over its nuclear stockpile to Russia in 1994 under an agreement and is suffering the consequences today.

Jang Bahadur Singh, Jamshedpur

Well played

Sir — Shubman Gill scored his maiden test hundred on day three of the first Test match between India and Bangladesh in Chittagong. He deserves to be lauded. But it is too early to compare him to legends like Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. Rishabh Pant was branded as the future Adam Gilchrist of India, but he has not lived up to that name. Gill should keep his feet firmly on the ground. Cheteshwar Pujara, too, should be congratulated for scoring a century after four years. Pujara and Gill have managed to give India an edge in the Chittagong Test.

N. Mahadevan, Chennai