On the gender front, anybody who visited Afghanistan in 2005, as I did, and I suspect nothing much has changed, is bound to come away with a heavy heart. The Taliban had left the scene in November 2001, but they totally destroyed girls’ education and women’s confidence

In 2005, while working with the Hindu Business Line, I got   an opportunity to visit and report from the war-ravaged Afghanistan. It had then been freed from the dark days of Taliban rule, its reconstruction was on, but the most heartbreaking part of the trip was watching