IT IS A WONDERFUL time to be in Delhi, the winter. A time to be outdoors; picnicking, visiting tombs and sarais, attending plays, exhibitions, reading a book in a sunlit park or watching a late night film. With the Oscar nominations announced, expect a few of the nominees in the best film category t...
Parallels Between Then and Now
First impressions I was told as a teenager that first impressions count. Though my wise and giggly friend was talking about romantic love, however, I do believe first impressions count when it comes to business as well; especially when you meet an author-cumhistorian some hours before the launch of...
Factional clashes claim 100 lives in Pakistan
One of the bloodiest attacks yet BLASTS \\ The death toll from a series of deadly bombings across Pakistan in the second week of January 2013 rose to 120, Pakistan police reported, making it one of the deadliest month the country has seen in years. Five people who were wounded in twin bombings on a...
LOC Killings Lead to Diplomatic Battle
Two soldiers lose their lives in an attack by Pakistan Army BATTLE \\ The distraught father of Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh, who was one of the soldiers killed in an attack by Pakistan Army across the LoC, wants the leaders of his country to give a “befitting reply” to the neighbouring nation for ...
Former Haryana CM and son in Tihar Jail
Om Prakash Chautala and his son arrested in the teacher recruitment scam ARREST \\ Former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, and his legislator son, Ajay Chautala, were arrested in January along with 53 others on the orders of a Special Court in New Delhi for the illegal recruitment of tea...
India losses the ODI series to Pakistan
LOSS \\ The recently-concluded India-Pakistan oneday series, hosted by India, was the first cricket series played between the two sides in more than four years. The series came with its expected hype, as it resumed cricket ties between the two nations after the infamous Mumbai Terror Attacks of 2008...
As Delhi rape victim battled death before giving in, the city raised its voice PROTEST \\ On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was beaten up and raped in a moving bus by six men. The woman who was accompanied by a male companion had boarded the bus at 9.30pm after watching a fi...
Compulsory trips that I make to India are times when I recharge
I GREW UP IN “Bombay” not Mumbai obviously. It was an interesting place to be a child—we, (my father, mother and I) lived in a single-room set in a rented apartment. We shared a bathroom and a kitchen on a rather Tony area called Nepean Sea Road. We were paying guests. Rest of the tenants were...
There is no formula to going viral, but there are wise steps that can make you stand out “I need you to make this go viral now!” Words that can make any honest marketer roll their eyes and sigh. Unfortunately, thanks to the mind numbing success of Kolaveri di and Gangnam Style, every business o...
Acknowledging the markers of a patriarchal world MUCH OF THE recent public discourse in India has centred on the gang-rape and murder in Delhi last December. The savage crime has led to introspection about the kind of society we are and about the prejudices deeply ingrained in our fabric; there has...
Playwright, actor, director,producer and activist, M.K. Raina talks about theatre, films, culture and the lack of it If you are in your early twenties and addicted to watching commercial cinema, then you might remember M.K. Raina as a man who played Sonam Kapoor’s father in Aisha. Or, as the man ...
India’s engagement in its wider neighbourhood, as far as its Foreign Policy is concerned, is weak for a political and economic power that claims to be rising, and interested, in managing the world’s affairs. India’s relations with regional agglomerations such as Africa, West Asia, Central Asia...
India is a country with many laws, but little law, and a very little fear of the law IT IS BOTH poignant and in the broader sense surprising that the year gone by will be defined for many of us by the events of its final fortnight. The horrific and brutal rape of the young woman in New Delhi on the...
Conserve India is working towards making rag-pickers of our country climb the social ladder and earn the respect they deserve An ignorant Wikipedia article describes rag-pickers as a term for someone who made a living by rummaging through refuge in the streets to collect material for salvage. Then ...
Liddle’s third book is a success with its simple plot and intricate storytelling THE FIRST Muzaffar Jang book that I happened to lay my hands on was The Eighth Guest. That was the second in the trilogy consisting of The Englishman’s Cameo, The Eight Guest And Other Muzaffar Jang Mysteries and E...
Less of literature and more of a slam piece, Durbar is an intelligent and indulgent piece of work THERE ARE exasperating books—they read smoothly even brilliantly in parts and deplorably in rest. They are exasperating because they leave a reader confused—is it even worth the effort? Tavleen Sin...
No money? Take a trip to Thailand, won’t you? Let’s face it, when your plans of foreign travel on a shoestring budget is so frayed that even a trip to the nearest cobbler seems a bit too pricey, deciding on where to go becomes a wee bit easier. All those gorgeous (read: pocket unfriendly) place...
Themes on dispossession, space clash find their way into Binoy Varghese’s canvases Don’t ask me tough questions,” is the first sentence that artist Binoy Varghese utters softly. A man with a ready smile and a quiet demeanour, Varghese is a pleasure to meet. When you do, you notice his hands f...
