“Bold is beautiful” Are Indians finally opening up their mindsets? Few days ago, the Indian advertising world took a step and launched the country’s first advertisement depicting a lesbian couple.
“The Muslim Board has decided to move the Supreme Court and launch a nationwide campaign against the order that wanted students to perform yoga and Surya Namaskar.” This was something I read last week as the government p
About a fortnight ago, I spotted a friend nibbling muffins and cakes with two foreign women. They were engrossed in animated conversation at a coffee shop outside my office. The women were from France. He saw me exiting from my offi
Maggi isn’t just a snack. It is a lifesaver at home and life outside home. When I was young I preferred samosa, jalebi or dosa as an evening snack. But my grandmother would cajole me into having Maggi (homemade food) as having outside food i
Lalu Yadav never ceases to surprise his opponents, supporters, alliance partners and political analysts with his maverick political actions. When everyone took him for granted as a partner in Janata Parivar, his recent overture to include Jitan Ra
Fighting one’s fears requires mettle extraordinaire. Nash’s life was a perfect lesson in this regard. A mathematician, Nash won the Nobel prize for economics in 1994 and Abel prize in 2005. A certain measure of eccentricity is an under
This morning I pulled out the ‘Friday Review’ from the Hindu and I learnt the Hindi poet Gopaldas Neeraj is entering his 90s but still wears that optimistic smile that belies the rudeness of modern age. Looking at his photo, I was awes
If vehicle owners in Delhi display a picture of Arvind Kejriwal, then some demands of theirs could be accepted. Well, this is what we deduce from his address to the auto drivers and giving in to their demand for fare hike, without considering view
Oscar Wilde once said on ingredients of a tragedy that “actions are the first tragedy in life, words are the second”. In the Aarushi Talwar murder case, the killing of the 14-year-old was followed by ‘words’
When Aristotle shared his views on concept of a ‘Tragic Hero’, there was confusion about the meaning of the word. He explained further that Tragic Hero is a highly renowned person and his act of omission generates a sense of pity. He i
Modern media is not Aam Aadmi Party. Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal should learn this and understand the difference. For raising voices, Kejriwal managed to throw out his party leaders like Prashant Bhushan and Yogendr
On Wednesday afternoon I was tempted to change a dialogue from Arthur Miller’s play ‘Death of a Salesman’. It reads, “I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman.” I changed it to,
Everyone and their friends are arguing over how Salman Khan escaped with a lenient 5 years in jail for mowing down a person under his Toyota Landcruiser while drunk. And most argue for a full 10 years punishment for the actor under section 304 (ii
While going through media reports we often come across reports of religious bigotry traumatising the common man of our country. As a result we do not get peace of mind living in a world of paranoid fears. Religion that teaches one to live in
Superstars, celebrities, sportsmen, politician, as usual, are the people of moments whose photographs appear across the digital and print media. Their activities become a national movement and this time their focus is for a different reason &ndash
Not many people, even in Gujarat, would have heard of Gopaldas Desai (1887-1951), the ruler of a tiny place in Saurashtra. Rajmohan Gandhi’s biography of the ‘prince’ should cure not only our collective amnesia, but also the desp
American humorist Erma Louise Bombeck once noted that there is a “thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humour and hurt”. So true, and wise of her. I wish the same wisdom had punctuated the sensibilities of a
Ram Gopal Verma would have been readying himself with his next ‘realistic’ cinema on what unfolded at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday afternoon, if only Anusha Rizvi’s had not portrayed the absurdity and the irony of a farmer’s
I came to office, sat down at my work station, switched on my system and the first news that flashed on my screen was the experience of a woman who was molested by her diving instructor underwater while scuba diving in the Arabian sea. I immediate
I wish “a few good men” rise to occasion and not just speak but shout against the systematization of crime that has been unleashed by the state on its own people. The Hashimpura verdict and the April 7 killing of 20 tribal men in Chitt
