Election season in India comes with many familiar sights – helicopter landings in dusty maidans, impossible promises, sudden displays of religiosity, and Rahul Gandhi discovering yet another explosive scandal involving his political opponents. The routine rarely changes. An accusation is launched with great flourish from a public platform. Television channels amplify it, party workers circulate…
The latest meme doing the rounds on social media deserves preservation in the British Library, right next to the Magna Carta. It carries an image of the famous black door at 10 Downing Street and the caption: ‘Sponsored by Airbnb – Perfect for short stays.’ One cannot disagree with the description. For generations, occupying No….
Kerala’s love affair with parotta and beef fry is legendary. It transcends caste, creed and politics. The Left, the Congress and the BJP may disagree on everything from economic policy to foreign affairs, but put a plate of flaky parotta and spicy beef fry before them and ideological differences melt faster than a blob of…
There was a time when children of the 1960s had very few Days to celebrate in our country. We belonged to what is now fashionably called Generation Jones, though in those days we were simply children with scraped knees and dusty shorts. Our calendar was uncluttered. We had Independence Day, Republic Day, Teachers’ Day and…
My granddaughter was reading aloud from her alphabet book the other day. A for Apple, B for Ball… and eventually, G for Goat. Nothing has changed, I thought. Sixty years ago, when I was in nursery school, my alphabet book also had G for Goat. The animal looked much the same – four legs, two…
Rahul Gandhi and Donald Trump may disagree on almost everything under the sun, but they have inadvertently formed one of the most productive political partnerships in recent times. Trump speaks. Rahul amplifies. Trump speculates, Rahul celebrates. Trump attacks Modi, and Rahul treats it as certified truth. One can almost imagine the LOO (Leader of the…
The recent statements of former Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Trinamool Congress spokesperson Riju Dutta offer a revealing glimpse into a disturbing aspect of contemporary politics – the willingness of individuals to suspend personal judgment and repeat party narratives, only to distance themselves from them later. Though separated by time, political context, and…
The dog lifts its hind leg against a lamppost. The cat scratches a tree trunk. The tiger sprays a bush. Different rituals, same message – this patch is mine, and I was here before you. Humans, being the most evolved species on the planet, carve their names on monuments, fort walls, temple pillars, mountain rocks…
Maharashtra Cyber has registered an FIR against stand-up comedians Pranit More, Himanshu Jangra, Dr Sejal Pawar and others over allegedly obscene content linked to a comedy show in Gurugram. The FIR is not the story. The story is that it took an FIR for many Indians to realise that what passes off as stand-up comedy…
There was a time when Trinamool Congress was a political party. At the NDA’s 12th anniversary celebrations, it appeared to have been reinvented as a snack. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his allies tucked into bowls of jhalmuri, Home Minister Amit Shah immediately described the Bengali delicacy as tangy, masaledar, and crunchy. Political wags…
