However much I restrain myself from calling Rahul Gandhi by his epithet, the Leader of Opposition proves himself, with unfailing consistency, to be a Pappu. Earlier he waved a coat-pocket-sized red book, calling it our Indian Constitution, with the flourish of ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’, crying samvidhan khatre mein hai (democracy is in danger)….
Every time a supercar meets a divider, a footpath or a pedestrian in India, a familiar miracle occurs. The steering wheel, moments ago gripped by a young man with inherited wealth, is suddenly discovered to have been operated by someone else. Usually a driver. A report in The Times of India on a Lamborghini crash…
Some books change history, books that gather dust, and then some books do not exist but still manage to enter the Lok Sabha. One also wonders, in passing, whether Rahul Gandhi has the habit of reading any books at all – published or unpublished. The safer assumption is that he relies on briefing notes supplied…
Bollywood has done it again. And by ‘done it again’, one means that familiar, well-rehearsed trick of creative courage that only ever seems to kick in when Hindu symbols are involved. This time the provocation comes neatly packaged as Ghooskhor Pandit -helpfully subtitled Corrupt Priest, lest anyone miss the point. The teaser has barely finished…
There is an old proverb about glass houses and stones. Parliament this week decided to test its structural integrity by adding another folk wisdom to the rule book – if you point one finger at the government, be prepared for the other side to point all five fingers and 150 books back at you. The…
Parliament has many traditions. Addressing the Chair as if he were a college roommate is not one of them. So when the Chair had to interrupt proceedings to ask an honourable member to withdraw the word ‘yaar’, it was not linguistic policing, but a necessary reminder of where familiarity is meant to stop and institutional…
Kerala, that laminated brochure of literacy and civic virtue, has discovered a new grievance–redressal mechanism. When files do not move in government offices, the solution, it appears, is to move to the middle of the road and pray. At Palakkad’s IMA junction, a woman in her early 60s sat down in white namaz attire and…
‘Aim high and find a way,’ American rock climber Alex Honnold said casually before beginning a no-rope, no-net, no-parachute, pass-or-fail climb up Taipei 101 – broadcast live globally. Looking up at the skyscraper, he sounded more amused than intimidated. ‘What a building,’ he remarked, as if appraising a tempting rock face rather than a 508-metre…
On this 77th Republic Day, I choose to salute the nation through something deeply personal – my experience of growing up with Indian cinema, and watching it evolve from myth-making to meaning. For many in my generation, cinema was not merely entertainment. It was an informal classroom. Long before we learnt to read history critically,…
When the UAE President flies in, is received at the airport by India’s Prime Minister, shares a car ride into the capital, and then leaves after barely two hours of talks, the temptation is to describe the visit as symbolic. That would be a mistake. Symbols, after all, are often shorthand for decisions already taken…
