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The buck stops here, here, here, here—and there
ASHWINI A. writes from Bangalore: Since the buck goes all the way to the top, those at the top cannot wash their hands off of what happens all the way …
A bird in hand is better than two in the Bush
Mukul Kesavan in The Telegraph, Calcutta: “Indians don’t think much of Ricky Ponting for several reasons. His first tour was dogged by rumours of bad behaviour, his second tour was …
Stock brokers never wear bull bottom pants
Brokers at the Bombay Stock Exchange are clamouring for vaastu experts to be brought in to change the direction of the bronze bull statue that has been erected at the …
Bunt bird who soared from Manipal to Missouri
She was born without hands and legs. She was just a day old when she was relinquished to a hospital in Manipal by her poor parents, Kalavathi and Shankar Shetty. …
‘Mahatmaji fell backwards, uttering Raam-Raam’
G.N. MOHAN forwards an image of the original First Information Report on the assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi this day, 60 years ago, as published by India’s first woman IPS …
Heat, dust, haze, noise, fireworks & damp squibs
MATHIHALLI MADAN MOHAN writes from Hubli: Breathless chatter and cacophony have become the leit motifs of the modern Indian media echo chamber, regardless of the issue on hand. But is …
Corruption OK. Massacres OK. Romance not OK?
PALINI R. SWAMY writes from Bangalore: Like a kaleidoscope, you can view the “revelation” of the half-century-old S.M. Krishna–B. Saroja Devi fling, and the spat at the book release in …
An old flame ignites the media’s insensitivity
The release of former Congress minister H. Vishwanath‘s autobiography Halli hakkiya haadu (The song of the village bird) was thwarted by supporters of S.M. Krishna in Mysore yesterday who took …
How NRIs help India while desis crib about them
MADHU GOPINATH RAO writes from New York City: If you write about India or Indian matters, and happen to be based outside India, it comes as no surprise to see …
CHURUMURI POLL: L.K. Advani versus ________?
Politics is a bit like chess. Besides making the right moves yourself, it is also about catching your opponent unawares. Sometimes the other side notices and neutralises the risk; sometimes …
‘The first casualty of a cosy deal is credibility’
The Times of India group’s decision to make strategic investments in mid-level companies, in return for guaranteed advertising and editorial exposure in the group’s publications and media vehicles, through the …
‘Middle & upper classes are in their own country’
Arundhati Roy in Outlook: “Ironically, the era of the free market has led to the most successful secessionist struggle ever waged in India—the secession of the middle and upper classes …
A farmers’ bugbear trumps a farmers’ bandhu
ASHWINI A. writes from Bangalore: Artists and artistes have angled for it; bureaucrats have gone on bended knees for it; industrialists have moved mountains for it. Lobbying, self-promotion, chamchagiri, proximity, …
When a Major gets less than a real estate broker
Matt McClure of Al Jazeera reports on the emerging crisis in the armed forces of an emerging global power, which is slated to spend $30 billion over the next five …
Don’t gift them fish. Teach them how to fish.
While the State loses sweat over “transfer of power”, over whether swamijis should go abroad, over whether locals have a birth right for railway jobs, the key issues of the …
If Delhi was a batsman, it would be in the IPL
One of the miracles of the mobile phone is that it has replaced a concern for the human condition with a question about his physical location. So, no longer does …
Rajdeep and Barkha must decline the Padma Shri
ARVIND SWAMINATHAN writes from Madras: Now that CNN-IBN’s editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai and NDTV’s managing editor Barkha Dutt have become the first television journalists in the history of independent India to …
Why January 26 is more important than August 15
ALOK PRASANNA writes from Hyderabad: The dominant image of Republic Day that tends to stick in one’s mind is that of soldiers marching in step, tanks and artillery rumbling down …
The bulltaming that the Supreme Court can’t ban
P. Mahmud has an excellent cartoon in today’s Deccan Herald, in which he marries two continents, two cultures, and two different situations. He appropriately calls the taming of the bull, …
An ungrateful ant wails before a mountain of aces
E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: On 20 January 1961, in his inaugural address after taking over as the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy said: “Ask not what your country …
One woman speaks up for five crore Kannadigas
As the loose-tongues of the mother tongue flap around like cracked canines, with scarcely any debate on what such vigilante justice could be doing to Kannada, Kannadigas and Karnataka, one …
When did a Rs 10 crore bribe stop shocking us?
PRITHVI DATTA CHANDRA SHOBHI writes from Oakland, California: Two stories have been on my mind for a couple of weeks now. These stories aren’t unusual. Nor is the response (or …
If you want to go back, go all the way back
The Bharat Ratna debate continues to simmer in the television studios. On CNBC, Karan Thapar pointed out how 30 of our 40 State-registered jewels have been politicians, and how some …
CHURUMURI POLL: Bank strike, right or wrong?
Bank work will come to a stop on Friday when over a million employees of public sector banks, including 17,000 bank officers, embark on yet another strike to press their …
Once upon a time in Bangalore (as we knew it)
MADHU GOPINATH RAO writes from New York City: With an undeniable laidback charm, not so long ago, Bangalore was your quaint old south Indian city—a pensioner’s paradise and a garden …