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Survival of fittest is a great photo opportunity
In the run-up to the general elections, the “former future prime minister of India” pumped iron to the pop of the photo bulbs. At the chintan baithak of BJP ministers …
Sometimes like Vishy, sometimes Douglas Jardine
Gundappa Viswanath‘s tenure as captain of the Indian cricket team was shorter than Sachin Tendulkar‘s but a lot more memorable. In the jubilee Test against England in Bombay, the “Bhimsen …
No, he’s not laughing at the plight of Air-India
On a day when Air India’s maharaja began to look a little less stately with its fat cats going on strike, the king of good times, Vijay Mallya—the owner of …
Don’t blame the boys for lack of preparation
If Australia beats Pakistan, India is out of the Champions Trophy. If Pakistan beats Australia by a slender margin, India has to beat West Indies by a huge margin. If …
At last, a ‘different’ film that is actually different
RAJEEV A. RAO writes from Bangalore: After watching Gaalipata, I had mentioned that Yogaraj Bhat had a challenge upfront for his next venture—“to take the road not taken, to tread …
For whom does the bell toll at the Bannimantapa?
Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar, the scion of the erstwhile royal family of Mysore, performs banni pooja on Vijayadashami at the culmination of the nine-day Dasara festival in Mysore on Monday. Photograph: …
‘Not tonight, darling. I have a match day after’
PALINI R. SWAMY writes from Bangalore: Back when Kerry Packer ushered in day-night cricket, the slogan used to be “Big boys play at night.” As if to prove that life …
ALLEN J. MENDONCA: REST IN PEACE
churumuri records with a heavy heart the passing away of Allen J. Mendonca, the former Indian Express and Times of India journalist, in Bangalore on Monday. He is survived by …
Will you buy a used crystal ball from these men?
Astrologers, palmists, numerologists, soothsayers, gemmologists and assorted fortune-tellers are supposed to reassure us about the future. But television bosses, especially in Hindi, seem to have decided that they can only …
World’s largest landbank holder is namma Creema
At a time when Indian industrialists are finding it difficult to acquire land without running into trouble with farmers, greens and politicians, among others, the world’s largest landbank holder, by …
Why the national media ignores National Awards
Girish Kasaravalli, winner of four national film awards—third only to Satyajit Ray (6) and Buddhadeb Dasgupta (5)—and director of Gulabi Talkies which won Umashree a national award for best actress …
They also serve who hang and swerve and swab
There’s plenty of shimmering stuff all around us in the glass-and-steel structures, but somebody’s gotta keep them clean. A tethered cleaner giving a wipe forms a silhouette against a glass …
Could the media end up killing Barack Obama?
Al Jazeera’s media show, The Listening Post, on how 24×7 media is dangerously inflaming passions against US President Barack Obama with lies, untruths and rhetoric—a little like the way a …
Our man from Maddur is shorter than you think
While his five-star stay continues to drive the headlines in New Delhi, Union external affairs minister Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna poses with US President Barack Hussein Obama and first lady Michelle …
Taliban squared + LeT squared > ISI squared
E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: The telephone rang in the middle of the night. Pythagoras (570-495 BC) woke up with a start but did not know what to do or how to …
‘Twitter has 140 characters. Lok Sabha has 545.’
Maybe this is what minister of state for Shashi Tharoor had in mind when he was expressing his desire to travel cattle-class in solidarity with the holy cows, the sacred …
It’s not the winning that counts, it’s the grinning
At the Dasara half-marathon, the minister in charge of Mysore district, Shobha Karandlaje, shows her youthful best as her cabinet colleague Gulihatti Shekhar and others try to keep pace, in …
‘Caste is what has made Indians fearful of change’
Why doesn’t the BJP, which brags so much of inner-party democracy, simply not go ahead and hold an election to elect its next leader, instead of humiliating L.K. Advani from …
Because, like Elvis, they only show him waist up
True, the Congress is in the midst of a Bogus Austerity Drama (BAD), but do its spokesmen have to drop their pants to make it seem real?! On a hot …
If a report is not ‘wrong’, does it become ‘right’?
The threat of war between India and China has still not receded but the battle between unnamed home ministry sources continues relentlessly. Caught in the crossfire: journalists. First, The Hindu …
Are you being served, Mr Foreign Correspondent?
The Congress-led UPA government’s Bogus Austerity Drama (BAD) has seen ministers move out of five-star hotels, party leaders move around in economy-class planes and trains, and a Twitter comment about …
Last great cavalry victory of the Mysore Lancers
VADIRAJ HOMBAL forwards an Oxford University archival image of the Mysore Lancers and Jodhpore Lancers passing through Haifa (in modern-day Israel), following the city’s capture from the Ottoman empire of …
CHURUMURI POLL: Is Dalit Dinakaran above law?
“The strange case of Justice P.D. Dinakaran” has taken a strange turn. A group of advocates and activists in Tamil Nadu are alleging that the chief justice of the Karnataka …
A sleepy town: now officially recognised by govt
It’s one thing for travel writers dipping into their thesauruses to blindly term Mysore “a sleepy town” or “a pensioner’s paradise”. But what when the government officially believes that all …
Why Pokiri (Telugu) is better than Wanted (Hindi)
ARVIND SWAMINATHAN writes from Madras: As a shameless fan of the new breed of slick South Indian flicks, with their cheap tricks and sexy chicks, please permit me one more …
churumuri 