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CHURUMURI POLL: Has India lost moral compass?
In its 62nd year as a Republic, India presents a picture that can only mildy be termed unedifying. Scams are raining down on a parched landscape with frightening ferocity. From …
Bird brain? Finally a Kingfisher in good company
It speaks for the power of branding that Kingfisher is identified more for barley water and the mineral water after which a barely-afloat airline is named. But there is such …
POLL: Should Kingfisher Airlines be shut?
To no one’s surprise, Kingfisher Airlines has floated into yet another stormy spell of turbulence. For the second time in four months, flights are being cancelled without “guests” being told …
When the boys are imported, why not girls too?
When the “good doctor from the University of Southern California University” outsourced a cheer leading squad from the Washington Redskins for the first edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), …
CHURUMURI POLL: Mallya’s RCB, desi or IMFL?
When it took off, the Indian Premier League (IPL) was supposed to be, among other things, about building strong city-based local identities. In other words, what the Chicago Bulls and …
‘Your attention please: Flight IT 2404 is at MYQ’
When Rajiv Gandhi‘s “feeder airline” Vayudoot took flight in the mid-1980s, the onus of inaugurating its services to (and from) Mysore fell on the fragile shoulders of its most famous …
Sons of the son of the soil meet the son of the oil
For all the sanctimonious claptrap, there is little doubt that the house of elders has morphed into a money-making machine for political parties as all manner of industrialists, corporate chiefs …
The emperor’s new clothes has a loose button
As part of his arangetram for the global investors’ meet in Bangalore, Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa has abandoned his safari suit and acquired a whole new wardrobe. He has …
How namma Vijay floored namma Gopinath
Captain G.R. Gopinath, the founder of India’s first lowcost airline has penned his story. Titled ‘Simplify Fly (HarperCollins), the autobiography includes this passage (excerpted in the latest issue of Business …
6 proposals from (and 3 questions for) Lalit Modi
E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) has signed a contract with Nimbus Corporation for a jaw-dropping $612 million. The BCCI’s present sponsorship and sale …
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 …
The girls promise mischief. Are the boys upto it?
Vijay Mallya has unveiled the lethal weapons in the arsenal of the Royal Challengers squad: “The Mischief Girls” who will be the cheer leaders for the Bangalore team in the …
What Indian Political League can learn from IPL
E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: My friend, the Ace Political Expert (APE), who also sometimes doubles as the Ace Sports Specialist (ASS), was sulking in a corner in the lawns of our …
Why should “State” provide “security” for IPL?
ARVIND SWAMINATHAN writes from Panjim: The question mark over the second edition of the Indian Premier League™ because of its overlap with the Indian Political League© hides a clutch of …
The King of Good Times rescues a very Old Monk
ASHWINI A. writes from Bangalore: Something that Indians rever was on the auctioner’s block in the Big Apple last night: the personal effects of the most selfless human to have …
Is State’s success in cricket & economics related?
More proof that the most imaginative cricket writing in India comes not from cricket writers but those outside the press box. Spurred by Uttar Pradesh’s Ranji Trophy showing, Swaminathan S. …
The king of good times can’t spell annus horribilis
Terrorism? Slowdown? Inflation? Communalism? For the “doctorate of philosophy in business administration from the University of Southern California“, life is one big party as he looks over the shoulder of …
CHURUMURI POLL: Is Jet right to sack employees?
Jet Airways has let go of hundreds of employees, a day after tying up with Kingfisher Airlines, in the first, visible manifestation of the global economic crisis hitting home. Union …
Football lessons for the Congress from Euro 2008
E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: I met my friend, the Old Football Freak (OFF)–cum-Congress spokesman at the lawns of the club before the start of Holland-Italy kick off in Euro 2008. As …
All the news fit to print; all the booze fit to air?
“NDTV Good Times” is a lifestyle television channel that is the result of a collaboration between India’s leading English language television network NDTV, and India’s leading liquor manufacturer, United Breweries …
The greatest dream in the history of democracy
E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: I was watching Sreenivasan Jain trying to moderate the dog (?) fight between Margaret Alva and Sushma Swaraj amidst some invited guests on NDTV and wondering how …
And the SMS Shah Rukh Khan sent Saurav Ganguly
For all the initial sizzle and high jinks, Saurav Ganguly‘s Calcutta Knight Riders have had as poor a run as Rahul Dravid‘s Royal Challengers. But unlike Dravid’s “employer” “Dr” Vijay …
The SMS that Rahul Dravid sent Vijay Mallya
Harsha Bhogle in The Indian Express: “Intentionally or otherwise, Vijay Mallya has unleashed a wonderful, but hitherto unknown, word into Indian cricket. We have always plodded along in Indian cricket …
Finally, a cricket team is only as good as its City
ARVIND SWAMINATHAN writes from Madras: With the Yuvi team trouncing the UB® team in the Indian Premier League last night, there is one more reason for Vijay Mallya to get …
One question I’m dying to ask… “Dr” Vijay Mallya
Few things are more moving in public life than a billionaire businessman wailing over some loose change that has trickled out of a hole in his hip pocket. And Vijay …