MSD- One of a kind?
PM Modi has paid rich tributes to M S Dhoni holding him up as someone who epitomises the ‘spirit of New India’. He is by no means the only one to have described the contributions...
View ArticleThe urge to escape?
Don’t watch TV news. Not even by mistake. Not even if you are changing channels. That’s the only way that you will stave off insanity and shield yourself from the putridness that passes for news...
View ArticleTowards an uncivil society?
Whenever anyone mounts a critique of the current state of media encounters one particular counter-argument. Where were you when the tilt was the other way around, when the liberal narrative held sway...
View ArticleThe trouble with exams?
A recent recruitment ad released by the IIT went viral. It was advertising a position for a dog handler, in itself an unusual vocation to need in an educational institution, and compounded the...
View ArticleCaught between reward and guilt
The Opposition in India is completely bereft of ideas. In any other circumstances, given the fact that that the country is facing crises on several fronts, both external and internal, the Opposition...
View ArticleThe power of disproportion
One doesn’t have to lie to tell an untruth. Of course, lying is the most direct and efficient form of untruth, but there are other ways too. For weeks now, the Indian state and much...
View ArticleThe Future of the Past?
What is it about the past that produces wisdom? Why is it so easy to believe that the ancients hold all the keys to truly deep wisdom? For civilisations to locate an essential form of...
View ArticleAdvertising as politics?
The controversy surrounding the Tanishq ad has attracted a lot of comment. Both its contents and the company’s decision to withdraw it have met with fierce criticism, albeit from different quarters....
View ArticleThe photo album revisited
During the many months that one has been homebound thanks to Covid, one has had to rediscover aspects of the home that have otherwise been ignored. Closets have been cleaned, papers organised, some...
View ArticleThe Body as a Stranger?
Historically, we have been estranged from our own bodies. The Covid crisis underlines just how little we understand our own bodies. For all the intense engagement we have with our own selves, we regard...
View ArticleWhat democracy is capable of
The world heaves a sigh of relief. American democracy took its time, creaked mightily as it crawled its way to redemption, but finally it delivered what the world had been waiting for. Deliverance from...
View ArticleThe Covid Paradox
Living under the Covid cloud for 8 months now has been instructive. From a time when all conversations, both in the public and private spheres tended to centre around the pandemic and its...
View ArticleWhat goes up, stays up?
Conventional wisdom has it that no party or ideology can stay in power forever. The evidence over the years supports this view. The most dominant and seemingly impregnable regimes can bite the dust,...
View ArticleNeed: The need for Self-Correction?
A few days ago, one happened to be part of a conversation hosted by a TV news channel that was introspecting on the state of news on television today. The fact that such an exercise...
View ArticleOTT in WFH times?
Thank God for OTT platforms. Navigating the pandemic without having these options would have been exceedingly difficult. The OTT format is ideally suited for these WFH times. Our days have lost shape,...
View ArticleOf politics and culture
Among the many possible explanations for the sustained rise of the BJP and its growing ability to draw into its fold sections of the society that have historical reason to distrust it, is its ability...
View ArticleThe year that made us think
Every year, the year-ender column is a bit of a ritual- it feels appropriate to look back and try and discern a pattern that defined the 12 months gone by. Sometimes the pattern really does...
View Article2021-The need for a reset?
Very few years would have begun with as much optimism as 2021. This has more to do with the miserableness of 2020 than a genuine sense of positivity in the coming year. While Covid has...
View ArticleOnce upon a morning
Somehow, the morning has changed. Growing up in a slower India, mornings felt different. It might well be nostalgia, but they did not seem to be as full of portent, as crammed with activity, as...
View ArticleA revolt against institutions?
As the US prepares to swear in its new President, more than half of America and almost all of the rest of the world heaves a sigh of relief. The descent into a dystopian and...
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