Clash of the titans
Before a major heavyweight boxing title bout, there are sideshows on the day’s entertainment. Call it a teaser or a trailer, the aim is to whet the appetite of ...
No questions, please
Move over George Bush, Baba Ramdev is here. In the course of a recent interview, I asked India’s tele-friendly yoga guru-turned-black money avenger, the source of his great wealth....
It’s a cosy little club
Politicians are notorious for doublespeak, which is why their public positions are often dictated to by private agendas. So when a Lalu Prasad calls for a ban on the...
No laughing matter
The grand old man of Indian cartooning RK Laxman has a delightful anecdote that embodies the charm of political cartooning. Soon after the 1962 Sino-Indian war, Laxman lampooned Prime...
Not a luxury suite
Five years ago, one ‘almost’ broke the story of India’s next president. Amid feverish speculation, a source sent an SMS: “Congratulations! India is getting its first woman president and...
No country for saints
It is not without reason that AK Antony is referred to as ‘Saint’ Antony. When you’ve spent four decades in public life and don’t have a whiff of a...
Orders from HQ
Forget a week being a long time in politics, in India it can take just a few hours for a zero to become a hero and vice versa. On...
Try a little kindness
Has Gujarat really moved on ten years after the terrible violence of 2002? The answer depends on who the question is asked to. Chief minister Narendra Modi, for example,...
Let’s play it straight
Here’s a story that perhaps best exemplifies how far Indian cricket has travelled. In the mid-1950s, India was playing New Zealand. At the time the players were paid a...
Face the nation
On the face of it, a Narendra Modi’s politics is as different from Mayawati’s as a Gujarati dhokla is from a Lucknowi seekh kebab. One is a Hindutva icon,...