No way! I wont leave without her seeing me one last time! But they said she will not be coming, But why, I wanted to ask. I wanted to scream. And what about him? My best pal. Will he too not come? There are whispers that he won’t come either. Come on! They are kidding me. He will come. I[Read More…]
They all called him Chotu. How and why the name came to stick, even he didn’t know. He wasn’t short. As an Indian, he was average in height. But he wasn’t an Indian, or was he? Well, even that wasn’t clear to him. The other day, the fat clerk at the aadhar office had refused to give a form because[Read More…]
“Who is that with the dagger?”
“I don’t know.”
“And who is that with the stick?”
“Sorry, don’t know.”
“Who is that with the sledgehammer?”
“Don’t know.”
“And look, who is that with the pen?”
“Oh, he? He’s a journalist.”
Padmawati was all dressed up for the occasion- a red saree with an equally red blouse and a small ghunghat that carefully covered the charm of her dark face. A small nose ring which curved and curled into a nathuri stuck on to her right nostril. The two artificial garnets of her nathuri glittered in the sunlight. Three blackish-grey tattoo[Read More…]
Knock, Knock
“Who‘s there?”
“Hunger”
“Hunger who?”
“Santoshi hai?”
I don’t know if you came across a piece of news from Kolhapur, Maharashtra, published a few days back in several national dailies. No wonder you might have missed it, it was (purposely) snug in one tight corner of most papers like a hibernating animal, meant to be left untouched. Well, the news was that a twenty-seven-year-old, hungry man, Sunil[Read More…]
Then they reached, seventy of them,
In shrouds as white as the lilies of the field.
They cried, they wailed, they gasped for air,
Their caring moms left behind
(This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to recent events or people is intentional, fiction after all is the step daughter of reality) Azadnagar was a unique place. It had birds which could speak. Yes, speak as we could. The people of Azadnagar loved their birds but no one knew how they could speak. The secret of the speaking[Read More…]
If you love peace, you need to see the channel Republic. You can’t always wait for peace. At times, you have to earn it. Fish it out of the madness which surrounds you all the time. There can be no two opinions on peace, just like you can’t have two suns or two moons. But peace is not about suns[Read More…]
Pete and Laura, old friends from Derby were visiting. They were here for a month and wanted to go around and discover the land of Buddha. “We want to go to Agra and see the Taj Mahal”, she said with a mouthful of English accent. “Hmm…Taj Mahal? That’s in Uttar Pradesh, nearer to Dadri where Akhlaq was lynched.” “And then[Read More…]
The recent strike of doctors across Maharashtra (and other parts of the country) against violence unleashed on them by disgruntled relatives of patients have thrown up uncomfortable questions. Whenever and wherever, violence must be abhorred and condemned in all its forms. Without doubt, all healthcare providers should be ensured safety at places of work. Violence at place of work can[Read More…]
Last night I dreamt of Alan Kurdi. Remember him? …No? Well, I thought so, or rather I was sure that you would have forgotten. After all it’s natural to forget tragedies, pain and death! That is such a natural, lovely, human trait, essential to survive the pain-hole that this world is! It’s been more than a year since Alan’s lifeless[Read More…]
Beyond the orgasms of patriotism and far from the rhetoric of nationalism breathes the real India, an India of flesh and blood. And no matter what amount of chest thumping some among us do, it is getting clearer by the day that it was this real India which bled white following the demonetization drive announced by the government on November[Read More…]
Tubeless tyres are a great discovery; a marvel of sorts. They claim you can run for fifty odd kilometres even after the tyre is punctured! I had other reasons to enjoy the boon of the tubeless tyre. A month back air pressure in one of the tyre of my sedan went low. On my way to work I stopped at[Read More…]
At the outset please let me clarify that I am an Indian, I love my nation and I stand up straight and attentive every time the national anthem is played. Having said this, I have interest in history and love to read anything and everything that helps me decipher the past because in words of Churchill, the more backward we[Read More…]
Ratna Devi and her nine year old daughter Seema (names changed) came to AIIMS, New Delhi with a large tumor over Seema’s knee. The tumor was not a new discovery and had been thriving on the little girl like a blood sucking leech for the last one year. An enquiry revealed that the family was from Rajasthan, around four hundred[Read More…]
The Tragedy of Footpaths: Impressions of a Pedestrian in Bangalore 
Altruism exists in nature, Reciprocal altruism in humans 
U.S. Trying To Cover Up Its Role In Nord Stream Sabotage, Says Seymour Hersh 
Open Letter To Rahul Gandhi, Indian National Congress Party 
Future Scenarios in Ukraine 
West Sends Depleted Uranium Weapons to Ukraine: MEP to Warmongers – “You Make Me Sick!” 
Sri Lanka’s unconvincing response to Universal Periodic Review’s forthright findings 
Kisan Mahapanchayat stages massive rally in Delhi 
The betrayers of Julian Assange 
The Truth About Our Failure to Curb Carbon Emissions 
They’re liars, Mexico’s President on U.S. 
Grameena Pedala Sangham, Telangana State conference, is an important mile-stone 
Imperial Visits: US Emissaries in the Pacific 
Enough is enough. Restore parliament 
Disgrace at the New York Times 
‘Israel is (Not) Back to Africa’: How African Countries are Challenging Israeli Plot on the Continent 
A Highway to Peace or a Highway to Hell? The Vast Power of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex 
Accelerating Change on United Nations World Water Day 2023 
Defence Daredevilry 
Selling One’s Soul – The betrayal of Christ and Constitution 
Climate Crisis Has Caused Increasingly Irreversible Losses, Says UN Report 
Yarrow Mamout Masjid Dedicated at Georgetown University 
Adolf Hitler, Carl Orff & Sophie Scholl 
Algeria’s Gas vs. Rightwing Ideology: Will Italy Change Its Position on Jerusalem? 
From Balloons to AUKUS: The War Drive Against China 
Paul Keating’s criticism of Australia’s AUKUS deal is damming but not “astonishing”, – in fact, timely! 
In memory of 20th anniversary of the Iraq War 
CBI investigation against Harsh Mandar’s NGO is nothing but travesty of justice 
Concept of Gram Swaraj (‘Village Self-Reliance’) and Its Increasing Relevance for Our Times Indian Democracy & Chaos in Parliament! 
Veterans Condemn Eviction of Aruna Rodrigues from her Residence 
America’s Wars 
Criminals at Large: The Iraq War Twenty Years On 
Massive White House Protest Against Endless Wars 
From ‘Progress’ to an Economics of Happiness 
On Missing Dr. Strangelove Or How Americans Learned to Stop Worrying and Forgot the Bomb 
The Arrest Warrant Against Putin and International Justice 
Illiberal Democracy and Anti-modernization waves in south-Asia 
To prevent a civil war that is about to happen in Pakistan 
Self-Reliant Farmers Improve their Economics and Also Contribute to Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
