A book on Kutch, its history, culture, desert
Some people seem to have a charmed life. Mariam Dossal is one of them. She is the author of a number of books on history, has had a good academic…
Vidyadhar Date
Film on a rebel professor who faces State terror
Thanks, Rinki Roy Bhattacharya. It was such a rare cinematic experience, the film "A Knock on the Door", directed by Ranjan Palit, shown last evening. As the title suggests, it…
Painter spurned money in his lifetime, now his paintings fetch crores of rupees
There was such a fine ambience on the lawns of the CVSM museum, formerly Prince of Wales museum in Colaba last week for the release of a book on India’s…
After Mr Modi’s speech,Tara Bhawalkar spoke eloquently on freedom on the same platform
Soon after Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the 98th Marathi sahitya sammelan in New Delhi last week, the sammelan president Tara Bhawalkar delivered an eloquent speech stressing the importance of freedom…
Stampedes caused by neglect of basic tenets of transport planning
Obviously, those in high places are responsible for the recent stampedes in Prayagraj and New Delhi. Pedestrians and commuters left to themselves can be fairly efficient actually in crowded places..…
Reputed novelist’s labour of love, a biography of dalit writer Annabhau Sathe
Vishwas Patil, prolific, talented Marathi novelist, was a member of a delegation of writes to China in 2013 led by Sunil Gangopadhyaya. At a conference in a big library in…
Mishap on road, mishap in the sea, few are safe in Mumbai
Two serious mishaps in Mumbai , one in the thickly populated , neglected Kurla area, and the other in the sea in the Mumbai harbour took a heavy toll of…
Karl Marx is important for all, Paris Marx is a guide for urban transport
The BJP has scored a big if questionable win in the just held legislative assembly elections in Maharahtra. But the state administration has scored a self goal or shot itself…
Amol Palekar celebrates 80th birthday with his autobiography
For Amol Palekar, well known theatre and film actor, director, November 23 was special, it was his 80th birthday and his autobiography in English and Marathi was released in the …
Tributes to poet Mir Taki Mir and playwright Jayawant Dalvi at the Tata Literary Festival
When I experienced petty policing in a library recently, it became clearer to me that the prestigious Asiatic library is comparatively much more democratic, open. Most of Asiatic’s lectures are…
Mahesh Elkunchwar,playwright, does not have the political understanding of Tendulkar or Karnad
Mahesh Elkunchwar, playwright, recalled at the Tata Literature festival in Mumbai last week his experience of being treated badly and addressed in Hindi as Saley tum Marathi (you bloody Marathi…
Scholar says Dr Ambedkar was great but we need to question him, not worship him
This was an unusual book launch in Mumbai on October 30 where the author , a prominent human rights activist, management professor, faces restrictions on his movements because of a…
Contribution of G P Deshpande and Arjun Dangle in the era of the Communist scare
It is now 50 years since G.P. Deshpande wrote the pathbreaking play Udhwasta Dharmashala, a professor in JNU at the time,he took the cue from a report of the witch…
Why Metro rail is a failure, look what Nobel economics prize winners say
We can better understand the transport and traffic crisis in India through the lens of Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, James Robinson who have just won the Nobel prize in economics…
Gullible audience applauds Gandhi killer Nathuram Godse
The play Nathuram Godse Must Die written and directed by Bharat Dabholkar is wildly propagandist , glorifies the murderer of Mahatma Gandhi and is full of distortions even while it…
Architects challenge anti-people projects,misuse of public space
To begin on a positive note it is encouraging to find that 92 young architects have come together under the auspices of Mumbai Architects Collective and urged the municipal commissioner …
Sitaram Yechury went too early, leaders need to take care of health
The Y.B. Chavan centre auditorium was filled to capacity at a meeting on September 24 in memory of Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist party of India Marxist, who…
Modi’s architect Bimal Patel is seen as pro-builder, anti-people
Mr Bimal Patel, favourite architect of Prime Minister Modi, has come in for criticism for his grandiose projects which have caused considerable damage. Worse, one could say it is his…
Luxury car crash puts BJP in a spot
As was to be expected, several attempts are reportedly being made to tamper with the evidence in the investigation of the crash caused by the car of the son of…
Paranjoy Guha’s film exposes Adani-led Dharavi project
It was good to see the documentary film Dharavi Ka Dada Kaun by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta , public spirited journalist and television personality , at the Press Club in Mumbai…
Crash of Shivaji statue is a blow to Maharashtra government’s image in an election year
The collapse of the Shivaji statue in the coastal town of Malvan in Maharashtra within eight months of being unveiled by the Prime Minister is a deep embarrassment to the …
Chemould art gallery and the making of the modern art movement in India
A big crowd collects every day outside film star Shah Rukh Khan’s building at Bandra Band Stand near the Bandra fort in Mumbai. People come from different parts of the…
Film on the rich cultural heritage of textile mill workers wins national award
Ashok Rane’s documentary film ‘Aankhi Ek Mohenjo Daro’ (Yet Another Mohenjo Daro) on the cultural life of textile mill workers of Girgangaon in Mumbai is a very important document .…
Urban planners seem to serve builders, not common people
Our urban planning and executive authorities seem to be doing more harm than good. CIDCO, city and industrial development corporation of Maharashtra is more brazen in being pro-builder, against the…
Ram Naik’s autobiography shows the transformation of the BJP
Mr Ram Naik’s autobiography is an important tool to understand the huge transformation of the BJP from a party built by ordinary selfless people to a party dominated by big…
Sachin Tendulkar remembers his father Ramesh Tendulkar, poet, critic
Sachin Tendulkar’s father, Ramesh Tendulkar, was a poet, a researcher, literary critic and a gentle soul. He came up the hard way , walking to school for some 8 km…
Our cities borrowing the worst U.S. models of urban planning
The new municipal commissioner of Mumbai Bhushan Gagrani said in a rather upbeat note at the Press Club on May 21 that the city is going through a big transformation. …
Marathi film ‘Nach Ga Ghuma’ takes a comic-serious look at domestic labour issue
Paresh Mokashi’s Marathi film Nach Ga Ghuma is very good as was expected from the reputed maker of Harischandrachi Factory which was the Indian nomination for Oscars.. It is very…
Ebrahim Alkazi, the father of modern Indian theatre. A centenary tribute
Several prominent theatre personalities stood in a long queue at the Opera House in Mumbai lrecently to get a signed copy of Amal Allana’s book on her father and the…
Adani’s project harming public transport in Mumbai
In helping Adani make huge profits through the Dharavi slum redevelopment project in Mumbai the authorities are harming public transport and also shooting themselves in the foot. In a…
Kumar Gandharva was an innovator, a rebel like T.M. Krishna
The Tata theatre of NCPA in Mumbai was packed to capacity on April 4 by music lovers providing a fitting finale to the birth centenary celebrations of Kumar Ganharva, the…
RSS chief absolves government of bad governance
A curious part of the speech of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in Mumbai on 27 March was that he sought to transfer responsibility for governance to common people. . We…
Coleridge’s poem and our water crisis
Mr R Chidambaram, a major figure in India’s nuclear weapons programme, quoted from poet Coleridge’s line Water Water everywhere and not a drop to drink, at a conference on water…
The great stink of capitalism
Had a lovely sensory experience outside Trident five star hotel at Bandra Kurla complex last evening. Visual treat as well .The front portion of the hotel has white Champak…
Thrusting a Knife into the Heart of Mumbai City – Unplanned Development
Allowing indiscriminate redevelopment of buildings in Mumbai is like thrusting a knife ino one’s chest. The price is heavy, said Amita Bhide, professor in the Centre of Urban Policy and…
Architects laud heritage buildings but fail to criticise bad Architecture
An exhibition on the architects and architecture firms which built some of the best buildings in Mumbai ended at the Asiatic society on March 10. A laudable venture . Sadly, …
The rich are protecting their spaces, the working class should fight for its own
The arrogance and extreme incompetence of the Metro railway and municipal authorities is increasingly becoming obvious. In Bangalore a farmer was denied entry into the Metro station last week on…
Poet Gieve Patel had sympathy for farmers
Perhaps a little more nuanced look was needed into the life and work of Gieve Patel than was offered at the NCPA recently when poets, theatre practitioners, painters converged to…
Anand Patwardhan’s film on his family which fought for freedom but did not seek power
A key part in Anand Patwardhan’s recent acclaimed film is his apt observation that his two uncles Achyutrao Patwardhan and Raosaheb Patwardhan chose to go into political oblivion after independence.…
Senior citizen wins fight against private bus company
Shekhar Hattangadi is a senior journalist with experience in the U.S. and India, is also a film maker and he is proficient in law.. He has won a significant judgement…
The sea bridge Modi opened denies access to common people
Front page photographs in newspapers today of Prime Minister Modi standing alone in the middle of the sea bridge in Mumbai are quite ironic.The irony is that ordinary people will…
Writers bemoan a lost way of life in cities, in rural areas
The current urban crisis is best reflected in two books in Hindi published in Mumbai recently. One is by Jitendra Bhatia, an IIT trained chemical engineer and prominent Hindi writer,…
Economist journal Says India’s Metro Rail Network is poorly planned and is in a mess
A recent issue of the well-known international journal Economist exposes the Indian government’s misleading claims about the Metro rail network in the country. Not one of the Metro lines in…
A Theatre Event- When Karl Marx Appears in India of Today
Thoroughly enjoyed the play Karl Marx in Kalbadevi at a new theatre Veda Kunba in Andheri last evening. A rare combination of an intelligent look at history and the present…
Are there enough Dalit Muslims in the media?
How many of you watch news on TV ? The audience was asked from the dais in an auditorium on December 16. Not a single hand went up. This shows…
Government pampers motorists, humiliates bus, train riders
Everyone should feel deeply concerned over this report in the Times of India by Somit Sen today about the serious crisis in the BEST bus undertaking in Mumbai, its fleet…
Sudha Bharadwaj’s book and the drama on a revolutionary on death row
The reading by Ratna Pathak Shah last evening from Sudha Bharadwaj’s book about days in the death row in jail, reminded me of a thrilling Marathi play Thank You Mr…
Infrastructure projects for the rich, dust and suffocation for the poor
After listening carefully to a presentation made by MMRDA commissioner Sanjay Mukherjee last evening one would say that life will be getting much worse for common people in the coming…
Huge increase in restaurants for the rich, a serious decline in eating places for common people
Writing about exotic food, fancy restaurants is now the in thing. Even Abhijit Banerjee, the Nobel economics prize winning economist, wrote about his own cooking and eating out in the…
Sad that some intellectuals are supporting dubious sports nationalism
More sad than the cheap jingoism and unsporting behaviour we witnessed in the world cup cricket final in the Narendra Modi stadium on November 19 is the collaborative approach from…
When Farmers Stood Up: Book on the farmers’ protests of 2020
Much before the rise of the nefarious agribusiness, harvesting was a community happening in the U.S. `Let us not forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important…
What Mumbai can learn from Delhi
Mumbai, the pioneer in the country in public transport, is now in a crisis mode, lagging behind Delhi in some respects. Our administrators should learn from this. During a visit…
You reach this conference in Delhi at the risk of your life
Crossing the road on foot to reach the venue of the international conference on public transport in Delhi was a near death experience last week. Every one knows this is…
Gujarati poet who inspired the civil rights movement in the U.S.
Shridharani is a prominent art gallery in Delhi which I visited last week but few know that Krishanlal Shridharani was an outstanding Gujarati poet and author who lived for many…
Jeremy Corbyn gets a taste of pollution caused by builders in Mumbai
Jeremy Corbyn, the British Labour party leader, did well to focus on some environment issues apart from talking on Israel and Palestine in his interaction with cultural activists in Mumbai…
Civic elections not being held in Mumbai, democracy suffers
I heard Mumbai municipal commissioner’s Iqbal Singh Chahal’s presentation at an auditorium in Prabhadevi on October 10 and went out for a while. When I came back , I noticed…
The inspiring life of Safdar Hashmi and a play on inequality in Mumbai
This robust play depicts the dizzy growth of luxury towers displacing slums in Mumbai and much more. It does this with so much energy, satire, and imagination and theatricality. It…
Luxury shops growing in Mumbai while vegetable vendors face police danda
While on way to the Asiatic society library two days ago, I walked into Sabyasachi, a fancy shop of art, at Horniman Circle out of curiosity since I had heard…
N.D.Mahanor, The Poet Who Taught Us to See Culture in Agriculture
Celebrated Marathi poet N.D. Mahanor, who passed away last month, lived all his life as a farmer in a small village Palaskheda, five km from the famous Ajanta caves in…
Mumbai lost intellectual vitality of old days
Dr Ganesh Devy, linguist and scholar, is perhaps too optimistic about Mumbai playing a big role in making an intellectual contribution to the idea of civilisation. He made the plea…
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