INTREPID WRITER

What makes Mikhail Shishkin that he is?

2012-01-10T04:02:00.000-08:00

Bunin taught me not to compromise, and to go on believing in myself. Chekhov passed on his sense of humanity – that there can’t be any wholly negative characters in your text. And from Tolstoy I learned not to be afraid of being naïve.

Hopeless Lokpal Bill 2011

2011-12-28T08:27:00.000-08:00

Hopelessly ineffectual and constitutionally suspect, the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011 is nothing less than a betrayal of national trust.

Welcome, THiNK!

2011-11-08T09:51:00.000-08:00

"With THiNK, TEHELKA hopes to bat for the joys universally inherent in the ideas of plurality, creativity, intelligence, justice and beauty. To remind us the world is not there to be quartered and possessed but to be illuminated and expanded."

1Q84: dizzy labyrinth of a novel

2011-10-30T01:14:00.000-07:00

"1Q84 is a dizzy labyrinth of a novel, and is well worth reading not only if you’re a fan of Murakami’s books, but if you’re the type that likes to get lost in a deftly constructed maze of a narrative. Reading a Murakami book is akin to eating a box of sweet and gooey chocolates: the writing is so precise and colourful that you want to stop at certain points and just savour the richness. The

Murakami on America as a model

2011-10-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

“I don’t think people think of America as a model anymore. We don’t have any model at this moment. We have to establish the new model.”

On Bangalore without any malice

2011-10-07T23:53:00.000-07:00

I'm on a 5-day-tour to Bangalore where my daughter, a software engineer, works with an MNC. The city is sprawling, chok-a-bloc with traffic, and like our own Kolkata, is through the process of various developing projects like metro rail. What daunts me here however is its transport system. The auto-rickshaw, which dominates the roads plies on meter, but it charges you 17 rupees for a minimum.

Vinod Mehta on television pundits

2011-09-17T23:48:00.000-07:00

"Punditry on current affairs television, unfortunately, makes it difficult for a person to distinguish between the passing and the lasting."

Post-modernism: A to Z

2011-09-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

Post-modernism is many things rolled into one, and is hard to define. Here is an interesting article that tries to delineate post-modernism in an interesting way.

Pritish Nandy's reaction to 7/9 Delhi terror attack

2011-09-08T05:27:00.000-07:00

"Now blame game begins. Home ministry says it had warned the Delhi police in July. NIA to step in(why can't wisdom step in, instead?)"NIA stands for National Investigation Agency.

Amitav Ghosh on Anna Hazare movement

2011-08-29T04:30:00.000-07:00

"In India, the events of the last couple of years have unmasked, as never before, our own 'deep state'. As scandal after scandal has unfolded, it has become evident that the collusion between politicians, corporations and the media, is of a staggering magnitude, and that it operates on a scale that far exceeds anything that most could imagine. Indeed, it has become apparent that the locus of

Anna wins at last, and makes history.

2011-08-27T22:51:00.000-07:00

So, Anna Hazare wins at last. Though there's still some room for doubt - given the Congress leaders' track record - whether the resolution passed by the Parliament under pressure from people all across the country would be translated into a bill in to to, and not without any more flip-flop, the good news is, the govt has bowed down to Anna Hazare. It's a big achievement for Anna as well as for us

Anna's politics of anti-politics

2011-08-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

This is ninth day of Anna's fast. There have been several talks between the Govt and Anna team. The Govt is adamant not to set its Lokpal Bill aside. Manmohan Singh seems insincere and cold-blooded, and talks in vague, ambiguous and rhetoric lingo. The Govt practically shows no concern for Anna's declining health. Anna team is of course disappointed, and back to square one. Anna once again

Anna aesthetics

2011-08-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

Sixth day of Anna Hazare movement. Crowds swell even more. Tens of thousands of people throng Ramlila Maidan and elsewhere. Team Anna makes the first move for dialogue with the govt, based on PM's statement yesterday that there is scope for give and take. But the govt seems inflexible, and does not respond to Team Anna's gesture. It has been a peaceful movement so far. Not the slightest sign

Anna momentum

2011-08-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

This is fifth day of Anna's fast. Anna momentum surges ahead. The supporters swell further. Not only in Delhi, but across all cities. Unprecedented, say the TV channels. The govt has started playing diversionary tactics. Manmohan Singh, for example, states that he's also in favour of a strong Lokpal Bill, but it should be on a political consensus, and that it needs time to pass such a bill.

India is now Anna Hazare!

2011-08-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

It's really an exhilarating experience when you see a mighty government bending to a 73-year old man's steely character. India is now Anna Hazare. It's amazing how a septuagenarian so easily strikes chord with people cutting across caste, class and age-groups. Manmohon Singh, P.Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal and Pranab Mukherjee have all made themselves asses in fighting with this simple, unassuming

Space for good news?

2011-08-14T07:57:00.000-07:00

Magazines, newspapers and television report on the world as it turns. If journalism is the first rough draft of history, journalists need to make sure that in the press of events, goodness doesn’t go unchronicled.

Whither public education?

2011-08-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

Noam Chomsky, the iconic intellectual and thinker, recently delivered a speech on public education in US, with insights and wisdom expected of him. What they are doing to the public education system is going to undermine the economy that relies on a skilled work force and creative innovation, Silicon Valley and so on. Well, apart from the enormous human cost of depriving most people of decent

Arundhati Roy: insider on the outside?

2011-07-25T05:08:00.000-07:00

Lynne Tillman on reality

2011-07-17T01:19:00.000-07:00

Reality is a very curious construction.

The horror of attacking the Supreme Court wisdom

2011-07-10T01:16:00.000-07:00

Read two pieces(no link available) by two columnists in the Hindustan Times dated jJuly 9 &10, both - interestingly - criticizing the role of the Supreme Court in the same fashion. I wonder if the editor by any chance briefed them to cover the same topic, or it happened just coincidentally. So what is wrong with the the Supreme Court? Chanakya says it's overreaching, and that the Court can't act

Binayak Sen quote

2011-06-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

"We are at a particular historical juncture. and large populations are involved in that - individuals do not make history." Courtesy: A Doctor to Defend - The Binayak Sen Story by Minni Vaid

Who killed J.Dey, the ace crime- reporter?

2011-06-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

Who killed him, and why they killed him are tough questions that the Mumbai Police and the state administration will have to find answers to. But more important is the question: have our democratic institutions eroded to an extent that even the nation's media, reportedly free, is unable to do its job without having hit jobs ordered on its professionals?

A requiem for M.F. Hossain

2011-06-09T22:29:00.000-07:00

"I know no one more genuinely and deeply committed to the composite, multi-religious and secular values of Indian civilization than M.F Hussain. He breathed the spirit of modrnity, progress and tolerance. the whole narrative of what forced him into exile, including the failure of the executive and the legal system to enable his safe return, revolves round the issues of freedom of expression and

Arvind Kejriwal On current UPA government

2011-06-08T21:56:00.000-07:00

"I was not wrong when I called them liars, cheats and conspirators. they released a fake CD, want to keep the Prime Minister out of the purview of the Lokpal and are taking the people for a ride committing one scam after another."

My life is so crazy: Arundhati Roy

2011-06-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

"My life is so crazy. There's so much pressure and idiosyncrasy. I don't have any establishment. I don't have anyone to mediate between me and the world. It's just based on instinct."