Category: COLUMNS
-
Saeed Naqvi on India’s stance on Gaza
—
Saeed Naqvi says India has two policies on Gaza: One in parliament, another at UN Indian Foriegn Minister Sushma Swaraj’s statement on Palestine in the Rajya Sabha so pleased Jerusalem that Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman thanked her that evening over the telephone. But the goodwill thus generated was fading by Wednesday when New Delhi, having…
-
DOWN WITH ENGLISH!
—
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra Now that we have this hostility to English as a language in India, soon, very soon, English will be a mark against you socially and we will explode our bridges over the rivers of the world and isolate ourselves because, like it or not, English as we have reworked it…
-
HEY, WHERE ARE THERE?
—
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra Every now and then I get a little bit angry. But it is not because of an eclipse of the heart. More because I feel like that guy in the boat who was left stranded midstream. That is what Indian media does, they leave you grasping for oars to get…
-
WAIT TILL DAD GETS HOME
—
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra When we were kids and we misbehaved my Mum would say, wait till your father gets home. It was like the biggest threat going, the sharpest knife in the toolbox and we would then sit in delicious dread waiting for the Man to come home and set us right.It counted.…
-
CRICKET: Lessons to learn from India
—
Veturi Srivatsa says Indians taught Englishmen how to play in their backyard India’s handsome victory at Lord’s would have come as a big relief to skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, leading a young side with almost the entire top-order batting playing in England for the first time. What must have pleased Dhoni’s team is that they…
-
Gandhi & Gaza – By C Uday Bhaskar
—
C Uday Bhaskar says India’s parliament must reflect on Gandhi’s words After considerable vacillation that brought little credit to the world’s largest democracy, the Indian parliament is now set to discuss the violence and bloodshed in Gaza on Monday, July 21. Earlier, even as the spiral of violence continued, the Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj…
-
FRIGHTFUL STUFF
—
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra So I am catching up with my email having left it all unplugged these past four days and there is the usual dross and spam and I notice that my old friend Joanna who wants to meet me terribly has been joined by Esmerelda and Ibo, both of whom share…
-
India & Palestine issue
—
`India’s West Asia policy unlikely to see major change’ There could be a nuanced change in India’s West Asia policy under NDA rule but there will be no substantive change, former diplomats and analysts have said, as the Modi government prepares to debate, after initial reservation, the spurt in violence in Gaza in Parliament Monday…
-
Just Sport on Jadeja-Anderson spat
—
Veturi Srivatsa in his weekly column analysing the Jadeja-Anderson spat. It is a test case for new chief Srinivasan It is incongruous to find players from India and England standing eyeball-to-eyeball within a month of the expressed bonhomie of their board along with Cricket Australia in joining hands to rule World cricket. It is difficult to believe…
-
Hindutva hawks and Modi India
—
Amulya Ganguli analysing the stance of Hindutva brigade during the Modi rule in Delhi. Modi is an “ideal swayamsevak” and the saffron zealots will, therefore, expect him to fulfil their dream of establishing a Hindu rashtra (nation) The latest reported observations of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) supremo, Ashok Singhal, echo what the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue,…
-
BACK TO NORMAL…WELL, ALMOST
—
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra You know the part about being ill is that you get well and then all the sympathy you have been garnering disappears like a mist. Zip, gone. Misery is addictive. You were wallowing in it. Everyone was at your beck and call. They asked you what you felt like eating.…
-
LOVEENA TANDON : I can feel an India buzz in London
Loveena Tandon, the UK/European correspondent for Aaj Tak/Headlines Today, looks into the changing attitudes of Western World to Indian Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi and how London is changing its hues to welcome Modi About 400 guests, predominantly of Indian origin, gathered at London’s prestigious Marriott Hotel applauded when Prime Minister David Cameron said: I…
-
HOW TO STEM SPORTS DEPRESSION?
—
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra All this hype about sports has a downside. For the past three months it has been running our lives, isolating the men and some of the women, the whole texture of normal family life disrupted, even socializing predicated to the timing. IPL. Wimbledon. The World Cup. Suddenly, it is all…
-
How to write a balanced news report?
—
The Funny Side By Nury Vittachi So I get a news report from a young reporter. “A car was in collision with a bath” the other day, it told me. Huh? So why was someone driving a bath down a road? In a follow-up email, she explained that the guy in the bath claimed that…
-
FAMILY WARS – Indian Style
—
Daily Dose BY BIKRAM VOHRA Have you noticed how we spend most of our children’s early years teaching them to walk and talk and then the rest of it telling them to shut up and sit down. In thousands of home these wars are fought every day. Why? Why what? Why should I sit down.…
-
FINDING NAMO – An Open Letter to Modi
—
Daily Dose by Bikram Vohra I remember the good old days in Ahmedabad when I was editor of Indian Express and Narendra Modi was a fledgling politician and we were old buddies and we would meet and chew the fat and eat dhoklas and bhajiyas and go to the club to play tennis and all…
-
MIDDLE AGED SWINGER
—
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra Have you noticed how when wives say I don’t want to upset you to their husbands that is precisely what they intend to do. I don’t want to upset you, says my wife, but I have something to say. Go ahead, I say, I won’t be upset. You have become…
-
India Budget 2014 – A review
—
Amit Kapoor analysing the 2014 India Budget and India’s Future The past few days have been particularly historic when talking about the impact they can have on India’s trajectory of growth and economic development. It is because the maiden budget from India’s new finance minister was announced on the July 10. It was a test of…
-
TROUBLE IN THE TOILET
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra Most men have five or six items in their bathrooms. Toothbrush, toothpaste, shaving foam, a razor and a ragged towel and maybe a talc and a cologne. These could all fit into a travel bag. The stuff women have could fit into a tent and still there’d be some sans…
-
Saeed Naqvi on Shia-Sunni schism
—
Saeed Naqvi says the new Caliphate opposed to Shia apostasy and, eventually to Sunni monarchies The expanding Shia-Sunni conflict in the Muslim world is exposing vast gaps in popular understanding of the schism. For example when Zine El Abedine Ben Ali, the Tunisian strongman was ousted, people thought a Shia dictator had fallen. From this they extrapolated…
-
Haryana move rocks SGPC
—
Jaideep Sarin says Haryana’s move to create a Sikh body will undermine SGPC’s credibility. After Mahabharat and Panipat, it’s now the SGPC, a body which has an annual budget of Rs 950 crore The land that is now called Haryana has been famous for epic battles like the Mahabharat and the three historic battles of Panipat.…
-
Modi sidestepping RSS?
—
Amulya Ganguli says the elevation of Amit Shah as BJP chief indicates that Modi is sidestepping RSS When L.K. Advani was dragged kicking and screaming from the post of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president in 2005 under orders from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a diplomatic cable from the US embassy in Delhi to Washington stated that the…
-
The Funny Side by Nury Vittachi
Hiring people to endanger my children’s lives easy, but rather expensive What would you do if a man threatened to put your children on the roof of a jeep and then perform dangerous vehicular acrobatics like trying to flip the car over? I’ll tell you what I did. I said yes, paid him a large…
-
THE BIG SLEEP OH DON’T BE FATUOUS
—
DAILY DOSE BY Bikram Vohra You’d think it was the betrayal of the state, that India had been sabotaged because Rahul Gandhi closed his eyes for 22 seconds during the price line debate in parliament. The way the TV channels have blasted into him you’d think he’d led an attack on the house. Arnab Goswami,…
-
THE GREAT INDIAN PROBLEM IS US
—
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra Everyone in India is either a philosopher, a mentor, a critic, a cynic or an opinionated twit. The last come on TV in panels where they are royally screwed over by the anchor or so called mediator and yet they keep on coming and making fools of themselves and being…
-
WHAT A COWARDLY THING
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra So I am reading this book in which the hero is being given a lie detector test before he joins the FBI or the CIA and the question is: have you ever been a coward? And I think to myself, hmmm, interesting, have I ever been one? Not in the…
-
MIXING WITH THE MONEY MANDARINS
—
DAILY DOSE BY Bikram Vohra I wasn’t very good at money matters when I was a youngster. And I wasn’t very good with money matters when I was middle aged. Now, as I totter into antiquity I am still not very good with money matters. Guess I am constant. In fact, I was well into…
-
COMMENT: Indian cricket team in the UK
—
Veturi Srivatsa in his columns Just Sportsays Nobody can complain about unfamiliar conditions any more Every time the Indian cricket team goes on a tour of England, the wailing about blustery conditions, green tops, on which only English bowlers seemed to get wickets for the asking, used to be a routine. Some used to add…
-
And quiet flows the Ganges
—
Anjali Ojha says Sabarmati model not enough for cleaning the holy river Ganges A new ministry to tackle the cleaning of the Ganga may not really change its fate, nor can the “Sabarmati model”, experts say, adding that legislative provisions are needed to ensure that the river’s glory is restored. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi…
-
Modi & Saffron Brigade
—
Amulya Ganguli analysing the initital days of the Modi government. Modi prevails over saffron traditionalists The Hindutva fundamentalists may be slowly realising that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory is unlikely to help their cause as much as they would have liked. For instance, any sense of elation which they felt when Narendra Modi said during the election campaign…
-
Naqvi on the trail of jehadists
—
Saeed Naqvi analysing the plot behind the jehadists. Why is the world in grip of jehadist menace? Three momentous events, all in November-December 1979, are the genesis of a great deal of chaos the world faces today. First, was the return of Ayatollah Khomeini to Tehran and the Iranian occupation of the US embassy, a…
-
MEMSAHIBS AND MANNERS
—
It is one of those ‘we live abroad so when we visit we notice it’ things for which us NRIs get a lot of stick. But some things do sort of hit us differently. Like whenever I come home to Delhi I am appalled at the way people speak to domestic help, part time, full…
-
NOT READY FOR DEPARTURE
—
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra So we are in the holding area and the boarding for the flight is announced and the disembodied voice says rows 15 to 30 please board first, the rest please await the next announcement.Naturally, this is ignored. What part of that do passengers fail to understand? It is 15 to…
-
DON’T GET EVEN, GET SMART
—
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra A friend of mine wants revenge. Someone he trusted has done the dirty on him and he is hoping mad because he feels cheated, betrayed, let down and that is just for starters. Told him, waste of time and energy, enjoy the scenarios but don’t carry them out. Why not,…
-
India needs more modern cities
—
Amit Kapoor in his column Active Voice says India requires 35 new cities by 2031 to support the mushrooming population base Urbanization has been an integral part of India’s growth story. The country today has an urban population of 377.10 million (31.2 percent of the total) and is continually expanding its base. Factors such as the…
-
ENGLISH IS NO CRIMINAL
Daily Dose by Bikram Vohra The current brouhaha that is being witnessed in India over downgrading English is one fraught with danger. English is not a language in India. It is a caste. It is also a free pass to the best of jobs. And anyone tells you differently they are hypocrites. This hypocrisy raises…
-
HEAVY STUFF FOR A MONDAY MORNING
—
Daily Dose by Bikram Vohra “Leave the ones going away from the wicket,’ said this famous cricketer, “And just block the ones that are coming on the stumps.” Every now and again he would repeat the advisory. Don’t knock it till you have tried it. Not just good advice for cricket but also for life.…
-
Saudi role in Egypt verdict
—
Saeed Naqvi says Saudi vendetta played a role in the jailing of hree tAl Jazeera journalists in Egypt Al Jazeera journalists in Egypt were given severe sentences because that is the way the Saudis wanted it. The Qatari channel was always an eyesore to the Saudis but was recently being tolerated, even encouraged, by Riyadh…
-
HOW TO WRECK A CAREER ? Indian Style
—
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra This is the recording of a meeting between a corporate boss and two of his lieutenants held to discuss the probable promotion of a Manager to their level. The boss is very much in favour of upgrading the wunderkind but the two top executives are evidently not keen on getting…
-
SPECIAL COLUMN- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
—
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says there are three ways to overcome addictions- Love, fear and greed. Today (26th June is INTERNATIONAL DRUG ABUSE DAY) There is one real culprit for crime and corruption, that is, addiction to drugs and alcohol. Addiction starts with the repeated experience of the same sense object. The repeated association with a…
-
Indian TV serials get ugly
—
Arpana in her column Bollywood Country says wife-beating is new TRP mantra for TV soaps It seems TV content is getting regressive by the day. After saas-bahu sagas, now TV shows like second season of “Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon?…Ek Baar Phir” and “Doli Armaano Ki ” are capitalising on domestic violence to get eyeballs. “Iss…
-
HR & HATCHET JOBS,THE BIG CON GAME
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra The big bully in the corporate world today is HR. Where did this lot come from? Knowing very little about the job and functions of the staff there they are pruning and cutting and snipping away at the bottom line like berserk gardeners bent on destruction. Their only aim is…
-
WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM?
—
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra This is a slightly sensitive subject. But we will truly become civilized when we get over the social hang up of keeping silent over two conditions. Bad breath and body odour. I have never understood why we have to tolerate it or not mention it. The other party is not…
-
The hottest meditative tool
—
Shudip Talukdar says Mindfulness emerges as hottest meditative tool Mindfulness is fast emerging as the hottest meditative tool, which is known to contribute to our wellbeing and productivity. Mindfulness is all about being focussed on the present moment, which has the power to liberate one from the shackles of past failures or pointless day dreaming about the…
-
Rise of India’s Creative Class
—
Amit Kapoor & Hardik Dedhia look into India’s creative class in their column: Active Voice According to a leading economist and social scientist Richard Florida, the creative class is the key driving force for economic development. It’s the class of workers who engage in problem finding and problem solving at various levels of our society. This creative class could…
-
Modi Faces Socialist Roadblock
—
Amulya Ganguli in his column Political Circus says Modinomics will face ‘socialist’ roadblock As Narendra Modi resumes the task of continuing the economic reforms even if it means administering “bitter medicine”, the first dose of which was given recently, one might have expected the Congress to offer him wholehearted support. Such a gesture would have been normal…
-
‘India can stabilise West Asia’
—
Eminent journalist Saeed Naqvi says Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi must place West Asia on his radar because this vital part of our near abroad is in rapid change. A new West Asia is emerging. We must engage at the highest level and help shape this change, taking heart from Raees Amrohvi’s optimism many moons ago. “Jup raha hai…
-
GET ON YOUR BIKE, SIR
—
DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra So, what do you think? Should the woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by Union Minister of State Nihal Chand get to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She has asked for just such a meeting and wants to prove to him there are grounds for which to sack her…
-
THE GREAT INDIAN HANG UP WITH FOOD
—
DAILY DOES by Bikram Vohra Our fascination with food reaches unchallenged heights when it comes to ‘enjoying’ other people’s hospitality. They call you for dinner, you scarf down a solid meal then you spend the ride back home breaking apart each dish and the knocking the caterer or the home-cooked meal or the dessert and…
-
Pakistan faces Iraq model crisis
—
C Uday Bhaskar, Distinguished Fellow, Society for Policy Studies, is analysing the new Iraqi crisis for Asian Lite, the international newspaper for the Asian diaspora. Can Pakistan be saved from going the Iraq way? The Pakistan military launched Zarb-e-Azb, a major offensive operation against terror groups operating from North Waziristan Sunday, a week after the…