Israels evenings without Zakir Hussains tabla on June 21, 2012It is possible you would think denying the people of Israel a chance to listen to the tabla is not the most appropriate method of opposing their state’s oppression of Palestinians. Yet the Indian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (INCACBI) persuaded the tabla maestro Zakir Hussain to cancel his performances scheduled […]
The meaning of Anna and his movement on June 14, 2012During the sultry monsoon months of 2011, the simmering anger of people found expression in street protests organised under the aegis of India Against Corruption (IAC), a civil society formation that has become synonymous with the doughty, at times bumbling, Anna Hazare. Yet again, Delhi is to witness the rumblings of a repressed fury. Weeks […]
Games intelligence agencies play on May 31, 2012During the week, Delhi’s Group of Interlocutors went public with their vision of a future for Jammu and Kashmir. You would have been better advised to thumb through The Meadow for understanding better the darkled past of the beleaguered state. Its authors, Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark, retell the story of the kidnapping of five […]
IPL: a metaphor for changing India on May 24, 2012Warts are mushrooming on the visage of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at a pace more furious than that at which Twenty20 is played. Last week, you could even choose your favourite from the spread of scandals on the IPL table. A TV sting operation confirmed the existence of spot-fixing and flouting of rules governing […]
The cultural noose called the necktie on May 10, 2012My nephew was hopping around in excitement on the morning he was to join a major multinational corporation (MNC) as an intern. Dressed in designer clothes, and shoes polished to shine, he set off on his tryst with the corporate world, only to return hours later a little crestfallen and visibly irritated. The reason? The […]
The god of cricket is the god of boredom on May 3, 2012The god of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, has been displaying those attributes because of which we ordinary mortals become disenchanted with the concept of God. We worship God because of our abiding faith in His omnipresence, His ability to conjure magical moments for enlivening the tedium of our daily routine, and His promise to intercede on […]
Is it Indias Rosa Parks moment? on April 26, 2012For nearly a century and a half, the cow wasn’t just a cow but an incendiary political issue, which periodically ignited many a communal conflagration all around India. Underlying the acrimony was the demand asking Muslims to eschew beef-eating in respect for the religious sentiments of Hindus, who considered the cow holy. It tacitly assumed […]
What must be said again and again on April 19, 2012Famous litterateur Gunter Grass has been dubbed a Nazi and anti-Semitic because his poem, What must be said, published in a German newspaper early this month, challenges the basic tenets of what can be called the theory of the End of Sorrow. No academic has ever written a treatise on it, yet its postulates are […]
Flaws in Zardaris China model on April 12, 2012President Asif Ali Zardari flew to India at a time the relationship had some of its lights flickering and a wind, albeit weak, in its sail, evident from the tuning down of shrill rhetoric over the last two years and progress in trade relations. The ostensible purpose of Zardari’s visit was to pay respects at […]
Inside the activists mind on April 5, 2012Pakistan has Asma Jahangir and I A Rehman. They are indomitable of spirit, fearless in action, forever battling the state to provide a voice to the helpless and marginal. In India too, there are many such bravehearts, who don’t subscribe to the dubious dictum that the state can do no wrong. Among them is Gautam […]