The Italian playwright wrote for the downtrodden and the oppressed I first came across Nobel Prize-winning playwright Dario Fo during a conversation with noted Hindi and Urdu dramatist and author Shahid Anwar, who did a translation of the Italian playwright’s works such as The Accidental Death of an Anarchist and[Read More…]
I first heard the song Blowin in the Wind several years back in JNU. I was a new entrant and was straight away swept away by it, such was its all-pervasive power even half a century after its penning. I remember guys meticulously learning to strum the chords of Blowin[Read More…]
An old joke when I was growing up is that men always took to their heels with the “M” word. This has slowly and steadily changed. Today men and women are not running from the M word but the C word. Commitment issues are way more disparaging than having a[Read More…]
I looked around apprehensively as I slowly munched on my beef biryani. My furtive glances were met with derision from other eaters in the run-down Muslim restaurant. My mind was fraught with several questions. Did my biryani contain cow’s meat or buffalo’s as many people thought that it did? What[Read More…]
In the afternoon of 10th of Moharrum, in 61 AH (10th October, 680 AD), the day we commemorate as Ashoor, a woman was running from the khaimagaah (tents) to a small hillock near it. A lady who like her mother, Janab e Fatima Zehra valued pardah, ran out of the khaimagaah[Read More…]
It is curious to note the way in which Karti Chidambaram is being targeted over the Aircel-Maxis issue. The controversy is against Dayanidhi Maran and the fact that he pressurised C Sivasankaran to sell 74 percent of his stake to Malaysia’s Maxis Group in 2006. In the chargesheet filed by[Read More…]
Every summer, Delhi, the capital of India is reeling under power crisis. In 2016, the electricity demand touched 6,260 MW, double the demand of Mumbai and three times more than the demand of Chennai and Kolkata, in fact, the demand of the entire North East region is also less than[Read More…]
On his 87th Birthday, let us traverse his journey and explore this perspective of the man who has contributed so much to India.
Dear Indian, I’m sorry. Dear You, This letter is only for the rational, thinking Indian. Everyone else please don’t waste your time. I’ve been told to refrain from writing my thoughts as there could be “repercussions” but I believe I still live in a democracy where my right to speech[Read More…]
An illustration of what happens when the right wing takes over an institution. I have been in our Prime Minister’s constituency, Varanasi, for the past few days. I, along with representatives of various other student organizations, was invited here by the students who are at the receiving end of the[Read More…]
News media in the past one week of the Uri terror attack has been the most vocal in their condemnation, much more than the government of the day. Every night, night after night, various news channels have been coming up with plans on how to best respond to the latest[Read More…]
Close your eyes and imagine yourself in the India Gate lawns, on a bright sunny day. What do you see? Groups of people with family and friends, picnic baskets in hand? Now imagine a blind person trying to find his/her way around the Amar Jawan Jyoti. He/she is likely to[Read More…]
Prostate cancer is the second most common form of cancer in India and the sixth leading cause of deaths among men worldwide. One in every six men over 60 years of age tends to suffer from this disease. Every year, as many as 15 lakh prostate cancer cases are detected[Read More…]
The Young Makers conclave organised by ShethePeople.TV in association with Newsd as digital partner, was attended by Rajasthan Pradesh Congress chief, Sachin Pilot. Deliberating on the topic, “The Story of Political Life”, he said that Indian politics is desperately in need of young faces who are eager to create a[Read More…]
If you are a young boy or girl reading this you just mentally visualised this scene and if you are a parent your just about scandalised with the title. I’ve been taught from my earliest years by my parents and subsequently been scolded and given the occasional tap on the[Read More…]
The peculiar case of the enforcement directorate (ED) serving summons to Mrs. Nalini Chidambaram is extremely disturbing because it shows that authorities, in their pursuit to create a case where none exists, will even go to the extent of questioning monies paid to a seasoned lawyer for providing legal services.[Read More…]
Liverpool and optimism goes hand-in-hand. Same goes for supporters alike who never give up on their team. One good match and some of us get swayed away by a wave of emotions turning Liverpool into prospective title-contenders. Coming 2nd hurts, ask any Reds supporter, and you’ll know why. Rewind to[Read More…]
With the Uri attack, the vulnerabilities have been exposed yet again as far as our preparedness and call to action post intel inputs is concerned. 17 of our brave-hearts were martyred in a jiffy and all we have managed so far is the verbal diarrhoea of surgical strikes and political[Read More…]
Being the city of Nawabs and ‘cultural centre’ of Northern India, Lucknow remained a good patron of literary activities. With political crises at Delhi, poets bereft of patronage left for Lucknow which provided them with some option and most of them permanently migrated. Mir Taqi Mir (d.1810) and Mirza Muhammad[Read More…]
Dear Mr Kejriwal, As kids we were taught the adage, “A bad workman blames his tools.” So in the blame game that you have recently launched against the BJP-led MCD over the current health emergency, as usual it’s the common man that suffers. Let’s get one thing straight Mr CM…Delhi[Read More…]
Some images can never be ‘unseen’. Like India Today’s revealing cover of Baba Ramdev. What also can’t be unseen is the business magnate that Ramdev is today. He may not have a single share in his brand, Patanjali Ayurved, but his friend and promoter Acharya Balakrishna, has entered the Hurun[Read More…]
Reliance Jio shook the telecom space with its entry. And quite literally. Reports suggest that Airtel and Idea lost anywhere between Rs 13,500 crore and Rs 15,000 crore in a day’s trading. But the Reliance Jio advertisement flanking the first page of every newspaper with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s smiling[Read More…]
Over the past few days, Indian actress Ramya has been under fire for speaking in favour of our neighbours. So atrocious were her words that there is a case of “Sedition” filed against her. Her crime: To speak a truth that is unwanted in the Indian diaspora currently. I am[Read More…]
More than ever before, Indians are going abroad for higher studies. To take just one indicator, while the number of international students taking the GRE exam grew 11% in 2014-15, that rate for Indians was 20%. Incomes are rising, and so are young people’s aspirations. And with so many students[Read More…]
Fanaticism at its peak gets alienated from the core ideology it originated and becomes volatile, violent and uncontrollable. It loses the sense of differentiating between friends and foe. The recent incident of the killing of a BJP worker in Karnataka by VHP and Bajarang Dal cow vigilantes is a reminder[Read More…]