Om Santi Om, Nandita Ji ! I regretfully noted in yesterday’s publications that Nandita Puri seemed mighty peeved with NDTVs Barkha Dutt ( The Buck Stops Here) for having quizzed her on her famous actor husband’s sexual “uprising” ( pun unintended , although the revered Om Puri’s movies were usually always on such passionate social… [Read more…]
” Mother Teresa never reads the newspaper, never listens to the radio and never watches television so she’s got a pretty good idea of what’s going on in the world”. Malcolm Muggeridge I read this morning’s The Times of India ( July 28th 2009)and choked in acute amusement ; outlined on page 18 of my… [Read more…]
The legal verdict is finally out. Professor Harbhajan Singh Sabharwal of Ujjain was not callously hammered to death by irate students in an uncontrollable, irascible state of frenzy, albeit that’s what we normal human beings with 20/20 eyesight saw on live television cameras a few years ago. On August 26th 2009 to be exact. The… [Read more…]
I had just entered my teenage years when I discovered the power of the idiot box. As we sat huddled before the eye-popping technology in a rectangular shape , my first memories are those of hearing a deep baritone voice, intellectually refined , possessing extraordinary depth and talking esoteric stuff. I did not understand much,… [Read more…]
Now why are all over-reacting to senior citizen Amitabh Bachchan’s blog on Slum Dog Millionaire beats me? That is exactly what Sarkar Raj wanted. Bachchan is a smart Alec , if you have not figured that out already. He picks up a topical subject, gives it a serpentine twist, then dresses it with some journalistic… [Read more…]
“They came from within the platform 13. At first, I thought it was just a celebration for some VIP who was either alighting or leaving for an outstation trip. Or maybe even a baaraati ( wedding procession)”. Sanjay Singh is in his mid-twenties, I assume, and even as he recounts the sequence of events that… [Read more…]
There are a couple of vocal women in Mumbai whose claim to fame these days is “ pop patriotism”. Here is a brief check-list to identify them : 1) They talk, talk and talk day in and night out. 2) They get withdrawal symptoms when they do not see themselves in the papers, forcing them… [Read more…]
“ In peace, sons bury their fathers; in war, fathers bury their sons”. –Herodotus Greek “ Father of History”. The story goes that Jamshetji Tata was strongly rebuffed when the gora sahibs, the Brits, refused him permission to Watson Hotel, as he was a brown Indian. Tata took that mortification really seriously. I am convinced… [Read more…]
Want to lift your level of happiness? Here are some practical suggestions from University of California psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, based on research findings by her and others. Satisfaction (at least a temporary boost) guaranteed 1. Count your blessings. One way to do this is with a “gratitude journal” in which you write down three to… [Read more…]
At the end of a super-week of outstanding tennis at the Kingfisher Open, as we braved exasperating rain interventions, and a strangely listless Bombay crowd, it was India’s Davis Cupper from time immemorial and Grand Slam winner of several tournaments, Mahesh Bhupathi, who really dropped a Hiroshima. Rounding off his doubles victory with Croatian Mario… [Read more…]
November 12, 2009
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