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- Archives: February 2007
- Unfettered Religious Freedom in Islam – A Fact or Fiction? Part 3
Were the Muslims that entered Mecca a peaceful and lovable people or were they deadly and cruel enough to destroy the weak Mecca pagans?
- Book Review: The Acid Alkaline Balance Diet: An Innovative Program for Ridding Your Body of Acidic Wastes by Felicia Drury Kliment
A useful book for people struggling to find a simple, effective diet plan.
- Music Review: Kevin Coyne Sugar Candy Taxi
Even though Kevin is no longer with us, he has left a wonderful legacy behind him
- Movie Review: Shaan - A Look Back
A big-budgeted multi-starrer starring AB himself and we are not talking about Guru either.
- The Complete Works of Sipla Poppadum aka Shilpa Shetty
A critical (!) appreciation of the works of the winner of Celebrity Big Brother.
- The Terrorism Awareness Project
The Terrorism Awareness Project aims to bring awareness to American college students about the threat of jihadi terrorism.
- Travel Essay: Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary
Just three kilometers off the busy Bangalore-Mysore is an unexpected and delightful surprise for the nature-loving traveler.
- Book Review: Hacks and Headlines- Rashme Sehgal's First Novel
One hopes there is a powerful sequel with a redemptive message for the corrupt soul of Indian body politic.
- Movie Reviews: A Scanner Darkly (2006) and 13 (Tzameti) (2006)
Paranoia, cynicism, sadism, gore, death and really enjoyable movies.
- Website Review: Willow TV - Online Cricket Broadcasting
Cannot get Dish or DirecTV? Try Willow TV!
- Lost in the Supermarket - A Transcultural Perspective on the Retail Business
In their quest to woo the consumer some of these new generation grocery chains are learning from the traditional retailers
- Microsoft Pays Someone To Correct Wikipedia Entries - So What?
Microsoft is being hounded for their decision to pay an independent writer to update some Wikipedia entries, and they should be left alone...
- Movie Review: Savalee - A Sensitive Marathi Film
Savalee is the story of a veteran classical singer Ramabai Shirodkar and her daughter Sanika.
- Unfettered Religious Freedom in Islam - A Fact or Fiction? Part 4
That Islam accords 'total religious freedom to all other religions,' thus, amounts to misinforming, misleading and spreading falsehood.
- Travel Scraps: How I Met Meijin
... all the neighbors stared at me in awe. This was some bargaining – bringing it straight down from 4500 to 350!!
- Twenty Minutes of Water Was All I Could Take - It's Pretentious
... what purpose did exposing, in the raw, the unjustified treatment of widows in Varanasi serve, other than exposing for the sake of an expose?
- Cricket: Does Team India Need Virender Sehwag?
Why would you want Virender Sehwag to return to the fold when all is so supremely hunky dory without him? Right?
- Book Review: Shout For The Dead - The Ascendants Of Estorea: Book Two James Barclay
Barclay is at his storytelling and adventure creation best.
- The Ghost Dip
A journey on foot to the heart of the Ardh Kumbh Mela in Allahabad
- Cartoon: Priceless Vista
Vista has arrived, minus the Price-tag!
- Confessions of Three Former Terrorists Not Heard
Warning about the danger of radical Islam offends Muslims but preaching of extreme hatred, violence and acts of terrorism don't.
- Guile and Chutzpah at the Mumbai Marathon
A man at the Mumbai Marathon flexed his chutzpah muscles...
- Cartoon: Gates & Windows
So what is Vista all about?!
- 13th Asian Junior Squash Championships, Hong Kong
Asian Junior Squash curtain raiser
- Poetry: wingless dancing queries
Are leaves like us? here today recycled tomorrow
- Bazaar Walks: A Lesson in Mutton Korma
Muslim cuisine in the bylanes of Chor Bazaar
- Movie Review - Partition
A tragic drama about the partitioning of India, Partition is a decent drama but doesn't feel fully realized.
- Television: ER - Rejoined ER and Loved It
ER is back, and this time it is for the better!
- Music Review: Room Full Of Fools Kevin Coyne
Listen to this and you may come away with a little more understanding of how even awareness can be harmful.
- Eco-Friendly Indian Consulate In Need Of Paper Shredder
As we see it, the documents are not confidential.
- Book Review: Know How by Ram Charan
A definite 'must-read' on leadership
- Coming To Terms With Tinnitus
To my dismay, he declared that my operated ear was as good as dead and my ringing is a symptom called tinnitus.
- Does The Education System Promote Elitism?
Public schools almost invariably practice inbreeding by restricting the crop of students they will admit.
- The Wii Comes Home
We have cleared out the living room floor to bowl, golf and play tennis and basket ball.
- Select Bookshop: Grounded By Tonnes Of Tomes
Select Book Shop is a real treasure trove of frayed pages, exciting ideas and six decades of history.
- My Superior Take On The Sinister Cabal
I can deal with not being part of a "sinister cabal". What hurts me most is not being called a "superior writer".
- The Rise of Al Qaeda
Al Qaeda has grown from an organization to a movement. Only a counter movement will defeat it. Are we game?
- Book Review: The Demon-Seed (Asura Vithu), MT Vasudevan Nair
Asura Vithu is a book that, even in an average translation, reads authentic.
- Identity - The Sum of Many Parts
I wonder when people will start to look at one another with a more patient, “holistic” eye. To see someone as the sum of many
- Movie Review: Gojiri - A Love Story
Gojiri is worth a look once despite the shortcomings.
- The Vanishing Rights Of Women
whether it's the so-called developed or undeveloped world women are still second or, lower, class citizens.
- Cartoon: Bailing The Rich
Sidhu's bails and sticky wickets.
- The Grind And Crunch Of Blog Production
The neurotic, incessant, nearly haunting drive to get in front of a keyboard.
- Movie Review: Parzania
When will the world learn that there are no Hindu or Muslim terrorists?
- Cartoon: America Goes Green
It's about time the world's greatest polluter did something other than pay lip service.
- Selling Stories to the Media - Five Points to Consider
Listing five key factors for successfully selling stories to the media.
- A Twenty20 Shocker And A Wish For Better Contest
Afridi's outing on Friday was as uncharacteristic as was Sunil Gavaskar's when the latter scored a Test ton at Delhi in 1983.
- Super Bowl XLI: Sigh, Chicago Bears, You Let Me Down!
Chicago gets thumped by Indianapolis, and deservedly so!
- Cartoon: Communal Violence
We find ourselves amidst communal violence once again. I guess we will never learn.
- Essay Review: "On Some Aspects of the Historiography of Colonial India" by Ranajit Guha
Peasant uprisings and such subaltern revolts had a constant element of antagonism to elite domination.
- Cauvery Tribunal Verdict Announced - The Water Wars Have Begun
The Cauvery Tribunal verdict indicates that Tamil Nadu gets 419 tmc, Karnataka 270 tmc, and no satisfaction.
- Cauvery Tribunal Delivers Verdict - Will There Be Violence?
The verdict is not the final word, either state may appeal and it is most likely that Karnataka will appeal.
- A Tribute to Pandit Bhimsen Joshi on His 85th Birthday
He has set his own distinctive style to his music and relentless riyaaz has made his renditions seem smooth and effortless.
- Super Bowl XLI: Peyton Manning Gets The Monkey Off His Back
Peyton Manning leads the Indianapolis Colts to a Superbowl win and is able to finally silence his critics and prove that he is the best
- Music Review: Kevin Coyne: Carnival
If you go into his world once, you may find yourself drawn back in again and again.
- A Flawed Rationale for Rough Justice?
Till the judicial system is reformed, the rough and ready judgments we all despise will continue to occur.
- An Immigrant's Super Bowl Ruminations
What's not to love about a game in which you can watch tight ends to your heart's content?
- India's Foreign Aid Program - Playing Like The Big Boys
With economic growth has come the ability to play like the big boys, even if not with them.
- Kidney Theft - The Other Side of the Story
It is perfectly healthy and legal for any living person to donate his/her kidney out of free will.
- Review of Photo Exhibition: Representing Indian Women 1875-1947
Photographs, they say, speak louder than words. Within each frame of a given photograph are hidden varied emotions – joy,...
- Treaties of Sagauli and Sinchula –Our Colonial Past
In its foreign policy, India is beginning to abandon the Raj approach to its neighbors
- Resolving The Cauvery Dispute: A Market-Driven Approach
A new frame and a possible solution for the Cauvery Water Dispute.
- Bazaar Walks: God is a Woman. Without Bawling Babies.
Strangely enough, for a country that is hung up about fertility, none of the goddesses I see in temples today seem to have borne children.
- Cultural Conflict: Looking Beyond the Skin and the Tongue
A problem of river water, becomes a clash of languages.
- Bollywood's Fair and Lovely Foreign Extras
In a society that equates fairness with beauty, the blue eyed blonde haired westerner fulfils a crucial role in providing instant background glamour.
- Nepal: A New Dawn and Some Scepticism
Nepal's rapid progress towards a Republican state from a marxist insurgency invites scepticism.
- Taking Children to Bollywood Movies
So without proper ratings, what is a parent to do? Here are a few hints.
- Israel May Attack Iran, With or Without The US's Help
If sanctions fail to stop Iran's enrichment Israel will attack, alone if necessary.
- Book Review: Thomas Pynchon Against The Day
Thomas Pynchon is probably the most skilled writer to be published in the English language since Joyce and Wolfe.
- Kabul Express in The Hippy, Happier Days
Unlike John and Arshad in the film my script didn't include any life-threatening situations while driving through the Afghan countryside.
- More Emphasis on Product-Making, Less on Servicing
High-tech product manufacturing companies are a must for India to scale up to becoming an economic power.
- Cartoon: Unending Communal Violence
More Communal Violence. First it was Bangalore, then Gorakhpur, so we will just wait for the next one.
- The 'M' Word - Part 3: Shopping Mall and Astrology
"Tujhe koi milta nahin, shopping mall ya party sharty mein".
- Chetan Chauhan, Have You No Shame?
The decision to appoint Azharuddin as captain of India Veterans can only be described as a cheap, ill-judged and unpatriotic publicity stunt.
- Fiction: Himadri
"This is not a story about how things are, but of how things were."
- Marathi Film Industry: 75 Years and Growing
Despite many firsts to its credit Marathi cinema still finds itself caught in a bind from time to time, with good quality films proving elusive
- Book Review: The Little Book of Hindu Deities, Sanjay Patel
A kid-friendly look at Hindu Mythology
- Yahoo Switches To New Panama Search Engine Model
Yahoo's recent changes to its search engine advertising model - good or bad?
- Canadian Politics: Foreign Aid Comes To Canada
How to help people who have had their will to live gradually sapped out of them, generation after generation?
- Parzania Unofficially Banned in Gujarat
Gujarat unofficially bans Parzania; it should instead be supporting the right of the movie to be displayed
- Travel Report: The French Riviera : A Perfect Destination to Unwind
I would say that the French Coast is a perfect honeymoon spot or for those who simply want to unwind from life's constant struggle.
- Cricket: Is Greg Chappell a Horrible Task Master?
Let's not start grilling Chappell for another supposed "team management" issue.
- What is Honor?
In Sanskrit, the word for honor is "Maan." And the word for bruised ego is "Abhi-maan." They are deeply connected.
- Shahrukh Khan versus Amitabh Bachchan - The Slugfest
A long, hard and highly subjective look at who would win a quintessential fan-slugout.
- Book Review: The Oracle by Valerio Massimo Manfredi
Manfredi's first contemporary novel is a good read
- Bye Bye Hot Samosas
In a rush to make Delhi another Singapore or Shanghai, one cannot forget the millions who make this a vibrant city
- Poetry: Dear Blank, Blah Blah Blah and Blah
I would like to have a dialog with you but it makes no sense if I can only call you "void".
- Meet Indicast: A New Breed of Indian Podcasters
Meet the guys from Indicast, one of India's first podcasts
- Caring About Caring: Who Cares?
If you look closely enough at care, you can see how easily it could become caress; an act of love.
- Wanted: Keen Eyes, Sharp Intellect, Thick Skin
We need editors (read willing slaves) in different time zones.
- Blog to Blog Exchange: The Journey Begins - From Delhi to London
When I mentioned to Subhash that I was packed and ready to leave for Europe by road with just three pounds' worth of Forex, he
- Some Personal Notes On Guru
Guru was not a great movie but it was affecting in ways few films are ...
- Islam is in Desperate Need of a Little Bit of Idolatry
Islam was based on hatred against idolaters of Mecca, who were by any standard an exemplary people in civility and tolerance.
- Tax Exemption for Guru - The Unspoken Message
Typically movies are tax exempt when they combine healthy entertainment and healthy ethics. What ethics does Guru preach?
- Hidden Places: Blogging from Geneva
I wonder why I feel compelled to reach behind the displayed books to find the ones hidden from my gaze.
- Israel's Bedouin: Hidden Victims
Native Tribes tormented, subjected to deprivation and forced into homelessness, all away from the media spotlight.
- Abhiwarya at the Box Office
So we know Abhiwarya can sell magazines. But can they sell movies?
- French Court To Rule On Whether Prophet's Cartoons Were Offensive
If the same standard applies to Christianity and Islam, then they were offensive - Not!
- poetry: crimson cobwebs / surkh dOray
crimson cobwebs of serrated sighs
- Colour of the Skin in Indian Mythology
The use of skin color as proxy for character attributes is a product of White racial superiority theory and holds minor or no significance in
- The 52nd Filmfare Award Nominations: Something's Odd
Something doesn't seem quite right with the 52nd Filmfare Award nominations.
- Big B Gifted Rolls Royce Phantom By Vidhu Vinod Chopra, The Mother Of All Gifts
Director Vidhu Vinod Chopra gifts actor Amitabh Bachchan a Rolls Royce.
- I'm A Time Traveller
I'm afraid you'll just have to take my word for it when I tell you that I'm a time traveller.
- Reengineering, Not Reform Is Needed Urgently in India
Campaigns like India Everywhere or India Poised - made by few for a country with 1.1 billion shows our global ignorance.
- Shilpa Shetty: From Hindi Film Star to Global Celebrity
Globally, we all know Aishwariya Rai. Rani Mukherjee and Preity Zinta may also get nods of recognition. But Shilpa?
- Watching Movies in Cinema Halls in India
Watching a Bollywood movie in a theater hall in India is an experience unlike any other
- What Makes Us Indians?
Enough is enough. Today, I ask my nation to grow up. To step up to the role the world expects us to fulfill.
- Cricket World Cup 2007 Preview: West Indies
Can West Indies avoid the host nation jinx?
- Prof. Sabharwal Murder Trial : And the Hostility Continues...
Main witnesses turn hostile once again.
- Tennis: Give Me A Federer Match Any Day
Federer and boring? Never!
- Palestine: Excluding Hamas Won't Bring Peace
Recent policies to bring Middle East peace, were pushing Palestinians apart and peace further away.
- TV Review: Has 30 Rock Gotten Funnier?
Can Tina Fey save her ratings-challenged sitcom?
- China's Space Program, The Linear Collider, Climate Crisis, Franken-Chickens and the OQO
A new column which summarizes the latest innovations in science and technology.
- West Indies Cricketers Implicated in Match Fixing
I think the only solution to get rid of match fixing is to legitimise the betting on cricket in India.
- Hot Chick or Madrasi Chick or Just a Man's Fancy?
So I say, get over it and move on cause it ain't wrong if a man fancies one breed over another.
- Israel and the Jews - Causes of Hatred, Or The Absence of Cause?
Why use religion as a measure to assess achievement?
- Book Review: Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
...a great story, with amazing characters, and incredible atmosphere written by a superlative writer, what more could you ask for?
- From Software Consulting To Film Production - Mukund Moorthy's Boomerang
When you want something, the entire world conspires in helping you to achieve it.
- I Hate Valentine's Day
One billion valentines are sent worldwide, making it the second largest card-sending occasion behind Christmas.
- Lost and Then Found in Translation
Remembering the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, as it gets lost and found in translation.
- India Win Bronze At Asian Junior Championships, Hong Kong
Following Saurav Ghosal's bronze medal at the Asian Games, our juniors win the Bronze in Hong Kong
- India A Superpower?
Is India a Superpower? What to you think? One author says think again...
- Graphic Novel Review: 300, Frank Miller
Accuracy is besides the point in Miller's bold depiction of the Battle of Thermopylae.
- Interview: A Man With a Vision - Anurag Kashyap (Part 2)
Will Bollywood burn down his passion for cinema? Only time will tell.
- The Art of Giving: Valentine's Day Tips
The whole concept of making a list of presents, the expensive thingummyjigs for spouses in favour all seemed a bit too excessive to me.
- ULFA - What Is The Congress Upto?
Action against ULFA happens in fits and starts.
- Family History: Facts And Hopes
...a nice fantasy family history that every so often looks very real.
- Blog to Blog Exchange: The Nostalgia - Leaving London
I was leaving London for good, and had chosen to do it over land, in a 12-seater van.
- Cartoon: Bail The Rich, Jail The Rest
How come Sanjay Dutt keeps getting bail after bail, while the others remain in jail?
- Superpower, India?
India is at a cross roads at this moment and what it decides will determine its destiny.
- Racism, Discrimination and Indian Hypocrisy
A thought on racism and discrimination in the Indian context.
- Cartoon: The Nero of Bengal
With violence erupting again in Singur & Nandigram, one can't be sure whether Buddhadeb has any clue what he should be doing.
- Movie Review: Woody Allen's Scoop
How much Woody Allen can you take?
- US-Sponsored Mass Destruction and the Bhagavad Gita
Wrongly quoting Bhagavad Gita to explain the mass destruction caused by US and its allies
- TV Review: Koffee with Karan - Two Thumbs Down
Karan's revamped Koffee served Cold.
- Book Review: Writing Now - More Stories From Zimbabwe, Edited by Irene Staunton
"I’m gonna sing to the stars because humanity has a blind cruelty. I’m gonna sing that I need a life, a dignity..."
- Canadian Politics: Green Games
The real losers in this game are going to be all of us.
- Globalisation Yes, But Not At Any Price
The urban poor cannot be wished away, they stand at our door step with the same dreams as ours.
- Are We Teaching Students to Learn?
Is the Indian education system serving the purpose? Are the students really learning?
- Book Review: Himalayan Blunder
Review of Brigadier John P. Dalvi's banned book, Himalayan Blunder
- Cricket World Cup 2007 Preview: South Africa
Can South Africa get rid of their choker tag this time around? The Desicricketers opine.
- Fiction: A Valentine's Day Date with Miss Heptulla
I found myself entangled with a mysterious girl.
- Dr. Mahatir Mohamad's 2003 IOC Speech: A Turning Point In My Perception of Islam
Most Muslims grow up with irrational hatred against the Jews from childhood and so did I. But Dr Mahathir's extreme Jew-hatred changed me forever.
- Indian Politics and St. Valentine
Be it political or religious, every group has its reasons against Valentine's Day.
- Book Review: Aleppo Tales by Haim Sabato
Faith does not have to be a burden, it should be a blessing
- Shshsh - Don't Laugh! We're Muslims!
From little mosque on the prairie to a little masquerade on the prairie to a little laughter on the prairie?
- Who Will Take Up the Cudgels on Their Behalf?
An appeal to break the deafening silence that surrounds 50 abused girls
- Photo Essay : Love Is In The Air
The manoeuvres, displays and exercises made me realize that human beings were playing music in the air.
- A Winter Day in the Midwest
It was like watching the world move in slow motion, through a black and white television
- Book Review: Alan Dean Foster's Sagramanda
Sci-fi thriller imagines hi-tech India
- Poetry: A Valentine's Poem
Ok, I admit it - I hate the gift-giving pressure of Valentine's day, but I love the romance.
- Indian Culture and Valentine's Day
Reasons given by VHP/Shiv Sena to protest against Valentine's day does not hold any water.
- Naxalism In India - A Review
Naxalism in India continues to be a major decelerator for growth, says Citigroup. What is the reality today?
- Fiction: Confessions of a Murderer
Murder is the end of the ecstasy; the real pleasure is in the foreplay.
- Happy St Valentine's Day, Amit Bhaiyya
On Valentine's Day, a tribute to another kind of love!
- Poetry: Love Is Not Part Of Our Culture
Happy glass-breaking, card-burning day all you thugs and goons.
- Rapid Rise in Air Pollution Around the Taj Mahal
Air pollution affecting the atmosphere near one of the world's heritage sites.
- Rahul Dravid 'The Wall' Crosses a Milestone
Rahul Dravid crosses 10,000 runs in One Day International cricket, while steering India to a great win against Sri Lanka.
- Book Review: Adjusting Sights by Haim Sabato
...we need to adjust our sights away from fighting and lift them up to a more worthy goal
- M T R Foods Sold for $100 Million
An end (?) to an era of amazing South Indian Food
- Book Review: Marvel Zombies
Your favorite superhero makes a gruesome zombie
- TV Review: Celebrity KBC - How Shahrukh Khan Spent His Valentine's Day
A two-hour glitz'n'glamour episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati III, featuring celebrity guests, musical overtures, balloons and simplistic quizzing.
- The Forest For The Trees: Manglik Dosham and Same-Sex Marriage
The tree-bride practice has come under fire without the broader issue of conjugal rights in India being addressed
- Book Review : National Geographic Series - Holidays Around the World: Celebrating Diwali and Ramadan
The books are an excellent buy for someone who is trying to introduce children to an alternative culture and festival
- Lack of Awareness About Cleanliness
How can our cities remain clean unless we do our bit ?
- Movie Review: Close To Home
A timely and insightful view of daily life in the turbulent Middle East.
- Music Review: Viggo Mortensen, Hank Mortensen, & Scott Wannberg are 3 Fools 4 April
A wonderful opportunity to see and hear three great poets
- Abuse and Harassment in Today's World
In a world full of perverts, they innocently trusted their daughter to travel everywhere by herself and come back home unscathed.
- Homosexuality in the Subcontinent: Men and 'Masti'
I learned two things: 1) homoeroticism sells and 2) teachers don't like it.
- National Commission for Women and its Twisted Nature
Why is it so hard to play fair or at the least try to?
- Unfettered Religious Freedom in Islam – A Fact or Fiction? Part 3