“The problem with journalists is that to prove your erudition you end up confusing your readership. Why can’t you guys write simply and clearly? Why does everything have to be so difficult to...
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With 24 hours to go, there are a fair number of people in America and Britain wondering whether ‘Merry Christmas’ would be a suitable greeting tomorrow. After two thousand and six years, they�...
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There’s a simple maxim the PM and the PMO should remember: when you make a mistake admit to it. If you do, the brouhaha will blow over swiftly. If you don’t, someone somewhere will see it as ...
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“Excuse me Mr. Thapar, but there’s a question I’m dying to ask.”

I was at a wedding, standing on my own and feeling a little lost. So I welcomed the interruption. Turning around...
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I can’t claim to know Sanjay Dutt well but what I do know of him I both like and respect. He’s an open book. A man without guile. Simple, child-like, gentle and unaffected. And he has no qu...
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“There’s a collector in every one of us” said the voice over the radio. It was 9.15 in the morning, I was dressing and only half listening. But I distinctly heard the words and they immedia...
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There’s no doubt journalists are very persuasive but I wonder how often they think about the positions they adopt or the causes they take up? I would expect that along side their passion, sharp ...
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In the early 1930s, when the future King Edward VIII was a rather popular prince of wales, there was a music hall favourite which claimed “I’ve danced with a man who’s danced with a girl who�...
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They say there’s nothing more cruel than schoolboys. They’re wrong. Far worse are those you were at school with – even after thirty years! My class of ’71 at Doon had a re-union this wee...
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One of the delightful things about research is you can discover fascinating details. That happens most of the time. What is rare is to uncover a new interpretation that quite simply changes the m...
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