Although I don’t recall my first Christmas, as far back as I can remember Christmas was always special. It wasn’t just a holiday. It was a day filled with presents and feasting. And Santa �...
Read more... | 0 Comments

“When will India have a leader like David Cameron?” That was how Ashok greeted me on my return to office after a brief trip to London. But it wasn’t a rhetorical question. He meant it.

It’s the smile on his face that I always find welcoming. Unlike other salesmen it seems genuine. Then, of course, there’s his cheerful greeting. Finally, he’s a repository of wisdom. In fact,...
Read more... | 0 Comments

Does anyone have a right to security exemption at airports? My answer is a firm no. Not the President, nor the Vice President, not even the Prime Minister and certainly not Robert Vadra! The rea...
Read more... | 0 Comments

I hadn’t expected him to be so tall. Or to stand so erect. Or smile so easily. The image in my mind was of a serious even dour person, forbidding and distant. And at 82 I thought he would be ...
Read more... | 0 Comments

This week we have a telling portrait of the Bihar elections and it’s not a pretty picture. The Association for Democratic Reforms, under its Coordinator Bibhu Mohapatra, has released a compreh...
Read more... | 0 Comments

A friend of mine who lives in London, Kris Srinivasan, a former Foreign Secretary who went on to become Deputy Secretary General of the Commonwealth, has sent me an email I want to share with you...
Read more... | 0 Comments

Was Jinnah the cause of partition or did the British think of the idea first? Did the Muslim League push inexorably for partition or did Congress leave it with no other option? Ultimately, was it...
Read more... | 0 Comments

That Indian politics is rotten is undeniable. The more relevant question is how rotten? A study of the candidates in last tuesday’s first round of polling in Bihar provides a horrifying answer....
Read more... | 0 Comments

It’s odd how the human mind can join together the strangest and most disparate thoughts. For instance, in the middle 1970s there was a girl I knew at Cambridge who always thought of gunpowder ...
Read more... | 0 Comments