You might find this strange but I’ve never believed that politics defines a person. No doubt it’s important and it conveys a lot but so do many other qualities. Most of them, individually and c...
Read more... | 0 Comments

I remember it as if it happened yesterday but it was in fact over 25 years ago. At the time David Keeling was the press officer at the British High Commission in Lagos. I was The Times correspond...
Read more... | 0 Comments

My father was always wary of foreign diplomats. Although he knew several and they were frequent dinner guests he never let himself become close to any. I always felt Daddy kept himself a little ...
Read more... | 0 Comments

I had no idea a diary could be so fascinating. To be honest, I’ve never kept one, I haven’t read many and I didn’t finish Ann Frank’s. But at the moment I’m engrossed in Field Marshal Ayu...
Read more... | 0 Comments

As the voting in UP crosses the halfway point – Saturday saw the successful completion of 5 out of 8 rounds of polling – its time to ask what sort of candidates are on offer. UP Election Watch,...
Read more... | 0 Comments

If the lady who gets kissed doesn’t mind – and, for all we know, she may even have welcomed it – do the rest of us have any right to complain? I don’t know about you but I would say no. A...
Read more... | 0 Comments

Ours is a very different age. I wouldn’t for a moment deny that. Yet I can’t help feel that in our self-obsessed, matter of fact, take-it-as-it-happens approach we’ve lost the ability to admi...
Read more... | 0 Comments

“Are we hypocrites or ignoramuses?” Even for Pertie it was an odd way to start a conversation. He likes to shock but this was simply perplexing.

“What do you mean?” I asked. A...
Read more... | 0 Comments

I can’t help feeling a sense of relief. In fact the words that escaped my lips as India crumbled under Sri Lankan pressure were ‘Thank God!’. And, quite frankly, that wasn’t false bravado o...
Read more... | 0 Comments

That may sound like an eccentric sunday morning question but its one I cannot resist. I ask it in the context of the growing popularity of hindi film music. I wonder how many of you realize the dis...
Read more... | 0 Comments