It is common knowledge that politicos love to play with common money. That the Common Wealth Games, due in sixty days, is already being dubbed as ‘Corrupt Wealth Games’ or ‘Contractor Wealth Games’ is, therefore, quite in tune with our national political culture.
Author: T R Jawahar
Let’s talk about our neighbourhood. In a fast shrinking world that would include Pakistan. Psychologically also, Pakistan is a kind of gloomy backdrop looming over us since birth and will likely be so in perpetuity, unless it ceases to exist.
In a nation where life is cheaper than sawdust, one more tragedy and a few score bodies mean nothing. With instant death by any mode stalking the land at every step, the rails are but yet another avenue for the omni-present grim reaper (or Yama) to collect his deadly daily dues.
‘The study of the assumed influence of stars on human affairs’: This tame, tentative and rather toned down definition of ‘Astrology’ in English disctionaries belies reality. Now, whether the stars guide human affairs or not, astrology does, in Bharath and globally too, notwithstanding rational skeptics. Indeed, a matter as profoundly influential as astrology deserves to be treated with more credence.
I have always looked askance at celebrity charity. Several years in the business of dispensing publicity probably makes you skeptical of people’s motives, particularly those who cannot give without a camera capturing the moment. But frankly, four fingers point inwards too, to a cynical conscience: after all, what’s wrong in giving under public glare?
Ever felt the overwhelming urge to throw in the towel, shout ‘to hell with everything’ and disappear into blissful oblivion, if only momentarily? So, when my doctor advised me to take a break, it was as if God Himself was writing the prescription. Of course, all of us know it is all in our mind, the belief that we are indispensable, that we will be missed, and things will grind to a halt in our absence and that it is always now or never.
I hate to use the term ‘Tamil’ because it is so very English. The Queen’s tongue is not lacking in alphabetical abundance or phoenetical options to render ‘Thamizh’, which is a noun and therefore can be spelt the way it is pronounced. ‘Thamizh’ has a pristine touch and a wholesome feel that is woefully absent in ‘Tamil’.
The court verdict on the Bhopal gas tragedy has kicked up the expected furore in the media and public. Forget the extent of culpability and the quantum of punishment of/for those convicted, but all of us in the so called ‘civil society’ too should plead guilty for, well, forgetting the tragedy as well as the victims for this long. The sudden concern and the copious flow of indignation, therefore, seems not only orchestrated but also outdated.
The people of W.Bengal may have been be disenchanted with the Left rather than being enamoured of Mamata, who had delivered a coup of sorts in the local body polls there this week. But looking beyond the bloody turf war in the Red State, a single thread running through the last two decades stands out: The success of forty-plus single women, spinsters or widowed, in politics. From Sonia to Jaya, Maya and Mamata, these loners have rocked the nation no end.