No more fig leaf

And now they kill an engineer, a husband, a father of three. These guys claim some special connection to their religion? They must be called “religious fundamentalists”? Give me a break. In some circles, that phrase is almost respectable you know. The association with religion, the going back to the book. “Strict maintenance of ancient [...]

On labels

An award-winning stamp-collector gave us a guided tour through (only a part of) his collection the other day. He is also an avid collector of Ganeshas, and has over 700 sculptures — thumbnail-sized and up — and some similar number of paintings, all over his home. And on the frame above one door, a crucifix. [...]

Thin voice on the phone

The saddest, I think, is when arms stretch out after the fact, days later, yearning.
Like when the phone rang a few hours ago. “I’m Moin from Barshi-Takli,” said the thin voice, struggling to reach me across a pitiful line. “You left your number when you came here” — true, this week I did so in [...]

Death and Life

“There is a wistful myth that if only we had enough money to spend … we could wipe out all our slums in ten years … even solve the traffic problem.
“But look what we have built [so far]: low-income projects that become worse centres of delinquency, vandalism, and general social hopelessness than the slums they [...]

That other Boris

A whole slew of intriguing reports in The Hitavada (Nagpur), April 25 2006 (an earlier installment, here). From charming spellings to exciting events to an observation about sane minds, it’s all in there.
Some excerpts, under respective headlines. All verbatim except for some name changes.
***
English reading project at NJ Junior College
… Thus knowing English is extremely [...]

That bun-maska

On the road for three days in blast-furnace-hot rural Vidarbha, two observations. One, plenty of material accumulated that I want to write about — here and elsewhere — and two, there was nearly no chance to do that writing.
So I’ll have to play catch up as best as I can, or at least till [...]

Rajnarayan Chandavarkar

Travelling through Vidarbha, I’ve been unable to get my mind off a good man with a delightful sense of humour, a superb historian, and the saddest news I’ve had in a long time.
Go well, Raj Chandavarkar. I will miss you.

First to benefit

There’s been plenty of discussion of late, here and elsewhere, about dams on the Narmada and dealing fairly with people displaced by them. Whether the R&R policy is good, how it should be implemented, how it is implemented, etc.
But I often think of what seems to me a very simple solution to R&R with [...]

Loose ends

My memory is not what it used to be, or in fact never was.
Kuffir, commenting on my Words that matter post, reminds me that I didn’t acknowledge his answers, or even provide the answers, for a previous question here.
So let me make amends. The question was from my post Quiz time of a month [...]

Words that matter

Some excerpts from a novel I read a few months ago: an intense, gripping work that gave me plenty to think about, about what I do and why. (Think that may be why the person who gave me the book did so in the first place).
Which novel? The usual e-pat on the back to the [...]