Avay Shukla

In his seminal and thought provoking book, HOMO DEUS, Yuval Noah Harari has some very interesting observations about mankind’s quest for immortality. He postulates that, having triumphed over starvation (famines), disease (plagues) and violence (war),- the primary cause of deaths over the centuries- mankind in the 21st and 22nd centuries will strive to conquer death […]

This has been a particularly bad year for Himachal and its embattled Chief Minister, Mr. Sukhu. He has certainly grabbed the TRPs but they are of the negative, Arnab Goswami and Navika Kumar type. Actually, the year began well, in pure eye-ball terms, with our own raging torrent, Kangana Ranaut, occupying the headlines with her

In my tiny village above Shimla the only sounds one hears in the total stillness of the nights are the howling of jackals, the calls of a barking deer, the rhythmic hooting of a barn owl, or the rare coughing of a wandering leopard. But now I am back in the NCR and all I

While our Supreme Leader is accepting inconsequential awards in Nigeria and Guyana (do you even know where they are?– Clue: they are nowhere near Manipur)) and hugging war criminals and their accomplices in Rio de Janeiro, his own capital is invisible from outer space, or from my balcony, blanketed in a toxic cocktail of dust,

The ever effervescent PG Wodehouse once said that golf, like measles, should be caught young as it builds character. For it takes a strong character to hit the ball on to the wrong fairway and yell FORE instead of F–K ! Unfortunately, I missed the bus on that one and discovered the game quite late

These days Mr. D.Y. Chandrachud, Chief Justice of India,  is talking of, and worrying about, the legacy he will leave behind when he retires from the job next month. And well he might. He was elevated to this position at perhaps the most critical juncture in the nation’s recent history, when every democratic and humanist

Many years ago, more years than I care to remember, I was posted as a probationer under district training in Mandi district of Himachal. On two days every week I had to sit with the Deputy Commissioner (DC) in his court when he heard grievances and received petitions from the public. The purpose was to

At about this time last year my elder son quit his very well paying job as a senior executive in a multi-national: he had had enough of the El Dorado mirage sold by the IIMs and IITs. He had been working 14 hour days non-stop for 16 years, paying Rs. 65000 a month for a

The Himachal Pradesh chief minister recently announced that the state government has identified 50 new locations to develop tourism, including adventure sports. The prospect fills me with dread, because the government’s track record in this respect has been an environmental disaster so far. Forget the mess in Shimla, Manali, Kufri, Mashobra, McLeodganj or Kasauli. In