Avay Shukla

Himachal Pradesh should regulate trekking to make it safe and eco-friendly, writes Avay Shukla On the night of 17 July, about 120 trekkers were stranded below the 14,000-foot high Hampta Pass in Himachal, without adequate shelter, clothing or food, in very adverse weather conditions, torrential rain and almost sub-zero temperatures. They were members of three […]

In the reasoning of most right thinking people who are alarmed at the direction in which the BJP is taking the country the primary validity and defendability of the TMC govt. in West Bengal stems from its proven ability to keep the BJP at bay in that state. Mamata Banerjee has done this for the

Emile Borel, a famous French mathematician in the first half of the 20th century, had propounded the Infinite Monkey Theorem which stated that if a monkey is given a typewriter and allowed to pound away on its keys for an indefinite amount of time it would, sooner or later, produce the complete works of Shakespeare.

A mortician’s job is to carry out cosmetic enhancements to a deceased’s body and to make it presentable before burial. It is different from that of a coroner whose responsibility is to find out the cause of death. In India, all governments- state or central, past or present, majority or coalition- have always modelled themselves

A wise man once had this piece of advice for people who talk too much and out of turn: it’s better to keep your mouth shut and let people suspect that you are an ignoramus, rather than open it and confirm their suspicions. It appears that this gem of wisdom applies very well to the

In my 74 years I have not seen, or even heard of, a more tasteless, egotistical or pretentious wedding than the recent, 24X7 televised extravaganza of the Ambanis. It is not just about its cost, which is estimated to be anything between Rupees 1500 crores to 5000 crores, not including the cost to the government

This week my thoughts have turned to a subject I’m not very familiar with- outer space. Actually, I’m in the middle of a fascinating book, THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD; it’s about the first explorations of the South pole and Antarctica by Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen. The last quarter of the 19th century and

I sincerely hope the Hon’ble Lordships who dismissed the petitions for mandatory counting of VVPAT slips (with wholly unwarranted aspersions on the petitioner, the Association for Democratic Reforms) are able to sleep soundly these days. I also hope they have by now realised how misplaced their touching faith in the current Election Commissioners was.  For

As I have stressed in my last blog (Part-I), the job of rewilding is too big and innovative  for governments to handle. Globally, the responsibility is being taken up by individuals, retired corporates and environmentalists wishing to return to nature in some measure what they have extracted from it. There are various models which are