Avay Shukla

In my house in a village above Shimla I am treated to an orchestral performance every evening when it rains. The musicians are a myriad of cicadas who have taken up residence in the lush greenery all around. It is a very choreographed show: first the lead cicada starts clicking his tymbals, a rasping sound, […]

THE RAFALE DEAL-FLYING LIES by RAVI NAIR WITH PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA PUBLISHED BY PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA, 2022 SIGNED, SEALED AND BURIED Given our robust eco-system of corruption and the still lingering memories of Bofors, it is inevitable that our increasing purchase of defence equipment/ arms would attract public scrutiny. India is the third largest spender

We did it again last Thursday- for the seventh time India abstained on a UN vote that asked Russia to cease hostilities and vacate its invasion of Ukraine. It was, of course, not unexpected, because under Mr. Jaishankar fence sitting has become an essential ingredient of our foreign policy, thinly disguised as “national interest.” We

DNA  sequencing has established conclusively that humans share 99% of their genomes with chimpanzees and bonobos monkeys, and 98% with gorillas. In other words, only 1% is the genomic difference between the creatures swinging in the trees and those piddling on them. I suspect the difference may be even narrower in cities like Delhi and

A disclaimer is in order before I venture into the rest of this piece. These days, any hack of standing has to begin with a disclaimer to show that he is someone to be reckoned with, that his background is of interest to his readers, that he is pure as the driven snow, and that

THE  NEW  INDIA  WHINING This last fortnight has not been a good one for the BJP or its bhaktiveers, even if we discount the irony of an autocratic despot being invited as the Chief guest at our Republic Day function. One would have expected that the wiseacres of MEA would, in between rejecting assorted documentaries

We are presently living in a geological epoch known as the HOLOCENE, which commenced about 12000 years ago after the Little Ice Age. It corresponds with the period of human growth, civilisations and technologies. But this human impact on the planet has been so massive that geologists are now seriously considering renaming this period as

RAINBOWS AND CLOUDS- A MEMOIR BY  SUNEETA MUKHERJEE DIAMOND BOOKS, NEW DELHI. RUPEES 750/  PUBLISHED 2022.                                                      FOR THE LOVE OF LIVING This book is essentially a paean to the

THE HIMALAYAS HAVE SPOKEN IN JOSHIMATH, IS ANYONE IN SHIMLA  LISTENING? Now that the Himachal Chief Minister, Mr. Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, has managed to form his Cabinet and appoint more Chief Secretaries/ Special Chief Secretaries and Advisors than there are trees in Shimla, I earnestly hope that he will apply his mind to more important