Avay Shukla

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And then God committed one of his periodical goof-ups, the second after the original mistake of creating Eve and involving us for perpetuity in sexual molestation cases: he created the Bureaucracy, and the Bureaucrat took over the Word. Originally intended to convey meaning, […]

Last month the editor of a leading newspaper asked me to do a piece on the elections in Himachal and the prospects of the various parties. I politely declined, and with good reason- when it comes to elections I am an inveterate loser. I never get my analysis/ predictions right, and I am pretty consistent

There are certain acknowledged attributes of a civilised and humane society and these have nothing to do with GDP or Per Capita Income or how many billionaires a country can boast of. Yes, prosperity does, or should, take a country up the civilisational ladder but it is not a given, and New India is the

It was that great writer, Kingsley Amis, who said:  “If you can’t annoy somebody there is little point in writing.” Which is precisely the raison d’etre for someone like me writing blogs. Life is pretty pointless if you don’t have a Bentley in your garage, or a suicide vest in your suitcase, or Kangana Runout

The Brits have perpetrated more than their fair share of colonial atrocities in India. But we didn’t raise much of a stink about them at the time of our Independence, partly because most of us were not even born then, and partly because those who were, were illiterate. There was also no Whatsapp then to

Why is Mr. Nitin Gadkari, the Minister for Road Transport and Highways, in such a tearing hurry? It certainly hasn’t got him any brownie points with the Deadly Duo, from all accounts. He has tripled the pace of construction of NHs from 12 kms per day in 2014 to 37kms/day in 2021., ramming his machines

In the last five hundred years or so, mankind has progressed from martial rape to marital rape, except perhaps in Ukraine, Myanmar, and Haryana, where the old style still prevails. And, as further proof of our progress, we in India are still debating whether marital rape (MR) is rape simpliciter and should be a crime

“Will you walk into my parlour?” said the spider to the fly, ” Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy.” [ Mary Hewitt. 1829] The road to the Hindu Rashtra, along with that other place most of us are headed for, is paved with good intentions. I refer, of course, to the

The BJP, as a political party, is many bad things in one, but it is not stupid. And right now its canny instinct is telling it that Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is not good news for 2024 or the coming state elections. The party’s discomfiture and subdued sense of alarm has been evident in