Einstein had once famously remarked that the only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance. A surfeit of either is minacious. A mixture of both, however, can be disastrous. The elected government of Himachal is now displaying that it has both attributes in abundance and it is the residents of the state who are paying […]
SHIMLA : GOING, GOING, GONE! Read More »
Last week I received a draft petition to the Election Commission of India from a well known writer and activist of civil society about the use of EVMs, with the request to obtain endorsements for it. I forwarded it to about twenty contacts, all well read people, engaged with and concerned about the state of
THE BJP IS WINNING ANYWAY, ELECTIONS ARE A SIDESHOW. Read More »
Notwithstanding 88 episodes of Man Ki Baat and the chanting of Hanuman Chalisa at every street corner, India continues to be one of the unhappiest nations on earth: it is ranked at 136 out of 146 countries. But till now we were not aware of the inter- se ranking of our individual states. Now, however,
THE SECRETS OF HIMACHAL’S HAPPINESS QUOTIENT Read More »
The Bermuda Triangle is an area over the north-western part of the Atlantic ocean where there have been persistent reports of ships and planes simply disappearing without a trace. The phenomenon has baffled oceanographers and scientists for decades and no plausible explanation has been offered so far by science. Answers range from a magnetic black
THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE MAY HAVE SHIFTED OVER INDIA Read More »
I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that my father-in-law always doubted my educational credentials and felt that there were significant gaps in my education. This was based on the fact that I did my Masters in English from Hindu college. I can see where he came from: the English in this Jat citadel was something
MOVE OVER, ECONOMICS– CRONINOMICS IS HERE ! Read More »
CATCH THE RAIN WHERE IT FALLS, WHEN IT FALLS. We came up to our home in Puranikoti village in Mashobra ( near Shimla) on the 8th of this month, as we have been doing every year these last 13 years. And realised, with a shock, what the Doomsday clock is all about. I have never
PURANIKOTI DIARY- OF TOURISTS AND WATER WOES Read More »
Mr. D. Subbarao, a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and ex- Governor of the Reserve Bank of India has, in a recent article in The Times Of India and in an interview with Karan Thapar, castigated the IAS in no uncertain terms and accused it of betraying and failing the country. His tirade (what
DON’T BLAME THE IAS, A NATION GETS THE CIVIL SERVICES IT DESERVES Read More »
I’ve just bought a new car ( in Neerja’s name, naturally, since she uses it 90% of the time. My 10% quota consists of taking it for servicing, refuelling and getting the punctures fixed), and that has primed me to talk about cars this week. It’s a much more interesting subject, you will agree, than
THE LINE OF MERCY AUTHOR- TARUN TEJPAL PUBLISHER- HARPER COLLINS, INDIA MARCH 2022 Tarun Tejpal is the Devil’s Advocate for the underdog, the counsellor for the damned. His forte is the underbelly- of the government, society, passions, beliefs, long held shibboleths, blind traditions, religious dogmas, the legal fictions that make life comfortable for the elite
BOOK REVIEW- THE LINE OF MERCY Read More »
