Avay Shukla

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

Amidst the extravagant obscenity of the Ambani pre-wedding in Jamnagar last month, there was, for me, one bright spot of hope. It was news of the establishment of Vantara, the “world’s largest private zoo”, spread over 1000 acres in which more than ten million trees have been planted, in Jamnagar, Gujarat. According to a very

Notwithstanding that the BJP is not my favourite political party, my family has some connections with it. I myself served with Mr. J.P.Nadda, the BJP President, for three years in Himachal, he was my Minister in the Forest Department, a thorough gentleman and polished politician. My “mausa” was a highly respected RSS Pracharak for many

In my 55 years of adult life (not adultery, as Spellcheck tried to insinuate, though I wish that was true) I have been trying to understand economists and have consistently failed. In my student days I briefly considered doing Economics, till the chowkidar at the gates of Delhi School of Economics pointed out that I