Columns

Khushwant Singh is a household name for those in the Indo-Pak literary sphere. The Khushwant Singh Literary Festival ran for its 6th session in June 2024 with the theme ‘Heal The World’. Mr Fakir Aijazuddin OBE, a renowned Pakistani art historian and curator of Sikh Art, paid tribute to his friend Khushwant Singh, describing their […]

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

It took our solitary Olympic gold medallist Arshad Nadeem to remind us of that old adage: Success has a thousand fathers; Failure is born an orphan. No matter how many awards, honours, cash prizes and amenity plots may be bestowed upon him, it is clear that Arshad’s achievement in Paris was singularly his own. His

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

Ever since I left clinical practice, several people—particularly teenagers and those in their early twenties—have approached me and shared their stories and troubles with me. Something about my experience of being in a profession I did not like because of societal pressures and then deciding to quit to pursue my passion seemed to resonate with