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I live with a neurological condition called migraine. It is a common malady, especially among women, that shows up with a variety of symptoms ranging from headaches and loss of focus, even to seeing, hearing and feeling things that are not actually there. My experience with migraine was at its worst in 2019. I had […]

A psychiatrist whom I had a conversation with a few months ago said, “Not everyone wants to heal. Some people choose to suffer. They might even enjoy it, so much so that if they were given a choice, they would refuse to heal.” His statements annoyed me. It seemed both stupid and unrealistic to think

In less than a month on May 25th, the great Libia “Libby” Lobo Sardesai will celebrate her 100th birthday. Unfortunately, like her childhood friend the late artist Francis Newton Souza – the two Goans grew up close to each other at Crawford Market in Bombay – it is deeply shameful that city and country are

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

Now that Woman’s Day has been commemorated suitably – by Ms Ambani coiling the GDP of Pakistan around her shapely neck at Jamnagar, and the Didi from West Bengal staging another march to honour the rape victims of Sandeshkhali instead of promptly arresting the rapists, and our Prime Minister gifting housewives a one hundred rupee

Ensconced in my tiny village near Mashobra in the Shimla hills in the summers, I feel like Raja Hari Singh Katoch of Kangra when he was besieged in the Kangra fort by Jahangir in 1620. Worse, actually, because the stalwart Raja had to put up with the inconvenience for only fourteen months whereas I have