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(The text of the speech delivered in a multi-religious vigil for Fr. Stan Swamy) It is natural and necessary to feel for the tragic death of a noble soul. All the more so, when it is enveloped in injustice. But this should not make us forget that the decisive thing is life, not death. What […]

I am happy also for the present dispensation, for I am a patriot. Fr. Stan Swamy is no more. I feel awkward about mourning his death. Instead, I feel a strange sort of happiness. An eerie sort of relief. Who are we to mourn his death? We, who dare not utter a word, fearing for

There has been no bearded specimen in the Shukla family for the last hundred years at least, including my cousin Madho. He occasionally does present an untidy hirsute look  which could be mistaken for a fuzz, but a closer examination reveals that his facial fallicles do not conform to the dictionary definition of a beard

The Supreme Court has disappointed again. While not interfering with the bail granted to the three student activists- Natasha, Kalita and Asif- in the Delhi riots and ” conspiracy ” case, it has, vide its order of 18th June 2021, effectively stayed the Delhi High Court order on UAPA. To my mind, the court had

Baba Ramdev is nobody’s fool, as the IMA ( Indian Medical Association ) seems to think. Anyone who started life by churning his stomach like a washing machine and ended up with a multi billion dollar empire has to be a smart cookie. And just marvel at his latest coup: the acquisition of the Rs.

Mythology forms a large part of the BJP-RSS combine’s world view ( such as it is), and the TINA  (There Is No Alternative ) myth is an important part of it. TINA is, predictably, the last refuge of the government’s supporters who have now run out of money, oxygen, jobs, Remdesiver, vaccines, doctored statistics and

In which category do we, dear reader, include the work that our mothers and wives do at home? Skilled or unskilled? Perhaps, in neither; for the reason that we take it for granted. My experience is quite different. The first time I got into the kitchen to make a cup of tea for myself, I

Some say Fr. Stan Swami is a ‘torch-bearer of the Indian Constitution’. The government says, he is an instigator of violence, an anarchist who conspires, in tandem with the Maoists, to overthrow the government. As per Aristotle, the truth should lie in- between. What lies in-between in this case is that he was a sympathiser

Jesus emphasized the importance of seeing things in perspective. That is what he meant when he asked us to mind the beam in our eyes. If you have a beam in your eye, what you can’t do is to see issues aright. When the Jews conspired, led by the priests, to kill Jesus, they believed