COVID is a physical pandemic. We are all concerned and anxious about it. But the surprising thing is that we are not mindful of the MORAL PANDEMIC that has been raging in our midst for long. In the long run, the latter is more destructive than the former. Let me highlight only one aspect of […]
Yet Another Thought About COVID Read More »
Though most people do not dare to say so in public, the citizens of India, who are largely not involved in politics, felt unconvinced by the public display of sadness by the Prime Minister at the vast toll that the pandemic has taken on our sisters and brothers. Many felt that his seemed a less
When a Prime Minister Weeps. Read More »
My review of this book was published in THE TRIBUNE on April 4, 2021. It is a fascinating account of the attempts made to conquer the ten highest peaks in the Himalaya in the last century. The article/ review is reproduced below. Avay Shukla “This is a book about the mountains. But it is
BOOK REVIEW: THE WORLD BENEATH THEIR FEET BY SCOTT ELLSWORTH Read More »
If Bal Narendra had spent some more time in school instead of rushing off to sell tea at a railway station which did not even exist at that time, he would have imbibed some wisdom from a couple of old adages: Don’t burn your bridges behind you because you may need them again tomorrow, and, Be courteous to
MR. MODI MAY CONTINUE TO RULE, BUT CAN HE GOVERN ? Read More »
A new dawn in Puranikoti The sun doesn’t just rise in my village of Puranikoti ( 7000 feet, pop 190 ) – it explodes. One
SUNRISE IN PURANIKOTI Read More »
At the entrance to the Hall of Remembrance in the US Holocaust Memorial, Washington, the following words are inscribed: GUARD YOURSELF AND GUARD YOUR SOUL CAREFULLY LEST YOU FORGET THE THINGS YOUR EYES SAW. The Jews in France have a shorter version of this exhortation: N’OUBLIONS PAS or LEST WE FORGET. The Jews have a long memory. It’s time
The year 2020, according to the Chinese zodiac, was the Year of the Rat; it actually turned out to be the year of the Bat, but that’s another story. In India it was the year of the Rat- race, and the race is nearing the finish line in 2021. The participants are all our constitutional
RACE TO THE BOTTOM Read More »
Jogishwar Singh ( IAS 1976 ) is the bureaucrat who literally came in from the cold- from his almost ten thousand feet high perch as Deputy Commissioner of Kinnaur to the pleasant cantons of Switzerland. He is also a most unusual civil servant, probably the only one who was selected twice for the IAS, rejected
BOOK REVIEW: KINNAUR-UNLIKELY TALES by JOGISHWAR SINGH. Read More »
It’s impossible to get 10 IAS officers to agree on anything except the virtues of the Apex scale, which is why any contentious matter is passed on to a committee of such officers, to bury it for all time. But there is one thing they will agree on: ask them which was the most memorable
OF PROBATIONERS, PATWARIS AND PROPHETS. Read More »
