Columns

COMPARISONS can be odious, unless there is a justification. Consider these two examples. On Sept 30, 2025, President Donald Trump and his Secretary of War Pete Hegseth summoned almost 800 US generals, admirals and senior enlisted officers to the Marine Corps Base Quantico. The civilian duo harangued the uniformed, be-medalled corps — men and women, […]

Most of us seek wisdom by reading tomes by wise men and Shashi Tharoor, but once in a while, going through a book for some entertainment and fun, we come across something that makes us think and exclaim: Hold on! This is bang on! Why didn’t I think of this earlier? The other day I

The United Nations General Assembly functions as an air-pump: it inflates the egos of national leaders. The UNGA provides them a stage in New York where, (in Shakespeare’s words), they can ‘strut and fret,…full of sound and fury’,’ before an audience of 193 peer countries. In 1945, the United Nations was established by the survivors of

I don’t fly much these days, mainly because I never know whether my plane is being flown by a pilot, co-pilot or auto-pilot. That’s a problem for me because these days the pilot is usually busy having photo ops with his proud mom and dad in the cabin, the co-pilot is busy bashing down the

A SINGLE bullet often becomes a pivot in history: Sarajevo, Dallas, Los Angeles, Memphis, and now Utah. And nearer home, Rawalpindi in 1951, and again in 2007. At Sarajevo, a Serb student Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife Sophie on June 28, 1914. Within a month, World War I broke out.

The Kargil War Surgeon’s Testimony by Col (R) Arup Ratan Basu Published by Bloomsbury India. 2025 All wars are invariably followed by books, but these are usually about the blood and glory,  strategy and logistics, victories and failures. Colonel Basu’s book is delightfully different: while being both humble and unassuming, it is also humane and compassionate,

I for one was not surprised-shocked yes, but not surprised- by the 11th August order of the Supreme Court (since partially reviewed by another bench on the 22nd) on incarcerating stray dogs for life in non-existent dog shelters, condemning them to a sure and miserable death. For, given the downward trajectory of our social, legal

NEGOTIATING on home ground yields a tactical advantage. Recent history offers some examples. Take the pre-World War II war meetings between Chancellor Adolf Hitler and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938. Hitler ensured that the talks were held in Germany — in his mountain eyrie of Berchtesgaden, at Bad Godesberg on the Rhine, and in

I have just returned from my hometown, Kanpur, after severing the last remaining physical link with my late parents, with the tangible legacies of my dad and mom. My mother passed away in 1994, my dad joined her in 2017. He left behind a lovely flat in a multi-story development, in which he had spent