There could be no better-if that is indeed the right word-  indication of the  progressive decay of the ethos of our civil services than a Facebook post this week by a very senior IAS officer of the Maharashtra cadre. One Manisha Patankar Mhaiskar, Addl Chief Secretary, in a very opportunistically timed post after the consecration

This last week has established that plumbing the depths of the ridiculous and the bizarre is not only our national pastime, it is also now the leitmotif of our society and ruling regime. The other day I decided I needed a “kurta”, not one of those fancy and expensive Myntra creations, but something more befitting

In every work of art something appears that does not previously exist, and so, by default, you work from what you know to what you don’t know.  –  Ann Hamilton A writer is a pioneer who begins with something known and then embarks on a journey to the unknown. Unlike other pursuits, we are expected

NOWHERE MAN AUTHOR – SHIVALIK BAKSHI 216 PAGES PUBLISHED BY PENGUIN VEER 2023 This is a book about courage, betrayal and hope. It is a book about someone we all- the Army, the governments of the time, society, the media- forgot. All, that is, except his family, especially his two sisters, and this book is

It’s not working, for either the INDIA alliance or the Congress. Current trends and mood postulate that 2024 is lost for them, and after that they are dead in any case. The problem is that INDIA stands for everything and therefore for nothing; one can’t be all things for all voters and still hope to

Amidst the ongoing cacophony of news and Deep Fake news, claims and counter claims, dissemination and dissembling, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between fake and genuine democracies. What makes a country a real democracy? Is it a “progressive and liberal” Constitution? An “independent” judiciary? A “fearless” press and media? An “elected” government? An

We therefore commit this body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust…” [ The Book of Common Prayer] You are dust and unto dust you shall return.” [ Genesis] These quotations from the Bible, which have soothed generations of grieving relatives, are of little comfort in the age of global

The Parbati is the best known and biggest of the four GHNP rivers, meeting the Beas at Bhunter, just below Kullu. It is the only one that does not originate from a glacier- its womb is the huge, forbidding Mantalai lake at 14000 feet, at the foot of the Pin Parbat pass which divides the