Let me correct myself.  Hindi is not our national language. It is just an official language, which the architects of the Constitution thought would gradually replace English in 15 years time. [Read more]

I don’t remember when I last sung Vande Mataram. Try and remember. Not many of you would have sung the national song since you left school. There is hardly any occasion to sing Vande Mataram. All one gets to hear and hum perhaps is Lata Mangeshkar’s Vande Mataram or AR Rehman’s Maa Tujhe Salaam on one of the FM stations these days. [Read more]

The words are harsh. But the reality is harsher. The poor who sold their land, are now selling their daughters in rural India. Not to dwell in luxuries, but ward off hunger.

And it’s happening everywhere. In cities it could be a matter of choice, but in rural India it is per force. [Read more]

Those were the days when the goons of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena were bullying and bashing up the North Indians in Mumbai. A friend from Texas sent me an email sharing the revolutionary step taken by a school to break racial barriers.

Why can’t you ape our schools? How can geographical, linguistic or communal barriers stay in an era of online communities? [Read more]

Isn’t it disgusting? The two Yadav chieftains of the Hindi heartland – Mulayam and Lalu- grew up in politics opposing the dynasty rule that Nehru had introduced in the country. They also played to their political galleries opposing 33 per cent quota for women in the Lok Sabha and the State assemblies. [Read more]