Come, dear sisters and brothers
Let’s rejoice on this anniversary
And celebrate our perversions Read more

Not sure whether it’s serendipity or destiny, I’m inclined towards the latter. Over the past few months, I have been thinking actively about learning Sanskrit. The reason is just one: having read almost every volume written in English, finally I want to be able to read and enjoy the Mahabharata and the Vedas in their own language, perhaps even attempt a translation of my own. It is difficult for me to call it the language of the Gods, but there is something magical in the power of its words. Read more

In my column today (Save social media from itself, put an end to anonymity), I argue that anonymity in the virtual world — the one armour that hostiles on the Internet use to create trouble, chaos and even public disorder as we saw recently — must end. Blame it on technology, its falling cost, its abuse, but if we take a few steps within, the problem remains human. Read more

Every year, as India celebrates Independence Day, there is one hero who escapes our attention. Today, on India’s 65 I-Day celebrations, a minute of deep silence — Silence — on the 140th birth anniversary of freedom fighter and spiritual guru Sri Aurobindo, whose words, ideas and actions will outlive history. Read more

How silly of me, how naïve! All this while I was thinking that the practical ban — not a legal one, please note — on Peter Heehs’s biography of Sri Aurobindo was because a few people felt he “denigrated” this great poet-seer. Read more

I’m still not sure about how the Higgs boson is anywhere close to god, but if hundreds of millions of people, across the world believe that there is an inexplicable divinity around this particle, I suspect a new religion is on the way. The poor particle and its team of physicist-creators may explain the phenomenon in hundreds of ways, but the forgotten fact remains that every frontier of science opens up new doors to the unknown. Read more

I admire Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi — forget the economic parameters of the state, you just need to go out at 1 am in the morning in Baroda to see and experience the huge number of women and men walking on the roads, free from any threat, real or imagined. That state, when you know that the chances of your being assaulted at that time are close to zero, is to my mind the epitome of security, the first dharma of governance. This sense of security has attracted carmakers like Tata and Ford to Gujarat, a feat that Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is only beginning to aspire for. Read more

Since we have relegated the arduous task of thinking — that key determinant that differentiates man from beast — to our leaders, we need to accept its consequences as well. The Babasaheb Ambedkar controversy, conveniently aroused six decades after an innocuous cartoon (look carefully, it is clear that Jawaharlal Nehru is whipping the snail, not Ambedkar) was published, is really an investment in a future that says the following: if yesterday’s leaders are today’s gods, tomorrow’s gods will emerge out of today’s MPs. Read more

I’ve written enough about religious fundamentalism — go through this blog and you’ll see enough on both. What I’m more concerned about is the spilling out of religion on our streets, holding average people to ransom. What bothers me is how a handful of interested religious groups can wreak havoc on average people, burning or banning a book here, driving an author out of a country there, or declaring fatwas of death on thinkers, writers, painters. Read more

It is clear as daylight that the rising spirit of India is not acceptable to the archaic powers of this great nation. The smothering of humour by Mamata; of books, art and films by fundamentalists; of information by the government; of development by naxalites…all these are examples of a larger, darker force that’s seeking to crush the growing aspirations of India.
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