If you’ve been tracking the regime change developments in the Arab countries over the past two weeks, you would know that the real heroes are the people who, with their aspirations of freedom clashing against the brute force of dictators, have hit the streets. Read more

There is an invisible pride Indians feel on the Republic Day and yesterday’s was no different. Read more

Suicide by self-immolation is becoming a surprise tool of regime change, destabilising dictators across the Arab region. Read more

It had to come one day, and today is that day.  I had been pondering for a long time about the name of this blog. It began, as some of its early visitors know, two years ago, at 6.29 pm on January 22, 2009 as a blog that tracked the esoteric domain of Research with Is knowledge stealing our silent moments? Read more

The globally-rising prices claimed its first high-profile victim last week — Tunisian President Zein al-Abideen Bin Ali, who had to flee the North African country following inflation riots. Read more

I’ve tried hard but failed to understand why anyone would think that what couldn’t be accomplished in 61 years can be done in few days. Read more

Burning the Quran is easy. So is setting the Bible or the Gita ablaze. So, for cheap-publicity-seeking pastors like Terry Jones who want to become religious heroes overnight, burning a religious text and spreading hatred is easy. Read more

Why are Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mamata Banerjee so anxious about giving salaries to imams of mosques? Why, after 17 years, are the chiefs of three national parties — Rashtriya Janata Dal (Lalu), Samajwadi Party (Mulayam) and Trinamool Congress (Mamata) — raking up a Supreme Court judgement and this issue now? Read more

And as Bangladesh follows Pakistan in banning Facebook for inviting people to draw images of Prophet Mohammed, it looks like a losing battle for free speech in Islamic countries. Read more

On my shopping list for tomorrow: a skull cap.

Although it will be the rebel in me who will buy — and don — the cap, this action has been forced upon me by an unthinking society whose nerves have been battered by a media barrage that has, in one quick and constantly-amplifying stroke of 911, labelled all Muslims as terrorists. Read more