Like many Indians I find it difficult to comprehend Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan’s reaction to the flood of emails he received from the people of India. Read more

Last week I met BJP’s Sushma Swaraj. She was a panelist at one of the sessions at Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. Ofcourse she spoke at length and put up a strong defense for her party, which according to some in the audience, was doing very badly. She was shrill and spoke in Hindi and English.

After a point I stopped listening to her and others on the panel comprising India’s opposition. Read more

Some weeks ago while driving through the streets of Mumbai, I spotted Jindal Mansion. I was not sure whether the house belonged to Navin Jindal, Congress MP. Then I spotted the national flag and was sure that it did. For those who have forgotten him, there is a “is” and “was” about Jindal: He is a Member of Parliament; he was a crusader: one who took on the Indian Government and questioned the Flag code of India. Read more

I had no clue about Kamal Bhasin’s acting abilities. Neither did I know that he had any inclination or interest in acting. I had always met him in Doordarshan, sometimes for a week at stretch because both he and I were nominated members of the Public Broadcaster’s Central Film selection Committee. Our task: to censor the already censored feature films and knock of scenes of sex and violence and subsequently certify the film for family viewing. Read more

The other day I met Pradeep Jain, a first time minister. He is young and in that sense fits well into  Rahul Gandhi’s youth formula. But that is about it. To me Jain appeared to be a typical don: bearded, an overdose of gold jewellery and sporting dark Rayban, perhaps an imitation, even inside his office. Read more

Last week I was driving through Mehrauli to a friend’s farm off Sultanpur in Delhi. The stretch from Qutub Minar to M.G. Road brought back interesting thoughts. The first being of a gutsy IAS officer who dared take on the marble mafia, the second of the much frequented Chattarpur Temple and the last of Mrs Indira Gandhi’s farmhouse a little ahead. Read more

During my recent trip to Kathmandu I met Nyla Bista. Nyla is the fist woman in Kathmandu to run a casino. Located at the five star Shangri-La, this casino, I am told, is also the first to have a woman CEO: Shalini Wadhwa, Nyla’s employer and a kind of a demi god to her. I did not meet Shalini because she was travelling. Considering every word Nyla uttered had a Shalini Ma’am to it, I guess I knew as much that I wanted to about Shalini without meeting her. Read more

Unlike her father Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, it is improbable  that Rita Bahuguna Joshi would have hit headlines in her political career. On that count, she is way behind. She started her career as a professor in Allahabad University: the city where her father unsuccessfully contested for the Lok Sabha against Amitabh Bachchan, post Mrs Gandhi’s assassination. Read more

The other day when my colleague Shivani Singh, Metro Editor, spoke about the facelift of Connaught Place, she mentioned officers squabbling over the flooring. They cannot, she said, decide whether they should use the sturdy granite or the non durable sandstone. The decision ofcourse will be taken except it is uncertain what CP will finally get. Read more

The other day I met Anurag Thakur: a second or perhaps third termer MP who looks like a first termer. He was elected to Parliament through a by election after his father, Prem Kumar Dhumal, vacated the seat following his taking over Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. But more than the fact that he is a politician’s son, Anurag is better known in his state for his love of cricket. He was also the youngest President of Himachal Cricket Association. He has played for the Ranji Trophy. Read more