It’s a forgotten memory from the not-so distant past but with the RSS much in the news today in its bid to clean up the BJP and give the party new direction, I suddenly recalled their door-to-door campaign in Maharashtra nearly a decade ago (November 2000 to be precise). [Read more]

This week the Election Commission announced that eunuchs can finally vote and contest elections. They will no longer have problems about their sexual identity – they can write themselves in as “Other” and don’t have to be necessarily ‘Male or ‘Female’. [Read more]

Some weeks ago, I was fascinated to read my colleague Pankaj Vohra’s account, on his blog, of astrologers and diviners who mostly got it right. But I have not been so fortunate — I have yet to meet one who doesn’t go wrong! [Read more]

I grew up speaking English because that was the common language between my parents – my father’s Hindi wasn’t even half-way as good as my mother’s English. And most certainly not her Hindi. Her Tamil was no match for his Malayalam. So English it was at home.

But that was sheer accident of birth which got us all talking so many languages – I lived for ten years with a Bengali aunt in Bombay and got my own place in a hurry when I realised I was beginning to dream in Bangla! [Read more]

“See!” my sister said, with a good deal of satisfaction that she had proved her point. “That is why I have been telling you for months that Raj Thackeray is right when he says locals should have first priority at jobs in their own home states. What is your reaction all about now if not a little leaf out of Raj Thackeray’s book?” [Read more]