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

On a television programme last week that was debating the controversy over the use of the term ‘Bombay’ by Karan Johar in his film Wake up, Sid and his apology to Raj Thackeray, I said I steadfastly refuse to call the city that has been my karmabhoomi anything but ‘Bombay’. Read more

Almost at the end of yet another election in Maharashtra, I am both saddened and nostalgic.

Sad, because this election proved to me that, after Sharad Pawar and Bal Thackeray, there are less and less real leaders among the men (and women) in politics. And that brought about a deep nostalgia for the past when covering elections was fun as the leaders kept us on our toes and gave us great copy at the end of the day. Read more

This one is for Raj Thackeray….

For the past two weeks, I have been constantly on the road, gathering stories for our State of the State coverage prior to elections in Maharashtra due on October 13. Read more

I have been on the road all across Maharashtra for the past ten days and I must admit, in typical Hinglish-speak, I Am Loving It!

It is election season in Maharashtra again and my mind goes back to the Eighties when I covered election campaigns in the rural areas, getting to the villages strap-hanging in buses, asking for lifts from farmers driving tractors on the highways to take me those places where the buses would not go and then being dropped off at the nearest bus terminus again riding pillions on mopeds driven by villagers chivalrous enough to give me a ride. Read more

I am always amazed by the fact that life always tends to come full circle in various ways, big or small.

Nearly ten years ago, one day, I needed to go from Churchgate to Gaiwadi in the heart of the old South Bombay but every one of the first three cabbies I hailed turned me down. Read more