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

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

The kinds of responses that my colleagues Pankaj Vohra, Vinod Sharma, Zia Haq and I get to our liberal-minded writings on our blogs have convinced me that cyberspace has very nearly been captured by a host of narrow-minded saffron bigots who brook no difference of opinion, who have no rational argument to contradict our eclectic approach to the issues we write about and who, therefore, use abuse and denigration in the mistaken hope and belief that that is the best form of intimidation. Read more

There are many Congress leaders from Delhi who wonder why no one in Maharashtra seems able to take Sharad Pawar on.

To them I have always stated the Hindi adage : paani mein rehekar magarmachh se bair nahin (you can’t take on the crocodile in his own waters). Read more

A couple of weeks ago, a colleague who hadn’t been in touch for a while called to ask how he could get in touch with Sharad Pawar.

“I have never interacted with politicians so I don’t know how to go about this. Is it easy to speak to him?” Read more

Now that election season is here and it is necessary to hit the roads again that dreadful feeling is beginning to rise in my guts (or should I say sink into my kidneys?) again.

No, I am not afraid of covering punishing campaign schedules — my concerns are more basic and to do with health and hygiene rather than the rough and tumble of politics. Most of our male politicians, I notice, are insensitive to and about women – they don’t think twice about it and I have had to hold my bladder for hours through the day because no one even bothers to ask if you, well, gotta go. Read more