My career as a journalist has run parallel to the communication revolution in India. My first full blown election reportage was in 1984 – and I remember the long wait at the Central Telegraph Office to send out a telegram with just the salient points of a particular address by a particular leader after an election rally in the rural districts. Read more

Sharad Pawar is capable of a lot of things but lucidity and articulation in the English language is not one of them. Read more

When the nation asks Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, if he could not find one good and reliable ophthalmologist in India, I could say that among the best in the country sits right under his nose at the JJ Hospital in Bombay. Read more

I had been to London a couple of years ago on invitation from the British Foreign office to study the situation with regard to their minorities and how they deal with the growing problem of Islamic terrorism. Read more

I have written about this some years ago but it bears repeating.

Nearly 15 years ago when the Hansie Cronje scandal had hit the headlines round the cricketing world, a top ranking police officer had told me there were only two honest men in the Indian cricketing team — Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly. Read more

With just under a year to go to the Lok Sabha polls, I shudder to think at the mish-mash India is faced with if neither the Congress nor the BJP were to get a majority – or at least emerge as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha. Read more

As I was growing up, I had acquired a friend who had desperately wanted to be a spy. Brought up seeing James Bond films and reading John Le Carre books, he had believed he could do much for the country and serve the people well as an intelligence officer in one of the various agencies in India. Read more

In a week full of scams and scandals and exposes all over the country, just some random thoughts about my overview of the state of the nation – or rather its leaders. Read more

Among the earliest stories of my career was to report the rape of a five year old girl in a Bombay slum in the 1980s. She had been raped by her 15 year old neighbour while their parents – sweepers – were all out to work. Read more

A good friend of mine, who has watched Indian politics from the inner circles of more than one political party, once told me, “The nature of the people in this country is such that they never endorse anyone who openly expresses the desire to become the Prime Minister of India. Read more