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Watching PM Modi on TV boast about the historical feat he has achieved with demonisation had me feeling déjà vu yesterday. Of course the first reaction was a half smirk-laugh that maybe we have reserved only for the most repulsive moments; moments which disgust you to a certain level of discomfort when you wish you could wash and clean your mind somehow the way you do your body. But what followed that was déjà vu. If you watch late night American talk shows like me, or in this case, if you watch news at all, you would've seen a certain Trump conference where he boasts about the how good the Muslim Ban 1 has been implemented and how everything is going so smooth at the airports. And because I had seen that clip so many times on so many shows, you can guess how I felt watching that part of PM Modi's speech on TV. The more you see of these two lately, the more it looks like they are picking ideas and habits from each other. People outside of India even call PM Modi ...

People often associate reverence, piety and closeness to God with a certain wisdom (or knowledge) in the sense that one realises the frivolity of worldly affairs and life and ascends to deeper knowledge of conscience. As one moving out to the mountains and removing oneself from capital and carnal desires. One is wise, people of faith say, if he listens to the reasons of God and not that of the people. Let me try and paint a scene for you in relation to this. Suppose, that you find yourself in a strange, dreamy sort of a place/space; a sort of square with people standing about. You don't know any of the people there even though there are a lot of them. You obviously want to know where you are and how you could go out and back to your home from there. People approach you and you tell them what is it that you want and all of them try to show and tell you the way you should take, very opinionatedly. You get confused and get more worried than before, knowing not who to listen to ...

There was a front page advertisement in the newspaper yesterday. It had 'Let's fight corruption' written in big bold letters alongside a picture of Narendra Modi, prime ministerial candidate of BJP for the General Elections 2014. It also had three other sentences which went like this, Let's minimise government and maximise governance. Let's use technology for greater public scrutiny. Let's be transparent and accountable. Modi's election campaign started last year with this headline phrase that was in the paper yesterday. Fighting corruption, boosting progress and reducing inflation were some of the apparent primary goals of BJP. The situation though, I must say, is a bit different now. We'll get to it (and the three points up there) in a bit.

Google "I don't give money at the traffic lights. In fact, I have stopped giving anything to anyone these days," said a friend a few days ago with an expression that showed that he no longer believes in any of such small acts of charity. I didn't know what to say to that, so I kept quiet. It might have been a momentary thing with him. Just an exaggeration maybe because he was a little off that day. But the thing is, there are people who don't give anything to any destitute just because they have some preconceived notions about the beggars.  Their argument is that 'these people', as they call them, have made it a business and that all beggars at traffic intersections are part of a syndicate and hence should be discouraged. Well, it's not entirely untrue, but colouring everyone with the same red is not the way to go. Anyway, we'll talk about that in a short time. First let me tell you an incident which led me to write this post in the ...

Today is the day which most of the people welcome as that one more day to save them from the chilly winter and give them a respite from braving the cold outside, well at least those north of the equator do. A day when you indulge in a little more sleep, maybe wake up towards the end of the parade, in time to catch the balloons being set off on TV, then go on to have a late brunch, followed by spreading on the couch to see that sudden and improbable air of deshbhakti  dawn on each and every one of the telly actors on every entertainment channel. Though nobody cares to see the parade these days, there are some who go one step ahead. People have started questioning the monotony that surrounds the republic day parade itself including the chaos of the days that lead up to it. And let me say this at the outset, I am not one of those people. I have no problem whatsoever with any traffic horrors that may arise due to the rehearsals, neither do I care about the surprising nu...

An invitation has been sent For the lords to descend On moon, to witness the plight Of men for ever so slight T'see, the rain of their roof T'see, their floor with a kloof * T'see, the dark of their night T'see, the lamp refuse to ignite