Lovers carve their names on trees and rocks —and Indians who had worked for the government, well, they write their memoirs. This is in contrast to the old days when they went to their funerals with their stories in their biers. Most of these memoirs are dull and boring but some hold your interest. One
Read more
Most people when they retire from service go home. I went to Korea — because my wife who is a professor of Korean studies and language at JNU in Delhi had been invited to spend 90 days — not a day more, not a
Read more
A few years ago, a local TV channel in Delhi sent a very young girl to get a ‘bite’ from a very senior minister after he had finished his speech somewhere. Dutifully, she stuck the mike in his face and asked him for his comment, which he gave. Then the girl asked him, “Please, Sir,
Read more
About twenty years ago, during an idle conversation on a flight, I asked a newspaper baron why he thought Indians held no grudges against the British although they had left India destitute.
Read more
As is evident from my name, or should be, I am a Tamil Brahman. But I have lived 97 per cent of my life in Delhi where
Read more
We Indians take great pride in our British legacy, you know, things like the legislatures, the judicial system, the administrative machinery, the army, the transport and irrigation networks, the educational institutions, the hospitals and so on. These were the good things the British
Read more
This book made me curious about two things. First, of course, was the title: what in heaven could it be about? The second, after I had read the jacket blurb. Why on earth don’t Indians write
Read more