This is an appeal to all the members of this august body. For the last three decades everyone has been talking about all kinds of pollution. Air. Seas. Rivers. Forests. Land. You name it, they have all been a matter of what they call “deep concern”. No one, however, talks about
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There used to be a time, a few decades ago, when most people saw a movie three or four times a year. This was because choice was very limited. People saw mostly movies with top class stars in them, never mind how bad those films were. But, on the plus side,
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Let me apologise to the readers at the very outset for the angry tone of this article. But the truth is that I am angry. Anyone would be at the sheer callousness of our successive governments since the late 1950s. Let me explain. All my life I have lived in North
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Over the nearly 71 years I have been alive on this planet, I have spent, like many others, quite long periods of time in other countries. And you know what, India is the only country, with the possible exception of Pakistan and Bangladesh which I have not visited, where humans and animals
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Last month my wife and I had to go to Bengaluru to sign a document that could have been signed electronically. After all, we had uploaded all the required documents that the state government needed. But such are the ways of bureaucracies that they can, and often do, do you a
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Every year the IPL resurrects an annual dilemma for followers of cricket: do you support the team that takes its name from the city you live in or the city that is your ‘hometown’? For example, should I, with my gloriously Tamil name, support the Chennai team or should I support
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Compared to its counterparts in most parts of the world, the middle class in India lives quite comfortably, what with access to cheap domestic help that it has. True, this help is no longer full-time as it was when we were growing up many years ago. Now it is 90 per
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Last week I had another fight with my wife because although we have been married since 1981, neither understands how the other’s brain works. This time we fought over the mali, or gardener. Her view is that as long as our flower pots look ok, it’s all right if he comes
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Luck plays the most important role in how much you earn. In 1991 I, along with a handful of other fellows, suddenly found our luck changing. In my case the reversal of fortune was especially startling. I had finished my Masters degree in economics in 1972 and started applying for jobs.
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Last month, after a very long time, we got lucky. We travelled to Switzerland to see our grandson who was born last year in July. My son is doing research at a university there. But because the Swiss were not issuing any visas we were unable to go. Then suddenly in
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A few days ago we had our first guest in 135 days. Just one person. We made sure the three of us — wife, guest and me — sat at the regulation distance from each other. Thankfully our drawing room is just about large enough for that.
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