No matter how much President Trump derides and mocks The New York Times, calling it ''fake news'', at some deeper level he also understands that the paper enjoys a sterling reputation and credibility.  Even though you dislike certain media organization, because you know that The New York Times does matter, you are more than willing to be interviewed by them, like Mr. Trump did a couple of days ago.  Now, does PM Modi have enough realization and understanding to give interviews to the likes of NDTV network and Caravan magazine in India?  More importantly, does he have enough humility?

Mr. Vajpayee has turned 93 today.  In my humble opinion, he's been one of the finest Prime Ministers

this country has had since Nehru.  He has been a poet and a philosopher, and if someone like me supported the BJP once upon a time, it was largely because of him.  What was most remarkable about him was that despite being associated with the RSS, he always remained impervious to its toxic agenda, and cultivated a liberal worldview.  How I wish that advancing age and illness had not forced him to retire and fade away from public domain.  India most definitely needs his steady hands and healing touch.  Happy Birthday sir.

A scandalous financial skullduggery takes place more than two decades ago. It takes 10 years to frame charges. A further 10 years of meandering trial to bring about the conviction. 11 of the 38 accused die midway through the whole torturous process and a few eventually acquitted. If this is not a revealing state of affairs of the Indian judicial system, then I don't know what is. Now I think, the most proper and honorable thing for Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav to do would be to accept the court verdict in all humility and retire once and for all from active politics. Just go for god's sake!

What a damning indictment of the prosecution in the 2G spectrum case!  I still distinctly remember how night after night, the news media would keep excoriating the then UPA government and calling the then Prime Minister names.  As it turns out, there was no criminality involved, and the trial judge literally threw the case into a virtual garbage bin after six years.  But what about the lives destroyed?  The reputations ruined?  Anyways, I am happy for the former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.  A few years ago, he said that history will judge him kindly, and he stands vindicated.

I am no fan of Vladimir Putin.  But he does something interesting every year around this time.  He gives a marathon press conference where members of the national and international media are allowed to ask him any question.  It's a free-wheeling session and Mr. Putin generally speaks extempore without consulting any notes.  So, two days ago was one of those days, and it lasted for more than 4 hours!  And here I was thinking that our Prime Minister has not fielded a single question from the Indian media since he became PM in May 2014.  I think Modi doesn't have the confidence to take on any uncomfortable questions.  He's only interested in hearing nice things about himself.

The other night, I was watching Oliver Stone's 1986 Oscar-winning movie 'Platoon'.  And I am quite convinced that Vietnam was a much more ghastly mess for the US military that either Iraq or Afghanistan could ever be.  And then, a couple of days later, I got the opportunity to see Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psyco' (1960).  And I thought, can there be any b/w movie this good?  I mean, every frame is a piece of art.  A poetry in motion.

Amitabh Bachchan is a consummate chameleon. You got to hand it to him for seamlessly merging and adapting to the political atmosphere in the country. Once upon a time, he was very close to the Nehru-Gandhis during the high noon of the Congress party rule. Then, he hitched his wagon to the Samajwadi party a few years ago. And now that the BJP is dominating the political landscape of the country, he has converted to being a Modi devotee. What else can explain the shameful silence by this holier-than-though patriarch of the Hindi film industry, when he would not speak a word in support of the filmmakers right to make the movie that they want to make in relation to the raging controversy around the yet to be released movie Padmavati.

Yesterday was National Press Freedom day in India.  And PM Modi tweeted his admiration and support for the necessity of having a vibrant press in a democracy.  Well, it's good that the Prime Minister is so concerned about the state of our media.  I hope the irony is not completely lost on the honorable Prime Minister because he's always been contemptuous of the media.  Ever since he has assumed the office of the Prime Minister, he has not held a single press conference.  He never allows members of the press to ask any questions of him.  As far as he is concerned, it's been all a one-way communication, when he would get on his soapbox and deliver tired old cliches like a school headmaster in 'Mann Ki Baat'.

Kazuo Ishiguro's 'The Remains Of The Day' is a work of luminous beauty. You never cease to be amazed by the sheer moral clarity of the prose. This 1989 Booker Prize-winning novel was made into a fine movie in 1993 by the renowned Merchant-Ivory production, receiving eight Academy Awards nominations. I saw the movie a few years ago, and now reading the book. As so often happens when you have seen the movie first before reading the book on which it is based on; I cannot get rid of the image and voice of Sir Anthony Hopkins as the extremely conscientious butler Mr. Stevens is meditating on his lifetime of dedicated service at the Darlington Hall, and reflecting what in the end has it all amounted to.

I for one never believed that they actually killed their only child Aarushi and the domestic help Hemraj.  These were a couple of murders most foul, that practically mesmerized the whole nation nine years ago.  After so many trials and tribulations, which not only questioned the ability or lack thereof of our criminal justice system, but also the patently dishonest and cynical role played by a section of the media, especially the Hindi news channels, that directly contributed to the horrible miscarriage of justice in the wrongful conviction of the parents.  Finally, after a four-year ordeal, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  The High Court has acquitted Rajesh and Noopur Talwar.  I am so happy for them.

To all those who are in the habit of dissing the mainstream media, please remember that it was this very 'mainstream' media like the New York Times and the New Yorker, who through their painstaking background work and diligent reporting, have managed to nail the powerful Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein for the kind of sexual predator that he's been over the years.  So much so that you got to wonder how powerless the likes of Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd and many others would have felt to spurn his advances?

PM Modi is never tired of reminding us how as a child, he used to sell tea (chaiwala) in front of the Vadanagar railway station in Gujarat. Well, it turns out that the Vadanagar station was constructed in 1973 when Mr. Modi would have been around 22 or 23. So, how come he was selling tea as a kid at that particular station? Not only in this instance, but the fact of the matter is that this prime minister, on many other occasions in the past, has resorted to bluff, exaggeration and outright lies to bolster his standing as some kind of renaissance man, who has been divinely ordained to alter the destiny of India in the 21st century.

After such a bizarre choice of Bob Dylan last year, I am so happy that this year's Nobel Prize for literature has gone to one of the most deserving writers in the last few years.  Unfortunately, I am not quite familiar with the actual craft of his writing; but I am most definitely going to correct this anomaly sooner rather than later.  It is not that Kazuo Ishiguro has been an unknown quantity for me.  He can't be.  After all, this 64 years old Japanese born British author has always made his presence felt among other luminaries on the literary horizon in the last 30 odd years.  Some years ago, I saw a movie from the Merchant-Ivory production ''The Remains of The Day''.  It was an exquisite movie, receiving eight Academy Awards nominations in 1994.  Afterwards, I discovered that this film was adapted from a 1989 Booker Prize-winning novel of the same title by Kazuo Ishiguro.  And at that time, I thought if somebody could fashion out such a fine movie out of that book, it really speaks volumes about the talent of the author.  Now Mr. Ishiguro has found validation from the Nobel Committee itself, not that he needs any validation.  What is also quite a praiseworthy effort by the Committee is that this time, the honor has been bestowed upon a genuinely popular mainstream writer, and not on somebody so obscure that few people have heard of, and much less have actually read.  I think nobody's going to grudge this hour of glory to this quiet and unassuming man who has worked diligently over the years and established his reputation.  Considering the fact that Mr. Ishiguro is in his mid-sixties, you would hope that there are still a couple of books left in him, and I believe he is currently deep into his next book.  Now he must be feeling the added pressure of living up to the reputation of a Nobel Laureate.

Las Vegas, in the state of Nevada, has one of the laxest gun laws in the western world, never mind the United States.  Not only is it easy to own a military issue semi-automatic assault rifle with minimal of background checks, but once you own the thing, it is even easier to trade it with somebody else.  We have seen, mass shootings after mass shootings, the lawmakers will come out with mealy-mouthed condemnation of the atrocity.  But when it comes to the outlawing of so many private weapons in the country, most of them would be easily swayed by the malign influence of the National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful interest groups in America.  To argue that the individuals are the problem and not guns, and take refuge behind the second amendment is simply not good enough.  Because when the second amendment was incorporated into the Constitution in the 18th century, there was no organized law and order machinery.  Bandits and highwaymen were ruling the roost.  slave owners employed private militias to prevent rebellion and to also deter other slave owners from poaching.  Chaos and anarchy was the order of the day.  It was literally each man for himself.  So, what I mean to say is that when the right to bear arms was recognized as a fundamental right under the Constitution, has no relevance whatsoever with the kind of situation prevailing today.  Even in such a chaotic democracy like India, it is not that easy to own a gun.  The mind boggles, as to how pig-headed the lawmakers in the U.S. could be that they would frustrate even the smallest effort in the direction of outlawing private firearms and weapons in the country.  Every time something like this happens, not only the killers, but also the Congressmen, Senators, and the NRA have got blood on their hands.

#171

Just received the sad news that Hugh Hefner, the founder editor of Playboy has passed away the age of 91 in California.  To say that he was one of the cultural icons of our times, would be an understatement.  From the kitchen counter of his parents' home in Chicago in 1953, he conceived and executed Playboy magazine, and later on, expanded into a lot of other enterprises.  Today, Playboy is one of the most recognizable brands in the world when it comes to adult entertainment.  For a certain generation of people, not only in the United States but also around the world, hiding Playboy magazine underneath their mattresses was almost a rite of passage into adulthood.  He had enormous respect for all the beautiful women who posed for the publication over the years, not because they had to do it, but because they wanted to.  For they believed in him.  From Marilyn Monroe to Jane Mansfield, from Sharon Stone to Demi Moore, from Cher to Madonna, from Cindy Crawford to Kim Kardashian, the list is exhaustive and long.  But he was much more than this.  He was an uncompromising activist for free speech everywhere.  He supported many philanthropic causes and charitable organizations.  In his heyday, he wasn't shy of taking on puritanical mores of the society in general and religious bigots in particular.  In this day and age when so much grotesque amount of porn is easily accessible on the Internet, Mr. Hugh Hefner reminds me of a relic from a bygone era when guilty pleasure was so much fun.

The VC of the Banaras Hindu University, Mr. G.C. Tripathi is a dyed-in-the-wool RSS man, with no discernible talent or aptitude to be appointed to the post of Vice-Chancellor of this once upon a time, quite a prestigious center of learning. And true to form, he is faithfully trying to implement the agenda of his masters by turning this campus into a fiefdom of reactionary politics. Whether it's the BHU, AMU, JNU or DU, there will never be a new India that Modijee so passionately talks about, unless the young people on the university campuses are left to their own devices as free thinkers, and allowed to make their own independent choices, even if it means making wrong choices. That's what real liberty is all about, give them rational education and let them make their way into the world.

Received this yesterday in the parcel.  This debut effort by the author Emily Fridlund is one of the six shortlisted works of fiction for this year's 'Man Booker Prize', to be awarded in a few days from now.  The Booker Prize, first given in 1969, is a prestigious literary prize awarded each year to the best original novel written in English and published in the UK.  Before 2014, only writers from the British Commonwealth and Africa were eligible to be nominated for the award.  But ever since the doors were opened for the American writers to also participate three years ago, they have been able to corner a major chunk of the nominations.

Protesting girls students at the BHU hostel are beaten up by U.P. Police.  They were demanding their basic rights and facilities as an adult human being.  The demonstrations are perfectly justified.  Why should there be a moral policing on girls?  Like don't wear this or don't wear that?  Why shouldn't they have boyfriends?  Why should they be denied Wi-Fi?  Because they will go astray under the malign influence of the Internet?  Why shouldn't they have non-veg food?  Because it will engender lusty thoughts?  I would like to see young women on every campus across the country rise up in revolt against these regressive patriarchal mindsets.

Roughly 35,000 youths in India are entering the job market every day.  But only about 500 jobs are being created per day.  The Indian economy is stuck in a toilet and the flush is not working!  All the macroeconomic indicators are painting a grim picture.  Indian industry is not investing in India but mostly abroad because the cost of credit is much cheaper in other countries than here right now.  Exports are declining, factory output is at the lowest in recent times.  GST implementation is an almighty mess.  Food inflation is constantly moving north.  I could go on and on, but there is no absolutely no denying the fact that this government has made a terrible mess of the economy.  The 'Supreme Leader' and his devotees (I would not use the word 'bhakts' this time) in the media have been so arrogant in their belief in having a divine right to rule, that like an Ostrich buries its head in the sand at the first sign of approaching storm, so have they hoping that the trouble would just disappear on its own.  But the harsh realities have a strange way of catching up with you.  But who is the net loser in all of this?  We the people.

This image of a dead baby of a grieving Rohingya woman.  The horrible grief encapsulated in this picture by Reuters has really caused a lot of mental anguish to my sister Deepti Deleo who lives and works in New York. So much so that she was telling me, she was not able to either eat or concentrate on her job for the whole day.  Being a young mother herself, she was sickened in the gut.  So, she immediately contributed $100 to some charitable organization working there to minimize the sufferings of those people as much as possible.  She told me, she would be giving more.  By the way, she did not want me to publicize this.  I am doing it on my own.  I am proud of her.

I am reasonably certain now that 90% of the NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) in the US are bigoted reactionaries who are hopelessly drunk on Modi.  Enjoying the cozy comforts of living in Jersey and Pittsburgh and Cleveland and Boston and Atlanta and Detroit and San Francisco, they don't come face to face of countless small and big cruelties of everyday Indian society.  For them, nationalism is not about civilized decency, it has to be a political project tied up not with Hinduism, but with Hindutva.  Their arguments are only grounded in grievances, real or imagined, mostly the latter.  Sitting thousands of miles away, it is so easy to pine for your ''glorious motherland'' and run down the progressive elements of society, who are always swimming against the tide of majoritarian politics in this country.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee has apparently refused permission to the RSS to hold some kind of conference or public meeting in Kolkata.  This is just not acceptable in a functioning democracy like India.  I am no fan of the RSS, in fact, quite the opposite.  But I most certainly believe that they have every right to profess and propagate their views and beliefs provided it is done in a peaceful and nonviolent manner, which it was intended to be.  When we accuse the right-wing of being intolerant, we as liberals are showing exactly the same intolerance that we associate the other side with.  Mamata Banarjee's cussed attitude doesn't help the cause of liberals at all.

I like to read prose and literature in English. But when it comes to poetry, the language of choice is Hindustani, that is, a seamless mingling of Hindi and Urdu. When I came upon the works of Dushyant Kumar (1933-1975), it really shook me up and spoke to me on so many levels. The smoldering fire of his poetry is camouflaged by a strange tenderness which is almost like a longing. Looking forward to this one.

''Without You, There Is No Us''.  How much I love Suki Kim for writing this utterly fascinating account of what it is like to live and work in North Korea.  She is a South Korean born American free-lance writer who spent two semesters working undercover, teaching the English

language to the sons of the elite of the ruling Workers'Party at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.  She took a huge risk in secretly recording and saving her impressions on USB sticks as to what is it like to function as a normal human being in the most oppressive, brutal, and isolated country in the world.

No matter how much spin Mr. Jaitley puts on it, the fact of the matter is that the demonetization has failed to achieve its prime objective.  99 % of the demonetized currency in back into the banking system.  So, there is hardly any windfall gains for the government from the unaccounted for cash.  A negligible amount of fake currency has been discovered which is par for the course in a country like India.  As far as the digital transaction is concerned, the economy is pretty much back to pre-demonetization days.  Never have so many been put to so much trouble for so little.  Absolute chaos for months, hundreds dying in long suffocating queues, thousands of jobs in the informal sectors destroyed like Vandals assault.  The sheer arrogance and ineptitude of the government!  The Prime Minister's deluded and self-righteous anger has been neatly packaged and sold to the gullible masses that he is against all odds, fighting a holy war on behalf of the poor against the rich.

I finished reading A House for Mr. Biswas. It is a heartrending and darkly comic tale of one man's ceaseless quest for dignity and personal autonomy in the backdrop of a changing society in postcolonial Trinidad. To say that Sir Vidia Naipaul has been one of the literary giants of our time, would be to state the obvious. This book came out in 1961, and it has stood the test of time. In fact, it is timeless really. Even after going through all of the 625 odd pages, a part of me did not want it to be over. It is highly recommended for anyone who either wants to read something for their own pleasure or to gift someone.

After Gurmeet Ram Rahim has been locked away, the focus must shift on Asaram, another monster in the garb of spiritual Guru.  The Supreme Court has expressed its annoyance to the BJP state government in Gujrat for going slow on Asaram's trial.  On an individual level, practically every political leader has flirted with these so called ''Godmen'' at one time or another.  But because of its undying commitment to Hindutva, the BJP is mired neck-deep in the murky affairs of these forces of darkness.  From the prime minister downward, every major leader has eulogized these people for the simple reason that since these (un) holy men command such a stranglehold over the minds of the gullible, they can always come in handy in mobilizing a rich harvest of votes.

Come on, what the hell are some people smoking when they demand the resignation of the chief of Haryana, who it must be said is a pathetic administrator.  We are not some namby-pamby Scandinavian country where the heads of government will resign on 'moral grounds'.  It doesn't matter that in your insatiable hunger for votes, you have appeased worst kinds of reactionary elements in society, and when their sordid past catches up with them, you will be either unwilling or unable to stop their violent behavior.  Chief Ministers in this country don't resign because a handful of poor children have died because there was lack of oxygen supply in the government hospital.  We had a certain chief minister in 2002, who did not resign even though over a thousand people had been massacred on his watch.  In fact, the more the demand for his resignation grew, the more defiant and brazen he became.  People always try to learn from the best, and what they have learned over the years the accountability only comes in five years at the time of time of elections and is not a 24\7 phenomenon.  The hardware of our democracy is by and large, still holding up, but the software has been thoroughly corrupted with all types of viruses.

President Trump's so called new Afghan policy is, as the cliche goes, old wine in a new bottle.  The only difference is that now even the pretense of a definite timeline has been thrown out of the window.  Now, it's going to be an open ended engagement with no end in sight.  I also think India is being needlessly optimistic about his strong message to Pakistan.  He hasn't said anything radically different from what other administrations have been saying for the last 20 odd years; remember what Hillary Clinton said a couple of years ago about keeping snakes in your backyard, and expecting it to only bite your neighbor?  In doing business with Pakistan, the United States will continue to run with the hare and hunt with the hound which they have developed into a fine art.

It's a great day for women's empowerment no doubt, that this abominable practice of instant triple-talaq among the Muslim community has been consigned to the dustbin of history. In every community in India, religion must be separated from the basic human rights of both men and women. The BJP and its supporters should not be gloating too much, and should not be falling over themselves in giving all the credit to prime minister Modi for this historic Supreme Court judgment. In a true sense, this is a victory for all those Muslim women who took this issue to court, and over the years, tenaciously pursued this to its logical conclusion. The genuine paradigm shift will only come about when India has a common and uniform civil code across all religion.

When I think about the world he has described, it's hard to believe that VS Naipaul wrote this masterpiece in a North London flat over a period of three years between 1958 to 1960.  This is a complete and almost perfect novel according to many who know better than me.  At the time, Vidia Naipaul was a 28 years old young man, and a much greater glory was yet to come.  On a personal level, like Mr. Biswas, I have also felt from time to time, that I was born in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that the struggle will always continue to keep the world from grinding you into the dust.

I wonder if it has registered on the radar of many people.  Yemen is a desperately poor country on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula.  It's beyond belief that 90% of the country has been ravaged by the cholera epidemic.  How is it possible in this day and age when something like this can sweep across an entire country like a Biblical plague from the dark ages?  But that's exactly what's happening in Yemen right now.  People are dying like flies.  Those working on behalf of the World Health Organization and the International Red Cross are saying that they are absolutely horrified by the scale of the pandemic.  The unending civil war in the last couple of years has all but decimated the physical infrastructure in the country.  The whole of Yemen resembles like a gigantic, broken down sewer.  Every water body has been fatally contaminated.  Hundreds of sick people are lying outside a few dilapidated hospitals, on this streets because of massive overcrowding.  When I was watching the reports on Al Jazeera, I had to avert my gaze from the Television.  It was unbearable.  

In the BJP ruled state of Maharastra and Rajasthan, a systematic effort is underway to erase the significance of the Mughals in India from the history textbooks in schools.  This is beyond outrageous!  This is a dangerous attempt to turn the impressionable minds against the composite nature of Indian culture.  Why stop at merely altering the text books?  I suggest they should take the next logical step and remove all of the physical manifestations of that period.  They should blast the Taj Mahal, the magnificent Humayun's Tomb, should destroy the Jama Masjid and must bulldoze half of Delhi.  And yes, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi should also consider giving his Independence Day speech next week not from the ramparts of the Red Fort, for that is also a Mughal creation, but from the RSS headquarter in Nagpur.

The Recent set of data is clearly hinting that the Indian economy is doing rather badly.  Eight core sectors of the economy have performed their most abysmal in the last many years.  Manufacturing output has been the lowest in the past nine years.  Not enough gainful employment is being created to absorb a large number of youthful workforce, who voted with their feet to propel Mr. Narendra Modi to the prime ministerial chair.  And when you consider the fact that demonetization has practically destroyed the informal economy, things aren't looking that rosy in the immediate future.  I haven't even mentioned the acute agrarian distress sweeping across the country, and you get the picture.

President Nicholas Maduro has unleashed a reign of terror in Venezuela.  Two of the most respected and prominent opposition leaders were taken away after a midnight knock at their doorstep, even as they were already under house arrest.  Two days ago, the conducted a sham election to have a new constituent assembly to write a new constitution by which he intends to give himself more draconian powers to establish his complete authority on the people.  Meanwhile, the country is in utter chaos and disorder.  The streets of the capital city of Caracas have turned into a war-zone between the supporters of the government and the opposition.  There is literally not enough to eat.  Food riots have taken place in the last few months or so.  There have been appalling news reports of people rummaging through the garbage in order to find something to eat.  Clearly, the socialist utopia promised by their great leader Hugo Chavez has become toxic.

Corruption in other states of India is Chinese style corruption where you make money from the output of the investment made by either the government or the private corporations.  When that happens, even though there will be inequality in society, people, in general, will also benefit at some level.  However, I have always maintained that corruption in Bihar is Africa like corruption where money disappears into some black hole at the input level, at the very source in the food chain.  And that money is spent on conspicuous consumption by the politico-bureaucratic elite, like a few shiny hulking SUVs, opulent farmhouses, holidays abroad etc. etc.  This kind of corruption not only hollows out the institutional ability of the executive, but also corrodes the state from within, and leaves it like an empty shell.

A few days ago, when President Trump tweeted that he will no longer allow members of the Transgender community to serve in the U.S.  military, the response from the military was swift and unambiguous in that they were not obliged to implement this morally and constitutionally indefensible order until he clarifies what exactly he means.  Also, we have seen in the past, various media outlets have refused to be cowed down by the heavy hand of the Federal administration.  On the other hand, the exact opposite is happening in India.  Here, a news report appears on two prominent web portal, where it's been mentioned how there has been a 300 % increase in the personal assets of the president of the ruling BJP Mr. Amit Shah in the last few years.  There was also an item about how the Union Minister Ms. Smriti Irani is in the habit of giving confusing signals about her educational qualification, and basically, lying under oath.
   I am not suggesting that either Prime Minister Modi or Amit Shah put a gun on the heads of the editorial staff to drop the story.  In India, things don't get this brazen, but rather more subtle and insidious methods are employed to silence the dissent.  I can't say what exactly transpired, but within a few hours of being put up, both of the critical reports were taken down from the web sites of Times of India and DNA of the Zee group respectively.  Not only is this spineless behavior most unfortunate, it is a damning indictment of large sections Indian media, who don't have the guts to stand by their stories.  This is the utterly craven mentality to be always looking for approval of the powers that be.  They should learn from their plucky American counterparts.  

Sushil Kumar Modi is one of the most decent and hard working political leaders in Bihar.  If today the Yadav clan is in the doghouse of corruption charges, a large part of the credit would go to this other Modi, who has over the years relentlessly pursued the leads, digging up evidence, producing reams of documents before the investigating agencies and the courts.  Had it not been for his dogged determination, I think it would be fair to say that Mr. Lalu Yadav & Family would have most probably got away.  What I also like about Sushil Modi is that he is as different from Amit Shah as chalk is from cheese.  And I am reasonably confident that his presence as a deputy to Mr. Nitish Kumar in the coalition, would work as a counter-balance to the sectarian impulses of the RSS in the state.

Elizabeth Strout is the Pulitzer prize winning author of 'Olive Kitteridge', which was also turned into an Emmy winning HBO drama.  Many people believe that no one, at present writes about the other America as well as she does.  Her work is about the kind of isolated, small town America in the interiors.  These are the type of places where you got a hardware store, a humble little cafe, a gas station and if you're lucky, a salon, and that's about it.  Their tiny houses and vast expanses of corn fields.  You get the sense that the sheer ennui of the place is going to choke you.  Places such as Amgash and Carlisle in Illinois or Hannibal in Missouri.

When Sagarika Ghose, whom I have greatly admired over the years both as a TV anchor and as a print journalist, came out with her book on Indira Gandhi last month, I was quite indifferent and almost skeptical.  I thought here goes another book out to so many that are already available on Mrs. Gandhi in the market.  After all, she has been one of the most scrutinized and reported on individuals in India in the last 50 years.  What more can we be told that most of us already don’t know?  I thought of it as one of those vanity projects on the part of the author, and I was resolved not to buy this book.  Then one night, I was watching a discussion on NDTV where Nidhi Razdan was talking to Sagarika about her latest book, and since I am quite fond of both these women, I thought I would give this a try.  And I am so glad that I read this book.  This has been a terrific effort by Sagarika Ghose.  She has come up with a really engaging and penetrating portrait of some of the most defining years of post-independence India.  But what I found most fascinating is how beautifully she has managed to get through the façade, and captured the true persona, the essence, if you like, of the woman who was at the helm of affairs during those years.  You acutely get the sense that her controversial legacy continues to cast an enduring shadow on politics in this country even more than 30 years after her death.  The thing with powerful and authoritarian leader in a country like ours is that, even though your opponents will loathe you when they are at the receiving end of your stick; but as soon as the fortunes are reversed, they will employ the same tactics from that powerful leader’s playbook, almost as a backhanded compliment.  Something very similar is happening in India today.

   Since the assassination of Mrs. Gandhi in 1984, a whole new generation has come of age.  This book should be read by not only those who were born after 1984 but also by everyone else who is interested in finding out arguably the most compelling political narrative of the second half of the 20^th century in India.  The book reads like a thriller and gives you a really engrossing picture of the kind of complex individual Indira Gandhi was.  Even though the author is somewhat sympathetic towards her subject, it has at no felt like a hagiography, in fact, far from it.  Neither has it been a hatchet job either.  Rather, Sagarika Ghose brings out a clear-eyed and lucid understanding of the real Mrs. G by speaking with all the available dramatis-personae of the time.  She uses her incisive journalistic skills to lay out a comprehensive and complex picture of the kind of woman both as an individual and as a powerful Prime Minister Mrs. Gandhi was, warts and all.  One feels almost a fly on the wall, how from the confident, strong, and unchallenged leader in the first half of her long inning as prime minister, to the vulnerable, shaky, and increasingly paranoid leader of the second half.  A kind of prime minister who was beginning to see demons all around her.  You feel as if she was sleepwalking into one blunder after another, and eventually paying with her own life.  What I also feel is that no matter how grand and glittering your political career has been, when the end comes, it will look like an utter failure.  Indira Gandhi was a true patriot.  But she was not a true democrat like her father.  For her, political power was not a means to an end, but the end itself.  All through her time in office, she remained under the mistaken belief that the people of India were her one big extended family, and as a mother, it was her solemn duty and obligation to take care of this humongous family.  Little did she realize that sometimes even motherly love can be too much, and India got suffocated in this maternal embrace somewhere along the way. 

   I also see it as a cautionary tale for us as citizens.  We must be vigilant at all times, because these powerful and supreme leaders with authoritarian impulses, be it Narendra Modi at the moment or Indira Gandhi all those years ago; when they do or do not do something, it does not just impact that particular moment, but the repercussions can be felt for the next 50 years and more.

In a tragic news, it's been put in the public domain that Mr. John Mccain, Senator from Arizona and 2008 Republican nominee has been diagnosed with brain cancer at the age of 80. That's how it should be in a democracy, where the health of any public figure should be common knowledge Instead, what we've got in India is a system of complete secrecy regarding any health issues or illness of its top leaders. We still don't know what's wrong with Sonia Gandhi that she keeps taking off to the U.S. for treatment at regular intervals. People in India have a right to know what is the true nature of her illness, whether it's cervical cancer, as some media reports have speculated or something else. She is in political life. She should not expect to be protected in a cocoon of mystique. Also, what does it tells us about the Indian media, when they are not good enough to ferret out the truth on their own.

The state of Bihar is going to the dogs.  But these two capricious egomaniacs, namely Nitish and Lalu don't give a damn!!  No worthwhile work is getting done for I don't know how many months.  The whole administration is frozen in a suspended animation.  The people working for the government are just going through the motion from one day to another.  But you don't have to confuse motion for action.  It is downright scandalous state of affairs right now.

I have to say that that it's a most uninspired choice to have Mr. Vekaiah Naidu as the new Vice President of India.  Since I am a literary minded person, I would think that comparing Mr. Venkaiah Naidu to Mr. Gopal Krishna Gandhi is like comparing Chetan Bhagat with Amitav Ghosh.  It's just that Mr. Naidu has numbers stacked in his favor, in much the same way that more people have read Chetan Bhagat in India than they have Amitav Ghosh.  What I also think that at a larger level, this also demonstrates the current BJP government's almost visceral dislike of intellectual and scholarly people.

For the last few days, I cannot shake my mind off thinking about Liu Xiaobo.  The literary critic, writer and an indomitable advocate for human rights and political reforms in China.  What the Chinese authorities have done to him is beyond despicable.  Some years ago, he co–authored a report where he severely indicted the government for lack of political openness and gross human rights violations and demanded greater freedom and accountability from the communist party.  For this daring act, in 2009, he was put in prison for life without recourse to any appeal.  He was placed in solitary confinement and none of his family members were allowed to visit him in jail.  Even though the Chinese state was impervious to Mr. Liu Xiaobo, the world took notice.  In 2010, he was awarded the Nobel peace prize.  This well-deserved recognition at the global stage for Mr. Liu Xiaobo did not go down well with the government in China.  They did not let him travel to Oslo to receive the award.  As a mark of respect for Mr. Liu, an empty chair was put in place among the other recipients and the Nobel citation was placed on that vacant chair.
   While under incarceration in Jinzhou, Liaoning, somewhere in the northeast China, his health kept deteriorating.  When at last, the international media discovered the fact that the 61 years old Mr. Liu has been suffering from liver cancer and is in a terminal stage, it was only then that the government authorities decided to release him on medical parole.  One has learned from various media reports that Mr. Liu Xiaobo is receiving only rudimentary medical care at the local hospital in Jinzhou.  Meanwhile, the governments in various European countries and also President Trump in the United States, have been calling upon China to accede to the wish of the dying man and allow him to go to either Germany or the US in order to receive the best possible medical assistance under the circumstances.  But so far, the Chinese government has categorically rejected every request to reconsider its stand on humanitarian grounds.  Mr. Liu Xiaobo is months away from dying.  If and when this tragedy comes to pass, he will be the second Nobel Laureate to die in custody after the Nazi era.  Shame on you Xi Jinping!

Mr. Swapan Dasgupta has been blessed with the fancy education of St. Stephen's in New Delhi and Oxford University in the UK. So he can coach his Modi bhakti, and shameless rationalization of the inherent bigotry of BJP/RSS in a sophisticated prose and posh accent. Compared to him, I am just an uneducated imbecile, even though I firmly believe in the constitutional values and secular ethos of this ancient land. And unlike him, I am so dense in my head that I don't realize that all those decent citizens who protested the other day against the rising incidence of public lynching of Muslims and Dalits in India are Ivory Tower intellectuals and anti-nationals. They are ''rootless cosmopolitans'', as he put it. By the way, the same ''rootless cosmopolitans'' was used to describe the Jews in Nazi Germany once upon a time. So, there you have it.

So, now we know that Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Netanyahu are quite thick buddies.  Even though it was a bit exaggerated display of bonhomie by the two leaders, it is nobody's case that we should not have good friendly relations with Israel.  What I found most jarring amidst all this is that not even once did Mr. Modi either appreciate or acknowledged the contribution made by the architect of this relationship; former prime minister late P.V. Narasimha Rao.  In 1993, Mr. Rao went against the then prevailing consensus and decided that it is in India's national interest to have good relations with Israel.  By completely ignoring Narasimha Rao on this historic occasion, the prime minister has shown a complete lack of grace.  Don't be so obsessed with self-glorification and self-promotion Mr. Modi.

Somebody posts something about Prophet Muhammed on facebook, and these fanatical Muslims start behaving like rabid dogs in Bengal.  They have gone on a rampage, indulging in mindless violence, arson and rioting in the last couple of days.  Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee is foolishly putting all her eggs in one basket.  And that basket is the 28 percent Muslim vote in the state.  By cynically appeasing the most fundamentalist and reactionary elements of the community, she is only preparing the ground for a severe backlash from the Hindu community.  She is giving ample opportunity to the RSS/BJP to fish in troubled waters.

I think one reason for President Trump's impulsive attitude towards so many issues is that he is not in the habit of reading anything.  Forget about reading books, he is not even known to read the extensive briefings on domestic and international affairs prepared by his support staff in the White House.  Instead, he gets all his information and knowledge from television!  I read the other day, that on an average Mr. Trump watches 5 hours of network TV every day.  He is particularly fond of FOX network.  Now, do I need to say anything more?

Effective midnight tonight, the economic and commercial landscapes of India will undergo a paradigm shift. The biggest indirect tax reform since independence, the Goods, and Services Tax (GST) is going to come into force. 17 indirect taxes, 33 different kinds of levies and cess, the never-ending harassment of business owners by the tax authorities not to mention the constant rent seeking by the police at state border check posts, all this will hopefully become history as the whole country will become a common market with a flat rate of tax across the board. This is a huge leap of faith in the dark because nothing like this has ever been done before in this country. This GST is by no means ideal or perfect and it will remain a work in progress, tweaked here and there as we go along. For the moment though the Modi government deserves to be congratulated.

The word that came to my mind after reading Arundhati Roy's second novel after 20 years, 'The Ministery Of Utmost Happiness' was, ''underwhelming''.  Don't get me wrong, this is not an inferior book by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact, quite the opposite.  I just feel she took too much on the plate as subject matter.  After the luminous success of 'The God Of Small Things' two decades ago, she not only became a different kind of writer, but also a different kind of person.  In the intervening years, Ms. Roy went headlong into activism and advocacy negotiating the dangerous fault lines of the modern Indian state.  From Gujarat pogrom of 2002 to the insurgency in Kashmir, from resistance against big dams to the atrocities on the tribal population in India's own heart of darkness, the forests of Chhatisgarh.  She has been a stellar and provocative voice on all of these and more.
  What has been most remarkable about this new book is that how she has been able to bring together so many disparate elements from a nation's life together and weave a cohesive, even if at times unwieldy narrative.  It is a tribute to her exceptional skill as a writer, that even though the incidents that form the backdrop of the novel are very much contemporary in nature, you just want to keep going.  Especially in the section on Kashmir, the prose literally soars to new heights.  Why I said ''underwhelming'' in the beginning is because for some reason, it doesn't quite capture the haunting beauty of 'The God Of Small Things', and as a great admirer of Arundhati, it kept bothering me somewhat.

What do you say when a genuine intellectual like Gopal Gandhi is brushed aside for somebody like Mr. Ram Nath Kovind, who is the opposite of intellectual, for the august office of the President of India.  This is a piece of pathetic tokenism by the BJP in the name of Dalit empowerment.  Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, both have politics on their mind 24/7.  So much so that now it really feels suffocating.  Every nomination and appointment made by this government has the sole focus of either this election or that election, or if not elections, then a cynical desire to have lackeys (chamchas) in important positions.  How are they any different from the Congress party whom they want to obliterate from the country?  At the very least, with the Congress, you could shame them into doing the right thing from time to time.  The BJP of Shah-Modi combine is devoid of any shame.

A dreadful moment for the Conservative party in Britain. Prime Minister Theresa May badly miscalculated the extent of support she enjoyed among the British public. The Tories had a good thing going with a comfortable majority in parliament. But Ms. May wanted an even bigger mandate before she enters into tough Brexit negotiations with the European Union. What does she do? She calls for snap elections, and instead of shoring up her majority even further, the opposite has happened. The voters have returned a hung parliament. The Conservatives will have to form a minority government and the prime minister will have to depend on the support of the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, one of the most extreme entities on the British Isle. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.

My first loyalty is not to India, but to the state of Bihar. And I take no pleasure in saying that the shocking results of the intermediate examinations are symptomatic of the deeper rot that has set into the education system of the state as a whole. Every year, we're just producing an army of semi-educated young men and women who are both unemployed and unemployable. Once upon a time, we used to have a very hardworking chief minister in Mr. Nitish Kumar with a progressive development-oriented agenda. He is squandering away all the goodwill by firstly, this puritanical zeal in imposing prohibition at the cost of every other important matter in the state, and secondly, the decision to enter into an alliance with a thoroughly discredited Lalu Yadav, who does not so have a political party as a gang of mercenary thugs. Bihar is crying out for deliverance from this miasma of anarchy, cynicism, and boredom.

Western UP is burning because of caste-related violence against the Dalit communities, but this third rate clown Adityanath has been celebrating the birthday of 16th-century Rajput warrior king Maharana Pratap.  Elsewhere, in the same state, a group of predatory boys manhandles and molest two girls, and this absolutely loathsome creep and a member of the opposition party, Azam Khan says that young women should be kept indoors most of the times!  Actually, I am not surprised.  Both Adityanath and Azam Khan complement each other, in fact, they feed off each other in order to provide fuel to fire their reactionary agenda.

Even 53 years after his death, it is still fashionable in a large section of the middle classes in India to abuse and crucify our first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru for all the ills afflicting the Republic of India.  In their incoherent and unfocused anger, people lose all kinds of perspective.  They don’t appreciate the fact that if India today feels like an oasis of calm amidst the arid landscape of general chaos and disorder of South Asia, a major part of the credit must go to Mr. Nehru.  Because he believed in his heart of heart, that whatever shapes the newly independent nation may take, it will never be the mirror image of Pakistan.  Even his most uncompromising critics would have to concede that history has proved him more right than wrong.  We have seen what happens in the creation of Bangladesh and the horrible civil war in Sri Lanka; the terrible consequences of imposing a majoritarian culture on a diverse population.  Our first prime minister was nothing if not a true democrat.  He never shied away from engaging with his political opponents, both inside and outside parliament, on every issue of national importance.  Today, if we have acquired even a modicum of scientific and technological achievement to our credit, it was only thanks to Nehru’s untiring zeal and passion in nurturing the institutions and backing the scientific community.

   Of course, I would be remiss in my assessment if I don’t say that he also made some errors of judgment along the way.  But then, what human being is immune to making mistakes?  The thing about hindsight is that it gives us 20/20 vision.  His too much faith in the command economy which ended up creating state monopoly in every walk of life.  His inability to reform the personal laws of the Muslim community like he was able to do in the case of the Hindus.  His romantic but naïve belief in the brotherhood of India and China.  His spectacular miscalculations on Kashmir.  These are some that come to mind.  We cannot pass a definitive judgment of why he did what he did because we were not there.  We simply cannot compare the current situation in the country with what was the state of play in the early years of independence.  It can be said without reservations that Nehru laid the foundation of a modern, open and secular India.  If the current political discourse in India is characterized by crassness, vulgarity, and cruelty, we cannot hold Nehru accountable.  Pt. Nehru didn’t introduce dynasty and nepotism in Indian public life.  His daughter Indira did, that too after he was gone.  When he was incarcerated for nearly three years by the British in the wake of the Quit India movement; in the prison he requested the authorities for some loose sheaf of papers and pen, and then went on to write ‘Discovery of India’, one of the most definitive works on the much devalued, not to mention much-discredited term nowadays, the ‘idea of India’.  Nehru was a statesman and not merely a politician.  He didn’t just think about the next election, but also about the next generation.  He was a true internationalist and an intellectual prime minister.  Of course, he did not get everything right.  But then who ever did?  In the ultimate analysis, he got more thing right than he got wrong, and that should be good enough.  Once, he said that as long as he is alive, he will not allow India to become a Hindu Pakistan.  And thank God for that!

Following is a list of my 10 favorite Indians whom I greatly admire and respect.  This list is my no means exhaustive, and because I was pretty sure that it would contain not more than 10 people, I had to omit some worthy contender.  My one and only criterion were that those people should be picking and choosing their battles residing in India and not in some fancy city in the West.  I owe a debt of gratitude to them for I have benefited immensely from their knowledge and wisdom over the years.  So, here goes, in no particular order...
1. Mukul Kesvan  2. Arundhati Roy  3. Ramchandra Guha  4. Pratap Bhanu Mehta  5. Asish Nandy  6. Shiv Vishvanathan  7. Aparna Sen  8. Arun Shourie  9. Shashi Tharoor  10. Yogendra Yadav

I am quite amused that this joker Paresh Rawal decided to go after Arundhati Roy via a disgusting tweet.  It's been years since she has written any polemics that would shake the very foundation of our Republic, according to the so-called ''nationalists''.  She hasn't made any comments about our Supreme Leader (you know who) in recent times.  She has been quietly working on her second novel in 20 years, that is going to come out in 15 days in more than 30 languages around the world.  If despite all this, Ms. Roy continues to weigh heavily on the minds of so many 'bhakts' like him, it just goes to show how powerful the pen is compared to the sword.  It is also in a way, a backhanded tribute to the majestic and mesmerizing craft of her writing.
PS  By the way, Roy is not on twitter, so trolls will only be wasting their time.

#128

Come Friday and prime minister Modi will complete three years in office.  To me, the most astounding and depressing aspect of all this is that in these three years, he has not given a single press conference.  In every liberal democracy, the head of the government subjects himself or herself to the difficult scrutiny by the members of the media from time to time.  But not Mr. Narendra Modi, who of course, likes to do the so called ''Mann Ki Baat'', that boring monologue, full of tired old cliches and platitudes, where only he can control the narrative.  Even someone like Mr. Vladimir Putin, who is not the most shining example of a democrat, addresses the members of the press once in a year around Christmas.  I want to know, what is the Prime Minister afraid of?  I can assure him that nobody is going to ask him about Gujarat 2002!  Over the years, we have seen how that has gone.  As it is, the government has already emasculated or at the very least, coopted a major chunk of the mainstream media.  So, there is no danger of Times of India doing to Mr. Modi what the Washington Post and the New York Times have been doing to Donald Trump.  Essencially, speaking truth to power.  On the other hand, a large section of the press and news networks over here have no compunction eating out of the establishment's hand.  The only reason I suspect is that contrary what we have been made to believe, Mr. Modi is actually quite risk-averse and cautious in his overall approach.  And if he's giving the media the opportunity to ask some questions, there might be a few surprises coming his way and I don't think he likes surprises.  He always wants to be in control of everything.

I was reading the New York Times editorial and was laughing like crazy.  The GOP is alarmed, the democrats are aghast, the late-night comedians are having a field day and the public is simply flabbergasted.  Thank you, Mr. President, for providing everybody such a theater that is going to put any Broadway show to shame.  And last but by no means least, thank God for Sean Spicer.  What a manna from heaven he is!  He has been single handed responsible giving superstardom to Melissa Mcarthy.  Without Sean, life would have been truly miserable.  Jokes apart, I have to take my proverbial hats off to the established American media for speaking truth to power and not getting intimidated one bit.  It is an object lesson for the Indian media how to conduct itself with credibility.  Most of which is quite happy to eat out of the government's hand.

President Trump is clearly losing the plot if he's not lost it already.  Even someone like me sitting here in India, who is not materially affected by what he's been doing or how he is conducting himself in the office; I am getting increasingly exasperated and infuriated.  He has been for just over three months, but somehow it feels a lot longer.  Mr. Trump has lied, deceived and obfuscated on so many things so much and for so long that his continuance in such a prestigious office is becoming untenable.  I don't want to even go into the extraordinary removal of the FBI director James Comey, for that would require another write-up altogether.  The other day, I was watching an interview that Donald Trump gave to the BBC in 1998, and believe it or not, he sounded very earnest and convincing in whatever he was saying although that air someone used to getting his way was always there.  A lot of people far more knowledgeable and intelligent than me have analyzed and written about Mr. Trump in recent months, so I can hardly add anything substantive.  I would just like to say that the man carries an enormous chip on his shoulder.  Any decision that he makes, it's more out of spite than any conviction.  Every morning, he unleashes barrages of tweets and people are supposed to take it as Gospel truth.  His undisguised contempt for the traditional media is never a good sign for any democracy.  There are very few competent people in his administration because he likes to surround himself with only yes men.  I could go on and on, but that would be missing the point.  I think the passage of years has not added to the wisdom of Mr. Trump, which comes from experience.  Rather it has worked in the opposite direction, making him ever more surly, petulant and infantile.  More is the pity.

Not many people realize, but the 9th of May has to be a red-letter day in the annals of women's emancipation. For it was on this day in 1960 that FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the U.S. finally gave its stamp of approval to the use of birth control pill by the across the country. This singular act, to my mind, contributed most to the feminist movement and women's empowerment in general than any amount of sloganeering, marching and bra burning could ever have done. Suddenly, women not only in the United States but all around the world had a sense of autonomy over their own bodies. They were in the position to decide when to have children and how many. Because now, they could have sex without fear of getting pregnant, it also paved the way for the sexual revolution of the 70s. The world is a better place because of that.

The people of India are relieved, and rightly so, after those men who committed the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23 years old Joyti Singh on the night of 16th December 2012, have been brought to justice and will be sent to the gallows after going through the due process of law and fair trial.  This was the incident that really shook the conscience of society and literally brought hundreds and thousands of ordinary middle-class people on the streets like nothing could have.  Even those people who are opposed to the death penalty as a matter of principle (myself included), would be hard pressed to say that this sentence is not going to bring closure to her family, who have had to undergo such a horrid nightmare.  The punishment definitely fits the crime, as long as capital punishment is there on the statute book, those animals deserved no less.
   In a remarkable coincidence, another court verdict was delivered in another ghastly gang rape and murder case around the same time.  Bilkis Bano was a 19 years old mother of a 3-year-old girl, she was also 20 weeks pregnant with another child.  On that fateful day in February 2002, Bilkis Bano was running for her life along with other members of her extended family.  A rampaging Hindu mob was pursuing them as part of a systematic anti-Muslim pogrom at that time in Gujarat.  How far could she run, where could she hide?  Immediately, she's seized upon by the frenzied mob and brutally gang raped thereby killing her unborn child.  As though that was not barbaric enough, they also picked up her three years old daughter and smashed the little girl on a nearby boulder.  The blood lust didn't end there, they also killed 14 members of her immediate and extended family.
   After meandering through the Indian judicial system for 15 years, the Bombay High Court convicted those responsible for the carnage, which also included six policemen.  You can imagine the magnitude of the crime.  My contention is if the rapists and killers of Joyti Singh could be handed down the death sentence, considering the shocking brutality exhibited, what prevented the court in the Bilkis Bano case from giving similar punishment to those convicted?  Instead, they have been awarded life imprisonment.  The only difference is that Bilkis has lived to tell the tale and Joyti did not.  There were no mitigating circumstances in either case, but different yardsticks have been applied in meting out the punishment.

It's really mind-boggling how callous and insensitive the Trump administration can get.  By making a determined assault to repeal and replace the Obamacare, it is not only going to deny health insurance to millions but also hurt the same working class white voters in the industrial rust-belt, who were instrumental in propelling him to the White House in the first place.  Just because it was a signature piece of legislation by President Obama, it had to go, never mind the consequences.  Talk about cutting your nose to spite your face.  

I don't want to use the Biblical analogy of Original Sin.  But in the wake of the mounting tension between India and Pakistan, I can't help feeling that the Vajpayee government committed a grave mistake in going for the nuclear tests in 1998.  Not only did it give the Pakistanis the excuses to go for their own tests, it also neutralized whatever conventional military superiority we had over that country.  Now, this whole equation between India and Pakistan has been frozen in perpetuity under the overhang of the mushroom cloud and MAD (mutually assured destruction) doctrine.  If India goes after the terrorist camps inside the Pakistani territory with any degree of substance, Pakistan is going to see this as an existential threat to itself and there is no telling how they are gonna react.  Realistically, India has got very little room to maneuver.

Today is world press freedom day. India ranks 136 on the press freedom index, only marginally better than Pakistan which is at 139th place. This is utterly disgraceful for a country that likes to shout from the rooftop about its democratic credentials. So, it's quite hypocritical when the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi wax eloquent on the necessity of a free and vibrant press, when he himself has never given any press conference in the three years he's been the prime minister of this country. He has never allowed himself to be subjected to the kind of hard questioning by the media which is fairly common in other advanced democracies in the world.

If anyone wants to see what free speech looks like, just watch the video of Hasan Minhaj, a Muslim Indian-American stand-up comic roasting President Trump at the White House correspondents dinner two days ago.  Imagine if anyone and God forbid if that person also happens to be Muslim, trying anything similar to the supreme leader Modi here in public.  He or she would be slapped with the charge of sedition, called 'anti-national' not to mention a Paki-sympathizer.  His life would have been turned upside down.  But over there, everybody had a jolly good laugh at the expense of the President, who was conspicuous by his absence.  Say what you will about the U.S., but that country still values freedom of expression like few places can.

The shameful silence of every non-BJP political formation on the obnoxious practice of triple talaak among the Muslim community in this country actually speaks volume about their muddled thinking on the issue of secularism.  I think the Congress party has to take a major portion of the blame as to how and why such a noble and desirable concept like secularism became a dirty word in India over the years.  Now, I am no advocate for the BJP, in fact, quite the opposite and its new found concern for the plight of the Muslim women could be a result of political calculations, rather than any genuine willingness for reform, but that is beside the point.

  Because the Congress party was in the pole position after independence to lead the country and also the fact that it was in power for the maximum duration since the formation of the republic; every major political party has been influenced by its methods at a subliminal level.  Although you could say that the party promoted a kind of inclusive politics, but its basic approach to a liberal secular polity has been marked by a lack of conviction and a lot of hypocrisy.  The BJP has often accused the Congress of appeasing the Muslim community at the expense of the majority Hindu population.  What is the meaning of appeasement?  According to the Dictionary, when you appease someone, you offer them some concessions in order to maintain peace, even if the person or group you are appeasing happen to be critical of you.  Every democratically elected government does this from time to time for various reasons.  If the Congress and other parties had really appeased the Muslims and positively discriminated against the common people, then, we wouldn’t be having this situation where the Muslim community is languishing at the bottom of every socio-economic indicator in India.  No, the great mass of the Muslim population has not been appeased.  Rather, a disingenuous and cynical appeasement of the religious clergy has taken place that has allowed these fanatics to exercise a vice-like grip on the common people.

   At least about the BJP, you could argue that they have been, if anything, more honest and upfront about their abhorrent espousal of a Hindu rastra and akhand Bharat.  No beating around the bush there, that’s for sure!  It’s the Congress, whose tendency to humor the most reactionary elements of the Muslim community in order to create a bankable vote bank that has enabled the BJP to harness the resentment of the majority of the middle-class Hindu community.  No one in his or her right mind can take exception to the fact that by merely uttering the word ‘talaak’ three times in succession is simply not good enough to get rid of your wife in this day and age.  But the same old skullduggery, same old kowtowing to the fundamentalist section of the community, that is behind the abomination of not supporting the government on at least this progressive agenda of outlawing this medieval practice among the Muslim community.

The ubiquitous red beacon (lal batti), the oppressive symbol of the paternalistic Indian state (mai-baap sarkar if you will), will be history in a few days time on the streets of the nation's capital.  The Prime Minister should have done this a lot sooner.  But better late than never and for doing this at all, he needs to be complimented.  Now the respective state governments should follow suit.  At the same time, it should also be kept in mind that this is at best a symbolic act in the direction of a more democratic and egalitarian political culture.  The real change will come about only when people are able to erase the mindset which breeds this feudal and ugly culture of privilege and an arrogant sense of entitlement.

As far as I am concerned, both Aazan and Hari-kirtan played on loudspeaker are equally intolerable.  They not only annoy the hell out of me, I feel a sort of panic attack coming over me.  If at all I am forced to choose, I would say that aazan lasts for not more than 2 minutes, so, I can manage that.  But what about the endless hours of torture having to endure the loud blaring of kirtans, satsang, bhagwat puran not to mention mata ki chowki, which is so much in fashion these days among a section of the Hindu middle class.  Sometimes, I do get the feeling that it's a deliberate assertion of religiosity in your face.  Your right to play your devotional music ends exactly where my right to have some peace and quiet begins.  India is already a hot and crowded place at the best of times.  By displaying this overt fondness for different religion in public sphere, they are unleashing hell, not heaven.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a power hungry maniac, who is never satisfied.  I am quite baffled how the good people of Turkey such an overwhelming power to decide their fate on a platter.  Now, he can use Parliament as a rubber stamp in order to curb even more freedom and also he can enact laws by decree.  This is one of the most significant changes this country has witnessed in many decades.

We were promised minimum government, maximum governance. But things are disconcertingly moving in the other direction. From what to eat, to what to drink, from what to wear, to what movie to watch not to mention who do we love and how. This ridiculous playing of the national anthem in theaters and forcing you to stand up, to 'aadhar' being rammed down the throat of even small children, the heavy hand of the state is getting heavier by the day. I think it would be a mistake to call it a mischief of the nanny state, rather, it's the arrogance of the 'mother-in-law' state. Unappealing, unreasonable and bloody control freak, like most of the Indian mothers-in-law, tend to be.

I have always maintained that Mr. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, MP BJP is a sad caricature of a token Muslim presence in an otherwise Hindu party.  But even then, it was quite a surreal experience to see this pathetic buffoon completely denying that the horrible incident in Alwar, where a man was fatally lynched for a mistaken belief that he was transporting cows to the slaughterhouse, took place at all.  Despite extensive coverage in the media and the actual video footage of the ghastly act, this mealy-mouthed joker who also happens to be a minister, kept lying through his teeth in the parliament that nothing of the sort ever happened!  He should apologize period.  Of course, the dead man, who was a dairy farmer and also happened to me Muslim, is a matter of minor irritating detail for these murderous vigilante mobs, who are killing human beings in the name of protecting cows.  Ever since their spiritual/ideological mentors BJP/RSS have come to power at the center and in many states, these self-appointed militias, the so called protectors of 'Hindu culture', clearly feel emboldened that they can get away with anything, even murder.  Maybe, next time the 'Great leader' will enlighten us in his next mann ki baat as to how is the government is going to deal with the supposed cow slaughter from the actual manslaughter.

People ask you, how are you and you say I'm fine.  But really, that's just a formal answer in a polite society.  What is exactly fine?  Nothing if you ask me.  Speaking from my perspective, there is the same anxiety, the same confusion and the daily grind to keep the wolf at the doorstep.  They say that if you share your sorrow with someone, the thing lessens in its intensity.  But the human reality is that nobody really wants to take additional burden of what is it that's eating you, and who could blame them for you friends and family are bearing their own crosses.  I am a great believer in not making a spectacle of my troubles.  When I hear how somebody got upset because some friends and acquaintances did not come to see them while they were really sick, it never ceases to amaze me.  Why would you want anybody to intrude into your private grief!  If I have a happy moment in my life, I would let everyone in.  I would like to have a carnival.  But I would like to be alone in my anguish, I will not have a spectacle.  The joy and the happiness, no matter how great, can be taken away from you by somebody.  The only thing that is truly and solely yours is your own suffering.

I am not an enthusiastic consumer of Indian news channels.  But whenever I do watch them, I invariably tune into NDTV (English).  Because firstly, their anchors still deliver the news in a calm and sober tone.  They don't hyperventilate in the name of national interests, which is clearly crass and offensive on other channels, especially the Hindi ones.  NDTV tends to be as fair and objective as it is possible to be in this day and age.

By giving his daughter Ivanka an important advisory role in the administration, President Trump has really gone full Monty in wading into the bog of 'conflict of interest'.  As if this was not bad enough, the former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has gently lobbed a bombshell by offering to testify on the collusion between the Russian intelligence and Trump team, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.  Boy...  this has the potential to blow up in somebody's face and hurt big time.

So, the BJP has appointed a man called Mr. Tajinder Bagga as one of the spokesmen of the party.  This third rate person headed a loony bunch called 'Bhagat Kranti Sena', whose chief claim to fame was barging into the office and beefing up one of the most eminent lawyers in the country.  This man is known to be abusive towards a lot of women journalists on social media.  Of course, he's a blue eyed boy for the establishment because of his shameful (or should I say shameless?) bhakti (sycophancy) of prime minister Modi.

Now that a second revised travel ban put in place by president Trump has been blocked by the courts, where does he go from here?  Is it going to wind its way up to the Supreme Court eventually?  Clearly, the judges are not convinced with the actual intent of the administration, because of Mr. Trump's past rhetorics.  The Federal Courts have made no bones about the fact that the words do matter, and in this instance, Mr. Trump's words spoken in the past is definitely coming back to bite him on the backside.

In my mind, I always consider myself to be some sort of a writer.  I may not have been able to become a writer in the real sense, but I don’t care.  It’s enough for me that I have a great deal of reverence for the printed words.  Ever since I was in a position to do so, I have bought, curated and surrounded myself with books.  I find myself instinctively attracted to anyone who has got the gift of writing beautiful prose.  Whenever I see the name of the author on the title cover of the books I have, I can’t help thinking what a tremendous high it must be to see the sum total of your wisdom, for better or for worse, immortalized in written word.  Now that I have acquired some modest experience of reading quite a few books over the years, I think I can relate to the moods and emotions of the writer.  There is one aspect of this thought process that I very much relate to.  It has something to do with procrastination.  You see, I want to get a lot of writing done, but besides the physical limitations imposed on me by my situation; I also tend to be a lazy person when it comes to putting down my thoughts.  The overwhelming feeling is of lethargy.  I hate to love, or you can say that I love to hate the word ‘procrastination’.  Sometimes I know that I have a germ of an idea in my head about some things to write about and tell myself to do it as soon as possible before the idea disappears.  But due to one reason or the other, I would let it keep simmering in my mind and not do anything, in other words, avoid taking a decision, for instance like this post.  It is only marginally reassuring that a lot of people who are a million times more resourceful and talented than me also go through this phase all the time.  There is always this paralyzing fear that you are about to lose your ability to put into words what is consuming you from inside.

It happens like this.  I am thinking about writing something, but I wouldn’t act on it right away.  I would let this train of thought coming and going for quite a few days not knowing how to begin.  In the meantime, if I am reading something, I would tell myself I should be writing instead.  And when I am writing, I start thinking maybe it would be more productive if I enrich my mind and soul by reading something and in case I am enjoying some show or a movie, then the guilt would be all the more embarrassing.  At times like these, I would even rationalize myself in the most strange of ways.  I would tell myself that I am not the only one who keeps looking for excuses not to put down my thoughts.  A great many people have undergone similar experiences and they are none the worse for it.  In fact, the great V.S. Naipaul has admitted on many occasions that after finishing one book, he would be crippled by the agonizing fear that how is he ever going to write another book in his life!  But he did all right, didn’t he?  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I am not about to commit the ultimate blasphemy by even remotely comparing my predicament with the great man, but you get the drift.  Yes, I would say that people like Naipaul and quite a few others are a source of immense inspiration and learning for people like me.  Their way of being and doing things are constant reminders to me that once my monitor is up with a blank page and the cursor is blinking, somehow, I can produce a serviceable prose. 

I have always had a kind of mixed feelings about Karan Johar as a filmmaker.  At this of my life, I am not a willing consumer of mainstream commercial Bollywood movies, so I generally stay away from the kind of films he’s been renowned for.  In all these years, I have only watched a couple at most.  However, it has also never stopped me from trying to find out about what movie he’s going to come out with.  You could say that even though I didn’t like the actual movie too much, I certainly admired the style and the scale of his production.  The beautiful people, the technical finesse, I mean the whole aesthetics of the enterprise.  Even otherwise, I have found him to be an intriguing personality, primarily because of all the baggage he has carried with him regarding his private life and I was always looking for the opportunity to discover more of him as people and not so much as a top tier movie maker.  When I learned that he is coming out with his autobiography, it naturally piqued my curiosity.  But at the same time, I was pretty skeptical as to how honest he would be given that he has become such a big brand and is constantly in the limelight.  Nevertheless, I picked up my copy in a perverse way thinking, “Let’s see how hypocritical he gets”.

    As I finished these 200 odd pages of this book written in collaboration with a well-known entertainment journalist and writer Poonam Saxena, the realization hit me that how wrong I was in my judgment and in my pre-conceived notion of the man.  Reading this memoir has been a revelation for me.  I never expected the author to be so candid and upfront about not only his life in general but also about the hopes, fears, the insecurities, the anxieties and the heartbreak which he has gone through, something we also experience from time to time.  I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the kind of candor and honesty that shines through the book.  Indian celebrities, in general, are not given to baring their real self to the public.  Most of them are cagey and have big egos, especially in the entertainment industry.  So, in that sense, it’s a wonderful departure from the norm that someone like Karan has given us an entry into the most intimate spaces of his life.  He has been as candid and truthful as he possibly could have been considering the media environment in this country.  I know a lot of people would be wondering how he has dealt with the constant conjectures about his sexuality.  Even here, without giving too much away, I would just like to say that he has confronted this head on and comes off with a lot of dignity and pride.  In any case, when someone who is as successful and recognizable as he is, tells you where, when and under what circumstances he lost his virginity, you really know you have forged a bond with that person.

   While reading this book, I could hear the chatty, conversational voice of the author and yet at the same time, you can’t help but notice the inherent honesty and the sense of humor with which he has allowed you into his world.  Once you cross 40, you have lived half of your life and the other half can be contemplation on old age, loneliness, and death.  And in that sense, I could feel where he’s coming from.  One other important takeaway for me is how we as people particularly here in India are quick to judge people with whom we have not spent even one hour of our life, but act as if we have the right to brand and judge anyone we feel like.  I know next time I will look at KJ, I will not let my perception of him from the past color my view of him in the present or in the future.