#196

Today is the most significant birthday of any celebrity as far as I am concerned. The great man of American letters and my spiritual mentor, Philip Roth has turned 85. Writers, by their very nature, are an insecure people. But Mr. Philip Roth had the confidence and the serenity of mind to declare a few years ago that he is actively retiring from writing novels. That after working for more than 50 years, producing 31 books and countless other kinds of stuff, he believes he's given it his all, and now he has no more to give. Donald Trump will not make America great again, America will always remain great because of This famous son from Newark, New Jersey, Philip Milton Roth. We should celebrate the legend while he's still among us. Happy Birthday sir.

#195

A very prominent lady who comes from my state, and is a frequent guest on government friendly news networks; she is basically an insufferable holier-than-though when it comes to defending PM Modi.  So, she tweeted about the meeting in New Delhi between French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Modi, describing it as coming together of two great 'liberal minds'.  I nearly did a double take!  I can understand Mr. Macron being a liberal, I mean the man married his high school teacher who is 20 years senior to him.  But Mr. Modi is no one's idea of being a liberal unless you have been lobotomized.  So, I replied that if Mr. Modi is a liberal, then you are also Madonna!!

The People's Communist Party in China has done away with a two-term limit for its president and vice-president. Now, Mr. Xi Jinping can stay president for life. In other words, China has quietly moved from being a one-party authoritarian rule to an outright dictatorship. Not only that, President Xi's thoughts have also been enshrined in the constitution of the People's Republic of China; only the second person to be bestowed upon this honor after chairman Mao. I am just thinking how jealous PM Modi would be feeling of President Xi.

#193

For a little while, all my troubles seemed to have gone away.  By chance, I discovered this video from 2005 where my favorite Pink Floyd were performing in London after many years as a sort of grand reunion if you like.  It felt so heady seeing the old gang of David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright on the stage doing their stuff.  The only guy missing in action was Syd Barret.  By this time, he had too far gone to the other side of drug infused hell, but that's another story.  Coming back to that balmy evening in London, no longer was there a gangly group of youngsters in their hippy avatar of 40 years ago when the world was at their feet.  Instead, they had aged.  They were old and grey.  But once they got hold of the guitar, and the keyboard synthesizer, and the drum, and the saxophone; they could still belt out those magical numbers from ''Dark Side of The Moon'', ''comfortably numb'', ''wish you were here'', not to mention ''another brick in the wall''.  I just live for moments like these when there's neither happiness nor sadness, but pure bliss.

Kamal Haasan has already made an encouraging beginning in politics in my book, by denouncing the students singing religious songs on the IIT campus in Madras.  I firmly believe that no school, college or university should be allowed to have this display of overt religiosity through either images or chanting of prayers.

#191

I have a lot of time for Prof. Ashish Nandy.  Not only is he a sociologist, psychologist and a political theorist of considerable repute, he is also arguably the most preeminent public intellectual in the country today.  Somewhat of a rare commodity these days in 'New India' of Mr. Modi.  Professor Nandy made a very interesting observation some 25 years ago at the height of the Babri Masjid crisis.  He said that in the coming years, both Hinduism and Hindutva are going to be locked in a deadly combat.  This will be not a confrontation, but an apocalyptic fight to the death, and if the latter defeats the former, then Nepal will be the biggest Hindu nation in the world.  Because then there will be no India, Hindu or otherwise.  How prophetic his views seem now.

#190

This is a letter written by Albert Einstein to Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru on 18 February 1950. In this letter, Mr. Einstein is expressing his generous admiration for Pt. Nehru's book ''The Discovery of India'', which the latter wrote while he was in prison, having been incarcerated by the British. The letter just goes to show in what a high esteem one of the most genius minds of the 20th century held our first Prime Minister in. And a couple of days ago, nearly 70 years after, what lies and venom were being uttered in the Lok Sabha about Nehru by the current Prime Minister when you consider the fact that Mr. Modi is just a pygmy compared to the statesman and intellectual giant that Pandit Nehru was.