#203

It's only been four years, but it seems like a lifetime, when I received these in a carton on a similarly hot afternoon, shipped all the way from New York by my sister Deepti.  She went to a considerable length of trouble to hunt for these books.  It was a moment of unadulterated happiness for me.

happiness for me.

Whether anyone likes it or not, the fact of the matter is that Modi government has a big problem with fake news. Its prominent members like Smriti Irani commands a vast army of online trolls, who keep supplying her with fake news and WhatsApp forwards in order to bolster their Hindutva credentials. It's other ministers and functionaries have been found to be promoting websites which try to vitiate the communal atmosphere. The prime minister himself follows a great deal of misogynistic Hindutva trolls on Twitter. Not just that, a couple years ago, he even hosted these people for a tea party at his official residence.

#201

The other day, I downloaded a three-hour in-depth interview with Salman Rushdie, conducted on C-span network's BOOK TV. It was such a wonderful show, where apart from the knowledgeable host, so many other intelligent readers from across the U.S. also had the opportunity via phone-in, to ask some real searching questions to their favorite author. Sometimes, I really feel envious of the people in the United States, for having the option of tuning into C-span, PBS, A&E, and NPR. These are the gold mine of knowledge. How I wish something similar was available in India.

#200

In the wake of this shocking leak of exam papers for class X and XII conducted by the CBSE, I was watching the news reports and reactions of a lot of bitterly disappointed students.  Of all the things that the young students said, what really got my attention was that even students from the premier schools in the national capital were complaining that how it's going to be so frustrating that there will have to 'give' those exams once more for the canceled papers.  It is indeed an unforgivable incompetence by the board that the question papers for these important examinations are disseminated beforehand on Whatsapp groups.  Anyhow, for the life of me, I cannot understand how come the teachers in these reputed schools in the country have not taught their pupils that you don't 'give' exams, you 'take' them.  But time and again, every senior student that I heard on television, kept repeating the same mistake.  Not just this instance.  I have seen quite often that young people these are making all kinds of rudimentary gaffes in language.  Hardly any youngster these days is able to express any complicated thoughts in a coherent manner without mangling the grammar and syntax.  Which is quite ironic when you consider that as the modes of communication have improved thanks to technological advancement, the quality of the communication has declined.

#199

A total psychopath who hacked to death a Muslim laborer back in December in Rajasthan has been glorified and eulogized in one of the tableaus taken out as part of the traditional Ram Navmi celebrations as a gallant defender of the Hindu faith. This is absolutely sickening, not to mention a frightening distortion of Hinduism, to which I am proud to belong. You can understand that the BJP state government would not want to condemn it, let alone do anything about it because we have seen that since 2014, hate against the Muslims have not only been normalized but also given implicit official sanction from the top. What I find most dismaying and disconcerting is that the Congress party, the so-called champion of 'secularism', is keeping a deafening silence on this. Maybe, it believes that by denouncing this act, it will end up playing into the hands of the BJP. This competitive bigotry is going to be ruinous for India.

#198

India's Attorney General Mr. K Venugopal has assured the Supreme Court of India that the data of the Indian citizens collected under Aadhar are absolutely safe from data theft.  The reason being that the main server has been locked up in a house with a 10 feet thick walls!!  This submission to the court would have provided a great comic relief, had the matter not been so serious.  Is the Atty.  General implying that that unscrupulous elements looking to steal the Indian people's personal data are going to enter a house and gather all the electronic information in a sack like coal or diamond?  Surely, I expected the country's Chief Law Officer to be better than that, and not this much intellectually challenged.

#197

Any effort to create an anti-BJP and anti-Congress third front or Federal front would be an utter folly.  This is only going to hand over the victory to the BJP on a platter in the next general elections.  When will all the anti-BJP forces in this country realize that this is not a normal political situation, but an extraordinary one?  There is only one way to have a fighting chance to derail this ruthless electoral juggernaut being helmed by Amit Shah and Narendra Modi.  And that is if everyone is willing to sacrifice their personal ambitions, keep their respective egos aside, make compromises for the larger goal, and last but by no means least, to have a common vision that provides a viable alternative.  Remember, as the saying goes, if you don't hang together, you will hang separately.