August 21st 2011 School dropout Anna Hazare’s success against our Cambridge educated Prime Minister is visible proof of the saying that whatever one says about India, the opposite is equally true.

August 14th, 2011 The vast majority of today’s Dilleewaalaas are illiterate in Hindustaanee, Persian and the greatness of poetry.

August 7th, 2011 As Delhiwaalas gear up to celebrate the 100th year of this World City, they increasingly forget that the true essence of Dilli lies in the glory of the language that was born here.

Thursday, May 10th, 2007 1857 — the millions killed, the hundreds of thousands made homeless and the billions worth of property destroyed, the terror (does it continue?) struck in Indian hearts at the mere sight of a white person — the conditioned reflex of all Indians deferring to the opinions of the white man—especially about… Continue reading The British stifled Indian Identity

May 30th, 2004 The general Election 2004 will be remembered for restoring respectability and legitimacy to the word ‘secular’. The sigh of relief of hundreds of millions Indians swept the world like a soothing zephyr. A dread weight has been lifted. The same forces that swept the NeoFascist government of Indira and Sanjay Gandhi from… Continue reading Wanted: A New History for India

2nd October, 2003 Older Indians, those who were alive and adult in the lifetime of the Mahatma, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1861- 1948) remember him as a part of their everyday life and thought. Like his being a member of the millions of families inhabiting the country. When he was killed on 30th January 1948 by… Continue reading Remembering the Mahatma

January 26th, 2003 26th January was declared India’s Independence Day with great hope and idealism over seventy years ago. The year was 1929. On the midnight of 29th December, the President of the Indian National Congress, Jawaharlal Nehru, unfurled the tiranga or tricolour for the first time and declared 26th January 1930 as Independence Day.… Continue reading Remember Lahore and the first sighting of Liberty

January 12th 2003 As 2003, a new year (albeit Gregorian and alien) starts should we be getting ready to say farewell to the Tiranga (tricolour) under which some Indians braved the might of the British Empire to fight for and win freedom? Will the Tiranga be replaced by the Bhagwa or the saffron pennant saluted… Continue reading New Year Musings: A Farewell to the Tringa?

August 28th, 2002 Stanley Lane Poole, the most popular historian of the British period bestowed individual titles upon each one of the Mughal rulers considered ‘Great Mughal’. Perhaps he should have refered to Shah Jahan as “the Versatile Genius”