Indian Affairs

Now that the Valentine's Day 2009 and the Pink Chaddi campaign is in our rear view mirror - it's` a good time to analyze the real significance of the campaign...

Flouting rules comes easy to us, unless of course someone is there with a danda monitoring us. The higher we are in the socio-political power structure, the...

A lot has been made of the fact that a large number of Non-resident Indians (NRIs) are going back to India because of her sizzling economy and a desire to be...

Philip Reeves, the National Public Radio (NPR) correspondent has just finished a brilliant radio series on his journey along the Ganga river in India. In five...

Most of us grew up hearing the stories of valor of Indian soldiers who fought and gave their blood in the wars that India fought since its indepnedance. I have...

What is the most dangerous product or idea exported from the US to the world? Foodies might say Big Mac and Coke! Rugby purists might say American Football!...

Recently, my friend (and the lead contributor here at Arthshastra.com) Vikas, during his recent home visit, had this comment on the 3 cities which have been...

\r\n\r\nGood evening, everyone. Dean Hubbard, distinguished faculty, honored graduates, relieved parents, family, and friends, it's a distinct pleasure to be...

I stumbled across this month old article in Stanford Alumni magazine. I imagined that a lot of blogs would have linked to the article but a technorati search...

If there is one single person who should be thanked this and every Independence Day and who is not and cannot be thanked enough is Mahatma Gandhi. Every day, I...

Jim Hoagland of the Washington Post meets with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and comes back...

For the last month or so, I have been watching ever-growing rallies of immigrants in cities across the US. An overwhelming majority of them are of Hispanic...

Nepal is suffering through a Mao insurgency and a King who is averse to democracy. This country is literally in India's backyard and yet India does not seem to...

When I first read that the South Asia forum in Madison, Wisconsin is organizing a conference on Transnational Feminism (thanks temporal) I was not sure what to...

After the last elections, when it appeared that Sonia Gandhi might be the next Prime Minister of India, I went ballistic with anger. An immigrant in a foreign...

Listening to President Bush’s state of the union address on Tuesday, I felt a surge of pride when I heard India (along with China) mentioned as a potential...

My interview with Paritrana's national treasurer - Chandrashekhar.\r\nEver since this news item was published in the Times of India about Paritrana, I have...

Anti Wal-Mart crusaders are all fart and no shit. Consider exhibit A – a guy from down under, a place which apparently does not even have a Wal-Mart, claiming...

Is anyone else disgusted by the recent news item mentioning that Mr. Amitabh Bachchan will be donating jewelry worth Rs. 1 Crore to the Tirupati Temple...

Is India ready to be a great world power? Is she ready to stake her claim to world leadership in its true sense and not in the pseudo-self-congratulatory...

Amrit’s post on the Writing Cave asking if we hate ourselves going by the amount of filth lying around in Indian cities compelled me to dust-off (no pun...

I am nothing if not eclectic in my reading tastes. Well that's a euphemism. A less charitable person would call me \"Jack of all and Master of none\". In any...

As we read about the world's richest man's now almost annual trip to India and his commitment to eradicate disease and provide support for education an obvious...

As I noted in one my earlier posts – Jean Feraca’s program, “Here On Earth” on Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) holds its own amongst all the programs on the...

Yet another woman burnt to death for dowry in India. Previously when I’ve written about dowry deaths on my blog – I’ve received some comments that claim that...

“Over the last year, sales surged 11 percent in China and 47 percent in India, a country of a billion people whose seemingly insatiable appetite for gold - for...

This is one of the most regressive advertisements I've seen in print media. For those who are not fluent with Hindi and/or the background of this festival-...

So I was in sunny San Diego, California for a conference this past weekend. I met up with my old roomie from Chicago and his wife. We went to a good Mexican...

The other day I was thinking about Vibhishana; yes, yes Ravana’s brother Vibhishana! How many other Vibhishana’s you know?\n\nI am not sure what made me think...

Yes – it’s that age old bane of our country – corruption and bribe. NY Times is reporting a story from Banglore on how parents of new borns have to pay bribes...

Jay Leno reading from a news item: \n“A group of Muslim scholars today denounced any form of terrorism.”\n\nJay Leno reacting to the article\n“Thank you folks...

I finished reading the book “1776” a couple of days ago and it has filled me with a new found sense of awe for the American founding fathers. I’ve been in the...

I am almost half-way through an excellent book by US historian David McCulough called “1776”. As the title of the book signifies – it deals with the events...

So I went and watch Mangal Pandey at Loews in Woodfield Mall this weekend. I am not sure why people have been so eager to trash this movie. It is an...

Times of India is reporting something substantial on its first page for a change today – even though it is below the story where Karishma Kapoor calls her...

Did you know that Raveena Tandon, Moon Moon Sen, Koena Mitra, and Rajkumar Santoshi all have kidney stones?\n\nYou did not? See this is what happens when you...

A lot of us are prone to forming opinions on half baked truths and conventional wisdom.\n\nThe prevailing conventional wisdom in India before I left was that...

A Great article by a second generation Indian American in today's New York Times.\nI particularly loved her grandfather's retort to an Englishman upon being...

A few days ago - TOI was gloating at its high circulation numbers. Apparently, a full 30% Indians turn to TOI for their news. According to TOI - the reason for...

Imagine you have a relative who you love a lot and you know is brilliant. She can score straight As when she puts her mind to studies. She can be brilliant in...

This posting is in response to an article in Today's TOI http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1093110.cms \n I am not sure whether to call it irony...

Times of India is reporting that Mumbai will have 100 closed circuit TVs to monitor crime across city. Reminds me of something that Chicago has done too and...

An anonymous person posted a comment on my blog ( treat all spelling mistakes as sic). I guess a point by point rebuttal is in order. \nWithout defending we...

It is common in India to see paan residue being spit all over the place or people throwing out their garbage in the open. Of course – one cannot do such things...

Losing my faith….in Indians It started as a trickle – I believe in 4th or 5th standard when I realized that kids who went for tuition at Mam’s home always got...

While I was trying to google some details about Times of India one story caught my mind. It was published last year in May and it basically contends that the...

So finally I got around to seeing “Page 3” the movie by Madhur Bhandarkar and loved every second of it. While a lot of people are talking about Page 3 as...

There is a good article in today's Times of India by Chidananda Rajaghatta (\"Indian 'whizkid' bowls media with NASA googly \"). Read between the lines of this...

For anyone remotely familiar with Ayn Rand's works should know what I am referrring to. In \"The Fountainhead\" Gail Wynand is a media barron who came from...

Now, left to my own devices – I would never bother commenting on Times of India. In my opinion it is a tabloid in broadsheet format – which is fine by me but...