January 2008
RECALLING A TOUCH ARTIST, The Telegraph
The two greatest comebacks in the history of Indian sport were both conducted in the great city of Kolkata. The better-known, since more recent, was the magnificent 281 scored by V. V. S. Laxman in [...]
December 2007
TOWARDS A GENDER-SENSITIVE CIVIL CODE, Hindustan Times
Article 44 of the Constitution of India reads: ‘The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India’. The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, and [...]
SELECTIVE RIGHTEOUSNESS, The Telegraph
A mail arrived in my Inbox last week, as part of a circular sent to many people with some connection to the press. Addressed to ‘the Chief Editor/ Photographer’, it read: ‘We request you to [...]
November 2007
WRITERS AND POLITICS, The Hindu
I have been reading the correspondence of the American polymath Edmund Wilson. Wilson was the most influential literary critic of his day, whose essays and reviews could make or break a writer’s career. He was [...]
THE KLEPTOCRAT AND THE DEMOCRAT, The Telegraph
In September I was in the United States, travelling around the cities of the East Coast. The exiled Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto had been there a few weeks previously, visiting the same cities and frequently [...]
THE LUCK OF THE SOUTH, The Hindu
One of my all-time favourite places is the temple of Somanathapura. It is less visited than other famous Hoysala shrines such as Belur and Halebidu, in part because it lies off the beaten track. The [...]