Comme Ci, Comme Ca
To describe 2007 as a boring year would not be entirely inaccurate. May 2008 be a Modi-free year for you. Season’s greetings!
Acquiring More Than A Business
India Inc picks up some people skills as it realises that skillful handling of people post mergers proves crucial. People-issues become more and more complex with mergers and acquisitions happening so frequently.
M&A Inc
The year saw some big-ticket mergers in the aviation and telecom sectors. The battle for spectrum continued unabated and the stock-market boomed
Rising, Falling
Rupee appreciation brought good and bad tidings, ultra power projects got approved, farm policies went haywire, and SEZ projects led to violent protests...
Ah, It All Comes Out Right In The End
The 'chalne do' precept has a lot going for it. Or does it? A Pune trip offers few conclusions.
We Didn't See TheInner Courtyard
Partition, we didn't relate to, except as event in the family chronicle. Till, we went back.
Democracy, Hang Down Your Head And Cry
A young man's painful death in a Manipur village; an indelible taint on the Indian dream
Mohtarma: A Critique
A striking, courageous woman, she lent herself to being a symbol. In reality, she belied the promise.
'You Can Name Musharraf As My Assassin If I Am Killed': Benazir
Her exchange of e-mails with a confidant shows Benazir was on the verge of exposing an ISI operation to rig the January 8 election
Anyday The Better Half Of The World
Being "married to India" means one is already defined by the experience
Objective Observations By A Ludicrous Freak
Often, it all ends up as a strange, involuntary, one-man circus act by a bald white man
The Muddle Of Nowhere
Some trips just fail to deliver. Here, a cab ride one moonlit night ends up as the sole solace.
Calcutta: One Saintly Morning, 26 Years Ago
That encounter with Mother Teresa changed my whole life and worldview
A Second Somnath Rath
The Modi avalanche crushes everything in sight—even rivals in the saffron camp. Will his wagon roll into Delhi
Jungle, Bihar, Night, Apparition... Read On
The badland backdrop lingered. Until both sides got to know the face behind the image.
2007 In Sports
It was a Chak De India year for Chess, Hockey, Archery, while Sania and Lee-Hesh remained in limelight and Baichung Bhutia got some competition from Bob Houghton...
2007: Cricket
From the lows of the World Cup to the highs of the Twenty20, from the mother of all comebacks to the most inexplicable crumbling of the Wall, from the adrenalin of youth and Yuvraj's six sixes to the two new captain cools...
Three Encounters,One Enduring Image
I once chanced upon my hero, the PM. But it was two deaths that showed me the real India.
2007: Beyond The Borders
Pakistan's woes were compounded with Benazir assassination; while the rest of the neighbourhood and beyond tried to come to grips with the ups and downs of democracy and, of course, the spectre of terror
The Long Arm Of The Law...
The country got its first Dalit CJI, while the previous CJI came under murky allegations, and in many long-pending cases, it was finally a case of justice delayed, if not all together denied...
2007: Hell And High Water
Some of the events that shocked, stunned, shamed, hurt, terrorised and caused national grief...But we coped. Somehow. Sometimes callous, sometimes vocal in our outrage. We truly are like this only, warts and all.
2007: Politics
Modi and Mayawati dominated the year. The Left paralysed the UPA on the nuke deal. BJP won Gujarat, Himachal and --with allies, the Akalis -- Punjab. The Marans fought, and the Gowdas dashed the BJP hopes in the south.
Remember These Anyone?
But the critics got some books right too. As some did turn out to be "by turns vain, ingenuous, peevish, pompous, ranting, vengeful, smug, and prone to delivering long homilies..."
Surprises Of The year
Those panned as below-average, or "pleasantly anodyne", turned out to be, well above average, when it came to sales...
Flops Of The Year
'Lazy, mean-minded and frequently offensive nonsense...' from Sir Vidia and of course, there was the earnest publisher too...
What's In Store?
Watch out for the Big Boom in 2008. With at least seven major publishing houses desperately trying to snatch away a piece of the publishing cake from giant <i>Penguin</i>
Life Flowing On The Ganga, As Seen From My Sick-Bed
A steadily accreting generosity amid the bedlam that wraps one in a lasting warmth
And The Alarm Would Go, One, Two, Cha-Cha-Cha
Refugees from the streets, killers from next door, the terrible violence inside us
Gandhi In The FIFA?
Twenty20 World Cup, odd exploits of a Sania Mirza or even a hockey triumph... but the great Indian elephant of sport, like Kumbhakarna, goes on sleeping
A Panchatantra OfMy Very Own
Encountering Gandhi's Dandi, rare Raj relics, a pickpocket, a wanderer and a cool cabbie
I Am But A Disembodied Voice, The Living Dead
What have I done that I can neither cross my own threshold nor enjoy human company?
Chasm At Our Feet
The party may still be swinging... but it's not for everybody. The widening economic and social disparities could fuel serious social strife...
Up There On Ground Ziro
It might not be seventh heaven, but at 6,000 ft above sea level, Arunachal offers a taste of it
Emerald Trail
No one you know has ever been there, and it barely gets a mention in tourist brochures and guidebooks...