How difficult is it for someone to pirate your cyber identity ? Your IP address ? This case makes all of us completely vulnerable, given the complete break down of the judicial system in India, the lack of application of our police force that is anxious just to fix the blame as soon as possible [...]
The NRI and India’s rural economy
The total amount of FDI investments in India is estimated for 2007 is $ 15 billion. And we tout that fiigure proudly - and our stock market fluctuates on any variance from that figure too. Guess what NRI"s will remitt to India in the same period ? A mind boggling $ 30 billion ! 60% [...]
The Tata Nano
It's caused a sensation all over the world, where car manufacturers looked forward to inundating the Indian consumer with their more expensive brands, only to see that an Indian co has completely stolen a march on them. Bravo Mr Tata ! But I really resent all the people that go on about the envoirnmental cost [...]
White skin, dark skin, Barak Obama
Never quite understood why the white skin has been considered superior. Or why historically white skinned people have considered themselves superior. When I was exploring a film on Nelson Mandela, I was horrified at the open statements made by the politicians of that time. They called the "darkies' , not quite human, or like children [...]
Bhaji bashing and the politics of cricket
Pull out of the tour ? What nonsense ! Hey guys - cricket is just a game which we lost ! It happens all the time, bad umpiring or not. Australia is a damn good team and really hard to beat. But we are turning out to be such a nation of cry babies ! [...]
Inventor of the ‘Jaipur foot’ has passed away
In our Bollywood and Cricket obsessed media, the passing of one of the greatest Indians of our time has almost gone un-noticed. Dr P K Sethi confounded the scientific community of the world by developing a simple, affordable answer to people that had lost limbs. While the scientific community all over the world invested billions [...]
Bush expands his ‘war on terror’ to inlude all of Pakistan
Pakistan stands now on the brink of being the next Afghanistan. The killing of Benazir Bhutto is now being seen as an opportunity by President Bush to include all of Pakistan in 'covert operations'. Not just the Western Tribal areas. The CIA is already considering covert operations. The excuse will be that an 'unstable nation [...]
Kumble : Were the Australians really unsporting ?
OK, some really bad umpiring cost us the 2nd test match in Sydney. Or did it ? It's only a guess that the match would have been drawn if the decisions had not gone the way they did. I actually do not think that Kumble should have been so down beat in his press conference. [...]
Akira Kurosawa on film critics
Here is what one of the greatest film directors of all time said about film critics : "There is a famous haiku by Bashio : An old pond A frog jumps in - the sound of the water. People who read it and say “Well, of course if a frog jumps into the water, there’s [...]
My Father, Guest Column by Horst Vollman
Dear Shekhar "the Mother" is a beautifully written ode to the eternal mother in all women. But there are also fathers out there who deserve all the love we can give to them. Here is my story: My father. When the phone call came from Germany on this gray winter morning a few days past [...]