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 [...]
Tata, Jaguar, Land Rover
Like all Indian's I too walk a little prouder in London with the Jaguar and Land Rover brands almost owned by Tata. But from a business point of view I am not so sure. The Jaguar brand has been struggling for decades. I owned a couple years ago and constantly had transmission problems. The jaguar [...]
JW Marriott molestation – Open Questions
I am surprised how the media is targeting the police. Without trying to question why this event happened. Like it was merely a law and order problem. What was the psychology behind 70 men treating the humiliation of two young women as spectator sport ? I am sure that it was not just group of [...]
Mob molestation outside JW Marriott
All Mumbaiites should feel very very concerned of the behaviour of drunken young men that molested the young girls outside J W Marriott on New Years eve. While there are individual incidents of rape etc reported all the time, what is frightening about this incident was the mob mentality that took over without a single [...]