Partition Nostalgia – Where To Draw The Line
Released this month, Imtiaz Ali’s Main Wapas Aaunga, a story of love, loss, and nostalgia, and of humans killing, or being killed, during India’s 1947 Partition, has won critical and popular acclaim. It is located in Sargodha, now in Pakistan. Journalist-writer Nona Walia, who traces her roots there but has not seen it, says of this […]
A WORLD IN WARS UNLEASHED BY ‘TUGHLAQS’
You may, or may not, call it a World War. But the world is indeed engulfed by several conflicts that refuse to end, each causing misery to innocent civilians, each causing destruction of nature-blessed resources that cannot be renewed. Technology has ensured that war-mongers can do this without crossing borders and losing men in uniform […]
Some Stray Thoughts To Chew On
A common sight on Indian streets is a tussle between stray cows and stray dogs. While scrounging for food in garbage dumps, the dogs, in defending what they perceive as their turf, bark the bovine animal away. One is considered sacred by the majority Hindu population, making it politically and emotionally sensitive, while the other […]
ESCALATING WARS & EXILED PRINCES
Violence escalated through this week. The US and Iran rained missiles even as they held talks to end the three-month war. Both Russia and Ukraine braced for a longer war, now into its fourth year. Russia will task bankers who dispense money to shoot down Ukrainian drones. Israel launched a full-scale war in southern Lebanon […]
TO TALK, OR NOT TO TALK, TO PAKISTAN!
hispers are getting louder, but the voice is still muffled. Are India and Pakistan talking peace and cooperation, and are they ready to usher in a new era in bilateral ties? The answer is difficult, but it is essential to explore. The only ‘visible’ source of information is former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba […]
WHEN AMERICAN PRESIDENTS AWED INDIANS
When John F. Kennedy was assassinated, an anguished Indian poet invoked the “Ma Nishada sloka,” the first verse (Adi Kavya) of Sanskrit literature, uttered spontaneously by Sage Valmiki in grief and rage after a hunter killed one of two mating sarus cranes (Krauncha). It curses the hunter to never be at peace for killing an […]
Allah, Army, America — And Asim Munir at the Centre of It All
The most prominent Pakistani at the Islamabad International Airport last month, looking dapper in civvies and uniform, brushing his epauletted shoulders with the VVIPs pushing for elusive peace in the Gulf, was Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah. He walked alongside, and not behind, his civilian boss, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Everyone knows that […]
THE TRUMP TRAP COUNTRIES
Writing against the head of a powerful nation, you risk being thought of as pushing a personal or political agenda. And yet you are compelled to express your views, for whatever they are worth. United States President Donald Trump has, since his return to office, set a pattern: he insults or penalises India and, in […]
Between Hope & Hell, A Familiar America
New Delhi ,12 April 2026 ,With a complete lid on information, the talks in Islamabad, continuing till 3 AM, two hours before this is being written, allow no peep into where the myriad issues that triggered the West Asia conflict stand. Only “a stepping stone”, as Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif put it, they will […]
‘UNQUALIFIED’ RULE, ‘UNFORTUNATE’ DIE
NEW DELHI ,5-4-2026,Fifty years ago, on March 29, 1973, American troops, defeated, evacuated Saigon. The war in Vietnam lasted 11 years and claimed about 2 million civilian lives, more than a million Vietnamese military personnel, and about 60,000 US soldiers. Seven million tons of bombs and 80 million litres of poison were dropped on Vietnam. […]
