Soviet Union of yore had a straightforward way of naming places
The Soviet Union of yore had a straightforward way of naming places. Moscow’s railway stations, for instance, are named after...
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All Writings
Jul 84 min read
UK’s diplomatic reset on the cards
THE United Kingdom’s (UK) new Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, has had sufficient time to think things through. As the Shadow Foreign...
Jul 73 min read
Fact-checkers and US presidential elections
The recent presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a sorry spectacle that ended with two old men being childish about...
Jun 163 min read
World is losing it; we are fundamentally broken
A tour d’horizon—a global survey of hotspots—is standard ambassadorial practice. Conducted usually over lunch with a counterpart in some...
Mar 243 min read
Biden-Trump rematch lacks punch
In March 1971, I spent several hours in a dentist’s waiting room, dreading the impending torture of the drill. The only compensation were...
Feb 203 min read
Mirza Ghalib’s dilapidated haveli offers only heartbreak
Ballimaran, contrary to a minor urban legend, is not the quarter of cat-killers. It is where once lived the makers of ballis, or the long...
Feb 71 min read
Why world is bracing for return of ‘Agent Orange’
91 felony indictments later, Trump is exploiting courtrooms as election platforms. Republican nomination almost certainly in his pocket,...
Dec 31, 20233 min read
Too clever by half in Dubai
School athletics taught us that anyone can be good at high jump; the trick is to keep the bar low enough. The same, it appears, is true...
Dec 22, 202319 min read
The Magician of Mashobra
IT TOOK ONLY SIX WEEKS AFTER THEY HAD moved into their new home for Ajit and Reema to throw their first dinner party. “Come sharp at...
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