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 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...
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 3, 20233 min read
The curious case of Rwanda
In 2016, just before the Brexit referendum, a South Asian immigrant in the British Midlands was asked for his views. He was fervently in...
Nov 5, 20233 min read
Day of Judgement is already here, and verdict is—guilty
It is early morning in the hills beyond Shimla around Mashobra. The world is fortunately not yet awake; the sun just about is. Its first...
Oct 1, 20233 min read
Kim Jong Un's love for train
There’s something about Kim—the Jong-un, not the Kardashian. For one, his smiling visage. I do not recall a single picture of him where...
Sep 3, 20233 min read
Some knights are forever
The most dramatic and immediate denunciation of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre came from Rabindranath Tagore. He wrote to the viceroy,...
Aug 13, 20233 min read
Why west wants to de-risk China ties, not de-couple from it
Coupling is a word usually associated with intimate relations or railway wagons and not with international relations: countries don’t...
Jul 16, 20233 min read
Need a direct flight between Male and Delhi
A short-story collection by Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald titled Bits of Paradise came to mind as I took a sea plane from Male to the island...
Jun 18, 20231 min read
Why British refused to return the remains of Prince Alemayehu of Ethiopia
It is not just looted diamonds and valuable artefacts that former colonial powers want to hold on to; they can also be possessive about...
May 8, 20235 min read
King Charles's coronation: The crown comes with challenges
On May 6, as King Charles III and Queen Camilla are crowned in all their finery at Westminster Abbey, over a thousand people, dressed in...
Apr 23, 20233 min read
How Punjab is becoming an old age home
Mr Bains, a kindly 90-year-old retired customs officer, hosted us last month at his home amidst mango orchards outside Gurdaspur. Alone,...
Mar 26, 20233 min read
What are the implications of Sunak’s effusive overture to Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron receiving UK premier Rishi Sunak at the Elysée Palace last week certainly made for good television. Two...
Feb 26, 20233 min read
Is Nikki Haley the generational change Republicans are looking for?
In a recently released teaser video, Nikki Haley—or more fully Nimrata Nikki Haley nee Randhawa—comes across as a forthright fighter. She...
Dec 25, 20223 min read
When Jerusalem called on Mukteshwar
It was October 1945. World War II had just ended. Atomic weapons had been deployed for the first time in history. Millions of lives had...
Nov 27, 20223 min read
Donald Trump’s 1,001 insults
A friend invariably refers to Trump as Drumpf. I thought it was a nickname inspired by The Smurfs and doused generously with indignation....
Oct 30, 20223 min read
Will Camilla wear the Kohinoor?
A delightful clip on Twitter brightened the autumnal grey beyond my window: Liz Truss arriving for her weekly meeting with King Charles...
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