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Aakar Patel

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Aakar Patel

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Aakar Patel is a writer and columnist. He is a former newspaper editor, having worked with the Bhaskar Group and Mid Day Multimedia Ltd.

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Haircuts and salary squabbles: Manto on the great Indian wedding

Dec 23, 2012

Manto has moved to Bombay from Amritsar and found a job in a magazine, and in a film company. He has little money, lives in a chawl and is fond of drinking. When his mother comes to him and is horrified by his state, he says to her nonchalantly that #Manto'sMusings #Saadat Hasan Manto
From Amritsar to Mahim: the story behind Manto’s shaadi

Dec 17, 2012

Manto lived the early Bombay dream. He spent a little time in the film industry and found some success as a writer and a cultural figure. He was acquainted with some of the greatest names in the industry, as this piece shows, though he drops names very lightly. He tell #Bombay #Mahim #Manto'sMusings #Marriage #Sadat Hasan Manto
What’s wrong with Indian democracy? The Indian media!

Dec 16, 2012

India's journalists have become irrelevant to electoral politics, an indication of the quality of our democracy. Media has become powerful on insignificant things, like the rights of Indian parents in Europe, an entirely civilised place needing no hectoring from us. But it has no clout in matters that actually matter to Indians #Indian media #InMyOpinion #Manmohan Singh #Mayawati #Narendra Modi #Rahul Gandhi #Sonia Gandhi
What should the Congress Party do in Gujarat?

Dec 9, 2012

The state goes to elections in the next few days, and the party has no plan or idea. We know this because one of its leaders, who quit the party last week, revealed this. Former Gujarat deputy chief minister Narhari Amin says he had a conversation with Rahul Gandhi in Delhi #Ahmed Patel #ConnectTheDots #Gujarat 2012 #Narhari Amin #Rahul Gandhi #Sonia Gandhi
Prostitutes and priests: Manto on dubious definitions of morality

Dec 7, 2012

In his works starring Socrates (which is all his books with the exception of The Laws), Plato uses dialogue to clear up the narrative and move it forward quickly. His books end without clear solutions and Socrates is always unsatisfied with the debate's outcome. Something is always unclear and knowledge is #Manto'sMusings #Prostitution #Saadat Hasan Manto
Why India’s ‘non-aligned’ foreign policy is a joke

Dec 2, 2012

An earlier version of this column carried the following line: "The mischief at Pokhran resulted in India having its only negative FDI inflow year between 1992 and 2002." This has been corrected to make it "FII inflow" Many years ago, Pakistan analyst Khaled Ahmed identified some nations as not having a #Foreign policy #India #Indira Gandhi #InMyOpinion #Non-Aligned Movement #Palestine #United Nations
Cigarettes and a stern wife: Manto on what it takes to be a writer

Nov 29, 2012

In his flat in Lahore, which was given to him as refugee property, Manto wrote his pieces trying to scratch out a living. In this one he answers a question many writers are asked: How do you write? The Paris Review magazine has a section in which it asks writers #Manto'sMusings #Pakistan #Saadat Hasan Manto
Why India is the worst place to watch cricket

Nov 25, 2012

As another cricket tour plays out in India, a few words on why it's the worst place to watch the sport in the Commonwealth. Fast bowlers: Actually, no fast bowlers. The quick delivery is the one offensive weapon of the bowling side. The only menace our bowlers offer is tedium. At #Cricket #India vs England #InMyOpinion
The pothole mystery: Manto decodes the state-citizen affair

Nov 23, 2012

India's writers have a strange problem. Why does nothing work? Why are the things they notice not noticed by others? Manto migrated to Pakistan and, without work from Bollywood, began to wonder about such things. This is a piece he wrote to express his bewilderment with what was happening around him. The #Manto'sMusings #Saadat Hasan Manto
Dear India,Pakistan: Stop blaming each other for everything

Nov 18, 2012

On the Indian subcontinent, regional trouble is blamed on the foreign hand. This is because our citizens unreservedly love their nation and its constitution. It is the mischief of the neighbour that must be supressed. Such stupidity is commonplace in our parts among the public, state and media. It is of a #Balochistan #ConnectTheDots #India #Kashmir #Pakistan #Taliban

The best from the blog

Need your self-esteem shredded? Come on a makeover show in India

Sep 6, 2012
We don’t have the stomach to watch Tendulkar fail

Sep 6, 2012
Why Mumbai’s prime office rates are rising in a depressed mkt

Sep 6, 2012
Does a disrupted Parliament mean electoral reforms are in the offing?

Sep 7, 2012
Was Arsenal’s win over Chelsea down to sheer luck?

Oct 31, 2011

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Editor's picks

Why India should have been prepared for Uttarakhand floods

But we aren’t helpless: we’ve failed because, though we’ve done our homework on how not to fail, we haven’t actually turned these lessons into practice.
Why the political isolation of Narendra Modi is temporary

If Modi stands in splendid isolation today, it would appear that he represents a break from the consensual leader. But once again the disagreement over Modi is all about optics.
Why is the Kedarnath pilgrimage so important? Five key points

According to reports, while the temple is safe, the outer compound has been damaged and the town around the temple has suffered massive losses as it felt the full force of the rising waters.
It's batting vs batting as India take on SL in Champions Trophy

The key player battles for the Champions Trophy semi-final between India and Sri Lanka in Cardiff.

The 4 MLAs who helped Nitish Kumar keep calm and carry on

Nitish Kumar’s fate today might swing on six independents. Four of them have extended their support, and two are undecided. Here we give you the low-down on who the decision-makers might be today
Hauz Khas Village: The hypocrisy of high-end 'alternative' chic

HKV provides Delhi’s socialites and chatterati with what they need most: Obnoxious status display masked as anti-establishment virtue.
Why diversification is at the heart of a good financial future

Diversification is a risk management technique that mixes a wide variety of investments within a portfolio. The rationale behind this technique contends that a portfolio of different kinds of investments will, on average, yield optimally desired returns while lowering a risk that is posed by any individual investment found within the portfolio.
India lose 1-5 to Australia, crash out of Hockey World League

An error-prone India needed a miracle to topple Australia in what was the 100th international fixture between the two sides.

Lok Sabha polls 2014: Back to basics for Congress and BJP

With the playing field level, from now on it will be a battle of strategies for the Congress and the BJP
Chidu's 'Ferrari' of reforms has an autorickshaw engine

A slew of economic reforms has been promised this month, but one should not expect anything more than fancy footwork from the FM.
From a fed-up, die-hard fan: An open letter to SRK

Forget all this surrogacy business. The reason we love Shah Rukh Khan is that he’s been one of Bollywood’s smarter actors. But of late, SRK’s been a bit disappointing, complains a fed-up, die-hard fan.
Dhoni has Ganguly's touch but with a difference

Rohit, Kohli, Raina, Jadeja, Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar, Umesh – that’s the core of the Indian team today and perhaps it wouldn’t be wrong to say that they are Dhoni’s boys.

Vajpayee, Advani, Modi: Every leader has given Hindutva a twist

From Vajpayee to Advani to Modi –the Sangh Parivar has come a long way, presenting before India every few years a Hindutva face rendered presentable through a shrewd makeover
Why Nitish 'really' dumped the Modi-led BJP

While prima facie it might seem to be a clash of two strong personalities i.e. Modi and Kumar, there is much more to the split than that.
3 Indias at war: Sensex India, Maoist India, and Bharat

The current tensions in India can directly be traced to three visions of India – one of which will involve breaking the country
Last man standing: Why it's easy to feel sorry for Misbah

Sympathy for a Pakistani cricketer, especially a batsman, is a novel emotion for those of us coming from the 90s.

Fear of the unknown grips the BJP in Bihar

Although the party is maintaining a brave face, the eventuality of a split has left many leaders on tenterhooks.
In Mamata's Bengal: Zero tolerance for rape or protesting against rape?

Bengal tops the list in violence against women. There have been several reports of gang rape in the past few weeks. The Mamata government has taken quick and stern action – against the women protesting the rapes in front of the CM’s residence.
Food security: For poor’s sake, jholawalas must speak up

The subsidy to the rich accounts for more than 7 percent of the GDP while that for the poor, with the food security act, would account for 1.1 percent.
Patients get HIV in Assam hospital after blood transfusion, panic spreads

Many patients who were administered blood from the same blood bank fear the worst.

Why a BJP-JD(U) split will be good for India

Neither UPA nor NDA is an alliance. And the BJP and JD(U) were mere power-sharers, not allies. To grow, alliances have to be built around principles not just power-sharing
Chidu takes comfort in Fitch upgrade, but where are real reforms?

At a press conference, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, however, did not reveal any concrete steps but promised more reforms by August. He said the rupee’s decline is in line with that of the currencies of other countries with high current account deficit like India.
Why cutting interest rates will have little impact on industrial production

The index of industrial production (IIP), a measure of the industrial activity in the country, grew by a meagre 2% in April 2013, in comparison to the same period during 2012. The index was expected to grow by around 2.4% (source: India: Weak growth and sticky retail inflation. Sonal Varma and Aman Mohunta, Nomura). In [...]
Why 'Sir' Ravindra Jadeja is a people's genius

If one was simply to go by numbers, young and jolly Jadeja is on course to be a great. That’s not overrating him — it’s the simple logic of statistics one cannot argue against.