Ideas News - Page 10

Rakhi and Ramdev: On sexy gurus and their babes

From Rajneesh to Nithyananda, India is the land of the sexy gurus. But the Rakhi and Ramdev circus offers a refreshing twist on an old tale.

The Narendra Modi fast: All hail India's new Caesar!

The Narendra Modi show is like a Cecil B Demille film on India’s new Caeser. And what he is offering is Caeserism – the possibility of a popularly elected autocrat who can provide stability, efficiency and growth.

Two Indias: Medical tourism destination and malaria hotbed

Malaria ranks among the top 10 causes of death in the Northeast. According to the World Health Organization, 311 million people are at high risk of contracting the disease in India.

A Chief Justice of India says "I am sorry" but 30 years too late

It's big news when a former Chief Justice of India apologises for a judgement. But Justice P N Bhagwati's apology for his role in a historic case during the Emergency is too little, too late and needs to be taken with a big grain of salt.

Happy 95th: The sublime comfort of MS Subbulakshmi

Today thousands of families across the world woke up to MS Subbulakshmi's suprabhatam just as they have done for decades. Carnatic music's most famous ambassador would have been 95 today. But for most of us she remains someone much more intimate.

Maharashtra's new booze law: Here comes the Mommy state

Imran Khan says he's fighting for the youth's freedom of choice in Maharashtra. But this isn't a fight about the right to knock down a peg versus a traffic accident while drunk. Is this kind of social control just one drink away from the writ of a khap panchayat?

Roald Dahl: Children's stories that were gritty and dark

Today is the 95th birthday of Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate factory, a man who created a gritty world for children. Dahl's family is also trying to preserve his writing hut where the author created his magical world.

The anxiety of 9/11 in my fiction: Manil Suri remembers 9/11

Perhaps what I remember most clearly from that day and the ones that followed is how preternaturally clear the sky was. Writer Manil Suri recounts the fateful day.

In memoriam: Indian American writers remember 9/11

Those who lived through 9/11 will always remember where they were when they heard the news. Ten years later, well-known Indian Americans writers and thinkers talk about the legacy of that Tuesday morning.

Narendra Modi's 'clean chit': How justice failed Zakia Jafri

The Supreme Court's act of evasion has become a default decision — in favour of Modi. He can now claim to be sanitised, and stain-free, like that white shirt in the detergent ad.

Nadal vs Nadal: The war within Rafa

He is polarising, often loathed, and the least understood among the tennis greats. Nadal's autobiography reveals a deep internal conflict where fierce ambition battles under-confidence and self-deprecation.

The connection between 9/11 and 26/11: Mira Kamdar

Mira Kamdar grieves for the smoking holes she saw after 9/11 where the twin Towers had once been. But she resents how 9/11 has been used to push for a war on terror and how it still fails to connect all the dots.

Smothering the meaning with flags: Vijay Prashad remembers 9/11

After 9/11 came 9/12. Nobody learns from these acts of violence, no-one wants to ask what provokes them and why it is revenge that answers for them says writer Vijay Prashad.

The spirit of Diwali: Suvir Saran remembers America after 9/11

When chef Suvir Saran looks at the floodlights that mark the towers that came down on 9/11, he is reminded of the spirit of Diwali. And the incongruity of the good that might come out of something so terrible and dark.

I became a New Yorker on 9/12: Rajiv Joseph remembers 9/11

Playwright Rajiv Joseph had been living in New York for just a year when 9/11 happened. He was still getting accustomed to the city. On 9/12, he says, he became a New Yorker.

Reminded of Jallianwala Bagh: Arun Gandhi remembers 9/11

People may say the two were very different but Arun Gandhi thinks there were many parallels worth considering between what happened on 9/11 and what happened in Jallianwala Bagh in 1919.

9/11 in pop culture: Failure of the American imagination

The best-known post-9/11 books, movies, and TV series can be described as macho, sentimental, over-rated or, at its best, funny. But where the imagination failed, humour and truth-telling came to the rescue.

Terror, Gandhi, Pinochet: Three 9/11s that changed the world

2011 marks the tenth anniversary of 9/11. But really it is the anniversary of two other 9/11s, earlier ones, that in their own way altered the course of history. P. Sainath writes about the three 9/11s that changed our world.

9/11 has been exploited by some politicians and media: Aasif Mandvi

Actor and comedian Aasif Mandvi remembers being on the phone with his agent as the planes hit the World Trade Center.

Witness to history: Sarasota, ten years later, still left behind

Avirook Sen visits the now famous preschool where President Bush first got the news of the attacks. His experience reveals a nation grappling with 9/11's bitter legacy: recession, budget cuts, war, and ever-present paranoia.

Remembering 9/11: 'The sense of invincibility is gone'

Ten years later, I believe we still face some of the problems and tensions that erupted after 9/11. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have taken their toll on the economy, on morale, and on the many soldiers that have been scarred by them.

Amitava Kumar remembers 9/11: 'It was as if I arrived drunk at a funeral'

The first piece I wrote on September 11 contained some angry words for the US, at its neglect for what the rest of the world thought of it.

'Wearing the turban suddenly made us the enemy'

The first casualty after the 9/11 attacks was a Sikh man in Arizona. Turbans had suddenly become the uniforms of terror in the eyes of many Americans. A Sikh mother recounts how she learned to stand up for her faith.

From terrorism to comic book hero: Story of a jihadist in Indonesia

The real life adventures of former al-Qaida-linked militant Nasir Abas have become a new comic book in Indonesia, chronicling his transformation from foe to invaluable ally in the fight against terrorism.

Anna versus the Empire: Our own desi Star Wars

It happened not in a galaxy far far away but right there in our capital. And it happened with candles and fasts not light sabers. But Anna Hazare's great battle was just like Star Wars, says Rajyasree Sen. Then who was Jabba the Hutt?

Remembering 9/11: An Indian view of 'America's suprabhatam'

The 9/11 attacks are no longer an event, but a religious liturgy, played again and again like a record. The distance of time reveals America's follies of interpretation — and also ours.

After Delhi, let's learn from Bush's folly, Obama's U-turn

It's easy to raise the battle cry of a war on terror when something like the Delhi bomb blasts happen. But as Bush's "war on terror" after 9/11 proved, that could become a Frankenstein's monster that we'll never be rid of.

Delhi blast: It's India vs terror, not Congress vs BJP

As the coverage of the attacks unfolded on television, it became a game of the Congress party vs the Rest of India. And that's wrong-headed and unfair.

Arab chick-lit gets naughty: Desperate housewives of Dubai

Oozing with men, money, and Maseratis, Dubai is the ultimate playground for the woman who knows her Louboutins from her Louis Vuittons. Desperate in Dubai, tels the tale of four women as they struggle to find truth, love, and themselves.

Why private owners must be involved in conservation strategy

The forest block adjacent to a plantation matters most in fostering biodiversity. Under these circumstances, what conservation strategy should be pursued?