Ideas News - Page 12

Dravid, not Sachin, should be the benchmark for success

If Sachin is God and Sehwag a Magician, they are the wrong benchmarks for our budding cricketers. Rahul Dravid is the one to emulate, for he personifies the attainable

The landscape of an artist: Remembering Jehangir Sabavala

Jehangir Sabavala and his beautiful landscapes were sometimes dismissed as too romantic, too removed from India's turbulent reality. But he was just as much a part of the "real India" as his contemporary MF Husain.

Newspapers can't afford 'no papers' days anymore

No newspapers day are no longer no news days, thanks to Twitter. Newspapers should indeed be worried.

First Look: A more human, younger superman

Next week, on September 7, DC Comics will relaunch its most coveted hero with the launch of the rehauled Action Comics series written by veteran comics author Grant Morrison.

Brand Anna: Making of a middle class Frankenstein

Over the course of 12 days, from the moment of his arrest to the first sip of coconut water, Anna the man became Anna the brand with a slogan – I am Anna.

The problem with Brand Anna: Turning protest into salesmanship

When we reduce political leaders to brands, politics becomes no more than an exercise in salesmanship, positioning citizens as mindless consumers who can be relied on to offer the right Pavlovian response to the right messaging.

No figment of imagination, pop fiction is a great leveller

Regardless of how dodgy pop fiction might be, it is prodding our writers to tell stories that are compelling and relevant to contemporary India.

Should PowerPoint be banned?

A Swiss political party wants to ban the presentation tool. There seems to be a considerable amount of debate on the pros and cons of the PowerPoint.

Son of a strange universe: Aatish Taseer's new novel Noon

An excerpt from Aatish Taseer's latest novel Noon.

Big B, and now Dhoni: Why do UK universities love our stars?

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the latest in the elite club of recipients who’ve been honored with doctorates from international universities. Here's a list of recent recipients.

Why didn't the media address corruption before Anna?

While media needs to be congratulated on cornering government on larger cases of corruption, such as the 2G scam, the CWG scam, the mining scam and so on, they paid scant attention to the culture of corruption that directly affected the common man – a constituency that Anna Hazare understands well.

Disturbing racist Facebook photo causes furore

A display image of a white man posing with a gun in front of a seemingly lifeless body of a black child, has garnered disgust from across the globe.

India makes do with 'sense of victory' from 'sense of House' resolution

Thirteen days ago, if someone had said that it would all boil down to 'three demands' that would have been resolved with a 'sense of the House' resolution we would have surely scratched our heads in confusion. But perhaps a 'sense of victory' will just have to do.

A good man: An ode to the fasting fakir

"Old and frail, the pain/ he inflicts on his body,/ graphic as nails on a cross..." A poem in praise of Anna Hazare.

Nine anti-corruption posters you must see

Sonia as Gandhari, Anna as Ram; here's a collection of some of the whackiest posters from the anti-corruption protests.

Digital divide: Why Irom Sharmila can't do an Anna

Cases like Sharmila expose the digital divide of Asia's third-largest economy and underscore how a growing urban middle class may be getting its political voice heard while millions of poor remain off the digital protest map.

From Steve Jobs to Anna Hazare: Why we need personal heroes

Whether we reduce movements to an individual, or companies to an apple logo, we will always try to identify with the solitary, because we too are solitary beings. There are billions of us, but we each want to be special, as Anna, or Jack, or Steve.

Running on empty: How Gurgaon is gobbling up its own future

Gurgaon has become the classic story of a city that lives beyond its means. Already the 24-hour gen sets have become a fact of life for those who can afford them. Next the taps will run dry as the wells hit rock bottom.

Anna, second national movement and lessons from the first

The Anna movement has happily borrowed the props of the national movement that got rid of the British. But that movement had Nehru, Patel, Azad. This has Bedi, Bhushan, Kejriwal. Shiv Visvanathan explores how they stack up against history.

The many emotions of Manmohan Singh

During the past few months, Manmohan Singh has been in the news – in print media and on news television – many times every day. Here are some of his best expressions.

Singh is (sin)Kinng

Is it time for Manmohan Singh to go? All the things that once worked in his favour, his deliberate non-flashy style, his self-effacing persona are all working against him. But when did Anna's fast become about Manmohan's job?

Arundhati on Anna: Losing her moral compass

Arundhati Roy's critique of Anna is uncharacteristically muddled and scattershot because – for once – they contradict her own dearly held political principles.

Scenes from Ramlila Maidan: Wake up Manmohan Singh

Inside the maidan, there's no hysteria or chest-thumping. Just people — darzis, farmers, men, women, Muslims and Hindus —gathered together to demand accountability from their government.

Paschimbanga? Come again? That's what you call paribartan?

West Bengal has decided, by all party consensus, it needs to become Paschimbanga. But it's left Bengalis, sorry Paschimbangalis, like Sandip Roy scratching their heads in confusion. Is this what passes for change in Kolkata?

We should be there: The Left and the Anna moment

The left-leaning intelligentsia describe the Hazare movement variously as elitist, fascist, naive and undemocratic. Nivedita Menon takes them to task for their demands for 'purity' and absolute incomprehension of and contempt for ’the people’ when actually confronted by them.