English-vinglish!

I read today that a certain state in India has built and runs a large number of government English medium schools. As is the norm these days, social media has exploded in a storm of political mockery and nationalistic outrage at the fact that that state chose English as the medium of instruction, and not…

India makes progress on LGBTQ / Transgender issues! Thanks to Bollywood!

I saw the movie Badhai Do yesterday and Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui a few days back. Just some random thoughts based on those movies: I think India is becoming far more progressive and liberal on LGBTQ and Transgender issues than the US, which seems to be regressing on all LGBTQ, Transgender and Abortion issues. The US…

Elephantine memories!

My maternal grandfather was terribly mischievous. He created and got into a lot of serious trouble throughout his life. Once my grandfather coated the insides of a coconut with a whole lot of ‘chunnambhu’ or ‘chuna’ (I think it is called lime cement in English, the kind used in our ‘paan’), fed it to an…

Let’s not grab too much credit for lower Covid numbers – my take on Chetan Bhagat’s blog in the Times of India!

I don’t blame any govt for mishandling Covid. This pandemic was sudden and unprecedented. Nobody knew what to do or what was the right approach. It was all trial and error and the jury is still out on what works and what doesn’t. Nobody has established a cause-effect relationship so far beyond a shadow of…

Rear-view driving!

https://twitter.com/swamy39/status/1333378593812955136?s=21 Stop resurrecting useless things from India’s past while the present and future of this country is precariously hanging in the balance. This is like trying to drive forward while constantly looking into the rearview mirror and blackening out the windshield. It will only end in driving the country into a ditch. The choice is…