If the Danish cartoon controversy has proved one thing is it this: our ability to laugh at ourselves is as endangered as the rainforests. Were Muslims the world over really and truly offended by something as innocuous as cartoons or—as the conspiracy theorists insist—was the whole thing just a political controversy to divert attention from […]
Social issues
Police as contract killers
Sting operations are quite the flavour of the day. And though some argue that they are passé and almost everyone agrees they can get tiresome, at times they can be horrifyingly fascinating. As in a recent Star New sting, where reporters approached police officers and offered them money to bump off a so-called gunda. And […]
Mis-leading light!
That the Indian media is more interested in pandering to the whims of sponsors and making money rather than doing responsible news coverage has been well established, and enough bloggers have ranted about it. That the Times of India (TOI) is a leading light in this phenomenon is also quite well accepted. But what is […]
LOST: India’s 10 million daughters
An elderly woman who lives in the flat below us said one day that she was off on a condolence visit to a relative. The “occasion”: the birth of a daughter. No, we didn’t need a paper published in Lancet to tell us that India is missing 10 million girls in the past 20 years. […]
IT super-power or IT super-shame?
The rape and murder of Hewlett Packard call centre employee Pratibha Srikantamurthy in Bangalore in December 2005 not only shocked the whole country, it also brought to light the indifference that even a company as big as HP has regarding the welfare of its workers.
A reservation against reservations
Reservations—in education, in jobs and in various other aspects of life—are an inescapable part of life in India, and arguably tops the list of reasons why we as a society are so progressively stunted.
Child labour exposé
A shocking story broken by NDTV was overshadowed by the multiple bomb blasts in Delhi last evening (29 October), but as I was going to write about it, I think I should continue.
A voice for women
About twenty-five years old, Saheli have a small team, but their work has affected women all over India.
The gods must be hearing impaired!
Well, we’ve all heard about the gods being crazy and having a warped sense of humour, but if you are a religious Indian, the chances are that God is deaf!
Cops: Protectors or predators?
Saw the most horrific scenes on TV where the police appeared to beat up about 2,000 protesting retrenched workers in Gurgaon! Earlier, these workers had been blocking traffic on the Delhi–Jaipur highway, and clashed with the police. At least one cop got badly beaten—no sympathies; most Indian cops could do with a sound thrashing! Anyway, […]