Cricket, they say, is a 'gentlemen's game'. Played by mortals. Hence, each time 'god' and his allies played against the mortals, they had a tendency to ignore a sledge. Walk away from a verbal contest. Be humble and gracious. And we all know that's not how mortals play cricket these days. Especially those Aussies. So the successor to 'god' had to be a human. An ambitious, arrogant, aggressive, sledging, tattooed human. And that's everything that Virat Kohli is, and a bit more.
14/04/2016 8:03 AM IST
It seems likely that Punjab will vote for change in 2017. The Congress will rely on its past record. The AAP will rely upon its promise of good governance. And the Akalis (and BJP), it looks like, will rely on a miracle.
16/02/2016 8:25 AM IST
I will be turning 40 later this year. But the people around me have let me down. They have done so by robbing me of an entire year of my life. The 39th year of my life. The year that I am currently living. My current age. In their heads, I have already turned 40. So now, I am more intent on reappropriating my 39th year. I refuse to be 40 when I am technically 39. And it's not just a number. It's a darned fact.
24/01/2016 12:04 AM IST
The IPL, to me, is a sporting circus synonymous with brand endorsements, Bollywood stars and drunken after-parties. Throw in a raft of "match fixing" allegations, corruption-prone officials, and banned franchises, and there you have it -- Brand IPL at its inglorious best. A perfect recipe to bastardise a popular sport. The most disturbing part is that the BCCI seems to be content with such a projection of the IPL to the rest of the world.
14/01/2016 8:31 AM IST
Governments may change every five years, but changing the collective mindset of the biggest democracy in the world will take time. The turnstiles of change have to be set into motion though. Pronto. There will be setbacks. There will be a backlash. There will be resistance. But if Indians get serious about such change, it will happen.
08/01/2016 8:32 AM IST
Qualified professionals are increasingly migrating between countries to enhance their personal and professional lives. However, each country has its own set of social, political, academic and workplace cultures. For instance, work cultures vary significantly between India (my country of birth) and Australia (my adopted country). Therefore, for a professional migrant who intends to shift base and navigate the cultural divisions of the "East" and the "West", finding that first professional break can become a daunting task. Not because of a lack of skills, but because of a lack of know-how.
23/11/2015 9:54 AM IST
The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), for me, is a sacred place. It's my boyhood cricketing dream. A solemn shrine for those smitten by a cricketing romance. The Colosseum of modern-day cricket. Australia is my adopted home now, and has been since I migrated to Melbourne from India in 1999. I did not move to Melbourne by design but for a cricket lover like me, destiny could not have dealt me a better hand.
15/11/2015 8:21 AM IST
I am a Hindu. An educated, community-oriented, peace-preferring, patriotic Hindu. I do not affiliate with the RSS and Shiv Sena and their brand of "Hinduism". And, I hope that am not the only Hindu that feels that way. The Hindu in me does not discriminate based on surnames, caste and creed. The Hindu in me does not choose to impose my religious preferences on others. The Hindu in me does not support violence.
05/11/2015 8:31 AM IST
A lot was said with ink on paper. The moon and the stars featured a lot in love notes hidden amongst notebooks. Love and romance in my days may have been slow, tedious, and 'Bollywood-ish', but it was the way it ought to be, intense, over-powering, enduring, and at times, dramatic. Lovebirds longed to be with each other (in person and not online with a green dot next to their names), wrote to each other, and stole secret moments out of their days to be with each other.
13/10/2015 1:59 PM IST
A few days ago, the Indian Prime Minister was busy promoting India as a nation of opportunities to Silicon Valley, urging the corporate giants there to invest in India. Make India digital, he roared. Within hours, Indians responded to their leader by jazzing up their Facebook profile pictures with a tricolour filter. The whole world took notice of a "modern", "upcoming", and "enterprising" India. Around the same time, back home, the other face of India was about to raise its ugly head.
09/10/2015 8:17 AM IST
For an entire week (or so) this month, India celebrated itself as "nation". An independent, unified and secular nation. All over the world, we participated in this carnival of independence as "Indians". The tri-colour temporarily overshadowed the divisions of race, caste, creed, religion and state. But alas, this carnival is now over.
21/08/2015 8:09 AM IST
For a person who likes to "go with the flow" on most things in life, I am extremely hesitant to change my dentist, accountant
12/08/2015 11:23 AM IST
I looked up to re-check the status of my flight on the TV screen in front of me. The flight status still read "delayed". So I rapidly proceeded to get back to reading the magazine in my hands. As my eyes manoeuvred themselves back to the magazine, I registered a vaguely familiar face opposite me. So, I looked up again. This time with a jerk.
31/07/2015 7:00 PM IST
Shashi Tharoor is no stranger to controversy and has been dogged by scandals of various hues, but at this juncture I think he deserves to be celebrated as a modern citizen of the much-touted "Modern India". He is the kind of outspoken Indian citizen that so many of us desperately aspire to see more of, more often. Especially within the political ranks of the country.
24/07/2015 8:30 AM IST
Untried and untested, underdogs have a lot of "promise" if not much else. When they get their chance, they either shine or shrivel in the spotlight. In glory, an underdog writes its own legend. In defeat, it seldom gets a second chance. But the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is one political underdog that has been handed a rare second chance. But is the party valuing it enough?
04/05/2015 10:19 AM IST
