Musings of a Random Life

Sshh my blue eyed son, don’t you shed a tear.The man is no more, the man who evoked fear.He killed his own they said, he killed his foeHe tortured who he captured and his own demise he did sowHe crossed the fence to the neighbor’s houseHe started those fires earth’s water couldn’t douseIf we let [...]

“He has a cross [crucifix] on the chain around his neck but is still a practicing Hindu. When he enters the field he touches the ground in true South Indian style”. I was intrigued to read this kaleidoscopic demographic description in the Times of India recently. It struck me odd how people juxtapose personality traits, [...]

The copyright for the works of Rabindranath Tagore was handed over to Vishwa Bharati after Tagore’s death. Vishwa Bharati behaved in a draconian manner and took particular pleasure in letting people know who the boss was when it came to rendering Tagore’s work. Gate-keeping, it was argued, is essential to ensure that the works of [...]

William Dalrymple’s “The Age of Kali” makes for good reading only in patches– something in the lines of Mark Tully’s “No full stops in India”. I picked it up to prepare myself to read his magnum opus – “The Last Mughal”. Leafing through it I wondered why is it that only foreigners write about India [...]