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“Last rites performed for Edward Kennedy” read the tickertape on Doordarshan yesterday in reference to his funeral. While the term ‘last rit...

The banana can be a rather pedestrian fruit. When I am hungry and need something quick, it is the banana that I reach out for, but other tim...

There are books that one genuinely wants to read and those that one feels one ought to read. Into the second genre fall classics, epics, s...

The Economist calls for an end to the gadget features race. “Why is it” the article asks “so many manufacturers cannot leave well alone? Th...

Today (Aug 22) is being celebrated as the anniversary of the founding of Madras City. As a ‘chennaikaran’ and an armchair, amateur historian...

The Missionary Register, published in 1828, contains a sketch of one of the earliest girl students in India. It carries this brief descripti...

As is the case with many people from this part of the country, I don’t have a surname. When asked to fill in a surname, I follow the practic...

I received a message from Facebook that someone had listed me as her father, and would I please confirm the relationship? After the initial ...

“They fought for India's freedom, now they battle penury” says this report , narrating the plight of around 5000 surviving freedom-fight...

Without getting into the merit of the case involving the detention of Shahrukh Khan at Newark airport, or the breach of protocol in the fris...

Dave and Jenny, two New Yorkers, who have been blogging about their Delhi struggles, have a post on the market that exists here for used li...

In her book , “Bazaars, conversations and freedoms”, the author Rajni Bakshi argues that the economic downturn has revealed serious structu...

According to this allegorical map drawn in 1913, the path to success is long and arduous. Once you get past the Gate of Opportunity, you ne...

George Monbiot, a columnist in The Guardian, writes about the impending disaster in his small market town, Machynlleth, in mid-Wales: ...

“Sport gives the catharsis, pain-free drama, clarity and resolution that the world outside cannot. And nobody gets hurt” says Jonathan Freed...

Some statements on the H1N1 situation, pulled out from assorted news items. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday asked Union Health Mini...

Most of you suffer from positive illusions, (built on a naive overconfidence in human capabilities and a nearly total disregard for human fa...

“Getting down to first principles” wrote P.G.Wodehouse in one of his books, “accidents happen when two objects occupy the same point in spac...

Daughter: Appa, why are you looking so serious? Me: I have to take a decision on something really important. I am unable to make up my min...

Being artistically-challenged, I have never been good at sketching or drawing. But, to my considerable surprise, I once re-produced a Picass...