India, as you all know, is a deeply religious society. Religion is embedded in our culture, and finds expression in the myriad festivals that dot the calendar here. It means a lot to us. For starters, it means holidays.

The elevation of Narendra Modi to the leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party has finally happened. This was long discussed, and expected. For the moment, it only means a more energised BJP and an election campaign that will be high in rhetoric and drama.

As the political reactions poured in after the arrest of alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorist Yasin Bhatkal, one reaction stood out.

Amitava Kumar’s short biography of Patna, A Matter of Rats, starts with, well, rats. “In my mind’s eye, I watch a train approaching Patna Junction in the early morning.

Elections are not scheduled until next year, but electoral politics is very much in the air. Two of the country’s top English-language news channels are already running polls to predict who will form the next government at the Centre.

The whole truth in the Ishrat Jahan case is far from apparent yet.

Cyber issues have come to dominate global and local headlines this week in a quite unprecedented way.

Cyber issues have come to dominate global and local headlines this week in a quite unprecedented way. First there was the worldwide outcry following news that the American government is spying rather indiscriminately on individuals around the world. From India alone, the US government collected 6.3 billion pieces of communication, the reports said.

Now, there’s the much smaller matter of Rs 13 lakh going missing from 29 Axis Bank accounts. Several Mumbai policemen are among the victims.

Actor Karim Haji, 40, grew up in the suburb of Bandra in Mumbai. He remembers a boy from his neighborhood, Salman Khan. Karim and his brother Amin hung out in many of the same places as the Khan brothers, and went for a while to the same gym as Salman. He remembers Arbaaz as the one who was expected to make it big as an actor; Salman, he says, was considered not as handsome, but he had ‘junoon’.

It is tragic that it took an episode as horrific as the rape of a young woman in a Delhi bus on December 19 to shake India out of its complacency over such crimes. We should be collectively grateful for the awakening, and collectively ashamed that we didn’t wake sooner. There were enough and plenty of reasons to have woken up before this ghastly incident.
This month itself, going only by cases that made the national news, there were three incidents on just one day, December 5.