26/11: Mumbai's 60-hour long madness

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Diplomatic mind-games and anti-terror rhetoric often obliterates the human element. The lines are cold and practised, the meaning is vague and everything is up for interpretation. Which is why watching the interrogation tapes of Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab and listening to hours of intercepts of the conversation between Pakistani handlers and eight of the 10 terrorists who unleashed such mayhem in Mumbai is such a revelation. Here was a fourth standard drop-out, his father being a dahi-vada seller, talking about his evolution as a man who brought a city of 15 million to its knees and destroyed countless homes. Of how he became the world's second best known terrorist... after Mohammed Atta. Having lived his life in abject poverty and ignorance, Kasab describes how his first visit home from the terror training camp was like a heroes welcome. In backward Okara, it means getting invited by many to....

Bush Fires in Delhi

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Usually, the foyer and restroom chatter in Summit-type events are a decent enough barometer to judge the audience's level of intrigue, interest and expectations from the high profile speakers. All through the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, the George W Bush session on Day two was expectedly high on the must-attend list. It's Delhi, so some of it could be to flaunt the "I was at the Bush's" line at an evening farmhouse gathering. Part could also be a genuine eagerness to hear and be up, close and personal with a man who arguably led the change of the world order - positively or negatively. But almost universally, none would have hedged a bet Bush would raise the maximum level of engagement, candour, applause and humour - without once resorting to his legendary Bushisms or putting his foot...you know where. It was a session which changed many perceptions....

From Uttar Pradesh, with love

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To, Mr Sanjay Dutt, C/O Shri Amar Singh, Samajwadi Party, Camp Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. From: Uttar Pradesh Residents' Welfare Association Camp: Lucknow Dear Sanju Baba, I am writing to express the gratitude of over 2.5 million Lucknowites who are simply overwhelmed by your decision to serve the people of this squalid state. You may be only the 60,375th politician who has sworn to do so, but I think the city has gone speechless as none have sounded as sincere and genuine as you. I apologise for their silence and volunteer to be their interlocutor. You first wowed us as Rocky and then again as Munnabhai. Now, we have been told you have gone behind the camera and just canned your first directorial venture. By getting a Union minister to play the lead role, you have truly achieved a first. Your image, Sanju baba,....

8 PMs, yet UP missed the growth story

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It may be tempting to dismiss this as a pointer good enough only to be noticed by mere trivia buffs, but the 2009 General Elections are likely to be the first instance of Uttar Pradesh not fielding a single serving or former Prime Minister from its sprawling constituencies. Staggering as it may sound, but in every single poll since 1952, the dusty plains of the state have had one such candidate, in the process giving the nation eight Prime Ministers. And perhaps it's in this seemingly minor fact lies the tragedy of India's largest and most politically influential state. From Jawaharlal Nehru, a man who laid the foundation of India's public sector and administrative backbone, to Indira Gandhi, the only woman and one of the most powerful Prime Ministers ever; and from our most charismatic and youngest Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to the statesman-like Atal Behari Vajpayee, Uttar Pradesh's....

The Lesson from 1999

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It was an innocuous single column story in a national daily ten years ago which triggered a little chronicled episode of skullduggery in Indian politics. A man, widely heralded as the architect of the great Indian economic revival, a darling of middle-class India, a man known for his integrity and honesty had just lost an election from a constituency where a large number of voters were exactly those who believed, furthered and propagated this image. These voters were largely educated, urbane and had been the biggest beneficiaries of the benefits of his policy changes. Yet, South Delhi Parliamentary constituency, one of the most upper middle-class of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, had decided to hand Dr Manmohan Singh a resounding defeat in his maiden attempt to be an elected represented in Parliament. Politics usually defies the inevitable. It indeed challenges any sort of predictability and is....

Jumping to conclusions

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I have never been more reluctant writing any opinion as I am now. I never glance over my shoulder to check if anyone is peeping into my laptop, just in case I am being read as I write, and being misunderstood. This time I am, almost hoping I had a rear-view mirror on my table which would allow me to check my discomfort. In the past 10 days, ever since gunshots disturbed the hum of Batla House in Delhi's Jamia Nagar that sedentary Friday morning, we've so intensified the practice sessions of a new sport we now play; there is a danger of us becoming world-beaters at it. It's a variation of long jump in athletics...it's called jumping to conclusions. We have done this to every piece of fact. So, when the rightist Hindutva brigade calls the Jamia University's decision to legally support two of their....

Why terror isn’t just the police's problem

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It should be safe to assume that for a good portion of September, we would have to hear the condemnation of terrorists' and terrorism ad nauseam. We can expect scores of camera-friendly politicians and administrators venturing out to say this in a display of well-positioned eloquence. But condemning terrorists and terrorism is the handiwork of a tribe which is unable to accomplish their agenda without using these words. And their only aim in saying this is to enlist the support of others who react to the word "terrorist" with trepidation, and helps create a mob mindset, each of whom is united by the fear of a perceived common enemy. Having done the deed, these politicians and those governing us return home satisfied their day's service to the nation has been achieved. Point is too many politicians and officials waste too much time talking about....

Blundering cops on the beat

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An IPS officer heading one of the most high-profile districts in Delhi was once shunted out because he personally made a hoax bomb call from his office landline to settle scores with an amusement park owner. Around the same time, another senior Delhi Police officer was taken to task as he managed to get so drunk one evening, he ended up abusing the police commissioner on his wireless set - with the entire top brass listening in to this unexpected Prime Time entertainment with great embarrassment. If you haven't yet begun rolling over, here's another one. A district police chief in Delhi once held a press conference claiming arrest of the accused within 24 hours in a case where two foreigners were raped. Nothing wrong with this just that he decided to get the victims to the press conference and paraded them in front of the media. He even....

Egg on my face

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Rubbing egg yolk on your scalp maybe great for the follicles, but if the yellow is on your face, it isn't quite as pleasurable. The act of wiping egg off your face makes you feel low; it stinks and is almost always messy. I know it, as I have had quite a lot of the yolk on my face lately. I am one of those who had written the epitaph of IPL even before the first white ball was bowled. We should have known we were in a hopeless minority. Evidently, actually only a few of us had dubbed IPL as the world's most expensive suicide attempt ever. I mean a few armchair critics and journalists, which are occasionally confused as the same thing. But then didn't Richard Dawkins say, though cats cannot be herded, but if present is some numbers, they make a lot of....

Table Manners

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Arundhati Roy's book, Power Politics, uses the delectable imagery of how it increasingly appears Indians are being rounded up and loaded into two convoys of trucks - the tiny one moving towards a glittering destination and the large one, comprising of the unsung, hurtling towards darkness and then disappearing. Award ceremonies are widely criticized for egging on only the mini-convoy. For celebrating those who glitter and are considered glamorous. For feting fluff and frivolity. So when you have an awards night where the underdog, the unsung and the simple is celebrated and put under arc-lights, you would expect a certain solemnity in the air. You would expect the invitees to feel privileged to be a part of a celebration where status and power - the two heaviest loads being carried by the mini-convoy - have been offloaded. But Delhi is different. It's a city....