Jhakas

The Importance of Being Sudheendra Kulkarni

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:00:02 +0530

On last Thursday evening , pre-dinner hours, I thought I saw renowned classical singer Pandit Jasraj emerge and head inside Delhi's new swanky domestic airport. But as I trooped into

Angels and Demons

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:19:31 +0530

"When God created two sexes, He may have been overdoing it". -- Charles Smith Sharad Yadav, the portly, chubby-cheeked, black-bearded veteran politician has threatened to hang himself from the

The Flower Girl

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:07:15 +0530

I see her often in the evenings, at a crossroad of South Mumbai. All of fourteen years perhaps, sprightly and smiling, cheerful and chubby-cheeked. She is usually accompanied by two

The Young Congressman

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:00:32 +0530

It was late spring, and the first symptoms of the oncoming summer was apparent; one could instinctively feel the seasonal shift. In the corridors of India's political quarters, however, no

'Exit' Polls And Basic Instinct

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 14 May 2009 07:57:57 +0530

5 pm sharp. It was quite dramatic actually. The very moment the momentous ( that's the safest cliché to employ) elections 2009 came to a moderately-participated end, TV channels were

The R Factor

editor@ibnlive.com — Sat, 09 May 2009 07:08:57 +0530

It is four days since Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi held his press conference in New Delhi. 96 odd hours later, there is an unusual buzz, frenetic activity, and incessant

30/04: Mercury Rising in Mumbai

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 04 May 2009 12:22:53 +0530

At a small gathering of well-heeled sort in a South Mumbai club, Milind Deora , sitting Congress MP South Mumbai stood answering questions from the supposedly well-aware if not necessarily

Body of Evidence

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:37:30 +0530

The Sanjay Dud-Mayawati fracas over the "jhappi and pappi" stuff provided comic relief from the never-ending venom, vitriol , Varun and vehemence on constant display during this summer-time election. Almost

The Kandahar Effect

editor@ibnlive.com — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 07:48:50 +0530

It sounds like a surprising surrender half-way ( almost literally ) in the election sweepstakes by the once-vaunted LK Advani, and more importantly, by the usually burgeoning with scathing over-confidence

BJP's minor 'aberration', says Kulkarni

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:42:22 +0530

First, let's give credit where it is deservedly due. Mr Sudheendra Kulkarni, the BJP spokesman and PM-aspirant L K Advani's electoral strategist, usually does his homework with thorough conscientiousness. Unlike

Sanjay Dud and all that

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:14:31 +0530

Poor Sanjay Dud. One always thought he was a bit over-the-top type, but Dud Saab has stretched the elastic a bit too far. Sometimes you wonder if all those hours

Rahul Gandhi has arrived

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 05:48:13 +0530

10, Janpath, wore a disconsolate, deserted look in February 2004 when I drove past its long stretch of barricaded compound. Barring the Black Cat commando-led high-security and birds sitting in

Advani, The Outsider and Aamir

editor@ibnlive.com — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:38:41 +0530

Shri LK Advani was making a sad spectacle of himself, indulging in taking personal pot-shots at the fast-recuperating PM Manmohan Singh, terming him as a timid weakling, even as Narendra

The Varun Factor

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:05:43 +0530

The Indian political environment has got expectedly sullied with pedestrian games , petty mud-slinging and almost downright filthy accusations flying around like nasty gad-flies. A sense of déjà vu ,

10 Qs For IPL Commissioner Modi

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:46:38 +0530

IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi was at his trademark best, self-righteous, with a cocky countenance to boot when he announced yesterday that IPL-2 was being shifted to foreign shores. Just review

Meet Varun Modi

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:14:02 +0530

He is the face of the new young India we talk about with such arrogant insouciance in business forums. He is amongst the few youth candidates being fielded by the

Third Front on a back-foot

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:47:07 +0530

On Thursday in Karnataka (which saw the emergence of India's first prime minister whom nobody had heard of before) they announced the Third Front, a bland amalgamation of a cold

India forgets its milk revolution hero

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:32:09 +0530

I had just entered my teenage years when I discovered the power of the idiot box. As we sat huddled before the eye-popping technology in a rectangular shape , my

I Screwed Up: 10 lessons in leadership

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:03:46 +0530

I woke up this morning to the best quote, and the likely winner of the sound byte of the year 2009, which is still work in progress anyway. US President

Two faces of India Inc.

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:00:22 +0530

In early 2004 I was attending a corporate symposium where CEOs moved about with feline alacrity and everyone seemed to have an unusually sunny disposition. People joked that it was

Why SRK rules

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 04:43:04 +0530

I met Aamir Khan in the halcyon Internet days of Y2000, when the word dot com on the visiting card represented a new zeal, the symbol of risk-taking, of creating

Night of 26 November

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:52:04 +0530

We were having an unusually late-dinner that evening, when my mobile rang incessantly. I am virtually a die-hard incommunicado guy post-supper time, so such intrusions are infrequent. But that evening

GOODBYE GANGULY

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:04:38 +0530

Because when you announced your retirement, you said "Hopefully we will end up on a winning note". We did. Because you were the only guy referred to as the

Why Raj Thackeray blew it

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:43:21 +0530

I met Raj Thackeray in his formidable fortress in Shivaji Park, Dadar a couple of years ago, accompanied by two Bollywood celebrities from the land of Pataliputra , Prakash Jha

The World Is Not Flat, Mr Friedman!

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:50:53 +0530

What's good for the US is good for the New York Stock Exchange. But what's good for the New York Stock Exchange might not be good for the United States.

Of Dinosaurs and Eternal Sunshine

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:02:25 +0530

Sunil Gavaskar , our perennial headlines grabbing discovery, finds it difficult to keep his mouth shut. It has been a chronic problem, usually self-inflicted with an orchestrated objective. Sunny bhai

President Natwarlal of India

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 01:47:41 +0530

If Mr Natwarlal (alias Mr Amitabh Bachchan , Bollywood legend) becomes the President of India , the following is inevitable: 1 Amar Singh will be ushered into Madame Tussaud's,

Saddam: 21 days later

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:10:34 +0530

Even as TV channels went expectedly berserk with repeated clips of dusky Indian Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty's racial trauma on TV reality show Celebrity Big Brother, the media cacophony even

Kaun banega conpati

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 04:13:13 +0530

He is a true-blue superstar, a national rage and an international celebrity, intellectually vibrant, and usually a paragon of classic perfection. He said that politics least interested him. He

And justice for none

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 07:08:42 +0530

"There are three reasons why lawyers are being used more and more in scientific experiments. First, every year there are more and more of them around. Second, lab assistants don't

The Dawn of SRK

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 05:44:39 +0530

As the sinister laugh of the sadistic Don hit the surround sound at Inox multiplex theatre in Bombay last Friday night, at the end of 17 reels of high octane

The Ghost Who Walks

editor@ibnlive.com — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 11:02:56 +0530

The murky, mysterious days of furtive speculation on match-fixing in cricket, like the perennial Phantom on a white horse, is back. It took two totally unrelated events as segregated as

Hesh and Lee can mesh

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 04:30:54 +0530

At the end of a super-week of outstanding tennis at the Kingfisher Open, as we braved exasperating rain interventions, and a strangely listless Bombay crowd, it was India’s Davis Cupper

Lalu ban gaya gentleman

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 12:54:39 +0530

For a lot of us Indians, Lalu Prasad Yadav has been a Cartoon Network Channel unto himself, without any Walt Disney contribution. But yesterday, as with his characteristic gusto, back-of-the-dhoti

Of Vande Mataram, Arjun Singh and Munnabhai

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 03:12:33 +0530

Every year, I religiously visit Mohammed Ali Road's celebrated confectionery-cum-sweet stall, Sulaiman Mithaiwala in Bombay at the time of Ramzaan, sometimes more than just one single time. Their "mawa -

Death of a Professor

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:17:30 +0530

The brutally slaughtered Professor Harbhajan Singh Sabharwal never gave me classroom lectures. Neither did he solicitously provide me career advice. In fact, outside the academic fraternity of Ujjain, he was

Impotent cricket council? Or plain stupid!

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 01:08:51 +0530

At least currently the most famous Darrell in the universe can boast of hair, but the game's so-called highest governing body , the ICC, has at best revealed it's shining

8/20 -- Cricket's equivalent of 9/11

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 10:22:47 +0530

It was a catastrophe of cataclysmic proportions at the Oval stadium last evening; an out-of-the-blue-accusation of ball tampering, penalty imposed, protest staged, drama hanging temporarily in animated suspension, and then

How India can win the World Cup: John Wright

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 10:23:37 +0530

So erstwhile coach John Wright got so exasperated with Virender Sehwag's natural instincts, he almost thrashed the stout, brawny, beefy Nawab of Najafgarh in the dressing room in England in

Being John is my right!

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 10:25:10 +0530

Philip Kotler, the great marketing guru, was in town recently lecturing Indian marketing professionals and brand managers on concepts, positioning and strategy. I have a sneaking suspicion that the former

Was Sourav tricked into a trap by his tennis elbow?

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 10:26:00 +0530

Ever since Sourav Ganguly's leaked e-mail about Jagmohan Dalmiya has found wide circulation thanks to the classical crack in the sewage linings, all hell has broken loose. And the

Sorry Sachin, but Sanjay is right!

editor@ibnlive.com — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 10:26:50 +0530

Just a few days ago I bumped against the affable, ever-smiling and ubiquitous Sanjay Manjrekar, who looked as if he could have been auditioning for a role in a TV

Finding Netherland or Neverland? An ICC story

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 10:29:12 +0530

Until Louis Figo, the dapper Portugese captain beguiled the Netherland's football team by getting them a red card from an over-enthusiastic match referee, the Orange men looked fairly threatening in