This article was published in HuffPost India on 06 May 2015. Here is the link. Below is an extract: If not for anything else, it is for the hope of creating marvellous stories that we should donate — to Nepal now, and to any and every other community in need in the future. The stories… Continue reading Why I Reflexively Hit the Donate Button for Nepal
This article was published in HuffPost India on 14 oct 2015. Here is the link. An excerpt: If mainstream Hindi movies increasingly portrayed Muslims as regular Indians leading a “routine Indian life”, it would immensely help in overthrowing the stereotypes that some politicians, extremists and their ilk project. But the depiction of Muslim leads in… Continue reading Muslim Characters in Bollywood: The Case for More Iqbals and Less Fanaas
The odd thing about assassins is that they think they have killed you. Mohandas Gandhi was never fond of the Mahatma (the Great Soul) title that India’s people gave him. When the late Richard Attenborough met Jawaharlal Nehru around 1963 to discuss a potential movie on Gandhi, a point that Nehru particularly stressed was to… Continue reading Forgive Us Gandhi For We Have Killed
A true leader, it is said, leads her or his people to where they should be and not necessarily where they want to be. This day, the 6th of December 2015, will go down in history as one of those days when such leadership was at its most brilliant display. A day when a wise… Continue reading The Ram Masjid Centre for Religious Harmony
Last year’s Vishwaroopam and this year’s Haider, as we know, were mired in controversies related to religion: some Muslims accused V’pam of being anti-Muslim and some Hindus deemed Haider to be anti-Hindu (and ‘anti-India’ too, apparently). Seen through rational glasses, however, those were simply attempts by some sections of India’s two main religions to… Continue reading Diwali, Haidar, Vishwaroopam: Religions in Competition
(Disclaimer: The Kashmir issue, just like many others plaguing nations, is way too intricate and complex to be discussed in a few hundred words. This article only deals with a few aspects of a few of its aspects.) Once out of school in India, it is strange how several beliefs are shattered as one grows… Continue reading Heaven on Hearth: Kashmir and Rest of India
