Writings
Beyond Partition
It is more than six weeks that I saw it but I am still haunted by the images in Lalit Mohan Joshi's debut documentary BEYOND PARTITION, premiered at London's Nehru Centre on 22nd February. The images have been put together in such an effective manner that you forget...
On Freedom of Expression
Freedom of expression is one of the essential freedoms in a civilized society. For a writer, however, it is more than essential. It is his oxygen. Without it he will choke to death as a writer. I have had personal experience of that choking feeling lately. My friends,...
A Columnist Complains
In the middle of such momentous events when the future conduct of the most powerful country in the world is the issue in the most bitterly fought Presidential Election that one can remember, and a grisly attempt is being made to decide the future of a proud people by...
The Great Indian Hijack
Highjacking has been the defining pastime of many of the politicians in the twentieth century and is being carried forward into the twenty-first. In my own lifetime there have been four memorable highjackings: The Great Indian Highjack of India's Unity The Bolshevik...
Independence Day: No Celebration For Me
It is India's 58th "Independence" Day. But I am not celebrating. I have decided to follow Mahatma Gandhi's example. He did not celebrate. On the contrary he was in virtual mourning at the partition of his beloved India. "Over my dead body" he had said. And it turned...
Of Snails, Slugs And Homo Sapiens
"Kill a snail and go to jail" screams a headline on the front page of The Times of last weekend. The story is accompanied by a prominent picture (6½"x6½") of the snail complete with the creature's characteristic antennae raised in the shape of a V for Victory sign...
Gandhi’s Legacy Lives On
An Indian Muslim as President, a Pakistani Sikh as Prime Minister, an Italian Catholic as leader of the ruling party, and a Pakistani Brahmin as Leader of the Opposition!!!! What more could a secular heart desire? This is the exciting, multi-colour, rainbow India that...
If it’s Saturday it must be Edison, New Jersey
That's how it has been with me in the last six weeks. I started commuting between the continents on 26th. February and have been on the go, non-stop, until early last week. My itinerary reads: London—Philadelphia--New York—Philadelphia—Edison, New...
Letter from America
(With respectful acknowledgement to Alistair Cooke who made this phrase his virtual copyright with his illuminating weekly broadcasts on the BBC World Service for the last 58 years, retiring finally on doctor's orders at the age of ninety-one, having recorded and...
My Apologies J.P. says Yavar Abbas
I have a retraction to make and I better do it right away. Last month in my article about J.P. Dutta's L.O.C./Kargil, I included his film BORDER in my tirade. I got it mixed up with Anil Sharma's GHADAR. I apologise unreservedly for the faux pas. Needless to say I had...
Mr. Dutta’s Private Army
L.O.C/ Kargil I have just been to see the film L.O.C./Kargil, directed by J.P. Dutta. It is about the exploits of the Indian Army in retaking the heights of Kargil in the Himalayas, treacherously occupied by "the enemy". I will have more to say about the film later....
Seven Days with Firaq
One of the many good things that Allahabad, the city of Jawaharlal Nehru, gave me when I was an undergraduate there in the late 30s and early 40s, was the chance to get to know Raghupati Sahai Firaq, the famed Urdu poet who had become a legend in his lifetime, and who...