Let’s look at two representative instances[i] from the post-independence history of India drawn at random. Both concern the same people, both are related to each other and both provide a good framework of reference to understand much of the seventy-year-long national economic woe that followed.
In my memoriam essay on Girish Karnad’s death, I had remarked that Girish Karnad was a mediocre director and a terrible playwright. Starting with this piece, we will examine a few prominent plays and cinema of Girish Karnad if only to puncture the hot-air balloon of unearned fame
In his landmark and classic novel Roots, author Alex Haley traces his genealogy back to seven generations pegging his roots in The Gambia, West Africa. By all accounts, it’s the work of a lifetime, an outcome of deep passion for learning and embarking on both a personal and cultural
And so it begins again. As the release date for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s latest opium-addled celluloid perversity approaches, all manner of politicisation has erupted once again. If Karni Sena’s preemptory antics are on the one side, its wealthy, celebrity Sepoy cousin, Devdutt Pattnaik is on the other.