Gone Too Soon at 95, Ram Jethmalani
Posted inPeople

Gone Too Soon at 95, Ram Jethmalani

Maverick, temperamental, eccentric, non-conformist, the permanent dissenter... There are lots of adjectives used for Ram Jethmalani. In my interactions with him, he was none of it. He was only a man who had utmost belief in himself and what he did.
Posted inPeople

The Importance of being Bappi Lahiri

For a post-globalisation generation struggling to find homegrown icons, Bappi Lahiri was a superhero. He was Made in India, much before Aatmnirbhar became a motto and his obstinate confidence was just the bear hug, a nervous, but emerging India needed.
Chhatth Puja and the Gulshan Kumarisation of India
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Chhatth Puja and the Gulshan Kumarisation of India

Chhatth Puja, a celebration of the sun, is an integral part of Bihari cultural life. But what has stayed with me is the harsh aesthetics of it all. A sea of humanity amid all the muck of the riverfronts. The blaring loudspeakers, the long traffic jams, the arguments on the roads.
Mohammad Aziz, More Than a First Copy of Mohammad Rafi
Posted inBollywood

Mohammad Aziz, More Than a First Copy of Mohammad Rafi

Mohammad Aziz wasn’t just a first-copy version of Mohammad Rafi. That would be unfair to the artist he was. Aziz was the first-copy version of all the actors he sang for: He was Govinda’s pelvic thrust, Mithun Chakraborty’s swagger, Rajesh Khanna’s ham, Amitabh Bachchan’s buffoonery. He was all that they were or wanted to be.