Harini Calamur's Writings
How many people in India have the ability to bring people from various parts of the political spectrum together ? One and only one, Arundathi Roy. After putting me off the Narmada Bachao Andolan, feeling sorry for tribal development or lack of…
Two very different instances of religious/caste patriarchs intervening in civil society have come to the fore in the last couple of days. Both are Anti Constitutional. And, its about time the Government and the System said religious oppression in the name of…
From the ToI, a couple of days ago : Those who speak in favour of Maoist guerrillas will face legal action and 10 years imprisonment, the government announced Thursday in a warning to civil society groups who raise voices in favour of…
I spent 90 odd minutes today debating – “challenging Left Liberalism” on the offstumped community portal I am pretty much a Liberal centrist moderate who has a 10 degree oscillation on issues to the left and right. There are policy issues on…
My mother told me, a long time ago, never to debate religion or politics with strangers. i am breaking that rule tonight! there is a panel discussion (more like panel typing) on “Challenging Left Liberalism” . It is being ‘held’ at the…
March 12th 1993. A time when Mumbai was still Bombay. Lokhandwalla was a set of buildings in progress, where gangs regularly went to war. Where In Orbit & Hypercity Malad were rubbish dumps, when the expressway didn’t exist, when Asiatic and Akbarally’s…
There is no better sign of a party losing all signs of perspective than to attack Sachin Tendulkar on the eve of his 20th anniversary. Which is essentially what Balasaheb Thackeray did. Thackeray said his “friendly advice” to Tendulkar was that he…
On his 140th Anniversary, one of my favorite quotes from Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi : The roots of violence . Somehow we have moved so far away from those ideals Wealth without work. – i wonder if the global economic meltdown would have…
It has been interesting to see the Government at work. And, although there is a tremendous amount of twittering (as opposed to tweeting) and sniggering – austerity not a bad idea. With the kind of National Debt that we are carrying, and with…
I have met Sushma Swaraj once. She was in brief political exile, and had agreed to inaugurate my television channel. I say mine, as though i owned it – I didn’t 🙂 but, it was mine in that a whole lot of…