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If we rely on scriptures and not Bhakti traditions, free-will has some relevance. The romanticism of Bhakti traditions might have underplayed this. The question that arises is: to what extent does free-will alter destiny? Naturally, another logical confusion unfolds: destiny in this life or in subsequent lives as well? What I write now will seem…

 Cruelty exists and leads to terrible acts. But the silence surrounding that cruelty — the refusal to see, question, intervene or even acknowledge distress — is just as culpable. The responsibility of parents towards a daughter does not end with marriage. Not when her safety, dignity or emotional well-being is at stake.  Parenthood does not…

It was a providential escape. Five minutes after I and my wife drove out from our house at Chittaranjan Park in the evening last Saturday, a big section of a Gulmohar tree crashed in front of our gate. While leaving, I had stepped out of the car to lock the gate, waved at a neighbour…

We are perhaps the most connected generation in human history. Facebook notifications. WhatsApp family groups. Instagram stories. LinkedIn achievements. Twitter opinions. Endless blue ticks. Endless updates. Yet somewhere between all this hyper connection, people keep saying the same thing quietly over tea, over phone calls, over tired evenings. “My son hardly talks.”“My daughter remains inside…

4. But the medical profession is in two minds The 8th edition (2024) of the book, “Plotkin’s Vaccines”, seems to promote an entirely different theory – that it is poor sanitation which leads to polio: “Lower socioeconomic status is a risk for paralytic poliomyelitis in developing countries, probably because children belonging to the lower socioeconomic…

Every few years, the National Statistical Office (NSO) holds up a mirror to the nation’s health. The 80th round of the Household Social Consumption Survey, released recently, is that mirror. What it reflects is not a simple story of progress or failure, but both at once, demanding to be read together. The gains are genuine….

I was back in Bangkok recently. It is a city that is oddly familiar to us Indians for reasons that range from the sublime to the sleazy. It is chaotic, noisy, relentlessly alive, not unlike any Indian city we know. The traffic moves like it has a death wish; street food on every corner; ten…

Now, under the leadership of the Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (the world’s largest non-Christian tribal organization), 500,000 tribal people from all corners of India have gathered at Delhi’s Red Fort for the largest protest since independence. The gathering will be addressed by home minister Amit Shah and various tribal leaders. People from all eight…

After announcing the end of Naxalism in Bastar, Amit Shah has now returned to Delhi. During his visit, he said that incomes in Bastar would increase sixfold over the next five years. He also announced that every family would be given cows and buffaloes, and that Gujarat’s Amul cooperative model would be introduced in Bastar….

Setting boundaries with parents is one of the most emotionally loaded things an adult can do, particularly when you were raised in a culture where devotion to family is not merely a value but a measure of your character. The guilt that follows is not weakness; it is the residue of decades of conditioning. In…