Gandhi and the Jihad

“God protects fools, drunks, and the United States of America” – Otto Von Bismarck I write essays these days, I have stopped writing poetry and stories, Its difficult to write one, to write something one needs to understand the essence of the times we live in. (I was never a art for art sake freak..anyway) [...]

U.S. Planning Big New Prison in Afghanistan – New York Times

“The American way of bringing democracy and freedom to those unfortunates who have not already obtained it. Not satisfied with being per capita the highest holder of prisoners in the world (by far), America in its kindness exports this abroad. Ever winning hearts and minds” [...]

The Kite Runner

What’s good about the film is the internationalization of our Bollywood archetypical film formulas: Two brothers (lost in Kumbh mela archetype) discovering their identity and topped over by an over the wall rescue from the sure jaws of death has always worked in our films; It is a happy feeling to know that the international audience is also enjoying what we have savored for all these years.

And then the nauch of Basanti in Sholay where the villain Gabbar aka Aseef in this case makes Sohrab the son of Hassan dance to the infectious tunes of classical music to the point where the ghungroo breaks and shatters. [...]

A Thousand Splendid Suns

In several ways, the book dangerously misleads, and does so in its own seductive way. It charms you in as it slips through its liminal gap its US specific Neo-Imperial world picture. In doing so, it sets about to pass in the counterfeit by filling its page with such gross misrepresentations and all done on such grand and massive scale that one is left wondering at the actuating politikreal of the author; often one gets the feel that one is reading a new genre, the ‘new age’ American novel, like the ‘new age’ spirituality of Deepak Chopra, a chick-lit or rather a choc-lit verity of it; even eclipsing the sentimental high tide of ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’. [...]