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Kumarajiva’s Passage
Read more here: Kumarajiva’s PassageOutlook | November 22, 2010 Recently, I spent two days in Shanghai, and felt like doing something different, seeing some unknown part of this vast country. Buddhism was taken long ago to China, by Chinese monks, and it flourished and expanded there, and beyond, with regular sustenance from the monks of Nalanda university and other…
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Chandigarh Diary
Read more here: Chandigarh DiaryOutlook | October 5, 2009 The Chandigarh of Nehru and Corbusier has almost become a curiosity for a stream of visitors from the West who continue to see him as a giant of 20th century architecture. The year 1947 was India’s Annus Horribilis. From March that year, murder and mayhem stalked the Punjab. By autumn,…
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Shimla Diary
Read more here: Shimla DiaryOutlook | July 12, 2010 Over The Ridge In mid-19th century, Capt Charles Kennedy rode up to the deodar-covered Shimla Ridge from the hot Ambala cantonment, liked what he saw and put down a Scottish loghouse. Others followed. And soon the High Ridge was dotted with houses named Peter Hoff, Ivanhoe, Dane’s Folly, Barnes Court,…
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Corner Shot From Coorg
Read more here: Corner Shot From CoorgOutlook | May 17, 2010 A people’s initiative for hockey with lessons to learn from This April, I had a chance to visit the Kodagu hills. Fifty minutes by chopper from Bangalore, these forested hills, 2.500- 4.500 feet high and with wide, shallow valleys full of paddy fields, are a southern delight. They are home…
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Bangladesh Diary
Read more here: Bangladesh DiaryOutlook | March 1, 2010 Bangladesh’s development story surprised me. The figures given by our embassy were impressive; a growth rate of 6.9 per cent and, what is more, a population replacement of only 1.2… Buzz on the Field After many years, I was in Dhaka again, at the opening ceremony of the South Asian…
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Shivpuri Diary
Read more here: Shivpuri DiaryOutlook | January 25, 2010 When we went to the Shivpuri jungle in 1950, Daaku Maan Singh was the great Robin Hood of India. He was a romantic figure… Winter Canvas I was in Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh, for my Christmas break. When I went there last summer, there had been no rain for many months,…
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Shivpuri Diary
Read more here: Shivpuri DiaryOutlook | September 7, 2009 As the Shatabdi wended its way south, we passed a continuous landscape of dusty fields with dispirited men and cattle, all wandering in search of food and water. I was recently in Gwalior and Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh. As the Shatabdi wended its way south, we passed a continuous landscape of…
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Floss Silk City
Read more here: Floss Silk CityOutlook | June 1, 2009 The fleeting Indian spring is gone and summer is upon us. But the trees continue to offer surprises every day. There is a Chorisia Speciosa (floss-silk tree) opposite my porch. I hardly noticed it till I saw it produce green banana-like dangling fruits. I wondered what they were. As the…
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Planted On Earth
Read more here: Planted On EarthOutlook | December 1, 2008 These days I once again have the temporary use of a Lutyens bungalow. As we did when we lived on Akbar Road, we immediately planted some trees to leave as a memory for later times. In this house, we planted kadam, gulmohar, magnolias, lime trees, jacaranda and ornamental pines. An…
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White Elephant March
Read more here: White Elephant MarchOutlook | February 16, 2008 Republic Day was always long on ceremony, now it’s short on grace too I saw the Republic Day parade for the first time in 1958 as a young ias trainee on duty. It went on for far too long, with every arm of the army, navy and air force insisting on…
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Concrete Valleys
Read more here: Concrete ValleysOutlook | September 3, 2007 Pre-1966, the Beas-Kangra valley was part of the Punjab. My early service was spent in that beautiful valley. In 1961-62, I was deputy commissioner, Lahaul-Spiti, across the Rohtang Pass. My family and I have continued to visit Lahaul since then. Last week, I went after a decade and a half…
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Peaks Of Power
Read more here: Peaks Of PowerOutlook | April 30, 2007 I first went to Kathmandu when I was CEC many years ago. It was a world congress on mountaineering and tourism, Nepal’s main bread-earner. But I spent most of my time with the political establishment, the Election Commission of Nepal, and the late King Birendra. I can never forget the…
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Socratic Egghead’s Gown
Read more here: Socratic Egghead’s GownOutlook | October 23, 2006 Last Wednesday, more than 50 years after he was a graduate student in St Johns’ College, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh walked the Senate House lawns in a ceremonial procession escorted by the chancellor, the Duke of Edinburgh, to receive an honorary degree from this 800-year-old university. I went to Queens’…
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Don’t Call The Cavalry
Read more here: Don’t Call The CavalryFor Outlook | July 3, 2006 Lutyens’ Delhi is under siege and no one cares. It’s an unholy coup d’etat. I have lived for many years in Lutyens’ Delhi, and for almost two decades worked within the one square kilometre of the capitol complex. Still, every time I go up Rajpath and see the great presidential palace,…
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Requiem For Ranthambhor
Read more here: Requiem For RanthambhorFor Outlook | February 27, 2006 Tigers roamed here once. Now, it’s a jungle of caterwauling tourists. Ranthambhor and its tigers were recently in the news. Poaching seems to have all but exterminated the already limited numbers. Horror and anxiety led to immediate, apparently energetic steps: the mantra of a CBI inquiry, the naming of central…
