Review of Imagining India by Nandan Nilekani

‘Never judge a book by its cover’ goes a famous maxim. What if the cover features the facial profile of the author who happens to be the poster boy of globalization today? This is the dilemma that I found myself in as I set out to read Nandan Nilekani’s ‘Imagining India: Ideas for the New [...]

Kamal Haasan – A Living Legend

The epic nature of the story will leave you breathless. Although it spans a period from the 12th to 21st centuries, the chunk of the action takes place over one week leading up to Boxing Day 2004. Kamal Haasan, the greatest living actor of Indian cinema, outreaches himself with his latest offering, a 1.3 billion [...]

Ind vs Aus Test at the SCG – Jan 08

I remember coming across a glossy, glass-bound issue of ‘The Cricketer’ magazine at the British Council Library in Trivandrum years ago and not being able to take my eyes off the spectacular picture adorning the back cover. It showed a panoramic view of the Sydney Cricket Ground in floodlit glory. I wondered how great an [...]

Review of Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat

You do not have to be an IIT graduate or an aspirant to that hallowed institution in order to enjoy Chetan Bhagat’s first novel Five Point Someone. Although the book is subtitled ‘What not to do at IIT’, the tag could have been applied to any college for that matter. Bhagat, an alumnus of IIT [...]

A Test Match at the MCG

Cricket, like most sports in Australia, is seasonal. It is played and followed with a passion though not a religious fervor as in the subcontinent. The game supposedly originated in the pastures of England but caught on quickly in Britain’s penal colony Down Under as it did in the rest of the Commonwealth. Having won [...]

Review of Chak de India

1982 was when television came to Kerala in a big way. The black and white Keltron set became ubiquitous in most households. This was triggered by a major event in the country, the 9th Asian Games that New Delhi hosted. The Asiad was a feather in the cap for Indira Gandhi. Our athletes did considerably [...]

The Books of Sudha Murty

Mrs. Sudha Murty is the chairperson of Infosys Foundation, the charity and social services wing of Infosys which was established in 1997. She also teaches computer science to post graduate students at an engineering college. Mrs. Murty is married to the Chief Mentor of Infosys, Mr. N.R. Narayana Murthy. They have two children, daughter Akshata [...]

Review of The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

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A flat world is a connected world. We owe this buzz largely to an American called Thomas L. Friedman though. It is an interesting story. Friedman is a reputed journalist with The New York Times who has three Pulitzer Prizes in his kitty. He is widely traveled and has written internationally acclaimed [...]

Review of The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor

Dr. Shashi Tharoor was in the international headlines last year when he ran for UN Secretary General. Although he gracefully bowed out of the race by October, the suave and articulate Indian diplomat had won more hearts at the end of the campaign than other contestants. Who then is Shashi Tharoor?
Shashi Tharoor was born of [...]

Review of ‘India Unbound’ by Gurcharan Das

In order to see the picture, it is said, one ought to get out of the frame. This possibly holds true for Gurcharan Das, the former CEO of Procter and Gamble India who spent many years in P&G’s worldwide HQ in Cincinnati, Ohio as part of their Strategic Planning group. The perspective he brings into [...]