Stop cluttering Dasara to make money IN BLACK AND WHITE BY VIKRAM MUTHANNA Every few years, just before Dasara, someone gets a bright idea, which is, “Ah, let’s add one more event to Mysuru Dasara.” This year, it is Kambala, the spectacular buffalo race of Coastal Karnataka. The Kambala is undoubtedly a magnificent tradition and deserves to be celebrated, but… not in Mysuru Dasara. The…
Three days ago, news broke of an Enforcement Directorate (ED) raid on the residence of an Additional Excise Commissioner. Almost at the same time, a bureaucrat’s wife on her Instagram page posted her pics carrying a designer handbag that probably cost half of her husband’s annual salary. For a fleeting moment, I was envious and muttered, “I wish I were a bureaucrat…
India seems to have developed a peculiar relationship with humour. We are confused about what comedy actually is. Every offensive remark is treated as either a national crisis or a Constitutional issue. This confusion is becoming increasingly visible as stand-up comedy explodes across the country. Particularly popular is the newer ‘crowd work’ format, where comedians…
This morning, I took part in a panel discussion on media and tourism at Mysore Travel Mart-2026, organised by the Mysore Travels Association. GRS Fantasy Park was the principal sponsor and NOT the Karnataka Tourism Department. The Department sponsored nothing. That absence said a great deal. It seems the task of promoting Mysuru appears to…
For years, D.K. Shivakumar was the eternal bridesmaid of Karnataka politics. He was always close to power, always indispensable to the Congress party, but never quite the chosen one. Now, at last, he has arrived at the altar and is set to become the Chief Minister of Karnataka. But… The question is not whether Shivakumar…
Indian politics is about personality and not policy. We are a people driven by blind emotion and some of us hope that our heroes can deliver in the real world what they perform in the reel world. Nowhere is this hope more visible than in Tamil Nadu, where cinema and politics have long shared a…
The Karnataka Government has revoked its 2022 school uniform order and permitted ‘religious and traditional symbols’ in schools and colleges. Students may now wear hijabs, turbans, sacred threads, rudraksha beads, etc., provided these ‘complement the uniform’ and do not compromise discipline, safety or identification. It sounds reasonable, even liberal, but it is also quite contradictory….
Every year, when SSLC and Pre-University results are announced, the State witnesses a familiar cycle of joy, disappointment, relief and grief. But what should garner our attention is… death. Last week, five students ended their lives following their results. Three of them did so because they did not secure the marks they had hoped for….
The defection of Raghav Chadha, along with six of his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs to the BJP yesterday, is just another episode in India’s long- running history of political defection. It is a reminder that ideology in Indian politics is not a guiding principle. It’s also a reminder that Indian politicians have no sense…
Yesterday morning, a three-year-old leopard that had come down from Chamundi Hill sneaked into a house in Siddarthanagar, got cosy under a bed and went to sleep. Probably after having made a meal out of a street dog. Thankfully, the leopard was captured with no injury to him or to humans. Across India, human-animal conflict…
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