It’s a magical time in Karnataka again. We’re talking about ‘black magic.’ Our Chief Minister Siddaramaiah may have passed a watered-down Anti-Superstition Bill. Maybe he should try again for a more implementable one, for his Deputy says it’s threatening their Government. Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar stated on Thursday that political opponents are performing black…
Government Indecisions & Payments
May 25, 2024This morning, ‘The Hindu’ newspaper reported that the Government owes the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel in Mysuru Rs. 80 lakh in pending bills. The confusion is: Which Government will foot the bill — the Centre or the State? We are sure the hotel will get its money eventually, but when? It’s already been one year….
You don’t flunk life just because you flunk an exam
May 18, 2024The Pre-University and SSLC results are out, and as expected, there is happiness, disappointment, grief and, unfortunately, quite a few deaths — two students in Mandya district, both just 15 years old, committed suicide. While one student ended his life for failing an SSLC exam, the other, a girl, committed suicide assuming she had failed…
POWER & SEX
May 11, 2024Even as Prajwal’s sex scandal is still in the news, allegations of molestation are coming in against West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose. Politically motivated or not, sex and power have always gone hand in hand. Men in power control their environment. Powerful men set the agenda of nations. But for some reason, many of…
Arrest Prajwal … but who will save the women & children ?
May 4, 2024By now, we have heard, read and seen the Member of Parliament from Janata Dal (Secular), Prajwal Revanna, turn into a sexual predator. He has put a different kind of ‘S’ in JD(S). His acts of sexual exploitation are disturbing to say the least. Yesterday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, with an air of dare and defiance,…
Election Musings
April 27, 2024As I meet voters, party workers and politicians, I get the sense that fear-mongering and lies are afoot this election season, along with freebies. In today’s full-front-page advertisement in The Times of India, the BJP has warned the backward caste voters that Congress will add Muslims to their reservation list, essentially eating into their quota….
The Name Game
April 13, 2024Early this morning I was to meet the popular TV journalist Rajdeep Sardesai for a breakfast interview regarding the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Mysuru-Kodagu region. We agreed to meet at the now ‘must stop-over’ breakfast place for outsiders — Mylari Hotel in Nazarbad. I arrived first and settled into what I believed to be…
Crossing over to Politics
April 6, 2024The process of filing nomination papers is underway nationwide for a phase-wise election and two nominations caught my eye: Retired IAS Officer and former Mysuru DC G. Kumar Naik, who will contest from Raichur on a Congress ticket and former Calcutta High Court Judge, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who will contest on a BJP ticket. As…
Too Hot ? It’s Tree Time
March 30, 2024Our city is getting hotter with every passing year. As temperatures soared yesterday, the Karnataka Government advised citizens to turn into camels: “Drink sufficient water whenever possible, even if you are NOT thirsty.” But where is the water to drink when our cities are as dry as a desert? Instead of just issuing some orders…
Yaduveer, we’ll wait & watch
March 16, 2024At long last, the BJP has announced its candidate. Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, the BJP’s choice of a royal candidate, has ignited a flurry of reactions in the Mysuru-Kodagu region. Yaduveer’s selection has sparked sophisticated discussions in drawing rooms, lively banter in tea shops, concern in chaat stands and passionate debates in smokers’ corners. For…
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