SK Birla owned Hindustan Motors, the makers of Ambassador cars, have fallen in bad times. The cars don’t sell, and no plan of turnaround is working. Can’t blame because the plans are presumably not designed to succeed. But then the HM owns a sprawling complex at Hindmotor which is located very attractively. As is the […]
Nuclear deal, and the left conundrum, part 2
In his press declaration this afternoon to announce the decision arrived at earlier in the day by CPM’s central committee, Prakash Karat, the party’s general secretary, sounded reasonable. He said the phrase ‘withdrawal of support’ to the present government was never uttered since the controversy started. Karat also said that let there be a mechanism […]
Nuclear deal, and the left conundrum
If there is one trait the Indian left can be easily identified with, it is anti-Americanism. Those like me who have spent greater part of life in Kolkata would recall the left’s popular slogan, markin sambrajyabad, nipat jak (let the American imperialists perish!) that would rent the air till recent past in any meeting or […]
Effect of worms and viruses
Here is a dreary example of what worms and viruses can do to your computer peripherals. [Photo courtesy]
The name game
If ever you come to a place you’ve never been to, and you hear the names of localities that end with words like pur, para, gunj, ghata, palli, bazaar, nagar, or danga, you can rest assured that you’re in the city of Kolkata. Each of these words in Bengali means places where people have come […]
Chinese first
A China Eastern flight taking to wings [Picture source] If you’re to travel to Shanghai from Kolkata, there is no direct flight as yet. You have to detour via Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport or Hong Kong. In fact presently the air-connect between India and China is provided by China Eastern Airlines that flies between Mumbai and […]
The chemical protest
The story of proposed chemical hub is just about beginning to unfold. In a dispatch in The Statesman, July 28 we’ve a dire warning from leading scientists about ‘disastrous consequences’ of having the chemical hub in Haldia. Here is an excerpt: In a letter written to the chief minister, the Teachers and Scientists Against Maldevelopment […]
Tale of secrets
In his forthcoming book, Kaoboys of RAW – Down Memory Lane, author B Raman, a former bureaucrat in the Cabinet Secretariat, writes that during Indira Gandhi’s reign, the CIA, conscious of her distrust of US activities, could lay hands on sensitive documents through the French intelligence agency that successfully penetrated the Prime Minister’s Office. Raman […]
India’s alcohol story
Anything to do with liquids like wine, alcohol, spirit, etc does not find many takers in India. The average Indian considers them an evil that mankind can and should do without. Which is why India ranking 150th among 184 countries in consumption of alcohol listed in World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Status Report on Alcohol, […]
Sishumangal has a new building
Here is where I was born, and here is where my aunt breathed her last in 1993. When I went to see her it was for the first time I set feet there (considering that as an infant I could not possibly have stood on my feet), and after that I haven’t had the occasion […]
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