Opinions on global development and Indian politics
When I started this blog, there were several posts that were essentially personal reflections. Over time, those posts have dwindled, as professional interests and thoughts on politics dominated. So this is a rare one...this post was written first for the Trivandrum Bengalee Association's (TBA) annual magazine. ** Having grown up a Bengali in Kerala, I …
Continue reading "A Bengali across the sub-continent – a personal reflection"
Where do we start in trying to understand our communities? This is particularly relevant when we have multiple identities and affiliations, being an insider to many communities and at the same time, an outsider to many more. To a personal reflection by a fellow blogger on how the sense of community is different in India …
Satyamev Jayate is the latest celebrity show on television. KBC created millionnaires, Khatron ke Khiladi looked for daredevils, Big Boss created a bunch of public nuisances - this one wants to 'change our hearts' and while at it, hit us hard. So Aamir the superstar with his carefully cultivated public image hosts the series, the first …
Harish Hande, the founder of SELCO, won the Magsasay award for 2011. In an interview with Mint, he says - "...I think it would be how do you motivate people from any type of university to actually say that there are 600 million at the other end of our country. If you take my own …
I wrote this post just after I got here***Today, I complete three weeks in Ghana - everything has been smooth and pleasant so far. In many ways, settling in has been easy and I am starting to believe that approaching a change of location as emotionless-ly as possible works! Neutralise expectations from people you are likely …
Both my savings and loan repayment schemes with my neighbourhood fruit-seller hit a snag after two rounds of repayment, a few months back. She had repaid 20 out of my 50 cedis over a couple of months. Then one day, she offered to give me mangoes for free, saying that she would never be able to …
Today, I prayed aloud, for the first time ever. It was at the end of a public workshop on the education sector in Ghana. I was asked to lead the closing prayer. Those who know me probably have an idea how traumatic it must have been for me. And those who are familiar with this …
Schumpeter has fallen in love with the Tata group...But in the emerging world—and particularly the emerging India where Tata Steel and the Taj Palace were created a century ago—the first job of a company is to create order amid chaos. In their different ways, the steelworks and the luxury hotel are fortresses against the surrounding madness....contrasting the …
Its the season of MBA entrance exams in India once again. Hundreds of thousands of students vying for few thousand MBA seats in the belief that its going to secure their future. I graduated from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) in 2005. I loved my two years there and in this post, I am rehashing an …
9/11 is...the date on which Swami Vivekananda delivered his famous “Sisters and Brothers of America” speech at the World Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893.It was on that day that Gandhi first spoke about Satyagraha — at a public meeting in JohannesburgFrom The Hindu. Here is an older article with the same theme.
Suvojit Chattopadhyay 