British Conservative politician Norman Tebbit was famous for his Tebbit test, the idea that no one who rooted for (say) the Indian or Pakistani cricket team could be considered a British patriot. Of course, it was meant to apply to desis and blacks and not the Scots or Irish. Tebbit’s small-minded ‘test’ was seen as […]
Memorial Day parade, Cambridge
Today, Memorial Day, was originally established to honor Union soldiers fighting to abolish the kidnapping, sale and enslavement of Africans and preserve the united state. It’s the first Memorial Day in the history of America that a minority stands a good chance of becoming president.
So it was quite unusual last week when […]
Yesterday’s April Fools prank turned the usual result on its head: many of the savviest readers were tripped up, while those who tend to trust saw right through it. My theory is that the efficient don’t read the fine print, they only skim the beginning of each paragraph. And all the clues were placed at […]
Update: Only one person recognized the G.W. Bush signature?
Happy Bangladesh Independence Day:
‘Amar Shonar Bangla (My Golden Bengal)’ is a 1906 song written and composed by the poet Rabindranath Tagore, the first ten lines of which were adopted in 1972 as the Bangladesh national anthem. The word shonar literally means ‘made of gold’, but in the song shonar Bangla may be interpreted to either […]
Happy pagan spring celebration of choice. Me, I’m off to find a bhang tablet from the local paanwalla. It’s harder than you might think in buttoned-up New Inglaaand.
For my money, the prettiest spring rituals are still those involving cherry blossoms:
The capital’s famous cherry trees are primed to burst out in a perfect pink peak about […]
Sikh construction workers are actually a common sight in Harlem and parts of Brooklyn:
Pictured during one of my regular jaunts through Williamsburg… The boys with the black hats were on their way to temple which was just down the street, the boys working with the shovels were mixing concrete by hand, and laying bricks outside […]
Parag reppin’ D.C. on a glorious summer morning at Lands End in the Second World
My buddy Parag Khanna launched his book The Second World at a clutch of readings around Harvard last Friday and had a chi-chi launch party at Sparks House, the residence of Harvard’s official chaplain.
When I was living in Bandra, my pad […]
Since today is George Washington’s birthday, let’s compare how India and America honor their respective fathers of their nations.
Washington doesn’t even get his own day - it’s widely known as Presidents Day. Gandhi’s day is called Gandhi Jayanti.
Washington’s mug is on the one dollar bill. Gandhi’s is on every bill.
On Washington’s day, government employees skip […]
The mullahs issued their fatwa against Salman Rushdie 19 years ago today, a date he memorialized in The Ground Beneath Her Feet in a scene just as bloody as the inception of the holiday. It’s hard not to read the scene as a metaphor for both the jihadis and the unwanted press:
On St. Valentine’s Day, […]
Delhi, a few hours ago:
To avoid creating a diplomatic incident, the poor French president even visited the Taj Mahal without girlfriend Carla Bruni.
Happy Republic Day. When in Delhi, beat retreat.
Related posts: Republic Day in pictures, Beating Retreat, Fanaa in security
Scenes from Martin Luther King Jr.’s India tour in ‘59:
The Kings meet Nehru
While hundreds of Indians waited in vain for King’s arrival in India’s capital, a later flight took them to Bombay.. the three travelers were shocked by their initial encounter with Indian poverty on the drive to Bombay’s Taj Mahal Hotel. ‘The sight […]
The afternoon I ran into a former Miss Universe at a Bandra candle shop, I spontaneously decided to spend half an hour there browsing these Indian Christmas ornaments. You’ve never seen knicknacks inspected with such care.
Happy Christmas, Hannukah, Eid.