Mumbai: In the new year, Mumbai police will have more than mere words for motivation to take care of their health and cut back flab. Under an incentive scheme to be implemented by the end of December 2005, constables will earn Rs 400 every month if they meet certain fitness standards. Officers could make as […]
Two weeks ago the United States had a Banned Books Week. Ketan Tanna looks back at India’s long and glorious tradition of banning anything perceived to hurt religious, patriotic and other sentiments DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover was published in Italy in 1928 and in Paris the following year. However, it was banned in the UK until […]
This may sound like a poor joke, but Ketan Tanna did stumble upon some MPs who are hones An honest member of Parliament, to a common man, would seem like an amusing oxymoron. MPs have always been gawked at for their swagger, upwardly mobile living standards and, of course, sprawling bungalows in Lutyen’s Delhi. Strangely though, there […]
EVERYDAY ALMOST 50,000 people make a beeline to get a glimpse of Jain Muni Shree Sahanjunili. Politicians like Atal Behari Vajpayee, Shankarrao Chevan, Najma heptullah, Ashok Singhal, Rajmata Scindia and a host of Maharashtra statesmen have visited him. Top police officials too pay their obeisance everyday. Any why not? Come Sunday and the Jain Muni […]
THERE HAS been a slow but steady rise in the cases of teenager’s girls opting for Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP). While it is difficult to compute the exact number, on an average more than 1,500 teenage girls are going in for abortion every month in Delhi alone. According to the figures available, more than […]
MR VISHWANATH Pratap Singh could not believe his ears. “Really? No, I was not aware that my paintings have been sold. How much? Rs 90,000? How do I feel? Kya bataoon (What should I say?). I was living the life of a parasite. Bap dadaon ki jameen jaidad per jee kha raha tha (I was […]
LEADING FILM actress Manisha Koirala was murdered on Monday. At least that is what Bombayites believed for the greater part of the day after an afternoon paper ran a story on its front page giving sketchy details of the alleged incident. Even as thousands of Bombayites read with horror that the beautiful actress had been […]
“WHERE ARE the millions that I am said to have stashed away? Where is the exquisite jewellery that I am said to possess? And look there, they are my Rembrandts,” says Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat , angrily pointing to two nondescript paintings on one of the walls of his single-bedroom home in Colaba here. Anger and […]
Is it Right-wing fanaticism? If it is not, what does one make out of the fact that there are lusty slogans of Vande Mataram and an all pervading anti-Mahatma Gandhi feeling among the audience after each show of a Marathi play called “Me Nathuram Godse Boltoy” (I, Nathuram Godse am speaking), a play that has […]
Forget IT for a while. Spare a thought for the newest Indian trans-nationals. But they aren’t listed on the stock exchange yet. Just chew on their management style: the planning is done in Karachi, ‘skilled’ manpower contracted from amchi Mumbai, and the job is executed in distant Bangkok. The Indian underworld of Mumbai origin is […]
FORMER CHINESE premier and now a senior leader Li Peng could not believe his eyes. In front of him was a hand-written 1945 citation by the legendary Mao Tse Tung praising late Indian doctor Dwarkanath Kotnis for his yeomen service to Chinese soldiers during the Sino-Japanese war. “He said it is up to the new […]
THE MAHARASHTRA government’s decision to convert Mumbai’s Tarapore Aquarium into an underwater world has annoyed both environmentalists and animal rights’ activists. The government had signed a joint venture with a Singapore based company, ATD, on December 2, to set up the project. Environmentalists argue that the lives of more than 100 fishes in the aquarium […]
PUNE, June 4, Did Mahatma Gandhi deserve to be “murdered “as he was out to ruin the nation” at the cost if his “baby” (Pakistan)? Equally, were the assassination of Indira Gandhi and her son, Rajiv Gandhi who was blown in to pieces, justified? Preposterous as the questions may sound many, it is evident that […]
MUMBAI, Sept.12: “I will not contribute five paisa, leave alone five lakh. What do they mean by issuing circular asking Ex-Chief Ministers to contribute Rs 5 lakh to the party fund? There should be some logic, some mechanism. I am not a jadugar (magician) to produce rs 5 lakh in one month,” says former Maharashtra […]
Did India really lose against Sri Lanka in Calcutta on Saturday? After all, the match was abandoned when 15 overs were yet to be bowled, notwithstanding Clive Lloyd’s decision to give Sri Lankans a walkover. One may find this argument inane but for the fact that a fair number of punters in Mumbai who had […]
Not many realize that encounter killings are the natural way of dispensing justice to hardened criminals who, if caught, invariably seek or jump bail. Most gangsters owe their allegiance to either Dawood Ibrahim or Arun Gawli, says Ketan Tanna At the height of terrorism in Punjab Mr. Julio Riberio, as the State’s Director-General of Police, […]
It is strange how while in the West the leaders are kicked out of public life at a whiff of a scandal, in India no one seems to bother about them at all. Having another woman is one’s life is accepted here without much ado. Is it because we have become cynical and uncaring? Or […]
Parliament is divided over the BJP’s demand that Vande Mataram be played at the beginning of each session. It is a controversy that would have cheered the hearts of the country’s erstwhile British rulers. Once a powerful weapon against colonial exploitation, the national song, Vande Mataram (salutation to the mother), has ironically begun to divide […]
Doordarshan gears up to face the challenge from foreign channels If Mandi House wasn’t so short on wit, its mandarins could well say that reports of the imminent death of Doordarshan (DD) have been greatly exaggerated. And certainly, such reports have done the rounds with unfailing regularity through the better part of this year. Alarms […]
The BJP is rushing to revise Indian history for school children A story is being made. Or rather, we should say remade, for the textbooks in the four BJP-ruled states. Himachal Pradesh, Madhya, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The RSS game plan of rewriting the of India, up to the present times is taking shape. Despite […]
Whoever remembers the Prasar Bharati Bill? Does anyone remember the Prasar Bharati Bill? The highly publicized Bill, Which was meant to free Doordarshan of government control and make it an autonomous corporation, has now been put in gold storage, at least for the time being. Apparently, the information and broadcasting ministry had proposed some amendments […]
Politics, ambition and corruption are corroding the iron frame of the Indian civil service Victimisation. Politics and corruption. The old enemies of the bureaucracy have returned. And going by the evidence of the last two years to an unusual extent. More than any time before, the civil service that Sardar Patel endearingly described as the […]
Vraj Patel, a central excise and customs inspector, runs a library for students who want to appear for competitive examinations but do not have adequate resources By Ketan Tanna/TNN Like thousands all over the country, Vraj Patel wanted to join the Indian Administrative Service. And, like thousands (minus a few dozen every year), he […]
Ketan Tanna on why it’s absurd for the government to use the 1931 census as an OBC reference guide It is amusing to note that the census report of 1931 influenced the central government in 2006 to make recommendations on what constituted the backward castes. Free India never conducted a caste-related census and instead […]
TELL-TALE Second-hand cell phones are often a goldmine of saleable data When you sell your mobile phone, you think you have deleted all the data, including obscene files. But curious buyers can resurrect it with a simple tool, say Ketan Tanna and Yatish Suvarna It is not clear if humans have the privilege of […]
Ketan Tanna and Yatish Suvarna on the changing character of drug parties Aphone call confirms the date. The place is still a secret. The next day, an email arrives giving the time and the location. A scanned image of a roughly scrawled map is in the attachment. The rave party is somewhere in Karjat, on […]
If you’re 40, you have crossed the hill! At least, that’s what medical insurance companies feel, says Ketan Tanna hey say life begins at 40, but for the health insurance industry in India, life starts ending when one touches 40. How else does one explain why so many people in their 40s are finding […]
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE: Voice trainer Anil Mani (left) helps students get rid of their accents There is a huge increase in Indians who are enrolling in classes that teach the correct way to speak English, says Ketan Tanna It is not just the Malayalee who has the problem. Most Indians speak English with […]
UNDER THE TABLE The Athornan Madressa at Dadar is one of only two boarding schools in the world for Parsi priests  The Parsi community is trying its best to inspire little boys into becoming priests, reports Ketan Tanna Parents make the heartbreaking decision to send their children to residential schools for various material […]
SMOOTH OPERATORS Even though the internet and cell phones have diminshed the charm of ham radio, youngsters are falling in love with it In this series, we look at unusual groups formed by a common passion. This week, Ketan Tanna finds out how an ancient technology is attracting the youth In the time of […]
BUT IT’S ALMOST NICE Parull Gossain’s (left) friends tease her about living with her mom but she loves it. Ashok Shah (right) looks happy though he can’t host parties. Singles who love their parents too much to abandon them suffer the quirks of the aged and sacrifice the freedom of adulthood, say Ketan Tanna […]
Many estranged couples keep in touch, sharing the warmth of each other’s friendship despite the pain of divorce. Some even continue their physical relationship, reports Ketan Tanna It is often said that a divorce creates an Indo-Pak situation between a couple. There is familiarity and contempt. Subterfuge and parleys. People would rather read the telephone […]
ABRACADABRA Members of the Magik Group meet on ferries, in homes and restaurants, on days of supernatural importance In this series, we cover unusual groups. This week, Ketan Tanna enters the world of white magic One night last December, a ferry left the Gateway of India and sailed into the darkness in search of […]
Black magic boomerangs. White magic heals’ Ketan Tanna on how we are a nation that has got used to standing in eternal queues Apart from the dark blue passport, the endorsement of Indian citizenship comes from the inescapable anthem — You Are In Queue. Indians are so many and human activities so few that […]
GANG TALK Abu Salem was called Chikna Ketan Tanna on how the colourful language of the underworld has changed It was inevitable that the language of the underworld too will change with the times. The peculiar tongue of the mafia which called AK -47,“guitarâ€and Dubai,“gaonâ€,has long entered popular culture. Now some updates are necessary. […]
Ketan Tanna on the embarrassing way in which India likes to appropriate achievers pic: THE PANTHEON: Bobby Jindal, Sanjaya Malakar, Sunita Williams and Norah Jones We love to laugh at the nouveau riche and the silly way in which they flaunt their baubles: driving up in a flashy red sports car, wiping themselves with […]
This is how unknown people change your life for the better Ketan Tanna and Sharmila Ganesan look at some important PILs that are pending and a few ridiculous ones It is not clear which was India’s first ever Pub lic Interest Litigation (PIL). Some say it was the Hussainara Khatoon vs State of Bihar case […]
Professor C R Mukundan Ketan Tanna speaks to the man whose liedetector technology is so loved by the police In the mind games being played out on an increasingly splattered chessboard between intelligence agencies and terror groups, a portly, 67-year-old professor from Bangalore could turn out to be the crucial bishop. Professor Mukundan Champadi Raman […]
ORDER, ORDER! ALL RISE Kiran Bedi says dispensing justice has always been her true calling India’s first attempt at ‘legal television’, helmed by Kiran Bedi, is on its way. But will it be about TRPs or social justice, wonders Ketan Tanna Does your husband (or wife) beat you? Are you victimised by your children? […]
finds out how two housing societies in Mumbai have been surviving without the idiot box for the last 13 years Afew kilometres away from Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms stand two housing societies whose residents aren’t, like most of India, breathlessly following the convoluted tracks of her daft soaps. In fact, they don’t care about television […]
NOT ITS DAY A vet conducts a check-up at his Mumbai clinic Pet canines these days are pampered with the most expensive medical and beauty care from hip replacement surgery to aromatherapy massages, says Ketan Tanna Last week, well-known opthalmic surgeon Keiki Mehta conducted a phacoemulsification cataract surgery. According to medical journals, this advanced surgery […]
CHEERING UP: Sonu Nigam at a recent function organised by the Cancer Patients Aid Association Ketan Tanna on how the economic meltdown is hurting NGOs dependent on corporate funding In the first week of September 2008, Radha Vedantam, project manager at the Society for Service to Voluntary Agencies (SOSVA) was a very happy woman. SOSVA […]