When she raised her arm in defiance and lip-synced parda nahi jab koi khhuda se to Lata Mangeshkar’s voice in Mughale-Azam, the entire nation heaved. Scores timed hours for a mere glimpse of her ethereal beauty. She never aged; death saw to it. Madhubala’s mortal remains lie today at the Santa Cruz Muslim cemetery. But […]

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 failed to become one, instead managing to join the Central Excise and Customs as an inspector. But, unlike the faceless thousands like him, he has done much better. The Jetpur […]

Life is a beautiful day. But you need to wake up to see it. Right now, at this very moment, there may be scores of people standing on a stool with a cloth around their neck. A way of leaving Mumbai that is increasingly becoming popular. But for every stool that has fallen, several nooses […]

They are not run-of-the-mill gods. They function a lot like specialist doctors, whom a sick man approaches after the family doctor has washed his hands of the case. Devotees across the country are landing up in lakhs at these holy destinations with specific prayers, which they believe a general purpose god may be unable to […]

Mumbai: What do established television actors and Andheri have to do with each other? Why would their struggling colleagues, still having some catching up to do, plump for a Saibaba Complex or a Gokuldham of Goregaon (E)? And why do you bump into so many BPO and call-centre employees in Powai, Andheri (E) or Malad’s […]

Mumbai: Eighteen-year-old Kunal jumped to his death last August. The teenager’s middle-class parents did not know how to deal with his assertions that he was better than tennis player Leander Peas. Kunal withdrew into a shell and was put on medicines but that did not help. Edward D’Cunha’s father, Stanley, is now fighting against the […]

The belief that organs will come in handy during afterlife is one of the many reasons why Indians are the worst body donors, says Ketan Tanna Shiva in his famous fury beheaded son Ganesha and then replaced his human head with an elephant’s, in what was perhaps the first recorded case of organ transplant in India. […]

At times, our dreams are vivid, colourful and imaginative, based on what we have imbibed and perceived in our dayto-day life. As common as dreams are for those who have vision, the visually challenged too dream. But what do they dream of, especially those who have been born visually challenged? Do they see colour? What […]

Elderly Parsis are contriving to make their 40-something singles fall in love, marry and hopefully procreate. Ketan Tanna follows their strategies Kety Daruwala is unable to contain herself. After all, she is reminiscing the paper dance game that she and other members of the Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat organised for the youth, during a get-together for marriageble boys […]

These are moving stories of men and women who have sacrificed all pleasures to care for their disabled spouses for years. Ketan Tanna reports Forty-three-year-old Megha Desai has stood by her 51-year-old husband Rasik’s bed for 11 years now. There is no fixed pattern to their life. Lights of their Andheri bungalow are switched on and off […]

THEY CALL themselves ‘conscience keepers’ of the voters. They are supporting not more then eight Independents. They are Bombay’s leading citizens-the much-hyped former Deputy Commissioner Govindrao Khairnar, supercop Julio Rebeiro, former municipal commissioners S S Tinaikar and J B Deouza and Hindustani Andolan chief Madhu Mehta. They loathe the word “party” so much, that they […]

ABOUT three months ago, 83-year-old Neville Wadia under went a traditional Parsi ceremony called “Navjote”. This scared Parsi ritual, which was a low-key affair, was held at his son Nusli Wadia’s (Bombay Dyeing chief) residence. By itself, there is nothing controversial about a Parsi having his Navjote ceremony performed. However, Neville Wadia’s ceremony has the […]

PIYALI (not her real name) was barely a week old, she was brought to Bombay’s Lokmanya Tilak Hospital or the Sion Hospital as it is better known. The two persons who brought her claimed to be her relatives. The moment the opportunity came. Piyali’s so-called relatives disappeared. Hovering between life and death. Piyali, who had […]

GULABKALI IS 35years old. Malnourished and haggard, her moth-eaten ears are disfigured with numerous flea and parasite bites. Gulabkali has small wounds all over her body, some of them so fresh that blood still oozes out of them. Sitting ditch unable to move her chained legs, she winces occasionally and grunts in pain. “Arre dekho […]

IS IT a reflection of the society we live in, or a sign of the times? In the capital alone, on an average, at least 6,000 children and youngsters belonging to both lower and upper economic strata take recourse to psychiatric help every month. In addition, the number of children going in for counseling in […]

Two novels written by dalit writers that chronicled their struggles in the face of all odds are taking Maharashtra by storm. Ketan N Tanna meets the heirs of this legacy What does one say to a father who insists that his son and daughters address him as baap (‘father’ in Hindi) and not vadil (the […]

· The World Bank regularly consults him for his expertise on the cores of pavement and slum dwellers in India, as does the Maharashtra Government and other state governments.· The National Slum Dwellers federation (NSDF) which he heads has 2, 30,000 slum dweller families as its members. · The Slum dwellers and pavement dwellers whom […]

· Baron (Distributors for Aiwa) humbly contributes Rs100 to the families of our fallen patriots on every Aiwa hi-fi music system and Colour TV sold.· For every minute you talk on Max touch tomorrow, a Rupee will go out to the fund that will help the families of the soldiers we lost. · Acme Clothing […]

PUNES CITIZENS ARE PROTESTING ON THE STREETS, KETAN TANNA EXPLAINS WHY IT IS Wednesday afternoon, and very lot. Barefooted Prashant Waghmare, 34, walks agonizingly on the hot, tarred road, towards a union leader who is addressing a demonstration outside the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) in protest against the abrupt transfer of IAS officer Arun Bhatia […]

PUNE: Darkness may be their fate. Blindness, however, did not prove to be an impediment for 80 Pune-based children who pitched in their creative bit by staging a play “Freedom Saga” celebrating 50 years of Indian Independence. Swatantrachi Yashogatha (freedom saga) staged here last week by children of the Pune Andhshala (Pune blind home) recounted […]

PUNE, Aug.17. “It was a strange sight at taihoku airport near Taiwan on the morning of Aug.18, 1945. Hot steam emanated from the body of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Clad in tight woolen riding breeches, tight belt, his body was blistered by hot oil from the plane that had crashed minutes ago. Strewn around Netaji […]

PUNE: “Kasturba Gandhi’s health became worse. We sent for oxygen. As her condition worsened, nursing became more and more taxing. She could not breathe without oxygen. She expired exactly at 7.35 pm. On February 22, 1944 with her head on Mahatma Gandhi’s lap, Devadasbhai, her son, put his head on her breast and calling out […]

Mumbai, June 22: Is life fair? Why do many good people suffer due to someone else’s fault? More to the point, what should be done about a person who has no hope for the future and in all probability will wither away like a vegetable for no fault of hers? For the past 23 years, […]

Humsafar reaches out to Mumbai gays through voice mail MUMBAI, March 21 with tears rolling down his cheeks, Sagar Oberoi, a 25 – year – old computer software professional, says, “I feel so unwanted and helpless. It is as if the entire world has ganged up against me. Sometimes I feel it would be better […]

It is late in the evening as the sunsets outside Sant Yadavbaba Temple in the small dusty village of Ralegaon Siddhi, 30 kilometers from Ahmednagar city in south Maharashtra. “I am not going to give up my fight. Let Bal Thackeray come here to meet me or Mahohar Joshi come here to meet me. It […]

For those at Sanjivini ‘people matter’. That is why this voluntary organization has been helping those in need since 1976. What do you do when faced with an emotional problem? When you feel depressed, worried, confused or trapped? What do you do when life becomes unbearable? When you feel empty and find yourself in a […]

Founded after the Indo-Pak war in 1971 the War windows Association is doing a laudatory job helping the windows of those who die protecting the frontiers of our country On January 26, a number of medals like the Paramvir Chakra and the Visisth Seva Chakra are awarded to gallant men of our armed forces. Many […]

It is time to consider all the implications legal, ethical and emotional of voluntary euthanasia A standing joke has it that once an American politician was asked what he had against euthanasia. The politician replied, “Nothing, I don’t have anything against youth anywhere.” However, euthanasia, or good death, is no laughing matter. It raises questions […]