DHO DALA Sachin is homeless, while Sehwag is planning to move on by starting his own business The World Cup debacle has hit the lookalikes of cricket stars very hard. Ketan Tanna on how some of them have gone broke after commercials and stage shows were suddenly cancelled It was his dream to […]
Spiral Binding
An increasing number of suspicious fathers are openly or secretly performing tests on their children to ascertain who the dad is. Ketan Tanna unravels a new Indian experiment that Lord Ram had once done differently Amoment that most men fear. Even married men. The unemotional announcement of the woman, “I think I am pregnantâ€. But […]
1931: A True Story
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 […]
YOU MAY BE SINGLE, BUT IT’S TIME TO MINGLE WITH YOUR FINANCES
Ketan Tanna finds that the notions of saving and investing tend to come up only after marriage and family come into the picture Even though he has been earning well since he was 21, Anand Methwani, now 27, is not exactly well off. He shares a one-room tenement on the sixth floor of a building […]
For a few rupees more
There are people stuck in jail for years because they cannot even afford the paltry bail amounts. Ketan Tanna reports Every locked-up man knows that freedom has a price. It’s something called bail. Though these sums may be just a few hundred rupees for petty crimes, there is a growing number of men and women […]
Caring for the caregivers
ALL SMILES Caregivers of MS patients come together to laugh, dance and forget their worries Bar Code Ketan Tanna meets a support group that attempts to bring a little sunshine into the lives of multiple sclerosis patients and their families It’s a sunny Saturday morning. An unwell Kavita Pavaskar finds herself unable to make […]
DEVOTEES OF MERCY KILLING
IN DEFENCE OF DEATH These doctors believe death with dignity is a matter of personal choice In this series, we cover unusual groups that have been formed by a common passion. This week, Ketan Tanna enters the world of fierce minds that want to have the right to end their lives if they are […]
Paupers of Parliament
This may sound like a poor joke, but Ketan Tanna did stumble upon some MPs who are honest To the common man, an honest member of Parliament 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 […]
When They Say You’re Going To Die
THE PILOT WHO FLEW AWAY Twelve-year-old Aniket who had dreamt of flying passed away on January 2 What goes on inside the minds of people with terminal illnesses. Ketan Tanna goes that side On Thursdays, 37-year-old Ankita Anil Gurav used to wake up at five in the morning. She had to be ahead in […]
Ghost in the phone
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 […]
Not the last Don story
OLD WINE: SRK who plays Amitabh’s role is up against the venom of nostalgia Meenakshi Sinha and Ketan Tanna trace the rupee and other variables from the first Don to the second Every generation recounts the past with an unmistakable condescension — “simpler timesâ€. And so it must be said about the Technicolour age […]
Why Bollywood doesn’t fight cancer
CANCER RISING: Cinema needs cancer. Characters played by Rajesh Khanna in Anand, Jimmy Shergill in Lage Raho Munnabhai, Swini Khara in Cheeni Kum succumb to the disease Ketan Tanna on how cinema has made the disease a powerful brand of death while the truth is that an increasing number of patients are surviving it […]
The man with a green thumb
PLANTING HOPE: M S Swaminathan is still sowing seeds of agricultural reform, almost fifty years after the Green Revolution M S Swaminathan always strived to make life easier for farmers. Today, they are killing themselves. Ketan Tanna meets an embarrassed revolutionary It’s 4 am. The rest of Kerala is still sleeping in the comfort of […]
When the witness is a child
Children go through great trauma when they have to appear in court. Ketan Tanna on what happens when a young rape victim is asked to explain her ordeal in front of others or a little boy has to give evidence against a parent Last year, a 16-year-old girl was raped by her teacher in Mumbai. […]
The worldof rave
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 […]
No shelter from the storm
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 […]
D-Company to Company
The film industry is today finally professional. The management system is replacing what was once the vocation of temperamental men and women, report Meena Iyer and Ketan Tanna In simpler times, in the eighties and the nineties, when some actors used to sign up for more than 40 films a year, producer Prakash Mehra, in […]
Why a mysterious tribe is fleeing India
FULL FLIGHT: New converts from Mizoram roam the streets of Colaba before leaving India Poor Indian villagers who think they belong to a lost Jewish tribe are being lured by Israel. Probably for menial jobs. Ketan Tanna reports The Red Shield House is one of the old, unremarkable hotels that lie just beyond the morning […]
TORTURED HUSBANDS’ UNION
MEN IN BLACK: Gupta, Gokul and Sheikh are among those who are brought together by the grief caused by women In this column, we portray incredible, desperate and even very sane groups. This week, we present some men who claim to have been emotionally and physically abused by their wives. They gather every Saturday […]
The second problem
After the first line of defence fails, AIDS patients find the second line unaffordable, says Ketan Tanna Shashikant Shetye cannot afford to die. His mother and grandmother depend on his income as coordinator at Safe Sailors’ Club, part of the Humsafar Trust. The 40-year-old AIDS patient also cannot afford the expensive second line of anti-retroviral […]
State of the union
The year saw a record number of divorces across cities. Ketan Tanna on the consequences of wealth, empowerment and other demons In blocking traffic, marriages are second only to God. The pomp and scale of marriages in 2006 were probably unmatched in the past. But the year also saw an alarming number of divorce suits […]
Freedom from mother tongue
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 […]
The fellowship of troubled teens
Ketan Tanna meets a bunch of youngsters who congregate to share their experiences on broken relationships, homicidal tendencies and more The wind chimes sway gently in the background. In a spacious room in an upmarket building near the Juhu-Andheri link road, nine young persons have come together to form what is the first support group […]
Bringing up the mediums
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 […]
THE YOUNG AND THE RADIO
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 […]
THE FELLOWSHIP OF PELVIS
JAILHOUSE ROCK These fans donate their Elvis memorabilia as an emotional corpus In this series we cover unusual groups formed by a common passion. This week, Ketan Tanna profiles the Elvis Presley fan club of Mumbai Acruelty of time, or maybe culture, is that Himesh Reshammiya is more popular in India today than Elvis Presley. […]
Surviving Parents
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 […]
Never delete the spouse’s number
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 […]
THE BOYS INSIDE THE MATRIX
THE ASSASINS Members of the ATE gaming team are stars in the circuit In this weekly series, we portray incredible, desperate and even very sane groups. This week, Ketan Tanna travels to the parallel worlds of hardcore gamers The wars are raging. Across the country, from hundreds of homes and cafés, young boys, and […]
THE FAT PEOPLE’S CLUB
SMALL HELPING Members of the Obese No More club say cheese h e G a m e r s Ketan Tanna enters a society of seriously overweight people and finds that their hearts weigh the most They are hard to miss. As they walk down the lobby of a hospital in north Mumbai, strangers […]
The Longest Running Protest
HOLY COW The Longest Running Protest GANDHIGIRI Kishore Kumar and Suchitra Jhade say prayers at the gates of the Deonar abattoir For more than 25 years, every single day, a group of Gandhians has protested outside a slaughter house. Ketan Tanna reports Outside an abattoir in Mumbai, a truck arrives carrying cattle for slaughter. […]
UNDER THE SPELL OF SPIRITS
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 […]
Longest Indian Waits
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 […]
PROPHETS OF FREE SOFTWARE
In this series, we cover unusual groups. This week, Ketan Tanna profiles a movement unleashed by a legendary hacker They are not idealists. They are fighting for a cause because, among other reasons, they are making a living out of it. These are India’s free software warriors who want to extricate people from the hold […]
We are closed right now….
Mumbai’s mental health helplines don’t work at night. But, says Ketan Tanna, episodes don’t only occur during office hours A few weeks ago, late in the evening, 15-year-old Rohit doused himself in kerosene. He had been suffering from depression for a while. His parents were in the process of splitting and his grades in […]
Bhais speak differently now
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. […]
THE MOVIE MONGERS’ CLUB
IN CAMERA Members of passionforcinema.com bond over the potent compound of cinema and industry gossip In this Saturday series, we cover unusual groups. This week, Ketan Tanna meets bloggers who are mad about movies RGV is a favourite subject of discussion. They wonder what he will be up to next On September 18, when […]
Outstation cancer patients can put up here for free
WARM WELCOME: More than 40 patients have so far used the accommodation facility offered by Suresh Agarwal Ketan Tanna meets the man who has put his spare flat to good use Mumbai: Cancer is a cruel and expensive disease. It drains you physically and exhausts you financially. And for the thousands of families who […]
Two countries and a daughter
Nothing about Mohammed Ali Jinnah was simple—not his politics, not his personal life, and certainly not the property he left behind. To whom does the white colonial estate called Jinnah House on Malabar Hill belong? To India, Pakistan or his 88-year-old daughter Dina who lives in Manhattan and who recently moved the Bombay High Court […]
BLIMEY! SNAKES AREN’T SLIMY
OF THE SAME FEATHER The Bombay Natural History Society is one of Aisa’s largest naturalist groups In this weekly series, we cover unusual groups. This week, Ketan Tanna profiles the naturalist tribe which thinks creepy crawlies are more evolved than human beings Call them nuts, freaks or plain barking. It doesn’t affect them. By now […]
Here an Indian, there an Indian
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 […]
Malaysia, not truly Asia?
Ketan Tanna examines why the claims of race go beyond passports and boundaries Last year, the Indian High Commission in Guyana published an advert in a local newspaper offering scholarships to ‘Children of the Diaspora’. An angry reader wrote in that the Indian government should surely know that while assistance to Guyana was welcome […]
Remains of a beautiful mind
Ketan Tanna sifts through a cardboard box which contain the thoughts and fears of Parveen Babi Three years after she died, Parveen Wali Mohammad Khan Babi’s sunlit Juhu penthouse finally got a tenant. Despite Mumbai’s housing crisis and the cheap rent, there were few takers for the flat because the actress had died here […]
FOR THE SOUND OF SILENCE
COUNTRY MUSIC: These doctors have been fighting the menace of noise pollution since 84 Ketan Tanna profiles doctors who battle noise Once, on the eve of Ganesh Visarjan, a retired scientist put up a banner asking, “Is god deaf?†One Diwali night, gynecologist Prabhakar Rao called the Juhu police station to complain about the […]
CANNOT FORGET BIMAL ROY
CLASSIC MOMENTS BRM members are planning a film appreciation school and a museum in the director’s memory In this series, we cover unusual groups. Ketan Tanna, this week, profiles a unique club called Bimal Roy Memorial Needless to say, all Bimal Roy fans will not fit into a flat, especially a flat in Mumbai. […]
The Most Useful Litigations
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 […]
Dance of the Melancholy Ladies
The women meet every Monday afternoon near a psychiatrist’s clinic. They have been doing this for the last five years. Asha Anjali, they call themselves. They are survivors of depression, illness and suicide attempts. The goal of the Monday meetings is simple—pursuit of happiness. “This group has given me hope. But more than than, it […]
When thoughts become your enemy
FORCE OF HABIT: Members of the OCD support group look towards a more hopeful future In this column we profile unusual groups. This week, Ketan Tanna meets a group of people who meet to collectively combat a sapping mental disorder All the time I wanted to be clean. My obsession with cleanliness went to […]
Caring for the care-givers
IN SICKNESS AND HEALTH Members of Dilaasa meet every Sunday to share and empathise In this column, we feature unusual groups. This week Ketan Tanna meets a support group for family members of schizophrenics and those suffering from substance abuserelated psychosis Tears roll down the cheeks of the 55-year-old, frail-looking Yas minbi as she […]
SILVER LINING
More sex please, we’re seniors Older Indians are busy spicing up their sex lives, discovers Ketan Tanna There’s a recent study on the sex life of older people in Sweden that surveyed over 1,500 septuagenarians. Its conclusion: the number of men and women continuing to have sexual intercourse into old age had increased from 52 […]