Guest Blogger

Time has come to raise a toast to Indian celluloid that’s a century-old. It’s a moment of great national pride and glory for all cinema lovers. Significantly, completion of 10 decades of movies is creating a buzz in the land of cineastes. Lights, camera, action! It was an era where working in cinema was a taboo, where a man with vision and courage made it possible. Mumbai’s affluent crowd had no idea of witnessing something ground-breaking. Minus sound everything was perfectly set on April 21, 1913, at Olympia theatre where Dadasaheb Phalke premiered the first ever full-length film, Raja Harishchandra. ...

DisclaimerThis post is being written without seeing the 1st episode that went on air today but that is for a reason. Read on to find out. Satyameva Jayate went on air today and the cyber world is full of comments about the pros and cons of doing such a show, its format, its timing, its tone and delivery etc. I thought I would focus on the intent of the show and see what does it mean for us as Indians to do a show about our issues? For as long as I can remember the underbelly of India has been ...

Innovation is something that is as close to life as our own thoughts, perceptions and feelings. Consider a situation where you have achieved a certain position in your life, and you are quite happy with yourself. Now, you might get laid back and feel yourself as the king of the world. But eventually, people will begin to forget you and your achievements, because another person has achieved something bigger or has something better to present to people. Thus, you end up becoming a blemishing Ben, and this could have been prevented, had you not relaxed and instead acted on the next ...

When I started writing a blog for this website, never did I think that I will write one on cricket, followed by another one on cricket. India, after all, is a huge country with several issues that merit a discussion every day. This month, for example, we had the controversial Railway budget (check up some sites if you already haven’t to get an idea of the mess that followed); the budget, the big one, which had the critics frowning as it usually does; and of course, the emergence of the young Samajwadi Party politician Akhilesh Yadav, who masterminded his party’s ...

Will our collective obsession with Indian cricket wither away? As and when our team manages to have a sequence of big wins – which it will, cricket being an unpredictable form of sport – any such question will sound comically preposterous. The reason: no matter how badly our players might have performed till the sudden turnaround, the popularity of Indian cricketers can be only matched by Bollywood stars: an iconic player like Sachin Tendulkar being as big as Shah Rukh Khan. We love them madly, with no criticism attached. ...

India is dreaming of becoming an innovative society. Everybody in every nook and corner is talking about innovation, but are we talking to ourselves as to how it will happen, what it will take to make it happen. There are so many challenges in terms of our culture which we have to face. How do we plan to address these issues? How serious are we? ...

I was taking in the garden with my friend, Utkarsh. My five-year-old daughter was busy playing on her own. We were talking about women values in our country. Looking at the GenNext, it was hard for any of us to even understand what is meant by women values. Soon, an old man from my neighborhood happened to pass by. ...

One of the purposes of celebration is to address the human needs of entertainment. Popular impression of entertainment is watching movies, going for outings, dance and music. Technically, entertainment is all about bringing in such variations in life that is different from routine activities and brings refreshment to both mind and body: to ease stress and make us livelier. If we do not entertain, life will still take its own course. Hence, entertainment brings pleasure and enjoyment in life, and is a must. And celebrations are most important and common means of entertainment. It requires more than one person to ...

Hare was the greatest fool on the planet as he went to rest thinking he has achieved a certain milestone and it would take the tortoise a huge time and effort to get there. Revisiting the story of 1990’s in India, it was a time when Indians were aspiring to touch the western world, and we were being led onto by some sensible and augmented leadership qualities. The era reopened the doors to brands in a bigger manner with aspirational movers and shakers like Pepsi and Coke, again coming over to delight Indian tastes. We started enjoying the globe from ...