A New Republic - Episode 8: Dyarchy
In this episode we look very briefly at the legislative implications of the Government of India Act of 1919. While this was an act that was widely reviled at the time, it ironically continues to have...
View ArticleHousekeeping notice
1. I got really bored of the old blog.2. I getting too old to code and tweak CSS and engage in other such youthful activities. (Since October my nasal hair is out of control. And some nights I cry...
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Remembrance
Today is Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom. So I thought I'd write a little post.It is only in the last half decade or so that I really began directing some proportion of my lifelong interest in...
View ArticleThe text on the back cover of the next book
The Sceptical Patriot: Exploring the Truths behind the Zero and Other Indian GloriesThere is really no such thing, ethnically speaking, as an Indian. We are all, every single one of us, the outcomes of...
View ArticleMy baby between the times of 3 and 4 AM: A poem.
I am hot.I am cold.This is a blanket? This is not a blanket. Do not insult me.Are you sleeping?You are really sleeping.I have pooped.Change me.Ha. I had not pooped.I had not even peed.Amuse me by...
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Notes From A Brief Journey - Part 1
(Two days before leaving for two week-long holiday to India.)Sister on WhatsApp: "Sidin chettan! How are things going?"SV: "Things are pretty hectic. Desperately tryi..."Sister: "Yeah all that is ok....
View ArticleI Miss Sachin
So the other day, after a typically pulsating match at the Cricket World Cup that I completely forgot about in the time it took me to get up from the sofa and go make a cup of tea, Sky Sports played a...
View ArticleThe Social Utility Of Outrage
"Yet almost none of these outrages have ended in any kind of meaningful political mobilization. We are no closer to understanding how to make our cities, leave alone our villages, safer for women....
View ArticleBusiness is hard. Explain with a memorised essay. (7 marks)
For some reason(s) that is not entirely clear to me I am often approached by people working on start-ups for help and assistance. I think it is because:Perhaps they think I can help them get mileage or...
View ArticleUnderrated fiction
COWEN: For fiction, what would be the country or region — now, what’s a country, what’s a region is even up for grabs — that is really underappreciated relative to what it has done? If you say, “Oh,...
View ArticleUgra on Karmakar
In India's Rio Olympic contingent of 100-plus, Dipa Karmakar's presence is undeniably the most unexpected. Her joyous arrival has driven her sport out of the shadows, and uncovered her home state...
View ArticleHero
All my life I have wanted to be a hero. I've wanted to be the guy that does the right thing when everyone is else doing the wrong thing. Or not doing anything at all. Rescue babies from fires. Tackle...
View ArticleLetter from Milton Keynes
In between P.V. Sindhu’s and Sakshi Malik’s triumphs, the Olympics helped to generate great levels of national self-indignation. And this, inevitably, led to Indians—you, me, Shobhaa De—indulging in...
View ArticleWhat We Remember (feat. Downloadable Masters Essay)
Around this time last year, as some of you may be aware, I enrolled in a Masters program at Birkbeck College in London. For some years now I had nurtured this plan of going back to college and learning...
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The Corpse That Spoke
I have a new book-type kind of thing out! It costs Rs. 30 and will take you, quite literally, 30 minutes to read. Do it man! Do it! (Click on the picture.) P.S. I am hopeless at this blogging thing...
View ArticleJinxed it
The family and I moved to Bromley, a suburb in the South East of London, in May last year. For the schools, primarily. But also for a little piece of garden, an extra bedroom and an office that I...
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Bombay Fever
My new book is out soon. Pre-order now!Amazon India. Flipkart. Where did it come from?In Switzerland, a woman collapses in the arms of an Indian journalist, her body disintegrating into a puddle of...
View ArticleThe Toothpick Incident
I have hair. Other people have lucrative investment portfolios, expensive cars, high metabolisms, statuesque physiques, healthy BMIs, and a capacity to sleep on planes during long flights. Very good....
View ArticleHelicopters in the bathroom
Around 11 pm on the 15th of June 1990, my mother woke me up in the vigorous fashion that she used to."Wake up Sidin wake up wake up wake up wake up. Enough of sleeping like a wild buffalo. Wake up wake...
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Walter Stefani
It was two or three days into my holiday in Bologna with my family that I noticed the small marble plaque on the outside wall of the building abutting our hotel. And this was not just because we were...
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