Shared Delusion is All Around Us
Joker: Folie à Deux, the second edition in the ongoing attempt at seriousness by Todd Phillips, director of The Hangover trilogy, released a few days ago. The film probably triggered a mass googling of Folie à Deux, which means ‘madness of two,’ a phenomenon that is more formally known as shared delusion. So, what was […]
How did Buddhism survive its infancy in Hindu India?
In his latest book, The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World, William Dalrymple argues that India influenced the world immensely, even more than what some Indians in search of cultural pride have been saying all along. But what exactly was this influence? It was chiefly science and Buddhism, though Dalrymple’s enjoyable book cites […]
Success Requires Unhealthy Behaviour
Success is a gift given by friends. There is a fallacy among talented people, especially if they are young, that they can be exempt from this rule because of their immense talent. But they will find out it is not true. Even in the arts, and other solitary professions, the origin of success is in […]
Why Indian Cities may Remain Unliveable
As an Indian, my standards are so low that my idea of exciting urban development is a Nitin Gadkari tweet. I enjoy reading the plans of the minister for road transport and highways—his great projects, how he would punish Indians who don’t follow the law (this part especially), how he hopes to replace vehicular horns […]
Only Bombay could have Made Nari Hira
When I do the math now, I realize that many people whom I considered old when I was 21 were actually only in their 40s and 50s. Nari Hira, for instance, who I thought was the most flamboyant old man in India was in his mid-50s when I first met him in 1995. I had […]
‘Inspiring Figures’ Extol their ‘Hard Work but Hide their Luck
The poor are not just people with no money. They are influenced by forces unique to them, forces that are hard to understand for those who have not experienced poverty, especially people who say, “I came to Bombay with ₹10 in my pocket.” Being poor, being truly poor is when your papa is poor, when […]
All Successful Migrants in America are Whites Where They Come From
Among the leading causes of human absurdity is people identifying with the famous just because they have one thing in common. As we will see in the coming days when Kamala Harris intensifies her campaign to become the next American president. Three kinds of people will extol her because they would misunderstand her as a […]
India’s Real Shame at the Olympics is not Sports
Every four years, the world organizes a great festival that insults India. And so it would be at the Paris Olympics. No other nation would suffer as we will. The Winter Olympics is not so embarrassing because India is perceived as a tropical country. But at the summer edition, India will be exposed. We may […]
Is the Big Fat Indian Wedding More Vulgar than You?
A slew of extravagant weddings has repulsed middle-class Indians, even though they may not be from the South. Too golden, too grand, too garish, they complained. How can you spend so much money when there is “agrarian distress”? The urban middle-class does not employ the poor merely to cook for them, drive them, and walk […]
How Boy Gets Girl: Love and the advantages of being ordinary
The hero of the Hindi film, ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhania’ is a young man who does not know what compound interest is. In fact, he does not know what simple interest is. Even though his father owns a car dealership, where he works, he is unaware that ABS stands for anti-lock braking system. All of the world’s acronyms or abbreviations are unfamiliar to him. He looks like the sort of […]