Posts from the politics category.
There are some books you finish and immediately know what you think about them.And then there are books that leave you sitting with a question.A Republic Reimagined: A New Economic Model for a New Age by Joshua Schmude belongs to the second category for me.I didn't agree with everything in the book.But I kept thinking about one question.Who owns the future when machines begin doing more of the wor...
I think one of the criterion for someone to become a politician is they have read Rush lyrics. I don’t care about a college degree. Basic literacy, common sense and ethics are much more necessary. And if they don’t get it, they are rejected. They can ask for help, that is great. But until they fucking understand the meaning behind and between the lyrics, they have to keep at it. Or give up. If the...
We thought we knew the result.The pollsters thought they knew.The television studios thought they knew.The political class thought they knew.Then the voters spoke.And suddenly, almost everyone had to explain why they had been wrong.That is where Rajdeep Sardesai’s 2024: The Election That Surprised India becomes fascinating.Because this isn’t merely a book about an election.It is a book about how n...
A crown is supposed to be a symbol of power.But what if it is actually a debt?That was the thought I kept returning to while reading Rajesh Mehta’s Bleeding Crown: Protector of Sivi.Set in 726 BC, long before the familiar chapters of Indian history that most of us encounter in school, the novel takes us into the kingdom of Sivi, where a young prince is expected to inherit not merely a throne, but ...
We often think we know a place because we know its address.We know the roads. We know the buildings. We know where to get tea. We know which corner is crowded in the evening. We know where people walk, where children play and where politicians once stood behind microphones.But knowing a place is not the same as knowing its memory.That distinction is at the heart of Shanta Gokhale’s Shivaji Park — ...
There is something deeply unsettling about a dead police officer hanging from a tree at a Delhi crossroads. Not just because it is murder, but because of who the victim is. A person who is supposed to represent the law has now become a message from someone who clearly has no respect for it.And then there is the symbol.The mark of Lady Justice on the dead officer’s neck.That is where Rihan Khalyani...
There are crimes so brutal that they refuse to remain inside police files. They become part of a city’s memory. Parents whisper about them to protect their children. Entire neighbourhoods measure time by what happened before and after. The Shadow of Evil belongs to that unsettling category of true crime — not because it glorifies violence, but because it forces us to confront what happens when vio...
Some books arrive carrying more conversations than pages.Long before I knew what Fractured Communities was trying to say, I knew who had written it. That, perhaps, is the strange reality of our times. We often meet an author through headlines before we ever meet their ideas. Opinions are already formed. Sides are already chosen.It made me wonder how often we judge a book before opening it.Once I l...
Sometimes the most dangerous people in an espionage novel aren’t the ones carrying guns. They’re the ones sitting comfortably behind polished desks, making decisions that others will have to bleed for.That thought stayed with me long after I finished Dark Asset by Adrian Magson.At first glance, it has everything I expect from a modern spy thriller — covert missions, relentless action, shifting all...
Every few years, we stand in long queues under the scorching sun, proudly ink our fingers, and cast our votes. We are told that this is the greatest celebration of democracy.But I often find myself asking a simple question:If the voices of the people are not consistently reflected in governance, what is the true purpose of an election?Democracy was never meant to be just about choosing representat...