Dear Friends, for the third year in a row, I will be on the road later this month…traveling to several cities – talking, dreaming and breathing politics…
I will be landing in Delhi on 18th, for several hours of meetings with colleagues from FTI and some other groups..before heading to Ghaziabad, then to Chandigarh, Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai and back to Delhi…all this in 9 days..It promises to be fun.

Watch the facebook page for details as the various meetings and talks get confirmed…and wish me luck.
In the meantime, some memories …

This is for all of us who sometimes despair and wonder where do we begin…
Courtesy, SakshiTrust here is one great tool to help you start: “RTI Guide for Improving the Urban Enviornment”…and what better place to begin than your own neighbourhood?

Download the guide, share it..and please spread the word…Together, we can win. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!
Related Post: A Great Model of Good Governance
Disclosure: I do not know the people behind Sakshi Trust personally but I was impressed enough with their work to sponsor the guide mentioned above.

Ok, I made the last word up…Thanks to a nifty plugin from mobstac, you should now be able to read this blog on your mobile – regardless of which model you have… And those of you who are proud owners of Kindle, you can now subscribe to the posts for a small amount per month.
Kindle-readers in the US, please click here. If you are in the UK, please click here…

Please do let me know if the links are not working andor you notice something odd. Thank you for your support …

I woke up this morning to this statement by David Cameron, Prime Minister of Great Britain. Speaking at a conference in Germany, he said (emphasis added):
Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism

He went on to say:
Let’s properly judge these organisations: Do they believe in universal human rights – including for women and people of other faiths? Do they believe in equality of all before the law? Do they believe in democracy and the right of people to elect their …

Dear All, some of you – particularly those from Kerala and/or familiar with Sabarimala Devasthanam – may have read about the recent controversy surrounding the Makara Jyothi (that surfaced in the aftermath of the tragic stampede a few days back).  Below are some excerpts from an email by Rajesh Pillai in response to a particularly gratuitous article that appeared in the Kerala press a few days back (unfortunately I dont have a translation; the original in Malayalam can be read at this link). Rajesh’s response was triggered by an email …

In the context of recent happenings in the Kashmir valley and the debate in blogosphere on nationalism, identity and history, please read these extracts from “People are the Nation“ by Sh M G Vaidya (emphasis added):
…My question: what was newly created on 15August 1947? A new ‘State’ or a new ‘Nation’?…So, then, what is a ‘nation’?
I quote French thinker Ernest Renan: ‘It is not soil any more than the race which makes a nation…A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things which are really only one go to …