Much has been said by pundits regarding the ongoing war in Afghanistan and what would constitute a feasible pull-out of troops. The British fought three major wars against the Afghans between 1839 and and 1919, to establish influence in the sphere of Central Asia during "the Great Game". A couple of passages written by Sir … Continue reading The Afghan Frontier →

Yes, it is true. Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn has been censored. According to the BBC: A new edition of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is causing controversy because of the removal of a racially offensive word. Twain scholar Alan Gribben says the use of the word "nigger" had prompted many US schools to stop … Continue reading Huckleberry Finn has been censored. What does it mean for desis? →

Continuing my rapid reading of choice texts from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, I came across what was purported to be an excerpt of a letter from Bengal by someone present in the Doab at the time. The excerpt was published in the New-York Literary Magazine Or Literary Repository in the newly-independent United … Continue reading A gruesome firsthand account of the Bengal Famine of 1770-1772 →

In my last piece, I introduced readers to the journal of Charles Acland, a clergyman who wrote extensively about his tenure as chaplain at “Poree, Cuttack, and Midnapore” from 1842-1845 in Manners and Customs of India. Acland provided some very colorful anecdotes pertaining to the natives of eastern India who were under the administration of … Continue reading A “common Hindoo legend” and a religious conversation in India in 1842 →

Out of the hundreds of books I’ve read in 2010, I would be hard pressed to find a more intriguing one than A Popular Account of the Manners and Customs of India written by the Rev. Charles Acland between 1842 and 1845. The slim volume published in the form of a journal describes the time … Continue reading On the travels of Charles Acland in Hindoostan (1842-1845) →

Recently President Barack Obama promised American support for India’s bid to gain a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Yesterday, according to leaked cables posted on the WikiLeaks site, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton called India a "self-appointed front-runner." Supporters of India's bid point out that it is the second-most populous nation, the … Continue reading Does India deserve a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council? →

Three weeks ago, I posted a detailed exposé on a sophisticated scam targeting Indian job-seekers. In that post, I laid bare details found in a fake job-offer letter that a very close acquaintance of mine had received. In the interim, one of the websites used by the scamsters for the regal sounding Roland Chambers has … Continue reading The scampire strikes back! →

In the Telegraph of Kolkata published this Sunday, Amit Chaudhuri laments the decline of Bengali cuisine. The immediate spark for Chaudhuri’s angst is two encounters with less than stellar food at a Kolkata restaurant quite uncreatively called “Oh! Calcutta.” I thought of this essay when I realized that almost the only restaurant that served anything … Continue reading Is Bengali cuisine in decline? →

Dear Unknown Reader, I’d like to wish you a very Happy Diwali! Just the other day, I returned from the local drugstore with a box of electric Christmas tree lights and red cinnamon-scented tea-light candles.The store had them stocked up for early Christmas shoppers, but I bought them to put up as Diwali lights in … Continue reading Diwali greetings from a Hindu atheist →

This is a low-resolution image of a full-page ad by Society for Human Resource Management which I just saw this morning. Because it is in the Economist, it is almost mandatory for Elizabeth Regina's visage to be part of the composite, but there is also the inclusion of two other staunchly anti-royalist personalities. A curious … Continue reading Queen Elizabeth Washington Gandhi… jai ho! →