This was interesting: a Facebook friend put up a photo on the timeline, stating, "In the library of Gujarat Assembly, Gandhi, Savarkar, Marx and Modi stay together." I am not sure how would the powers that be reaction to this. But I can at least try to predict: the librarian who allowed this display in the library would sooner or later would get a flak, or worse, lose his or job -- such is the atmosphere we seem to live in. I am not saying this because the books on Gandhi, Savarkar, Marx and Modi have been put side by side, but because one of the books on display is "Modi Demystified: The Making of a Prime Minister" (2014), authored by Ramesh Menon, whom I peripherally know as a veteran journalist. I have met him a couple of times, and have interacted with him on phone and social media apps.  While I have not read the book, I know him as a Modi critic. This is what the introduction to the book on Amazon , which is selling it, says: "Behind the ascent to prime m...

I have never studied in a journalism school, though I find that today only those who graduate (or post-graduate) in what is now termed as mass communication are taken as journalists in all top papers and other news outfits. In fact, there is no separate journalism course today. So what are produced in what is called mass communication courses? "Journalism is just one subject out of many in the mass communication course", I was told by one of the senior teachers -- a professor -- in a private university at a workshop organised by Google News in Ahmedabad. So what does the course teach? And what kind of professionals does it produce? This is what I learned: only 25% of the students are interested in going to journalism, while others would like to pursue their communication skills as public relations person, or work in advertising industry, or elsewhere where you require communication expertise. Surely, journalism is no more a lucrative choice.  And what are they tau...

Following my blog in Counterview,  A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe' , some Hindu love marriage couples were quite excited. They said they were not aware of the myth (they considered it as historical truth) that they were in love and then got married -- and that, that's why Maha Shivratri is celebrated. One of them, who resisted their parents to get married four decades ago, phoned up from US, where they are settled, to find out whether what I had written was true. They were excited: this should be "our Valentine's Day." Ironical though it may seem, two days after the Maha Shivratri, during our group trip to a top temple in Ahmedabad district, a discussion arose on love marriage. A young Hindu love marriage couple -- who rebelled to get married -- said, Shiv and Parvati were not the only love marriage couples in our ancient past. Ram and Sita were also love marriage couples -- Sita chose her husband ...

Let me begin with a sharp admission: I know very little  Gujarati journalism, even though I do know a few (though not many) Gujarati journalists and have been reading Gujarati news in dailies and  portals. To me, Gujarati, which is supposed to be my mother tongue, became a sort of “alien” language very early, not because of my choice, but because I was born (as would happen in traditional houses, where women go to parents’ house during child birth) in Ahmedabad, but brought up in Delhi, where my parents taught art education in Jamia Millia Islamia. Not that I could not read Gujarati – I secured the highest marks (68%) in 8th class in Gujarati, the language that I chose to study in Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, an elite school founded ex-ICS (equivalent to IAS under the British rule) HM Patel, Sardar Patel's closest aide. Part of the three-language formula, I chose Gujarati instead of the more scoring Sanskrit, another language offered in the school as an option. After 8th I hardly e...

It was a pleasure trip.  We enjoyed it thoroughly. We visited three temples about more than 100 km from Ahmedabad -- towards the famous Harappan site of Lothal. However, Lothan didn't appear to attract the group members of the society where we live. First it was a Boot Bhawani temple at a village called Arnej, then we went to Ganpatipura temple of Lord Ganesh, where I had been about two decades ago, and finally to Sarangpur Hanuman temple and the Swaminarayan temple aligned with it. I asked what was meant by "Boot", but nobody seemed to know. At Sarangpur Hanuman temple, it was interesting that they offered free meal, where we had our lunch, though what disturbed we was three poor kids, including two girls, taking from us used plates and handing them over to the woman who collected them. I also noticed a small child sweeping the premises of the temple, and I managed to take his photograph. At the Swaminarayan temple, I was struck by a photograph wh...

  The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.  I don't know who owns this site, for there is nothing on it in the About Us link. It merely says, the Nashik Corporation  site   "is an educational and news website of the municipal corporation. Today, education and payment of tax are completely online." It goes on to add, "So we provide some of the latest information about Property Tax, Water Tax, Marriage Certificate, Caste Certificate, etc. So all taxpayer can get all information of their municipal in a single place.some facts about legal and financial issues that different city corporations face, but I was least interested in them."  Surely, this didn't intere...

Commenting on the Union Budget, Prof Amitabh Kundu , who is Professor Emeritus at the LJ University, Ahmedabad, has said that the Finance Minister has failed to address the issue of unequal interest support to people in different economic classes.

The civil rights network, NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM), protesting against the Government of India (GoI) decision of compulsory aadhaar-based payments to rural workers, calling it a major blow to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), has said that this comes at a time when budgetary allocation for NREGA has been reduced to just Rs 60,000 crore in 2023-24 -- less than Rs 50,000 crore, if we deduct wage arrears from 2022-23, and the lowest as proportion of GDP (0.2%) in the history of the programme.