Category: Uncategorized

To a large extent I would agree with Farrukh Dhondhy’s piece, “Leaving Office Early” (HT 15th February), on the unexpected resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. Some of his statements bear repetition: “Nothing becomes Benedict’s office as his leaving of it … he has through his resignation demonstrated for our sceptical times that the papacy is…

This title is in Latin, meaning “Where are you going, Mother Church?” I have never studied Latin, so if my grammar is incorrect I hope to be pardoned. “Quo Vadis” is the name of a famous book and movie, based on an encounter between St Peter, the first pope, and the risen Christ. Peter asks…

(A sequel to “The Rapist in Me”) Some things don’t go away, like the Delhi gang rape case, which continues to make news, even a month later.  Initially I felt that the protests were media hype directed more at the Government and the police.  That is when I wrote “The Rapist in Me”, because I…

Does this sound like a lethal expose?  It may or may not be, depending on how “shock proof” you, the reader, are.  So ready yourself for some eclectic shocks! I am a senior citizen, happily married, with two grown-up children.  Though financially burdened I cannot pretend to be under privileged.  I was educated in elite…

That primary particle of creation, that Boson, that “God Particle”, still seems to elude the nuclear scientists and astro-physicists at the Cern laboratory in Switzerland.  There is another P that seems to elude humanity; despite, or maybe because of, our pursuit of other P’s. A macro-economist may refer to three P’s – Purchasing Power Parity. …

The deaths of Savita and Kasab have raised many issues of mortality and morality. In the calm after the storm it is time for some enlightened debate, devoid of passion and rhetoric. Both deaths brought into sharp focus the Catholic Church’s position on both mortality and its morality. Most of the views expressed, especially in…

The animal in us stinks.  Think of Nithari, of Mohinder Singh Pander and his servant Surendra Koli.  Think of picking up the newspaper every morning, or switching on the TV news in the evening, to be bombarded with gut wrenching images of decomposed bodies, skulls and bones.  Think of wailing and angry parents, corrupt policemen…

Three in a row – on death row. The circumstances were different. But the lessons to be learnt have much in common; from the recent deaths of Bal Thackeray, Ponty Chadha and now Ajmal Kasab. Thackeray’s actual day of death was in all probability artificially prolonged by life support systems, to enable the police and…

The tragedy of Dr Savita Halappanavar’s death continues to unfold. Prima facie, it seems to be a case of medical negligence, sought to be cloaked in religious beliefs. We cannot judge, because we do not know all the facts of the case; including the actual laws of the Republic of Ireland. The death of an…

Three reports in the Secular Citizen of 10th September caught my attention.  They are “Catholic Church Outdated”, “Pope Compares Disobedient Catholics to Judas”, and “Why are Catholics Good at Football But Bad at Business?”  There is much to be learnt from them. The first report on the Catholic Church being outdated is based on the…