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In my previous piece I wrote about double agents, piecing together jigsaw puzzles and how pawns are sacrificed in a game of chess. During the height of the Cold War between the USA and the USSR it had been suggested that the Presidents of the two countries sit down to a chess tourney, and points…

Double agents are crucial in both war and peace. They seldom live to tell their tales. Those who do, are those who don’t tell, for a price of course. What does a golfer in Kashmir have in common with somebody who spends his time walking his dog and looking after a castle in coastal England?…

On the 14th February a fidayeen (suicide) bomber attacked a CRPF convoy of 78 vehicles transporting 2547 troopers. It was a hit that ran up a casualty figure of 45 at last count. On the 15th February Prime Minister Modi flagged off Train 18, renamed Vande Bharat Express from New Delhi station. Its official number…

This phrase means living in fear. There is also another phrase “getting bogged down”, which means getting stuck in a quagmire, from which it is impossible to extricate one’s self. This is what seems to have happened in Yogi Adityanath’s U.P., where I live. When he became the Chief Minister two years ago he boldly…

The three judges gave three different verdicts. The majority decided to split the disputed site at Ayodhya 3 ways – two parts to the Hindus, and one to the Muslims. It seemed a win-win situation. The nation collectively heaved a sigh of relief. On Judgement Day, 30th September, a TV channel invited me to express…

(With specific reference to Stephen Hawking’s claims) Munnabhai was sipping his coffee in the lawn in front of his house. It was a moonless night, when the stars shone brightly in the firmament. It reminded him of an episode from the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and his assistant, Watson. The detective duo was camping out…

The gutsy fighter, the dynamite man of yesteryears, is no more, having just passed on with two fat ladies (tambola language) at 88. I first met George Bhai in July 1990, when he was the Railway Minister in the V.P. Singh cabinet. I had just been elected as the National President (NP) of the All…

“The child is father of the man” is the seventh of the nine lines of the poem “My Heart Leaps Up” by William Wordsworth, written in 1802, when the poet was 32 years old. It is a line that has intrigued poets, philosophers and psychologists. I had never bothered about it, till a recent visit…

Knitting yarn is always in balls or skeins.  Leave the yarn untended and in no time it is knotted or entangled.  If you are not an old lady with yarn at the fireside, you could be a young lad who likes flying kites.  Here again the kite-string must be rolled on the latai, to prevent…

Pallu, neither Pappu nor Lallu, was a simple villager. He longed to see the Taj Mahal in Agra, one of the seven wonders of the world. All foreign dignitaries visiting Delhi are taken for a mandatory visit to the Taj. Borrowing from Dr Eric Berne’s book “What do you say after you say Hello?” the…