Passionate About India

Modi has completed a month! And there have been all kinds of things happening! And an analysis is most required since the hype and expectation around his becoming Prime Minister was exceptional; so every move, especially in the first few days, was being observed by the whole world with a lot of curiosity. So what has it been like? Well, one thing is sure, there has been nothing bad at all. Let us begin with the excellent! The most excellent thing about Modi has been his intent and his most excellent speeches post becoming the PM. The way he addressed the Parliament with calm poise, a subtle sense of humour and ubiquitous confidence, gave the nation the much needed sense of pride that had gone totally missing over the past decade. The truth is that Gujarat has not been the only success story. Tamil Nadu too has been one; and to his immense credit, Modi, like a great statesman, was so humble about learning from the TN model. The most excellent has been his "toilets before temples...

United States’ finely tuned images of ‘land of opportunity’, ‘land of the free’ and ‘home of the brave’ – all have in recent time received a major jolt with protestors pouring in from all over the country in thousands. It is probably the biggest protest since anti-Vietnam-war demonstrations in the 70s! Finally their police are finding it tough to control their own people. This time they are failing to smoke them out, because the enemy lies in every other house. I wrote about the coming end of capitalism – the way we know it – in 2008 itself as an aftermath of the latest recession that has hit the world due to its blind belief in free market profiteering and was surprised why (despite people around the world, from countries in the Middle East to a laid back country like India, showing a tendency to come out on the streets to press for their rights) people in the western world were delaying coming out in the streets to press for what was their right – the right to stable and dignified li...

My first brush with Tagore was when I was in the 5th class, when I was supposed to recite one of Tagore’s poems at one of our local Durga Puja ceremonies. I didn’t like the idea at all. But my father was insistent. I looked at the poem and wanted to run away. It looked too long – four odd pages... But my father knew what he was doing and I had no choice. The poem was about "the hero". About a young boy’s journey with his mother and how he saves her from villains... “Think as if we are travelling together mother... to a land far away – a strange and dangerous land... You are going in a palanquin and I am trotting on a horse next to you...” It filled inside me a sense of aspiration and dream and heroism... Because a line later, when the mother gets a little frightened, the boy says, “Mother, do not be afraid... Because I am there...” Nothing could have been more inspirational. For days, I used to visualize that poem inside my mind and imagine that I was taking care of my mother...

The world has been written about Sachin, but this is something that has gone completely unreported. That’s how Sachin wanted it to be. It was 2003. Without much expectations, my team had gone to Sachin to invite him for the launch of my book, The Great Indian Dream. He obviously was busy but he kept the copy of the book. One fine afternoon in 2004, we were overjoyed to receive a call from Vinod Naidu, then the Director of Worldtel, informing us that Sachin had gone through the book and wanted us to meet him. We had no clue what was in store for us. My colleague Deepak Shah went to meet him and what followed was a dream come true for anybody. Yes!! The Master Blaster had agreed to endorse our Great Indian Dream Foundation advertisements!! An association that lasted for 3 years!!! At that time, the market rate for a Sachin Tendulkar endorsement was Rs.4 crores per year and he had decided not to charge a penny for the same from us. Not just that, he had decided to give us one day to shoot...