The Bharatiya Janata Party's problems seem to be increasing with the approach of the state assembly elections later this year and the general elections in 2014. Not only has it lost a crucial poll in Karnataka as a result...

Have you reached that state of evolution where you are ready to get a pet dog? Congratulations. You will add a loving member to the family and make a true and loyal friend. Where are you going to get the dog from?Please...

In a display of assertive leadership, Sonia Gandhi seems to have played a major role in the sacking of the two Union ministers, Ashwini Kumar and Pawan Bansal, whose names had come under a cloud. The fact that the dismissals...

I was in Nagpur last week. I was told of an illegal bird market and so I went on Sunday morning. I saw hundreds of small cages with budgerigars and pigeons in them. Of course the team of People for Animals, Nagpur took...

The Bar Council of India's web lays out the professional standards expected from lawyers. The first sentence starts with: 'Advocates, in addition to being professionals, are also officers of the courts...' It carries...

Ever since the Manmohan Singh government became embroiled in scams, it has been mainly the Supreme Court that has pushed for accountability. In doing so, it has taken recourse to a new technique for ascertaining the truth...

I am still reading the book Zoobiquity and one chapter is about the similarity of heart attacks in people and animals. According to the author, a doctor and head of internal medicine in a teaching hospital, whenever a shocking...

Was Nalini Chidambaram, wife of Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, paid one crore rupees in a forty-two crore-rupee deal involving the (now infamous) Saradha Group? Must the poor people of West Bengal, many of whom...

It isn't only the Congress's myriad problems that raise questions about the government lasting till 2014. What is no less worrisome for the voters is that the ruling party's opponents are in an equally sorry state. What...

I know a girl who spends a lot of her day pulling out tiny hair from the backs of her fingers and scratching her pimples till they bleed and scar. Some humans mutilate themselves by inflicting cuts on their bodies. Not...

The word spread quickly through the farming community in Georgia: thousands of Indian farmers, mostly from the northern state of Punjab, were heading to Georgia to buy large parcels of fertile land. 'Who's selling it...

It is said that Lord Shiva once gave the demon Bhasmasura the boon that anyone on whom he placed his hand would be reduced to ashes. Finding nobody else in the vicinity — he had been meditating in the wilderness —...

Naisargi Dave is a professor / author in Canada who comes to India once a year. She knows I thirst for unusual books. This year's treasure trove includes an amazing book called Zoobiquity, written by a medical doctor Barbara...

Old-timers are likely to see the current prolonged spell of violence in West Bengal as a throwback to the 1960s and 1970s when the state was in the throes of a similar upheaval. The protagonists, too, are mostly the...

I have fainted only once in my life – half way through a normal conversation with friends. My husband was so frightened he called my mother and I woke to find my head on her lap. No one has ever figured out why it happened....