In the late 90s there was this controversial restaurant at Churchgate in Mumbai which had an on-going pitched battle with the residents of the same building over the illegality of its expansion plans. The restaurant had gradually encroached on the pavement, and despite the residents’ clamour the municipality did nothing to bring the erring restaurant owners to book. The story died a natural death in the media after the first few weeks of intense reporting. A few days ago, when Aditya Dube, all of seven years, went flinging down six floors and crashed to death because the restaurant had put ...

So the three villains this month were Narendra Modi, Warren Anderson and Tony Hayward, and I don’t know if it is in that order. Warren Anderson, former CEO of Union Carbide, is all of 89 years old, retired in his luxury villa. Wonder why it took so long for the judges to come to this conclusion that Warren is actually not culpable. Compare this with the Ajmal Kasab’s case. If the judiciary wants, it can get the verdict out in just a year. If not, the case can be dragged on and on, and don’t be surprised with the verdicts ...

A few months ago the Union road and transport minister, pompous that he is, said that there will construction of so much of roads that any number of new cars will not have a bearing on the infrastructure deficit. However, a recent update about my friend makes me think that “are we anyway close to those dreams.” Today my friend is housed in a mental asylum—thanks to the road work taking place in the outskirts of the city -- which ironically also happens to face massive power cuts. On one such dark night, when he was returning from work he ...

“There are various ways of looking at it”, said a friend who had recently become the Asia-Pacific chief of the world’s second largest investment firm. He shifted from his New York office to BKC, much to the chagrin of his wife. But his trepidation didn’t end there. The brazen sweet-heart deals across real estate sector, Indian bureaucracy and its attendant cost and the kick-backs while buying office equipment in private companies stun him. Need to say here that his insight into the world of glitz and glory are beyond reproach. When watching the footage of P.R. Swarup’s address at the ...

Security has become a ubiquitous word today but with little solutions to achieving it. Last year the hospitality sector was one of the worst affected after the 26/11 attacks. Recession also took its toll--not only did corporate travel reduce drastically, so did the number of tourists, both domestic and foreign. Though Taj and Trident Hotels may have bounced back to business, yet all is not the same again. The Chief Minister claims that everybody is safe in the financial capital. The Home Minister assures of taking steps to make the country safe from all kinds of attacks. But certain situations ...

May 31, 2009 After having driven a Maruti 800 for over ten years, since he became old enough to have a licence to kill, Sachin decided to graduate to a Mahindra Scorpio. At 28, he was priming to get married, and he “preferred to stay with his parents after marriage” if his wife played ball. When Sadanand, a cloth merchant at Kapda Bazaar met him at Hot Plate, a eatery frequented by mostly students, in suburban Mumbai, Sachin was full of beans. Talking about the high prospects of property sector, home loans, cement and steel prices and the PE ratio ...

Former President and Army General of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf was known for a quirky sense of candidness when in power, which few in international media could comprehend. In his first address to the UN General Assembly in late 1990s, he matter-of-factly stated that Muslims are in majority in most of the hotspots in the world. These regions dominated by Muslims are riddled with strife, violence and brutality. The news media simply failed to make his statement the banner headline. His statement epitomised the prevailing double-speak on security. Measures taken by various government agencies are inevitable, yet we in this country would ...

The moment you switch on the television or flip through your newspapers, one cannot fail to ignore the concept of climate change or the ongoing Copenhagen summit. There are so much of talks about India’s steps on energy cuts. There is substantial bombarding of terms like emission targets, carbon reduction targets and so on. When one reads through these news, it appears that everyone is on a war footing to save this planet. It appears that every educated individual may be taking conscious and fruitful efforts to save the cities from getting submerged or stopping the icebergs from melting. But ...

Every Mumbaikar dreads travelling to Saki Naka. In fact, the very name evokes fear and distaste, as it brings to mind the ugly shanties and traffic bottlenecks one has to endure while commuting through the locality which houses a lot many corporate offices and commercial establishments.  Of course there are those who look at you in disbelief for the ability to travel to God’s own hell.  The place was a strict no no as a work destination for me.  It’s a work place for those really desperate, was a feeling I harboured for long. But things change, and here I ...

A country’s development status can be gauged by the confidence its people have on the prevalent security system. Changeling is a movie about corruption and lack of accountability in the police department in Los Angeles (US) in the 1960s. The movie written, directed and produced by Clint Eastwood is based on a true story of missing children and a maniac killer. To Eastwood’s credit, what appear more monstrous than the killer are the police. Any Third World country citizen would identify with that situation even today. Two years ago, at the MMRDA Ground where the most-anticipated B2C exhibition for home ...