India Uncut

( Update [March 3]: I am now providing full RSS feeds on all the sections of the new site, as well as a combined one across the site. More ...

A shorter version of this piece was published today as the second installment of my column, Thinking it Through, in Mint . The first is here...

Or so it would seem . Joy. And to think that's where so many middle-aged, pot-bellied Indians go for some action. "Bangkok? Oh, the...

No, I'm not making any untoward suggestion to you, dear reader, but merely proposing a geographical expedition. You see, there are eight...

Indian cinema never ceases to amaze me. Watch this: Can they do that in Hollywood? Huh? Huh? (Link via email from Naveen Mandava .)

Nanubhai Desai relates at the Indian Economy Blog how he went to a lunch meeting with a bunch of Indian MPs, and someone asked them: To wha...

In an article in the Guardian titled " Subcontinental shift ," Kathleen McCaul examines a new trend of Indian writers who are cho...

No power on earth can stop me from clicking furiously on headlines that say: " Learn to speak English in 10 days flat! " This part...

I can't help but share this romantic tale with you: Surendra (25) and Poonam (23) Gupta seemed like just another newly-wed couple going...

What is most chilling about this story is that it happened repeatedly, across America, to people just like you and me. It show just how aut...

The lines below are from a street-play I saw today, which was a parody of cultural protectionism. They were spoken by a character who was a ...

Great joy comes in informing you that India Uncut has been nominated for Best IndiBlog in this year's Indibloggies. I won this award l...

... has been explained . Separate rumours exist that the moon isn't made of cheese and that Armstrong and Aldrin actually went there, an...

Immense amusement -- and some consternation -- arises when I read this on Cato @ Liberty : In a move that is both remarkable and disturbing,...

Who would have thunk ? Ten years later, I can imagine someone (maybe me!) writing a post titled, "____ in 2007." What's that ...

Sify has a report on the various people who could be the next president of India -- they name Amitabh Bachchan as a candidate! -- and I fou...

Adam Gopnik, reviewing David A Bell's " The First Total War ," writes in the New Yorker : Before the modern period, wars were ...

I've long believed that most people who have kids are not fit to be parents. That might be part of the explanation for why we humans are...

Hindustan Times asks Rakhi Sawant if she has a Valentine's Day message for her boyfriend, Abhishek. Her message : Don't object to ...

Indiatimes reports : The Republic Day that just went by has had a greater impact on Akshay Kumar than any previous ‘flag’ day ever has. Rea...

"Chef Jitendra Kumar is a huge Pink Floyd fan," reports DNA . Kumar is the executive chef of Taj Lands End, where Roger Waters wil...

... by two or three days. I know I'd promised to launch it today, and the site is more or less ready, but some final polishing is being...

This could have been a nice love story if not for this bit towards the end of the piece: Subhiya's father has accused Ashwani of marryi...

Andrew Coulson is dismayed by the impending crackdown in Karnataka on English-language schools, and points to Quebec as a cautionary tale o...

He fathered "at least 100,000 daughters and countless sons," and now he is dead. RIP, Galtee Merci , in Cow Heaven. Immense sadnes...

"Shut up, Kitty." "Yes boss!" It's an excellent sign of the memorableness of a character if, almost two decades afte...

It's a common question for young people in love, when one of them says: "If I had an accident, say if I was disfigured badly, or lo...

Steven Moffat is a giant. From Coupling : Do you know what arses are Patrick? Arses are the human races' favourite thing. We like them ...

... after reading the menu here . Needless to say, immense debt would be incurred if I were to partake of the listed repast. Scandalous sigh...

Milk beer . (Link via email from Gautam John , who got it via Udhay. Previous posts on cows: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 1...

TVR Shenoy thinks that might well be the case. One reason: In the eyes of a true Congressman, Priyanka Vadra's infants probably carry g...

A year ago, while travelling through Pakistan, I'd quoted KJM Varma , then PTI's man in Islamabad, as saying about Pakistan: Where i...

Even Elle Macpherson has a hard time getting a date . I suppose there's a fine line between being attractive and being so attractive tha...

Jessica Hagy is on form at Indexed : You do realise, of course, that natural selection is to blame for this? (Link via email from Tipsy Toes...

Check out the videos below of the US army in Iraq. The first is taken from inside a Humvee in Baghdad, which is being driven fast, without r...

After 9/11. it became common for commentators to recline wisely on their armchairs and say, "Ah, but what Islam needs is a reformation....

Continuing his series on dowry, which I'd mentioned here , the boy comes up with some more counter-intuitive insights on dowry in India...

How many men do you know who could have been in the video below? Be honest now. (Link via theothernilu .)

In an article titled " Dating is Competitive Manipulation ," Violent Acres writes: The truth is women love to compete with other w...

This picture says it all. (Link via email from Petu.)

Normally, except in films, it's a no-contest: Gundagardi wins hands down, or up, or whatever. But sometimes Common Man fights back. That...

My weekly column for Mint , Thinking It Through, kicked off today. It will appear every Thursday. Here's the first installment. It'...

Here's the Onion on Windows Vista. I haven't tried out Vista, but imagine if our bodies had Windows XP. We'd be vastly overweig...

Thing is, you shouldn't need to spell these out . It's understood. It's in the genes and stuff. And no, the chicas will never ge...

... and DTH is a company. Anant Rangaswami learns some new things courtesy Derek O'Brien. Joy.

Niranjan Rajadhyaksha warns in Mint that there is a danger that our economic growth rate will make us complacent, and blind us to the nece...

I have to leave shortly to meet a friend at the Bombay Baking Company. I promise you, I did not fix the venue after reading this post . It w...

Remember blog melas? I put up five of them ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) before the practice suddenly stopped, and now Kusum Rohra has revived the m...

Why ? (Link via email from Gautam John .)

Via Saket , I find out about something called " India's Hottest College Chick Contest ." Immense confusion comes regarding whe...

That's No. 1 in this list: " 11 Most Important Philosophical Quotations ." The pronunciation guide at the end is most disturbi...

Aadisht Khanna has begun a series of posts on dowry, and in the first of them , in which he recounts two instances of dowry being offered a...

Both were born in 1917. We know who survived . I especially enjoyed the phrase in that article, "a United Front against bullshit."...

Amitava Kumar , in the course of an interview , says: [I]n some respects, Bihar really is the nadir of civilisation. And therefore it is the...

That was just one of many priceless quotes at a blog meet that took place on Saturday evening in Bandra, hosted by Melody and Sakshi , who ...

You won't need any other furniture. Just this: (Link via email from Naveen , who got it via Spluch .)

Through my last ten minutes on the treadmill today, I could think of nothing but the cold cuts in my freezer. Immense hunger comes! Update ...

Best first line ever of a political report: Dharmesh Vyas of the Congress, who was caught spitting on camera during a meeting to discuss a f...

Those are the names of Raj Thackeray's dogs, it seems . Harmless enough. Given the influences that seem to drive the Shiv Sena and their...

You have a piece of bread. You have eaten well, and are full. You wish to give the bread away to a hungry man. There are ten hungry men in f...

Why would anyone want to insert a live wire of 220V through his nose, bring it out through his mouth and light a bulb? And also, why would t...

The Commie government of West Bengal has outlawed man-pulled rickshaws on the grounds that they are "inhuman." Hmm. Starving becau...

An important cause for rising violence throughout the world, writes Christopher Caldwell in the Financial Times , might be demographics: th...

Silly boy . Next the fellow will want to know why we don't milk horses. (Link via email from thenative . Previous posts on cows: 1 , 2 ,...