1. Bihar is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites. If one is Nalanda University, which is the other?

a) Barabar Caves

b) Rohtasgarh Fort

c) Mahabodhi Temple

2. Who is the international airport in Patna named after?

a) Rajendra Prasad

b) Jayaprakash Narayan

c) LN Mishra

3. In 2025, Vaibhav Suryavanshi became the youngest player to score a century in men’s T20 cricket, hitting 101 off 38 balls for…

a) Delhi Capitals

b) Rajasthan Royals

c) Gujarat Titans

4. Which common bird is also the state bird of Bihar?

a) Rock Pigeon

b) Common Myna

c) House Sparrow

5.About 475 BCE, where was the capital of the Magadha empire located?

a) Darbhanga

b) Purnea

c) Pataliputra

6. Which festival is also known as Surya Shashti?

a) Makar Sankaranti

b) Chhath Puja

c) Teej

7. Which fruit, grown extensively in Muzaffarpur, received GI certification in 2018?

a) Chinia banana

b) Dussehri mango

c) Shahi litchi

8. Which Dumraon-born musician played Raag Kafi at the Red Fort on 15 August 1947?

a) Hariprasad Chaurasia

b) Shiv Kumar Sharma

c) Bismillah Khan

9. Which of these is one of the 22 scheduled languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India?

a) Bhojpuri

b) Maithili

c) Magahi

10. Which famous English novelist was born in Motihari on 25 June 1903?

a) George Orwell

b) Rudyard Kipling

c) Thomas Hardy

11. Which city, famous for silk textiles and sarees, was described as the kingdom of Anga in the Mahabharata?

a) Gaya

b) Samastipur

c) Bhagalpur

12. Traditionally, Madhubani painting was done on…

a) Cotton bedsheets

b) Mud walls and floors of huts

c) Large serving dishes

13. Who won his first National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Bhiku Mhatre in the 1999 film Satya?

a) Pankaj Tripathi

b) Naseeruddin Shah

c) Manoj Bajpayee

14. Which Purnea-born politician was a member of the Indian team that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup?

a) Saba Karim

b) Kirti Azad

c) Yashpal Sharma

15. Which movement began after an agriculturist named Raj Kumar Shukla met Gandhiji and requested him to come and help him?

a) Bardoli Satyagraha

b) Champaran Satyagraha

c) Bhoodan Movement

16. Champaran meat, also known as Ahuna Mutton Curry, is traditionally prepared in/on…

a) Large brass cauldrons/kadhais

b) Sealed earthen pots

c) Cast iron tawas

17. Which river is known as the ‘Sorrow of Bihar’?

a) Kosi

b) Ghaghara

c) Gandak

18. The Jal Mandir at Pawapuri marks the spot where…

a) Guru Nanak was born

b) Lord Mahavira was cremated

c) Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment

19. Which month-long event takes place on the auspicious occasion of Kartik Purnima in November at the confluence of the Ganga and Gandak?

a) Rajgir Mahotsav

b) Chhath Puja

c) Sonepur Fair

20. Which traditional deep-fried sweet snack from Bihar is also called khajoor?

a) Thekua

b) Lai

c) Malpua

21. At a traditional Bihari wedding, what would a groom do with a ‘mauri’?

a) Wear it

b) Eat it

c) Sleep on it

22. Which Bihar-born footballer was the top scorer of the gold medal- winning Indian team at the 1951 Asian Games in New Delhi?

a) Sahu Mewalal

b) Mahabir Prasad

c) Sheikh Abdul Latif

23. Which is the only tiger reserve of Bihar?

a) Sahyadri Tiger Reserve

b) Valmiki Tiger Reserve

c) Dudhwa Tiger Reserve

24. The ruins of which ancient university, established by King Dharmapala, lies about 38 km from Bhagalpur?

a) Vikramshila

b) Taxila

c) Nagarjuna Vidyapeeth

25. Which well-known politician, born on 2 December 1960, received his early education at St. Xavier’s School in Patna?

a) Rajnath Singh

b) JP Nadda

c) Dharmendra Pradhan

Answers:

1. Mahabodhi Temple
2. Jayaprakash Narayan
3. Rajasthan Royals
4. House Sparrow
5. Pataliputra
6. Chhath Puja
7. Shahi litchi
8. Bismillah Khan
9. Maithili
10. George Orwell
11. Bhagalpur
12. Mud walls and floors of huts
13. Manoj Bajpayee
14. Kirti Azad
15. Champaran Satyagraha
16. Sealed earthen pots
17. Kosi
18. Lord Mahavira was cremated
19. Sonepur Fair
20. Thekua
21. Wear it — it is a traditional headgear worn by the groom at his wedding.
22. Sahu Mewalal
23. Valmiki Tiger Reserve
24. Vikramshila
25. JP Nadda

Scores
0-4: Sadly, you know nothing about the great state of Bihar.

5-8: Good on you. Even if you are not from Bihar, you have done well.

9-15: You should fancy yourself as an expert on Bihar.

16-25: Terrific. You are the Bihar expert.

[This article was also published in NDTV | Tuesday, November 11, 2025]

The dates for the forthcoming Winter Session of Parliament have been announced. 1 December to 19 December. The House will actually just sit for 15 days. 

We did some research on the number of days Parliament is in session. Here is what we found. During the first Lok Sabha (1952), the average sittings per session of Parliament was 45 days. In the second and third Lok Sabha, the average was 36 days. During the ninth Lok Sabha (1989-1991) which lasted for only 15 months, this number came down to 14. 

Since 1991, the average days per Parliament session has always remained above twenty. During the tenth Lok Sabha (1991-1996) Parliament sat for an average of 26 days. In subsequent Lok Sabhas, the average number of days was 21 days, 25 days and 22 days.

When the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014, this number dropped below 20 days. During the 16th Lok Sabha (2014-2019), the average days per session was 19. During the 17th Lok Sabha (2019-2024), it was 18 days. After today’s announcement, it has dropped to an abysmal 17 days. 

The reason for this government’s Parliament-ophobia is obvious. The creaky coalition led by PM Narenda Modi shied away from a discussion on SIR (Silent Invisible Rigging) during the entire Monsoon Session of Parliament. A longer Winter Session would have made them even more uncomfortable when the Opposition demands discussions on unemployment and throttling federalism. 

There is another reason why this skittish coalition wants a truncated session of Parliament, starting only in December. It is Constitution Day on 26 November. It would have been a perfect occasion for a meaningful debate on upholding the values of the Constitution of India. But then, who cares about Parliament? 

There were other advertising greats. The only reason they do not feature in the list above is because I did not know them personally: Alyque Padamsee, Subhas Ghosal, Gerson da Cunha… and many more. To all of them: May you Rest In Perfection (RIP).

Won’t you give me my flowers while I’m living/ And let me enjoy them while I can/ Please don’t wait till I’m ready to be buried/ And then slip some lilies in my hand

—Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs (Song from the 1960s)

Fondly remembering five advertising greats I knew and worked with.

Piyush Pandey (1955-2025) and I were colleagues at Ogilvy from 1984 to 1991 — he in Mumbai, I in Kolkata. Sometime in the mid-1980s, Mani Ayer, the then managing director of Ogilvy, hand-picked 10 of us for a weekend retreat. The 10 so-called happening kids on the block — direct with the MD. Piyush was the oldest among us. He was over 30, the rest of us in our mid-to-late 20s.

One piece of advice Ayer gave us was precious: “Take your work seriously, but don’t take yourselves too seriously.” Soon after our weekend retreat, nine of us got promotions in the two departments we were in: Client servicing and creative. One did not. He was gently moved out of client servicing and given a new, odd-sounding designation: copy chief (languages). Sweet irony. The guy who was seemingly being shunted around went on to become “India’s David Ogilvy”. (Pandey, dekho kya term create kiya tumhare liye!)

Cut to 2022. Both of us happened to be in Goa at the same time. So, we made a plan. Dinner at Fat Fish, Arpora. Politics was off the menu. Starters: Nostalgia from our eight years at Ogilvy; updating ourselves about former colleagues. Main course: Bringing each other up to speed about our families. Piyush always had so many stories to proudly share about his siblings (including, of course, Ila Arun and Prasoon Pandey). Dessert: Illness. Life. Legacy. Three hours just flew by. That was our last meeting.

Sumit Roy, our former colleague at Ogilvy, has this to say: “A word about the person who gave Piyush the platform he needed. It was Suresh Mullick who spotted Piyush’s ability and had him head the Language Department. From that moment, Piyush never turned back. Together, they united India with Miley Sur Mera Tumhara. Suresh’s heart was rooted in Hindustani classical music. Piyush’s heart was rooted in Hindustan.”

Suresh Mullick (1940-2003) was the creative director at Ogilvy, who conceived the iconic film Spread the Light of Freedom, launched on Independence Day, 1987. The following year, Suresh came up with another Big Idea — Ek Sur, later renamed Mile Sur Mera Tumhara. In Piyush’s words, here’s what happened: “Mile Sur was the late Suresh Mullick’s concept. So, he gave me the opportunity to write the lyrics for his film. He had so many top lyricists in Mumbai to choose from, but he opted for me. I wrote the entire song over a dozen times till he approved it. Then, the voice of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi turned some ordinary lyrics into magic.”

In a similar manner, the generous Piyush gave credit to Rajeev Rao. Yes, it was Rajeev who created the memorable commercials for Hutch, which featured pugs.

Rituparno Ghosh (1963-2013) was a genius. The world fondly remembers him as a multiple award-winning national and international film director, who famously directed Aishwarya Rai in Chokher Bali. But before all that fame and glam, Rituparno was in advertising. He was a creative director at Response, Kolkata, an agency set up by the irrepressible Ram Ray. Ritu’s office was within walking distance of mine. He would infrequently come across during the lunch break, but never ate a morsel. We once compared salaries: A cool Rs 9,000 a month!

Pradeep Guha and Bhaskar Das were two of my favourite rock stars of the advertising/media world in Mumbai. The yarns, the fond memories created over decades, will run into many columns. These two flamboyant media magicians who lived life king-size on Mumbai’s allegorical equivalent of Madison Avenue were quintessential Bengali babus at heart.

Postscript: There were other advertising greats. The only reason they do not feature in the list above is because I did not know them personally: Alyque Padamsee, Subhas Ghosal, Gerson da Cunha… and many more. To all of them: May you Rest In Perfection (RIP).

[This article was also published in The Indian Express | Friday, November 7, 2025]

It has been quite a week in the Supreme Court. The Union Government’s petition against the Calcutta High Court’s ruling on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was dismissed. The High Court had directed that the 100-day work scheme be restarted in the state from August 1, 2025. This has vindicated what the State has been saying for over three years, that the Centre’s denial of dues was political, punitive, and unlawful.

That same day, another bench reprimanded the Delhi Police for asking for more time in the Delhi riots bail case, where student activists such as Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, Meeran Haider, Gulfisha Fatima and Shifa Ur Rehman have spent over five years behind bars without trial. Both hearings showed the Court pushing back against long delays and executive overreach.

Parliament’s understanding of the same issues seems to be moving in the opposite direction. A new bill proposing automatic removal of ministers who spend more than 30 days in custody was introduced in the Lok Sabha in August 2025. This bill claims to promote accountability. However, on close inspection, it undermines the presumption of innocence, destabilises governance, and entrenches inequality. Far from strengthening democracy, it risks weaponising arrests as political tools. It overrides the electorate’s will without a judicial conviction and opens a door to political abuse that our Constitution was designed to protect its citizens from.

How to lose your seat in 30 days?

Step 1: Forget voters, forget courts – they no longer decide your fate.
Step 2: Wait for a politically motivated FIR.
Step 3: Get remanded to custody and let procedural delays carry you past Day 30

The Dangerous Shift: Arrest as Guilt

Indian criminal jurisprudence talks about one fundamental principle: innocent until proven guilty. This bill flips that principle on its head by imposing a penalty, loss of office, based solely on arrest and detention. It bypasses trial and conviction entirely. That is precisely the kind of arbitrariness Article 21 forbids. Yet, the bill treats detention as de facto conviction. This bill, by equating arrest with guilt, overrides the electorate’s mandate, weakens separation of powers, destabilises governance, and promotes inequality.

The Supreme Court in its past rulings has emphasised that removal from office must follow due process, not mere allegations. The proposed bill short-circuits this safeguard, imposing a penalty without trial, conviction, or judicial determination of guilt. India’s prison population is overwhelmingly made up of undertrials, constituting 75% of the total prison population.

Interestingly, since 2014, at least 12 sitting opposition ministers have been arrested; nine of them from non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states. Eight crossed the 30-day custody mark. Under the bill, they would have been automatically stripped of office despite never being convicted.

Why 30 Days?

The bill never explains the 30-day threshold. Pre-trial custody can, and frequently does, extend beyond 30 days because of routine procedural delays. Even under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), default bail is set at 60/90 days; the bill’s 30-days requirement has no procedural anchor. By tying ministerial survival to such an arbitrary threshold, the law risks disqualifying leaders before their trials even begin. The bill seems to replace the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ with ‘jobless until granted bail’.

Separation of Powers

The Constitution separates political accountability from judicial and executive actions. Removal from office is fundamentally a political question, settled either by legislatures or by the electorate. The bill collapses this boundary, allowing arrest, an executive act subject to police discretion and judicial oversight, to directly determine political tenure. This dangerously blurs the line between branches of government, inviting misuse.

Unequal Treatment and Disproportionate Impact on Marginalised Groups

The bill also introduces glaring inequities. Under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, MPs and MLAs are disqualified only upon conviction, not upon arrest. This bill creates a two-tier system in violation of Article 14’s guarantee of equality before the law for specific ministers.

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data reveals that undertrials are disproportionately drawn from marginalised communities: Around 21% are Scheduled Castes (SC), 9% Scheduled Tribes (ST), 36% Other Backward Classes (OBC), and roughly 19-21% are Muslims. Together, marginalised groups (SC/ST/OBC/Muslims) represent over 85% of undertrials. Given this context, the bill will disproportionately silence voices from marginalised communities and the parties that represent them.

Destabilising Governance

Consider the consequences if a Prime Minister or Chief Minister is arrested, even briefly. Governance could grind to a halt, destabilising elected governments on the basis of unproven allegations.

Chilling Effect on Opposition

Finally, the bill creates a chilling effect. If arrests, regardless of conviction, mean automatic loss of office, opposition leaders may think twice before challenging the government. In a democracy where dissent is vital, such a deterrent undermines the foundation of electoral choice.

Accountability in politics must be rooted in conviction, not custody. Otherwise, democracy itself risks becoming captive to the whims of arrest.

[This article was also published in NDTV | Friday, October 31, 2025]

Public sector vacancies affect service delivery – from education to civil aviation, railways and healthcare. They also hurt national security.

I have been writing for this newspaper for the last six years. When was the last time I did back-to-back columns on the same subject? Never. This is a first. A fortnight ago, the topic of this column, Zero Hour, was unemployment in the private sector (‘Lost in the election chatter’, IE, October 24). This week, we zero in on unemployment in the public sector.

The youth unemployment rate is almost thrice the national average unemployment rate. The government, the single largest employer in the country, has not filled lakhs of vacancies.

While the government talks much about Viksit Bharat by 2047, a closer look at the number of vacancies in the public sector (once considered the bedrock of class mobility) tells a very different story. From teachers and doctors to scientists and security personnel, staffing shortages have spared no sector. This has precipitated not just a jobs crisis but also a gaping governance deficit. Here is just one example: Almost 2 crore people applied for 64,000 railway vacancies.

There are crippling vacancies in the education sector. Look at these numbers. Over 12,000 posts remain vacant across the Kendriya Vidyalaya and Navodaya Vidyalaya schools. There are over 1 lakh schools operating with just a single teacher as per the UDISE+ Report 2024-25. Further, one out of every four posts in central universities is vacant. As highlighted by a parliamentary committee, this shortfall has impacted both the faculty-student ratio and the quality of teaching.

The vacancy endemic extends to the field of research and development. In the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, more than a quarter of posts, across scientists, engineers and administrative staff, are vacant, while nearly two out of five posts for scientists are vacant at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). This is directly reflected in India lagging behind countries like the USA and China in innovation, scientific publications and patents.

Let us examine rural healthcare. Seven out of ten of the specialist positions in Community Health Centres lie vacant, whereas a fifth of positions for doctors remain unfilled. Even elite institutions like AIIMS suffer from faculty shortages, with two out of five posts vacant among the 20 operational AIIMS in the country. Shortfalls in this critical sector compromise patient welfare and overburden healthcare personnel.

The clouds overhead are dark. Much also needs to be done to put things on track. In the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), one out of two posts is vacant. A parliamentary committee has called this out: “critical vulnerability at the heart of India’s safety oversight system”. Additionally, the Air Traffic Controllers’ Guild had raised concerns over the persistent shortage of controllers, leading to closure of critical operational units and hampering emergency responses.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, published recently, reveals a 6.7 per cent increase in railway accidents in 2023 over the previous year. This comes at a time when more than 1.5 lakh vacancies exist in the safety category alone in the railways, as per an RTI reply.

The government thumps its chest on its uncompromising attitude on national security. What’s the ground reality? The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has three out of ten positions vacant across sanctioned posts, hindering effective investigations. The paramilitary forces, whose remit includes border protection, currently have over 1 lakh vacancies. This translates into gaps in national security and pressure on the existing forces, leading to increasing suicides and fratricides among personnel.

Even the institutions charged with protecting the most vulnerable are not immune to the vacancy plague. In a reply to a question asked recently in Parliament by your columnist, the Union government admitted that the positions of chairperson, vice-chairperson and members of the National Commission for Minorities are lying vacant. Similarly, the posts of vice-chairperson and one member (out of a total of two) in the National Commission for Scheduled Castes have been vacant since March 2024.

The Department of Health and Family Welfare has a shortfall of one-fourth of its manpower while bodies like the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs are staring at vacancy rates of 34 per cent and 26 per cent respectively.

During the Monsoon Session of Parliament a few months ago, answers tabled by the Union government put the figure of vacancies in the public sector at around 15 lakh. Fill the vacancies. Turn jobs into a reality. It is time to turn Viksit Bharat into FixIt Bharat.

PS: Someone promised 2 crore jobs annually. It was the Roman poet Ovid who said, “Everyone’s a millionaire where promises are concerned.”

[This article was also published in The Indian Express | Wednesday, October 24, 2025]

“If everything around seems dark, look again, you may be the light.” – Rumi

During Diwali week, the Prime Minister was a de-light-ful winner of the national Fancy Dress Contest cosplaying as a brave soldier. You might have seen the reels by now and the blanket coverage. You might have also spotted a mug shot of the same gent looking straight into the camera for all the self-congratulatory colourful communication created for the ‘GST Bachat Utsav’. Yes, it has been exactly a month since the Union government revised the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates. Happy Diwali to all of you. And since this column is called “Calling Attention”, allow me to call your attention to the much hyped ‘GST Bachat Utsav’ which ends this week.

Amidst all the hoopla, it is the State governments that truly deserve recognition for coming together for the GST revision. Because the States are the ones bearing the brunt of massive revenue losses. In fact, more credit should be given to Opposition-ruled States as they not only face revenue loss but also unfavourable and partisan flow of funds under different schemes and heads. 

Data from the Reserve Bank of India’s study of private corporate investment intentions revealed that Gujarat and Maharashtra, both BJP bastions, topped the list, averaging over 79 and 45 projects respectively between 2014 and 2023. During this period, the Prime Minister’s home State accounted for 88 additional projects. Among the top 10 States, which also included four Opposition-led States, an average of 343 projects were chalked up between 2014 and 2023. However, nine out of 10 projects went to BJP-ruled States. Gujarat itself accounted for nearly one-fourth of this share. 

What do these numbers tell us. Either BJP-ruled States are the best governed States or investors and businesses are ‘strongly encouraged’ to invest in these  States. Considering BJP-ruled States have the highest crimes against women, highest zero food children, lowest literacy rates in the country, the first reason cited is not convincing. The latter is closer to the truth. Chief Ministers of many Opposition-ruled States have often alleged that the Union government ‘diverts investments’. Consider this. Investments worth Rs 6000 crore for Tamil Nadu were moved to Gujarat. The Chief Minister of Telangana alleged that he had evidence to suggest that the PMO told more than one company to opt for Gujarat. The Information and Technology Minister of Karnataka has made similar allegations. Even investments going to Maharashtra, which itself is a NDA-ruled State, were diverted to Gujarat’s GIFT (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) city. Media reports suggest that 17 major projects have been shifted from Maharashtra to Gujarat. 

The Union government has been boosting funding and investments to States run by the BJP by announcing various financial incentives. One such example is the GIFT city. Earlier, the UPA government had envisioned developing the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) as a financial hub. In 2007, the government committee chaired by former World Bank official Percy Mistry recommended transforming Mumbai into a global financial centre. However, focus shifted to the GIFT city in Gujarat. Many concessions have been given and extended until 2030. 

In this situation it is not surprising that many States, particularly those ruled by non-BJP parties, demanded assurances on revenue loss when the revised GST policy was rolled out a month ago. That is why, critics suggest that the ‘GST Bachav Utsav’ was high on noise and low on purpose. 

In February 2014, Narendra Modi had tweeted “Centre’s preparation on GST is inadequate. They haven’t addressed concerns of the States”. On this Diwali,  one could only wish that Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the advice of Chief Minister Narendra Modi. 

P.S. Your columnist was a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee constituted in 2015 to examine the GST Bill. Members from the Opposition had given two key suggestions to the Chairperson of the Committee: (i) keep GST below 18% (ii) avoid a multiplicity of rates. It has taken the Union government a decade to act on these suggestions. 

[This article was also published in NDTV | Wednesday, October 22, 2025]

Rapper and songwriter Travis Scott will hustle onto stage in Delhi this coming weekend. Music to the ears of rap aficionados. Not my scene. But a month later, one hopes to be at the concert in the capital by the Oscar and seven-time Grammy-winning musician, Jon Batiste. From Coldplay to Ed Sheeran to Guns N’ Roses to Maroon 5 to Deep Purple – is India becoming to music acts what Dubai was 20 years ago? Bring the music on. No one’s complaining.

On stage over the next few weeks and months. Enrique Iglesias will belt out ‘Bailamos’. Post Malone will croon the certified double-diamond hit ‘Sunflower’. John Mayer will present his touching ode to the relationship between fathers and ‘Daughters’. Linkin Park will get the crowd rocking with ‘Numb’. Then there will be more live shows from the playlist of Akon, Passenger, Calvin Harris, Playboi Carti, The Lumineers.

That Day In 1981

I have always been a fan of international live music acts. But where did we ever get the exposure. 1981 was an exception. I was twenty. Venue: Brigade Parade Ground, Calcutta. The band: Osibisa. Their mega hits: ‘Sunshine Day’ and ‘Dance The Body Music’. We were still listening to our music on long playing records (LPs) and cassettes. So it was a completely different experience to see Osibisa perform live on stage. If I remember, the tickets were an exorbitant (!) Rs 200. There were no online bookings or QR codes then. Just the excitement of being a tweenager and the promise of music from faraway lands. For many of us, it was the first time we were witnessing an international group performing in our  city. That memory still plays inside me, like an old gramophone record, scratchy but with soul. We happily stood in a queue for one hour before we could watch and listen to our heroes of reggae. My brothers, Andy and Barry, and a few friends even painted our faces (I know that’s not cool in 2025) to get into the Caribbean mood. The joy of youth.

Over the years, I have been fortunate to watch some of my favourite artistes perform live, mostly in New York. From Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ to Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’. From Elton John and Don McLean, to Gordon Lightfoot and Tony Orlando. Country legends like Garth Brooks and Kris Kristofferson. The ‘Queen of Motown’ Diana Ross. Tom Jones, Barry Manilow, Ricky Martin, Usher, Ed Sheeran, James Blunt.

And some of my favourite groups. The Eagles, America (Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley), Air Supply, Foreigner, Coldplay.

There is still one name on my bucket list: George Strait, the king of country music, now in his seventies. Till recently he held the record for the largest ticketed concert in the history of the US: one hundred and ten thousand people in Texas. To see him perform live would be a special night on my journey as a fan.

Where Is The Infra?

Even as India starts becoming relevant on the world music circuit, problems persist. We still do not have world-class music-first venues. There is a marked paucity of custom-built infrastructure, and venue shortages. For most shows, stadiums are repurposed or grounds are retrofitted, often beyond their limits. Facilities the world over are renovating themselves to host sporting and live entertainment events. India is yet to build multipurpose venues across the country to integrate diverse use-cases. The country that built cricket stadiums to dazzle the world, surely needs world-class music venues. Not just for international acts, but Indian icons like AR Rahman, Arijit Singh, Shreya Ghoshal, Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan, Diljit Dosanjh, to name just a few. (Alas, no Zubin Garg)

A top executive working at one of India’s premier event management companies, spoke to me about the culture of ‘free passes’. “Historically, habits were spoilt by cricket where nobody relied on ticketing revenue to make sense of the business. Television rights paid for everything. But for live events, ticketing revenue is the backbone. Yet, from bureaucrats to politicians, from law enforcement agencies to distant relatives – everyone expects ‘passes’ to be delivered free-of-charge. Till our lexicon does not move from ‘passes’ to ‘tickets,’ the industry cannot thrive. A concert is a product of months of planning, investment and risk. The ‘pass’ culture not only undervalues the artiste and the organiser, but also distorts the economics of the event.”

The Fan Must Have The Last Word

BookMyShow, the biggest event manager in this category, courted controversy a year ago. There were allegations of black-marketing of tickets for the Coldplay concert. Ticket reselling practices, though legal in many parts of the world, are a messy enterprise. Eventually, it’s the fans who must have the last word.

Even with these limitations, India has much to offer to the global music arena. So next month, when Jon Batiste fills the air with jazz and blues, a grey-haired man in his sixties, sitting in a Delhi stadium, will reminisce about his first concert in 1981. Let the music play on.

[This article was also published in NDTV | Monday, October 13, 2025]

India is staring at one of its biggest crises: Unemployment of the educated

Special Intensive Revision. Corruption. Caste equations. Out-migration. Education. Yes, Bihar is weeks away from speaking its mind. Like any election — experts, observers and shoot-in-the-dark psephologists are deconstructing “strategy” and “stance”. Over the next few weeks, your neighbour, your niece in her second year of undergraduate studies, and your uncle will turn into electoral pundits. Lots of chatter. Lost in all of this is an important conversation about a 12-letter word that does not get the importance it deserves election after election. Unemployment.

Gautam Sharma (name changed) had a chat with me recently. This soft-spoken young man in his twenties drives for a ride-hailing company. Here’s what he told me: “I never thought I would be doing this. I wanted to be a web analyst. I even got a BTech degree. But I couldn’t crack college placements. Eventually, my friend’s dad helped me land a job at a reasonably well-known firm. My salary just about covered my rent and some very basic monthly expenses. No chance of savings. But now I make about Rs 40,000 a month driving a car — considerably more than what I was earning.”

India is staring at one of its biggest crises: Unemployment of the educated. In 2017, over 12,000 people interviewed for 18 jobs as peons in Rajasthan. The candidates included engineers, lawyers, and chartered accountants. In 2024, over 46,000 graduates and postgraduates applied for jobs to be contractual sanitation workers in Haryana.

Consider this. A student spends four years at one of India’s top government colleges, paying nearly 10 lakh rupees for a degree, only to graduate with no job in hand. In 2024, two out of every five students who graduated from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) did not get placement. This pattern isn’t limited to IITs. The trend is playing out across the National Institutes of Technology (NIT), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT), and other top institutions. According to the government’s own data, more than one in 10 graduates and postgraduates were unemployed last year. For women, it’s worse. One out of five women graduates and postgraduates did not have a job.

Seventy to 80 lakh youth enter the workforce every year. Where are the white-collar, reasonably paying jobs for graduates and postgraduates? Even though corporate profits are at a 15-year high, companies have been actively cutting jobs. Data from three major information technology (IT) firms in the country indicates that they have together cut about 64,000 jobs in FY24. The pace of growth in net white-collar employment of the four biggest companies has nearly halved in 2023, from what it was five years ago.

A hiring platform recently reported that four out of five engineering graduates and nearly half of business school graduates do not even have an internship offer. The PM Internship Scheme aimed to offer one crore internships in India’s top 500 firms. Reality? Less than 5 per cent of those who applied ended up with an internship.

The Union government estimates the unemployment rate at around 4-6 per cent. More worrying is the fact that educated youth account for two-thirds of the total unemployed. Recently, Reuters surveyed 50 top independent economists in the world, 70 per cent of whom said the government’s unemployment rate was inaccurate, and distorted the true scale. The discrepancy lies in the fact that data collected by the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) counts working even one hour per week as being employed.

Wide educated unemployment is also probably the reason for stagnant wages as well. In an interview, the chief human resources officer of a renowned consultancy service had admitted that salaries for fresh graduates have been around Rs 3-4 lakh per annum for years. According to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), the average annual salary of an engineer in 2020 was Rs 33,000 per month. The Economic Survey 2025 revealed that the real wage of salaried men was Rs 395 per day and for women it was Rs 295 per day.

Further, a government-commissioned Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) report revealed sluggish wage growth across key sectors between 2019 and 2023. Information Technology: 4 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR). Banking, financial services and insurance: 2.8 per cent CAGR. Engineering and manufacturing: 0.8 per cent CAGR.

Even among highly skilled workers like managers and professionals, the average nominal salary increase was just 5 per cent between 2020 and 2023. In the same period, inflation jumped 18 per cent.

The situation is grim. As per the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India report, released recently, over 12,000 private sector employees and over 14,000 unemployed persons died by suicide in 2023. That is, 34 private sector employees and 39 unemployed persons died by suicide each day in India.

PS: Go watch Homebound. Outstanding film, directed by Neeraj Ghaywan. A true story of two boys from a village in north India in search of a job and dignity.

This article was also published in The Indian Express| Friday, October 10, 2025]

… if their future is in the hands of women

A friend told me not to do a column on this subject. It is completely pointless writing about three women, international literary rock stars, who get thousands of column centimetres of media attention and are feted all over the world. Why bother to write a column on these three much-decorated writers? They get enough.

In a 2007 article, ‘Why Women Read More Than Men’, Eric Weiner writes, “A couple of years ago, British author Ian McEwan conducted an admittedly unscientific experiment. He and his son waded into the lunch-time crowds at a London park and began handing out free books. Within a few minutes, they had given away 30 novels. Nearly all of the takers were women, who were ‘eager and grateful’ for the freebies while the men frowned in suspicion, or distaste.” The inevitable conclusion, wrote McEwan: “When women stop reading, the novel will be dead.”

So here I am writing about how women read, and if women stopped reading, the book market would collapse overnight. And if women are reading, why are we not talking enough about women who write?

2025 has indeed turned the spotlight on some exceptional Indian women writers. Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi won the International Booker for Heart Lamp, a collection of short stories all centred around the life of Muslim women, mostly in Karnataka. Earthy and honest, the stories have now been read by thousands of readers in India alone. Mushtaq and Bhasthi have been deservedly celebrated all over the country and outside. The author of Heart Lamp knows intimately the lives of the women she has written of, as an activist, a lawyer and a chronicler. The translator has caught every nuance of dialect and attire and food in these stories, and together these two women have become part of India’s literary history.

Meanwhile, far away from Karnataka, India, Kiran Desai, who lives in Queens, New York, spent 20 years writing her next book after her Booker-winning The Inheritance of Loss. A story of modern love, of Indians far away from India, every word Desai has written has been polished over years of being dedicated to the story she had to tell. Hours after her new novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, I asked her, “What discipline did you follow to work on a book for 20 years?” Here is what she told me: “I follow a discipline that I think is so deeply embedded in me now after all of these years of working. Every morning I go straight to my desk. I think of it as a spiritual discipline, a code of austerity that I keep so that I can work well. Every single day I work like an ant or a bee or an earthworm. Just transposing one little molecule of real life into artistic life, just carrying, transposing it every day. Like transferring one little crumb into the artistic realm and working without knowing, without a vision of what I’m working towards. So really like an ant, you know, the vision is beyond the horizon for me for very many years.”

Desai’s mother, the legendary Anita Desai’s book Rosarita made it to Barack Obama’s 2025 list of summer reads. If Anita Desai can write like this at 88, we should all be inspired. It is a gem of a book about a woman from India who goes to Mexico in pursuit of independence and art.

And speaking of Booker winners, what about the woman who started it all, Arundhati Roy? Her memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me is a riveting account of an unusual childhood, of a difficult parent, and of how a woman cannot be neatly labelled always as the perfect mother or daughter. Perhaps it’s also about the creation of a writer. She writes, “I’ve thought of my own life as a footnote to the things that really matter. Never tragic, often hilarious. Or perhaps this is the lie I tell myself. Maybe I pitched my tent where the wind blows strongest, hoping it would blow my heart clean out of my body. Perhaps what I’m about to write is a betrayal of my younger self by the person I’ve become. If so, it’s no small sin. But I’m in no position to be the judge of that.”

But if we talk about women who write, then why not close the gap and also talk about the women who take books to readers? In many cities across the country, my friend tells me, independent stores and libraries are coming up started by women. Their aim? To take the books the last mile to readers. Away from the algorithm of Amazon, there are more and more women out there who are talking to book buyers, readers young and old, and trying to put their next magical read into their hands.

This article was also published in The Indian Express | Friday, September 26, 2025]

The Modi coalition care two hoots about Parliament

If you are looking for more examples to bolster this proposition, which members of the Opposition often make, then the week began with another Black Monday for the Union government. The Supreme Court did more than just rap the knuckles of those who indulged in subterfuge legislation. In its interim order, the highest court in India, stayed two of the most contentious provisions of the Waqf Act, 2025. One, a person has to be a practicing Muslim for five years before he can dedicate a property as waqf. Two, the designated officer can adjudicate the rights of personal citizens. Both these key provisions were stayed.

The passing of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025 in Parliament was marked by chicanery and evasive tactics. Even a casual observer of Parliament can outline how the BJP-led coalition is making a mockery of parliamentary procedure.

i) The motion to refer the Bill to a Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament was, again, moved on the last day of the session.

ii) When the report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) was presented in Parliament, dissent notes by members of the Opposition had been blotted out by using a whitener. (I am not making this up! This actually happened this year in Parliament.) After aggressive protests by the Opposition, a corrigendum was added, which contained the notes that were redacted.

iii) “For the night is dark and full of terrors” – Game of Thrones. The Waqf Bill was passed in Parliament in the dead of night. Around midnight in Rajya Sabha, and before one in the morning in Lok Sabha. Incidentally, Manipur was discussed at 3 am.

Presumption of Constitutionality

One major argument made in this case was of the principle of presumption in favor of constitutionality. This means that when a law’s constitutionality is challenged, courts should generally presume the law to be valid and uphold it unless it is clearly proven otherwise. This doctrine originated to maintain judicial restraint, uphold the separation of powers, and respect the legislature as the representative body enacting laws within the constitutional framework. It assumes that legislatures act in good faith and within their authority, and that invalidating laws should be an exception, not the default. The Supreme Court of India, like many constitutional courts worldwide, has repeatedly affirmed this presumption, stating that courts should only strike down legislation if it is “manifestly unconstitutional” or violates fundamental rights beyond reasonable doubt.

However, given recent trends where laws have been used selectively to impose disproportionate burdens, regulate minority rights restrictively, or enable the state to overreach in areas constitutionally protected (like religious freedom and equality), the presumption in favor of constitutionality merits re-evaluation.

Governance under the BJP has revealed a striking pattern: the rise of customised, targeted laws designed to affect specific communities while leaving others untouched. The legal pluralism in various religions governing themselves, was a system adopted by the country with the intention to respect diverse customs. But this is increasingly being made a source of legal exceptionalism, where groups are treated not as citizens under a single rule of law but as subjects of special, more restrictive, legal regimes. The effect is highly symbolic, the law itself becomes a political message, not merely a regulatory tool. Citizens are left with a sense that laws are designed “for them” not to protect or administer society, but for surveillance, constraint, and to signal hierarchy.

The State as judge of identity

Some examples of these laws are the religion-specific Citizenship Law creating exclusions based on faith, and Anti-Conversion Laws in states targeting interfaith marriage and religious conversion (12 states including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan). Along with targeting, what these laws also do is that they place the state into a position of the judge of identity. Including the five year requirement in the Waqf Act, these laws rely on the State to decide who qualifies as a minority and who does not. Once the State assumes the right to decide who qualifies as a legitimate member of a community, it establishes a precedent that identity is conditional, citizenship, faith, and rights can all be reduced to state-certified categories. When the State gets to decide who counts, democracy itself is at risk.

Does the Waqf Act flout rights such as equality before the law (Article 14)? Does it flout freedom of religion (Articles 25 and 26)? Does it flout the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion (Article 15)? These are the probing questions which India hopes will be addressed by the Supreme Court.

This article was also published in NDTV | Tuesday, September 16, 2025]