This article was first published in Tehelka.
Chak de phatte!!! It’s a virtual “let’s have a blast” slogan that you’ll hear ever so often in the ‘bhangra-with-the beat’ music that steadfastly refuses to be defeated by the gloomy depths of despair from which the Indian music industry is currently hoping to emerge. Following the phenomenal success [...]

This article was first published in the Times of India, Mumbai in 2003.

This has been a difficult and violent year for India, with communal violence and terrorist strikes taking centre stage. Perhaps that is why not many have noticed that despite a lot of tall talk about preserving and promoting our glorious and ancient traditions, [...]

You know what I don’t like about those proverbial silver linings in the clouds? Sometimes you have to poke around so bloody hard for them that you almost give up hope. I’m afraid I’m feeling a bit like that at the moment, trying desperately to think of silver linings in the thick dark clouds that [...]

The much beleaguered world of Indian classical music, struggling to keep its head up in the face of all odds, has now been dealt a spate of cruel blows by an unlikely enemy – the hugely successful, steadily burgeoning string of talent hunts on virtually every television channel in the country. At least two of [...]