There are many today who seem all too willing to hold Panditji guilty for all of life’s ills. But Jawaharlal Nehru is a man who escapes easy definition, and perhaps strove to definitively remain just that — a man; not a saint, nor a saviour, and not in the very least, a self-appointed chowkidar.

India is saddled with an education system that is a vestige of Britain’s industrial revolution, which churns out efficient workers, not innovative thinkers. If analyses from UNICEF and NASSCOM are to be believed, the bulk of our graduates are unemployable. We’re a country desperately in need of education reforms.

While followers of the BJP-Shiv Sena and Congress keep launching tirades against each other with cries of “bhakts” and “libtards”, their so-called “nationalist” and “secularist” leaders have abandoned their ideologies faster than Rohit Shetty abandons the laws of physics.

The centuries-old Ayodhya dispute has stifled and bolted political discourse in India to the regressive wall of hate and bigotry. It has limited the average citizen’s capacity to disassociate from the politics of religious difference. Secularism had almost turned into a hoax. Saturday’s verdict, however, may change something, if not everything.

Swara Bhasker might be one of those rare celebrities in the country whose trolls follow her actions even more closely than her fans. But between her using an expletive for a child on a talk show, and her haters descending on her en masse, the four-year-old starts looking like the most mature person involved.

I suck at multitasking. Never been able to do it, and never understood the charm. What’s so wonderful about being able to do several things haphazardly at the same time when you can politely attend to them sequentially, like nature intended?

The HRD ministry and IIT Council’s joint decision to give IIT students the option of choosing an easier, three-year BSc course rather than dropping out is progressive. It’s a refreshing alternative to bleak headlines about burnout and suicides.

Dear salaried person in your twenties who is pre-approved for a credit card, take it from me, it’s a trap. Between tempting EMI schemes and seemingly endless cashback opportunities, the more gullible ones among us tend to fall prey to getting a credit card. Exhibit A: Yours truly.

Truth be told, I have always been a bit of a goofball when it comes to social gatherings. Why can’t we, for instance, have a virtual Diwali party for introverts instead? So easy to mark attendance, send a colourful heart, and then log out.

I wish someone had introduced me to weed on those nights I spent prowling around Haryana like a disoriented panther looking for my children. Think about it: If I was high, and Shardul announced right after his Grade XII exams that he wants to be a truck driver, I probably wouldn’t lose my temper.

Surprisingly, rather than celebrating Abhijit Banerjee’s achievement of winning the Nobel Prize for Economics, some have been deriding him for his “anti-national” credentials. What must sting these critics most is that Banerjee happens to be an alumnus of the most hated-on educational institute in right-wing intellectual circles: Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The celebrations around Sourav Ganguly’s upcoming gig as BCCI president prove that he truly is Bengal’s favourite son. Thanks to him, Dadagiri became a compliment that would become a part of our lexicon: Bengal’s boldest contribution ever to modern India’s popular narrative.

The Save Aarey activists are neither paid puppets with a hidden agenda nor overly woke anarchists. It has always been a citizen’s movement, and at the heart of it are people who have jobs to do, bills to pay, and are just as worried that this city will completely implode one day.

The outrage at the man who confronted a woman because she was wearing shorts shows that even though people who still believe in archaic notions like “proper Indian dress code” exist, their views are finding fewer and fewer takers.

The relentless rains in UP and Bihar have now claimed over 100 lives, with the downpour predicted to continue for several more days. With so many deaths, why are we not protesting on the streets? Would we have looked the other way had these many people died in a terror attack?

As someone who was rebuked back home in Kolkata for speaking too much English and not enough Bangla, I never imagined what I’d miss the most after moving to a new city is my mother tongue.

Two years after being accused of negligence that led to the death of 60 children in Gorakhpur, a new UP government report found Dr Kafeel Khan innocent. Who then should be held responsible for the tragedy?

A woman was caught slipping dhoklas into her bag at the Howdy Modi event and of course, Indians on the internet are angry. But aren’t we all guilty of acting more than a little entitled and greedy? Demanding free chakna with our beers and not paying the guy who cleans the car windshield at the petrol pump?

The “Howdy Modi” event held in Houston over the weekend was organised to celebrate the contributions of Indian-Americans to the arts. While it was a spectacle of sorts, one particular NRI felt a little left out. Comedian Hasan Minhaj was turned away at the entrance, rekindling the question — “Do Indians love or hate Hasan Minhaj?”

The great Indian store room has everything — all the things you can think of and millions you can’t even imagine — waiting to be summoned some day. We never need 99.9 per cent of the things. In my house, we still have the galla that my grandfather started his business with more than 50 years ago and a kadhai, the size of a bathtub.

I went to a pretty decent engineering college in Kerala, and my batchmates are doing all sorts of things outside of engineering, from management to music, from content writing to software start-ups. For most engineers, the four years of college was just to figure out what they wanted to do in life.

Eighteen years after the September 11 attacks, even as the spectre of terror fades from our day-to-day lives, its shadow is cast over our minds, a constant threat that, for all our vows of “never again”, seems impossible to check.

From being used to heckle Opposition MPs in Parliament to providing the soundtrack to a mounting number of public lynchings, sayings like Jai Shri Ram that once provided us comfort and united us, now create fear and sow division.

Fake news has become a scourge, publications are more beholden to advertisers than readers, and it’s more lucrative to cater to echo chambers than to actually inform and guide. The time has come to resume paying for news, irrespective of political leanings.

At a time when we are divided over politics in Kashmir and Assam, ravaged by floods, and crushed by the economy on a freefall, Chandrayaan 2 has ushered in a dash of positivity we so badly need.

In his acceptance speech ahead of receiving the Ramon Magsaysay Award, Ravish Kumar’s appeals to the citizenry’s sense of pride in their rights, despair at being conned, and frustration at being lied to repeatedly. It’s time to pay attention.

If you can drive in India, you can drive anywhere. Our pitiful reputation for unsafe driving has led to the steep fines for traffic violations in the new Motor Vehicles Act. But despite the public outcry over sky-high challans, is money the only language we will understand?

After I flunked a dozen-odd kindergarten interviews, I was told by my parents that I’ll spend more time with my preschool tuition teachers – Julie Miss and Rosy Miss. I may not have learned my letters and my poems, but I learned something – and that something was imagination.

The minute a couple tie the nuptial knot, their relatives descend upon them and start demanding a baby. When they’ve had one, the family begin chasing them for the second one. Thank God for the “Hum do, humare do” slogans and overpopulation problems, or else this would continue ad infinitum.

What Assam and the rest of the world need is a new idea – or a new messiah that reminds its people of values beyond consumption and per capita income. One that can remind its people that once you’ve achieved the means and wealth to cover your needs and some luxuries, it is alright to let others, less privileged, brown or black, Syrian or Bangladeshi, to have a go at it.