Published in the Huffington Post on August 19, 2011. Hat sales are unusually high in India for this time of year. Specifically, white boat-shaped ‘Gandhi caps’ are flying off the shelves. India’s hat makers have a septuagenarian social activist named Kisan Baburao Hazare — popularly known as Anna Hazare – to thank for that. Across India, Anna [...]
Posts Tagged ‘India’
Where Anna Hazare’s Anti-Corruption Movement Should End
Posted in Published articles, tagged Anna Hazare, Corruption, Government, India, Law, politics, Protest on August 20, 2011 | 1 Comment »
India’s poor need help to help themselves
Posted in Microfinance, Published articles, tagged India, International development, Microfinance on March 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Published in The Guardian on March 7, 2011. Read the full article here or read below. Until recently, microfinance has been the golden child of international development. Microfinance companies would lend small amounts of money to poor women who would, in the ideal scenario, use them to start small businesses. Their interest rates were typically [...]
Beauty Queens
Posted in Published articles, tagged Beauty, Bollywood, Hijra, Homosexual, India, Transgender on November 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Published in Motherland Magazine, November 2010. Text: Sarika Bansal Backstage was all your average pageant stuff. Talcum powder, stray sequins and nervous laughter filled the musty dressing room air. Contestants calmed one another while adjusting their hair and bra straps. “Don’t worry, na,” one contestant cooed. “You’re a beautiful woman, the audience will love you.” [...]
Horn OK Please: Possibly my worst ever night’s sleep
Posted in Humor, tagged Humor, India, Personal, Transport, Travel on June 16, 2010 | 10 Comments »
I should probably preface this story by saying that I’m not a princess. You can use a lot of other choice words to describe me, but “princess” would hardly be accurate. I rarely flinch at the sight of a cockroach or moldy fruit, and if the only “bathroom” in sight is two pieces of cinderblock [...]
India’s sexpert no substitute for education
Posted in Published articles, tagged India, Sex, Sex Education, The Guardian, Watsa on June 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Published in The Guardian on June 6, 2010. Read the article here or below The rejection of sex education by parliament has left Indians relying on a newspaper column for advice on basic biology Can oral sex lead to pregnancy? Will daily masturbation make me go bald? If my elbow brushes against a woman’s breasts [...]
Gulf remittances leave some Indian families in the dust
Posted in Published articles, tagged Economy, India, Kerala, Remittances, The National on May 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Published in The National on May 10, 2010. Click here or read the text below: It is a muggy Monday morning in a small town in Kerala, India. The local bank is about to open. Outside its doors, under the shade of a coconut palm, sit a dozen customers waiting to withdraw funds from their [...]
I may not be fair, but I can be lovely on demand: My memorable arrival into Mumbai
Posted in Humor, tagged Beauty, Fair and lovely, Humor, India, Personal on May 5, 2010 | 3 Comments »
When I arrived at Mumbai’s international airport in July 2006, I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Wait, scratch the “bright-eyed” bit. Before leaving home, I somehow decided that half of my books were “too precious” for check-in luggage, leaving me to run through the airport with the weight of a baby camel on my back (don’t [...]
India’s Empire State of Mind
Posted in Infrastructure, tagged India, McKinsey & Co, Urban on April 26, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Just last week, McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) published a seminal report on the future of India’s urbanization. Some numbers they’ve calculated are totally staggering: for instance, did you know that by 2030, 590 million people will be living in India’s cities? That’s twice the population of the United States today! And did you know that [...]
