Girish Shahane

    Anything That Moves

    Linking culture, politics and history

  • Is Turkey the Key?

    Of the countries I've visited, my favourites happen to share important features. They are all large but not intimidating in size, with proportionate populations. They have a varied landscape, a mostly temperate climate, and enough fertile land not only to … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2011/06/19/is-turkey-the-key/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Osama, icons and iconoclasm

    Accounts of the life and death of Osama bin Laden typically describe him as, 'an icon to the cause of terror', and, 'the face of global jihad'. Bin Laden's face became iconic because of the way the world saw him: … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2011/05/08/osama-icons-and-iconoclasm/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Fast Food and Smoking Guns

    When Ronald Reagan was wheeled into surgery after being shot in March 1981, he was minutes from death, but hadn't been bled of his sense of humour. Addressing the assembled team of doctors he said he hoped they were Republicans. … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2011/04/24/fast-food-and-smoking-guns/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Chocolate and Petrol

    The Cocoa Exchange on Wall Street, a highrise built in the early twentieth century, is now dwarfed by characterless towers containing offices of the world's biggest trading institutions. The building's name is as surprising as its quaint, ornate appearance. Who … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2011/04/10/chocolate-and-petrol/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Of Football, Potholes and Britishness

    I read the news today, oh boy. Four thousand holes in Blackburn Rovers' defence. Other journalists are bound to pinch and twist John Lennon's words, as I have done, in describing Blackburn's 1-7 defeat to Manchester United. There will probably … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/11/29/of-football-potholes-and-britishness/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Diplomacy

    The visit of Barack Obama to India began with commentators generally treating him with suspicion. Obama appeared to be damaged goods after his party's drubbing in the mid-term election. He had repeatedly made statements against outsourcing, interpreted as harbingers of … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/11/15/diplomacy/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Armies and the man

    The construction of the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society, a 31-floor structure overlooking sensitive military installations in Colaba, hints strongly at corruption among politicians and bureaucrats, as also among high-ranking officers in the armed forces. While journalists have been exposing conflicts … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/11/01/armies-and-the-man/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • The Lonely Planet Misguidebook

    They didn't fly down for the Commonwealth Games as some had hoped, but tourists are now thronging the country. I see more each time I visit town, ruddy-cheeked and flustered in the October heat, beset by urchins, hawkers and touts. … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/10/18/the-lonely-planet-misguidebook/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Down the Drain

    Of the many foolish statements made in the past weeks by organisers of the Commonwealth Games, none was sillier than secretary general Lalit Bhanot's claim that, if some delegates were finding conditions in the Games Village intolerable, it was because … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/10/04/down-the-drain/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • A Recipe for Famine

    First the good news: India's inflation rate dropped substantially in August. Now the catch: the fall was due mainly to a change in the basket of commodities used to measure inflation. The government's new index curtails the impact of food … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/09/20/a-recipe-for-famine/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • No Free Lunch

    The other afternoon, feeling the need for a caffeine shot, I walked across to the Barista near my home in Shivaji Park. Almost as soon as I sat down in the outdoor section, a waiter came to my table and … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/09/06/no-free-lunch/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Patriot Games

    If we accept Samuel Johnson's contention that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, how should we classify Indian mediapersons for whom it is the first line of defence? Perhaps it isn't surprising that an increasing number of television … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/08/23/patriot-games/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Pot and Kettle, Frying Pan and Fire

    The government of India now resembles a weather-beaten house in a relentless monsoon. Kitchen walls are peeling, the living room leaks, bits of plaster lie on the bedroom floor. Despite assurances that the structure remains sound, there's a growing fear … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/08/09/pot-and-kettle-frying-pan-and-fire/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Songs Sung Blue: Boney M and the Palestine issue

    The Palestine International Festival of Dance and Music, designed to draw attention to water shortages in the West Bank, isn't exactly the hottest ticket on the global performance circuit. The only reason the disco band Boney M's gig in Ramallah … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/07/26/songs-sung-blue-boney-m-and-the-palestine-issue/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Why India Sucks at Football

    Why is India so terrible at football? The question crops up every time a World Cup comes around and we find ourselves farther from the main draw than Christiano Ronaldo is from humility and self-deprecation. There are two conventional answers … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/07/12/why-india-sucks-at-football/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Museums, Mansions and Money

    I've come up for air after two weeks immersed in art and the art market. It began with a week long trip to Switzerland arranged by Pro Helvetia focussed on Art Basel, the world's premier art fair. This was followed … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/06/28/museums-mansions-and-money/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Blasphemy: From Ulysses to Lady Gaga

    The events in James Joyce's Ulysses unfold on June 16, 1904. That day (known as Bloomsday after the book's protagonist Leopold Bloom) is marked annually with readings and enactments, specially in Dublin where the twentieth century's greatest English language novel … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/06/14/blasphemy-from-ulysses-to-lady-gaga/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Sugar Pills and Skepticism

    "Homeopathy is witchcraft". Those words, spoken by Tom Dolphin of the British Medical Association, garnered a few headlines in the UK, and many more in India. We rarely favour 'less is more' ideas, but make an exception for homeopathy which, … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/05/31/sugar-pills-and-skepticism/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Inglourious Basterds and the British Elections

    Brad Pitt, who has stayed impeccably diplomatic throughout his career, grew unusually opinionated while promoting Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, in which he had a starring role. Pitt said, about the movie that gave Jews fictional revenge on Hitler, "The Second … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/05/17/inglourious-basterds-and-the-british-elections/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>

  • Memories and Memorials

    The bronze statue at the martyrs' memorial in South Mumbai stands on a peculiar, somewhat cone-shaped pedestal. Perhaps the designer's intention was to mimic the form of a torch, with the pedestal as its handle and the statue as the … <a href="http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/opinions/2010/05/03/memories-and-memorials/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>