Voice of the People
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I was posted in Baghdad (Iraq) from 1984 to 1988 for a building project. Saddam Hussein was then the undisputed leader of the country, holding the posts of President, Prime Minister and Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, the supreme policymaking body. He was also a regional strongman — Sheikhs and Emirs from Gulf countries […]
COMMANDING 28 Punjab Battalion in the insurgency-prone region of Upper Assam, my superiors raised eyebrows when I started interacting with some dreaded terrorists. Terrorism was at its peak there in the 1990s. One day, the Brigade Commander accosted me, visibly concerned, and cautioned me that I was exposing myself to grave danger. However, his eyes […]
MY 81-year-old mother recently undertook a trip to the hills with her friends and family members. Always a sport, she is known for raising the bar on what her body and mind can do. While going up a steep slope, she was struggling to catch her breath and yet wanting to carry on without any […]
I often wonder what my life would be without my three nephews and a niece. Some people enter our lives and become part of our story. Others quietly become part of who we are. They are the latter. My life with them has been made of ordinary things: noisy afternoons, endless questions, silly arguments, sudden […]
WHEN I moved to Punjab to begin my teaching career at Punjabi University in 1996, I knew little Punjabi beyond a few words. I had completed my Master’s degree two years earlier. Until then, I had never been to Punjab. Almost everything around me was new. The institutional culture was different from the one I […]
AS a child watching the movie Kabuliwala on Doordarshan, I wondered: how could the protagonist, Abdul Rehman, spend years in prison and still expect Mini to be the same little girl? How could he bring back a pair of small bangles, completely oblivious to the relentless march of time? It was years later that I […]
As we remember Dr BN Goswamy (1933-2023) — Chandigarh’s cultural icon and world-famous art historian — on his 93rd birth anniversary today, memories of his mesmerising lectures come flooding in. His exquisite narratives of miniature paintings and their pan-Indian themes resound in our consciousness. While his contribution to art history takes centre stage, less is […]
The most valuable inheritance may not be property. It may be a phonebook. Over decades, parents have often built a parallel version of the internet, only warmer, older, and significantly better at getting things done. It is an inheritance of access accumulated over decades, passed down casually, and rarely recognised as wealth. For generations, the […]
IN the last week of October 1945, Zaildar Budh Khan Ghumman arrived at the house of my grandfather, Lambardar Lachhman Singh, early in the morning. Budh had arranged the marriages of two of his daughters. In dire need of money, he asked Lachhman for Rs 10,000, offering two murabbas (about 50 acres) of land as […]
THERE are certain smells that travel faster than time. The fragrance of rain-soaked earth is one of them. The first whiff of petrichor never reminds me of weather apps or traffic advisories. It takes me straight back to Yamunanagar, where the monsoon wasn’t merely a season; it was a state of mind. Before rain became […]
DURING the era of militancy in Punjab, personal security gained traction. Anyone who “mattered” wanted police protection, sometimes for houses deep in the border areas of Himachal Pradesh. The police force, already short of hands, found itself fielding more requests than it could sensibly meet. Real danger rubbed shoulders with status demands, and common sense […]
MY mother has been bedridden for months, battling cancer with quiet stubbornness. We move on tiptoe around her. Recently, a colleague came to meet her; he is a fitness-conscious man who reads nutrition labels like scripture. When my wife offered tea, he said: “Bhabhi ji, sugar-free please.” From the other room, my mother heard him. […]
