Monthly Archives: October 2010

China is edgy about India’s rise as an East Asian power

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Venky

(This article, which was part of a package of stories on President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to India, was published in DNA edition dated October 31, 2010. See below for links to some of the other articles in the package.) … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Geopolitics, India | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

My final thoughts on Arundhati Roy…

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Venky

Venky Vembu   In my column published in DNA yesterday, I thought I’d said all I wanted to say about the controversy surrounding Arundhati Roy’s recent pronouncements on Kashmir. I don’t have the luxury of being called upon to write … Continue reading →

Posted in Geopolitics, India | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Arundhati Roy is dangerously wrong on Kashmir

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Venky

(This column was published in DNA edition dated October 27, 2010.) Venky Vembu There’s a mesmeric seductive quality to Arundhati Roy’s prose. For all its verbiage, it teases, tempts and torments the mind and lures it into the parlour of … Continue reading →

Posted in Columns, India | Tagged , , | 22 Comments

Dim sum days in Delhi and Mumbai

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Venky

Venky Vembu For four days from today, Delhi and Mumbai will wake up to dim sum delights and showcase other cultural aspects of Hong Kong, as the chief executive of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, arrives on an official visit … Continue reading →

Posted in Economy, Geopolitics, India, Interview | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

‘Hong Kong can’t overlook India’s rise as an economic superpower’

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Venky

(This interview with Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, in the context of his official visit to Indian starting today, was published in today’s edition of DNA.) For four days from Monday, Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen … Continue reading →

Posted in India, Interview | Tagged , | 5 Comments

‘China’s political stability comes at the cost of freedoms’

Posted on October 23, 2010 by Venky

(This interview with veteran Chinawatcher Willy Wo-Lap Lam was published in DNA edition dated October 23, 2010.) Earlier this week, a secretive meeting of the Chinese Communist Party appointed Vice-president Xi Jinping to a senior military post. To analysts accustomed … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Interview | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Why is Mahatma Gandhi’s killer posting on my Facebook wall?

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Venky

(This column was published in DNA edition dated October 22, 2010.) Venky Vembu On the walls of my Facebook ‘friends’, I’m quite used to seeing insightful postings about their bountiful harvest while playing frivolous Farmville games or their emotional outpourings … Continue reading →

Posted in Columns, India, Social Media | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Circle of Life at Doon School

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Venky

Venky Vembu {UPDATE on November 1, 2010: I gather from a comment that I received elsewhere that some Doon School alumni believe that this post is intended to “to prove (that) one bad apple… has emerged” from Doon School. That … Continue reading →

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Doon School at 75: elite and proud of it!

Posted on October 20, 2010 by Venky

(This is a longer version of an interview with Doon School Headmaster Dr Peter McLaughlin; the shorter version was published in DNA edition dated June 5, 2010. I am posting the full-text version in the context of the School’s upcoming … Continue reading →

Posted in India, Interview | Tagged | 2 Comments

Writing about sex…

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Venky

Venky Vembu …is, well, like “dancing about architecture” (to borrow a phrase from the superb scriptwriter of the romatic comedy Playing By Heart: you can watch the opening sequence from the film, where a bewitchingly beautiful Angelina Jolie, tossing her … Continue reading →

Posted in Sexuality | Tagged , , | Leave a comment