After separate British & Soviet invasions of Iran from north & east, allied Red Army & British Indian troops meet each other:

Rabindranath Tagore talking about the benefits of wasting away your days in a letter to a close friend. No one can beat a Bengali in the art of doing nothing.

Tunku Varadarajan WSJ Books Section Interesting book. It overemphasizes "infrastructure," an outdated perspective. The US has advanced its thinking. Future economic rivalry will be mental. The US's unrivaled diversity and freedom of thought lead on this front.

Prof Zoya Hasan: "The BJP is no longer willing to rely on existing rules unless it can reshape them in its favour. A government secure in its authority would have no need to rewrite the rules. The very impulse to do so signals a crisis of control..."

The bogey of sedition - how the state gets away with a lot by relying on the Company school, by citing impending emergency. This relic of the Raj must be challenged. Shah Rukh Alam in The Times Of India timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/t…

Godi media and commentariat is weeping blood for some pro-gun American chap shot dead & and sweating bricks at the sight of protests in Nepal. I am left wondering why…

In keeping with the horribleness of the one put by the COAS in the official lounge in his office.

A true nation builder. Rest in peace, sir.

Church Road, Delhi.

Timing of actions against Anil Ambani looks fishy, right? That's till you see how long overdue it all was. If everyone had done their job, these cases would've ended long ago, with no comeback. Read how Ambani owes his gravy train ride to apathy, leniency themorningcontext.com/business/anil-…

The fig leaf of competitive bidding.

The dumbing down of journalism in India, the PIB-ness of reporting, the WhatsApp briefs doled out in the name of analysis, the pussilinamity of editors, the inherent biases of star journalists who always claim to be speaking truth to power and rarely do it, the noise, the din —

Hamari Aakhri umeed hum khud hain / Aur jab tak hum hain umeed khayam hai. (Our last hope is ourselves / and as long as we are there, hope is alive)

Hope sinks eternal!

What a lovely story about Kolkata. bbc.com/news/articles/…

Some of the most dangerous parts of the world

An unpopular opinion with the cutprice patriots who make such a cacophony in India: the Indian team behaved shabbily by not shaking hands with the Pakistanis after the game. For heaven's sake, once you're playing the match as opposed to boycotting it, shake their f-ing hands!