Rumi Nations

I am wondering who they are. I can't find any compilation on the web. I am sure M. J. Akbar, Shashi Tharoor, Swaminathan Aiyar, and Chetan Bhagat, etc. would automatically be on any such list. Of course, some of them may not have a personal blog. But I believe all thinkers should be open and daring and share their thoughts with the world at large. It's their noble responsibility to society. We need robust exchanges of ideas to keep this a thriving civilization of new ideas. We need to hold everything up to scrutiny. Democracies consist of imperfect people in charge of institutions created only by the same imperfect humans. I find M. J. Akbar's writings to be peerless. I want to offer my assessment that he's the best in contemporary India. His articles seem to be like perfectly formed marbles that need no further refinement. It's tough to even add a comment to his articles. What can one add beyond just saying something cliched like 'Perfect.' Chetan Bh...

Shashi Tharoor successfully navigated the intricate waters of international diplomacy for more than 30 years. However, he finds the waters of Indian politics to be rather murky. Tharoor’s undoing has been restlessness to a certain extent. He has tended to assume that being modern and transparent in a democracy bursting with youngsters can only be the right thing to do. However, India is more complex than that. Perhaps, Tharoor needs to re-absorb the lessons that Nehru mentions in his Discovery of India. India’s roots stretch back thousands of years into antiquity. Though Indians might appear to have adopted all the tools and benefits of modern technology — such as cell phones and airplanes, etc. — that does not mean that Indians have foregone their ancient heritages. So, Indians continue on with their archaic ways of worshipping gods and ‘sacrificing’ animals as the occasion requires. Indians continue to practice the age-old ‘custom’ of dowry in a non-so-subtle manner and casteism is a...

The saga of the new-age Krishna/Balaram pair is truly curious. In the age of mythologies, Balaram used to be the elder of the brothers, but now it’s Krishna who is playing elder brother to Balaram, a.k.a. Shashi. The Full-bright Krishna is normally used to all the ‘amenities’ and creature comforts of his heavenly abode, so naturally he found his ‘respective’ State Bhavan not quite up to the mark — quite understandably. Also, in his new role as India’s official globetrotter, he must be used to diverse locales and cuisines and peoples, etc. So, may be he was just choosing to stay in a place that has been home to many a world leaders including Bill Clinton and myriad others. Surely, that is part of his job-brief. This way, he could continue to sample a lot of ‘global’ offerings without burdening the meager taxpayer-funded resources of the Government of India with endless jaunts abroad. But, alas politics is a strange profession and though sometimes it might seem that the game is bereft of...