NESTLED in the rugged terrain of Sikkim lies not just a strategic military zone but also a region steeped in mystery, faith and folklore. During my tenure in the Eastern Himalayas as Officer Commanding of 214 Field Workshop and Divisional...
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SOME houses don’t age, they wait — like old friends by the window, holding their breath for your knock. I did not step into a temple or dip my hands into sacred waters. Yet when I returned to my ancestral...
I am in my late seventies. Although my wife is older than me and hard of hearing, she never admits it — as is her wont. Ours was ‘love at first sight’ that blossomed into marriage. Having an undying passion...
DURING his 1949 visit to the US, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru met a young man in New York, Rana Man Singh. Rana was then learning the ropes from a great architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. Nehru urged him to return to India...
HOME is a deceptively simple yet evocative word. Simply put, it’s an emotion in itself. Our earliest memories of home are mostly about mom’s warm caress, welcoming smell of home-cooked meals, laughter, friends, family and carefree days. These memories sustain...
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THE Sargodha airbase and Kirana Hills in Pakistan have been in the news following the launch of Operation Sindoor. I spent some time in that area during my childhood. My grandfather was allotted 50 acres in the Sargodha Canal Colony,...
GETTING our hair cropped at the local salon was a monthly ritual during our childhood in the 1960s. Our Christian school required pupils to have short, well-trimmed hair. My four brothers and I would be told by our parents a...
NEWS of our airstrikes deep inside Pakistan trickled in early in the morning on May 7. TV channels repeatedly flashed the little they knew. The red tracers on the screen, racing to ‘neutralise’ enemy drones, reminded me of an incident...
AS we drove around beautiful Mauritius, I was intrigued by the images of a bird in malls, shops, parks and on signboards. When I asked our guide, he smiled and said: “Oh, that’s the dodo.” He waxed eloquent about this...
WRITING about Kashmir, I don’t know where to begin. Should I talk about the historic hydroelectric power station set up in 1905 at Mohra village near Uri by Maharaja Pratap Singh, or tell the story of the nearby temple whose...
LIVING in a north Indian city that has high-rise buildings and high air pollution levels, I often become nostalgic about my childhood in Kerala. There was a river near the village that flowed throughout the year in the absence of...
IN 2020, more than 120 people died in Punjab’s Majha region after consuming spurious liquor. Last year, a hooch tragedy claimed about 20 lives in Sangrur district. And now a similar tragedy has occurred at Majitha in Amritsar district, resulting...
DURING my posting in the eastern part of the country, where the sun sets around 5 pm, the bar would open at seven — for exactly an hour. That hour used to be blissful; the tiring moments of the day...
MEMORIES of the 1971 India-Pakistan war, particularly the blackouts, still haunt me. The battleground was far away, but the fear of air attacks gripped us. NCC cadets of the junior division in my school at Charkhi Dadri (Haryana) were drafted...
PANDIT Sadhu Ram was one of my teachers at the Taleem-ul-Islam High School (later upgraded to senior secondary) in Qadian, Gurdaspur. He left an indelible impression on his students. Lanky and hatchet-faced, he had small but bright eyes, and tiny...
MOMENTS before the sirens blared and the blackout began, I received a WhatsApp message: “The child asked what year I was born and I said 1978. She said that’s not a real year, years start with 20…’ This message meant...
IT was a couple of weeks after our marriage, and my husband and I were still basking in the glow of newlywed bliss — the kind of glow that makes you think nothing could possibly go wrong. During a visit...
VISITING Kolkata after more than a decade was like flipping through a sepia-tinted photo album, only to find some pages smudged, torn or missing altogether. The city, with all its unrelenting chaos and ineffable charm, greeted me as it always...
DILJIT Dosanjh made history at the 2025 Met Gala. His outfit was not just an eye-turner, but a part of a milestone of South Asian storytelling in the global arena. His debut outfit was designed by Prabal Gurung, who rose...
THE crack of an AK-47 rifle shot is a deafening 150-160 decibels at point-blank range. Opened recently for tourists with its remoteness touted as its USP, the Baisaran meadow — 7 km southeast of Pahalgam — had no security personnel...
A civil defence mock drill, including a blackout, is being conducted nationwide today. A section of the media claims that such an exercise has not been carried out since the 1971 Bangladesh war. This is incorrect, as we shall soon...
INTER-TRIBAL disputes leading to violence are not new to Manipur. In 1992-93, a series of clashes erupted among Naga and Kukis in parts of Churachandpur, Ukhrul, Senapati and Tamenglong districts. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), a Naga separatist...
AS war clouds loom, the peepal tree above Pillar No. 918 — a silent sentinel at the India-Pakistan border in Jammu — is holding its breath. It listens to tales carried by birds from both countries. A bird from India...
In an era where news often reaches our screens in real time, it’s hard to imagine a world where breaking news took days to reach the public. Yet, that was the reality when I first stepped into journalism in the...
THE saying ‘old is gold’ sums up my enduring bond with my typewriter. More than just a machine, it has been a steadfast companion throughout my career, symbolising dedication, perseverance and craftsmanship. My first job as a document writer in...
DURING Operation Parakram in 2001, my unit was deployed near the India-Pakistan border in the western sector. Tensions ran high, and an attack from the enemy seemed imminent. Our orders were clear: Take defensive positions and dig deep trenches to...
THE government has been actively taking steps to make traffic law enforcement more stringent so that unruly drivers ‘fall in lane’. From CCTV cameras on key stretches to speed radars and speed alerts inside newer vehicles, the Indian driver has...
IT was Dagh Dehlvi who extolled the greatness of Urdu: “Urdu hai jiska naam hami jaante hain ‘Dagh’, Hindostan main dhoom hamari zuban ki hai.” There’s no denying the fact that not only north and central India, but to an...
ABOUT 15 years ago, a maid started working at my house in Patiala. I asked her about her family. She revealed that her husband was lodged in the Kapurthala jail after being arrested four months earlier. When I tried to...
IN December 1987, I arrived at the small town of Sanand in Ahmedabad district to take charge as the SHO of the police station for three months, as part of the practical training of an IPS probationer. I got down...
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