Shiv Visvanathan

Apr 04, 2013
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Shiv Visvanathan

Bachelors of the arts

I sometimes read a whole bunch of newspapers together. It gives you a different perspective on news and newsmakers. I discovered this week that the most controversial person was not Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but the current vice-chancellor of Delhi University, Dinesh Singh.

100 years of excess, a billion dreams

At a time of electoral anxiety and economic angst, good news is rare. And good news which has a historical quality, a vintage depth and archaeology of gossip is even rarer. Yet, in the middle of all the scandals playing themselves out as B- and C-grade movies, one event stands out, loved by all and celebrated by all.

The joys of being ‘third class’

Modern theories of efficiency and equality are such that one loses a celebration of the marginal. Ever since socialism, we have removed the category called “third class” from our trains and our lives. As an upwardly mobile nation, we want to travel first class and as a truly global country we want our institutions to be world class. Our presidents and vice-chancellors were upset when they realised that our IITs and IIMs are not world class.

The Babri memory

Babri Masjid is today a photo-montage of images, with each image capturing one angle of a strange and kaleidoscopic event. Babri is also a failure of storytelling because each separate story demands a different sense of ending, and a different idea of consequences.

The headlines said it all. The Man Booker International Prize had been awarded to Lydia Davis, the American author. But most Indian newspapers in English announced it as “U.R. Ananthamurthy loses out on Man Booker”. You could almost hear the collective sigh of millions of disappointed Indians.

Today, India’s prime actors who are making a bid for international visibility — in roles, major or minor — are amassing reams of publicity and flashbulb attention from the paparazzi. Amitabh Bachchan, despite a brief part in The Great Gatsby, stirred up news headlines and tumult at the extravaganza’s premiere in New York, and then on the Cannes Film Festival’s red carpet. Irrfan Khan and Tabu have received an unconditional thumbs-up from the Oscar-celebrated Ang Lee after Life of Pi, Anil Kapoor is a known factor in international enclaves after Slumdog Millionaire, a cameo in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, as well as the TV series 24.

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