Shankar Roychowdhury

Jun 11, 2012
Shankar Roychowdhury

Shankar Roychowdhury

Easterly winds

Monsoon clouds had not yet gathered over Kolka-ta, but political outriders had already manifested themselves in the city as early as March 31 in the form of a large, well organised “gathering of minorities” at the Shaheed Minar in Kolkata Maidan to voice resentment against Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, for instituting war crimes trials in Dhaka against Razakars who collaborated with the Pakistan Army in committing horrific atrocities on the local population during the War of Liberation in 1971.

India’s Korean worries

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) or, North Korea, and its internal politics rarely intrude into the public consciousness in India because not too much is known here about that country.

When I spent some 18 months in London in 1995-96 in the role of a foreign correspondent for an Indian newspaper, there was one issue that dominated “high politics” in Westminster: the European Union.

What Angelina Jolie did by declaring to the world on Tuesday that she had had bilateral prophylactic mastectomies — surgical removal of both breasts without evidence of breast cancer in either — is being seen by many as an act of courage. Her decision is sure to go a long way in creating awareness.