|
INDIA
TODAY: January 2003 to April 2003
 April
28, 2003
How to Diet on Indian Food
Despite hundreds of diets, nutritionists and slimming centres, there is
considerable confusion about what constitutes the right diet in Indian
food .
 April
21, 2003
The Fall of a Dictator
The dictatorship of Saddam Hussein came to an end on Wednesday, April
9, not with the advance of armoured columns of the US Marines across the
city's old quarter or even with the dramatic toppling of a 6-m-high statue
of the Iraqi leader in central Baghdad's Firdos Square. It ended because
ordinary Iraqis began tentatively to speak their minds, with little fear
of retribution from the vast security apparatus that buttressed Saddam's
regime for nearly a quarter century. Policemen and activists of the ruling
Baa'th Party began shedding the uniforms and fleeing Baghdad two days
before US forces fought their way into the sprawling Republican Palace
on the west bank of the Tigris, the seat of Saddam's regime.
 April
14, 2003
Trapped
At first sight, Umm Qasr could be one of the myriad dilapidated towns
that dot coastal India. Hardly the major port that till recently handled
two-thirds of Iraq's marine exports. Poverty stares out from most of the
single-storey mud and brick houses that line the main road. It is in stark
contrast to the spiralling high rises and sweeping avenues of Kuwait City
literally "bang" next door. Children in worn-out clothes chase
the convoys of the US-led coalition forces begging for bottles of water.
Unshaven men in sneakers and ill-fitting jackets plead for cigarettes.
A fortnight after Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched, even as a decisive
assault ons Baghdad was under way, this strategic sliver of land that
juts out into the Persian Gulf remains the only town that the coalition
forces could claim as a "liberated zone".
 April
07, 2003
Vision of Hell
The lobby of the Palestine Hotel, which for the past week has been home
for most of the foreign press corps in Baghdad, is a bleak and sinister
place. Each passerby is scrutinised by plainclothes officials to trace
any subversive intent. The usual crowd of ruling party activists and secret
police in black leather jackets are here on March 24 too, but instead
of observing the reporters, they watch TV, entranced by the image of a
crippled American Apache helicopter lying in a field near Karbala in southern
Iraq. Their joy turns to ecstasy when a correspondent of the state-controlled
TV thrusts his microphone towards the bewildered farmer, identified as
Ali Obaid Mingash, and asks how he had shot down the hi-tech helicopter
with a hunting rifle. Never mind that it would take an awfully lucky shot
to bring down the chopper. The crowd erupts in cheers anyway. "The
old man shot it down!
 March
31, 2003
As Iraq flares up...
Hours before the US-led coalition forces' attack on Baghdad began, a surreal
calm had descended over Kuwait city. A severe dust storm had forced people
to put on protective surgical masks on their faces as fine silica dust
invaded nostrils, blinded eyes and reduced visibility to a few metres.
It lulled its 2.3 million residents into believing that an American strike
could be delayed.
 March
24, 2003
Go For It!
For a fortnight now, India has stood still. Held its breath, said its
prayers, not moved off its chairs and charpais for fear of upsetting some
cosmic order. An outer life is lived in a detached virtual reality where
offices are attended, bills paid, food cooked, kids scolded, homework
done. Mostly though it's an inner life where dreams are dreamt. A nation
waits in hope and fear, anticipation and trepidation. For a fortnight
now, another India has been on the move.
 March
17, 2003
Global Giant or Pygmy
Five decades after Independence, the story of India can be told with an
unceasing invocation of one word-If-the shorthand for a saga of missed
opportunities. It is not that India lacks achievements-a vibrant democracy,
a large reservoir of skilled manpower, a self-confident middle class at
the cutting edge of new technology and, above all, a huge and growing
domestic market. It is just that these achievements are not commensurate
with India's acknowledged potential. The country faces an unacceptable
performance-potential gap.
 March
10, 2003
Middle Class Muscle
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh's first budget is a delicate balancing
act between the demands of the economy and those of politics. While the
economy required hard measures, electoral politics demanded soft options.
Here is what Budget 2003 means to you, the Government and the economy.
Plus, an exclusive interview with Jaswant Singh.
 March
03, 2003
Back from the Brink
At the end of the first week of the Cup it was obvious this would be cricket's
most competitive tournament. Despite the win over Zimbabwe—and the
brief respite for a cricket-crazed nation where every obsession has taken
a backseat—India still walks the tightrope.
 February
24, 2003
Ratan Tata
From Rs 10,627 crore in 1991, the Tata Group today is a Rs 49,456-crore
conglomerate. It owes its turnaround to a man whose vision changed the
loosely-knit unit into a cohesive entity: Ratan Tata. Since he took charge,
the Tata Group has grown fourfold. With a turnover of Rs 49,456 crore,
it now employs 2.18 lakh people and accounts for 2.4 per cent of the GDP.
 February
17, 2003
Eternal Voyager
Travelling in the weightlessness of space, Kalpana Chawla once said with
the poetic simplicity that comes naturally to an intrepid explorer: "You
are just your intelligence.'' On that brilliant, breezy blue day over
Cape Canaveral, Florida, as she hurtled back to Earth at 18 times the
speed of sound, Chawla must have felt only brute force as the magnificent
flying machine with over 2.5 million parts-miraculously held together
till then by magical dexterity-burst apart.
 February
10, 2003
BJP's Finest Hour
Among the unwritten rules governing contemporary Indian politics-at least
for the past three decades-is that a government loses its way midstream
and becomes vulnerable to a rising tide of anti-incumbency. Till a year
ago, this seemed to be the predestined fate of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led
NDA Government. The BJP and its allies were worsted in the key assembly
elections of Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Uttaranchal. The Congress
under Sonia Gandhi was staging a dramatic comeback.
 Februrary
03, 2003
The Power List
In character, the Indian establishment is no different from the Paxman
prototype. It is a permanent if amorphous institution, yet most fluid
in its constitution. The government is still the most punchy economic
and social engine in India. As such, the most obvious practitioners of
power are those who hold political office or man the best civil service
jobs. The India Today compilation of the High and Mighty excludes these
statist symbols.
 January
27, 2003
The Party Machine
When Moet et Chandon wanted to announce the presence of its champagne,
Dom Perignon, in Delhi, it got in touch with Vandana Mohan's Backstage
Productions. At Rs 5 lakh, she organised a dinner party for 52 exclusive
guests who sat chic by jowl to sample a happy fusion of culinary excess
and liquid pleasure. When designer J.J. Valaya wanted to celebrate his
10th anniversary in the profession ....
 January
20, 2003
Rot in the System
My Lord. The words have a ring of authority next only to the majesty of
a sovereign or the head of a republic. And the term, which in India is
used to address a judge who is a member of the Supreme Court or the high
courts, commands unmatched veneration both in and outside the courts.
The 641 lord justices in the country are sheathed in immunity. But a string
of incidents in the recent past involving aberrant members has resulted
in the judges being publicly denigrated.
 January
13, 2003
Up and Away
Twenty million people of Indian origin are spread across 110 countries.
Here are the stories of those who surmounted the pangs of dislocation
to become the people the world looks up to — statesman, entertainers,
industrialists, writers.
 January
6, 2003
Master Divider
When Narendra Modi became chief minister of Gujarat in October 2001, there
were many who expected him to do wonders for the floundering BJP in an
election year. He did. An acrimonious post-Godhra canvassing-during which
he talked societyinto two clear camps while taking on everyone from Musharraf
and Sonia Gandhi to CEC Lyngdoh-brought clinching electoral gains. It
was a performance no one else could match in 2002. Narendra Modi.
Archives home
|
