She was married when she was one year old. She didn't get a say, she didn't even know how to speak. Her parents traded her like a piece of property, her life theirs to do with as they pleased. But Laxmi Sargara refused to go along with it. When, years later, her "husband" came to collect her, she told her parents she wasn't going. This week, aged 18, she became the first Indian woman to refuse the marriage she was entered into as a child and demand that it be annulled. She should be … [Read more...]
The Bus Lane from Hell
April 24, 2012 by 3 Comments
Bus lanes are the great levellers of our times. The rich man sits in traffic in his Mercedes, watching as the poor man sweeps past in the bus. But here in Delhi, they have come up with an even more egalitarian version. On the Delhi Bus Rapid Transit Corridor, nobody is getting anywhere. It used to be the quickest north-south route through the city, then the goverment decided it needed modernising. Now, the traffic is so bad it takes 20 minutes' wait just to get onto the road, because there's … [Read more...]
Distracted by its own din, Europe cannot hear the gathering storm
April 18, 2012 by 2 Comments
The wolves are circling Europe. The emerging economies of Asia and South America sense weakness. Day by day, they are pushing the boundaries, seeing how far they can go, testing a new world order. But inside the camp, the old European economies are too deafened by the din of their own internal squabbles to hear the approaching danger. This week it was Spain's turn, as Argentina nationalised the Spanish-owned majority stake in its largest oil company. The Spanish government warned of … [Read more...]
Zaphod Beeblebrox invented your future
April 17, 2012 by 5 Comments
So, who invented the Kindle, the little electronic book that is transforming the way we read and laying waste to the traditional publishing industry? Rereading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy the other day, I was suddenly struck by the thought that, in a way, it was Douglas Adams. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, for anyone who hasn't read it, is a satire in which the Earth is demolished by aliens to make way for a hyperspace bypass, and one human, Arthur Dent, is rescued by a … [Read more...]
Green-Eyed Monsters
April 11, 2012 by 1 Comment
In the shitstorm that broke over the head of poor Samantha Brick last week, after she wrote a piece for the Daily Mail, claiming other women hated her for her looks, I was struck by how often we fail to distinguish between envy and jealousy. Brick was at it her original piece, saying she was held back at work by a female boss who was "jealous of her", and in her follow-up, saying her husband dismissed the initial reaction to her claims as "the spiteful remarks of a few jealous women". Ruth … [Read more...]
Blood on the streets
April 10, 2012 by 1 Comment
I was a few streets from home when it came at me. An SUV on the wrong side of the road, travelling in the wrong direction, rushing out of the night straight at my car, lights flashing and horn blaring for me to get out of the way. It was no time to argue. I slammed the brakes on and swerved. I managed to avoid a head-on collision but the two cars scraped along the side of each other before slewing to a halt in the middle of the deserted road. The other driver was getting out of his car. He … [Read more...]
The Mad Axemen of Delhi
April 5, 2012 by 2 Comments
"What the hell was that?" I said. It sounded like something big had just crashed to earth right outside my window. "I think they're trimming the trees," my housekeeper said, peering out. Trimming? Huge branches were coming down in all directions, hitting the ground so hard they were breaking apart.There were several men sitting high up in the trees, hacking at them with axes, while others shouted up orders from below. This was trimming the trees, Delhi style. I saw a particularly large bough … [Read more...]
The coup that wasn’t
April 4, 2012 by 2 Comments
Woke this morning to startling news. The Indian Express was leading on a military coup attempt in January, some one said. A military coup, in India! I looked out the window: still the same Delhi. It was hard to imagine tanks on the streets. Over on Twitter it was getting very heated. People were insulting each other, accusing each other of saying things they hadn't. The Indian Express was denying it had said there was a coup attempt. I got a copy of the paper. It was dramatic stuff, the front … [Read more...]
The people are coming for you
April 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment
In February last year, drunk on the euphoria of the Arab Spring and cheap wine, I put this rant up on Facebook: "Bouteflika, Saleh, Assad, Gaddafi, Ahmadinejad and you silent eminences his masters, Abdullah the Hashemite, Abdullah of the House of Saud, don't sleep, don't turn out the lights, don't blink, the people are coming for you." Well, yes. They really were coming for Gaddafi. Saleh of Yemen is gone too, though allowed to live. Things aren't looking good for Assad, … [Read more...]
Sleepless nights in Delhi
April 3, 2012 by 9 Comments
I don't sleep well. Perhaps I have unquiet dreams. But I think it has something to do with the man who blows a whistle outside my window all night. When I first moved to Delhi, I thought it was a drunk blowing a whistle at three in the morning. Or a madman. It was a football referee's whistle, and he was blowing it hard, really going for it, and I thought he was going to wake the whole neighbourhood up, and that in a few moments I would hear angry voices. But there was nothing, just that … [Read more...]
