Dear Reader, forgive my self-indulgence, but I write this as an angry and anguished Indian citizen and south Mumbaikar as much as a professional journalist. Over the last few days, as I have watched the city of my youth being ravaged by mindless terror, I must confess to feeling helpless, almost violated, as if someone had defiled the shrine of an old unhurried, SAFE Bombay. Each terror site ignites a flash of memories, the roll call of the dead consist of names I grew up with. In the geography of terror, the horror has come precariously close to home: my mother lives just a block away from Nariman House in Colaba, an area that has been traditionally the most secure in the metropolis. Its almost as if in the space of 72 bloody hours, an entire universe of memories has been shaken, perhaps irretrievably. Leopolds Café where I had my first beer in celebration of clearing the high school exam; Colaba market, where...

In the first innings of the Nagpur test, as Saurav Ganguly was batting with remarkable assurance, an excited senior government official rang up: "You guys in the media have to start a campaign to stop Ganguly from retiring. We can't let Dada go like this when he is batting like a champion!" In this season of high-pitched cricketing emotion, there has been no farewell quite as dramatic as that of Saurav "Dada" Ganguly. As reams are written, songs are composed and television images of a bare-bodied Ganguly are endlessly beamed, it's almost as if his departure from international cricket has become the final episode of a long-running soap that has captivated a nation for thirteen tumultuous years. Anil Kumble, a giant of a cricketer with over 600 wickets, retired after the Delhi test. His exit was like the man himself: dignified and somber. Ganguly's exit, by contrast, has been accompanied by the kind of frenzied fan response never seen before on...

My Dear Raj, My apologies for having to communicate through the editorial pages of a newspaper, but frankly am left with little choice since you seem to have decided to stay away from the so-called 'national' non-Marathi media. Let me at the very outset say that I am impressed with the manner you have carved a niche on the political landscape of Maharashtra. I distinctly remember meeting you in February last year soon after the Mumbai municipal corporation elections. It wasn't the best of times: your party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena had been marginalized while your cousin Udhav Thackeray and the Shiv Sena had captured power in the city. With many of your supporters deserting you, you appeared down, if not quite out. Twenty months later, I see you've bounced back: every local and national daily has you on the front page, you are the subject of television debates and your politics has even united Bihar's warring netas. And yet, my...

All over the world, a killer is a killer and a rapist is a rapist. Only in India do criminals have religious and caste identities: they are either Hindus, Muslims or tribals, each with their own political protectors and detractors. Terrorism all over the world is a law and order and police issue: only in India is terrorism about competitive identity politics. Now, as we enter election season, bombs are being wrapped in party manifestos. Political stances on bomb blasts do not focus on ensuring fair and just law and order, rigorous investigation and tough impartial policing. Instead "terrorism" is all about how well we understand the Koran and how many times we visit the masjid. At a time when many thinking Muslims are trying to distance themselves from terrorism, politicians, by contrast, are forcing the dialogue backwards and are determined to make religious identity the sole definition of those knocking up lethal mixtures of ammonium nitrate and ball bearings. Is it not a...