Did Vivekananda say ‘Sisters and Brothers of America’? Fact checking a fact check
Also a list of the other participants from India at the 1893 Parliament of World’s Religions at Chicago. There were at least 15, including Vivekananda.
Media
New WhatsApp Status: This is going to be *BIG!*
New features in popular services often rake up rancour. I have also grumbled a lot against certain changes. But then with time and familiarity that resentment reduces and we start to dig the very feature that we detested at launch. The same is true for the just-released updated WhatsApp Status, WhatsApp’s return gift to us [Read more]
40th anniversary of Emergency: The unofficial Google doodle
(This post is a part of a series on the 40th anniversary of the imposition of Emergency in India) This unofficial Google doodle pays tribute to the Indians who put in their best to uphold the principles of democracy in the dark days of the Emergency. The doodle draws its obvious inspiration from the iconic [Read more]
RK Laxman – the unofficial Google doodle
RK Laxman, India’s best-known cartoonist, died on January 26, 2015. He was 93. I had the opportunity to meet the legendary cartoonist once, as a student in Bhopal, but I (and we all) knew him best through his cartoons. Cutting the Chai pays tribute to the man, in the form of an unofficial Google doodle. [Read more]
25 world newspaper front pages with Narendra Modi and BJP’s victory headlines
The elections in the world’s largest democracy (that is also a prominent emerging economy) is obviously an item of importance in the world media. Here’s a snapshot of how newspapers around the world covered the news of Narendra Modi and BJP’s emphatic victory in the elections to the 16th Lok Sabha. Modi might have won [Read more]
The unofficial Khushwant Singh Google doodle
This is from a few days ago when the man whose pen wore no condom fell one short of a century. The unofficial Khushwant Singh Google doodle. And an animated GIF tribute to the ‘Sardar in the Lightbulb’ that I created suring my day job at IBNLive.
Filmfare magazine cover dated April 2, 1954 featuring the first Filmfare Award winners
60 years ago on Sunday, March 31, 1954 the first Filmfare Awards ceremony (for films released in 1952-53) was held at Bombay’s Metro Cinema and the subsequent issue of the fortnightly film magazine (dated April 2, 1954) had on its cover three of the winners from the night posing with their trophies. On the cover [Read more]
Et tu, Dadamoni? How Ashok Kumar fell from grace in Suraiya’s eyes
There are a lot of distractions while reading eBooks on the phone and Twitter is one. As I was swiping through the pages of Raju Bharatan’s A Journey Down Melody Lane: The Making of a Hindi Film Song on my phone, I occasionally switched to the Twitter app to follow what’s tweeting. In a strange [Read more]
At Rs 100/issue buy e-versions of Filmfare magazine from 60 years ago
Update: Filmfare seems to have removed its magazines from sale on Magzter. As regular readers of this blog (if there are any) would know, I have a thing for vintage magazines and I just discovered that vintage Filmfare issues from 1954 onwards are now available for purchase in a digital format online. At Rs 100 [Read more]
Announcing India Shopping Search: A custom search engine for online shopaholics
I do a lot of my shopping online and always have an eye open to catch the best diaper deals (We have a 22-month-old son). A big gap in online shopping in India is that there isn’t one search engine to fulfil my online shopping search needs. Google India doesn’t have a shopping option (which [Read more]
Download for free: 40 HarperCollins India ebooks on Google Play
Disclosure: I am an ebook evangelist. Update 2: As expected, Google and HarperCollins India seems to have been alerted of the leak and the free fest is now over. I hope the early birds got their worms. Update 1: The free ebook count is now 40 (up from 39). Thanks Amit! Also URL structure changed [Read more]
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag: The actual newspaper headlines in September 1960 were quite different
Indians would have surely been disappointed by Milkha Singh’s legendary defeat in the 400 metres final at the 1960 Rome Olympics, but did the disappointment turn into actual anger as depicted at the start of Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Milkha Singh biopic – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag? I had my doubts. One, the tone of the headlines [Read more]
