By Sanjay Jha Delhi, one summer evening Elections in the air I am home returning There is palpable excitement everywhere The sky is dark and ominous Interspersed with thunder and lightning I almost crash against a stationary bus At the byzantine turning Am gripped by a strange sense of inexplicable fear It’s only the 21st of May Wished I could share with someone near Seemed like an unusual day I wonder about a lonely pilot Up in the dense clouds in a throbbing … [Read more...]

By Sanjay Jha ( Published in edited version in Hindustan Times dated April 7th 2011). In the tense days of JP’s Total Revolution in the mid-1970s when I was still in high school, All India Radio always seemed reassuring, the situation is tense but under control. There is nothing more powerful than the predictable impact of a cliché. It is like a stealthy rogue who emerges with monotonous regularity on appropriate occasions without causing any sweat beads. Best, it works. Compounding … [Read more...]

Courtesy: www.economist.com The disputed story of a blind activist raises difficult questions for both superpowers AT RARE moments the future of a nation, even one teeming with 1.3 billion souls, can be bound up in the fate of a single person. Just possibly China is living through one of those moments and Chen Guangcheng is that person. A blind activist from Shandong province, Mr Chen emerged from poverty, fought for justice and paid the price with his own liberty. Last month he made a … [Read more...]

IDES OF APRIL By Sanjay Jha The brouhaha over the SIT report ( not a court verdict, incidentally) on Gujarat riots exonerating Modi was on expected lines; hard-core supporters of the bearded Narendra Modi celebrated as if it was divine intervention for the beleaguered Chief Minister, like the heavenly benedictions of TIME. Prime Minister Modi, went the collective chorus. But that euphoria overlooked basic math and typically as it were, missed the woods for the trees. Let me … [Read more...]

THE MESSAGE OF MARCH ( One can underestimate the Congress party despite the lukewarm response in the UP elections at their own peril) by Sanjay Jha To read full article click on www.IYC.in … [Read more...]

A TOAST FOR THE JAM! By Sanjay Jha ( Just how do you write a farewell piece on a cricketer and a person who is indescribable?) Published in TEHELKA http://tinyurl.com/6tkal2q Decency I think is in a human’s DNA, either you have it or you don’t. Some things can’t be taught at even Lovely University or the Harvard Business School. So is modesty, that rare virtue that differentiates an insufferable loudmouth from a reticent distinguished achiever. At Rahul Dravid’s press … [Read more...]

BLEEDING BLUE By Sanjay Jha First Published in TEHELKA on February 27th 2012 Firstly, if we were expecting that MS Dhoni and Virender Sehwag would do a waltz together singing Yeh Dosti Ham Nahi Todenge ( we will never break this friendship) from the classic Sholay , we are living in a fool’s paradise. Cricketers spend nearly three-fourths of their active professional careers in 24x7 proximity, literally at arm’s length. They even indulge in the famous huddle, spend midnight hours … [Read more...]

SAVING PRIVATE KINGFISHER By Sanjay Jha First Published On IBNLive.com on February 27th 2012 One of my most embarrassing moments happened on Kingfisher Airlines. Comfortably ensconced in the Business Class after a long day, a charming lady in red, the smiling air-hostess, asked me with immaculate solicitude; Can I clean your reading glasses, Sir? I was too dumbfounded to react, not quite accustomed to such archaic debauch excesses, and almost in a robotic reflex complied with her … [Read more...]

THE LONELY BJP CANDIDATE OF UP By Sanjay Jha First Published On www.IBNLive.com ( The BJP has just 1 Muslim candidate among its 403 in Uttar Pradesh where there live 37 million Muslims. It is symptomatic of the party’s parochial agenda and vote bank politics). I watched the BJP’s spokesperson sporting the familiar self-righteous countenance indignantly trashing Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid’s speech at Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh which has set the Ganges on fire. The Election … [Read more...]

WHEN RUSHDIE MET HASAN By Sanjay Jha ( Amidst the cacophony in our daily lives, sometimes one individual can become a symbol of hope. Nurul Hasan is one such).   He invariably calls me on every auspicious occasion, whether it is the New Year, Diwali, Ramzaan or Holi. His voice has an unmistakable identity, deeply gruff and somewhat fissured , his long sentences punctuated by an intermittent hiatus , and he speaks with the labored precision of a man who has seen many moons, … [Read more...]