Two sportswomen, their crusades and the difference they’ve made

“We got pink hair and purple hair. We got tattoos and dreadlocks. We got white girls and black girls and everything in between. We got straight girls and gay girls.” - Megan Rapinoe, US soccer player, world cup winner  “God has made the world this way, and everyone was not made the same. They take...

Rapping a revolution

The recent teasers and songs of Gully Boy have got me thinking about rap, not just as an art form but also as a way of fighting back, as a tool of protest and mutiny. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, indulge me a little. Rap as you and I know it arose from...

Media and big business: Happily ever after or nasty break-up in the offing?

As night crept across the winter sky a few weeks ago, the discussion on the Express Tower lawns warmed up. Steve Coll – two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, book author and dean of Columbia Journalism School – was the picture of pragmatism as he spoke about challenges journalists face in this age and what the future...

Why the rural Indian market matters

When it comes to rural markets in India, size, potential and geographical expanse have been discussed ad nauseum. But what about their ‘qualitative’ aspect? Are consumers moving up the value chain? Is their aspiration set evolving? And why? According to the third edition of Accenture Research’s ‘Masters of Rural Markets: From Touchpoints to Trustpoints –...

Let’s Talk About Sex–And The Differently-Abled–Baby

Shonali Bose's tour de force, Margarita With A Straw, should be an interesting starting point for a debate on the sexual rights of the differently-abled. Interesting because the protagonist--played by Kalki Koechlin--shakes off social barriers by actually doing something about her desires. Not every person with disabilities is able to break through; social pressure to be asexual generally...

India needs to pull off a ‘class’ act for its girls

Education levels offer one of the starkest examples of gender discrimination in India - effective literacy rates (age 7 and above) in 2011 were 82.14% for men and 65.46% for women. Women’s empowerment cannot be achieved without commitment to the education of the girl child. UNICEF points out that even basic education can empower greatly,...

Want growth? Focus on women, Mr FM

Every year as Budget season creeps in, familiar discussions on the fiscal deficit, taxes and reforms begin, reach a crescendo as the government tables the Finance Bill and then fade away. It wasn't different this year. And, like every year, the most critical priority area that needs structural reform -- the economic empowerment of women--was...

Not just Ferguson

A blog I wrote for The Huffington Post's India edition was published on December 16, 2014. Here are the opening paragraphs: Michael Brown is a metaphor of our times. This is an age in which -- from the US to the Middle East to South Asia -- racial, religious and sexual minorities are under systemic siege. The...

The choice before Indian Muslims in the 2014 election

Mumbai's Haji Ali shrine, which is one of India's many pilgrimage sites where people of all faiths gather.Copyright: Ashraf EngineerI was asked by Asia House -- a London-based organisation that works to increase collaboration between Asia and the West -- to write for their series on India's general election. I was asked to 'give a Muslim perspective'.The column explores how the...

An election for the young

A strange thing happened as I settled down in front of the TV last Sunday to watch the Assembly elections’ results roll in. Sadiyah, my 10-year-old, stopped what she was doing and joined me. As the trends started firming up, she peppered me with questions. “Who’s winning?” “Why?” “What did the chief minister do wrong?”...