Honest approach Tariq Ali surprised me — in a nice way — by talking engagingly about Satyajit Ray in an interview on BBC Radio 3 by the Oxford academic, Professor Rana Mitter. He revealed...

Home away from home Could there one day be a Cambridge University campus in India — possibly even Calcutta — where students could get a full-fledged degree without the expense of having t...

Off to the movies The Institute of Directors in London practically resembled a Bollywood film set recently with three Hinduja brothers — Gopichand, Prakash and Ashok (the eldest, Srichand, has ...

Art and life This year’s Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, which has been going for 254 years — I have long argued that India should have something similar — focused on &ldquo...

Thapar, who spent decades teaching at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said: “What JNU was noted for was the free expression of students and teachers grappling with knowledge and ideas. That has bee...

Footnote One is always supportive of young love but when it comes to big, fat, vulgar weddings, Indians are being challenged by the Beckham- Peltz extravaganza in Florida. David and Victoria Beckham&...

Muddy waters The chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak, is discovering that sometimes there is only one thing worse than being unsuccessful: being successful. The manner in which he has been targe...

Footnote At India House, the high commissioner, Gaitri Issar Kumar, launched a report on how well the desi diaspora was doing and also explained Delhi’s Ukraine policy. The next day s...

Footnote I ask all Indians who have been to Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge: “Did you know Subhas Bose was at your college?” Sir Shankar Balasubramanian, a chemistry professor at Cambridge...

Treasured heirloom The Repair Shop is a programme on BBC that restores family heirlooms. It has done just that with a painting of the Jain preacher, Rishabhadeva. The artwork had belonged to Mukta Sh...