The Tamil Nadu government has begun the process of revision of real estate guideline values. The government will also reconsider stamp duty and registration charges levied on sale transactions that today stand at a high of 11% taken together. The industry says that reducing the state tax to 7%...
Boy meets girl. Something clicks and they fall in love. Parents oppose and the lovers either die or live together with or without their parents’ approval. Parents oppose because the two are of different status, caste or religion. This theme has been done to death in books, TV programmes and...
Everyone in the film, 83 has his moments. Even Kirti Azad and Ravi Shastri have their small share of glory. Sunil Gavaskar, who had a terrible time, was apparently the man behind the most famous ball bowled by an Indian. India’s equivalent of Shane Warne’s ball of the century was bowled by...
A friend sent along the link to the YouTube video of a Carnatic music performance. I clicked on it and started listening. Within a few seconds, I had to close my eyes since I was getting lost in the music. Sight and the scenery it was bringing in was becoming a distraction. My thoughts,...
A day after the chopper crash in which Chief of Defense Staff Bipin Rawat was killed, YouTuber Maridhas tweeted that Tamil Nadu is “becoming another Kashmir under the DMK regime” and it gives “freedom to form groups that can do any level of treason against the country”. The tweet added that “in...
In a recent issue, India Today magazine ranked states in India on many parameters such as income, health, governance and ease of doing business. One parameter that stood out was the Happiness Index. According to that index, Kerala is the happiest state while Gujarat is a distant second. Coming...
Professionally, I wear two hats. I make my living largely from marine engineering but pursue journalism for passion. On my recent ship, there were two Malayali apprentice engineers: Prakash Muralidharan and Mohammed Nazar. Prakash was a Sanghi. His uncle was in the BJP in his hometown, Cochin....
I wanted to prove a point. Too many inquisitive foreigners – mean-minded people, in my opinion – had delighted in quizzing me about the caste system. A Japanese man told me everyone was equal in Japanese society. “Well what about the burakumin?” I countered. He hastily replied that was all in...
Chekka Chivantha Vaanam starts out featuring all the Mani Ratnam tropes. It pays ritual homage to Godfather through a Corleone-like family. There is the don who is shot but survives, and he has three sons and a daughter. The first son is a hot-head and not terribly bright whereas the third is...
