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November 22, 2024
 

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Gautaman Bhaskaran
COMMENTARY
Oct 27, 2009
India has enough food for those who can pay
CHENNAI, India — India is still hungry 62 years after it was freed from the British colonial yoke. The Global Hunger Index for 2009 places India at a low 65th, with the far more populous China doing much better. While China has reduced the number of "hungry" people by 58 million during the past decade,...
COMMENTARY
Sep 13, 2009
Political fancies at the Venice Film Festival
VENICE — Often great films tell great political stories. Or, at least they unfold against the backdrop of tumultuous political events. "Gone with a Wind" would never let us forget the American Civil War. "Casablanca" was set against the exodus of hundreds of people fleeing Nazi tyranny to the New World....
COMMENTARY
Aug 28, 2009
American paranoia insults Muslims' dignity
CHENNAI, India — It did not come as a surprise recently when well-known Indian movie star Shahrukh Khan was detained at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. Ironically, he had just finished shooting a film in the United States about racial profiling.
COMMENTARY
Jul 31, 2009
Gay ruling takes Delhi back to where it was
CHENNAI, India — The Delhi High Court's recent ruling that decriminalized sex between two consenting men or women is widely seen in India as a move toward a healthier sexual climate. Though confined to Delhi now, the law could eventually be adopted by the country's other regions.
COMMENTARY
Jul 7, 2009
Battles with racism in India's own backyard
CHENNAI, India — It has long been known that India has its own brand of racism, manifested in a number of ways. Largely out of sight from the rest of the world, the malaise needed the gutsy chief minister of India's northeastern state of Mizoram, Pu Lalthanhawla, to get dramatic exposure.
COMMENTARY
Jun 19, 2009
Poachers driving Indian tigers into oblivion
CHENNAI, India — Recently it was found that the Panna National Park in central India, one of the most prestigious tiger reserves, was bereft of the big cat. Only four years ago the park had 35 tigers. By mid-2008, only one male tiger was seen there, and two female cats introduced into Panna from neighboring...
COMMENTARY
May 5, 2009
Cannes set to sparkle in a depressing year
The Cannes Film Festival will unreel May 13, although the global recession has damped business at the picturesque French seaside resort renowned for its rich playboys and beautiful women.
COMMENTARY
Apr 6, 2009
Infrastructure shortcomings throttling India
CHENNAI, India — India's infrastructure presents a frightening scenario, and some feel it is at the breaking point. One reason for this is that the world's cheapest car is about to hit Indian roads. The Nano's most basic model is pegged at $2,600 — only a little more expensive than a motorcycle....
COMMENTARY
Feb 27, 2009
Little reason for Indians to claim 'Slumdog'
CHENNAI, India — Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" may have walked away with eight of the 10 Oscars it was nominated for, including those for Best Picture and Best Director, but the euphoria it has created in India is clearly misplaced.
COMMENTARY
Feb 11, 2009
Casualties of mixing culture with politics
CHENNAI, India — Even in the best of times, politically, it is difficult to interpret Indian culture, which encompasses an ocean of thoughts and ideas and a river of traditions and beliefs. Yet, some rightwing political organizations have prepared their own treatises, or just about, on what the nation's...
COMMENTARY
Jan 9, 2009
End in sight to Prabhakaran's warped war
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The 30-year-old ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka may well end this year. Thousands of people have been killed, and political leaders, including India's young and charismatic Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, assassinated in the war between majority Sinhala-speaking Buddhists and the largely...
COMMENTARY
Dec 7, 2008
The message from the carnage in Mumbai
CHENNAI, India — Terror and Mumbai have become as inseparable as Siamese twins, at least since 1993, when 250 people died in bomb attacks carried out as a revenge for the demolition of the ancient Babri Mosque by Hindu fanatics.
COMMENTARY
Nov 5, 2008
Hindu fanatics threaten Indian secularism
MADRAS, India — India's secularism has gone up in smoke along with the festival of Diwali. Weeks preceding this joyous event — which nowadays has more noise and smoke brought about by unrelenting burst of crackers rather than light and luminosity — the rape and murder of Christianity in parts of...
COMMENTARY
Sep 30, 2008
Education key to prevent 'honor killings'
The act of killing is not so surprising when senseless brutality, especially against women, engulfs a community. Thousands of women are murdered every year by their families in the name of "honor." This heinous crime cuts across continents, with most killings going unreported. When they are reported,...
COMMENTARY
Aug 29, 2008
Pioneers who pushed cinema into politics
MADRAS, India — When Indian Telugu film star K. Chiranjeevi entered politics recently in the south Indian state of Andhra, it merely affirmed a widely held belief that cinema and public affairs are firmly linked to each other. Chiranjeevi, who has acted in 138 movies, said it was the former state chief...
COMMENTARY
Aug 1, 2008
Blasts in India elicit sense of vulnerability
MADRAS, India — The series of bomb explosions last week in Bangalore and Ahmedabad that killed and wounded scores of people shook the confidence of the nation, particularly after a plot to attack an important and crowded flyover in Madras was uncovered.
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 2008
Cigarettes, lies and impressionable film fans
MADRAS, India — Humphrey Bogart used to seduce women through his smoke rings. In a movie like "Casablanca," much of this Hollywood star's playboy persona came from the cigarette he held between his fingers. That the tobacco stick finally finished him is something that all his fans, especially female,...
COMMENTARY
Jun 6, 2008
Nationalist alarm rousts India's ruling party
MADRAS, India — The Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sounded the alarm bell for the Congress party in India. The BJP's impressive win in recent Assembly elections in the southern Indian state of Karnataka has shaken the Congress, which heads the coalition government in New Delhi....
COMMENTARY
May 12, 2008
Neglect of sex education threatens Indians
MADRAS,, India — India is a land of strange contradictions. It is where the "Kama Sutra" was written centuries ago. It is also where some of world's most renowned erotic sculptures are found in sacred Hindu temples. Yet, kissing is frowned upon in cinema, and any form of man-woman intimacy is discouraged...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2008
At least India can look dissent in the eye
MADRAS, India — When I was at Deauville recently to cover the Asian Film Festival, I was surprised to see Tibetan protesters carrying placards urging independence for their homeland.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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