Although he’s supremely conscious of the role his father has played, and continues to play, in his life, you suspect that Jyotiraditya Scindia is not the kind of person to look back with regret. Namita Bhandare tells us more about this Gen Y MP. HT Image He looks pretty bright-eyed for someone who has been up for most of the previous night. Bounding into the room, file in hand, the new minister of state for Communications and IT says he’s barely had a couple of hours sleep: he’s been boning up on his new ministry, trying to quickly understand the…

Tragically, neither city delivers on issues that should matter most to its citizens: infrastructure; law and order; a modern mindset that includes involved citizens, writes Namita Bhandare. HT Image In the early 90s when I moved back to live in Delhi — ironically because I had married a Marathi manoos who lived as an ‘outsider’ in the capital — the Bombay (not yet Mumbai) versus Delhi debate was at its peak. Bombay was cool and cosmopolitan; a city of opportunity and dreams where everybody who worked hard enough, could make it big; a city that was so egalitarian that it…

We have every right to ask our politicians to be honest, efficient and effective, what they do in their off-hours is entirely their business, writes Namita Bhandare. HT Image The mandarins at the Ministry of External Affairs — how on earth did they come to be called mandarins? — are reported to be in a flap over India’s official guest at the Republic Day function. It’s not French President Nicolas Sarkozy who’s causing the fuss as much as his new girlfriend, now apparently his fiancée, Carla Bruni. There’s a fair chance that Bruni could join Sarkozy later this month when…

Executives nowadays are paying for high salaries with endless work hours and poor quality of family life, writes Namita Bhandare. HT Image Reduced family time, 24/7 work schedules, and concerns about health. Are cool cat MBAs ready for the rat race? The fat salaries come at a price: frayed nerves and dissatisfaction at the workplace. An HT-C-fore survey of executives earning over Rs 10 lakh a year has revealed that there is a high level of concern about burnout and stress. Sixty-six percent of the 400 middle-level executives interviewed in Delhi and Mumbai said they are unhappy about their work-life…

Salman Rushdie is busy signing autographs on scraps of paper, reports Namita Bhandare. HT Image Salman Rushdie is busy signing autographs on scraps of paper. Suketu Mehta is less than thrilled with the hygiene standards in his hotel and Jerry Pinto is busy exhorting people to read his Helen: The Life and Times of an H Bomb. Outside, basking in the afternoon sun are Delhi‘s A-list culturati — Bim Bissell, Shireen Paul, and Lady Plaxy Arthur. Literary agent David Godwin, whose clients include Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai, is there too, adding to the firmament of stars at the second…

The three-day festival aims to promote and encourage a love of literature by bringing authors and readers together, reports Namita Bhandare. HT Image One of India’s biggest literature festivals with such major stars as Salman Rushdie and Kiran Desai kick off on Thursday at Jaipur. Billed as a ‘festival within a festival’, the literature festival forms part of the Jaipur Heritage International Festival which began on January 13 and runs through January 22. The three-day festival ‘aims to promote and encourage a love of literature by bringing authors and readers together,” says festival director Mita Kapur. Adds author Namita Gokhale,…

How does a modern woman strike a work-life balance? Seema Goswami has answers, says Namita Bhandare. HT Image Woman on Top: How to Get Ahead at WorkAuthor: Seema GoswamiPublisher: Random HousePages:152Price: 200 In the 16 years, and more that I have known her, I’ll say this for Seema Goswami: she’s never been short of an opinion or shy about voicing it. Right from her days as Features Editor of the now defunct Sunday magazine and, later, as Editor of Graphiti, The Telegraph’s Sunday magazine shelaunched, Seema has had all the answers for which we’ve had only questions. Many of these eminently common-sensical solutions find…

Those who knew Rabindra Seth call him the ‘forever man’, writes Namita Bhandare. HT Image Those who knew him — and that list includes anybody even tangentially associated with the travel trade — call him the ‘forever man’. Rabindra Seth, who died on Tuesday at 81 had been there, done that. He was everywhere: writing stories for travel supplements, plowing through research for trade documents, and setting off to far-flung places. “His energy was remarkable,” said Habib Rehman, executive director, of ITC Ltd. “He was willing to share responsibility and would not say no to anything.” That willingness to extend…

In a literature festival, the only stars should be the writers. All other taaras should stay in another zameen, writes Namita Bhandare. HT Image I yield to nobody in my regard for Aamir Khan as a fundamentally decent human being. I doff my (metaphorical) hat at his courage to follow his politics and I applaud from my heart at Taare Zameen Par (TZP) as a sensitive, socially-relevant film that every parent, teacher and thinking adult should watch. Yet, even I have to question the wisdom of Khan’s opting to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival recently, not as a participant — because surely…

The segment that’s powerful enough to shape India’s destiny is the one most of us belong to. HT does a reality check HT Image The Indian middle class is seduced by la dolce vita and finds an HT-CNN IBN-CSDS survey. Discarding the spartan lifestyle of their parents, an increasing number of the middle class is plumping for a new attitude to spending. Regardless of whether they live in towns, cities, or rural areas, over half of all middle-class respondents say they will rather have a good lifestyle than a simple one. Travel and eating out are two areas drawing in new consumerists.…

It prefers a good lifestyle to a simple one, an HT-CNN IBN survey shows, reports Namita Bhandare. HT Image The Indian middle class is seduced by la dolce vita, found an HT-CNN IBN survey. Discarding the spartan lifestyle of their parents, an increasing number of the Indian middle class is plumping for a new attitude to spending. Regardless of whether it’s based in towns, cities, or rural areas, over half of all middle-class respondents said they would rather have a good lifestyle than a more simple and austere one. Travel and eating out are two areas where the new consumerists…

The ground beneath Rushdie’s feet has shifted and now he is eerily like his old bete noire Naipaul, says Namita Bhandare. HT Image In the Eighties, Indians regarded the emergence of Salman Rushdie with a special sort of pride. Admittedly, he hadn’t lived in India for a long time. His parents had migrated to Pakistan and he was sent off to school at Rugby. The young Salman had gone on to Cambridge, to advertising, to one poorly received science fiction parable (Grimus) which sank, and then, suddenly, to the Booker Prize success of Midnight’s Children. Even though he held a British…