By Sarika Bansal Cramped in a sweltering college dormitory in South India, Dr. Vemuri Venkat Ramanadham—then known as “Lecturer Ramanadham”—and fervently debated the Indian independence movement with more than 50 students. Was non-violence the best way to get the British…
Category: Eurasia
Flight from Stalingrad
By ANNA KORDUNSKY Galya and her family had been living in the bomb shelter under the ruins of her apartment building for two weeks when unexpected visitors came down the stairs: five Soviet soldiers, three of them wounded in street…
Tibet Economy Leaves Exiles Behind
BY KARA SUNDBY Sonam Choezom has never set foot in Lhasa’s bustling Barkhor Street market or turned the prayer wheels at its Jokhang Temple. She has never made the pilgrimage to Mount Kailash to join Hindus, Jains and other Buddhists…
Jam and Famine
BY WHITNEY EULICH Moodie was 12 years old, when Germany invaded France. As World War II engulfed Europe, her father sent Moodie and her three sisters and mother to live in the family’s summer home in Chamonix, near the Swiss…
The Mustache Brothers
BY STEPHEN GRAY Lu Maw is in pain. A toothache has robbed him of food, sleep and sanity; only a health professional can bring relief. Summoning the last of his strength he escapes across the Burmese border to Thailand, hoping…
Chatter Chatter
BY SHUBHA BALA Sweating upstairs in my private room, waiting for anything, waiting for 604800 seconds. An entire week. The autobiography of Gandhi, with its Indian pages, too thin and too smooth, sprawled out on the floor beside my bed. …
France Is Back
BY ANITA KIRPALANI Nicolas Sarkozy has struck again with his politics of reform. But this time, by deciding to bring France back into NATO’s military command, he swiped at the mythology of his own political family. It is too bad…
Whither Pakistan’s Policy?
BY ROZINA ALI After the death of 173 people in the Mumbai attacks, it was not only India but also Pakistan that feared for its safety. As Indian security forces recovered dead bodies from the November 26 carnage, a…