Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay recently appointed his personal astrologer as an Officer on Special Duty in the Chief Minister’s Office. The news spread like wildfire. Reports claimed that this very astrologer had ‘predicted’ years ago that Vijay would one day rise to power. Within hours, political circles erupted. Alliance partners objected. Rationalism, constitutional values, and scientific temper were invoked. Eventually, the government was forced to retreat.

When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Norway in May, a Norwegian journalist threw a question at him after a press conference had ended. The question was: why does India rank far below Norway on the Press Freedom Index?

What happened on the evening of 12 May at an Agra ghat was not a tragic fluke. Six young people who had come to celebrate a birthday entered the Yamuna. Two hours of rescue efforts ended with four bodies recovered. Such tragedies are becoming routine. The police put up warning hoardings, but people ignore them. The families’ grief is beyond words. The Yamuna that has cradled our faith, history and civilisation is becoming a witness to death.

What happens when two Indians in their seventies decide to conquer Europe in seventeen days? They discover ten countries, seventeen destinations, countless monuments, several rivers, hundreds of photographs and one very stubborn truth. Europe is beautiful, but the body has its own travel itinerary.

Europe looks like a dream until you start paying the bills. The streets are clean, the trains glide smoothly, the rivers sparkle, and the buildings look straight out of a fairy tale. Everything appears beautifully organised. But there is one small problem. Your wallet begins to cry before you have finished admiring the scenery...

Congress politics today resembles a caravan lost in the wilderness, the path unclear, the guide uncertain. Under Rahul Gandhi's leadership, the party repeatedly stages what can only be called political ‘crow feasts’, where every half-baked statement, every hasty decision, and every weak strategy hollow out its credibility a little more. The country wants a strong opposition, but Congress often appears like a wounded traveller, one more interested in finding excuses than reaching a destination.