The Statue of Unity the prime minister is building in Gujarat is a disgraceful waste of resources that does nothing for India except add a big fat bill, says Mitali Saran.
'It takes massive courage and clarity to choose quality over time.' 'It's not that Annie never doubted her choice -- she wavered occasionally.' 'But she went with her instincts, and retained control of her life and scripted her own best possible death,' says Mitali Saran.
Dana Majhi's walk home is a shrivelling indictment of our humanity and of our priorities.
'I see liberal men shocked at the flood of #MeToo on their timelines, men who rail against these terrible things, but who haven't had the slightest idea how many of their friends and family have suffered under their noses, nor how much,' says Mitali Saran.
'The viral video from Una aroused something that Hindu chauvinists and cow-botherers never take into account: Numbers.'
Voters deserve one. Democracy requires one. We need an alternative that people want, not just an anti-vote, says Mitali Saran.
'Maybe, if Mr Modi can fire over Patel's gigantic shoulder, people will start to think that he is very much like Patel?' 'It's a long shot, but the Modi sheen has worn awfully thin, and after five years and a long, much-frayed rope, he faces real accountability from voters.' 'He needs any help he can get,' says Mitali Saran.
'I've always figured that it's the people who don't get laid enough, or well enough, who feel compelled to constrain and tear down anyone who looks as if they're having a good time.'
'That's the stunning achievement of two-and-a-half years of this government -- a political bait-and-switch, selling a promise of economic development, and delivering a triumphalist machine that sacralises country, nationalism, majoritarianism and tradition, to achieve Hindutva goals,' says Mitali Saran.
Not only is Modi's India not the shining land of dynamism and prosperity that he promised -- though it may be that, for some people, in a few years from now -- but socially it has the positively regressive tendencies that were entirely predictable.
The parallels between Modi's direct and indirect methods and his fan base, and those of Trump, are blinding.
'Delhi's river has once more been thrown under the bus, by a happy godman backed by a godman-happy government,' says Mitali Saran.
Great improvements in education and healthcare are the need of the hour.
The party has to stop gazing fondly at the trophy shelf of its past, and start envisioning and working toward a future palatable to new generations.
I'm still rooting for you, because you may yet be able to do something good for Delhi. But you and your party will have to get a reality check and some discipline, says Mitali Saran.
The tension between the way the law views justice, and the way public opinion views justice, is the best reason not to make laws based on public opinion, says Mitali Saran
'To enjoy the wilderness is to be rebooted to factory settings,' says Mitali Saran. 'Your eyes have to readjust their focal length from arm's length to way, way across the bank, where the stone-still slab of a crocodile lies snaggle-toothed in the sun, or to where a crested serpent eagle perches in a complication of light and shade, considering its options.'
If you live in Delhi you can quit smoking, give up alcohol, go to bed early, exercise every day and eat right, but unless you also give up breathing, you can still get very sick, says Mitali Saran
Just to be clear, "love jihad" -- a concept that claims that Muslim men court Hindu women to convert them to Islam purely to take over India -- doesn't exist, says Mitali Saran
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