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SG Writings On The Wall

Writings on the Wall is a metaphor that grew out of my travels, mostly through the poll-bound regions of India and the neighbourhood over nearly 25 years. Because, even more than its big festivals, the subcontinent comes to life during its elections. And what’s on people’s minds, their aspirations, joys, concerns and fears, you can pretty much understand by reading these writings on the wall. These can be graffiti, advertising, skylines, fences, or even rubble.

2015 Writings on Bihar walls:First stirrings of aspiration beyond caste, identity & bijli-sadak-pani

ThePrint Videos - October 6, 2025

Bihar isn’t ‘ruined’ by agri reform. This ‘branded underwear theory’ from 2010 shows why

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Last night I went to Pakistan

SGIN - August 24, 2002

The UN would probably never accept it as a yardstick for its human development ratings. But put this away under my name in the...

Guiltless in Guwahati

Shekhar Gupta - April 13, 2002

Assam no longer holds the country to ransom by choking oil supplies or by chanting the mantra of anger and alienation. The old story of the state, the guaranteed front page, has disappeared.

Friends without life-jackets

SGIN - January 26, 2002

It was easy to call it Scariana Airways. Ariana, the Afghan national carrier which resumed operations with a flight to New Delhi this week,...

Fear and learning in New York

SGIN - November 17, 2001

If you lived in Delhi in November 1984 you'd remember the smell. Particularly if you were a reporter then, driving around a devastated city,...

Here a General, there a General

SGIN - November 10, 2001

Atal Bihari Vajpayee arrived in Washington on Thursday evening. There wasn't a line acknowledging it in The Washington Post. Pervez Musharraf is landing a...

Indian graffiti

SGIN - June 23, 2001

The vanishing act in Shimla The lingering image of the week is not Pervez Musharraf in his black sherwani reciting the oath as president. It...

Chinese food, humble pie

SGIN - June 9, 2001

Postcard from the edge — of irrelevance Is this China? Can this be Chinese territory? Is this one more example of the intriguing, inscrutable Chinese?...

Stars and gripes

Shekhar Gupta - May 19, 2001

By the moral logic that countries should withdraw from multilateral organisations whose policy they do not believe in, the US should make a beginning by leaving the United Nations.

The Punjab parable

SGIN - August 19, 2000

Upward mobility brings its own unstoppable momentum. Punjab’s return to normalcy post 1984 is pretty good evidence of that.

Watching Generation X in Hindi heartland

Shekhar Gupta - October 3, 1999

The emotion that drove 27-year-old Priyanka Gandhi ahead of the 1999 Lok Sabha elections was no different from what fired her political cousins in Amethi.

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SG Writings On The Wall

2015 Writings on Bihar walls:First stirrings of aspiration beyond caste, identity & bijli-sadak-pani

Bihar isn’t ‘ruined’ by agri reform. This ‘branded underwear theory’ from 2010 shows why

Punjab’s frustration & anger is rooted in its steep decline, now visible in farmers’ protests

Aspiration and desperation in UP’s East

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