A biography for Barkha Dutthasn’t been written yet.
“This Right vs Left fault line has been drawn through all of our nations. In India too, your political choice has come to define all of you. And if you fail the ideological purity test of one or the other side, you are immediately branded a traitor.”
“An idea you disagree with has to be fought with a better idea.”
“We will unconditionally worship Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, partly because we approve of their well-mannered modesty. They are non-threatening, good hearted blokes - the boys we take home to Momma.”
“When Sania Mirza says she feels hurt or fed up at constantly grabbing the headlines for the wrong reasons, it's an understandable reaction. But when she goes ahead to say she doesn't want to play in India anymore, we can't help thinking it's the sort of thing you'd expect a defeatist to say.”
“I'm not a big fan of government interference in most matters.”
“The hysterical competitiveness in the media bazaar has subverted the traditional hierarchy of news.”
“If we began deconstructing the myths at the heart of every religion, we would be citizens of a Marxian Utopia.”
“Much like the death sentence, I believe, hidden cameras should be used in the 'rarest of rare' cases.”
“The Christianity of the St Stephen's College I remember was atmospheric (how we loved the chapel, the choir and the Cross), cultural and entirely subtle.”
“If the travels of a country were to be chronicled by its cars, in the journey from the Ambassador to the Nano is, perhaps, the story of India's evolution as a nation.”
“Hindi news is much more determinedly populist and lowbrow than the English channels.”
“There is an undeniable need to stop candy-flossing the impact of fundamentalism.”
“Neither scientific laboratories nor excavation expeditions can unravel the human need to believe in a greater truth, a truth strangely made all the more grand and mysterious by the absence of empirical evidence.”
“In many professional spaces, women are fighting twice as hard as men to get to the same place and get the same opportunities. If you then speak out about your experience of sexual harassment, there is every chance you will not be sent on certain assignments.”
“Politics was Ahmed Patel's whole life.”
“Most of us marvel at the ingenuity and imaginativeness of sting operations, defend their right to exist and will argue that if well-used, they are an invaluable tool for justice.”
“National security is that old rabbit that's pulled out of the hat every time politicians run out of other tricks to keep you in check.”
“I feel unabashedly Indian, and this means that not just do I jump to my feet and sing along with the national anthem, it also makes me inexplicably sentimental, proud and teary-eyed.”
“Politicians know that as public opinion learns to assert itself more aggressively, a government that goes against a presidential opinion can find itself on the defensive.”
“Much has already been said about the indisputable integrity of men such as AB Bardhan and Prakash Karat. So, why is it that while the sleaze and slime of the political underbelly puts us off, we aren't warmed by the relative virtue and scrubbed-clean morality of the Marxists?”