Surprised? Atal Bridge has no photo of Atal Behari Vajpayee; Modi of course is there

I visited the much publicised Atal Bridge, opened in the memory of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the first time. It connects two sides of Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad. You can cross it walking. I knew of the bridge, around it so much of hype was created. I always thought it wasn't worth visiting, especially considering the fact that there was a ticket to take a stroll.

However, since I was accompanied by my NRI friends from New Jersey and they wanted to visit the flower show and thereafter the Atal Bridge, which is attached to it, I thought why not have first hand experience of the bridge, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 27, 2022.

Walking up the bridge, this was the biggest surprise I encountered: the Atal Bridge has no photo of the man after whom it has been named! Instead, a life size photo cutout of our honourable Prime Minister is on display. In the background one sees some illustrations of what all authorities think is "made in India". In foreground it's "Yah hai naya Bharat."

I wondered: why didn't they name it Modi bridge?

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DigiLocker's 'mismatch' problem: When technology defies government policy

DigiLocker has been functioning in rather strange ways, at least in my experience over the past year. For quite some time now, I have been trying to retrieve various documents from the Government of India's official app, but every attempt ends with an inexplicable "mismatch" error. I even lodged a complaint through its official email ID, explaining that I was unable to retrieve or download essential documents such as my PAN card , driving licence, and the registration certificates of my car and scooter. The response has remained the same: the system refuses access on the grounds of a so-called mismatch.

Caste in the diaspora: Young Indian Americans grapple with an inherited hierarchy

A few days back, I happened to attend an interesting conversation among a group of young Indian Americans in Los Angeles. The theme proposed a deceptively simple proposition: can caste travel with people who leave India? The answer, the discussion made clear, is that it can—and that for a younger generation of the Indian diaspora, caste is not a subject safely confined to family histories, Indian villages, or the pages of social reform literature.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

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