India has a consistent and well-known position on terrorism. We oppose all acts of terrorism, wherever they occur. We have repeatedly said that no cause can justify violence and destruction, particularly aimed at civilians.
Certainly, historically, there has been more attention given in the international media to Indian English-language writers than to Pakistani English-language writers. But that, in my opinion, was justified by the sheer number of excellent writers coming from India and the Indian diaspora.
My father being a soldier, every time I saw soldiers marching – ‘Well,’ I thought, ‘my father’s that,’ and these soldiers were always looking magnificent. And I thought they were powerful; they were all-powerful. I knew that they were an elite in India.
I was born in India – but never really lived there.
I always had a dream to play for India but I never let it put pressure on me.
While in some countries there’s a feeling that literature must stay away from religion, this is not so in India – in the Indian way, literature is just another means to find a more spiritual life, to find our way to God.
Our culture in India is not a culture where we grudge each other.
There is potential for more Chinese investment in India’s infrastructure, and there are already Chinese investors in India’s power and telecoms sector as well as the banking and payments space.
Living in the U.K., there is no way to know whether anyone in India likes my music, but I was surprised to see people singing along while I performed in Pune.
The world is waiting for us, the world wants to engage with us, the world wants to be friendly with us, the world wants to be our partner in prosperity, and the world admires India in many ways.
Telecom is a dramatic success in India and our view is, respecting the political process, and respecting the fact that these are sovereign decisions, is that, approaching India as a friend.
For me, my secularism is, India first. I say, the philosophy of my party is ‘Justice to all. Appeasement to none.’ This is our secularism.
The fact remains that secularism is inherent in the Indian system, in the Indian ethos and culture. India cannot but be secular.
The RSS is an anti-national organisation. The quicker it is disintegrated, the better for India.
One of India’s biggest advantages is our young demographic and that we have a youthful population that is indeed our future.
There is so much corruption in India that some filmmakers were using political or administrative sources to get access.
Ever since the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, the Muslim world has been in slow decline relative to the west. With Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt and the creeping British annexation of Muslim India, that decline took on a malign aspect.
Following the devastating India Ocean tsunami of 2004, I founded Chefs for Humanity, modeled after Doctors Without Borders, but comprised of chefs. There wasn’t anything out there like it, and there was a definite need for chefs to be able to offer assistance and aid.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them.
How shall we remember Mahatma Gandhi, that eternal pilgrim of freedom? Born of the very spirit of India, steeped in the tradition, the song, the legend of our ancient land – and yet he was revolutionary. Unique among revolutionaries, he marched for freedom, clad in the robe of truth, with non-violence for his staff.
Being in Loyola College exposed me to other options and gave me confidence, apart from the freedom to bunk classes. I became a merchandiser and then a garment manufacturer, and interacting with foreign buyers and manufacturing foreign brands in India gave me a high.
I don’t see a future for Broadway-style theatre in India. We already have Hindi cinema, but small, intimate theatre will survive as long as people feel the need to talk to each other.
In England I am not English, in India I am not Indian. I am chained to the 1,000 square miles that is Trinidad; but I will evade that fate yet.
Frankly, I never had any intense desire to go to India. I know that sounds a bit strange, but it just never was someplace I had a burning desire to visit.
India helped Bangladesh to achieve independence. The Bangladeshis should remain happy inside the territory of their own country.
If a player is playing IPL and earning money, it’s not his fault that he’s not playing for India. He is not quitting. He is playing first-class, one-day cricket and IPL. If selectors don’t pick him, what can he do?
In India, writers are underpaid. Universities should start new courses to create more opportunities for them.
In India, the films are not looked upon just as entertainment. They’re a way of life.
I write on sacred stories, symbols and rituals of all cultures – European, American and Chinese – but my audiences, typically, like me to focus on India.
Few service industries are designed to be 24×7 in India, and thus there was no 24×7 mentality.
When a fan buys a ticket for a cricket match or a movie, he is not worried about the colour, creed, or religion of the person sitting next to him. If you look at any actor’s fan base in India, you will find that they are from different regions.
As soon as I was old enough to drive, I got a job at a local newspaper. There was someone who influenced me. He wrote a column for The Guardian from this tiny village in India.
Rahul Gandhi has promised to remove poverty and unemployment. There is nothing new about the election promises of Congress. Had only half of those promises been fulfilled, India would have been the most prosperous country in the world today.
The best gift for an actor is the love of the fans. Many make sweet cards, write letters and even come and meet me wherever I am in India. The love and blessings of your elders is also always cherished, but the extra mile that the fans go to is memorable.
I feel completely at home in the absurdities of India.
Everybody can’t have the life of a normal, average American person in India – they can’t. So, it’s about egalitarianism. It’s about sharing things more equally. It’s about access to natural resources.
I’m a Catholic by background. I was raised in Goa, a part of India that was visited by Portuguese missionaries a few hundred years ago, which explains my last name.
The history of the white man in India really jumped up and bit me in the neck.
There is not enough funding for basic sciences in India. We have to invest in a big way, and I am pushing that idea.
My grandfather was born in India and three generations of my family served there.
The mindset in India is to get an education that will secure a job, and then think about how to get a particular salary. We’re used to that kind of a life, and that’s how we bring up our children.
As an observer of markets – whenever everyone focuses on one thing – like Greece and Europe – maybe they miss issues that are far more important – such as a meaningful slowdown in India and China.
Do you think that the people of South Africa, or anywhere on the continent of Africa, or India, or Pakistan are longing to be kicked around all over again?
I just lead my life as naturally, as normally as I possibly can. But I can’t help it if controversy is hounding me day in and day out. I’m quite amazed sometimes by the way they go about it. I grow a beard and it lands up in the editorial in The Times of India.
In India there are more poor people in three states… than there are in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.
I believe that India’s long-term growth story is strong, and foreign investors are keen to be a part of it.
Free and fair elections have again demonstrated that Jammu and Kashmir is part of India, and the people want to remain with it.
I have had fatwas issued against me, some three in Bangladesh and another five in India. I will not be cowed by these threats and shall fight for my rights.
Fortunately for India, it has got a growing economy. If it is doing the right things with taxation and focusing on the right areas for human development, it is going to have no problem, over a period of time, taking care of its own needs.
The stones in your driveway may have come from the slaves who spend all day breaking rocks because it’s cheaper for the company to get them from India, where the labor is free. We are all connected. And we all have human value. That’s what my work is about.
When you play cricket for India, you are always under the scanner. You are always judged by others; you have to live up to it all.
There are 1600 German companies active in India, and some of them are more than 100 years old. Our companies value India as a location for manufacturing and as a market.
Great growth in India doesn’t mean great growth for India companies. It could mean better growth for companies that are trading with India.
It was a chance encounter with a biotech entrepreneur from Ireland that got me started as an entrepreneur in India, because I partnered this Irish company in setting up India’s first biotech company.
In a democratic country like India, eulogising Rahul Gandhi with the title of Yuvraj is an insult to democracy.
I think people will walk into the Starbucks store and overnight recognize the significant difference between what Starbucks represents day-in and day-out and all the other coffee companies that have been serving coffee in India for so many years.
