The ancients knew their metaphors. They classified the state of a human mind into four categories, or 'humours', based on bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, melancholy and choler [or bile].

In May 1947, Mahatma Gandhi suffered a grievous personal loss. Chakrayya, a young Dalit disciple who had served at Sevagram Ashram since its inception in 1935, died of brain tumour. He was like family; the Mahatma's grief was palpable and public.

Success measures capability; a crisis tests an individual's or institution's maturity and resilience. Congress was hit by an explosion in

As an enquiry, science has generally left me perplexed. During first encounters in school, physics was a bit of blank and chemistry

One can hear the silence and visualise jaw-drops in the Congress High Command drawing room at the results of a just released ABP News-Nielsen survey of the national mood. The figures speak for themselves.

A curious role reversal seized Parliament for much of last year, resulting in apoplectic fits that bode ill for the health of the institution.