I used to think that being a naturally funny writer was an impediment to being a good reviewer (wouldn't one constantly be tempted to sacrifice the measured assessment at the altar of a reader-pleasing witticism?), but the work of David Thomson is a counterpoint to this idea. Thomson is one of the most perceptive and nuanced critics around, but also the sort of writer who validates the use of the blurb cliché "he's incapable of producing a boring sentence".

davidthomsonHis excellent book Have You Seen…? A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films makes a strong case for the well-written "short review". Most of the pieces here are only between 400 and 700 words long, but Thomson packs a lot into a few terse sentences, and despite the space constraints there is always room for the complex thought — the defiance of the human tendency to seek patterns and divide things into neat categories.

"It is too much to ask a film to be perfect, or even good, most of the time," he writes at one point. "The process is

Dear Upcoming Stock Manipulator,

You have heard from all sources that stocks are manipulated, which is why you want a piece of the action. While we cannot hope to enumerate all the methods by which you can steal money from the pockets of retail investors, we can provide you with a few starting points.

Insider Decider

In the large number of stocks available in the country, the real information is available only to the management of companies. Before results are announced, results are already known. All you have to do is to find that inner circle of people that are aware of such details, or tap into the auditing or consulting agency and find "impressionable" people who are responsible for drafting such results. Or find the investment banker responsible for a merger or acquisition. Or get information about a private placement to a large institution from its employees. You might think it is only the young or the less-well-heeled that can be bought with money, but that is the thinking of a

Last month I described how a distinct military-jihadi complex has captured the Pakistani state and how it uses its nuclear arsenal as a shield to pursue its interests through the use of militancy and terrorism. While Pakistan's use of Islamist militancy as an instrument of policy towards India dates back to 1947 (see Praveen Swami's excellent account of this "secret jihad") the military-jihadi complex's ascent to power can be traced back to the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan.

You should read George Crile's Charlie Wilson's War or perhaps watch the Hollywood adaptation of the book. Realpolitik brought US resources, Saudi money, Afghan guerillas, radical Islamists from around the world and a wily Pakistani military establishment together against their respective enemies. The US got the Soviets out, the Saudis pre-empted the spread of the Shia revolution, Afghan factions ousted their rivals from Kabul, the Islamists triumphed over unbelievers and the Pakistani military establishment got

Kolkata's decline began when the Naxals raised the red flag in rural West Bengal. 34 years of Communist party rule hollowed out the commercial status of the city. For any one born in the last 3 decades, it is difficult to conceive that Kolkata was once a major hub of Indian business activity, second only to Mumbai. Since then, it has been eclipsed, not just by Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad, but by erstwhile retirement towns like Bangalore and Pune, and cities that didn't exist then - Gurgaon and the bureaucratic acronym, NOIDA.

I find it fitting that the death-knell for the communist party was rung over the issue of property; the deeply human need to own ran counter to party ideology; the right to expropriate came naturally to those in power, and the clashes in Singur and Nandigram exposed the untenability of a party that spoke of land reform but practiced land grab. George Orwell had it right.

On our south-western coast, the Kerala reds surprised poll pundits by their resilience,