Freedom to disagree isn’t dead in India
Many may not be aware but there was a time when the Coffee House on the top floor of Mohan Singh Place on Baba Khadak Singh Marg near Connaught Place in New Delhi was the place where one could overhear a wide range of revolutionary and radical ideas. There were known and unknown writers, struggling...
It’s not that simple to be simple, says Chetan Bhagat
I saw him from a distance and waved. He smiled and waved back. No airs. No snooty looks thrown at anyone. Chetan Bhagat loves to retain his easy and communicative personality… and I guess this is exactly how he has shaped his writing through the years. As we walked around the poolside area in Hyatt...
Condensed milk, rooh-afza, and water from a mountain stream
It was at an art exhibition that I realized what hunger could mean. The walls were a pale ivory, the lights were sufficient and diffused, and the art panels were all in innumerable hues of black and grey. There was no one around when I entered and coming in after driving through the colour dense...
The wrong sort of traveler
A few years back we were trying to fall in love with the treacherous landscape of Spiti and had our bookings in home-stays in the villages around Kaza. Places like Dhankar, Tabo, Hikkim, Demul, Kibber, Langza, and Komik are well about 4000 metres, the air is rarefied and breathing isn’t easy, and the houses are...
AI-infused robots as siblings vs adopting an orphan
Note: #SiblingStories is a blogging train hosted by Ila Varma in collaboration with the Brand Ang Tatva. Thirty esteemed bloggers from blogging fraternity have joined hands to participate in the Blog train for #SiblingTalk reviving the sweet and tickling hours spent with loving siblings and revive golden memories of the past. This post is written...
Jump into the pool, dammit!
Seeing something bad happen and me learning a lesson was never a part of my destiny. In fact I can safely hazard a guess that most people are like me. We love watching, tut-tutting, discussing the importance of doing things the right way… and then going ahead and doing the same thing that had got...
Unveiling inspiration
Converting a weakness into a strength is what #inspiration is all about. Other elements like hard-work, focus, involved approach, and research can play a role in strange and unexpected ways. Let me give a few examples. There is a story about a boy who had lost his left arm in an accident. He remained shattered...
Political comedy is a show that never ends
Indian politicians are either smart or street-smart and they assume that whatever they say will finally get them votes when the time comes. I use the word ‘assume’ because more often than not these politicians speak things that lie somewhere between being utterly dumb to being absolutely unsavory. When we are in a charitable mood...
Yoga, fragrances, and relationships
Yoga is more than the relationship between businesses and politics though our news agencies would deny this vehemently. I insist that yoga, relationships, and fragrances go together. By the way, when they are moving ahead as one, they last longer than any Eau de Parfum or Eau de Toilette if I may add. No limits...
What do Indians do with a smartphone?
We are a country where even morning walkers are seriously reading or watching something on their smartphone and so the phone-peering gentleman driving a car appears less funny. Passing by a Metro station a few days back, I noticed that every battery-operated rickshaw driver was calmly sitting on his driving seat and gazing at a...
Germs! Germs! Germs and the best hand wash
Let us look at life from a germ’s vantage point. They’re a happy lot today. The air around us in urban and rural India is pregnant with vehicles that help them travel long distances for free. The environmentalist calls them PM 2.5 or PM 10 or PM anything else but they are not just empty...
Drawing the face of a joke on the body of a truth
When something funny and something undeniable come together, they inspire smiles that last for a long, long time… almost like the title of this post that is inspired by a Joseph Conrad quote. I am the body of a truth. I am also the face of hilarity. The two come together in a caricature. Ah!...
