Ove and the magic of MG Hector
Love is a strange thing. It takes you by surprise. This is somewhat like my love of Ove, a character created by Fredrick Backman as well as my new-found love for the new SUV on the horizon, the MG Hector. As I went back and forth through the new-age features of this car, I was...
Politics inside a bottomless well
The days preceding elections are the ones that are brimming with crisis analysis and hypothetical solutions. Thus every article emerging out of the media boombox is yelling about every issue from corruption, unemployment, development, farmer’s issues, education, health, and pollution, carelessly meandering through jargon that includes coalition governments, caste politics, dynastic ambitions, and business interests...
Consistency is the playground of dull minds
Engineering courses in our country have time and again shown that brilliance lies in reaching out for the field that is most needed. I say this because none of the branches ever move out of the sights of aspirants for long… and so we have phases in which civil engineering and construction management shared the...
Parenting in the midst of social media
When I say ‘look around’ today, all that I mean is to keep your eyes glued on the screen of your laptop or smartphone and hop from one social media platform to another. This is what parenting has come to mean now. You want to disagree? Well, all you need to do is to look...
The mind is an astronaut in space
Deep within me there are no boundaries.No cacophony of walls are ever built here.No barbed wires separate a smileFrom a caress. Or love from fear.There are no marching bandsNothing here will beat retreats.Heavy boots with nailed solesAren’t ordered to create reverberating treatsThat give birth to tsunamis of emotionsEnding with a blitz of applauding commotions. A...
Battle for survival. Review of ‘Bestseller’ by Ahmed Faiyaz
Battle for survivalReview of ‘Bestseller’ by Ahmed Faiyaz No, this review isn’t about battles fought on the borders of a country but an interesting, fictional and a somewhat factually cursory glance of ways in which authors, publishers, editors, celebrities, journalists, and those in PR are invariably pulled together to define success. Publishing isn’t just another...
The ant, a grasshopper, and a smartphone
You must have heard of the fable where an ant was busy saving food for the incoming winters and the grasshopper went about merrily chirping and hopping and doing everything grasshoppers do, including buying expensive smartphones. People often heard the grasshopper say, ‘I’ve just bought the latest most expensive phone guys.’ His friend, the ant,...
Smarter AI is the norm now
Someone asked me a few days back, ‘What is the difference between intelligence and artificial intelligence?’ This question was asked by a friend who wanted to buy a new smartphone and was pretty sore at the fact that with the introduction of innovations, the prices had gone beyond his affordability limit. ‘I can’t visualize myself...
Women’s day in search of a new relevance
Women’s day is an opportunity. ‘For what?’ you may want to ask. The answer to this meanders around newspaper adverts, TV spots, radio jingles, emailers, social media updates, and whatsapp messages. The blitz began a couple of days back and my inbox has almost every sort of seller remind me of either what to do...
Between the shadow and the soul
I have taken the title for this review from a line written by Pablo Neruda: ‘I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul.’ Poetry is positioned precariously between all that is subjective and what is objective, the expressive and the expressed, or cocooned between...
Don’t allow terror to spread panic
Noam Chomsky wrote: ‘Everyone’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s really an easy way: Stop participating in it.’ This may shock or stun you because you obviously thought you were making all the right motions by lighting candles, marching through your city, pasting #SayNoToWar all over the social media, and probably asking everyone else to...
Yes, that’s possible
Imagination is unpredictable. It is a heady feeling, a dizzying moment, a triumph, an unbearable loss, a caress, a glance, and sometimes an overdose of carbon monoxide in a closed room. ‘Pretty skilled,’ you might say. Yes, it is. It is Asterix, Tintin, Phantom, Mandrake, Chahcha Chaudhary, Superman, Frankenstein, Dracula, and Archie rushing towards you...
