Way beyond Ultra HD
If the PM Mr Modi can talk of a 56 inch chest, Arvind Kejriwal can be linked to a 49 day government, and Rahul Gandhi can afford to disappear for 57 days… why can’t I miss a 50 inch device that I fell in love with? Particularly if the device that I am talking about...
Sleeping dogs vs barking dogs
‘Dogs are in the new,’ said a friend. I said, ‘Well, dogs were always in the news.’ I remember reading a quote about a man biting a dog being news and not the other way round. Dogs are in maxims, metaphors, similies, and even find a place in abuses. So they are practically everywhere. On...
Breaking up cosy cartels
Discussing politics fills us with enthusiasm… and so this is all that we can hear in buses, on kerbsides, in shops and offices, in homes, on the television, on radio, in colleges, and I sometimes suspect, even in the mushy conversations of lovers in some park. But there is another truth that must accompany this...
The activist in BJP: Sudhanshu Mittal
I’m sure not many know that Sudhanshu Mittal (SM throughout the interview here), the absolutely charming spokesperson for BJP is also a hearty foodie, loves to play badminton, and was the one to provide logistics for the Oscar winning movie ‘Gandhi’. He makes accurate psephology predictions and uses Google mapping to map out the constituencies...
Where shadows are swallowed by the sky
Imagine a black & white world where each shadow struts like it is the only shadow in the world and refuses to be one with any other. There is a great shadow animosity reigning all over. Then there is another world where the sky is dark enough to make the shadows disappear into each other...
Come over here and taste me
Anthologies are like our own Goa beaches with scantily clad tourists walking lazily across your vision, the sudden delight of a shore fisherman having caught a reasonably large fish, gulls swooping in for its quota of sea food, chatter, pitter-patter, and the sun forcing itself in even through the thatched roof of the shack you’re...
The internet of things
We are at the threshold of a world where ‘the emergence of countless objects, animals and even people with uniquely identifiable, embedded devices wirelessly connected to the internet’ is turning the corner. No, this isn’t as fearsome as some sci-fi writers have imagined it all to be. This real fiction shows no signs of accelerating...
The creativity of intolerance
Intolerance is no longer a bumbling oaf or a brainless goon. Yet it continues to be both an oaf and a goon, although it now goes about calling itself creative. Well, there is freedom of speech in our country, and so we see these oafish goons adopting the newest tricks in the closet of vandalism...
The truth serum: Review of ‘A hundred lives for you’
If you’ve ever played that game of plucking out petals from a flower while saying ‘She loves me’ and ‘She loves me not’, you’ll know what I mean when I say that the first few pages of this book made me say ‘I’ll read it’ and ‘I’ll read it not’… and yet, I read on....
A slice of happiness
A tablet with a dual SIM isn’t a rarity today. I mean, in such a case, voice calling is obvious. So why will I even say that the Swipe Slice is a slice of happiness. I have not one but ten reasons to say this. Well, the specs of this tab are probably as good...
What if?
What if every smartphone were to cost a bomb? What if every smartphone claimed to have all high-end features? What if every smartphone looked the same? Fortunately, this isn’t the case… and so the teeming masses can breathe easy. There are smartphones that don’t cost a bomb… and give all the vital features at a...
In defence of spending
I am not an economist nor am I a business consultant, so do not expect this post to be overflowing with graphs and the sort of definitions that meander everywhere before saying: ‘I admit I am lost!’ Let me just say that it is too tempting to talk of an economy that is contracting or...
