Punch
Paanwalas and writers

Paanwalas and writers

Writers love transforming even plain words into metaphors that threaten to tell the truth as it really is. This breed loves staring boldly (well, sometimes meekly) into a blank sheet of paper until ideas are forced to get in line and begin marching to the tune that they whistle or hum or sing… or just...
Good management seeks stable but simple solutions

Good management seeks stable but simple solutions

Problems remain problems until someone insists on a solution. So yes, every solution does begin its life as something that appears insignificant and most of us could be tempted to discard pursuing it as useless, intimidatory, and a drain on time and resources. But there will invariably be one individual, quite probably a visionary in...
Abracadabra… education is a magical spell!

Abracadabra… education is a magical spell!

There is a relationship between education and magic. For instance, don’t you think creative thinking is more like the mind always up to some conjuring tricks? Or that what we call information is more like a portal that transports us from one plane to another? Jargon or the language understood by a small community of...
The writer’s mind conceiving a character

The writer’s mind conceiving a character

Undefined. Rebellious. Naughty. Machiavellian. Purposeful. Powerful. Kerfuffle. Paracosm. And sometimes a heady mix of all of these and more. This is how a character begins a journey in a writer’s mind and may stay on unchanged from being flexible enough to be a truth adsorbent and willing to change with the kind of experiences it...
Don’t! Don’t! Don’t!

Don’t! Don’t! Don’t!

Don’t stop yourself from reading this post. Don’t hold yourself back from writing a comment or sharing this article with friends. Pick up quotes but don’t forget to give credit to the writer. There is a ‘don’t’ populating each of these sentences and yet the word has a comforting purr surrounding it. Don’t! Don’t! Don’t!...
The NSEW of education

The NSEW of education

Education is a word that has many deep layers that not everyone understands. The word ‘education’ includes other concepts like ‘inspirational’ and ‘useful’ besides basic literacy and numeracy. Yes, education shoots up the earnings-premium of a person and one reports puts this figure at 70 percent when compared to those who do have an education...
The idiot’s guide to shirking

The idiot’s guide to shirking

The latest issue of The New Yorker has a toon with this caption: “Listen, when you give up, you can do anything!” This one is obviously a lampoon aimed to shame the shirker, the shammer, or the one who whines and avoids any responsibility. Such people are everywhere. I was one of this tribe once...
Making today better than yesterday

Making today better than yesterday

I’m unsure if Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow are brothers but they certainly hang out together in the pub where only time cocktails are served. This may sound rather mundane, boring, and repetitive but it is not. The three, I believe, are just data collectors who neither create nor act on anything, smartly stay away from...
First you see and then you hit

First you see and then you hit

Those who teach in colleges and universities will probably wonder what seeing and hitting has to do with teaching. A lot, let me add here, because good education is all about first learning to see what others cannot even see and then learning to hit what no one else can hit. You may also club...
The story of NEP 2020 is ready to change mindsets

The story of NEP 2020 is ready to change mindsets

National education Policy 2020 is now a story where the plot has already been decided, the theme is clear, and even the pace at which incidents will happen and weave a form has been given a format. The NEP2020 isn’t any more in the ideation stage but will soon have words and sentences falling in...
Water isn’t just about water

Water isn’t just about water

Water is scarce because we are careless, casual, and callous with the way we treat everything related to water. Let me give you three examples. With every road layering or repairing exercise, the level goes up a few millimeters and after some years the little drain holes that had been carefully constructed on the sides...
Save water before it is too late

Save water before it is too late

The switch box of humans, it appears, has been severely tampered with and as a result no one seems to understand things when put in a simple straight-forward language. Try calling terrorism bad and chances are you might end up being trolled for being an Islamophobe. Comment on why banning Chinese apps is a part...