A molehill called ‘a slip of the tongue’
Poor molehills and moles have been a troubled lot ever since Nicholas Udall wrote that ‘the Sophistes of Grece coulde through their copiousness make an Elephant of a flye, and a mountaine of a mollehill’ in 1548. Mole, as a known word had existed for less than two hundred years when this happened. But molehills...
Forms are always funny
Our RWA, like any other RWA in our universe, is like a circus where even acrobats strive to tickle the funny bone of residents. If you think this is untrue, let me tell you about the day they asked me to complete a form. Form? – I asked – What sort of form do you...
Forever between a yes and a no
Every time there is a request to review a book and I say yes, all the other books lying unread before me can do nothing but wait expectantly. And I have been doing this for ages. The number of unread books has grown. I am wondering now if every yes to read one book actually...
The humour files
I have recently taught a pigeon how to remain seduced by humour. He no longer finds comedy a threat to his convictions. I convinced him that humour isn’t scary. Not even if it happens inside the parliament or a place of worship. Or the office when facing a serious conflict. Or even at home when...
Listicles are no longer a raging trend anywhere
For quite some months now, my email inbox has grown obese. You know what too many calories can do to a body… right? Well, even my inbox has had an over-dose of empty info-calories that has persisted for months now. I believe this is because new products, technological or otherwise, have kept a low-profile and...
North Korea wins the ban-race
If anyone in the world needs cheer this Christmas, it is the North Korean citizen. They are spending their eleven days of complete black-out of any form of laughter and fun… it is not just laughing that is banned, but also celebrating birthdays, drinking, and even mourning their dead! Banning ‘leisure activities’ obviously includes the...
You are being cheeky, Mr. Minister
When Gulabrao Patil from Shiv Sena made it to the headlines for remarking that those who had ‘been MLAs for 30 years should come to my constituency and see the roads. If they are not like Hema Malini’s cheeks, then I will resign’ he was probably thinking of those millions of quotes that one comes...
Make in India is not always as great as it sounds
Going beyond logic is fast becoming a national pastime. I mean, look at the way ordinances, legislations, regulations, prohibitions, lockdowns, and bans compete with protests, PILs, marches, chakka-jams, bandhs, rants on the social media platforms, and rallies. The list on both sides is much larger than what you read here and if I were to...
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...
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 truth about pain
Who says life’s lessons are learnt from pain? You might have read the story of Uncle Podger who wanted to hang a picture. I was in some junior class and this story by Jerome K Jerome was a part of our English reader. Uncle Podger keeps hitting his thumb or finger and even as the...
Ram Bahadur and Oli
The soul of Ravan chuckled and didn’t quite LoL-ed or ROFL-ed because he wasn’t updated about the new internet lingo going around in the human world. He turned to Ram and guffawed, ‘Never seen you with a khukri, sir… ever!’ ‘What?’ replied Ram, ‘I didn’t quite get you. I mean, I know you are quite...
