Romeos, Outdoors, and Repellents
‘Are Romeos the new mosquitoes?’ asked a friend after having read the news about the new anti-Romeo squads in Uttar Pradesh, ‘and these squads the latest in the world of repellents?’ ‘Two questions together,’ I replied, ‘are like Romeos and mosquitoes knowing they are in the WANTED list and yet searching for an escape route.’...
The seven essentials when it is cold
The seven essentials when it is cold If you trek on mountains cold Remember to carry in your pack Seven things, some you may fold And joy shall never turn its back! One rhyme is all that I need to remind me of the seven things that I always carry with me when travelling or...
Fusion is the new allure
Fusion is the new allure If you’ve never heard of spaghetti shots, gulkand cupcakes, chocolate rasmalai, tomato-jasmine tea soup, paneer lasagna, jalapeno-stuffed kachoris, apple jalebi, omelette with papad and cashews, tea-poached chicken, and ande ka halwa, you’ve probably never come face to face with fusion foods. From sushi burgers to caramalised kimchi fries, this new...
On Cloud 9 and under an umbrella in Mumbai
On Cloud 9 and under an umbrella in Mumbai Mumbai in August can be charmingly unpredictable and yet smiles at you in a myriad ways. From couples huddling under an umbrella to a bhel-puri seller ready to prepare a helping for you from under his weather-beaten umbrella… from beach photographers protecting their DSLRs to your...
The colonizers never left
The eco-system, nature, environment, and in some way, even life is no longer safe from sharp-thinking and seemingly logical and worldly-wise colonizers today. And if you think that the last ones to colonize us were the British, think again. Look around and you will be able to see the way every facet of nature is...
Farzylicious tickles
Nobody has said this so far so let me be the first to announce that life is so much better with tickles and giggles zigzagging their way through your mouth and into your gastro-intestinal tract to redefine happiness in an utterly original way… and the charm gets multiplied when you realise that spear-heading this joyous...
Corporates are magicians wearing two hats
Corporates are magicians wearing two hats Sometimes even as little as four minutes are able to win more hearts and make you think of values, commitments, and responsibilities than would long-winding panegyrics of a politically important nature. The story of Sadanand Ugale from Kannad in Maharashtra brings in multiple hues of human emotions travelling in...
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...
Finding yourself – poetry and the potter’s wheel
Pottery-making, some of us may think, is just another job… but trying to discover elements of poetry in it is certainly an adventure. Adventure, let me add here, isn’t about confrontations with evil forces, nor is it about victory over whatever is perceived as unwholesome. Adventure has more to do with travelling into the heart...
Finding yourself – The Fort
Adventure isn’t always about risks or hazards. One doesn’t really have to hang dangerously from a precipice or step into perils to taste it. Adventure is all about finding yourself, finding life… or as Forrest Gump famously said, ‘Life is a box of chocolates’ where every bite is going to be full of new and...
What you need exactly when you need it
Our world is replete with free thinkers and trend-setters today constantly looking for what they need exactly when they need it. This is how they connect their passion points and this is precisely what is reflected in every study of current consumer psycho-graphics today. How this translates into the real world is by consumers not...
Finding stories in airports
Most of the time one doesn’t even have to make an effort to find stories inside airports. They are there all the time for anyone caring to look up from the kindle that one isn’t anyway reading… or if one just stops pretending to look busy or important or appropriately hassled or even thinking. Airports...
