The Manmohan Principle of colours
‘Colours are powerful,’ Specky said, ‘they transcend their boundaries and easily get accepted in new worlds.’ I said, ‘That’s a bit cryptic for me. Do you mean colours spread as water colour does and take the green of grass on to the brick red of bricks?’ ‘They can do that. But all that I’m...
Teenagers, Smartphones, & a Conversation
Do I need to read books by psychoanalysts to know what a teenager thinks like? No, not at all, because all I need to do to get into a teenage mind is to just stand on a kerbside in the market and listen to the conversations they have. I stumbled upon this wonderfully invasive idea...
Will a Blogger ever get a National Award?
Writers and novelists have awards to keep them happy. Journalists get awarded. Politicians win awards. Fashionistas have awards to trail them. Films have awards to link to. Sportsmen rake in awards. Even school children get a ‘Student of the year’ award to form memories. Yes, they all deserve it all. In fact there should be...
I am a weakling. I am not from Delhi.
Neeraj sounded excited on the telephone. He said, ‘I’ve cleared the written test for getting into the NDA, bhaiya. The SSB comes next and I need your help.’ This happened just a couple of years after I had opted out of the OGs (Olive Greens – an euphemism for those in the Army) because of...
The construction worker’s daughter
The worker’s daughter that I noticed was while I was on my seventh floor balcony watching the construction workers on a Sunday. Some were working while others were enjoying the winter sun, the boys were playing… but this family had a target to complete. I observed this family of four… father, mother, son and daughter....
In Coimbatore with Narain Karthikeyan. A great drive – entry for Michelin Pilot Experience by Arvind Passey
A Great Drive – entry for Michelin Pilot Experience by Arvind Passey We were waiting for Narain to come. Narain Karthikeyan, the legendary Formula 1 driver from India. I had flown in from a cold Delhi to a warm Coimbatore in December and loved the tepid sun though I felt better in the shade...
Searching for roads in the sand dunes
Searching for roads in the sand dunes A great drive – entry for Michelin Pilot Experience by Arvind Passey ‘The great escape,’ I heard someone say, ‘is like searching for roads in the sand dunes.’ I thought for a while, turned to him, and asked, ‘Roads in the dunes?’ he was one of the rally...
Chest out, shoulders back, chin up
Do I intend taking you readers on a walk-through of the Indian Military Academy? No. There won’t be any OG-clad soldiers sprinting along with the words in this post. There won’t be any shorts-clad RSS sevaks too waiting to guide you into some disciplinary mumbo jumbo unique to them. I just want to take you...
Let mysteries unravel on their own
When you say nothing at all You say it all With a cursory glance A cursive stance And then all I can do Is to look at you! ‘He wrote these lines for a car?’ I asked with incredulity spiking my tone. She replied, ‘Well, he is the sort who treats the inanimate too as...
Gangiri Bhadra was the solution. Review of ‘Shoes of the dead’
‘Death Districts of the DP Government’, he suggested for the headline. There are no doors in Ichalganj, Nazar began his story. Once, that was because no one wanted anything more. Now, it is because no one has anything left. I began reading the book slowly, deliberately because I thought death never likes to be hurried...
A Pa called Po
My father is not a politician. He never watches porn on the Tab that I gifted him. He never considers asking a client to send him a Tab and then never even mention that it has to be paid for. He never tweets inanities. He never rolls back his ideas for home improvement. I’ve never seen him...
I love being Sophie!
‘I’m Sophie,’ she said, ‘and I have the memory of an elephant.’ But then she wasn’t Sophie. She wasn’t Kara either, nor Bhakti, nor Neha, nor any of the tens of other names she was fond of linking with herself. That day, however, she was Sophie. So I will call her Sophie. Barring forgetting her...
