Trapped inside the same pattern
Most of us choose to stay away from unnecessary challenges. We love the usual, get confused when life offers an array of ever-multiplying choices, and firmly believe that getting out of one’s comfort zone is extremely fool-hardy. I know that most readers will read this and mutter, ‘Nonsense! Not me, at least.’ But hey, don’t...
The wrong sort of traveler
A few years back we were trying to fall in love with the treacherous landscape of Spiti and had our bookings in home-stays in the villages around Kaza. Places like Dhankar, Tabo, Hikkim, Demul, Kibber, Langza, and Komik are well about 4000 metres, the air is rarefied and breathing isn’t easy, and the houses are...
We are not living in violent and depraved times
Villainy and violence are quite intimidating and generally do no good to any sort of development anywhere except being a sporadic inspiration for stand-up comedians, mimicry artists, and doodlers on the net. When I commanded Google to fetch for me pictures or images of villains of Bollywood, it surprised me by putting in the US...
Nothing ever disappears
The funny thing is that we humans believe that everything that is born will eventually die. But nothing dies. Nothing disappears forever. Moments of disorientation, sadness, anger, discontent, ill-will, hatred, live on just as moments of love, harmony, contentment, camaraderie, and togetherness do. They do not come and stay forever but also do not suddenly...
A woman is the full circle
Diane Mariechild wasn’t off the mark when she called a woman a full circle and added that ‘within her is the power to create, nurture, and transform’. The entire system of a 360 degree development revolves around women and even Kofi Annan wrote that ‘there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment...
XXX
Thirty in Roman Numerals is XXX and we know the three together are often used for love and kisses besides to their snide relationship with porn. So when I read somewhere that most of us use barely thirty percent of the capabilities of a smartphone or any other gadget, I wasn’t surprised. ‘After all,’ I...
Jump into the pool, dammit!
Seeing something bad happen and me learning a lesson was never a part of my destiny. In fact I can safely hazard a guess that most people are like me. We love watching, tut-tutting, discussing the importance of doing things the right way… and then going ahead and doing the same thing that had got...
Love appears unannounced
A poem that I wrote in 1984 was all about a few moments together that I spent with the girl who would get to hear them only after we got married a few months later in 1985. isn’t it funny how just a nod or simply a few words mumbled will form an unseen bond...
Unveiling inspiration
Converting a weakness into a strength is what #inspiration is all about. Other elements like hard-work, focus, involved approach, and research can play a role in strange and unexpected ways. Let me give a few examples. There is a story about a boy who had lost his left arm in an accident. He remained shattered...
The LGBTQ war isn’t over
Politicians have never been kind to homosexuality. Not that the society in general and our religious and cultural leaders have been kinder. Known and active politicians like Subramanium Swamy, Yogi Adityanath, Gulam Nabi Azad, Rajnath Singh, Lalu prasad Yadav, have called it unnatural, and a mental disease with a ‘need for psychological treatment’, have emphasized...
Political comedy is a show that never ends
Indian politicians are either smart or street-smart and they assume that whatever they say will finally get them votes when the time comes. I use the word ‘assume’ because more often than not these politicians speak things that lie somewhere between being utterly dumb to being absolutely unsavory. When we are in a charitable mood...
There is no silence
There is no silence. Not when you hold your lover’s hands and look into her eyes, for these are moments when you can hear your heartbeat distinctly. Not when you are trekking on a mountain and there is no one around with music blaring from some Bluetooth speaker because you can still hear a distant...
