All talk and yet nothing to say
Most of the students that I meet today tell me without mincing words that their teachers have a lot to talk about and yet nothing meaningful is ever communicated. Obviously then, words are in a constantly high supply but they are not being used effectively. This lack of meaningful communication in our classrooms has led...
Ignorance and incompetence lead to corruption
If you think I’ve given you some sort of a derivation for corruption, let me just say that even if the equation is correct, it is just one way the corrupt thrive. A heady cocktail of corruption, incompetence, and ignorance is what exists all around. I do not mean just Delhi where I stay…...
Where shadows are swallowed by the sky
Imagine a black & white world where each shadow struts like it is the only shadow in the world and refuses to be one with any other. There is a great shadow animosity reigning all over. Then there is another world where the sky is dark enough to make the shadows disappear into each other...
Come over here and taste me
Anthologies are like our own Goa beaches with scantily clad tourists walking lazily across your vision, the sudden delight of a shore fisherman having caught a reasonably large fish, gulls swooping in for its quota of sea food, chatter, pitter-patter, and the sun forcing itself in even through the thatched roof of the shack you’re...
The internet of things
We are at the threshold of a world where ‘the emergence of countless objects, animals and even people with uniquely identifiable, embedded devices wirelessly connected to the internet’ is turning the corner. No, this isn’t as fearsome as some sci-fi writers have imagined it all to be. This real fiction shows no signs of accelerating...
The creativity of intolerance
Intolerance is no longer a bumbling oaf or a brainless goon. Yet it continues to be both an oaf and a goon, although it now goes about calling itself creative. Well, there is freedom of speech in our country, and so we see these oafish goons adopting the newest tricks in the closet of vandalism...
The truth serum: Review of ‘A hundred lives for you’
If you’ve ever played that game of plucking out petals from a flower while saying ‘She loves me’ and ‘She loves me not’, you’ll know what I mean when I say that the first few pages of this book made me say ‘I’ll read it’ and ‘I’ll read it not’… and yet, I read on....
On curves and their performance
It is the swerves of curves that have been winning all the glances and eye-balls throughout history. I even suspect that it was never the face, but the curves… ‘that launch’d a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium…’ …and so why must technology remain behind? Even Sonam Kapoor, the actress, says: ‘We...
We all need our ‘hakuna matata’
Tidal waves don’t win over people… they sweep them away, destroy everything in their way, and never create a problem-free world. So I wouldn’t call Modi’s victory a ‘tidal wave across India’ or a ‘tsunami in the country’ or a ‘tornado that led BJP into the parliament’. Some people in the media do get all...
Don’t be a mug
The mug on my table has enough lessons for our political bigwigs, shabby wigs, no wig, starry wigs, goon wigs, scam wigs, and chic wigs. It has a beautiful curvy nose covering a major part of its face and it is as proud of its nose as we humans are of ours. You know the...
This is how we speak. Review of ‘Terms and conditions apply’
I am just wondering what the purists will have to say about this book where the title is in English, the author’s name is written in Hindi… and the 14 short stories inside use English phrases and words almost where any of the urban and rural reader would while communicating in his daily life. This...
Conversation with a beauty blogger
The only cosmetic products I pamper myself with include shaving foams, soaps, shampoos, face-washes, and moisturisers. Perfumes and deodorants are also things I have bought for myself but not often. Do I experiment with the brands in these categories? Yes, I do. So when met this beauty blogger, I asked, ‘You review all these wonderful...
