Ever since I retired from active service, precluding my having to take a tedious drive to some drudge of an office in unendurable traffic conditions, leaving me scarcely fit to be of any constructive use once I arrived at my place of work, and the same torturous routine repeated all the way back …
Continue reading “‘Tut-tut, you did wee-wee on the carpet?’”
Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birthday came. On October 2nd. As it always does. And went. As it always does. A bit low key, I thought, the celebrations. I have known previous birthdays of the Mahatma celebrated with greater gusto, as indeed has been the case with Chacha Nehru’s birthday, marked down for posterity as Children’s Day. …
The redoubtable President of the United States of America Donald Trump, went head to head, in the nicest possible way, with the indefatigable Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. At Houston, Texas. There were hugs and kisses, and a few near misses. But at the heart of the mammoth, fanatical and hugely impressive gathering of …
The Annual Convention of India’s Celebrity Ghosts happened recently at the lavish Seventh Heaven Resort somewhere in the Milky Way. The fact that such an extraordinary gathering was taking place at all, became known to me through an Ouija board seance in which I decided to participate with some of my madcap friends who, I …
Continue reading “A celestial get-together of friendly spirits”
It’s not often one can manage to weave in Frank Sinatra and Pink Floyd in the same headline and achieve a happy serendipity vis-à-vis the subject on hand. What can I say? I shall affect a false modesty, shrug my shoulders and go, ‘It just came to me.’ Those of you not quite in tune …
Up until a few weeks ago, only a handful of Indian tennis buffs and those involved in running the game in India, had any inkling who Sumit Nagal was. Speaking for myself, I had not heard of him and I follow the game closely. Then the young man qualifies for the main draw at the …
Continue reading “One set off Federer does not a summer make”
Every now and then, I ponder on the mysterious ways of our stock market. Try as I might, the erratic ways of Dalal Street defy comprehension. If bank fixed deposits or government bonds would unfailingly yield us 10% annual interest post tax, I don’t think I will even look at the bourses. Or, indeed, mutual …
Continue reading “The gospel according to Rakesh Jhunjhunwala”
I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion. Alexander the Great. The world is going through turbulent times. India is contributing its mite to the turbulence with a great show of truculence, with the Jammu and Kashmir saga …
Continue reading “Sabre-rattling is fine, but don’t forget the sheep”
I don’t know about you, but I am frequently, almost constantly, pestered over my mobile phone by people I do not know from Adam or Eve, trying to dragoon me into buying something I am not in the least bit interested. Like investing in an apartment complex promoted by builders I have never heard …
Continue reading “‘Kindly confirm the exact location of your birthmark’”
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. Ludwig Wittgenstein. The Austrian philosopher Wittgenstein (1889 -1951) bequeathed to us an armful of quotations like the one above, which were often opaque, which only he understood, and took a dim view of those who didn’t. It is said that even Bertrand Russell struggled to figure out …
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