I am often asked, sometimes asked, somebody asked me once – why I do not write more often in leading newspapers and other online publications. The operative phrase here is ‘more often,’ meaning thereby that I have contributed to newspapers and online sites, but infrequently. There are several reasons for this and rather than list …
Author Archives: sureshsubrahmanyan
This number does not exist
So that’s the telephone? They ring, and you run. Edgar Degas. I don’t know about you, dear reader, but over the past few months I have been receiving some strange calls on my mobile phone. I would not classify them as crank calls exactly, but apparently the aim is to fool you into believing …
Statutory warnings are injurious to your entertainment
A number of films or television serials these days open with a black screen sternly informing the viewer in bold, reverse type that ‘Smoking is injurious to health.’ That is old hat of course, and we have been seeing that health warning or its variants on cigarette packs – ‘Smoking causes cancer’ – visually aided …
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Television’s feeding frenzy
By the time you read this, the entire country will be agog with what the exit polls are saying with regard to the likely winners and losers of India’s mega general elections, the final results of which will be declared a couple of days later on June 4. This, after waiting for six insanely long …
You have reached your destination
You know your driving is really terrible when your GPS says, ‘After 200 metres, stop and let me out!’ Up until about five years ago, I had employed a permanent driver. As I was fully involved in my marketing consultancy assignments, driving long distances to my clients’ offices in Bangalore under impossible traffic conditions was …
I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter
I marvel at people who, at the drop of a hat, shoot off letters to all and sundry. For the most part, these are addressed to folks they do not know from Adam. Or for that matter, Abdul or Shiva. One has to be ever so mindful. People are so prickly and thin-skinned. ‘What do …
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Uncle Sam drops a few bricks
Almost seven decades ago, 68 years to be precise, the wondrous Harry Belafonte, now sadly no longer with us, released a melodious, calypso-tinged song called Brown Skin Girl (stay home and mind baby). We teenagers at the time had no clue that this was a song that lyrically satirised and obliquely commented on American soldiers …
When old boxwallahs pick up the pieces
Ever since I can recall, I have never been much of a political person. For the purposes of this essay, I am not talking about petty office politics (the proverbial gossip at the water cooler) or even more petty family politics, but the national political scene – the biggie. With elections well and truly upon …
Stone walls do not a prison make
I have a question that has stayed with me for more years than I care to remember. Why is it that whenever a politician, industrialist, film star or some other big wig is taken into custody by the long arm of the law, the arrested individual invariably sports a triumphant smile for the cameras? Not …
The Eyes have it
I am not sure what it is, something in the air perhaps, but every other person I know seems to be going in for cataract surgery. This awareness has been brought sharply to my attention when, after a routine eye check-up, my ophthalmologist declared that I am a ripe candidate for the removal of my …
Suresh's Corner 