India is praying for Kamala and Usha

I am baffled beyond words as to why so many of us in India are going ga-ga and being insanely suffused with vicarious joy and pride whenever a person of Indian origin makes a mark in the world of politics, industry, sport or any other field of endeavour in the western hemisphere. When Rishi Sunak …

Singin’ in the Rain

               It is that time of the year when everyone who is anyone starts talking about the rains. A date has been set for the monsoons to hit our shores. The boffins at the meteorological department look at their wall calendars, with some trepidation, close their eyes and stab a forefinger somewhere on the sheet …

India’s Edward Scissorhands

A housewife was arrested recently in Bangalore for attacking her husband with a pair of scissors. She was deeply upset over his refusal to eat dinner her mother had specially cooked for him.  She is being questioned by the police. Press Reports. ‘Madam, do you realise you could have killed your husband? Why did you …

 Jousting with newspaper editors

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …