Travelling Times

     “Roots is a study of continuities, of consequences, of how people perpetuate themselves, how each generation helps to doom, or helps to liberate, the coming one.”     The bureaucrat finished his speech. His ideals seemed to have struck a chord somewhere. She switched off the television set and walked over to the open balcony. The skies were clear; the meteorological department had predicted a ten percent chance for showers. In the distance, the lights of the Eiffel tower had an eerie glow. “Why had they named it as the iron lady?” she pondered. Does love eventually leave people stone-hearted?      Paris, the city of dreams, had always been her favorite destination. It evoked a mixed bag of reactions – old friends, conquered dreams and forgotten promises. The date had passed, passed a decade ago.      She had fallen asleep. The first rays of dawn brought her to her senses. She vaguely recalled her th...

     For a long time now, the concept of a story has been engulfing me. If it would increase reader interest, like the unfinished 7 PM soaps that run for a couple of years, I’d be more than happy to oblige. As of now, central protagonist is a reader – a young, smart intellectual. Let’s assume she’s a lady (they increase viewer interest, they always do – hard to imagine Jack surviving the Titanic debacle and doing a flashback!).   My blog’s open to comments, criticism, chocolates, gifts and flowers. So wait with bated breath (please please) while I hope to get it started over this weekend. This would be the apt time with three long weekends coming up, and not much work to do during the week. I’ve decided to name the story – Back to the Roots. Disclaimer: The story is in a way related to the book inset.

“Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.” – Mark Twain.      One of the other reasons why I’ve refrained from blogging is because every topic is clichéd. I’m active on twitter and give vent to my fury on a daily basis (please note: this has nothing to do with my joblessness). Apart from the spitting, splitting and spatting (verb introduced after the Kalmadi-Dishit duel), we’ve had the jokes about Chuck Norris and Rajnikanth (surprising that MS word doesn’t take Rajnikanth, there’s a joke right there), how well we’ve conducted the CWG; used a 40cr hot air balloon to depress the taxpayer’s money, and then cover the depression in the stadium with 80 truckloads of sand. Anyways, I’ve decided that we quickly need the UIDs in place. And it’s not because Junior AB implemented a strategy to avoid racism (remember the racism ad from Idea). Mr. Nilekani decided that Infosys would get hold of a large project (they’re used to tagging goods in Walm...

Prologue: The quarter-life crisis is a term applied to the period of life immediately following the major changes of adolescence, usually ranging from the early twenties to the early thirties. The term is named by analogy with mid-life crisis......      A friend of mine once stated that it would be wonderful if we could work hard enough to be millionaires by the time we're 30, or else start working at 30. Initially I thought it didn't make sense at all. If you're a 24 year old guy in India and not working, its a serious crime. Everyone looks down upon you like a piece of dirt (girls have an easier option! get married early or share the same fate). So where do I stand?     My crisis doesn't involve insecurity, unemployment or loneliness. I do realise the fact that googling myself doesn't set the search engines on fire. But I stand a better chance than most others. Kunnath Valappil Sajeesh is as unique as a dodo, or maybe a brontosaurus (one of...

“As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.” ~ Gore Vidal . The earliest memory that I have of our famed judiciary is the statue of a blind lady with a set of scales in her hand (they kept showing it in Hindi movies during the scenes of rape or injustice in the 80’s and 90’s). The modern day picture is a little brighter; in fact the lady is no longer blind and the scales are weighed in favour of the money on them. Someone once commented that newspapers and media always seem to have enough content to cover up their daily schedule. My humble, immature thought process feels that it requires immaculate talent to filter out the honorable (pun intended) antics of our prized stallions (read fat, greedy gluttons disguised in the form of politicians, law (en)forcers and the likes). ...