Quo Vadis?

In 1993 the “real thing” made a re-entry into India and soon changed the dining habits of many Indians.  It was not that we had no carbonated sugar water earlier, there was the Indian answer to Coke  “Double 7” and of course the many loved drinks from the Parle stable including the behemoth Thums Up. The difference then was that the drinks were refreshment and usually a time pass, you know what I mean, but Coke became part of meals and there started a revolution. I grew up with the “real pepsi cola” the coloured drinks stored in thin plastic tubes and frozen in the refrigerators. Sold for 50 paisa or so they were a delight and lasted as long as the frozen drink took to melt and be sucked out of the tube. Small pleasures then but that and the other drinks called “colour” in the friendly neighbourhood   Annachi stores were an indulgence and usually an occasional indulgence. The advent of Coke and the many junk food counters into the country ensured that jun...

In case you missed it, it is Women’s day today. The day when businesses fall over each other with special offers for women, when the media honours women from every field many whom they may have never realized existed on 364 other days, when oh never mind, you would have got the picture by now. However well-intentioned it may be many of them are hollow and everyone seems to have an opinion either for or against the celebration. Personally I say, why not? It’s like a birthday, everyone has one and we celebrate that day even if we do not celebrate the person the other days and everyone is entitled to one more day of being celebrated. So let me first wish all the women a very Happy Women’s Day. Having done that I would like to expose one fallacy many hide behind, that men and women are equal; they are not, not always. There may be one more, men are superior to women, they are not, again not always. So if you wonder then “is the corollary right” and have expressions varying from de...

I had posted about this earlier and I mentioned that the colour of my hand will probably be in the hands of my daughter and so far she has not noticed it. But others tend to notice. The other day as I was taking a lift along with the family the lift operator kept looking at me. I did not realize its significance till he tells the wife “Akka, anna has got a nice hair style, I like it”. This was a first and even before I could flash a triumphant look at D came the rejoinder “avar style thala madhiri irukku” in case you missed that it translates to “his style looks like head”.   Well it translates that way but it means that the hairstyle looks like that of an actor who goes by the title of “thala”. I suppose that is enough said on the topic. But I do take offense just because I trail a decade or so in age to “thala” does not mean that I follow his style. I started greying when I was 18 years old. I am nevertheless very happy that a public figure is not shying away from flau...

Another post inspired by The CBC, actually one line in a post by Bragadeesh. Trainers use the term “paradigm shift” to explain a dramatic transformation, sometimes these transformations can be earth shattering for the individual concerned as the person will undergo a very big change, sometimes the biggest change in his / her life. Falling in love is a paradigm shift. People get transformed when love strikes them and this is the love that makes lights glow, bells ring etc. Love stories keep writers, poets, movie makers busy churning out new variations of the same concept inspiring many to fall in love. In hindsight it must be one of the most fundamental feelings, a boy and a girl fall for each other. There are many definitions for love and one of the famous lines from the Bible is probably the best description of love. For those who do not know it:   1 Corinthians 13:4-8 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 4  Love is patient; love is kind; love is no...

A recent conversation with someone made me realize that when we say two wheeler enthusiasts the usual images that come to mind are the big gangs including the big boys on the Enfield bullets but there exist a set of people who are hard core fanatics of their set of two wheels and constantly upgrade to the same model of TVS mopeds. Do not get me wrong, I do not think that it is a bad vehicle; in fact it merits the same kind of crazy, inexplicable adulation given to a Bullet by its users who swear by it despite its many shortcomings that are called as its USPs. The TVS 50 in its many avatars put many people on to the road and was their first ever motorized personal transport vehicle. People in the villages still swear by it as do the delivery boys in many grocery shops in the cities. I go back to my school days in St. Bede’s AIHS when TVS was something that excited most of us in high school. Those were the days of commuting to school by bus or cycle, days when th...

I came across a very funny post on Facebook about the craziness of the English language. English has united a great part of the world and ensures that you can communicate with some reasonable effect in many areas of the world. It is a flexible language where it has allowed itself to be modified, misused to suit the local sensibilities and every other day new local contributions are being added to the English lexicon. English may have its advantages and personally I prefer the Queen’s English having grown up with it, I realize that the English language has one flaw. Well it may not be a flaw it may be that the culture does not permit it to be so. English is not a respectful language and you will notice the only hint of respect is when the Queen says “We are happy…”.   As with some of our Indian languages the first person plural is used to signify respect in the English language, with “We”, “our”, replacing the commoner’s I. We are usually respectful people and so our l...

This post has been published as a part of 'CBC's The Valentine's Day's One post One Scene Tag' Read previous scene by Uma Maheswari Anandane   here .....   I have been giving the honour of finishing this story and for a first timer it was a challenge.     “Good night sweet heart”, said Guru kissing the sleeping Yazhini on her fore head and tucking her into the bed switched off the light.   “Is that your idea of putting a two year old to sleep Mr. Guru?” asked Ahalya in mock anger.   “Yes, I tell her a story and put her to sleep” said Guru with a smile. “A   story? The story of our marriage is hardly something you tell to make a child to sleep and the twists that you make up” said Ahalya with exasperation. “And I have lost count of the twists that keep happening with each telling, and how did you become the savior of the world when you cannot even save a seat for me in the kutcheri last Sunday?”   “Come on Ahal...