Safe Tea on those Curves!

Been travelling through parts of Vidarbha, on a trip that’s left me full of thoughts and some sadness. But until I get to that …
… this area is a goldmine for terrific highway aphorisms. Here’s a sample.
Impatient on Road, Patient in Hospital.
Even Guns’n’Roses at Full Blast couldn’t keep him awake. Stop. Revive. Survive.
Kids move fast. [...]

Lines #11

The shuddering wagon makes one more stop … not fully happy with some of the words, but here you are.
***
You had better stop your chatter,
Or there will be trouble here
I’m not one to shy away from trouble,
Where will you go to save yourself?
Yeah, you were here just now, where have you gone?
Think of me having [...]

Separated at birth?

Sorry for the peculiar alignment, and for not being able to find better pix than these: but anyone else think these two look alike?

Hostile at a price

What’s the best thing about the Sessions Court judgement in the Best Bakery case? The sense that justice was done? The deserving slap in the face of a state’s administration, of its justice system? The prospect that terrorists will get their due?
All those, yes, and all worth celebrating. But possibly the most far-reaching facet [...]

I do, I do, Scooby Doo

Banner headline on the front page of yesterday’s (Feb 24) Times of India! I mean, two-inch banner headline! I mean, what greater news could there be than:
TOI TO BUSH: Do you consider India a responsible nuclear nation?
BUSH TO TOI: I Do
Man! How good I feel. Finally, someone stepped up and asked for a pat on [...]

Way of justice

For over a year, a young man stalks a young woman called Priyadarshini Mattoo. He calls her home and makes threats. He stops her car and shouts at her. The police give her protection, but he doesn’t stop. A neighbour notices him at the entrance to her flat one day; shortly after that, she is [...]

Cars for all

Figures, again: maybe I’ll make this an occasional series. (First two were on the effect education has on age at marriage of women, and how many Indians use the Web).
The Census data is a goldmine of interesting information, if you’re into that kind of thing. Here’s one nugget I found not long ago.
We [...]

Wrong Mayor

Last evening, I took meself down to Nariman Point to hear Rudy Giuliani, once Mayor of New York, deliver the Dorab Tata Memorial Lecture. His theme: Principles of Leadership. More about what he said, another time; here, I’ll say only that he spoke a lot about 9/11, NYC’s police department and its fire department.
Which brought [...]

Pi the way

The little mark on big bro’s slide rule always fascinated me. I had learned about pi in school. I knew nobody knew its exact value. Yet, here it was between “3″ and “4″ on the slide rule, a little line with the Greek letter pi under it. If nobody knew its value, how did the [...]

We can ask one another

It’s lines like these that give me hope.
Tum aao gulshan-e-Lahore se chaman bar-dosh
Hum aayen subh-e Banaaras ki raushni le kar
Himaalaya ke havaaon ki taazagi le kar
Phir us ke baad ye poochhenge, kaun dushman hai?
(You come bearing the gardens of Lahore on your shoulders
We will bring the brightness of Benaras’ morning
The freshness of the Himalayan breeze
And [...]