Mental Excursions

Horn OK Please                                                                                                       - Anupama S Mani I stopped driving several years ago and, shamelessly embraced permanent passenger status. A passenger does not have to focus solely on the road. I am free to look— at activities in other vehicles, two-wheelers trying to snake through impossible gaps, autorickshaws sticking their snouts into tiny spaces, lethargic traffic policemen, and billboards still announcing last year's grand inauguration of a jewellery shop. Quite unexpectedly, I acquired a new hobby—listening to India's largest free musical performance where scooters play the flute, cars attempt the trumpet, autorickshaws believe they are percu...

Words That Disagree Beautifully                                                                                              - Anupama S Mani It is ‘awfully good’ and ‘terribly nice’ of you to have stopped here. I hope even if the week gave you problems, you remained in ‘comfortable misery’ ‘experiencing a joyful sadness’ and stayed ‘cheerfully pessimistic’. As the week ‘grows smaller’ into the weekend, perhaps your plans are still a ‘definite maybe’, your confidence is powered by ‘artificial intelligence’, and you are hoping for a few ‘minor miracles’. With luck, by Sunday your troubles will seem like ‘ virtual reality’, or at least become ‘seriously funny’. If you think I am being ‘gloriously stupid’, hold that thought, you have ‘ clearly misundersto...

The Sweetest Temptation                                                                                          -By Anupama S Mani Ancient luxury: A 650–750 CE painted Maya vase showing an enthroned ruler being served a frothy, spiced cacao beverage. It is neither my birthday/wedding anniversary on Tuesday, the 7 th of July, nor any religious festival, nor a day marking a nation getting independence, but this is one day of some historic significance that, I am very clear, deserves a grand celebration. It is World Chocolate Day. A day on which one can officially dig one's teeth into this heavenly treat and, for once, silence the tiny nutritionist who lives inside our heads. You are free to ‘taste’ any goodies made from chocolate- candy, bars, sauce, cake, bro...

The Unintended Message                                                                                              -Anupama S Mani After years of announcements, presentations and artist's impressions, this is the closest I have come to seeing a bullet train in Indian Railways. Photo: Hansel Aubert All of us have heard the cliché that a picture speaks a thousand words. The photographs that follow do something more. They tell stories their creators probably never intended to tell. In this relentless summer, that may be as good a reason as any to smile. The only elevator I've seen that honestly advertises its principal function. Built in 1978 on a hotel that opened in 1922, it is no longer in passenger service but still lights up for special occasions—an...