Mental Excursions

  Credit card chronicle I cannot be exact because I started counting in retrospect. Yet if I am close to correct, this call must be the 16 th . And the phone company continues to earn as this journey goes on with calls coming at irregular intervals. It all began with Mani expressing his desire to a close friend’s son for credit card of the largest nationalized bank on Bharatbhoomi (land of India). Mani’s go-to person for everything - calling the water purifier servicing guy after the tank-cleaning in our complex left huge deposits in our machine, his pass code for Netflix on the TV, hiring a taxi to go to Delhi, even a good cup of cappuccino, this smart, super well-mannered, young man never ever raises an eyebrow nor does his tone change at these strange offhand and urgent requests of ‘ Mani uncle ’. One lucky day he noticed a poster in a mall and hey presto, he did it. He arranged for a bank representative to come and collect the information required for getting the credit card...

  The day of the brown dog India’s astounding victory over Australia in the test series earlier this week would have drawn just a mild ‘ oh, bahut achchha’ (oh, very good) from me if it wasn’t for the strong reactions of people over some yellow-dog Australian cricket supporters allegedly calling an Indian player ‘brown dog’. Then for me it became a question of language, and not decency or propriety. Of course, th at should not have happened to a dog . The remark let slip the dogs of war among us Indians. Everybody and his dog was horrified and enraged, and shouted out against the ‘racist slur.’ They wrote, sent and forwarded scathing comments on social media on how it was mean as a junkyard dog . What took me by surprise was the vehement reaction even from a friend and her son who are desperately looking for a gori (fair-complexioned) bride for the young man. The incident also redefined cricket. The Australian cricket-lovers colour-coding an Indian just shows cricket, t...

  Tell this to the birds! Did you feed the cow, the crow and the dog this Makar Sankranti ? Feeding birds and animals, which are not necessarily anyone’s pets but strays as well, has been a centuries-old tradition in our country. On most auspicious occasions, after the gods have been appeased with delicacies, food is offered to a crow, a dog or a cow before the worshippers themselves take the first bite. While the cows are revered as gaumata (cow-mother), crows are believed to be our link with our ancestors and dogs are said to help foil the ill-designs of some celestial bodies. How these creatures manage to accomplish this superhuman and supernatural task, is beyond my comprehension, so I would give that a miss. To feed a dog or a cow you leave the food at a spot which you feel the animal is likely to visit, eat, be happy and in exchange for the morsels, put up an application to the gatekeepers of heaven to secure your entry. My concern is about feeding the birds. Don’t get ...

  Is it already 'goodbye' winter?   Where I live in this sub-tropical region, the average daytime temperatures in January range from the coldest 10 to a high of 23 degrees Celsius. The intermittent rain makes it feel colder. There is no snow, only foggy cold mornings and chilly nights. (Those who like to sound knowledgeable, would point out that the night temps may fall to 0.5 degrees C, but who ventures out in a winter night to experience that anyway?) Yet this week saw as high as 27 degrees C. The unusually warm weather in the second week of January is causing me concern. Is it due to climate change or just freak weather? Maybe nature has realised that it does not have to oblige us by following the temperatures and weather conditions expected of it, or is it being kind to the protesting farmers in the frosty nights of Delhi? I am not researching the reasons. I am only hoping it is an oversight on the part of natural elements and they would soon pull the mercury down ...

  A time to celebrate Traditionally, the night of December 31 is an occasion to celebrate for everyone because it brings with it the sunrise of potentially better 365 days in the New Year. That is what we innocent humans thought of 2020 also but enough said about that disappointment, so I put it aside for the moment. For me too the last night of the calendar year is a time to be happy about as two years ago it pulled me out of the life of a Mem Sahib /Madam, unnatural and uncharacteristic for me, and plunged me back into this life of anonymity and realm of irreverence. Although I daresay I am amazed at the power of egalitarianism where we choose, fete and celebrate those political leaders, who mostly well beyond the big 60 in age themselves, have formulated rules that kick out everyone else who reaches that summit, even if his mental faculties are still functioning fine. You are worthless for us now, declare the government    papers. But to continue my story, that i...