Mental Excursions

  Log kya kahenge! What will the people say? No, nobody has to answer that. This is not a question. It is a statement, a remark. Whatever you do or decide, you are most likely to hear those three significant words, the bane of life for most of us, from your family, friends or even colleagues. It could be a small matter of your appearance: what styles, colours, cuts of clothes, light or heavy jewellery, colour and style of hair and make-up to wear to work or social and cultural engagements or bigger issues in life. Whatever be your choice, there will always be the Log Kya Kahenge reaction. It may or may not be followed by a suggestion, but these words are enough to deflate the air out of your sense of achievement balloon. I can think of only a few of the hundreds of such situations where Log Kya Kahenge is the response or counter-question. For the sake of not repeating these words throughout and offending you, I’d just use LKK. Why don’t you dress according to your age… L...

  Let's party, says nature! Spring 2021 in Northern Hemisphere will begin on Saturday, 20 March and ends on Monday, 21 June All dates are in India Standard Time. says Google this morning. I guess Google does not know everything after all. For one, April, May and June are hot summer months in this sub - tropic region. Secondly, four weeks ago on the fifth day of  Shukla Paksha , (fortnight of the waxing moon) in Magh i.e., January – February in the Hindu calendar or on February 16 this year, we celebrated Vasant or Basant (spring) Panchami in our country. Those who follow the rituals wore yellow, prepared yellow delicacies like boondi  (sugar-soaked  globules of chickpea flour ),   besan laddos (chickpea flour sweet balls) ,   zarda (sweet  saffron  rice)   and  kesari baath (yellow halwa in the southern states) etc.. They worshipped Saraswati,  the goddess of knowledge, speech and learning with yellow flower...

  Beware of ear-cutters! Talking of spelling errors , don’t we all agree with this young man? Going through the comments on the earlier posts again, Hansel’s story about ‘ear cut’ stopped me in my track. Who in the name of sanity would want to spend from his own pocket and have his ear cut of his own accord? Sidetracked, I went through my own collection of spelling errors on signboards and banners and found some precious examples which I thought my readers might enjoy.  Do people actually buy crap, that too buttered or American? Three guesses for telling what this man is actually selling. Is it mosambi (sweet lime)? Then why does he advertise crap? I also checked the dictionary for both ‘ catonic’ and ‘cationic ’ , but the meanings did not quiet answer my question. A typically sarkari (official) list of no-nos, but what caught my eye was the spelling of alcohol. Why are the Delhi civic authorities employing Spanish painters when there are so many Indians who need jobs? B...

  Vaxxed, and ready for what? It was an event of sorts as I made the near life-changing decision to get the Covid vaccine this past week; life-changing for both – for me as well as the virus as I imagine the virus if any in my body, and the anti-bodies are playing chor-sipahi (catch the thief) after Thursday. Vaccination is now open for those above 60 years and those above 45 years with co-morbities. We had some discussion on private vs government hospital but the scale tilted in favour of a government hospital simply because if something happens to the vaccine during storage or transportation, the government agency would procure fresh stock and ignore the economics.   The registration though was a bumpy road and it took a while to complete the process and find the centre. Finally eureka, a friend found a crevice in the time slot and it was done. Since it was my major task of the day, I was in no hurry. And when you are in no hurry, you have time to see and hear thing...