Mental Excursions

Kill these tiny blood-suckers! Last week I said I had things on my mind other than kakdi and I believe what I am going to say would not be considered frivolous. In fact, if somebody has a solution, please share it, so that it brings some respite from the problem. Ever wondered why God or whoever is responsible for creation of this world, made so many species of creatures? Was His sole aim making life difficult for human beings? What is the purpose of such living beings on this planet, especially the ones which are the no-good kinds? I am talking about mosquitoes. I have no idea where they come from. They are everywhere any time of the day. These tiny insects land on your skin like fighter jets and within a few seconds, you feel a strong itch, sometimes a rash also comes up and you can see the few millimeter-long devil ballooning up with your blood. When they bite (it should be called a sting) they suck the blood and transfer their saliva to the victim. Some kinds suck in pathoge...

  Live like it’s spring! A couple of weeks ago a friend living in Berlin asked a very simple question, “How is the weather?” “Getting warm and dusty because the leaves are falling and the flowers have pollen,” I told her. “Oh, isn’t it the spring season?” she asked. This Monday began the Zoroastrian New Year Nuvroz which also marks the spring and of course Google Baba announced the onset of spring the same day, although the Hindus had already celebrated Basant Panchami, their spring festival , on the 5 th  of February. I do not know whether nature is confused, is confusing us or our calendars need to be redone. Just look outside. It appears as if most of the trees have shed their old leaves. They look like they are wearing new cover. Yet the fresh tender green sprigs divert your attention from the pale, dry, crunching piles of their predecessors on the ground, proof that the trees are still in the process of taking off their old garb. The flower beds with plants stoopi...

Humour in war times The festivities of Holi coloured by the joy of Indian students returning home safe, distracted most of us and we looked away from the grim reality that has consumed a big chunk of the world news for the last three weeks. As the Russian invasion on Ukraine or war between the two countries, however you want to express it, progressed, every day the soothsayers changed their predictions about how or when it was going to end. After the loss of thousands of lives, and destruction of cities- turning people living a secure life in their towns homeless, there still seems to be no solution in sight so far. You have seen enough number of images and heard and read horrifying details of this, so I would spare you that. And even though the war has had no direct impact on us, there is always the scary possibility that a section of the population or part of this world might  sometime or the other face such a crisis. Leave sympathy, empathy, even apathy for the people aside, w...

(Wo)mankind- the other half of the population Did the television blare the whole day drooling results on Assembly elections in five states which were taken as the semi-finals before the 2024 General elections? In the noise of the exit polls did another day draw little or maybe no response during the week? On March 8, t wo days before the election result, it was the International Women’s Day. The day was marked by a trickle of free messages from most names on my Whatsapp contact lists. Hardly extraordinary in any respect, I would think, because everyone gets ‘Happy &&$&$ Day” messages for any day or festival of the year. I heard about the usual holding of functions followed by chai and samosas in seminars and lectures organized by some government, corporate or private establishments. Only some of these establishments would have had any inkling that the United Nations theme of the International Women's Day 2022 was ‘Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow...