we are like this only

I don't know whether apathy or pathetic-ness is a better way to describe the attitude of the government to the gruesome event last week in Mumbai. This is a government that has raised inaction and incapability to a new high. From the time that the attacks till almost a full day later, no official spokesperson from the government appeared on national television to inform India's citizens of what was going on, what was being done and what the citizens should be doing, how they could help. And what we got after the day's wait was a low-voiced mumble reading out a speech which made the words "We are not prepared to countenance a situation in which the safety and security of our citizens can be violated with impunity by terrorists" sound less threatening than my daughter's threat of 'Chandamama tumhare sar be broke doonga' ( I'll break the moon over your head. Nobody from the powers-that-think-they-be thought that there was a need to control and direct ...

There was a proverb that said every dark cloud has a silver lining. I can’t think of one to the Mumbai attack by terrorists, can you? The only thing that the attack has done for India is to rip the mask off from the faces of our politicians and shown them up for the scheming, soulless, power and publicity-hungry creatures that they are. To my mind, they are far, far worse than terrorists who at least have the mitigating factor of believing so strongly in their cause that they are willing to sacrifice their own lives for it. Politicians on the other hand believe in no cause, no value and no ethic apart from the ones of money, power and self-aggrandizement. It is absolutely foul to see Mumbai plastered with hoardings by each political party in praise of the three police chiefs who died. The same parties which bayed for their blood when they performed their jobs in a way the party did not like are now trying to benefit even from their deaths by indulging in a gross game of friendlier-than...

So Bojjandi was born in one of Delhi's new and privately run, posh hospitals - the kind that try and create the ambience of a 5-star hotel as opposed to antiseptic warehouse. Vir Sanghvi, the bon vivant, had recently written about the ways in which 5 star hotels gouge their clients. I mean, that pack of Lays Chips isn't going to taste any more gourmet because you consumed it in the hallowed portals of the Oberoi and paid Rs. 100 for the privilege, instead of buying it for Rs. 10 from the neighbourhood kirana store. But I think 5 star hotels come off as innocents compared to these new-fangled hospitals. We'd asked for a single room when we did the pre-admission procedure at the hospital. Of course, when we arrived at the hospital on the due date, they said the single room we had opted for was unavailable. In fact, the process of figuring out which room was available was annoying - the guy would look up room numbers which seemed vacant, then call the head nurse and check and ...

My present domestic help is far from being the only Suppandi I have come across, and some of the stories are too good not to share. Years back, at my office, we had a security guard named Pyarey Lal. A thin, weedy-looking specimen with reedy voice to match. Once one of the girls in office had complained that the cab driver had tried to act fresh when he dropped her home late at night from work. So the head of the office issued a diktat that if any girl worked later than 8 p.m., one of the security guards would escort her home in the cab. One night, I was working till about 3 a.m. editing a film. It being winter, the night was bitterly dark by the time I finished work so I called up the guard from the studio and told him he'd have to drop me home. Of course, with my luck, the guard on duty was Pyarey Lal. "Who said I have to drop you home?" "The head of the office" "How far is your place?" "Half an hour" "Goodness gracious, you expect me ...

India's economy has been cruising for the past several years with the ITES sector on overdrive all due to the abundant availability of trained 'low cost labour'. And India's demographic deficit, i.e. its burgeoning population of under 35s is supposed to drive its economic growth for many years into the future. But is that really going to happen? To my mind, the day the myth of this so-called low cost labour explodes, there will be a panic-stricken exodus of MNCs, and no number of ready-mix IITs and IIMs or added seats in graduate courses are going to be enough to stem the rot resulting from India's completely inadequate primary education infrastructure. The problems are already evident when one goes to recruit from or for any institute. I had posted some time earlier about my horrifying brush with the naked truth when I went on the interview panel of a 2nd rung Bschool in Delhi. And speak to anyone about the kind of domestic help they employ and it becomes even more...

Have been wanting to put in my two cents on this for ages now - I'm so glad the Left finally got its comeuppance, after 4 years of causing nothing but trouble and preventing any and all development from happening. Am also glad to note that Manmohan Singh's spine is intact and straight - had started doubting it after all the 'accomodations' to the Left in the last few years. Ok, here's the deal. Anyone who doesn't believe in communism/ socialism while they are in college is bereft of any shred of idealism. I mean, the ideal is so beautiful - everybody is equal, everyone will share everything...their anthem should be John Lennon's Imagine! But the point is, at some stage you outgrow it, because you realise it's an impractical dream, much like Nehru's Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai. There's a wonderful story in one of the William books ( for more info on William, read The Hungry Bookworm ) about how William's brother and his friends all decide to found a...

Flying was once upon a time a status symbol, only to be indulged in by the rich and privileged, while the rest of us drones contented ourselves with creeping along, hugging Mother earth like worms...until the Air Ministry or whoever it is went mad. Now you have a flight a minute to any destination in India...if you can find a spare runway or ATC, that is. Flying has become an absolute form of purgatory in India today. If we just got all the criminals consigned to Tihar to do a coast-to-coast round trip of India by air, I'm pretty sure most of them would reform on the spot. I've had an excruciating three weeks of constant travel and I'm surprised to note that I lived to tell the tale. Aged by a few years in those few days, but still alive. Last week, I reached the airport an hour and fifteen minutes before the flight was due to leave, but had just about managed to complete checking in by the time they announced boarding for the flight. Also, the airlines really like to watch...