The hare and the tortoise 2.0 “That’s how the tortoise defeated the hare that day,” concluded my mother, as I sat there clinging on to her back, on the branch of a mango tree, listening keenly to her story. “And what had happened after the race?” I asked, hopping on to another branch, to feed on to a raw mango that had just caught my attention. “Those times were different,” she started, and went on to explain how there was no hype around the event when it was about to happen. However, the moment the tortoise had won, celebrations had begun. It was unprecedented. Mahakal, the then king of the jungle, had himself met the tortoise, congratulated him for his achievement, and offered him a position in his royal court. The family of hares, however, was nowhere to be seen until a few weeks later when all the animals had got on with their respective lives. “What if we were to have this race again in our times?” I asked my mom. “It’s a little complicated these days. Maybe you should
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A night that changed his life… “Should I just quit this, go home, and put in my papers? No, even better, I’ll just buy a gun, and shoot my boss the moment he enters the office in the morning,” thought Arun as he sat there alone, inside his cubicle in his fourth-floor office, at 1 AM, staring at the screen right in front of him. He was supposed to be working on a presentation to be delivered to the client at 11 in the morning. He was sleepy, extremely fatigued, and yet it had to be done, at any cost. He had dropped the idea of travelling back home, lest he fell asleep. It wasn’t just the prospect of re-working on the presentation that was so exasperating to Arun. What had really tired him out more, was the marathon session of about six hours he had had with his boss only a few hours earlier. He had done well to complete that 54 slides presentation four days before the deadline. It wasn’t his fault, though, that his boss had chosen to review his work only a few hours before the act
The Lockdown
It was like any other evening-except for the dark clouds and the seasonal rains, that is. But I didn’t feel like it was any other evening- it reeked of melancholy. It was perhaps the weather, or may be the effect of having stayed locked down for more than four months. So, I thought,” Why not just get back to what was once my favorite getaway? Why not just give vent to my thoughts?” So, there I was, sitting in front of my laptop, wondering what I should be blogging about. Considering that so much has happened this year, there was no dearth of ideas. Quite a few things crossed my mind-should I write about MS Dhoni who just retired from the shorter formats of international cricket? Should I write about the Sushant-Rhea saga? Should I review the latest book I have just finished reading? Or should I try my hand at concocting a short story-something I have never done before? None of these ideas seemed to convince me though. I kept my laptop aside, took a deep breath, and started regather
Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies- The Shawshank Redemption (1994) I don’t know why but the world, as i sometimes perceive, is full of psychopaths. Apparently, not one human being is sane. There's one who's so much in love with himself that he'll cheat, deceive and, in the worst of cases, even kill to satiate his thirst for what he perceives as revenge. They are afflicted with what psychologists euphemistically refer to as a narcissistic personality disorder. The fact is they're excessively pompous, they're sadists, and they lack compassion. Then there're those who're afraid of their own shadow; they have this constantly nagging fear that they're being followed or being stared at. There are some who’re even more precariously placed with a multiple personality disorder or schizophrenia, and then there're those with a borderline personality disorder. Why the hell are we not perfect? Why our brain is
Rahul Dravid: The man who redefined Indian Cricket
What it (Dravid's retirement) does mean for Team India is it will have to start looking for another Dravid, who simply doesn’t exist! It really didn’t come as a shock, as it wasn’t altogether unexpected, but Dravid’s retirement from International cricket a few days back was nothing short of a blow-a blow not only to his zillions of fans (especially those who truly understand what Dravid stands for), but a blow also to the fortunes of the Indian team that has just had two of its most horrendous test defeats ever, one against England followed by the series down under against Australia. Fondly nicknamed ‘The Wall’ thanks to his innumerable excruciatingly long innings Dravid, with his flawless technique and extraordinary levels of perseverance, has scripted many a memorable victory for Team India since his arrival on the scene. But then such are the vagaries of life that there are some who, whether they deserve it or not, get elevated to the status of God, while there are those who, de
Mausam in Blunderland
Had it not been for the flaws in its technical aspects, Mausam, despite its weak storyline, wouldn’t have been so bad a movie. Indian Cinema, right from the pre independence era, has churned out an amazingly large number of movies-movies that have been watched and admired by the entire globe. In fact the film Industry in Mumbai (or Bollywood as it is popularly known) is one of the most important factors that make Mumbai what it is on the global scale. It was way back in 1913 that the first full-length motion picture titled Raja Harishchandra was introduced in India by the noted Marathi scholar Dadasaheb Phalke. And since then the Indian Cinema, as the cliché’ goes, has never looked back; churning out one movie after another, and adapting efficiently to the technological innovations in Film making. Today, therefore, there’s no doubt that the Indian Celluloid has indeed come a long way. This is indeed evident from the fact that as a movie goer, you never quite take into acco
Time to revive Indian Cricket?
You really cannot curse Mike Atherton for laughing while he announced the Player-of-the-series from the Indian side during the presentation ceremony at the Oval after India lost the last and final test and allowed England to complete a 4-0 whitewash. You also cannot help but feel sorry for Rahul Dravid (adjudged the player of the series from the Indian side), the only batsman who was willing to stay at the crease throughout the tournament. Dravid, who scored 461 runs in the 4-match series, hit the nail on the head when he rightly quipped at the post-match presentation, “It might take half an hour (to explain why India performed so dismally in the 4 match series).” In just a few words, therefore, he had actually summed up Team India’s performance. A defeat is excusable, in fact understandable-you can’t go on winning anything and everything under the sun. However, the margin of defeats, and the lethargy displayed by Team India is indeed a matter of concern. To begin with, this Ind