The Middle

I unabashedly drop the name of Dr Manmohan Singh, who found time for a memorable one-on-one meeting with me, then a lowly official of a state government. The year was 1992, the state was Punjab. Following a decade of terrorism,...

THE clock strikes midnight on December 31. Fireworks explode in the sky, your phone buzzes with identical WhatsApp forwards, and neighbours shout “Happy New Year” over the din. Somewhere in the background, someone vows, “This year, I’ll finally get fit”,...

The Tribune mourns the loss of its loyal reader

BACK when I had long hair and he still had… well, hair, life had a few more strands in it. Looking back, my hair has always been a bit of a personal project — long, short, somewhere in between. Every...

ONE sunny afternoon, I felt drawn to the quiet allure of a nearby garden in my hometown, Ferozepur. It was not the most lavish of gardens, but its charm lay in its simplicity — a mix of vibrant flowers, lush...

BOXING Day or Offering Day, celebrated the day after Christmas, is all about the joy of giving. In keeping with tradition, wealthy people give gifts in boxes to those less fortunate than them. My sons fondly remember their Boxing Day...

AS a teenager, I was deeply drawn to the soul-stirring voice of Mohammad Rafi. When the news of his death on July 31, 1980, was announced on the radio, tears welled up in my eyes. My mother was taken aback...

THE main purpose of my trip to Finland this autumn was to see the Northern Lights. However, visiting Santa Village turned out to be an equally memorable experience. Replete with magical stories, the place inspires adults to be more childlike...

CHRISTMAS preparations start in London in October, a good two months before the festival. Beautifully decorated and well-lit Christmas trees are displayed in every store as well as market square. Bundled up in layers of insulated clothing — woolly hats,...

HINDU priests, while performing yajna or any other ceremony, insist on making offerings to the deities with the hands joined and extended. The gesture itself showcases an intent to give wholeheartedly. I saw this practice being followed during my travels...

AS the world, and not just India, mourns the loss of tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, I am reminded of my first and only meeting with the iconic artiste. In the early 1990s, as a college student, my ‘patriotism’ had made...

IN ayurveda, healthy food is termed maha bhaishajya — the best medicine. It is emphasised that “with appropriate diet, medicine is not needed, and without proper diet, medicine is of little use”. Dietary advice, therefore, forms an integral part of...

I recently read American author Helen Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life. Keller (1880-1968) continues to be an inspiration to countless people around the world as she had carved a niche for herself in the literary sphere despite being...

RECENTLY, my Pakistani friend Qasim came from London to meet me in Pune after nearly a decade. He runs a restaurant in Bradford that specialises in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Mughlai dishes like murgh musallam, Sikandari raan, chappli kabaab, mutton karahi,...

ONE of the benefits of the lockdown during Covid-19 was reconnecting with my childhood as the responsibility of teaching the maid’s daughter, Mehak, who was then in Class II, fell on me. While reading her EVS book on the structure...

ASPOT of humour, a witty remark or the oddity of a situation are priceless in war. Two days after my 20th birthday in the trenches, the balloon went up with Pakistan's multiple raids deep inside India by F-86 Sabre jets....

AS a septuagenarian couple, when we joined a motley group of youthful friends and relatives for a trip to Bali, we hoped to shed a few years in a boisterous company visiting an exotic location. And we were not disappointed....

THE days at the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun, are memories of a lifetime. Any biography of a renowned army man includes a stint of his academy days. The training settles the diversified culture at a common grid. Various incidents...

DURING the late 1970s, my unit, 18 CRPF, was deployed in Nagaland for counter-insurgency duties. In January 1979, the unit moved at short notice to the Merapani area in Sivasagar district (Assam), where armed miscreants from Nagaland had killed 54...

ONE pleasant afternoon in May 2010, I reached Srinagar for an operational task. My team members also arrived there. After a briefing, we were made to depart the Main Guard Room (MGR) next morning in civilian clothes in a taxi...

IN recent decades, our society has become increasingly materialistic. Ethical and moral values are on the decline. There is a mad race to accumulate money and possessions. A few years ago, I read a news report about a ‘dying’ mission...

THE Black Friday fever, an affliction that has its origin in the US, is catching on in India as well. Newspapers in some of the bigger cities carried large advertisements in the last week of November of special ‘sales’ to...

IN the Indian Merchant Navy, a Fifth Engineer is the lowest and Chief Engineer the highest rank. Most Fifth Engineers reach the topmost rank after passing the Certificate of Competency examination, but when joining a ship, they are mostly called...

KANTA Krishen, wife of Haryana’s first Chief Secretary Saroop Krishen, was the founder of the voluntary blood donation movement in India. A blood donor herself, she made her biggest donation — her body — to the PGI after breathing her...

GOING to Varanasi and not immersing oneself in the surreal glow of the evening aarti at Assi Ghat would be an unforgivable oversight. What is this city — one of the oldest in the world — without its vibrant ghats,...