I was summoned by my elder daughter to Panchkula from Gurugram to take care of her two daughters studying in classes IV and V during the first two weeks of their summer vacation. She had made plans to be with...
IN the 1950s, my grandfather was tasked with finding a suitable life partner for his brother-in-law Jeevarathnam. One day, his chance encounter with Angamuthu, an old neighbour and childhood friend from Shivajinagar, Bengaluru, rekindled a dormant connection. During their conversation,...
PANDIT Vishnu Sharma’s Panchatantra features many interesting stories, including the one about a thirsty crow. A crow lived in a jungle near a village. On a hot summer day, it flew over fields in search of water, but in vain....
IN our snug little house nestled in the tranquil village of Shoghi in Shimla, with its wooden floors creaking softly underfoot and sloping roofs that hugged the eaves, we had an unexpected and persistent visitor — a cunning mouse we...
I was sipping coffee when a persistent tapping caught my attention. Opening the door, I found no one. Following the sound, I spotted a colourful bird at my window, etching intricate patterns with its beak. I asked, ‘What’s troubling you,...
PERHAPS no other government department can match the police in fixing accountability of its staff. Suspension from service is, therefore, a common occurrence here. Even senior officers are not immune from it. JD Nagarwala, an IP (Imperial Police) officer who...
AS a young girl, I knew the words ‘tired’ and ‘stressed’, but had never heard them used in my family or circle of friends. The first time I heard my sister’s father-in-law ask her when she returned home from work,...
YOGA has still not conquered Japan in the way it has some of the Western world. Among its followers in Japan, it is not known so much as yoga, but by its Japanese name, Shin-shin-toitsu-do (unification of the mind and...
THE recent demise of Gen Claudio Graziano, Italy’s former chief of the defence staff, sent shockwaves within my battalion, 15 Punjab. He was our force commander in Lebanon when I was leading the battalion on a United Nations mission in...
THE perfect antidote to a hot, sunny day is being dazzled by shimmering golden ‘chandeliers’ magnificently bestowing their bounty on us. In case these golden blossoms have not charmed you yet, it is never too late to take notice of...
THE word ‘Zohnerism’ came to mind when I read the report that the Indian Council of Medical Research had taken umbrage at the misleading nutrition claims on food packages and advised companies to avoid deceptive expressions. Zohnerism is an eponym...
In 1974, I was a young Assistant Superintendent of Police, posted in the remote Madhepura subdivision in Bihar. While reviewing cases of serious crimes under investigation, I came across an armed robbery that had taken place in the house of...
LAST December, as I was taking out cash to pay for my extra suitcase at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, the check-in official, who didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk, suddenly shouted: ‘It has been nearly seven years since...
THE postman hadn’t expected such a response to his call ‘amma… money order!’ at our doorstep. All through his career, he would have only received a warm reception while handing over cash. My grandmother had every reason to express shock...
OUR two-month-long summer vacation in the 1970s was always exciting. My cousins and I would set out for our annual sojourns to our dadka (paternal grandparents’ home) and nanka (maternal grandparents’ house). The first port of call was Jaito, a...
THEY say laughter is the best medicine. Medicine is mostly bitter, but thankfully, laughter comes in different flavours. At one end of the spectrum are those who laugh as though they are consuming medicine. It flows in a trickle, in...
EVERY country has its set of cultural preferences and idiosyncrasies, which may be embarrassing or bizarre to people belonging to other cultures. In China, you shouldn’t ask for a second helping of soup because it’s deemed to be against table...
IN Punjab, your regional identity often defines who you are. If Malwa is famous for its cool kakajis, Majha is known by its fierce bhaus and Doaba for its gentle bhajis. Nestled between the Beas and Sutlej rivers, Doaba is...
EVERY year, I recall a tragic incident that happened in 1966 when Air India Flight 101 crashed into Mont Blanc in France on January 24. All 117 people on board were killed, including Homi Bhabha, an eminent nuclear physicist from...
THE other day, my nephew came home. He had been living in Canada for almost a decade before family commitments made him return to India. He always greets me with a hug, saying ‘hello, maasi’ with a wide smile. But...
MY regiment celebrated its Raising Day at Dehradun recently. Christened ‘Rendezvous 2024’, it was a soul-rejuvenating homecoming for over 250 veterans and serving soldiers, ranging from the 1960s to the 2020s. People travelled from places like Guwahati, Coimbatore, Pune, Ahmedabad,...
OF late, Indians have been travelling in droves to Uzbekistan, thanks to the proximity of this landlocked country, which is just a two-and-a-half-hour flight from New Delhi. What’s more, food and accommodation are cheap there due to its weak currency,...
INDIAN Air Force (IAF) helicopters are ubiquitous in our elections. My first tryst with this exercise was in the Tripura Assembly polls in January 1983, when I was posted in Guwahati. We ferried an election party to a remote polling...
WITH the abrupt announcement of the summer vacation due to soaring temperatures, most of the children’s books were left behind in the classrooms —much to their relief. Parents promptly received messages from class teachers, imploring them to collect their wards’...
WHEN I recently suggested to Venkatraman, my 71-year-old brother-in-law, to wear a smartwatch so that he could keep track of the number of steps walked in a day, monitor his sleep pattern and health parameters, he not only politely turned...
DIPLOMATS posted abroad, whether in friendly countries or inimical ones, know that they are being watched — at home, at work, on tour. In many countries, surveillance was not so much in your face. In Karachi, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence)...
ELECTIONS are called the ‘dance of democracy’. Or is it the dance of politicians? Unlike professional dancers who usually have harmonious relations with each other, political ‘dancers’ don’t see eye to eye with their rivals. It is a dog-eat-dog world...
DELHI voted in the Lok Sabha elections on May 25. Many of my batchmates from the IAS and the IPS and their spouses residing in the Capital posted images of their inked fingers in our WhatsApp group, proudly proclaiming the...
MY father often quoted a Bengali proverb, Kom khao, beshi khabe. This oxymoron of a phrase, which meant ‘eat less, you will eat more’, would whet our curiosity. Recently, I came across a study involving rhesus monkeys, conducted by the...
IT was a June evening. My friends Prakash and Soumitra barged into my house and persuaded me to join their expedition to the forest range at Basdevpur village to enjoy a moonlit night. I restrained myself from pouring cold water...