THERE was a time when the training establishment of MI5, the security service of the UK, was located at a place named Mount Pleasant. It must have been somebody with an overweening sense of loyalty to the Crown, or a...
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LAST week, I attended the National Education Summit at Prasanthi Nilayam Ashram, Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh. It was hosted by Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vahini (SSSVV), for which I volunteer as a ‘language reviewer’. The SSSVV is the single largest contributor...
HAVING grown up in the 1970s in the north Indian town of Dharamsala, one of the rainiest places in the country at the time, I came to love the monsoon. The dark greyish clouds with their weird shapes hanging precariously...
IT happened this way: After a good Sunday afternoon nap and an equally good tea, I opened the front door and was stepping out to go for a walk when I saw my neighbour from the adjacent building walking up...
ASK people to describe a hostel and many of them will say that it is a low-priced inn of sorts that offers basic, shared accommodation. However, for a university student, a hostel is a home away from home. It is...
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A few months ago, I saw the dismembered body of a beggar at the Mahim railway station in Mumbai. He had been run over by a train. Seeing an official from the Railways gather his limbs from the tracks and...
THIRTY years ago, I received a late-evening phone call at the office of our bank union from the branch in Chennai. The cashier had reported a shortfall of Rs 10,000. On checking and rechecking everything, the denominations of currency notes...
IN December 1977, I was posted as the Deputy Inspector General in charge of investigation in the Justice Shah Commission of Enquiry, which was set up by then Janata Party government to probe the alleged subversion of lawful processes and...
THE recent Biden-Trump presidential debate has blown into a baloney of golf bragging. When asked about his fitness levels, Trump, 78, boastfully claimed that he had just won two big golf championships and hit the ball longer than any Democrat....
THE annual pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine in south Kashmir commenced on June 29, with the devout undertaking the arduous journey to pay obeisance to Lord Shiva in the holy cave located at an altitude of about 3,800 metres. A...
INDIANS are used to certain perks. The moment we land in a hotel, half a dozen attendants are up and about. Someone opens the door of the taxi for us, someone unloads our luggage, someone leads us to the reception...
IT is everybody’s dream to own a house, even though constructing one involves challenges. When my father embarked on this path some 45 years ago, I was a school kid. Being a teacher, he did not have a big income...
IN May, I was returning to Chandigarh from Rishikesh in a Mercedes with my wife Usha. Even as the heat outside was intolerable, it was comforting to be in the car. The journey brought back memories of the Ambassador car...
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...
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