The Middle View More

A dozen has 12 units, but a baker’s dozen has 13. Sounds strange? Well, this concept has its roots in medieval England, where strict laws were enacted to ensure honesty in weights and measures. Weighing less was a punishable offence,...

IT was a cool morning in Shoghi, near Shimla, the kind that makes you wonder if the clouds have decided to take a leisurely stroll through the hills. Birds chirped, the chai boiled, and at the corner tea shop, sitting...

EVERY year, budgeting transforms from a disciplined exercise into a chaotic spectacle in India — a phenomenon aptly termed the March 31 syndrome. This frenzied rush to expend every remaining rupee before the financial year ends, often disregarding necessity or...

PENNSYLVANIA (US), where we lived for a few years, had its share of fond memories and some scary ones too. One morning, we were getting ready to visit our friends in Philadelphia. Avi, our one-year-old son, had to be forced...

THE sight of an avid golfer rushing at the crack of dawn to beat the tee-off deadline seems maniacal to an onlooker, who is oblivious to the travails of this determined creature. Much before the rooster crows its first call,...

BORN in the 1940s, we, the children of the Partition, are a peculiarly privileged generation. From those poverty-ridden times when each penny mattered to the present day when people squander money as if there is no tomorrow, we have seen...

Early morning is a beautiful time to be out. It is still dark, but slowly the nascent rays of the rising sun give way to dawn — a brilliant skyline and the start of a new day. A walk at...

KASHMIR was rocked by a series of avalanches in February 2005. Intezamia pleas to villagers living on the lower Pir Panjal slopes to shift to school halls/polyclinics had largely fallen on deaf ears. Consequently, hundreds of villagers and animals perished....

AN acrimonious debate took place in Parliament recently on the Waqf Bill. It was poetry that provided some relief during the verbal duel. Presenting the Bill, Union minister Kiren Rijiju recited a shair: “Kisi ki baat koi badgumaan na samjhega,...

A recent news report about Alang, the graveyard of decommissioned ships in Gujarat, took me back to my days as an officer with India’s pioneering shipping company, Scindia Steam Navigation, in Bombay. As a ship aged and became economically unviable,...

DURING a stroll in my housing complex, I overheard an elderly man tutoring a boy, probably his grandson. The boy was on the verge of tears, and the man tried to console him. “Yes! You should cry over spilt milk!...

AFTER retiring from a university several years ago, I have been living in a housing society near the campus. Most of the residents are my former colleagues. My next-door neighbour retired long before me. An elderly widower, he lives with...

THE games we played in our childhood are unknown to kids today. Our first toys were folded-paper aeroplanes. We propelled them into space with our hands. The ‘aircraft’ had no fuel, but our skills determined how far it flew. With...

THE recent assault on a Colonel and his son by police personnel in Patiala has sparked a public outrage across the country. Serving as well as retired Army officers and their families have upped the ante over their demand for...

IT’s 11:30 pm. Holding my growling stomach, I tiptoe to the kitchen, looking for something to make it settle down. This is a frequent occurrence after the doctor’s advice to ‘improve my lifestyle’. “Ma’am, finish your dinner before sunset,” she...

IT is said that families are like trees whose branches grow in different directions but their roots remain the same. My father, who worked as a mechanic for the Haryana Roadways Transport Corporation for over 30 years, retired in 1995....

WEAVING our way through the milling crowds in New Delhi’s Karol Bagh market, my daughter and I, after a long walk and some shopping, decided that enough was enough. We had picked up what we wanted, so there was no...

A few months ago, when our pug birthed four pups, a family known to us expressed interest in taking one of them. “It’s a desperate request from my children,” the head of the family said, making repeated phone calls to...

IN the Army, we live by the motto: Sweat more in peace, bleed less in war. It’s a life of constant training — pushing our physical limits, mastering the use of weapons and planning for any battlefield scenario. But amidst...

A decade ago, I took my 11-year-old daughter to the zoo, an outing she had eagerly anticipated for days. She had read about animals in books and seen them in animated movies, but this was her first real opportunity to...

THERE is a trend in the armed forces of calling some comrades by names other than the given ones. I had thought that this happened mostly among officers — Mandeep became Mandy, KJS was nicknamed Tiny or Kapoor distorted to...

MY mind often drifts back to the carefree days of childhood when playtime stretched from morning till dusk. We returned home only when called by mother. We lived in Sargodha, a vibrant town; now, it is an Army cantonment in...

ANNUAL confidential reports (ACRs) have their ironies and contradictions. Ideally, these reports are supposed to give employees what they deserve. An officer commonly says, “What can I give to you except a good ACR?” He thus expresses his veiled gratitude...

SPENDING time in the lap of nature has a unique ability to foster a feeling of wellbeing. I’m lucky that my workplace is surrounded by a vast, lush landscape dotted with towering eucalyptus trees and other beautiful varieties. It’s in...

AFTER year-long basic training at the Internal Security Academy, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, I joined a battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at Zubza, Nagaland, in early 1978. Constable Talib Hussain was to be my orderly — a colonial-era...