The Middle View More

Chitvan Singh Dhillon PASSENGERS onboard the executive-class coach of the Shatabdi Express from New Delhi to Chandigarh make for an interesting case study on the fragility of the human ego. The travellers typically consist of the movers and shakers of...

Saurabh Malik THE rickety bus groaned as it climbed higher into the mountains, winding its way through clouds that clung to the hillsides like a misty veil. The journey from Chandigarh to Shoghi had only just begun. Inside, the air...

NJ Ravi Chander I grew up listening to stories about World War II from my uncles, granduncles and grandparents who served in the war. My paternal uncle Major P Sampangi Raju’s unit, 12 Field Company of the Madras Sappers, was...

Rashmi Oberoi MY summer vacation was spent at our family bungalow, Ahmedalli Cottage, in Kolhapur, my mother’s home town. Many relatives who had nowhere to go were given refuge by my grandmother in that huge cottage, which was built in...

Rama Kashyap THANKFULLY, this year’s Nuh Shobha Yatra concluded peacefully amid an Internet ban and tight security. Last year, when communal clashes took place during the procession, I was in Gurugram with my son. Tension spread through several districts of...

Tanya Verma A year has passed, yet the tragedy at Summer Hill’s Shiv temple, also known as Shiv Bavdi, continues to haunt many. I vividly recall the dreadful morning when the news of a devastating landslide near the Shiv temple...

Usha Bande VELLICHOR — the word sounded quite captivating and set me wondering if it could be a portmanteau word. Maybe a combination of the Tamil velli (silver) and the Hindi chor (thief), I thought. Not quite convinced by my...

SV Venugopalan A job in a rural branch of a bank offered a variety of interesting experiences. It was a privilege for me to reside in a village amidst simple, earnest and affectionate people during the early 1980s. Joining straight...

Shobhit Mahajan THE car windows were vibrating as if they would break. And my eardrums felt as if they would be punctured. The ‘sonic boom’ was not because of an Su-30 taking off from Palam airport but from a Dak...

RS Dalal I recently received an invite to a book launch. The author was a young, brilliant paediatrician whom we had befriended a few years ago when our grandchildren were born. ‘How could a doctor so busy find time to...

GS Aujla IN the heart of Central London is the famous Trafalgar Square with a Corinthian pillar erected for Lord Nelson, the hero of the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). Alongside, a memorial would have been raised to commemorate the First...

Sumit Paul Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist. — GK Chesterton YEARS ago, in Lahore, I asked legendary ghazal maestro Mehdi Hassan, ‘Aap ko kaun si baat sab se naagavaar guzarti hai?’ (What...

Prashant Gautam THE monsoon has brought the curtain down on the tourist season in Himachal Pradesh. For reasons ranging from traffic snarls to steep taxes on tourist vehicles and aggressive marketing by other hill states, the state’s tourism industry has...

Prarthana Magod ON July 3, Kargil War: The Turning Point, written by my father, the late Col MB Ravindranath (a Vir Chakra awardee), was released. It is about the sweat, tears, strategy, dedication and determination of the fearless warriors of...

IT was in 2017 that my daughter, walking through a shopping complex, spotted a pup being carried hurriedly from a car to a nearby pet shop. The little fellow appeared to be less than a month old — it had...

WITH Joe Biden finally bowing out of the US presidential race, Kamala Harris has declared her candidature for the top post. Of the 49 vice-presidents the US has had till now, 15 went on to become the President. There are...

BUTTERFINGERS is a term often used in cricket. It refers to a terrible fielder. Sample this: The batsman hits the ball into the air. It is a ‘dolly catch’ — the fielder must only cup his fingers around the ball....

IT was a bright sunny afternoon when we ambled along the narrow path leading to the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary on the banks of the Cauvery river near Srirangapatna in Karnataka. Even as we were taking in the fresh air and...

The English language is nobody’s special property. It is the property of the imagination; it is the property of the language itself. — Derek Walcott MY school had a strict policy of speaking only in English on the campus....

TECH adventurer Elon Musk recently posted on X that in the future, ‘there will be no phones, just Neuralinks’. He shared an image of himself, generated using artificial intelligence (AI); it showed a neural network-like design on his forehead. A...

THERE hasn’t been a more tearful goodbye than the one I received as a newlywed that morning from my wife, who was unaware of the perils of soldiering. Our flight had been mobilised to provide aviation support to our troops...

EVERY year, the arrival of the rains reminds me of a happening that left a lasting imprint on my psyche. It was not a Bollywood-style romantic scene that we remember for a long time after having enjoyed a great film....

TWO of my maternal granduncles passed away within a span of one year. RK Shamaraj, aged 74, died on November 27, 2005, at 4.30 pm. His brother, RK Jeevarathnam (86), bid farewell to the world one year later — uncannily,...

WHEN I recall my banking career and its slogging days, the memory that cheers me up the most is of parties held for any and every occasion. When a party was to be organised, a self-appointed party arranger would not...

WATCHING the hustle and bustle of daily life from the large windows of a fast food joint on the Heritage Street in Amritsar has become a Sunday morning ritual for me. The eatery is located merely steps away from the...