Have phone, will talk and textWednesday, May 15, 2013,07:55:52 AM
I am listing (and would also welcome more shining examples from readers) the many different highly inappropriate ways and situations in which people choose to answer cell phone calls.....
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Walking the pretentious rampWednesday, May 08, 2013,01:15:38 AM
I walked the ramp the other day. And I had a wardrobe malfunction too. But there was nothing even remotely glamorous about this ramp walk and this malfunction. I had the painful misfortune of falling down one of Pune's many pretend wheelchair friendly ramps. ....
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Oyster mushrooms, anyone?Wednesday, May 01, 2013,08:41:29 AM
The oyster mushroom, the Agriculture College here tells us, is the mushroom-for-all seasons. It does not need huge amounts of water or carefully controlled temperature conditions or even too much space. It is loaded with good stuff, I am told. Having dabbled in this art and science some years ago in ....
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Journey is the desinationWednesday, April 24, 2013,09:00:13 AM
That pretty saying ‘the journey is the destination’ doesn’t work in Pune. While getting anywhere, even a short journey is fraught with the Pune-special traffic affronts (too numerous to list, but a sampling: wrong entrants, horn blowers, ....
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The Lal batti cultureWednesday, April 17, 2013,07:37:54 AM
Those ‘Lal batti’ non-emergency vehicles make me see red, I tell you. The ‘Lal batti’ debate carries on. The Supreme Court has asked the Centre and State governments to reduce the number of neta-types using red beacon vehicles. ....
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Drought for DummiesWednesday, April 10, 2013,07:41:20 AM
Could P Sainath’s book title Everybody Loves a Good Drought be more relevant, a good 13 years after it was written? Perhaps we can add a fresh chapter, or a new booklet, titled: Drought for Dummies.....
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Back home with a thudWednesday, April 03, 2013,07:43:57 AM
People returning to India after vacationing in phoren, aka First World, aka The West, re-enter Indian space with a thud. Physical thud if the touchdown is poor; the mental thud comes when they see fellow passengers standing up and opening ....
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More unoxfordly signsWednesday, March 27, 2013,07:59:48 AM
All that fake build-up about Pune being the Oxford of the East, we talked about some weeks ago. There is now fresh evidence that we should stop kidding ourselves that this is Vidyanagari, the haloed residence of higher education and fine standards, yada yada yada. ....
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The city of pretend pavementsWednesday, March 20, 2013,07:55:05 AM
I believe airport authorities can put some kind of electronic tracer on the baggage of a suspect entering a country, so that they know where he or she moves around in the country that they visit. This is for people who aren’t out-and-out arrestable, but need to be watched. Wouldn’t ....
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The bubble generationsWednesday, March 13, 2013,09:44:59 AM
Everyone is talking about lowered and poorer attention spans, and we experience them daily in our lives, when no one can complete even the smallest task without taking three phone calls in between. ....
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‘No, thanks, we don’t want it’Wednesday, March 06, 2013,08:30:53 AM
I watch western television programmes, slouched in front of my TV, then get all taken up with doing something interesting for someone, and then meet that familiar wall of unimaginative indifference, and go right back to slouching in front of the TV. Take for example this recent fruitless....
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A new kind of rowdyWednesday, February 27, 2013,08:53:06 AM
If you insist on watching news channels, then life will insist on being drab and demoralising,” someone famous once said it. Or maybe I just made that up. Watch the news, by all means, to get the general gist of what’s happening in the larger world. But don’t mistake what you hear for the total....
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A new kind of melting potWednesday, February 20, 2013,08:04:00 AM
If you grew up in melting-pot Mumbai, chances are that you cope with ‘newness’ and ‘strangeness’ and even welcome it, quite easily, unless it comes in particularly annoying packages. New languages, different accents, varied foods, and lifestyles different than your own…they’re all part of your growing up.....
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Caught in the actWednesday, February 13, 2013,07:44:48 AM
Yesterday I was ‘caught’ by some RTO cops. I’ve noticed this (and even said it out to some of them, bitterly and sarcastically): older women in clean plain little cars are perfect targets. The car is an indication that they are not some ‘badi influential party’. ....
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Lend me your ears!Wednesday, February 06, 2013,08:23:45 AM
Just when you thought you had had your week’s fill of absurdities, weird rules and sundry non sequiturs that are part of the hard work that it is to be an Indian, along comes a new one. ....
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The great Indian card trickWednesday, January 30, 2013,08:20:48 AM
It’s not easy, remaining a card-carrying citizen of planet India. Let’s see now — how many cards have I, over the years, have to get for myself? Each time being told that this is THE card, and after you get a hold of this one, there is NO other card that you will have to furnish to prove that you are a bonafide citizen of ....
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Pay-your-way book launchesWednesday, January 23, 2013,07:55:24 AM
Readers and book-buyers (and of course writers) must now be fairly familiar with the drill when it comes to book launches. You get anxious invitations from the writer (orphaned suddenly as he or she is by his publisher going AWOL as soon as the book is out). If you are a friend, you go along, to....
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A veritable banquet of eventsWednesday, January 16, 2013,07:57:40 AM
Come December-January, and this city explodes with music performances, lectures, book launches, film screenings, workshops and exhibitions of all kinds. Idhar jaau ya udhar jaau you want to sing, as you are spoilt for choice in the city, particularly in the music mehefils. ....
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013,09:17:39 AM
Heard of personal bodyguards, right? They are employed by people who simply do not feel that the state machinery can ensure that they are safe from their fans/customers/competitors/hitmen/ kidnappers/stalkers et al. ....
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