Mishraji and the Prime Minister's...

10

Mishraji was bellowing. It was 7.30 am and there he was, standing at the gate, leaning on our common boundary wall and bellowing. A tad irritated at having one's early morning music disturbed, one stepped out to see what the hullabaloo was all about. The scene that was unfolding was bizarre. Mishraji was wearing his creased-from-sleep pyjama-kurta, had a rolled newspaper in his hands, his first cup of morning chai (he has two with his morning paper) and was bellowing at three sheepish-looking men and a water tanker. The men looked ready to run away but seemed uncertain when faced with Mishraji's ire and a rolled newspaper being brandished in their faces. At the precise moment that Mishraji decided to pause for breath and the men stopped shuffling for a minute, yours truly decided to speak up. As always where Mishraji is concerned, it....

A dozen reasons to love India

10

So we know a whole lot of things we want to change about her, but what are the things that make us love her? India...? 1. A full stomach, for every pocket So the government might be intent on banning street food; but what the five-star going calls street food, is also STAPLE food for a LOT of Indians. We had a full plate of aloo-thukpa (thick, rice noodles) in Kalimpong for Rs 2. A filling plate of bhelpuri outside college cost Rs 7, jhaal mudi (spicy, puffed rice) cost Rs 10. Lemon-soda, also called banta costs Rs 5. Now in big restaurants, you get 12 pieces of button mushroom on this fancy wooden platter -- it's called Mediterranean cuisine sampling or something -- that is Rs 200-plus. Very tasty; but you'd be hungry the moment you are done with it. Oh, you are also supposed to eat....

Children of an Abused Nation

30

Statutory warning: What lies ahead is unpleasant. Perhaps. It could also be familiar. It's a common sight to find a traffic jam on a fly-over in Delhi. Most jams here are usually due to a single moron. These are people who - in the middle of after-work traffic - decide to turn their vehicle in the opposite direction to common sense. It was nearing twilight and I was sitting in the autorickshaw, stuck in one such jam. You could see the slums below, not too many, just an odd cluster, sporadically strewn around, with little chulhas -- two bricks surrounded by three A-4 size, tin sheets to keep the wind out -- beginning to smoke. There was this man and kid, maybe 6, maybe 10, standing at a distance from one of the hovel clusters. From the top, I could see his back and that he....

aka Gai hamari maata hai

10

Congratulations countrymen and women. We are now officially the top of the food chain. The only mammal species that destroys its young for reasons other than hunger. Poor Charles Darwin had no idea when he spoke of survival of the fittest. Especially now in the 21st century when it has become the survival of the shittiest. Look around you: Good people are either murdered or not heard of while rapists, murderers, terrorists, baby-sellers and baby-killers are the exalted Citizens of this country. Hah, and to think that Humans are social animals. Correction: We are only animals. Particularly the Indian animal is really, really getting out of control. It really does not matter what monstrosities are happening around the world because back home, we seem to be a level up on others. For long, we the English-movie-watching type, have laughed at Hollywood and the West....