Mr. P.K. Atre was a noted Marathi writer, poet, and orator of yesteryears. People from Maharashtra (the state of India where I live) know him for many things but definitely for his quick-wittedness. His retorts silenced the trouble-mongers. Let me offer some very popular ones here (source): Once Atre [...]
I was in a meeting with my team. Akhil got a call. He received it and started talking by covering the mouthpiece of his smartphone with a hand and with a voice that he thought was a whisper. The rest of us stopped talking for Akhil to finish his [...]
Routers and wi-fi are our new lifelines. Last month, when a stray message came from our internet service provider that we could enjoy high speed once we restart our router, my teenage daughter wanted to check that out. She jumped on a stool to reach out to the power [...]
Once, my son, when he was five years old, came to me and said, “Baba (for Dad in Marathi), I know now what life is”. While trying to hide my shock, I said, ”OK. Then tell me, what it is.” He said, “Life is a flower” That seemed like [...]
I had an interesting quote about the ticket checkers (officially called Travelling Ticket Examiner) of local trains in Mumbai - "Out of thousands of people pouring on him every few minutes, he would stop only those people who don't have tickets." There was an incident that had firmed up [...]
One modest expectation that you have during an air trip is that the security officer sitting at the bags scanner should continue to have a poker face when your bag passes through the scanner. I wasn't lucky that day. I was on an official trip during my tenure at [...]
Honorifics are a pain to waddle through, in India, although most of the time we handle it well. The first aspect of it is that you couldn’t call anyone who is older than you, or superior to you in the hierarchy, by their first name. The next is that [...]
My dad was a teacher in a primary school, where he grew to be the headmaster. He was a well-respected headmaster and during his long tenure that ended only with his retirement, brought glory to his school. He had found a role model in a senior headmaster of the [...]
The government of India now seems to be committed to selling Air India, the state-owned airlines. An organization with its glorious past will finally cease to exist. Despite giving several moments of pride to Indians, Air India also has remained the butt of the joke. There has been a [...]
I had learnt a two-player game, Bulls & Cows, during my first job of teaching. Of course, now you could play it online too or you even get apps for smartphones. Check it out; it is for all ages and is quite fun! In essence, one player holds a [...]