Category: Reflections

It was  the chilly night of 16 December 2012 when  we reached Delhi to catch mid-night flight to Bangkok on our way to Australia. By the time the news of the horrific crime on that cold winter night in Delhi broke out, we were far away in a distant land. Continue reading “Women Safety-the East and the West”

Hailing from a land of chaotic traffic, where the unruly vehicles of all kinds ranging from four-wheelers, three-wheelers to two-wheelers, heavy and light, man-animal pulled and motorized whiz around in every plausible trajectory, I was awe-struck by the orderly flow of traffic on the wide and smooth Sydney roads. Continue reading “Glaring contrast”

The incident dates back to pre-independence period. My father must have been in his early 20s, when as a fresh graduate, he was selected in the Defence Accounts Department of the government of India. For joining the job he required a medical certificate. After his medical examination he had to get the final stamp of approval from the chief medical officer who happened to be a British. As my father’s name was called out, he entered the room of the medical officer. While the C.M.O. kept shuffling the papers with one hand, he kept gesturing with his left hand from beneath the table as if he was asking for something. Repeatedly the officer asked my father, “What shall I write?” My father could not comprehend anything. Ultimately the medical officer signed the paper  and my father came out with the medical certificate in his hand. The other candidates, who had to part with what ever money they had in their pocket, were curious to know how much my father had to shell out. My father did not pay a penny. He was too naïve to understand that the officer was asking for a bribe. Continue reading “The Indiagate scam”

During my teens I was an ardent reader of now defunct, ‘The Illustrated Weekly of India’. Deeply entrenched in my memory is a cover story published in the magazine decades ago Continue reading “Not so civic”

A few years ago when the retail outlets of the Indian corporate giants sprang up in the neighborhood market, in the close proximity of the mom and pop stores, threat perception gripped the small shop owners who feared that the big players would swamp the market crowding  out the small retailers. There was anxiety writ large over the face of my Karyana shop Bania as his trusted customers started drifting Continue reading “My flirtations with modern retail”