Remember the cover art of Atlas Shrugged? Believe it or not, when you come to think of the person responsible for running the Indian Railways (if you think someone is really running it after all!) must be looking like that by the end of the day – occupational hazard if you are responsible for transporting …
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The day my nation paused
I had written in January 2020 about my experience with solitude in the Andamans and the humbling feelings of confinement when I stepped inside the cellular jail. And here I am, sitting in March 2020, inside my apartment for 11th day and counting, with the world literally coming to a standstill due to the fear …
Andaman Diaries
Had this been a century earlier, the planning for a trip to the Andamans would have been the business of the British Crown and the trip would have been all expenses paid. Just that it most probably would have been a one-way ticket – to hell! The Andamans today has come a long way from …
How the con pawned me
In 1692 Sir Isaac Newton was struck by a strange dilemma- not by the apple for a change! But that of counterfeiting of the the coins and notes issued by the Royal Mint. As Master of the Royal Mint he was playing a cat and mouse chase game with a man named William Chaloner. William …
The im(perfect) storm over a tea cup
There is something about Tea, protests and November. Mixed together, they seem to create a concoction which can shake up an empire, and create a new world order. This is a long story, so hold on to your horses. Like all “burning” problems, this story too gets sowed in the month of May, 1773. Till …
The night I lost my (only!) audience
I was sure this day is going to come, sooner rather than later. I was in fact more surer than Rakhi was about her Karan-Arjun coming. Just that I was not ready to accept the fact – I saw the signs all over, yet decided to bury my face inside the sand like the proverbial …
The carry trade in water
I love traveling in trains. Despite the statistical and periodal proof that air travel is both safe and faster, the feeling of being grounded (literally) all the time takes away an unnecessary variable from the equation of journey. Added to it that Indian Railway gives you so much diversity in both terrain and co-passenger to …
Crime n Punishment – and all that shines
My wife ‘A’ once said “we are the children of recession”. No wonder, having graduated from Engineering school in 2003 we were just sailing out the trough of the dot-com bubble. We saw our seniors being consoled by big names like Motorola – gifting a mobile phone in lieu of the job offers being rescinded. …
The cost of an SMS
An amorous, young zamindar descendant, heir to ~ 1500 sq.km land in colonial Bengal,contracts syphilis for obvious reasons, is taken to Darjeeling for recovery, never recovers and apparently dies in May 1909. His wife and brother-in-law(careful about this species, we really have an apt name for them in India :P) completes his last rites hundreds …
When fine is not right
We are a nation of optimists. We are mostly religious in nature in some form, hence are optimist about the existence of god. We vote in huge numbers and hence are optimist about good intentions of politicians. We also drive on the opposite lane, without helmets, while talking in a cellphone with our neck bent, …
One More Week 